The Two Lamps
1
Harry Scott walked the halls of his building. Everything looked in good condition. He spent a lot of time making sure the residents had a nice place to live. What he couldn't do with his hands, he accomplished with a special tool he had found in the basement.
He had a day off coming. He had decided to spend it at the library. He wanted to search for the history behind a name. It might tell him where his tool had come from before he had found it.
He wanted to track down Geordi Allen and find out where he had gotten the lamp and why he had left it behind when he had moved out of the building. He might not be alive after all the time that had passed.
The only reason Harry could think to leave the thing behind was some kind of curse he hadn't run into yet.
He wanted to know what he could about the lamp.
Harry finished his inspection. He didn't have anything major on his hands. His day off should be problem free.
The residents all had his phone number. They would call if there was a problem and he needed to get back to the building.
Harry climbed up to the top floor and went to his apartment. He fixed himself a quiet dinner and ate it while listening to the radio. He should get a computer with Internet access. He supposed it would make the times he had to do research that much easier.
It might also take up a lot of time just sitting there with nothing on it.
He liked the library better for any factchecking he needed to do. If he had a problem, the librarians could help him most times.
If he was really desperate, he would wait until nightfall and use the flame on the computers so they worked for him as magic eyes.
It was effective but not something he liked to do due to the risk to the system. He didn't want to crash everything for other people.
Harry looked out the window and scratched his face.
He raised his hand. Flame dripped from his palm, forming a lantern hanging from his hand. He lifted it up and flame wrapped around him. When it cleared, his superintendent's uniform was a yellow shirt, and green pants. Gloves and boots covered his hands and feet. His head was a ball of flame with two green sparks as eyes.
He had concocted the disguise after coming across Irving's Sleepy Hollow. It suited him as being ghostlike, and forcing people to be unbelieved if they reported him making his rounds.
Port Hatteras attracted trouble in his experience. Harry knew he wasn't the only one patrolling the streets. He considered letting them have it.
He supposed the only reason he didn't was he enjoyed flying. He loved drifting across the city.
If the lantern could be lit in the daytime, he would shirk his duties to fly around all the time.
The residents would have him fired if he did that.
Harry raised the lantern. Green light played on the wall. He stepped through the spot and flew outside in the night air.
He decided to fly around the edges of the city. It allowed him a bigger patrol before he had to head back home and get some sleep. Anyone he found in trouble could be helped quietly as he imitated a flying saucer.
He preferred acting as if he was a passing sky phenomenon instead of a human torch. It kept stories of him down in the papers.
The ones that did come out were regarded with the same dismissal as Bigfoot and Nessie.
He wondered about why he didn't step out of the shadows like the Seraphim. He supposed it was because he didn't want people asking him questions about why he had turned his head into a ball of fire and flew around at night.
He wondered how many others kept in the shadows. He supposed it had to be a majority. No one wanted the press exposing their secrets to the world.
And the fact he had what amounted to a magic wand would not escape the government. They would want it so they could try to duplicate it.
He wondered if that was why Allen had left the lantern behind in the basement of the apartment building.
Maybe he got tired of hiding the secret of what he could do and changed it to knowing what he had done with the lantern, and thinking it was over.
Had he known what he had?
Harry thought he had. The super had found the lantern and discovered what it could do within a day. Allen would have known what it could do before he left it behind.
The only question was why he had left it when it could do a lot with limited applications.
That was what really bothered Harry.
Why leave something like that behind? In the wrong hands, it could rip buildings apart, kill numerous people, maybe cause an environmental collapse. It would be like giving a gun to a child.
Harry would never leave the lamp behind for someone random to find. He would bury it somewhere no one would ever be able to find it.
Then he would leave a note with it that it eats brains and not to touch it.
He doubted that would work, but it was the only thing he could think of at the moment to keep the lantern out of anyone else's hands when he was gone.
Maybe he would have something better when he really thought about it.
Harry kept his eyes on the ground as he patrolled. He found a vampire trying to break into a house. He used the green flame from the lantern to burn the vamp up. He didn't have a lot of patience for the bloodsuckers.
They were always stalking kids and being nuisances before they killed their victims with the blood loss.
Burning them up was a public service.
Harry swept out over the ocean. Sometimes he found ships foundering in the waters around the city. He turned back when he saw everything was normal.
One vampire for a patrol wasn't great. He had hoped for at least a rescue, or something.
He flew over the north of the city. He could usually count on something happening. He scanned the streets and buildings. Nothing was out of place.
This was the slowest patrol he had ever had. Maybe Seraphim had scared everyone into the underground for once.
Harry decided to head home. Maybe things would pick up tomorrow night.
Maybe the villains of the city were taking a break from their nightly ramblings and biding their time in their lairs across the city.
He hoped it wasn't the calm before the storm.
He passed a guy in a sweat suit standing on a roof. The guy looked like he was homeless, but taking care of himself. He didn't run from the green flame flying through the air. He waved a hand slowly.
Harry waved back, but the guy had vanished before he could complete the gesture.
Was he a monster, or a good guy? Either way, Harry was going to have to find out how he did that one day.
Harry headed home. He needed some sleep and had to get ready for tomorrow.
2
Harry got up early. He had breakfast and dressed in his civilians as he thought of them. He spent a lot of time in his superintendent clothes. He walked downstairs and headed for the bus stop. He didn't travel anywhere so didn't need a car usually.
