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Chapter -7- Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve, 2049 - 10:30am EST New Atlantis City ...

Nichole Parker placed her hands on the deck railing, looking up at the domed sky with her new eyes.

Topaz stepped through the sliding glass door and put her hands on Nichole's hips. "You've been so happy these past few days. I was really afraid you would freak out when you finally laid eyes on my brother and me. We're getting old, after all."

Nichole looked back at Topaz and smiled. "No, you don't even look fifty. Far from it. Thirty-five, best guess. But you know I've seen you before. I still feel foolish for attacking you guys right here in this apartment, just a few months ago."

"Thirty-five, huh? You're just saying that," Topaz replied, feigning a giggle. "But I appreciate it."

"You're both really fit," Nichole said. "Thank you for putting up a Christmas tree last night. It was nice to be able to see it. Several months without being able to see anything - it's been very frustrating."

Topaz put her arms around Nichole. She rested her head on the young clone's shoulders. "Did Vincent tell you about talking to his brother?"

"Yes. And as happy as I am about getting out of this city, I feel awkward about coming face-to-face with Reno Nevada. Twenty-six years ago, I beat the hell out of him and he just stood there, refusing to fight me. He thought I was his fiancée, and I was a huge bitch to him. I feel terrible about it."

"You've changed. You grew up. How old were you when that happened?"

"I'd only been alive for a few months at that point. But I had Nicky Parker's memories ... not all of them, but many of them did transfer over. I could read and write. I remembered Reno, but I didn't remember loving him. And I treated him so..."

"Shh, baby. Don't get yourself worked up over it." Topaz kissed her neck softly. "Fox made Eggnog with bourbon. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get real cinnamon down here."

Nichole turned and faced Topaz. "We just earned Dr. Falcon's trust enough that he doesn't have you on house arrest anymore. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Topaz nodded. "You mean all our friends showing up?"

Nichole looked down. "Yeah. You think Rue Darken will be with them?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he will be."

"All my ex-boyfriends are coming to try and rescue me ... I don't need to be rescued. I could walk out of here anytime I wanted. I have all these powers - I could rescue all of you on my own. I can see again. But we're safe and we're happy down here."

Topaz frowned. "Are you having second thoughts?"

"I don't know what I'm thinking. There are nuclear bombs falling up on the surface. What if we just ... kill Falcon and run this city ourselves? I just ... I'm happy here, for the first time - I'm _really_happy."

Topaz chuckled. "All we do is drink coffee on the porch and have sex. There's more to life than that."

"Did Vincent tell you about the thing with your family's island?"

Topaz withdrew her arms from Nichole. "Yeah. Yeah, my little half-brother, James, told Reno the island is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Reno told Vincent. But whatever - at least now I don't have to worry about someone finding it. To be honest, it's a weight off my shoulders."

"Really?"

Topaz nodded. "Yeah. That was a lot of responsibility. Conner, Carmen and James had one hell of a burden. I have no love for that place. My childhood was ruined there."

"Oh."

"Fox feels like he failed our father, but ... if you ask me? Good riddance." Topaz placed her hands on Nichole's face. "Wanna go inside and make out?"

Nichole giggled. "If we do that, the boys will want to join."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Nichole shook her head. "Not at all. You know, this might very well be the last time we all have sex down here in this city."

Topaz grinned. "That's true. Let's go and make the most of it. I love seeing their faces when we start fooling around with them. I love the way they can't stay away from the lady-buffet on the bed."

Nichole blushed, bringing her hand to her mouth, flustered. "Topaz..."

"C'mon." Paz took Nichole by the wrist and guided her inside, and onto the bed. Topaz straddled Nichole's hips and leaned down to make out with her.

Just as the women theorized, it caught the attention of Fox and Vincent right away.

X

X

Christmas Eve, nightfall Chesapeake Canal, Maryland Busty Belle Yacht ...

Wind howled across the deck and rain beat down upon the hull. Lightning flashed repeatedly in the western skyline.

Reno gave Steven a firm pat on the shoulder. "You going to throw up?"

