IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)
Chapter Four: Lab Rat

Frankie stood directly under the soft yellow glow of the lightbulb which gave his own luminescent glow a greenish tinge. "Hulk smash!!" he said as he playfully stomped around the living-room in circles finally stopping in front of Jason. He cupped his hands behind his back and stood on his tippy toes looking Jason in his eyes. Jason stared back just as sternly but really looked in his eyes as if digging into his soul. A fluid like luminescent wave of light swam across Frankie's eyes and Jason remembered the first time he saw the phenomenon.

He couldn't remember if it accurd when Frankie first popped up in his back seat or if it even happened the whole 2 months he stayed with Jason after leaving N.S.A. He did remember the day Frankie came to his office through the ventilation shaft and begged him to help him escape. Frankie's eyes had that same fluid wave of light swim across then as he stared at Jason from across the office pleadingly.

"....but it was sooo cool!!" Frankie said with excitement.

"I can't tell u everything and some of what i can tell is kinda hard to explain anyway but lets just say the Impala needs to be up there." he finished as he leaned back and fiddled with his fingers.

"Wait....what about the impala?" Jason asked still trying to get over seeing Frankie.

"Like i said, i cant tell you everything but it has to be up there, and soon. I cant express how important that is and that it has to be done within 10 years. Thats why they let me come back, to warn you....actually they didnt LET me come back and i think i might've pissed them off but i couldn't let them do what they were planning." Frankie said as he looked up at Jason.

"Who are they and why is the impala so....ok, from what u can tell me, start from the beginning." Jason said as he adjusted in the seat.

"Close your eyes." Frank said as he straightened his back with his arms loosely in his lap.

"Huh?" Jason asked, confused but caught on as Frank's body began to glow bright blue. He closed and covered his eyes and turned forward in the seat as he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise again. He felt the weight instantaneously shift from behind him to his right side with a soft woosh of wind as the bright glow began to dim.

"Ok." Jason opened his eyes to Frank now sitting in the passenger seat staring out the windshield at the black lake. He closed his eyes and took a slow deep breath before exhaling with a whisper of an almost ghostly wail. Jason gave a silent shiver at the sound still not quite believing that his friend is NOT an apperation.

"When i got snatched, i guess you can say, i was being pulled threw......something. I still dont know what it was exactly, something about a nexus boundary but it was there that i met THEM. I cant tell u much about them except they are very old. They are the manipulators of this universe...and yes it does have an end but not THE end. Don't worry, we will never see it and there's a reason but thats not this case. Anyway, we are on the brink of something wonderful, but there's gonna be something bad that takes place before then. I don't know the actual event, they wouldn't tell me, but i do know that its going to happen roughly in about 10 yrs and that the Impala has a detrimental role in stopping it. Cant tell you what it is tho but you'll fiqure it out." Jason sat listening as he soaked the information in. The Impala, his dream of dreams. He missed working on his project. Now the N.S.A. has taken over the project and there's no telling what kind of horrors they're doing to his baby. He was fired so he didn't know how he could get back on the project let alone convince them to speed the process up without fucking up anything. Just then Frankie let out a soft airy groan as he wrapped his arms around his abdomen and leaned forward putting his head on the dash. His glow began to dim further almost revealing his normal self.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked worriedly as he reached out.

"Hungry..." came Frank's soft airy voice. Jason stared blank faced for a second before they both began to laugh. Just then Frank's stomach began rumbling as Jason started his beat up chrysler concord. The soft whine of the arc gen motor was barely heard over the rumble of the thrusters as the car lifted about 6" off the ground then rotated towards the trail opening as Jason guided the vehicle towards the roadway. He looked over at Frankie, then reached in the overhead compartment and handed Frankie a faded black beanie.

"Gotta do something bout the eyes though." Jason said as he looked at Frankie.

"We have to go back to N.S.A." Frankie said monotonously as he put the beenie on. Jason stared out the windshield in deep thought at Frankie's words. This would give him a chance to get back on his project and make sure it gets done in 10 yrs but he still didnt know what he would be preparing for. Then he thought about how he could explain Frankie and an idea started to form in his head and as much as he wanted not to think about it, he couldn't see another way around it, especially when they see him, let alone hear him. He looked over at Frankie with sorrowful eyes and studied Frank's appearance as he dimmed his glow all the way down, once again looking like a super saiyan.

"You do know you're gonna become a lab rat as soon as you walk through those doors."