27th of Arah – Continued

  As the three heroes descended the steps into the previously unknown basement, they found themselves more than a little surprised by the cleanliness of the passage. No cobwebs, dust, or mold lingered in the air, let alone on the stairs themselves. As they descended some thirty or more feet, they could hear a crackling sound in the distance, and the air held a vague hint of ozone.

  Hesh cocked their head to one side, took a deep sniff of the air, and commented, “I smell ozone, and that crackling sound sounds like a Van de Graaff generator, or a Tesla coil going off. What have we found here?”

  Sam frowned, “Some kind of mad scientist type?”

  “Or just a crazy mage, with too much lightning on his mind.” Molly added.

  “Maybe we should call him Sparky?” Hesh asked.

  Molly and Sam glanced at Hesh for a moment, before saying, “Hesh? Shut up.”

  At the bottom of the steps the trio were met by an old, grizzled, pie-bald cat. It looked up at them from where it was sitting on top of an old crate, did the cat equivalent of rolling its eyes, and went back to cleaning itself. In response, Molly reached out and scratched the cat behind its ears, momentarily enjoying the soft fur under her fingers, before turning away and glaring at the other two, “What? It’s a cat. You must scratch the cat.” Then she began walking down the corridor.

  The not so long darkened corridor did indeed lead to what can be best described as a mad scientist’s lab from the ‘60s era of sci-fi films. Bubbling beakers, strange boxes arching lightning up and down antennae, a metal lab table under a surgery wards positional light. Along one wall sat a long bank of possibly metal cabinets with green, amber and red blinking lights.

  The real selling point was the dark-haired man standing in the middle of the room, wearing a white lab coat, and looking at a clipboard. As they approached the doorway, he looked up from the board, smiled, and said, “Welcome to the vampire mansion!”

  -

  The trio sat at a long table of polished oak, with cups of tea on proper saucers before them, and stared at the man across the table from them. The man stood, in a frilly pink apron, and placed several plates of what he had called “confections” on the table for them to taste. “And now that that is done, it is time for proper introductions!” The man said.

  “I am doctor Franklin Windershins of New York. I know, it sounds like a made-up name- “

  “We know the name. The Big Apple.” Hesh said. “We’re from down south.”

  “…” Franklin looked at them. “Did…did you come through the gateway I made? How did you find it? How was the reactor doing?”

  “No.” Sam replied. “We were summoned by a trio of gods.”

  “Gods?” Franklin asked.

  “Big glowing people?” Molly more said than asked. “Huge amounts of power? Not as smart as they like to think they are?”

  “So more like the Greek or Roman gods, as opposed to our God?” Franklin asked.

  “Pretty much.” Sam answered. “Although Hesh here is agnostic, not Christian.”

  Franklin raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. “So, what brings you children to this neck of the woods?”

  “Vampires.” Molly replied. “Specifically, you being a vampire.”

  “Oh, dear lord, is the headman still raging about that joke?” Franklin shook his head. “It was Halloween! I was in a costume! I explained it to him!”

  A sigh escaped the trio, as they shook their heads. Molly began giggling, then the other two began laughing. Eventually Franklin joined them.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  -

  “So, you are trying to recreate the experiment that brought you here, in order to make it back home.” Hesh, also wearing a lab coat, said.

  “Exactly my good…person?”

  Hesh smiled, “That works.”

  “My attempts at recreating the reactor have failed, so taking a page, almost literally from Shelly, I have turned to lightning. But with no way to store enough energy from the strikes, I have been unable to maintain a gate for more than a half second.”

  “Why haven’t you turned to magic?” Molly asked, now dressed in a matching lab coat to Hesh’s.

  “Because there is no standardization with which to use the scientific method.” Franklin began to explain. “One mages lightning bolt is several watts and volts different from another’s, even if they learned the spell from the same teacher. Also, even a ring or stone of spell storing doesn’t release the spell over a long enough time frame for the gate to stabilize. Not to mention that there isn’t enough energy to maintain the gate once it has opened.”

  “You have had mages in to try?” Hesh asked.

