Transition Team Zulu

My cell phone rang very early yesterday morning…the caller ID was blocked.

“Hello?”

The voice at the other end of the line was that familiar deep baritone of Zulu. “How are you Rusty?”

“Fine, Sir. How are you? I hope that you have fully recovered from your recent…ordeal.” He had been placed under secret arrest under the guise of a medical emergency during the big showdown between us and Klimm (El Diablito) and his allies.

He chuckled. “I am entirely fine. In fact, I couldn’t be happier about this country’s political future at the moment.”

“Really, funny, I would have thought that your politics leaned a little more to the right than the new administration’s do.”

“Oh, they do. But even religious conservatives appreciate competence in government, and I have no love for the buffoons that are now on their last months in office. That brings me to reason for this call, in fact.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I need you and your companions to come meet someone very important. There is much to discuss.”

I was definitely curious now. “Who are we going to meet with? Where do you want us to come?”

He paused. “I would like you to bring Ms. Fyre, Frau Tufts, Jasmine, Professor Karlton and…” I could hear his voice catch before he spoke the last name. “Cerrydwen. As to where you need to come, I will be placing one of Ms. Fyre’s beacons in one of the suites at the hotel I am staying at in Chicago. I will activate the beacon at 11 PM your time and will leave it active for exactly 15 minutes. Please be prompt, this is a very important meeting.”

The call ended before I could ask any more questions.


***


The six of us gathered just before eleven o’clock. Trusting that Zulu wasn’t setting us up for an ambush, we were for the most part only lightly armed.

I was carrying my batons in their normal forearm holsters, but they were concealed beneath my heavy leather jacket. I was wearing my normal heavy duty jeans and work boots. I topped it all off with a pair of mirrored sun-glasses despite the time of night.

Except Cerrydwen, everyone else was dressed more formally. Cerrydwen joined me in wearing jeans, boots, a shapeless sweatshirt covered up by a heavy leather jacket.

Jasmine looked radiant in a long black dress that complimented her figure and knee high black boots. The Frau was wrapped in one of her embroidered shawls that covered a nice blouse and pants. Jim was in his professorial uniform of a tweed jacket over a loose turtle neck matched with tan Dockers and casual shoes. Ravyn was more subdued than her normal colorful self, wearing a black and grey turtleneck sweater and black pants. The only touch of her normal flash was a sparkling bird-shaped broach made of gold and rubies that lay nestled between her neck and her right shoulder.

Once we were all assembled in the Transport Room the Frau closed the door and nodded towards Ravyn. We were silent now, but only because we had spent the better part of the day discussing who we were going to meet and why. The theories were quite varied from the wildly fantastic to mere mundane meeting with a new business associate.

Ravyn stretched her arms out like she was embracing the whole group in virtual hug and closed her eyes. “I can feel the Beacon. It is now active. Brace yourselves.”

By the nature of her source of power, Ravyn’s method of mass instantaneous travel was much wrenching and violent than mine used to be. The Shadow is subtle, silent source of soothing strength. Flame, however, is extremely energetic, noisy, and flashy. With a roar, we were enveloped in a burst of flames that didn’t burn and smoke that didn’t choke.

I felt the dislocation from our previous place followed by the disconcerting sense of falling that seemed to last several minutes before a second stomach churning sensation ended the fall in another popping flash and a puff of smoke.

The smoke cleared to reveal a very well apportioned living room that was dominated by the breathtaking view of the Chicago skyline lit up at night at least forty floors up from the street seen through the huge floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows to our immediate front.

Jim cleared his throat before speaking. “Well, I am certainly glad that you hit your spot, Ravyn, my dear, just 15 feet off and we’d still be falling!”

Ravyn looked down, pointing to a spot between her feet. “You can thank Zulu for putting the beacon right here.”

Zulu’s voice behind us got us all to turn around. “Thank you for coming. Please make yourselves comfortable. There are refreshments in the kitchen and on the dining room table. Please help yourselves. I will be escorting you in to meet our host one at a time, starting with you, Rusty.”

I couldn’t resist. “So who is our host, Sir?”

He smiled mysteriously before extending his arm to me. “Why don’t you come see for yourself, Rusty. Please leave your batons here with your colleagues. You won’t be needing them.” He looked over to each of the others. “Please leave any weapons or items of particular power here in this suite when you come with me. Our host’s security requirements are rather strict.”

I hesitated before tapping the release mechanisms for the holsters on each wrist and dropping them onto the sofa. “Who could possibly need this level of security?”

He shrugged. “Please, our host is waiting. He has been exceptionally generous to give us this time from his extremely busy schedule.” He nodded as my holstered batons hit the sofa. “Rusty, if you would be so kind, please come with me.” He looked back to the others as he led me towards a door to the adjoining suite. “I will be back for each of you presently.”

He pulled out a magnetize proximity card from his suit jacket pocket and touched it up against the plain black pad next to the door. There was a gentle click and a soft buzz the let us know that the door was open.

I grabbed the door knob and pushed into the darkened room beyond.

I saw a single figure at the far end of an office like room. The figure was peering out his own floor-to-ceiling window with his back turned to me. I could sense several other people in the room, but they held vigilant positions at the perimeter of the room with a professional poise that told me that this was someone who was Very Important.

The figure was tall and lanky, his hands clasped behind him as he took in the breathtaking view. His profile was instantly recognizable from the past year and a half of a campaign.

Zulu’s voice called out softly, announcing our arrival. “Mr. President-Elect, I would like to introduce you to Agent Rusty Bones, formerly known as Officer Jason Smith of the Dearborn Hills Police Department.”

The newly elected man turned to face us with a calm, thoughtful demeanor. He motioned with a sweeping gesture for us to join him. His voice was smooth as silk while his eyes narrowed as he took in my appearance. I could tell that he was sizing me up. “Agent Bones, please come have a seat. We have much to discuss…”

Harshing My Mellow

Nothing soothes the savage, newly vampiric zombie like a nice, hot shower.

Before my latest transformation, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the act of taking shower. The sensual pulse of the spraying water would’ve been lost to me before, leaving behind a sopping mess of dead, wet flesh.

Now, however, I looked forward to being able to take a shower. The water was scalding hot since I didn’t even bother to use the cold water. The steam from the shower and the steady stream of sound created by the water crashing into my body helped create a cocoon of solitude that usually left me invigorated and refreshed.

Not even ten minutes into my late night ritual, my mellow mood was harshly interrupted by the insistent pounding on the glass shower door.

“Dad! Dad! Ravyn needs you right now!”

I turned off the shower to hear my daughter’s voice calling out as she continued pound on the shower door.

“Dad, hurry up! Ravyn needs you!”

“Calm down, Jazz. I can hear you. What’s going on?”

