Jason Low
presents
When Everything Collides

FRIDAY 05 MARCH 1999
7:15AM MST

 Jason looked up from his breakfast as the front door opened and Brianna
entered. Like every other day, she was up and out on her morning run long
before he even woke up, so when she returned from her run was the first time he
got to see her each day.
 At first he smiled, but that faded to a look of surprise, as did his voice, as
Brianna turned to face him with a bright, cheery smile.
 "Morn--holy shit!" Jason blurted out.
 Brianna walked over and ran a hand through Jason's hair as she sat down.
"Hello to you too," she said. "I was WONDERING if you'd notice."
 "Notice??" Jason retorted. "How could I NOT notice? I mean, hell, you covered
it right up," he said, nodding to her face.
 She said nothing, simply leaning closer and presenting her face to Jay for his
inspection.
 He leaned in and looked at it for a moment, then said with surprise, "You..
DIDN'T cover it up?"
 "It vanished," Bri' said with a shrug as she sat back upright. "Overnight, I
presume."
 "How'd it do that?"
 "Idunno. Maybe you should be asking the OTHER me."
 "You figure?"
 "Well, maybe we're still linked."
 "I wonder what could possibly happen to her--to YOU--that your stripe would
vanish."
 "Like I said.. I haven't a clue."
 "Well.. let me say you look just fine without it."
 Brianna grinned at Jason. "Just 'Just fine', huh?"
 "Well, do you WANT me to get more descriptive?"
 "Now that's a silly question," Bri' said with another grin, standing up and
taking Jason's hand, pulling him out of his own chair.
 They were halfway out of the kitchen when the phone rang. Jason laughed as
Brianna stopped abruptly and slackened her grip with a defeated sigh, then went
and picked up the phone.
 "Well, did you try REBOOTING?" Brianna said a few moments into the
conversation, and Jason lost interest. He went to the front window and looked
out at the snow that was falling on the front yard. It was light snow, but it
was snow nonetheless. In March. They'd fought a 350 acre grass fire on February
28, and here it was on March 5, snowing.
 He shook his head. <What an insane world we live in. I sometimes wonder.>
 Brianna was off the phone and back at his side by then, and he smiled at her
touch.
 "Who was that?" he asked.
 "Mr. Wright again," she said with a tone of disgust. "No matter how many times
I tell him, he doesn't listen. That time, he'd somehow managed to lock up his
machine by pushing Eject while a CD was running."
 "Well, you gotta admit.. the current crop of software sure keeps us in
business," Jason smiled.
 Bri' chuckled. "Better believe it. How's my burned-up partner, by the way?"
 "Oh, that's all taken care of," he said. "Fastest I've ever healed, too." He
held up his left wrist for proof: all that was left of the minor burns he'd
received on the fire the Sunday before were singed hairs on the back of his
arm.
 "You don't say," Brianna smiled enigmatically. "That's good to hear."
 Jason looked at Brianna and mentally shrugged, carrying on. "Anyway, I don't
have anything monumental planned for today, in case you're wondering. All I
need to do is bring the fire call stats up to date and update the websites,
then the day is ours."
 "The magic words," Brianna grinned as she left the room. "I'm gonna go have my
shower."
 "I could come with you if you want.." Jason smiled.
 Brianna looked at Jason quizzically, her grin widening, then said, "No, that's
all right. I can plot how to sneak up on an unsuspecting you a lot better if
you're not right there with me."
 She laughed as she entered the bathroom.

 Jason plunked himself down in front of the computer and booted it up. In a few
moments, the machine was up and running with the sound clip of the moment
playing; namely, Megavolt from Darkwing Duck saying "I should warn you, this is
gonna smart like the dickens." It fit his experiences with Windows 98 well, he
thought. In any case, after the sound file was finished playing, the rest of
the bootup procedure went on, opening a browser window, a mail window, AIM,
ICQ, mIRC, and a half-dozen other things. To that he added an Excel window and
loaded up the fire department statistics so that he could add the dozen or so
calls to it that had happened since his last update.
 Finally, once everything was set up, he threw a CD in the machine and listened
to some music. This last step was partly to drown out Brianna's voice, because
she, way in the back of the house, was singing in the shower, and being half
Britanny, had Brit's poor singing voice as well.
 He smiled as he started to add call information to the spreadsheet. They were
certainly growing closer, especially after their return to their own Earth from
the alternate-reality one that Brianna had come from. Gifts were exchanged back
and forth frequently, oftentimes for nothing more than to celebrate the fact
that it was Friday. The truck, for example; it hadn't taken Jason very long to
realize that there'd been no contest, and that Brianna had simply had four keys
cut the same way, and had purchased the truck herself. He didn't confront her
with the fact that he knew what'd really happened, though, figuring it'd serve
no purpose to blurt it out.
 They'd moved into their own place, as they promised each other, and were
living together like a happy couple of significant others, with no one else to
bother them or pop into the room unexpectedly.
 Unexpected happenings were still an issue, though; every now and then, Jason
would want for something, and before he could get up to get it himself, or even
ask Brianna to snag it on her way through the kitchen, for example, she was
there beside him with it. Or it was simply there on the table when he turned to
look. The first few times, he figured he must've been losing his mind,
forgetting that he'd already gone and gotten the item, and then being surprised
to see it there. When the behavior continued, though, he started to wonder.
 He shook his head to clear the tangential thoughts from it, and continued
typing in call data. When he got to the page from 28 February, specifically the
fourth and final call of that day, he looked down at his left arm and inspected
it.
 He'd been burned on that call, in a minor way; nothing more than the
equivalent of a sunburn and some singed hair here and there. He'd expected to
be aching for a while, but in the five days that had elapsed since then, the
burn had gone down very nicely, leaving him with what amounted to an uneven tan
of sorts. It had healed in about half the time he figured it'd take, yet he
hadn't done anything to alleviate the injury.
 Again he forced himself to carry on with his work, and got all the calls
entered, up to and including the most recent one, on the third of March. He
saved the files and printed out new pages of statistics, to be given to the
Chief, faxed to Dispatch, and tacked up on the bulletin board at the station.
 Just then, of course, the tones went off, and the dispatcher wanted them to go
to a possible garage fire in Bragg Creek. Jason leapt up, muttering about how
they always got a call right after he finished updating his records, and threw
his jacket and shoes on. Brianna came running out of their bedroom fully
clothed, her hair still wet.
 "Where is it?" she asked.
 "Down on Elton Street in Bragg," Jason said, lunging for the door to the
garage. "Garage fire."
 "Hang on, I'm coming!" Brianna dashed after him and got into the passenger
side of the truck.
 "Yikes," Jason said as he drove out onto the street and headed for the
station. "Still snowing."
 "Yeah, watch the roads, they're slick," Brianna cautioned him, just before
radioing that she and Jason were on their way to the hall.
 They were the first ones there, so they pulled the Engine out of the station
and waited for more crewmembers. In a moment, two more members pulled up and
climbed aboard, pulling their fire gear on and completing the crew. The truck
roared off towards Bragg Creek, Brianna at the wheel, with Jason in the
officer's seat and the two other members in the jumpseats behind.

