There follows the first two installments of the John and Amber Saga. These first appeared in issues 2 and 3 of the original Metal Gods Update.


Love

The woman has auburn hair to the middle of her back. Her brown eyes are kind, inquisitive. Her lips, full and inviting.

She is wearing a dark blue skirt, with a black leotard and black thigh-length boots. Her ears carry the weight of several rings and chains, while a small diamond stud decorates her nose.

She stands in my doorway as if daring me to leave. I flinch as one hand reaches into her blue purse. Expecting to see a gun, I am relieved when she produces a dark blue cigarette.

I let out a sigh.

"Would you like one?" she asks.

"Um... No. I don't smoke."

She lights the cigarette, inhaling deeply.

"Well, I don't kill. So you can take it down a notch or two."

"Who the hell are you?" I ask through a cloud of smoke. I can't help noticing how her breasts rise and fall as she smokes. This woman had invaded my home. I just met her a few moments before. Until just a second ago I was afraid she was here to kill me, and now I find that I am attracted to her. Funny how things work out.

"My name is Amber," she says, "Amber Mynx. I'm here to bring you a message, John."

"How do you know my name?"

"I was sent by a friend. Greg Townsend," she replies.

Suddenly, the hair stands up on the back of my neck. Greg had been murdered by David Sargent and his jack-booted goons over two years ago.

"I see," I answer slowly. "And what, exactly, did Greg say?"

"He said to tell you that you killed him." Amber takes another long drag on her very long cigarette. "He said he doesn't blame you for what happened, but that, now, you are the one responsible because of something done by a guy named David Sargent."

"Are you serious?"

"Oh, yes," she answers with yet another pull on the blue cigarette. "I travelled across the country and across time to get this message to you. Don't give me any of your bullshit. If we don't do something now Mr. Sargent will be coming for your ass! They'll carry you out in a body bag, John, and I really don't want that to happen."

I look closely into her eyes. "What's your stake in all of this?"

"It's very simple," she says. "I'm in love with you, and I'm here to save your life."

I check her body chemistry, a little rote I learned a while back from my friend, Merlin Jones. Her pulse and heart-rate are elevated and her blood pressure seems a bit high. Could be the tension in the room. Could be the tobacco. I decide she's telling the truth. The truth as she knows it, anyway.

"Okay." I sit back down on the bed, noticing that I am still naked. I cover myself with the sheets. No sense letting the cat out of the bag, or whatever.

"So, you're here to deliver a message from my dead friend, Greg. And you're here to save my life."

"Yes."

"From David Sargent."

"Yes. Do you have an ash tray?"

"No. I don't smoke." She stepped outside, then back in.

"Well, we have a lot to discuss. And we have to figure out a way to get back to January, 1994. And we have to do it all before your identity disappears from this reality. Cause when that happens, David Sargent will be coming for you, and nothing will be able to stop him.

Retro-Active

You get the feeling things are a wee bit out of control?

There I was, sleeping soundly, when this, this incredible... stunningly beautiful woman breaks into my house, and starts telling me she's my lover and in order to save my life she has to take me back to January 1994. I've never met her before, and until a few seconds ago I actually thought she was one of David Sargent's goons or, worse still, a HIT Mark sent to kill me in nasty ways.

As far as I can tell she's telling what she believes is the truth, even if it is rather hard to swallow.

So now, I'm sitting on my bed, covered, barely, with a sheet. She's standing in the open doorway leading from my bedroom to the patio, wearing, barely, a skintight blue dress. The conversation so far is as dim as the 40 watt bulb in the lamp beside my bed.

"How much cash do you have?" she asks me.

"I dunno," I reply. "Maybe 2 or 3 hundred. Why?"

"At some point in the past, David Sargent has begun eliminating any evidence of your existence. If he succeeds you will no longer have access to your bank accounts and other personal information. You will, for all Legal intents, cease to exist in this reality."

"I'm sorry. I think you've mistaken me for some lowbrow phuquad with a taste for dangerous women. There is no way your gonna convince me that David Sargent is trying to kill me by going back in time."

"Why not?" she counters. "He's tried everything in this time-line. You've not only foiled all his attempts on your life, but messed with all his other plans as well. He's about to be 'retired' by his bosses, and the only way to fix it all is to get rid of you before you fucked him over."

She reaches into her purse and withdraws another long, blue cigarette. She lights it, inhales, and regards me with deep brown eyes. I could get lost in those eyes. I could get lost in just about anything she...

Something registers on my brain. I only just now realized what I had seen a moment earlier. She lit her cigarette without a lighter or a match. She just produced raw flame by snapping her fingers together.

I really must be tired. Of course she can do stuff like that. She's a Mage for God's sake. How else would she know about David "NOBODY FUCKS WITH ME!" Sargent in the first place.

"You were right about one thing, John," Amber says. "I am dangerous. I am very dangerous. Trust me, you want me on your side of this conflict."

"What was that you said about being in love with me?" I ask.

"In my time-line you and I are lovers. I met you 3 years ago at a party in San Francisco. You wanted to see the 'Gate in a heavy fog and I was trying to get out of a date with some geek who was headed for the Waydown. We ended up in Golden Gate Park, making love in the grass at midnight."

"Damn."

"What?"

"Something that great, I'd kinda like to remember it!" I bury my head in my hands.

"Hey," she sits down next to me, runs her hand through my hair. "Don't worry about it. You can remember the next time."

Well that got my... attention. My mind's in overdrive, though. If she's telling the truth we got no time to waste.

"Lets get moving," I blurt out. "We have to find my friend, 3D.EXE. If anybody can figure out how to get us back to 1994, he can." I stand up, fully dressed, and wince with pain as Paradox attacks my pattern.

"Save your 'light show' for later, John," Amber cautions as she tries to help me stand. As I begin to feel better she returns to the door, crushes her cigarette out on the patio and turns to face me.

"I lost you once. I'll not let that happen again."

to be continued...



Thanks to John Araujo (JPAraujo27@aol.com) for the great B&W rendering of Amber.


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