Globe Trotting

March 5th, 2002 06:00 MST
It was all happening too damn fast. The buzz and ring of the pager, the blue flash, the horrific faces and injuries, and again the blue flash after blue flash as I tried so hard to save all those people. No matter how many people I carried, there were too many more to take out. And then I felt the floor shaking, the purple tinged teleport field struggling to form as I tried taking 10 times my own wight, far above what I could normally carry, but it would never be enough. the floor collapsed, and I fell headlong as the floors above me came down on me and-

I woke up with a start. The pager was quiet, I was in my own bed back home, and the world was fine. I looked at the clock. The red lighted numbers sang out 6:00 AM. Not again, I thought. This is getting ridiculous. It's not my fault, the tiger said. I was sleeping quite nicely until you bolted awake. Maybe we should go somewhere. How about London? I hear it's nice there this time of the year. That sounded good. I got up, got a shower, and put on my vest which had, along with my pager, a few other cool goodies that Null outfitted their field agents with. I also grabbed the walking stick that most technomages had affectionally called a LART. This was on the outside a normal looking walking stick that one might find in a renaissance festival, but on the inside it had enough things that would make most people winch. Various eavesdropping devices, a taser, and other things that Null's techs (and myself) had installed. It was both a useful weapon, and a good walking stick as well. Since it was usually good to let the field agent controller know when you left the country, I grabbed the phone and made a quick call.

The blue faded as I 'ported to London Heathrow. There were all sorts of rules for teleporters now, such as teleporting to designated areas for customs searches. I pretty much breezed through the customs search, as my passport and ID had certain information that assisted the customs officials. granted, I did have to wait a few minutes for someone from the American embassy to show up to validate the ID, but I did get through. A quick walk through the airport, and I left the building, got in a taxicab, and we got on the M4 and headed into the center of London proper.


Three hours later
It's truly amazing what kind of hacking can get you money. Especially for someone who can manipulate an ATM to such an extent that he does not even have to insert a card. Fortunately, I play by the rules, and although I didnt insert a card, the machine did deduct the amount from my account, and not the last person who used it. I then took the paper euros, and headed toward the next pub. The people in the last pub were quite nervous when a tiger morph walked in and asked for a Guiness. They served me, but they were giving me the third degree the whole time, except for the bartender, that that was only because I gave him a large tip. The next pub was much more friendly, and I left there a few hours later, with no money in my pockets, a leering walk which indicated that I had far too much to drink, and wandered this way and that to a nearby park, where I promptly and gracelessly collapsed on a park bench.

Much later
I woke up to find a flock of pigeons perched on me, and my head throbbing with the hangover. At some point I also had split, because there was a rather familer tiger laying passed out on the lawn next to me. My waking up startled the pigeons which flew off (and fortunately, not dropping any loads on me), and I checked the pulse on my fuzzy companion. It was there, slow and steady. I started to rub behind his ears to wake him up. It took a while, but he did wake, and groggily asked me where the hell he was. The look on his face when I told him was worth the twin hangover, along with the three or so bobbies that were quietly watching us to make sure we behaved. After a quick fine, it was decided that we had enough fun, and teleported home.

As the blue flash faded, I found myself standing where I wanted - the customs and entry port of New York. Three hours later, I was at home. I looked at the time, decided that that was enough fun for the two days, and collapsed in bed.

I felt a large, heavy paw gently nudging me upside my head. I groaned, and the paw gently whapped me again. I looked up into Tiger's face, glanced at the clock which stated simply "04:00". I groaned again. Tiger stated, and nodded at the pager. "Wake Up. It's time to save the world. Again."


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