Jane Tarzania stood on a platform. She was being stared at by a group of people. They were all in the secret room below a Comic Book Store.
"Coming Down!" came a voice up above.
Jane looked up & moved just in time to not be hit in the head with Catherine's bag. It made a dull thump as it hit the platform. Then, Catherine's legs could be seen hanging from the ceiling as she made her way on down.
"Greetings & Salad Croutons." Catherine said with a wave after jumping down the seven, eight feet down.
There was a moment of uneasy silence.
"Who's the Lady?" The bald headed guy at work bench asked as he pointed his philips head screwdriver towards Jane & Catherine.
"Relax. She's cool."
"Cool, how? Like to the touch. Would I freeze if I touched her?" Another asked.
"No. I've touched her many times. See! Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch." Catherine said & repeated poked Jane in the arm. "And I haven't gone all Frostilicus on you. She's cool as in the modern English slang usage sort of way."
Jane then began to rub her arm where it had been repeatedly poked.
"Oh." most of them said in unison. Then they looked at each other & laughed.
Catherine turned to Jane & said "These are the Mutants at Table 9. Be Amazed or don't, it's your choice."
Catherine laughed a bit.
Just then from behind them came a knock. Jane turned a bit to see she was standing in front of a door.
"Pizzas' here!" someone said.
"I think It's even early!" another said.
Catherine turned, unlocked the various locks on the door & opened it. "Hello?" She said.
The door opened out into an alleyway, your average everyday Mid 20th century Alleyway, nothing all that special. There standing in said Alleyway was a young Asian male. He wore a red jacket with a patch sewn on to the left side. The Patch was of a generic look pizza. In his right arm was one of those insulated Pizza delivery bag, it had a logo on similar to the patch on the man's jacket.
"Keno!" Catherine said cheerfully.
"My name's not Keno. We've been over this before." The Pizza Guy said getting worked up about it.
"We know that."
"Then why do you call me Keno every time I deliver a Pizza?"
"We're Nerds." Catherine said proudly.
The Pizza Guy not named Keno wasn't liking that answer. "Ok, I guess. The order comes to $29.50 plus tax but not including tip."
"All right." Catherine as she leaned over & reached for a Mason jar filled Dollar bills & assorted change. She unscrews the lid & fishes around a bit then pulls out a few dollar bills. Then puts the jar & lid back on a near by shelf.
She gives him the money & he hands her the Pizza. "Keep the change." Catherine said.
Catherine was about the close the door when the Pizza Guy cleared throat & said "We don't take Canadian money." He showed Catherine a bill with Queen Elizabeth's face on it.
"Sorry." Catherine said sheepishly. She handed Jane the Pizza, grabbed the Jar & exchanged the bills.
"We cool?" Catherine asked.
He counted the money & then said. "Yeah."
"Ok. Have great day. Now don't get attacked by any of the Foot ya hear!" Catherine said as she closed the door.
Before he could respond the door was closed. Catherine took back the Pizzas' from Jane, Catherine breathed in the fumes wafting up from the cardboard boxes. "Yum."
Catherine made her way over to a nearby table & moved a few items out of the way so that she would have a level place to set down the boxes.
"What do we have here?" Catherine asked.
"None of your weird West coast toppings." one of the people from the couch said as them made there way over to the table.
"What? So I like a bit of Pineapple on my pizza. Is that such a crime?"
"It should be." The guy that was sitting on the bean bag chair said as he opened up a box.
"No, it shouldn't be. Having a Ham-like product & canned Pineapple bits taste great on a pizza & twice as good cold the morning after."
The conversation devolved from there in to various side conversations. Jane wasn't sure what to do. Should she join in? She should grab a slice? Should she open up the door behind her & leave?
Catherine sensed this. "Grab a slice & pull up something to sit on!"
Jane left the platform, walked over to table & looked at the bounty set before her. She picked up one of the paper plates & went with an old favorite: Cheese.
