Unsolved Mystery: Season 5, Episode 1

Summer of Spiderwasps

Written by Wrong Arturo, Mina Skywalker, Justin W. Toner, Nekka Mallory and Spindoctor

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(With a clean slate, the new adventures begin…)

W.A. woke up early that morning, having enjoyed a good long sleep. Most of the others were awake now too, except Bennish, who was sawing logs almost loud enough to wake the dead.

After W.A. got washed up for the day, he came back into the bedroom of the hotel. Nekka saw him first and said, "Morning, W.A. Ready to go `rifting'?"

"`Rifting'?" W.A. asked, puzzled.

"`Rifters' is just a name I came up with," Nekka said with a shrug. "Better than `Sliders: The Next Generation' or `Sliders: The New Class.'"

"`Rifters,'" W.A. said admiringly. "I like it."

Nekka blushed and smiled.

W.A. turned to Mina and said, "Morning, Mina. Feeling better?"

"Yep," she said. "Just like the doctors told me. Of course, I've been feeling better lately; you know that. I just can't wait to get doing today. I feel like I could take on the whole Kromagg Empire myself!"

W.A. smiled. "Yeah--I know what you mean," he replied. He then turned to the others and said, "Okay, so how do you guys wanna work this?"

"I figured we'd draw straws for it," offered Lexie, who had gotten the straws from the hotel's snack bar. "The first set of three will take one timer, the next three will take another, and the others will sit this one out. We'll spend one hour on one world each and then come back and compare notes. Agreed?"

Everyone thought this was a good idea, so the straws were drawn. In the end, W.A., Lexie, and Mina made one team, and Justin, Nekka, and Bennish made another. Shelbs and Gemmin would sit this one out.

"Oh, shoot," pouted Mina. "I wanted to go with Justin!"

"It's just for one world," W.A. reassured her. "You can go with him next time."

"I'll miss you every second we're apart, my love," said Justin, looking deep into Mina's eyes.

"As will I, sweetheart," replied Mina, and kissed him.

W.A. looked like he was gonna puke. Can someone turn a hose on these two? he thought.

"OK, well, we'd better get going," said Nekka.

They all went outside, and in a minute, the first party had activated the timer, and a giant swirling blue vortex opened up before them.

"Well...here goes nothing," Lexie yelled, and jumped in.

"Geronimoooooooooooo!" Mina called out as she jumped.

"Here we go again," W.A. announced as he followed them through.

"Ready to go, guys?" said Justin, holding the timer.

"Hey! I wanna work the timer!" Bennish said.

Justin sighed. "Fine--take it," he told Bennish, tossing him the timer.

"All right! Cool, man!" Bennish said, twisting a button-- and accidentally erasing the information on the timer.

"Whoops."

"`Whoops' what?" asked Nekka.

"Uhhh--nothing," Bennish said, and turned the timer back on, quickly resetting it for 30 minutes. Close enough, he thought.

He opened the vortex and the second team jumped through.

********

The vortex led the first team on a twisting, turning path before depositing them down in a grassy field.

"Whoa...soft landing...that was nice," Lexie commented.

Mina nodded and said, "Where's W.A.?"

A grunt from a nearby tree provided the answer. Sure enough, W.A. was hanging from a limb.

The girls laughed. "No matter which Arturo it is," teased Lexie, "you guys always seem to have the worst landing."

"Har har," said W.A. as he jumped down from the branch with an "oooof." W.A. adjusted his winter black leather jacket (not that he was some biker type or anything, he just liked the way leather jackets felt) and eye patch (stupid thing--always made him feel like people should be calling him "Ahab"). The three travelers started on their journey again.

As Lexie headed off, W.A. pulled on Mina's shoulders to hold her back. "Hey...you doin' okay?" he asked.

"Yeah...why?"

"Just wanted to make sure you didn't have any of that Kromagg stuff still floating around in you."

"Nope, I'm fine."

"Okay." W.A. just hoped it was true. "Mina, I just wanted to say something...about you and Mr. Warren."

