The world had greatly changed since Tom came back from the Winter lands.
The wind ripped across the land constantly. The rain was cold and bitter.
The night was Hallowe'en. Rain ran down Oktober's face as he stood before his mortal rival, Z-Man, amid the soggy Renaissance Festival in Minneapolis. Beyond any of his reckoning, this mortal, a wrestler, has stood as the only person able to affect his plans. Oktober stood here because this mere mortal had summoned him forth. He was furious.
But these were strange times.
From Tom Zenk's perspective these were the strangest. He merely thought his career faded, interest in him waned, maybe he was too old, or something. No one could tell him, really. Then he discovered that a magician had changed reality with a powerful work of magic. After practicing on Tom, draining the life from his career, Oktober, an avatar of the Calendar, had received unlimited reign until such time as he chose to relent.
And he did not wish to relent.
The agencies of the cosmos, unable to shake his clutch on the mortal world, turned to the only man they could find able to hurt Oktober - Tom Zenk, The Z-Man.
No-one knew why he alone was able to affect the madman, until they discovered Tom's past.
The wrestler had been the victim of an unnatural experiment, one where Oktober had first exercised his power, at the height of July, during another month's reign. The avatar had stepped inside another wrestler, Van Vader, and torn parts of Tom's life-force brutally from him. And when it was over, Tom had no idea what had happened.
He had thought it was the flu.
So Oktober's reign was nearing its natural limit, and was soon to push into uncharted Time. Never before had a month continued beyond its normal span. No one really knew what would happen if it did.
With the new powers Justice had bestowed on him, Tom called Oktober to stand before him so they may finish this.
Oktober eyed Tom and his companion, Cat. "Now that you've summoned me here, did you have a plan."
Tom hefted the cudgel that Oktober's Father had given him. "I plan on trashing you."
"And .... then what?" he asked. "I will recover and stand again. Then what?"
Tom stood uncertain. "I'll do what I have to."
Oktober laughed, "Admit it! You have no plan!" He walked several steps closer to Tom. "Tell you what," he said with a smile. "You put down your little aggressions. I'll spare a small part of the world for you to live in. You can even have pets," he said sneering at Cat. "...... Or I can kill you both."
"You're desperate!" Tom said.
"You confuse the offer. This is mercy."
"You're incapable of that emotion!" barked Tom," I met Time, you know." Tom remembered what the avatar of Time had looked like after being brutalized into agreeing to Oktober's unlimited reign on the Mortal Plane. "She looked real nice after your last demonstration of mercy."
"She's still alive, isn't she?" he rumbled with a smile.
"You're meat!" Tom had had enough. He rushed to beat this abomination's head in.
He swung the cudgel at Oktober.
With amazing speed the mad avatar ducked the blow and rushed Tom with a tackle. They landed on the muddy green in a tangle. Tom rolled on top and connected with the heavy club on his chin. Oktober's head snapped back. Tom hit him again. Blood ran from his mouth. Tom's return backhand was suddenly caught in an iron grip. The pressure on his wrist was tremendous. Undaunted, he caught Oktober in the face with a left hook.
Oktober bridged forcefully and flipped Tom off his body. He snapped to his feet and stood back. "I don't have time for this!" He clenched his fist and opened it. Seeds, like corn, flew from his fingers.
"Tom!" Cat shouted. "Look out!" In a flash, each kernel of corn sprouted as small animate plants. They scrambled up Tom's body, razor sharp leaves, tearing through his clothing straight to his bare flesh. Tom thrashed to slap the deadly plants off him. He dropped the cudgel.
Four of the little monsters dragged it over to Oktober. "Thanks Dad," he said as he picked it up. He tossed it in the air with a flip-twirl and caught it. Tom tore the plants off him, his clothes already shredded.
The plants scattered from him in all directions. "Just what I needed. Good work, children." Oktober beamed. The air around him blurred, like he was melting, he folded in on himself and disappeared laughing.
Tom sank to his knees, crushed. "Great!"
