Tin Universe Monthly #1

by Brian C. Williams

  Okay, back to where we left off.

  The Angel of the Sword of God walked out from the Gates of the City of Paradise into the Gates of Hell for a meeting arranged by the Archangel Michael.

  That sentence just triggered a migraine headache writing it.

  Usually the Angel of the Sword sits in the Eternal Library reading the Forbidden Bibles but today he was sent out from the City of Paradise on a mission because of current Earthly events unfolding.

  A meeting had been requested to decide what place Heaven and Hell would have in the before mentioned current events unfolding on Earth. Meeting him just inside the gates was the Demon of Dreams.

  After introductions of “I am the Angel of” and “I am the Demon of” the two powerful creatures sat down on a park-bench-like structure made from the bones of fallen warriors from ancient Caspery.

  ‘The Angel Michael is the only one who could call a meeting like this. Even in this second rate universe he is respected.’ the Demon

  ‘Demons have respect for an Angel of Heaven?’ the Angel

  ‘The Morningstar respects him and so does most of Hell unless we face his fury. Plus he is the Archangel Michael. That is just cool.’

  ‘So you have respect and show respect out of fear from your master and because He of the Archangels is ‘cool’?’

  ‘I have respect for an individual who is one of only two beings in all of creation that has questioned God. That takes balls the size of Heaven itself.’

  The Demon paused and thought for a second as something occurred to him. ‘Though you guys don’t have balls, do you?’

  The Angel of the Sword stood. He was surprised by what this Demon just said to him.

  The Demon stood too, slowly laughing.

  ‘Hey, you lot have wings and we have balls. Two of one thing, two of another.’

  The Angel’s face turned red in anger as the Demon sat back down on the bone bench and causally crossed his legs.

  ‘Calm yourself Angel. We’re here to discuss what is about to happen to God’s favorite creations. Hell is pleased to just ignore it. I would suspect Heaven will do the same even if one of the Fallen is involved?’

  The Angel nodded his head in agreement.

  ‘Heaven will only watch also.’

  The Angel of the Sword turned to walk away as the Demon of Dreams laid down and stretched out on the bench.

  ‘With that sense of love, humanity has always been screwed.’

  Chapter

  Thirty-Four

  And just a little bit of information for your edification. In every reality slash universe, and boy are there a lot of those suckers out there in creation, but in every reality there is a different Heaven.

  Well, in some realities it’s not even called Heaven but you get the gist of my limited brain pane as it is thinking along this subject line. But in all of reality, all of creation, there is only one Hell. Now you know why Demons tend to be so cocky. They know more about creation than most Angels could even think about knowing.

  And another thing unique in all of creation is Death.

  In this universe Death is embodied in the form of a former Angel. Embodiments of something are always so much more interesting than “It’s just life.”

  The Angel Choirs have in the past called Death The Compassion but that was a very long time ago. He let them know he didn’t like that very much so they stopped doing it.

  The Archangels refer to him now as “One of the Fallen.” The Demon Hordes scream his name as The Bringing of Light.

  He has more aliases than my last editor.

  Ever since a trip to London which was sort of a love story he likes to be called simply “Jack.” Throughout creation that was the name he has been trying to get everyone to call him. I guess everyone will just have to try and deal with it. He is Death after all. Who is going to argue a name with him?

  Jack reached the beach shore and began walking onto the beach proper with his suit drying itself with every step he took.

  He looked up, down, and around as the skies cleared and it was suddenly a hundred degrees on the beach.

  It would probably start to rain again at any moment, though.

  This was Florida after all.

  Jack straightened his jacket and buttoned it as twelve people dressed all in black military uniforms drifted down from the sky and landed in front of him. It was The Dawgs of War. All of them could do the flying thing.

  Jack waved his hand again and all twelve of them disappeared.

  Simple as that.

  All a part of unfolding destiny.

  ‘You young warriors are needed elsewhere.’

  Jack walked from the beach up a set of steps and onto the deck of a beach house. Then he calmly knocked on the sliding glass doors.

  Chapter

  Thirty-Five

  The waves have stopped.

  Here is what comes next.

  Chapter

  Thirty-Six

  It was hours after the waves had stopped when Emergency Personnel finally got to the factory. After wounds and injuries were addressed the emergency crews started trying to help people get back to their homes.

  Katrina was America’s first hydrometropolis. I wouldn’t go that far with Melbourne Florida but the place sure is a little waterlogged after the waves that have pounded down on it.

  Most of the houses and other structures in Melbourne are still standing, damaged but still standing, but places nearest to the water got hit pretty hard.

  Julie and Lindsey owned a beach house together. They purchased it about two months ago from a friend of Lindsey’s. The friend’s husband had passed away and she wanted to move back to her hometown in Kentucky so she sold it to Lindsey and Julie for only a few hundred dollars.

  Two National Guardsmen in a jeep dropped them off at their house and from the outside it did not look too bad. All Guardsmen were told to inspect all structures before letting anyone go in but this house looked pretty much untouched except for a lot of seaweed on top of the roof and a few windows knocked out so they left the ladies to get on with their lives.

