Renaissance Book Fair at Boulder

[power temporarily unavailable: gravity flight device]

SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE BOULDER, COLORADO

From the incident in Rhode Island, June quickly volunteered to hop on a commercial flight to Colorado on a cross US tour to keep local organizations posted on the spike in atypical incidents.  Keeping people in the loop was as simple as sending an email, sure, but an international representative definitely got people’s attention more.

However, when she arrived at Boulder University, June quickly realized Dragon Girl was out of place, but June the grad student was far less likely to garner a lot of attention. She followed the instructions on the pamphlet and found the solid wall that was actually an illusion. The COC – Colorado Occult Committee’s Club Room, was hidden in plain sight behind a fake wall. That June found it and entered the lounge, meant she was welcomed warmly.

The crowd seemed more like a young, mid-30s faculty with a single elderly adviser rather than some collection of wizards. They were playing board games and talking philosophies and arcane things far beyond eve June’s education level.

“Good afternoon. Can I… help you?” A young woman stood from the sofa to greet June.

June wasted no time, and shot straight to the point. “Rex Stevens sent me from Providence. A face-to-face notification about-”

“Rex! Oh, yes! We are aware of a spike of incidents. The gesture is welcomed, yes, but we are prepared. Say, what’s your name?” She assured June.

“Ja-Eun, but most people just call me June.”

“Well, June, why don’t we discuss it later at the renaissance book fair by the lake? You must be tired from coming straight from New York.”

June nodded in agreement, so, she took them up on their offer, and found herself fully appreciating the view of the place. She climbs up to a nice picnic spot overlooking one of the artificial lakes near the University, with a breathtaking lake and mountain vista on her left and the evening Renaissance / Book Fair just starting to light up on her right. There was even a bonfire pit on the spot, which was just a nice additional amenity. June looked around the camping ground, seeing it deserted of people since everyone was up for the fair. She decided to go to the woods, picked out a moderately small tree, and bodily tears it out of the ground. She drags the whole thing to her bonfire spot, beginning to break the tree down into manageable chunks. Surely no one would notice, would they?

If there was one thing Darren Cross was good at, it was running. No, that wasn’t true. He was good at quite a lot of things, it came with the adaptive muscle memory. He just had to watch something one time and could instantly, and perfectly, replicate it. It was how he learned how to fight with a sword so well. It was also how he learned to do a lot of the things he could do. Running however wasn’t just something he was good at, it's what he did best, running was his thing. Sure, there were other people in this world that could move at superhuman speeds (hell he just returned from a dimension where that was a norm) but no one was as fast as he was; no one experienced running in quite the same way he did.

To him it wasn’t just a superpower, it wasn’t some extension of another gift or some cosmic energy that flowed through him (even if it was all of the above). It was his entire being, his reason for existing it felt like at times. When he was running it was the only time his mind was truly clear. His thoughts were always racing forward, moving at speeds that would baffle even the smartest of individuals, never staying on one topic for very long, and were scattered all over the place. Not when he was running though. Just as the world slowed down coming almost to a standstill when he ran, his mind seemed to reach that same stage of calm. It allowed him to fully appreciate the world around him and reflect on everything he experienced. Adaptive muscle memory, hpyerkinesis, and superspeed made for a very active and energetic person.

Thus, the running being the only time he was able to sort through his thoughts. Thoughts that were concentrated on just how different the world was from what he remembered. Sure, Tyuki had been able to convince him that nearly six years had passed while he had been in Valerontia but it was still not something you could prepare for. Learning that while you remained the same age the world around you moved on. It was the exact opposite in the rest of his life, he sped by and time slowed to  a stop. Now he was supposed to deal with the fact that there was some fancy new app called TikTok that had replaced YouTube, the Talons were disbanded (again), some dude named Atlas was the big hero (not Pain or Phoenix), and Tyuki wasn’t kidnapped. At least he was 90% sure on that last one. Point was the world was different. Case in point, June or as Darren liked to call her DG, was sitting by a fire and ripping apart a big tree.

