"Disappearances Can Be Decieving."
                                    Part Two

                 Mid 1989 AD, that is, Early 2364 Galactic Year


[Nomad of Norad]

    In the sixth month since the Mongra appeared, a fellow townsman came to
Pledgah at the underground library.
    "Hello Pledgah, long time no see." It was one of the men Pledgah worked
with from time to time in his position on the Advisors Panel. They were an
organisation that had no real political power, but the Ruling Panel put
problems before them and they debated about those problems, about every angle
of the subject at hand. The Ruling Panel observed the debate and made
decisions on their own, based on the points brought up in the debate.
    Attendance by the Advisors Panel members was voluntary, some had been
absent for weeks, even months, and then returned as they pleased. Pledgah had
been by himself for all these six months.
    "Well, long time no see!"
    "Hello Dornji." Pledgah came to meet him at the entrance tunnel. "What
brings you out here?"
    "Oh, nothing much, just curiousity. Hmmm," said Dornji, stepping into the
library, "I had no idea this place was here. How did you get in?"
    "I just found the entrance open, the Staff must have made it open up."
    "Yes, this place has been sealed up for centuries."
    "Not perfectly, some of these books are moldy."
    "Have you found a way to deal with... with..." Dornji pointed ceilingward.
    "Not exactly, but it seems uninterested in all but me."
    "What is it doing here?" Dornji glanced back towards the entrance, as if
worried that the great bird would hurt him for manifesting an interest in it.
   "Well, apparently some other power tried to remote teleport me out of here
when I first found the place, and separate me from the Staff. Then it produced
the Mongra to further torment me. Fortunately, the Staff brought me back
here."


    Meanwhile, back at CommHex, Nomad and a few other high level people sat
around a meeting table.
    "So, it's not just a rumor, this place where Jocko and others are
preserved?" The Executioner, that is, Number Twenty-Four, asked Nomad.
    "No, I went to the place myself, Cappy sent an R/C vehicle with a video
camera inside. The place is very well protected. The car only got as far as
a meter or two within the main chamber before it got killozapped by the
autodefense system, but before that we saw Jocko and others in transparent
tubes, like big.... Well, it is easier to show you." Nomad pressed a button
on a small box beside him, and picture was projected on the wall.
    The view was through a large metal arch, from a worm's-eye view, as the
car moved forward into the complex. Soon, large glass or plastic cylinders
became visable, the camera swiveled to take in the first of them, Jocko was
in the first, the Zygnic Mystic was in the second, the camera almost showed
who was in the third when there was a blast of bright red light and the
picture went to snow.
   "That is all we know, except that the complex is in the Relihot Desert at
the place on this map." Nomad gestured at a map that now was being displayed
in place of the recording. "It is a simple dome, with only one discernable
entrance." An inset picture appeared at one corner of the display, it was a
smooth silvery dome covered partly by sand. "There apparently is no defense
outside the dome, but we could not get inside. Anything organic was shot at
as soon as it came near the door, but the car must have tripped off something
inside."
    Hands went up in the audience.
   "Yes," Nomad pointed, "you."
   "How did you determine that the defenses attacked organic matter?" It was
The Mask that asked the question.
   "I threw a piece of fruit at it, which got zapped, a rock, which didn't,
and a piece of beef jerky, which did. Any more questions?"

         *         *         *         *         *         *         *

     Then, back at the underground library, Dornji relaxed with Pledgah.
     "But enough about my problems," said Pledgah, "how are things with the
Advisors?"
     "Well, the current problem seems to be a rumor about some place where
certain people that were thought to be dead have been found in suspension."
     "And where is this?"
     "A few miles North of a kingdom called CommHex."
     Pledgah started at the name CommHex, hadn't that been the place he had
been sent?
     "Tell me more," said Pledgah. A few hours later, he was on his way to
the Castle CommHex.

[Captain R/C]

                         -<   So, a bit later...   >-


    "Tell me, Dornji," started the fascinated Pledgah, "Can you take me back
to this place called Comm Hex, or do I have to get a tour guide?"
    "Oh sure, I can do it.  Just about a day and a half to the north.  I just
hope that...  thing..." Dornji looked upwards, at the great stalking beast,
"...doesn't find a way around that Staff of yours."
    "This Staff?  It has powers I don't know about yet!!  Here's a handy one
for the travel we must make, though!  Watch..."  Pledgah pointed his Staff
at a place on the ground about five feet away, said "Splishspla!  Shiwuztak!
Enabath!" and a pool of crystal clear water materialized before Darnji's eyes.
    "Hey!  COOL!"
    "...and refreshing!"
    "What else can it do?"
    "Well, sometimes, I can make it make a dome around myself.  I don't know
if you can fit in it and I don't know if it's a shield of some sort.  I'll
need to experiment with it some more."
    Dornji and Pledgah wandered northward to a great kingdom, The CommHex.
The Journey WOULD TAKE several days.

