Adventure on Founder's Day!

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 1

May 14th was Founders Day, a sacred holiday on Grimm Island. Early every Founders Day since the founding of Grimoire Academy, the entire faculty, staff and student body of Grimoire Academy met for a short Ceremony of Remembrance, led by Gareth Gallowglass, for the seven members of the Sentinels of Magic who had died many years ago today protecting the world from an invasion of demons and monsters who were planning to use Grim Island as a gateway for the legions of Hell to Earth 2. The ceremony was held in Sentinel Memorial Park, where the attendees stood in respectful silence surrounded by magnificent, larger-than-life statues of the departed heroes, created by Gallowglass only days after his teammates had died in battle.

Adam Frankenstein, who had been with Grimoire Academy for several decades, reflected that the ceremony had changed in nature since the recent end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, after which Gallowglass had decided to play a more active role in the affairs of his school and had assumed the position of Headmaster. The services since then had become even more somber and a little longer, though they still finished in plenty of time for everyone to enjoy a care-free afternoon holiday. Several of the members of the Academy hailed from Earths destroyed in that multi-universal Crisis and Headmaster Gallowglass now made it a point to remember all of their worlds as well as his honored teammates. He had used his powers to create some new monuments, one for each of the destroyed worlds called home by any past or present employee, student or alumni of the Academy. Even though most of the students and perhaps most of the staff and faculty were restless with eager anticipation of their upcoming afternoon holiday, the audience was almost silent. Gallowglass demanded respectful quiet during his remembrance.

Atom Blake, one of the more unusual members of the fifth year class, could barely keep from squirming. He was having visitors today. He could hardly wait to show off his newest model airplanes, and the three then planned to go flying so Atom could show off the latest aerial maneuvers he'd learned in his 'Advanced Applied Magic' course. Then they were going to hit the beach, and he'd even received permission to bring them to this evening's feast. He hoped that showing them off would shut up some of the other students who constantly mocked him about his apparent age of six and his small size.

Though he was often infuriated at the scorn of these fellow students, there wasn't much Atom could do about it. He couldn't physically fight them: at just under 4 feet tall and weighing less than 50 pounds, even the scrawniest of his mockers was at least 20 inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than he. Although he was a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, that kind of size and strength advantage was just too much to overcome, regardless of his skill and training. And even though his magic was generally superior to even those advanced students in the classes above his, the Academy had strong strictures and powerful magical wards to prevent students from using magic against other students. He really didn't want to be expelled! So he took small victories where he could: always standing at the top of the Dean's list, and regularly winning every magical competition on Magic Field Day. And he was the best flier in the school! And today, when his tormentors got a look at his visitors, their reactions would be the best of all! At the very least, they would be _green_ with jealousy!

One of his most frequent tormentors, Harry Flashman the Fifth, a seventh-year student from one of the destroyed Earths, apparently needed another reminder of the solemnity of the Founders Remembrance Ceremony. He surreptitiously jabbed one of his classmates with an elbow and whispered something, with a malicious smirk on his face, sure that his position far from the podium where Gallowglass stood would prevent detection of his rules violation - but no such luck. The Headmaster stopped speaking for just the barest instant, glared at Harry and impaled him with an invisible beam from his single, icy blue right eye, and his almost irresistible reality-warping powers froze the young man in place. Harry would not be able to move again until some time after the ceremony was over, and Atom had heard rumors that during the time such an unfortunate was frozen, he or she might experience some unpleasant bodily sensations. It was reminder to everyone nearby to take the ceremony seriously.

Atom stood a little straighter and to keep from fidgeting, he focused his attention on another seventh-year student, Olga Prescott, who was standing nearby. Olga was sturdy and rumored to be much stronger than most of the guys in her class, with curly hair, classical facial features and just barely perceptible points on her ears. She was also from one of the destroyed universes, and the rumor was that she had been the several-times-removed descendant of a former Queen of Venus in her universe. She was following a curriculum for prospective secret agents, though of course the agency that originally had sponsored her no longer existed.

Olga was very popular with the boys in the older classes; Atom had heard that her personality had seemingly changed radically after everything she had once known had been destroyed, and she was much more inclined to risky behavior now than she had been before. He found her to be very attractive and was quite incredibly mentally and emotional conflicted about her. "Girls are ICKY!" six year old Atom insisted. "Boy, is she HOT HOT HOT!" the young man he'd been before being cursed responded emphatically. "Damn it, Blake, you're old enough to be her GRANDfather!" That was 63 years of life experience trying to shout down the other two. He really HAD to find the cure for this damn curse!!

Finally the ceremony ended, as all ceremonies eventually do. A line formed of people who wanted to pay their personal respects directly to Gallowglass; others streamed away to the various recreations they had planned for the day. A group of male students, many of them dedicated Atom-haters, gathered around the frozen figure of Harry Flashman and debated how to bring the temporary statue with them. One of them, who Atom recognized as Devin Burgess, who he thought was maybe third year, was insisting that they just leave Flashman behind. Atom really didn't care what Harry or any of those other guys did. Instead, he hurried off to the Visitor Center, eager to greet his guests.

Atom hurried toward the big building called the Bell Tower, a very tall square tower that stood in the middle of a large glade of trees. Just below the pointed roof of the tower, high above even the tallest tree, each of the four faces ended in a large clock face, each of which had numbers but no hands. The brick building from which the tower arose was the size of a medieval cathedral. Inside the spacious entrance lobby, Atom made a beeline through a dozen or so strangers and greeted his guests, two beautiful blonde women, one tall and slender and looking like a model, the other a little shorter, looking like perhaps a professional tennis player, both dressed casually in t-shirts and jean shorts. "Miss Alex! Miss Carol! You came!" The other people in the lobby all smiled or chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Or course we came!" "Lookin' good, Blake!" the two replied with equal enthusiasm, as the tiny missile collided with his much larger targets, and the collision quickly evolved into a heap of swapped hugs. Before the eager 'what have you done since I saw you last' story swap began, a thin man with bushy white brows, long thin white hair combed up and back to cover his bald spot above a long nose and long face set in a disapproving expression, hurried into the room and addressed them.

