"We're on our way. You're saying you bought the one of the slightly psychic paper props from Doctor Who and handwaved it "
"Yes. "
"Which allowed you to sneak into the studio lots of Hollywood after the security guard thought you were Harrison Ford. "
"Yes. "
"In which you stole the props of the Rings of Fire, AIr, and Water from the lot. "
"Yes. "
"In which the real Harrison Ford was brought in for questioning until they found out he had a solid alibi. "
"I'll make it up to him. " Kemwer answered guiltily.
"What about the props?"
"They were in one of the junk warehouses. I asked the executive where it was. He thought I was Harrison Ford. I even added one when I saw what it was. It
seemed too valuable to leave behind. "
"Next stop, a little town called Clayton. "
"Hi. " A towsy-headed child came up and talked to Kemwer.
"Hi. " Kemwer greeted back.
"No, you don't talk to strangers. Remember, five o'clock. " The mother hustled her child back in. The door slammed in Kemwer's face.
"Nice friendly town, they got here. " Kemwer spoke to himself. He looked around. The place seemed deserted. There was one sign with the lights that
said Clayton Diner. He walked in and saw a rather attractive girl at the counter. She was wearing a uniform that looked like it should be forty years ago with
the hat. There were a bunch of card players, the janitor, and some young men.
"Hi. I'm Kemwer. " He told the lady, offering her a smile.
"I'm washing my hair. "
"Whoa, I wonder what your mind was on. I wasn't even thinking about that." Kemwer smiled even more.
"Is he bothering you, Linda?" Four young men had surrounded him "We'll get him to stop bothering you "
"He wasn't doing much. " Linda protested and they started to work on Kemwer.
Kemwer stumbled out out of the diner. He had a black eye, split lip, and swollen fists.
"What in the Underworld?" Marduk exclaimed as he scanned Kemwer.
"You should see the other guys. " Kemwer bragged .
Back in the diner, one was clutching his groin, one was unconscious under the splinters of a table, the third had been rammed into a wall so deep his head was
stuck in it, and the fourth had managed to burn his feet on the teapot.
"I know you didn't start the fight. " The janitor whose nametag read Wyatt, "but perhaps you'd better scram before the sheriff comes
a' lookin' for you. Best you be on your way before 5. "
"And your plans are?"
"To use the rings this time. I thought small towns were suppoed to friendly. This is a good-sized town close to water, and it's half-empty. "
"Ghost towns often become so for lack of county seats. " Marduk told him.
"Then what's so special about five?" Kemwer asked.
"You're going to walk back in?"
"Course not. I used the Ring of Fire for a holographic image of a face. "
"To impress the girl, no doubt. " Marduk told him. Kemwer did not dignify that statement with a reply.
The Ring of Water cloaked him in a cold, comforting embrace. He could walk around with a SEP Field.
"Now I know what Plato was talking about with the Ring of Gyges. " Kemwer stated out loud.
He had left at five o'clock to see what the fuss was about. The Ring of Water had cloaked his car as well as him as long as he maintained his
concentration. Another car came puffing in.
"Is this where the meeting is to be held?" A Japanese man asked in accented English.
"Yes, sir. We've been expecting you. " The valet answered. The guy went in followed by an Englishman. Kemwer followed them.
"I do not see why we settled for this place. "The Englishman complained. "It's so out of the way. "
"It's perfectly suitable for our needs. "The Japanese man answered.There was a gunshot. Kemwer stood to the side as the town's maids and
valet took the Japanese man's corpse out into the prepared coffin.
"I perfectly agree. " The Englishman laughed as the smoke from his pistol curled.
"One million dollars transferred to your Swiss bank account. " He told the hotel manager who had managed to stand in front of him.
Another man nodded.
"Pleasure doing business with you. "
I just saw a man get killed in front of me. Kemwer thought. He reached a telephone and dialed an outside line.
"What;s the number you want?" The switchboard operator asked.
You've gotta be kidding me. He hung up.
The Japanese guy might have a cell phone. He stumbled out as a flare of pain along his eye went up. The town had disposed of the Japanese man's body and
possessions with a practiced manner. They were all gone.
"I'm going to find out what happened. " Kemwer told Marduk in the car.
"Oh yes?"
"How do you like ghost stories?"
The Englishman was asleep in his room overnight.
Kemwer rifled through his papers. His photo ID identified him as one Alexander Konstantinos.
"Alexander. " Kemwer selectively dropped the SEP Field. He tried a booming, hollow voice manipulating air currents. It came out booming a little
louder than he expected. The man on the bed started and stared in horror at the mirror image of the man he had killed at five o'clock.
