Moonlighting part 1/3

Joe Miller
Weeks have passed with nothing to help Anna with. We agreed with Vanessa, that Anna would stay with me all summer, but time is running out. My poor girl has taken this amazingly calm. She is a little exited even, although keeping her from her friends and her mother & other relatives makes her sad. I do not want to isolate her from the whole world, so whenever the team needs to use the Room I take Anna to amusement parks, movies and shopping. If nothing else, at least she is able to ride in all those amusement park rides she wants to.

Perhaps there is no cure for her... maybe I need to tell Vanessa the whole horrible truth. I'll give the team few more weeks, though.

I have been practicing tracking the Object movements. It is getting easier, but not any less uncomfortable. They say Objects attract to each other... so why does I get nauseous?

I noticed an alarming pattern while doing my tracking: twenty or so Objects were making direct approach to this tiny village called Springfield in Iowa. Call that a gut feeling, but it felt something was going on. I urgently called a meeting with the team and told them about this migration.

Leah asked me to point the least powerful item's whereabouts and movement. I told her it was closing the area from east, about two days journey away from Springfield and that I believed it was stopped at one of the motels on route 74. The team googled an image of the main door and leaped there.

At their arrival they saw three cars parked in front of the motel. Two of them came from south and only one from east: Philadelphia. None of the rooms had people in them. And no tingling feeling of any nearby Objects. "It's three in the afternoon, they should be already on their way" pondered Leah "why would they linger here?". "Perhaps they just woke up" Jimmy stated. "In which case, I bet they are having their breakfast as we speak". The team went to the cafeteria and there was only this one couple, drinking coffee and eating sandwiches. And electricity went across Brock's teeth. "Yup, they got it with them".

Behind the desk was sitting this middle-aged woman, with curlers in her hair, smoking a cigar and reading today's newspaper. Leah stepped closer and ordered the day's special for everyone and they sat to the next table from the couple.

Leah tried to open a conversation with the woman, but she merely stated blunt answers. Jimmy noticed the couple looking very exhausted and pale. After the couple left the cafeteria he remarked: "Perhaps it would have been better, if all of us did not come in at the same time... petty amateurish of us". "Besides they look like they have been traveling during the night."

"It's six-hours drive from here to Springfield, I am sure they will head on their way soon enough" Brock threw in "How about if we made some plans?"

So they made a plan. Jimmy would leap in the nearby town and rent a motorcycle and follow the couple. The others would leap ahead in Springfield and try to figure out possible other Object holders and why the Objects were moving this way. First they were thinking ways how to stop the couple; like cutting their way with tree-trunk or the like, but they came to the conclusion it would not make the couple any more garrulous. They would have done it if they knew it was necessary to stop all 20 Objects from meeting. At this time they did not have enough information.

Main Street, Springfield, Iowa
Hardly any town. It was built as a hippie community about 30 years ago. One street accompanied by couple of rows of houses. Population: 169. The houses came in all shapes and in rainbow of colors. It was late afternoon, but if they were to find out what was happening here, they would need a place to lodge. The only motel in town had three rooms, all reserved. One of them still waiting the people to come. "Most likely the couple we saw earlier is going to sleep here" said Leah. They did their "walk-by checking in case of Objects" and Brock noticed a tingle in front of the third room.

Not much later the sun set. They begun to discuss what to do next, when a white-haired old hippie-motorist with a long beard stepped out from the room. He winked to Leah and went in the small diner nearby. A moment later Jimmy drove in, he had got bored following the couple and stepped on the pedal. This time Leah went in alone, Jimmy following her few steps behind. The others waited.

The old guy introduced himself as "Papa Murdoch" he had came here to participate to the Moon Riding, a nudist full moon hippie festival, held in Springfield every year. He chatted a lot about himself and revealed he had a magical good-luck charm, which granted him every material prize in every lottery he took part in: cars, grocery shop gift cards, small boats and the like.
Jimmy was eavesdropping in the next table and saw the guy pat his chest pocket. Little chatter later Papa Murdoch excused himself and went to the bathroom. Jimmy waited him to come out and "accidentally" pumped into him and stole the only interesting thing from his pocket: a relatively large paperclip.

A little later the group decided to buy a similar paperclip and place it in the diner's men's room floor. Papa Murdoch did not seem to know his "good-luck charm" was an Object.

"A nudist midnight drive festival???" Mike cried "Count me out, I am not going to take my clothes off!". Everyone else had no reservations about partaking, but so far only Jimmy had a vehicle. After a little persuasion Mike called to his secretary and asked her to send a Hummer H1 to Springfield. They had one more day for preparations and the festival would be the night after. This night they'd have to sleep in Ziggurat Complex and hope nothing important would happen in the while.

The next morning they leaped back in Springfield to find one of Mike's chauffeurs with the Hummer. Poor guy had driven all-night.

They hang around the town all day, only to mark it was asleep. Even the few shops would open at four in the afternoon. "Night dwellers" they sighed in unison. Long waiting until the evening festival.