"Welcome to Grimoire Academy, visitors," he began, not sounding particularly welcoming. "My name is Simon Belmont." He paused and swept his gaze across the group. "Before you will be allowed to leave the Visitor Center and wander our campus and Grim Island, there is a mandatory introduction and orientation for all visitors. There are some dangerous areas on the Island, and a number of restricted areas on campus, and some rules and restrictions you must be aware of, for the sake of your own safety. Violations of these restrictions will result in your immediate expulsion and return to your home world. Please follow me." He turned away, then turned back again. "I'll answer your first question now. All visitors MUST receive the orientation, regardless of whether you have visited Grimoire Academy before. The dangers of the Island are not static, and the restricted areas on our campus may have changed since your last visit." He turned away and stalked into a smaller room opening off of the lobby.

"It only takes 20 minutes or so; I'll meet you outside when you're done," Atom reassured his friends.

"Do you know it there's a test, Atom?" Alex asked with a grin, shaking her head at Belmont's demeanor; then the two ladies turned to follow Belmont into the smaller conference room as Atom headed out the door.

[DocQuantum]

I haven't read this yet, but I should let you know that Chrissie's Books of Magic stories do take place throughout the full school year of 1988. I don't think I've published the ones that go through May yet, but I'll look and see if there's anything to watch out for.

[dans]

I left out the year, so it could be in 1989. I might have to change the year of some of the students from third to fourth, but that isn't a big deal... on the other hand, I don't expect anything in my stories will conflict with Chrissie's stories - I am only using the established characters peripherally and don't expect to introduce any major changes to any of these characters.

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 2

Atom was sitting on the steps in front of the Bell Tower when he heard a boisterous group approaching along the wide magically-maintained Tower Pathway that led from the main Grimoire campus to the Bell Tower and then continued north, giving access to the interior of Grim Island beyond the Academy bounds. He overheard a shouted reference to the Rip Roaring River. It sounded like a challenge and that drew his interest, so put his hands to his ears and wiggled his fingers in a complex pattern, and now he could hear the conversation as if he were part of the group. He instantly recognized the voice of Harry Flashman the Fifth. Atom was going to go inside and try to avoid what he knew would be an unpleasant encounter with the approaching group, but Harry Five was boasting about this afternoon's planned adventure, a rafting trip down the Rip Roaring River, beginning in the Stainless Steel Mountains on the northeast section of the island. (These mountains were named for the Stainless Steel Cat, one of the heroes from the Sentinels of Magic who had died on the original Founders Day in 1948.) The Rip Roaring River was mostly Class V whitewater, with some Class VI stretches, as it raced through the narrow and deep Big Rip Canyon to eventually disgorge into Bakunawa Lake, the biggest body of fresh water on Grim Island.

Atom had recently completed the "Introduction to Grim Island" seminar which was normally given to entering First Year students, and the adventure Harry was boasting about would definitely be dangerous. Atom had never been able to ignore people in peril. Although he was certain what the outcome would be, he had to say something...

The approaching group included mostly 6th and 7th Year students, both male and female, with Harry Five leading the way and Olga Prescot at his side. He also recognized his fellow Fifth Year students Oliver Polliwog and Hallie Twinkle; he could probably have named a few of the others if he'd been willing to think about it for a while.

"Hey, look, it's the shrimp!" Oliver pointed at him. "Hey, Shrimp, watcha doin' up here? Gonna spend the day with Belmont? What a bookworm!"

"We've got a real adventure planned, way too scary for a teacher's pet, little boy!" Hallie added scornfully. The others laughed.

"I have plans," Atom responded, anger in his high pitched voice. Hallie laughed loudly. Atom fought down his growing rage - he'd known this was going to happen. He ignored the others and turned to Harry Five.

"Harry, I heard you mention the Rip Roaring River... you know it's so dangerous that it's off limits to students, right?"

Before Harry could reply, Olga responded disdainfully. "So, you're scared to take a chance, little boy? I KNEW all that crap I read about how you used to be a spaceman and a big brave super hero was so much hogwash and fairy tales! I can't believe they even let you in here after you gave them a bunch of lies like that!" She grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him along the path. "Let's go, Harry. There's no need to talk to this lying timid little boy any more!"

When Harry followed along, the rest of the group fell in behind them and they walked away, spewing loud and caustic noises, followed faithfully by their magical equipment cart. Just before they turned the next corner, Atom flicked a finger towards the ground below the distant Harry and smiled in savage satisfaction when the older student tripped and fell. While Harry was scrabbling to get up, Atom made a snipping motion with the first two fingers of his other hand, this time pointing at Harry's head. A locket of Harry's hair was snipped off and it floated back to Atom's hand. He quickly put it into a small pouch that he stuck in a pocket. Then he just stood and stared, a few tears leaking from his tiny black eyes as the group rounded the bend and disappeared.

Atom was devastated by the rude behavior and comments from his fellow students, and stunned by Olga's knowledge. The only person at the Academy who was supposed to know Atom's history was Gareth Gallowglass and Atom couldn't imagine Headmaster Gallowglass would give away his secret. There was no way Olga should know that - and yet, now it seemed as if EVERYONE did. But it didn't seem that there was anything he could do about it. He couldn't hold back the sobs any longer, and tears were gushing from his eyes as he turned bravely back to the massive double doors of the Bell Tower. He wanted nothing more than to fly back to his room and hide for the rest of the day while he figured out some powerful spell to punish his tormentors, so WHAT if he got kicked out?! But he did have guests waiting for him.

