The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Ten: Dead Man's Trap is now posted at ImagineNation, http://johnpirilloauthor.blogspot.com/

 

It's hard to believe that so many years have gone by since I've seen this serial, but I still remember so much of it. It wrote an indelible mark on my imagination, which sticks to my brain and heart to this day.

As this serial comes to a close it is my fervent prayer that there can one day be more inspiring heroes like Captain Marvel and that we as individuals can allow ourselves to be the true heroes we're capable of being as well.

Enjoy!

--John--

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Forty-Three is now posted on ImagineNation http://johnpirilloauthor.blogspot.com/

Chapter Forty-Three

Samuel stood outside the beautiful home that Meagol and Darrell lived in. It was stately, but very unique. They has passed about three homes on their way from the entrance to the Hollow Earth to here and each home occupied about a mile of land. 

"It's not our nature to squash up together." Darrell  had explained. "Not that we don't like our neighbors...which I think goes on a lot on your uppercrust level. Down here, we are all brothers and sisters."

Jimbo in his usual brash manner said. "I thought incest was not a good thing."

Darrell had laughed, causing Jimbo to blush angrily.

"Jim, not that kind of brother and sister."

Samuel had grinned. Jimbo, might, just might someday learn not to stick his foot in his mouth. But then who was he to talk, he'd tasted his stockings many a time already on the way to becoming the detective and man he was.

"So there aren't that many of you living here?" Nanny had asked, her curiosity picqued by the giant's remarks.

"Actually, there are millions and millions." He explained patiently. "Just not squeezed together. We have cities too, but mostly they are underground. Except for Shamballa, which is our one and only city that rises above the earth."

"The floating city?" Nanny asked.

"No. That..." Darrell fell silent a moment, then eyed the others. "We are a patient people. As long as those who visit come in peace and do no harm here, then we tolerate them. Even though that can be...quite painfull...some times."

"How so?" Jimbo asked.

Darrell eyed Samuel, who glanced at Al, who nodded. "It's this way, Jimbo, the higher a vibration that a being raises to, the more painful it becomes to be around beings who are negative. Sometimes to the point where it's like cutting off your own arm."

Jimbo eyed Sambo thoughtfully a moment. "That's why you usually black out when you have your pastlife visions, isn't it?"

Samuel didn't know quite how to respond to that, but Darrell saved him from doing so. "The visions are not what creates the pain, Jim, it's the bodies he inhabits when he's in them."

Jimbo shook his head. "This is just way too much high and mighty stuff for this humble Texan to digest."

Nanny patted Jimbo's tummy. "Especially when it's used to be stuffed with thick hamburgers and steaks, I bet."

Jimmy gave her a scowl. She laughed and gave his arm a quick hug. He lightened up, but shifted slightly to separate them, which didn't go unnoticed by Nanny, but she held on anyway, causing him to be considerably uncomfortable for a time, until he finally gave up.

Samuel could always tell when his friend was letting go, because his thick eyebrows would stick together like mating caterpillars when he was being stubborn or angry, and then separate when he let go of the emotions.

"So why Nazis then?" Jimbo finally asked. The question which had been burning away at him for hours now.

"They are not...Nazis." Meagol had finally spoken up. "That confused race of Germans ceased to exist once World War Two ended."

"A big Thank You, God for that one." Nanny said, crossing herself.

"Actually, they are their children." Meagol went on.

That caused both Samuel and Jimbo to stop walking and stare at him.

He shrugged. "We have always hoped that in our vibrations, that eventually they would change."

"And now?" Samuel asked.

"And now..." Darell glanced at Meagol and both brothers exchanged sad looks.

"That will be discussed at the Council Meeting later."

And so they had plunged further through the fields of flowers and forest green until they had reached their home.

Samuel sighed when he thought about all that had happened to this point in time. Lady Marantha, 

whom they'd still heard no more about, but somehow was connected to this place and to...he glanced at Nanny, who felt his awareness on her and looked across at him, trying to figure out what was on his mind.

 

Samuel said no more.

They crossed over an arched bridge that could have been straight out of a fairy tale, all speckled with jewels and gold that arched over a babbling brook, where all kinds of rainbow colored fish swarmed about, finning one direction then another, as they nibbled at moss on the water floor of the brook, or leapt into the air to catch an insect that got too close.

Which made Samuel smile. Even Paradise had insects. He wondered if it also had poisonous ones.

"No, it does not, Samuel." Darrel answered, looking at Samuel, who gave him a blank look for a moment, then grinned. 

