Well, to the end of an arc come we.
I'll leave the issue to do what it does best, and
simply thank everyone who commented on last
issue, among them: Kelly Anderson, Rory Bryant,
Jamas Enright, Ben Rawluk, and Jaelle.
If you're wondering what's up with Dust later in the
issue, go check out Teens in Trenchcoats #7 (heck,
check out the whole series if you haven't already --
good stuff).
Oh, and language warning again. Just few of the
nastier words here and there.
=========================================================================
DERELICT Press Presents
The thirty-eighth issue of
/~~\/~~\ {] /~~\ (^^^ || ***** /~~\
/ /\/\ \ [) ~\__ (^^ || ,' ~\__
/__/ \__\ (} \__/ ( || ', \__/
" Ouroborous "
Echo: Part 6 of 6
A psuedo-Acraphobe title
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.'COVER`._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
Sarah stands on the right side of the cover, Binky in his fishbowl
cradled in her left arm. She is reaching out, stretching her fingers
toward the Avatar of Skaine, who occupies the left side of the cover. He
reaches out as well, their hands bare centimeters from each other at the
center of the cover. The power arcing between them forms the faintest
picture of a girl with her eyes closed. Brittany. A snake rims the entire
cover, tail in its mouth.
)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
The corner of the cavern exploded upward in a cascade of worms
and blood. The air, already seething with power, began to hum.
Paytan stood at the edge of a chalk circle, its boundaries
covered in a maze of lines and symbols, a complicated paisley of
summoning runes and barriers. The few spatters of demon-blood that
reached her never touched her skin, immolated a few inches away by a
barrier of neon green. Paytan didn't even flinch.
"Bring it here," she said.
Half the worms simply lay on the floor, seeping bile into the
earth. The others began their slow progress toward her just as five more
forms burst up from the earth, helper demons she had summoned to
facilitate the taking of the last artifact. It was one of these that
shoved its clawed hands into the mass of worms and snatched up the box,
laughing as it scurried toward her. "Our masters know of you," it
called. "They know!"
Paytan laughed. "After all this? Of course they do." But her face
fell slightly, and she looked down. "Of course they do," she whispered.
Then she saw the chalk pattern on the floor, and remembered _why_ she was
doing this. The sounds of a battle filtered down one of the passages. The
others were close now.
The box was made of clay, badly formed and clumsy looking, with
delicate crystal hinges. Power rolled off it like the silence before a
hurricane.
Five down.
Paytan was chanting before she even laid hands on it.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
"A stiff upper lip, Mouse! We are forced to fight against our
will, but these brigands haven't bested us yet!" caroled Writers Block
Woman as she soared over the enemy mechs, her less-than-enthusiastic
daughter Mouse hanging on for dear life.
"Mum, if you don't put me down, I swear I'll -- "
Three new mechs hurtled into the caverns with a cascade of
clanking and started firing wildly. A shot whizzed by inches away from
Mouse.
"Never mind. Let's stay up here."
Down below, Kid Camouflage was motioning toward the battle. "Okay
folks, lets get ourselves a Reality agent, preferably alive," she said to
the rest of the Junior Brotherhood of Net.Villains.
"And after that?" snarled Dust. KC smiled.
"It's payback time. Just make sure you nab one first, so we can
get a little inside info."
Dust snickered, as all around her pebbles and stones began to
clatter across the cavern floor, swirling and lifting off the ground.
Hooded Ho'od Win Jr. was still concentrating on the battle between
Writers Block Woman and Mouse, and the enemy. Mr.Exposition swung his
hook and released it, catching the arm of one of the Reality agents.
Bryan glanced at Kid Camouflage and they shared a smile, before she faded
into the rocky wall and moved into the battle. He picked up a good-sized
stone, and began to charge it.
Rebecca stood behind them all, in the darkness, and turned her
head, sniffing as if she had caught a familiar smell. She ignored the
battle and moved slowly off to the side.
Meanwhile Savannah and Allen were slowly working their way across
the cavern. Allen was concentrating on the pendulum in his hand, which
was pulling so hard on the string that it lay nearly parallel to the
ground. They were close to Paytan now. Savannah tried not to think about
what kind of magic she must be doing to drag the pendulum so strongly
toward her.
Then she stumbled over something, and dragged her gaze slowly
downward. A necklace of large wooden beads had caught her foot. They were
clearly hand-made, with crude tool markings on the beads, the openings of
the holes rough and splintery. The cord was a thin strip of soft leather,
darker on one side than the other. It was somehow unnaturally... cute.
"Allen," she whispered. "I don't think we're the only ones down
here."
Allen glanced at the necklace. "They're not important," he said
dismissively, and continued following the pendulum.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
The group of mecha and Reality agents once loyal to Skaine, but
now to the Reality alone, were scattered all over the cavern. The
machines were somehow being forced to fight with the flying net.hero and
the agents were embroiled in battle with some other land-based
superpowereds. The leader of the group looked out on the chaos and
sighed, flipped on the communications net. "Screw allegiances guys, if
it's not one of us, just shoot it."
The new group of mecha, still loyal to Skaine, had been swept up
in the battle as well. Nothing was familiar, and no one involved looked
like the Avatar of Binky, whom they had been ordered to search for. The
leader of the group flipped on his communications net. "Vince 3 to Vince
4 and 5. If it's not one of us, or the Avatar of Binky, just shoot it."
Mr.Exposition glanced up at Kid Camouflage from where he crouched
over the bound form of a Reality agent. She looked out on the chaos, then
turned back to him. "It's too nuts out there. Just take out whatever or
whoever you can, as long as it isn't one of us!"
And they did.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Savannah kept her eyes on the ground, with the back of Allen's
shoes appearing and disappearing from her vision as he walked. The stone
here was grey and nearly featureless, perhaps a bedrock of some sort. It
was a little uneven, but the miniscule drops and raises of the floor were
old enough that their edges had been worn smooth. Allen needed new shoes
as well -- on his left foot the sole was coming away at the heel, frayed
and battered.
Allen stopped so fast she nearly ran into him, and there was a
concussion from up ahead, the air rippling past her in a rush, carrying
with it a light shower of pebbles and granules. A stray shot from the
battle.
Savannah dragged her gaze up, and tried to take in the chaos
happening nearby. She was glad they'd stuck to the wall. But one thing
caught her eye.
A black girl, surrounded with a faint carmine aura, creeping
through the battle in the same direction she and Allen were heading.
There was something wrong with her. Savannah reached out until one hand
was touching the rough cavern wall, keeping her headed in the right
direction while she focused more closely on the girl. There was something
missing... a lack of reaction. As if a coma patient had opened her eyes
and begun to walk. The girl didn't even flinch when a shot landed near
her, sending stone everywhere. Savannah focused more, let the
generalities fade into waves of endless detail. And it came to her.
