Chapter 8

The night of the party was amazing.

Somehow the ladies knew just who to see to get outfits for the party. Most missions didn't even include a party so they didn't pack dresses, but were still happy to find some to use to get dressed up for the occasion. Even Lindsey was happy with the outfit for her.

It wasn't a large party or even a grand one, but it was a chance for them to talk to others and let their hair down for a bit. It was being held at the summer home near the edge of the town in one of the mansions of one of the wealthier merchants.

Seeing as how pissed Suzan was at him before, Dusty tried to make sure he talked to everyone and didn't have any conversations where any of the girls were exclude whenever any of them came near him, and he introduced them to everyone.

The Ladies in question all seemed to be dressed up in different forms of light summer floral print dresses and they were all trying to appear casual without trying to out do each other.

Even Lori didn't seem to be trying to seduce him, or anyone else for that matter, as she was scowling in the corner by herself scaring off all would be suitors who looked her way.

Once Rachel caught her eye and she collect her scowl from Lori as well. Rachel just chuckled and pulled Mark closer to her while his arm was linked in hers.

Dusty was thankful they decided on something simple to wear since the last party that they tried to attend was something that still made him hard when he remembered all of their dresses. Lori's green dress and Suzan's blue one were most often what he used as fodder during cold showers long after that party ended.

Of course there were quite a few times Rachel and Marie's dress appeared in those fantasies as well, just not nearly as often as theirs did though.

Chris even showed up at the party and mingled for a bit but after an hour he seemed to have disappeared. At first Dusty didn't notice when he had left, but he wanted to talk to him more in depth about the sleeping children and what he had done up to this point, but when he tried to find him he noticed that he was gone.

As the party started to get into full swing Lindsey, who had been trying to get Dusty off alone somewhere the whole night, came up to him and asked him what was the dish they had just set out. She was starting to feel frustrated that she couldn't draw him out like she had been able to previously do. Dusty even refused to talk over old times anymore.

She said that it looked like Pizza from their world and she thought about trying it but in the end she didn't like how it looked. She knew that she shouldn't be picky but for some reason she thought it also kind of smelled off to her. She said she had been told it was a delicacy and brought as a gift by a merchant.

Curious what she was talking about Dusty decided to go have a look at it. Even though she was just trying to make conversation he was curious what she was talking about.

He reached the table and realized that more than three fourths of it was gone, as he could see some of the servers were still handing it out in bite sized pieces, but he agreed with Lindsey, it did smell off for some reason to him as well.

It was a green and looked to have what appeared to be tomato seeds in it. It was baked in some form of pie crust. And she was right in that it could have passed for some form of green deep dish vegetable pizza.

The dish was baked in what looked to be at one time a pan that was almost foot in a half in diameter. Enough was there so that everyone could get at least seconds if they wanted it.

About ten seconds after he looked at he dish there was an outcry from the corner of the room where Lori was.

Heading that way, with Lindsey in tow, he came upon a scene of Lori slapping the dish in question out of the hands of everyone she could reach as she went around the room. Behind her was a server whose tray was now face down on the floor with the same dish in question also spilled on the floor.

While Dusty was shocked, he wasn't shocked enough to not try to stop her so he could ask her what she was doing.

"Lori! What are you doing? Why are you assaulting people?" asked Dusty harshly.

Lori's bad mood was beginning to get on his nerves. Getting to the point where she was hitting people for no reason irritated him.

"Dusty help me, we have to quickly find out who's all been eating that," said Lori frantically as she tried to pull away from him.

Grabbing her by the shoulders Dusty made her stop as she started to reach for someone else who was still eating the green dish, as there was a crowd forming around them now trying to find out what the commotion was.

Even Suzan, Marie, Rachel, and Mark had joined the crowd around them and were now also looking at them. All of them were frowning at the pair.

As he held her still he saw that the four of them had all had been eating some of it as well.

"Lori what are you going on about?" asked Dusty as he held her in his hands.

"Dusty that dish was made with the Nicotiana Capsaicin plant. I recognize the odor because I've seen and smelled it before. We have to stop everyone from eating it. We have to stop them now!" said Lori frantically.

