Molly and Maria: Arbor-Philia

By

Jay P. Hailey

 

Molly and Maria ate their ice cream cones and watched the surf play on the rocks at the base of the tree. The tree itself was nearly twenty stories tall and had a mall built into it.

"I like the way this mall smells." Molly said. They were in a hollow that was large enough for a small food court.

People swirled around them intent on whatever business drove a city in the trees. Air-cars floated through the blue sky, landing on platforms built into the sides of the immense trees.

"It's different, that's for sure." Maria said. Maria had to be careful to speak slowly and enunciate her words clearly. Maria was a mutant. Her mutation was excessive speed. It made her a formidable agent for the United Nations, but when excited she often spoke too quickly for her slower companions to understand.

"You don't like it." Molly said. Maria was looking around herself, trying to keep an eye on everyone in that end of the tree.

"I hate leaving my weapons behind." Maria said.

Molly smiled. She and Maria were lost between dimensions. In many of the strange worlds that they had visited, being well armed was required. In the tree-city it would have been an impediment. No one went about armed here. It was a quiet place; the local police were numerous and well armed enough to make it stay that way. For Molly and Maria to wander around public areas with heavy weapons showing would have meant a quick trip to the police station to explain the hardware.

Molly and Maria discussed it and elected to brave the city built into the huge trees lightly armed.

Even so they were drawing strange looks from passersby. Molly had a wholesome, blond girl-next-door look that she might have gotten away with anywhere there were humans. Maria was slimmer, darker and had a more threatening sense of style. Maria was decked out in leathers with kevlar inserts. It looked techno and was generic fashion in one of the worlds they had visited. In this world Maria looked like a thug. She moved quickly and her eyes were piercing. She conveyed the impression that to mess with her was a very bad idea indeed.

A local man in shorts and flower pattern shirt approached them. "Excuse me ladies?"

Maria saw him, gauged him and rated him a minimal threat before Molly finished turning to see him.

"Yes?" Molly said. Molly often handled speaking to strangers for the pair. Maria felt that the less a potential opponent knew of her, the more of an unpleasant surprise she would be.

"I couldn't help noticing that you seem to be new in town." The man was tall and paunchy with thin arms and hands.

"Yes. We only got here this morning." Molly said, truthfully. She didn't point out that they had arrived from an alternate reality.

"I would like to offer my humble services as a guide. I assure you that no matter what your business, I can help you facilitate it." The man grinned expansively, and waved his hands around at the tree-city as though he owned it.

"Thank you, but no." Molly said. The last thing she wanted was a friendly, curious and pushy native fumbling around them and uncovering their secret origin.

"Are you certain? I can be quite helpful." The man wheedled.

"No." Molly said firmly. She turned and bumped into a security guard who was approaching from behind. Molly helped him back to his feet and said "I'm very sorry. Are you all right?"

"I'm okay." The security guard said. "Is this man bothering you?" He glared at the would-be guide.

"No, he was just offering to be our guide." Molly said.

"Well, don't agree to it." The guard said. Molly noticed that he was over six feet, with broad shoulders, a strong jaw and that he smelled nice.

"Now, see here, Officer. How is a man supposed to make an honest living?" The erstwhile guide protested.

"What would you know about honest livings?" The guard responded.

"Now see here-" The man in the flower print shirt became irate and got right into the guard's face.

The guard locked the man up in a nice wristlock and said "That's it for you Freddy. You're being escorted off the property."

Turning to Maria and Molly the Guard said. "I'm sorry for the disturbance ladies. He won't bother you again."

"That's all right." Molly said.

The guard duck-walked Freddy away.

Molly and Maria returned to their ice cream. "Are you going to swoon now, or are you going to wait until we get back to the Hotel?" Maria asked Molly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Molly said with exaggerated dignity.

Maria and Molly spent the next few minutes discussing what constituted an attractive man while walking slowly through the tree-mall and window-shopping. It was down time they enjoyed, since it happened so rarely on their interdimensional jaunts.

"How much time until we leap?" Maria asked.

"About twenty two hours." Molly replied instantly. Molly didn't forget things. She had looked at the dimensional transporter device when they arrived.

"Are you sure? Remember, it changes." Maria trusted Molly's memory. She didn't trust the piece of alien technology that was tossing them from reality to reality.

Molly reached into her pocket to make another check. She froze for a moment, and then grew pale. She began to check her other pockets. "Uh-oh."

Maria was stunned "What does 'uh- oh' mean?"

"I've lost it."

"What do you mean 'you lost it' !?" Maria yelled.

"Calm down. It's not in the pocket where I put it." Molly was grim.

"Did we leave it with our stuff?" Maria was referring to their weapons and their metal backpacks with all sorts of useful things artfully arranged in them. These were all sitting safely in the safe at their hotel in another tree.

"No. We might survive losing our stuff, but losing the D-Hopper would be the end." Molly said. As long as they had the dimensional transporter device then there was the slim chance that they would be randomly sent to their home dimension. If they lost it then they would be residents of the current dimension forever. Although there was talk of what would happen if they found a dimension that was "close enough" Molly and Maria both knew that they didn't want to settle in a new dimension. They wanted to go home.

"Okay, we dropped it. Your shirt has seen better days." Maria referred to Molly's blue denim work shirt. It was ragged and faded, but intact.

Molly said "Okay." They began to search for their device.