The bus was a good alternative when he did need to go more than a few blocks from his building.
The lamp didn't work in the daytime. He had tried several times, but as soon as the sun came up the flame died.
That was one of the questions he needed to ask Geordi Allen about if he could track him down.
A lot of time had passed. Allen could be dead.
Harry boarded the bus and rode downtown. He walked a few blocks to the central branch of the library. He patted the stone retriever on its head as he passed its perch to walk into the pale brick building.
He paused to sign up for computer time. He had to wait behind some people so he grabbed a book off the shelf and started reading. He kept an eye on the tables as he waited for his turn.
Finally a computer was freed up and he signed in. He opened up Internet Explorer and stared at the slideshow that was the library's homepage.
Where did he start looking?
He decided that maybe Google might know something. He typed in Geordi Allen into the bar and got back tons of matches. He decided to narrow it down some. The only way he could think was to type in the address of the apartment building.
A Geordi Allen was reported to live at his building after a sea quake off the coast. He survived a small tidal wave that fell on part of the city. Nothing else was mentioned.
Harry checked the date. He frowned. Where had the guy gone after that?
He tried the online papers for an obituary. Nothing had been reported. Maybe Allen had left the city.
He flipped back to the original story he had found. Allen had been a sailor of some kind according to it. The ship had gone down the night of the tidal wave.
Harry leaned back in his chair. What could he do now? He checked the ship for the name of the owners. Maybe someone in the company would know what had happened to Allen.
It would have to be someone who had worked for the company thirty years ago.
Maybe he could check their files after hours.
His lantern gave him the ability to do that. It still might be a dead end.
Harry debated whether or not he should use the lamp to commit a break-in.
It was a thin line he was treading. He didn't want to start committing crimes just to further his own agenda. It was a slippery slope.
He decided that he could do it this once if it would help him with the mystery of the lantern. It was the best he could do unless something else came up to change his mind.
He hoped he wasn't making a mistake. The least he could do was go over and see if anyone remembered Allen from his sailing days.
And he had a lot of time before the sun went down and he could light the lantern. Maybe he would come across an alternate idea to breaking in and looking through the files.
Harry double-checked the address for the shipping company. He wrote it down in his pad. He started to sign off. He had an idea. He went back to Google and typed in green flame in Port Hatteras.
He leaned back against the wave of green flame sightings that answered his query. He shook his head. It looked like he was right about Allen at least with some of the dates of the sightings. Some were his. He had expected that with the way he had killed some shadow ferrets with a mirror and a blast of light a few weeks ago.
Some of the sightings were around Colonial times. Those were too early for his search. He marked down a reference book for the flame sightings and shut things down.
He got up, put his book back on the shelf, and headed back to the central bus station. He had to check the maps to see which one went close to the shipping company address. He might be able to get out there at least.
If he couldn't get a bus back before nightfall, he would use the lamp to fly home with whatever he had learned.
That was his best plan at the moment.
Harry spent a few minutes with the bus station's wall map of the city. He found two routes that were close but not really near where he wanted to be. He decided to take the next one that rolled into the station to let people off.
He would have to walk to his destination after that.
It wouldn't be the first time he had walked around. He could do it again to find out what he needed to know.
If the lamp worked in the daytime, he could simply fly to the place and knock on the door.
Did Allen have an answer for that? It would be great to be able to use the lamp in the daytime instead of waiting for the night.
Harry went to the door to watch for his bus. He checked his watch. It had a few minutes according to the schedule he had looked at when comparing it to the other route.
He spotted the bus turning the corner. He smiled. Now he could do his waiting while moving along.
He took a seat in the back and looked out the window. It felt good to be doing something. Did Allen know about the other sightings?
How many others had held the lantern? What had happened to them? Had they died while still on duty?
Two hundred years worth of lantern users seemed like something someone should have connected before he had. Maybe the others had.
He wouldn't know until he found Allen and asked about the others who had done what they could for the Port after it was founded.
He might not know of the long line of night lights.
He saw his stop ahead. He checked his watch. He might be able to catch the bus going back into town if he hurried to his destination.
He might have to wait until the sun went down.
Harry got off the bus. He took a moment to figure which direction he had to walk. Then he started.
He found Mariner Shipping sitting in a rusting building behind a chainlink fence that had seen better days. He went to the gatehouse that was there to keep the employees there except at lunch time.
The tired guard had already seen most of his life pass him by. He examined the visitor carefully before saying anything. When he did say something, his voice seemed to creak like an old hinge.
"Do you have an appointment?" He seemed sure that Harry didn't. He must have every appointment written down somewhere.
"No." Harry wanted to keep to the truth as much as possible. "I was hoping that the company would have a forwarding address for a Geordi Allen."
"Why should we?" The guard's bushy eyebrows twitched at different rates.
"I don't know." Harry felt he had hit a wall. The guard didn't seem likely to let him pass. "I have some of his stuff and I am trying to track him down, or his next of kin."
"Why next of kin?" The guard leaned back. One hand dropped down below Harry's line of sight.
"These things have been sitting in the basement of my building for a long time." That seemed the best course. "I don't know if this guy is still alive."