                               -< Meanwhile... >-
                    -< Back at the Strategist's Corner.. >-
                            -< In the Comm Hex... >-
                        -< Next to the Art Gallery... >-

    The Nobles and a few MostliNobles sat discussing this suspension chamber.
    "Ok," said Beelzibub, "we know that oranges and Beek Jerky can't get
through the shell.  Now, all we need to do is figure out how WE can get into
the shell...."
    "Easy!  You type 'owl' at the Main Menu," noted Dr. Depraved.
    "Really?" asked Beelzy.

[Nomad of Norad (in post production)]

    "Nononononono... not THAT Shell..." said Nomad.  "The proverbial one
around the dome in the desert!"
    "Whatever..." said Dr D.
    "So, anyway..." said Beelzy. "Organic stuff doesn't get past the defense
system..."

[Captain R/C (continued)]

    "But non-organics," said Captain R/C, "such as R/C cars, and rocks, and
possibly Dr's brain can get through..."
    "Precisely," said KEO Joe Powell.  "Either we disable the shell or we
have to send some non-organic thing through."
    "Hey," said Captain R/C.  "Remember that magician guy who just appeared
the same time that Mongra did?  He might know!  Anyone know who he is or
where he came from?"
    "Maybe he's a time traveller," said Master of Puppets.  "Let's go check
the archives."
    "Well," said Daggoth, "I think he lives in the present day but I don't
know WHERE he came from."
    "MoP," commanded King Powell, "check the castle archives and see what
you can come up with."
    "The word Pladgah was engraved on his staff," said Queen Shamrock.  "That
might be something."

    So, while the group discussed strategy and the like, Master of Puppets
descended down into the depths of Castle Hex...  past the basement gate...
past the dungeons, where he took pride in the many prisoners --  Mr. Happy,
his maniacal laughter blocked out only by the rattle of his shackles; the
'other' MoP, a bar of soap tied in his mouth and castor oil running in his
mouth while he himself stretched on the rack; and all the other prisoners
and imposters of days gone by....
    Now, he approached the royal archives in his futile search for some clue
of the suspension chamber.

                               -< Meanwhile... >-
                     -< In another part of the world... >-
                              -< To the South.. >-

    Two figures walked slowly through the lands, a close eye kept UP on the
Mongra.

[Nomad of Norad]

(Hmmm, the Staff is commanded mentally, no "magic words" (was Pledgah playing
games with Dornji with that splishaplasha stuff? Playacting? A joke?) and he
has been studying how to use it for months! This ancient bit of high
technology must be able to do a LOT if he hasn't learned much of what it can
do!)


                            -<   Back at CommHex...   >-

    "There must be some way to shut down the security system," said Nomad,
"how else could the owner of the dome get in and out?"
    "Could there be another way in?" suggested the Mask.  "A way to bypass
all that protection?  We aught to run a deep probe of that dome, there may
be vulnerable points, chinks in the proverbial armor."
   "It is going to require the transfer of alot of equiment to do that," said
Nomad.  "I tried probing the dome with a hand scanner.  I got nothing, it was
being jammed. A more powerful scanner just might get through, though."  Nomad
pulled out his communicator and flipped it open.  "Joshua, you and Giles had
better prepare the deep probe equipment for transport, dismantle it and put
the componants onto my heavy-lift skycar."
    "Ok," said Joshua's mechanical voice, "I'll tell Giles as soon as he gets
up late tonight."
    "Good, I'll take the skycar out tomorrow morning."  Nomad flipped his
communicator closed.

(BTW:Giles is a very "young" vampire! He came after me and I caught him. I
decided to try to find a cure for him, make his a human boy again, and now he
stays where I live while I search the ancient archives for the rest of that
incomplete document I found that gives a cure. Meanwhile, he gets his
sustinance from suringes and from animals...)(This is, of course, pure
fiction. You don't think I REALLY have a century-old nine-year-old vampire at
my house, do you?)

[Beelzebub]

(YES!!!!!!!!)

    Pladgah was on his way, with a couple of his books, and absorbing
knowledge every step of the way.
    Meanwhile, everyone at the Hex was in a state of panic, for they were
missing their faithful leader, Jocko.  The Dukes of the castle say they know
where he is and are working on getting him at that very moment.

                       Scene: Outside the Dome.

    Captain R/c, Nomad of Norad, Beelzebub, MoP, and many others were at
this great dome. It was an awesome (spelled right!) sight. Out in the middle
of nowhere, right smack dab in the middle of the desert, this great dome.
    Nomad was fiddling with some expensive looking equipment, when suddenly
there was this intense beeping noise coming from one of the pieces of
equipment.  Nomad quickly ran to it and said, "It's the trap locator device.
It has found a nuclear waste trap directly in front of us.  We must disarm
the trap before we proceed."