Chapter Two – “Dandelions”

“Good luck!” The redhead waved gleefully as an entire building blinked out of existence.

Around her the crowd was pointing where one of the crowning jewels of Gateway once stood. The only thing left was a pit where the Triumph’s foundation once rested. She could not help but be a little insulted that those left outside of the hotel were panicking just like the people inside had. They just don’t get it, she thought. She adjusted her Wayfarer sunglasses, and then held a finger to her ear.

“D, everything’s green here. It looks like the DALnet did its job perfectly. Can you come and get me now?”

“Sure thing, Ep. Give me a moment to finish up my readings and I’ll meet you at your location,” she heard through her earpiece.

Epee, or Ep as her brother called her, looked quite proud in the overly long and baggy sweatshirt she wore that hung off her shoulders and showed her milky skin. She had it cinched at the waist with a comically over-sized belt so that it looked more like a dress. She wore sheer black leggings underneath it. She also quite loved her red pumps, and she assumed everyone else did too because she overheard several people talking about her outfit earlier in the day. She waved at her brother, Durendal, as he approached.

“Did you have a good day, brother dear?”

“Yeah, I always have a blast sending large hotels through a wormhole. Though, I’m not so sure you got these outfits right, Ep.” He motioned down to the large blue sports jacket, striped polo shirt and tan slacks he was wearing. “People kept giggling and telling me they were never going to give me up.”

“I did extensive research before I selected them, D. They came from one of the most popular videos at the time. I’m sure that they were just jealous of your roguishly good looks.” Epee smiled and brushed her fingers through the reddish-brown pompadour her brother was sporting.

Durendal sighed. Sirens echoed across the city. They started off faint, as if their destination was some other place, but Durendal knew where they were headed long before the whisper became a yell. The pit in front of them started to fill with water, though it was difficult to tell if the source was the pipes that were severed when the building vanished, or if it was seepage from the muddy river. A frantic man stood in the center of the pit, trying to push the rising water aside as if he were sure he would find his missing child beneath the surface.

“Sara, Sara! Don’t worry, Daddy will save you!” He shouted.

“She’s not in there! Get out of there before you drown!” Others shouted from the embankment.

As grief-stricken as the man was, he was not the only one. Some had fallen to their knees, looking to the heavens with their hands clasped and eyes tightly shut, muttering to themselves incoherently. Others just stood and hugged one another, sobbing. Names a plenty were called out as people held out hope that their loved ones had not been in the hotel when it blinked away. Durendal looked at his sister, whom seemed more annoyed than sympathetic.

“Are you sure that we did the right thing here, Ep?”

“Of course! Don’t let these sad sacks make you forget that we came here to help. Remember what Mother said, we are providing them all with a future that we never got to have. When we go back to a utopia, I’m sure you’ll forget all about a few whiny people in the past.”

“Yeah, but–”

“But nothing! Would you rather have left things the way they were? We’ve removed the greatest enemy the world has ever known from this plane! We should celebrate! Let’s go home.”

Epee put her arm around her insecure brother’s shoulders as he tapped away at a small device that looked like a palm pilot. Ambulances, fire trucks and police cars had just arrived on the scene and were assessing the situation. The rescue workers seemed as perplexed as the crowd had been when the Triumph disappeared, but there would be no answers as to what happened there that day, because the culprits were gone.

***

Impenetrable forest, it surrounded the hotel and convention center, or at least that was Jason’s assessment of the situation. The intrepid photographer had spent the last hour checking at every window on the first floor. Every time he met with the same results. Somehow, they’d been dropped into the middle of a rain forest. Fronds pressed against the windows in some places. In others, they seemed to be mere inches away from the buttressing base of a large tree. Few specks of light seemed to penetrate to the forest floor when it could be seen. This plunged the hotel into darkness, as the moment they’d arrived; they’d also lost power.

Jason sat by the windows he’d been staring out of when this all started. He pressed his cheek against the still cool glass and watched a tiny lizard, of what species he didn’t know or care, make trails in the condensation that had built up on the other side of the window. The building heat and humidity sapped the energy from the room. No one was stepping up, and the majority of the crowd that had come to hear the Tandy Gardens author speak was now huddled together with only the occasional frustrated whimper coming from them.

