Freddie and Boris's "Bear Magic" On Line Magazine for Teddy Bears, Soft Toys and their Pawtners
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Freddie and Boris's "Bear Magic" On Line Magazine for Teddy Bears, Soft Toys and their Pawtners
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Bear Burgade #12 Stories
(The Dameon Affair appeared on The Bear Club, as did the first few instalments of the "Return Of The Nemesis" which we are delighted in now going to be continued here) In the first of the Bear Burgade #12 stories - entitled The Dameon Affair - we met several of the burgade's most skilled members. In this tail - huh, huh, huh - they were working to solve a kidnapping case that involved one of the most dangerous humans in the world. Following the disappearance of esteemed operative, Little Joe, from a local mall, Smalvis, Ralvis, and Ella Bella were called in to solve the case by the Guppy himself. We learned that Ralvis and Smalvis where bros, with Ralvis being married to Ella Bella. The Guppy was the leader of the burgade. The bears travelled to the mall where the disappearance had occurred, and found a ransom note left by Little Joe's kidnapper. After much effort, the B.B.G.#12 evidence specialists determined that the ransom note had been written by one, Dameon Kid.
Smalvis and company located Dameon Kid's lair and rescued Little Joe, but were attacked by Dameon in the process. He brought their helicopter down, nearly escaped - but the Guppy arrived with reinforcements in tow just in time to catch Dameon Kid and rescue the hapless heroes.
NOW HERE'S THE RETURN OF THE NEMESIS...
INSTALMENT 1 INCARNAB PENINSULA PRISON FACILITY: ARCTIC CIRCLE: 19/07/2008 Incarnab Peninsula jutted off a small island that was, to all appearances, completely barren of any signs of life. It was comprised of rocky, gray stone and large patches of ice... barely enough usable land for it to qualify as an island. At the end of the peninsula that extended out into the ocean was a guard post, and an elevator entrance just outside of its door. Deep below the rock were innumerable prisoner cells - most of which were unused - drilled into a labyrinth of tunnels. The blue hovercraft decorated with the B.B.G.#12 logo whipped across the surface of the water with its siren blaring. Inside the hovercraft were six rooms: a bridge, a staff lounge, a staff washroom, a prisoner zone, a prisoner washroom, and a galley. As the hovercraft neared Incarnab Peninsula, the staff in their entirety - six exhausted bears - prepared to land. Meanwhile... an evil, devil monster-child sat manacled in the prisoner zone. He was bald now - recently shaved - and wearing a red jumpsuit. Oddly, he was feeling incredibly content. He considered events to be going very well. You may wonder how anybody could think being shipped off to a desolate chunk of rock in the Arctic circle could be considered 'going well'. However, the reason is soon to be revealed. We will probably never quite know for sure what took place in that hovercraft. Despite this, we do know for certain that approximately twenty seconds before the hovercraft was due to enter the security perimeter around the island, it burst into flame. It was actually possible to see through the port windows - all the way from the other side of the island - laser fire. Witnesses report that the vehicle careened crazily down towards the ocean. It pulled up at the last second... just in time to slam headlong into a cliff. Before impact, a witness on the island saw an ejection seat fly out of the evacuation chute. The seat was later found frozen to an iceberg and identified as having traces of the skin cells of the AWOL prisoner. Due to various clerical mishaps, the B.B.G.#12 owner was not alerted to the situation for twenty-seven days. Those were twenty-seven days during which the prisoner could have traveled anywhere in the world and done pretty much anything he wanted... INSTALMENT 2 B.B.G. #12 COMPOUND: LOCATION CLASSIFIED: 29 DAYS LATER The Bear Burgade #12 (B.B.G.) compound dwelled deep below the surface of the ocean - next to a beautiful coral reef, home to creatures of all shapes, colours, and sizes. The compound perimeter was constructed almost entirely of super-glass, and was illuminated in such a manner as to create a soft glow that was intended not to disturb the ecology of the habitat. A one-bear submarine with the markings of a B.B.G. patrol sub was whipping its way towards the docking bay. When it reached the airlock the door opened and it was allowed in with no more than a cursory I.D. transmitter check. As the submarine glided over the smooth, silver mesh of the floor, colour-coded signal lights began flashing, making the interior