TALES OF THE LEGION OF NET.HEROES
reprinted from rec.arts.comics.creative

#370: Goodbye?! Has Panta's tale ended?

[ In LNH 361 - LNH 369, Panta is attacked by cyborgs and clones from 'The Collector', a master of the retconn because he has collected a powerful magical artifact. Caught up with her is SnowBuni, a rabbit girl from a technologically advanced race called the Sylvalagi. Panta faces the Collector and his magical powers at his secret base while SnowBuni struggles to free herself from a wrecked plane.

Author's note: SnowBuni and the Sylvalagi appear in this story through the kind permission of Jeff Wood, who has been writing and drawing SnowBuni since 1984. SnowBuni is copyrighted to Jeff Wood and may not be used in other stories without permission from Jeff Wood. ]

"Come on..." SnowBuni urged the makeshift tool as she worked it into the gap between the cockpit canopy and the cockpit itself. Two attempts had failed so far, leaving her still trapped under the remains of the small jet fighter.

As far as she was concerned, things couldn't get much worse. The plane had crashed in the middle of an Arctic wasteland, SnowBuni was starving, and Panta was missing. A red magical sphere had trapped the leopard girl and carried her to the "Collector's" secret base just over the ridge from the crash site. Worst of all - she was missing the battle between Panta and the Collector. So close and yet so far!

SnowBuni was sure that the leopard girl would be overmatched by the Collector's occult powers; she would need SnowBuni's help.

Even from her narrow viewpoint, SnowBuni could see the vast sphere of energy boiling like a radioactive cloud where the glass dome had once covered the secret base. Tangles of black and white lightning skittered across the surface like electric tentacles. Detonations of raw power shook the ground.

"Come on... Yes!" SnowBuni shouted as the canopy's frame buckled. She dropped the remains of her seat support and squeezed herself into the gap. Her top popped and tore as she pushed herself through. The metal frame caught her tail and ripped out a chunk of tail hair, but she was free.

She paused only to tie up her tattered top before heading across the Arctic snow towards the Collector's secret base. Panta had magically transformed into Sailor Panta to destroy the evil Ultimate Ninja - but that had left her vulnerable to the Collector's magic.

SnowBuni was climbing down a short crevasse when the world exploded into white and black - a white too intense to look at - and a black like a starless night. Instinctively, the rabbit girl threw her hands over her ears, pulled them down to cover her eyes and dropped into a protective fetal position.

When the shock wave arrived, SnowBuni felt as if she'd been crushed into a white blanket and hurled into the air. Snow filled her lungs making her reflexively cough. As the snow settled, she thrashed to clear room for her arms and legs. When the groaning earth was quiet, she began digging herself out of the snow.

First one bunny ear popped free of the snow, then the other. As her head cleared the ground, SnowBuni took a look around. "What in..."

The burning remains of the LNH flight thingee, the crashed Shinden-Kai, the very ridge that it had laid against, all were gone, swept away by the shock wave. The Collector's secret base was destroyed, leaving only rubble and high-tech wreckage.

She shook her head, ears flopping, and looked again for Panta.

"Panta!" SnowBuni shouted as she ran down the slope to the remains of the secret base. "Panta? Where are you?"

Glass and metal bits crunched underfoot as she ran, shouting Panta's name. But there was no sign of the leopard girl - only charred ruins in an empty Arctic wasteland.

"Panta!? Where are you!?"

"You must forget her," a voice interrupted. "You will forget her." A long, dark staff stopped SnowBuni's path.

"Huh?"

"Once, I would have offered mysteries and contradictions. But today, I can only provide some answers to questions, for I must remain a stranger," the Dvandom Stranger replied. He lifted the Editorial Staff away from SnowBuni. "You look hungry. Wanna fruit bar?"

SnowBuni wrinkled her nose at the bedraggled fruit bars, as she cocked her head from side to side. Then, with a graceful swoop, she snatched them from the Stranger's outstretched hand. "Where's Panta?" SnowBuni asked as she carefully opened the first of the foil-wrapped snacks. "What happened to the Collector?" She crumpled the empty foil wrapper and tucked it into a pocket.

The Dvandom Stranger studied the ruined base before turning back to SnowBuni. "The Collector won. Sailor Panta had to draw on all of the energy of the Overcute Gem to push back the Collector's retconn powers. When the Overcute Gem was drained of power, it exploded, annihilating itself and the Ring of Retconn. At that moment, Panta disappeared and the Collector became what he wished to be - a 'R.A.C.C.ELESTIAL'."

"That's awful," SnowBuni said, flattening her ears. The fruit bar in her hands - the third she had opened - was suddenly forgotten.

The Dvandom Stranger nodded. "Yeah, for the Collector."

SnowBuni raised one ear, dropped it and then raised the other ear. "What? Why? Isn't that..."

"Think about it. His dream, his ambition, his goal was to be like a god. So by the use of his retconn powers, the power to change the past on any character, he's always been like a god. The person that was Calvin Lector never existed. Calvin's memories, thoughts, plots and plans - all the things that made Calvin the person he was - as despicable as he was - never existed.

