Elevated Hijinks (Excerpt 1)

Tony was watching through the window while Natasha was upstairs in her room laying down. Nadia’s phone rang as soon they walked in the door and she motioned to the others to go into the den, with Tony leading the way. She pushed the speaker button when she answered the phone.

“Hello, Katie. What did you find out?”

“Natasha wasn’t stung by a bee unless the bee ingested Apenadrylophene for lunch. We need to get X-rays of her arm and see if we can determine where the injection site is. Unless she’s bathed or showered there may some trace evidence at the site. Can you bring her in now?”

“Yes, we can. Battle, Tyson, and Tiffany are with us. How long do we have before the drug breaks down and can’t be detected?”

“We’ve got about a four-hour window from the time she was injected to get any testable residue. Don’t delay.”

“We won’t, but we’ve got to talk to Tony and Natasha to get a fix on the time it took for the events to unfold so we can start searching for our boys.”

“I understand and I know you’ll find them, but we really need to get her in here, soon.”

“Within the hour. Thanks,” and she ended the call.

“We have to talk fast so we can get Natasha into the lab for X-rays. As you heard, Katie found Apenadrylophene in her blood sample, which means, she was injected with it and what she thought was a bee sting was actually a needle prick,” Nadia said, pacing the floor.

Battle watched her for a moment. “Swatere, sit down and breathe. We’ve got this.”

“What? What have you got?” Nadia shrilled, still pacing.

“You take Natasha into the lab, we’ll talk to Tony and while you’re with Natasha, you can question her about what she saw and if she remembers anyone close enough to her that might have been a threat,” Tiffany said.

Tony stood in the middle of the room running his fingers through his hair absentmindedly. He was frazzled and it showed. “Yeah, go ahead and take her in. I’ll do my best to remember what happened before I got back to her.”

Looking frantically, at everyone in the room, Nadia sighed, turned and left to get Natasha.

“Okay Tony, we need you to think. Do you remember anyone standing next to you and Natasha before you left to get the car?” Battle asked.

Tyson had pulled out a notepad while Tiffany turned on her tablet, ready to type.

He shrugged. “No, I don’t think so. I was too busy watching the boys play.”

“Not good enough!” Battle growled through clenched teeth, getting in Tony’s face. “When I said think, I mean think. Close your eyes for a minute, and allow yourself to go back to that disco fence. You had to see someone when you turned to leave. Think man!”

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[From Chapter Five–first four chapters are free samples on Amazon]

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Battlerama Super Tweens On The Other Side (excerpt)

“We’re going to have to take them to Botcha-ku,” said Natony. “He’ll know what to do.”

“Yeah, but will he do it to them or to us,” Bodak said. “He’s going to be really po’d about this.”

“Well, he can be ticked off all he wants to be. We have done our part. Now it is up to him to finish it,” Ariak chimed in. Her green eyes bore down on Kiara as if she thought that would make Kiara speak, but it didn’t.

“Okay,” Ramar said, “let’s just move them out.”

“I know you don’t trust us,” she said to the huddled group, “but we really are trying to get you back to your side of reality. We won’t try to touch you again, but you must follow us and do it quickly.”

Anthony was the first to move and he signalled the others to walk behind him in single file. They moved out as one column, looking neither to the left or to the right, their hands down by their side. When they reached the outer boundaries of So-Shun Forest, the trees parted for them to enter and then closed ranks behind them. The six said nothing, they simply kept moving forward.

Suddenly, Ramar stopped. “Wait here,” she said. “This is as far as we go.”

She clapped her hands in a quick, rhythmic way and a building rose from the ground, covered with tree leaves of all sorts of colors. Before the door opened, she stepped back and signalled the others to do the same. When the door opened, Botcha-ku walked out and stared at them.

“Have you accomplished your mission?” he asked Ramar.

“We have obtained powers, but one got away and we were unable to touch their pendants.”

Botcha-ku took a pendant from around his neck, but before he could do anything with it, the flying carpet of leaves appeared overhead. Everyone looked up, but they could not see anyone on it. When Irot, Tori’s alter flew about the flying carpet, she was exposed to the metallic top and fell to the ground. Just about the time, Tori hit the ground, the drink the six had earlier wore off and all of their powers were restored to normal, but the alters had to be defeated.

When Botcha-ku realized the Six had their powers, he ordered the others into a fighting stance and they were about to ignite a fight, but the carpet of leaves turned over and they were all exposed to the metallic surface, and they felt the power drained from them. Now, all they could do was to fight—yam-yam-style.

Maria signalled the Six not to use any of their powers in front of Botcha-ku as long as he was holding onto that pendant. The Six fought the seven like they had never fought before. There were twirling kicks, and high-flying kicks, and jabs and punches, and twists and twirls like they had never seen before.

“Blossom!” Anthony called. The six stood back-to-back, turning clock-wise or counter-clockwise without ever missing a beat. Since the seven alters could not break the line of the six, they were soon defeated; especially when Maria started working on their minds. When Botcha-ku saw what was happening, he attempted to run back into the building, but Shane was faster and blocked his way.

“Either we all go back or none go back,” he threatened, Botcha-ku.

The seven attempted to rise up again, but this time, Derek pulled up a tree and leveled them before they could do anything.  “Now, stay there,” he admonished, as he piled another tree on top of them.

When Botcha-ku attempted to wave his hand, Sutfol and some of the trodles appeared. Sutfol held Botcha-ku’s hands together and the trodles pulled branches from the trees which he used to tied his hands.

“Now,” Sutfol said. “You will kindly allow our friends to go back to their reality or you, too will stay.”

“I will not,” Botcha-ku stammered. “They will not return.”

Battlerama Super Tweens On The Other Side available on http://www.smashwords.com or http://www.amazon.com  Enjoy!

Reading–Adventures in the Making

Reading is a great joy to me and has been since I was kid, reading my first “Golden Book” series.  What an adventure!

What’s really sad to see is the adventure of reading being lost to video games and all things electronic–that do nothing to enhance reading experiences.  That is not to say that everything electronic is bad–there is a great deal of good in electronics when used for the purpose of exploration.

I have explored the historical backgrounds of people, places, and events in the Bible with the use of technology.  I have written a number of stories, using technology to share them.  I love my Kindle–old eyes sometimes need a larger font to read with ease.  And I also love the Bible IS app on my phone.

So why is the adventure of reading becoming lost–especially to our children? Children do what they see their parents or other adults in their lives do–if they see influential adults in their lives reading, they will read.  Now is the time to think about how to get children to read, read, and read.  The more they read, the better they become at it and will reap the rewards in school until they finish college.  Reading–is more than fundamental or foundational; it is an adventure–opening pathways of knowledge or travel–and one never has to leave the comforts of home (or library) to make the discovery.  Let’s jump into a book and begin the adventures anew!

Make the experience of reading worthwhile–become a character–and shake things up a bit while you’re reading!