Other Earth: Adirondack Vacation

[dans]

Ned and Krista Quest (the technology powered heroic pair, Dr. Lambda and Lady Lambda (Retired)) and Ray and Sandy Trask (the spiritually powered heroic pair Thunderbird and Rain Bird) head north for a week of relaxing hiking and camping in the Adirondacks. Will they find the peace and quiet they are looking for?

Set in my OC universe on Eorth^* (Other Earth), in late summer 1945 - after the surrender of Germany in World War II, but before the surrender of Japan. Dr. Lambda and the Stormbirds are members of Eorth's foremost mystery hero teams, the Alliance of Mystery Heroes. Dr. Lambda operates out of Opal City, Maryland, and the Stormbirds call Buffalo, NY home. 

I think you can pick up whatever other details you need from the story. I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

*You can read ALL the Eorth stories here: Heroes of an Other Earth

---

Other Eorth, Late July, 1945

Wings and Stars, An Adirondack Vacation

Almost There!

"It was swell of the Alliance of Mystery Heroes to loan us a plane for our vacation," Krista Quest (Lady Lambda, Retired) noted to her three friends who were helping her unload their packs and camping gear from the baggage compartment of their 6-seater Beechcraft Model 18, in a rented corner of a small hanger in a small airport near Lake Placid, NY. "Much more comfortable than flying here ourselves!"

"Yeah, and a lot less tiring," Sandy Trask (Rain Bird) replied. "You guys got your Stellar Scepters to carry you, but Ray and I depend on muscle power, and the three hour flight from Buffalo would have been a VERY very tiring. None of that 'supersonic' stuff for us birds!" Sandy and Ray Trask were also the spiritually-powered mystery heroes known as the Stormbirds (Rain Bird and Thunderbird, respectively) and when they manifested their powers, they were magically transformed into feathered beings who flew using their wings. Their other powers were not so obvious to the eye...

"It does help that Sandy's the current Chairman of the AMH," Ned Quest (Dr. Lambda) quipped. "And it will keep reporters from asking why the retired Lady Lambda is suddenly donning the gear again!" As the Lambdas, Ned and Sandy wore brick red and gray costumes with copper-colored half helmets, and carried devices called Stellar Scepters - inventions of Ned which absorbed and controlled stellar energy, allowing the Lambdas to fly and create force fields, as well as other powers.

"What, you think I play favorites?" Sandy replied jokingly. "And what makes you think any of the three of you are on my favorites list, anyway?" She attempted to sound stern. And then continued happily: "Anyway, it's great that the AMH now has enough members now that they ought to be able to cover for us for a week. Ron has certainly proved himself many times, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Darryl performs as Chairman in my absence."

Ron Watson was also known as Raptor, and had recently established himself as an independent hero after a few years as the Volunteer's sidekick. Darryl Hunter was Wayfarer and he had begun his heroic career in 1942, shortly after Dr. Lambda, but he had not joined the AMH until last year - and it was already clear to everyone that he was a born leader. They all agreed, though not without reservation, that the remaining members of the AMH should be able to handle anything that could come up in the next week. And everyone deserved a vacation now and again!

The four had flown in their civilian identities with Kris piloting, and had told the airport staff they were going to go hiking and camping in the 'Adirondack High Peaks' region and had paid for the hanger space for a week. They DID plan to be away for that long, but their plan was to mostly fly through the mountains rather than hike through the mountains.

"Ned, I'm kind of curious why you picked Lake Placid? Are you familiar with the area?" Ray wanted to know.

"Not really sure," he replied. "Sandy's been on this mystery kick for weeks, about wanting to vacation in some remote mountain valley, and we're all a little concerned about travel time and being too far away to respond easily from the Rockies in case of an emergency, and I'm really not comfortable in the summer heat in the South, so, since you let me choose, this place seems to fill the bill..."

"Seems as good as any," Sandy agreed. "So, let's get this row on the shoad!"

First Evening in the Wild

They'd landed a bit before noon, concluded their business with the airport manager, had lunch, and were headed for the woods by 2 PM. They planned to strike out to the northwest as there was a very scenic river running through a deep gorge a few hours hike away, and it seemed like a great place to have dinner and pitch their tents. The plan was that tomorrow, they'd start their day with some aerial sightseeing and go from there.