-*-

A tall security guard walked into the security captain's office. He was a big, bland farm boy. He was taller than the officer who had helped Molly and Maria.

"That's not him." Molly said.

"Are you certain, Miss? He's the only one on my staff who would fit the description you gave." The guard captain was a rectangular man with florid red skin and a salt- and-pepper buzz cut.

"That's not him." Molly said definitely.

Maria said "Describe the other one."

Molly described Freddy to the guard captain. As Molly completed the description, the captain nodded with recognition. "Him I recognize, although not by the name Freddy. I know him as Jo-Jo. He's a local con artist."

"Do you know where we can find him?" Maria asked.

"No. I advice you to report this to the police." The guard captain looked tired. "But don't get your hopes up."

-*-

Outside the guard captain's office, Molly turned to Maria. "What now? We don't have any leads."

"We have to find the D-hopper." Maria said grimly.

"I know, but we don't have any clues." Molly was distraught.

"We can develop some." Maria said with confidence.

"How?" Molly was perplexed.

"The way we did it in Italy." Maria had served for a short while with the Italian National Super Team before joining the United Nations Peace Keepers. "You'll have to play along."

"Okay." Molly wondered what Maria had in mind.

-*-

Maria threw the man against a wall. "I wanna know where the big boys hang out and you're going to tell me." She growled into the man's face. They were in an alley at ground level in and among the giant root systems of the trees.

"Who are you? Are you cops? I ain't gonna tell you nothing! I got rights." The small time thug said.

As soon as the man invoked his rights, Maria knew that she had scored a hit. "Who told you we're the cops? We're not the cops. We're real bad news." Maria growled. She quietly signaled to Molly.

Growling insincerely, Molly took a piece of scrap metal that they had gotten earlier and bent it in her hands. Where Maria's mutant powers were for speed, Molly was incredibly strong and durable.

Having never seen such strength before the small time hood disbelieved his eyes. "What is this, a joke? What's with the magic tricks?"

Maria changed her balance and threw the man to the ground. "This isn't any trick, this isn't any joke, this is real. This is real bad..." Maria sold it hard, leaning into the thug's face "...for you."

The thug looked at Maria and almost believed her. Then Molly said her next line. "Err, Can I have him now, Boss?"

Maria wondered where the hell Molly got that line. The thug looked at Molly and Maria. "What the fuckin' fuck? What the hell is going on here? Who are you, really?"

Maria knew that unless the thug believed the threat that their effort to coerce information from him was doomed. Maria stood and looked at Molly. Heaving a sigh, she said "Yeah. He's yours. Hurt him."

Molly looked at Maria with surprise. She narrowly avoided squeaking "Really?" She looked at the thug who was staring with confused horror at them. Molly looked back at Maria. Maria shrugged. It was up to Molly to sell it now.

Molly growled another fake growl and picked the man up.

"Hey!" He yelled.

Molly lifted him over her head and began to dance around with him held firmly over her head. She was trying desperately to think of something threatening to do to the guy that didn't require actually hurting him or any intimate contact.

"Hey -ey -ey -ey -ey!" The thug yelled as Molly bounced around.

Molly's analysis came to its conclusion. The threat was not believable because she did not intend to break a normal who hadn't done anything to them. Molly dropped the thug.

"I'm sorry, Maria. I can't do it."

"Do what?" The man yelled from the ground.

"Great." Maria grabbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I guess we're stuck here then."

"I'm sorry!" Molly cried.

"God dammit!" The thug yelled. He scrambled to his feet and swung a big punch into Molly's nose.

Molly's head moved a little. She grabbed the thug's hand. "Do you mind? We're having a discussion, here."

"Ow! Hey what the fuck?"

"Get him out of here." Maria said. He was distracting her while she was trying to think.

Molly gave him a little push and he fell down. "What do we do?" She asked.

"You have to make up your mind. Is it worth hurting a few normals to find the D- hopper or do we stay here?" Maria said.

"I'm sorry... I can't." Molly said.

The thug got to his feet again. Having a singular lack of success with Molly he turned on Maria. "Aiiiieeee!" He screamed. A knife appeared in his hand as he leapt for Maria.

To Maria all this seemed to be happening in slow motion. She stepped aside and the thug flailed past her. "I thought you were going to get rid of him." She said absently to Molly.

"EeeeeeYAAAA!" The thug swung around in a quick reversal at Maria.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it." Molly said.

Casually stepping around the knife slash, Maria said "He's trying to kill me with a knife. Does that count?"

"No."

"Oh." Maria stepped in and disarmed the thug with a neat martial arts maneuver.

Holding his hand the thug yelled "Shit!"

Molly gently shoved the man. He stumbled several feet and went face down into some garbage. "Please go away. This is a private discussion."

"There has got to be a better way, Maria." Molly said.

"If you have any ideas, then now is the time. I've given it my best shot." Maria was frustrated. She actually didn't want to hurt anyone either. Part of her was glad that Molly turned out to be squeamish. The other part wanted to do whatever it took to get home.

"Just answer me one god dammed thing!" The thug screamed "Who the hell are you?"

-*-

A short explanation later, the thug told them everything he could. "Just promise me you'll leave this world when you find your doo- hickey, right?" He insisted.

"Don't worry. We find the D-hopper and we're gone." Maria said.