appear to be pulsing electric blue. The submersible proceeded to plough straight into the opposite wall of the airlock, thus necessitating that the pilot hurl himself out of the munched craft. The water in the room was still twenty feet deep, but thankfully the pilot was very good at diving, and thus dove straight to the bottom. He wore a dark black mask and black clothes, and it did not take a bear of particularly high intelligence to recognize that this menace was not a bear at all, but a very soggy and very evil bugbear (No pun intended, that really is a word.). When it was realized that he was not part of the burgade, a team of bears armed with EJ57 peashooters - the latest and greatest - rushed in and launched themselves into the water after him. Two of them grabbed his ears, while two others took out the demons knees. As the water in the airlock slowly drained away, they trussed the intruder up like a sopping wet chicken and dragged him into the hallway. The Bear Burgade #12 owner was called in and the intruder was taken to a cell for questioning. After five hours of fruitless interrogation, the owner crankily left the room. Briefly following his exit, there was an explosion of leviathan proportion. The prisoner had bombed his way out of the cell and was grabbing one of his guards! He dragged the befuddled bear down the hallway, using him as a hostage to make his way back to the airlock. Upon arrival, he turned to the two hundred or so peashooter carrying bears - smiled - jumped into an explosive loaded rocket sub (The fact that it was loaded with explosives will later be germane to the story.) that was being stored in the airlock, punted the guard bear, and drove straight out of the closed airlock doors. (The maintenance division would have a really fun time repairing that damage! Huh huh huh!) Once everyone had bear-paddled their
way through the quickly flooding wing of the compound, the bear who had been
punted frowned and breathed quietly, "Dameon." The B.B.G. #12 compound got very dark at night... very dark indeed. And since it was midnight, it was at its darkest. I was working late on a time experiment. It was based upon the theory that if electricity was accelerated to a speed at which it ceased to exist, it would transport anything it touched to a different time period. The question was whether or not the matter which the electricity touched would continue to exist in a coherent state, and could we control the era to which it was zapped. Bugglebum's law states that matter accelerated past the point at which it maintains its form will return to a coherent state after it has slowed down - so theoretically we should be able to travel through time and still exist when we arrive. I hooked up the super-battery to a jet engine, and checked that the trajectory would lead the engine - and also the battery - straight into the object that we were hoping to zap. With me were three lab assistant bears, all of whom were standing well back. I stepped outside of the glass enclosure and prepared to press the button to start the countdown, but some sort of feeling stayed my hand. A kind of gut instinct that I will never be able to explain. It was as though I knew, on some level, that something was wrong. I took a deep breath, pressed the button, and listened to the countdown start. Indeed, I was working on writing The Dameon Affair as I waited through the fifteen minute countdown period. It was at the ten minute mark that things started to go wrong. The assistants and I looked up as there was a thump in the hallway outside, followed by the sound of somebody picking the lock to our room. Before we even had time to draw our weapons, Dameon Kid burst in. We were so shocked, that he was able to tackle me to the ground before anybody reacted. One of the lab assistants grabbed a test tube and swung it... hitting himself in the nose. (He didn’t have the best aim.) The second lab assistant rushed to stop
the countdown to the experiment, but he had never been told how to operate the
equipment - after all it's not worth training bears to use equipment just
because they are working with the stuff. Accidentally, he had instructed the
computer to adjust the aim of the jet engine and triggered it to fire! The jet
engine roared off its stand and shattered through the glass case, hitting the
Bear Burgade circuit breaker and thus sending a stream of volatile energy
coursing through the compound. All those who were working on their computers
(Budd Banana, Ralvis, Ella Bella, Tina Bear, Joe, Yandoh, and Treble) were
sucked into a time warp. Then it hit both Dameon and myself, hurling us into
times unknown. Finally, it hit The Bear Club web site, which was running on my