  Franklin nodded, “Of course! How else would I know?”

  Sam frowned, “So you need a generator, or a deep cell battery bank, to maintain the power for long enough so that the gate stays open for a useable amount of time.”

  Franklin kept nodding, “Exactly!”

  Molly frowned, “I’ve been meaning to ask, why does your lab look like it came out of a 50’s sci-fi film?”

  “Because it’s 1958.”

  In the silence that followed, the trio looked at each other and frowned. Hesh finally broke the silence, “When we are from, it’s the 2020’s.”

  -

  Sever hours, a roasted ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a thick crusty loaf of bread later the four people sat around the large dining room table conversing.

  Franklin, once again in the frilly apron, asked what to him was an important question, “So the movie actor became president?”

  “Yes, Reagan became president, after being the governor of California.” Hesh answered for the third time.

  “Apologies Hesh, it’s just that surprising to me.” Franklin said with a slight bow. “I met the man once; he was half blind. Could barely see past his nose without glasses.” He smiled. “Now on to different things.”

  Eventually Franklin showed the trio to a pair of spare rooms, to spend the night.

  The morning came with the smell of fresh coffee, bacon, eggs frying on a griddle, and freshly toasted bread. After its consumption, the conversation turned to ways to use magic as a constant power source. Lunch came and went, and the conversation continued, with chalkboards. Eventually, after a dinner of thick mutton stew with an extra crusty garlic bread, the exhausted party slept.

  Another morning of breakfast finished, the group of four scientific mages began work on a grand machine. A grand machine that would convert the energy of the constant lightning storm above to mana that would be stored in a combination mana battery/capacitor; this design and construction was delegated to Hesh. The henceforth called MBC would then be hooked to the Gate Control Unit, GCU, to refine the power, and operate the gate itself; Franklin, Sam and Molly assigned themselves to this project. The gate itself was already present, and didn’t need any more work.

  -

  Four days passed. Four days of random lightning strikes within and without the laboratory. Four days of good food, and surprisingly good company. Four days that came to an end too soon for all involved.

  The MBC and GCU were completed, and assembled in a breadboard fashion. Thick mana-electric cables were affixed between the units and the gate. A set of large switches separated the three units.

  Standing together, the three heroes watched Franklin flip the first switch, connecting the lightning rod to the MBC. Several lightning strikes later, the red, amber, and green lights attached to it blazed. At the success, all involved hooted and hollered.

  Then the second switch that ran between the MBC and GCU was flipped. After a few small sparks, the red, amber and green lights brightened, and the gauge designated “Power Flow Stability” evened out. The big red button on top of the board, labeled “GO!” lit.

  The third switch was thrown. The gate lit with a soft white light, and gave a slight hum, as the dozens of small capacitors warmed up and came to a full charge. Franklin stepped back from the machine, turned to the kids, and spoke, “Lady, Sir, Hesh.” Nodding to the three. “I thank you for your help these last few days. It is now time for me to return. Please retreat to the minimum safe distance down the hill, I will give you five minutes.” He smiled, and the trio smiled back.

  Molly, Sam, and Hesh stood some twenty feet down the hill from the decrepit mansion, and waited. As they watched, there was a spark of mana that leapt from one end of the roof to the other, then another spark, than a cascade of sparks showering the mansion, then there was no mansion.

  Moments later, the ever-present thunderstorm began to clear. Hesh turned to Molly and Sam, “Do you think he made it?”

  Molly and Sam looked to each other, then back to Hesh, and in unison the trio replied, “It would take a miracle!”

  And the trio started down the road to the small village.

  -

  20xx, NYC, New York,

  The drunk leaned against a rusted stop sign, staring at the fireworks over the old abandoned lot. A lot that was haunted enough that not only didn’t the city touch it, but neither did the developers or the gangs. He watched the sparkling lights arc around the lot, bouncing off of greenery and small bits of windblown trash caught in the brush.

  There was a dim flash of light, and a building appeared in the vacant lot. The drunk nodded, slugged down the rest of his vile gut rot, and tottered off to tell his friends of the new house on the block.