Originally the workers in the hanger and then the airport manager had given them wilderness tips and advice, but that had run down sort of humorously after Sandy and Ray identified themselves as members of the Onöndowága nation. 'Like selling ice to Eskimos!' Ray joked later. Then they were warned that there were bear, wolves and moose around, and an unexpectedly high number of wildcats had been spotted this summer. And apparently there were rumors that the windingo seemed restless...

"What's a windingo?" Krista wanted to know as they started their hike.

"An Algonquian legend, a wild man-shaped animal, larger than a man, covered in shaggy hair, who lives in the wilderness - walks upright on two legs so it's not a bear. A lot people think it's a legend, a lot of us don't." It was clear what Sandy thought! "But no one has ever seen one face to face or captured one," she explained further.

Ray followed with: "They are supposed to be shy and avoid humans; besides, with our powers, any one of us should be able to handle one. I'm way more worried about protecting them than protecting us from them!" He and Sandy gave them many more details about windingos as they hiked.

The airport was bordered by woods to the north and they could see the area they had chosen to head for, the Adirondacks High Peaks, some of the highest peaks on the East Coast of North America - so they just headed directly from the airport to the woods. As soon as they were out of sight, Ned broke out two special hiking staffs he had created at Krista's suggestion; the bottom ends were standard but they had sockets at the top so that the hilts of their Stellar Specters could be inserted into the staffs, so they would always have their special tools available as they hiked. Ned had never done much outdoor stuff as a kid and had been obsessing about predators and falling and getting lost until she pointed out this simple solution. Since then, he'd been much more excited about the trip. It was one of the things that exasperated her about him - he was an inventive genius, but sometimes he didn't seem to have the common sense to see simple solutions to simple problems!

Near the airport the trekking was pretty easy - there was an old, overgrown logging road running in the general direction they wanted to go. But the woods grew thicker and the terrain more rugged as they got deeper into the mountain range and although they found an occasional game trail headed their way, they were usually pushing through thick underbrush, climbing over downed trees, going around large boulders, and occasionally climbing or descending very steep hillsides and some actual cliffs. By the time they reached the gorge that was their initial destination, Krista was exhausted and Ray and Sandy weren't far behind. Because of his super strength and endurance, Ned fared better than his companions - but he really didn't like fighting his way across the landscape, so he may have used the Stellar Scepter to make his climbs a little easier - though he would never admit it!

"Definitely going to be doing a lot of sightseeing from the air tomorrow!" was their happy consensus as they set up a camp site for the night.

Before they set up their tents in a small clearing at the top of the ravine, both Ray and Sandy changed to their Stormbird forms. The change took about a second, and it was perhaps similar to watching film develop in a darkroom - the air around the two seemed to blur and then their new features sort of faded into view - first their almost transparent mighty wings, then feathers faded in to cover the wings and their bodies, and finally their noses and mouths were replaced by sharp curved raptor beaks, then some buckskin clothing formed from the air, and then they were solid again, looking like personifications of the Thunderbird clan from Haudenosaunee legends!

"We're going to make sure there are no large predators around who might be interested in having us for dinner," Rain Bird announced. Her voice was a bit eerie - it seemed to come from the air in front of her face rather than her beak, and somehow when she spoke they sensed a light rain; the Quests knew she could shriek much louder than a striking hawk when she wanted to. The two took to the air with a whoosh, gentling their wing strokes - again, the Quests knew that the wings of these mighty heroes could produce thunder louder than the loudest thunder ever produced by lightning when they felt it appropriate.

The pair swooped around, performing joyous acrobatics and stunts while probing the nearby landscape with their mystical senses. Meanwhile Ned and Krista prepared a campsite, using their Stellar Scepters to ease some of the tasks, such as scooping a fire pit and latrine, and gathering stones to line them. Krista noted with amusement that it wasn't until all the boring work was done that the Stormbirds returned with information about the local area.

"There's a crevice partway up the wall of the chasm that's home to a family of bobcats - a pair of mature adults, two young adults from last year's litter who are just about ready to strike out on their own, and two very young bobkits from this year who are just learning to hunt. I 'talked' to mama and papa and suggested it would be a good idea to stay away from the strangers at the rim, so they shouldn't bother us tonight. A pair of bears not far away, but they had a successful deer hunt today so they aren't hunting now; as long as we don't bother them, they should leave us alone," Stormbird reported. "We should be good for the night."