"I am not afraid of a hurricane on a yacht," said Steven. "We're in a canal. There is nearly no chance to capsize. The problem is my stomach."

Reno nodded. "You want some Dramamine?"

"No thank you. I've taken pills already." Steven held his wrists up, showing a wristband on each forearm. "Acupressure was helping the motion sickness pill. However, it's not enough."

"You're using low-tech cures? I thought you're some sort of inventor that makes things no one can understand?"

Steven stepped closer, beneath a light fixture. His face was pale. "Inventions involving human physiology must be crafted person-by-person based on the situation."

Reno chuckled. "So, basically, you can't invent a nanobot that breaks down the stomach acid?"

"I already have," Steven said. "You stole them and gave them to Fox Parker. Now ... only he knows where they're at, but I no longer have the technology at my disposal with which to create more. Perhaps if I was the CEO at Intel for six months to a year, I could change that."

"Where did you invent the ones I gave to Fox?"

"In the city where I was born."

"Oh." Reno looked back out the window. The yacht listed somewhat. "Hey, that's the little island thingy - that means we're south of Baltimore. We're coming into the bay."

Karla approached the two from behind. "We're getting close?" she asked. "Is that what you said?"

"Yeah," Reno told her. "That's the island thingy we saw last time."

"Fort Carroll," she said. "Did you know Robert E. Lee helped direct its initial stages of construction?"

"How do you know these things?" Steven asked. "It always impresses me how intelligent you are, yet how little you make use of it."

"Why, because I'm not an academic?" Karla scoffed and approached the window, peering out at the dark island fort in the middle of the water. "I lived in Washington DC on and off since the mid-1600s," she mused, coming close to the glass pane. She looked up at the lightning in the sky.

Reno and Steven remained quiet.

Karla kept her eyes on the storm raging outside. "Steven, I'm not impressed by your ability to build crap. I'm not impressed by Peter's math. I honestly think the both of you are goofy, and you've done more harm than good for the world up until the twentieth century."

"I am unable to argue with the logic, but complaining about what we've done in the past without the understanding of..."

Karla turned to Steven and lifted her fingers, telekinetically forcing his mouth shut. His words became muffled through pinched lips.

Reno cringed at her reaction towards Steven.

Karla approached the elder immortal. "Sweetheart, you thought you were doing what was best for the world every time you lifted a hand to it. But you've always known what humanity is capable of, and you didn't nurture it."

Steven felt his jaw become unclamped. "I was trying to protect it ... from itself; from the Esoteric Community; from--"

"Stop," she said in a firm tone. "Socrates was just as capable of a thinker, if not more so, than any modern scientist. Galileo, Di Vinci, and Copernicus - they were capable of thinking the same way as any modern brilliant scientist."

"What is your point?" asked Steven.

"If they grew up with smart phones, computers, and graphic calculators, they might have helped the world in ways we couldn't begin to fathom."

"The world wasn't ready for science at the times of--"

"No!" Karla said. "You and your pals kept technology away from humanity. It's like how the twenty-first century democrats keep people poor, so they continued voting democrat. You were afraid that humanity would make more technological cities like the one where you grew up. You wanted to protect humanity from itself. Tell me I'm wrong."

Steven stared at her. He sat down in a chair and arched his back, trying to slouch to keep pressure off of his stomach. "Karla, I understand that you were a student of Peter for a time."

"Methos," she replied. "He was Methos when I was his student. I had a few sessions with Lance. What is your point?"

"Just ... nothing. I am not doing well. I am embarrassed my stomach does not handle simple listing motion very well."

Karla shrugged. "You can't choose whether or not you get motion sickness. You should be lying in bed."

"Why did you send everyone to bed?" asked Steven.

She shrugged. "We're going to need sleep. We'll be in position soon."

Reno cut back in. "I thought we didn't know the location?"

Karla smiled. "When Vincent and Nichole went back to Falcon, they made it so that Laura Báthory could track them. She reported everything to Natalia and Peter. They've been working on this crap all along."

