The  Wizard 
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			   By Phantomgraph


This story, Nick & Danton (c) the author.

This is a work of fiction, Rated PG-13 (for Language and Adult
Situations)

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Nick and Danton sat at the tiki bar drinking those strange little
drinks with the umbrellas in them. They laughed and clapped each other
on their collective backs. It was celebration time. Somehow beyond all
odds Danton had managed the imposable.. to right the same software
that a multi-million dollar company did, include every single feature
that they had (and then some) and do it all on a shoe string budget.

Nick shook his head. For the umpteenth time that night he repeated the
phrase. "I can't believe we totally smoked them."

Danton just grinned looking at the setting sun and said in his knowing
voice "Dwagons do."

Nick laughed, then though a little more solemnly. "You don't think
they meant what they said about industrial espionage do you? I mean
you didn't break into their computers or anything did you?"

Danton smiled. "Yea they'll do something about it, but their not going
to find anything. They'll drag our asses into court and we'll compare
source code. Then they will hang their heads and walk away."

"Dwagon, what the hell, did you do something?"

For the first time that night Danton looked at Nick. He had an ear to
ear grin. "Yep, I did, but they will have a better chance of proving
an angel of god came down and told me about the feature list."

"What did you do?"

Danton laughed and took a sip from his drink. "Ha, fat chance. You
wouldn't believe me anyway."

Nick pouted. "Aww come on dwagon, Hell you just made both of us
multimillionaires, I'm not going to tell anyone."

Danton smiled a little feeling a little tipsy himself and thought
about it. He had never shown anyone his special trick. "Well I whipped
out the old dragon dick and they got so scared they just blabbed all
their ideas."

Nick chuckled. He knew it wouldn't be easy to drag the goods out of
his friend, and that was always something that had kinda bothered
him. He looked at his strange friend a moment. For working just inches
from him for over five years he really didn't know much about his
personal life. He came to work, worked his eight, went out
occasionally for his smoke breaks, tapping eternally on that keyboard
of his. Nick smiled. As always it sat within arms length on with that
mysterious UNIX prompt.

Danton had preached the power of Unix to Nick for years, but Nick
could never quite understand enough of it to get what he needed to do
done, so he was forever stuck in the other operating system. Each time
dwagon had beat the crap out of his to the point that he was ready to
replace it Nick would hand his over and go find another new
model. Damn Dwagons always were hard on their laptops. He usually
ordered a couple of case hinges and keyboards along with a touch pad,
just to see if he could get another six months use out of it.

Nick's grin widened a little. Every six months his friend would turn
his six month old used laptop into a pile of unrecognizable keys
cracked cases with useless appendages ranging from the mouse to a
couple of blown displays.

But the dwagon, as Danton liked to call himself, created miracles with
that thing in six months, himself out programing entire staffs of
every other company on the face of the earth.

Nick woke up from his reflections and looked at the smiling dwagon. He
had been caught day dreaming and he laughed. "I was just wondering how
the hell you do it sometimes, that and manage to destroy a laptop in
six months."

Danton chuckled with a knowing grin. "You know how I type."

Nick looked at Danton's keyboard and nodded, once again all the
letters were mostly warn off. "Are the keys still working?"

Danton laughed and reached into his laptop bag, pulling a spare
keyboard from it. "Just in case."

"You still haven't answered my question." Nick teased and raised his
half full glass to his lips.

Danton smiled and moved quickly tapping the base of Nicks glass. It
wasn't a hard tap but it was enough to feel. Nick continued tipping
the glass as was surprised to find it empty.

"I did it like I did that." Danton said.

Nick looked dumbly at the empty glass then to his friend, then back to
the glass. Their wasn't even ice in it anymore, but the glass was
still cold. He neither knew what to say or how to say it. It was like
it had just vanished into thin air. "What the...." Was all he could
manage.

"Fucking voo-doo magic." the dwagon said, with an eerie smile.

Nick bugged Danton for most of the rest of the night to show him how
he had managed to empty the glass but the dwagon remained true to his
words, and refused to tell.

The night grew on and eventually both of them decided to wander back
to their rooms for the evening and they headed off down the beach.

Danton had never had much love for the ocean in particular, but the
islands were definitely pretty any time of the year. He smiled and
stared off over the watter and found himself lost in thought.

Nick looked over and noticed. "Hey, you got that look in your eyes
again."

"Humm?" Danton said looking over.

"That look, like when your thinking." Nick said. "Your on vacation,
you shouldn't think on vacation."

