After some unexpected delays, here is THE FINAL INSTALLMENT!

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The Gatchamaniacs had finally gotten themselves in a state of relative calm. After seeing ElectricWhite and Amethyst were all right – tired and a bit weak, but all right – after each had suffered an asthma attack, and after EW gave a reading from The Book of Gatchaman, the rest of the membership stopped being so skittish about not having access to the main site.

But that didn’t mean there was total peace in the place.

Amethyst had just ducked into a corridor, hoping to find a small, quiet room where she could get some much-needed sleep when a scream pierced the air. In no time she found the room and peeked inside.

Huddled in a far corner was a shivering lump. Amethyst stood in the doorway and stared at the lump for a few moments. There was something familiar...

“Daniella?” she finally said. The lump answered in a frantic, high pitch.

“Um,” Amethyst said as soon as there was silence, “do you think you could say that in English this time?”

“One of the Katses came after me with a brown recluse spider!”

“Oh – ”

“I hate spiders!”

“Yeah, I think we all know that – ”

“And I’ve been told a brown recluse spider could kill me!”

“Well, I’ve heard that they can be venomous. But why are you still in the corner?”

Daniella unfurled herself just enough to give Amethyst an incredulous look. “IT’S STILL HERE!”

Amethyst scanned the room and found something near the center of the floor. “That’s not a brown recluse.”

“How can you tell?”

“Brown recluses are, well, brown, not purple with pink paislies. And I don’t think they get to be the size of your fist.”

“It’s still a spider!” Daniella curled back into a tight ball.

Amethyst carefully approached the purple and pink thing on the floor. She gingerly picked it up by one of its legs. “It’s rubber.” she proclaimed as she threw it across the room. It hit a porthole and dropped to the floor. The fish on the other side of the porthole didn’t notice.

Meanwhile, ElectricWhite fought to keep from dozing off in her wheelchair. It had been years since she last had an asthma attack that severe, and she had forgotten how exhausted the condition could make her feel. It didn’t matter that she was in a loading dock full of people who had divided into small groups to talk among themselves – she found herself dreaming before her eyes were completely closed.

But that quickly changed as several large monitors lowered from the ceiling. The loading bay was silent as tv snow became a view of a courtyard at Gatchamania.net’s main site. There was a small gasp as images of smoldering machinery littering the floor came into focus. Green uniforms were moving about, looking up. But it was hard to tell what the soldiers were looking for; the smoke created a low ceiling that blocked the view of everything higher than a few yards up...including a schooner-shaped cloud.

* * * * *

“What the hell happened?” the commander muttered.

“Well, sir,” a nearby soldier replied, “the fan motors overloaded when – ”

“That was rhetorical, idiot!”

“Sir,” another soldier said as he approached, “there appears to be something coming from the target!”

The puke-green jackalope peered up through the haze at the dark form he knew was the schooner-shaped cloud. Circling the dark form was an ever-growing number of smaller forms. They orbited for a few moments and then began circling toward the ground.

“I think they’re birds, sir.” one of the soldiers said.

“The Earthers have a bird that represents peace.” another soldier added, “Maybe that guy’s trying to surrender.”

“Look!” yet another soldier cried, “They’re dropping something!”

Sure enough, something small and off-white dropped away from each winged body. And a moment later, Spectrans began running for cover as they were pelted by the foul-smelling “gifts”.

Meanwhile, five figures cautiously made their way along a corridor. They stopped, tensed, ready for a fight when shrieks and screams came from farther down the corridor. Nothing else happened, so they continued on.

But then a large number of figures were running their way.

“Are those Spectrans?” Princess asked, squinting at what she saw hurrying toward them.

“What’s with their uniforms?” Jason added. The people running toward them wore something that vaguely resembled the standard green uniform, except what this group wore was dappled with an off-white color.

“New camouflage?” Keyop asked.

The oncoming group came to a dead stop in front of the fivesome. The one who looked like a Spectran commander – his costume made him look like an off-white and puke-green speckled jackalope – gawked for a split second before crying, “G-Force?!”

The fivesome pulled out their weapons.

“Thank the Luminous One!” Tears ran down the commander’s cheeks. “I surrender! Please get me outta here!”

A little over an hour later, Gatchamania.net had no sign of Spectra’s presence. The membership had gathered in the courtyard, many raising tankards of rum to the schooner-shaped cloud casually floating overhead.

EW took all this in with heavy-lidded eyes.

“Hey, Daniella,” she heard somebody behind her say, “you should check out this picture of a new species they just found in the Amazon Jungle!”

A moment later, the air was pierced by a horrific scream. Daniella vaulted over EW, landing just inches away from the wheelchair’s footrests. She then pulled the closest Gatchamaniacs over to her to form a protective barrier around her before dropping to the floor and curling up into the fetal position.

“Spider?” EW asked.

“A picture of the ugliest, most horrible, disgusting spider ever!” came the muffled reply – Daniella wasn’t about to get out of the fetal position for anything!

EW leaned over to the Gatchamaniac to her immediate left. “Let me know how this turns out.” A small snore escaped as soon as her eyes were shut.

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“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." --Ray Bradbury

And it has to end with poor Daniella being terrorized by a spider.

Why am I not surprised?

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quote:

Originally posted by Transmute Jun And it has to end with poor Daniella being terrorized by a spider. Why am I not surprised?

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Perspective Alters Reality

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They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes -- Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.

So that's what happened!

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"The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." -- Blaise Pascal