The conference room reminded him of a cave and he sat near the mouth of it. For a while, there had been little blue lights waving about through the frightened crowd. It was reminiscent of a nest of glow-worms as people used their cell phones. It had become hard to tell the reasons they were still being used. Perhaps, some were still holding out hope for getting a few bars to appear on the tiny screen. A few stroked their phone like it was a newborn as they stared at pictures of their family, and others just used it because it was about the only light to be had.

Jason raised his hand, using his palm to shield his eyes as a flashlight caught them flush.

“Shine that somewhere else!”

After his eyes adjusted again, he saw Robin crouching in front of him. Like everyone else, there was a thin layer of sweat forming on Robin’s brow. Though Jason himself probably was worse off, still wearing the black trench coat he’d come to the convention in.

“There’s a staff meeting in about ten minutes in Conference Room C. We’re going to discuss what we should do from here.”

“Staff meeting, huh? Doesn’t that take away from your ability to guard a certain someone’s doorway?” There was a snarky tone about Jason’s voice, though that really was not abnormal for the man.

“Anne’s fine. After the earthquake and the rest, she told us not to disturb her for a while, and that we should worry about everybody else. I think she’s meditating or something. I stuck my ear to her door after she locked us out and all I could hear was chanting.”

“Oh, you’re on a first name basis now, huh? What happened to calling her Miss Onymous?” Jason grinned in a knowing way.

“Shut up Jason. It’s not like–”

The glass began to rattle and screams rang out from the huddled masses as a thunderous bellow came trumpeting through the forest. A little girl started to cry. Robin recognized her as the same one he’d seen in line right before everything went bad.

“Mommy, make it stop!”

The roar stopped and all seemed calm once again, though everyone was now quite alert and the whispers were loudening. Robin turned to Jason, with a renewed sense of urgency.

“What was that?”

“Viral marketing for the next J.J. Abrams project?” Jason quickly responded.

Apparently, the glass was not soundproof, because the two could hear tree trunks began to crack as if being pushed over by something very large moving towards them. They both stared out through the sweating glass, but were met with nothing but the ever-present blackness of the jungle.

“Forget ten minutes. We need to have that meeting now!”

***

It’s moving, Simon thought as he stared out the window of the room he was sharing with Haley. Nearly the entire panorama of his vision was filled with treetops. Their room was just above the tree line, so from Simon’s vantage point it looked like a blanket of green. He could barely make out a muddy river, snaking its way through the trees and thought that if it weren’t for the lush greenery, their view would not have changed. At least, that’s what he had been thinking before they heard the bellow that shook the high rise. Now he was thinking about how the tops of the trees seemed to sway side to side in a path that seemed to lead directly towards them. Something was coming, but what, he didn’t know.

“Is your woman going to stare out that window all day long?” Anibelle sounded irritated.

“Let him be,” Haley responded. “And stop squirming. It’s hard enough examining you when you’ve got that jagged tail of yours pointed at me like a gun.”

The girls were in a much calmer state of mind than their short bald companion. When the shaking started, Anibelle had seized the opportunity to take Simon as a hostage. The man felt helpless as he was held against his will by a girl whose strength was greater than his own. It was definitely not the crowning achievement of his lifetime. He already felt like a weakling, but he never thought that even girls would be overpowering him. Then he practically fainted when Anibelle revealed her true self. Blood drained from his face when the girl curled her spade-tipped tail around his gullet. When he came to, the curtains were left wide open and sunshine was pouring in. Since then, he’d been glued to the window.

Somewhere along the way, Anibelle’s eye stopped bleeding. Apparently, demons were quick healers, though she was still left with a visible scar at the corner of her socket where it looked like some sort of tool had been jammed in. Well that, and the huge gaping hole in her head where her eye once was.

“Enough stalling! I want my new eye now!” She demanded.

An hour of knowing this girl and Haley was already sick of her. Being the first demon she’d ever met, she just assumed this was normal behavior and she did her best to not let her frustration show.

“I’m not stalling. I’m letting Simon recover before we go trudging down to the show room. I don’t know how you found us, but we’re not going anywhere until my assistant is in the right frame of mind.”

Anibelle harrumphed, “I told you earlier, I picked up your scent from the display you had set up in the expo and followed it here. It’s not that hard to find someone when you’re as capable as I am. Besides, your face is plastered all over those pamphlets they’re handing out.”

“Simon, how are you feeling?” Haley asked her still stunned friend.

