I shall use GOOP to POKE this back to the TOP!

POKE POKE POKE

And now back to Harry Finkleberry.

Harry and Dexter rode through the forest. They rode for about one and a half miles before the motorcycle ran out of gas. Dexter opened the tank.

"Oh, dang," said Dexter. "The fuel hardened." Harry knew what he meant. Gasoline had been completely depleted centuries ago in the future. So scientists had invented another type of solution called Harnerat that powered vehicles efficently enough, but tended to harden into a claylike solution due to the heat the vehicle produced. The passengers would have to stop and wait for the solution to get cold again, so it would turn back into a liquid.

That could take several hours, and Dexter and Harry, after the previous night, knew better than to hang around an unprotected place for several hours. They took off on foot.

When they got to the camp, Tanya was waiting for them. "Dexter," she said, "you've changed since I last saw you." Dexter laughed. "Of course I've changed, running around in this heckpit for seven months." (Actually, he said h***hole, but I don't think that that language is allowed here.)

They entered into the rogue camp. There were many interesting things there. A young brunette girl, about 7 years old, was getting her ID number sizzled off. Harry knew the whole process of joining the rogues. First, you had to runaway from the kingdom of Numanzia, into the forest. Second, you would have your ID number, which was originally branded on your body at the time of your birth, sizzled away. It was very painful. Finally, you would train for months. If you didn't make the cut, they would kill you.

The girl was clearly in pain as she had her number sizzled off her leg, but she tried to refrain as best she could from showing it.

A boy, about age 15, was training. He had three huge blocks of cement pressed into his arms. It prevented him from going anywhere without falling, but he had to stand up and resist the pain, even though the cement far exceeded his body weight.

Another girl, with a blue streak in her red hair, looked more at home than the other trainees. She was hurling toothpicks at rubber dummies, and each one hit the target right in the chest. She looked calm and confident in every way - a natural killer if she needed to be.

"So, Dexter," said Tanya, "who is your friend? Is he also from the past?" In about a few minutes, Dexter explained the whole story to Tanya.

"Hmm," said Tanya, "we are confident that there are other realities in existence. We have been trying to create portals into these realities so we can recruit some more people from these realities, but they are only theoretical so far. We believe it is nearly impossible to visit these worlds without tearing the fabric of time and space, which would destroy everything in existence in all our worlds." Harry looked at her interestingly. "Doesn't stop you from trying, though, does it?"

Tanya stared for a few seconds into space, then brushed a bug out of her blonde hair. "No," she answered, "it does not. We are desperate to destroy the King's empire and rebuild our world."

Harry thought. His Uncle Scary, who had died eight years ago, had... No. It couldn't be real. It was surely a dream. Harry shoved the thought aside.

"Come," said Tanya. "We have much to discuss."

Meanwhile in the real world...

Jerry Finkleberry, age 17, was in his room when his parents came home from the courthouse. He exited and went downstairs when he heard them enter.

"So, what happened?" he asked them. "Oh, not much," said Mary Finkleberry. "That Hogsmith fellow and his employees all denied kidnapping your little brother. So the judge all urged us to find more proof before we return to court. Problem is, we don't know where else to look. They searched their houses and their offices at the comic company. They're all completely stumped as what happened to Harry. So, right now, they're considering him "missing", rather than kidnapped."

"Okay," said Jerry. He went up to Harry's room. Outside the door was a terrarium with Harry's pet lizard, Apocalypse. "Hey, there, 'Lypse," said Jerry. "Missing your master?" Apocalypse just stared into space. Jerry pulled out a box of crickets and dropped one into the tank for Apocalypse to eat.

Jerry entered Harry's room. It looked normal: Harry's bed was there, his posters were there, his clothes were there, his comic book collection was there. Then he noticed another comic.

Mary and Gary had left Looped End #38 on Harry's bed. Jerry picked it up and began to read, then took it to his own room and laid on his bed.

Jerry was really enjoying it. All of Harry's dialogue and actions in the book felt like Harry. He smiled as he reached the last page. Then, the book glowed, and Jerry dropped it. It was HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

The book expanded into a portal, sucked in Jerry's things, sent out atoms to replace them, and sucked the bewildered Jerry into the portal, where he would find himself trapped along with Harry.

About two days later (Yes, that's how long it took them to notice he was missing)...

Mr. Hogsmith was showering when the police shouted at him through their megaphone. "COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Mr. Hogsmith quickly got out of the shower and put on his bathrobe. Then he went outside, hands high in the air. "What do you want now?!"

"Mr. Hogsmith, you have the right to remain silent," said the officer, cuffing him. "Again? You people need to get your facts straight!" He hit the officers on the head and in the chest and started to run.

He didn't get far.

This time they had two things on him. Suspicion of kidnapping, and an assault on two police officers. They drove him to the station.

To be still continued...

So, I'm drawing some more art based on the story, which I'll hopefully have up soon. Please keep up keeping up with the story, because it's got a loooooooooong way to go!