As the steam began to subside, I wiped away enough of the inside of the glass door to look out at her face as I reached for the towel hanging just above the door with my other hand.

Her face showed obvious concern. “I’m not sure. I was studying in my room when I got an emergency message from Ravyn through one of her special fire stones.”

I wrapped the towel around my waist before the glass door completely de-fogged. “What did the message say?”

“It was really short. All she said was ‘Get your father to the workshop, armed for battle.’ So I came to get you straight away.”

“Ah shit. She’s with Cerrydwen, isn’t she?” I opened the door and stepped out.

Jasmine nodded. “I think so.”

“Alright, go let Jim and the Frau know, rouse the others. Get everyone on alert and armed. Who knows what those two have come across this time.”

As Jasmine rushed out, I dropped the towel and padded into my room. It wasn’t exactly a bedroom since I didn’t have to sleep, but it was my personal space decorated to my own very bizarre tastes. (I will provide details and a description in a later post.) Cursing aloud, I opened the closet and quickly began gearing up for a battle.

After getting dressed, I grabbed my batons and slipped them into their normal placed and then debated between the modified M-16 assault rifle and the powerful .45 magnum Desert Eagle handgun. Both weapons were loaded with the special ammunition that Jasmine and her team of assistants had been working on for months now. In fact, the bullets in my weapons were unique even compared to the other rounds that Jasmine had been working on. I still refused to take up any firearms unless they could be designed to harm only the person or foe that I designated with each pull of the trigger.

It was only quite recently that Jasmine had made the breakthrough that could allow for the creation of these ultimate smart bullets.

Remembering the last time I needed to respond with similar short notice, I grabbed the belt that held the holstered handgun and snapped it into place on my waist and grudgingly reached for the rifle as well. It had taken me a couple of weeks, and buckets of fresh blood, to recover from that last battle, back before I had the advantage of these weapons. I really missed having Excalibur in that battle!

I slipped out the back door of the Den and ran down the twisting, wood-lined trail that led to workshop.

The workshop was actually a fairly innocuous looking steel-framed and roof barn that was set up with the rear end of the building butting up against a towering, ridgeline that allowed for the heart of the ‘workshop’ to be concealed inside the hill itself. The steel building held all sorts of rather mundane lawn and gardening equipment, ATV’s, snowmobiles, and other tools, but it was the door leading out the rear of the building that I was heading towards.

The door was slightly ajar, which was standard practice when Ravyn or Cerrydwen were working inside, so I yanked it all the way open and stormed down the rough hewn stone steps that led down towards the real workshop below. I was vaguely aware of the voices of Jim and the Frau calling out to the others as they followed a few hundred feet back down the trail.

I slipped the safety off on the assault rifle as I hurtled down into the unnatural darkness of the stairwell—that was one of Cerrydwen’s personal touches, “…to help scare away any curiosity seekers who happened to slip through our other wards,” as she had put it at the time. No mundane light would cut through this patch of darkness.

I pushed through the darkened zone confident that I could rely on my other senses to tell if anything was amiss.

Bursting through the other side of the ten foot patch of pure darkness, the stairwell leveled out to a hallway that was marked with several strong steel doors on either side. Small globes of flickering flames hovered on each side of the doors, Ravyn’s touch, of course. I ignored these side doors even though each led to someone’s individual workshop. None of these would be where the trouble was brewing.

No, it was the double doors at the far end of the hall that drew my attention. Those doors opened up into the Summoning Chamber. There were bright flashes of light and the sounds of a major struggle taking place behind those doors.

I slowed my advance just long enough to take a deep breath and to gather my strength.

With my finger on the trigger of the rifle and my resolve firmly in place, I yanked on the heavy silver lined-steel left door and stepped into the maelstrom.

The room was far larger than one would have imagined it could be. It was easily fifty feet wide, another fifty feet deep, with a ceiling that vaulted up at least 4 feet in the center. The center of the room was normally dominated by the etched image of a large pentagram that served as the summoning circle. At the moment, however, the center of the room was a blazing dark mass of writhing tentacles, misshapen heads, clawed arms and feet that seemed to be growing darker and stronger despite the best efforts of Cerrydwen and Ravyn. It was a true Lovecraftian nightmare.

Cerrydwen was wearing her highly modified travelling armor that she had designed for her journeys with Ravyn. Her torso was covered front and back with shiny plates of reflective metal that weighed no more than plastic might, but gave the protection of Teflon-coated steel. Her head was uncovered, her helmet having been apparently knocked off by a flailing tentacle. Her face showed a large purple bruise across her cheek and several small gashes that trailed blood as she dodged additional attacks by ducking behind a heavy table and lashing out with her carved black travelling staff.

Ravyn was on the opposite side of the chamber, surrounded by huge shroud of flame as she directed beams of highly concentrated fire to fend off the limbs that were trying to get at her. As quickly as she sliced off one offending limb, three more lashed out at her. She was ankle deep in the thick black goo of flambéed chaos, still apparently unhurt, but seemingly flagging under the constant assault.

Cerrydwen was the first to see me enter the room, followed almost instantaneously by the abomination. “Rusty, aim for the heads! It will be the only way to kill this thing!”

Even as I leveled the rifle towards the creature, it shifted its focus from both of the women towards me. Its body shifted constantly, heads appearing and disappearing every moment in different spots. There had to be at least six of them at any one time. Before I could begin to take a bead on one however, I was besieged by a wave of attacking limbs. A second wave of shrieking, wailing sound crashed over me drowning out all further attempts to communicate with either woman as the screams of thousands of tortured souls emanated from the creature.

Tentacles spiked with razor sharp teeth and nasty looking suckers lashed out my legs and hands, but I pushed forward anyway, snapping off a series of shots just to see what kind of impact these rounds would have on the creature’s body and limbs.

The noise from the creature was so great that I didn’t even hear the report of the rifle as it fired. The creature recoiled briefly as it was blasted by the bullets. The bullets seemed to burst into the thing, exploding in colorful flashes of energy that dissolved limbs and tore chunks from the body.

But that reprieve didn’t last long. The entire mass of the creature seemed to lurch forward. I was overwhelmed in an avalanche of tearing, rending, burrowing appendages. The rifle was torn from my grasp and I was driven to the ground, buried under its bulk as it tried to consume me.

Ignoring the nearly unbearable pain of the creature’s attacks, I managed to get a hold of one of large, malformed heads before it could recede back into its bulk again and squished it like a grape.

The bulk shuddered around me as I felt more than saw Ravyn’s renewed assault with her flame bolts. I could also sense another head explode just above me as Cerrydwen was able to focus her own considerable powers upon the beast now that I was its main offensive focus.