The girl was favoring her left shoulder. Savannah hadn't been
present when it actually happened, but when Paytan was possessed by
Dirmarw she had cut into the JBoNV's sorceress. Dirmarw had sucked some
of the girl's soul away then, and probably more of it when he and Paytan
were in Hell, moments before he was shattered. Along with the back-up
that the rest of the JBoNV was providing, Bryan had brought along a
sorceress with her soul half gone and not much reason to live, brought
her right to Paytan.
Now that she was looking for it, Savannah could see the energy
gathering around the other girl, deepening the shade of red. From the
look in her eyes, she was planning to go kamikaze.
Savannah stopped moving, clicked her rifle into the medium level
of stun, and slowly took aim. The JBoNV sorceress had some minor shields
up, but they were weak, and pulsed. Savannah waited until their power
lulled for a moment, then pulled the trigger. Across the cavern the
sorceress fell to the ground, unconscious.
She unfocused as much as she could, and dragged her gaze back in
front of her. Allen had stopped at the sound of her rifle going off, and
now he was giving her a look.
"Heading off trouble," she said. He nodded.
"Fine. Hurry up."
The pendulum jerked from his hand and flew across the cavern,
shattering against the wall. A blaze of neon green light flashed into the
main cavern from a side corridor. They burst into a run.
Savannah had her eyes half closed, as if that would help any if
she fell. Allen was in the lead. They sprinted into the side tunnel, the
sounds of battle growing faint and echoey behind them. They were bathed
in neon green, the air itself aglow. Savannah could feel the hair on her
arms rise, tingling as if she were covered with static electricity.
Then the tunnel opened up into a cavern, and the air turned so
thick with power Savannah felt like she was swimming. Paytan was there,
awash with energy, the doves clustered on her arms as she chanted before
a massive circle of patterns on the floor in front of her. Savannah
shouted something, and Paytan glanced toward them, met their eyes for a
moment.
Five hulking demons with scales and forked tails crashed into
existence in front of Paytan, charging toward them.
Savannah heard Allen's gun go off, saw one of the demon's
shoulders dissolve into blood and bone, but couldn't get her own rifle up
in time. The demons were on them, sweeping them up in clawed hands and
scaled arms, carrying them with the sheer force of the run away from
Paytan and back into the battle outside.
One of Savannah's arms was still free. She looked steadily at the
chest of the demon carrying her, focused until she could make out the
faint tracery of veins, the places they clustered and led. Off to the
side she heard Allen's gun go off again, and a demon's scream. She put
the muzzle of the rifle gently against the place where the demon's heart
lay, and pulled the trigger.
The demon fell right on top of her. She knocked her head solidly
against the stone but remained conscious, buried beneath its weight. She
struggled out from beneath it and tried to find Allen.
He was surrounded by three demons. The fourth, wounded and mad
with rage had evidently kept on going. She heard an enraged below and the
scream of metal as it presumably encountered one of the mechs. She
dragged her rifle into position and locked her gaze onto one of the
remaining three, focused in on the temple area as she aimed.
Allen was screaming something at her, angry.
She pulled back and looked at him. He was covered in sweat,
breathing hard, the angry frustration so strong in him that he was
shaking. Three demons surrounded him, while she didn't have anyone on her
at all. For a second it was like she could see into his mind. Better she
get to Paytan than both of them be too late (and, echoing in the back of
her head is Paytan on the demon steed, the two of them riding together to
the island, both of them too late, and oh God, Brit -- ), but he's angry.
The idea that he has to give this up enrages him.
"Go!" he yelled. "You're taking too long! Just go!" Then he
looked away and pointed his gun straight at a demon's eye. Savannah
closed her eyes just in time to miss the shot going off and struggled
blindly to her feet.
She ran back down the corridor, back into the blazing light and
liquid air. Into the cavern.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
She reached the end of the tunnel, where every breath of the
power-thick air sent tingles through her flesh, and dropped into a walk.
If she came in too aggressively, Paytan would just summon another round
of demons. She could hear Paytan's chant echoing down the tunnel, a
familiar voice forming unfamiliar words.
"How did it feel," hissed Savannah to the voice, "killing Nei?
She looked up you."
She wouldn't have the strength to say it when she reached Paytan.
It was so much easier for her to be angry at someone when she couldn't
see their face, when she could turn them into paper cut-outs in her head.
Face to face, the words of accusation would die in her throat and turn to
tearful pleading. Paytan had refused to deal with things, stolen the
Net.cronomicon in some crazy attempt to change the world, and turned into
a murderer as well. Savannah hated being the only sane one. She always
ended up holding the bag when everyone else went nuts.
Then the unnatural light that came from everywhere was around her
again, and she was in the cavern. There was Paytan with the
Net.cronomicon cradled in her hands, the air around it seething as if
superheated. Beneath the layers of dirt and grime she looked thin. And
driven.
Savannah walked forward until she was only a foot from the
elaborately patterned chalk circle sketched out on the floor. Paytan
didn't stop chanting, but Savannah could tell by the tilt of her head
that she was looking in her direction. But no demons or attempts to drive
her away were forthcoming. The doves were nowhere to be seen.
Paytan, standing in the middle of this empty cavern, aching with
power, brought back everything she had tried so hard to forget over the
past few days. The stink of the Amazon and gunmetal as the sun beat down
on them, the smell of the ocean and the distant sound of waves as she
felt the demon steed die beneath them. Faster than sound had not been
fast enough. She could see it in the way Paytan stood, that somewhere
deep inside she was still moving, had never stopped since that day. She
would run until she died, until her heart gave out like that poor damned
horse, coughing up blood on a seashore of tiny stones.
"Paytan, stop," whispered Savannah, half-startled at the way the
strange heat of the air magnified her words. But her voice was swallowed
up by the chant, the incomprehensible words rolling over her own like
thunderclouds.
The alien chant kept pouring out of Paytan's mouth, unrelenting.
Paytan didn't even care that they'd all been running after her, that
they'd nearly died. The first time Savannah had ever seen her she'd been
like this, muttering alien words under her breath. Only that time Paytan
had been under demonic control, and Savannah had been chained to an altar
in Hell, about to be sacrificed. Since then Savannah had gotten stronger,
better at controlling her powers, better at controlling herself. Why
couldn't Paytan? Her weakness was hurting _everyone_. And she didn't even
seem to notice. Savannah stepped closer to her as she spoke, suddenly
angry again.
"Do you see the blood on my shirt? A woman died in my arms. You
know Kismet left? She went home. And Brittany's family? They knew, and
all it meant to them was a call to arms. All I've had is Bryan this whole
time, and he didn't know her. Not like we did," she whispered, and now
she was only a foot or so away, close enough to reach out and touch her,
so close that the energy was turning her skin hot and dry, warping the
air around them both. And then, the truth. "You left me."