The Dvandom Stranger paused. "You might say that the Collector won all the world... but lost his soul..."

SnowBuni looked confused, one ear hanging forward over her face, the other ear back. "And Panta? Where's Panta?"

"Panta doesn't exist in this continuity," the Dvandom Stranger said flatly. "You will forget about her when the new reality snaps back and asserts itself."

SnowBuni grabbed the Dvandom Stranger's trenchcoat. "Reality snaps back? Stop trying to confuse me and tell me what happened to Panta!"

The Dvandom Stranger shook himself free from SnowBuni's pleading grasp, stepped back, and took a Palm Pilot from his coat. He tapped on it for a moment before looking up. "There's no point in even explaining this all to you - you won't even remember this conversation in a moment. It will never have taken place."

"How can I not remember this conversation?" SnowBuni snorted.

The Dvandom Stranger sighed. "Since Panta doesn't exist in this continuity, you've never had to fly to Net.ropolis to investigate her appearance on world-wide television. [This happened in Tales of the LNH 362 - HGB]. Thus, you have no reason to be near the North Pole, talking to me. All this will soon vanish into the realm of 'could-have' and 'maybe'.

He sighed again. "Sorry, there's nothing I can do about it." he said and tucked the Palm Pilot back into his pocket.

"But...!" SnowBuni demanded.

"Sorry," the Dvandom Stranger repeated. "It's out of my hands." He stepped back from the furious rabbit girl and raised the Editorial Staff. "Good-bye."

"Good-bye?" SnowBuni sputtered. "Just a minute. I've got a lot more to say-"

"Say?" Random said. "What more do you mean?"

SnowBuni blinked. She was standing in a hallway in the secret Sylvalagi base underneath the Antarctic ice; she recognized the hallway in front of Boris's office. With all of his four hands folded across his chest, Random lounged against the frosted duralloy struts lining the corridor.

In place of her tattered top and ripped jeans, she wore her uniform and a warm jacket. The scratches on her hands were gone; she carried a folder containing a report.

"You'd better go in," Random was saying. "Boris is waiting for your final report on those rogue Sylvalagi." He cocked his head inquisitively. " What did you find out anyway?"

SnowBuni looked down on her folders. She vaguely remembered a fast chase through the tunnels of Las Vegas, a hidden base under the Roman Forum, and charging into a Tokyo traffic jam after a suspect. But she also remembered Net.ropolis on a hot summer night, cyborgs, clones, and a tiny jet fighter on the ice of the Arctic north.

"Well?" Random said. "What'd you find?"

Stalling for time, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Inside, her fingers found a wad of crumpled foil wrapped around a round object. SnowBuni pulled the wad out to discover her empty Fruit Bar wrappers - and a catbell. The catbell was stained - the ugly purple discolorations a mute testimony to the energy it had absorbed.

"What's that? Does it have something to do with your report?"

She twisted the catbell open as she'd seen Panta do. Inside was a folded piece of paper.

"Once we'd communicated through e-mail and chat-rooms," the note began. "But for now, I must send messages through hidden ways. For I must remain, as always, a Stranger. Panta is alive and well - in different continuities, I've been able to learn. She's been 'Tenchi-fied', acquiring multiple continuities, one of which may exist in your world. If you find her - and show her this catbell, she may remember all that's happened." It was signed, "Good luck - from a Stranger."

Silently, SnowBuni folded the piece of paper and returned it to the catbell. "Thank you, kind Stranger," she whispered. "Where ever you are..."

Random was looking concerned. "Are you all right?" he asked. "What IS that, anyway? A catbell? What happened to it - did it get deep-fried?" Random reached for the report and catbell with both right arms.

Feeling much better, SnowBuni twirled away from his grasp. "Why don't you wait until the final edition is printed," SnowBuni teased. She pushed the door to Boris's office open and left Random standing outside.

The End

[ Goodbye, for now]

Comments by author Hubert Bartels....

This will be the final Panta story for awhile. My work and interests have left little time for writing so I'm closing this chapter of Panta for now.

I'd like to thank those whose comments and advice have been helpful, first Doug Wojtowicz (Lost Cause Boy), Stephane Savoie (Kid Anarky), and Mike Escutia (Pliable Lad), the original members of the Net.Patrol. While it lasted, it was fun, guys.

Jeff Wood (SnowBuni), thank you for letting me borrow your character, for rereading my material and editing it so that I could present SnowBuni properly.

Ray 'wReam' Bingham (Ultimate Ninja) for his character, a great story in which Panta got to kill his character's evil twin - sort of - thank you.

Dave Van Domelen (The Dvandom Stranger) for letting me shamelessly borrow his character and making him into a meddler like Dr. Who. "...for now, I must ever remain... a Stranger." Thank you.

Jaelle Ihimaera (Mouse and Writer's Block Woman) for her kind comments and suggestions. (And good stories!)

Jeff McCoskey (writer of the Golden Men, probably the best of the alternative worlds of the LNH that I've ever seen.), thanks.

And to all my readers, thank you as well. Without you, there's nothing.

Hubert Bartels