"Go to the Deep Six tavern. Some one there will know where it is." The thug said. He very clearly wanted Maria and Molly out of his dimension.

"Thank you." Molly said.

"Don't mention it." He grumbled.

Molly and Maria began to walk down the waterfront towards the Deep Six Tavern.

"Amateurs. Sheesh!" The thug grumbled. He rubbed his neck. It was going to be sore tomorrow.

"Just what kind of Super Team were you part of in Italy?" The tactics that Maria had fallen back on bothered Molly.

Maria looked at Molly with troubled eyes. "A desperate one."

-*-

The Deep Six tavern was right down on the waterfront. It was near a collection of run down warehouses. Molly could see it clearly in the ultraviolet spectrum. It looked like a run down shack.

Maria experienced the tavern in a different way. In the harsh glare of a neon sign, with loud music coming from inside, it seemed like a small piece of merry hell to her.

They pushed their way inside. A bouncer glared at them lasciviously but asked for no ID or cover.

Inside, along one wall was the bar itself. A collection of ruffians and low lifes were scattered along the bar. In the middle of the room there was a dance floor. There was a crowd of people shaking and waving their assets around. On a low stage a band played loudly. Molly could recognize the basic structure of the music, but nothing more specific.

The two castaways pushed further into the Deep Six tavern. As soon as they were clear of the doorway, the two young women drew unwelcome attention from a number of ruffians. Young ladies did not appear in the Deep Six unescorted often, and when they did they did not leave that way.

Molly and Maria managed to avoid the most aggressive of the thugs in the tavern and they made it up to the bar.

The handsome man who had masqueraded as a security guard turned around to see who had bumped him. He found himself face to face with Molly. They gaped at each other momentarily.

The man grinned. "Well, ladies. Nice to meet you. What brings to this dangerous area of town?"

"You have something that belongs to us." Maria said. Molly's growl of support was quite honest this time.

The man grinned disarmingly. "I don't think so. You see this is my turf and you are out numbered." His grin hardened "If you're nice to me, I might be able to get you out of here with a minimum of fuss. If you cause trouble, then..." he let the threat hang in the air.

"Who are these bimbos, Zan?" The man's date asked irritatedly.

"I told you we should have brought our guns." Maria griped.

"We don't need them." Molly said, bluntly.

Zan's eyes grew hard. A knife appeared in his hand. "Yes, you do." He said.

Maria would have snorted if the tavern hadn't intimidated her so badly. She stepped inside Zan's guard and hit him five times in the gut as hard as she could. He said "Whooof!" His face slowly went purple. Maria turned around to see a thug slowly raising a chair over Molly's head. The chair slowly came down on Molly and split into chunks. The pieces floated lazily to the ground.

Maria turned around to find Zan's date wielding a pair of stilettos and moving in on her. Maria dodged away and then kicked the woman hard in a knee. As the woman fell down screaming Maria heard a large meaty thunking noise and the thug who had broken the chair over Molly's head went flying into the crowd on the dance floor.

Maria watched as a fairly simple fight became much more complex. The whole dance floor turned on the bar and saw the fight shaping up. With a low growl the dance floor crowd came and attacked the people at the bar. Everyone was especially angry at Molly and Maria who were standing right in the middle.

-*-

In five minutes most of the fighting was over. Maria noticed that the tavern was much quieter as she watched a buxom woman in a dominatrix costume draw knives from her big hair.

Maria did smirk this time as the knives came wafting through the air at her. Maria plucked the knives out of the air one at a time and sent them back. Maria stuck the knives in the wall next to the dominatrix's head. Maria was disappointed that the pattern formed by the knives she threw was at least five inches wide. Maria rationalized that the knives were strange and that she hadn't really had enough time to practice, lately. The dominatrix gave a very credible hiss of anger and fled through the back door of the Deep Six.

Maria turned back to the bar to find Molly holding Zan off the floor.

"Where is it!?" Molly demanded.

Maria could see broken furniture all around Molly and broken people littering the floor. Maria checked them as she passed. None of them were irreparable, but Molly had done a good job of pacifying them.

"I thought you didn't want to hurt the normals." Maria said wryly.

"They rushed me." Molly said. "Zan, where's our D-hopper?"

"I- I don't know what you're talking about." Zan said.

Molly shook him gently. "The black electronic box that you and Jo-Jo took from us. Where is it?"

"Jo-Jo has it!" Zan said fearfully.

Molly tossed Zan onto the dance floor. He landed gracelessly, twisting an ankle and falling to the ground. "How do we know that he isn't lying?" Molly asked.

Maria casually strode over to the prone criminal on the dance floor. "Zan wouldn't lie to us, would you, Zan?"

"Jo-Jo has it! I swear!" Zan tried to scramble away.

Maria caught him and produced one of her own knives, waving it like a snake's head under his chin. "Are you sure? I'd hate to have to come back after you, Zan."

"Please! It's Jo-Jo..." Zan collapsed.

"And where do we find him?" Maria asked.

"Sherman's Bough, Room 3232." Zan said quietly.

"Ahem." Maria and Molly turned to see the proprietor of the Deep Six tavern holding a shotgun on them.

"Ladies, I believe the time has come for you to leave." He was a fat, ugly, scarred old man. He spoke quietly, with confidence.

Molly looked at him for a moment and then said. "We're awfully sorry for the damage."

"That's all right as long as you leave now." The man said.