"You're dead. " Alexander snapped and pulled a rifle from his case and shot the man point blank.
I am so glad I'm over here. Kemwer's holographic illusion was that of a translucent Sosuke Onami. He watched the bullets of a rifle chew up the wall
behind him.
"Grayden! . " He yelled for the hotel manager.
"What is it?" He asked as he entered ignoring the holographic illusion.
"There's a ghost, right in front of you. " Alexander pointed to the ghost.
"There's nothing there. " Grayden stated puzzled. He saw the wall and that was it. Kemwer was cloaking the holographic illusion from him.
"He cannot see or hear me, Alexander Konstantinos. This is your crime and you will be haunted until you confess why you killed me. "
"That ghost is obviously a man-made fraud. You must be one of the new wave-powered people. " Alexander Konstantino's smile settled on his face.
"You'll be sorry you ever made a move on me. "
"Um, who are you talking to sir?" Grayden asked.
"The guy who just stepped into a mess bigger than him. Was there anyone else before me in this town today?"
"Yes. There was a guy named Kemwer, but he left before five with a black eye, split lips., and swollen fists. He was taught a lesson about being a nosy
parker. "
"He's still here. He's one of those biomodded wave people. Trying to frighten me. "
"We'll get right on it sir. "
Kemwer ran to Marduk as the manager telephoned to bomb the parking spot just in case. He panted for breath, his lungs in stitches as he made record time to the
car just in time to watch the bomber attach a ticking thing to the parking lot space under Marduk.
"Marduk! Move! You've got a bomber under you. " Kemwer amplified the air currents to bring the sound to Marduk. Marduk moved as the bomb went
off.
"No sign of them, sir. "The bomber reported to someone else on the phone.
"Use the scopes. The computers will detect a foreign bioelectric signature and lock on. "
"What the frigging hell is this place?" Kemwer asked out loud in the (relative) safety of Marduk.
"Their guest telephone switchboard and uniforms are out of the seventies' and they have computers that differentiate bioelectric attunements?
"Your Ring of Air only cloaks you from minds.. " Marduk warned.
Kemwer thought real fast. The Ring of Fire sent a warm, comforting feeling. He kicked on the wheel as the entire car fell into the ground. The Ring of Wind dug
downwards amplifying the car's speed as he hid underground.
"Kemwer, we're going to have a limited amount of air. " Marduk told him.
"Better than frying with whatever they have. "
"Do you think they have the arsenal to take us on?"
"It is not obvious they would show us everything. I am the one who surprises my enemies. "
"We've scanned the skies and the ground looking for them. No sign of them. " The hotel manager reported.
"I thought biomodded people were limited in their powers. "Konstantinos sat with a thoughtful look. "This one has managed to provide a rather
powerful concealment ability. He would make a good subject to reverse engineer. "
"Send out an alert on how our poor murderer must have met up with a criminal calling himself Kemwer. One of those crazed Fen people who went nuts and
murdered poor Onami. "
"You must be kidding. " Kemwer gawked as Marduk showed him the real-time images of the security cameras recording his voice. They had been wiped as
soon as they were played. Marduk had recovered them first.
"I intercepted his cell phone message and replaced that with the recording of his shooting in the hotel. "
"Oh good. That'll get them started on the investigation. His wild story about Kemwer will be just as believed as on the one-armed man. I thought you
were only allowed to advise me?" He asked Marduk.
"He directly threatens you with something more dangerous than simple murder. That would interfere with the trials. " Marduk answered.
"Something is weird about this town. "Kemwer slowly adjusted the town's temperature to break down electrical conductivity. That would make it
harder for the bioelectric sensors to spot him. He moved to the hotel, and looked through the ledgers. The books flipped their own pages as he looked for the
clues.
"What the heck is the Golden Fund?Million dollars to come here?"He looked up as Manager Grayden answered. Kemwer dropped the SEP Field and then
hypnotized him with a brilliant flash of light from the Ring of Fire.
"Sleep. " He toled Grayden Grayden collapsed silently as Kemwer carried him out.
"Wake up Grayden. " Grayden heard a cheerful voice in the middle of nowhere. He looked around him. It was complete desert.
"I'm gettin' a mite tired of bein' shot at, accused of criminal activity, and other sundry inaccuracies. " Kemwer drawled. Grayden stared
at the stereotypical cowboy hat, the two six-shooters in his pocket and the jingling spurs. There was a range set up and he was tied on the chairs.