"Wow, Atom, those guys are COLD!" Carol commented, sympathy evident in her voice. His guests had apparently witnessed at least part of the painful encounter. "Is it always like that? What a snotty bunch of kids!"

'STOP IT, Atom! Big boys don't cry!' Atom scolded himself sternly in his thoughts, and made a supreme effort, calling on all his mental strength and everything he'd learned about self-control over his 63 years, and forced the tears to stop, at least for now, though his body was still occasionally wracked by a shudder or a sob.

"I don't know a lot of kids here yet," he said through the sniffles he was trying desperately to stop. "Most of them have been at Grimoire for years, and the class groups tend to keep together - and it's hard to make friends like that, especially since I'm so different. Kerry Drake and Ann Morgan in my year, and some of the younger kids like Tim Hunter and his friends, are OK, though nobody really wants to hang around with a baby like me. I try to forgive Harry and Olga because their worlds were destroyed in the Crisis, and I kinda know how that feels, you know, 'cause a lot of my world got destroyed when I got cursed and stuck being a baby." He bowed his head and rubbed his eyes with his closed fists. Then he looked up and pronounced sternly: "But some of the other kids are just plain MEAN!"

"Hey, we're done with orientation," Alex changed the subject. "Aren't you supposed to show us some of your new model planes? I've been looking forward to that!" she said enthusiastically. "And I'm really looking forward to playing sky tag after." He smiled at that; sky tag was his favorite game, and his best chance to show off. "So, let's GO!" Both women were suddenly surrounded by shimmering pale golden auras, slightly different in color, and they lifted gently into the air.

"Hey, wait for me!" Atom yelled, sounding almost excited, definitely an improvement over bawling. He reached toward his belt and a traveling bag appeared out of thin air; he pulled it open and pulled out a broomstick that was definitely too long for the bag, laid it on the ground and stepped across it. In a blinding flash of silvery light the broomstick morphed into a shallow flying saucer with circular cockpit in the center, covered with a transparent dome. Atom sat inside the dome, now dressed in a futuristic one piece outfit of shiny silver metallic-weave cloth. With a mental command, the saucer lifted into the air and zoomed after the flying women.

"Follow ME!" He zipped between them and zoomed off towards his dorm. The two women smiled at each other in satisfaction at his improved emotional state and then zoomed off after him.

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 3

The women appropriately oohed and aahed over Atom's new B29 SuperFortress Bomber and particularly the over 2' long scale model of the quetzalcoatlus they had encountered in Lemuria in the past not long ago. "I call him 'Atlus'," Atom told his friends.

"Well, Atlus is a lot less scary as a model than he was in real life!" Alex recalled her momentary fear when the giant flying dinosaur had dove on them from above. The real Atlus was over 30' long, almost 20' of that a snakelike neck, his mouth full of seemingly thousands of razor sharp teeth and large enough to swallow Atom in a single gulp. Zephyr's magic had turned the monster safely away from them, but Alex occasionally still saw that mouth in a bad dream!

Their appreciation of his models had lightened Atom's mood significantly, but suddenly he shook his head as he remembered something he needed to do. "Something I need to do - just take an instant," he said

Atom hurried around his crowded room, opening drawers and pulling out packets, grabbing a couple of leather pouches and a vial from some shelves and finally picking a polished palm sized ball made of transparent pink quartz from a big wooden bowl filled with a dozen globes in various sizes and materials set on a pedestal near the door. The women pretended to be examining the quetzalcoatlus but they were really watching him covertly but intensely. At his work table, he dropped the lock of Harry Five's hair into a polished granite mortar, added measured amounts of several powders and ground the mixture into a fine dust with a matching pestle. He poured some of the greenish fluid from the vial into the mortar, stirred it with his finger, then held the crystal ball in one palm while he poured the fluid over it, then rolled it around between his palms and chanted a few words in an unfamiliar language. The light in the room dimmed as he chanted, and then flared back to normal at his final emphatic Word of Command: "Xuvalu!" He then put the crystal ball into a fur-lined pouch, and tied the pouch drawstring to his belt. The whole process took less than 2 minutes and left the women mystified.

"So, Atom - what did you just create?" Alex asked with almost breathless curiosity. "You're giving me an inspiration for a new freelance proposal for Continental Geographic, maybe called 'The Mystery of Magic'. Isn't it dangerous to get that stuff all over your hands?"

"For a lot of other spells, I'd use a special wand to stir the goop, because it can be dangerous. But my touch is actually one of the components required for this spell, and this goop is probably even good for me." He changed the subject. "So are you guys ready for a little sky tag?" Atom asked eagerly. "I know just the spot. We can't play above the Academy grounds; Security would go nuts! I've got the perfect place in mind. You guys are ready, right? I'm bringing lunch, and we can stop back here after our game and pick up our beach stuff. C'mon, let's go!"

"Hold on, Mr. Excitement! I notice you've avoided the question. What's all that magic for?" Carol's detective instincts had been piqued by his evasiveness... there was something going on here that Atom didn't want to tell them!

"Aww, gee whillickers... do I haveta tell?" Atom sounded quite reluctant. Both women nodded; he sighed and continued. "Well, those guys we saw at the Bell Tower are going rafting down the Rip Roaring River to Lake Bakunawa. They don't know how dangerous that could be - they could get hurt real bad or drowned in the rapids in Big Rip Canyon or gobbled up by the Lake Monster..."

"Lake Monster? Alex interrupted in alarm. "Simon didn't tell us anything about a Lake Monster!"