By now she was raising her voice, putting more force behind it,
and could tell by Paytan's face that the girl heard every word she said.
And though it wasn't showing in the chant yet, Paytan was beginning to
hesitate.
Every word Savannah spoke reminded her what had happened, brought
up the pain of the last few days. There was too much between them, and
all she could see was Nei's specter, hovering there with spars of burnt
metal. So she just spat it out, like a bite off of a rotten fruit.
"And now you're killing people."
Paytan flinched, and her chant dragged off to a close. The air
stilled. Silence descended. The overwhelming power remained, but it was
on hold. Waiting.
Paytan looked at her, not speaking, and there was a fear in her
eyes. Savannah could see it in the way her skin lay around the edges of
her mouth, at the top of her eyelids. Guilt was pouring through the girl
in rivers of black. Paytan was afraid to speak, she was lost already,
wide open and raw.
It gave Savannah strength, confidence. Those who have truly given
up don't feel guilty.
"You killed Nei," she said.
Paytan's eyes slammed shut and she half-closed the book, one
finger left between the pages to hold her place. "I _didn't_! I didn't
kill Nei, she just -- she..." She looked up, surveying the cavern walls.
"No, I did. In the end, I did."
But Savannah was focused in on her, tight as a vise, though Paytan
wasn't looking back. And it was clear in the twitch of her muscles, in
the way she breathed, that Paytan hadn't actually killed Nei. She felt
guilty as hell about it, but she wasn't a murderer, just thoughtless and
foolish. Nei herself had her hand in the death, and relief swept through
Savannah like a wave.
She was sorry a second later, sorry that Nei was gone and that
she was relieved about it. But Paytan hadn't killed anyone, though she'd
come close, and it was the only good thing she'd found so far in this
whole mess.
"In the beginning the three of us were a team," said Savannah.
"Before Allen, Bryan, Nei, anyone. You and I should have stuck together.
You should have come to me with this!"
"You would have tried to talk me out of it."
"Yes! But at least we would have been talking!"
Pause.
"Okay," said Paytan softly. "How 'bout we talk now?"
Savannah paused, off-balance for a moment.
"You want me to stop," said Paytan, an undercurrent of anger in
the words.
"Yes, I want you to stop."
"Why?"
"Because you're _hurting_ people! You're hurting yourself."
Paytan smiled at her, and there was such pitying compassion in it
that Savannah stopped again. Paytan took a step toward her and reached
out, gently putting her hand on her shoulder. Savannah could feel
Paytan's thumb against her collar bone, the thin granules of grime and
dirt rubbing between their skin. "Savannah," she whispered, "When you sit
alone and think of the future, of where we'll all be in ten years, in
fifty years, do you honestly see me growing old?"
Savannah looked into Paytan's glowing eyes, but the smile was
still there and steady. Then, barely audible, "No."
"A month ago, when I thought those things, I didn't think I'd
live to thirty. Now I know it."
"So you're just going to do it now. Risk everything." Savannah
could hear the accusation creep back into her voice.
"Of course. But isn't it _worth_ everything?" Paytan flung one
arm wide. "I'm dead anyway. Without Dirmarw I'm a write-off, it's only a
matter of time! If they had shot at her, I would have stepped in the
way. But they didn't, and we were too late. So, this."
"You're just not dealing with it -- "
"Unlike you, who's already over it," spat Paytan, and turned to
go back to the circle.
"I haven't had _time_ to be over it! None of us have, chasing you
through the whole damn city! You want to turn back the clock, make it the
way it was!"
"I do _not_! Did you see her on the roof, just before the end?"
asked Paytan, and her voice cracked. "God, her whole life she was
supposed to be an Avatar, and they crippled her. Do you think I'd want to
put her back there, like that? Make her live it all over again? I don't
want to make it like it _was_. I don't care what kind of person Brittany
turns into after this, where she goes. I just want to know she's out
there somewhere."
"Paytan, she's dead."
"She NEVER had a CHANCE! And neither did I," said Paytan, "I want
to give her what's left of mine."
"You still have a -- "
"Do you think if you stop me here, it'll do any good? LOOK around
you, Savannah! Look at how many demons I've summoned! They're going to
kill me, they're going to play with me for decades before that, until
there's nothing left of me but agony, and I want that to be _worth_
something!"
Savannah turned away from the pain in Paytan's voice. "It won't
work," she said. "Then you'll both be gone."
Her eyes filled up with tears. Just as bad as Sarah, she thought,
but she let them build anyway, until her vision turned fuzzy and blurred.
The cavern was quiet for a moment, the faint rush of power a constant
static in the background.
"Where was I born?" asked Paytan softly, her voice echoing for
what seemed forever, an endless susurrus of whispers.
"What?"
"Where was I born?"
Savannah turned around. "Paytan, what are yo -- "
The look on Paytan's face stopped her dead. Her glowing eyes were
narrowed, twisted into an expression of intense disgust as she looked at
Savannah.
"Oregon. Ask me how I came to be here, in Net.ropolis. _A gate to
HELL!_"
The rage in Paytan's voice cracked the ground at her feet, the
sound echoing like a shot back and forth against the stone walls.
Savannah flinched back.
"Look at me, for God's sake," shouted Paytan, "I have horns.
Glowing eyes. And you can see into atoms. There is a fucking cosmic
power superhero battle in the cavern next door!" She stopped for a moment
and took a deep breath, her next words ringing out a challenge.
"Tell me this is a world where I cannot bring her back."
Savannah didn't say anything.
"You can't, can you? Because a couple of years ago you were just
some normal girl in a classroom, and now look at you."
Savannah closed her eyes. This wasn't how things worked. When
things were bad, you looked at the facts. You dealt with them. You
didn't _deny_ them. You didn't challenge _life_ to a duel just because
you were pissed off.
She could hear Paytan breathing, fast, tiny breaths, like she
couldn't make her lungs quite work. If she disagreed now, if she demanded
that Paytan stop, and looked her right in the eye --
Savannah looked up and caught Paytan's gaze. Focused until she
knew her stare must be like knives, like a command in itself. Paytan
flinched.
I am looking at dead woman, thought Savannah, and she knows it.
"Brittany is the kind of person who gets brought back. And I am
the kind of person who pays for the bringing." Paytan's words were
climbing into a scream, until the raw edge of her voice was strong enough
to turn the air to ripples all around her. "After _all_ we've been
through, tell me this doesn't have a chance!"