"Hey--why do you call him `Mr. Warren' anyway?"

W.A. shrugged. "Force of habit. I'm totally American, but my parents are both British. I picked up some of their manners, and I'm just used to calling people by their last names when I don't know them that well."

"Well, you just don't know him like I do," Mina said, getting that dreamy look in her eye again.

"Uhhh...yeah. Listen, that was what I wanted to talk to you about. Look, I know you two have a pretty good thing going here, but I just wanted to warn you to be careful."

"Why? Justin and I love each other."

"That's what I'm talking about. You just met!"

"Well, we can still be in love, can't we?"

"All I'm saying is...don't fall too hard too fast."

"Are you telling me you don't trust Justin?" Mina demanded. "I'm just saying, you guys have just met! Give it some time, okay?"

Mina folded her arms. "You just don't understand us," she said. "I don't want to hear you talk this way about the man I love."

W.A. sighed. "Hey, I'm just trying to look out for you. You're like...a sister to me. Okay?"

After a minute, Mina grunted a barely audible response. W.A. figured this was the best he could do for now, so he went to catch up with Lexie.

"Hey, Lex. How ya doing?"

Lexie turned and smiled at him.

"We haven't had much time to talk since the escape and all that," he continued.

"Yeah," she replied. There was something about the way she looked at him...

"What's the matter?"

"Oh...nothing. It's just--it feels like I hardly know you."

W.A. could hardly believe his ears. "Not know me? Lexie, we spent about a year trapped on a Kromagg ship together."

"Yeah, I know. It's just that...well, you were disguised as Lexie2 then. And it's been hard to get adjusted to the idea that you're not somebody I just met, but the same person looking completely different."

"It's still me, Lex," W.A. reminded her.

"Yeah," she said. "Only...the last time I saw Lexie2, she was going to sacrifice herself to the Kromaggs. And you don't need the disguise anymore, and I haven't seen her since then, so...it's like she really HAS died." Lexie wiped away a tear starting to form.

"Hey, Lex..." They stopped where they were for a second. Mina was still sulking behind them. "You gonna be okay?" W.A. asked.

After a minute, Lexie replied, "Yeah...I'll be fine. It's just that--she was like...a sister to me, you know?"

Boy, talk about deja vu, W.A. thought. "Yeah, I know," he said. He was trying to debate whether or not they should put his arm around her when suddenly he noticed two figures running up ahead. Strange that they hadn't seen anyone up till now...

"Hey, look at that!" he said, and then headed off in their direction. "Hey! Wait up!" he called out.

The other two followed him, but the others were running so fast they couldn't catch up. Finally, they stopped to take a breath.

"Wow, they sure can run," Mina gasped.

"Yeah," W.A. raspily agreed. "And did you see what they were wearing? It was like some old hippy-style outfits."

"Hey," Lexie managed to get out. "Maybe this is one of those worlds chronicled in Wade Mallory's book. You know, the one where the Summer of Love was still going on."

"Hey," W.A. interjected, "didn't they accidentally leave something behind on that world? Something from another dimension?"

Mina was about to note that she didn't remember it being something good, when suddenly they all took notice of a dim humming sound in the background that had grown steadily louder.

The three travelers looked up and to the west and immediately remembered what had been left behind. They also suddenly realized why the hippies had been going so fast.

"Run!!" Lexie screamed. "Giant spider wasps!!!!"

W.A. (who loves a good cliffhanger!)

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Meanwhile, back on their Base Earth, Jason Warren was in a deep Force trance, trying to purge himself of unwanted thoughts. He still had not completely forgiven himself for his actions toward his brother Justin and his love Mina Skywalker while under the influence of the Dark Side. As he tried harder, Shelbs came into the room and broke his concentration.

"Do you mind!" he said as he opened his eyes. "I am trying to meditate!"

"Sorry!" said Shelbs, taken aback.