Cat came over to him. "Let's go ... we need to get some shelter .... and another plan."
"Right," he said wiping the mud off himself. He had numerous cuts on his body. They burned and itched. He barely felt them. He felt so stupid.
He wanted to hit himself but knew there was no time for that. He stood and they walked toward where he thought he'd left his car. "What happens after midnight?" he asked.
"My best guess," Cat said. "He either loses all vulnerability because he's in his own realm, a new world no avatar has ever taken. Or he loses the invulnerability he gets for being part of the Calendar. But remember, I'm guessing."
"Sounds confusing," Tom said.
"These days are that..."
Tom marveled at what it took to get back home. Most roads were barren, empty of people. There were downed trees all over. There were no traffic lights, actually no lights at all. Wherever all the people ended up, Tom didn't know. He saw no one. It was like everyone had gone into hibernation
His apartment had been flooded when the windows had been blown in. It was cold and wet. There was no electricity. The phone was dead. He covered the windows and tried to get the place to hold some heat. He had a chance to wash up and change his clothes. Cold water, ugh. Oh well, it's still refreshing, Tom thought.
Cat sat in the kitchen chewing on his nails. "I don't even know where he'd be keeping it," he said. "Oktober isn't much of a pack rat that I know of."
"Won't he be able to store the cudgel in his Harvest?" Tom remembered the dark place from which the adversary of his last fight had emerged.
"Well, it doesn't really work that way," Cat said. "It's full of dead things. They don't usually play with toys nicely. It would be a way to make it very hard for us to get it back."
"Well, I don't know how to call him if I don't have that thing," Tom said pulling on a fresh T-shirt. "Is there someone we know that could tell us something?"
"Are you asking for help?" Cat asked.
"Yes, I'm stumped. I could use some help please."
"Finally!" Cat said.
"What?"
"You need to remember that I'm not allowed to formally help you unless you ask," Cat said. "I hoped you'd learn this faster. We're running out of time."
"Why such a big deal?" Tom asked.
"If you are helped to defeat Oktober and rules are broken by helping, all of our work can be undone and he could come back. It works both ways. If Oktober and that magician hadn't cheated by unjustly harming you and your career in that wrestling match, we would have no help in this matter. Things would be very different today."
"But, you helped me at the Mall," Tom said. "I would've been dead then. I didn't ask then. Didn't that break the rules?"
"That's different."
"Why?" Tom asked, his hands on his hips.
"Because I'm a cat," Cat said with a smile. Tom threw up his hands. "Why do you think all the cosmic agencies are so nice to me. Not 'cause I'm cute, let me tell you. They called me Measles the first time we met."
"Who named you that?" Tom asked.
"Sunset did," Cat said. "He said he could tell when people met me. It was written all over their face, just like Measles. I'm really much nicer these days."
Tom turned and walked into the living room shaking his head. The candles in the room flickered as he walked by. "I know someone that can help," Cat said. "You'll have to respect his privacy, though."
"I'll try 'most anything," Tom said.
"Careful," said Cat. "These are strange times and you need to watch what you say." Cat returned to his cat form. Tom never was comfortable with the shapeshifting tendencies of Cat or any of his associates. "He's a strange guy I met when I visited here some years back. I don't know his name, in fact I don't know much about him. He seems friendly and familiar so I suspect he's a good guy .... and connected. Stay here and out of sight. I'll be back soon. Simple enough?"
"Simple and clear," Tom said. "I like simple. I like clear. I could cultivate those as a habit."
"Just stay here, please?"
"Right." Tom stretched for about an hour. He hadn't stretched in weeks, it seemed. Strangely enough he felt powerful, almost rested. He did a stretch of 300 push-ups and felt great. He was sure he had more strength back than before, when Oktober had taken life from him in Burnsville.
Then there was a knock at the door. Tom opened his apartment door a crack and saw a figure in a gray robes, cowled and covered, arms folded. He would've just smacked him with the door these days but he saw Cat around its ankles and took a deep breath.
"I understand you need help," a deep and resonant voice asked.
