Krampus carefully monitored the world map. He typed in a command and the image changed, adding blue dots along with the red dots. A vicious smile crossed his hideous face. “So, BADGE shuttles are moving all over the planet. They don’t seem too interested in finding those shards. They must be going crazy looking for them.”
Just then a console beeped loud and voices came through. Krampus hurried over to where they had rigged the BADGE communicator with about a dozen cords and cables. This was how he has been hacking into the BADGE information, which gave him a way of seeing just where the shuttles were going, or where BADGE was sending heroes.
“What is this?” He checked the communicator and activated the interface. All the conversations coming through were being displayed as text on the screen. “Now this is interesting. Those fools, they are only making this easier for me.”
“Krampus, come in!” Chase’s voice came out of a different speaker.
He reached over and pressed a button. “Did you finish in San Francisco?”
“I got it. Those idiots are looking for me, they don’t have a clue.”
“Stop gloating.”
“Sorry. Where next? France?”
Krampus looked at the long communication being typed out by the computer. “No, the plans changed. Where are you now?”
“I am approaching the airport, still in Frisco.”
“Good. Board a plane for Kentucky.”
There was a long pause and then she said, “Kentucky? Why?”
“Our friends in BADGE are about to make a foolish mistake.”
***
Gar and Quark walked through the University of Tennessee's main campus. Students and workers paused at the sight of the odd pair. One Italian student stopped and got a picture with Gar, and an art student asked what color of paint Quark used for his skin.
“Is it over here?” Quark asked, pointing down a street.
Gar shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought you knew where we were going.”
Just then a man approached them. He had long, shaggy hair, a grungy, faded T-shirt, and ragged leather pants and jacket, both black. A few chains dangled off him. Slung around his back was a large electric guitar. “You two are quite the pair.”
Quark said, “Look, we’re busy. Get to class...or whatever it is you are heading for.”
“Wait,” Gar interrupted Quark. “Do you know where the natural science building is?”
The grungy man laughed at them, his chains clinking as his body bounced. “Seriously, I thought BADGE’s finest would be better than this. Come on, follow me.” He turned and walked without them. Gar and Quark didn’t move, they just exchanged bewildered looks. The man turned back around as he continued. “Well, move it!”
They followed along, each as curious as the other. After a long, circuitous journey across the campus, they entered a building. It smelled of old paper and sharpened pencils. Students ducked under Gar’s wings that took up most of the hall as he walked.
Finally, they came to a hall with rooms filled with science equipment and a lot of natural samples of plants, animal parts, and rocks. Their guide led them into a room filled with gems, geodes, crystals, fossils, and other strange minerals. The room was missing one thing, people. No students or professors.
“Gah, he’s still not here. I’ve been checking on this place for an hour.” The grungy man hoisted himself up and sat on the professor’s desk, his heel slowly banging into the side as he swung his foot.
“Who is supposed to be here?” Gar asked.
“The professor, who else?”
Gar became interested in some beautiful geodes while Quark angrily approached their guide. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t think I like your attitude. We are representatives of BADGE, not students looking for their classroom.”
The grungy man chuckled at Quark. “I know who ya are, blue balls. Nova sent me to help and I’m gonna help.”
This made Quark take a step back. “You’re the other hero Nova sent to help us?”
“Somebody give Smurfette at gold star.”
Quark’s eye twitched. “Who are you?”
“Who am I? I’m the loudest, fastest, rudest hero in the world, Chromatic Death.” He held up his hands like a rockstar waiting for adulation from the crowds.
Quark purposefully ignored this action and answered, “Never heard of you. What, are you some kind of Glam Rock reject?”
Chromatic Death jumped from the desk and grabbed Quark by the collar, pulling him in closer. “WHAT D’YOU CALL ME! THRASH...I ONLY LISTEN TO THRASH!”
Quark shoved him off. “When did annoying become a superpower?”
Just when these two were coming to blows, an older man walked into the room with an arm full of files and books. “Sorry I’m late, Johanna said I had a request in here.” He wasn’t even looking at them as he piled his stuff on a counter. The first thing he saw was Gar standing there. “Oh, my. Look at this. A perfect example of stone masonry, German I think, but I’m no art history professor. Look at the stone itself. I’ve never seen such a perfectly cut stone. This has to be laser work.” He came closer to gar and touched his arm.
Gar said, “No, magic.”
“YAH!” The man jumped back and nearly fell over a desk. Quark caught him.
“Sorry, my friend is made of stone, but he is also alive.”
The professor yelled again at the sight of the blue person. “What’s going on here?”
Gar answered, “Sir, we are from BADGE.”
“Oh...oh, right, sorry. I got the memo late yesterday that you would be coming. So sorry. Hello, I’m Dr. Mark Hostetter.”
“I’m Strange Quark, the statue is my friend Gar, and the smelly guy back there is Bicarbonate Breath.”
“CHROMATIC DEATH!”
“I see.” Dr. Hostetter said in a slow tone. “Anyway, I understand you’re interested in this strange ruby.” He maneuvered around the desks and found a box on the counter. “A student brought this back after his summer trip to Japan. He said he found it in a pond in some park near Kyoto. He didn’t find any others.” He opened the box and revealed the stone.
“Awesome. Let’s grab it and go.” Chromatic was already heading for the door.
Quark asked, “Did you study it?”
“Briefly. Haven’t had it too long. However, I can tell you it is baffling.”
Chromatic came back and said, “Fascinating, but we have more of these to collect.” He grabbed the box from the professor and returned to his over-dramatic exit.
“I guess we’ll be going.” Quark waved at Gar to follow.
Dr. Hostetter said, “Do you want to know what else I found out about it?”
Quark turned back around. “What?”
Dr. Hostetter pulled out a file full of papers. “This stone has an energy in it that set off the nuclear alarms at first, but was deemed not radioactive, at least not on a lethal level.”
“Yes, we know about the energy,” Gar said.
“Oh, good. The only other thing I could determine was that this stone was once part of a much larger structure.”
This caught their attention. Quark asked, “What do you mean?”
“It was part of a larger stone, a matrix perhaps. Not sure. But the break marks on it tell me that some catastrophic process destroyed it. Something blew this thing into shards. However, that doesn’t seem possible. This registers as the hardest material ever recorded. The destruction I have seen on the edges...well, it just isn’t possible.”
Chromatic came back and pushed Quark toward the door. “Thanks for the info, we’ll be sure to pass this along to BADGE.”
Quark quickly turned, so he wasn’t being shoved any longer. He grabbed the box from Chromatic and handed it to Gar. They placed it in the proper container. “Thank you. We may be in touch for more information.”
“Anything I can do to help.”
“let’s move Papa Smurf!” Chromatic left the room.
Quark rolled his eyes and followed with Gar right behind him asking what a Smurf was.
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