Hey, everybody! I'm in the lounge at a train station, waiting for an arrival that will take me on an 18-hour ride to Chicago. Before I go, I have a new part for the story.

So, this is what happened next in Looped End. The part that would be documented in #39 and get all the writers and story artists making the book fired.

Jerry fell onto cold, hard, ground. He looked up and observed. "Where am I?" he said aloud, though no one was there.

He was in a forest, with hard, rocky, soil. Trees were growing, but there were not too many of them and they did not look like they were in the healthiest conditions. Over to his right, there was a motorcycle with an opened gas tank. Inside the tank was a gunky, semisolid, solution. Leading away from the motorcycle were two sets of footprints.

Jerry ran over to look at them. One of them were quite large and must have been imprinted with hiking boots. (Jerry had learned how to recognize types of shoes by the footprints they made.) The other set was smaller, and they looked like they were made by a pair of purple fabric slippers.

Harry's purple fabric slippers. (Harry generally wore them inside the Finkleberries' RV, because Mary was adverse to him wearing his outside shoes in their home.) Jerry suddenly realized, that if Harry's footprints were here, Harry himself must be here.

He took off as fast as he could.

When he arrived at the end of the tracks, he was unable to believe his eyes. There were young children training for something, a ton of people in suits milling around, and a force field of some sort to protect the area. "What is this place?" he thought.

Then someone spotted him. "You!" they shouted. "Halt!" What was possibly the entire population of the place ran up to him with weapons, but then a voice shouted, "No! He's a friend!"

Everyone looked to see who had spoken. Then a 14-and-a-half year old boy emerged from a layer of fog that was concealing something. "Well," said Harry. "Hello, dear brother."

Now, I have to go. I'm about to head to the windy city soon.

Have a safe trip, JDD. Train travel is fun!

Admin

Hello, everybody! So, here I am! My trip to Chicago obviously went fine, but my experiences so far belong on a diffrent thread. So, continuing my story!

As Harry emerged from the fog, he was followed by two others. A girl in a blue suit and a man carrying a canvas bag and wearing leather hiking boots. "This boy is a friend of yours?" the girl asked Harry.

"Oh, yeah," said Harry. "He's my big bro. So, how'd you get here, Jerry?"

Jerry quickly told the whole story, starting with Mary and Gary getting home up to the point where he found the camp. "So," he said to Harry, "Where am I?"

Harry smiled. "You've traveled into an alternate reality." He grinned. "A world beyond the pages. A universe unwittingly constructed by unsuspecting artists. A creation that never exists until you enter it."

Meanwhile, in the enemie's domain...

The King opened his drawer and retrieved the device. He tapped a code onto the pad, and it created a hologram of the man in white.

"Long time since we last spoke," the man said. "Where have you been?" The King sat on his favorite chair. "I have been tracking a trespasser," he said. "A very wily one. He wears brown and gray and leather garments on his feet."

"That man!" cried the white-clad figure. "Have you caught him?"

"I did, recently," said the King. "Him and an accomplice in another brown and blue, with purple footwear. I locked them in the dungeons and later took them out for their trial. During the phases of their execution, however, they were freed by that dastardly rogue girl in the blue, at which point they damaged the Death Stone and stole a Royal Vehicle for purposes of escape!"

The man in white screamed in frustration. "You foolish man!" he berated the King. "You should have left them in their cell! FIND THEM AGAIN!"

"I will do my best!" proclaimed the King. The man in white was not satisfied. "You have been doing your best! You have said it many times and still gotten nowhere! Do better than your best! And when your abysmal efforts finally previal, I WANT THEM ALIVE!!!"

He closed the connection.

The King immediately got about to do the work. That Slicepit girl had been foolish. She had told the two trespassers where their camp was, but the trespassers were not the only one listening. Rogues were so dense.

The King let out a soft, amused chuckle as he went to bed. The rogues seemed to have no sense of proper planning.

To be plugged along with by me a lot more...

Okay, so before I go. Here is art that I drew before we left for Chicago. It depicts Harry's first encounter with one of the King's robot guards. It took me a little time to get it online.

So, keep reading the story... PLEASE! And also please add comments or questions regarding my art or the story. If I hear feedback, then it means I still have fans!

Enjoy the adventure!

GOOP!!!!

Okay, so, I have to postpone Harry's story a bit to present more about Finn "Scary" Finkleberry. He is incredibly vital to Harry's tale.

Scary was a good drawer. And he was a good writer. That's why he chose to combine those two skills in a class where he learned how to make comic books.

But he had no good ideas flowing to his head. None.

He went to the teacher, Mrs. Hinder. "I can't write a good comic book story," he said. "Can you help me?"

"What's the problem?" asked Mrs. Hinder.

Scary sighed. "I just can't escape reality with nothing but a pen and paper," he told his teacher. "No matter what I come up with, I just can't escape the fact that it's just ink on just paper!"