Wait. What? This sudden act forced the young man to come to a complete stop. A crack of air followed in his wake at the very sudden stop and ceasing of movement. The displaced air from the speedster who had previously been running at around 15,000 miles per hour rushed past blowing down just about everything that wasn’t nailed down and extinguishing the fire from the bonfire. “DG!” The shirtless, shoeless, boy blunder who was only wearing his signature gym shorts and blue bookbag yelled in excitement. Walking up to who he believed to be an old ‘friend’, even if they were more acquaintances than anything Darren considered just about everyone friends, only to realize this might not be who he thought it was. For one she was way too old to be June and was wearing a really fancy looking suit of armor.

“Oh, um sorry I totally thought you were someone else, I mean you look exactly like them. Except you know you’re obviously a couple of years older and wearing really cool space armor stuff” He blabbered off before remembering that time difference was still a thing. “Oh! Actually if what everyone, or really just Tyuki, has been telling me you might actually be about the same age as she would be now! Maybe you know her? I’m sure she’s a really cool and popular super hero now! I call her DG because it's short for her hero name!” Booyah, that will totally clear things up and not at all be confusing. Wouldn’t it be great if this person also knew who June was?

June took a moment to process what had happened, as was the case with hyper-fast beings interacting with those who lived with relatively normal perception. Her bonfire had been put out, and most of the tree line swayed as the backdraft of Darren’s stoppage hit them. June looked at the shirtless young man before her. It took a few seconds of stunned silence before her own memories put two and two together.

“Who are- well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! Darren Cross. You haven’t aged a day! Hold on, give me just a second. Suit, OG DG.”

= = =

GRATUITOUS FLASHBACK
SOMEWHERE ON THE LOS ANGELES COAST, 9 years ago

You never forgot your first encounter with anthro-parasitoids. A pseudo-scientific name for human zombies infected via alien brain slug. June was resistant enough to the slugs, though they had a truly disgusting tendency of going for her hidden gills. Thankfully being thrice the size of a leech, one squeeze was enough to pop them.

It was destroying the infected that got to her. It was her first anatomy lesson on how fragile the human body was in her unrestrained hands. Bones snapped like twigs, flesh torn like paper. Human torsos and heads popping like watermelons. Striking the jaw was a pragmatic target for living foes, but for the infected, it meant their tongue hung freely from their now exposed throats. A bare-handed superhero, getting all that blood very much made her hurl several times, and kept her nauseous for a week after.

As the rookie on the scene, June was assigned crowd control. She found a number of hiding survivors and got them on a bus. But, since no one knew how to drive, June hauled the whole buse of 50 scared people, 3 cats and 7 dogs using chains draped around her chest like a strongman competitor.

Things only escalated further when, inexplicably, those responsible for the outbreak showed up. A hulking monstrosity standing on four legs, a foot taller and two wider than June, massive claws raised in the air while two smaller sends of appendages carried a truly esoteric weapon – the dreaded sonic pulse rifle. This was a Lobster-taur, a horrific upgrade to the bipedal lobster men who had been June's most high profile enemy.

The sonic blaster fired in pulses, blasting apart some concrete she chucked at the alien creature, then knocking her off her feet in a daze. When the sonic attack connected, June could feel her ears ring, her lips tasting blood as her nose bled. Her vision was overcome with vertigo. Getting up was agony.  The quadrupedal crustacean came over to finish young June off, hoisting her up by her neck. It took up all her early strength to keep the claw from decapitating her. Her legs were fighting off the other claw in a desperate grapple. Who would retroactively come to June's rescue?

= = =

There was no audible response, but the suit complied, and morphed into June’s first iteration of her costume- a sleeveless, gray swimsuit (bought in bulk at the divers’ supply back in the day) that emphasized her affiliation with aquatic environments. She was a scrawny teen hero back then, but her arms now were more toned and developed, and lined with a lot of scars. Most prominent her recent fight with a certain dark lord, which was still fresh and pink in contrast to the strangely older, white scars.