computer. Tat and Tat2 were working on their own blogs at the time, as were
Freddie and his gang (consisting of Timmy, Ellie, Elliot, Uncle Ben, Jillie,
Sammy and Eddie). Each and every one of them was flung into the past... I suddenly found myself floating in a place that was neither here, nor there - and yet moving very fast. As time swirled around me, I heard snippets of voices: "Space Shuttle Discovery ready to launch." "This ship is unsinkable." "They did it! The Wright Brothers did it!" "We're sinking fast!" "WAY OF THE WARRIOR!" Finally, the voices stopped and I found myself watching bears I knew from TBC - along with several of my B.B.G. colleagues - floating in space like me and then falling. I felt myself hurtling downwards... ANCIENT JAPAN: CIRCA AD1300 When I awoke from my time travel induced slumber, I came face to face with a... nose? After further study, I was forced to conclude that it was indeed a nose, though one of Brobdingnagian proportion. It was brown and had incredibly long fur coming off it. Furthermore, it was nudging me insistently... intent that I should get up. When I groaned and attempted to bat the thing away, it jumped back. I was able to see that the nose was, in fact, attached to a bear. The bear had immensely long brown fur - so much so that I found myself unable to see his eyes. He wore a green kimono with random shapes painted on it, and there were a tiny pair of crude glasses on the end of his nose. At his waist hung two samurai swords. "Where am I?" I said in the universal language of the bears. "About right here." "When am I?" "Neither yesterday, nor tomorrow." This odd fellow was not actually speaking the universal dialect, but rather an earlier Japanese version that I had studied at the B.B.G. #12 academy. "Where is here?" "Right where you are. Mmmmhhhm!" "May I please speak with you leader?" "No, it's not May, it's June. Yes, you are allowed to speak with our leader." "Can you take me to him?" "I could." "Will you, please?" "Sure-a-thing, Unagi-san." "Actually, I'm Smalvis." "Aren't we all." With this strange statement, he beckoned for me to put on a kimono that he was holding out (Don't know why a bear should need to wear clothes!), and had me follow him into a small hallway with a wooden floor and ornately decorated, rice paper walls. "By the way," he said, "Our leader is called the Shogun. Don't call him Emperor. He just recently took control of Japan away from the emperor." My friend began to speak. "We have to walk along the cliff before we turn around and meet the leader. Such is the pattern." "I see. Are those glasses of any use to you with all that hair over your eyes?" "My glasses aren't, but my spectacles aren't either. My doctor says that they will help, but they don't. I wear them because the leader does - and everyone knows that he follows the pattern even more closely than the rest of us!" INSTALMENT 5 My guide led me along the corridor toward a rice paper door. "Remember never to just walk through a door. Always open it first. Many foreigners struggle with this concept. This is not surprising, since they don't know the pattern." I was getting rather puzzled, so I asked, "What is the pattern?" "The Leader will explain the pattern to you. Its always changing, so only he knows all of it. Suffice to say, it is unbreakable. If somebear does something, that something becomes part of the off pattern. That is, it can never be included in the real pattern. Naturally, it then becomes part of the real pattern right away. Think of the pattern as being like a kim chi bowl; a foreign import which you poor boiling water over and eat using chopsticks (another foreign import, by the way)." "Oh... um... I see?" "Now your getting it. Following the pattern is easy!" The unique one led me through the door and out onto a rocky seashore landscape with a trail leading off to steep, craggy cliffs. "Run, don't walk. That way we can turn around and see the leader sooner. My name is Negati, by the way." "Nice to meet you." Suddenly, my unique guide got a rather odd look on his face and shouted, "OFF THE ROAD, UNAGI, MY FRIEND!" He shoved me off the trail and into a bush, diving in after me. A strange contraption roared past with two giddy looking bears driving. The rickety looking thing was made of wicker, with a ramshackle engine poking out the front. The symbols V-0.5 were painted on the side in the style of Japanese calligraphy. I slowly climbed out of the bushes as the odd little car roared away at disturbing speed. "You have motors here?" "Not really, but those two have been trying to invent something called a 'sports car'. However, they estimate that it will take at least another 600 years before they manage. You see, they