Mari walked in the living room with Hero, having just finished their schoolwork. They expected their friends to be playing about but was both surprised and proud to see them all huddled together doing a group study.
Hero tried to approach and called out to them but was stopped by Mari as she grabbed his arm.
“Shh... Let’s just watch!“ She whispered to him.
Hero nodded with a quiet chuckle, “Okay.“
Omori sat on the floor, solving a math activity from the workbook Mari bought him. Aubrey and Basil sat beside each other as they leaned on the couch. Kel sat beside The Maverick while Angel sat beside Charlene. They were all preoccupied with school books.
Mari let out a quiet giggle, it was cute seeing their little group slowly grow with the addition of Omori’s apprentices, as they liked to call themselves.
“Master Magician! I need help!” Angel called out to him.
Omori got up with a sigh, sitting in front of Angel to help him understand the topic better.
“Me too!“ The Maverick called out next.
Omori finished his explanation with Angel and went over to him.
“Me next!“ It was Kel this time.
“Why is your face so dirty?“ Omori finished explaining to The Maverick first before standing up to get the tissue box and proceeded to wipe the mess on Kel’s face, it was mostly cookie crumbs.
“Master Magician! Charlene needs help too!“ Angel called out again.
Omori held up a hand to gesture for him to wait, “Ask The Maverick about this part, I just explained it to him.“ He went over to Angel again.
As Omori explained to Charlene about the topic, Kel and The Maverick started arguing behind him. Omori held up the tissue box and glanced at them, “Behave you two or I’m going to throw this at you.“
The two quieted again, “Yes ma’am...“
Mari’s smile froze on her face for a moment until she blinked and giggled a bit, “My brother is a single mom.“
Bwahaha, the CFC extras are so cute and fun! There’s dating and all the domesticity they have been craving, but hilarious details as well.
The first one had Xie Qingcheng thinking He Yu is impotent, because he didn’t pounce on him first moment they were alone, while HY was doing his best to restrain himself, since XQC was still in the hospital and wasn’t yet fully healed. And now the first chapter of the second extra had HY and Wei Dongheng competing on who has the best wife. I can’t, the second-hand embarrassment was next level!! 🤭 WDH only won because he had a trump card in his hands:
Who knows what the First Emperor body is capable of, and at least HY will do his ultimate best in attempting to impregnate XQC. 🤣🤣🤣
Also, I think WDH is a dead man, blurting out Xie Xue’s big announcement like that.
Dimensions of Love: A NovaHD Story; Extra 2: Earth
So here is the extra for the Earth story line. I’m going to admit, that when I first started writing Dimensions of Love, I never planned for Earth to end the way it did. But as I progressed through the story, that was where it ended up at; so in order to get it to where I actually wanted it to end, here is this extra chapter to truly wrap it up. Enjoy.
And as always it's over here too.
Extra 2: Earth
Denver, Colorado; Summer of 2033
“A long time ago, we used to be friends
But I haven't thought of you lately at all”
Who the hell put the radio on this station? This song was old as fuck! No one even listened to it when it first came out either. Don’t bother asking him why he knew when it came out, he was to focused on the fact that the lyrics where not helping his mood; too many thoughts and memories of old times.
He always found himself here, reminiscing, when he had a glass of fine and expensive whiskey in his hand. Vodka just didn’t do it for him anymore. It didn’t take the pain far enough away, didn’t make the memories leave him fast enough, and didn’t leave him feeling numb the way he wanted. So whiskey it was, at least until that no longer worked either.
Alcoholic, such a strong word. Why not…connoisseur de liquor? Something snazzy or classy as fuck? Alcoholic made it sound like something was wrong with him. Like he had a disease or some shit.
It wasn’t his fault he was like this.
But that was just him trying to deny that he had been the one to fuck up. He swirled the amber liquid in his glass as he thought. He really shouldn’t be thinking about this though. It was the reason he drank in the first place, to make those memories go away.
Those memories of James and the good old days that wouldn’t leave, that lingered in his mind like ghost in an old mansion, forever bound to him and causing him grief.
It had been years since he had touched a gaming console. He was stuck in what he considered a dead end job, working as the floor manager at the local mall. It sucked ass and not the good kind. Like a sweaty, badly wiped ass. No one wanted to stick their face in one of those.
Yeah, he went by his sexuality honestly these days.
