Part 5: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Crossdressers

"Strange," Detective McMarkus said half to himself.

"What is?" Craig and Jill replied nearly simultaneously.

"How many times have you looked at a candle or the sun even, and when you look away there's
that little residual spot burned into your vision? Do you know what I mean?"

Jill Nodded.

Craig said hesitantly, "Yeah I guess so."

"Ok well when I look at this, then look at you," McMarkus had his hands out in front of his face framing his vision, "all I see is you, there’s no distortion at all and I don't get any urge to squint when looking directly at it."

"Ok, so...what does that mean?"

Jill was moving her head back and forth, mimicking the detective's motions.

"I'm not exactly certain, but I do think we should touch it."

Jill stopped, "Really?"

"Yes," the Detective held his hand out, palm facing the light, "there doesn't seem to be any heat emanating from it. I would expect from something this large to at least give off a bit of heat. There's also the matter of what brought me here."

Craig looked over to him, "What brought you here?"

"I received a call," McMarkus said, "On a phone that wasn't mine but had found its way onto my person. The voice on the phone belonged to a woman claiming to be a friend who told me simply to come here." he was slowly moving around the light, "The light also seems to react to how close we're getting to it, the fact that it dims as we approach it makes me believe that we are supposed to."

"So you think we should touch it because of a random ass phone call and the funny little light does tricks when we get close to it?" Jill asked skeptically, her arms now crossed in front of her chest.

"I got a note." Craig interjected suddenly.

"Pardon?"

"What?"

"I got a note," he said again, "I was standing at a party and someone knocked something out of my hand. When I bent down to get it, there was a note telling me to come here."

The two men looked at Jill. She knew their question before they asked it.

"No. I just left work and then all of the sudden here I am standing with you two clowns. No call. No note."

"Do you normally take this route?" The Detective asked, moving closer.

"Not always, just sometimes."

The Detective thought for a moment, his hands on his hips. "Perhaps whoever made the two of us come here was counting on you coming this way. There are clearly three points on that thing which would make me think it's meant for three people."

"Meant to do what though?" Craig asked.

"That's what we'll have to find out. This light, the way it acts, it's like a beacon drawing our attention to whatever that is beneath it."

Jill spoke, "It could be a beacon yeah, but what if that woman is just like...one of those things that draws people to their doom? A doom that's hidden inside that light. A harpy?"

"I think you mean a Syren." Craig said.

"Whatever, if the bitch is trying to draw me to my doom I'll have lots more things to call her."

The Detective shook his head, "No that just doesn't make sense to me. This seems pretty elaborate just to bring some harm to three strangers in the middle of the night. Unless either one of you is famous or a mob boss that is."

"Umm, no." Jill said. Craig simply gave him an odd look.

"Well then I'm inclined to believe that this isn't some harbinger and that the woman meant it when she called herself a friend." He started taking slow steps towards the object, his hand in front of him as if trying to feel a heat that was not there. "We have to see what it is..."

Craig began taking slow steps towards the opposite side from the Detective. The two men looked at each other and nodded as they reached the object. In near unison they reached down and grasped a point of the three tiered object. It was cool to the touch, solid. They attempted to shift it back and forth but there was no movement at all, it was firmly planted in the road.

"Come," Craig said to Jill, "like the man said, three points, three people. It's synergy."
She stood still a moment. Up until this point her night had gone like so many countless others, without event or notice. Now she was standing in the middle of a road, with two men quite badly dressed as women, around a strange glowing object buried in the road. She could turn away and leave the Priscilla Queen of the Desert rejects struggle with something that could turn out to be nothing at all. She could also help them and have it still turn out to be fruitless. The chances of it turning out to be anything at all were probably less than one of these buildings toppling over on top of her. But just that slight chance turned out to be enough to sway her.

She looked to the sky, "I hope this is right."

She moved forward and stood between the two men. She looked first to Craig then to the Detective before leaning over and grasping the center spire. With all of them now holding onto it, they noticed a faint vibration flow through the object.

"You feel that?" the Detective said.

"Yeah, I can feel that." Craig replied.

"I think I regret this already." Jill said.

"We lift on three." the Detective told them as he shifted his weight, preparing to drag it out of the ground with all his strength. "One...”

Jill and Craig planted their feet squarely under them as McMarkus had done.

"Two."

The three inhaled together, deeply and audibly. In almost any other circumstance three people standing around and inhaling like that would have seemed quite comical to them all. Not one of them broke their concentration.

"Three"

They all three lifted, putting as much strength as they could muster into their legs and shoulders to lift it out of its hole. The object however had already since released its grip on the ground. It came out of its resting place quickly and with so much ease that three strangers had no time to counter the sudden cessation of resistance. The object was around 5 feet in length; as soon as it was completely free of the ground it had another much more astonishing reaction for the three. The two sides broke away from the middle in a massive shower of sparks and electricity. They were all blinded by the explosion of light that filled the dark night. The slight vibration had turned into a massive surge of energy that they could all feel tearing through their bodies.
Craig fell backwards almost immediately. Unsure whether he was still alive or had actually been killed at that very moment, he lay completely still staring up at the night sky, watching the few remaining sparks as they floated down to the road.

Detective McMarkus had dove away from the explosion. He lay on the ground, with his face planted in his arms, trying to hide from any further flashes.

Jill had turned away from the explosion, dropping to her knees with her eyes clenched tight. She, as the others, could feel the energy still surging though her body and she feared what might happen should she try to move. In her hands she could feel the cool metal of the object she still grasped. She slowly opened her eyes, trying to see through the blur that clouded her vision. To her left she could make out what she believed to be the man dressed as a hairy school girl, he was on his back seemingly frozen in place. To her right was the fuzzy outline of the Chiquita Banana Man, he was at least moving a little bit, but not much. What she could clearly see through the haze was that they also were still firmly grasping their now individual pieces of the object.

Jill looked down at the piece she held, it felt oddly cold in her hands as she ran her one her hands up and down its smooth length. She was surprised at how light it felt as it seemed to be quite solid though it felt as if she lifted barely more than air when she held it up in front of her face. It was then, as she held it in front of her that she heard a noise coming from in front of her. As she looked past the object in her hands she saw that the large doors of the building in front of her were opened now. There was a dark figure pulling itself up from the ground. For a moment she was worried that there had been a bystander caught in the explosion. Those fears were muted when she saw the figure raise their cloak and toss it aside.

Jill stared in awe as she looked at the man standing in front of her. He was wearing armour all over his body. A dark red chest plate covered the chain mail that ran down his arms and into the golden bracers at his hands. She followed his left hand as it reached across his body and pulled out a gleaming white sword. About his waist was what looked like an armored skirt like they always wear in movies about ancient warriors.  She watched as he looked about the street. First to the man on her left, then to the man on her right, finally he stared at her. His eyes were black as death, his face grim and scarred.

The man shrugged, pausing a moment while he looked her over. It was as if he was confused about something. Finally he reached out his empty right hand towards her. He clenched it into a fist and bringing it to his chest. "Alea iacta est." he said, then raised the sword above his head and leaped towards her.