"Yes, please," Tom said. The cloaked man walked in.
The tea Tom served to drive the chill away was the finest he had tasted. Tom knew what was true - cold weather and hard work season the tea best. The cloaked figure enjoyed it as well. "That is fine. You are resourceful, tea with no electricity."
"I have an underground propane tank for emergencies. The stove works."
The cloaked figure let out a deep sigh. "I thought you were only a rumor, someone that can hurt Oktober," he said. "We have hoped for a mortal that can help."
"You sound tired," Tom said, hoping to tease out any information.
"Many of us have been working hard. You mustn't know who we are, yet." He sipped more tea. "You other have questions, so ask them."
"I don't know how to find Oktober," Tom said.
"I see," The figure took a deep breath. "I will tell you what happened to the cosmos, that you may fix it. This may give you an idea of where you are." He told of how Oktober came to have his power. It is not known why the magician on the Mortal Plane wanted Oktober to have unlimited reign; there were far too many senseless majicks being performed these days. When Time was brutalized and shown the horrors that would be visited on the world if she refused to allow the change in the Calendar, the change was allowed. He told of the death of November, Oktober's own brother, the only legal challenger in the Calendar.
He told of how Summer wept at the passing of these things.
He told of how Justice watched the whole event, taking note of each action.
And so it came to pass that Oktober entered the Mortal World, as agreed by Time. He entered to stay until he passed through the Winter Gate, signaling the end of his reign. Oktober was intentionally misled into believing that his exit must be a voluntary act of will. Time's only option was to use that loophole, to find someone that could force him through the gate.
And that is when hopes for Tom's help began.
The figure told of the death of Justice's servant Jack at the hands of Oktober. He told of Jack's death and what Oktober learned of Tom's existence then. And that was when Oktober decided that Tom must die. To the avatar's annoyance, Tom had managed to be the only one of Oktober's enemies to avoid this fate.
"So, my friend, you need to pass this monster through the Winter Gate, ending the days of Oktober." The figure rested a moment and sipped his tea.
"I can't get him to the gate," Tom said, close to despair.
"You can, if you listen. It should
go this way." The figure leaned forward and said conspiratorially, "This
is what we're gonna do..."
Tom walked into the Mall of America. Without lights, it looked like a hulking monstrosity. They moved into the main halls of the Mall and quietly entered the open space of the indoor amusement park.
In better days it was a light-filled atrium, cavernous, echoing with music and delighted children. There were the standard rides, a train, a roller coaster, a water log ride, things that swung and machines that held children upside down a bit longer than candy filled children ought to be.
It was all in ruins.
The atrium glass ceiling had been breached. Windows were smashed and tables overturned. It looked as though the place had been looted.
It seemed colder inside than outside. Tom shivered in his white sweatshirt. His muscular body stretched it tight. He figured it would be too much to wear for the fight, but he needed the warmth. He didn't want to lose the mortal world because he cramped up.
There were eerie sounds echoing through the building. The dome had not been broken and shelter was good. Most of the rides had been destroyed, laying on the ground in parts. Tom marveled at the destruction. It was as though someone had lifted the building and shaken it hard.
Cat and the cloaked figure walked along with him.
"You two don't have to be here," he said. "If I lose, I'll just be dead, happy to make peace with my maker. You guys will have a different reckoning with Oktober."
"I must reiterate that it's critical I be there," the cloaked figure said.
"It's your funeral," Tom said. "I don't get it, why do we have to be here?"
"It a wide open space," Cat said. "Many happy people have been here and left behind some of that feeling. It should help - even the playing field. Besides, there are no people here I can sense."
"It's five 'till midnight, get ready." The cloaked figure cleared a space in the floor.
They set up two portable lights.
"Are you ready for this, Tom?"
"Yeah, as much as I'll ever be," he said.
Tom waited for the signal. The cloaked figure's watch chimed midnight.
A groan creeped through the building and the ground heaved. "What was that?!" Tom exclaimed.
