Editing Back Issue Bin - Arc 6 (section)

===issue # '''33''':6===
*  ''' "Altered States" ''',  June 8, 2006.
** ''PREVIEW:''  <br> '''previously in AMERICAN GODS...'''  <br> The Hopewell crew found themselves in a new world. One devoid of the atrocities of 9/11. For some this would be the perfect world [Mandy]. For others a nightmare [Brian]. But with the radical change in history so to was changed the fates of the Godlike, the were survivors of AA Flight 283 no more. They were Godlike no more. Defying what this new logic told them Brian Jaffe leads his friends to Seattle which seems to be a void point in this world. But when they arrive they are minus one. For Mandy Smith this world is home.  Breaching the barrier shielded from observation either mundane or Godlike, the Hopewell group learns that this Seattle is actually one stinted in time... Residing somewhere around 1914-18. Ever the diplomat Brian settles the group into a good situation convincing old Seattle University's dean that he and his group are travelling from Boston. But with the hospitality comes a price, the Dean promptly asked Professor Jaffe to lecture tomorrow evening on politics of the modern history of 1918! <br> '''and soon in AMERICAN GODS...'''  <br>  Unexpected guests, friend and stranger, will offer direction to the Hopewellians. As Professor Jaffe speaks to the children of yesteryear - Arthur, Jack and Vernon are surrounded - while Mandy's attention fades thanks to a friend... The day is thrown asunder - it begins tomorrow, continues yesterday and ends today.  You'll ask... Where has he been? Well - they drove him away. But he didn't leave for them - he left for the sake of a cherished few. But there was a plan. A contingency.  They came to that place for answers. But got none. They made it their own because he told them it wasn't real anymore since she was gone. They weren't expecting a wildcard before they killed him. He should have died in the street that day. But if he had would Seattle survive the coming of the Progeny.  One will hear truth and follow it, one will begin to find the engineered destiny, one will return from a long absence, and one will die undone. 
** ''RECAP:''  This weeks issue begins after a long break in play.  It opens with Brian giving his speech about politics and sunscreen.  As Brian enraptures the audience, the others are noticing things amiss.  Arthur notices a girl in the crowd with a haircut almost a century premature, then joins Mandy do go visit a suddenly appearing aquaintance from the future...Beth.  Jack joins them just in time to see Beth whisper into Mandy's ear and see her go dead.  Arthur and Jack immediately hustle Mandy's body and Beth into a side room to freak out inprivate.  Beth is very unhelpful in explaining, except saying that Mandy wasn't supposed to be here.  Meanwhile, Brian finishs his speech and is accosted by students and staff alike, all wanting to shmooze with the charismatic young professor.  The last of which is a comely young woman dressed in deffinately modern ideas of appropiate clothing.  She chides Brian for ignoring her signs telling everybody to stay out of Seattle.  After some banter and swagger back and forth the girl clenches her fist and slams Brian into the wall with apparently the power of her mind alone.  Her power play is interupted by Marx's timely intervention with his usual tact, aka. a gun to the head.  Jack and Arthur emerge from the back office just in time to see all of this occur.  As Jack approaches, Arthur fades among the seats and starts sneaking up.  After further banter, the girl declares that she is going to have to kill us all and snaps her fingers at Jack saying "Die!!"  As Jack's brain starts to hemmorage, Arthur gets in a suprise blow that knocks her unconscious.  The rest of the conversation is quickly convened to the office with a Beth in a prankstering mood and a dead Mandy.  Kimberly is handcuffed and restrained with piano wire as a precaution.  As the rest of the group argues and discusses what to do next and why this is going on, Brian sends Arthur out on a scouting mission.  Noticing that he is being followed, Arthur ditches his tail and follows him instead.  After watching a man crawl out of the rafters and out an upstairs window, and wave to a young woman an child across a field, Arthur decides to do the incredibly stupid task of jumping a Survivor when he has no powers...So, Arthur is then thrown down the hall and through a set of doors, slides across the floor and almost takes out a grand piano with his pancraes.  Our happy wall crawling friend tries to rush Arthur from the walls, and slips on the shutters.  Not wanting to visit the other rooms in this building the hard way, Arthur takes Kimberly hostage.  The wall crawler immediatly surrenders and begs us not to hurt her.  Then Marx saves the day by shooting the already surrendered wall crawler square between the eyes, killing him.  As the rest of us skeedadle out of town to hide in the woods, Brian stays behind to throw off pursuit.  An effort which seems unnecessary as the fire fighters live up to their name and start to duke it out with competing teams, leaving Brian and a little old teacher at loose ends.  Brian takes the opportunity to bug out free and clear, and heads downtown.  Along the way he spots a young boy drowning in a pothole in the street.  Being a kind compassionate and selfless sort, Brian immediatly leaps into the pothole to rescue the kid...then he remembers that he cannot swim well, and now he needs to breathe.  The child almost takes our valiant politition with him in his panic and efforts to survive.  Brian at the last moment manages to break the surface and drag the boy out of the pothole.  Unfortunately it seems that his efforts wer not in time as the boy has no pulse and is not breathing.  Brian walks away, the picture of dejection, and as he walks, the scene shimmers around him, and a broken abandoned Seattle street from modern day forms.  Brian finds himself leaning over a car with his hand casually bending the metal.  He looks behind him to see an ancient man lying on the ground where he left a boy.  Meanwhile Jack, Marx, Arthur, and Kimberly still tied up are sitting around a small campfire talking about what to do next when the woods seems to come alive around them.  Eyes start peering around bushes...over cars and mail boxes, slinking across the parking lot.  Jack notices that Arthur is surrounded by the familiar nimbus of Survivor energy as the pack closes in.<br>