are a couple of Italians that washed up on a beach a few years ago and started a research company call Ferrarigini. INSTALMENT 6 We continued walking for some time, occasionally ducking and diving to avoid strange flying objects or boulders that seemed to fall out of nowhere... disturbingly often. As we travelled, I explained to Negati what had happened to me. He shook his head several times, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, and then proceeded to explain a bit about his world. Most of what he said made no sense, but I was able to gather that I was actually on a very small island off the coast of Hokkaido. I learnt that I had been catapulted far back in history - though I couldn't gather exactly how far. I also learned that, in this era, bears were at great risk from humans who saw them as tasty snacks - if rather furry and wiggly. This was the reason that the entire teddy bear population of Japan was isolated to this one small island where there were no humans. Eventually, we made our way back to the palace and I finally got a good view of the outside for the first time. Surprisingly, it was not at all like traditional human Japanese architecture. In fact, it was most disturbing looking. Scratch that last, it wasn't disturbing - it was a massive behemoth of a twisted, black structure with terrifying carvings and absolutely no windows! Stretching high up into the sky, it looked as though it had been built completely of stone. Along it's length were carved shapes which I recognized to be... Budd Banana? These carvings were the unmistakable likeness of Budd Banana! It appeared that these ancient bears had built a massive monument to Budd!!! "Those carvings are of our Shogun," explained Negati-san. INSTALMENT 7 I stood there silently with my mouth gaping open, attempting to process what I surely could not be seeing. It seemed that my good friend, Budd Banana, had somehow risen to be the military leader of the ancient tribe of the Japanese bears. Negati-san lead me into the building and up a flight of stairs. When we came to the top, I noticed that there was no corridor - only a single door with a single image inscribed upon it: a banana. Very fitting, since Budd is a monkey. As we neared the door, we were accosted by two sordid looking plebeians. The bulkier looking of the two stepped forward and said, "Dameon Kid wants his taxes." This once again sent my mind whirling. Dameon Kid was here, that much was clear. Not only that, but he had somehow gained a measure of control over the populous. Negati-san sighed and pulled a coin pouch out of his Kimono. He emptied the entire thing into the waiting paw of the smaller gormless thug, and continued on without looking back. I started to say something, but was interrupted with a "Not now! Shogun Banana will explain." I nodded meekly and followed behind Negati as he entered the door. He immediately bowed low upon entering the room, but I had no chance to bow before I was locked in a tight hug by none other than the high pooh-bah monkey himself. "BANANA UP!" he cried happily. I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "It's good to see you too, Budd. I really am wondering though, what's going on?" "Here, take a seat my friend; it's a long story." I did as Budd suggested and plunked myself down on a thin matt next to a table. He did the same on the opposite side. The room we occupied was quite small and plain. With only Budd, Negati, and myself in this tight space there was still only barely enough wiggle room for us all. "This all began when I was sitting at my desk back home," said Budd. "One minute I was sitting there typing and the next I was falling out of the sky and through the roof of an armoury. Due to the fact that I fell out of the heavens and I look a bit like one of their gods, they hailed me as a divine being. While they already had in place an emperor who is descended from the sun god and were not in need of another, they did make me Shogun. Everything went quite smoothly for some time, but one day Dameon Kid showed up and disrupted the very fragile balance of peace between bears and humans. He somehow scared the humans into serving him and now we teddy bears have been forced to retreat to this one small island. Sadly, Dameon Kid discovered our hiding spot and now forces us to pay him massive head-taxes in the form of bear money. The taxes are payments in exchange for him keeping our location secret from humans. Along the way I have been able to piece together pretty much what happened in the compound the night that I was sent back. Dameon kid interrupted your time travel experiment, didn't h..." "GET THE ANTENNAS!" screamed Negati
