37

Sal could finally catch his breath. He looked out before him and saw a field strewn with the dead corpses of what had been Metheons. The devastation and death was overwhelming. The only good thing about the Metheons was that were were none left wounded. All of them had been killed. The Undertown residents would have no moral dilemmas about what to do with those soldiers who were not quite dead.

The casualties in Undertown were few. Sal wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, he was glad that no one else had died. On the other, he knew that he had changed history in no small way. Whether or not that meant he was stuck in a parallel dimension he wasn't sure.

Sal caught Prilock's eye. Sal gave him a sheepish thumbs up. Priolock gave one back, but it was void of the joy that one might have expected. Prilock still looked to be in some state of shock. Sal was too. Combat has a way, in any century, of making those who witness it have "thousand-yard-stares." Sal and Prilock were no exceptions. It probably didn't help that mere moments before, they were not sure Hercules and Aries were not intending on destroying them.

That was one of the more unsettling things. After Hercules had finished with the carnage Aries had tasked him with, the two of them had just disappeared. There had been a strong wind as the last Metheon fell to the Earth--like the wind before a storm. When that wind had dissipated, Hercules and Aries were nowhere to be found.

The Undertown residents were still uneasy. Maybe Aries and Hercules had set a trap. They'd make the residents of Undertown think they were gone, but then as soon as they came out from behind their protective barriers, all hell would break loose and it would be they instead of the Metheons that Hercules slaughtered this time.

It soon became obvious, though, that neither Aries nor Hercules was coming back. It was troubling that they had vanished. When might they re-appear? Was there a way to placate Aries? Should he be worshipped? There were stories of those, long before, who had worshipped beings such as Aries. Sal had, of course, never heard these stories, but the residents of Undertown were vaguely aware of them, which compared to Sal, made them experts.

Sal slowly rose from his position. He intended to make his way over to Prilock. As he was midway to him, however, Sal felt his feet lift from the ground and the uncanny sensation of tumbling through the air. Sal tried to get his bearings. he could see his feet not touching any Earth in disjointed moments of comprehension. It was as if Sal were watching a movie yet he could only watch every fiftieth frame. Nothing made any sense.

After what seemed like a small eternity, Sal felt a dull thud and the beginning of a sharp pain that was interrupted in his head. It turned out that the interruption was his blacking out. When he came to minutes later, he wasn't sure where he was. He wiggled his toes first to make sure they still worked. then he tried to move his arms and they obeyed. The throb of the back of his head, though, was not far behind, and it soon commanded his entire attention. Sal reached behind his head with his hand to rub his scalp. He noticed blades of grass brush by his hand as he did so. At least wherever he landed was semi-familiar territory. More troubling was WHEN he landed. Was Sal still outside of time? Had he been thrust elsewhere? After attempting to soothe his head, Sal propped himself up on his elbows to see where he was. What he saw at first made little sense. Scenes and places from history swirled together--li,e someone had taken the dimension of time and crumpled it. Like watercolor, time was running and smearing into hues. It was difficult for Sal to turn away from this sight. Humanity had puzzled over what time was for ages, and here Sal was given a front-row seat to the tapestry of it--swirling together--merging--parting threads. All of human history was somewhere in this kaleidoscope. Past, present, and future, are all united into this lava-lamp-like display. After a while, though, curiosity got the better of Sal. He wanted to see what was behind him. As he turned, at first he saw what appeared to be the edge of a rotund circular figure. His brain momentarily grasped for an explanation, then it struck. He'd seen this shape before when he first saw the Rogue's house. As his eyes began to take in more detail and his brain interpreted, it became clear that this was precisely where he was. Somehow, he had wound up right where he had been trying to get.

Sal felt a twinge of sadness. He had wanted to have a conversation with Prilock--at least to explain that the emergence of Aries was not at all his intention. He wasn't sure whether Prilock would want to thank him or punch him in the face. In many ways, Aries was a far larger and more terrifying threat than the Metheons had ever been. Quickly thereafter, a fear gripped him. Was this a parallel universe? What if the Rogue's house was not immune to the things he had done? Could he even count on the Rogue being inside? What about the others?

Sal quickly defused this fear before it overtook him. It really didn't matter at this point if when he opened the door to the Rogue's house it was filled with ravenous Velociraptors. Sal wasn't about to set foot in the watercolor timestream. He'd already thrown a rock into the stream of time and was unsure of the ripples it had created. he was not going to risk tossing another boulder somewhere else.

Sal picked himself up off the ground. It was strange to think that he had just spent over three weeks in a warzone, and now all of that was completely over. The lack of threat was almost more threatening than having danger.

Sal composed himself and made his way up the path to the Rogue's house. It was not a very long walk since he had been practically thrown into the house. His fingers lingered on the door knob. He took a deep breath and turned the handle. When the door swung open, there before Sal were the Rogue, Uzine, and Rei. The last two eyed him curiously.