Mrs. Hinder looked thoughtful. "Then don't think of it as just ink on just paper. Think of your characters as real people in another world seperate from ours. Think of your story as what happens in the world." She looked at him encouragingly. "And think of yourself as the unseen force. Your world's God, and your ideas as your world's Creation." 

Scary took the words to heart. And as he wrote, he began to think: What if, in another world, he was just a character in a book or some short story, or other entertainment? What if the force that his world called God was just an ordinary inhabitant of another world among many others, working away on the next installment of his life?

And what if he could find a way into the worlds he created in his stories? He could meet his maker, and let his creations meet theirs. Who was he beyond just Finn Finkleberry, amateur scientist, hobbyist, unemployed college-age guy? He thought further, and then put his science skills to work.

No, he wasn't an amateur. His skills were far beyond a professional's! He worked all week in his mother's basement on his creation. When that week was up, he beamed. Now he had to get the portal to work.

He activated the machine, and entered the hole. He pulled the machine inside with him, and observed his surroundings.

He was in his world! He had entered the place he had created. The floating city of metoopoolis. The world that had been saved by Bob the Cavedude, and was protected by him in an alliance with the scientist Rudger Kilobyte.

He wanted to run through the town and let the inhabitants of his world meet their maker, but his machine had a short battery life. It let out a warning beep. Scary pushed a few buttons, and returned to his mom's basement.

Soon, the citizens of metoopoolis would meet their maker. But for now, he had to wait. It was time for bed. 

When he fell asleep, he dreamed of the day he would sign an autograph for Bob the Cavedude.  

goop... goop... goop... goop.

The King grinned with glee as he sent out his metal terrorists to attack the rogues. The bots flew threw the air and landed on the ground, and headed for the rogues. "Hee hee hee..." the King chuckled...

When the robot guards arrived at the camp, Tanya was the first to see them. "EVERYONE PREPARE TO FIGHT!" she yelled. "AN ATTACK IS COMING!" Everyone ran to the armory to suit up - except for Harry, Jerry, and Dexter.

"How... ?" said Harry. "How did they know?"

And then he remembered...

"The camp is three miles west," she told them. "The King has an ally - the likes of which we have never seen. We must prepare ourselves for a fight." And then she ran. 

"Guys," he told Jerry and Dexter, "I don't know why, but when Tanya told us how to get here, she told the King as well. We can't afford to find out why the hard way. We need to run."

And so, Harry, Jerry, and Dexter Ash, the man from another age, ran for their lives.

They didn't get far. They were caught in a net triggered by a tripwire. "Heh," said a voice. "Well, it's good to see you again... Dr. Ash."

Dexter recognized the voice. It was the Man in White, Jarod Douglas, the crime boss who had sent him to this new world!

"You!" said Dexter. "I got quite a bone to pick with you, Mister!"

"Oh, yes," said Jarod. "And he-," he added, pointing at Harry, "has too, but he doesn't know it. Now come along." Jarod cut them out of the net, shoved them into the back of an SUV driven by a robot guard, and tied them to the seats. "Now let's tell you both a little... fable," said Jarod menacingly.

"You killed him?" said Harry. "YOU killed my uncle?" Jarod laughed maniacally. "Oh no," he said. "We... what's the word... paralyzed him. He's in some desolate abandoned universe now, unconscious. All it took was an injection of... this." He pulled out a vial of strange red liquid. "Inconscium." Jarod smiled proudly. "It keeps one awake, yet asleep. He knows he's alive, he can think, but he can't see, he can't feel what he touches..." Harry snarled. Jarod chuckled and went on, "We have five senses, so they say. See, feel, taste, smell, hear... Actually, we have a sixth sense, often overlooked. The ability to conceive, to think, to imagine. That's the glue that allows all the worlds to exist. Your world is another's imagination."

"You know that you are not completely dead until all your brain cells die? Inconscium preserves your brain cells, and shuts down all other senses. So, that's what we did to your uncle. And we won't tell you anymore."

The robot stopped the vehicle, and Jarod pulled them out. They had arrived at a small house made of bricks. Jarod grinned. "You two wait here," he said, and tied them to the porch. Then he went inside.

"Dang," said Dexter. "Now what do we do?" Harry didn't answer. He was still shaken by the truth of what had happened to his uncle.

Then, some blue light appeared. "Oh, sheesh," said Dexter. "The time loop!" The blinding light became a swirling vortex, and the wind ripped Harry and Dexter's bonds and pulled them through, and they came out... into a park.

"What?" said Dexter. That is, they were three thousand feet in the air above the park. They fell further and further, and then...

I shall continue this on Blue's story thread. 

JDD, your backstories and writing are so funny! For future reference, here is a list of names that rhyme with "Berry":

Jerry
Harry
Larry
Barry
Mary
Gary
Scary
Perry

And a more unusual addition:

Dairy