Jason realized how rude he had been to her and said, "Sorry Shelbs, but I was trying to relax; it's bad enough I didn't go with my brother on the slide, but I still have guilt about what I did; I can't get rid of it!"

Shelbs sat down next to him and said, "I may not know the Force, but what you did was beyond your control; that person that hurt Mina and tried to hurt Justin was not the real Jason, but the evil that controlled him; that's what you have to see; it's not easy, but I think you can do it."

Jason was surprised at her words of wisdom; they rang of the truth. He smiled and said, "Thanks, Shelbs, that helped; I have a lot to look forward to, with Justin and Mina

and all of you."

"That's right," she replied. "Come on, let's go back to the waiting room and wait for the others to return." And with that they got up and left the room.

********

Elsewhere, in another universe, Justin, Nekka and Bennish exited their vortex and landed in a alley; they were all soaked from the water on the ground.

Nekka said, "Boy, talk about your worst possible landing!"

"Well, guys," said Justin, "where should we start?"

"Hey, like, let's check out the local library, to check the world's history, man" said Bennish, who like Gemmin had artificial eyes now.

"Good idea" said Nekka. "Let's find it; we only have an hour."

As the three of them walked out of the alley, they noticed a crowd running down the street in terror. There were so many hundreds of people, the trio almost get trampled in the chaos.

"What the hell is going on?!" said Justin.

"Maybe it has something to do with that!" said Nekka as she pointed to the sky, and the three looked up to see a Manta Ship blasting buildings!

"Were too late, man!" said Bennish. "The Kromaggs have already started their invasion of this Earth!"

Justin began to think fast. "Nekka, isn't the timer and the Manta ships on the same frequency? Could we jam the ship's systems?"

Nekka thought quickly and replied, "Yes! Use the timer as a scrambler!"

Without hesitation Justin pressed the timer and sent a disruption wave at the Manta Ship. It immediately crashed into the street!

"We did it, man!" said Bennish. "Like, now what?"

Nekka replies "Let's go on board and find out their plans, and we could steal some more of their technology!"

"Great idea, Nekka," said Justin. "Let's go!"

The three slowly walked up to the crashed ship, and opened the hatch. Inside they found the pilots dead. Nekka went to the command console and began to crack into the ships systems. She had done it before.

"I am trying to access the battle plans, but it requires a password."

"keep trying," said Justin. "We have to learn what they're up to."

As Nekka tried in another sequence, an alarm went off!

"Oh, crap, I just activated something bad!"

And before the others could reply, a stun beam emanated from the ceiling, knocking the trio out!

***********

Justin awoke to find himself in a holding cell with Nekka and Bennish next to him. They had fallen into a trap! "Great!" said Justin. "How are we going to get out of this?"

Justin W Toner (I like cliffhangers too! USM LIVES!)

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Mina, W.A. and Lexie ran as fast as they could. The spider wasps were close behind.

Well, they were lucky. There were only about five bees behind them. Mina grabbed her lightsaber off her belt. She stopped running and yelled to her friends, "Find a place to hide! Now!"

W.A. and Lexie ran to a cement shed in a man's backyard. Mina flipped on her lightsaber and sliced the wasps in half quickly. She ran to the shed and W.A. and Lexie opened the door and let her in. Mina asked, "What are we going to do, guys?"

W.A. replied, "Hide here until the slide in 45 minutes, that's what."

Mina shook her head. "We can't let this world suffer!"

Lexie said, "Mina, we can't save every world we go to. This is one of them. We can come back later when we are better prepared."

Mina nodded, upset. She didn't want to leave these people suffering. But she had no choice.

She wondered out loud, "I wonder how Justin and the other group are doing?"

Lexie smiled at the younger girl. "So, what's the deal with you and Justin, anyway?"

Mina blushed. She said, "We love each other."

W.A. asked, "How do you know, though?"

Mina bit her tongue, to stop herself from lashing out at W.A. He just didn't get it. Instead, Mina said, "We saved each other. When Commander Jke'Gad tried to kill me, we were finally able to admit our feelings for each other."