  Plus both of them wanted to find out if their own houses were still standing.

  Julie wanted to smile but when she looked at Lindsey and saw in her face what she knew in her own heart was probably the truth. They had not seen the inside.

  The Guardsmen speeded off and Julie and Lindsey walked up to their home. Compared to the houses on either side of them, theirs did seem okay. Windows had been knocked out like I wrote and nothing was left of their front yard but that sometimes happened in Florida normal storms.

  Lindsey put her key in and opened the front door and water poured out like someone has just opened the door to a huge fish tank.

  Lindsey grabbed Julie by the arm to keep her from falling off the front steps. After the water came to ankle deep level they entered. Amazingly the back sliding glass doors where still standing. Though that only helped keep so much water in their living room. Seeing this Lindsey also knew how bad the other rooms must be because the house was a split level and had steps down into the bedrooms. Both of them loved that feature when they first bought the place.

  First they went into Lindsey's bedroom. All of her trophies, all of her stuffed animals, and all of her clothes were gone. No, not looters, they had been washed out of the bedroom window. She looked outside after treading through the waist-deep water to the window and saw all of her stuff scattered beside the house.

  Lindsey struggled back through the water and Julie helped her up into the doorway to the living room. Julie hugged her and Lindsey kissed her on the cheek.

  ‘Maybe your room is better?’

  They walked over to the other side of the house. It took both of them to force the bedroom door open. They both knew that was not a good sign but when they finally got it open they found the room in perfect condition. Well, not perfect because Julie had a boy band poster on her wall. But nothing was wrecked. Nothing was even wet. The window was not broken
. Nothing was out of place. Except for the guy sitting on Julie's bed. No guy had ever been near Julie’s bed. He was most definitely out of place.

  ‘Who the fuck are you?’ That was Lindsey.

  Jack put down the photography magazine he was reading and stood up from the bed.

  ‘I thought I’d fix things up a bit. Cushion the blow.’

  Julie looked at Lindsey with confused thoughts and then looked back to Jack.

  ‘Who are you? Were you just trying to get away from the storm? It’s okay if that's why you broke in. We understand.”

  Lindsey, on the other hand did not think any of this was okay. ‘Please leave. Now.’

  Jack turned his back to them as if they did not matter and looked out the bedroom window.

  ‘Sorry for the rest of the mess. I couldn’t really help it. The path must be walked. Bridges must be destroyed. Waters must run their course. I am here to offer you two jobs in my service.’

  Lindsey picked up a lamp. She was moving to whack him in the back of the head when all three of them disappeared into thin air.

  PART TWO

  Chapter

  Thirty-Seven

  ‘Remember to just call me Scott and I’ll call you Siders. We are no longer uniform in any way and we’re not supposed to reveal in any way that we’re soldiers.’

  ‘How did we get into a black operation?’

  ‘Don’t know and don’t care. Just happy I don’t have an untraceable bullet in my brain.’

  These two former soldiers were definitely out of uniform. Siders was wearing a Cubs jersey; while Scott was decked out in a Bulls jersey. Both of them were not pulling off the flowery shorts thing- especially with low top tennis shoes as part of the quick assemble.

  Kogo Pizza is the best pizza place in Chicago and these two are enjoying a good meal. Better than the far too long they spent eating nothing but microwave foods.

  The place was decorated in steam punk art from the comic book series the owner’s son created. The floor was deck plates from an old aircraft carrier and each booth was made from old industry ovens stripped and reformed.

  ‘Yeah, like that’s going to be a problem for us with what we are wearing’ Siders

  ‘Why did you join the service?’ Scott

  ‘My father. You?’

  ‘Same.’

  ‘How did you get involved in this sort of stuff? All of this spy boy bullshit?’

  ‘I was computer savvy when computers first became big with the government’s inner communities. They recruited me out of high school.’

  ‘I was a Royal Naval officer before joining Special Forces. Can I get some chips here?’

  ‘No, so you are actually in the Navy?’

  ‘Yep, the R.A.F. dress uniforms are nicer though. How about crisps?’

  ‘No, but there is a loo and you can put your trash in the dustbin and if need be we can take a coach ride.’

  The conversation ended with the arrival of their pizzas. Just in time also because Siders would have probably killed Scott in the next few seconds.

  Chapter

  Thirty-Eight

  Ken and Sabrena caught the earliest flight to get them to Florida. A little fact about Sabrena for shits and giggles is that she was a vegan and had been all her life and Ken told her he was when they first meet but after having sex with Ken and reading the book Vegansexual: The High Cost of Fucking A Meat Eater she gave up on it and blamed Ken for her now eating meat.

  As she told a friend once, “When you have fucked someone who is made of basically nothing but dead animals it is hard to go back to saying you shouldn’t eat any animal product. I might as well fuck a dead deer. Would have been the same, though probably more satisfying?”

  Ken remembers the last time he and Sabrena visited Lindsey and Julie. Lindsey was throwing a surprise party for Julie and had invited and paid the way for about sixty people to fly in. She had just gotten her big promotion and bonus contract signing money so she wanted to go all out on surprising Julie.