"Yeah, I'm not sure anyone knows, 'cept Mr. Frankenstein, and now me, 'cause he just told me the secret. Actually, I think the Lake Monster is related to Atlus..." Atom boasted briefly, then continued shyly. "Anyway, the crystal ball will let me keep tabs on those guys. When I look into the ball, I can see whatever Harry Five sees. And if he's in danger, it will warn me." Now he looked and sounded embarrassed. "Even though they're all a bunch of jerks, I can't just let them die."

"That's AWESOME, Atom!" his friends both praised him for his concern for others, especially for others he didn't like. "You are STILL a superhero, and always will be, no matter what some stuck up teenage girl and her snooty friends have to say. And, as soon as you figure out the cure for your curse, you'll be a spaceman again too!" And of course, both women insisted on seeing the crystal ball in action. Pretending reluctance, he opened the pouch, took out the crystal and held it up in front of his eye like a monocle.

"It's working, I knew it would!" he announced in satisfaction. "Let me make it easier..." He touched the face of the crystal with his forefinger, chanted a few syllables and flicked his finger as he finished the chant with a forceful Word of Command: "Xuvalu". A pale beam flashed from the crystal and a busy outdoor scene formed in the air, floating in between the three of them.

A group of young men and women were unpacking the equipment cart that had been following Harry and Olga's group. They were on the bank of a rapidly flowing river which swept sharply downward into a deepening canyon. The surface of the river here was smooth and looked like a moving sheet of glass. It took a while to gather all that information; Harry only occasionally glanced away from the focus of his attention, Olga's tight, bright red tank top. While everyone else, including Olga, was involved in unpacking and inflating some larger rubber rafts, Harry didn't seem to be doing anything but ogling Olga, and occasionally the other women in the group.

"Typical teenage male pig," Alex was darkly amused; Carol, who had grown up in a different era, was somewhat embarrassed. Atom was having trouble concealing occasional excited yelps.

"Well, we've seen _enough_," Carol announced roughly when Harry once again focused closely on the red tank top. "I agree, that river looks dangerous. Did you see how, after it drops into the canyon, it explodes into froth and spray? So what are we going to do about it?"

"Well, we could let them drown in the white water rapids... or get eaten by the Lake Monster if they make it through the canyon..." Atom began slowly to disapproving looks from his friends as he slipped the crystal back into its pouch. "But I thought maybe we could play our game of sky tag up near the Lake so we wouldn't be far away in case the crystal alarm rings?"

His friends agreed. Once again, Atom was busy gathering and mixing components, and this time, when he finished, he threw a handful of dust over himself and his companions and there was a gentle 'poof' of displaced air as the three vanished.

And reappeared a nanosecond later in a large flat greensward, dotted with copses of trees, split by a wide, gently flowing river. "So here we are!" Atom briefly played tour guide, turning and pointing. "To the west, the Stainless Steel Mountains. The tallest peak is Black Star Mountain. They're named after members of the Sentinels of Magic, who Master Gallowglass talked about today. The Rip Roaring River is a few miles thataway..." he pointed to the northwest, "Lake Bakunawa is almost directly north of us, this is the Peaceful River and it empties out into the Pacific Ocean, and not too far over there..." pointing a little north of east, out across the Pacific to a green blur on the horizon "...is 99 Island." He eagerly changed the subject. "Here's the rules: We have to stay above the meadow, on this side of the river, and can't fly any higher than the peak of Black Star Mountain. We'll play for an hour and we count whenever a tag is made. Whoever is IT the fewest times during the hour wins! I'm IT first! Any questions?" He didn't wait. "3 2 1 GO!"

Both women rocketed into the sky with twin whoops. already surrounded by their glowing yellow auras. As they rose, they used their powers to alter their casual clothes into their action costumes, each a yellow mini-dress with white highlights and domino masks, differing mainly in the emblems on their chests, Alex's thigh high boots and Carol's short golden cape.

Atom waited a few seconds and watched them go, they waved his hand and snapped his fingers. His outfit changed until it was almost a duplicate of Captain Marvel Jr., blue and skin-tight with a red cape, except for the emblem on his chest: a stylized capital letter A with a superscript 2. "Here comes Awesome Atom, also known as Mr. Excitement!" he yelled happily as he zoomed into the air!

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 4

If the three fliers had left vapor trails, within seconds the sun in the brilliant blue sky above the meadow would have been blocked from view from below. Atom had expected this game to be easy - he was easily the best flier among all the students in Grimoire Academy, and among the faculty, only Mr. and Mrs. Martine, in their identities of Shiva and Kali, were his equals. But these women were good and they each had a couple of tricks he hadn't seem before.

The flight style of every flier Atom had encountered at Grimoire Academy had been influenced by what they had seen growing up, in comic books, the Sunday funnies, science fiction movies and TV, and most real-life flying heroes. They all flew in a horizontal position, head-first, in the direction of either an outstretched arm or the eyes of the filer, and made broad, sweeping turns, ruled by inertia. Sunbeam hadn't had these same influences in her own youth in the 1920s; she switched from head-first to feet first to sideways frequently, and could change direction virtually instantly, as her power could render her immune to inertia.

Most fliers usually maintained a healthy and generally consistent altitude; Corona bobbed up and down like an out of control yo-yo and frequently zoomed across the sward only a few feet above the ground, ignoring things in her path like boulders, trees and the occasional ridge, which her pursuers had to swerve to avoid. She could get away with this because her ring allowed her to pass through solid obstacles, a trick she'd learned from training with Green Lantern, though he usually used it only to pass through walls.

And Atom had some tricks of his own - including that his flying spell came with built in magical 'radar' that allowed him to sense things approaching him from behind, while Corona and Sunbeam were limited to using their eyes. This made it hard for whoever was currently 'It' to sneak up on him, while several times he was able to sneak up on the others.

