HANG ON TIGHT GUYS, THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE WILD NIGHT!!!
If mew missed the start of this brand-new adventure click the link below:
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five
Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten
Chapter Thirteen
The Thirteenth Parallel
Implementing Code 792-Delta-Echo-9 utterly
freaked the fluff out of me, but given the circumstances, I felt I had no
choice if I wanted to protect the very foundations of what I’d built.
The platform descended from the ceiling, and I glanced around the room, watching everyone’s reaction as a few moments later, the BBHQ Time Travelling Telephone Box appeared. The platform descended flawlessly into
the shaft in the floor until the TTTB was at ground level.
For those of mew
who may have not read any of our adventures before, let me digress for a
moment. In the courtyard at BBHQ stands a seemingly, ordinary K6
red Telephone Box with the King George V crown moulding, which was in
production from 1935. It has been here at BBHQ since 2007, and I’ll be honest, we really, really wanted a Tardis, aka blue Police Box, but sadly, to get an original one is nigh on impossible, so we got our mittens on the next best thing, the K6 Kiosk otherwise known as The Jubilee Box. And after a few modifications,
we had our very own K6 Tardis, which we call the Time Travelling Telephone Box
or TTTB.
Smooch glowered at me. “Dude,
that was so fluffing sneaky.”
“Yeah, Basil!” Fudge agreed.
“How come mew never told us that mew’d created this escape route?”
“Just a quick question,”
Humphrey interrupted. “Won’t that necromancer notice a fluffing red telephone
box sinking into the ground?”
“OK,” I began. “Let’s step
inside first.”
Parsley pulled the door open,
and we all trooped inside. Mew know stepping into the TTTB always takes my breath
away, just a little bit, as the inside is nothing like the outside. From the outside,
it’s about two feet square, but inside it’s like another world. We stood on the
gigantic bridge of, for want of a better word, a spaceship.
A huge reactor core at the
centre of the bridge descended deep into the depths of the TTTB and its
multiple levels. Surrounding the reactor core were several computer consoles,
lights flashing and raring to go.
Snowie and Amber took their
stations, while the M-Unit and Melvyn headed towards a lounge area and sat
down.
Humphrey nudged me, and I
looked at him. “Oh yeah dude, don’t worry. That necromancer won’t have a clue what’s just happened as when the TTTB descends, a holographic image is automatically projected, so it still looks like it’s sitting right there in the courtyard. Clever, huh?”
“Oh,” Humphrey murmured. “Nice one!”
“And the reason I didn’t
tell anyone about it was, in fact, I was saving it as a surprise,” I explained.
“I wasn’t trying to keep mew all out of the loop; yes I built it in secret, though
I did plan to reveal it at the upcoming Catmas Party, but obviously, here we are
today, so SURPRISE!”
Parsley, Smooch and Fudge wheeled
the trolleys towards a cupboard and pushed them inside, while they muttered amongst
themselves.
Humphrey looked at them and
then said to me. “Basil dude, the guys are obviously a little hissed off.”
I nodded. “I know. I’ll go
and apologise. Can mew get Astrid online and let’s head to the stone circle?”
Humphrey patted me on the
shoulder and then walked over to Snowie, who was busy tapping on the keyboard at her
console, getting the precise coordinates for the jump.
As I headed towards the
cupboard, a hinky, icky prickling feeling of dread crawled all over my skin. I
jerked around and scanned the entire bridge. But there was nothing out of the
ordinary. Stepping into the large supplies cupboard, Smooch, Fudge, and Parsley secured the trolleys into purpose-built docking bays and picked a few choice weapons out, stuffing extra ammo clips into their tactical vests.
That icky feeling crawled
all over me again, and I shuddered, trying to shake it off.
“Are mew ok Basil?” Fudge
asked.
“Something’s not right,” I
answered, glancing over my shoulder again. Shaking it off again, I said. “Dudes,
I’m sorry I didn’t tell mew about the new room and stuff. I was going to reveal
it at the Catmas party as a surprise.”