Lexie shook her head. "I hate to say this, girl, but that was only about three days ago. How do you know it's real love?"

Mina felt tears in her eyes. "Fine. I don't care what you guys say. Justin and I love each other, and that's final."

W.A. put his hand on Mina's shoulder. She shrugged it off. Mina said, "I hope we can get off this world soon. I would feel better if Justin was with me."

Lexie had a horrible look on her face now as she looked at the wall behind Mina. She replied, "I hope we can get off this world soon, too. But I would feel better if there wasn't one of the spider wasp nests behind you!"

Mina-- who also loves cliffhangers!

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Nekka sat up in the cell and looked over at her two companions.

"You know, I'm really starting to hate these Kro-guys," she said.

"I know what you mean." Justin said, rubbing a bruise on his arm caused by the Kromagg guards.

"Now what?" Bennish asked.

Just as he finished saying that, they heard someone approaching their cell. The Kromagg had a mark on his forehead that resembled a shoe toe.

"Hey, Bar'ney," Nekka said.

"Hello again, Nekka."

"Listen, sorry 'bout your head," Nekka replied.

"It's OK, I guess I deserved it for torturing you," Bar'ney replied.

The other two looked at Nekka strangely (well, Justin 'looked;' Bennish faced that direction), and Justin leaned over to Bennish and whispered, "She's totally nuts!"

"No hard feelings?" Nekka asked.

"No, I guess not," he replied, as she moved closer to the energy field that was confining them.

Justin caught a flash as Nekka produced a card-like device and interrupted the field and punched Bar'ney out.

Justin and Bennish just sat there, mouths agape.

"Well, c'mon!" Nekka gestured to them with a wave of her hand.

Justin shook his head in amazement and followed her and Bennish down the hallway.

"Where'd . . .where'd you get that?" Justin asked, pointing to the card.

"I got it on the Manta ship. I didn't know what it was, but I thought it might come in handy."

"Hey, anyone know where they put our stuff?" Nekka asked.

"When they held me captive, they kept stuff in lockers," Bennish offered.

"Over there!" Justin pointed towards stacked cubes with fields of energy around them.

"That would be it," Nekka said.

She walked up to the lockers and disrupted several fields with the card before finding the ones that contained their belongings. Nekka handed the device that she had seen him carrying to Justin. She took her gun and put it back in its

holster and handed Bennish the timer.

"Hey, what did it feel like to punch one of those guys?" Bennish asked.

"Kinda squishy actually, like punching a pillow," Nekka replied with a smile.

"Uh oh, company," Justin said, as several Kromagg guards rushed down the hallway towards them.

"How much time?" Nekka called out.

"4 minutes!" Justin replied, glancing at his watch.

"Uh, I have 6 minutes," Bennish said.

"Great," Nekka ducked as a shot almost hit her. "We forgot to synchronize our watches!"

The trio rounded a corner and were blocked from the Kromagg fire for a few moments.

Justin pulled out the device that Nekka had returned to him, and a beam of light leaped from the end.

"What the bleep is that?" Nekka asked, jumping back.

"Bleep?" Bennish asked. "What's bleep?"

"Don't swear unless it's appropriate, Bennish!" Nekka scolded.

"It's a lightsaber," Justin replied.

Nekka had a blank look on her face.

Justin sighed, and started deflecting the Kromagg fire with it.

"Ahh," Nekka said. "But why not just do this?"

She pulled out her gun, and fired it at two Kromaggs, stopping them dead in their tracks.

"That works too . . ." he said with a grin.

"Uhh, guys, we better make like a banana and . . ." Bennish started.

" . .Split!" said Nekka and Justin in unison.

They took off down the hallway and Bennish activated the vortex and they leaped through just as several more guards were descending upon them.

Nekka

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"Nekka. After all, this alien technology can be pretty complicated. Now, how can I find her and get her out of trouble? I wonder if this thing comes with a teleportation device?"