Her eyes were a blazing neon green, and in them danced the lights
of Hell. Another time, another set of eyes, rose from the depths of
Savannah's memories. She had looked a Demonlord in the eye, and forced
him out of existence. Because she didn't agree with him. She had seen
into the heart of the universe and made it something else, because she
did not like what she saw.
"Tell me," hissed Paytan, and in her Savannah saw the weakness
and the strength, coiled around each other like snakes. There was a
moment when neither of them moved, when they didn't even blink.
And Savannah missed Brittany, too.
She looked away.
"You're sure this is going to work," she whispered. The glow
around Paytan deepened, grew, and her voice was thick with power.
"I will _make_ it work."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
The last shot nearly severed the demon's right arm, and as it
jerked backward screaming Allen darted around it and bolted for the
tunnel, wiping the blood from his hands as he ran. The last thing he
needed right now was slippery fingers.
Paytan had ordered the demons not to hurt them, only to keep them
away. That made them vulnerable. She'd also set three of them on him and
only one or two on Savannah. Which meant she thought he was the more
dangerous of the two, and more likely to be able to stop her. She was
still thinking clearly, at least.
He pulled out a tightly rolled bundle of cloth and shook it out
as he ran. A trenchcoat fluttered open, once a brilliant orange color,
now faded and patched over with a cacophony of rainbow pieces of fabric.
He had gotten it before they'd set out into the city, just after Sarah
had shown up and reminded him how great an effect certain objects could
have on people. It fit tightly over his shoulders, and the sleeves barely
reached his wrists. Brittany was far smaller than he, but luckily she had
worn the trenchcoat a few sizes too large. It should be enough to give
Paytan pause. To open a chink in her armor long enough to let him inside.
He could hear her chanting as he ran, her voice growing louder
until it boomed all around him as he burst into the cavern. The whole
world was lit up, brighter than the last time. Everything was rimmed in
white light.
Even her.
She was standing with the Net.cronomicon in one hand, her eyes
blazing, voice full of purpose and anger. She was more vulnerable than
Payton had ever been, and that called to him. He would not loose her
again. But the spell was already building to climax, the air rippling
thickly over his skin like water. Allen turned his run into a sprint,
straight at Paytan. Almost out of time. He nearly didn't see Savannah,
standing off on Paytan's right. Why the hell wasn't she doing anything?
Then Paytan spun to face him, nearly dropping the book, the words
stopping cold. He could see the shock on her face, the incomprehension
and the flash of rage that followed after when she realized it wasn't
Brittany after all, that she had been tricked. He could feel the power in
the air begin to shudder and loose consistency.
Then Savannah was lifting her rifle to point at _him_, and he
realized she'd turned. Paytan had said something to her, convinced her.
He should never have trusted her not to go soft. But it didn't matter.
She would never have enough time to aim.
He was halfway there, preparing to go into a tackle that would
send both he and Paytan to the ground and out of the way in case the
summoning spell exploded. If he was lucky it would knock the
Net.cronomicon from her hands, as well.
He never expected Savannah to just pitch the rifle at him. But a
second later the barrel was tangling up his legs and he was falling.
Do you love me? asked Paytan's voice inside his head.
"Yes," he whispered. "It's why I'm doing this."
He kept rolling, let his hands close around the rifle and bring
it to bear on Paytan as he came up into a crouch. The neon green cords
rose up around him then, a ghost brush of lips against his own, and her
voice.
I love you too. I'm sorry.
Then the cords were twining around his wrists, his ankles,
climbing around his mouth. He had a moment of bitter satisfaction when he
realized she probably muffled him because she thought he'd be able to
talk her out of it. The rifle clattered to the floor. Paytan shouted a
few guttural phrases, and the power snapped back into place, washing
everything in white light once again.
The air turned ice cold.
Allen felt a pain deep in the center of his chest. He was
helpless. For all his effort he still wasn't going to succeed. Shadows
rolled up around him, and for a moment he sensed Paytan's intangible
attention on him. She was hiding him. Allen tried to scream, tried to
think at her, but there was no response.
Then the tangled circle at the center of the cavern sucked all
the light into it, swallowed it whole. Even Paytan's eyes went dark. A
high whine came up, like a thousand crickets through an amplifier, as
Allen strained to see through the blackness. The stone beneath him had
turned almost to ice.
Two spots of neon green flared back into existence, and he could
see Paytan's face by the light of her eyes. Tiny clouds of mist poured
from her mouth as she breathed. He gave the bonds a tremendous yank, but
did nothing more than wrench his wrist. She had made them strong.
Twin beams of light swirled up from the circle, like small
tornadoes. They unraveled to reveal two men in softly glowing white
robes. On each of their backs were two tiny stubs, with a few small
feathers hanging from them. By now it was so cold Allen could barely feel
his toes. He saw Savannah wrap her arms around her stomach and shiver. He
hoped she froze to death.
But these weren't demons. No wonder she'd needed the
Net.cronomicon. They looked like angels, but Allen was pretty sure you
couldn't just go around summoning real angels. It didn't work that way.
<Our word is our bond and our bond has a price,> boomed the first
being, nearly eight feet tall, with frosted black hair and the beaked
nose of high class butler.
<Who calls?> asked the second, considerably shorter, with a gun
belt buckled over its paunch and white robes. Two six shooters hung at
his sides.
"I, Paytan Valkalian, have summoned you here. I have a task for
you," she said. "Name yourselves."
<Zurial,> growled the tall one, glaring at her, eyes flicking
from here to there across the cavern.
<Morhpiel,> said the short one, fingers tap-tapping on his
holsters. <You summon us, but we name the terms.>
<I don't like her,> muttered Zurial. <Give her a test. A plague
on Israel. The mane of a manticore.>
<We don't even know what she wants yet. Maybe she has a good
suggestion.>
"I want to gamble," said Paytan. "You lost your wings for the
dice, and -- "
<We did not loose our wings to the _dice_, you little fool,>
hissed Zurial.
<Got ourselves some women, and the Old Man didn't like _that_ so
much.>
<It was unfortunate. We won _them_ in a game of dice and bones. I
did not care for mine, but the All Father was dissatisfied nonetheless.>
<Hey, I _loved_ Shaiqua.>
"You won them in a gambling game?" asked Savannah softly.
"They were angels, set to watch over Chance," said Paytan. "What
do you expect?"
<It was tiring after a while, rolling our metaphorical dice
every morning. Will it be sunny or cloudy? Will there be drought this
year? Money became a fascination.>
<Whores got us Fallen. Got us good.>
<My friend exaggerates. We are not quite that far gone,> said
Zurial. He looked at Paytan coldly. <Unlike you.>
"I need you to bring back a soul, and create a body for it. As if
its owner had never died at all, as if she'd grown from a child,
untouched." Paytan still had the Net.cronomicon cradled in her hands,
head held high.