"But he used to work for Mariner?" The guard frowned. His hand didn't rise. "How do you know that?"
"I found a story where he had survived some disaster at sea." The super wondered what would happen if he leaned forward. "The name of the company was mentioned."
"Let me call up to the office." The guard reached for the phone on his desk. "Maybe they'll help you."
"Thanks." Harry wondered if anyone kept employment records for that long.
It was his best hope of tracking the man down if they had some address he could use.
The guard spoke in the phone for a few minutes. He waited quietly, eyebrows twitching. It seemed like something he didn't know he was doing.
"Go up to the red door next to the dock." The guard hung up the phone. "Laurie said she would check on the guy for you."
"Thanks." Harry walked into the lot. He spotted the door right away. It stood out from the rest of the building. It was like a new car in front of a dilapidated shack.
He headed for it, eyes on the lot as he went. He wondered if the sea quake had put the company on hard times.
It was possible. Allen was the only listed survivor of the ship that had went down. If they had lost more than one ship, it might have been more than their insurance would cover.
He paused at the red door and tried it. It opened with the creaking he thought it would do. He stepped inside. The light was dimmer. He waited for his eyes to adjust before looking for Laurie.
He saw an older lady waving across the room. He nodded and walked toward her. She wore a smile, clothes that belonged on a woman who was much bigger, and a small smile.
"Laurie Hazen." She smiled as she stuck out her hand. "I do the payroll around here."
Harry shook the hand.
"Harry Scott." He nodded as he took his hand back. "I'm looking for an employee named Geordi Allen."
"Let's go to my office." She waved for him to follow her. "I may, or may not, have him on file."
"Thank you." Harry walked along behind her.
3
Harry looked around the tiny office as Laurie searched her files. She hummed to herself as she flipped through the old papers.
"You said out found out he used to work for us because of the seaquake." She paused at one file, but then kept thumbing.
"He was listed as the sole survivor." Harry wondered if it would be all right to sit down in one of the chairs present.
"The Manzell." Laurie went and sat down in the chair by her desk. "I remember it. We lost a lot of money when she went to the bottom. The insurance hardly covered the loss. They tried to blame the captain for a tidal wave."
"Do you know what happened?" Harry decided to sit.
"The Manzell was sailing into port after being at sea for a month." Laurie opened the file in front of her. "The captain radioed a wave was on the way from the stern. He felt he couldn't outrun it in a straight ahead course. So he reported he was going to try to turn around it and get to the northern end. He hoped to let it pass while he sailed into calmer water."
"I guess he didn't make it." Harry wondered how big the wave was when it crashed down on the freighter.
"The wave was bigger than anyone thought." Laurie sat back in her chair. "People saw it from here and it was miles out to sea. The crew didn't have a chance no matter what he did."
"How did Allen survive that?" He envisioned a giant fist of water hitting the ship and sending it under.
"No one knows." She looked in the file. She traced down the information. "This is the address we have for him."
She gave Harry his building's address.
"That's my building." He smiled. "He would have been in Mr. Oliver's place at the end of the hall."
"I'm so sorry." She checked the file again. "There's no other place listed."
"Thank you for your time." Harry stood. "It was nice meeting you."
"I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help." Laurie brushed curly gray hair back with her hand. "All this thinking about the quake reminds me of the giant octopus story too."
"Excuse me." He paused at the door. "What giant octopus story?"
"When she went down, people on other boats not hit by the wave reported giant tentacles pulling the boat down." Laurie smiled. "They changed their stories to match what Geordi reported when the Coast Guard picked him up on his makeshift raft."
"What do you think happened?" Harry thought the giant octopus. It was what people had seen before common sense said to switch to a more likely story.
"Who knows?" She put the file back in its cabinet. "It's been a lot of years between then and now."
Harry nodded. She thought the giant octopus was real too. It was easy to see in the way she put it off.
Still he was at a dead end without a next of kin, or another address. What was his next move? Maybe he should try the post office.
They might have a change of address on file. He was old enough for social security. If he was still alive, where were Allen's benefits going?
Harry waved as he left the building. That was his next stop. Maybe the government could help him out.
He might have to use the lamp if they wouldn't.
He didn't like a legendary beast in the waters off Hatteras that only appeared the once and never again.
It said that it was something that could come calling again.
At least Seraphim was protecting the city in the daylight. He could stop any exotic sea life that might threaten the city.
Harry would do his part if the thing attacked at night. That was part of his self-appointed responsibility since taking up the lantern.
He checked his watch. He had a few hours until nightfall. He could walk to the nearest post office and talk to someone behind the counter. He didn't know where a post office was around the shipping company.
He decided to catch the next bus back to the central hub. He could look up where the post offices were in the central station building.
He found a bus stop going in the opposite direction to what he had ridden originally. He settled in to wait for the public transportation system to work its own magic.
He knew a little more about Allen's disastrous trip. He knew that Allen had stayed in the building until he cut ties with his boss. He had left the lantern behind.
Had he tried to use the lantern on the giant octopus? Had it worked in the daytime? Why didn't it work in the daytime now if it did then?
What didn't he know?
That was the biggest question in his mind. What was he stirring up looking for answers? Did he really want to meet something immune to his fire? Did he want to meet it when he didn't have any fire at all?
The bus arrived and he boarded it silently. He watched the streets as he tried to think of a better plan other than give up and let things go.
