Never-Ending Story

[dancer]

Dancer looks down at her costume provided and approves as she admires the craftmanship of the royal gown she's been provided. She thinks to herself, "I really do feel like a queen in this garment. I could get used to this." "Too bad today is my last day to tour the castles...it's been SO much fun!"

[karenee]

Dancer rolled over in the unfamiliar bed and wondered where she was. "I thought I was going to be sent home! Maybe I was wrong, though... I'm new at this superhero MotM business."

A male voice issued from behind her. "I arranged it."

Aaah! "Cree8, you startled me!" She jumped out of bed and hugged him. "You mean we're staying for a while?"

Together, they hurried to prepare for a day of exploration.

"I think Kylemore Abbey would be a great place to start!" Dreamer pulled Cree8 out the door. "Let's go! Oooh, you brought the Jag!"

"Yeah, the fact that it folds up so neatly makes it good for carry-on. I flew here overnight."

At the Abbey, they got out to begin the tour, but noone was in sight.

"I wonder where all the people are?" Cree8 said, looking around.

[dreamer]

Confused, but amazed with the beautiful place that surrounded them, they decided to head to the walled Victorian garden as their first order of sight-seeing.

[karenee]

As they stepped through the entrance the shadows seemed to jump sideways, but as they moved down the garden path they decided it had been their imaginations; though both kept their eyes open, thinking it odd that they had both fallen victim to the same delusion.

The gardens were lush, and the men working them appeared to be dressed in genuine historic garb. "Wow! They've really gone to a lot of effort!" Dancer murmured, looking around. "I wonder if it's anything like what it really looked like back then?"

[dreamer]

They looked and saw a sign written in and old-fashioned script. Puzzled as to its meaning, they decided to try and figure it out. As they drew closer, they realized that it wasn't English that they were looking at, it was ancient Irish, and somehow they knew what it said... "This way to the maze" with an arrow pointing into the deeper shrubbery.

[karenee]

Dancer followed Cree8 into the maze, glad to be away from the staring gardeners. "This is wonderful! Nice and cool and private!"

Cree8 stopped suddenly, and she ran into him. "Uhoh!"

"What's the problem?" Dancer peered over his shoulder as he stooped over. A male figure lay sprawled just around the corner.

"We're going to need help for this. This man is dead!"

[Tegid]

[green]Cree8[/green] was startled by how much the face-down figure resembled [brown]Tegid[/brown]. He reached down to turn him over, but [purple]dancer[/purple] stopped him and said, "Shouldn't we leave things alone till someone else has had a chance to investigate?"

[DanTheMan]

Meanwhile, DanTheMan had awoke from his long nap, dusted off his flying can of peaches, and set his course for his own sight-seeing tour of the islands of Iona, Lindisfarne, and Hadrian's Wall.

[dreamer]

Cree went back to the opening of the maze and shouted for help. Amazingly, the words that came out of his mouth were English. It all seemed rather strange, but the men working at the entrance to the garden came running towards him and asked what was wrong. Cree looked at them wonderingly as he realized that he could understand every word they were speaking. How was this possible? He motioned them into the maze and explained that there was a body there. As the men ran ahead, Cree noticed a small broach on his clothes, one that hadn't been there before. Taking a closer look, he recognized the symbol on it as a universal translator. With this brooch on, he could understand anyone and they could understand him too...

[karenee]

When had he put it on, though? Cree pulled Dancer off to the side and whispered, "When did you put on the brooches?"

"Brooches?" Dancer pulled off the brooch and stared at it. "Oh, why it's pretty, but I've never seen it before!"

Cree thought for a moment. Maybe that's what the shadow was when we came in? It's a strange sort of slight of hand, though. Why would someone pin translators on us? Put it back on, I guess. It IS useful!"

Just then the workers came bursting out of the maze to surround them.

"It must have been them, who else was in the area?" One said, looking Cree over. "Look how strangely they're dressed."

"Is that a woman? How indecent!"

Dancer glanced down. She knew she was dressed conservatively, so why would the men call her indecent. Had something happened to her clothes?

"Mr. Henry will want to investigate," said the first gardener. He seemed to be the leader. "Let's take them to him."

(http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/travel/attractions/houses/kylemore.shtm- Link to article regarding the castle's origins and the man who built it.)

[dreamer]

Cree and dancer edged back from the crowd of men and wondered where they were planning to take them. And who was this Mr. Henry fellow?

"Lead us to Mr. Henry, good neighbors!"

[DanTheMan]

DanTheMan was nearing the Isle of Iona and this is what he saw:

and he said, "Ah, yes! I need to go see the abbey!"

[karenee]

Lazer lay sunning himself on a remote mountaintop with Karenee curled up against his neck reading. A dark speck high above gradually grew larger, but at first neither of them took notice. Soon, however, a distant "Wooohoooo!" caught their attention and they looked around. Lazer spotted the speck first, though it was fast resolving into a free-falling Dreamer.

Lazer tensed to fly up and catch her just as she opened her chute with a snap and glided down to land on a flat rock nearby. "Wooo! That was fun!"

Karenee closed her book and sighed.

"Wow! You've got a wonderful view here, Karenee, but I've got an idea! Want to see some castles?"

"Castles?" Karenee tucked the book into her backpack.

"Dan will meet us at Kylemore Abbey. Cree's car has been parked there for almost two weeks according to Kg00ds' monitor, so he asked if we'd check it out and make sure there isn't a problem. I thought it sounded like a wonderful chance to do some exploring!"

-------

Meanwhile, Cree and Dancer huddled together in the dark room where Henry had tossed them, pending his investigation.

"He really seems to think we did it!" Dancer muttered.

Cree shook his head. "I tell you, Dancer, it's this time-change thing that bothers me. How on earth did we step back 115 years into the past?"

"But you said the man looked like Tegid!"

Cree sighed. "I don't see how it could be Tegid. It's probably just coincidence."

[dreamer]

"Yoohoo!! Anybody here?" called dreamer as she stepped out of the coolness of the abbey's shadow in her period dress. "Am I the only one who saw that cree and dancer needed help?"

[karenee]

Karenee finished studying Cree's car. "You know, they didn't even lock it!"

DantheMan swooped down and jumped off his can of peaches to give Dreamer a big hug. "You look beautiful, dear!"

Karenee looked around. "You didn't see them in the abbey, Dreamer?"

Dreamer shook her head. "Noone has seen them. The nuns noticed the car when they returned from a field trip, apparently the Abbey was closed for the day, something to do with a strange infestation. They had to have the whole thing bombed."

"Infestation?" Karenee tapped her communicator. "Kg00ds, please check into the infestation at the Abbey. For some reason that brings back a memory of The Bug Diversion catastrophe about ten years ago. We lost several good superheroes that time. It will be filed under, "Losses" on the computer." She turned back to Dreamer. "It's a good thing we don't have many files in that folder; and we never found the perpetrator. Well, let's check the garden, it's the next place to look. Dan, do you have a super-kit stashed in your peach can?"

Dan tugged a large duffel out of the can and led the way.

Karenee followed, shaking her head and muttering. "I really wish I understood the technology behind that! It's like those cartoons of the clown in the toy car."