“Olympianoid energy?” wondered Millie Drake. “Is that really what it is?”
“So it appears, my dear,” said I, rechecking the readout on my device before returning it to my pocket. “According to the transonic mezuzah, our instruments at headquarters were correct. There is indeed an energy signature here at the Hotel Grande of the type associated with the Olympianoids, that immensely-powerful alien race (related to our own Algolitish kind) that visited Earth during the Bronze Age and became the ‘gods’ of the ancient Greeks and Romans, hmmm?”
We had arrived at the downtown hotel that night, utilising our mentalist abilities to prevent any undue attention being paid to us. I -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos, extraterrestrial espionage agent -- was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, jungle boots, panama hat, Magen David necklace, and one of my favourite opera capes.
My assistant, known as Miss Millie Drake, is an exceedingly beautiful young lady; petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, and sun-kissed skin. The pink dress she wore only served to highlight her slender figure.
“So Daniel,” she said. “You said this might have something to do with all those weird dreams people have been having lately, right?”
“Quite so,” I affirmed. “The energy seems to be specifically of the type associated with the Olympianoid known as Somnus, himself a scientist who did a series of experiments with the humans of that time. He was attempting to find out if he could increase Earthling psychic abilities by stimulating their dream cycles.”
“And this is why he is remembered as the Roman god of sleep and dreaming?”
“Quite so, love. His experiments were non-conclusive, and…”
“Oh my gosh!” Millie suddenly exclaimed. “Look!”
I whirled around to see what had so startled my companion and beheld some weirdness indeed. We had by now arrived at the lounge behind the hotel’s entranceway, little used at this late hour. What I saw was a floating mass of black and blue energy, pulsating with a steady eldritch rhythm -- and heading directly to-wards us!
Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the weird energy vanished.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore. “That was only an echo, a small part of the Somnus energy. When it manifests in full, it shall be far more perilous, hmmm?”
We had by now taken ourselves to the part of the hotel our instruments had determined as exhibiting the strongest emanations. It was a currently-unused ballroom at the far end of a corridor leading off the front lobby. We cautiously entered the room and investigated further.
“Daniel, look!” cried Millie, indicating something at the far end of the room. “Isn’t that…?”
It was a figure clad in a black business suit with a long blood-red necktie. He appeared to be a man of middle years, his face still distinctly handsome despite being marred with the results of lifetimes of extreme unhallowed evil. His hair was long and dark, and his visage decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with an intense hypnotic glare.
Of course, I recognised him immediately as my own oldest and most dangerous enemy -- the renegade Algolite who has become the most wanted criminal in all of Time and Space.
“You!” I exclaimed as we approached him. “Don Wingus. I should have known. So it is you that is conjuring the powers of the old Roman god Somnus, and thus causing the strange dreams that have been plaguing people of late, hmmm? All this no doubt in an attempt to further one of your evil schemes.”
“I have already achieved more than even you can imagine, Rumanos,” sneered Wingus, as wisps of the black and blue energy began to play about him. “Using knowledge found in certain ancient books, augmented with my own Algolitish mind powers, I have evoked the remnant of the experiments of Somnus, using it to enter the minds of the humans in their sleep. This ability I will use to bring them under my power, that I -- Magister Don Wingus -- may take my rightful place as supreme ruler of this world!”
“By the Eternal Spires!” I swore. “Wingus, you are utterly mad! You cannot control the powers of Somnus. Even he was forced to halt his experiments. The powers are just too unpredictable.”
“Oh, but you are incorrect in that, Rumanos,” he returned. “I already have the powers completely under my control -- as you shall now see!”
At that moment, Don Wingus suddenly raised his hands to-wards us, causing a stream of the darksome energy to burst forth directly at Millie and me!
“Feel the energies of Somnus!” he mocked as we staggered backwards from the blast. “Feel the powers that shall desiccate your very minds!”
Do you recognise the horror in this situation? There we were, the lovely Millie Drake and me -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos -- facing the horrid villain known to infamy as Magister Don Wingus. There we were, as he released the bizarre powers of the ancient Roman god Somnus directly upon us -- forsooth, the same phantasmagorical energy he intended to use in his insane scheme to conquer the planet Earth!
“Feel the powers, Rumanos!” he repeated amidst peals of his own mad laughter. “Feel the powers that are mine; the powers that shall destroy your mind before I go on to use them to become ruler of Earth -- feel the powers of Somnus!!”
The energies had by now greatly increased, imprisoning Millie and me in a swirling maelstrom of ghostly black and blue power, accompanied with a moaning and howling sound like unto the voice of the very harbingers of doom.
“Daniel, this is so terrible…” said Millie. “It makes me feel so tired and… sleepy.”
“I know, my dear Mills,” I told her. “It is the power of Somnus. Fight it! We must stay alert and find a way to defeat this outrage.”
“There is no hope for you, Rumanos and Miss Drake,” announced the villainous Wingus. “The Somnus energy will render you unconscious, then it will fill your sleeping minds with dark dreams -- dreams of absolute gloom that will shatter your very souls!”
The horrid energy had by now increased even further. Millie and I felt ourselves as if trapped within a whirling hurricane of darkling phantasmal horror, in truth a sinister cyclone of absolute despair.
“Take my hand, Millie,” I said, reaching out for her. “Take my hand and concentrate. Remember some of the good times we have had together; when we have been to sunny beaches and concerts and the so many beautiful things we have seen together, hmmm? Think on these things and ignore all attempts to take those memories away!”
I then felt that beautiful lady’s dear little hand in mine and, with the assurance of her touch, I overcame the lethargy of sleep enough to reach into my pocket and retrieve the transonic mezuzah.
“The time has now come,” said I whilst activating a certain setting on the device, “to awaken out of sleep, hmmm?”
Suddenly a sound emanated forth from the mezuzah. It was a noise like unto an alarm clock, and it was accompanied by a light like unto the dawning of day. At once, the dark energy of Somnus began to flee from us, reversing its course and heading towards the evil Don Wingus in stead!
“What!” he cried in sudden fear as he realised what was happening. “Rumanos, you accursed meddler, what have you done?!”
“I simply programmed the mezuzah to send forth a signal of morning coming,” I explained; “of a time when the dark powers of sleep are at an end.”
“No!” bellowed Wingus as the black and blue Somnus powers engulfed him. “No! No! You cannot do this to me! I am Don Wingus, the rightful ruler of this world! You cannot…! No! No!!”
Then the phantasmal Somnus energy imploded, surging inwards upon the evil Wingus. In a split second it vanished -- taking the Algolite criminal with it!
“‘To sleep; perchance to dream’,” I quoted. “I think not!”
I looked around the room. There was no sign of the dark power or of Don Wingus. The horror was gone.
“Are you all right now, Millie?” I queried concernedly.
“Yes, I’m okay now,” she smiled.
“Excellent to hear, love,” I said whilst returning the mezuzah to my pocket. “The powers of sleep are useful when properly controlled, but quite dangerous when misused.”
“So what happened to him?” enquired Millie Drake. “Where did the Somnus energies take Don Wingus?”
“Well, that sort of depends on what symbolism one prefers, hmmm?” I pondered. “Dreamland; the Land of Nod; something like that, I suppose. In any case, it is an inter-dimensional realm from which he shall not easily escape.”
“Well, that’s good!” cheered my companion.
“I say, my dear Millie,” said I as we began to exit the ballroom. “It is only a little after midnight. Since our work here is done, let us leave the hotel and find an all-night cafe where we can have a couple of highly-caffeinated espressos, hmmm? For some reason, that sounds quite appropriate!”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