<A resurrection,> breathed the tall one.
"Yes. A resurrection."
<That ain't cheap,> yawned Morphiel. <Ain't gettin' that for the
price of a song.>
<Actually, the rights to certain songs these days are worth quite
a bit,> said Zurial, stepping forward until his toes nearly touched the
edge of the chalk circle. <But no, nothing like that on this day. We
accept your request.>
He pulled from somewhere within his voluminous robes a perfectly
squared deck of cards. <Black and it is mine,> he said, and flung the
cards into the air.
<No. Black's _mine_,> said Morphiel. He whipped a gun out of its
belt and fired once, directly behind himself. The bullet ricocheted off
the invisible wall extending above the chalk circle, and one of the cards
spun suddenly in the air.
Both beings were waiting until all the cards had settled to the
ground. Allen saw different faces on each one of the small paper
rectangles as they fell, changing as each card fluttered earthward. Five
of hearts, the Fool, three broken likes over three whole ones.
Morphiel leaned down to pick up the card with the hole in it.
<Dammit. Red.>
Zurial smiled and plucked the card from his compatriot's fingers.
He clenched his hand, crumpling it out of sight, and when he opened it
again a penny lay in his palm.
He balanced it on the tip of his pointer finger, held it between
himself and Paytan as he looked her over consideringly. She looked him
straight in the eye, proud, waiting, and Allen felt as if his heart would
burst.
<Get her raped,> said Morphiel. <Get some comeuppance out for what
those women done to us.>
<No. My choice,> said the tall one. <Heads, the girl wins. She gets
the resurrection, and becomes our wife. For the ones we lost. Tails, she
loses. She dies, and we get her soul, to use as we please for all
eternity.> Allen felt something his stomach go cold and hard.
Zurial threw the penny suddenly, with the force of a bullet
behind it, directly at Paytan. It cracked off the invisible shield and
bounced once on the stone floor, spinning into the air.
Spinning, and falling, end over end, side over side, and the
results didn't matter because either way Paytan was gone forever.
It hit the ground, ricocheted up again then settled to a stop at
Zurial's feet. He looked down his nose at it. <Heads.>
He met Paytan's eyes. <Strip. Come here.>
Allen screamed, so loud he could feel his throat going raw. His
fault. His fault, and he'd let her go again. But the neon green bands
muffled it, dulled it into a faint whisper that reached no farther than a
foot. And the shadows Paytan had set to cover him still held strong, and
the beings did not see him.
Paytan shrugged her jacket off, let it fall to the ground behind
her with the rustle of cloth. She took a step toward the circle. Allen
thrashed wildly. She knew he would die for her. She knew he would do
this, and why wouldn't she let him go, dammit!
"No," said Savannah.
No one was listening to her. Savannah took a few steps forward,
until the chalk circle was right at her feet. "Paytan, goddammit, NO! I
am so _tired_ of people going away!" she yelled. "We lost Brittany, and
Nei, and Kismet, and Viveka went and killed all these people I never even
met, and now she's dead too, and I don't think I can take it if you -- I
think I'll crumple up and die."
Neon green bands coiled around Savannah's ankles and feet, held
her where she stood. Zurial held out a hand toward Paytan. <A life for a
life,> he said.
Savannah thrashed, but another cord wrapped around her upper
chest, pinning her arms to her sides and keeping her from simply toppling
into the circle. Paytan was at the edge of the circle now too. She was
avoiding Savannah's gaze, as if she didn't even exist. Savannah screamed
something half-formed at them all. Morphiel was watched her, head tilted
back just a little.
<Wait,> he said. Zurial let his hand fall to its side, glancing
at Morphiel in annoyance. <This one wants in.>
"No she doesn't," said Paytan. "She's not a part of the deal.
Ignore her."
Morphiel fingered his gun. <No.>
Zurial looked from Morphiel to Savannah, then finally to Paytan.
<Release her. Or the whole deal's off,> he hissed.
Paytan shook her head. "No." There was a moment of silence, the
two beings staring at her like stone. Then the air around them began to
grow bright, and waver. They were leaving.
Paytan gave a small cry and the cords around Savannah
disintegrated. The horned girl looked over at her.
"Savannah, please," whispered Paytan.
"You ran off and left me to deal with this on my own. You
abandoned us all, and now you want a favor? I'm doing this," snarled
Savannah.
<Another gamble,> said Morphiel, looking pointedly at the tall
one. <Mine, this time.> Zurial nodded in resignation.
"All or nothing," said Savannah. Both beings broke out laughing.
<You got to be kidding,> said Morphiel. <We never do nothin' for
free. What are we, charity?>
"Fine. If I win, I want to pay the price, not Paytan."
<You lose, we get everything. Both of you, for whatever we want.
You win... hm. You got anything good? Haven't had one of those long
hopeless quests in a while...>
"I've got something," said Savannah quickly. "I destroyed a demon
with it. You can take it from me." Allen watched in disbelief. They were
both going to get themselves killed.
Both the beings brightened up considerably. <A demon, really?>
said the tall one to himself. <My, my.>
<Deal,> said Morphiel. <So, shall we use the cards -->
"No," said Savannah. "You got to name terms because Paytan
declared the method of decision. You've already named terms for me, so I
get to choose how we decide this."
Morphiel squinted at her for a moment, fingering his guns.
<Fine.>
"You do contests as well, right? Tests of strength and such?"
<Yeah,> Morphiel smiled fondly, <Arm wrestled this guy once. He
had all the strength of a baby. I near tore his arm off. You want to do
something like that, I'm game.>
"So I can pick anything?"
Morphiel nodded, and Savannah grinned the biggest grin Allen
had ever seen in his whole life, her eyes fading from misty grey into the
color of cold steel.
"Staring contest."
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Absalom closed his eyes as he finished his chant, standing at the
top of a mountain. His dainty red hat had been lost when the demon
knocked him over the cliff's edge and stole his staff, but at least he
had kept his loincloth. Now it fluttered in the wind caused by his
spellcasting.
Demons did not rise up from the Hells and steal things of their
own volition. It had taken him this long to work the spells to find the
summoner, but he had done it. And he knew where his staff was. He had
planned to spend another thirty days yet in meditation, and his peace had
been ruined, his prize possession torn from him. Someone was going to
pay dearly for this. The chant reached a climax and the air began to
twist around him, the teleport spell kicking in. He clapped his hands,
and disappeared.
He arrived at Ragnarok. Or at least it seemed so.
People, demons, and machines fought everywhere. Absalom froze. He
could have sworn that his staff had remained on the same plane. Had he
miscast the spell, mumbled a line when he shouldn't have? Impossible.
Then a girl darted in front of him, her hair tangled with tiny
pebbles and dust.