Danton smiled, "Yea well, I was thinking about showing you how I did
that trick with your glass."

Nick was surprised. Neither of them had a glass, and he said so.

Danton chuckled and started strolling down the beach. "We don't need a
glass Nick. I'm just not sure I should tell you. I've never told a
soul about this before."

Nick nodded, and reflected on his quite friend. He always was very
closed off about his personal life. "You don't have to if you don't
want too."

Danton laughed. "To tell you the truth It would be good to tell
someone before I expire."

Nick looked somberly over at his friend but remained quite.

The two were walking on the beach by the park now and Danton stopped
and took a seat on the bench. "If I tell you this Nick I have to tell
you all of it. Every word and it can never be repeated."

Nick nodded and then remembering Danton probably could see him he said
simply "OK."

"It started just after puberty. I had never ever felt that I fit in
anyway but this just seemed to make it feel worse. I realized that I
really was different. It wasn't like it is now. I could only just sort
of slow things down like. I thought that it was a just maybe a
different form of consciousness or something. IT scared the hell out
of me at first and I just decided to forget about, but when I turned
18 my parents laid the biggest mind fuck on me of my life." Danton
said quietly.

He was silent for a moment then continued. "When I turned 18 they told
me that I was adopted, and a little about from where I had come. I was
found on the doorstep of a Chicago boarding house when I was about
three weeks old. I was clean, warm, wrapped in a good blanket in an
expensive basket. Their was no note, and I was perfectly healthy,
which usually isn't the case with babies found like me. Their was no
note, I have no name, no identification what so ever. Mom and Dad
adopted me three weeks later. As you know I changed my name when I was
18 over to Danton."

Nick nodded and Danton continued. "After I turned 18 and moved out
into the real world, my little spells, the times when things got weird
for me seemed to get worse, them more powerful. I went to a doctor,
but they had never heard of anything like it before. One night it was
really really bad and I just sort of let it happen."

"What?" Nick asked.

"Close your eyes and keep them closed until I say open them OK, no
matter what happens. Just listen to my voice OK." Danton said.

"OK." Nick said and did, wondering if his friend was about to play
some kind of joke on him.

"Well I went to the other place. Now before you ask I'm going to show
you that place tonight, but I have to warn you it's a little
disturbing until you get used to it."

"Your not going to dump sand on me are you?" Nick said, holding his
eyes shut.

"No, but it was a thought." Danton admitted, with a slight laugh. "Now
just concentrate on my voice. This is very important because it's
going to be really strange and frightening for you at first. Don't
open your eyes until I tell you either or you'll go all weird on me."

"OK"

"Good, now if were ready I'm going to take you there right now, but
remember keep listening to my voice and what I'm saying. I know it's
hard but It's very important that you understand what your going to
see and what your hearing. OK, now tell me what you hear, tell me
everything you hear."

"Well," Nick said, "I hear your voice, the ocean, the wind in the
trees, I can make out some distant voices at a restaurant I think, or
maybe a bar, that's about it."

"Good, now were there, and again just listen to my voice, don't open
your eyes. It's maddening enough. We are there now and I want you to
think about what you are hearing now. Don't try to rationalize it,
just think about what you hear. I know It's weird. Tell me what you
hear now."

Nick had noticed something immediately changed when his friend had
said there, because other than Danton's voice he couldn't hear
anything at all, absolutely nothing. Nick was starting to get a little
weired out and a little scared. "I don't hear anything at all,
nothing."

"OK, good. Now slowly open your eyes and look far out over the
watter."

Nick did as he was told and was shocked to find that he was still on
the beach.

"Don't look up on the beach just yet just way out over the ocean. Do
you notice anything strange."

Nick looked and did. Other feeling like he had just gone deaf
something was odd about the ocean, it was like it was a picture rather
than the real thing. It hit him like a ton of bricks. "It's not
moving." He said in awe.

"That's right, it's not." Danton said "Don't think about it just
accept it, and don't move just yet, but look at the beach close now."

Nick did and was amazed to see that it was frozen, just like a
picture. "It's like we walked into a photograph."

"That's a pretty good assessment really, if you think of time like a
movie, a series of still pictures that move faster than your brain can
see the movement. Where we are right now is like in a single still of
a movie Nick."

Nick looked at his friend dumbfounded. "Your the first human I've ever
showed this too. No one knows about it other than god. Come on walk
slowly with me down to the watter. You have to walk slowly because
it's a little unnerving until you get used to it."