Ned wasn't going to doubt his friends, but he'd brought his own safety net as well. He was always tinkering with improvements to his Stellar Scepter; when he'd been preparing for this trip (and after Kris suggested he stick to simple solutions!) he'd implemented a new experimental feature that he could test on the trip. He could order the Scepter to create and maintain indefinitely a very weak force field which he could expand to encompass the entire camp site. It would not stop anything from passing through it - but it would detect anything larger than a racoon passing through it, and activate an alarm in his Lambda helmet, as well as a small buzzer he could carry with him or tuck under his pillow as Ned.

They had dinner and sat around a fire as the sun set, telling stories. Ray and Sandy talked about growing up on an Onöndowága reservation near the Finger Lakes, and the many legends of their people. Krista had some ghost stories from when she was a Girl Scout, and Ned talked about some of the amazing astronomical discoveries he'd made. The fire was extinguished, the campsite tidied up, they crawled into their tents and sleeping bags, and they all slept through sunrise the next morning!

[DocQuantum]

Good start. I’m glad you didn’t do much of a preamble before the vacation could begin. Set in that time people were expecting the war to end any day now.

[dans]

Nov 21, 2023 5:51:49 GMT DocQuantum said:

Good start. I’m glad you didn’t do much of a preamble before the vacation could begin. Set in that time people were expecting the war to end any day now.

Thanks, I figured that from the way you guys responded in the other thread. But I did cut the round trip travel time down so they could get right to vacation and relaxation. I had to move one other story in the Eorth time line to accommodate, but it really fit better in 1946 than 1945, so that worked out well too. 

[dans]

Wings and Stars, An Adirondack Vacation

Today's Goal

"So, you've been hinting about a mysterious goal ever since we started planning this trip! Time to reveal the big secret!" Krista insisted to Sandy as the took down their tents and cleaned up their site.

"The only thing I'll give away right now is that I want us to find a valley that is uninhabited by humans, almost totally surrounded by mountains and the only easy way in or out is by flying. Maybe a good sized pond or small lake for fishing. Definitely some place none of us could possibly be familiar with! And someplace within about fifty miles or so - Ray and I will need our strength for what I've got planned for later!"

"Which way?" Ned asked curiously.

"No idea," she shook her head. "You choose!"

He was a little surprised by this, but pleased that once again he was in charge of their destination. He pondered an instant, then pointed a little east of north. "OK - that way!"

They flew for an hour at a leisurely pace for the Stormbirds, with a lot of diversions, but always tending north-north-east. The scenery was spectacular - a thriving temperate forest in a spectacular mountain range, with ice caps, awesome rocky cliffs, sheltered valleys, streams and rivers from small to large with gorges and ravines and white water, raging rapids, beautiful waterfalls, place ponds and lakes... The wildlife was equally diverse and spectacular - they saw bears and moose, several herds of deer, beavers, a pack of wolves, thousands of birds of hundreds of species, and while they did see signs, they saw nary another human.

Dr. Lambda was continually zooming up and down and roaming far ahead, while Krista and the Stormbirds flew much more sedately together, and then he zoomed back to them excitedly. "I found it! The perfect spot!" He eagerly led them several miles, and as they flew through a pass, a beautiful isolated high mountain valley was revealed - it was perhaps a thousand feet above sea level, with the mountains around it rising perhaps another 3000 feet. Run-off from the moutains collected in a small lake in the valley, and a single river flowed through a gorge that grew deeper until finally it ended in a spectacular waterfall outside the ring of peaks surrounding the valley. From high above, they surveyed the valley, and one and all proclaimed it 'perfect' - though Sandy still reused to reveal her mystery. "After lunch!"

They landed in a clearing near the lake, scaring away dozens of animals, which only slowly began to come back as they got used to the non-threatening presence of the intruders. Once again, they set up a camp, this time intended to last a couple of days... "Once Sandy lets us off the hook, this looks like a great place to explore on foot!" And finally camp was set up and lunch was completed. Still being mysterious, Sandy insisted that they must move to the other side of their small lake where they gathered round her, anxiously awaiting the great reveal...

The Rules

"We're going to play Sky Tag!" she exclaimed, and ignored the various expressions of let down the others made. "I've been thinking about this for a while. As you know, we don't have any formal membership requirements for the Alliance except for unanimous approval from all current members. Nor do we have any training requirements, though we frequently train together. I've been thinking of a way to test (and train) fliers, and I thought since all of us are fliers, and you guys..." she indicated Ned and Krista... "are totally different types of fliers than we are, I thought I'd see if I could think up something that would test us equally. And I think I've got it: Sky Tag!"