"Laura," Reno said. "So she's been nothing like she was in 2023? She didn't revert or anything?"

Karla shook her head. "No. She's taken Kalen's old job - she's the hand-to-hand champion that protects the Kincade clan." Karla's face brightened. "She started a relationship with Charlie, and she's been helping to raise Haley Balmoral while Evan and Patty are here with us, trying to save the world."

Reno rubbed his chin. "That's pretty amazing. It's hard to believe she's the same person as that creature that tried to kill me last year ... or, well, yeah, all those years ago. Before my stasis, I mean."

Karla looked back out the window. Rain beat against the panel. "I wish this stupid storm didn't change course. I'd rather it hit the Continental United States than follow us across the District Coast."

Steven closed his eyes, staying in the living room chair. "I wish Aris Falcon hadn't decided to play with technology he couldn't understand in an attempt to bring a portion of the American east coast out to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge."

"Yeah, he killed a lot of people," said Reno.

Steven clenched and unclenched his hands over the armrests of his chair. "Have you ever considered why Pangaea split exactly in that place? Pressure. There are failed places where the ridge wanted to start. It is assumable that the Mississippi River, the Amazon River and the Niger River were candidates for the split that would eventually lead to Pangaea breaking apart. But what we know, for sure, is that this one led to the Atlantic Ocean as we once knew it up until twenty-six years ago."

Karla and Reno exchanged confused glances, brows raised.

Steven continued, "What happens if you put undue, unnatural pressure back against the place where the world split apart?"

Karla shrugged. "Hell if I know."

"No clue," said Reno.

Steven sighed loudly. "That is my point. No one knows. Falcon did not think about his actions. He simply reacted impulsively and if there are dire future consequences, well ... let's look at the facts..."

Karla shook her head with a frown.

Reno shrugged back at her.

Steven kept his eyes shut, trying to talk to focus his attention away from his upset stomach. "The ridge was monitored at a growth rate of under three centimeters a year for many years. The District Coast was ripped from America and has settled_into_ the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The shift in the crust has pushed the city of my birth further east. So now the question is - will the District Coast split apart at approximately two-to-three centimeters a year? Or will the ocean floor split apart in another place nearby? Will Iceland be affected? Will the Atlantic Sea, between DC and Europe be affected? Will the Atlantic Ocean between the US and the DC become affected?"

Reno began pacing. "I'm a little fuzzy why that dickhead caused that shit anyway. Why rip off a chunk of land like that? Was it on purpose or was it caused by him fooling around with technology he found in that lost city?"

Steven folded his hands over his stomach, breathing calmly for a moment. "It was planned and executed by Falcon and a small group of his trusted science advisors."

"How?" asked Karla.

"Why?" added Reno.

"Falcon was attempting to access the Lost City by lining up an accessible lost town below the Commonwealth of Virginia. He already found a way to access the town in late August of 2011. He inadvertently caused an earthquake that shook Virginia and Washington DC."

"Jesus," Karla said. "I don't really remember that. I seem to recall someone talking about a quake in Washington DC that messed up the Washington Monument, but that was way back in..."

"It was 2011," Steven said with a firm nod. He opened his eyes. "August 23rd, I believe."

Karla frowned. "Okay, so he just did the same thing on a larger scale? Why?"

"No, the quake in August 2011 was caused by an accident. The quake in 2025 was done on purpose," Steven explained. "Falcon wished to bring Virginia overtop of the western section of the Capital City."

Reno and Karla remained quiet.

"Falcon took drilling equipment down to the sister city that was beneath Virginia. In 2026, after the super-quake aftershocks became, shall we say, manageable at best ... Falcon drilled from the small city beneath Virginia into the Capital City beneath the Atlantic Ocean seabed."

Karla turned back to the storm, peering through the window. "So we should dock in Virginia and find our way to the bore shaft?"

"No, it is no longer accessible through Virginia."

"What?"

Steven sighed. "One of the unforeseen consequences of pushing a tract of land that large and heavy over two thousand miles is that you create a mountain range off the coast of France and Spain ... you cause climate change by shifting the thermohaline circulation path, and you _push_your intended destination into a new location."