The next few moments passed in a haze of pain, struggle, and fear as we fought against this unfathomable horror of a beast. Eventually I was able to free up my right arm in order to draw the Desert Eagle hand gun and begin taking out the head as they appeared. Between Ravyn’s fire bolts, Cerrydwen’s sorcery, and my bullets, the creature finally succumbed and dissolved into a quivering mass of black goo that stunk worse than a chicken carcass left to rot in the sun for week.

Cerrydwen helped me up, extending a bloodied hand to me as she crinkled her nose at the stench. “Why do these things have to stink so damn much?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but it sure makes miss those days when I couldn’t smell shit, literally.”

Ravyn laughed, as she wiped blood and goo from her own face. “I’m glad that Jasmine could get you here so quickly, Rusty. It was looking pretty grim there for a moment.”

“Yeah, well, I was taking a nice hot shower before you summoned me.” I looked down at my battered and thoroughly coated body. “I guess I’m going to have to take another one, aren’t I?” I shifted my gaze to Ravyn. “Where the hell did you guys go this time to attract such a nice…follower?”

Ravyn pointed to the rifle that lay under a few inches of slimy black ooze. “Finding the energy and the ingredients to make weapons like the bullets in those things requires to range a little further out into the multiverse than I’m really comfortable doing. But if we don’t take some of those risks, we’ll never come up with the resources to have a chance in this war we’re waging.”

I reached down into the ooze to pick the weapon up. “Still, if you risk bringing another one of these things back, we might have to reconsider these forays of yours.”

Ravyn punched me in the upper arm. “You’re just jealous because you can’t go gallivanting off like you used to. You never worried about the crap you used to bring back from your trips!”

I threw up my free hand in mock surrender. “OK, OK…I’m guilty on all counts. Let’s call it night.”

The Frau and Jim barged into the room with their own weapons in hand only to curl up their noses and step back in disgust.

I pushed past them as they recoiled, leaving Ravyn and Cerrydwen to explain it all to them. “Hey, I’m going to take a shower and the only other interruption I want is for someone to bring me a fresh pint of O negative.”

The Update Post

Is it me or is Hurricane Gustav trying to find the shortest path to the Twin Cities where the Republican Convention is about to kick-off?

Hey you Evangelical dipshits, God is gonna rain all over your parade. Hmmm…maybe He actually meant it when his Boy was talking all of that shit about turning the other cheek, helping the poor and destitute, and to be nice? Ach…what do I know? I’m just your local unbelieving dead man. It is your religion, not mine, but maybe you Christians should try reading that little book of yours a little closer. That are lots of little nuggets of wisdom allegedly uttered by that long-haired, sandal wearing, do-gooder of a pre-hippie dude that you claim to follow. If more of you actually did that, there would be a hell of a lot less misery in this world.

Ah well, enough of that, for the moment, anyway.

A lot has happened since I met Raxgar in the Alaskan wilderness, much of it worth telling about at some point, but I think it is time to catch the story up to the present day.

The battle in the Alaskan wilderness turned out to be somewhat of a watershed moment in the brewing conflict between the ORC’s and the An’girasii. While the ORC’s lost too many good people that day, including my son Kenny, the losses for the An’girasii were staggering. Three of their most powerful Banes and a dozen Doppelgangers were slain.

Banes aren’t killed very often. But when, on occasion, they are killed, their Spirit finds a new host body and begins the arduous process of modifying that body to suit their desires. That is what happened with the Bane that Drake killed on the tanker ship when he took over my body.

The three who died in that battle with us, however, didn’t just get killed. I absorbed their Spirits into myself, essentially destroying them. This was a crippling blow to the offensive forces of the An’girasii. To make matters worse for the An’girasii, El Diablito used the diversion created by my drawing the Banes and their followers into battle to betray his erstwhile masters. He and his minions snuck into a secret stronghold that the An’girasii had established and stole a large number of artifacts and weapons that the An’girasii had been gathering for their own servants. Among the things he took was an orb that can lead its bearer to where Alexa is being held.

I can’t reveal yet how I know all of this information, but I will tell it when doing so will no longer compromise valuable secrets.

El Diablito and his organization are now the focus of the rage of the An’girasii and their surviving minions which has taken considerable, if temporary, pressure off of the ORC’s.

This brief respite has allowed for the ORC’s to regroup and establish several new bases of operation. I am now back in a rural area just outside of Metro Detroit with my ex-wife and daughter and several of my oldest friends among the ORC’s—including Ravyn, the Frau, Cerrydwen, the Professor and Alora. We are safely tucked away on a large swath of property that the organization has owned and operated for quite some time under an alias that I won’t be divulging here. I will not reveal any more of the location for obvious reasons, other than to give you the name by which we are calling our new home base—the Den.

I use the place as a base of sorts, but spend more than half of my time away on various missions for the Bureau or the ORC’s. Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Wilson was able to settle the situation with the Bureau so that I am now fully restored to my previous position as a Provisional Special Agent. More importantly, I have had my access to the various law enforcement systems restored. I am still free to take on cases as I see fit, but also have to be available on short notice at any time to help the Bureau out with one of their cases as well.

As the strange woman, Me’shwara, had warned, I no longer have easy access to the Shadowland. In the many months since I’ve been back, I’ve only managed to make two short-lived trips, each one consuming tremendous amounts of energy that is not really very easy to store up. I can only shake my head and marvel at how powerful I had become and how much I took that power for granted until I lost it. I now have to get around in more traditional ways. For the most part I travel by way of my black Ninja motorcycle.

Since my latest transition, I have found it easier to move about in society. I’m still the ugliest mug in any given room, by now my skin looks a lot more like skin, even if it is pasty white in color. But I can throw on a hat, some mirrored sun-glasses and a jacket and get by without too much trouble. I still avoid crowds of any sort when I can, but I can mingle freely when I have to.

As mentioned in a previous post, my new body has its full complement of senses. I can smell and taste again, although sometimes I wish I couldn’t taste the kinds of stuff I have to eat in order to build up my strength. In order to be as strong as I need to be, I have to consume a diet of raw meat.

In the last few months I have discovered a lot of information about my new body and how it works. For one, I have a new appreciation for how Drake was able to take on the strongest servants of the An’girasii. Like Drake, I can suffer wounds by weapons big and small, but also like Drake, I have the ability to control my body’s reaction to such attacks on an almost cellular level. In the last few months I have been shot, stabbed, and nearly crushed while investigating various cases. In each case, however, I have been able to absorb the wounds, redirect my energy and resources around the wounded area and keep on trucking. Once the immediate danger is over, I’m then able to heal the damage far quicker than the normal healing process would be if I were a normal person.

Even though I have lost most of my ability to manipulate the Shadow, I have discovered a number of new abilities that also mirror some of the things I watched Drake do. When I haven’t been engaged with cases, I’ve spent hour after hour training to hone the skills that I know that I will need for the coming battles.

In my next post, I will update you on the status of some of my comrades and go into more detail on some of the doings of the other ORC’s.