Maria led the way to the front door of the Deep Six. She had to step over the bouncer. Molly followed and they left the Deep Six Tavern.

As the walked away a large number of police cars landed and officers in riot gear piled into the bar.

-*-

Sherman's Bough was a large tree about three miles inland. While Maria couldn't tell the difference, Molly was beginning to be able to tell one of the giant trees from the other.

The taxi cab they rode in wafted down towards the tree in question.

"<Here you are, sweet ladies!>" The driver said. He was speaking a strange language that neither Molly nor Maria could understand. "<Now give me one hundred dollars!>"

Molly read the Taxi's gauge and counted off some of the weird currency that the people of the tree city used. Then she threw in a healthy amount for a tip.

"<Thank you!>" The driver said. "<That is the closest that trick has ever come to working!>"

Molly and Maria got out of the cab on a landing platform. It was pegged to Sherman's Bough several stories in the air.

Molly and Maria walked casually into the tree and along the corridors. It took a few minutes of searching, but they found room 3232 about five levels above the landing stage.

The corridor looked normal except that the wood paneling motif in the decor was honest. The hollowed out interior of the tree had been carefully polished to smooth shiny surface.

Set into the sides of the corridor there were doors at regular intervals. Standing in front of the door to 3232, Molly said. "How do we find out if he's here?"

Maria reached into a pocket and drew out a well used set of lockpicks. "Easy."

Lockpicking is half locksmithy and half dexterity. Although Maria had never encountered the specific type of lock that closed the door to room 3232, she more than made up for it on the dexterity side of the ledger. In a few moments the lock surrendered and the door was open.

"You make it look too easy." Molly whispered as she slowly opened the door and looked inside.

Inside there was a single room apartment, well furnished in the bachelor style. There was a lot of smooth black furniture. The TV and the stereo were both large. There was a bedroom with a single large bed and clothes scattered everywhere.

Along the side facing the exterior of the tree there was a large picture window that opened onto an expensive view of the forest- city.

Maria went to the window and looked out. By opening the window she could peer out onto a small ledge outside. Maria thought that Jo-Jo might have actually crawled out onto the ledge to avoid them.

There was no one on the ledge, but looking around Maria spotted a familiar figure on the landing stage five levels down.

"Molly! I got him!" Maria called.

In the bedroom, Molly let the large bed fall to the floor. She had not found their D-hopper, but she did discover a cache of money and drugs. Molly clutched them in her hand as ran to the window to see what Maria was shouting about.

"What?"

"There." Maria pointed. Jo-Jo was on the landing stage negotiating with an attendant for his air-car.

"Great." Molly said. She knew that they could not get down to the landing deck before Jo-Jo had flown away.

Maria wasn't about to let the man get away with her ticket home. She crawled out onto the ledge.

"Maria, are you sure?" Molly sounded uncertain.

"Uh-huh!" Maria had perfect confidence in her superior reflexes. She lowered herself down off the ledge and began to seek a handhold in the texture of the giant tree's bark.

Molly crawled out on to the ledge and immediately almost fell. She realized that she was still clutching Jo-Jo's stash in her hand. She quickly dropped it and regained her balance.

Seeing the motion above him, Jo-Jo turned to see several thousand dollars and more in exotic drugs wafting down towards him.

Neither Maria or Molly could hear what he said, but his expression was eloquent. He turned and began to yell at the garage attendant.

Maria was making good time down the tree. She was patient and double checked each handhold. With her speed and reflexes she still seemed to be spidering down the tree at a tremendous rate.

Molly slipped and caught the bark with all of her strength. It scrunched in her hand but held. She began to search with her feet for a better toehold.

The attendant brought out Jo-Jo's car. Jo-Jo grabbed him and hauled him bodily out of the car. For a moment there were a few words exchanged. Then the attendant noticed the money wafting down. He stared around perplexedly before instinct took over. Then the garage attendant quickly began to scoop up Jo-Jo's money.

Maria was better than halfway down now. She caught a glimpse of a surprised resident on the third level, but the balconies allowed much better stability. Maria was in and out of the resident's sight before he could finish his reaction.

Molly was climbing with a fair amount of success herself, until an entire patch of bark gave way under her. With a squeak of surprise, Molly fell.

Maria grimaced as Molly fell past her. Jo-Jo completed the startup on his air-car and lifted off. Molly landed with a resounding thud on the edge of the landing deck. She was very happy that she had actually managed to hit the landing stage. Molly couldn't see how far it was to the floor of the forest but it was a long way.

Hearing the impact, the garage attendant looked and saw Molly lying prone on the landing deck. "Oh my God!" He shouted.

Maria refocused on climbing and continued to the landing stage. Part of her winced at the violence of Molly's impact. Part of her grumbled at Molly for taking the easy way down.

The garage attendant ran over to Molly. "Oh God! Are you okay?" He yelled.

Molly sat up. The impact jarred her but after a couple of deep breaths Molly knew that she wasn't injured, except for her bruised dignity. "I didn't mean to frighten you." She said. "I'm fine."

"But..." The attendant looked up at Maria climbing spider like down the wall. "But, hey..."

Upon reaching the second level above the landing deck, Maria gauged the distance and then leaped down to the landing deck. Maria's muscles were not as dense or a tough as Molly's, but they were excellent for absorbing and redistributing kinetic energy, especially from running and jumping.