"I forgot you guys can..."

"Read minds?" Meagol finished for him.

Samuel barked with laughter. For the first time since they'd launched on this crazy investigation he felt actually like he belonged somewhere.

Meagol smiled back at him. "Good."

He said no more.

They continued along their forest path, then through another field of golden flower, flushed with honey bees and  blue birds that were as tiny as hummingbirds and sucked at the nectar of the flowers with long bills.

"It's like being in the Land of Oz." Nanny sighed happily.

"Yes. And no wicked witch." Jimbo added. "Unless you count the...Nazis." He glared at Darrell to differ with him. 

Darrell ignored him, the hint of a smile on his lips.

Nanny slowed them down as they were about to leave the field. She ran out into it, having spotted an especially large flower. She plucked it and smelled it a long time, then ran back and motioned to Darrell. He leaned down and she slid the flower into the lapel of his shirt. He smiled as she ran back and did the same for Meagol.

Jimbo again began thinking about her in more romantic terms.

Samuel could see it and shook his head. Some things never change.

The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Nine

 

We near the end of this serial. I so loved this one, and wouldn't you know it that when it came to the last chapter, I was unable to see it at the movies that weekend. I was sick. Sucks! I never realized how emotionally invested I was in the series until that day. Oh woe was me then. :)

But now we can rejoice, for the serial is going to be shown  here now and you won't miss a thing.

Best to everyone.

--John--

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Forty-Two is now posted on ImagineNation

Chapter Forty-Two

It was later that night. If you can call perpetual noon night time that is, thought Samuel, as he groaned and rolled over on a cushion of intensely soft feathers that was about the size of a queen size bed. He had a nice balcony overlooking a beautiful flower garden below and it adjoined a suite that Jimbo slept in on the one side and Nanny's on the other.

Before retiring in the extremely elegant home that Darrel and Meagol had brought them home to, they had agreed to stay as close as possible, but the two rather wholesome, but somewhat angelic personalities had insisted on separate rooms. In their world people didn't sleep so close unless they were united in a bond of perpetual love and union. 

Jimbo and Samuel had both shook their heads at that one, and Nanny had emphatically insisted she was having none of that to do with either one of them.

Darrel and Meagol had both looked at each other and laughed. No one got the joke, but evidently to these tall giants with their somewhat vast intellects, the human seemed a bit on the quaint, if not  a bit neanderthalish side of things.

"Breakfast anyone?" Asked Nanny, as she stepped into the room with a large tray, loaded up with fresh exotic fruit and strange breads and butters. Jimbo came in from the other side at the same time, scratching in places he probably would have ignored had he known she would be seeing him at his worst.

He frowned a moment, then shrugged. They'd already been through so much, what was one more thing?

Jimbo sat on one end of Samuel cushion bed and Nanny the other and they spread their breakfast out between them on a cloth woven of some kind of silkish material laced with gold and silver in patterns that resembled fractals.

"Whatever these people are." Jimbo said, between mouthfuls of some strange kind of sweet bread. 

 "Terrible cooks they are not. I could make a fortune off the recipe for this back in Texas."

"You men!" Nanny complained. "All you think about is food, sex and money."

Jimbo almost choked on his food.

Samuel patted him on the back. "Jimbo, she's got you nailed between an anvil and a hard place. Give up."

Jimbo scowled at him, but said nothing. Instead, he reached for a crispy yellow fruit and took a huge bite off it, making it sound like he was crunching into the neck of something living. His eyes were directed to Nanny as he did.

She shook her head. "It'll take more than a fancy fruit to shake this gal up, Jimmie boy."

Jimbo sighed, then reached for some more bread.

"So what's the plan?" Nanny asked, as she reached for a silver goblet of water that was also on the tray. One for each of them.

The goblets had the faces of famous men upon them. Artistotle, Socrates, Hercules, Osiris and so forth.

Samuel sipped at his water. He hadn't eaten a thing. For some reason he wasn't a bit hungry. Al sat on the other side of Samuel frowning at him. "You got to eat to keep your courage up."

"My courage's up!" Samuel complained a bit too loudly.

Jimbo looked over at him. "They back?"

Samuel rolled his eyes.

Jimbo looked over at Nanny. She could see them again too. She gave him a thumbs up.Jimbo sighed. "Why does everyone see angels, but me?"

Al said. "Maybe it's because you want to so badly." Then he grinned. "Or maybe it's because they don't want you to see them."

