The Commission - 15

by Anthyrax

Chapter 15: College Students Getting Stoned?

Waves of energy and magic swept across the planet.  As they passed, transistors blew, engines stopped and vehicles came to a halt.   In many places, aircraft fell from the sky as they became ungainly without their engines, while ships went adrift without the means to use their propellers.   Even under the sea, the effect was felt, and nuclear submarines, without power, could only blow their tanks to surface and hope that eventually the crews would be rescued. 

The wave headed toward Silver City, where another wave, coming from southern Texas, was moving to intersect it.   The two waves would overlap at Silver City, just like other places, and here they would be especially strong.

Gila Cliff Dwellings 6:37 AM

Molly and Cindy stood on the porch, and watched the wave come in.   It was an eerie sight.   A moving blanket of golden light sweeping across the sky filling the entire northwest horizon. 

In a heartbeat, it swept over them.   A strange feeling of unease gripped both women, and then a weird giddiness that lasted for just barely long enough to register. 

A moment later it was over.  

Molly looked around the park housing area.  Everything was still, and the various lights that had been burning before were now out.  

“So much for the works of man” she whispered.

Cindy could only nod.  She noticed her cell phone was dead, and so was her digital watch.  But she felt something else.  Usually her magical power was pretty weak.  She didn’t use it much, just occasionally some tricks with colors, or to light a candle.   But today, she felt far more power than she ever had before.  

No wonder Sarah and the rest loved it so.  

Silver City

Their spell was already underway as the wave overtook them.   An immense feeling of power was felt by all six who were holding hands.   It was now that the experience they had in Shiron saved the girls.   Trained in a much more magic rich environment than Earth, they were able to adjust to the power, and straining hard, maintain control.

But the spell was starting to leak back into them, and they struggled.  

A short distance away, Caredoc watched as the wave overtook them just as the wave from the south hit.   He smiled with joy as the rush of power swept through him, and he waited for battle.

A cloud was beginning to form over the center of the university, a few hundred feet above it.   It was silver and green in color, a swirling mass of smoky vapor.   It began to expand, getting larger and larger by the moment and suddenly it was over two miles across.

Grim, the only one not busy dealing with magic, watched it form.   He could see the university in the clear morning air, just a few miles from the top of the hill were they stood.   Above it, the cloud finished forming, and then it began to descend.   Like a ball of cotton falling to the ground and nearly that quick.

Western New Mexico University, Ritch Hall (Co Ed dorms)

Jim, a 23 year old MBA student, stood in the darkened bathroom wrapped only in a towel.  

“It figures,” he muttered, “I stay up all night studying and the fucking power goes out.”

He stepped out the door, and saw Rachel standing over at the window looking out.   She was dressed only in a big tee shirt she had ‘borrowed’ from him and an oversized cotton robe.  

“Geez girl, aren’t you cold?” He asked her in disbelief. 

“Yes I am.” She drawled, her sugary sweet South Carolina accent prominent as always, “But come over here and look at the sky.   That cloud is really weird looking,”

He walked over to her and wrapped his arm around, taking a moment to casually grope her firm ass.  What he really wanted to do is drag her into bed since it looked like exams were going to be delayed because the power was out.   He couldn’t get enough of Rachel, thinking of her smoky blue eyes and her dark brown hair, and he could picture her firm breasts, flat stomach and pale skin under the robe and tee shirt.

But unless he wanted to piss her off, he had better at least look at what she was talking about first.

The cloud was already falling as he reached the window, and all he saw was a sudden green and silver fog that engulfed the campus.   They couldn’t see anything out the window any longer, and shrugging, Jim turned away.

“Hey sweetie, I am going to look for a candle.   Do you have any?”

In the hall outside, the fog had already rushed through an open door, engulfing a pretty Hispanic girl with long black hair standing at the door way, holding the door open for her two girlfriends.   They all froze stock still instantly.

The fog swept through the building, into air vents, under doorways, and even through keyholes.   A few people had time to exclaim or even shout before it reached them.    Most did not, and paused instantly from whatever they were doing, freezing instantly in place. 

Rachel heard a shout from the hall outside her room, and she walked over to the door to look.   Standing near the window, Jim was lighting a candle he found on her desk.  

She sucked in her breath sharply in surprise as she saw a silver and blue mist pour under the door and through the keyhole.   Before she could do more, it was filling the room, and she froze, her hand still reaching for the door knob.   

Jim heard her and looked up from the candle just in time to see the cloud engulf her.   

“Rachel!”

Dashing toward her, thinking that it was smoke, he yanked of a blanket from her roommates bed, and charged toward the door, thinking he could plug up the crack under the door.    At that moment, the fog, now pouring out of the heating vent on the wall engulfed him, and he too froze in place, still looking toward the door and his Rachel.  

In less than five minutes, the entire campus, and a number of neighboring houses, was completely silent and still. 

Hilltop

Hans caught Kim as she collapsed, while Cheryl sat down heavily, her face pale.  Sarah did the same as Gavin helped Michelle who wobbled for a bit.   All four women were pale, and Kim was already unconscious. 

Hans looked over at Gavin.   He could see the fatigue in his eyes, and knew his must reflect the same. 

“Ok, so much for the first part.  We will see what that attracts.”