“I don’t think we should go right now Haley, there’s something–”

Simon felt the demon’s tail curl around his waist, though not in the threatening manner that he’d experienced the last time she’d touched him. His nostrils flared and then he began to feel intoxicated. For the first time since awaking, he turned away from the window. He now saw Anibelle through rose-colored glasses. Every inch of the girl screamed sensuality. He didn’t even bother to hide his arousal as he developed a goofy grin.

“Now what was that Simon, dear? You want to do what?”

The demon’s pheromones were strong. They were so strong, that even across the room Haley could feel herself getting lightheaded, though she wasn’t even close to being as affected as her male friend was.

“I was just about to say we should do anything to make you happy. Haley, we should really go and get our new friend her eye now.”

Anibelle grinned as Haley nodded in consent. Things are so much easier when they worship the ground you walk on, Anibelle thought. I really should have gone this way from the beginning, but threatening people with bodily harm is so much fun too. Haley tried to shake off her sudden feelings towards the succubus, but followed along all too easily. As far as Anibelle was concerned, she just gained two minions.

***

Robin stood on top of a folding table that was originally meant for a panel later in the day. Now it made a perfect stage for him to address the rest of the staff. Conference Room C was even darker than the combined rooms A and B that quite a few people were huddled in currently. This room had no windows, so it was left to a few candles provided by hotel staff to illuminate the place. There was a large number of people listening as Robin spoke. Those volunteering or working for the NOW convention were generally dressed in black and had EVENT STAFF written across the backs of their shirts. Hotel staff were dressed in white polo shirts with the hotel’s logo on the front, though some of the more visible staff members were dressed to impress.

“I’d like to thank those of you that work at The Triumph for joining us today. You’ll be of great help getting a handle on exactly how many people we have stuck here.”

Everyone listened intently, other than Jason of course, who was using the candlelight to read the latest issue of Wonder Woman. Robin had tried to get him to put it down, but having worked with him several times before, he knew that it was best to just let Jason be when he had a comic book in his hands.

“We’re standing on the precipice of the unknown here,” Robin started. “We don’t know what’s outside these walls, nor if we’re even safe within them, but this is all we have. It is our duty to come together and protect everyone that has been thrown into this situation as if they were our friends and family.” He coughed. “In fact, it’s best to start thinking of everyone here in that way.”

Robin continued, though the talking just went in one ear and out the other with Jason. Instead, he adjusted the candle so that he could get more light. He wondered when he’d get a chance to get to the rest of his stack of comics that he purchased right before leaving for the convention.

“As you can see, we’re without power, so we’re going to have to do a manual tally of who is and isn’t here. Just because someone has checked in, does not mean that they made the trip with us, so do not rely on the convention register. There are people still scattered in every part of the Triumph, so I’d like to get as many of them together in the dealer’s room for a town hall meeting. Once we’re organized, we can determine what our next step will be.”

Ooh, ape-men fighting Nazis, this is great! Jason thought. Gail Simone is one of my favorite writers for a reason.

“I’m going to start splitting us into teams now. I want hotel staff to return to the hotel and search floor by floor. Let people know what we’re doing, and if they don’t want to come make sure to get their names and room numbers. I’ll understand if they’d prefer to stay hidden, given the situation.”

Robin focused in on his own staff now. The higher ups were nowhere to be found, so leadership fell to Robin. He approached it as bravely as one could expect.

“Andrew, I want you to take a few men and head back to the main conference room. There’s a large crowd in there so try and keep them calm,” Robin addressed a man wearing a batman t-shirt.

“Elise, we need to lock the exits. I’m not so worried about things coming in, but we don’t need anyone getting lost out in the jungle. Get the keys from the hotel staff and then make sure that no one leaves the building.”

“Jason, I want you to–”

“Can’t right now, reading comics.”

“Fine, Jason, you just stick with me. I want everyone to meet in the dealer’s room as soon as possible.” Robin furrowed his brow as his staff began going about their duties. Jason just followed along after.

***

“You’re not very careful with your tools, are you? I mean, I know I would have kept something this important in my room with me rather than leaving it up to a bunch of incompetent volunteers to handle.” Anibelle chided Haley, once again getting on the girl’s nerves and causing her hold over the girl to wear thin.

“Well, that’s you. Not everything I have to show here is so small, and I’d rather keep all my stuff together. It’s a lot easier to prevent it from being lost.”

The stairwell was dark and winding. Logically, the elevators were out of service, so the trio was stuck descending the spiraling stairwell using the headlamp from Haley’s toolbox to guide their way. Simon contently followed as the two girls bickered most of the way.