"We're in borrowed time now," the figure said. "The integrity of the world relies on Oktober's concentration on it. He has a lot of strain at the change. Now!"
Tom stood in the center of the
atrium and called out, "By the power given to me by Justice, I call the
Winter Gate." A shimmering appeared in an arc over part of the remains
of the roller coaster. Parts of it shivered and slipped through the gate
disappearing into nothing. The ground heaved again, dislodging huge chunks
of the concrete ceiling. Tom hit the
floor covering his head. Cat
in his cat shape, was immediately in his arms, burrowing under his body
for cover. Things calmed down a bit. "I think he heard that one."
"I'm sure he knows we're here," Cat said. They looked around for the cloaked figure. He was no where to be seen.
"Keep going," Cat said.
Tom stood and announced, "By the power given to me by Justice, I summon Oktober to come here, now!" There was an orange shimmer and then a blinding flash of light. Oktober screamed in pain. He looked gray, icy white patches covered his body, his extended fingers looked like knives. His eyes darted about madly. The transition seemed to be more than he'd bargained for or expected.
"Oktober, avatar of the Calendar, I challenge you!" Tom said formally.
As foretold by the man in the cloak, a shimmering red field enclosed the whole area once the challenge had been spoken. Tom stripped off his sweatshirt revealing his muscular torso. All the formalities were complete.
"He was right," Cat said. "You don't seem to need the cudgel."
"Fine," Tom said. "It can stay in whatever bog it dropped in."
Oktober stood, "I'm leaving. I don't have to do any of this," He waved his hand expecting a gate to form, but nothing appeared.
"You're in borrowed time now," Cat said. "All the rules are different, now. Undefined."
"I'll show you borrowed time," Oktober rumbled.
"You can leave this world now, or be destroyed," Tom said hoping he would see reason and take his exit. He knew it was unrealistic to hope for, but he didn't want to go through this - if there were a simpler road out.
"I will consider destroying you and nothing else," Oktober walked toward Tom, fists clenched. The floor lurched and pieces of the ceiling clattered to the floor. Both combatants stopped to stare as a little girl dressed in a flowered sun dress walked into the atrium from nowhere. She clutched a string tied to a skull floating in the air like a balloon.
"Hi Mr. Wrestler," she said in a friendly voice. "Hey, Cat!" she squealed. Her face changed from delight to consideration as she faced the avatar. "You might consider a few other things Mr. Oktober."
Cat quickly moved out of hiding to her side, "Um ...you shouldn't be here." He said nervously. "As the Queen of Chaos, you aren't allowed to roam about like this."
"Don't be a silly, Cat," she said. "All the rules are broken, now. Me and all my chums are comin' to play." She turned to Oktober. "Oh, and you're in trouble now, mister."
"Really?" Oktober said, looking at the little girl as though she were a bug.
"Uh-huh. All the big bosses are about to recognize you as the supreme ruler of this realm." She said with a smile, bouncing on her toes in delight.
Oktober roared in satisfaction. "YES!!! ITS ALL MINE NOW!!!"
Cat slinked up to Tom, "Oh man. This is real bad."
"Yes it is Mr. Cat," the little girl said with a giggle. "He's not even smart enough to notice that."
"You are an interfering little girl!" Oktober barked.
"Yeah," she said with a beaming smile. "I do that a lot."
"What bosses?" Cat asked.
"Mr. Gravity, Mr. Light, Mr. Dark, and Mr. Winter," she said with a smile. "And Mr. Dustbunny, too. They should yield their jobs to you right any minute now."
"Hang on!" Cat yowled. Oktober suddenly clutched his head in pain. Blood leaked from his ears as the ground trembled. Suddenly everything warped and twisted. All the colors in the room switched and faded. Violent quakes shook the cold earth. With a thunderous tearing sound a large part of the concrete, steel and glass roof shattered into millions of small shards that rained down on the group below. The shattered parts made a nearly harmless impact. They had turned into marshmallows and disappeared almost immediately. The sky was exposed showing clouds ripping across the sky. The gibbous moon was a bright blue.