Now that he knew there was a monster in the story, he couldn't give up. Allen might have killed it. He might have just sent it to sleep in the bottom of the ocean until someone stumbled on it.
What would happen to the city if someone did wake it?
Seraphim was strong, but could he handle a sea monster on his own? Harry didn't think so.
It explained the sea quake story in the middle of an area that was notoriously short on any kind of trembler. No one would admit to seeing a monster big enough to drag a ship to the bottom if a more reasonable explanation was offered.
He watched the bus stop come into sight. He waited quietly for the aisle to clear before he got off the vehicle. He looked up and down the street. He checked his watch. The post office was closing. He shook his head. He was too late.
He would have to resort to less than legal means to get what he wanted.
He shook his head. He had some time before he could use the lantern. He went into the bus station. He went to the wall map and found a post office. He marked the address. He walked out the front door.
It was time to get something to eat before he committed his felony of the night.
He found a sandwich place and got a meatball and cheese, a Coke, and fries. He settled in front of the window so he could watch the day wind down while he ate his meal. People went about their businesses, clearing the sidewalks as he watched.
How many would make it home safely?
Harry threw his trash away, putting the tray on top of the can holder. He finished his drink and threw the paper cup in the hole. He stepped outside, looking at the sunset. It was almost showtime.
He started walking toward the post office's street. By the time he got there, the sun would be below the horizon. Then he could break in if the building was clear.
He hoped it would be clear. He had no idea if the post office ran around the clock. He didn't plan to let anyone see him if he could help it.
A few stories every now and then was acceptable. He didn't plan to become a target of the government for any reason. It was better they didn't know about him and what he could do.
It was better for him.
Harry found a spot to watch the post office. He smiled as the lights went off one by one. The mail was going through, but not at night in the place he was casing. He watched as employees filed out and went to personal cars. Some started for the bus station for a night bus home.
He watched the street, checking for cameras and witnesses. He walked into an alcove and let the fire wash over him.
The Lamp took flight, playing his light over the box of a building. No one was inside. He found several cameras and a motion detector system. He turned all that off with his green fire as he passed inside.
All he needed was a change of address. He decided the computer system might have it. It was a good thing he had brought his own passwords.
He played the light from his lantern on the computer. The screen lit up without power. He smiled underneath his disguise. He had a recent change to a place on the southern end of town. That might be what he needed.
He let the computer shut down and flew through the roof. He put the alarms back on watch before flying toward his new clue.
Would Allen want to talk to him after all this time without the lamp?
He doubted it. Allen probably didn't want to see the green flame again after leaving it far behind.
Harry frowned when he saw the place at the address he had found. It was a retirement home.
Allen had moved to a home.
Harry wondered where his room would be in the square house with its side wings. He decided that he could ask at the front desk. That was better than ripping it out of their computer system.
He landed out of sight of the main door. He walked up, frowning at a sign saying the place closed to visitors at eight. He noted the locks and keypads. Maybe he should return as the Lamp.
He walked through the doors, noting most of the residents weren't in the halls. Maybe they were out until the visitors had to leave. He walked by the front desk which was unmanned. He spotted a nurse's station. They would know where Allen was.
He didn't see any nurses as he looked around.
4
Harry paused in thought. He didn't want to get caught poking around the nurse's station. They would throw him out and that would end any chance of talking to Allen for the night. He doubted they would want him around in the daylight to talk to someone at the front desk.
He decided to wait. Someone would have to come to the desk sometime. Then he could ask what room Allen lived in.
He hoped that someone came by before visiting hours were over.
A nurse built like fire hydrant came out of a room down the hall from the six-sided desk. Her arm had a tattoo of an anchor running from wrist to elbow. Angry eyes glared at the visitor. Streaks of gray ran in her blondish hair.
She paused by a cart to write something down on a piece of paper on a clipboard. She checked the time before she was done writing. She walked up to the desk.
"What can I do for you?" She didn't sound like she wanted a visitor in the building at all.
"I have some things that belong to Geordi Allen." Harry decided that was the best approach. "Could I talk to him?"
"He's probably sleeping." The nurse looked down one of the five halls that met at the station. "Stay here and I'll check on him."
"Sure." Harry nodded.
"I'll be right back." She walked down Green Hall to a door halfway down. She tapped on the door before opening it. "Mr. Allen? Someone is here to see you."
Harry couldn't hear the reply, but thought it was along the lines of tell him to get lost.
He frowned. He should have figured Allen wouldn't want to see anybody.
At least he knew about where the room was. He didn't need permission now. He just needed to let the nurse get busy and then his fire would get him in the room anytime after the sun went down.
He could have been a great burglar with the lamp.
The nurse came back. He caught a glimpse of her name on the tag she wore. It spun on its lanyard to obscure most of it at any time. Cartone.
He wondered what her first name happened to be.
He decided Horrible might be likely.
"Mr. Allen doesn't want to talk to anybody." Nurse Cartone looked even angrier than when he first met her. "I'm afraid you'll have to try again some other time."
"Thanks for your time." Harry nodded. "Have a good night."
He walked to the front door of the place. He didn't bother to look over his shoulder. He could see the nurse watching him in reflections on entrance windows. He stepped outside and looked both ways. He needed a place to change.