As she sat down beside Catherine, she was talking to a person to her left. They were leaning up against a work bench. He was a bespectacled bald headed man with bright orange goatee. He wore black T-Shirt with the word in bright white text "Atheist Gorillas' believe there is no Grodd." He had a pair of dirty blue jeans on & red Converse high tops with white socks on his feet.
"You know you probably put in the Canadian money in the Dues jar?" Catherine said.
Then in almost unison they both said "Jay!" Then then laughed a bit.
Catherine then noticed was Jane was there.
"Let me introduce you. Jaime, this is Jane. Jamie, Jane."
The Man reached his right arm over & Jane shook it.
"Pleased to make you acquaintance." He said.
"yeah." Jane replied.
They then went back to their conversation.
"Earlier today we had the UPS guys, I got my latest piece in. I found it on eBay & it was just what I needed. They almost look exactly like the one's he wears. I totally pwned the other people in the auction. Now all I need to do is write a quick little program, do some minor alterations & they I should have my very own pair of Gawker Googles."
"Ta Roxor. What else do you have done?"
"Well, let's see..." Jaime said thinking. "I finished the Sticky String Sprayers yesterday. The Go-Go Yo-Yo's are also done, not sure if I'll be using them much. I keep on hitting myself in the face when I use them, I think the gyroscopes inside are set to fast for any logical usage."
Catherine laughed a bit & almost choked on a bit of Pizza.
"You ok?" He asked. She shook her head yes.
"ok. I got the Dizzy Disc for the Super Suit done too. All it took was a simple trip to a local hobby shop & finding the right sort of plastic disc that would hold up to customization. I'm waiting on the fabric I need the the Super Suit it self, I found a company in Canada who makes the type of fabric I was looking for. Once I have the fabric, the suit should be pretty easy to make. There are enough pic's on that 'net that I should be able to make a pretty good pattern from."
Jane just sat there as the man continued to talk, she only understood ever third word or so.
"After I'm done with the Goggles I think I'll get a started on the Eavesdropping Earring or the Walkie Talkie Watch: not sure which yet." Jamie said taking a bite of his Pizza.
"The watch I got from a Sharper Image knock off place over on Dickerson which should work out good for that, I got an old Walkie Talkie around here somewhere that I can salvage parts from. Maybe I can take parts from that to uses in the Earring too. I think I can mix up a pretty good fake Rocket Fuel Soda Pop too. I have a great recipe I got off the 'net. The only two things that I'm not sure how to do are the Translator Tongue Stud, I don't work small all that well & the Black Hole Backpack which seems a bit out my reach."
Catherine turned to Jane & said "Jaime is our Doc Brown, our Reed Richards. Or if you want a more real world example, He's our Leonard Day-Vincent or NTU-150."
"Yeah, just without the funding. Man.... If I had that sort of backing, I could really do some great things." Jaime said as his eyed glazed over.
"Or kill us all." Catherine interjected. That popped him out of the dream.
"Well, there's that. But I think know my limits & don't think it would ever come to that."
"Maybe."
"So, Jamie: why are you making all that stuff?" Jane asked.
He seemed insulted & shot back with a smile "Why not? Plus, I'm planning on wearing all this to the next local Comic Con, I think I'll have a pretty good chance to win the Costume Contest. I doubt anyone will have a better CrazySugarFreakBoy costume out there."
"Other then the real deal. I hear he might show up, if he has the time." Catherine interjected.
"That would be, like the high point of my life to get his opinion." Jamie said. His eyes began to glaze over again.
"And we've lost him again to his fantasy land." Catherine said standing up.
"Let me introduce you to the rest of the Mutants." She said offering a hand to help Jane up.
As they walked away Catherine whispered into Jane's ear. "Don't ask about the hair, we don't know how he lost it. The latest theory is it got sucked into another dimension or he just shaved it. The other dimension theory sounds cooler."
They stopped at the couch in the corner, it was facing a TV. Catherine stood behind the couch & in between the two people seated.
"These, Jane, are the Blunder Twins. They mostly appear in the forms of Collateral Damage & shapes of General Incompetence around anything hi-tech."
"Hey!" said the man on the right. He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt & jeans.