"What is all this? What's happening?" Cat asked the little girl.
"Mr. Oktober's brain is all too full," she said with a pout, twirling the balloon that had somehow become an umbrella. "He now has the mental work of five real busy avatars on his mind, as well as his own selfish little plans. And we all know," she whispered. "He isn't very bright upstairs anyway. You shouldn't tease him about it. It's a touchy subject."
"You can just shut up, you little bint!" Oktober shouted at her. He held his hands on either side of his head, bloody tears leaking from his eyes at the effort of his concentration.
"Mommy told me you were a meanie," she said. "I should invite all my friends to come. Then you won't know anything about up or down, not that you do anyway."
"My darling little cousin," Oktober said with derision, still holding his head. "Begone!"
Seemingly just to mock him, hundreds of flying pigs passed overhead.
"I know you are, but what am I?" she said with a snotty emphasis available only to little girls. "I'm not goin' and you can't make me! You know the rules- if the guy in charge ain't in control I have free reign, too!"
She stuck out her tongue for emphasis before turning a very serious face to the cat and the mortal. "Cat, if your wrestler friend had any sense, he'd get Mr. Oktober now."
All was suddenly still. Tom looked and saw Oktober was still distracted, a long distant look in his eyes.
"Let's do this!" Tom said.
Like a flash of lightning, Oktober leapt at Tom. Tom surprised even himself with his reaction time. He ducked and ankle-tripped Oktober, dropping him hard on his back. He leapt on his opponent and wrapped Oktober's head in a headlock, squeezing hard. Oktober howled, slowly pushing his head out of the hold. He snapped to his feet quickly. They stepped back from each other.
"I'm not interested in this fight, mortal," Oktober said shoving his hand into his pocket. A handful of seeds hit the floor. They sprouted into hundreds of plants that looked like spikes and knives. "You'll need to deal with many problems at once. Just like me."
Suddenly the mysterious gray-cloaked figure stepped around the roller coaster and stood in Oktober's line of sight.
"Be careful Oktober," he said. "If you introduce interference, I get to play here as well."
"Who are you?!" Oktober barked.
"Stop your critters or you'll find out," there was ice in the voice of the cloaked figure. This was obviously personal. Oktober waved his hand and the saplings flew through the air, born through the Winter Gate.
"Oh, so transparent you people
are," Oktober said. "I knew you had the Winter Gate here somewhere. You
think I'm going to just walk through that? After all I've been through
to get here?! You can't even throw me through that. I have to willingly
walk through." Oktober closed on Tom.
"I'm willing to give it a try."
Tom said. He slowly backed toward the gate, hoping Oktober would just get
closer. Oktober stopped. "You want me? Come get me."
Tom closed on Oktober and they
tied up. Tom felt a knee like granite crash into his gut. He went down
on one knee. Oktober was stronger! One shot and Tom could hardly breathe.
It was as though the change at Midnight had increased
his strength by a factor of
ten. He tried to get his breath. The same knee caught him in the head and
he went down.
A rain of kicks landed on Tom's
ribs. He stood over Tom ready to stomp on him again. Tom noticed he rested
his weight on one foot. He neatly tucked that foot in his armpit and rolled
into the knee. Unable to catch his balance, Oktober fell to the floor.
Tom snapped to the attack and landed on Oktober's chest. He rained
a flurry of punches
into Oktober's face. The maddened
month tried to fend Tom off, driving his thumb into Tom's eye. Missed!
Tom grabbed the thumb and wrenched. There was a wet splitting noise and
Oktober howled in pain. With the stab of pain,
reality quaked again.
"Did that distract you?" Tom asked with a gleaming smile. "What about this?!" Tom landed a solid forearm into Oktober's face, crunching into his nose. Oktober growled in pain.
The floor rumbled. Great slabs of stone flew from the disintegrating floor. From a hole in the ground leapt four frost covered demons. One was dressed as Sonia Henny, the other's in New Jersey Devil's uniforms.