No matter what, he was going to talk to Allen. Nurses weren't a hindrance to his other self.
He turned left and started walking. He needed something that would give him cover for the brief second it took him to light up. He saw a set of outdoor steps leading into a small park. He went to the shadow of a tree.
No one was around.
Harry raised his hand. He let the flame form his lamp, and wrap around him in a silent explosion. He smiled inside the ball of flame that impersonated his head. He took flight.
Now that he knew approximately where Allen was, getting in to talk to him should be a breeze.
Harry played light from his lamp along the building until he found the right hall. He scanned along the rooms until he found the right room. The man inside in the room looked at his window.
He knew what the light meant. It showed in his eyes.
Harry passed through the wall. He settled in the room, using the lamp to make sure the door didn't open until he wanted it to move.
"Can we talk?" Harry frowned at his voice. It was three octaves too high in his opinion.
"What you want?" Allen sat in his recliner by the window. He held his hands together across his middle. His dark hair had turned gray and formed a ruff around his skull. His dark skin emphasized the yellow in the white of his eyes.
"I wanted to talk to you about the lantern, and why you left it behind." Harry crossed his arms. Allen wasn't as afraid of him as he expected. He wondered about it, but didn't remark on it. He had better fish to fry at the moment.
"Didn't need it anymore." Allen cut the television off. "Screwed up, so I left it behind."
"Screwed up with the sea monster?" Harry nodded at the shift. "Was it really a sea monster?"
"No." Allen stood. "Let's go somewhere we can talk in private without the nurses trying to listen at the door."
He raised his hand. Fire leaped from the lamp and wrapped around him. He wore something that looked like an English Revolutionary War soldier's uniform. It was in green and yellow like Harry's own false pirate clothes.
Flame held the triangular hat from the collar of the yellow shirt.
"How did you do that?" Harry looked down at his lamp.
"I used the lamp before you were born." Allen held up his hand. A small ball of fire sat there. "Don't worry. It's only temporary. Let's go."
He took flight, passing through the window. Harry followed, using his lamp on the glass to let him through. They soared over the city like weird ghosts. The greencoat dropped to the roof of the shipping company's office. The younger lamplighter followed suit.
"What happened?" Harry decided that was the way to go to get the story.
"The ship sank." Allen laughed slightly. "We screwed up. We lost the crew to it, lost my friends. Lost everything. They stayed behind to keep it trapped where it belonged. I ran out of power and had to be rescued myself. I went home and packed everything up and left the city."
"But you came back." Harry raised his lamp. Light reached out around him. "Why come back?"
"It's my time." Allen crossed his arms. "I don't see what this means to you."
"I don't know really." Harry looked at the city. "I found the lamp obviously and started to use it. I guess I wanted to know what you were like and why leave something like that behind."
"A bad experience." Allen shrugged in his coat. "It wasn't the first time I had been beaten. It was the first time I failed with no way to fix the situation."
"What are you going to do now?" Harry searched his memory. He had never been beaten so badly he had given up.
"I'm going to go back to the nursing home and wait to die." Allen laughed. It sounded bitter to Harry. "My life is done."
"You can do other things." Harry held out the lamp. "You can take the lantern back. It was yours first."
"I gave it up." He looked out to sea. "Once you do something like that, you don't get a second chance."
"I think you can get back on your feet if you want to." Harry had dealt with older people for a while since taking over as the super of his building. He knew they could be stubborn no matter how wrong they might be.
They would never think they were wrong in the first place.
"You're a stubborn man." Allen's green sparks indicated annoyance. "Maybe that's why the lantern likes you. Once you lose that, everything else will go too."
Harry nodded. He knew everything and nothing. And Allen wouldn't listen to his questions all night. He was too bitter for any long discussion.
"I'm going on patrol." He lifted his lamp. "You're welcome to come along."
"I have to get back to my ESPN." Allen looked at the fireball in his hand. "Take care of yourself, boy."
Harry took to the air. He figured he could fly his circuit from the shipping office and then head back to his building before sunup.
He could check on Allen to make sure he got home before his power ran out.
He hoped he never ran into anything that made him so bitter he just gave up on life.
His tenants expected better of him than that.
He looked over his shoulder. Allen was heading out to sea on his borrowed power. He paused. What was going on?
Harry decided to turn around and follow the former Lamp. Maybe there was some kind of problem he could help solve.
The water bubbled ahead. It reflected Allen's glow with light that was harsher on the eyes. A trace of lightning danced in the air.
This looks bad. What's going on? Allen might have been the villain in the sinking.
Tentacles reached out from the water. They lashed out at the flying flame. Bursts of fire answered the striking limbs.
How long could he keep that up before he used up the fireball he had borrowed?
Harry didn't think it would be long at all.
"What are you doing?" Harry blasted the tentacles to give it a new target. "You'll run out of power and die if you keep this up. Head for shore."
"You can't take this thing alone." Allen backed up, blazing away with his fireball. "This thing eats heroes."
"Good thing I'm no hero." Light reached out from the lamp. The ocean froze around the limbs where the fire touched it.
"What are you doing?" Allen paused in flight.
"Buying time for Seraphim to show up and save the day." Harry kept adding ice as he flew around the monster. He didn't want to see the whole thing. What he could see was bad enough.