Maria landed with cat like grace on the landing deck and quickly moved over to Molly.

"Hey..." The garage attendant said.

"We need a car." Molly said.

Maria looked at the garage attendant. "Do you have one we can borrow?" She asked carefully.

"Huh? What?" The garage attendant was really floundering at this point.

Thinking quickly Molly fished out her wallet with her United Nations ID in it. "This is an emergency." She said. She held out her United Nations Peace Keeper identification, with her fingers carefully covering enough detail to obscure what it really was.

"Ah, Ah." The garage attendant looked at the ID and thought for a second. Then he reached a decision. "You know, it's my coffee break and I really didn't see anything." He got up and walked back inside the tree.

"Thank you." Molly said.

"You keep your ID on you?" Maria was shocked. Hers was buried in her hard pack, where no one could accidentally stumble across it.

"Yes. How else can I identify myself?" Molly said.

Maria sighed. Molly had some more paranoia lessons coming.

Right now, Maria could see the lights of Jo-Jo's car disappearing in the distance. Maria quickly raced over to an air- car. After looking at a few of them, Maria settled on an open topped four seat model. It looked like a cross between a convertible automobile and a boat, but nothing like an air craft.

Molly walked up and said "Can you hot-wire it?"

Maria replied. "Of course I can. The question is, can you fly it?"

"Of course I can." Molly said.

Maria hopped into the air-car and pulled open a panel. There was a circuit board and several wires in it.

Molly stared after Jo-Jo so she would not lose him. She estimated the speed of his air-car at no more than thirty-five or forty miles per hour. Molly wondered idly what kept the air-cars up in the air.

After staring at the circuit for a moment, Maria began to try one wire at a time sequentially. The lights went on and then off. The radio came on blaring some random beach sounding music. The heater came on. Then the air-car floated gently a couple of feet into the air.

"Voila!" Maria shouted over the raving beach music. "Your car!"

"What?!" Molly shouted. "Are we flying?"

Maria shook her head in a big yes motion.

As Molly jumped into the pilot's seat, Maria sat back into the passenger side. Maria wondered who the patron saint of flying random, strange air vehicles was. She said a prayer to Saint Stephen, the patron saint of travelers, just to be on the safe side.

Molly saw a stick that could move right to left and fore to aft. Under her left hand there was a throttle arrangement. Beneath her feet were two equally sized pedals.

Working the controls, Molly quickly discovered that electric fans under the corners pushed the air-car. A soft whirring noise accompanied her control inputs and the air-car bobbed around in pretty straight forward manner. Molly advanced the throttle a touch and taxied out onto the landing deck. Checking to see that the sky above her was clear, Molly advanced the throttle to the stops and the air-car shot of the landing deck as though fired from a sling.

"See?" Molly screamed over the wind and maniacal beach music "Nothing to it!"

As they got into open air, Maria was struck by a total disbelief in the air-car. She grimly clutched the arm rests on the passenger seat and waited for the silly contraption to fall.

When it didn't after a few moments, Maria thought that her mind might be wrong and that it might fly after all. Her mind whispered that the air-car was only waiting for her to let down her guard. Maria decided to compromise by relaxing, but not letting her guard down.

Seeing the look on Maria's face Molly screamed "Are you okay?" Because of the background noise Maria couldn't hear her. Molly elected to focus on pursuing Jo-Jo's air- car.

It took a few minutes for the air-car to start gaining on Jo-Jo. Maria estimated their speed at about eighty miles an hour from the rush of air past them. Molly shouted something but again Maria could not here it. Maria started to fiddle with the panel again. They needed to be able to communicate in order to get Jo-Jo and their D-Hopper. Maria abruptly quit when the air-car lost power and began to plummet like a rock. As soon as Maria took her hands off the panel the power came back on and the air-car began to climb again.

Maria looked at Molly and found her looking back with the same pale faced, wide eyed look.

"Okay! I won't do that again!" Maria shouted, but the hyper active beach music drowned her out.

Molly put her hand through the radio console on the dash. She ripped the stereo out of the dash by brute force and tossed it overboard. It disappeared into the darkness still blaring the up beat music.

"I need lights!" Molly yelled.

"Why? He'll see us!" Maria shouted back.

"No one else flying around can see us! Someone might hit us before they realize we're there!" Molly replied.

Maria looked around and realized what Molly was talking about. It was night, but all of the trees and the air-cars were brightly lit. Molly had no trouble seeing where she was going. However, as they flew near a civilian air-car, moving along at a slower pace, Maria could see the guy inside it. He slowly looked over at them. His eyes widened. He slowly banked his air car away in a tight turn. Maria realized that he saw a speeding, blacked out air-car swoop by him, and quickly took evasive action.

Maria looked at the circuit panel and back at Molly. "Are you sure you want me messing with that thing again?"

Molly hesitated for half a beat. "Yes! Do it!"

Maria grabbed the first wire and touched it to the main input wire. The lights on their air-car came on. More civilians in their vicinity jerked in surprise and took evasive action. Molly had Jo-Jo pinned in the head lights of the air-car.

He looked behind him, but couldn't see that it was Molly and Maria. He dodged anyway, making a sharp turn to his left.

Molly made a sharp turn to follow, but almost lost him. Jo-Jo cut his own lights and shut off his thrust fans. He was sinking slowly in the darkness. Molly and Maria had almost completely over shot him.