"I'd like you to see a demonstration. " Kemwer stated pleasantly. There were thirteen cans on the range. Grayden was tied to the chair after the
last can.
"Watch carefully. When you feel like speaking, I'll stop. "The first shot blasted a can as it fell over. The second can stayed up right with a
small hole in it. The third can was still full and dripped alcohol on the ground.
"You're setting up yourself for it. You won't get out of this town alive. " Grayden stated composedly.
"Why not?" Kemwer halted. "If I'm not gonig to get out of this town alive, it won't hurt to tell me. "
"No. "Grayden answered. Kemwer resulted shooting each can. The fourth,fifth, and six toppled over.
"All right, I'll tell you what I found out. I looked up the books and saw deposits of dollars in to the multiple millions. Coupled with what I saw, it
means that you use this town as an isolated trap for people. The Golden Fund is to pay for the town which is why you can afford such high-tech enhancements as
bioelectric sensors, even though Clayton seems to be stuck in the seventies. You make an industry out of getting the customer to pay a million dollars to kill
the guy in the town and the rest of you say give your customer an alibi for the time of the killing. It's always at five o'clock which is why everybody
goes inside before then. It's ingenious. " Kemwer told him.
"If you know all that, why ask me?" Grayden inquired.
"It was merely guesswork until you confirmed it.-"
"It's going to be stopped with you. " An entire townsful of people held a variety of weapons on him ranging from a plasma rifle to was that a
flintlock?"
"Killing me's going to prompt an investigation. " Kemwer stood up.
"Killing you means we can remove the evidence, " one teenager spoke up.
"Shh! "A woman hushed him.
"Fire. " The sheriff ordererd.
He activated the Ring of Fire, Ring of Air, Ring of Water working them in tandem. His attributes had been boosted to superhuman levels as he calculated
trajectories, used wind to deflect those armaments which had a chance of achieving a hit and met a stream of plasma with his own plasma from the Ring of Fire.
After three furious minutes, their armaments had frozen up and shattered from the force of wind.
The sweet sound of FBI helicopters arriving from the air, signaled the end for the town of no return as he smiled and crossed his arms, waiting for the first
townsperson to break and run. The real one had been long gone when the helicopters came. The Ring of Fire's heat mirage dissipated when the first FBI agent
tried to question him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yes. "
"Which allowed you to sneak into the studio lots of Hollywood after the security guard thought you were Harrison Ford. "
"Yes. "
"In which you stole the props of the Rings of Fire, AIr, and Water from the lot. "
"Yes. "
"In which the real Harrison Ford was brought in for questioning until they found out he had a solid alibi. "
"I'll make it up to him. " Kemwer answered guiltily.
"What about the props?"
"They were in one of the junk warehouses. I asked the executive where it was. He thought I was Harrison Ford. I even added one when I saw what it was. It
seemed too valuable to leave behind. "
"Next stop, a little town called Clayton. "
"Hi. " A towsy-headed child came up and talked to Kemwer.
"Hi. " Kemwer greeted back.
"No, you don't talk to strangers. Remember, five o'clock. " The mother hustled her child back in. The door slammed in Kemwer's face.
"Nice friendly town, they got here. " Kemwer spoke to himself. He looked around. The place seemed deserted. There was one sign with the lights that
said Clayton Diner. He walked in and saw a rather attractive girl at the counter. She was wearing a uniform that looked like it should be forty years ago with
the hat. There were a bunch of card players, the janitor, and some young men.
"Hi. I'm Kemwer. " He told the lady, offering her a smile.
"I'm washing my hair. "
"Whoa, I wonder what your mind was on. I wasn't even thinking about that." Kemwer smiled even more.
"Is he bothering you, Linda?" Four young men had surrounded him "We'll get him to stop bothering you "
"He wasn't doing much. " Linda protested and they started to work on Kemwer.
Kemwer stumbled out out of the diner. He had a black eye, split lip, and swollen fists.
"What in the Underworld?" Marduk exclaimed as he scanned Kemwer.
"You should see the other guys. " Kemwer bragged .
Back in the diner, one was clutching his groin, one was unconscious under the splinters of a table, the third had been rammed into a wall so deep his head was
stuck in it, and the fourth had managed to burn his feet on the teapot.
"I know you didn't start the fight. " The janitor whose nametag read Wyatt, "but perhaps you'd better scram before the sheriff comes
a' lookin' for you. Best you be on your way before 5. "
"And your plans are?"