Samuel relayed the message and Jimbo grinned. "Good to know they have some kind of sense of humor."

Samuel smiled. "If they didn't, we'd have ended up like Sodom and Gomorrah a long time ago."

That gave Jimbo something to think about.

Samuel picked up a fruit and began nibbling on it.

Marilyn materialized next to him and let her golden hair touch his briefly. He felt a tingling go up and down his spine. "Sammie, we love you. Don't be disappointed if everything doesn't turn out the way you expect."

Samuel took a deep breath. "Has it ever?"

Al laughed and Marilyn giggled.

"Has it ever what?" Jimbo asked.

"Worked out the way we thought it would."

"Oh. Nope." Jimbo agreed. "Not one damned time!"

There was a knock on Samuel's door and it opened. Darrel entered. He was all smiles.

"The  Council of the Ancients has agreed to meet with you."

Samuel gave him a surprised look. "We never asked to meet with them. As a matter of fact, we didn't even know they existed."

Darrell gave them a mysterious smile. "Oh, you know them all right, you just don't remember 

because they can cloud your mind to forget if they want to. If they didn't do that, you mortals would never get any real growth in on your planet."

Jimbo groaned. "Oh, God, not you two! Doesn't anyone ever talk about anything but spiritual growth, angels and redemption?"

"Nope!" Darrell and Samuel said at the same time.

"Now that's just plain creepy!" Jimbo muttered, holding his fork and spoon up like a cross to ward off vampires.

Darrell laughed, then turned around to exit. "Meagol will come for the three of you in about an hour. The meeting is close by, so it'll give us all a chance to show off our land while we walk there."

He closed the door.

Samuel and Jimbo exchanged glances.

Jimbo tiptoed to the door and tried it, then shook his head.

He came back.

"Why would they lock us in, if they're friendly and they know so much?" Jimbo asked.

Samuel looked over at Al, who was suddenly examining his thumbs. He looked at Marilyn and she got busy brushing her hair and avoiding his eyes.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Forty-One is now posted on ImagineNatinon.

Chapter Forty-One

Al stood to the right of the group, with Marilyn on his right, admiring the view.

"Imagine, Samuel, all this beauty has existed here since the dawn of time. All beneath your feet, beneath the feet of everyone. No one knowing, or having the slightest idea that Paradise was not in the heavens, but at their feet." Al said gently, his eyes moist.

Samuel smiled. "Being a bit dramatic, are we?"

Al laughed, then spun in a whirl, his hair flying every which direction. "I feel like a child again."

Samuel looked over at Marilyn and she shrugged. "He has these bouts of mania from time to time. 

Probably helps relieve the boredom of always being right."

Al stopped and gave her a stern stare. 

"Just saying, sweetie.  Just because we're angels now, doesn't mean we know everything."

Al sighed and looked at Samuel with the appearance of a sad puppy dog.

"See what I get, Samuel. No respect. Neither from humans, nor from angels."

Marilyn laughed. "If you ask me, you're way over rated."

Al laughed. "I agree!"

He and Marilyn vanished.

Samuel looked back at his friends, who hadn't heard a word of the conversations. Samuel had been speaking with his friends through his mind, not his lips. "I suspect we'll be getting a tour of the place soon."

"By whom?" Jimbo asked. "The local Trolls?"

Nanny puffed up. "Jimmie, it's not Trolls who live underground. It's dwarves."

Samuel stepped to the edge of the balcony landing and looked down.  A stairway wound down from the right side into the valley of flowers below. As he stared he could see teams of humans working through fruit orchards, plucking huge beautiful purple colored fruits and placing them on floating baskets.

"Looks good to me." Jimbo said, his stomach growling. "It'd be nice to eat something that wasn't beans for awhile."

"Or Twinkies." Groaned Nanny.

Samuel nodded and went to the right side of the balcony and placed his right palm about half way up the wall of the exit there. The railing melted back into the wall, revealing the top of the flight of stairs. No railing on its sides. 

Jimbo looked at that and shook his head. "Why. Oh why, never any railings? Do they have wings?"

"Not exactly." Samuel said, then pointed.

Jimbo and Nancy gasped as they saw some of the fruit pickers launch into the air like Supermen and fly off.

"Man." Jimbo sighed. "What I wouldn't give to be able to do that."

"Then what?" Nanny asked.

"What do you mean then what?" He wailed. "I wouldn't have to spend so damned much money on gas for my car!"