So the game was fairly even; after a half hour the score was 14 to 13 to 11, with Corona leading. Each flier had observed the tricks of the others, and when they weren't actively pursing or evading pursuit, they were thinking about how to add these new tricks to their own bags. In the course of the game, they'd largely forgotten the rafting party; they were stunned when suddenly a very loud warning siren started blaring from the pouch at Atom's belt. The two women converged rapidly on Atom, who pulled the crystal out and projected a scene for all to see. Harry was in the river, tumbling and being jerked about as he was ripped by the powerful, fast current, bouncing off of stones and the river bottom, and occasionally his random, frantic scrambling popped his head out of the water. They could sometimes see his raft bobbling along near him, but never saw another person.

Mr. Excitement, a.ka.a Awesome Atom (at least for today!) rocketed off to the northwest at his best acceleration. "We've gotta get there FAST!", he shouted, using magic to project his announcement so his friends could hear above the roar they were making as they tore through the air at already-supersonic speeds.

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 5

A half hour into the rafting trip, the ten adventurers on one of the rafts were pretty beat up; they'd capsized twice and been battered against rocks and log jams, and Chelsea Chambers, a Seventh Year pre-med student, was pretty sure that Ethan Fuentes had some broken ribs from a collision with a giant boulder, but a tightly wrapped Ace bandage and a couple of shots of brandy had quieted him down, at least for now.

The other raft, steered by Harry, was sometimes rocked violently, and of course the passengers were drenched, but their raft had remained right side up and so far, managed to avoid the most violent collisions that had overturned the other raft. "Told you I'm GREAT at this!" Flashman boasted loudly and continuously. "Too bad those guys are stuck with Ollie Oyl at the helm!" with contempt dripping from his voice.

Oliver Polliwog was a tall skinny black-haired student with a recent homo magi ancestor, who constantly ranked near the top of the magical Power Ranking in the Fifth Year Class. Flashman the Fifth had no ability or skill to speak of at magic, but he was continually crowing about his physical and intellectual prowess and superiority to any magic user (and just about everyone else as well) in any Year's class. What he DIDN'T say was that he was carrying several potent magical charms to protect himself, and the protection of these charms extended to the raft. These charms had cost a pretty penny at The Griffin's Egg, the small magic store in Whitherward, the small town that sometimes faded into and out of existence just across the canyon of Mesmer Beck from Grimoire Academy since the school was founded in 1951. The Egg's proprietor was Lando, 'Man of Magic', a powerful sorcerer who had been the Headmaster of Grimoire Academy for a few years until he was involuntarily retired after the Crisis, when Gareth Gallowglass had assumed the role. Though the Academy officially disapproved of The Griffin's Egg, a lot of the school's students who were not magically inclined often shopped there, looking for any advantage over their powered schoolmates they could find.

Hallie Twinkle, on Ollie's raft, was lobbying to return home rather than continue their perilous adventure. Hallie wasn't normally part of Harry's clique; in fact, she was very shy and didn't have many friends at all. Her very limited magical power was often the butt of ridicule: Hallie could fly, but she was rated by far the least powerful flier at school. She could only fly very slowly, and her maximum altitude was no more than a quarter mile. But she could use her power to levitate a LOT of weight and drag it with her. It had taken almost an hour to fly all the rafters and their gear to the river head, but it had been a lot easier than hiking and carrying gear across the Stainless Steel Mountain Range. For the past week, Harry had been very attentive to the lonely girl, but he had turned his attention to Olga shortly after Hallie had joined the group after this morning's ceremony.

Of course, Harry was incessantly mocking the courage and spirit of those on the other raft who wanted to return home, particularly Hallie, who actually had the power to just up and leave. If everyone left, who would remain to fawn over Harry for his awesome raftsmanship?

Olga was getting increasingly tired of Harry's leering 'attention'. For the most part she was enjoying the excitement, the violent jolts and even the almost constant cascade of water that was drenching them all. But with every violent thrashing of the raft Harry managed to fall all over her, sometimes even knocking her to the deck and squirming around on top of her. His hands were always all over her as they recovered their balance, and she was embarrassed that the others were noticing this as well. She had taken just about had enough - the next time Harry tried to maul her, he was going overboard!

At lot of things happened at once. One of the students in the front of Oliver and Hallie's raft screamed in terror - not far in front of them the river exploded in the worst maelstrom they'd see yet, as it made practically a 90 degree left turn around a partial natural dam of debris from a recent canyon wall cave in. The racing white water exploding against the barrier was spraying dozens of feet into the air and the noise was tremendous, like the loudest thunder any of them had ever heard, rolling on and on. Hallie made up her mind - she desperately exerted her power and her raft lifted into the air; with the residual speed of the raging, racing river it rocketed into and through the eruptions of spray, still rising. She was taking her raft home right now, and any complainers be damned!

Harry's charms, his inept piloting, and the frantic paddling of all those on his raft weren't enough to prevent this collision, and one edge of the raft was lifted high into the air. Harry tumbled against Olga, who powerfully thrust him away, and he went flying over the side, frantically waving his arms and legs, and splashed down into the raging water - and vanished instantly, drawn under by the incredibly powerful current. Without the protection of his charms, the raft instantly overturned, dumping the rest of the screaming students into the raging waters. The racing current whisked them through the narrow channel at the end of the dam, and then there was more screaming as they shot out over the lip of a 20' waterfall and splashed down into the pool below. Olga managed to twist her body and enter the water below feet first; she was down at least 15' when she finally touched bottom and instantly pushed her way back to the surface, where, after a few instants to orient herself, she began trying to aid her fellows. She grabbed a nearby body and struggled to climb up the rocky shore high enough to drag him out of the water, then turned back. Not far away she saw another bobbing body, weakly struggling, and when she saw who it was, she felt an extra surge of adrenaline - Rebecca Constantine had the power to save them all! Except that she seemed too dazed right now to even save herself. Olga quickly pulled her friend from the pool.