"To use the rings this time. I thought small towns were suppoed to friendly. This is a good-sized town close to water, and it's half-empty. "
"Ghost towns often become so for lack of county seats. " Marduk told him.
"Then what's so special about five?" Kemwer asked.
"You're going to walk back in?"
"Course not. I used the Ring of Fire for a holographic image of a face. "
"To impress the girl, no doubt. " Marduk told him. Kemwer did not dignify that statement with a reply.
The Ring of Water cloaked him in a cold, comforting embrace. He could walk around with a SEP Field.
"Now I know what Plato was talking about with the Ring of Gyges. " Kemwer stated out loud.
He had left at five o'clock to see what the fuss was about. The Ring of Water had cloaked his car as well as him as long as he maintained his
concentration. Another car came puffing in.
"Is this where the meeting is to be held?" A Japanese man asked in accented English.
"Yes, sir. We've been expecting you. " The valet answered. The guy went in followed by an Englishman. Kemwer followed them.
"I do not see why we settled for this place. "The Englishman complained. "It's so out of the way. "
"It's perfectly suitable for our needs. "The Japanese man answered.There was a gunshot. Kemwer stood to the side as the town's maids and
valet took the Japanese man's corpse out into the prepared coffin.
"I perfectly agree. " The Englishman laughed as the smoke from his pistol curled.
"One million dollars transferred to your Swiss bank account. " He told the hotel manager who had managed to stand in front of him.
Another man nodded.
"Pleasure doing business with you. "
I just saw a man get killed in front of me. Kemwer thought. He reached a telephone and dialed an outside line.
"What;s the number you want?" The switchboard operator asked.
You've gotta be kidding me. He hung up.
The Japanese guy might have a cell phone. He stumbled out as a flare of pain along his eye went up. The town had disposed of the Japanese man's body and
possessions with a practiced manner. They were all gone.
"I'm going to find out what happened. " Kemwer told Marduk in the car.
"Oh yes?"
"How do you like ghost stories?"
The Englishman was asleep in his room overnight.
Kemwer rifled through his papers. His photo ID identified him as one Alexander Konstantinos.
"Alexander. " Kemwer selectively dropped the SEP Field. He tried a booming, hollow voice manipulating air currents. It came out booming a little
louder than he expected. The man on the bed started and stared in horror at the mirror image of the man he had killed at five o'clock.
"You're dead. " Alexander snapped and pulled a rifle from his case and shot the man point blank.
I am so glad I'm over here. Kemwer's holographic illusion was that of a translucent Sosuke Onami. He watched the bullets of a rifle chew up the wall
behind him.
"Grayden! . " He yelled for the hotel manager.
"What is it?" He asked as he entered ignoring the holographic illusion.
"There's a ghost, right in front of you. " Alexander pointed to the ghost.
"There's nothing there. " Grayden stated puzzled. He saw the wall and that was it. Kemwer was cloaking the holographic illusion from him.
"He cannot see or hear me, Alexander Konstantinos. This is your crime and you will be haunted until you confess why you killed me. "
"That ghost is obviously a man-made fraud. You must be one of the new wave-powered people. " Alexander Konstantino's smile settled on his face.
"You'll be sorry you ever made a move on me. "
"Um, who are you talking to sir?" Grayden asked.
"The guy who just stepped into a mess bigger than him. Was there anyone else before me in this town today?"
"Yes. There was a guy named Kemwer, but he left before five with a black eye, split lips., and swollen fists. He was taught a lesson about being a nosy
parker. "
"He's still here. He's one of those biomodded wave people. Trying to frighten me. "
"We'll get right on it sir. "
Kemwer ran to Marduk as the manager telephoned to bomb the parking spot just in case. He panted for breath, his lungs in stitches as he made record time to the
car just in time to watch the bomber attach a ticking thing to the parking lot space under Marduk.
"Marduk! Move! You've got a bomber under you. " Kemwer amplified the air currents to bring the sound to Marduk. Marduk moved as the bomb went
off.
"No sign of them, sir. "The bomber reported to someone else on the phone.
"Use the scopes. The computers will detect a foreign bioelectric signature and lock on. "
"What the frigging hell is this place?" Kemwer asked out loud in the (relative) safety of Marduk.
"Their guest telephone switchboard and uniforms are out of the seventies' and they have computers that differentiate bioelectric attunements?
"Your Ring of Air only cloaks you from minds.. " Marduk warned.
Kemwer thought real fast. The Ring of Fire sent a warm, comforting feeling. He kicked on the wheel as the entire car fell into the ground. The Ring of Wind dug
downwards amplifying the car's speed as he hid underground.
