Chapter 16: Under New Skies

Henry found the solution to his problem on a Sunday Morning. For him it was as simple as looking in the classifieds of the Sunday paper. He located a hardware store on the verge of bankruptcy The Store's owner was desperate for money. Henry offered to purchase the whole store including the aging building, the stock and even the fixtures.

His only stipulation was the present owners must crate everything and stack it in the warehouse. Henry agreed to pay off the mortgage up front. Of course Henry paid cash and ordered the storeowners to leave the store immediately as soon as the loose stock was all secured in crates. The old owner was surprised at this strange request. Henry told them, "It is now my property. I will handle the way it gets taken care of."

The following Saturday morning Greg set up his first continuous portal on what was becoming to be known as "New Haven." Later the planet's name was shortened and became "Haven." Ralph and his security team and the twins worked at a fever pitch all day and into the night.

By Saturday night just on the stroke of midnight, the tired crew carried the last of the boxes from the hardware store through the portal. Exhausted, Greg closed the portal behind them. He lay down on the soft grass and went sound asleep next to a pile of shovels.

The next day Dog sat in silence nearby and said little. "Little friend, you have amazed me with your accomplishments. But it is too dangerous for you to push yourself this hard. Relax and do less. There are many days ahead of us. Please last long enough to see them." Dog sat beside the tired teenager.

Vikki came up and sat down on the ground on the other side of him. "Hey, you look beat. Anything I can do to help you?"

"No, thanks. I guess I tried to do too much. I need to rest." He stood and told her, "I'm hungry, is there anything ready to eat?"

"You stay here, I'll bring you something." She rushed off and came back with a steaming plate of food.

"How are you feeling now, Greg?" Henry asked as he came up. "I believe we had best not try any more projects as ambitious as the hardware store. You rest and take it easy. We need to bring some foodstuffs through to here on New Haven. We must also begin to build log cabins to live in. Unfortunately no one in this group has ever used a chain saw or even cut down a tree."

"I got the answer to one problem anyway, Mister Storm. I found a whole bunch of those alien ray guns or whatever they are. They ought to cut through any trees around here. When we go back to get my folks I'll show them to you." Greg leaned back and closed his eyes.

"You never cease to amaze me," Henry Storm told him. He continued, "Amazing or not, why don't you come over here and grab a sleeping bag?"

Greg followed Henry to a pile of sleeping bags, took one, unrolled it and went to sleep on top. Vikki tenderly covered him with a blanket and sat beside him. Finally she lay down on the grass beside him and went to sleep also.

It was almost sunup when Greg came awake. He felt refreshed. He opened his eyes and saw Vikki sitting beside him, staring at the sky. "Do you and your dad want to go with Dog and me? I'll show him where those ray guns are and I want to see my folks."

"Sure, let's go. I'll find Father." An hour later, Vikki and her father sat on the seat of the original purple slab. Dog and Greg stood behind them.

"Ready?" Greg asked and he and dog opened the portal through the gray space and on to Earth. They came out in the Ryan's back yard. The second slab followed them through and came to a rest on the ground.

Greg opened the back door and saw a stranger sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm the man who just might take you to your parents if you say pretty please. We go easy or we go hard. But we go." He pulled a small automatic from his suit coat pocket and pointed it.

"Greg, drop," Dog ordered and flew through the air at the stranger. He knocked the stranger down hard enough to stun him. Dog took the gun from the man's hand and dropped it on the floor by Greg. Vikki came hurling in.

"Where are my folks?" Greg demanded.

"Where you'll never find them," the stranger sneered and added, "Well, unless I take you to them."

"Is he Raak?" Greg asked.

"No, I do not believe so," Henry said from the door. "This is more of your government at work."

"Vikki, you ask him where my folks are." Greg had an expression on his face like she had never seen before. It made her nervous.

"You better tell him where his parents are, if you make him angry there's no telling what he might do."

"What could a kid like him do?" the man sneered.

