Story IIIf

“Wait—THE Elmar Kall? ‘Blue Phoenix,’ ‘Kall the Protector,’ ‘He Who Walks Amongst Mortals,’ ‘The Defiant One’- THAT Elmar Kall? You cannot be serious…”

Futhark smiled, “Ah, you’ve been reading through the archives again. The creature was asking for ‘One [Who] Must Be Extinguished' which is apparently what its civilization knew Kall as. It wasn’t telling us that someone needed to be extinguished, or destroyed, as we were hearing it. Human languages are sometimes easily misinterpreted with their multiple meanings and such- especially English.” Mychala was always a little disturbed when Futhark spoke about ‘humans’ or ‘this planet’ as if he wasn’t from Earth or a human. She was never quite sure how to respond to it.

“Nevertheless, we must away to seek the whereabouts of Elmar Kall. If you would be so kind as to contact Mr. Gones and tell him this site needs to be cleaned and secured- my cellular phone appears not to have survived the creature’s ‘mind meld’ as you called it. Perhaps the combination of heat and, for lack of a better term, goo…” Futhark went on about the possible processes that caused his phone to die. Mychala whipped out her phone and nodded every few seconds to keep him happy as she speed-dialed Gones.

Ten minutes or so later they were back in the SUV. Futhark had taken a few minutes to clean up in a nearby public restroom and change his clothes to a nearly identical outfit that was kept in the back for situations like this. Mychala started driving as soon as Futhark clicked his seatbelt.

“It’s refreshing. I imagine this is what a good mud bath at a beauty spa might be like. My skin feels revitalized and I feel as if some of the dry patches on-“

“Thank you for sharing, Doc, but where exactly am I going? Should I head back to the office or somewhere else?”

“Ah, yes. I think the office might be the best place to start. While Kall is a friend of the Associates he is still somewhat of a mystery to us. The relationship has lasted over one hundred years-“

Having recently read about Elmar Kall in the archives, Mychala interjected, “One hundred sixteen, I believe.”

“Precise, I thank you.” There was no hint of irony in his voice, “As I was saying, in that time we have found references to his exploits from long before he first met Mr. Prolix, as I’m sure you know from your recent reading.”

“Yeah, I came across Polly’s first meeting with him and figured I should look into his background to see what all the fuss was about.” Mychala’s chosen research subject was Poly Ambulate, one of the Prolix Associates’ most celebrated members who disappeared in the 1930s in the jungles of South America. Polly was almost an obsession for Mychala since she had first heard about the lady’s exploits. She often liked to think of herself as a modern-day Polly. That’s why she was taking it upon herself to pull together all the old files and scan them into the Associates’ new computer network. She’d found Polly’s personal journals in an old box down in the archives and treated each one carefully and relished each new adventure sure to be in their pages.

Futhark nodded. “The Ambulate Project you’re conducting. Those are interesting documents to be sure. Back to Kall, though, possible references go back to well before the Common Era in myth and legend. If I recall correctly, he has blatantly said on more than one occasion that he is not of this world. Other times he has made reference to Earth as his literal birthplace. I doubt we shall ever know his full origins.” He removed his glasses and started cleaning them with a handkerchief. “His extraordinary biology is based on a kind of bio-plasma chemical reaction. Kall manipulates the energy created to perform various extraordinary feats-“

“The dude can fly! And perform various other feats of extraordinariness. THAT I cannot believe.” 

Futhark chuckled, “It’s true. I have had the pleasure of witnessing him up close, once. The Gregorsky Affair. Kall came into the situation late to, literally, diffuse things. That was nearly 20 years ago now. It was a spectacular sight, he came in as a blur of blue and quickly removed the device from Gregorsky’s chest cavity- he didn’t hurt the man at all, Benson took care of that later. Kall took the device and simply melted it in his bare hands. A few quick words to those of us he had met before and he was off to wherever he goes. The theory that he is a biological battery of some kind was confirmed to my liking that day. I noticed a change in his skin color from the time he arrived and the time he left us. It was as if the exertions made him pale, as if the bio-plasma was drained away each time he used it to perform some feat. A fascinating individual...”

Story IIIe

{Author's Note: This is the first of the new continuation of this M&M tale of high-adventure/horror/etc. since the break off a year or so ago. The direction has changed slightly but we're still headed to the same neighborhood as my original intent.}

Major Thompson looked at the subject with disdain. It had developed a respiratory problem overnight. Marissa had been up with it all night, checking on the pup's progress every twenty minutes or so while going through all the notes and test results. She couldn't find any obvious reasons for this setback but it shouldn't be seen as a major problem moving forward. This subject was still viable and there was no reason to think any of the others would have similar problems.

