by The Eurostar, I'm Not Mister Mxypltk and T5
The Amazon jungle, Brazil:
Edulcore Cicciotto:
I soar above the canopy, rotating slowly to gain altitude. I feel the pressure of hot hair going upward over the inferior face of my wings. I move my finger to change the position of the related feathers, to control the degree of rotation impressed over my body.
For Drax and Danny, it's totally different. Their bat-like wings are membranous tissues stretched between the bones. Flying for them is an act of power. The push over the air that their wings -- powered by their muscles -- give, brings their body forward and upward.
It's because of this push that my flight bring me back and forth between them. So I can follow their conversation sparsely, and each time they are talking about different things.
Chance (on the back of Drax, behind Velo, Mick and Crasher): "...you called my powers?"
Velo: "I called them holistic abilities. I don't need to explain it to a scientist like you, right?"
Chance: "Sure. It's quite interesting, your point of view. Bodes perfectly with what you said to me on the hovercraft..."
Danny (flying on his own near and slightly above Drax): "Care to interpret for the non-scientist, Velo?"
Velo: "Just that I don't believe in luck or fate. The fact that he SEEMS to have superluck is due to the fact that his metagene enhances his holistic perception... that is, different from most humans, his senses don't work to identify each thing they perceive, but instead he senses the gestalt... That is, he has the total perception of the global environment he is in... and that puts him ALWAYS in the best situation he can be."
Danny: "...umm... I don't...." and then my flight path brings me too far.
When I am back near them, the conversation seems to have gone further.
Danny: "So, you don't believe he is from another dimension?"
Velo: "I don't believe the crap about parallel universes. Dimensions are one thing... M'xy is from a dimension superior to our own... but parallel realities are fairy tales. I believe he is a clone... cloned from the original Schanz, and with false memories planted in. Technology is not so advanced to transfer perfectly the memories from one human to another one... hence what he perceives as being from a utopian world..."
Danny: "You believe this, Chance?"
Chance: "In fact, I am thinking about it more and more. But you know what it would mean for you?"
Danny waits for an answer.
Velo, smiling: "The same could apply to you. You supposedly came from the future, but what proof of it is there? You could simply BELIEVE yourself to be from the future, just because you have false memories implanted. By who? I don't know. But we have met many with the ability to do this. The EPS, for example..."
Danny: "No, no. You forget something. I have this chip in my hand, the identity..."
Velo: "...chip. Yes, I know, you keep scratching it all the time. But have you ever had it examined by someone, like Quantos, for example? I am inclined to think you will find a very elaborate piece of scrap metal, there."
Danny: "But how can you say that? We all went to the future a year ago!"
Velo: "Are you sure? Where's the proof? We were in a place with very white walls and a technology not very different from what is now available to the EPS, or that was in the TriVext building. A complex deception, I admit, and very inexplicable, also, but has everything happened to us been always totally knowable? What was the meaning of the meteor over Mandelovia? Why was Sonja killed? And what about the underground people of Mandelovia, with that demon that resembled Naecken? Mysteries after mysteries, Danny. IS there a path? A common denominator?"
And when the dialogue becomes interesting, I am taken far by the winds...
...and when I am back, the subject has changed another time.
Danny: "So, Chance, where I should have M'xy teleport us? Have you... found... the co-ordinates?"
Chance: "There is still something that doesn't fit the scheme... the map... the half I know... doesn't bode with the satellite image. I see many details corresponding... one by one... but the whole is totally different. I can't say where we should teleport to."
Now the wind, stronger, pushes me toward the big dragon. To avoid the collision, I dive down, turning upside down and sliding just inches below the furry one with the belly of the transdimensional being.
When I appear on the other side, Chance is looking at me, a big smile on his face. I am looking up to him, and when our sights cross, I see he knows.
"It's a mirror image! It's a map of the underground! It has to be read from the ground upward! It fits perfectly! Mick, look at this point on the satellite image, and tell M'xy to go there!"
"Wait!" says Danny. "Tell M'xy to bring us all there!"
Mick's eyes lit up, and...
A big door opened in the sky. It resembled the ones they had at the entrance of haunted houses in amusement parks, only a hundred times bigger. And floating in the sky.
As the dragon and the flying individuals entered the gate, the philosophical discussion continued.
"You seem to have a logical explanation for everything, Velo," Danny Hearn said, flying by Drax's side.
"The explanations are there, Danny," Velo replied. "You just have to look for them."
"All right, all right," Danny said. He was visibly annoyed by Velo's attitude -- especially because he said Danny wasn't from the future -- and wanted to find a question Velo couldn't answer. "How do you explain our friend M'xy, then?"
They both looked at M'xy. Velo opened his mouth.
A big door opened in the sky. It resembled the ones they had at the entrance of haunted houses in amusement parks, only a hundred times bigger. And floating in the sky.
As the dragon and the flying individuals entered the gate, the philosophical discussion continued.
"You seem to have a logical explanation for everything, Velo," Danny Hearn said, flying by Drax's side.
"The explanations are there, Danny," Velo replied. "You just have to look for them."
"All right, all right," Danny said. He was visibly annoyed by Velo's attitude -- especially because he said Danny wasn't from the future -- and wanted to find a question Velo couldn't answer. "How do you explain...?"
"What?" Velo asked.
Danny scratched his hair. "Uh, I forgot what I was gonna say. Never mind."
From the jungle below, Relámpago saw the huge door open in the sky, and before he could do anything about it, the strangers were gone.
The fastest man in South America swore he would one day get to know those weird and still awesome people he had seen.