Becky was stunned and barely responsive; her eyes were open but blank and she was definitely dazed. Olga leaned close and stared into her classmate's eyes. "Becky, LOOK AT ME!" she commanded. Betsy's eyes weakly tried to focus, and when her gaze wandered across Olga's dark eyes, so close to her, she shuddered, and suddenly her own eyes popped opened wide and her head turned slightly so the two women were staring directly at each other's eyes only inches apart. Olga's voice turned steely and commanding as she spoke slowly and distinctly, with emphasis on every syllable. "Becky, you have to listen to me - and I command you to SAY WHAT I SAY!" Betsy shuddered but she continued to stare directly into Olga's eyes. "Now listen - and then REPEAT!"

"Ria eht otni esir loop eht ni stneduts!"

Becky did, her voice rough and barely above a whisper... and instantly several bodies popped up and out of the pool, water pouring off them, to hover several feet above the surface. Olga counted mentally - with her first rescue, Betsy, and herself, it came to nine, just one missing. She turned back to Becky, whose eyes had closed. "Betsy, look at me!" Betsy's eyes immediately popped open, though there was still no intelligence behind them. "You WILL repeat after me again. Say this!"

"Em ot taolf!"

Olga directed each floating body further up the rocky shore until they were all safely above the water line. She realized that the missing student was Harry.

"He must already be farther downstream. Well, flock him anyway!" she decided. "He always tells us how wonderful and tough he is, and how good he is at taking care of himself! My friends here need me!" She turned to tend her rescued mates; by now several of them were recovered enough to try to help. And then she heard a yell from the sky and turned to see two flying figures, one tiny and dressed in blue with a red cape, and the other surrounded by a yellow glow, rocketing upriver toward them.

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 6

In front of them as they zoomed westward above Bakunawa Lake, Sunbeam, Corona and Awesome Atom rapidly approached a tremendous cloud of mist and the air began to shake with a roar like continuous thunder. Even in their haste, Atom was still playing tour guide, projecting his voice magically. "There's a six-story waterfall, like a small Niagara, at the end of the Rip Roaring River - the water sprays out almost the length of a football field. The Lake Monster often hangs out near the cloud, so he can gobble up any animals that got caught in the river. Hope we're here before Harry goes over! Look - there's the Monster!" Though it seemed small from their height, the Lake Monster, swimming lazily against the current, was an awesome, intimidating animal, with a flat body, similar perhaps to a snapping turtle the size of an elephant but without a shell, a neck that must be 30' long, and a head the size of a VW Beetle.

"It's a platyurus, probably the last of it's kind, and when it dies, they'll be extinct," Atom sounded very sad. Then as they climbed above the mist he had a heartening thought. "Maybe Mr. Belmont can open a portal to someplace where there are more like him, and we can somehow magically send him there?" By now, the beast was far behind, and they had to descend and slow way down as they entered the narrow, twisty canyon, to be sure they would be able to see anyone trapped and swept along by the raging river. Even at their reduced pace, it wasn't long.

"I saw someone! I'll get him, you guys look for more!" Corona ordered a burst of extra speed and dove toward the river, aiming well in front of the weakly struggling body - which suddenly disappeared totally under the furiously churning froth. She instantly stopped - diving into that maelstrom of raging water to try to find him, even with the protection of her ring's yellow energy, might be unwise. 'Who saves the protectors?' she thought ironically as she rotated into a stationary standing position a few feet above the worst of the constant spray. She aimed her arms down and forward, and glowing yellow strands of energy flashed out from her fists, weaving into a wide net that dropped into the current.

In the instant before they rocketed by, Sunbeam was surprised at her friend's actions. In their last adventure together, Corona had been limited to projecting her energy from only the hand wearing her ring. She had expressed envy at Sunbeam's ability to fire from both hands - she must have been practicing. Well, Sunbeam had learned something from her friend, too. But they could show off later!

As the net dropped into the water, it was instantly swept downstream. Corona exerted more will power and tried to pull it to a stop, but instead her arms were yanked inexorably down and back, and suddenly she was helplessly flipped over and being dragged downstream facing upwards, her arms outstretched over her head and being drawn ever closer to the raging water by the incredible pressure. Pain exploded in her head, the psychic feedback of the ring's energy strands being stretched almost to the point of disintegrating. She HAD to dissolve that net - it was killing her!

"NO! I CAN DO THIS! I WILL DO THIS!" she screamed into the thundering air around her. "RING! MORE POWER!!" For an instant, she could sense that the ring actually seemed to be fighting her, and then, she saw, heard, felt, experienced, a giant SNAP! and the ring dumped more power into the net - more power than she'd ever controlled before! She ordered the ring to anchor the net to the rocky banks and bottom of the river and to stop her out-of-control flight, then cautiously rotated back to vertical above her now-stationary net, now acting as a sieve to the rushing water and whatever it carried. She could feel the pounding of continuous impacts of smaller stuff driven by the racing current that slammed into and then slipped through the sieve and then a much more pronounced THUMP! and she pulled the net from the water.

"Good fishing, Alex!" she crowed when she saw that she'd netted a man - hopefully the same body she'd seen earlier. She floated to the nearest flat place on the river bank, then changed her energy construct to resemble a gurney under the man - who she now recognized as Harry Flashman the Fifth. Part of her JSA Reserve training had been in emergency medicine with Dr. Mid-Nite; she spared a quick instant wishing he were here right now. But he wasn't - his training would have to fill in for him!