"Hey, it's real cold down there guys!!" One demon shouted as he body-checked the Sonia Henny demon into the broken merry-go-round.
Suddenly the airborne chunks of rubble landed around the combatants, each large enough to kill either opponent.
Oktober threw Tom off him and stood up. Tom landed on his feet. The next quake shook the building causing Oktober to clutch at his head. Tom landed a side kick to his head. "This is for Time!" Oktober's head snapped back as Tom's Boot connected with his jaw. The world shifted in size, larger, smaller, then back to normal. Tom noticed it moved with the kick he landed. He pressed the attack harder.
"This is for what you did to your family!" Tom rocked him again with a boot to the other side of his head.
"This is for Jack," he landed two boots squarely in Oktober's chest.
Oktober spun and landed on his face. Tom picked up Oktober's foot and sunk-in an ankle lock, violently twisting his ankle and knee. Oktober laid on his stomach and howled in pain pounding the ground.
"And this is for the inconvenience of having to look at your sorry face!" The building was coming apart around them as the reality quake raged on.
"Tom!" Cat shouted. By reflex, Tom rolled to one side. A huge man-sized chunk of concrete, dislodged from the ceiling, landed on Oktober's prone body. Tom was blinded by the resulting spray of dust. He stood and saw a large black stain spreading from under the concrete slab.
"Oh, man. That's bad. Is he dead?" Tom asked the cloaked figure. The demons skated up the walls and out of the mall.
"Not likely," he said. "Get him through the gate."
Tom just stared at the man in the robes. "That's disgusting."
"It needs to be done," the man insisted.
Tom rolled the chunk aside. It weighed hundreds of pounds and rolled badly. With his new strength, Tom found he could move the boulder. He dragged Oktober's body free from the wreckage. He was a mess, crushed in many places only barely recognizable as something humanoid.
"EEEEwwww," The little girl squealed. She was holding a floating anchor on a string. "He's just gets ickier."
"Um, right." Tom said.
Tom dragged the body toward the gate. Suddenly one of the saplings Oktober had dispelled lurched from the rubble at Tom's face.
Tom scrambled and tore it off of him. It flopped on the ground, maimed.
He bled from one eye freely and stumbled backward. He sat on the floor hard.
Cat came over to him. "You okay?"
"That hurt," Tom said quietly.
"We got to finish this," Cat said. Beyond belief, Oktober stirred.
"Just ten feet ... come on!" Cat urged.
"Fine," Tom said, getting to his feet.
He turned and was greeted by
the nightmarish face of Oktober, standing before him. Smashed and lacerated
in hundreds of places, Oktober smiled.
"Going somewhere?"
Oktober's arm let loose a sick
green light as it changed shape. It became a jagged shard of broken wood.
His body
reshaped quickly, muscles growing
before Tom's eyes. The spiked arm swung at Tom like a sword. Tom ducked
and Cat scattered. Tom grabbed the jagged arm and turned around pushing
Oktober back toward the gate. Tom struggled against the strength of the
arm, his muscular body shaking at the effort. Blood ran down his face,
soaking his chest.
"I'm tired of this game, mortal," Oktober said. Tom suddenly felt a knifing jab in his leg. He looked to see one of those accursed plants tearing a hole in his calf. The distraction was enough. Oktober's arm slipped out of Tom's grasp. With a wrenching twist and a flash of lightning, Oktober shoved into Tom's torso, through his right pectoral and out his shoulder.
Tom's mouth fell open but he made no sound. He pressed his eyes shut as he slumped, held in the air by Oktober's impaling arm; the Winter's Gate so close, he could feel its shimmer. The pain was so complete he was close to blacking out. He refused to make any sound for Oktober.
"I can feel inside you," Oktober whispered in Tom's ear. "Your heart is slowing down, you know? I will enjoy holding you tight as your life seeps away. I have the world under control now. It's mine. And you will now die."
Blood flowed down Tom's body and onto the floor.