Spindoctor has been talking out loud to himself and is startled to hear a response from a mechanical voice, "This K-1000 Manta Ship is equipped with a fully functional multidimensional teleportation device."

Spindoctor: "Who said that?"

Mechanical Voice: "I did."

Spindoctor: "Ah, but who are you?"

Mechanical Voice: "I am the ship's mechanical voice, but nobody cares about me. Who are you?"

Spindoctor: "You can call me Spindoctor. Can you locate the owner of this laptop computer and teleport her to this location?"

Mechanical Voice: "I can do that, and many more things that you could never imagine."

Spindoctor: "OK, do it."

Mechanical Voice: "Darn it, Spindoctor, I'm a mechanical voice, not a teleport operator!"

Spindoctor: "Please?"

Mechanical Voice: "No one has ever said that to me before."

Spindoctor: "Then you'll do it?"

Mechanical Voice: "You bet, good buddy! Then can we play a game of chess?"

Spindoctor: "We shall see."

In a twinkle of light, Nekka is teleported to the bridge of the Manta Ship.

Spindoctor

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Justin exits the vortex back in front of the Dominion Hotel. He gets up to see his brother, Jason, and Shelbs come out to greet them.

"Welcome back, Old Man," said Jason. "Looks like you've been through hell; what happened?"

"We ran into some old friends," said Bennish "The Kromaggs."

Justin continued, "The Earth we landed on was being invaded. We crashed a Manta ship and went on board, but tripped an alarm and were captured, Nekka helped get us out and.."

"Say," said Shelbs. "Were is Nekka?"

"Why, she's...." but Justin realized as well, that Nekka was gone; she had not come out of the vortex! "Oh no! Where is she?" he exclaimed.

**************

Meanwhile, on board Spindoctor's Manta Ship, Nekka didn't know what was happening. One minute, she, Justin and Bennish were traveling in the vortex back to Base, and then suddenly she was here. Spindoctor said, "Welcome back, Nekka."

She turned and with surprise said, "Spindoctor!? What's going on?! Where have you been?!"

"I was captured by the Kromaggs back in Season 3, and was replaced by a impostor. I just recently escaped imprisonment. I found your laptop next to this ship in the woods. I looked for you, but I guessed you had been taken prisoner, so I decided to get home, then I discovered the computer could teleport you here, so it did."

"But why bring me here?" she asked.

"Because, I want you to come back and work for me. We can do so much! With this ship and its technology.."

Mechanical Voice: "AND me!"

"Yes...and you, we will become rich and famous beyond our wildest dreams!!"

Nekka thought this over. She had enjoyed working for Spindoctor, but because of him, she had been captured by the Kromaggs, interrogated, tortured, by the likes of Bob and-- ugh!--Bar'ney! Lexie and co. had rescued her, and she seemed to like sliding, so she replied, "Sorry, but because of working for you I got captured by ugly apes, abused by some guys named Bob and Bar'ney, and almost lost my mind! The others helped me out of a jam, so I owe it to them to stick with it. Besides, those Kromaggs will come after you when they find out you took their stuff; they don't like thieves."

Spindoctor couldn't believe what he was hearing, she was turning down the greatest opportunity of a lifetime!

"You're making a big mistake, Nekka; you could be rich!"

"The last mistake I made was working for you!" And with that she pushed the teleportation return button on the dashboard and disappeared!

"Darn it!!" said Spindoctor. "Mechanical Voice, bring Nekka back!"

Mechanical Voice: "No, you promised to play chess! And besides, after two teleports, the batteries need to be recharged, and that takes several hours!"

Spindoctor cursed and said, "I'll find her again, and she'll be sorry she turned me down when I am rich and famous! All right, let's play some chess!"

Mechanical Voice: "Oh, goody! It's been too long!"

***************

Just as they were about to start looking for Nekka, she reappeared right in front of them!

"Nekka!" said Justin. "Where did you go?!"

"Spindoctor kidnapped me; he wanted me to come back to him, but I turned him down."

