Chapter 4

Jake Hedron returned to Tomlin Security just in time to prevent its collapse and takeover by his mother and stepfather. After that, he was able, with the help of his true sister Jackie (who wasn't in the database with the rest of his family members) to offset the securities used by his mother in the underground city venture. So Walter Madigan never found out about his wife's misuse of his corporation, Solaris Construction and her misuse of his funds.

Walter's experimental cancer treatment worked; at least to some degree. By injecting minute and diluted amounts of Béla's blood into the normal cells existing alongside the main community of cancer cells, those cells became resistant to the spread of his cancer. It wasn't cured, but it was stopped. With the knowledge of what he would have done to all of them if he'd had the opportunity, more help than that wasn't offered. Even his wife, Alicia, agreed; her husband would not be permitted to become a long-lifer like the rest of her family.

Jake and Béla decided to travel, now that Lisa was fully-grown (She was six, pardon me, almost seven, at the time of that decision) and left the Boston area, promising to check back every once in a while. They also promised to let everyone know when the ship from New Eden would be arriving to take them all away.

Lisa and her new life-mate, Macario, moved in with Frank and Tanya. The four of them 'un-retired' Frank's bounty hunter business. Frank and Tanya never really were private investigators. Mostly they tracked down people who made it their life's work to hurt other people. So that's what they decided to continue doing.

Macario thought that was a great idea – much more fun chasing real villains than going through life being at the beck and call of every client who wants their wife stalked. The manner in which they caught evildoers was classic 'Tootsie' style – go to parties, mix it up with the locals, and rescue whoever's in trouble from the bad guy(s).

The girls, Tanya and Lisa, along with Tabatha, were also dually employed as Tomlin's elite advance team. So when they weren't out 'partying' with Frank and Macario searching out human parasites, they worked with other Tomlin agents in the field. When the girls were working at Tomlin, Frank and Macario generally did research to determine where their powerful little group of vigilantes would descend next. Because of the deteriorating condition of civilization in the twenty-second century due to recreational drugs and altered educational practices, they never had to look very far.

"Here's one," Frank said, scanning data on his console.

Mac walked around and peered over Frank's shoulder. "Yeah, that's good," he agreed.

There had been several murders in Portland, Maine that had the earmarks of a serial killer specializing in women – Frank's favorite type of person to rescue. The city was close enough so they wouldn't have to spend much travel time, and, in addition, Portland had great restaurants and an exciting nightlife.

Frank made reservations at the Portland Hyatt-Ramada for two weeks with the option of extending the time indefinitely.

"As soon as the girls get back," Frank said, having done everything he was supposed to do, "we're good to go."

According to his grandson, Jake Hedron at Tomlin, the girls should be back in two more days. He settled down for a short nap, knowing that Mac would soon wake him to play strategy games on the remote console when he got bored with whatever he was doing now.

As far as the girls were concerned, they had no idea if they would ever see daylight, again. They were all unconscious and chained up in an underground dungeon.

Tabatha woke up first. She wasn't the strongest of the trio, but she had spent several months in an extremely harsh environment and was used to uncomfortable conditions, but being chained to a wall in a dungeon like she was now was not one of them.

She looked around, somewhat surprised, wondering what she should do. Manacles wouldn't hold her; she could simply teleport out of those. She seemed to be alone.

'Lisa? Tanya? Can you guys hear me?' Tabatha thought into the air around her.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. As far as she could tell, there was no electronic surveillance happening, so she should be able to move around as she saw fit.

Tabatha teleported into the passageway outside her cell. The instant she materialized, a blinding bolt of electricity shot through the corridor from one end to the other. Tabatha's smoking body fell slowly to the ground.

'Oh, K-Rap! Now what?' she thought, as she floated in the air above her charred corpse. 'Why am I always getting fried?'

'I thought the question was, 'Why are you always getting burned?' The reason is: you seem to attract those types of situations, ' a voice said in her (head?).

'Who are... ? Oh! It's you!' Tabatha thought at the vague shadow that had suddenly appeared. 'What are you – like – following me or something?'

'You are an interesting case to us, ' the Hurrah said in her mind. 'Please forgive me if we seem to intrude. Since you've fried this body we provided for you, are you going to require a new one, now?'

'Great. An invisible smudge with a sense of humor. No thanks ... I like this one, ' Tabatha grumbled, looking thoughtfully down at her corpse. 'If I can get its heart beating again, I think it'll be fine.'

'Maybe okay for dinner, ' the Hurrah said sarcastically. 'It looks well done!'

'What? Do you eat us?' Tabatha cried out, shocked. She tried to read the Hurrah's mind. It easily shut her out.

'Don't be silly!' it replied. 'We don't eat meat – at least, not the more ... evolved ... members of our species.'

'There are less evolved smudges that DO eat meat?' Tabatha wondered to herself. 'What do you eat?' she asked, suspicious, but interested in this species of entities that seemed so interested in her.

'Your species emits emotions, ' the Hurrah replied. 'You are very pleasant to be around when you experience great emotions.'

