The Adventures of Sidekick Carl Part 19!

 Have an installment of Sidekick Carl a little earlier than I have been lately. I swear I'm building up to something. As usual, here's links for first and latest chapters, and how about this week's Play People post?

The shape was pitch black, with luminous, shimmering red eyes. “You found me, and fought your way to me,” it said. “What do you want?”

Constructor’s stern face showed in heroic profile. “I want to know what you want,” he said.

It shrugged with the suggestion of arms. “My ways are not your ways, and yours are not mine,” it said. “I can see far away and far ahead, enough to see your place in the shape of what is to come. It serves my purposes to keep you on one course, and away from others. It is useless to explain more than that.”

 

“Then is it for our good, or our harm?” Constructor pressed.

It shrugged again. “Again, it is useless to explain,” it said. “Even you can see, the evil of one day can be a great good in the next, and what is good for one can be evil for many.”

“Then if you will not explain what you intend,” Constructor said, “I would rather you leave us alone.”

The voice was clearly bemused. “And what would you do to keep me from doing as I please?”

 

Constructor raised his rake. “What I can,” he said. As he spoke, Carl stepped to his side.

“Me too,” Carl said. Then there was laughter, and the eyes flared bright…

 

And Audrey’s kits chirped in approval, the smaller ones cuddling with her piebald mate on his bed. “Mama,” said one of the eldest, “do you think that’s what really happened?”

She bared her teeth. “I’ll ask him some time…”

* * *

 

Carl stepped to one side, examining the shape before him. It was like looking at a painting from an angle, distorting the shape without revealing any corresponding depth. Its form was a tapered body and a round head, with hints of brown or gold. Nothing was more prominent than the luminous red eyes. “So, you stayed after all,” Carl said.

“I could never leave,” the thing called Abl C’Doen said. Its voice was unaccented and neutral, almost but not quite nasal. “By your frame of reference, I am everywhere and nowhere. I can choose only when and where to act. You offered an agreement that I would not involve myself in your world’s affairs again. I have kept my bargain.”

“So you didn’t have anything to do with the Toxo Warriors coming back,” Carl said.

“No more than I did with their existence,” it said. “And before you ask, I do not know who they are or where they are. I could find out, of course, but if I were to share it, our agreement would be void. I will not tempt you before you would choose to ask.”

“That’s all well and good,” Carl said. “We found them before- or the first two, we know that much- and we can find them again. What I want to know is, what are they doing? And who are they working for? You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t know something.”

“Naturally, I have insights,” C’Doen answered. “There are certain things that distort what you call time and space in ways that an entity like me can detect in advance. Such a disturbance will come, if the shape of events does not change.”

“Right,” said Carl. “Like, say, if someone rebuilt or reverse-engineered Dr. Hydro’s wormhole generator.”

“It is the likeliest explanation,” C’Doen said. “There are other possibilities I have considered; all of them are even further beyond your knowledge.”

Carl’s helmet hid his face, yet his smile was clear in his voice. “If they make it work, could they threaten you?”

“It would pose a certain risk,” the creature said. “It would be enough to reach the planes where I dwell, or draw me into yours if I did not withdraw myself. Then a being of your world could challenge me, try to take my power or make me their servant. It would by no means be on equal terms, whatever they might imagine; still, it would be a contest on what you could call a level playing field.”

Carl shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like the Toxo Warriors,” he said. “At least not the ones I met. Whatever they were doing wasn’t about money, but it wasn’t about power either. It might be different, if they were working for someone else.”

“I would agree, and I admit you are a better judge of humans than I,” C’Doen said.  “I have considered further, who might think to challenge me. There are not many; some you would know, others you would not.”

“I already have my own list,” Carl said. “Dr. Hydro. Gravatar. Galaxarian. The only problem is, they’re all supposed to be dead. Or do you know something I don’t?”
“I could already tell you more than you know,” C’Doen said. “The price would be what we already discussed.”

Carl nodded warily. “How about this?” he said. “I’ll tell you what we think we know, you tell me if we’re wrong.”

The eyes flared brighter. “That is acceptable.”

“All right,” Carl said. “Gravatar got thrown into interplanetary space when his gravity chariot was damaged. The last anyone knew, he was on a trajectory for the sun at 0.01% of the speed of light. Nobody could prove he really bought it, but if he was coming back, he’d be here by now.”

“True,” C’Doen said with surprising directness.

“Dr. Hydro is pretty much the same deal,” Carl continued. “We don’t know where he went, and he’s tough enough to survive a lot of places he could have gone. But his wormhole generator was smashed, and he never had a way back.”

“True enough,” C’Doen said.

Carl’s eyes narrowed. “Then there’s Galaxarian,” he said. “He was bigger than big when Constructor was just getting started. It took two Hombres Aceros, Constructor and Captain Thunder to bring down his mobile command center. When it did, it came down hard, enough to scatter debris for 800 kilometers, after Constructor said they tore his head off. But… I never heard anything more about the head.”

“You’re on the right track,” Abl C’Doen said. As it spoke, the eyes flared bright. It paused before continuing, “You know, it was because of you that I offered the agreement. I could tell, you are more powerful than you know, and you have grown since then. You can be greater than Hydro, perhaps one day as great as me… if you choose that path.” The eyes glowed brighter, so bright he was blinded for a moment. When his vision cleared, there was only night.

It was just then that Dana leaned out the door of the RV. “Are you coming to bed?” she said.

He looked at her, She wore a basket ball jersey that came to her midriff, and a pair of shorts that just barely covered her hips.

“You bet,” he said. She took his hand and led him inside.

Later, they lay on the dinette that converted into their bed, his head at her feet. He cradled her calves, as long as his upper body. She shifted with a happy sigh, without stirring. Before he drifted to sleep, he realized why he was awake. There was a faint buzz, accompanied by a flashing light covered with duct tape. The RV’s satellite phone was activated. He managed to pick up the audio handset without engaging the viewscreen. For the first few moments, he heard only breathing. That was enough. “Audrey,” he said.

“Carl,” she said. “I talked to Dana… our Dana. She knows more than she said. I told her I could tell. She told me… she knows where the Toxo Warriors might be.”

“Okay,” he said. “What now?”

“I’m going to find them,” she said. “Then, if I can… I’m going to kill them. I need to know… if you’re in.”

He rolled over to gaze at Dana. It took only a moment to say, “Yes.”