A Strange Welcome...

Darkness surrounded me as I stepped into the Shadow unsure of where it would take me.

The voice of Me’shwara rang in my mind one last time. “The one you once called El Diablito holds the key to finding Alexa, although he may not yet realize it.”

Just as I tried to wrap my mind around this little nugget of wisdom, I was hit by a blast of cold air. I soon found myself knee deep in frigid snow, my feet crunching through the top crust and slipping on the icy rocks below. It was so painful I dropped my clothes and gear out of shock.

Before I bothered to look around, I started grabbing articles of clothing and throwing them on as quickly as I could. The cold quickly numbed my hands—I could no longer feel my feet at all—so getting dressed became an exercise of frustration that involved more than a little cursing.

The clothing I had with me was hardly designed for a hard winter. I had a pair of ragged black jeans, a long-sleeved black turtleneck shirt, a pair of ankle high black leather boots and the black leather biker jacket I had worn more to hold gear and cover my batons than for warmth. I didn’t have to worry about getting cold before.

I strapped my batons back into place in their special drop holsters on each wrist before slipping into the jacket. By time I was fully dressed I realized that while I was still feeling very cold, I was able to put the discomfort out my mind and force my limbs into working properly.

Standing up straight again, I finally took the time to survey my surroundings. I took a deep breath, tasting the cold, clean air infused with the tangy taste of the surrounding pine forest. It felt so strange to breathe again that it took me a moment to realize that not only could I smell and taste the scents in the air, but I could feel the rushing pulse of a heart pushing blood through my arteries and veins.

I reveled in all of these fresh sensations even as my fingers and toes began to ache with the cold and my stomach let me know that a single fish wasn’t going to last very long.

Layers of fresh snow covered the field of battle, but there were also any number of fresh animal tracks leading up to and around a number of suspicious looking lumps that seemed to correspond to where many of the enemy had died.

A broken shaft of wood protruded from the nearest mound only a few dozen feet away. I pushed through the thigh-deep snow to reach the spot and pulled on the shaft. It came loose with a little effort, revealing the butt end of a thick spear. I used the three foot long shaft to clear away some of the snow to reveal a pile of rotting Reaver carcasses. Their formerly human faces twisted in grim snarls, forever frozen in this final, nearly forgotten death.

Looking down at the remains of these poor bastards, I debated the merits of rifling among the bodies to search for any weapons that might help me take down some fresh dinner, but the distant, high-pitched whine of a motor echoing through the forest caught my attention instead.

I stood up and concentrated on pin-pointing the sound. It could only mean that someone else was nearby. Whoever it was, they were coming closer, perhaps even coming to this very clearing.

I considered whether to hide or not, but decided that meeting an enemy would be better than not seeing anyone at all. I began to plough through the snow towards where I estimated the snowmobile was coming from.

Before I could reach the edge of the clearing, a single snowmobile emerged from the tree line along a path that I failed to notice before. The rider pulled up the machine and disengaged the transmission as soon as he saw me.

The rider was a big man, a rugged man by the look of his clothing. He was dressed in furs from the neck down, including heavy mittens and boots that had a home-made appearance. The only concession to modernity was a heavy black motorcycle helmet with a full-mirrored visor. I could tell that he was a man though by the long, thick beard that pushed out beneath his visor, even if it did almost blend in with the furs he wore. He had a long, large caliber rifle slung over his shoulder and a holstered revolver strapped to his side. Trailing behind his snowmobile was a small sled that was packed high with gear.

The man stood up on while still astride the idling machine and lifted his visor before calling out to me. “Howdy stranger. Are ye the one called Bones?” He spoke with such a thick, rolling accent that it took me a moment to puzzle out his words.

I nodded. “Yes, Agent Rusty Bones. Were you expecting me?”

The man pulled off his helmet, letting his full head of long hair and his thick beard flow freely. He was sweating profusely even in this cold. “Ah, it’s good to have this blasted thing off, but better’n getting poked in the eye by a stray branch, eh?” He stepped off of the snowmobile, leaving the helmet on the seat. “Agent Bones, I’ve been waiting and watching for you for the better part of three months now. I cannae tell you how glad I was to finally see the alarm go off.”

“Alarm?”

He nodded as he pulled of his right mitten and reached out his beefy hand towards me. I shook it, amazed at the feel of another person’s skin in contact with mine. The warmth was quite welcome.

“It’s more like a gemstone I reckon. It was given to me by the fire-haired witch friend of yours, Ravyn, I think she called herself. It lights up whenever magick is used in this clearing. She said you might return this way and asked me to keep an eye out for you.”

“Well, I’m glad that is alright, she was hurt when I had to leave.”

“Ooch, she’s a right tough one, that one is. But I like my gals a little meatier, if you know what I mean.” His left hand clomped me on the shoulder with that comment. “Now, the Frau, she gets my juices flowing, as they say.”

“Was the Frau here as well? I don’t remember seeing her at the battle.”

He shook his massive head. “I don’ rightly know, mate. I wasnae there meself. I was asleep when all of the ruckus took place.” He loosened his gun belt and dropped the belt with the holstered sidearm onto the small sled. He slipped the sling of the rifle over his head and placed that into a special slot on the sled before kneeling down to unhitch the sled from the snowmobile as he continued to talk.

“I don’ want to be rude, mon frere, but it is time for me to get back to my home. This place is too warm for my liking, why this global warming is going to drive me crazy.”

Once the sled was unhitched, he pulled out a very large, loose looking harness and snapped it into place. He then slipped into the harness and nodded towards the snowmobile with the balck helmet sitting on the seat.

“This machine, she’s for you. There’s a GPS unit on the dash and enough fuel to take to the cabin that has been set up for you by your friends.”

“What about you? How will you get back?”

He rocked his head back with a hearty laugh. “Ooch, I’m heading north, my friend. Donnae worry for me, I’m in my element. Adieu, Monsieur Bones, until we meet again. Give my regards to the Frau.”

With those final words, the giant man shouldered his even larger harness and began trudging north through the snow.

"Hey, who should I tell the Frau sent the regards, what is your name?"

With a throaty laugh, he called out one word. "Raxgar!"

I was less than surprised to see his body begin to shift into the form of an extremely large grizzly bear. “That helps to explain his infatuation with the Frau.”

(To be continued…Tuesday, August 5.)

A War of Shadows...Part 1

The Shadowland whizzed by in a blur of grey and black images as I slowed a move fast trot. It was proving difficult to move too quickly through this stretch of wilderness since thick, twisted and very substantial trees existed both in the Shadowland and in the real world.