What a joy it was to be a gay man going through an eternal mid-life crisis. Not really. That blew too. Nobody wanted to bang a dude who was perpetually depressed looking and just wanted to rant and ramble on drunkenly about how he had fucked up his life by letting the one walk away. They usually ended up telling him to get a life.
He’d been banned from a few gay bars for bringing down the mood. Well, fuck them for not being considerate to his years of moping around and refusing to move on. Nobody cared that he was lonely. Nobody cared that he was heartbroken.
Screw the world!
He could feel the alcohol kicking in now, all five and a half glasses of it; and he wasn’t done yet. It was gonna be an interesting night.
And fuck did that guy look a lot like an older James……
______________________________
Aleks groaned as he rolled away from the sun that shone far too brightly in the window. His head was surprisingly not killing him like he would have expected. There was one of those headaches that just sort of made you feel a little…off, out of it so to speak, that was lingering at the front of his forehead and his stomach felt a bit unsettled, but other than that and the room being too bright, he felt fine.
But as he sat up and gained his focus he began to question things.
For one: Where the fuck was he? This was definitely not his place and it didn’t really look like any hotel he’d ever seen.
Two: Who the hell, besides rapist and psychos, took drunken people to their house when they don’t know them? Unless he had met someone he did know last night. But that brought him to the last question.
Three: Who was in Denver that he knew? Everyone had moved away and he hadn’t bothered to make any new friends.
So it all boiled down to him being completely clueless as to what was going on. He didn’t feel sore, so it was unlikely that anyone had fucked him.
What if he had fucked somebody?
Now that was an interesting thought. He pondered it for a moment before he came to the conclusion that no normal person would let a sad, semi-depressed, drunk fuck them. It just wouldn’t have been worth it or enjoyable for them or anyone for that matter.
So what the hell happened?
“You’re up.” How had he missed someone move to stand in the doorway? It scared the shit out of him and he suddenly found himself on the floor, rather than the nice, comfy bed he had been on.
He heard a terribly familiar laugh echo through the room. It wasn’t possible. He hadn’t heard that laugh in what felt like a lifetime. He pushed himself up so that he was just able to peer over the bed at the man.
Oh, hot damn! He let his eyes roam over the familiar, yet different figure of his old friend.
“Holy shit!” Aleks stumbled to his feet, headache forgotten. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were on tour!”
Eddie flopped over on the bed. “Called it off. Band trouble. Retired now.”
Aleks looked down at the Latino sprawled before him. “Retired?”
“Yeah. Got in too deep. Drugs, sex, the works…” He looked away in shame. “Then the guys started dealing and got in over their heads. I didn’t want any part of it, so I walked.”
“Damn dude.” He heard Eddie giggle.
“Haven’t heard anyone say that in ages.”
“That’s because it went out of style back in like twenty fifteen.” Aleks found himself laughing too.
The both sighed. “So…you still talk to anyone?” Aleks inquired.
“Actually, yeah.” Eddie sat up and criss-crossed his legs like a kid. “I ran into Seamus a few years back. We’ve kept in touch ever since. He’s married to a dime.”
“You still do that?”
“Shut up!” Eddie laughed. “They got two kids in high school. Made me feel old.”
“We are old.”
“You’re younger than me; you got no room to talk.”
Aleks shook his head. “Anybody else you talk too?”
“Uh…about that.” He started only to be interrupted by someone yelling madly from the other room.
“What the fuck?”
“Now Aleks, before you get all worked up—”
“That sounded like...” Aleks looked at Eddie with a disbelieving expression. “Is that James?”
“Aleks.”
“No! Is that James?!”
Eddie had a worried look on his face. “He brought you here last night. You were a mess.”
“James…found me like that.”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.” Aleks ran a hand over his face. “I…I have to go.”
“Aleks, wait.” Aleks scrambled to his feet and rushed for the door as Eddie tried to stop him. He took a left, hoping to find the front door so he could leave. He came into the kitchen and headed for what had to be the living area. Surely the door was there.
He turned the next corner, hoping to see the door, only to barrel right into the person he wanted to avoid. His footing was gone, his body weight completely crashing into James and sending them both to the floor in an awkward tangle of limbs.
Their eyes met as Aleks looked at James from his place on top of him. This was not good. He could feel his heart ready to jump from his chest; he had forgotten how to breathe too. He was pretty sure if he stayed much longer he’d be sweating like a pig soon as well. He wanted to say something, anything really, but words failed him and he couldn’t bring himself to move.
