CHAPTER I
SOMETIME IN THE MID 1980's
"Cooooool ! " exclaimed the boy, ripping open the lid of an old cardboard box. His parents had plucked it out of the garage whilst doing a clear out and had let him check out the contents before deciding if to condemn them to a yard sale.
Inside the box an old cartridge system console waited, it's cables and joysticks carefully coiled, the old games neatly arranged in their original cardboard boxes. The boy reverently lifted the console out and understood quickly how to set it up. Coax cable there, mains adaptor cable there...and so on...easy.
In the garden the girl played, her colourful plastic doll house was open, adorned with modern furnishings, big plastic tv, plastic hot tub, plastic pony waiting in its small plastic fenced paddock outside with awaiting pink drop top sports car alongside. The plastic lady of the residence sat on her sofa, one eye half shut, waiting for the girl to choose her fate. Pony ride....a drive in the car...shopping or cooking....who knew.
Deep in space Kara, the Super Girl finally saw the object which was nothing more than a hint of a glint of a reflection from the sunlight. It was moving quite quickly and if she wasn't mistaken the scientists had been spot on about its course. Impact with earth was certain though this would be no extinction level event, but for a small village or town it could be lethally dangerous. Time to put an end to this rogue celestial traveller.
The boy looked at the awaiting wooden trimmed console, all connected and ready to go. His small portable TV in his room waiting, showing snowy static ready to flick into life. The boy rifled through the collection of games and chose one, drawn to its distinctive gold coloured cardboard box and colourful artwork. He carefully introduced the cartridge to the awaiting slot and turned on the system.
"Cool" he exclaimed again, no load times, no cassettes ... instant fun!
The young girl hitched up a horse box to the pink car and crudely loaded a plastic saddle and bridle into the backseat, this was going to be an outing to the sand pit with show jumping in mind.
Kara locked onto the object and set herself in pursuit, Earth, object and heroine converging rapidly. Kara decided to look deeply into the object, was it merely rock and ice or was something more durable beneath the dull surface. She burrowed through the layers with her vision then winced as a reflection of metallic dust whitened out her view. Dense metals, particularly lead could have this effect and so , with the presence of at least some type of dangerous metal core it was time to destroy the heavenly visitor.
Kara engaged the target with her heat vision, carving out a channel in its surface as it tumbled onwards. The outer layers began to splinter away as she exposed the lower tiers of material and quickly she hit the inner ball of metal, it's metallic sheen visible. Closer and closer the pair approached the earth, the target shrinking in size as Kara shredded off the last weak layers of rock, the dense metal beneath glowing from her attention.
With one last focused effort Kara caused the hardened metal chunk to shatter into several large pieces revealing another weak soft layer inside. The green powdery fog that emanated from the explosion enveloped the heroine for a second as she powered through....
"Oh....." was the only thought that went through her head as she lost consciousness and began to tumble.
The boy frowned, his simple pixel drawn knight had been slain again by yet another dragon. For some reason though he put down his controller, he felt compelled to leap up and run to his bedroom window. Looking out behind the house across the garden he could see his twin sister, blond doll in hand looking towards the nothingness.
Then slowly, little green like sparks began to shower across the clear blue sky..a few at first, then thousands and then as quickly as they came they were gone, the last green reflections vanishing from the boys eyes. The boy seeing his sister lose interest and return to her doll house decided to retire from his window.
The boy reset the game.......time to stop dying....
The girl returned the doll to her house.....time to stop the highlife....
The heroine was tumbling and tumbling.....then there was a gasp of life.
"What....... oh........" Kara murmured. As she tumbled there was darkness, then white... snow or cloud...then darkness....then white.....now dark dark blue....then white.....oh and some patches of dark green....oh and blue....now dark dark blue....
Kara took in the sight of her forearms a moment, her hands were burnt, oh so painfully burnt. Her blue costume had burned back from her sleeves to her elbows, her forearms scorched black. As she tumbled her cloak came into view, the lower half was gone, a frontier of flame marked the edge of what remained.
Kara continued to tumble, down and down she went, the intensely cold air making itself known, her nose red raw, unable to detect the scent of her singed hair. She hadn't seen but most of her hair was gone, her scorched head dull to any sensation of her baldness. She began to focus, did anything work....she concentrated on flight but....nothing.
The boy slew the next dragon and had picked up the magic chalice....to the enchanted cave!
The girl innocently began to wash down the floors of the doll house with the odd blue solution from the shed.....you have to do your chores!
"Ugh......" Kara grunted as she passed through a layer of cloud, her numbed body getting drenched. Her tumbling was slowing, blue and patches of white, now all white, blue with patches of white, now all white....over and over. Soon it would be over .... the scenery was getting bigger and bigger and the snow below began to reveal features. There were ripples and mounds, crevices and ridges, all getting bigger and bigger. Black rocks protruded through the white bed of snow, ominously getting larger and larger....any moment now.
The boys eyes lit up in excitement.
"CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE UNLOCKED ONE OF ONLY TEN SPECIAL ENCHANTED CAVES ... YOU HAVE WON $10,000 !!! CALL 555......"
The girls eyes lit up with curiosity.
Slowly the plastic floors and walls began to droop, almost like they were melting. The blond doll slowly began to twist and buckle then plopped to the floor below as slowly the plastic dissolved.
The household was soon full of the girls wicked laughter and the boys whoop of joy..... "I've won I've won....!"
Kara looked up the inside of the hundred foot deep snow lined tunnel into the sky. She had settled on her back, still and unwilling to move. She was burned, her costume in ruins, the snow beneath her body sizzled in protest at the hot heroines touch. The heroine could feel her strength returning, but her body would need time to heal.
"Wha.....what was that stuff.........." Kara's head flopped back on the snow as her body began to make its pain known.