“You know, I think this whole thing is going to work out in my favor. My connection to Hell seems to have been severed. I have two faithful minions, one of which will provide a nice meal when the time comes, and I have a whole new world placed at my feet, ripe for the conquering. If it wasn’t for the whole losing an eye thing, I would have said this is one of my finest days as a demon.”

“I am not your minion. I am only doing this because it will get you out of my hair, and give me an opportunity to field test the bionic eye. Besides, what kind of overlord doesn’t even give out her name to her henchlings?” Haley asked.

“You’re not henchlings. Henchlings are short, round, red and cute. You’re definitely minions, and my name is Anibelle, but you can call me Mistress.”

“Not in a million years. I think I’ll call you Ani instead.”

Their voices echoed in the recess. Everything echoed though, and Simon listened to the echoing of their footsteps as they descended. One, two, three. He could make out each individual’s steps. One, two, three, four. A fourth set of footsteps started to echo down the stairwell. Simon looked back towards the floors above them, but saw only shadows. He shrugged it off and chalked it up to being his imagination, even as the sound persisted as they came to the third floor. The doors opened in front of them and a young man dressed in a white polo stepped out, giving them, especially Ani, more than a quick glance.

“Um… there’s a meeting planned in the dealer’s room.” He stammered, lowering his eyes. “I-if you could head there now, it would be appreciated.”

After that the man ran off up to the next floor, hiding his face as if he’d done something wrong.

“Aw, that was so cute. He was so shy.” The demon grinned, proud of how well her charms worked. “Well, time’s a wastin’!”

***

There was a nervous murmur circulating in the crowd left behind in Conference Rooms A and B. The young man with the wavy brown hair and the Batman t-shirt was explaining what Robin instructed him to tell them. He was met with reluctance to do anything at all.

“Why should we listen to you? You’re just a kid!” A man with gray hair shouted out.

“I’m just relaying the message. If you want to stay here and rot, that’s fine with me, but we’ve got a plan of action. Now if you’d just all follow me to the dealer’s room, you can find out what that plan is!” Andrew argued back.

Some of the crowd began to disperse, but many of them stayed as Andrew continued to plead his case. Of those that stayed it was clear at least one young man had grown restless. His eyes kept drifting towards the windowpanes, watching, as a drop of water would slide down and meet with another. It was fascinating to see the path the droplets of condensation were taking, but his attention soon shifted to something beyond the glass. Two yellow orbs seemed to hang in midair amidst the foliage.

The man stood and slowly crept up towards the window. The orbs vanished. He thought that was odd, so he took a few more steps. When the orbs appeared again clearly, he stared directly into them. Despite the darkness, he had been wearing red, mirrored sunglasses the entire time. Now he removed them to get a better look. He was staring directly into two giant eyes.

His first thought was to run, but his legs were literally cemented to the ground. The petrifying feeling crept up his body, and caught his arm in the perfect pose as if he were tossing away his glasses, which became stone in his fingertips. He extended his neck and looked to the sky as the change expanded to his chest, sealing the Maple Leaf pin he wore to his body for eternity. His screams, which would have warned the crowd to his peril, were cut off before they could escape his lips. The man was now stuck in an eternal pose, his eyes wide open looking upward as if his gaze were trying to pierce the heavens.

Even if the warning had come, it would have been too late. The glass shattered!

Andrew quickly spun as the stubborn few remaining scattered in a cacophony of screams. Before him was the front half of an enormous green lizard. It was so massive that only the front half of it rested inside of the room. It must have cut itself on the glass because it was licking away the blood from its maw. There was a huge crest on its head, and another on its back. It reminded the now frightened man of something from A Journey to the Center of the Earth, like someone had enlarged a common lizard to epic proportions. Fortunately for Andrew, his eyes never met the reptile’s. Instead the focused on its rider.

Seated right behind the beast’s head was a woman. Even with the long white flowing cloth she wore, he could tell she was perhaps his own height or better. Her hair was long and black and she carried a sword in one hand. The woman was muscularly toned, but still possessed an ethereal beauty. At least he thought she did. It was hard to tell because the rider had a blindfold wrapped around her eyes.

“Seize their males! For the Queen!” She shouted, as her brethren leapt in through the broken glass.