'You feed on our fears?' Tabatha asked. That didn't sound very appealing to her. There was something seriously scary about the idea of a species that fed on the many great fears of mankind.

'Your emotions give us energy, ' the Hurrah explained. 'It doesn't matter which emotions. The emotions you emit as you die are the most intense. The second most desired are your sexual emissions when you have orgasms.'

Tabatha thought about that for a moment, imagining invisible splotches that got off while watching people have sex, then looked down at her cooling, cooked, very naked body lying on the floor. 'I've got to find some electricity and wake this sucker up before it goes brain-dead!' she decided. She relocated at the end of the hallway and put her attention on the emitter that had detected her earlier movement and fried her.

'If you put something in front of it, it should fire again, ' the Hurrah suggested, trying to be helpful.

'Good idea!' Tabatha thought back at it. 'You should get a real charge out of what I emote when I wake up... ' She looked into some of the nearby cells. Tanya was in one, just now waking up.

'Hey, naked lady, ' Tabatha thought cheerfully at her. 'Don't go into the passageway – you'll get fried.'

" ... love fries," Tanya groggily thought back at her. Tabatha realized Tanya was drugged. She probably couldn't teleport right now, so she'd not be much good in triggering that electric 'gun' to fire another bolt down the hallway.

But, there was a cot in the cell, so Tabatha teleported it into the hallway. It exploded into fragments as electricity flooded the passage again.

'Holy shit! I felt that!' Tabatha thought to herself, groggily dream-walking out of her new location in the ceiling where the high-voltage electric bolt had plastered her.

She went back and checked her body. There were new burns from the second bolt, but at least her heart was beating now. She teleported into Tanya's cell. As her body began to materialize on the floor, Tabatha was suddenly pulled back into it. 'Hey! Wait!' she cried out in her mind.

'Sorry, this is necessary, ' the Hurrah said gently into her mind. 'But you'll remember when we meet again.'

'Remember what?' Tabatha cried out in her mind as her body's screaming nerves overwhelmed her senses. Then she was unconscious.

Tanya looked down at the naked, smoking girl lying on the floor. 'Baby, is that you?' she thought as her mind slowly coerced into consciousness. 'Please be alive – I don't want to lose you twice... '

There was no response, but Tanya could feel that her daughter/granddaughter-in-law was alive. She looked up at one arm as she hung on the wall. She focused closely on the iron band around her wrist.

'It's a manacle, ' she finally realized as her mind started to function again. 'What's it doing there?' She studied it for another minute, then concentrated on removing the pin that held it together. When it released, she swung wildly around on her still-manacled other arm, slamming into the wall as her left wrist was released. "Gnuugh!" she grunted as she hit the wall. "Fuck ... Hurts..."

Stunned and dizzy, she looked up at the other manacle. It began to peel back the skin on her hand as she hung from it. She released it from her right wrist and fell onto Tabatha's unconscious body, forcing all the air out of her lungs and waking her.

"Oh ... K-rap..." Tabatha groaned. "I'm gonna barf..." She made the sounds, but nothing came out.

"Oh ... Holy fuck!" Tanya moaned. "Well, at least ... you broke my fall ... Thank you, baby..."

"You ... broke my back," Tabatha muttered back. "And ... no 'thank' to you, Mom, now get off me!"

"Katie?" Tanya asked cautiously. She crawled up beside Tabatha and stared at her face. "Katherine?"

"What?" Tabatha asked, looking confused. "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

"Oh my God!" Tanya cried out. "You're back!" She embraced Tabatha and squeezed her tightly, tears streaming down her face.

"Ow! Hey! Ease off!" Tabatha squirmed in Tanya's embrace. As she woke up more, her memories of her current life flooded back into her mind.

"Oh, fuck! I messed up royal!" Tabatha said, remembering everything – her alien lover Beth – Albuquerque – being lost in time – her husband, Simon – her next husband, Gyorgy – finding the immortal Child of the Night – burning to death in that wagon – waking up in a hospital with an uncle telling her that her parents were dead and that I'll take care of you now, Tabatha...

"It's all right, baby!" Tanya crooned, rocking Tabatha back and forth and crying. "Everything's all right, now!" Sniffing back her tears, she gazed into Tabatha's dark blue eyes. "It is you in there, isn't it, baby?"

Tabatha was crying, too. She nodded, not trusting her voice. But there was something she needed to say... "I'm sorry, Mom," Tabatha said, her voice breaking. "I really messed up." Her voice was sounding firmer, now. "I got myself killed protecting..." she frowned, trying to remember. Marie? It was starting to fade, again. "Béla...

"I died, I think," she said softly. The harder she tried to remember the faster her memories of her life as Katie faded.

"It's all right," Tanya crooned softly, rocking her again. "We're together now..."

Both girls jumped as the dank passageway behind Tanya filled with electricity again. "Lisa!" Tanya cried out, alarmed.

She stood up quickly and stared out into the passageway. The electricity was still flowing – being sucked into a fiery vortex that radiated intense heat, light and an incredible orgasmic flow.

