Em looked at the rambling mansion. "They say it's haunted."

Jack gave a harumph. "Yeah, right. And I'm a witch from Salem, Massachusetts."

"Scoff if you want, Jack Stiles," Em replied. "But many a man ran from this place screaming. There have been reports of strange forms appearing out of nowhere within the walls of the house. Some of them were described as weird monsters with shiny, silver skin."

"And the others?"

"Oh, you'll like the others," Em blushed. "Gorgeous women with bosoms the size of melons."

Jack grinned. "I'll take those ghosts, thank you very much."

Em ignored Jack's statement. "The place was built five years ago, The Governor hinself thought of making the place his home."

"He was driven out too, huh? Well, it sounds like something for Jack Styles to investigate. You go back home, Em. I'll check it out on my own."

"You won't need help?"

"You will be missed. Your attache won't. I'm a big boy, mother. I won't need my hand held in the spooky house."

With his usual jaunty gate, Jack walked toward the mansion. Em only watched, and shook her head.

The first three hours Jack spent in the house were dull. Fortunately, he had equiped himself with a picnic basket full of food, drink, and penny dreadfuls. He was halfway through his fourth exploit of Dick Turpin when the girl appeared.

Jack's mouth went dry when he saw her. She was a gorgeous blonde with an amazing figure. Her outfit was something that would have gotten her thrown into prison anywhere in the civilized world. She was standing not more than ten feet from him. Well, standing is a bad word for it. Actually she was floating six inches off the floor. But she gave the impression of standing. Jack tried to compose himself. "Good evening, ma'am. My name is Stiles, Jack Stiles. Forgive me for being so bold, but are you a ghost?"

The girl's grin made her look perky. "Ghosts don't always come from the past, Mr. Stiles. Call me Cleo, okay? I'm here to warn you. You're in lots of trouble. You and the whole world."

It was then that the door burst open, and two men stormed in. Their black outfits only made their dead-white skin seem more ghastly.

"Go for the medallions around their necks!" Cleo yelled as Jack evaded his attackers.

With lightning speed, Jack drew his sword and hit his target. The moment he sliced through the strings around their necks, the ghouls shimmered, and dematerialized. Jack gasped in total shock. "What part of hell did those things crawl out of?"

"They're from the future," Cleo said. "They're mutants or something."

"Whoa, whoa." Jack said. "Let me sit down. And you can explain all this."

"I wish I could," Cleo replied. "I'm just not big on the science."

Jack sighed. What a time not to have Em around. "Well, do the best you can. In layman's terms."

Cleo took a deep breath. "Okay. So somehow your time and my time overlap on this spot. Some sort of time-space convergence thing. It allows someone like me to look in on your time. Look, but not touch. I can only see you here. I can't touch or hold anything." Cleo demonstrated this by trying to pick up Jack's basket. Her hand went right through it.

Jack got up. "And I guess I can't touch you either." He reached over to cup Cleo's breast. His hand fell through her body. Jack gave a sheepish grin. Cleo blushed, and cleared her throat.

"Creegan. He's a bad mutant," Cleo continued.

"Creegan's got a machine that can use this area to send people through to your time, and remain solid. They can come in, steal things, steal people, bring them back, and sell them on the black market. We've got to stop him."

Jack was trying to follow this as best as he could. "This machine of Creegan's. Is it in your time, or mine?"

"Yours. It went through first. It can only bring one of Creegan's lackies through at a time. Only two have come through so far. We've got some time before anyone else comes through."

"Those medallions they wore..."

"Keep them here. You take them off, they snap back to the future."

"We better find that machine. Where is it?"

They found the infernal machine in the basement. Jack had never seen anything like it before. No rivets. No hard edges. Just shiny chrome and multicolored buttons.

Cleo was also aghast. "Groovy!"

Jack looked at her. "What did you say?"

Cleo grinned. "Groovy?"

"What's that mean?"

"It's an expression."

"Oh. Well, I don't see any grooves on this thing." Jack took out his sword. "But I plan to make some."

Suddenly, another mutant entered the room through the door. He took out a weapon, and started firing at Jack.

As Jack ducked for cover he shouted, "I thought you said there were only two of these guys!"

"One must have come through while we were talking!" Cleo shouted back.

Jack noticed that the creature wasn't firing balls of lead. He was firing balls of light. And he didn't need to stop and re-load. Wonderful. It meant Jack was pinned down.

Wait a minute...Light...

Jack took out a small mirror he had just in case he needed one for shaving in this house. This was going to be tricky...

The mutant fired....

The laserbolt hit the mirror...

It reflected back on the mutant, throwing him for a loop.

Jack ran over and pulled off the creature's amulet. The thing shivered, and was gone.

"Cleo," Jack sighed. "If I wreck the machine, what happens to me personally?"

"Well..." Cleo grimmaced. "the machine is connected to the space-time overlap..."

"And?"

"If you break it, either nothing happens, or this entire area folds in on itself taking everything with it into oblivion."

"Great!" Jack winced. "And I guess we have no other option."

"None whatsoever."

"Then here goes nothing."

Jack threw his sword like it was a javelin, impaling the machine before him. Sparks flew everywhere. The device screeched in its own death throes.

Suddenly, everything around Jack disappeared in a blaze of white light.

Jack looked around him. Reality was gone. He was standing in the middle of nothing. No ceiling, no walls, no floor. He wasn't even sure whether he was up or down. Everything wasn't all right. Everything was all white.