Parsley replied. “Yeah, we
had just come to that conclusion, Basil.”
“Smooch guessed it was going
to be a Catmas surprise,” Fudge said, turning to Smooch. “I guess I owe mew
five pounds, dude!”
“Mew bet on that?” I baulked.
“Of course,” Parsley laughed.
Smooch and Fudge laughed too, as Fudge handed over a crisp five-pound note he’d just whipped out of the top pocket of his tactical vest.
“Dudes, something feels so
off.” I shuddered again, and then it hit me like a sledgehammer on the tail. “Where the fluff is Posie?”
>^.^<
Posie,
in her ghostly form, activated her personal invisi-bubble, which masked her completely.
She floated through the Control Room wall and into the corridor. Carnage ensued
as shufflers relentlessly pounded on every door in their frenzied attempts to break
through, clawing over one another as feline body parts flew in all directions as more and more appeared and they tried to fight their way to the front.
Gliding soundlessly above
them, she reached the broom cupboard and headed through the wall, but a massive
blast of power unexpectedly hurled her backwards. She spun over and over as she
was hurtled uncontrollably up through the bunker ceiling, through the earth,
and up into the garden above.
Spinning through the air,
she whizzed straight between the two gigantic T-Rexs and the pack of Red Wing
Raptors. Travelling higher above BBHQ, she regained control and finally stopped
spinning.
‘It’s a good
thing ghosts can’t puke!’ she thought. ‘Otherwise, I’d be covered in it right
now!’
Hovering in the night sky,
the full moon glowing like a ball of luminous ice and stars twinkling all around.
She looked down into the garden. The thick mist was swirling in mesmerising circles
as the enhanced prehistoric beasts trampled everything to smithereens as they
stomped towards the bunker’s main entrance behind the summerhouse.
The necromancer stepped over
the broken gates and laughed as he followed the creatures towards the blast
doors.
“Oh fluff!” Posie gulped.
The evil wizard abruptly stopped
dead in his tracks, scanning everywhere.
Posie held motionless as the
necromancer closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them he was
locked on her exact position. Extending the crystal-tipped wand, a surge of white
light shot from the end. Posie swooped to the left and the searing blast missed
her by a gnats whisker.
“Fluff me!” she fumed. “How
can he even know I’m here?”
“I know you’re there, little
B Team cat!” the necromancer taunted as several more blasts shot towards Posie.
“Don’t be shy, come out and play, or are you too chicken?”
Posie had more sense than to
be goaded by the silly taunts of a necromantic fluff-numpty, and she zoomed off
into the night, heading towards the church.
>^.^<
The mist was still crashing like angry waves over the stone
circle, and Pandora was still reeling it in as the first Red Wing Raptor sprang
towards her. Its jaws were wide open, ready to kill, and she didn’t hesitate
for a second. The huge white frothy mass, which she had been magically spinning into a candy-floss substance, shot forward and hit the raptor right in the face. The white mass unfurled and ensnared the raptor in a sticky, white net. The creature writhed,
bellowing and snorting as it tried to fight its way free of the web.
Four more raptors, who’d darted
around the outer edge of the stone circle, crept slyly between the huge
monoliths, using them as camouflage as they slipped through the heaving mist on
silent claws.
Miss Warts and Mogs were
motionless as they spied a glowing red eye peering from behind one of the tall
stones.
Communicating
telepathically, Miss Warts said to her familiar. “I’ll take this one, but
there will be more trying to ambush us from every side. Stay vigilant.”
Mogs answered in the same manner.
“I sense two at the back of us, and one to the right. Pandora has the other trapped.”
Pandora had edged backwards
until the three of them were in a back-to-back triangle, watching the mist from
every angle, readying for the next strike.
The temperature plummeted, and their breath puffed out in little vapour clouds as they watched and waited in acute apprehension.