“There. The original Dragon Girl, from Lobster Men and Brain Slug days. This really helped solved the clothing damage issue.” June said, patting her suit. She goes get her lighter and starting over with the kindling and fire. “So! I haven’t heard from Tyuki in years, but she’s made it big. Where have you been? What have you been up to? Are you hungry? There’s a book fair down there, and a buffet… and…” June looked Darren over and  “…yeah we should get you some coverage… unless you intend to bust out of your clothes again.”

FLASHBACK MUSIC

If there was one thing Darren Cross was-wait. Hold up, didn’t we already go over this? The Boy Blunder, and how young he was at that currently only sixteen, was racing across a stretch of water. What stretch of water it was he wasn’t sure. He didn’t pay much attention when he was running; at least not to his surroundings. Not unless he was actively in a fight, or trying to save someone’s life, or chasing a butterfly. You know, the important things in life that demanded attention. It wasn’t that paying attention to his surroundings wasn’t important, instead it was more that his thoughts were more easily accessed when running at super speeds. He could sit back and think, he could reflect on the world around him. He got to actually function like a normal human being would. Or as normal as ‘The Swordsmaster’ realistically could.

Which of course was why he noticed the giant crab man firing off a strange weapon at a girl who looked about his age (before he noticed he was now on dry land). Except taller, almost as tall as the four legged crab man, oh and there was a bus full of people and some animals that were dangerously close to the ensuing fight. This most definitely could not do. Within the span of a few seconds The jokester hobo kid of Talons fame raced onto the bus, grabbed two or three people each and away to a safe place. When all of the people, including the animals, were safe Darren returned to the scene just in time to witness the crab man lift asian lady (who looked familiar) up into the air looking to crush her. Another thing that he could not abide by. Murder was a crime, and crimes were bad.

Unsheathing his sword the young teen raced forward and sliced through both arms, literally disarming the crab man. In one swift motion he cut through the crab man’s arms, and ended up on the other side of the two sheathing said sword. Was it very anime-esque? Yes. Did young Cross have any idea what that was? Absolutely not. He hadn’t had a lot of time to watch television in the last couple of years, and he could never sit still long enough to watch any tv show or movie anyway. Not since that fateful day when he was struck by magic lightning. “Hey there! Hope that wasn’t like your pet lobster or anything. I swear I was just trying to help and it seemed like you were in a bit of a pickle. Also, I just kind of assumed you were the good guy. Wow that was speciest of me.” He turned to the Lobster guy “Are you the good guy? Please tell me you aren’t the good guy, otherwise this would be really awkward.” Cue innocent smile. Can’t be mad at this face.
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Back in the normal date and time, Darren watched in amazement as Dragon Girl’s uniform shifted and changed. Going from her new futuristic and alien looking armor back to her original wetsuit like uniform. “Woa, like that’s so cool. A lot easier than my way of changing uniforms. Super speed and changing quickly can lead to accidents. It happens more often than you’d think.” He replied with a grin resting on his forever boyish face. The next moment June started to bombard him with questions, and for most people it probably would have been too many questions at one time. Not allowing them a moment to think and thus answer them. For Darren? It was child's play-if his attention could be kept of course.

“Oh! Tyuki’s great! I saw her not too long ago when she helped me and the scientist lady save Valerontia from the evil purple guy with the army of dead people! I was exploring Valerontia for a bit, which was apparently like six years here but like no time at all passed while I was over there. Or so Tyuki and the scientist lady said but who cares about that. You said food? Food sounds so awesome. Is it free food though? Because stealing is bad and I totally don’t have any money. Money is really hard to come by when you’ve been in an alternate dimension for a while and its entire economy is based off these cool looking crystals. Also wait what’s wrong with my clot-oh the whole shirtless thing. Well I also have my hero costume!” He proved said point by quickly changing into his orange and white hooded leather armor that was used as the ‘costume’ of Swordsmaster. “Tada! Alright DG to the food!” So focused, exactly on point. Five points for Darren.

The Renaissance Fair was in full swing, modern stalls dressed up as medieval ones using mostly wood and classical lettering. People were out in their renaissance best, wearing lots of masks. Darren actually fit in with his leather armor, while June had changed her costume to a period appropriate dress and an easily obtained theatrical masque.