"Hey!" he cried, reaching out to grab her, "Tell me what's going --
"
He got a flash of her narrowed eyes as she dodged out of the way,
then a hail of small stones cracked into his skull. Absalom shouted and
threw himself backward, his shoulders jarring painfully into the stone
wall. A fine covering of dust coated his mouth and throat and he fell to
the ground, hacking and gagging. He could barely see through the tears
the coughing had brought up, could not speak to cast a spell, and still
the tiny stones pelted him. One of them shot into his ear and the right
side of his skull exploded into pain.
Finally the assault ended. He lay on the cool stone, panting
heavily between coughs. The battle continued on unabated, people
screaming, shots fired. He let his breathing slow again to normal. Never
again in his life would he be so foolish as to teleport somewhere without
arriving shielded. He had grown overconfident, and paid for it.
Slowly, he sat up.
And looked right into the beady eyes of a small humanoid
creature, covered in fur. It looked like a giant teddy bear, and it
carried a spear.
It looked at him for a moment, then turned and ran into the
battle. Another followed it, barely giving him a glance. And another
after that. Absalom turned slowly, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
They were pouring out of nearly every tunnel entrance and crack
in the whole cavern. He had read of these beings. Their cuteness leeched
the strength and prowess from even the greatest warrior. They were
rumored to be able to defeat a force twice their size equipped with armor
and guns, while they only spears and crude catapults. It would be useless
to try to fight them. Suicidal.
Absalom threw himself to his feet, and ran like hell.
He spotted a curve in the cave wall, a gap where he could
conceal himself with little fear of discovery, and sprinted for that,
loincloth flapping.
He swung around the wall, nearly knocking his head on the stone,
and dropped into a crouch in the relative darkness. It took him less than
a second to realize he was not alone. For an irrational moment he did not
want to find out what was with him, lest it be just as horrible as the
creatures outside. But he braced himself, and wheezed out a single
syllable.
A tiny light flared at the end of his pointer finger, and he
found himself face to face with _another_ girl, this one looking as if
she was barely into her teens. A fading cut ran down the side of her face
to her neck, and disappeared beneath her shirt. She clutched a fishbowl
in her hands, with a tiny goldfish inside.
"Who are you?" she had time to snarl, before he muttered a few
more guttural phrases and floated her unceremoniously out of the gap and
back into the battle. Absalom'd had a hard day so far, and didn't much
feel like sharing his hiding spot. But he did stick his head out a
little, to see how she did.
She kept cursing even when the spell cut out and dumped her onto
the ground on her back. Miraculously, both water and fish remained in the
bowl even after being tossed around. Then one of the great metal beasts
crunched up to her, and she turned to look down the barrel of a huge gun.
Absalom almost felt bad for a moment.
"Are you loyal to the Avatar of Skaine?" she asked. The gun
jerked back and forth.
A voice piped out of the mecha, staticky and uncertain. "Should I
shoot, call over the others, or just step on her? Would it be better if
-- agh! I can't decide, I just don't -- "
Another mecha shouldered in between them. "I am loyal to Skaine's
Avatar. Who are you?"
"Sarah Loman, Avatar of Binky."
Absalom froze. He had just tossed the Avatar of a minor cosmic
power around like a doggie toy. Generally they didn't take well to that.
Slowly he began to mutter the words to another teleportation spell.
Whoever had taken his staff could have it, if this was the sort of thing
they were regularly involved in. They clearly needed it.
"We must get you to safety," said the mecha.
"Yes! And Kalyani! He says he wants to come here!"
The top of the mecha popped open, and a grizzled man in his late
forties looked out at her curiously. "Here, he says?"
"Yes, dammit! He said he would come here, and get me the hell
out!"
"Huh," said the mech driver, and hit a few buttons. Then he
climbed out of the mech and hopped to the ground. The Avatar of Binky
gave him a strange look, and he ushered her off to the side. "You might
want to step away, Miss. This could get a little dangerous," he said.
Absalom shrunk further into his hiding place as the entire mecha began to
glow a strong electric blue.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Like iron, or steel. Like a stick of diamond jammed straight into
the pupil of the eye. Paytan had been unconscious when Savannah used her
powers in Hell and took out a demonlord wholesale. But she could see now,
how it might have happened.
Savannah's eyes were intense, indescribable, her gaze a weapon in
its own right. She and Morphiel were nose to nose up against the
invisible barrier that kept the beings penned in the summoning circle,
looking deeply into each other's eyes. Whoever looked away first, lost.
Morphiel was sweating buckets.
"You want to know what I destroyed a demon with?" whispered
Savannah without smiling. There hadn't been any expression on her face
since the contest started, just a mask of fierce concentration. Morphiel
did not reply.
<Bitch,> hissed Zurial, glaring balefully at Paytan. She ignored
him.
Thank God she'd tied up Allen and hidden him. He would have been
in the middle of this faster than Savannah had. She could still feel him
struggling off to the side. This was supposed to have been simple. She
killed someone, she summoned demons, and then she would _pay_ for it, and
Brittany would be back. Wrongs righted, evil punished. Then Savannah had
to get involved, like an idiot.
Morphiel moaned, and Paytan's attention was drawn back to the
contest. She couldn't even look at Savannah any more. It was like the
other girl was watching her from the corner of her eye, constantly.
Paytan didn't want to know what it would be like if she was actually the
focus of her attention right now. Savannah narrowed her eyes slightly,
and Paytan swore she could see the air begin to glow slightly between her
eyes and Morphiel's.
"I can see your heart," whispered Savannah.
Morphiel threw his head back and SCREAMED.
Savannah slammed her eyes shut and stumbled back, laughing.
<Son of a bitch!> shouted Morhpiel. <SON of a _bitch_!>
Zurial cursed quietly, then sighed and straightened his robes. He
put his arm over Morphiel's shoulders, who was bent over with his hands
rubbing his eyes, still screaming imprecations.
Savannah tottered over and leaned heavily on Paytan, still
laughing. She hadn't opened her eyes yet. "I knew it!" she crowed. "Oh
God, oh god." Then her legs gave out, and Paytan had to lower her to the
ground.
"What's wrong? What's -- "
"I'm still really focused. I didn't want to knock myself out, so
I closed my eyes. Give it a few minutes," wheezed Savannah, still
laughing just a little. "Did you see? I did it!"
"I saw," said Paytan, smiling in spite of herself. Tiny rocks
spattered against the barrier a few inches away, and Paytan glanced up.
Zurial had kicked at them, tossing a few pebbles up against the barrier.
<You won,> he said. <And we get the thing that destroyed a
demon.>
"What do you think that just was?" asked Savannah, her face
buried in Paytan's shoulder. "A parlor trick?"
<Believe her,> mumbled Morphiel, trying to stand upright without
leaning on Zurial.