"It reaches down to the ocean bottom." Allen added his own fire to the effort. Water froze wherever he pointed. "Then it goes somewhere else."
"So we have to force it back down to wherever that is and get rid of it." Harry landed on the water. He sent cold down below him.
"We tried." Allen landed on the spreading ice. "We didn't think to freeze it."
The tentacles pushed against the trapping ice. Cracks appeared in the iceberg. Chunks fell to the ocean.
"We are in trouble." Allen looked down at his hands. The gloves and coat started to fade away as his fiery head dimmed. "And I am losing my borrowed power."
"Try to get to shore." Harry poured more of his power into the freezing. "I'll do what I can to stop it."
5
Allen paused, assailed by memories. It had been a long time since his last adventure as the Lamp. The wound broke open as he floated over the Atlantic, watching his successor doing battle against the enemy that had killed his friends.
His ship had come under attack as it sailed toward port. Tentacles had reached for the freighter, dragging it and its crew toward an uncertain fate. He had lit his lamp to try to save some of them with the green flame.
The tentacles had snatched anyone off the deck that had shown their faces. He tried to cut them loose but they were dragged under the ocean faster than he could work.
Kermit and the others had arrived as he tried to cut the Manzell loose. They did their best to try to force the tentacles loose. Once they had the ship free, Kermit hoped to force the tentacles back across the threshold to where they belonged to close the door between Earth and that other place.
The tentacles dragged the ship underwater before they could free it from the limbs. Allen had hoped to raise it after the battle, but things hadn't gone that well for him.
The tentacles dragged the others across the threshold at the bottom of the ocean. Then the door closed. Allen spent the rest of the night trying to get his friends back, but had to give up when the sun started rising. He spent the last of his energy creating a raft to make it to shore.
The sea quake story had been invented to cover the events of the night and why the Manzell had sank.
Why had the beast returned? How had it broken loose again after Kermit had done everything he could to seal it away from the other side? Why had it picked the very night he had borrowed some of the lamp's power to fly again?
Had he triggered it to attack with his return as the Lamp?
Had he triggered it the night it had taken his friends away?
How could he stop it when he only had a few minutes of borrowed power to use?
It was too bad Kermit hadn't shown him how to extend his powers to other sources than the lamp.
Allen floated in the air, mind considering implications of what he could and couldn't do.
Kermit had told him once that the lamp focused energy from the planet into its green flame. He said it acted like a lens.
Too bad he didn't know how to use it as such.
Maybe the kid would know.
"Hey, do you know how to get more power from the city?" Allen hoped he wasn't making a mistake. "Kermit said the lantern acted as a lens for whatever juice it runs on."
The ball of flame turned the green sparks to face him as fire created more ice around the monster.
"What kind of lens?" The voice sounded a little high like he had been sucking helium.
"I don't know." Allen pulled a little more out of the lamp to keep going. "Figure it out. I couldn't."
The kid backed away, yellow shirt fluttering in the wind. Flame leapt from the glowing lamp in his gloved hand. He braced himself and sent a huge wave of ice against their enemy.
"Can you hold it here?" He glanced at the greencoat.
"Do what you got to, boy." Allen blasted away with his fireball as he ducked around the tentacles reaching for him.
The younger Lamp flew off, heading toward the city. His trail of flame headed for the tallest building in the skyline. Allen didn't worry about what his successor was doing. He had too many limbs to dodge, to much ice to build, and a slowly waning fireball to replace the lantern he used to use in his glory years.
He hoped the kid knew what he was doing.
The building caught fire, turning into a beacon to rival the lighthouse the port used to warn ships to go around. Everyone within miles must have seen the green flame burning up the outside of the edifice. A green beam more powerful than what any Lamp could do on his own sliced through the night.
The beam created a mountain of ice around the beast before it could break through the original encasement. Allen smiled in his disguise. The kid had made sure that everyone who was outside could see the flame. He had used that moment of concentration to unleash the beam out to sea.
Allen laughed. He would never had thought to do that. The kid deserved the lantern.
He was a much better user of it than Allen.
"I didn't think that would work at all." The Lamp arrived on a trail of flame. "Let's see if we can wrap this up before someone gets in the way."
"Sinking the ice?" Allen wondered what the other dimension was like on the other side of the threshold.
"We'll have to make the ice heavier." The Lamp raised the lantern in his hand. "It'll float until it melts otherwise."
"Let's see what happens when it's lead." Allen raised his fireball. Green flame played on the ice. Everywhere it touched turned to metal.
The two Lamps flew in circles around the ice, changing it to metal with their beams. The floating island slowly sank beneath the sea. They followed with a hiss of water from their burning heads and light sources.
Allen shone his light down to the base of the monster limbs. They emerged from the ocean floor. Others were trying to push through to widen the crack in reality.
He pushed them back with bursts from his fireball. They had part of the problem in check. He didn't want to let the rest get a foothold that needed to be dislodged.
He kept pushing on the tentacles as the island sank to the bottom. The restraint seemed to be working well enough. It kept the active limbs from striking with its mass.
The two Lamps pushed the island in place over the crack. Here was the hard part. They were going to have to push the metal across to the other side with the thing resisting them the whole way.
Too bad they couldn't get the people in the city to help them while they were underwater.
"Geordi." A voice floated on the water. "Finally."