 Everything went smoothly on the trip down; there was very little traffic, and
what traffic there was got the hell out of the way as soon as they saw the
25-ton fire truck with lights and sirens going and engine howling headed in
their direction.
 That is, until they arrived at the four-way stop in Bragg Creek. The
intersection was not on anyone's favorite list, because it had many blind
corners and actually intersected six roads, not just four. In any case, it was
a dangerous place to be when trying to drive normally, let alone responding to
an emergency.
 A white compact pickup had pulled out of one of the side streets directly into
Brianna's path.
 "Oh shit! Brace!" Jason yelled back to the crews in the jumpseat as the truck
slowed sharply from Brianna's pressure on the brake pedal. It wasn't going to
be enough, though; the pickup driver was stopping in the middle of the
intersection, of course, as most people do when they see an emergency vehicle,
and on the snow, he was skidding; even if he accelerated again, there was no
way he was going to get out of the way in time.
 At least, that's how it should have happened. In the blink of an eye, though,
the pickup truck leapt forward one length--far enough to the left that the
Engine would just barely miss it--and the fire truck passed through the
intersection unimpeded. As the danger passed, Brianna looked over her shoulder
at the pickup, then looked ahead again and started to accelerate.
 Jason was still trying to process what'd happened, and turned to look at
Brianna as she concentrated on her driving. As soon as his eyes landed on her,
her face started to redden and her expression turned nigh-unreadable.
 "What happened back there?" Jason asked.
 "Tell you later," Brianna said quietly but firmly.
 "Bri', there's no WAY we should've been able to do what we did. That truck
just jumped out of the way like it was--"
 "I will tell you," Brianna said, overenunciating, "Later."
 Jason blinked, shaking his head, and probably would've said more, except that
Brianna turned the truck onto Elton Street at that moment. Jay looked up and
saw the address in question, with its semi-detached garage; light smoke was in
the air, but none was issuing from the garage at the time.
 "Fire Dispatch, 50 Engine's arrived at 117 Elton Street, light smoke showing,
50 Engine will be command," Jason reported into the radio. The reply came as
Brianna stopped and put the truck into Pump.
 "Don't pull off a line yet," Jason told the other two firefighters. "Put on
your air packs and stand by."
 Jason went and investigated, and the homeowner came out and told him
everything was all right. His car had had a fire in the motor, but the
homeowner had put it out with a fire extinguisher.
 Jason had the engine's crew go over the car and the garage, looking for
extension and/or any other fire that had been missed by the extinguisher, and
he went back to the truck.
 Brianna was standing by the pump panel, shutting it back down since they
weren't going to need any water, so Jay climbed up into the cab and radioed
Dispatch with an update, telling them the truck would only be on scene for a
few minutes longer.
 They acknowledged him just as Brianna climbed up into the cab and finished
shutting down the pump. He looked over to her.
 "You did something, didn't you? To that truck," Jason said.
 Brianna sighed and nodded. "I wanted you to find out, but some other way, when
we were in a private place. But it was a reflex reaction."
 "So you kept Grave Digger's magic?"
 "Yup."
 "Wow." Jason sat there for a moment. "So, displacement, telekinesis.. what
else can you do?"
 "Lots of stuff," Bri' answered after a moment. She shrugged. "You name it, I
got it. Handtorch." Fwump. A flame the size of a cigarette lighter's erupted
from her fingertip, and was snuffed out just as suddenly. "Mask presence."
 "What the--" Jason said, as Brianna vanished.
 "I'm still here," came her disembodied voice. "You just can't see me."
 "Prove it."
 She faded back into view, starting first with her wide grin, followed by the
rest of her.
 "Oh, ha ha, very funny," Jason smiled. "You haven't told anyone else, have
you?"
 "No, of course not; why?"
 "Well.. keep in mind that this place isn't quite as open to weird things like
lycanthropes and magic users as your original home universe is. People may not
be able to deal with it."
 Jason oopsed and shushed Brianna's response as Russell and Colin, the other
two firefighters, returned to the truck. Jason accepted the clipboard from
Colin through the open passenger window.
 "Everything here?" Jason said to Colin as the latter climbed aboard into the
jumpseat. Jason flipped the report over and looked at it.
 "Yeah, and then some," Colin said. "Even got the brand and size of the
dry-chem he used."
 "EXCellent work," Jason enthused. "Let's go home, kids, it's Miller Time."