"We'll play for a while and then we can all suggest changes, but here's how we'll start off." She opened a hand and started counting on her fingers as she explained the rules.

"Because your Stellar Scepters allow you Lambdas to fly faster than our wings, we play in a restricted area that favors maneuverability and agility over speed. So the boundaries here are the mountains surrounding the valley themselves; you can’t fly out of the valley."

"And you can’t hide out down in the trees when you’re not IT. You have to stay well above the tallest tree."

"No other powers but flight are allowed during the game. So you guys can't use force fields to keep from being tagged, and none of us can use our powers to interfere with the flying of anyone else."

"Whoever is IT has to actually touch one of the others, who then becomes IT. Tags only count if they are made with your free hand or your Scepter; collisions and even kicks don’t count as tags. If you’re IT, and you collide with someone, you’re not allowed to tag that person next, but must pick someone else."

"When you are tagged you become IT and you get a point. Whoever has the lowest score at the end of the game wins."

She had run out of fingers and thumbs, so she stopped and looked around; everyone else was quiet and thoughtful as they mentally examined the rules, trying to determine what advantages they might have. "Any questions?"

Ned could see a number of loopholes; he decided to keep most of them to himself, but raised one. "Suppose Krista and I just zoom up so high you two can't reach us?"

"Geez, Louise, Ned! Can't you ever just have fun?!" Ray squawked his mocking laughter.

"Well, actually, he sometimes DOES have his moments," Krista confirmed, then blushed shyly when everyone turned to stare at her!

"Whatever... for today's game, then, no higher than the highest peak around the valley," Sandy pointed out the peak she was referring to. Ned estimated that it stood about 3000 feet above the floor of their chosen valley; that gave them all plenty of room to maneuver.

"Shouldn't we really be doing an exercise that tests and trains our powers as well as our just our ability to fly?" That was Ned again.

"Don't be so pedantic, Ned - we'll come up with exercises like that later. But let's see who wins at tag first. Krista, you're IT first. The rest of us get a 10 second head start. GO!"

They went!

The Game

Dr. Lambda zoomed upward with a slight whoosh of displaced air. Though they took flight more slowly, the Stormbirds' launch was much more impressive. Normally the Stormbirds gentled their power when they took flight, to avoid damage to anyone or anything nearby. But in this open meadow, with only the super powered Lady Lambda close to them, they unleashed their full power.

With a magically amplified battle cry of "Stormbirds, AWAY!", powerful strokes of their majestic wings lifted them into the air... terrifying shrieks like raptors attacking their prey was accompanied by tremendous rumbles of thunder as loud as a volcano erupting and a powerful burst of wind unmatched by any natural storm!

It was like being at the center of a powerful explosion! The audio transducer in Lady Lambda's helmet saved her ears, but the buffet of air struck her like a slap from a giant, sending her tumbling backward. Although her built-in shock absorber (see The Return of Dr. Boom) saved her from serious injury, she didn't stop until she hit a nearby tree. Even Dr. Lambda, already a couple of hundred feet high, was knocked around and sent tumbling head over heels through the sky before he could order the Stellar Scepter to get his flight under control again!

"That alone was worth the entire trip!" Stormbird exulted with enthusiasm over the AMH communicators (a Ned Quest invention they all wore) while Thunderbird was whooping and cheering like he'd just scored the winning goal in the Haudenosaunee Nation Tewaaraton Championships ('the Little Brother of War', also known as lacrosse). The Lambdas were awed at the hidden power their friends had just displayed, as they'd come to think of them as 'flying people who can talk to birds and shoot lightning from their eyes, yawn'... but they now had to see their friends with new eyes!

"Glad you didn't do that the first time you showed us your powers in my living room!" Lady Lambda noted from above. "We aren't ready to demolish the mansion yet!"

"Sorry for knocking you around like that, but we knew you could handle it!" Storm Bird didn't _sound_ sorry! "We don't get to cut loose like that very often!"

"Lucky for the bad guys!" Ned still sounded a bit awestruck. "And those of the rest of us who don't have shock absorbers!" He had so far refused to add the shock-absorber feature to his own gear, preferring to depend on his enhanced strength and endurance (though Krista would say 'because he's too stubborn to adopt a suggestion from a girl!') but he decided he would add it as soon as they got home!