As Molly continued the turn to come back around at him, Jo-Jo turned his air-car back on and dove for the deep level of forest.

Molly followed him down. Maria clutched at the arm rests and began to look for seat belts. Jo-Jo took a curving swooping path through the huge trunks near ground level. Molly followed him diligently. What she lacked in skill or talent she made up for with reflexes and stubbornness. Maria fervently wished that Molly had more talent and skill.

Jo-Jo slid though a sharp corner where two of the large trees had almost grown together. Molly almost made the turn, banging the side of the air-car into one of the trees.

"What's the damage?" Molly yelled.

Maria pried loose her grip and checked. "My side is pretty banged up. If you crash, can you arrange to lead with your side of the car?"

"I'll do what I can." Molly ducked under a huge branch that was in their way.

Maria counted herself lucky. The air- cars seemed as if they were floating on something. They refused to rotate any more than about twenty-five degrees away from straight and level, except under extreme conditions. Molly was getting pretty extreme with the air-car, but most of the time it seemed as though gravity was on Maria's side.

After more aerobatics, Jo-Jo zipped in to a sort of side street created by a large building half buried in the side of a large tree. Molly followed only to find her self screaming down on a parking lot. Jo-Jo had already grounded his car. It was dark and there was no way for Molly or Maria to tell which one it was immediately.

Molly slowed her battered air car and hovered over the lot carefully peering at each car.

In the distance they could hear sirens of approaching police vehicles.

"It's the cops." Maria told Molly.

"I know. I can hear them." Molly said.

"We've got to get out of here."

"I don't want to lose Jo-Jo." Molly said stubbornly.

"We'll lose the whole shooting match if we get thrown in the joint." Maria reminded her.

They discussed the matter for a few more minutes until Molly interrupted. "It doesn't matter now. They have the area surrounded."

Maria looked at the ground. "It worked out okay for Jo-Jo. Let's land and act casual."

Molly managed to land the air-car in one piece. They got out and were walking towards the covered area of the large building when lights appeared at the corner and two police cars swooped in.

Casually walking they were underneath the building when the spot lights of the police vehicles began to play over the parking lot.

One of the cars began to land. Molly and Maria went to a corner of the building and into a stairwell. Jo-Jo jumped as they entered the stair well. He began to scramble up the stairs but could not hope to get away from Maria.

Maria tripped him on the stairs and he rolled down them into Molly's arms.

"Shhhh." Molly told him, gesturing outside. "Police."

"HE-" He screamed, as Molly put her hand over his mouth.

There was brief struggle as Jo-Jo acquainted himself with Molly's strength. Then he went limp. Maria grabbed his hand as he deployed a razor sharp knife. Maria didn't know how deeply the knife might penetrate Molly's skin, but she knew that any blood stains at all would be a give away to the police.

"Thank you." Molly said to Maria.

"We've got to move. The cops will check this place out, eventually." Maria said.

"Okay, where?" Molly asked.

-*-

Upstairs in the dark building, Molly, Maria and Jo-Jo commandeered a conference room.

"This is kidnapping. Not only will you go to jail, but I'll sue for damages." Jo-Jo said.

Maria slapped him. Not hard enough to damage him, but hard enough to shut him up. "Where is it?"

"I certainly won't tell you anything if you continue to treat me like that." Jo-Jo responded bitterly.

Molly said "I thought that we settled that. No torture."

Maria almost grinned in relief. Instead she put on a grim, feral look. "He's the only one standing between us and the D- hopper. The only one."

"But, it's not right." Molly said dubiously.

"Is it right that we should get stranded in this dimension because this guy has a greedy streak?" Maria growled.

"Excuse me, but stranded where?" Jo-Jo said.

"We're not from this dimension." Molly explained. "We're only passing through. You took our transportation."

"Well that would explain a lot, except that I don't know what you're talking about." Jo-Jo admitted.

"Was Zan lying?" Maria asked Molly.

"You've been to see Zan?" Jo-Jo sounded perplexed.

"You sound surprised. How do you think we knew where to find you?" Molly said.

"I find it very hard to believe that two young ladies such as yourself could force any information from the likes of Zan. He specializes in corrupting young ladies as a sideline, you know." Jo-Jo said.

Molly casually smashed the conference table. She made sure that there few intact pieces.

"Oh." Said Jo-Jo. "So you, er, intimidated him?"

Maria gave a harsh derisive laugh. "Molly? She doesn't have the guts. I had to cut him." As she said this she quickly drew out one of her throwing knives. To Jo-Jo it looked as if a knife had suddenly appeared in Maria's hand.

"Well, ah, maybe we could talk about this?" Jo-Jo said.

"Maybe we could." Molly admitted. "Just tell us where the device you took from us is, and we'll leave you alone and unharmed."

"Mostly unharmed." Maria interjected.

"Well you see, I really can't do that. Perhaps I could offer you a monetary compensation?" Jo-Jo wheedled.

"That's good." Maria snarled. "That's great! What do we do for the rest of our lives? Climb trees?"

"Well now that you mention it, I was impressed by your climbing abilities earlier this evening. Perhaps we could set up a working relationship? I don't imagine much could be held safe from the three of us working as a team." Jo-Jo speculated.

"Sorry. I don't work like that." Molly said.

"What are you going to do?" Maria demanded "Join the cops? You'd look darling in a blue uniform."