 They returned to the station and put the truck away, then went their separate
ways. Brianna and Jason, of course, got back into their truck and headed home.
 "Hey, check this out," Brianna said to Jason suddenly, and looked at him with
a smile.
 "Hm?" he said, looking back at her, then suddenly something in his field of
vision changed. All around Brianna was a sort of a brownish glow.
 "What the hell?"
 She smiled and returned to watching the road as she drove home. "It's my aura.
I gave you the ability to see people's auras."
 "I.." he began, then looked outside at a person walking by on the street,
walking her dog and pushing a stroller. All three entities had auras around
them.
 "Aigh, it's distracting, like that stupid Fox puck," he complained, closing
his eyes and rubbing them.
 Bri' smiled. "So just turn it off. Will it to go away."
 He did as instructed, and opened his eyes to see Brianna there beside him,
sans aura.
 "You can bring it back again the same way, just willing it into use. Same with
your ESP."
 "My what?.."
 Brianna grinned again. "I gave you a little more than just aura sight.."

 They returned home and Brianna demonstrated her skills, levitating and
teleporting and doing all sorts of other things. She also coached Jay on how to
use his new abilities, adding that she wouldn't remove them for now, even if he
asked; he could just turn them off if he didn't want them, but she wanted him
to have them for a while to try them out on his own.
 He accepted that decision from her, partly because she was impossible to
reason with once she made up her mind, and partly because he wasn't sure if he
wanted to get rid of the abilities or not, himself.

 Two weeks passed, and during that time, now that Jason knew about it, Brianna
used her magic more openly around the house. She said she was just having fun,
but to Jason, it was almost as if she was having too much fun, approaching the
"drunk with power" stage.
 Nevertheless, they went on with their lives and their jobs, as normal; or at
least, as normal as could be expected after a revelation such as the one that
occured on the fifth.
 It all came to a head on the 19th of the month of March, though, when the
department was paged out in the evening to a construction site on the
northwestern edge of Bragg Creek. A new community of homes was being built
there, and a worker had somehow lost his footing and fallen from a crane, but
got caught up in its framework and was hanging upside-down from two broken
legs, folded at the knees around a metal support brace 130 feet off the ground.
 The fire department responded with the Emergency Rescue Unit and the Engine,
but neither truck had anything nearly tall enough to reach the injured man. The
plan was to bring the Bronto Skylift platform truck in from the neighboring
city's fire department, use its 174-foot-tall platform to reach the man, and
bring him to safety.
 That was the plan. This was the reality:
 "Bad news, Cap," a firefighter said after getting off the phone with Dispatch.
"The Bronto's wheelbase is way too long for that sharp corner at the end of the
bridge in town. They'll never make it up here. They're gonna send us an Aerial
instead."
 "None of the aerials reach higher than a hundred feet," Jason protested to the
captain. "That's gonna be just as useless."
 The captain looked up at the man hanging from the crane. "It's getting dark..
we probably won't get a helicopter to sling him off now, even if we asked.."
 "Well, we gotta do SOMETHING," the firefighter with the phone said, gesturing
out on the road. "All the media are already here and watching.."
 "OH SHIT!" someone blurted out, and Jason looked up to see the man's legs flex
and release him from the precarious perch.
 The construction worker started to fall, and before anyone else could react,
Brianna stepped forward quickly and lifted up her hands.
 "What? Brianna--" Jason said, but cut himself off as the man's plummet was
halted and replaced by a gentle descent, right-side up, as if he was being
lowered on an invisible line. Ten feet off the ground, however, his descent
altered again, guiding him sideways towards a plastic spineboard lying on the
ground.
 Everyone watched as Brianna's hands continued to face the man all the way down
until he laid on the spineboard. Finally, she relaxed, and looked around at all
the faces staring at her.
 "Oh, Brianna," Jay sighed in a whisper, "you should NOT have done that.."
 "What did you want me to do, let him fall to his death?" she countered,
walking back to the truck.
 "Hey... hey," Jason said, following her. Luckily for them, most of the
rescuers on scene had turned their attention towards helping the injured man,
so their conversation was kept relatively private for the most part. "You saved
a life, that's great," Jason acknowledged. "But you just opened yourself up to
tons and tons of questions you may not be ready to answer."
 Brianna sat and frowned from the passenger seat of the Emerg. "I can handle
it."
 "I sure hope s--" Jay began, but cut himself off as a strange sensation began
nagging at his mind. Had he had more experience with it, he'd've known it was
his ESP bringing something to his attention.
 Just as he decided to turn around, a bright white light illuminated him, and
he turned to face a news camera and reporter. "Excuse me, what just happened
here?"
 "Don't have anything to say at this time," Jason said. "You'll have to go
through our PIO."
 "Your press officer looks about as stunned as the rest of us," the reporter
countered. "Come on, we've got it on tape. We saw this young lady hold out her
hands and arrest the worker's fall, guiding him to the ground. How did she do
it?"
 Jason stood so that he blocked the view of Brianna from the news team. "I
said, she doesn't wanna talk about it."
 "If it's all the same to you, we'd prefer to hear that from her."
 Jason was about to respond when he noticed the rest of the media teams were
coming his way. In seconds, he was surrounded by five cameras and as many
reporters, all of them demanding an explanation, or at least a good clip for
the eleven o'clock news.
 "Get in," Brianna called to Jay. "Let's get outta here."
 He looked and saw she was in the driver's seat now, and he agreed with her
appraisal of the situation. He forced the door of the truck open, being pushed
up against it by the crowd of bodies, and the two of them drove off back
towards the station in the Emergency, leaving the media and the other rescuers
behind.