suddenly! I watched in puzzlement as Budd Banana rushed out of the room for several seconds, soon to reappear carrying two long metal rods. He ran up to Unagi and hurriedly handed them to him. The odd one gripped the rods tightly and started pacing. As he walked, he murmured, "Ten clicks to the east, one's in the southwest, three are more northerly." Then, as quickly as he had started talking, he stopped. "Several of your friends have also been sent back in time; they are scattered around the world!" My mind wandered back to what I had seen whilst I was traveling through time. Had my vision been real? I turned to Budd. "Unagi-san is one of our 'special bears'... that is to say, he is a psychic - among other things." Unagi-san continued, " have a feeling that you all need to gather together, though I can not tell you why. I just know that you will never be able to get home, to 1870, until you all stand united. However, I can tell you where your friends are. " "But I want to go to 2009, not 1870." "Then you must go to 1870 and meditate for 139 years. That's what I do when I want to pass time." I just sat and wondered for a moment. To be honest, I was still trying to figure out the whole time travel issue... let alone the psychic aspect. "I suggest we prepare to head out and find your friends immediately. I will instruct the bears to prepare a ship. Unagi and I will accompany you," declared Budd. "Thank you, Budd Banana-sama." As I approached the wharf that our ship would be leaving from, my breath was taken from me. Nestled amongst the rocks of a rocky cliff cut from the rock in a sheer rock face, was a tiny little wharf. It was perhaps wide enough for three bears to stand beside each other. The whole thing was constructed of rickety looking wood that looked as though it should be collapsing under the weight of the many furry bodies swarming it. But the wharf staying up was not the most amazing thing I saw. Moored to the end of the wharf was a most Brobdingnagian sea-vessel. Not the low slung things that human Japanese people sailed when travelling these waters, but something much grander. The ship was perhaps fifteen feet long, and half as wide, but what was astounding was its height. Stretching up to the sky, it must have been at least ten stories tall. I was just wondering how it managed to stay upright when I walked out onto the wharf and noticed that there was an even bigger part of the ship below water in the amazingly deep cove. The hull was built of wood, and I could actually see a primitive propeller under the water line. It seemed that the ancient Japanese bears had been among the first to use engines to power their crafts. There was no sail, but one large smokestack. Surprisingly, the ship had no windows. I hurried along the unstable wharf until I found Budd Banana and Unagi-san. They were both looking very anxious as they listened to the conversation coming from the deck far above. "Gicho, where's the crows nest?" "There isn't one, Igo-sama." "Well then, how can we see any obstacles on the horizon?" "(sigh) I'll go find you a crow's nest, sir." There was a pause... and then, "Here's your crow's nest, sir. Hope you don't mind there's still a couple crows in it. By the way, I noticed that they were loading barrels of water onto the ship." "Hmm. We don't need any extra water, there will be more than enough of that in the ship, particularly the lower levels, by the time this voyage is done. Dump it overboard." "Shall we go aboard?" interrupted Unagi before we could hear any more concerning snippets. "I guess so?" gulped I. The three of us walked along the gangplank that lead down to the bowels of the ship. I was surprised to find that the ship’s interior could easily have been the interior of Budd's palace, had it not been rocking gently. Everything looked identical, right down to the corridors with rice paper walls. As soon as we were all aboard, a harried looking bear rushed up behind us and and kicked away the gangplank before hollering, "Who took my Sake?! And by the way, CAST OFF!" "I'm Captain Rimoyoshi Catacomba Imbaku. You can call me Captain Rimoyoshi Catacomba Imbaku... or Yoshi, if you prefer," he said as he bowed. INSTALMENT 10 Whilst I was learning the ways of the ancient Japanese bears, there was a drama of its own kind playing out back in our beloved modern world. To fully describe it, I believe it would be prudent to bring you back to the moments following my vanishing into the past. For the remainder of this story - so as to tell it fully - I will have to switch back and forth between events in the past and events occurring in the present. However, to keep things clear, I will attempt to include a very short synopsis of the events so far every time I start a new