So James spoke first, “Hey Aleks.” It came out soft, gentle, comforting and it confused Aleks, because the last time they’d spoke was the day of the wedding and James had just left, walked away and never looked back. So why was he being so friendly now? It didn’t make sense in Aleks’ head, not that any of his thoughts were clear right then anyway, because his head was honestly a mess of things.
“You…I…We…Uh…”Aleks stammered out. He finally got a clear thought to click in his head.
Get the fuck off him!
He carefully untangled himself and rose to his feet. He was unsteady for a moment, dizzy and it was most certainly not an after effect of his late night drinking experience. This was too much for him in his current fragile state of mind.
James had gotten him out of that bar. James had thought enough of him to make sure he was okay. James was here! Oh God, James. Was. Here!
Memories came flooding back that he had long ago shoved away and hidden in the darkest depths of his mind. At the forefront of it all was the recollection of that one kiss. Oh how he remembered what it felt like, tasted like, to have his lips on James’. A familiar feeling stirred deep within him.
Oh hell no! This was not happening. This couldn’t happen! He had fucked it up once, he wouldn’t do it again. His heart couldn’t take it. His mind probably couldn’t either.
When had James gotten up? When had he gotten so close? When had his legs given out?
What was going on?!
No. No. No. No. No. No! No! No! No! No! No!
Strong arms grasped him before he fell to the floor again. His head swam and the next thing he knew black invaded his senses. Everything just went away for a while.
______________________________
A whimper escaped his lips as he felt his head pound. His headache was back with a vengeance and he really hoped that it wasn’t James who was running a cool cloth over his head. He could feel whoever it was sitting next to him on what had to be a bed, but it felt different from the one he was on earlier.
It was strangely softer and it held a scent that was stirring him up with arousal; the same scent that was emanating from the person next to him, a scent that he knew all too well. He didn’t want to open his eyes, because he knew the moment he did the whole façade of calm and gentleness would be broken. He would see James’ face before him and everything would go to shit again. He didn’t want to risk it.
He wanted to bask in the warmth of the moment for as long as he could. “I know you’re awake, Aleks.” And James just had to go and ruin it, like always.
“How’d you know?” He whispered, not moving, hoping James would continue to run the cool cloth over his heated skin. It felt really nice.
“Your breathing changed; wasn’t quite as calm anymore.” James’ voice was soothing, it took the edge off his headache and made his heart race all at the same time. They were so close to each other.
“Oh…” He was gonna let his eyes flutter open dramatically, but it didn’t go as planned. Instead, one eye staid glued shut, so gross, and the other quickly got shut again, because bright! He found himself groaning as his headache flared back up and turned away from the light only to bump into James’ leg.
Soft laughter came from what must have been the door way, because James was up in an instant and he could hear the door being shut, followed by voices outside. He could just make out Eddie laughing a bit louder and James scolding him for being nosy and inconsiderate. The laughter grew louder as the door creaked open again and it was then shut quietly. Soft footsteps padded over to the bed and it sunk from James’ weight as he rested next to the Russian.
“You were really shit faced last night.” James began, wiping the cloth over his eyes so he could open them easily. “What the hell happened to you? You never used to drink that much. I mean yeah you liked to get drunk, but do you even remember last night at all?”
Aleks tried to think back. He recalled leaving to go to the bar and ordering several drinks. Things got a little blurry after that, but the last thing he remembered was thinking he saw James. Turns out he had seen him after all, if the current situation was anything to go off of. “I remember part of it. Some of it is fuzzy though. Last thing I can recall was thinking I saw you. I thought I was going crazy.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I still think this is crazy.”
“Well it’s not. And…” James hesitated, looking Aleks straight in the eye. “I’m sorry for leaving.”
Aleks was about to say something when he registered what James had said. He was apologizing. Now, of all times, he chose to say he was sorry? He could have turned up years ago and said it, but no, he chose now. “Why are you telling me this now? It doesn’t matter anymore, James. I’m over it. I’ve moved on.”
“I don’t think you have.” James stood up abruptly. “I think that your drinking problem is your really bad way of coping with my rejection. Don’t even try to tell me otherwise.”