High-pitched clicks and
chirrups sounded as the raptors edged nearer and nearer between the standing
stones, and then all became ominously silent. The mist swirled, and an owl screeched
above as it swooped low over the stone circle.
The trio actually jumped at
the unexpected noise and huddled closer, so they were touching, as they scanned
the immediate vicinity for any movement within the circle.
The raptors were eerily quiet,
moving closer and closer. Miss Warts, Mogs and Pandora were standing in the centre
of the ring. They knew what was coming, in an instant, a loud growl echoed
through the mist, causing Miss Warts, Mogs, and Pandora to spin around. As they did, they noticed that the glowing red
eye was now joined by several others, all fixated on them. The trio had
underestimated the number of raptors and were now surrounded. With no clear
escape route, they braced themselves for what was about to happen next.
Rushing onto the TTTB bridge, I said. “Astrid, locate
Posie.”
The TTTB A.I. responded
instantly. “Posie is above the garden.”
“Astrid?”
“Yes, Commander Basil?”
“Please track her.”
“Affirmative.”
Snowie waved to catch my
attention. “I have the coordinates for the circle, and Astrid has confirmed
they are correct. It’s a little difficult when magical portals are involved as sometimes
the numbers are incorrect, it can be a bit and miss as they’re constantly changing,
and it’s all a total cluster fluff, but Astrid is sufficiently happy that we
have them dialled in.”
“Excellent,” I answered. “Let’s
go, as Vera is implementing Code 792-Delta-Echo-9 and we don’t want to get
caught in the backwash!”
Amber pushed the button on her
console and the TTTB rippled out of existence.
>^.^<
Vera, the bunker A.I., was on the final countdown of implementing Commander Basil’s command Code, 792-Delta-Echo-9. She, her chosen pronoun as a
sentient, self-aware cyber-being, was curious as this command had only been run
through various simulation platforms, and this was her first time in total
actuality.
During the previous
simulations, carried out in an offshoot of the bunker on Level Ten, Vera had tried
many avatars to combat various virtual threats, and Commander Basil had given
her full autonomy to choose the best avatar for the perceived peril that
she was facing.
She had been tracking the
T-Rexs and Red Wing Raptors since their first appearance in Mewton-Clawson, assessing
their strengths and capabilities. Observing the inclusion of a magical element
intricately merged and woven into their organic and mechanical composition.
This was something new which
she hadn’t encountered before, but with utter certainty, she knew that if
nothing else, she could slow them down, and she transcended into the optimal
avatar for her mission.
>^.^<
The TTTB landed with an ungainly thwump in the stone circle.
Tapping my comms unit, I said. “Pandora, are mew on channel?”
Silence.
Turning to Amber. “Can mew do
a quick external scan?”
She busied herself tapping
on the keyboard before replying. “Nothing Basil, the circle is completely empty.”
Humphrey looked at me,
concern clouding his usual unfazed by anything expression.
Tapping my chin
thoughtfully, I pondered the possibilities.
Snowie said. “Astrid, please
confirm the co-ordinates.”
The TTTB A.I. answered. “The coordinates are correct. However, there was a slight time-shift within the stone circle portal during teleportation, which I could not recalculate during the voyage, and we appear to have drifted through a black hole.”
My team looked a little bewildered.
“Astrid, what does that
mean?” I asked.
“It means we are in the right place, but in another dimension,” Astrid answered. “We are now in The Thirteenth Parallel.”
**AND CUT**
Guys, mew know how we roll, so many apologies to cut it right there, but we will say, fluff me, and fluffing fluff, it's just so bonkers!!! MOL
Oh My Cod, what the fluff is Vera going to do?
Will Posie, Miss Wart and Mogs be able to fend off the raptors?
and
Where the fluff is Parallel Thirteen, and can we get back?
If mew would like to read Chapter 14, let us know in the comments, as OH MY CAT, this is getting wilder each week. In fact, it's getting so fluffing wild that the P.A. has had to go and have a little lie-down! MOL
Remember, this story is for mew, and mew decide if it continues.
In the meantime...
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