instalment. So to begin... From the moment my friends in the Bear Burgade and TBC were pulled back into history, alarms started going off throughout the B.B.G. #12 world headquarters, and flashing lights washed everything in an angry red glow. Whilst there was nobody to hear these warnings, another alarm thousands of miles away was also ringing. The Guppy’s house: modern day Canada Next to the big boss’s bed, a small red light pulsed gently as a high pitched squeal of mechanical warning filled the house. Despite the late hour, the Guppy awoke immediately. The alarm meant one thing only - the sanctity of the burgade’s world headquarters, miles away under the Pacific Ocean, had been compromised. The Guppy hurriedly jumped out of bed, followed by Taffy Apple and Natmnatm. He rushed out into the corridor just as the Parental Unit groaned for him to... “turn that music down!” The Guppy hurriedly deactivated the alarm and then raced down the stairs into the living room. The place was simply, but tastefully furnished. A glass coffee table sat in the middle of the room next to two leather chairs and a grand piano. (We’re not yet sure who plays the piano as both the Guppy and the Parent seem to like bashing away at it... so much so that all B.B.G. members have been issued industrial grade ear plugs. But, um... I digress, so back to the story.) Dozens of bears were already perched on the piano, while scores of others filed in from elsewhere in the house. They were even arriving from overseas. The rosebushes in the backyard were beginning to look slightly crisped as the property filled with F16's and Harrier Jumpjets coming in from such exotic destinations as India and Mongolia - all loaded with excited fur balls. “Incident report, please,” the Guppy requested as he walked up to Rumble Tumble. As Rumbly stood up to give his presentation, the bears he had sat on stumbled about looking rather dazed. “Fifteen minutes ago, the computers at H.Q. sent us a report saying that there had been an incident in the B.B.G. #12 compound. We know that the perimeter was breached, and that an experiment being conducted by Smalvis went awry. Somehow, every bear in the compound was sucked into the past, along with an unidentified human who matches the genetic profile of Dameon Kid. We don’t know what time period or where in the world they have gone. As well - apparently - The Bear Club web site was running on Smalvis’s computer. The time wave travelled through the internet and sucked the whole Freddie gang into the past as well. The only upside is that only six bears were lost from our headquarters: Smalvis, Budd, Tina Bear, Joe, Yandoh, and Treble.” “How many on TBC?” inquired the boss. “Ten, for a total of fifteen missing bears, plus Dameon Kid.” B.B.G. #12’s esteemed leader took a deep breath. “Declare a state of worldwide emergency and recall all agents working abroad to this house... not to the compound - it has been compromised. I want a mobile field office set up and a complete media blackout. Also, as of now, we are all on lock down. Nobody comes or goes without my knowing. People, sixteen of our own kind have been lost! I intend to get them back!” INSTALMENT 11 Within hours, the entire might of the bear burgade had been mobilized. The family hovercraft had been rigged up with enough computers to manage a small country and packed with B.B.G. #12’ entire high command. Behind it was a fleet of vehicles carrying the burgade’s foot soldiers, all of whom were ready to move at a moment’s notice. “We have another problem.” Rumble informed the Guppy. “Our scientists have found that the uncontrolled time travel opened a dimensional rift. Even as we speak, Mongolia is getting a glimpse of the eleventh reality. The rift will spread and engulf the world in exactly twenty-three hours if it is not stopped. The only way to close the rift is to correct the anomaly that created it - in other words, we need to get every bear that was sent into the past back to the present.” Countdown Begin: 23:00:00 Until Dimensional Collision The Guppy looked thoughtful, “Hmmmm. Twenty-three hours. Given the time-space discrepancy, how long would those twenty-three hours be for the bears sent into the past?” “It would work out to about a year for them.” “Are our scientists qualified to attempt such a retrieval in the time we have?” “Absolutely not. This burgade has conducted only preliminary research into time travel.” “Is there anybody that we can call in to help us?” “There are perhaps three science bears in the world with the qualifications to attempt this sort of action. One is located in Oxford, while the second is a recluse who refuses to do any work. The third is in our Incarnab Peninsula prison facility for his attempts to destroy the known world.” “Oxford it is.” INSTALMENT 12
