The Crossover Read Online Free PDF Page B

world?”
    “Um… Earth. Or Terra. Oh, and I’m Chuck Robinson. This is my shop, Age of Heroes.” Chuck shook his head. “Damn. You two are awesome. Are you professional actors? I mean, you haven’t broken character once . I really appreciate you showing up when you did. I don’t know what they have against me, but…” He shrugged. “They’re gonna kill my business. My employees quit because of these guys, and I can’t blame them. But what are you gonna do when they come back with guns?”
    “What are guns?” Lodrán asked. “Some kind of magic?”
    Chuck threw up his hands. “Dudes. Time to drop the role-playing and get serious. Firearms. Handguns. Sawed-off shotguns, maybe. What do you have to beat those?”
    “I am serious,” said Lodrán. “Chelinn can use magic to defeat them, but you need to tell him what they are.”
    “Show me,” said Chelinn. “Explain what these ‘guns’ are, to the best of your ability. Lodrán, you look around. Study the wares our friend has to offer so you can help anyone who comes in. For now, we are his assistants.”
    “Uh…” said Chuck. “There’s a bunch of paperwork. I’d have to get your Social Security numbers, fill out the I-9 forms—”
    Chelinn waved away the objections. “You need our help, notable. And we need yours. We need a place to stay, someone to tell us about your world’s customs and so forth, and to take us to the next rainbow so we can return home.”
    “All right, all right. I guess y’all will want supper and so on too, right?”
    “I presume hunting is not allowed inside the city? Or cookfires? Then yes, we’ll need food. Now… to the task at hand?”

    After about ten minutes, Chelinn called across the shop to Lodrán. “It’s some kind of projectile weapon,” he said. “A flash fire inside a confined space drives a small piece of metal at its victim. I’m not sure, neither is our host, but we think my armor would stop the less powerful kind. A magical shield should help with the others—”
    The door chimed, but it was only a customer. Lodrán stepped forward. “May I help you?”
    “Nah,” said the newcomer. He looked at the desk. “Hey Chuck! This is awesome, putting your employees in costume, but you need a wizard outfit for yourself! Did the order come in?”
    “Just this morning, Phil,” said Chuck, bringing out a package from under the desk. “Why don’t you look it over?”
    “Yeah, good idea.” Phil opened his package, while Chelinn looked on. Lodrán drifted to the window to watch the world go by. Although the glass was amazingly clear—perhaps it was magic that made it free of ripples and bubbles—it made the oddness beyond somehow more tolerable.
    “Looks good,” said the customer, and looked at Chelinn. “Dude. That is one quality outfit. I know Chuck doesn’t sell anything that good. You look like you could’ve stepped off a movie set. Or out of a Dragonlance book.”
    Chelinn nodded. “Thank you. It took a long time to… to assemble.”
    “Yeah. Well, it was worth it. I hope I see y’all at the con; you’ll win best in show for sure!” He took his package and left.

    The rest of the afternoon went without incident. Chelinn was keenly interested in the clocks and especially the computer, while Lodrán marveled at the lighting and Chuck’s cellphone. When “school let out,” as Chuck put it, the shop suddenly filled with children. This made Chelinn and Lodrán a little nervous, as they were not used to dealing with children and worried about what might happen if the four fools returned. But the children left after a while, to their relief.
    When the clock on the desk displayed 6:00 , the shop was quiet. “I’m going to grab us some supper,” said Chuck. “Chances are, there won’t be many customers in the next half hour. Maybe some browsers. If someone wants to buy something, just say you haven’t been trained on the registers, and have them wait a few minutes for me to come