"Jesus!" Reno roared. "He killed all those millions and millions of people for something that didn't even work?!"

"It achieved something important, aside from the setback of the bore shaft collapsing."

"What?" Reno asked.

Steven grimaced, but he knew he owed them answers for risking their lives to take him back to his home. "Falcon's folly allowed access to a long-forgotten outer section of the western Capital City that existed when I was a child. Technology he found there allowed him to access most of the Capital City he was previously unable to access. But in the end, his attempt to bypass his need for Conner Parker was a setback of its own. He still needs Conner Parker to access the heart of the city. It's the reason he had Conner's parents created as Chimera."

"This is way too difficult to understand," said Reno with a sigh. "So Falcon screwed up the world and killed millions over a hunch, and because he was too impatient for Conner to be born? But all that bullshit allowed a new area of the underground city to become accessible?"

"Yes," said Steven. "You see? It wasn't that difficult to understand after all."

Reno smirked. "You're a know-it-all piece of shit, you know that?"

Karla turned around and leaned her back against the window. "Okay, so let me get this straight - warm water from this, this Thermohaline current thing you mentioned ... that is why warm water is pushing this stupid hurricane up in our faces?"

"Yes. And it usually tries to push the current into the Atlantic Ocean, which is between America and DC - not the smaller Atlantic Sea between DC and Europe. Has it made landfall on west DC yet?"

Karla sighed. "Yeah. It's basically following us across DC. It's to our south, moving over Virginia. It should hit the Atlantic Sea any time, now. Then we're headed south, towards Falcon."

"We're turning right into it?" Reno laughed. "Terrific."

"Karla is too smart to turn us directly into the storm."

"Am I?" Karla pushed away from the window and dusted her palms together. "We're going to use it. We're using the hurricane, boys."

"What?" Steven looked over at her, his face stoic but his eyes filled with horror.

James Parker came out from the hallway leading to the quarters. He walked into the small kitchen, rummaged around in the fridge for a moment, and made his way to the trio in the living room. "You guys are awake?"

Steven cut his gaze to James. "Karla was just telling us how we're going to dock in Virginia and head south through the Atlantic Sea, towards Aris Falcon's location ... in the middle of a hurricane."

James nodded. "Pretty clever right?"

Reno snorted with semi-amusement. "You knew?"

"Yeah, of course. Conner and I came up with the idea. Sinopa and I sold Karla on the idea. It makes sense."

"What about any of this makes sense?" Steven stood up from the chair. "Please, if any of you suddenly have a higher IQ than myself, I would love for you to explain it to me."

James shrugged. "I can part the ocean with my staff. That would attract a lot of attention, but if we do it during a hurricane, people will try to explain it away as part of the storm. It attracts less attention, you know?"

Steven shook his head. "I'll be in my quarters." He walked to the hallway and made his way to his bedroom. "I should not have agreed to be here with you people. You're as bad as the muns. I let my pride and eagerness get the better of me."

Karla grinned at Reno. "Story books always make the world's oldest people out to sound like they're tired of living, and don't give a shit whether they die or not. Boy were they wrong when it came to that guy."

Reno nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Steven doesn't care about anything but keeping his own ass alive. What did he mean by 'muns' anyhow?"

Karla shrugged with indifference to the term. "Mundanes and specials - normal human beings, born without an ability, and supernaturals, respectively. We used to call them muns, but some people, like Peter, decided it was adding towards the racist attitude the Esoteric Community started to have towards normal people. Peter discouraged saying it."

Reno nodded. "For being old friends, those two sure have a lot of fundamental differences. I hate to ask, but were those two, like, lovers or something? It's one hell of a Bromance."

Karla shrugged. "No one knows. Everyone jokes or guesses about it, though."

"So now what?" James stretched.

"We're almost there," said Karla. "We'll come out of the Chesapeake Bay and dock on a strip of land in Virginia - we put the town into the navigation system but I don't remember what it's called."