"Why, is it toxic or some how poison?" asked Dusty, as he realized that all conversation in the room had stopped.

"Eventually yes," said Lori as she looked at him desperately.

Confusion broke out as everyone tried to talk at once as the words "Eventually" spread around the room.

"What do we do?" asked Dusty as he saw people dropping the dish on the floor as if it was, well, poison.

"We can't let anyone who had any leave. Their life depends on it," said Lori

Lindsey was behind her shocked as she watched it play out. She was glad this time that her unwillingness to try something new may have saved her life.

Rounding everyone up and securing the doors so that no one could enter or leave they quickly questioned everyone and found out that with the exception of Lori, himself, and Lindsey, all the other guest had tried the dish at least once.

Dusty got together with his team, along with Lindsey, and met with the Mayor in a side room to try to decide what to do next.

"Lori what are the symptoms of this and what is the end result?" asked Dusty

"It's a plant that stimulates a range of emotions and feelings in the human body if eaten, and the concentration depends on how fast you would run that range of symptoms before you eventually die," said Lori

"How did everyone end up eating it?" asked the Mayor

"Do we know who brought the dish? Have we checked with the kitchen?" asked Marie. She wasn't happy to have been poisoned.

"I already did that and they said that a few of the merchants brought gifts of food with them when they came, but no one seems to know who brought this one. In the confusion to get everything ready no one thought to check all the food," said Rachel.

"This was deliberate, but the problem is that this plant is a magical one. It's not native to this area. It's commonly called the "Dragon fern". It's normally found in caves and on very high mountainsides near dragons, as they like to munch on it as it gives them a unique high," said Lori.

"You have dragons here? And this is their form of catnip?" asked Lindsey.

"Of course there are dragons! Why would you ... oh yes I forgot. Yes we do, Lindsey," said Lori as she started to get angry before she remembered that Lindsey wasn't from there.

"First things first, what are the symptoms?' asked Dusty.

"Because it plays havoc with the human body it stimulates different things you feel. At some point there will be increased excitement and a physical rush. The victim will feel the desire that they can do anything. They won't be able to sit still and they look almost as if they are bursting with energy.

"The next symptom is intense pain. The will feel like they have stomach cramps, but far worse. They won't be able to stand up and they will feel like they have a fire in them, and it will drive them crazy. They will have a mild fever and will be sweating like crazy. Most will start to collapse about this time.

"The final symptom is sexual euphoria. They won't be able to help themselves. They will find that they will have renewed energy once more and it will drive them so hard that they will appear to try to use it to have sex with anyone or anything that moves. They will work themselves into a frenzy trying to sate that unquenchable lust. If they fight it too hard, they might go crazy, but they'll end up doing it anyway.

"Some if they managed to have vigorous enough sex during the last stage might work it out of their system and survive, as that is the only thing that will be on their minds, but that rarely works.

"So unless we're ready to unleash the mother of all orgies on the outside chance it might work in the next room I'd not suggest it. I doubt most of the marriages and business alliances will survive if we do and it did work.

"But even then that's a long shot. We need to try and find some kind of antidote if it exists around here or at least something we can use. Otherwise their bodies will run out of control, racing their system, trying to start the cycle all over again and again until their hearts can't take it any longer and it gives out," finished Lori looking around.

"Oh god, it sounds like it messes with the body's production of endorphins," said Dusty as he looked at her.

"What about the couples that are married or involved?" the Mayor asked.

"If we take too long in finding something they can slow down the eventual end result by their having sex may help, but won't stop it completely. The reason Dragons like it is because it is so powerful and gives them that eventual sense of euphoria. All the symptoms I mentioned are nothing to their large bodies and physical make up, but will eventually kill a human if left untreated," said Lori

"What do we do?" asked Suzan.

"We leave Lindsey here to make sure that no one manages to talk their way outside where we can't help them, and if they do we need to know who got away. Dusty and I need to go right now and look for any plant that I can find that might help," said Lori

"What about Chris? You said it was a magic plant, think he might be able to help?" asked Dusty.