"That's enough!" The cloaked figure shouted, standing behind Tom. "You have invoked interference!" The figure threw off his hood revealing the furious face of Jack. His gray jumpsuit underneath showing through the robes, his five o'clock shadow had gone several weeks into a short beard.
"Jack!!" cried Cat.
"Impossible..." muttered Oktober. "You're dead. I killed you." Tom struggled to look up.
"It is the simplest magic to fake dying," Jack said. "If you looked deeper instead of gloating, you would've seen through the illusion."
Tom felt cold creeping into his body. He knew Jack offered the only thing he could legally offer, a huge distraction. Tom summoned his last ounce of strength and will and with a roaring scream, shoved Oktober away from him.
The jagged spike ripped from his chest as Oktober tumbled backward.
There was Oktober's terrified scream and a cold blast of air as the Winter Gate claimed the madman.
"NOOO!!"
There was a clap of cold thunder.
Tom fell on his face, coughing uncontrollably. It hurt to try to breathe. He felt Jack's strong arms hold him.
The next reality quake was the greatest of them all. Suddenly all the elements of creation were without rein, floating and drifting aimlessly.
Then, just as if a great hand had tightened the laces of the loosening reality, it all snapped back into place. Light filled the atrium which immediately fell to placid darkness. The stars shown brightly.
"You still with us? Tom!" Jack whispered.
"Is he gone?" Tom managed.
"He fell through the gate. Good shot. You did it." Jack said calmly.
"Good... is the ... gate closed?" Tom felt himself crying. "It hurts so bad ... Can you ...help me ... please."
"No problem, man." Jack said. There was a warm glow of light that surrounded Tom. The pain subsided and he felt slightly drunk. "Gate's closed. You're stabilized. We'll fix you up. Some people owe me favors."
"Will he live, brother?" The little girl asked curiously. She stood holding a balloon shaped like the melting head of Salvador Dali.
"Yes, Jill," he said to the little girl. "He'll need time to heal, but he'll be fine. Tell Justice. She'll be pleased. "
Tom closed his eyes and rested.
EPILOGUE
The sun was shining the morning he left the hospital for good. Tom decided to walk around the neighborhood that afternoon. The world had come back together and people were beginning to forget the long nightmarish month.
The news had decided that it was the worst earthquake in the history of the country. The hibernation of large masses of people had been described as common by newly found experts. The strange weather was over and power was back on in most places.
That was their story and they were sticking to it.
They weren't talking about ghosts and walking dead and malls that collapse and weird animate plant life. Those were just urban legends, you know. Mass hysteria. Too much X-files or something....
Tom laughed thinking about it.
His ribs still hurt a bit but he liked laughing just the same. It had been three weeks since he had a yard of jagged wood shoved through his chest. He didn't know how, but Jack had patched him up very well and deposited him at the hospital. His house was fixed, probably by Cat.
He got several get well cards
from Jill, the little girl from Chaos. They were odd pictures of a landscape
where the trees don't quite touch the ground. She was holding a balloon
that was a small Volkswagen, complete with confused miniature passengers.
He got a weird card from Van
Vader with a rambling letter. He said he heard Tom had been hurt and wished
him a quick mend. Tom didn't know he even cared! He sent a picture
of Vader in a classic strongman pose, draped in Japanese tourists, all
smiling and waving. It was by far the strangest picture he had ever seen
of Vader. Vader said he had new plans to wrestle in Japan. Something changed
in his life, didn't know what, but everything felt like he just woke from
a bad dream and he needed a change. He mentioned the world even smelled
better the moment he thought of the
change.
Tom smiled, remembering how glad
he was to see Jack alive. And Cat was thrilled. Cat made apologies for
being so fickle, but he was going back to live with Jack. Tom was secretly
delighted, unsure how his neighbors were working with a shapeshifting,
speaking and generally obnoxious cat. He stopped and looked at his house.
It looked like it was put back
together just fine.
"Hey mister!" Tom heard behind him. A boy in his early teens was running down the sidewalk toward him. He had floppy brown hair and dressed in a winter coat much too big for him. "Hey, are you Z-Man?"