 

***

Anibelle and the two she was now calling her minions gawked at the three women that now stood between them and the storage room where all of Haley’s equipment was kept. They could easily have been a women’s basketball team, towering over the three shorter beings. The Amazons’ spears were pointed at their throats, and even Anibelle was at a loss as to how she would defend herself. There was an exit to their left, and a girl with black hair, dyed red at the tips lay unconscious in its threshold. She was clearly marked as a member of the event staff.

“Give us your male and you will not be harmed.” One of the three said, as Anibelle glared daggers through the taller woman.

“I don’t know. I was planning on saving him for a snack later on. I mean, normally, I’d gut you alive and then laugh as you tried to push your viscera back into your body, but I really can’t risk my bioengineer here getting hurt in the scuffle.”

Haley elbowed the succubus in the side, “You’re not seriously considering–”

The demon shoved the girl back and then looked to Simon, who seemed like he was still in her thrall.

“Go with the giant women Simon. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get to perform Snoo Snoo.”

An Amazon hand yanked the intoxicated Simon as Haley was getting back to her feet. Ani looked like she was completely satisfied with her attempts at diplomacy as Simon was being dragged away into the forest.

“Ani, you can’t let them take Simon!” Haley shouted.

“And why not? He’s my minion. I can do what I want with him. He wasn’t going to be much of a meal, so why should I care?” Ani responded nonchalantly.

“First of all, because he’s my friend and I wouldn’t abandon him, but more important to you, he has the keys to the lock box that your precious eye is sitting in right now!”

“Well, fuck me.”

***

Robin knocked on the door to the waiting room where he’d left Anne. There was no response.

“Some real important business you’ve got yourself here, huh Robin? I’m sure you thought ‘Hey, we’re in the middle of a crisis here and I just gave a huge speech about responsibility, but you know what? I’m going to go check on the hot young authoress that I have a crush on!’” Jason teased.

“I do not have a crush on her Jason. We just need to get everybody in one place, including Anne.”

“Uh huh, sure. So you weren’t talking about her all day Wednesday while we were setting up, were you? Face it, you’re a fanboy.”

Robin tried to ignore his friend, who rather enjoyed teasing him. Instead he knocked again, and stuck his ear to the door to see if he could hear anything going on inside.

“Anne! We’re going to have a big meeting to discuss–”

CRASH! Both Robin and Jason turned as they heard glass breaking in the adjoining conference room. They rushed to the scene of the sound and stood awestruck at what was before them. Jason’s eyes focused on the large women accompanying the terrible lizard.

“Well, look at what we have here. Amazons, just like in the comic I was reading. Who is wasting their time now, Robin?”

“Seize their males! For the Queen!” One of the tall women shouted.

There was mass panic as the Amazons surged on the remaining crowd. Jason and Robin prepared to defend themselves, lest they be taken prisoner, but a strange calm fell over them instead. Light-headedness took over, and they could see that the other men were experiencing the same thing. It was like someone had put everything in slow motion. Robin felt something tickle the back of his neck, looking to Jason for answers he saw wavy red hair spilling down his friend’s shoulders. Jason looked freshly shaven now too, though his face was starting to look more cute than masculine.

Jason noticed a similar change happening in Robin, whose brown hair now reached his thinning waist. Robin’s hips flared out to take on a pleasing shape, and the sensations that the now redheaded man felt led him to believe that his were doing the same. Both lost a few inches in height, and stared at their arms, which became slender and delicate. Robin touched his chest as it became swollen beneath his shirt and soon blossomed into a pair of breasts. Of all the strange experiences to happen so far, this was by far the strangest. Jason felt his body tingle as it took on its more feminine shape, then gasped as he lost something very dear to the male gender.

The newly female friends couldn’t believe what they were feeling or seeing. They weren’t the only ones either. Every male in the conference room seemed to have gone through a similar change. The only male remaining was the statue of an unfortunate Canadian.

“There are no males here!” One of the Amazons’ shouted to the basilisk’s rider.

“Check the rest of their fortress then! I know I saw some in here! Question the women if you have to!”

“Don’t worry. You should be safe now.” A voice came from behind them.

There stood a woman in small round glasses and a violet long-sleeved top. Her hair was dark red and shoulder length. It seemed to Jason, that there was an epidemic of redheads at the convention, of which she was now a part. Her eyes were glowing, though the glow faded quickly as they stared at her. She was Anne Onymous. Robin recognized her immediately.

“I’m sure you’re confused right now, but let me explain. You see, I’m the Wo–” Anne started only to have Robin cut her off.

“You’re a witch!”