Harry was unconscious but breathing shallowly, continually coughing, gasping and spitting up water. She gently rolled him to his stomach; he moaned and groaned and continued spitting out water, but didn't wake up. He was already deeply bruised over most of his body and was bleeding from a number of abrasions, but there didn't seem to be any dangerous gashes, and no visible compound fractures. She used her ring energy to tear apart his life vest and created some pads from the material, which she gently placed over the worst abrasions and temporarily held them in place with her yellow energy. He needed more care than she could provide - maybe Atom or some of the other students who had been on his raft might have magical healing powers? So, as soon as she saw that most of the bleeding was slowed, she lifted the glowing yellow gurney gently into the air, covered it with a yellow protective bubble, and flew upstream to follow her friends.

---

Awesome Atom and Sunbeam continued to fly upriver, Sunbeam closer to the water in case they spotted someone and Atom higher to get a better view upstream to see them coming. They hadn't gone too far when they spotted the bedraggled group of students huddled on the rocky bank of the river and Atom alerted them with a magical shout. Olga screamed back, although they couldn't hear her over the roar of the raging river. Sunbeam zoomed up to her.

"Duane's not breathing!" Olga was screaming! She pointed at one of the students, a huge, strongly-muscled man. His size had worked against him today, he'd been thrown by the current head-first into the rock dam, and apparently swallowed a lot of water while unconscious. One of the other students had been unsuccessfully performing mouth-to-mouth and a lot of water had come back up. As Sunbeam and Atom turned to examine the man, Olga continued. "No broken bones and no internal bleeding..."

Carol quickly slipped a thin curtain of yellow energy under the entire group and then solidified it into a platform, covered it with an energy dome, and lifted them all up above the chaos generated by the raging river. The girl performing mouth-to-mouth screamed as Duane shuddered and his violent spasms threw her away. Olga rushed to his side and instantly began CPR. She stared at him intently as she did so and quickly announced: "His heart is stopped!"

Even though Duane was much larger than she, Olga was easily able to manipulate his body with the various actions required by CPR. While she did this, Sunbeam concentrated. A box about the size of a case of beer (the old fashioned cases that held twenty-four 12 ounce long necked brown bottles, the kind she'd seen in the 30s and 40s) appeared. On one side there a number of holes, and a ribbed hose with a scuba-style mouthpiece projected from the top.

Olga pulled back and strongly thumped Duane's sturdy chest just above his heart with her fist and snarled in satisfaction when his body jerked in another violent spasm. "HAH! GOT IT! His heart's going again. But he still doesn't want to breath!"

The mouthpiece floated over and attached itself over Duane's mouth. Sunbeam touched a button on the face of the piece, and there was a gentle hiss of higher pressure air, and they could see Duane's chest inflate. She released, and Olga pushed on his chest, and air sighed out around the mouthpiece. "Every time you take a breath, push the button!" Sunbeam ordered; Olga simply nodded and began breathing for the both of them.

Meanwhile, Awesome Atom hadn't been just hanging around. He hadn't brought along his traveling bag of spell components during the sky tag game - even though it was usually immaterial, it slowed him down and made him a tad less maneuverable, and he'd wanted every advantage against his two older, spectacularly female, friends. So currently his spells were limited to his repertoire that only required the "3 Ws of Magic: Will, Words and Waves" and didn't require material components. So he couldn't just throw magic dust over the group and teleport the whole lot of them to the Academy infirmary; Sunbeam and Corona would have to fly them back.

"Hold ON!" he spoke up enthusiastically, and every conscious head turned to stare at him. "I DO have some material components, my costume!"

He quickly pulled off his cape and began chanting, wringing it like a dishrag - and suddenly, everyone was dry - their skin, their hair, and their clothing. He peeled off the skintight top of his costume and performed a quick dance, wshirling the top wildly in the air above his head, chanted "Behold - the ATOMIC BRIGADE!" and with some faint popping, suddenly, everyone in the group except for himself and Sunbeam was clothed in blue skin tight Awesome Atom action costumes! "Sorry, you don't get the powers," he laughed. Then he snapped his cape in both hands and chanted a single Word of Power: "XUVLAU!" and those lying on the platform were now covered with warm red blankets.

At that moment, Corona flew up the canyon and pulled alongside, dragging a glowing yellow bubble with Harry inside. "Miss Corona, Miss Sunbeam! We need to get back to the Academy infirmary, as fast as we can! It's thataway!" Atom pointed, and the two women flew off in that direction, almost southeast, side by side, rising to clear the Stainless Steel Mountains with Sunbeam dragging her big platform and Corona dragging the bubble containing Harry Five, who was lying on the gurney, staring at the other bubble in a seeming daze. Atom remained inside the big dome, and he and the active students did the best they could to comfort and care for the others as they flew.

"Hey, nice work, Carol!" Alex praised her friend. "You didn't used to be able to use your energy for much more than two at most at a time of flying, blasting and illusions! You got at least a dozen things goin' at once now, right? Nice!"

"I've been practicing since then, and I saw that you have, too! We learned from each other in our last adventure." Carol replied with a big smile. Then, much more seriously, "I hope these kids are alright! Maybe THEY all learned something today as well, after getting rescued by Atom (and his friends) after they savaged him so this morning."