<On the whole, it's not a _horrible_ bargain.>
<We can make the taking of it painful, at least,> growled
Morphiel.
<Yes.> Zurial smiled thinly.
Paytan took a shaky breath and squeezed Savannah's shoulder, then
stood. "So. We won."
<Yes. I suppose you want your end of the deal?>
"Yes," whispered Paytan. She could feel her heart begin to beat
faster. She crouched down again and gently closed the Net.cronomicon, set
it to the side. She didn't need it anymore.
<The power to do a resurrection,> said Zurial.
"We bargained _for_ a resurrection, not the power to do one," said
Paytan.
<Screw it,> said Zurial. <I didn't like you in the beginning, and
I don't like you now. This is close enough. You'll be able to do it
anyway, if you're strong.> He smiled, and Paytan knew that this would not
be as easy as it sounded. She was losing control of things. This wasn't
what was supposed to happen at _all_.
"But the Net.cronomicon says you _always_ hold true to your word --
"
<That book was written a long time ago. Once we were angels, now
we aren't. Once we held true to the very spirit of the bargains,> said
Zurial.
<Hey, so we're slipping a little. This is close enough,> said
Morphiel, still rubbing at his eyes. Both the beings were beginning to
glow, brighter than when they arrived. Paytan felt Allen begin to thrash
against the bonds again.
"No -- "
<I'll even get it started for you,> hissed Zurial, and air
blasted into the room. Paytan stumbled back a step. She wasn't ready, not
yet --
The room filled with power and roared, the force of the universe
howling around them, the ties of cause and effect, of reality, weakening
under the force of the gale.
The door snapped open, and Paytan stood no longer on the floor of
a tiny cave beneath the south side of Net.ropolis.
The universe was in motion.
A great black void opened above her, cold enough to stab into her
bones and shatter them to dust, vast as the empty stomach of some
nameless behemoth. There was a sense of such _weight_ to the emptiness
above her, enough of it to crush the entire human race in the blink of an
eye. She mattered nothing.
Her entire life, no matter how high she flew, would leave only
the barest of marks on humanity. Everyone she knew would be dead in a
generation. Her name would be forgotten in two, at the most, relegated to
the faceless mass of ancestors that every person thought of when they got
back too far to think of an individual. Given centuries more, humanity
itself would be gone.
The mountains would outlast them, and remember nothing of what
their species had wrought and struggled for their entire existence.
The universe spun, and she saw the future inviolate, the earth
swept into the expanding train of the sun, until it went nova and washed
out the solar system, until the galaxy itself fluxed and shuddered and
collapsed. Until the blackness came at the very end and tore it all away,
cycle after cycle.
Paytan Valkalian did not have any value at all.
A grain of sand could not reach up and snuff the sun.
This empty blackness crashed around her as the ocean would,
drowning a tiny babe in its surf. She felt all the trappings of magic
fall away from her, the books and baubles and sacrifice. Lies. Nothing
but roads, and never a destination.
Only will remained.
She took a step forward, felt her feet hit the ground. I exist,
she thought. I exist.
Somewhere far away she heard Savannah scream, and had a flash of
Savannah dead, Nei dead, Kismet gone, Brittany dead. It came back to her.
This was _it_.
Paytan spread out her hands.
She had the power of two ex-angels, five ancient artifacts, the
slavery of hell, everything in her, and all these so tiny and so
worthless, but in this place the thing she wanted to change was tiny and
worthless as well, one small switch in the whole damned machine --
Whiteness drowned out everything. She was in a nexus, flying or
falling, with power all around her and just about to breach. Now. Paytan
laughed.
Then she froze, as realization hit her. She could fix herself.
She could neutralize her powers, make it so that no demon would ever be
able to summon her again. Wipe away the ram's horns and replace the
glowing eyes with her old familiar brown ones, do everything but turn
back the clock itself. Or she could bring back Brittany.
Only time enough for one.
Paytan smiled, and reached out.
With a sound like distant thunder, she was back. The two beings
were gone, the cavern empty. Paytan fell to her knees, her deep breaths
the only sound. For a moment the only light in the whole cavern came from
her eyes, a lambent neon green.
Then something faint began to happen inside the circle. Savannah
lay on her side on the stone, eyes closed. Above her the air grew
slightly opaque, and began to toss.
It filled the circle and thrashed about the edges for a bit,
until it poured over Paytan's chalk lines and across the floor to lap at
her legs. At the very center the air continued to darken. Savannah moaned
and shifted, then sat up. She glanced around, then rubbed her eyes and
did it again. Looked everywhere, gaze darting here and there across the
cave, without any problem at all. Then she spotted the coils of smoke
above her head, and scooted out of the way.
Slowly, like dawn's light creeping over distant hills, Brittany
formed out of the mists.
Then two of Paytan's demons hurtled backward into the cave, and
the massive brawl from outside poured in after them.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Electric blue light cracked around the body of the mecha. Other
participants in the battle moved away as bits of metal fell off,
disintegrated, or burned up as if they were paper in a forest fire. With
a wrenching wail the form of the mecha disappeared entirely, metal
shifting and forming into a vague torus then swallowed entirely in the
light.
The light faded, leaving a sixteen year-old boy with dark hair
and skin hovering a few feet off the ground.
"I am Kalyani Sahay, Avatar of Skaine. I command this nonsense to
be stopped!" his voice was authoritative, commanding. No one paid him any
mind.
Dust watched from the shadows as this went on. Great, just what
everybody needed, _another_ combatant. She had gone to ground after the
strange guy in a loincloth and those funny teddy-bear things showed up.
She could have sworn they were straight out of some science fiction movie
she'd seen when she was a kid.
Then every mecha in the whole cavern lit up with electric blue,
and froze. Kalyani glowered at them all. "I said, STOP."
"Hey!" said Mouse. "Look, we wo -- " with a popping sound, both
she and Writers Block Woman were gone.
Dust perked up a little. Maybe he would be useful after all.
Mr.Exposition and Kid Camouflage had already made tracks with a captive
Reality agent, leaving herself and Bryan behind to make sure Janey didn't
get hurt while she kept the mecha busy with those two LNHers. Not to
mention Bryan probably wouldn't leave his stupid smoochie LNH girlfriend,
Out-of-It Lass. Dust snorted. But they were done, anyway. Time to get
Janey and get out.
She scanned the cavern and the remaining brawls, looking for the
youngest member of the Junior Brotherhood of Net.Villains. There were
still quite a few of the humans running around with guns, three huge
demons, the frozen mechs, and loads of the little furry guys. Not to
mention Bryan, the Avatar guy, the girl near him, and the funny guy with
a loincloth trying to hide against the wall.