"Yeah," Tom said hesitantly.
"I'd love your autograph, I think you're the greatest!" The kid started plowing through his numerous pockets. "If I can find my scrapbook, I'd like you to autograph it for me." He pulled a hardbound book that had newspaper clippings sticking out of it. "Here it is."
"Sure kid," Tom said. He hadn't signed an autograph in some time.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"November," the kid said with a huge smile. "You probably know my dad. He said you did." Tom's jaw fell open.
"You're November? The ....the month?"
"Yeah," the kid said looking at the ground somewhat shamefully kicking stones. "You're feeling better I hope." he said still looking at the ground.
"I'm fine, really," he said to the kid. Tom lifted the kid's chin, "It wasn't your fault."
"I know, I just thought it was raw you getting shoved into that fight. It was a family problem." He said. "Thanks for fixing it. It's good to have a friend outside the family. Dad and Oktober are getting along much better. Dad's not mad anymore and Oktober's mind is healed so he's not crazy anymore."
"I thought you were .... um ... dead?" Tom asked.
"Well, the Justice lady, she fixed that and is sitting with the family working out the new rules. It's on a couple pages back." November turned the pages in the book back. Surrounded by cryptic and strange scribblings in an indescribable language, there was a moving, animate pencil drawing showing the meeting. It was like watching a sketch animation. Around a huge room sat all the months, Winter, Summer, Jack and the little chaos girl Jill.
Justice stood, writing things in a huge book that rested on a podium. Time sat in a cloud-like armchair. She sipped tea, smiling pleasantly. Jill was bored and walked aimlessly around the room and rested against the podium. It turned into a strange pile of jagged sticks, yet still held the book. Justice tapped her on the head and wagged a finger. She huffed and walked back over to Jack.
"This is going on right now?" Tom asked.
"That's a bit linear for a true description, but it'll do," said November rolling his eyes in a way only a 15 year old kid can do. "Do you want to get back into the famous parts of wrestling?" November bluntly asked.
"I'd like to," Tom admitted. "I'd have to train real hard to get there."
"Cool, I think you're going to have a big come back. If you want it, I bet it's there for the asking," November said. He grabbed the book and quickly flipped to a bookmarked page. "Can you sign on this part?"
Tom autographed in the part next November's numerous notes and pictures of Z-Man.
"You have a real, ummmm, different family," Tom said to November. "I hope they work things out."
"They're fun," he said back. "But when you look at it, everyone's family has a weird part to it. At least mine has a wild set of rules to follow, actually written down, which makes it much simpler to straighten things out than most other peoples' families." November pulled his huge baggy sleeve back and looked at his X-Men watch. "When I came back, I didn't have time to get new clothes. And I still don't. Man, I've got more work to do. I have to meet a storm in Canada. I'll catch you later. Enjoy your comeback."
The kid ran down the street and disappeared around a corner.
Tom continued his walk wondering about the months and all their rules, regulations, and contracts. He was glad to have them behind him.
He stopped dead in his tracks and his hands slowly crept up to grab his head. He couldn't shake the curious suspicion that had overcome him.
"What did I just sign?" He couldn't believe what he just did. He felt a curling slink around his ankles and looked to see a black cat with white boots purring happily.
"Cat! What did I just sign?" The cat purred.
"Meeew," the cat said.
"Don't give me that!" Tom shouted. He looked up at one of his neighbors peering between her curtains at him shouting at a cat.
"Hi, Mrs. Brown," Tom said pretending nothing was happening. Mrs. Brown raised her eyebrow curiously and quickly closed the curtain. "You're not fooling anyone,"
Tom mumbled as he walked inside.
"Meeeew" the cat said.
"Oh sure," Tom said. "Now you're going to tell me you're just a little cat. Nothing weird, just a cat."
"Meeeeew," The cat said. "Tuna!"
"I knew it!" Tom said. "My life's weird again! Just say it! My life's real weird!"
"Meeeeeew," said the happy cat.