"You too." Molly said "It's not as if they're shy of bad guys around here."

"I don't want to fight bad guys here." Maria said "I want to fight them at home, where I'm well paid, and where they don't screech about their civil rights as much."

Molly picked up the clue. "I admit they are a little soft around here, but we could shape them up. We might even be able to impress them by capturing Jo-Jo, here."

"Now, now ladies. Let's not be hasty." Jo-Jo said quickly.

"A girl has to plan for her future, Jo- Jo." Molly said. "If we're stuck here, then we have to adjust to it and acclimate to the society."

"But, you two? Cops?" Jo-Jo gestured in helpless horror.

"Or, we can jump on our D-hopper and continue on our way." Maria said reasonably.

"But I really can't do that. You don't know what you're asking." Jo-Jo protested.

"If I get stuck here, Jo-Jo I will be very upset." Maria growled "I might have to make a point of following you around and arresting you." Maria slapped him again "You keep resisting arrest, Jo-Jo. For all other cops you are as quiet as a mouse but when you see me, you just go berserk."

Molly got faintly green. "No. It's wrong. There's a right and a wrong to these things. We can't just go around hassling Jo- Jo. Even if it is his fault that we are stuck here."

"Ahm, ladies, perhaps I might be able to help you, but I need you to promise that you'll- urk." Jo-Jo stopped because Maria had her hand around his throat.

"No deals. No conditions. No to anything. Just tell us where the D-Hopper is so we can go home." Maria was not kidding about it now. She was tired of playing head games with Jo-Jo.

Molly stepped in and very gently pried Maria's fingers away from Jo-Jo's throat. "Please just tell us where it is."

"I can't!" Wailed Jo-Jo "Julius will have me killed!"

"Just tell us where to find this 'Julius'." Maria said.

"No! Not that you ladies aren't impressive, but Julius is truly dangerous. He'll kill you and then he'll come for me!" Jo-Jo was beginning to panic.

"Well, it's too late, now." Maria pointed out. "You've already given us Julius' name. Now we can track him down. It might take longer but the result will still be the same."

"Tell us where he is and I promise you that we won't tell him where we got the information from." Molly said.

"Okay, Okay. While you're keeping Julius busy I can get the hell out of town." Jo- Jo reasoned. He told them where to find the tree in which Julius the Fence lived.

-*-

Julius lived in a small tree on the outskirts of town. It wasn't large by the standard of the trees in the city, but it dwarfed any of the redwoods that Molly and Maria had seen in their home dimension. The reasoning behind the location seemed to be that Julius had the whole tree to himself. Jo-Jo told Molly and Maria that Julius was well known figure in town. If you needed something, no matter how outrageous or illegal, then Julius was the person you talked to. Similarly, if you had something strange or too hot to handle, then Julius would always buy it. His sources were unknown and his customers were unknown, but Julius was reliable. He was also reliably ruthless about matters of business. No one crossed Julius more than once.

Maria and Molly stepped out of the taxi near the tree where Julius lived.

"I still say that we should have brought our guns." Maria said.

"Relax." Molly said. "We aren't going to need them."

"Yeah, right."

They walked to the main entrance. It was large wooden ornate door. Molly tried it and it was open. It led to a large, ornate and well-furnished entry room.

A butler came scurrying towards them "Indeed! Please be patient."

Molly stepped up to the butler. "We'd like to see Julius, Please."

"I'm terribly sorry. Mr. Julius is not available." The butler said huffily.

Maria stepped past him and began to survey the entry hall.

"Now see here, young lad- ulp!" Molly picked the butler by his lapels.

"I'm afraid I really must insist." Molly said.

"Indeed." The butler choked. "I see."

Molly put him down and gestured. "Please show us the way."

"Come this way." The butler said frostily.

They followed the Butler into a sitting room. There was distinguished looking gentleman sitting near a fire place. He was wearing a smoking jacket and reading a book that was printed in a language that neither Molly or Maria could make out.

"Sir. These two young ladies have insisted on speaking with you." The Butler announced coldly.

"Thank you, Jeeves." Julius said. "That will be all."

"Yes, Sir." Jeeves said. He left the room.

"You have something that belongs to us." Molly began. Maria began to move closer to Julius.

"I'm afraid that I simply can't help you. Nothing personal. It's simply business you understand." Julius spoke in quiet, cultured tones.

"I'm afraid I don't understand at all, Mr. Julius." Molly said as she began to step forward.

A small automatic pistol appeared in Julius' hand. He stood up. "That's far enough ladies." He said with a cultured tone of menace.

Maria moved halfway across the room to him. She disarmed him with her neat martial arts maneuver, and then turned into him, striking him three times in the stomach as hard as she could.

"Oooof." Said Julius.

"Ow!" Yelled Maria. Julius was wearing some sort of rigid body armor under his smoking jacket. Maria had nearly broken her knuckles against it.

"Buford! There is trouble!" Julius yelled.

A side door to the sitting room flew open and Buford came out. He was a wall of green. He looked like a scaly green gorilla on steroids. He was eight feet tall, and looked like he weighed in at 600 or more pounds.

His ears were large and swept to points, looking more like miniature dragon's wings than hearing apparatus. His mouth was filled with large sharp teeth. Under his large brow, two beady little eyes looked about with anger and little comprehension.

"Trouble, Boss?" Buford said "I hurt trouble." He sounded like a diesel truck with a sore throat.