There was Janey, huddled in a corner by herself. Dust checked
cautiously, making sure no one was looking to throw a spear or shoot at
her, then darted out.
She was past the Avatar guy, who was talking urgently with the
girl near him, and halfway to Janey when the three demons disappeared in
flashes of sulfur and heat. Which left the furry guys and the Reality
agents to turn on each other. But there weren't that many of the Reality
agents left, and so she got the spillover.
Dust found herself pelted with rocks and tripwires. She was
somehow unable to do any harm to the creatures with her powers. It was as
if she became incompetent in their mere presence.
So she quit trying to use her powers, leaped over one of the
creatures, and sprinted straight for Janey. Until some weird rope-rock
thing swung around her legs and sent her straight to the ground.
Dust rolled but came up short against one of the creatures, and
found herself surrounded by them. All of them had spears.
Then the whole cavern lit up and everyone, she and her captors
included, were turning to watch. The Avatar guy and the girl he'd been
arguing with were floating back to back in the center of the cavern,
ringed in electric blue and braids of gold-black-fuscia. Their power
shot through the remaining battle, and stopped it in its tracks.
Stalactites turned to pointy Halloween candy. The guns of the
remaining Reality agents glowed electric blue in their hands, and began
to grow strange wires and chips. Spears became giant plastic light
sabers. Sometimes the stone just turned to marble, or black like
obsidian.
Then one of the corridors next to Janey flared bright neon green,
hurling some furry guys before it, and four people walked out of the
light. But just then a flare of gold-black-fuscia turned the rope and
rock thing around her legs into a hot pink cobra, and Dust got up fast.
The snake latched onto one of the furry things.
She ran for Janey.
A stray blast of something sent a furry thing barreling into the
four people from the side tunnel. A massive flare of neon green sent it
hurling back into the air and away, and Dust got a good look at the cause
of it.
The girl with horns, who had nearly killed Rebecca, and her
friends. One of them was apparently hurt, and couldn't walk without
support. Or she was laughing too hard. Or something.
The horned girl laughed, the deep kind that only happens every
once in a while, from the very center of the body. She clutched a huge
book in one arm, and a flock of doves swept by her. Then there was neon
green flashing in great bursts among the already riotous combination of
electric blue and gold-black-fuscia. The teddy-bear things began to run.
Something drew her gaze to the tunnel leading to the cavern the
four had come out of. She could barely see where it widened out, and bits
of rocks and other things were scattered across the floor. There was one
particular thing, cubelike. A box.
In the distance she could hear screams. Not from the battle. From
her own head, as if in the past, so far away...
Dust took another shaky step toward the place where Paytan cast
her spell. She felt funny.
Even though she could barely see the box she knew what it looked
like, could describe it down to the barest inch. Muddied clay and crystal
hinges, half-formed corners. HERS.
The humans thought they could keep it from her. Didn't even know
what they had.
Some part of her wondered, in surprise, where did this come from?
And Janey was crying.
But who cared about the little shit, anyway?
Dust took two quick steps toward the tunnel and the box. I am
more than I know I am, she thought.
Then Janey wailed and fell into her arms. She nearly threw the
stupid wisp off her and to the ground. A child, thought Dust. That's
what I have to work with.
"C'mon!" she smiled brightly. Eat it up, you fool. "Let's go look
at the cavern!"
Then a wave of neon green went crashing through the rock, and the
earth swallowed the tunnel whole.
"Stay away from there," called the horned girl. "It's dangerous."
Dust glanced at her, then to the wall of rubble that was all that
remained of the tunnel. She couldn't remember what was so important about
the place, anyway. "C'mon Janey," with a heave she lifted the girl onto
her shoulder. "Let's go home."
The teddy-bear things were on the run, and the loincloth guy had
already left the way he came in. The only things left were the frozen
mecha, Bryan, the two floating glowy people, and the four LNHers from the
tunnel.
"Bryan?" she called, Janey still sniffing on her shoulders.
"Where's Rebecca?"
Out-of-It Lass glanced at her, then off to the side. "She's off
to your left! Unconscious!"
Dust set Janey down gently, and patted her on the shoulder. "Go
see after Rebecca for a moment." Janey nodded and ran off. Bryan was
running to the group of four, toward the blond. Out-of-It Lass.
The one clinging to the horned girl (whose name Dust had never
managed to catch) was Weirdness Girl. She was crying and sobbing,
laughing, making tiny noises in the back of her throat. Dust got close
enough to talk without shouting. She looked at the horned girl curiously.
"Hey, is she okay?"
"She's fine." The horned girl carefully took the other girl's
hands from around her neck, and laid them gently onto Out-of-It Lass's,
then turned to the guy next to her. He was bound by bright strips of neon
green which dragged him floating above the ground, his face red with
anger. "Allen, if I let you go, are you going to attack Brittany again?"
Allen, his mouth covered in a neon green cord of light, screamed
something muffled, glaring. Paytan narrowed her eyes. "I'm willing to
keep you like this until we get back to the LNHHQ," she said.
Bryan sidestepped the one-sided conversation, and leaned toward
Out-of-It Lass. "Savannah, are you okay? Are you sure Brittany's okay?"
Savannah looked into his eyes, and grinned. The other girl's legs
went out and Savannah stumbled slightly until Bryan helped hold the both
of them up. The girl made a sound between a laugh and a cry, her eyes
closed, tears down her cheeks like streaks of rain. "I can't talk," she
said. "I can't talk."
Savannah took Bryan by the arm. "Let her calm down a little,
okay?"
Then Allen and the horned girl both went quiet, and the neon
green pulsed once. Something passed between the two of them, as if they
were speaking without words. "You've seen too many Stephen King movies,"
she whispered, then stepped right up to him and laid her hand gently over
his gagged mouth. "We'll talk about this later." She kissed him on the
forehead, though he continued to struggle. Dust made a disgusted noise.
For a moment there was blissful silence.
Brittany lifted her head from Savannah's shoulder and looked
blurrily at Allen, who glared straight at her.
"Hey," she said. "Why are you wearing my clothes?"
________________________________________________________________________
Brittany, Binky, the Junior Brotherhood of Net.Villains, Out-of-It Lass,
Perdition,
Sarah, and Kalyani copyright Jennifer Whitson, 1995, 1998, 0r 1999.
Explosion
Boy and Kid Camouflage on permanent lend, and WBW and Mouse belong to
Jaelle. Allen is Jamas Enright's. Everyone else is someone's. The Ewoks
hail
from Tales of the LNH #333 - 335. Thanks to Enright for pointing them out.
Next Issue:
Boys and girls, it's a whole new arc out there. Not to mention
the aftermath from this one.
Plus, we're crossing over with a slew of other titles now that
my cast isn't near suicidal.
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