"Spindoctor's alive!" said Shelbs. "That's not good news."

"We'll worry about him later; we still have to wait for Mina, W.A. and Lexie to come back," said Justin.

As the others went back inside Shelbs pulled Nekka aside and said, "Nekka, I'm glad you decided to turn Spindoctor down."

"Thanks; I owe you guys; and besides that, working for him wasn't all that it was cracked up to be."

And with that they joined the others inside the hotel, waiting for Mina and co. to return.

Justin W Toner

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The spiderwasps had been stirred by the noise in the room. The giant bugs began descending upon them...

Suddenly a door flew open. "What are you doing out here?" cried the figure in the doorway. "Quick! Get inside!"

Lexie and W.A. took off running, but Mina stayed where she was for a minute. The spiderwasp headed right towards her... and then stopped as it was promptly cut in half by Mina’s lightsaber.

Time to run, Mina thought, and took off towards her friends, who were now inside the door and crying out frantically for her to hurry up. Just as she got inside, the rest of the spiderwasps had descended and smacked against the door.

"Whew!" Mina gasped with relief.

"Nice move back there, Mina,” Lexie said appreciatively.

“Thanks,” Mina replied, smiling at her two companions for the first time in a while.

"Come on," said their host. "We'll be safer in the den."

***************

Once they had been settled, the travelers took a closer look at their surroundings. It was an ordinary, homey type of farmhouse--except, of course, for the fact that the walls looked like a prison. There were no windows, and every door in the house, it seemed, had triple locks on them. The door to the den had been shut--"just in case," the sliders were told.

They had met their hostess's family--her husband (a quiet, stern man, holding a long shotgun in case the bugs got in) and their two small children. The woman (whose name was Clara) had kindly made them all some tea, which W.A. didn't really care for, but he wanted to be polite to the woman who had just saved his life. Clara and her husband were dressed like conventional farmers, while their children, obviously influenced by the times even at such a young age, were dressed in "flower power" clothes. It seemed that every attempt had been made to make this a nice little place for a family to live--under the circumstances.

"What are these walls made out of? Metal?" Mina wondered aloud.

"Metal's not strong enough to hold these guys back," replied Clara. "Scientists had to come up with something even stronger and thicker. Didn't you hear about this in the news?"

"We...haven't been around here for a few years," W.A. quickly tried to cover. "So tell us--what's been going on?"

"Well, you know all about the Great Visitation, don't you?"

"I--think so. Could you refresh my memory?"

Clara seemed a little surprised at his hesitancy. "Well, years ago a group of prophets supposedly fell out of some `hole in the sky' or something. It was during our war with Australia. Anyway, these prophets met up with some of the people protesting the war. Their words of peace inspired the hippies to rise up and get involved, trying to end the war. Eventually, the war ended on its own. But the hippies' way of life eventually became the normal culture everywhere."

She paused. "That is, of course...until the spiderwasps came."

The father snorted. "Yeah, and I bet those 'wonderful prophets' had something to do with it!" he grunted, sarcasm dripping in his voice.

"The first spiderwasps were seen shortly after the appearance of these...visitors," his wife conceded. "Some think that perhaps these travelers weren't so wonderful after all."

"Maybe it was an accident," Mina piped up, unable to keep her thoughts to herself.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," the father said, shaking his finger. "Maybe these 'prophets' shoulda thought of that before messin' around in other people's business! If I ever saw anybody come poppin' out of some hole on the sky, I'd be sure to thank 'em real fast for their help--same way I thank those varmints outside!" Here he patted his gun.

The travelers shot a glance at each other. Lexie, who had the timer in her pocket, instinctively covered it up with her arm to make it less visible.

"George! There's no need for talk like that!" exclaimed Clara.

"Yeah, dad!" piped up his 5-year-old son. "All you need is love!"

At this, the three friends couldn't help smirking. George rolled his eyes but said nothing more.

"Why do they attack, anyway?" said W.A. "If they're just insects, why do they want to tear everything apart?"