Nick stood slowly and started to walk. Danton was right, it was
weird. It felt like having a sub woofer thumping on you in waves, but
not painfully and always that silence. "It is weird, what is it?"

"Actually what your feeling is sound. The sound waves are stuck just
like the ocean. When you move you slam into them and your body absorbs
them."

"But if that's the case then how come I can still see? They are waves
too aren't they?"

Danton smiled. "A very intelligent question Nick, and the answer is I
don't know, but I don't think light is a wave. It's strange but If I
bring a solar powered calculator here and let it not be stopped, it
works, same with a solar powered fan or anything else, But if it sits
too long in one spot it does stop until I move it a little."

"Weird." Nick said, still rather shaken.

"Oh you haven't seen weird yet." Danton said, and pointed to a wave
that was in the process of crashing on the beach."Touch the water."

Nick cautiously did. It was wet, and some stuck to his hand, but not
much. "Man this is strange."

"This is what makes me think that time is still moving, just very very
very slowly. Also I can make some small parts of the world unstop."
And that said some of the wave 'fell' from the air and ran back into
the ocean. "That's how I brought you here. I didn't stop you. What I
did with your drink and you in the bar today was stop things took your
drink from you un stopped it, drank it, tossed the ice out and put the
glass back in your hand."

"Jesus" Nick said. "Have you ever done anything like that before to
me?"

"No but I have done it when you have been around, mostly when I needed
to get something done, or forgot something at home and needed to run
and get it real quick. I kind of refrain especially around other
people because if their looking right at you when I unstop things it
would look like I jumped or blinked a little to them. I usually go
into the bathroom to do it. That way people can't see anything they
might think is amiss."

"Wow." Nick said, not knowing what to think. "And your the only one
who can do this?"

"Oh no sir. Their are a few. I seem to be the best. We can sense when
someone has done it, and for how long, but only after the fact. I've
though about trying to send a message to the others but to tell you
the truth I've always been afraid." Danton said.

"Their are others?"

Danton nodded. "Three I think. One lives in Denver, that's the real
reason why I moved by the way. I'm not sure where the others live."

"Damn that's creepy." Nick said and Danton nodded.

"That's why we keep it secret. Think about it, if the government ever
found out wholly shit they would lock me up and toss out the key, or
worse use me to hurt people."

Nick blinked in the night. "Hurt people?"

"Yea, I can make things unstop here remember. I could easily walk into
a pawn shop and borrow a gun, unstop it and a bullet, walk into the
governor's mansion and shoot him then walk out, clean and replace the
gun and go back home. No one would or ever could prove it. Hell I
could do it at a press conference if I wanted, no one would see me and
they couldn't prove I was there unless I left some evidence."

Nick shuttered. "That's fucking scary."

Danton nodded and started walking down the beach. "Yea, that's why
I'll flatly deny it if you ever tell anyone."

Nick thought for a moment and walked slowly with his friend. "You've
never done anything like that thou have you?"

Danton smiled and looked at Nick. "Yes Nick I did. I stopped things
when we were down at the convention, then I installed a root kit in
Arga cons computer that would let see the powers of their
software. When I was nearly done I unrooted them, and took the cameras
out of their walls. Other than that no, I've never used this gift for
anything other than personal stuff and good things."

"Good things?"

"Yea, remember that time in London when that guy almost got hit by the
double decker right in front of us?"

"Yea."

"I pushed him while he was stuck." Danton admitted.

Nicks mouth hung open. "You were the one that did that?"

"Yea. Stupid fucker should have been watching where he was going but,
I saw what was going to happen so I, fixed it." Danton said.

Nick remembered how on the news they guy described it like an angle of
god just shoved him out of the way. "Cool."

"Yea." Danton said and they walked by a open restaurant. People stood
in half step, a couple was dancing, beer was being poured from
pictures. It was all like being actually in one of those weird
commercials they have on TV, when they take a still from many angles
and rotated it.

"Does it take a lot of concentration to do it?" Nick asked, the
silence a little maddening.

"Yes it does, especially with complex inanimate objects like cars an
stuff. Living things are easiest, but theirs a price to pay if I'm not
careful."

Nick gulped. "What do you mean?"

"Well," the dwagon explained. "When I was first learning how to do
this and take living things into this place I took a rabbit here when
I was in a pet store once. I didn't think much about it at the time, I
just un stuck it, took it out of it's cage and played with it for a
while. Well it got away from me and I couldn't find the thing. Finally
I gave up and unstuck time. When I went to cash out someone found the
rabbit under one of the checkout counters."