[dans]

Founders Day Holiday Adventure

Part 7

As they got closer to the Academy, Atom zoomed ahead to warn the infirmary about incoming urgent care patients, and Dr. Marisa Mortale was there to greet them when the 'Golden Twins' settled to gentle landings in the courtyard outside of Hardyhill Hall. Dr. Mortale triaged each of the students by sweeping a small hand-held instrument over their bodies, then gave instructions to each of them. Harry was first - the device buzzed and beeped and red lights flashed frantically. "UltraUrgent care!" Mortalei commanded, and Harry's body lifted gently into the air and floated toward a big, wide open bay window. Becky followed through that same window shortly after; the rest of the students were ambulatory by then, and after using her scanner, her commands alternated between "Home and bed rest today; take two aspirin and call at the infirmary before breakfast tomorrow!" to "Go inside and talk to Chelsea about further treatment right away!" to "Bumps and bruises, you'll be sore for a week, but nothing to worry about. No worse that one of Mrs. Peel's full contact combat training sessions!" That last was to Olga.

Dr. Mortale turned to Awesome Atom, Sunbeam and Corona. "I hate to rush off but I've got 4 students in UltraUrgent care right now. Good work on the rescue!" and then she turned, commanded "UltraUrgent Care" and floated away toward the same double-wide bay window, which closed after her.

Atom was excited as only a youngster could be. "BOYOHBOY! What an awesome adventure! I won at sky tag..." He was about to continue when he saw both Carol and Alex frowning at him; he started again. "We had a really really great game of sky tag, and then we saw the Lake Monster, and, and then we rescued everyone, and then Dr. Mortale thanked us and WOW! How could it get any better than this?"

"How about we spend a couple of hours lying in the sun, working on our tans?" Alex asked.

"I agree!" from Carol. "I am SO ready for the beach!"

"I wonder if I could join you?" Olga asked quietly. Atom was particularly stunned; he had never before ever heard her sound so... shy, he guessed was the best word. "I'm sorry I was rude earlier today, Atom - you really ARE a hero!" She turned to the other two women. "I wasn't sure what I wanted to do after I graduate from here, but now I know. I want to be a heroine like you two. Where do I get some of that yellow stuff?" They all laughed, made plans, split up, and met up back at the beach.

All afternoon, with invitations ranging from subtle to playful to amorous to rude, a steady stream of male students, faculty, staff, and townsfolk tried to entice away Atom's entourage of awesomely attractive women, clad in some of the tiniest bikinis imaginable. And while they were never rude, those same awesomely attractive almost naked women universally turned down each of those invitations. Some of the most attractive men on the island, often with their attractiveness magically enhanced, made some very interesting proposals, and many were crushed when they were turned down, but they all were - gently but firmly.

Alex and Carol each congratulated the other - each had left Lemuria a bit jealous of the skills and abilities of the other, and in the months intervening they had each practiced - and of course, Alex had made an even bigger breakthrough today! And of course, each of the women had jumped at the chance to show off for the other when Atom had invited them to Grim Island for the Founder's Day Holiday.

"What did you finally find out about charging your powers?" Alex wanted to know.

"Well, you remember that exposure to the light, heat and sound of Kunakarai Volcano in Lemuria supercharged me? I haven't found any similar power source on Earth S, and I tried all the active volcanoes in Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest and California. Jim Barr thinks it might be some difference between Earth 2 and Earth S, or maybe because of the missing elements Atom talked about. But I DID discover that several hours in the sun every day gives me a maximum charge, so of course I jumped at a chance to come to the beach here when Atom invited us!" She smiled, and turned over to her stomach on her blanket. "How'd you manage to use both hands to project energy?"

"That's great news about the sun - no wonder you have such a great tan!" Alex switched sides as well. "I tried just telling the ring to direct energy through my left hand, but that didn't work so well. Eventually I created a temporary 'duplicate' ring out of ring energy, and I wear it on my left hand. Now, if I need to 'fire on both cylinders' I just point both hands, the real ring shunts some energy into the duplicate, and whoosh!"

Olga, whom Atom had pegged as a rude, witchy with a 'b' trollop (he grew up in the 40s, remember!), turned out to be a really nice person who was still reacting strongly to the shock of being the sole survivor of her Earth after the destruction of everyone and everything she'd ever known in the Crisis. And Atom was never again mocked by anyone on the Island about his inability to attract members of the opposite sex!

[dans]

Any guesses to the history of Olga Prescott? How about Dr. Bonzai? Big, solid Duane? Yes, Becky Constantine is supposed to be related to John Constantine, probably from some universe other than the John we are familiar with (I'm thinking the one who was part of the Sentinels of Magic and died on the island..) And Harry's derivation is probably pretty clear. The others are right now just OCs rather than legacy, unless someone else wants to link them up somehow with a favorite fictional character of the past...It would be interesting to know to whom Olliver Poliwog might be related, or Hallie Twinkle.

I figured that some of the people who retired from Grimoire might want to stay on the island, and the students probably sometimes like to go shopping or take a meal off campus, and the faculty and staff might appreciate a pub or two, and there may be some ships calling there occasionally, so i created the small town of Sentinel Port, across an existing river canyon from an earlier story, and named the river Mesmer Beck. And from a discussion earlier, I thought maybe the island is bigger than just the Academy, or maybe it varies in size depending on who is looking at it, or maybe there are extensions in other universes that not everyone is aware of, so I added some geography. To me it looks kind of like a griffin rampant sinister on a shield; I thought that appropriately alliterative - The Griffin of Grim Island and Grimoire Academy...

[DocQuantum]

Wow! Nice map of Grim Island. We really need to nail down the topography as much as is possible. I was kind of working in the dark when I was writing the Merlin the Magician story for Earth-X, with the Grimoire Academy part taking place in 1962.

[dans]

Thanks, Doc, I hope the map is appropriate. I think if we assume that the island is magical, there might actually be many valid maps. I tried to include geography from the earlier stories where I could figure it out.

[dans]

I am working on another story involving a student at Grimoire - I noticed that in some of the earlier Books of Magic story, the school physician was introduced as Dr. Mortale. I updated all references in this story to the school's doctor to reference Dr. Mortale rather than the doctor I introduced.