 Saturday started out the same way that Friday had ended, with total chaos.
Their house was surrounded by media vehicles. The newspaper had been wedged
through the mail slot, with a still shot of Jason trying to shield Brianna from
the cameras splashed across the front page. The telephone had recorded 56
messages overnight.
 "I'm sorry," Brianna said tinily, sitting on their bed and looking at the
floor. "You warned me, and I didn't listen."
 "Hey, easy," Jason said, kneeling beside her and taking her hands in his.
"It'll all blow over eventually, I'm sure."
 "You HOPE."
 "...well, yes. I hope," he acknowledged with a reluctant nod.
 "And what if it doesn't?"
 Jason bit his lip and then answered slowly. "I think we may have to leave
here," he said finally. "Go somewhere we can be away from all this."
 "I'm sorry," Bri' repeated. "I couldn't just let him fall."
 "I know," Jason comforted her, drawing her into an embrace. "It was a hard
decision to make, and you did the right thing. You saved his life, even if it
means we have to go away for a while."
 "Maybe we can just tell them the truth," she suggested. "Maybe they'll go
away."
 "Mmmm.. it's doubtful, but if you want to do it, it's your choice, and I'll
stand behind you 100%."
 "Thank you," she said, pulling away from him and heading towards the front
door.
 He got up and followed, but before they could get to the door, they saw
something unsettling out the windows surrounding the back deck and the other
sides of the house.
 "Who are they?" Brianna wondered aloud, regarding the crowds surrounding the
house.
 "It would appear," Jason said, taking hold of Brianna and heading back for the
bedroom, "that it's not just the media that wants to have a word with you
anymore."

 They finally decided to try to phone out in the late evening, using the modem
line; even then, they couldn't get a dial tone for 25 minutes, there were so
many people trying to call into the house.
 Jason's father answered the phone on the other end.
 "Dad, we need help," Jason said. "We're down in the basement now, they won't
leave us alone here. There's been media and civilians all around the house all
day."
 "We know," George told his son. "It's been on the local newsbreaks all day.
RTV is even showing live around-the-clock footage of the scene."
 "What can we do?"
 "Whatever you do, do not go upstairs. Everyone's pretty much guessed that
Brianna has some kind of magic ability."
 "Uh-huh? And?"
 "Half those people up there want her to heal them or perform miracles for
them, and the other half want to tie you BOTH up and burn you at the stake.
Literally."
 "Holy crap.."
 "Yeah," was Jason's father's only response.
 "Listen, isn't there some way we can make them leave us alone?"
 "I don't think so. They were burning effigies on your lawn at noon."
 "Holy shit."
 Nobody said anything for a moment.
 "Dad, we might consider trying to flee," Jason blurted out.
 "I wouldn't recommend it.. they've got you blocked in."
 "Look, we're not gonna stay hiding in the basement forever--we've only got
enough food to last until Tuesday--and I'm sure as hell not going to give
Brianna over to these yahoos so they can have their way with her."
 Brianna squeezed Jason's hand in response for that last remark.
 He squeezed back as his father answered, "I don't want to see you get hurt.
Either of you."
 "I appreciate the sentiment, Dad, but this has got to end. Either somebody's
gotta remove the people from around us, or we gotta remove us from these
people. I will get Brianna and me to a safe place, and then I'll contact you."
 There was a brief discussion on the other end of the line, sounding like Jay's
parents arguing, and then his father was back. "Your mother wants you to make
sure there're no other options before you do that."
 "Well, unless these people get tired of this and get outta here, I don't see
any other way."
 "I hear you. Good luck."
 "Thanks."
 "And stay in touch."
 "I will."
 "And.. just so you know.. that goes for Brianna too."
 Jason eyed Brianna as she blushed. "She heard you, Dad, and she says thanks."
 The conversation ended and the two looked at one another.
 "Well, I guess that's it," Jason said quietly. "If they're not gone tomorrow,
I say we make a break for it."
 "Okay," Brianna said, nodding, not putting up an argument of any kind.
 "For now.." Jason looked around, and dragged a laundry basket away from the
dryer, dumping its contents on the cement floor, "We should probably get some
sleep."
 The two of them curled up together on the basement floor, clinging to one
another and hearing the thumps and murmurs of the people gathered around their
house and spilling out onto the street.

