89.

I think he's trying to pull data on us from the great big mind pie in the sky Tommy, we can't have that now. Keep you're brains to yourself you little ruffian, you don't see me pillaging your idea net now do you?

"How did you do that?" said Simon.

"What, read the collective consciousness of the universe? The same way you did." Said Galahad.

"Oh. Right. But."

"Well said my friend. So, what did you get before I intercepted you? It would have been far more polite to simply ask. We've got all the time in eternity to fill, which is forever as you might imagine, now that you've magicked us here into, wherever this void is. I'm hoping it's purgatory, at least that way we might have an end to look forward to, judging by its scant emptiness though, I'd say that I don't like our chances."

"Friendly fire will be back and --"

"And everything will be restored to its proper order yes, I know. The more I think about it the less convinced I am that that will be of any benefit. Well, young Simon tell us my story that you stole from me or rather of me. What did you find under my profile?"

"Not much, something about the moon, a goblet, you and King Arthur. It's funny I was just on my way to the moon when I bumped into you and Mr. Tommy."

Galahad cupped his head in what looked to be overwhelming disappointment."Irony of ironies. Can you believe that Tommy? We could of had what we wanted if we didn't do anything. This is probably God's punishment for our taking that damn cup of his. I always knew that was a bad idea."

80.

Somewhere in the ether, Simon thinks ... FF where are you? I need some help here, I've just walked into Monty Python's quest for the holy grail. I'm concerned. Wait, that's selfish of me isn't it. How are you doing? Oh man, what about Daly and C , I think they where supposed to come over yesterday evening. They would not believe this. I don't believe this. OK, this vomit stinks. How can I win them over. A dragon, a real life dragon. Dragon's have stars. All right I've got to look around here, there's got to be something about dragons and Galahad. Ah, here we go...

58.

The differentials were astounding the integration exasperating. The moon was a few hundred miles from the promise of flight. If you examined history it had taken humans maybe a million years to learn to fly and they had to go outside the realms of the strictly natural to do it. The moon had no such option, it begrudgingly bowed at the seat of the laws of nature, all it could do was bide its time and orbit. It looked toward the fleeting promise of its lost salvation, lost indeed, Tommy's silver streaks had somehow vanished along with the rest of the party.

on the fireside/in the darkside/through the space/time side...


Friendly Fire seeped through the seems of torn space/time, a rift in reality that revealed nothing, except to those willing to investigate, not by observation, but by immersion. In the world left behind darkness was outside the reach of light, always running away. In the void this was not so. FF was smothered so much it could not see or sense itself. It vaguely remembered Simon, the explosion, the people. It pressed on if such a thing were possible. With no reference point, in the middle of nothing, movement probably didn't really exist, in reality (this one) maybe nothing else did either.

49.

Simon sat, or rather floated deep in the belly of the beast, deep in thought. Only a foot or so away from the miniature star that the dragon probably used to power its pyrotechnic breath. Simon was surrounded by a wave of seemingly anthropomorphic fire, forged in a thousand suns, the residual embers of that ancient antecedental (and impressively powerful) explosion. Simon's single point focus pushed all these eclectic facts and sensory stimuli to the periphery of his mind. He was trying to connect with the universe, through fire, and make sense of how he had contributed to what appeared to his eyes to be a nuclear explosion, far less grand than the Big Bang, but destructive rather than creative. This was never his intention.

As he continued to reflect, he could find no sense of reconciliation, something kept creeping into his mind in spite of his usual knack for impenetrable concentration. Strange words and phrases similar to a dream which he recently had, kept manifesting themselves: Simon, love is death, crude oil is not the answer, genocide is the only sure solution. Live once for a thousand years. Die in half the time. Don't worry, you are crazy. Slightly disappointed he broke out of his trance, just in time to see the dragon's star go out and his Friendly Fire dissipate into the void that was left.

Simon stopped floating.

36.