John had once told me that this only happed in the oldest of forests. “As trees age, their spirits strengthen, expanding their presence beyond the world of light to the land of shadow. It is almost as if their essence transfers slowly from one world to the next once they reach the height of their majesty. In some places in the Shadowland there are majestic, towering trees where there is now nothing but fields or cement roads in the world of the living. But alas, over time, those forests fade away in the Shadowland as well once the living trees have been gone long enough.”

My guess was that this stretch of Alaskan wilds hadn’t been significantly touched by Man for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

The howling of my pursuers grew louder, likely both because they were drawing closer and because their numbers were growing. If I didn’t pick up the pace soon, they would be upon me.

I tapped my forearms for reassurance, making sure that my batons were securely in place. Excalibur was practically humming in its sheath, eager to be called upon, but I continued to ignore the blade. I didn’t want to make it that easy for my pursuers to find me.

I pushed deeper into the tangled mass of branches as I wondered how much further it was to my destination. It was going to be a close call as to whether or not I would be able to beat my pursuers to it. If I didn’t win this race, things were going to become very unpleasant.

It wasn’t the shadow wolves that concerned me, but their masters…


***


“Rusty, you got a minute?” Herne’s face was showing the strain of several weeks of stress.

“Yeah, Herne, what’s up?”

He nodded and took my left arm by the elbow. “Come walk with me.”

I allowed him to guide me deeper into the Bat Cave, through the control room and towards the privacy of the small library that had been designated for command-level meetings. It was one of the few places where people weren’t bunked down.

Once we were in the library, he closed the door. I was surprised to see that we weren’t alone in the cramped space. Ravyn, Cerrydwen, the Frau, Alan and Jim had been waiting for us.

“What’s going on?” I was extremely curious about the need for a seemingly secret command meeting.

Everyone remained silent until the door clicked shut and Herne threw the bolt into place to lock us in. He was the first to break the silence. “Rusty, we think that our enemies have found a way to track some of our away parties through the Shadowland.”

This was a new development. “What makes you think that? I didn’t think that was even possible.”

Cerrydwen answered. “No one did. But the evidence is beginning to mount that El Diablito or the An’girasii themselves have found a way.”

Herne nodded. “On the last supply run, Jordan, one of Alana’s students, heard the sounds of what seemed to be wolves of some sort as soon as they entered the Shadowland to make their way back here. Jordan was smart enough not to lead them here, but led them off towards Canada before going to ground back in the real world. Once he could, he called for help. I just got back from that mission myself. I took a few of the security team with me. We ended up hitting a pack of shadow wolves that kept hanging around where Jordan and his crew had left the Shadowland. One of the creatures only looked like a wolf when we hit them. It was really a Doppelganger. It managed to jump one of the men in all of the confusion and escape.”

“Shit. So if they can track us in the Shadowland, it may only be a matter of time before they manage to track us back to the Bat Cave here.”

The Frau nodded, her eyes showing her concern. “That’s why we wanted to have this meeting in private. We’ve suspended all travel in and out until we can figure out the danger those trips are actually posing and how seriously they are looking for us.”

Ravyn was the next to speak. “Right now, Rusty, you’re going to be the only one we allow to travel in and out. We are also wondering how willing you would be serving as a decoy? I know how much you enjoy getting yourself into trouble.” She gave her most impish grin as she finished, knowing that I would take the bait.

I could see the logic of their thinking and nodded. “Well, if they are looking for any of us more than the others, I would certainly be the main target. But I am also the one best equipped to face any kind of attack as well.”

Cerrydwen’s eyes narrowed as she stepped forward to speak. “You are most familiar with the Shadowland and its strange rules. If you were willing to go out and wreak some havoc on a couple of their strongholds and make a lot of ‘noise’, it might attract the attention of whatever forces they have looking for our away parties.”

Herne folded his arms across his chest. “And, if you found that there was some basis for our concerns about being tracked, we would like to see about setting up an ambush…”


***


I had spent the better part of a week stomping around the Shadowland and the real world, stirring up trouble in a number of places. In that week, I had doubled back and slain the wolves that had picked up my trail on at least three different occasions. But it only took a few hours after each battle for a new, larger pack to catch my scent and begin the hunt anew. The pack that both trailed and flanked me now must comprise at least twenty individuals.

This pack, though, was not only larger and better organized than the last couple, but it was smarter. This pack wasn’t comprised solely of shadow wolves. There was some thing, or a group of things, that were just behind the wolves. I could feel it, them, there driving the wolves on.

I pushed on through the forest of giant black trees knowing that my allies lay in wait ahead…


***


Once I had confirmed that the wolves were indeed able to track me in the Shadowland and that there was a concerted effort to do so, I slipped back into the real world to make a phone call.

“Yeah?” Herne’s voice was gruff.

“It’s me. I’ve been tracked twice now. I’ve eliminated the wolves each time, but a new pack takes over within hours for the ones I kill.”

He grunted. “So our worst fears have been confirmed. Are you prepared to move forward with the plan as we discussed?”

“Yes. I’ll see you at the rendezvous point in three days time.”

“Are you going to be able to stay ahead of them?” There was concern in his voice as he asked that question.

“I’ll be fine. Both Drake and John taught me well. Just be ready for the party when I get there, I intend to bring as many of to the event as I can find.”


***


My destination was only a few hundred yards ahead. My pursuers seemed to sense the coming climax as well—the howls grew louder and more insistent. The pack behind and around me had grown in the last hour as well. I could sense the presence of at least one Bane and had glimpsed a group of Reavers out of the corner of my eye. I could only presume that several Doppelgangers had joined the pack as well.

As soon as I emerged onto the trail that Herne had told me would be there, I picked up the pace and gained a few valuable seconds in my quest to beat the enemy to the rendezvous point. I just hope that Herne had been able to get everyone into place in time…

"This...I say...This Means War!!!"

Jim, Ravyn and I stepped from the Shadow into the shadow of the enormous oak tree in the southwestern corner of Jim’s backyard.

The night was dark, since the sliver of the waning moon was obscured by thick, low hanging clouds. It was a quiet, quaint neighborhood of faculty and administrator’s homes for the nearby college. A dog barked in the distance, but not at us.

Jim looked pensive as peered through the night towards his darkened home. “I don’t see any damage.” He was whispering as he leaned forward.

Ravyn nodded, her hands clenching the cuffs of her sweatshirt to keep herself from calling fire out of habit. “I doubt they were worried about the outside of your house, Jim.” She kept her voice to a low whisper as well.

I reached out and touched each of them on the shoulders as I leaned towards them. “I’ll pop inside to get a quick look around. I want you guys to stay here.” I looked directly to Ravyn. “Keep a sharp eye out, but try to burn the neighborhood down, will ya?”

She gave me a withering look before leaning back against the trunk of the tree. “Be careful, Rusty. Let us know as soon as you find anything.”

I nodded and glanced over to Jim. “Do you want my sword again? Just in case?”

