#isolation cages

I picked myself up and turned to Kink. "I need one of your isolation cells." 

"There's no point, Frank," she told me as she sent another wave of laser fire in the direction of the cloaked figures. "They've seen how it works. They won't sit around in one place long enough. "Anytime I fire anything at them, they're gone before I could hit them. The best I'm managing is to keep them from retaking solid form." 

"Then don't fire the cell at them.”

"What? Then who do you want me to shoot at? You?"

"Well, I can't tell you that, can I? Anything I tell you, they could overhear and we can't let them know our plans." 

"So what am I supposed to do, Frank? Guess? I can't read your mind, pal."

 "Use your logic, Kink. Figure it out. Why are we here?"

"To escape the Time Cops," she replied, "but that has nothing to do with this." 

"No, it doesn't. So think again. I found Tam, then G'fon, then we got you and now we're here. What did we need to do here?" 

"Will you start helping?" Tam demanded. 

"I'm trying," I said. "Now, Kink, I'm going to need you to fire...." 

"Stop it," she said shooting the isolation cell into the air. "I figured it out. Now, will you start being helpful?" 

I looked up as the energy cage at Lu Wu and even when he transformed into dust, he was locked in.We got him! We were all together again! We just needed to get away from these strange cloaked figures. "We need to go," I said. 

"Yeah?" Tam replied. "How do expect us to do that? Maybe we could just ask our new friends politely and they'll let us just walk out of here."

"They're dust," G'fon said. "We should just run through them!" 

"Go ahead," Tam said, though she clearly thought it would be a mistake. 

Stubbornly, G'Fon tried to run right through them, but the dust of the cloaked figures swirled around him until he was completely covered.

to be continued here next week 

We were in and out of the portal in a matter of minutes. All four of us were now safely back where we started. I guess I had nothing to worry about after all.

Then suddenly the ground beneath us began to swirl. It looked like the wind was starting to pick up, but I noticed that it was only dirt that surrounded us that was acting up. It was too localized to be natural. "Something's happening," I said. "We need to move!"

But before we could the swirls of dust began to coalesce around us. Whatever it was, they had us surrounded. Slowly, five distinct figures began to appear. I didn't know what to do, but it was clear we were in trouble. As the figures of dust turned into physical people, I realized they were the cloaked figures that had scattered us across the dimensions. They had returned. The four cloaked figures were back and they had Lu Wu with them!

"Fools,"  they hissed. "To return after so long..." 

"It's only been about a minute for me," Kink said. 

"Really?" I asked. "You're going to do that now?" 

"Frank, they..." 

"Silence!" the cloaked figures thundered. "You shall not return a second time!"

"You're right." Tam shot a wave of distortions out at them. For a few seconds, the cloaked figures' solidity broke down. "Kink! Isolation cages!" 

"Right!" Kink ejected discs from a slot under her triceps. Suddenly two of the figures were frozen within energy spheres. The other two had dissipated into dust and they'd taken Lu Wu with them. 

"Good job," I said. 

"Two of them are still free," Tam countered. 

"Let's deal with what we have," Kink said, looking at the readout on her forearm. "I'm getting some strange readings here."

to be continued here next week