 The initial plans for Sunday had been to lounge around, catch up on yardwork,
tune in the Blue Jays exhibition game on the RealAudio server, and otherwise
just laze around.
 Instead, Jason awoke with a start seconds after Brianna, as both of them
realized where they were and why they were sleeping there on a bunch of old
clothes. They cautiously crept upstairs and looked around.
 Strobing red-and-blue lights shone into the house through the street-side
windows, and Jay and Bri' noticed that the civilians were gone, although the
windows above the kitchen sink were broken and rocks were on the kitchen floor.
 "Great," Jason said, nodding towards the two police Suburbans that were parked
on the street. "Looks like someone with some sense finally showed up."
 Even the media was gone, Jason realized, as he walked to the door. He looked
out through the door's window--
 --and his eyes widened as he caught sight of the Emergency Response Team
member hiding behind the front bushes. His eyes scanned the yard and found at
least three more.
 He walked casually back to the kitchen, where Brianna was surveying the damage
from the rocks. "Um, I got good news, and I got bad news," he said.
 "Oh?" Brianna said nervously.
 "Good news: The cops came and cleared away everybody. Bad news: ..because I
think they want you for themselves."
 "WHAT?"
 "They've got TAC team members concealed in the front yard. And.."
 "And what?" Brianna said as Jason trailed off.
 He nodded almost imperceptibly out the broken window. "Out in the big tree
between our place and Gord's place, there's another one watching, and he ain't
a cop."
 "What do you mean?"
 "He's wearing a military camo uniform."
 Brianna didn't know what to say.
 "I just hope they won't shoot at us," Jason said, grabbing Bri's hand and
heading for the garage.
 "What? Why?"
 "When we do this," Jason said. He wrenched the door between the living room
and the garage open and hurried inside, dragging Brianna along behind him. He
didn't hear any sounds from outside, but knew for sure that he'd been seen and
the men had to be closing in on the house.
 "We're going? Without our stuff?" Brianna wondered, climbing into the
passenger side.
 "There isn't time," Jason said, diving for the driver's seat and starting the
truck up, throwing it into reverse.
 "What are you doing?!" Brianna blurted out anxiously.
 "You heard my dad, they've got the driveway blocked," Jason rushed out before
standing on the accelerator.
 Brianna held on tight as the truck lurched backwards, the whine of the
turbodiesel being drowned out by the sound of the back wall of the garage
shattering. The truck burst out of the rear of the garage, mowing over the
lawnchairs stacked up there, and spun around as the rear axle neatly passed
over the backyard fire pit.
 "Hang on!" Jason shouted as he threw it into Drive and floored it again,
steering out of the spin. Police and military agents were coming out of the
woodwork now, chasing after the truck but seemingly not interested in firing at
it.
 Brianna screamed as Jason powered his way through the brush that separated
their neatly-mowed backyard from the highway. Suddenly, they bounced through
the ditch and were out on Highway 22, making a sharp left turn amidst honking
horns and screeching tires. Two men in military gear stood at the edge of the
ditch and watched the truck speed away.

 Not five minutes later, the cellphone rang.
 "Hello?" Jason said, snatching it up away from Brianna as he drove.
 Brianna watched Jason frown. "It didn't look that way to me," he said.
 "Well, isn't that a surprise," he went on.
 "No, you can't talk to her. .. Of COURSE she's okay, she's my SO. No, dammit!
.. Yeah, right, like I should trust you guys. No, I HAVEN'T been watching too
many movies, asshole. Go ahead and TELL ME I'm wrong, that you aren't gonna
prod her and poke her and run her through half a zillion tests DON'T GODDAMN
INTERRUPT ME! Look, she doesn't want to be involved with you people. We just
want to be left alone! Is that so unreasonable?!"
 There was a pause.
 "HOW'S THIS FOR IRRATIONAL??!"
 Brianna jumped as Jason reached down and ripped the cellphone hardware from
its mount and, roaring, threw it out the open driver's side window, right into
the path of a southbound transport truck. "AAARRRGGHHHHH!!!"
 "Jay! Jay, CALM DOWN!" Brianna said, putting her hands on his arm and pulling
him back into the driver's seat.
 "I was right, Bri', the government wants you.." he said, trying to calm down
and keep driving. "They want to take you for 'observation'," he said,
apparently mocking their tone. "Let's get real, they want to examine you and
pick you apart and find out what makes you tick, and I won't stand for it."
 "I'm sorry," she said again. "I never should've done that at the call."
 "Forget it," Jason told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "What's done is
done. Besides, if you hadn't saved that guy's life, you and I would've lived
the rest of our lives knowing you hadn't done everything in your power to save
him. And trust me, that'd be much worse."
 "So.. what are we gonna do?"
 "Well, once they get back to their cars, I'm sure they're bound to give chase,
especially after I ranted at them," Jay said. "So we have to get a damned good
head start on them." He mashed the pedal down, the truck surging ahead.
 "Do me a favor?"
 "What?" Brianna asked.
 "Can your magic alter the color of the truck?"
 "Oh," Brianna said knowingly. "Got a specific color in mind?"
 "Metallic royal blue is my first choice. It's so opposite to this red that
they won't think to look. And if you can, get rid of the topper."
 "That's easy." In a moment, their red truck with a bed-topper became a blue
one with an open bed.
 "Thanks," Jay said. "We need to get ourselves lost while we figure out what to
do here."

A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER 
HIGHWAY 401, PASSING EXIT 399

 The two had driven on east out of Calgary, taking as direct a possible route
(considering they were trying to be inconspicuous) towards the east as they
could. They roared through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, occasionally attracting
the attention of the local police, but shaking them with a bit of work (and a
little bit of help from Brianna's magic). They sped through northern Ontario
and made their way to the major artery that traversed southern Ontario and
points east, namely, Highway 401.
 "Isn't that the turn to get off to your hometown? Brougham?"
 "Sure is," Jason said, taking the middle lane and accelerating.
 "I thought we were going to go to Brian's place."
 "No, because they'd EXPECT that. I can't even CONTACT Brian, because they'll
be waiting for that to happen. I have to bypass him and go somewhere else,
someplace they'll never think of, because I'd never think of it either."
 "Where?" Brianna asked.