Aleks just turned away in shame. “When was the last time you went a day without a drink, Aleks?” Aleks turned further away from him.
“It’s none of your concern.”
“Yes it is, Aleks. Fucking hell…If I’d known you would turn to alcoholism I never would have left like that.”
Aleks just scoffed and shook his head. “You knew you hurt me. You fucking knew! And you still walked away! How could you not know that I was unstable? I had been unstable for nearly a year at that point!” He was up off the bed, hands gesturing wildly, right in James’ face. “I gave up on Domi, ruined everything, because I finally had my head clear. Then you had the fucking audacity to throw it all back in my face and tell me I was wrong for acting on it! How could you not expect my life to go to shit?!”
By the time Aleks was done with his rant his head was really killing him and his face was bright red. The rage in him was unlike anything he had felt in years. It far surpassed anything he had felt towards video games or the guys back in the day and he wouldn’t put it past him to punch a couple holes in the wall or put someone in the ER.
James had stood his ground though. Most people would have backed away from the hung over and flaming Russian, but James hadn’t budged. In fact, he actually seemed closer than he was before and by close that meant he was literally holding Aleks now. His arms were wrapped tightly around him, pulling him close and he was repeating ‘I’m sorry’ over and over, as if it was a mantra.
Aleks could feel the tears soaking into his shirt and he suddenly felt very bad. James was trying to repent and make up with him, to try and get some semblance of a friendship back and here he was being an asshole and dogging on him hard. Why did he think that pushing all his rage onto James was a good thing? Sure getting it out was helpful in the long run, but…shoving it in James’ face was not going to help anything.
He let his arms wrap around James too and allowed his tears to fall. The two just stood there, crying and holding each other until they collapsed to the ground.
“The last twenty-four hours have just been a real shit fest, haven’t they?” James asked with a hint of humor in his tone. Aleks let himself laugh and it wasn’t long before James was laughing with him.
It was invigorating, to suddenly feel like all the animosity was gone. Aleks found himself leaning back to look at James’ face and he felt his heart warm at the small smile that was there playing at James’ lips. It had been so long since he had felt like this. Everything felt normal for a moment. It was like taking a step back in time.
He could see James young and laughing again. He could see them all together at the office or the old house, goofing off and being stupid. He saw balsamic pong and dyed hair and waxing and costumes and so many other things. There was Mario Cart and Gary’s Mod. There was so much shit that hit him, so much he had forgotten. Red caps and Transformer helmets…monkey suits and sun glasses…a shark hat…stupid shit on stair cases.
God he felt good. He felt young, bright, and happy. He felt alive. James wiped a tear from his eye and gave him a knowing smile. All these years and the bastard still knew him too well.
The moment was perfect.
And neither of them held back when their lips collided.
It was amazing what years of being apart and in self denial could do to a kiss. It felt right, but there was a heat and passion behind it that could never be repeated. They moved together as if they’d been doing this their whole lives; every piece of the puzzle had fallen into place to create one perfect moment in time. Things escalated quickly, faster than Aleks had expected.
His shirt was missing now and his pants where around his knees. James was desperately trying to take in every inch of him and with a few licks, nips, and sucks here and there, Aleks was being louder than he wanted to be. But he couldn’t hold it in, it needed to be released. This was over twenty years of pent up sexual tension and it was all about to blow up.
“Get a room!” Eddie yelled from the next room.
James’ head shot up from its place at Aleks’ neck. “We’re in one you idiot!”
“Get one that isn’t in my apartment!” Eddie barked back. “I don’t want to hear that shit!”
Aleks turned bright red, trying to cover his face. Fuck if this wasn’t embarrassing. “Then leave!” Why did James have to keep responding?
But apparently it worked, because the next thing they heard was the front door slamming shut. “Finally.” James muttered as he kissed his way down Aleks’ chest. Aleks couldn’t stop the tremor that ran through his body as James went lower, tongue ghosting over the edge of his boxers.
“Do you trust me?” Seriously James? Who asks that before sex? Presuming that, that’s where this was all headed of course.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Aleks croaked. He didn’t realize his throat was quite that hoarse. “But one thing.”
James pulled back and looked at him, the impatience clear on his face. “What?”
“Do you live here or…?” He left the question hanging to be filled in.
James huffed, the mood now ruined, and sat up, pulling himself free of Aleks’ limbs for the second time that day. “Not exactly. I mean, I’m staying here for now, until I can find my own place. I decided to move back. I have a job lined out and everything.”