"We can ask, but it so rare that my master only had the one plant and he kept it for study. He was primarily a Green mage who specialized in herb lore, but also had enough skill in Blue to teach me. It wasn't something normal mages kept lying around. My master was always researching it to find why it affected people the way it did," said Lori.

With that Dusty and Lori quickly set up for the country side that night leaving behind a room full of people who weren't sure if they were going to see the coming morning, even though Lori said it would take about two days before it became a problem for them.

They stopped by Chris's house, but Chris wasn't home and there were no lights on. Not wanting to take too much time they set off for the woods. They were sure it was a futile search, but they both were desperate to make sure that not one of their friends died from this attack.

Having daybreak come and go and now into early afternoon Lindsey was starting to get nervous as she tried to watch everyone around her in the building.

Her job was to try to keep people here because everyone was told what would happen with the symptoms, and she was to notify Dusty and Lori of the ones who insisted on leaving. Everyone knew that Lori and Dusty left to find the antidote and if they left they might not survive.

She had already seen the first stage not too long after they left.

During the night everyone was twitchy and seemed to be irritated. Thankfully someone suggested that they dance and that seemed to cause them to burn off some of the extra energy. They seemed to have no bottom to it.

That went until early morning when some of the people started sweating and cramping up. They all seemed to drop where they were and start to clutch at their stomachs. The moaning was awful to hear and Lindsey wasn't sure she could listen to it much longer.

But by the very early afternoon she started to see the beginnings of the third stage and was starting to get scared.

At first everyone started to slowly come out of the groaning and painful cramps, and soon after they seemed to be renewed with energy as they started to slowly get amorous with everyone around them.

She saw people starting to touch or kissing one another, at first it was when they thought no one was looking at them, but later it started becoming more obvious as they started to throw caution to the wind.

Not sure what to do Lindsey went to find the Mayor, who had his wife straddling him on his lap and they were making out hot and heavy, and asked if he had any suggestions, realizing that he was also being affected as well.

Thankfully he did. The building that they were in had plenty of bedrooms in it so Lindsey suggested that the ones who could pair up to do so and they took the party to their rooms.

She did have a heck of a time making sure that husbands went with wives and people who came to the party with a date went into the same room with them, but she was able to get everyone where they needed to be eventually.

During this time Lindsey watched Marie, Rachel, Suzan, and Mark, and she saw that they were all now starting to act pretty twitchy themselves.

As they tried to stay away from the people who were slowly loosing control, a couple times Lindsey did see Mark groped or felt up at different times by the three women.

Suzan came the closest to losing control and almost pulled him into a clinch for a kiss and Mark looked to be leaning in for it, but almost as if they realized what they were doing they all snatched their hands back and put them at their sides, and seemed to momentarily gain back their senses.

Marie quickly suggested that they bolt themselves in some rooms, separately, until Dusty and Lori returned. She wasn't sure she wasn't going to start giving into the desire soon as well.

While this seemed to fix the problem of an unintended sexual encounter for everyone, later when Lindsey went around checking on everyone to make sure that they stayed in their rooms she was quite sure that she heard the sounds of Marie and Rachel very vocally pleasuring themselves from behind their doors as they started to slowly lose control over their bodies.

Even though Lindsey had been here for less than three months every time she thought she was figuring out what was going in this world someone threw a new curve at her.

Meanwhile daybreak found Dusty and Lori starting get frustrated.

Dusty was because he didn't know what type of plant to look for and he really wasn't getting a good idea of what was needed from Lori.

Lori meanwhile was desperately looking for something that she might recall from that time long ago that could help, and she couldn't tell Dusty what to look for because she didn't know what she was looking for yet.

As she frantically dug around everything she could find she looked like she was getting close to a break down, and it appeared as if she might start crying at any time.

Her problem was that if she had the plant she might be able to figure something out, but that would also mean they had a dragon problem in this town as well. She was desperately trying to remember any her herb craft from her youth.

As they continued to look around suddenly they heard a chuckle behind them and a male voice said "My god were we ever really that young?"

"Obviously we were, or we wouldn't remember any of this," said a female voice with a hint of merriment to it.

Getting up and turning quickly around Dusty and Lori found themselves face to face ... with themselves.