Suddenly he was knocked to the floor as Vikki wound up and kicked him in the jaw. "Now I'm only a girl and this is one thing I can do," she answered, "He's a guy and can do just so much more than a helpless girl."

He shook his head and tried to get up. A thin band of purple suddenly encircled his waist. "Hey!" he shouted as he was lifted into the air and slowly carried outside. He shot hundreds of feet up into the air and began to watch the Earth continually change as he swooped across the sky.

Then without warning, the government agent plummeted to the Earth to come to a bone jarring stop inches from the ground. His eyes were wide with fright. His whole body twitched. "What ... what ... what you are you?" he gasped as he tried to get his breath back.

"Neat trick, huh?" Greg asked. "Now I smashed a couple of guys pretty bad when I did my little trick for the first time. You were lucky. Ready to go on another ride?"

Nearly in tears the man looked like he was ready to faint. "What are you all?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

Greg pretended to consider the question. "Oh, I'm just a little confused teenager who has begun to finally grow and try to be a man and I want to know where my folks are. If you don't tell me I'm going to try to stretch you by making half of you go in one direction and the other half in another.

"You wouldn't dare!" the stranger tried to stall for time. He wanted to consider his alternatives. Then he found he had none. He flinched when Greg caused the band around his middle to separate and become two thinner bands. The second band slipped down around the agent's ankles. He felt a tugging at his ankles and at his waist.

"Now this is the leg stretching exercise," Greg told him.

"Greg," Henry protested, "You aren't really going to do anything so drastic are you?"

Greg didn't answer. He frowned in concentration and suddenly the agent's shoes slipped off, along with the purple band around his ankles." I got it too loose that time," he muttered in a low voice. "The last time I did this trick, the guy's feet came off with his shoes. Now I tell you it was a real mess. Blood and stumps everywhere."

The agent was almost in tears. "We're holding them in the city jail in town. Just get away from me." He shuddered and looked at Greg as if he had suddenly seen a monster. "Oh god just let me go!" he screamed.

"Let's take that spare slab and put it in the back of Dad's truck. We'll drive there and talk to those people. If they let my folks go we'll leave. If they won't, I'll make them sorry they ever messed with us."

Henry said to himself," I think they're sorry now."

Vikki had never seen Greg in the state he was right then. He scared her. Before, when he became angry he expressed it in a fit of temper and it was over. This time he seemed to actually enjoy the power he had at his command.

Henry drove and Vikki sat beside him. Greg and Dog rode in back on the car seat welded to the purple carpet. They pulled up and parked across the street from the city jail, located in a wing of the City and County Building.

Just as they came to a complete stop the front doors of City Hall swung open and Linda and Steve Ryan came out surrounded by six men in black suits. An angry Captain Anderson and a worried looking Millicent Perkins followed behind. Captain Anderson's expression mirrored the grim look on Millicent Perkin's face.

"Hey!" Greg yelled as he jumped from the bed of the truck. He caused the purple platform to float over to the group of government agents surrounding his parents. Suddenly it shot forward and bounced off one man's head. He fell and lay still on the sidewalk. In a split second it twice more struck two other agents on their heads. Two more agents were knocked to the sidewalk.

When the remaining three pulled their guns Captain Anderson told them, "You better put those things away. You might regret it if you make those people mad."

As the platform fell to the sidewalk two small bits of purple separated from, became thin tendrils of rope and went around two of the agent's gun hands. In slow motion, the guns turned until they were pointed toward the third agent's head. "Hey!" he yelled, what are you doing?" His eyes widened in horror as he stared at the two guns pointing at him. He dropped his firearm and stood very still, hands slowly rising in the air.

"I can't help myself!" one agent exclaimed. The other one nodded in silence, too scared to speak.

"You guys let go of your guns and you won't get hurt." Greg walked up to them and picked a dropped weapon up off the sidewalk. He took the guns from the unresisting hands of the two government agents. The purple unwrapped itself from the two and returned to the larger slab.