The Stormbirds were racing toward the southern end of the valley when the ten seconds were up, though Lady Lambda couldn't immediately see her partner, so she gave chase. She thought her speed might catch them off guard, but an instant before she reached them, they drew apart and she zoomed between them and missed both. Since they were nearby, she decided she would chase Thunderbird... It took patience to stalk him - he was far more maneuverable than she, and his spiritually-enhanced reactions were MUCH faster than hers, but she was faster - and when moving slowly, her ability to accelerate instantly in any direction by pointing the Scepter that way eventually allowed her to zag when he zagged. He tried dropping like a stone, but she slapped him on top the head before he could fall out of reach.

"You're IT!" he yelled in triumph.

The three paused to orient themselves to the changed situation - and as they all scanned the sky, none of them could immediately locate Ned.

"So what's up - the Doctor doesn't deign to make house calls?" Lady Lambda challenged the airwaves sarcastically. "We flew all the way up here and now you're not going to be part of the fun?"

Before Dr. Lambda could respond, Thunderbird (with 'eyes like an eagle') spotted him miles away at the far northern end of the valley - and down at the tree line, at that! "You too good for the rules, Doc?" he demanded. "Well, whatever - you're going to be IT next!" and he zoomed away northward, trailed by Storm Bird and Lady Lambda.

"Sorry, I got distracted. There's a cave up here!"

"Sorry, nothin'!!" Stormbird responded. "We'll check it out after, it's probably been there for hundreds of thousands of years - so it will still be there when we're finished. New Rule: Stay within a half mile of the lake - measure by eye, on the honor system!"

"Yes,m! Sorry, ma'am!" Nick quipped back, sounding embarrassed. "On my way, ma'am!" They could see him coming closer.

'OK, Lambda, show me what you got!' Thunderbird murmured to himself, deciding on his target. He headed toward Dr. Lambda at his top speed, determined to teach this spoilsport a lesson! He wasn't faster than Dr. Lambda, but he made use of the shape of the valley to herd him into the narrow end, where a stream ran out of the lake and over the waterfall. With Dr. Lambda finally obeying the location rules, he was getting closer and closer to a tag, and Lambda was running out of room to dodge. Then suddenly Dr. Lambda turned toward Thunderbird, dived suddenly as TBird was getting ready to zoom off to one side or another, and attempted to fly beneath him.

"Gotcha!" Thunderbird yelled excitedly and put all his power into diving after his prey. There was no way Lambda could escape - Thunderbird magic gave him powers based on raptors, and there was no equals to a raptor stopping on prey! He shrieked a primitive hunting call as he dove - and then he realized that Lambda was 'below the hard deck'!

"You can't get away that way, you CHEATER!" he yelled in anger, and he flew downward even harder, determined that no matter what, he would make this tag. He putting every ounce of power he had into the dive, and as Dr. Lambda cleaved into the water Thunderbird folded his wings back and ducked his head and arrowed into the lake after his foe without slowing. Lambda had assumed he had escaped, at least for now, so he had leveled out about 10' down. He was sunned when Thunderbird slapped the top of his helmet!

"YOU'RE IT!" Thunderbird laughed his satisfaction into his communicator. "There are raptors who DIVE, too! I never pegged you as a cheater, though." He added his disappointment.

"Rain Bird specified that the hard deck was above the highest tree - but we're not above any trees here, are we?" Dr. Lambda replied. "I just tried to take advantage of a loophole - but you won anyway!"

There was laughter from their teammates above them, then Rain Bird decided: "This game isn't as fun as I thought it would be. How about if we declare me and Kris the winners, and you guys both lose, and we go explore that cave Ned found? We'll think about the rules before we play again - and Ned has to promise to stop being a spoilsport!"

Of course, Ned and Ray complained about not getting a fair chance to even the score with their female partners, but they had no chance of winning _that_ argument. And exploring a cave sounded like fun!

[dans]

Wings and Stars, An Adirondack Vacation

Uh OH!

"Ned, I can't believe you are such a spoilsport! Can't you just get into the spirit of the game?" Krista was stern.

"I never really learned how to play games growing up," he replied a little sadly. "I always got picked last as a kid, and sometimes they'd rather play shorthanded than have me on their team. But... I thought I WAS playing by being clever about the loopholes - and I DID give Ray another chance to show off! I never knew there were birds that hunted _underwater_!"