It was obvious that it was the two of them, but they appeared older than they were currently.

As the two slowly advanced on the two older versions standing before them, a few key differences became apparent.

Dusty's older version looked roughly the same as he did now, but he had a touch of grey at his temples. Not a lot, but it was just enough to notice. But as young Lori looked at it, she thought it made him look distinguished.

Lori's older version looked just the same as she normally did. She still had that incredible figure she was currently now sporting, but her dress appeared tighter around her waistline, if that was even possible and her breast line fuller somehow.

The neckline on the other versions dress plunged a bit more and her midnight black hair was half way down her back almost to her hips instead of just being just past her shoulders.

She also now had a streak of white in her hair, in the front, where the older version had split it so that it was now on both sides of her head, framing her face.

It did nothing but create a new pull that made you even more curious when you saw her. Young Dusty could feel the familiar stirrings he hadn't felt since he first saw her.

If anything the new "older" versions of themselves that now appeared before them seemed older and wiser but were obviously were here for a reason.

"What ... what is going on?" asked Dusty.

Turning to Lori he asked "Is this one of the symptoms? Did we get into something as well?"

"And now you believe you're sharing the same hallucination?" asked older Lori as she chuckled at his question.

"God, I have to remember I don't know what I now know. I have to remember that I at the time believed that either I must be drugged or drunk, but it couldn't be real," said older Dusty.

Startled young Dusty looked at him as he realized that was just what he was thinking.

"And I'm wondering why I'm here, why I'm preventing us from finding that cure, and if I've actually had a nervous breakdown from the stress of trying to pretend that I'm not really divided in what I really want," said older Lori as the younger version looked at her startled as she realized she just covered her thoughts as well.

"How is this possible?" asked young Dusty.

"Time travel," said older Dusty.

"Excuse me, but what are you all blabbering on about?" asked young Lori irritated.

"Our Dusty here has figured out how to travel around in time. Pretty the much the ability to go back to any point in time that has already happened. But we can't do it often.

"It takes a lot of power to do it, a lot of calculations, and he has to know what is going on where that he wants to be, but he can do it. I don't fully understand how it works, but he said it based on some theories he learned from his world in his math, science, and engineering classes.

"But this is the last time we can do it because of the power requirements and we don't want it to get out that it is possible. So after this trip we're no longer doing it. We've destroyed all the notes on how he can do it and anything that suggest how to perform it," said older Lori as she leaned close to older Dusty and rubbed his chest.

"This is big. If you, we, I, whatever ... if I could do it then I could fix a lot of things," said younger Dusty. "I could..."

"No, think about it Dusty. If you change too many things in the past then you can re-write your own existence and create an alternate time line where you can't get back to any point you know.

"All we're doing is making "small" changes right now. Remember all the theory you learned in school," said older Dusty. Then he smiled and said "Not to mention what you saw in the Back to the Future movies."

"Why are you here?" asked younger Lori sounding irritated.

"My god was I really like that? Did I really treat you like this when I first met you? How could you stand me? How did I ever convince you to marry me based on how I used to be?" asked older Lori looking at older Dusty.

Chuckling older Dusty answered "Yes you were and you're lucky I found you so irresistible that I could see past how you used to be. Of course I've always had a thing for you so it wasn't like it was an issue at the time. You will never know how close you came to getting me to almost bedding you all those times you tried so hard."

Stroking his face softly for a moment, she then turned to young Lori and said "Walk with me for a moment please," and she turned and walked away without checking to see if young Lori was following her.

After a few seconds young Lori turned and went after her.

As they both watched them walk off into the distance a bit, both of the women cutting quite the appealing figure, young Dusty turned to older Dusty and said "So I married Lori instead of Suzan?"

"Lord no, what gave you that idea?" asked older Dusty turning to face his younger version.

"Lori called you, us, her Dusty. She was flirty but familiar with you. She also said we were married now. I just thought..." started Dusty.

"No, you're right. We are married now, but long after Suzan and my marriage was long over. I still think of Suzan and our family from time to time and those were some of the happiest times in my life. We had such a long life together and I and the children still miss her sometimes," said older Dusty wistfully.