Samuel ignored his two friend's squabble and stepped onto the top step of the flight of stairs, and began descending. 

Jimbo nodded to Nanny. "Age before beauty."

"Don't you have that backwards, wise guy?" Nanny shot back.

"Nah. Not really."

Nanny slugged his right shoulder.

Jimbo cried out in pain.

Samuel almost broke into laughter as he was descending. He knew exactly what had just happened. 

Jimbo was lucky she hadn't pushed him off the balcony. He sighed. He liked her a lot, but it was obvious, as usual, that he was not going to get the girl. Maybe he never would, he thought sadly for a moment, then he shook it off. His life was so fully, maybe God was doing him a favor. His woman would probably never see him except on the holidays anyway.

With that thought in mind, he missed a step that just wasn't there.

He flung his arms out to try and recover his balance.

Jimbo and Nancy screamed as he tumbled from the flight of stairs and plunged towards the ground below, which was hundreds of feet down.

Before he could strike the surface two men swooped into the air and caught him by his arms and  retrieved him to safety. They dropped him safely to the ground, then stood next to him, looking him over. They were giants!

Each one stood over eight feet tall. They wore a light cloth that was almost transparent that wrapped around their muscular figures like Indian dhottis. Their hair was pure white, their eyes purple and their skin bronze. They were beautiful like angels. In that very thought of how much he appreciated them, they both smiled.

The taller one, who was almost nine feet tall, dropped to his knees so Samuel didn't have to look up and reached a large hand out. "I am Meegal. I am pleased to finally meet you, Samuel of the Light."

The other one, also dropped own and extended his hand. "And I am his brother Darrel. I am also pleased to meet you." He grinned. "And in this case to stop you from prematurely fertilizing our orchards."

Samuel shook each of the hands, grinning from ear to ear. "I feel like I've known you two forever and better yet..."

"You don't go WHAM when you touch us."

"I know." Darrell said, standing back up. "It's because we have no past. Yet."

Meegal stood also and gave Samuel a grin when he gave Darrel a surprised look. "We're not as young as we seem. Most who live here in Agharta are not."

"But then you didn't come here to find out how old were are, did you, Samuel?" Darrell asked.

They both turned and looked as Jimbo and Nanny came running up.

"Oh thank God you're safe, Sammie!" Jimbo cried out and flung his arms around his friend and hugged him tight. His eyes were brimming with tears. "I thought for sure we had lost you. I had lost you."

Then he realized who Samuel was standing next to. 

Nanny stood between the two giants, doing her best not to scream. Finally, she screamed.

Darrell and Meegal both broke into laughter.

Nanny screamed several more seconds, then her fear turned to anger. "How dare you laugh at a frightened lady?"

"From what we've been hearing on your way down to us." Meegal said. "You don't sound like a lady at all!"

Nanny balled a fist. "I don't care if you are nine feet tall. The taller they are..."

"The harder they fall." Darrell said, then floated off the ground above her. "Give it your best shot. If you can!"

After Nanny calmed down, Jimbo was introduced, and even Nanny eventually allowed herself to shake hands with the giants, but both made sure they were out of range of her knee and feet, a judgment made wiser by the fact that they knew exactly what she had been thinking.

The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Eight is now posted on ImagineNation.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Forty is now posted on ImagineNation

               Chapter Forty

"Hurry!" Samuel cried out to his friends. They turned back to look and the door was open.

"How'd you do that?" Nanny asked, then when Samuel started to answer, she looked at Jimbo, who shook his head.

She and Jimbo ran for the open door.

Samuel waited until they entered, then ran after them.

They entered a hallway that was made of a rough stone, with heavily carved walls with symbols of another world and time that ran up and down the walls and ceiling. Interspersed in the carvings were little dragon mouths that held some kind of glowing light that shone steadily without any sputtering like an oil or fueled lamp might. 

The door slammed shut behind them.

They stopped and looked back.

"Will it hold?" Nanny asked, breathlessly.

Samuel said nothing. He just waited.

Nanny clutched Jimbo's right arm so tightly in anticipation that he almost screamed in pain, then it happened.

BOOM!

An explosion of some kind outside the door, but the door held.

Samuel looked at Nanny. 

"Right." She answered the unspoken question in her eyes. 

Samuel turned around and began hurrying along the rough floor. As he did further dragon mouths would spout to life ahead of them. At one point as they moved hurriedly along, a side corridor opened up. Jimbo and Nanny thought Samuel would stop to look, but he kept on going.