"Cas." The older Lamp looked around, holding up his fireball for more light. "Where are you?"
"Here." The voice came from silt on the ocean floor. "Others are still alive."
The Lamps looked at each other. This was something neither had expected. How could the others still be alive after decades on the other side?
"It's been a long time, Cas." Allen dropped his hand. "I'm not the man I used to be."
"It's only been minutes." The silt changed into a hand pointing at the rip. "You have to save them."
"We can do it." The second Lamp said. "We just need a bigger lens is all."
"We have one." Allen smiled. "We have the biggest lens in the world right here."
He raised his fireball. Green light shot up, drawing the attention of every sea going creature in the vicinity. They all wondered what the light meant. Some swam closer to get a better look at the pillar of flame. Sailors close to the shore saw the flame dancing in the sky and took note.
They all gave Allen part of their lives with their thoughts. He took it and poured it into a beam at the bottom of the ocean. Water boiled as the lance stabbed across the threshold and into the main body of the beast.
"That was pretty good." The kid floated out of the way as the trapped tentacles convulsed under the blow.
Light poured from the rip. It became people floating across the threshold. They looked like people.
One started drowning as he tried to get his limbs working again.
One of the others raised a hand. Water rushed from where he stood to form a bubble. He settled on the ground, light rippling from his eyes.
"It's Kermit and the others." Allen glanced at his replacement. "I thought they were dead as doornails."
"We still have a job to do." The Lamp nodded. "See if you can get them out of here while I finish what we started."
"They're not going to leave." Allen settled on the floor. "You guys should be dead."
"Can't." One of them said, coughing up water.
"Won't." Kermit tried to hold himself straight but he looked done in from the way he hunched over.
"Already am." Cas's face danced on the sea floor.
"We don't have time for this." One of the others said. He held up his hands. "How do we stop this thing now that we're not over there."
"Tell him, kid." Allen waved for the Lamp to proceed.
"We've got most of its limbs bottled up." The burning man waved at the trapped tentacles. "We just planned to shove them over and close the hole."
"Please." The belligerent stranger waved his hands at the island of metal. "You guys couldn't shove that over if you tried."
"Show us how it's done, Quincy." Allen made the go ahead gesture with one hand.
"Okay, matchstick." Quincy clapped both hands together. Thunder rolled. "By the power invested in my fathers, by the wisdom handed down from my mothers, I command you metal to walk beyond that door."
The island sprouted hundreds of legs like a millipede. It walked through the door. It stopped on the other side to form a plug.
"Too easy." Quincy smiled at the Lamps. "Why are there two of you?"
"You've been trapped over there for a long time, Quince." Allen let the fireball go back to the lamp to reveal his true self. "I'm not the Lamp anymore. He is."
"How long have we been stuck?" Quincy goggled at his changed friend. "You're old."
"This is like the time I was stuck in that concrete coffin." The Lamp remembered he was the one who said he couldn't die.
"We don't have time for that now." Kermit raised his hands. "We have to deal with the immediate threat."
He manipulated his hands together. Light branched out into a giant eye. It looked at the crack in reality as the metal restraints crumbled on the other side of the threshold. The eye closed. So did the crack.
"The world has changed some since you guys have been gone." Allen crossed his arms. "Some of our old haunts are gone."
"I can't believe you're old." Quincy pointed at his old friend. "My souffle. I left it in the oven."
"Too late for that now." Allen smiled. "I'm glad to see you guys one last time."
"Let's get to the surface." Kermit shook his head. The Lamp noticed he had a third eye in his forehead. "We can talk about things there."
Epilogue
Harry Scott stood off to one side. The daylight had come and taken his power from him. He watched the old friends marveling at their much older companion. Allen smiled at them wearily.
They had thirty years of catching up to do. He wasn't sure they needed someone to be a witness to that.
He also wasn't sure if he should be holding on to the lantern after seeing its former owner doing what he could to be the hero he used to be.
He wondered how they were going to fit in with the modern world. Would they be able to after all this time?
Would they want to fit in?
They seemed like such an ordinary group of men except for Cassie who was a face on the wall above where they talked in the rest home courtyard.
The nurses stayed away from the courtyard while they talked. Kermit had done something to keep them out. The eye he used as a sigil had flared over the patio when they had arrived to have their meeting.
What could he say to help with that?
He didn't know why he was there as they caught up. He didn't have any practical experience in losing thirty years of your life.
He hoped he never would.
"This is your replacement, Geord?" Quincy looked at the super. "How did that happen?"
"I retired and left my lantern behind at my building."Allen waved a hand at the super. "He found and has been using it. If he hadn't tracked me down, you guys would still be over with the tentacle thing."
"I'll never retire." Quincy frowned. "That's for has-beens."
"See you in thirty years." Allen shook off the insult. His friend was the only other one of the group who would have a reason to retire. The rest were the next best thing to immortal.
"That's beside the point." Kermit broke in, straightening the cuffs of his shirt and suit jacket. "If we want to continue our advocation, we'll have to rebuild our resources and learn more about the history that has happened since we have been gone."
"Luckily the foundation is still going." The man who said he couldn't die reported. "I checked in with their operating officer this morning."
"So we have money at least." Quincy smiled. "I can get my house back."
"What happened to your house?" The man who couldn't die asked.