24 MARCH 1999 
QUEBEC CITY, QC

 Jason quietly and nonchalantly walked up to the house numbered 1055 and
knocked on the door.
 The door opened and a man looked out at Jason. "Yes?" he said.
 "Um.. is Richard Sirois here?" Jason asked.
 "I am Richard," he said, then blinked as he placed a name to the face before
him. "Jason?" he finally amended. "Jason Low?"
 "Richard, we need your help, and I don't have time to explain," Jason blurted
out. "We need to hide here for a night or so."
 "'We'?" Richard said.
 "Like I said, I don't have time to explain. Got room for me and one other?"
 "I .. suppose," he said with uncertainty.
 Jason turned and waved at the truck down the street, which opened and
disgorged Brianna, who came up the sidewalk and joined Jason at the front door.
 Richard just stared at her.

 "I DO watch the news, you know," Richard said as he got some drinks for them a
few moments later. "I know why you're running."
 Brianna and Jason exchanged nervous glances.
 "You are safe here," he said with a smile, noting their expressions. "I don't
intend to turn you in."
 "Thank you," Brianna breathed with a sigh of relief thrown in.
 "I would like to know what's happened, though."
 "Oh." Brianna looked at Jason.
 "Can't hurt," Jason shrugged. "Richard was a big fan of GD when I was still
hanging out in IRC and those places. He's familiar with the story."
 Brianna shrugged back. "Okay," she said, and related the story, of Grave
Digger's reappearance and Brianna's fight with her, and the subsequent
revelation that she had retained Grave's magic powers at the end. Then, seeing
as how she hadn't stunned Richard into unconsciousness yet, she told of her
accidental overuse of magic back home with Jason, which led to their being
fugitives.
 "Wow," Richard said at the end.
 "You're telling ME," Jason nodded, taking his empty glass back to the sink and
putting it off to the side.
 "So what are you going to do?"
 "Hide, hopefully, until people lose interest.."
 "They won't, Bri'," Jason said, returning to the table. "Even if something
else were to grab their attention now, if we were to try to go back to our
regular life now, it'd just start back up again."
 "So what, are we going to run for the rest of our lives?"
 "Guys.." Richard said.
 "Well, I don't know yet," Jason shot back, running Richard over verbally.
"We've got to think of SOMETHING."
 "There won't be places to hide for much longer.."
 "Guys.."
 "Well, I'm thinking as fast as I can, Bri'! Don't expect me to work miracles
here!"
 "I'm not!"
 "Maybe YOU should wave your hand and make it all go away!" Jason snapped.
 "STOP IT!" Richard bellowed, shooting to his feet.
 The two verbal combatants looked at him, realizing they were two guests
arguing in his house.
 "I think you two need to go to your neutral corners for a break," he said
quietly. "When was the last time either of you had decent rest?"
 Both Bri' and Jay looked at their feet. "Sorry," Jason said. "We're just
stressed out."
 "I can understand that.. but this won't make it better. Now go. There's a pair
of guest bedrooms downstairs."
 Brianna headed for the basement door. As she opened it, Jason was right behind
her, and said to Richard, "Thanks again."
 "No problem. Go get some sleep."