"Kemwer, we're going to have a limited amount of air. " Marduk told him.
"Better than frying with whatever they have. "
"Do you think they have the arsenal to take us on?"
"It is not obvious they would show us everything. I am the one who surprises my enemies. "
"We've scanned the skies and the ground looking for them. No sign of them. " The hotel manager reported.
"I thought biomodded people were limited in their powers. "Konstantinos sat with a thoughtful look. "This one has managed to provide a rather
powerful concealment ability. He would make a good subject to reverse engineer. "
"Send out an alert on how our poor murderer must have met up with a criminal calling himself Kemwer. One of those crazed Fen people who went nuts and
murdered poor Onami. "
"You must be kidding. " Kemwer gawked as Marduk showed him the real-time images of the security cameras recording his voice. They had been wiped as
soon as they were played. Marduk had recovered them first.
"I intercepted his cell phone message and replaced that with the recording of his shooting in the hotel. "
"Oh good. That'll get them started on the investigation. His wild story about Kemwer will be just as believed as on the one-armed man. I thought you
were only allowed to advise me?" He asked Marduk.
"He directly threatens you with something more dangerous than simple murder. That would interfere with the trials. " Marduk answered.
"Something is weird about this town. "Kemwer slowly adjusted the town's temperature to break down electrical conductivity. That would make it
harder for the bioelectric sensors to spot him. He moved to the hotel, and looked through the ledgers. The books flipped their own pages as he looked for the
clues.
"What the heck is the Golden Fund?Million dollars to come here?"He looked up as Manager Grayden answered. Kemwer dropped the SEP Field and then
hypnotized him with a brilliant flash of light from the Ring of Fire.
"Sleep. " He toled Grayden Grayden collapsed silently as Kemwer carried him out.
"Wake up Grayden. " Grayden heard a cheerful voice in the middle of nowhere. He looked around him. It was complete desert.
"I'm gettin' a mite tired of bein' shot at, accused of criminal activity, and other sundry inaccuracies. " Kemwer drawled. Grayden stared
at the stereotypical cowboy hat, the two six-shooters in his pocket and the jingling spurs. There was a range set up and he was tied on the chairs.
"I'd like you to see a demonstration. " Kemwer stated pleasantly. There were thirteen cans on the range. Grayden was tied to the chair after the
last can.
"Watch carefully. When you feel like speaking, I'll stop. "The first shot blasted a can as it fell over. The second can stayed up right with a
small hole in it. The third can was still full and dripped alcohol on the ground.
"You're setting up yourself for it. You won't get out of this town alive. " Grayden stated composedly.
"Why not?" Kemwer halted. "If I'm not gonig to get out of this town alive, it won't hurt to tell me. "
"No. "Grayden answered. Kemwer resulted shooting each can. The fourth,fifth, and six toppled over.
"All right, I'll tell you what I found out. I looked up the books and saw deposits of dollars in to the multiple millions. Coupled with what I saw, it
means that you use this town as an isolated trap for people. The Golden Fund is to pay for the town which is why you can afford such high-tech enhancements as
bioelectric sensors, even though Clayton seems to be stuck in the seventies. You make an industry out of getting the customer to pay a million dollars to kill
the guy in the town and the rest of you say give your customer an alibi for the time of the killing. It's always at five o'clock which is why everybody
goes inside before then. It's ingenious. " Kemwer told him.
"If you know all that, why ask me?" Grayden inquired.
"It was merely guesswork until you confirmed it.-"
"It's going to be stopped with you. " An entire townsful of people held a variety of weapons on him ranging from a plasma rifle to was that a
flintlock?"
"Killing me's going to prompt an investigation. " Kemwer stood up.
"Killing you means we can remove the evidence, " one teenager spoke up.
"Shh! "A woman hushed him.
"Fire. " The sheriff ordererd.
He activated the Ring of Fire, Ring of Air, Ring of Water working them in tandem. His attributes had been boosted to superhuman levels as he calculated
trajectories, used wind to deflect those armaments which had a chance of achieving a hit and met a stream of plasma with his own plasma from the Ring of Fire.
After three furious minutes, their armaments had frozen up and shattered from the force of wind.
The sweet sound of FBI helicopters arriving from the air, signaled the end for the town of no return as he smiled and crossed his arms, waiting for the first
townsperson to break and run. The real one had been long gone when the helicopters came. The Ring of Fire's heat mirage dissipated when the first FBI agent
tried to question him and tapped him on the shoulder.