"Oh, it's just normal instincts, from what I understand," Clara responded. "They don't mean harm, they just don't know any better. They just want things like food and a place to mate--and they'll go through anything that gets in their way, including houses, which they seem to have a natural ability for destroying. They don't attack humans unless frightened or angered. Seems like anything will set 'em off, though."

"You've got a pretty nasty nest back there," Mina noted.

"Yeah...we tried to be careful from letting it happen. We thought we'd been successful, too, till we saw you guys just now."

"There's just one thing I don't understand," said Lexie. "If it was so bad, why didn't you just move where there were no spider wasps?"

"People did try movin'," answered Clara. "But wherever we went, the spider wasps eventually came too. In fact, I thought they had covered the whole earth now. Where in the world did you come from, that you haven't run into 'em yet?"

"Yeah," said George, leaning suspiciously forward in his chair. "What were you guys doing out there anyway? You should have known these things come out of hibernation every spring. Why are you so totally out of it when it comes to knowin' about what's goin' on?"

Before the group had to deal with answering, there came a loud thumping noise on the sides of all four walls.

BOOOOM...BOOOOOOOM....BOOOOOOM....

"Dag nab it!" George cried out, standing up with gun in hand. "Those critters got in the house! Clara, go find a place to hide with the kids! I'll try and hold 'em off here!"

BOOOOM...BOOOOOM.....BOOOOOOM.....

"What?" Mina shouted. "I thought these walls were made strong enough to hold them out."

"They WERE strong enough," Clara said, as her children huddled around her. "But every year, these awful creatures get more resilient...and tougher."

BOOOOM...BOOOOOM....BOOOOOOM...

The sliders looked wildly about the room. There was no other way out. The spider wasps would be through the walls in a minute or two. Or maybe even less.

BOOOOOM....BOOOOOOOOOOOM.....BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM........

Wrong Arturo

_________________________________________

Mina whispered to her friends, "What are we going to do?"

W.A. replied, "Hope the wall holds and wait out the ten minutes till the slide and get the heck off this world."

Mina shook her head. "We can't leave them like this!!! The spider wasps will kill them!!!!"

Lexie looked at her young friend. "There is nothing we can do, Mina! The slide is in a few minutes and we can't miss it."

Mina thought for a second. She looked at her lightsaber. The first spider wasps started to break through the wall. Mina shook her head. She then noticed a small, round ball on her belt. She unclipped it. Her hands were shaking.

"Guys, this is a thermal detonator. It'll blow those spider wasps out of the stratosphere, but us too if we're not careful. I can set it on a five-minute timer before it goes off. I'm afraid to do this. I've never set off a thermal detonator before."

W.A .took the detonator from Mina's hand. He flipped a switch. He was about to drop it when Mina yelled, "W.A.!!!! You hit the wrong button! If you drop that thermal detonator we'll all be blown sky high!!!! And the safety isn't on so we can't shut if off!!!!"

W.A. held the detonator.

Lexie looked at the timer. "Three minutes till the window!!!"

W.A. yelled, "Run, guys!!!!"

Everybody, including W.A., started to run. When they were outside of the house, W.A. threw the detonator as hard as he could. It exploded right on the spiderwasps. Lexie opened the vortex as Clara and her family stood with their mouths hanging open, stunned. The trio jumped through, back to EP.

***********************************

"Mina!" yelled Justin as he embraced his beloved. Mina threw her arms around him.

"Lover!" she cried back. "Wait until we tell you what happened on this world......"

Justin exclaimed, "I bet it's not as big as what happened to us!"

W.A. jumped in. "You two lovebirds can talked about your adventures tonight. But tomorrow we'll be sliding again."

Mina and Justin nodded. W.A. went into his room and collapsed on the bed. His 'little sister' would probably be the end of him.

Mina Skywalker

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Editor's note: While I included it in my part of the story, Nekka was in fact the one who came up with the term `Rifters.'--W.A.

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Read Unsolved Mystery: Season 5, Episode 2