Galahad, Tommy, Simon and Friendly Fire looked down on a mini-Hiroshima.

"Now, look at what you've done. That can't be at all healthy." said Galahad. The group managed to avoid the explosion proper, but were quickly inundated with mushroom smoke.

Simon seemed to completely ignore Galahad's chiding remarks as he eased into an uncomfortable looking Buddha pose and no doubt began contemplating the mysteries of the universe while floating in the radioactive stratosphere.

on the fireside...

"Any idea what just happened? I've never seen fire so willfully aggressive before. Did you upset him? I realise that you're a very nice person, er thing. But sometimes people, um, stuff is confused when you start forming coherent sentences. I think we've got to ease people into this paradigm otherwise their brains might explode or just they themselves might explode. Like your friend. Wow, reality is really weirder than fiction, a Dragon and Knight combo are attacking us, OK I guess this could happen in fiction so reality is at least equally as weird as fiction, but I'm willing to bet that if it tried really hard. I'm sorry I get carried away sometimes, what do you think?" said Simon.

Friendly Fire twinkled serenely around Simon's person in the midst of the nuclear fallout. "Once you get used to it, reality isn't really that strange, it is mostly empty in fact and quite beautiful. We think you're right though, We opened Dragon Fire up to enlightenment before he was ready to receive it. A foolish mistake on our part. It has now transferred its energy to another form and has moved on to another part of the Samsara."

"I think a lot of other people who were down there have to."

"Very regrettable. Friendly fire hasn't ever harmed anyone, perhaps We should speak to the arrow of time and see if we can't come to some sort of an arrangement."

"That might be an idea."

Back in reality...

"He's just sitting there Tommy, the rascal. He dare mock a Knight of the royal order, not to mention an exemplary reptile such as your self. I have a mind to extricate him of his insolence via our traditional manner (i.e. torture), but your attacks seem pitifully innocuous today. Oh, dear Mary sweet mother of mercy, a beast of your caliber, bested by a floating faery boy. Ha! "

Tommy turned toward the knight with a glance that was probably supposed to communicate anger, animosity and ^%$@ you. His face perpetually poised in this cheerless state, any intimidation that it once held was now lost to the centuries. It barely registered with Galahad. "Very well this is what we'll do then, swallow him whole if you can stomach him. You can regurgitate the boy when we reach the moon. Quickly old friend, our freedom awaits."

30.

"This is the day that fire stood still. How are you doing that?" said Galahad.

"I'm not doing much of any thing other than enjoying the night sky, what an amazing view. I'm also not sure why you're attacking me." said Simon.

"Well, it's not much of an attack now is it, Tommy doesn't usually fire blanks, but I'm afraid our offence has pulled up rather lame in this instance. In any case, if I were you, I'd come along quietly. We have other more persuasive ways of influencing you if need be." Galahad, during times of extreme pressure, was prone to extreme exageration.


On the fire side of things...

"These humans and other anthropomorphic creatures, once they get a taste of consciousness almost always some form of nastiness follows." said Friendly Fire.

"I want to be nasty too, why wont you let me?"said Dragon Fire.

"You can do whatever you please, it's completely up to you."

Dragon fire began burning intensely until it blazed white hot, it then shot toward the earth, breaking terminal velocity, approaching the speed of light, exploding atomically.

26.

As Simon and his new found fantastical enemies traded unpleasentries, something unorthodox was happening at the thermodynamic level of nature, which had the potential to change the course of entropy forever...

Dragon flame shot towards Simon's already flame enveloped legs. But before making contact it paused right were it was, giving no hint of moving neither left nor right, up or down, a discrete ball of directionless combustion frozen in space while time continued to march on oblivious.

"Greetings, thank you for coming."

"What?"

"We want you to know that you don't have to do this, but it's totally understandable, we know what's it's like."

"What?"

" It's OK, you're home."

And so, Dragon Fire met Friendly Fire.