Molly walked over to Buford and hit him with an uppercut to the jaw. Maria was looking at the wall of muscle, when Julius reached out and with a martial arts maneuver of his own he threw Maria to the floor.

Buford staggered back a couple of steps. His eyes were glassy. He shook his head and it went away. He grinned at Molly. "Tough girl! Tough girls taste better! Sometimes have to boil to tenderize!"

Maria immediately leapt to her feet. Julius was starting to back away, but was not nearly fast enough to escape Maria. She hit him in the face. Julius' head snapped back, but Maria was hurting almost as badly from her bruised knuckles.

Buford stepped in and Molly ducked. Buford stuttered his swing long enough to see which way Molly was ducking and then backhanded her across the room. Molly landed in an ornate display case with a loud crash.

Maria kicked Julius in the shin while she tried to figure out how to fight him without her hands.

Julius grunted and fell off his balance.

Maria pushed him and he went backwards over his chair.

Buford stomped across the room and picked Molly up out of the wreckage. Molly bit his hand.

"Oooowww!" Buford yelled waving Molly around the room by her teeth.

Julius rolled out of his fall and grabbed for a fire place poker.

Maria stepped around the chair and grabbed the fireplace poker herself.

Losing her bite, Molly again flew across the room and into some expensive looking furniture.

Buford grabbed a chesterfield love seat and chucked it at Molly, but missed. The chesterfield smashed itself into the wall above Molly.

Maria set her self and tried to throw Julius. He resisted. She let go of the poker and kicked him down low.

"Ooof!" Julius made a particularly pained noise. He swiped at Maria with the poker. She easily evaded the swing.

Molly hopped out of the ruins of the hutch and waited for Buford. He came rushing at her intent on crushing her. Molly planted a solid right into his gut.

Buford covered up and swung at Molly. He hit a glancing blow and Molly's nose started to bleed.

Julius swung the poker at Maria again, and again she easily evaded the swing. Maria stepped in behind the swing and stomped Julius' toes as hard as she could.

"Argh!" Julius grunted. He was now off balance and slightly hunched around the pain in his lower gut.

Molly stepped around Buford and drove a fist into his kidney. It felt like punching one of the giant trees.

Buford flinched in pain, but didn't slow down. He grabbed the companion chesterfield sofa and swung it through Molly. The sofa was destroyed but Molly was knocked down and half way across the room.

A loud, sharp boom came from the doorway.

Everyone turned in shock to find Jeeves with a shotgun. "Freeze." He said in cultured tones. Leveling the shotgun at Molly.

Maria crossed the room at full speed and went past Jeeves with her hand out. Her hand protested the blow and she felt the shock up to her shoulder.

Jeeves went flying back down the entry hall with a bloody face.

Buford turned around to find Molly on her feet. He punched her in the midsection. Molly said "Ooof" as her breath was driven out.

"Stop!" Shouted Julius.

Molly brought an uppercut off the floor and into Buford's face. His head snapped back and he flopped down on the floor stretched out to his full length.

Maria was scuffling with Jeeves for the shotgun. They were both dead silent, just a few grunts of effort.

"STOP!" Julius called.

Molly turned back to Julius. He was painfully limping back to his desk.

Maria wrestled the gun away from Jeeves and almost hit him in the face with it, until she saw that her first blow had broken his nose. She simply held the gun and said "Freeze yourself."

"Ugh." Jeeves said.

At the desk, Julius opened a drawer and pulled out Molly and Maria's D-hopper. "Is that what you were looking for?"

Molly winced and took a couple of steps towards him. "Yes. That's it."

Maria swept back into the room to see Molly looking at the D-Hopper. Buford groaned and rolled over, trying to rise to his feet.

"Don't try it, ugly." Maria warned.

"Ooohhh." Buford swayed. "Girlie hit hard."

"We got it." Molly waved the D- hopper at Maria.

"Good!" Maria grinned it was the best news she had heard all day.

"Yes. You have your property, now get out." Julius said, not unkindly.

"No sweat." Maria said. She unloaded the shotgun and dropped it on the floor. Then, babying her bruised hands she helped Molly walk slowly out of the house.

"How much time?" Maria asked.

Molly looked at the device. "About sixteen hours. Just enough time to rest up for the next leap."

-*-

"I say, Beaufort, are you quite all right?" Julius asked his friend after Molly and Maria were gone.

"Quite, quite." Buford's voice now sounded like it would be comfortable coming from a BBC broadcast. "I believe that I am getting too old for such shenanigans any more."

"Ugh." Julius winced at the pain in his crotch and elsewhere. "I know what you mean. Jeeves are you all right?"

"Yes, Julius." The Butler said. "I believe the quick one broke my nose. I shall go have Hildegard fix it."

"Quite."

"What was the nature of the hullabaloo. Julius? I'm afraid I was deeply into the Book Review until your call." The large green creature said.

"Nothing much. Just a broken down old D-hopper. We couldn't have resold it in any case. It was damaged." Julius said thoughtfully.

"Well that was much ado about nothing." The big green creature wiggled his jaw back and forth. "I say, do you think we might be able to sell them a new one?"

"Did they look as though they could afford it?"

"No, but using a damaged D-hopper could be quite dangerous."

"I think that they will manage quite fine on their own, Beaufort."

"Just so."

-End-