He swallowed hard before shaking his head. “No. You keep it. You might need it in there.”

I stepped back and summoned the Shadow.

***

Once in the Shadowland, I took a moment to examine the area for any foes unique to that realm before moving towards Jim’s house.

The only Spirits of note besides Jim and Ravyn were those of an alley cat and the rat it was stalking.

I slipped up to the porch and then through the wall next to the door. The house, like most real world constructions was no more substantial than a shimmering mirage. It was substantial enough to block out my view from outside of anyone or anything that might be hanging out inside, but I passed through the wall like a proverbial ghost.

As I did so, I thought back to the war council that had taken place only a few hours before…

***

“So, it is decided then.” Herne’s voice carried an air of easy authority. “We will send out teams to find surviving ORC’s and associate members and either bring them back here or give them the resources to go to safely into hiding until they are needed.”

Ravyn leveled her gaze at each member of the council before she spoke. “And it has been decided that Herne will be our Commander in this struggle. He’ll be in charge as far as security goes in this facility. The Frau will serve as Steward, handling the daily operations and directing. Jim will remain as Treasurer, handling all of our finances. Alana will be our Spokesperson and handle our computer network. I’m sure that each of these folks will have our unconditional support and assistance, however it is needed.”

“I appreciate the honor.” Herne nodded towards Ravyn as he spoke. “I still think that Ravyn should have accepted the mantle of overall leader, but I understand her reasons for not doing so.”

Ravyn had rejected all titles or positions of authority that the group had wanted to bestow on her, stating that for her this struggle was now far too personal. She had argued that the only true leader of the ORC’s was Alexa, when she was ready for that position and that the Frau would be a far better Steward than she would ever be. No one had been able to persuade her otherwise. Instead, she insisted that her skills would be better used in the classroom to teach the younger ORC’s how to use their powers more offensively and on the battlefield, when needed.

Herne looked from Ravyn to me. “Now that this essential business of leadership has been resolved, we have some additional business. Rusty, I believe that you had something you wanted to tell us about this facility and how it came to exist?”

I stepped forward and told the tale of how Drake and John Red Bear had been secret allies for decades. I also explained how this facility had been a Cold War relic that had become more or less obsolete after the fall of the Berlin Wall and had been mothballed by the military. John had come to learn of the now abandoned facility in what was considered the sacred lands of the Black Hills of South Dakota and that it was safely tucked away in a little visited area of a National Forest Park. He had known that Drake was looking for a safe haven in the United States. Working together with Zulu and through the Bureau, Drake had managed to have the deed to the facility transferred first over to the Department of Justice and then the Bureau and finally was handed over to Drake personally as the Director of the Omega Project. It was then made to disappear from all government records by careful redaction and deletion over a period of many years. Drake had assured me that there was no known remaining reference to this facility ever having existed.

The faces of John’s closest friends among the ORC’s showed the same sense of betrayal and sadness that I had felt.

Ravyn’s eyes glowed with anger, her jaw set as she clenched her teeth. “How did John fool all of us for so long?”

The Frau’s face showed more concern than anger. “If Drake and John were allies all this time, why did John allow himself to be killed by Drake’s servant in Miami?”

Anger flashed in Cerrydwen’s eyes, her voice quivered with rage. “Why? Why the ruse?” She threw her hands up in anger. “I don’t know. There are too many unknowns here. I don’t know that we can really trust this place for too long.”

I held up my hand to the group. “Look, I know how difficult this news is. It has taken me awhile to come to terms with it myself. I didn’t believe any of this until I spoke with John himself. He confirmed Drake’s tale, for the most part, and provided additional details that Drake wasn’t aware of. John had his reservations about the way Drake went about creating me. He honestly cared about each of you and the work that you all did as ORC members. His biggest regret was that he couldn’t be fully honest with any of us.” I looked directly at the Frau. Her question needed a direct answer. “As to why John allowed himself to be killed as part of this whole charade, he freelanced that without Drake’s knowledge. John did that place himself fully within the Spirit World and to work with secret allies that even Drake didn’t know existed at the time.” I looked down to the floor as I shuffled a boot over the hard stone of the floor. “I can’t say that I agree with John that it needed to be done that way, but after meeting with him this last time, I can understand why he did what he did. Ravyn, Zenny, did you guys find a set of ten or so matched pendants in the vault?”

Zenny nodded. “Yes, we did. I could tell that they were items of power, but they resisted my attempts to discover what they do.”

“I’m not surprised. Those amulets are tied in with a very powerful obelisk that is located on the summit of the mountain that this facility is located inside of, but the obelisk itself can only be seen in the Shadowland. It is an ancient artifact that controls who and what can travel through the Shadowland in this area. Those pendants give their bearers the ability to use a special transportation chamber that is hidden inside this facility. I can show you guys how to use them so that we can get people in and out of here without being seen. The obelisk prevents anyone who doesn’t have one of these charms from using the Shadowland to come anywhere near here.”

Herne’s eyes narrowed. “So how did you open a portal inside, Rusty?”

I reached inside my shirt and pulled out my amulet. “Drake retrieved one of these when he took control of my body. He also spent considerable time in getting this place ready to receive us. That’s why the food is all fresh and the technology is as current as it is.”

***

There was a chaotic energy swirling throughout that was immediately noticeable as I entered Jim’s house through the Shadowland. I flexed my hands, dropping my batons down into my palms as I looked about at the disarray of the items in the house. Summoning the Shadow again, I slipped back into the real world to get a better look around.

Whoever had been here had spent a lot of time tearing the place up. Every bookshelf had been toppled. Every drawer and cupboard had been opened and emptied. The place was a disaster zone. I stood stock still as I listened for any sounds of life or other trouble, but I heard nothing.

I walked to the door and pulled it open, pushing debris with it as I did so. I waved an arm towards Ravyn and Jim before heading towards the stairwell that led upstairs where Kenny usually slept in the guest room.

I intended to slowly move up the stairs, but the shadow of a prone body lay stretched across the threshold to the second floor. I pounded up the stairs with a reckless abandon. “Kenny!”

Ravyn and Jim were just coming in the back door as I reached the top and saw that the body was not that of Kenny, but was instead the decaying form of what might have been a doppelganger. A small voice called out from the guest room. “Is that you, Dad?”

“Kenny! Are you alright?” I stepped over the corpse, noting that it was wearing the uniform of a local cop.

Kenny emerged from the shadows clutching a small, silver handgun. It was pointed in my direction, but not with any kind of conviction. “Dad!” He brought the gun down to his side and moved towards me. “I had to do it. I had to shot that guy! They were trying to take me away!”

I held him in my arms, trying to soothe him. “It’s OK, Kenny. I’m glad you shot him, he wasn’t a real cop. It was a creature that would have killed or hurt you.”

He was shaking as I held him, sobbing.