"Yeah!" said the other. She was dressed like wise, but was dressed in all black. Her T-shirt had the words 'Sin City' in red written across it.
Catherine continued on. "Jamie has lost many a project to these guys pressing, pulling & generally touching things that they aren't too."
"That's true." said the one on the right. "By the way I'm Sam." Sam said & gave a hardy wave.
"and I'm Max." said the other.
"On a side note: No, they also aren't a anthropomorphic Dog & lagomorhic Rabbity thing." Catherine said. The trio laughed a bit, but Jane didn't get the joke. She doesn't get the joke a lot when she's around Catherine.
"So, what are you watching?" Jane asked.
"Match Game." Sam said.
"Match Game '76." Max corrected. "We are about half way through a marathon."
"Oh, Richard Dawson." Catherine said with a sigh & her eyes started to glaze over like Jamies' did.
"Yeah. He's dreamy." Max said. "After this there is Golden Girl marathon on."
"The 80's sitcom?" Jane asked.
"Yeah. I live my life by the lessons learned from that show. That & Charles in Charge. I'm not sure if I'm fully in charge of my days, nights, rights or wrongs. But I think I'm getting there." Max said with a giggle.
"Hey!" Catherine said.
"What?" Jane asked.
"You knew what The Golden Girls was!" Catherine said happily.
"So?"
"That's the first time I think you've gotten a Pop Culture reference. I was beginning to think you were some sort of Alien, not that there is anything wrong with that."
"ok."
"Moving on. The next person in this hit parade is Ricky." Catherine said as she walked over to the bean bag chairs in the other corner.
"It's Rick." said the guy seated on one.
"Whatever, Ricky. He's our very own TV star. If you were anywhere in this area during 1984, you saw his pudgy little face for he was, drum roll please: The Boy in the Drussel's Department winter holiday campaign. I think those ad's are floating around somewhere on YouTube."
"You act in anything else?" Jane asked.
"Well..." Catherine started before Rick could reply. "No. Ricky here became to old for them & puberty wasn't so kind on Ricky."
Catherine leaned in & whispered in Jane's ear "Bad case of Acne. All over, I've seen pictures. It wasn't a pretty sight."
"That was only the first year. It went down to a manageable level after that, by the time I left High school it had gone away."
"So, that's about it." Catherine said. "Those are the Mutants at Table 9."
"What about Jay?" Jane asked.
"Oh yeah! I totally forgot about him." She said & started to look around for him. "Where's Jay?"
"The American Canadian?" Rick asked before biting down on another slice of Pepperoni. Catherine shook her head yes.
"Geek away Camp." Rick said between chews.
"Oh yeah." Catherine said slapping her forehead. She turned back towards Jane & said. "Jay as we call him, Jason to his Parents or which ever he goes by both, every year goes away for a week or two to some Camp somewhere, it's a new one each year. He's also the guy who keeps our Site running. He's got on of those satellite phones so he's never out of touch. We call him the American Canadian since his Parents are from Canada, moved to the U.S. for a few years, had baby Jay & then moved back to Canada shortly there after. He's got dual citizenship but what's funny is Canadians consider him American, while We'd consider him Canadian: He's a man without a Country sort of."
Catherine turned back to the group & asked "What's this years' activity?"
"Space Camp." Max said.
"I didn't know they did that for Adults."
"Apparently they do."
"Jay: First Mutant in simulated Outer Space." Catherine rather proudly.
"I almost think we should post something to the Blog about this." She said generally, there were scattered nods of agreement.
There was a short pause & then Catherine slapped her forehead again & said "Duh! I also forgot about our roving Mutant. They live down under where Woman glow & Men do chunder. We don't really know there real name, only a screen name: Al. We get updates that they won't be online for awhile, they travel a lot. We don't know why. With that along with J.J. who runs the place that is truly all The Mutants at Table 9. It's a small table."
There was another short pause.
"One question." Jane said.
"Just one?" Rick joked.
"Sure. What is it?" Catherine asked.
"What does that name mean?"
"Well..."
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TO BE CONTINUED!
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NEXT TIME: Revelations are revealed..
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