"It's a trap." Samuel said without looking back.

"I thought no one could get in?" Nanny asked.

"Who said that?" Samuel replied, his eyes lit with mirth.

A second and louder explosion was heard from behind them.

"Oh." She said. "Run?"

Samuel nodded, and they all ran.

Behind them they could hear the sound of soldiers rushing inside, firing without checking for an enemy to dispatch. They were taking no chances.

Samuel saw a new side corridor on the right and one on the left. He took the left one, and they followed. He stopped and his right hand lit up. He pressed it against the right wall and it glowed brightly a moment and the wall seemed to shiver, then it began to extrude, like some 3D program pushing out more and more rock until the corridor was sealed off.

"That's some technology!" Jimbo muttered in astonishment.

"Al tells me we ain't seen nothing yet." Samuel replied.

Samuel looked next to him where Al was standing, holding Marilyn's right hand. "Will this hold them?"

Al nodded. "Big surprise when they try."

Samuel grinned. "Al says they're in for a nasty surprise if they try to come this direction."

"I didn't say that." Al denied.

Samuel grinned. "They don't know that!"

"We don't  know what?" Jimbo asked, stumped at the conversation with an invisible man.

"Oh nothing. Al's just being a bit worrisome is all."

Al pulled on his wild hair a moment in frustration. "You mortals!" Then he and Marilyn vanished.

Samuel smiled. "I guess even angels sometimes don't have a sense of humor."

Then something materialized over Samuel's  head and spattered it. Egg. It dripped down his face onto his chin.

Jimbo laughed. "Sez who?"

Samuel wiped it away and grinning continued plunging down the corridor he had chosen. 

"Do you know where we're heading?" Nanny asked.

"Nope." Samuel answered. "But anywere that 's heading away from the goons behind us...is good in my mind."

"Oh." She replied, giving Jimbo a look.

"Don't look at me. I've known him for a long time and I still don't know him." Jimbo, said his face showing frustration and amusement at the same time.

Finally, the corridor began to narrow and as it did, the rough stone floor began to take on a glittery look, then a highly polished look, then it sounded like metal as they paced upon it.

"Metal?" Nanny asked. "Down here?"

"As Al said earlier, we haven't seen anything yet." Samuel said.

He paused before a panel set in the wall on the right and pressed his hand to it. His hand and the panel lit up and then the floor began to drop beneath them with them on it. Jimbo and Nanny huddled together, frightened at first, but when Samuel stood still as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, they regained their footing and watched. 

Jimbo looked up and saw that they must have descended a good thousand yards already.

"I thought we were already in the center of the earth." Jimbo commented, puzzled by the descension.

"Not really. We're still inside the base of Mount Shasta. The Hollow Earth is much deeper. You don't think the Ancients would have let the Nazis get into their world, do you?"

"You know more than you're telling." Jimbo accused, then relaxed. "Nothing new there, but still."

"Jimbo. When I lost consciousness this last time I lived inside a man whose entire village had inhabited the world above us, then descended the way we had into the interior of Mount Shasta's base. "

"He died?"

"And when have they not?" Samuel commented drily. "Okay, sometimes I get readings from live people, but usually it's the connections to the dead ones that's the strongest. I've been following this clue since we met Nanny. I got my first inkling of it when Lady Marantha and I touched, and then more so, when I saw her again at the Ranger's hotel."

Nanny turned to look at him. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"Not time.  I like to make sure that what I'm going to say is the right thing at the right time. Not always possible, but I try. Karmic balances."

Jimbo snorted. "Don't let him feed you that bull, Nanny. He just doesn't want you to think that he cocks up some times."

Samuel laughed, but said nothing more after that.

The elevator floor slowed and soon they stopped before a wider corridor, lit with huge sconces of blue and violet light that danced like living fire.

"I think we're almost there." Samuel said, stepping off the elevator.

"What about those ones behind us?" Nanny asked.

Samuel looked at her.

"Right. The elevator will probably drop them, instead of bringing them down."

Samuel looked over at Jimbo and winked.

They stepped into the new corridor. The flooring was highly polished and looked to be made of semi-precious stones, highly polished and smoothed without seams. The walls were a bit rougher, so you could touch them and feel where the stones intermingled and were joined, but it was also very highly polished.

They walked about a dozen yards and the lights began to dim and a new light began to grow. They reached the end of the corridor and stepped out onto a wide balcony type landing that overlooked where they had come.

It was Paradise!