"He's not _totally_ wrong, Kris," Sandy spoke in defense of her friend. "We are still trying to figure out the rules, so we can use Sky Tag as a testing exercise when we are trying out new heroes for the Alliance. Of course, we don't want to have TOO many rules or close ALL the loopholes - it will be interesting to see how clever our prospective members will be."

"So, there's the cave," Thunderbird pointed at a partially obscured opening next to a pond at the base of a small waterfall in the deep, narrow ravine. "Must be a pretty wet year up this way - I'll bet that this late in most summers, the stream would be dried up." He considered for a while, as they flew closer. "I'd say, it was used fairly regularly not too long ago, but has been abandoned for a couple of years. Should be interesting to see what's in there. But Sandy and I will have to change before we go in; the entrance isn't really big enough for our wings."

"It's my cave; I get to go in first!" Ned insisted, and flew a little bit ahead of the others. There really wasn't much room near the entrance, so the others had to hover in the air as he landed, commanded his Stellar Scepter to work as a flashlight, and hurried in. Krista was nearest the small ledge fronting the cave, so she landed and went in second, more cautiously than her husband. And what she saw a few feet into the small cave alarmed her!

"Ned! It may be a TRAP! You broke a...!" Lady Lambda started to warn her partner. But it was too late, the trap was sprung! A massive explosion somewhere in the tunnel blasted Dr. Lambda out of the cave like a cannonball, and he slammed into Lady Lambda and drove the two of them back and they crashed into the wall across the pond and then fell into the small pond. There was some ejecta which flew out after them, shattering against the wall and then falling into the pond on top the heroes.

"We'd better get them out in a hurry!" Storm Bird urged her partner. "It looks like the cliff above them is about to give way!"

The pond wasn't very deep; Dr. Lambda groggily shoved his hands to the bottom to try and push off the body of his partner, but they slipped in the muck and instead of lifting himself, he slipped and fell back onto her again. She'd been better protected than he, and commanded her own Stellar Scepter to lift them both straight up. A very good idea, as a couple of seconds later, tons of stone and rocks and dirt and vegetation crashed down from the cliff above, filling the pond. The water rushing over the falls, totally unperturbed by this new obstacle, immediately started turning it into a series of scenic cascades for the next visitors to the valley!

"I apologize, guys, but I've had enough games for today, I think," Krista radioed her friends. "Let's get back to camp and see if Ned's OK - and then spend the rest of the day as plain ordinary campers!" She cradled Ned in her arms (letting her Scepter carry his weight!) and led the way back to the tents.

Ned was battered and bruised all over and possibly had some cracked ribs, but even without the added protection of Lady Lambda's shock absorbers (which he privately promised himself he would add to his own gear as soon as possible), his injuries were nothing his alien-enhanced physiology couldn't handle with a long rest. As he became less groggy, he realized his left hand was clenched around something. He hadn't picked it up in the cave - it must be something he grabbed out of the muck on the stream bed. He was curious - and also, he thought ruefully that whatever it was, it would be a good souvenir to contemplate in the future about the old saying about 'fools rushing in'.

"I want to give both me and a Ned bath before we land, if he's up to it," Kris warned her teammates. "Ned, activate your helmet's face shield and I'll duck us both in the lake, if it's OK with you!"

"Just be gentle, dear! None of your usual rough stuff!" he said, a bit weakly as his shield slid down - totally covering his face and providing breathable atmosphere in hostile environments.

"Why Nederlandscher Bracegirdle Quest, how DARE you!" she snapped, embarrassed. "You'll pay for that!" And partial payment came right away as she swooped down to about six feet above the lake and dropped him!

Meanwhile, the Stormbirds were laughing at her embarrassment - and chuckling about his name as both Lambdas splashed down. "Nederlandscher? I always thought you were a Nathan!" "Bracegirdle? There must be one heck of a story behind that!"

"Long story," Ned agreed wearily. "Can I tell it some other time? I need a rest!" His rapid healing ability conferred by the alien med that had given him his super powers was a blessing, and it had saved his life more than once in the past - but even for fairly minor stuff like bruises over every inch of his body and cracked ribs, it required a high expenditure of energy over a short time. And he would be ravenous when he awakened.

"Yes, indeed, nappie nap time for little Neddie!" Krista cooed sweetly. "I'll make you a nice snackie snack for later while you sleep." It was his turn to be embarrassed!