“Seriously?” Aleks sat up too. “And you didn’t think to try and contact me? What kind of asshole are you?”
“Shut the fuck up and let me kiss you.” James pushed him back down roughly.
Aleks glared up at him, lips pursed. “Kiss me? Dude if you aren’t fucking me in the next five minutes, I’m walking out of here without you.”
“I don’t even have lube! You can’t just go in dry the first time! Are you insane!?”
“Sucks for you. Looks like I’m leaving.” Aleks made to get up, but was pushed back down.
“You said I had five minutes. There’s a corner store just down the road that sales that kind of shit. I can make it there and be back in three and a half.” James bounced to his feet and raced out the door.
“You got four minutes left!” Aleks called after him. He faintly heard the ‘fuck off’ James threw his way as the sound of the door closing echoed in the apartment. And to think that he had been worrying away all these years.
Looks like James’ words from back then weren’t so true after all.
“But I know that in this world, with the way it is, we can’t have each other the way we want to, Aleks. And we’re gonna have to accept that sometime, so why not now? This world was cruel to even have us meet each other, to let us get close even as friends. But I guess this world is just fucked up for everyone. It always has been and I don’t expect that to change now. So don’t say I’m a coward, because I’m not. I never ran from it. I accepted it for what it was I went with it. Got my ass dragged along for this shitty ride.”
He had been wrong. Or maybe he hadn’t been that wrong. Maybe it had just been a timing issue. Perhaps it was that the world wasn’t ready or that they weren’t ready to be together yet. But whatever the case, they were here now, prepared to step forward in life with each other, together, at last.
______________________________
“At last my love has come along,
My lonely days are over and life is like a song,
At last the skies above are blue,
My heart was wrapped up in clovers the night I looked at you,
Page 115 panel 1: The submarine (which lost the monster head around the time Orloff emerged from it, by the way) surfaces inside a cave. panel 2: A treasure chest rests in sand. From off-panel, Kelly shouts, "Here it is, boss! Here it is!..." panel 3: Martin, Angie, Java, the thug, and Dee stand on the sand. Martin says, "I believe that, after all, the honor of opening it belongs to Angie! It's she who's gone through the worst trouble..." panel 4: Angie opens the chest. panel 5: Angie looks into the chest, which contains a partially unrolled scroll. She says, "Ma... Martin... there's only a sheet of paper..." Martin, looking over her shoulder, says a question mark. page 116 panel 1: Martin unrolls the scroll. panel 2: Martin reads, "I, Soulis the Wicked, entrust to this treasure chest the secret of something that will be able to render Scotland invincible..." panel 3: Martin continues, "It is a strengthening and energizing food of my invention, that I have christened with the name of haggis..." panel 4: Dee and Kelly say, confused and angry, "Haggis?..." panel 5: Angie and Martin say, in shock, "Haggis?" Java and the thug say, "Ngh?" panel 6: Elmer is on the shore, wearing headphones connected to a small electronic gadget in the water. He shouts, "Wake up, Martha! Wake up! There's someone speaking beneath the surface of the lake..." From off-panel, Martha replies, "Let me sleep, Elmer..." panel 7: Dee says, "Kelly! Ignoble salamander wart! The idea of this whole thing was yours!" Kelly replies, "But, boss..." Dee slaps Kelly across the face. CIAF THE END The remaining pages of the book are a text feature, the second part of "Indice Analitico", a concordance of Martin Mystère story elements. As this has only incidental illustrations and no comic content, it is well outside my ability to attempt translating. Martin Mystère Extra #2 was written by Alfredo Castelli and illustrated by Giancarlo Alessandrini. It was published in 1996, but largely a reprint of Martin Mystère Special #2 from 1985. The reprint was not exact; for example, the object termed the "Sigillum Emeth" has a different name in the 1985 version, and the Kevin Costner reference was originally to someone else. According to my Croatian friend these were "Klingor" and Richard Gere, but the Croatian translations sometimes have their own problems. I will continue onward to Martin Mystère Extra #3, which was published later in 1996 and reprinted Martin Mystère Special #3 from 1986. However, I will change my approach slightly: rather than merely providing a poor text translation, I will provide a poor scanlation. It may be worth noting that I do not own a scanner or a high-quality camera.