 Jason had no idea how long he'd been asleep when Richard woke him up. "Jay,
get up, wake up now. Hurry."
 "Hmmz? Wha?"
 "Time to wake up. Damn."
 "What is it?"
 "The SQ. They've spotted your truck."
 Jason and Brianna went upstairs cautiously, and they peered out through the
curtains with Richard; indeed, two police cruisers were parked ahead of and
behind the truck, several doors down from Richard's house, and the officers
were milling about it.
 "We need to hide," Jason said with urgency. "They might check the house I
parked in front of first, but soon they'll spread out."
 "SQ?" Brianna queried.
 "Surete Quebec," Richard said.
 "Provincial police," Jason explained. "And you can bet they're not handing out
parking tickets."
 "Go back to the basement," Richard said. "I can hold them off."
 "Thanks, pal," Jay said, rushing to the door along with Brianna.
 They got into the stairwell and shut the door behind them, standing at the top
of the stairs and listening.
 It didn't take long for Richard's door to be knocked on; when he opened it,
the two could hear muffled French from that direction.
 "I think they're asking if he knows who owns the truck," Jason whispered.
 "I could cast 'translate', you know.."
 "Not necessary. Now ssh."
 They sat and listened, and Jason repeated it in short whispering tones.
Richard was being told that the people in that truck were wanted on Canada-
wide warrants. <Yeah, right,> Jason told himself. <The charge.. saving a guy's
life, and wanting some privacy afterwards.>
 His eyes widened. "They just told him they don't need a warrant, and they're
gonna search the whole house," he whispered urgently as footsteps tromped in.
 Suddenly his vision failed him, fading to black. He at first thought the
lights had gone out, but when it was evident that it wasn't the lights, he
panicked and flailed around a bit.
 Suddenly a hand fumbled its way around to his mouth, where it clamped over
his; another arm wrapped around his chest and kept him still. "It's okay,"
Brianna whispered as footfalls sounded through the door, which neither of them
could see. "Yes, you're blind. That's because I only had time to invoke a spell
of invisibility and not presence mask. When invisible, there's nothing left of
your eyes for light to reflect off of in order for you to see. Don't worry, I
can reverse it."
 Jason nodded, and Brianna took her hand off his mouth. "So even if they look
right at us, they won't see us?" he asked quietly.
 "They'd have to bump right into us," she told him, just a voice in his ear.
 "And how will we know if they're headed our way?"
 "Use your ESP," Bri' said.
 "Oh."
 Jay reached out with his mind, and if his eyes had been visible, they'd've
gotten even wider still. "They are!" he hissed.
 They heard the door open, and felt the presence of someone standing right in
front of them. He stood there for a moment, then turned and said to a
colleague, in French, "Search the cellar."
 Jason sucked in his breath in a gasp, but Brianna had her hand over his mouth
again right away and hauled him to the side. The officers descended the stairs,
just barely brushing past the two invisible people.
 After a moment, when things got silent in the stairwell again, Brianna relaxed
her grip and the two stepped out onto the stairs again.
 "Nothing down here, sir," came the two officers' voices as they climbed the
stairs directly behind Bri' and Jay. Jay lurched and felt Bri's grip tighten
again as Jay's feet left the stairs.
 The door closed again, and they could hear the three policemen leaving the
house, with an apology to Richard. He waited a moment, presumably to watch the
officers until they were out of sight, and then opened the basement door once
more.
 "It is okay now," he called out softly into the basement. "You can come out."
After a moment, he said, "Jason? Brianna?"
 Jason's vision faded back into view, and he saw Richard before him, but from
the wrong perspective. It was as if Jason was 12 feet tall.
 Brianna put her chin on Jay's shoulder and smiled at him. She floated them
both back down to floor level and released the bearhug she had on him. "You had
NO idea where we were, did you?"
 "I was COMPLETELY lost," he agreed. "The invisible thing freaked me out."
 "Sorry, if I'd had more time, I would've either explained it to you, or used
presence mask. When you use presence mask, it just wills the other people to
not sense you at all, so you aren't really invisible.."
 Richard just stared at the two people who had materialized from the ceiling of
his stairwell and then floated down to the floor.
 "Maybe it's not such a good idea for us to hang around here any longer," Jason
said.
 "Do not worry," Richard said. "I can handle them.. I think."
 "No, I don't want to put you at risk, Lion," Jay shook his head. "The next
time they come back--and there WILL be a next time, if we stay--they'll come
with a SWAT team and do a good bunch of damage. The sooner we're out of your
life, the better."
 Richard peered out the window again. "I'm afraid if you're leaving, you'll
have to do it without your truck, 'cause it's leaving on its own right now."
 "Oh great," Brianna blurted, rushing to the window, along with Jason. Sure
enough, a flatbed had the truck onboard and tarped up, and was heading off down
the street, two police cars at either end.
 "Aw, nuts!" Jason said. "I still had some CDs in there I wanted."
 "Jason's right," Brianna told Richard. "I think we have to go."
 "It's the middle of the night," Richard pointed out. "I wouldn't feel right
letting you go at this point--"
 "They won't wait till morning to come back, Rich," Jason said. "She's right.
We're going to leave now."
 "...All right," Richard said, obviously not liking it.
 "Thanks so much for your hospitality, Richard," Brianna said with gratitude.
 "Anytime," he said. "Will I see you again once this is all over?"
 Bri' and Jay looked at each other.
 "I sure hope so," Jason said, as he and Brianna headed for the door.

 "Okay, so what do we do now?" Brianna asked.
 "Well, we gotta get away from here."
 "That's a given."
 "And we don't have a truck any more."
 "And we can't exactly take the transit or a taxi or something, 'cause we've
been shown on the news here.."
 "Right."
 Brianna looked at Jason and held out her hands. "Climb up," she said with a
smile.
 Jason got into her arms and, under cover of darkness and through alleys, she
raced out of the city.

 Fifteen minutes later, in the rural area west of town, Jason looked at his
friend; her face was red and she was panting from exertion. "Stop, Bri', stop!
Put me down."
 She did, and he said, "It's no use. We're not gonna make it, not without a
vehicle. And I don't wanna go steal someone else's.. and we can't get to ours.
So we might as well just give up."
 Brianna paused for breath and for thought; when she caught both, she stood up
from being doubled over, and said, "I think.. I can get us.. to safety, Jay..
but you're going to.. have to trust me with your life.. with your entire
existence."
 Jason looked at her.
 Having fully caught her breath now, she shrugged and said nothing, looking
back at him.
 "What do you mean?"
 "I think I can get us to another world.. where we don't yet exist, and maybe
we can start anew there.."
 Jason nearly exploded. "Listen to what you're SAYING, Bri'! You're asking me
to leave my friends and fam--"
 "We will never again have peace here, Jay!" Brianna blurted out. Her eyes
darted away and back, and Jason looked up to see red strobing lights on the
horizon. "At least, not while I'm still around. I can understand if you want to
stay.. they shouldn't bother you after I.. I leave.."
 Jason gripped Brianna's elbows and looked up into her face. "Goddamn you,
don't try to guilt me into this! You KNOW I'd never let you go through
something like this alone."
 "You'll come, then? We'll leave here for a better place?"
 Jay looked at the police & military vehicles now cresting the hills nearby and
rushing at them. "I don't think either of us has any other choice."
 "Very well, then.." Brianna closed her eyes and inhaled deeply; the area
around them seemed to charge with static electricity, and she spread her arms
wide; her hair even stood up a little. A crackling sound filled the air and she
opened her eyes again, holding a hand out to him.
 Jason hesitated.
 "Dammit, Jason!" Brianna hollered over the noise. "When have I ever had
anything other than your best interests in mind?? If you ever are going to
trust me, now is the time to do it! Use your ESP and scan me to see if I'm
telling the truth, but for God's sake, TAKE MY HAND!"
 For Jay, at once, everything else seemed to die off and fade away. Nothing
made any noise, except the sound of his and Brianna's breathing, and the voice
in his head telling him, somehow, that he could sense that Brianna's words were
true, and her convictions sound.
 He looked first at her outstretched hand, then up at her face.
 "I trust you," he said, just before grabbing hold of her wrist.