Later that evening all was set for the "Moon Riding". Mike had stated he would not take part "Too many moons for me, thank you". He would stay behind in case something would happen in the town. Brock was not too happy to leave his side, but Mike told him to go with the others.

Around eight the festivals begun, loud music, drums and motor sounds were heard coming from the nearby landscape. They all took their clothes off and head to the location. Jimmy laughed he had never felt this free on a motorcycle before. Brock was not comfortable being all-nude, so he wore tan-colored briefs. The Key was left with Mike.

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The sky is clear and we got lots of moonlight tonight
Many people had arrived for this event with their Winnebagos. Motorcycles were the most common vehicle, but many jeeps and pick-up trucks were seen too. The rules stated no artificial light was to be used, so only the full moon and large bonfires lit the area. It was really easy to see after your eyes got used to the darkness. Few competitions were going to happen, from jumping over the fire-pit to the driving in circles around and around until someone got dizzy. Lots of drinks and other addictives were offered around.

Papa Murdoch drove next to the Hummer with his bike and yelled "Hello!" to Leah and welcomed the first-comers to the event. They run about a while and tried to keep their eyes and ears open, although the noise did not make it too easy.


Elsewhere Mike was lurking about the town Main Street. Boring as hell, until he spotted a high-heeled pretty woman hurrying across the street and into a side alley. Mike followed to the opening, but then he came to the conclusion it might be a trap set just for him, so he returned to the street. Before he could see anything, he felt a soft brush on his backside and heard steps fading fast. His wallet was gone.


Finally the riding about stopped and everyone gathered around the bonfire to dance. That was when both Jimmy and Leah noticed one very familiar looking guy dancing amongst the people. After a few memory-digs Leah remembered this guy used to be married to one of her society members. Nasty tempered guy, who did not like driving her friend to the meetings. Jimmy also remembered seeing the guy around Suzie Kang's (Jimmy did his community service there) the guy used to hang with Suzie Kang's lazy looser brother. "Charlie Longbottom!" they both yelped.

That was when Brock heard his half-wolf Larentia making a warning sound and spotted movement in their Hummer. Few great leaps to the direction and the guy, dressed in classic ninja-wear spotted him and begun a ferrous attempt to escape. Brock had not much time to react when another ninja jumped towards him with a knife. Brock evaded, and the ninja went after his friend.
Larentia galloped to the first ninja and in order to catch the second one, Brock flipped the Hummer towards him, as if the vehicle had no weight at all. The ninja managed to evade, but it caused him to loose his advantage. Brock jumped over the Hummer on the ninja and made a wrestler's lock. It was no stretch for Larentia to seize the first ninja by biting his buttocks.

That was when Mike called on Brock's earpiece. "If you are not in immediate danger, I'll handle these guys first" he replied. Mike called to Leah and then it was when the guy they had spotted begun to run to the opposite direction. Jimmy and Jacob had heard Larentia too and went to help Brock. Leah was left alone to seize Charlie. Leah spotted a handsome guy next to his pick-up truck and asked him to help. Soon they were gaining Charlie. His white long-bottom was not hard to spot, not to mention he had no shoes on to run on the rough ground.

Jimmy joined the hunt and gathered Charlie like a flock of sheep by driving around him. Soon he was shoved in the pick-up truck. Leah did not want him to escape again, so she emptied the plastic bag containing the Blanket on Charlie. The pick-up truck driver introduced himself as Chris.

Chris told Jimmy and Leah the town sheriff and the deputy were "surveying" the festival. Unfortunately neither one of them was in good shape enough to actually remember the next morning anything.

In the meantime Brock had left Jacob and the nudists to watch over the ninjas and hurried down-town to Mike. It was a good thing Mike had not kept the Key in his back pocket; it was hidden under his hat's sweatband. Larentia took a sniff from his pocket and howled towards the side alley. After a short run they pumped into a chicken-wire fence. One slash and an opening was created. Larentia kept running deeper in the woods but finally she stopped under a pine tree, howling towards the top. There a scared ninja-wannabe sat and waited. Brock commanded him to climb down, or he would make him cry and climb down. The ninja complied. Mikes wallet was intact.

After locking the three ninjas and the Longbottom fellow behind bars, they returned to the festivals. All the Objects were yet to be spotted. Charlie was not easy to make talk, but he had revealed he worked to a man called Jake McKinnon. "So the McKinnon family is involved in the Object hunt after all" Mike pondered. That was when a woman screamed in the Winnebago park area. The scream caused three ninjas close-by to make a run for it, but they were rapidly caught.

But the woman's husband was murdered by similar knife the ninjas had. And the Winnebago was searched through obviously in hurry. "Now this does not look like the work of ninja-losers we have contained, these guys mean business" Mike said worry in his voice "Looks like our guy Charlie kept few details from us"

Yes indeed. Eventually Charlie revealed he had brought 12 men with him, and they all were to snatch all the Objects they could and meet at nearby bunker at dawn.

To be continued on the next episode: Moonlighting part 2

Case report no 4 by Cattrina