Then the passageway was completely dark except for the fiery form somehow still standing at the far end. Even the lights in each of the cells were dark. The intense fire faded and a body formed out of the dying flames, still upright, but seeming to lean against the wall.

"God ... Do me again," Tanya heard echo up the passageway. Daring to touch the metal bars, now, she looked down the hallway. The lights were coming back on.

"Lisa?" Tanya called out. "Be careful of the passageway, Sweetie. It's booby-trapped."

"Uungh?" Lisa replied, barely conscious. Lisa was leaning against one of the cell doors. She pushed against the bars, forcing herself upright. "I want one of those in my bedroom..." she muttered as she staggered up the passage toward them.

The distant whine of a generator powering up alerted Tanya.

"Watch out! It's firing a..." Tanya was suddenly glued against the bars of her cell, her body was shaking violently as electricity flooded through the bars she was holding. Her hands, breasts and belly were burning. Then it stopped. Tanya staggered back a step, suddenly released from the bars.

"Nyah! Ya missed me, doc!" Tanya jumped as the words struck her ears from behind her.

She swirled around. "Lisa!" she cried joyfully. Then she looked more carefully. "Where'd you get a carrot?"

Lisa tossed the carrot into the air and snapped her fingers. The carrot burst into flames and disappeared. "I made it," she grinned. "Who's the Barbie-Q?" She indicated the half-cooked girl sitting up on the floor.

"It's me," Tabatha sighed weakly. She started to get up.

"It's Katie," whispered Tanya. "She remembers!"

"Katie, Katie, Tanya's lady," Lisa crooned, stooping down and gazing into Tabatha's dark blue eyes. "Are you in there, little bear?" She drew circles in the air in front of Tabatha's face, then tapped her on the nose.

"Zap! You're back!" Lisa grinned into Tabatha's face. "Lick your mother's crack!" Lisa fell and rolled on the floor, laughing hysterically.

"Lisa!" Tanya exclaimed. "Stop acting like a six-year-old!"

Lisa stopped and blinked, confused. "I am a six-year old..."

"I think the electricity fried your brain, " Tanya replied sternly, taking charge like a proper mother. "Just lay there and don't move until you're normal, again."

"It's the drugs," Tabatha said, quietly. "They probably drugged her to see if she could be neutralized like Beth was."

"Drugs?" Lisa exclaimed, jumping up and backing against the wall. "I have drugs in me?" She flamed brightly for a moment, scorching the others with her intense heat, then returned to her human form. "Not anymore, I don't!"

"Neat!" Tabatha and Tanya both exclaimed.

"Now, what about us?" Tabatha asked. "What about you, Tan ... Mom?"

"You look like Tabatha, and you have her memories," Lisa said, now sober, or sane, whichever. "So you should probably call her Tanya, Hon."

"I agree," Tanya said, smiling at her reborn daughter. "I know it's you, sweetie, but you should probably call me Tanya, now. Your eyes are Katie's, but your accent isn't." She laughed, trying to get that strange otherworldly feeling to go away. "I can't concentrate," Tanya said, finally. "I even forgot the question you asked."

"Sounds like drugs to me," Tabatha said candidly.

"What about you?" Lisa asked. "Why do you think you're drugged?"

"I was hit square by that lightning out there," Tabatha said. "I had this wild hallucination – a real OOBI, if you know what I mean. I was dead! Cooked meat dead!"

"That would explain why your memories came back," explained Lisa. "The electric shock must have broken down some mental barriers or something."

"Why would I have barriers?" Tabatha wanted to know.

Lisa shrugged. "Why are you asking me?" she asked, getting annoyed and not knowing why. "Death is painful – probably something you'd want to forget! I don't know, okay?"

"Okay, girls," Tanya said, interrupting their not-very-philosophic discussion. "Let's concentrate on how we're going to get out of here."

"That's easy! See you topside!" Lisa exclaimed, then she vanished.

"Can you teleport, Mom ... Tanya?" Tabatha asked.

"When we're alone you can call me Mom," Tanya replied. "I'd even like that, darling. But, no. I don't trust myself to teleport the way I feel right now."

"All right if I do it for you?" Tabatha asked, standing up and putting her arms around the only mother she remembered.

They smiled at each other. "Sure, sweetie," Tanya said. "I'd trust you with my life." She kissed Tabatha/Katie's cheek.

The bright daylight blinded Tanya's eyes. She could feel in Tabatha's mind the same confusion she felt. The sound of traffic and a sudden blare of horns surrounded them.

"Hey-Hey-Baby!" someone called out from very close!

"Hawt damn! Nekked wemen!" someone else yelled.

"Get yer naked asses out of the street!" was followed by a loud car horn. Catcalls, wolf-whistles and angry yells surrounded them. Both girls blinked as their eyes focused.

"Holy fuck!" Tanya exclaimed, recognizing the new city hall. "We're in fucking New York!"

Terrified, the two girls locked their eyes on each other. "Your house?" Tabatha asked, sounding uncertain and frightened. Tanya nodded frantically. The naked girls vanished from the middle of Broadway Street and landed on Tanya's bed. Now neither of them could see because it was too dark.