 It was not unlike being struck by lightning and at the same time falling into
the sun. It was a tremendous shock to his system, and mercifully, he passed
out.
 When he awoke, he was lying on a bed in some strange place. He turned his head
to the side just in time to see some kind of furry humanoid creature spiriting
another like being away by means of what he could only describe as magic. In
any case, neither figure showed signs that they noticed he was awake, and in a
moment, they were gone.
 He sat up, then swivelled around so he could get down from the bed, which was
in what looked like a futuristic medlab. Being that it was empty, he walked to
one of the doors, hoping it led to the outside, or at least someplace else with
people.
 As the door opened into a hallway, he could hear a far-off commotion, but
couldn't tell where it was coming from. He picked a direction--right--and
headed off that way.
 Several minutes passed as he wandered the halls, realizing with surprise that
he was in the underground complex belonging to Gina Diggers.
 <Bri', you brought us back to your place,> he said to himself as he snuck down
the hall a bit further. <What good is this gonna do us? Now there'll be two of
you here..>
 At once he went around a corner and found the source of the noise. Through a
semi-circular hole cut in the bottom of a door, he caught a glimpse of Gina
using her transporter to beam out of the room.. and.. Brianna?.. in her armor,
reaching out just too late. Bri' then proceeded to smash the transporter-room
computer to bits.
 Before he had a chance to react, Brianna came to the door he was looking
through and tore it out of its tracks, flinging it into the room. She saw him
standing there in the hallway and reached out, grabbing hold of him by his
collar, and hoisting him high in the air.
 Paralyzed by fear, seeing the look in her eyes, he found he could say or do
nothing at all, just stare at her vicious expression, the snarling face and the
searing glare from her eyes..
 <What the--> he said to himself. <The stripe.. it's back?>
 "Hmph," Brianna was saying, looking at him with disdain. "Something in me is
telling me to save you for later." She dumped him unceremoniously on the ground
and stepped over him as she ran off back the way he'd come.
 As he picked himself up off the floor, the truth dawned on him; he knew
exactly what was going on, where he was, and why Brianna was behaving the way
she was.
 <If that even IS the Brianna I know,> he amended as he bolted for the main
lab.

 By the time he got there, it was all over.
 The smoke was almost all cleared out, and Mesha and Tark stood off to one
side, eyeing a motionless, seemingly unconscious yet standing erect Brianna.
Theo Diggers was on Brianna's other side, just completing a spell to free
Brianna's mind from the curse.
 Gina looked up as Jay entered. "Jason! I'm glad you're all right," she said,
then turned her attention back to Brianna as the latter woke up.
 "You ARE?" Jason said, but it was lost in the confusion as Brianna came to her
senses and started apologizing profusely to Gina.
 Theo teleported away, heading to the infirmary to check on Cheetah, and Jason
realized with a start that he'd awakened just as Tanya was in the process of
Britnapping the werecheetah away. He inhaled to call out, but Theo was already
long gone.
 After Gina talked to Brianna for a moment, and Brianna behaved EXACTLY as
Jason remembered from the comic, he got up the nerve to clear his throat and
speak.
 "Oh, yeah, Jay.. sorry about forgetting you there," Gina said. "This is
Brianna.. my new sister. You remember how she came to be.."
 Jason nodded, meeting Brianna's eyes with a neutral expression. "You could say
that," he said, slowly nodding again. "Can I.. talk to her for a moment?"
 "She's a person all her own now, you don't have to ask me," Gina whispered.
She looked at Brianna.
 "Sure," Brianna smiled brightly, walking out the door with Jason. They found a
guest room and hid themselves in it.
 "Hi," Brianna said, sitting on the bed.
 "Hi," Jay said back. "....Do you know who I am?"
 "Of course I do.. and I remember what happened, too.. what we did."
 "You sure did put us in a world where we didn't yet exist, you know--you took
the place of the curse that befell your sisters and ultimately became you, and
I took.. Genn's place, sort of."
 "Sort of?"
 "Well, I appear to be a version of myself that's an adventurer, rescued from
that tomb in Iran, after having spent a year there in stasis from one of its
traps. I seem to remember bits and pieces of that me's life.. and I still have
ESP and the other stuff you gave me."
 "Really? MY magic's gone."
 Jay shrugged. "I can still see your aura, and if I work at it, I can see your
thoughts."
 She smiled. "What am I thinking right now, then?"
 Jason looked at her, then blinked. "YES, I tried shapeshifting, and NO, it
doesn't work, thank god."
 Brianna laughed and patted him on the head. "Just wondering if you took all of
his abilities or just the ones I gave you."
 Jason scowled, but with a smile creeping into his expression as well. "You're
relentless, you know that?"
 Brianna looked at Jason. "Since YOU brought it up.. the topic of me being
relentless, I mean.. are you"--she grinned and patted the bed--"interested in
taking on some of the OTHER things Genn did with me?"
 Jason paled. "Bri'.. you'd tear me limb from limb.. I'm not as strong as Genn
was EEP!"
 This last, because Brianna had latched onto Jason's wrist with an evil grin on
her face. "So I'll start out gentle. Get over here."
 "Brianna don't forget we have to go get your sister tomorroOOOOAH!" Jason
blurted out as he was thrown onto the bed.
 "Come on, loosen up!" Brianna said, pouncing on him, then stopping and looking
him in the eye. "Jay. Figure it out. We're safe. We're in a new world and with
new lives. We made it. Now relax and enjoy the ride."
 Jason looked at her for a moment, then allowed himself a smile. "I suppose
you're right."
 "Good!" she said, pouncing on him again and laughing. This time, he joined in
as well.

END