Both men looked down toward the town.   The cloud was already clearing, and Grim pulled out his small telescope to look below, with Hans and Gavin doing the same an instant later.

“Michelle, you ok?” Sarah whispered.

Michelle was laying on her back, staring up at the sky but her eyes were open and she was able to reply.

“Just tired, but I think we will be ok in a bit.  How about you?”

“Oh I am peachy, let’s never do that again!” Sarah remarked, her voice tight with fatigue.

“Cheryl, how is Kim doing?” she said quietly to her friend.

Cheryl, already checking Kim’s breathing and pulse looked relieved. “She is ok, just out cold.   She must have fainted.”

Caredoc noticed the scene, and walked over to the girls. 

“Well no auditors yet, so let me fix you up.”    Reaching down, he pulled Sarah to her feet easily, and kissed her long and hard on the mouth.  

“You asshole!” she thought briefly, and then a strange flood of feelings swept through her.  Arousal, lust, warmth, and finally a giddy glow as her energy was restored.  Before she realized it, she was kissing him back until her mind cleared and she remembered who it was.

Satisfied, Caredoc ended the kiss and lightly brushed her out of the way, Sarah still being too dazed and flustered to complain.   He immediately did the same to first Michelle, and then Cheryl, and then while they joined Sarah in trying to deal with the emotions still flooding through them, he finally picked up Kim, and holding her in his arms, he bent down and kissed her prone sleeping body until she too was awake and befuddled.

Chuckling, he set her down, and walked back over to the men.

Sarah was the first to recover, and visibly annoyed and perplexed, she shot him a dirty look, mixed with a bit of gratitude and a certain amount of wistfulness.

“I am so sure that you had to do that with a kiss!” she muttered sarcastically.  

Caredoc looked over his shoulder, winked at her, and then returned to looking at the town.   Gavin looked back as well and gave her a quick puzzled look before returning to his talk with Hans. 

Ritch Hall

Jim struggled to move, but he was feeling strangely drowsy, and he couldn’t seem to make himself do anything.   He could see Rachel in front of him.   She was still looking toward the door, and he could see most of her face, as well as her long legs peeking out from the robe.   Something was different though.   Her dark brown hair was starting to lighten, and oddly, so were her eyes.    Gradually, it became obvious that everything about her was become lighter and lighter, and in fact, was actually starting to fade to while. 

He could see the door before her, and the walls were too lightening, and in fact, they seemed to be changing texture too.

Rachel was still changing, and now he noticed that the texture of her skin and clothes, even her hair, was changing too.   It was become a uniform grainy texture, while at the same time, it was rapidly fading to gray and then white.  

“Oh my god!  She is turning to stone!   And so are the walls?”  he thought, just before his own transformation engulfed him.

The last thing he saw was Rachel completing her transformation into a beautiful white granite statue just as his own mind slipped into darkness.

The Hilltop

Caredoc saw it first.   A black shape was speeding toward them from the east, moving almost as fast as a jet would have.   It was the first of the Auditors, and he chuckled again at the name.  

After all, they were simply lesser gods like himself, and they were in no position to complain about his interference.  After all, they were certainly and clearly guilty of much more themselves.

The shape was within a quarter mile when he attacked.   A brilliant ball of white light the size of a baseball instantly appeared in his hand, and he wound up and through it.   It shot straight at the approaching shape, smashing directly into it, and suddenly the massive crack of lightning and boom of an explosion was heard and a bright flash was seen. 

Instantly the shape winked out, like a light that had been switched off.

“Better hurry up Hans, there will be more soon.   That was simply the closest after all.”  He said sharply “and he will be back, and pretty pissed off.”

Hans and Gavin hurried over to the girls.

“Ok, we placed them all in suspension it looks like.  Now its time to send them to Shiron and bring in Gabrielle and her troops.”  Hans said quickly, “Ready?”

“How long will they be statues?” Michelle asked.  It bothered her that several hundred, maybe a couple of thousand people would wake up at some point in a completely alien world.   At least most of the people she and the others had kidnapped earlier had some idea of what was happening to them.

“About 12  hours more or less.  Plenty of time for the Scouts and the Nursing Sisters to get to them and help them adjust.” Gavin replied.  “Our Jennifer and her husband Riley will be handling that.”

“Really?” Michelle asked, “that’s great.  At least Jennifer will have some common reference to them.”

“Hopefully they will wake her counterpart up in a different place though.” Cheryl remarked. 

Hans gave them a pointed look and again they all joined hands.  It was time for the next spell.

Moments later, all six of them were standing in the center of the campus main courtyard, to be joined moments later by Caredoc who was holding Grim’s hand.

“Ok, it’s time for the gate.”  Hans said, tension in his voice.  

Grim looked around, watchful for any surprises as the magic users began to cast again.   He had a simple job, just cover Caredoc’s back.   The Lesser God looked around with interest, and stepped a few feet away to examine the marble face and body of a pretty college girl who had been caught by the first spell as she walked across the courtyard toward one of the buildings.   Her eyes were wide and her mouth open in surprise, and Grim wondered what color those eyes would be when she was back to normal.  

Then he saw another black shape moving toward them. 

The Ways of Might and Magic...