22:53:45 Until Dimensional Collapse Within minutes, the entire burgade had once again mobilized. A seemingly endless stream of hovercrafts flew over the Atlantic at speeds faster than any human built vehicle could ever travel. Oh, the wonders of bear burgade technology. "What's our ETA on Oxford?" the Guppy asked of Rumble from inside the command vehicle. "Fifty-four minutes," replied the bear. "Let's get this fellow on the phone." "Phoning," noted a techie bear who had been allowed access to the command vehicle in order to operate the equipment. It took twenty-six precious seconds for the techie bear to determine that the Oxford fellow was not going to answer the phone. "Does he have a cell?" "I think so." "Find the number and phone it immediately." The techie fellow required a further fifty-nine seconds to find the number. "Here it is. Iver Riokamble, teddy bear, phone number: 354-9081." "Call. Quickly." "Dialing... We have a ringtone." ... ... "Answered," explained the techie. "Everybody quite, I'm bringing it on speaker." The Guppy wasted no time. "My name is the Guppy. I am the leader of North American Registered Bear Burgade Number Twelve. I am currently phoning from somewhere over the Atlantic ocean, and find myself in need of your scientific skill. Earlier today, a botched time travel experiment sent several bears unwillingly into the past. This uncontrolled travel opened a dimensional rift that - our scientist estimate - will engulf the world in less than twenty-three hours unless we successfully retrieve all of the bears sent into the past. It may or may not be relevant that twenty-three hours in our time period will be approximately one year for those bears sent to the past. We need your help." The voice on the other end of the line paused. "Do we know what time-period they're in?" "No." "Geographic location?" "No." "How many sent back?" "Fourteen, we believe." "How long until you get here?" "Just under an hour." There was another pause, followed by, "The sort of project which you are referring to is known as a Modular Duration Retrieval - or Modret for short. It would usually be attempted over a period of months or years and is extremely dangerous. To undertake a Modret with less than a day in which to work is sheer lunacy, but the only option you have. You should be aware that it is incredibly easy for a mistake to be made - which would result in the subjects of the procedure floating endlessly in the ninth reality. Also, the subjects must all be together in one place - and preferably touching. This is, as you can imagine, highly unlikely." "I understand, but we have to try." "Very well. I will be waiting for you." INSTALMENT 13 21:58:56 Until Dimensional Collapse Iver Riokamble’s house turned out to be a small, one-story affair with whitewash siding and peeling paint on the doors. The yard was unkempt and strewn with all manner of unidentifiable detritus, thus forcing the B.B.G. armada to land in the street. “Where’s Iver?” asked the Guppy as he looked around and failed to see the scientist bear. “Life-sign readings suggest that he is not in the house,” noted our esteemed techno bear helpfully. “Spread out,” ordered the Guppy. “I want a grid search of the entire area.” “Should we search the neighboring houses?” queried an attending squad captain. The Guppy rolled his eyes: “Yes, but don’t let them know you’re bears. Tell them that they are dreaming. Humans will believe anything - just about anything - if you tell it to them gently.” With that, the Guppy hurried off into the mobile command center. Once he had settled himself into his chair he turned to Rumble and asked, “What do you think is going on here? Iver said that he would be waiting for us, but there’s no sign of him. It is as if he has been kidnapped, but it can’t have been by Dameon Kid; that horrible human is in the past.” “Nonetheless, Iver’s disappearance is clearly counterproductive to our goal, and will go a long way towards creating the sort of chaos that Dameon Kid likes so much,” countered Rumbley Tumbley. “Then perhaps somebody who has allied themselves with Dameon Kid?” mumbled the Guppy, deep in thought and clearly distracted. “But who?” questioned Rumble. “Well, lets think this through. There are basically two possibilities. Firstly, our culprit could be somebody who sympathizes with Dameon Kid’s philosophy. We can also assume that it is someone with whom he has been in contact with at some point. The other possible scenario is that Dameon Kid has just been an accessory all along, and that he is a member of a larger terrorist group,” reasoned the boss. Rumble nodded. “We should look back