The Major did not agree. Since taking over the project from General Hawke, the Major had been cautiously optimistic but deliberately circumspect in his comments to the project's civilian staff members. Some of the staff had realized he was playing it safe but others chose to take his comments as encouragement or enthusiasm. Marissa was in the latter group.

"Doctor Jones, your contributions to the project are much appreciated, but this subject needs to be destroyed. I doubt the flaws can be sufficiently overcome to make the effort worthwhile. I will allow the others to be carried to term, but any flaws in them will lead to the same outcome. Good night." With that he was stiffly out the door and on the way out of the complex.

Marissa had argued her best to give the subject more time. Her whole view of the Major changed in that encounter. He became an obstacle to her efforts. This project had become her life's work and she would not let it go without a fight.

"Doctor Jones, do you want me to handle it? The nurse knew how hard it was for Marissa to handle this sort of thing.

"No, Marcie, I'll do it. You can go home now. We'll come at it fresh tomorrow."

Marissa had no intention of destroying the subject. She went to her office and grabbed a duffle bag the pup would fit in comfortably. As she was approaching the security checkpoint at the exit the ceiling exploded...

---

"Doc? I'm gonna have to ask you the standard questions when we have a situation like this. Are you ready to answer them fully?" Mychala had her pistols trained on Futhark, she wasn't quite sure what she was going to do if he answered incorrectly.

Futhark reached up and pulled the tentacle clump out of his ear, examining it with interest. "That would be very helpful if we had standard questions for this sort of situation. Remind me to look into that later, will you?" He smiled with that twinkle in his eyes that Mychala had come to count on when things were getting out of hand. It let her know that everything would turn out relatively well in the end.

"Now we need to find a very old friend of the Prolix Associates. You see the creature travelled a very long way to alert our old friend of a danger coming this way."

Mychala holstered her pistols. "How do you know that? Some sort of 'mind-meld' process to get the point across more accurately than its vocal attempts?"

"More or less, yes. The creature came from a distant civilization that is actually rather cosmically close. Our old friend helped them with another problem long ago. The problem is it's ever so difficult to find Elmar Kall when one really needs him. He tends to show up on his own schedule."

Scary M&M Story IIId

Marissa made the incision. She looked up at the monitor then back at the incision. "Laser." The nurse handed it to her. There was no turning back how...

She carefully made her way through the procedure, double-checking herself at each step. Finally she was ready to cut open the womb. It was over quicker than she had expected. She carefully removed the baby and handed it off because she still had to close.

When she finished closing she gave herself a moment of rest before checking on the baby. It lay sleeping in a small clear case bristling with tubes. She thought it was terribly cute- it looked very much like a normal setter pup. Of course the main difference was its dull silver metallic skin. Marissa was certain the Major would be pleased with this latest subject. The program was proceeding ahead of schedule...
----
Doctor Futhark took another  step towards the creature. "We seek a response. Why have you come here? What do you mean by 'one must be extinguished'? Who are you going to extinguish?"

Mychala thought to herself that the creature was unlikely to answer truthfully, if it even understood the question. The Doc had been at it for ten minutes already. They had stumbled across the thing by chance on the way to a nearby anomaly reading. The Doc always preferred talking to things like this before taking action against them. In her nearly two years with Prolix Associates and the Doc, Mychala had seen all kinds of strange things- ghosts, aliens, crazy ex-spies- but she couldn't remember anything as disgusting as this talking mound of snot. "Doc, I know it's not my place, but you shouldn't get any closer."

Doctor Futhark looked over his shoulder with a reassuring grin. "Everything's fine. Just relax." Before he could turn back to face the creature it surged forward and enveloped him.

Mychala instinctively drew her pistols but held her fire. The Doc was in there and she couldn't be sure where her shots would end up. "What the crap!? Let him go or..."

"One must be extinguished." The mound quivered as it somehow 'spoke' again.

"So it's got to be the Doc? I don't think so." She suddenly felt waves of heat emanating from the mound. The only way she could think of to get the Doc out was to somehow cut the mound open and pull him out by hand. This was going to be disgusting.

There was a rush of hot air from the mound and it immediately started to dissolve into a thick dark muck. As it got smaller Mychala could make out what looked like the Doc hunched over. As the last of the mound dissolved, the Doc stood up and shook off as much of the muck as he could. "Well that was... interesting." He turned his head slightly as he said this and Mychala saw something sticking out of his ear. It looked like several tiny pale tentacles...