James said, "Onancock. Floods destroyed that strip of land, but the town where we're going to dock is still around. It's basically a beach. We'll unload the Chevelle and its trailer, drive across the stretch of land, headed east, until we reach the Atlantic Ocean, and then I'll part the waters and we'll head south."

Karla threw her hands up. "Okay! Easy as pie right?!"

Reno shook his head with a wan smile. "Okay, so we're going to drive my car and a trailer south, along the sea bed until we find Falcon's domed city? I mean ... seriously? Just like that?"

James frowned. "We tried figuring out ways to get to it. A lot of ways have really rough terrain. Using Google's sea floor-mapping program that came out a few years ago, we managed to narrow down a handful of ways to the dome."

Reno and Karla remained quiet.

James continued, "Natalia has a lot of money and a lot of connections. She took care of the logistics. They found a way heading south from Virginia to Falcon's city, out in the Atlantic Sea. If we stick to the mapped out path, we'll have a decent path to our location. There might be a few small obstacles but nothing we can't handle. Reno, your car was modified right?"

Reno snorted in amusement. "Yeah, they put huge ... you'll see. It's goofy. It doesn't even look like a car anymore. It's a Chevelle on top of a monster truck suspension kit with tank treads. I was heartbroken, honestly. But they said they can put it back when we're done."

James frowned.

"What?" Reno tilted his head, eyeing James. "What's that look for?"

"There are two ways into that city," said James. "We either find a docking tube for a submarine, or Karla teleports us in a handful at a time. But no matter how you look at it, the car won't go into the dome. And when we enter the dome, the ocean ... well, it won't stay open."

Reno grew quiet.

"Hon..." Karla reached a hand towards him.

"I just ... it's fine." Reno stood up. "It was my father's car."

"Reno, I'm sorry. I thought you knew." James frowned.

"It's fine." Reno took a deep breath and sighed. "I just need to take a walk or ... something." He afforded Karla with a weak smile and walked out of the living room.

Reno made his way back to the room he'd been sharing with Karla. He closed the door behind himself and approached the bed.

Kuda was fast asleep on the comforter.

Reno stared at the bed for a moment. He walked over to a television and turned on the unit. A holovision projector in the ceiling glowed, sending an image to a space in the middle of the room.

With a sigh, Reno walked through the image, dropped onto the bed and started at the hologram.

A narrator's voice came over a set of speakers set into the walls behind the headboard of the bed. It said, "The unsinkable Titanic, four hundred miles from Newfoundland, struck an iceberg on the starboard side at twenty-two knots, on April fourteenth in 1912..."

Reno stared at the imagery, trying to decompress his thoughts regarding his father's Chevelle.

Kuda climbed up onto his lap and rested his small head on Reno's knee.

Reno stared at the documentary with a sigh. He ran his fingers through Kuda's head-fur, listening to the documentary's tale about the tragedy of the ill-fated vessel.

The documentary went on to explain how the famous, well-documented shipwreck was destroyed when the quake of 2025 caused the District Coast to move east.

It talked about the lack of lifeboats, how half the crew and passengers died, how the vessel used a triple screw propeller, and was over eight hundred feet long in length.

The trick worked. Reno began to drift off, staring at the hologram.

Some amount of time passed and Reno sat up, startled.

Karla stood on his left. Conner, Rufus and Kalen stood across the room. James approached the right side of the bed. "Hey. You ready?"

Reno rubbed his face and stretched. Kuda was still on his lap, but now across his other leg. He looked around. The holo-vision was in the background, behind Karla, showing an image about a documentary of a the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Reno pushed his palms into his eyes and rubbed firmly. "Jesus, you guys. Too much going on at once."

Karla sat down on the edge of the mattress next to him and said, "Sinopa and the others are making preparations. You need to get up, take a shower and get dressed."

"I took a shower right before I came out to the living room earlier. I was just resting my eyes. If you guys are ready, then ... I'm ready."

Karla glanced over her shoulder. "What are you watching?"

"Discovery Channel or ... History Channel, maybe. Whatever you were watching last."

Karla smiled. "That stuff puts you to sleep huh?"