Nick gulped. "And?"

"It was dead, It was decomposed in a manor that is a little horrific
to describe, so I'll just say the poor thing must have died horribly,
probably of thirst or starvation then it's unstuck inner biological
processes ate it from the inside out."

Nick winced. "God."

Danton nodded. "I've never brought another creature in since. I felt
horrid for weeks."

"What do you think happened to it?"

"Oh I know what happened to it. It stayed unstuck permanently. It
died, but because no other biological things other than it self were,
it, er ran out of energy and kinda stayed in it's condition. I really
don't want to talk about the rabbit I still feel bad about it."

"Sorry." Nick said, realizing that his friend could easily do the same
to him. Quickly he changed the subject. "How long can you hold things
um, stuck?"

"Until I fall asleep." Danton answered simply. "The second I fall
asleep bamb, everything starts working normaly."

"Does it hurt to do?" Nick asked.

"No, not really, but It does leave me kinda drained, especialy if I do
it for long periods of time or try to take something really big and
complicated in with me. Something like a car or a airplane. Living
things are easiest."

The two approached the hotel that they were staying in and with out a
word Danton opened the door for Nick. "We'll have to take the stairs,
I'm a little too drunk to make the elevator work." Danton said, and
the two plodded up the staircase.

"It must be a horrible burden to you." Nick said as they
walked. "Having this power but not being able to tell anyone about
it."

"Well, " Danton said softly, "It is, but that's not the worst of it."

Nick looked over to his friend. He looked tired and harried, but calm
and sincere. Nick wondered what other surprises his friend had for him
that night. "Oh how so?"

"You'll see soon enough Nick." Danton said and offered a week
smile. "It's kind of the strangest part of this whole thing. It took
me years to even discover it. When I did It scared the be-jeepers out
of me. I still don't know what to make of it."

Nick nodded and the two arrived at their floor. They walked down the
hall and Danton opened the door. Nick walked in first followed closely
by the Dwagon. Nick absently flicked on the light switch and then
looked at it, as it neither moved nor did the light come on.

"Sorry Nick, let me get the door shut here and I'll help you." Danton
said, and did precisely that. The door shut Danton walked over and
flicked the light switch on. Every so slowly the light began to come
on, dimly at first, growing very very slowly brighter. "It's weird
isn't it?" Danton said, flopping down on his bed. "I think your
actually watching the speed of light."

Nick nodded and sat on his bed and started to take off his
shoes. Suddenly the radio roared back into life the the world was
normal again. Nick jumped at the sound then relaxed a little. "You
should have warned me." He said.

"Sorry again my friend. I'm drunk and I forgot I wasn't just
rehearsing this speech." Danton said.

"Rehearsing?" Nick said removing his shoes and laying back on the bed.

Danton laughed a little. "It's hard to explain but it's a relief just
to confide in another. I've spoken it many times and envisioned what
and how I would say it."

Nick smiled, trying to understand exactly how hard it must be for his
friend. "I can understand that." He said.

Danton smiled. "Good, then I hope you can understand the last of what
I'm about to tell you."

Nick stared up at the flickering light and simply waited for his
friend to finish what he was saying, but Danton said nothing for a
long while.

"You know, you would think for such a price they could at least keep
the lights steady." Nick said softly stifling a yawn that was just
about to break his face.

For the second time that night Danton said "Tell me what you hear."

"Just you and the radio." Danton said but something in his slightly
foggy mind started to register something amiss. He closed his eyes and
listened to the usual sighs of the air conditioner, the surf in the
background, even the tone of his friends voice, but he couldn't put
his finger on what was bothering him.

"And what's the weather report?" Danton's voice floated over to him as
the lights flicked out.

Nick's mind concentrated on the sound from the radio and for a moment
he was confused. The music was rather familiar, but the voice singing
the tune seemed strange. He hummed the tune to himself until the words
returned to his long overtired mind and when it hit him and he sat
straight upright in bed.

"That's Puff the Magic Dragon!" he exclaimed, looking around in the
darkened room, "But it's in some other language or something."

"You could say that." Came Danton's voice with a slight chuckle.

Nick looked around the now darkened room and froze. Other than the
lights from the beach below the only other illumination came from two
slightly iridescent red spheres with black slits for irises. As they
narrowed Nick heard his friend repeat himself, but somehow all the
humor and human intones seem to vanish from the voice.

"You could say that." Nick's demon said.

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			     Phantomgraph