Vikki jumped out of the truck and ran up to Greg and tried to divert Greg's anger a little. "Do you always have to be such a show off?" He didn't answer.

Henry crossed the street and asked Millicent Perkins, "What charges are you holding these people on?"

"Actually they were being held under the provisions of the Patriot act concerning national security. I warned those fools from Washington they were begging for trouble, but they wouldn't listen. I never expected this though."

"I warned you about these kids," Captain Anderson told the stunned group. But you thought your authority was enough to make everyone do what you ordered like good little robots."

"I just want to go home," Linda said. "I want to get as far away from these animals as I can. She looked at all the federal people with contempt. She SLapped one of the agents, "That especially goes for you."

Greg and Vikki heard a noise and turned to look. A television team previously hidden in a large white van with the logo of a local TV station came scrambling out of the back. The cameraman with his hand held unit hurried toward the Ryans and the Storms. One of the best known of St. Paul's newscasters called, "Wait! Captain Anderson promised us an interview with you! Don't go yet!"

Agent Perkins turned on Anderson, "How dare you leak this to the news! You are an idiot. I was against arresting the Ryans because I was afraid something like this would happen. But to leak something to the press without prior authorization is illegal."

Anderson answered with evenly spaced words, "I doubt that very much. May I also remind you I warned you after your idiot Somers pulled his stunt what would happen if you people tried any more end runs around Minnesota law enforcement agencies. I warned you I would take steps and I did. Last time you claimed it was done by underlings acting unofficially but this time, with it operating with your full knowledge, I highly doubt that.

"This whole operation of yours is so far off the books someone is going to get the axe over it." He shook his head and snorted, "And you people wonder why you have such a bad reputation." The TV camera picked up every bit and the TV station sent it out live.

"I was following orders from Washington," Agent Perkins answered him in an attempt to defend her actions." I told them it would backfire, yet they insisted." She looked defeated as she added, "I'm going back to my office and clear out my desk. I know who will get the blame." Head down, she walked slowly toward a parked government vehicle.

"Hey, you can have a job with us," Captain Anderson called after her. She didn't answer. She got in her car and drove away.

"Well, we better go home," Steve told his wife. "I think we won't have any more trouble from the government."

"Oh yes we will," Henry contradicted him. "I am certain we'll next get a call from some big shot in the Whitehouse. After what Greg did to those agents on camera, we'll be lucky if they don't drop an A-bomb on us."

"Let's all get our stuff and move to Safe Haven," Greg said. "We don't have a home here any more."

"Yah, Steve said, "They're going to need a good mechanic before long." He and Linda drove away in the truck, Henry, Vikki and Dog sat in the back. Greg followed on the purple slab, floating three feet off the ground. The news camera got it all.

Captain Anderson grinned at the unhappy federal agents, "Well, you boys got in enough hot water around here to last you a while. You better go home and start writing out all your excuses." He snorted and gave his head a shake as he turned and walked away. The agents looked at one another silently as they learned how much real authority they truly had.

A stretch limousine with heavily tinted windows was waiting for them in the Ryan's yard when they arrived. "What now?" Henry asked aloud in a resigned voice as he climbed out of the back of the pickup.

A wary Greg let the slab come to rest on the ground. Vikki quickly joined him. Dog stood on the other side of Greg. They waited without moving until the side doors opened and an older man and a young woman let herself out. "Who are you and what do you want?" Steve demanded in a harsh voice. Two men who could only be bodyguards exited the front of the limo. The one who had been driving casually reached inside his suit coat.

Before he could draw his weapon Greg willed the purple ring to slip off his finger and smash the man's wrist hard enough to paralyze it. "Keep your hands in plain sight," Greg ordered. "Now my dad asked you a question, answer it."

"Is this how you treat your guests?" the older man asked.

"You are not a guest but an intruder," Henry answered. "Speak your piece then leave. We have much to do."