"The city took it." He shook his fist at city hall. "They tore it down for a strip mall."
"I still have your stuff." Allen smiled. "I packed it up for you."
"You're kidding." Quincy laughed. "Where did you put everything?"
"Underneath the mall." Allen nodded at his expression. "It should still be buried there."
"You buried my things underneath the mall?" Quincy glared at the now older man. "Why would you do that?"
"So I wouldn't forget where I put them." The retired hero tapped his head. "Kermit can get them out of the ground for you."
"What about you, Geord?" Cassie stirred on the wall. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm retired." Allen waved at the nursing home around them. "Someone worthy has picked up my lamp. I have enough money socked away to pay for this place for the rest of my life. I'm done with the monster hunting."
"At least we rescued most of the sailors from the Manzell." Kermit smoothed his jacket. "They're in the same fix we are."
"Thirty years is a long time to be out of circulation." Allen agreed. "What are you guys going to do now?"
"I'm getting my stuff back." Quincy snapped. "Buried under the mall."
"Going back to traveling and adventuring." The man who couldn't die shrugged. "There are still places I haven't been."
"My tower is still intact." Kermit pointed vaguely toward the center of town. "I have to take up my responsibilities again."
"I'm going to hang around." Cas smiled. "I can retire too."
"You can't hang around here." Allen frowned. "The staff would go nuts."
"I don't see how that's my concern." She rubbed her nose with a stone hand. "I would love to hang out with the old duffers. It'll be great for all of us."
"I'm moving out." Allen glared. "Go get some other place to haunt."
"You can haunt the strip mall, Cas." Quincy grinned at her bodiless face. "They might need an extra pair of eyes to catch thieves and such."
"That would be great." Cas smiled.
Harry smiled. He looked around. He checked his watch. He needed to break away and head back to his building. His residents would be looking for him.
"What about you, boy?" Allen glanced at Harry standing on his own.
"I'm going to keep using the lantern if you don't mind." Harry crossed his arms. "I like to be able to fly even if it's only at night. And it helps me take care of my tenants."
"I miss that." The senior Lamp nodded. He looked back at earlier times. "I loved buzzing cars in the back of beyond."
"Why don't you get another lantern?" Quincy shook his head. "There has to be more than one of them."
"Where would I get another magic lantern?" Allen shook his head. "Magic lanterns just don't grow on trees."
"The fire could be placed in another lantern." Kermit clasped his hands together. "You could have your own lantern."
"What good would that do me?" Allen laughed. "I think my supernatural days are behind me."
"We'll always need a backup." Kermit stared at him. "Even if you don't participate fully in some of the cases we will be looking at now that we are back, we still might need your help like we did to escape our imprisonment."
"You did save the day, Mr. Allen." Harry shrugged. "I couldn't have done anything on my own."
"Baloney." The retiree shook his head. "You did the heavy lifting. I just helped a little."
"A little is better than nothing, Geord." The man who couldn't die smiled. "Sometimes that's all you have."
"That's easy for you to say, Vinnie." The old man looked at his even older friend. "All right. I'll give you a hand when I'm not napping."
"I knew you couldn't retire." Quincy gave a sound like a owl hooting.
"Wrong." Allen sat back in his chair. "I have been retired. I gave up the fight. I might have been able to save you sooner if I had looked around that spot in the ocean earlier."
"I doubt that." Kermit frowned. "What happened in both cases was a random factor. No one could have predicted there would be a randomly opening portal there."
"And you did save the day." Vincent nodded. "Or help save the day. There's no getting around that."
"Plus we already have your lantern made." Cassie pointed to a box under another table in the courtyard.
"What?" Allen stood and looked at the box.
"We need you a lot more than this stinking place does." Quincy waved at the box. "Come here, box, and await further orders."
The box walked over on four legs jutting from the bottom corners. It settled next to Quincy with a thump.
Allen looked at Harry. The younger man shrugged. It was the first he had heard of this.
Quincy reached down and pulled an old lantern from the box. He put it on the table.
"I happened to have this from a train wreck back before we met." Vincent smiled. "I haven't had a real use for it in a long time."
"Harry?" Kermit gestured for him to come closer. "Can we borrow some of your flame?"
"Sure." Harry gestured. The lantern slid into his hand from the hiding spot away from reality where he kept it. The green flame inside flickered but burned steadily on its wick.
Kermit pulled a pad out of his jacket pocket and tore off a page. He folded it up like a straw and set one end in the flame inside the lantern. He waited quietly as the paper started to burn. He quickly placed the tiny flame he had gathered in the second lamp. The second lamp glowed green from the new light behind its glass exterior.
"I won't be able to use this until night." Allen picked up the lantern. He looked younger as he studied it.
Harry put his own lamp away in its storage place. He smiled quietly. He had power to spare. Creating another lantern shouldn't be that big a deal.
He hoped it wasn't that big a deal.
"I think you'll have to hide it around here." Quincy picked up the box. "These nurses will be about safety and not letting old men blow themselves up, or set themselves on fire."
"Or setting them on fire." Vincent smiled. "It's strange to see this gap in years, Geord. We have to get our feet under us and think about helping those that need it."
"I'll be here, fellows." Allen held up the lamp. "Try to stay out of trouble."
When the group broke up, they noticed their new friend had already left without a goodbye.