Future Tense - Chapter Four

    The gathered VIPs began to sit down at the massive table. Simon Kennedy sat at the head of the table and was about to tuck into his starter when a waiter came over to him.
    “Mister Kennedy, there’s a telephone call for you.”
    “Thank you.”
    With the aid of his crutches Kennedy got to his feet. The waiter showed him into a nearby room. Kennedy soon saw the phone and picked up the receiver.
    “Simon Kennedy…”
    There was no reply.
    “Hello, is anyone there?”
    Again there was no reply. The phone was dead. Kennedy then turned around when he heard the door slam shut. He turned around to see White Knight standing up against the door.
    “Arthur! I didn’t know you’d been invited! What are you doing here?”
    “I’m here to kill you!”
    And with that White Knight pulled his sword from it’s sheath and moved towards Kennedy. Stumbling, Kennedy’s crutches fell to the ground, and without them Kennedy could not move very fast. Then Kennedy was surprised when the door opened and White Knight, another White Knight, came into the room.
    “What the hell is going on here?” he said.
    The first White Knight, the impostor, turned around and stared at the real McCoy. Raising his sword he lunged towards White Knight, who easily parried the impostor’s sword out of the way. The impostor then turned around and the two swords were brought together with a mighty clang. This time the impostor seemed to be a match for White Knight’s swordsman skills. The battle lasted for a number of minutes. Then, as the battle continued Watt, Magus and Space Ghost entered the room. They were confused when they saw White Knight fighting White Knight.
    “Which one is which?” said Watt.
    “One way to find out!” said Space Ghost.
    Pressing a button on each of his power bands Space Ghost pointed his arms at the White Knights and fired. Both of them were bathed in the energy blast and both of them fell to the ground in agony. Then, for a slight moment, one of the White Knights changed form. For a split second he did not look like White Knight.
    “That explains everything!” said Magus. “A shape-shifter!”
    The shape-shifter soon reverted to the form of White Knight, and Space Ghost started to move towards the two of them.
    “Which one is White Knight? Which one is the assassin?” he kept saying.
    Then he adjusted the setting on his power bands, increasing the intensity of the energy beam.
    “There’s only one way to make sure! I’ll have to kill them both!”
    “No!” cried Watt.
    Watt leapt forward in an attempt to stop Space Ghost killing his friend. He knew that there was only one way he could. He reached for Space Ghost’s arm and in one movement ripped the strap from it just before he was going to fire. As the strap was no longer attached to his arm Space Ghost was ripped back to his own time in a blinding flash of light.
    The light had caused partial blindness in the shape-shifter, and this time he could not hold the form of White Knight. As the others were also blinded by Space Ghost’s departure he took his chance and soon made his escape in all the confusion.

    The next thing that Space Ghost felt was the sensation of falling to the ground again. He soon hit the ground with a resounding thud. He looked up to find himself once again in the tatty-looking lab of Daniel Reid. He looked around and soon saw the elderly looking Reid looking down at him. He helped Space Ghost to his feet. He walked over to the window and looked out across the skyline of the ruined city of London.
    “Nothing happened!” he said. “I stopped the assassination but nothing changed.”
    “Something else must have happened.” said Reid. “Something else must have happened to Simon Kennedy.”

    For this year only the Lord Mayor’s Banquet was put on hold as police, as well as Anglo-Force, searched the surrounding area for the shape-shifting assassin. Even though the surrounding area had been sealed off he still managed to get through. Soon the members of Anglo-Force returned to the banquet.
    “Any luck?” asked Watt.
    “Nothing.” said McCloud. “He’s long gone by now!”
    Suddenly they heard an explosion and a scream from the room Kennedy was in. They raced into the building and the room to see that one wall had been blown away and that Kennedy had gone.
    “Where is he?” said Watt. “Where’s Simon?”
    That I cannot tell you.” said Magus. “But I can tell you who has taken him.”
    Magus bent down and picked up a black handkerchief from the floor. He handed it to Watt.
    “Moriarty!”