  Lindsey and Ken together planned the whole thing. Everyone was going to fly in the day before and meet up to finalize plans. Lindsey would take Julie out for dinner for her birthday leading her to believe that was all there was to the celebration.

  Then the next day Lindsey would ask Julie to come to a local hotel with her to pick up a transfer employee for work. She would say they were in charge of greeting this new person and showing him around and then spring the surprise when they arrived at the hotel.

  This is what actually happened against their best laid plans.

  The day everyone was supposed to fly down was the day the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place.

  Some people got stuck at airports and others like Ken and Sabrena were diverted once they were already in the air. Ken and Sabrena ended up in California.

  Their plane landed at an airport in Oakland. Ken sat in a hotel watching news coverage while Sabrena called a friend in the area and proceeded to spend a week mostly partying.

  In time they rented a car and drove back home, an excursion that competes with breaking his arm for being the worst experience of Ken’s entire life. The whole trip from Oakland all the way back to Virginia Sabrena did nothing but fuss about how she did not get to go visit Julie. Julie called Ken and said how thankful she was to find out they where okay.

  This was when Sabrena and Julie stopped talking because Julie went off on Sabrena over the phone about family, friends, and being grateful for what you have in your life. This was the first time Ken actually saw for himself why so many people did not like Sabrena. In the past he had been stupidly blind to it for the most part.

  He thought the partying in Oakland was her way of coping with the fact that six of their mutual friends died in the plane that hit the Pentagon.

  He knew he was in a relationship with someone he loved more than anything in the world but after that he did not fool himself in the slightest into thinking she was the type of person most people would like.

  Chapter

  Thirty-Nine

  In the past the name Colin Ryan has been known for two things: One, wild parties and Two, even wilder secret parties that are mainly spoken of only in whispers.

  One urban legend story about him involves a party in Mexico City at an underground sex club called We Aren’t Free. The tale goes that he was there celebrating the birthday of one of his favorite prostitutes. Things got out of hand when the South African diplomats arrived followed by a group of civil servants from New York City who brought along with them a panda bear from a private collection.

  Don’t ask what happen with the panda bear.

  That was just one example of the many stories that have seeped into the worlds thoughts when they think of his name.

  His family is also known for two things: One, making large amounts of money and Two, making even larger amounts of money and acting like they are being treated unfairly by the government for the taxes they have to pay personally and for their businesses.

  Colin Ryan has a skyscraper in Chicago which is the location of his home living station. It’s called Ryan's Way by the citizens of the city. The buildings official name is the Ryan Industries Tower.

  Ryan’s Way also contains all of the primary business offices of Colin Ryan Industries, Inc. With so many variations of business spread out all over the world this building is needed to house the most important big heads and the most vital information for the running of all of their diverse operations.

  William Ryan, Colin’s father, founded the company first as supply chain management and control company. The company grew and he bought more and more small companies and grew them also. There really isn’t an industry that Colin Ryan Industries, Inc doesn’t have at least a toe in, particularly when it comes to government contracts.

  He named the company after his newly born son who was the only thing he cared more for than the business.

  Colin Ryan has been able to keep up the Ryan family’s obsessions for growing the busines
s, keeping alive old traditions, and showing off symbols of wealth.

  A lot of those traditions and symbols he showcases at Ryan’s Way. It contains all the play things the very well off, also known as the rich persons, could wish for.

  And speaking of traditions being kept alive tonight is Hellfire Night. You may have heard of the Hellfire Club before from its other uses in popular storytelling. Research shows that the truth behind the fiction goes to one extreme or the other. Either stories are overblown and for the most part total fiction or some people were up to things that would make even modern eyes flinch and recoil.

  This gathering at Ryan’s Way is an invitation only secret party. A tradition started by Colin’s father after he researched his family line and found out one of his ancestors was one of the founders of the original Hellfire Club.

  William Ryan painstakingly honored the original Club by creating a ballroom in the tower that resembles the original meeting hall and required all members and guests to dress time period appropriate. All clothing is provided after you enter so you don’t show up dressed in a fashion to attract photographers and nosey looking lookers.

  The current Hellfire Club sees most if not all of this ceremonial traditional stuff as a big joke but they are afraid to cross Colin Ryan on the subject. Even though he has always been his own man away from the footsteps his family had taken, Colin knows he father was a very intelligent man in so many ways and he’s not going to try and drown out those things in a foolhardy attempt to walk his own road out of his father’s shadow.

  Colin was greeting guests with half of them being people he did not know anything about other than that they were very powerful people in their fields. He would go over files later on all of the people who showed up.

  Another thing, those people who know about this party also know it would be professional or political suicide to turn down an invitation to a club occasion.

  This celebration is one of sex, sin, death, and drink, and with the disaster that just struck Florida there is no better time for the traditions of the Hellfire Club to be reenacted.

  Chapter Forty

  Lindsey was turning around slowly and looking over the field she was now standing in. She couldn’t believe her eyes taking it all in. Not only because she had just been standing in Julie's bedroom just a minute ago before being magically transported elsewhere but also because she found herself smack in the middle of a huge field of… ‘It’s pot.’