I heard Jim cursing down below as he began to survey the damage done to his home.

Ravyn eased her way up the steps to join us. “Kenny, do you have anything that you need to collect? We can’t wait around long. We’ll take you to your mom and your sister. They’re both OK.”

Kenny nodded as he disengaged from me. He looked down at the gun in his right hand as he wiped away tears and snot with his left hand. “Jazz gave me this gun, Dad. It was one of the guns in your old collection. She told me that I should carry it with me and that she had done something to the bullets so that they could hurt some of the creatures you had been fighting.”

I patted him on the shoulder. “That was good thinking on her part. I’m not a big fan of guns, but I’m glad you had it when it was needed. Let’s get your things and get out of here.”

Jim was still cursing when the three of came down to collect him. He looked up from the debris field near his desk as we entered the office area. He shook his fist at the sky and called out in his best Foghorn Leghorn voice. “This…I say…this means war!”

Starting over...

…is never easy.

The band of ORC’s that arrived in the Bat Cave was a tired, wounded, ragged bunch of shell-shocked survivors. The assault by El Diablito’s forces and An’girasii allies had come as a total surprise. Every ORC safe house, stronghold and academy across the United States had been hit in some way on the same night. All told, hundreds ORC members and students had been slain; dozens more were badly injured or missing.

By the time the final tally of escapees and survivors was taken—several days later—fewer than three hundred full fledged members and associates of the ORC’s survived that deadly night. The last census prior to that deadly night had put the membership rolls at just over a thousand members and associates. Forty of those survivors came with me to the Bat Cave.

After a close inspection by Cerrydwen, Ravyn or myself, I created a portal of Shadow that established a link between El Diablito’s dark tower in the Shadowland and another place of relative darkness—the entrance hall to the Bat Cave.

The hall was actually a natural cavern that had been worked on and expanded extensively by the military in the early part of the Cold War. The hall was easily wide and smooth enough for two vans to pass in opposite directions and long enough to hold a whole caravan of vehicles—in fact several aging but otherwise non-descript vehicles were parked along one of the walls facing the opposite direction. They were facing a set of heavy metal blast doors that opened to the outside world. I knew from Drake though that those doors were concealed from casual observation by what appeared to be a storage facility for salt for local highways.

Looking ahead, our way into the Bat Cave itself was barred by a smaller, but equally formidable set of steel doors that were secured both by lock and key and by a combination key pad set bear the handle of the left door.

Between the keys Drake had sent to Ravyn and the combination codes that I had memorized, we were able to open the doors to the incredible refuge that Drake and John Red Bear had secretly spent nearly four decades creating.

Beyond that sealed door was a decommissioned underground military base that was easily large enough to house several hundred people. The facility was comprised of several sections. It was also fully stocked with food and water. But the true bounty of the Bat Cave was found deep inside, beyond the living quarters. The Command Center was a fully operational, if slightly outdated control room full of computers and communications equipment. The Inner Sanctum was even more amazing as it included a vault that held the hundreds of weapons and other items of power that Drake had taken or acquired through his existence.

The Frau, Ravyn and Herne quickly took control of situation.

The Frau immediately drafted most of the able-bodied folks and began to set up a sick ward in one of the larger rooms in the dormitory part of the complex. She gently clucked out her orders to those that could carry them out while she coddled those who were still too shocked to act independently just yet. Moira, though wounded herself, helped out.

Ravyn, Cerrydwen and Zenny Al Farhan had set up shop inside the vault as they began to identify and catalog the surprising large cache of weapons and items that Drake had amassed.

Herne, the Professor, and the pretty gal from the San Diego Circle, Alana Danae, began the process of firing up the computers and communications equipment in the Command Center. Between Herne’s intimate knowledge of the military, the Professor’s computer tech skills and Alana’s expertise in software and network systems, they had the place humming to life in no time.

As everyone else set down to the task of getting the Bat Cave up and running, I finally had time to search out my ex-wife Katherine and our daughter, Jasmine. Katherine was sporting an improvised sling for her left arm, which had been broken in the initial struggle at the Coop, but she was still one of the people helping the Frau to tend to others. Jasmine appeared to be physically unharmed, but her nerves had been badly shaken.
I had come up from behind Jasmine and touched her gently on the shoulder. “Jazz, are you alright?”

She flinched at my touch, but whirled around for a fierce hug when she heard my voice. “Dad!” She was sobbing. “I was so scared!”

“I know, honey. I wish you never had to experience that.” I put my hand on the bottom of her chin to get her to look into my eyes. “Did anyone hurt you?”

She swallowed hard, her gaze glazing over as she looked through me rather than at me. “I…I…think I killed someone, Dad, with my…my…magick.”

“Was it someone who was trying to harm you?”

She nodded. “One of those shape-shifter things grabbed me from behind, it looked like Mom at first, but it just didn’t feel right. The eyes didn’t look right, so when it tried to take me away from the others, I pushed it away. I saw it’s face change for just a moment. I was so scared. When it grabbed for me again, I just sort of felt the magick flow through me. I killed it with a blast of lightning from my hand.” She was looking down at her right hand. Her fingertips were still blackened by soot. “I just did what Mistress Fyre had taught me to do.”

I nodded and pulled her close in another hug. “It’s alright, Jazz. Those things aren’t really people. They’re monsters. That thing would have probably taken you away and stolen your memories before killing you. You did the right thing.”

Katherine stood watching me console our daughter. She gave me a tight little smile and small nod of approval before giving me that look that she had always given when she wanted to talk, in private.

I disengaged from Jasmine and pointed her towards where the Frau was. “Jazz, do you think that you can go see if the Frau needs any help? Sometimes you just need to stay busy to keep from thinking of nasty things like the attack for awhile. We’ll have more time to talk later.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure Ravyn will be very proud that you were able to summon and control that kind of energy.”

As Jasmine shuffled off to go help the Frau, Katherine and I took a small walk back out into the large area where we had first come in, the garage area.

“Thanks, Jason, Jasmine needed that from you.”

I nodded. “It was the least that I could do. Has anyone heard from Kenny?”

Her face tightened up. This was why she wanted to talk to me. “No. He was away at school. I don’t know if he is safe or not. Can you try to find him?”

I nodded. “As soon as I can make sure this place as safe as it seems and Herne and Ravyn give me the all clear signal, I’ll go check on him. I think he’ll be safe enough at that school since it didn’t have anything to do with the ORC’s.”

Katherine didn’t look very reassured. “I don’t know, Jason, the Professor teaches there and I know that Kenny often stays at his house when the Prof is away. He could be in all sorts of danger.”

I reached out and grabbed her healthy hand, giving it a quick squeeze. “I’m worried too. If he’s in danger or has been harmed in any way, I will find out and get him to safety. You can count on that.”