at our surveillance footage of him from before he was arrested. If he consistently met or was observed by a single human or bear, then we can assume that this is a person - or bear - who merits further investigation.” “I agree,” agreed the Guppy. “Also, check the worldwide crime patterns one more time. If Dameon Kid’s behavior is part of a larger movement then he is - in all likelihood - just one of many such humans.” “I don’t like this,” frowned Rumble. “I don’t like this situation at all.” INSTALMENT 14 It should be noted that, as the bear burgade scientists have mentioned, the twenty or so hours that the modern day bears had in which to retrieve me were equal to approximately a year in ancient Japan. Ancient Japan: CIRCA AD1300 While my colleagues in the present were hurrying about in an attempt to find Iver, the ship that was to reunite me with my friends that were scattered all over the world was sailing peacefully away from Japan. We had been at sea for nearly a week by now, and so far I was quite impressed by the Japanese bear’s maritime technology; it was far more advanced that that of the humans. Three days into a rather hapless voyage amongst the islands of Japan, Unagi-san had experienced another vision suggesting that Eddie - an editor who worked on Freddie and Boris’s web site - was to be found in Hong Kong. Thus, Budd Banana, Unagi, Captain Yoshi, and I met in the captain’s quarters to discuss how we would locate him more precisely. “here is a colony of bears on a small peninsula jutting out from the main island. If Eddie is there, then he is almost certainly going to be found with his own species,” reasoned Budd. “That’s true. Are the Chinese and Japanese bear languages the same?” I asked, referring to the archaic dialect of the teddy bear tongue that was utilised in Japan. “Well,” said Captain Yoshi, “they’re not exactly the same, but they are close enough for us to communicate without too much trouble.” “Shall I set a course for the colony then, Budd Banana-sama?” inquired Captain Yoshi. Budd shook his head no. “The colony is an extremely closed society. You should know that, Yoshi-san.” “What do we do, then?” I asked. “We will have to open negotiations,” came the reply from Budd. “However, it will require a great deal of wealth to entice them to open their doors to us.” Unagi lifted his head and smiled, “Perhaps not. Perhaps they won’t require paying at all. I have a plan.” INSTALMENT 15 "What's your plan, Unagi,"I asked. "We need to offer them something that’s is more than they have ever dreamed of." Everyone was looking at Unagi in fascination, waiting to hear his suggestion. "We have to offer them something that is totally beyond their comprehension." Huh? What was Unagi talking about? "We have to offer them something that will stop them in their tracks. We have to offer them something that will make them gods among their own people." As I watched, Comprehension began to dawn on Budd. "We have to offer them the ultimate scientific technology." "Unagi, are you suggesting that...?" began. "Yes. The only commodity that we can offer them is time travel." "But Unagi. To undertake such a venture without any way to understand the possible consequences..."Budd was reeling. What Unagi was suggesting was the ultimate gamble. I began, "I realize that it will be difficult to open relations with the Chinese bears, but to alter the natural course of evolution is simply beyond the realms of justifiable negotiation strategies." "I understand that," countered Unagi, "but the reality fabric will also unravel if we don't get you and your friends back to the present in short order. There is nothing else that could possibly convince the Chinese bears to open their doors to us. They have access to everything us Japanese bears can obtain and more." Captain Yoshi chose this time to point out, "Except that we don't have the time travel technology. That's the whole problem here." "We can offer them some kind of proof that Smalvis and Budd are from the future, along with a sworn oath to deliver the technology to them the moment we gain access to the future," explained Unagi. "Will they accept that?" I asked. "It's risky, but I think they will. Particularly if we offer them knowledge of the near future that we could have obtained in no other way. When the events we tell them about take place, then they will have to believe us." "Well, then I guess we'd better hope
that somebody here remembers their history lessons."
To be continued ......
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Bear Magic for Teddy Bears and Soft Toys All rights reserved Freddie and Boris Monday September 06, 2010
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SYNOPSIS 