The Fair was also big on books, and the people were of an erudite background, reciting Shakespeare and Canterbury tales, or playing lutes and lyres and making like bards from that hit fantasy show. June put on a polite smile and returned “Good morrows” and “fair lady” with curt nods. She navigates the crowds to reach the food stalls, feature many a medieval recipe, though the most recognizable was a stand with a great many piles of pie. June pays for a whole meat pie and half of a fruit pie.

“Here you go Darren.” June hands Darren a couple of slices of meat pie, and one of a peach pie. June looked at the infographic at the pie stand. “Apparently in old times, Pies were in vogue to keep food fresh for longer.” June demonstrates her appetite, gulping down half the pie slice in one bite.

The fair was enlivened by the arrival of a small troupe of tall harlequins. And by tall, standing twelve feet high, most of it being their legs. Stilt walking clowns? They go around and speak to the crowd, garnering laughter and applauses, as they demonstrated impressive agility, performing cartwheels despite their anatomy. One of the tall harlequins approached June and Darren, bending down to get his big point nose in their faces. “Hello there, dear stranger! Might I interest you in a wager? Test your wit as I quibble, win a prize if you can answer my riddle!”

“Uhhh…no thanks?” June declined the stilt walking clown’s challenge, her pie far more precious than any rhyming clown’s riddle. The harlequin groans in disappointment, but then turns to Darren. In that rather strange, off-putting cheer, he asked him, “Too bad. So sad. And you, young boy, perhaps you would answer to my joy? you can win a wondrous toy!”

Darren was not sure where they were. One moment they were on a hill in what he assumed was still the twenty-first century and the next they were walking down the hill into a festival. A festival where everyone was dressed and acting like they were from some old timey medieval television show. Like the one about the three kids in the wardrobe or the dude with the white hair and two swords, or the one with the gay wizard and the blonde king! They had totally traveled in time just by walking down a hill and both of them even fit in thanks to the way their costumes looked! “Woa! This is so cool!” The oblivious ‘teenager’ remarked looking around at all the festival goers and stalls, while completely missing the modern buildings in the background. Speeding this way and that, checking out all of the new sights and sounds along the way to the food that June was leading him to.

Now, normally, this would have resulted in Darren forgetting what it was he had been doing, too preoccupied with all of the moving parts and persons. But, dear readers, this was not the case as he was being led towards food. Something that the young armor wearing lad loved more than almost anything in this world. So, when Dragon Girl stopped at the pie stall and went to hand the Swordsmaster his slices of pie she would notice something different about him. Namely the many different souvenirs now sticking out of his blue book-bag. A wooden sword, a couple of free copies of some books people were handing out, a giant turkey leg that someone gave him, a small kid sized wooden bow, and other novelties and nicknacks one would acquire at renaissance fairs.

“Thanks! Look at all this cool stuff I got!” The boy blunder grinned, accepting the meat pies with the hand that had just seconds prior been holding the giant turkey leg (now eaten and nothing but skin and bones, resting in a nearby trash can). The pies of course were quickly eaten by the relatively young hero while he listened to his commrad’s fact on pies and how they kept food fresh longer. “Is’a good thing you came back in time with me, I’d have no idea about anything.” He garbled out in between bites of food, finishing his way through the meat pies and about to start in on the peach pie. At least, until his mouth dropped open in awe at the sight now before him.

That sight of course being the twelve foot tall clowns. He didn’t know clowns were a thing in ye olden days! Or that they were this tall! Maybe it was a generational thing. Like they got shorter as generations went on. Except no, he distinctly remembers their still being really tall clowns back in the twenty first century, short ones too sure. Oh! Maybe it was like the car thing and how five or six of them could all fit in a really tiny car. Could clowns change their size and shape? He knew they were magic and could change their density or elasticity but this was really cool! Then one of them came over and started talking really funny and asked if he wanted something. Something about joy and a toy? “Sure! I like making people happy, and toys! What do I need to do?” He asked with a grin. Poor Darren. Had no idea what was in store.