What's an Onyare'kowa?

Ned figured he was clutching a small stone; he could hope that it was a garnet or agate, maybe even a nugget of gold. When he finally examined it in the privacy of his tent (Kris didn't need a nap...) he discovered... a ring! "What an AMAZING coincidence!" he thought in wonder. 'We've flown in a randomly selected direction for over a hundred miles to get to smack dab the middle of nowhere! And I wouldn't have even been NEAR that stream if the cave hadn't exploded. The probability that a handful of gunk I grabbed at random from the bottom of a stream, and a ring someone dropped in the mountains who knows when just happened to be in that gunk?" He was incredulous as he examined it more closely.

The ring sort of looked like he felt just now, old and battered and more than a little weary... he couldn't immediately identify the material, though it was a dull almost-flesh tone color and much heavier than he expected, even if it had been gold or lead. 'Maybe it's uranium?'' he thought in mild alarm, and quickly used the Geiger counter function of his Scepter to determine that it was not radioactive. He tried to buff it a bit with his pillowcase, but it remained dull and mostly unreflective. It seemed to be close to his size, so he slipped it onto the ring finger of his right hand. It was a perfect fit! He determined to analyze it when he got back to the lab, and then almost immediately fell asleep.

Kris insisted she had to prepare a good-sized meal for Ned when he awakened - she'd nursed him through his self-healing process more than once before! They decided the whole crew would have a mid-afternoon lunch and make plans for the rest of their vacation then. Ray stayed to help her make enough for all four of them, while Stormbird flew back to the cave to do some cautious investigating. She was gone around an hour or so, making reports back to them every few minutes. When Ned awakened, they called her back - "Make it quick or he'll eat yours, too!" Kris had warned her.

"The pond is half filled, and that beautiful little waterfall is gone forever," she reported sadly. "I was right, the cliff above the cave did partially collapse. It will take a pretty major excavation job to investigate that cave any further - assuming there's still any of the cave left to investigate!" Then curiously, "So Nederlandscher - you have a story to tell us?"

"Umm... what say we try some canoeing? Lake Champlain is less than an hour away, even if we take it easy." He clearly wanted to change the subject.

"I wouldn't mind some canoeing," Ray noted. 

"We're not far from Lake Champlain," Ned repeated.

"Nope, nope, nope! Quick! Somebody who is NOT Ned decide where we're going next!" Sandy shook her head. "I don't want to end up dinner for an Onyare'kowa!!" Ned and Krista both looked puzzled. "That's the Algonquian name for Lake Champlain's resident lake monster - and with Ned's luck, we'll all end up as dinner!"

Finally - a Real Vacation!

The next day, the Lambdas flew back to Lake Placid and as the Quests, they rented a pickup for several days, then rented a pair of canoes for the same amount of time, and then drove the canoes to a secluded place, and as the Lambdas again, carried the truck and canoes back to their campsite. The foursome spent a very relaxing week - they switched off between 'portaging' their canoes to different rivers outside their 'home' valley, and days spent flying and sightseeing, and days spent hiking. For a day they speculated about who had booby-trapped the cave, and Sandy decided she'd bring it up with Dr. Aeon after they got back, as she could probably investigate more easily using magic than any of the other members of the AMH could using technology or super human muscle power, and then the speculation died away...

Every night, Sandy had spent a few minutes on the AMH communicator with Ensign Parker, the Chief Communication Officer assigned to duty at the Alliance of Mystery Heroes HQ back on the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland, for a report on the day's activities. To her relief, Wayfarer and the rest of the AMH heroes had handled everything easily and their vacation had remained uninterrupted. 

"Darryl has everything back at the Alliance under control," she had reported to her friends every evening.

"I'll bet after he takes your job, he decides to run for office!" Krista joked to Sandy.

"'Takes my job' _nothing_ - I'm ready to give it to him!" she replied seriously. "Nothin' but headaches."

Finally, they packed up their camping gear, restored the campsite to pristine condition, loaded everything in the pickup, and the Lambdas carried the car back to a secluded road not far from Lake Placid. They returned the canoes, while raving about their expedition, then turned in the truck and then they walked back to the airport. The plane was in perfect condition, and Krista flew them back to Buffalo, where the AMH maintained a private hanger. They said their goodbyes, then Kris and Ned flew back to Marble City... and rested and relaxed, the four returned to their everyday lives!