"Yeah. I guess so." Reno glanced at all the faces in the room. "You guys, it's a little weird for everyone to be in here staring at me when I wake up."

"See?" Conner said. "I told you guys we should head down to the..."

"Shaddap," Rue said with a grin. "And I told you the look on his face when he wakes up would be priceless, now din' I?"

Kalen approached the end of the bed. He picked up a remote control on the comforter, pointed it at the holovision and turned it off. Kalen tossed the remote on the mattress. "I'm here because I was tired of listening to Evan and Heimdallr discuss the differences between Valhalla and Sto-vo-kor."

Karla chuckled. "Were they really?"

"What the hell is Sto-vo-kor?" Conner leaned his weight on his cane.

Karla grinned back at Conner. "It's where the honorable Klingons go after a glorious death." She saw the look of confusion on the teen's face and said, "Star Trek stuff. Let's get moving, everyone."

The group filtered out of the room. Reno could hear Conner asking someone, "What the hell is a Klingon?" The boy's voice faded until only Karla and Reno were left in the bedroom.

"You okay?" Reno asked, noting a strange look on her face.

"You're going to see Nichole down there."

"The psycho who threw me into stasis? Sinopa said she's all over my brother. She was never my Nichole."

"Yeah, she's still a clone of your fiancée."

Reno shrugged and guided Kuda off his lap. He eased his feet and legs over the side of the bed and stretched a bit. "At best, a clone is a twin sister or a twin brother. Similarities aside, they're still their own person. She's not _my_Nichole."

Karla smiled. "Sorry for being lame."

"You needed to hear me say it, huh?"

Karla nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did. Look, I woke up with Rufus yesterday morning."

"Yeah, I know. I told you to talk to him. I see he's not so mopey, now."

Karla exhaled in relief. "So we're good, right?"

"We're fine, Karla. You said this was always friends-first, benefits-as-able. I don't own you, and you're not married to me. I appreciate you; I appreciate what we have every now and then; I'm not mad."

"Okay, good. I kind of like you, Nevada."

Reno grinned. "I kind of like you." He pulled her down onto his lap. "So all these people had different names a long time ago. Steven was Isacc, and Peter was Lance, who was Methos ... but what about you?"

Karla grinned. "Before Methos, he was Niall Kincade, Natalia's husband."

"Wait, I thought Niall made Natalia into a vampire?"

"So did I. But it wouldn't be the first time those two have lied about things for one reason or another."

Reno smirked. "So are you going to tell me your name, before it was Karla?"

"I change my last name every now and then but I'm fond of my first name. Nathanial gave it to me."

"Gave? He _gave_it to you?"

"He said it suited me better. I met him in December of 1906. It was a slow building friendship, followed by a whirlwind romance, but he told me he would eventually grow old, and that I would eventually meet the love of my life in the future. So, we stayed friends with benefits for a few decades."

Reno laughed. "You're avoiding my question."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I don't know. You know everything about me. You know about my real name. I was just curious I guess."

Karla placed her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. Her tongue slid into his mouth and she murmured softly against his lips.

After a moment to get the blood flowing, she slid off his lap and said, "I think it would be a good idea to have a shower before we go traveling. You don't want the enemy to smell us coming."

"I told you, I already took one."

Karla reached for his right hand and gave a tug. "You'll need another when you work up the sweat I'm about to give you." She guided him across the bedroom to the private bathroom.

Reno kicked off his pants and shirt.

Karla shimmied out of her skirt, panties, and top. She opened the shower stall and turned on the water. She stepped in first and Reno followed.

He pulled the door shut and said, "How are we looking on time?"

"The hurricane is in Virginia Beach right now. It's going to pick up strength over the water, babe. Nobody is rushing into that."

Reno took her by the waist and pulled her close, beneath the shower water.

Karla replied with an alluring smile. "Keturah. My name was Keturah."

"You'll always be Karla to me," he said and kissed her neck.

Karla lifted her chin. "Mm, this gives a whole new meaning to the term, 'Merry-fucking-Christmas,' babe."

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