Mythlands: THE HEIST

Part Two: Adrift

Five minutes later.

'Have you ever had the feeling of being adrift?' asked The Glass Cat, now that his audience were calm and prepared to hear what he had to say. 'Like an object cast up on foreign shores and surely ...'

Goldie cut him off by producing a strange looking gun. 'This is a favourite of mine. Tool I use on jobs, you can change the head to suit your purpose. Wanna guess what this attachment will do to yours?'

Bungle glanced over. 'A drillbit, no doubt capable of piercing diamonds and thus my covering, hard as it is, will be vulnerable should you choose to employ it upon my person without resistance. Personally, I can reassure you I will give no resistance, so please tell me how I have offended and I will cease to do so.'

'No poetry,' she growled. 'That habit of yours - repeating words in different order, gets on my tits.'

Bungle nodded. 'I wasn't aware I was doing so but aware I now ... that is to say, I shall endeavour to speak plainly. Now, back to my disquiet ... for several years now I have had the feeling things were not quite right and rightly ... er ... well, like my old friend Gulliver washing up on strange shores, I have felt a certain displacement, but when in my right ... or wrong mind, this is usually brushed aside by the arrogant self righteousness my unaware self always feels.'

The Golden Goose snorted. 'Arrogant self righteousness sounds about right ... damn, now he's got me doing it!'

The Glass Cat nodded towards the Goose and continued. 'I was visited a few years ago by our friend SC here and he showed me the future.'

'What, some kind of time travel?'

SC and George glanced at each other and then the mysterious feline took over. 'No Hare, not exactly. Basically I knew what was coming and though it is extremely ... taxing, I can show others. I did so with The Glass Cat, demonstrating unequivocally where his path would lead him. Naturally his first thought was to avert disaster by using his new knowledge to change the events he was destined to initiate. Naturally I could not allow him to do so.'

'Why the hell not?' The Hare was exasperated, but Jessica laid a calming hand on his forearm.

'Let's hear them out H.'

'Thank you Miss Bunny. Here is why not - time is a loop and I am uniquely placed to travel through the loop and still retain full knowledge of previous iterations. When last I visited Bungle to reveal the upcoming apocalypse, it was with full knowledge of past attempts that had failed. I had discovered with certainty both through multiple viewings and several times actually living events, that without Bungle, Loki would usher in a devastation far worse than the armageddon that would have ensued with the participation of The Glass Cat in the very first timeline. Even an aware Glass Cat, attempting to manipulate events would have no effect or make things worse. In short, certain events had to happen up to and including the break-in at the Vault.'

Griffin held up a paw and when SC nodded in acknowledgment, hesitantly spoke. 'When Bungle entered and everyone sort of went mad, you told us he was under some kind of hypnosis. What did you mean?'

'Exactly that Griffin. Once I had shown him the future and told him what I am telling you now, we discussed a plan. Bungle himself suggested that he be mesmerized to forget our conversation, though certain post hypnotic suggestions were implanted and he could be periodically awoken by use of the trigger word.'

Jessica was musing. 'So all those times he left us to our own devices and was seemingly acting in an unconcerned or ... well incompetent fashion, that was really ...'

'Post hypnotic suggestion,' confirmed a grinning Bungle. 'Although there have been a few occasions I have been awoken by use of the S W A N word and asked to perform certain tasks.'

'Yes,' put in SC, 'But don't fear saying swan. Only George's voice triggers awakening or slumber.'

Griffin looked at George. 'That's why we had to get you out of the dungeon in Narnia, so you could be here!?'

The human smiled at the grey tabby. 'That is part of it. You will also need my help to get back after SC has shown you the same thing he showed Bungle. Incidentally, I'm afraid I'll shortly have to take your memory again old chap,' he added, turning to the Cat.

'I understand. Events must play out.'

'Hold up.'

'Miss Lochs, you have something to say?'

'You bet your shiney arse I do. Why don't we just kill Loki? Me n Ginge'll do im. Problem solved.'

SC was the one to answer. 'Firstly a god is not so easy to kill and secondly that won't stop it. This option has also been explored and fate cannot be twisted so easily. Without Loki another threat will arise - one that helped me originally convince Bungle to follow my course.'

'What threat?'

'Oz. Ozma will go to war and without Loki, Bungle or any other intervention, the Mythlands will be swept helpless before her ambition. After a decade or so of constant battle and misery, Ozma will find out about the Vault and she will breach it, releasing all evil on the world - an evil she controls. The devastation will be of equal or greater proportion to that of Loki's. Our only hope is for multiple threats to cancel each other out.'

'I think it is time they saw for themselves.' chipped in The Glass Cat.

SC knew this moment would come - knew it needed to, but he had been dreading it. 'George, please return with Bungle to his tent, utter the word and return here. Once the Cat's knowledge is once more erased, we will be on a path towards the breaching of the vault ... a heist if you will. Then I can begin.'

The Glass Cat turned to go, but gave Griffin a brief nod and wink. 'Good luck my mortal friend. You are our wild card.' He departed, followed by George.

Griffin turned to SC some moments later. 'What did he mean by that?'

The black cat with white markings smiled. 'We have travelled this merry go round together several times, but this is your first journey young Griffin. You see as a being from the mortal realms you are ...'

'I'm back.' 

SC nodded to George. 'Then we shall begin. Griffin, we shall speak more of this later.'

Then he instructed the others to gather in one group as he stood concentrating in front of them. For five minutes he held his pose, a look of agony playing across his features, but he didn't cry out.

Then there seemed to be some kind of ripple in the very air itself. The Hare breathed in, waiting expectantly, but nothing happened.

Nothing except SC pitching forward on his face.

Goldie sprung over and put her hand on the cat's neck and chest. 'Well that was a bloody anti climax!'

'What is it?' called out a worried Griffin.

Goldie shook her head. 'He's dead.'