She squeezed my hand hard. “I know, Jason. I have faith in you. I better go see if my help is needed inside.” She released my hand and went back to the infirmary.

I made my way back to the Command Center.

Herne looked up from a monitor as I walked into the room. The previously quiet room was not a hub of beeping, buzzing, and chattering activity.

“Rusty, come check this out. This stuff looks vintage but it was top of the line equipment not that long ago.”

I walked over to stand behind him. The monitor was an older clunker, with a resolution level that would’ve given me a headache if I had actually had any optical nerves left to be irritated.

Despite its age and its low level of resolution, it was clearly accessing the internet. Herne had pulled up a newswire service.

“It looks like there is a strong PR campaign going on to characterize the ORC’s as some sort of New Age death cult. All of the news agencies have picked up on the various attacks, although the attacks aren’t being depicted as attacks at all, but as some sort of suicide pact.” He looked up at me. “They’ve got to have agents in the government and maybe even the Bureau to have tied all of this up so neatly so quickly.”

The Professor sat at another workstation with his own unique laptop that had somehow survived our bizarre journey. Alana was standing behind him, a look of concern on her face.

Jim looked up form his computer. “They’ve acted very quickly to shut down all of our corporate accounts as well—none of my attempts to access any of them have been successful.”

That reminded me of something else Drake had given me. I pulled out a small notebook that Drake had used to record several account numbers and passwords for the off-shore accounts that he had held in reserve. I held it out towards Jim. “Try looking up these accounts. I think you will find that we’ll have the financial resources to put up one hell of a fight.”

He nodded and took the notebook.

Within minutes, he had logged into the first of the accounts. He whistled in appreciation. “Yeah, there’s more money in this account alone than the ORC’s have ever had in all of our other accounts. It’s a Swiss account too, so we will have absolute privacy with what we do with it. I can make this work quite well.”

I watched as Herne bounced from website to website checking out all of the stories about the attacks. El Diablito and his allies had done a very thorough job of destroying and discrediting the ORC’s.

Ravyn and Zenny soon joined us, notebook in hand. They had heard some of the news already from Herne before. Ravyn’s face was quite grim.

“Rusty, we’ll need to have an executive council meeting as soon as the Frau has seen to the last of the wounded. We’re going to need to take stock of who’s here and what resources we have at our disposal. I think we’ll want to gather as many of our members and associates to us as possible, but we’ll have to screen anyone we bring back to ensure that we aren’t bringing any Doppelgangers or other spies back to our little haven here. I’m afraid we’re going to be working long and hard over the next few days to take full stock of what’s left of the ORC’s and what can be salvaged.”

Herne nodded. “We also need to come up with a plan of action. We need to show these bastards that while they’ve won this battle, they’re going to have a long, hard war on their hands.”

There was no disagreement with Herne’s statement.

Little Keep on the Borderlands... Epilogue

Cerrydwen waved us forward. “Come, let me take you to the others. I can explain things bit as we walk.”

Despite the appearance that these two were who they seemed to be, I was more than a little nervous as we came up closer to them.

Ravyn showed no such inhibitions and gave each of the women a big hug. She exchanged quiet, unheard words with each of them and seemed more than satisfied with the responses that each gave her.

The Frau padded up and gave both Ravyn and Zenny a long sniff and single wet lick on the cheek.

Jim took the more cautious approach of a small wave and a nod of acknowledgement to each.

Cerrydwen turned and nodded back in the direction from which she had come. “Well, let’s start our little tour of the mad man’s little tower of horrors.” The massive stone door grated open with a wave of her hand. “This whole place is a tapestry of tightly wound spells that must have taken years to craft. This lower level is where he houses a small army of the trolls that you have seen so much of.” She motioned for us to follow her into the gaping maw that led into the dark tunnel where the war trolls had retreated to.

I couldn’t resist breaking into the narrative. “Cerrydwen, how did you gain control of those things?”

Cerrydwen returned my look with a steely gaze. “Sorcery, Rusty. I don’t like practicing it in our world, but I am, unfortunately, quite talented in its use.”

“How is Sorcery any different than the magick that the Frau or Ravyn use?”

She gave a harsh little laugh before she answered. We continued shuffling down the long, curved corridor as she spoke. “You’ve seen me engage Papa Locks and others before in a battle of wills, where I try to make those folks face all of their various Karmic mistakes and dark misdeeds to get them to reform, yes?”

I nodded.

“That is something that I learned from John Red Bear, so that I would have magickal tools that would be a little less lethal and a tad less evil than my natural powers.” She stopped and looked at me deeply for what seemed like the very first time since we had met. “You see, the magick that comes most naturally to me is a very dark and twisted form of magick that is often referred to as sorcery. Sorcery gives me as much mastery over the bodies of other beings as I want. The problem is that this control can only really be used to bring them harm and pain. It is one of the reasons that you me very reluctant to form close attachments or to interact with other people very much. When I get frustrated or angry, it takes an enormous amount of control not to break bones or to choke them with a glance and a twist of my Will.”

“Wow.”

She nodded. “Yes, I was not a very good person when I was younger. I hadn’t learned how to properly restrain myself and I got frustrate very easily. If it hadn’t been for the Frau and her intervention when I was a teenager, I likely would’ve gone down an even darker road and ended up working with someone like El Diablito.” She turned away and started walking again. “So to answer your original question, Rusty, I got the trolls to follow me by demonstrating on a few of them that they couldn’t hurt me nearly as much as I could hurt them. There really aren’t that many left anyway, they aren’t what you would consider to be fast learners.”

The Frau swiveled her massive head towards Cerrydwen and licked an ear before projecting her thoughts to all of us. “Cerry dear, are you going to be alright?”

Cerrydwen nodded without looking back. “Yes, I’m in full control of myself. It’s easier this time because this place is so different and for the most part, the trolls deserved their fates. They are dark, hate-filled creatures that only serve those who they see as stronger. I’ve just allowed them to see my stronger side.”

We came to an intersection in the hall. We could have turned either right or left down similar type hallways, but instead went straight which soon led us to a large stairwell the curved upwards and to the left with long, shallow steps that seemed to stretch on forever.

Cerrydwen led us up the curving stairwell that ended at a large landing and a smashed wooden door. Picking her way through the debris of the door, she led us down a long hall, passing several doors that began to look familiar. It wasn’t until I saw the dark door with glowing rose emblem that recognized this place from the Nick’s memory globe. Passing the door marked with the palm tree only confirmed it.

Cerrydwen ignored all of these doors, taking us all of the way to the end of the hall where we encountered another broken door. This door had been crafted of metal and lay to side of the doorway, twisted and wrenched from its hinges. Beyond the door was an enormous room filled with towering book cases, scattered tables that were buried in scrolls, books and pieces of paper. Huddled around a large square table in the middle of the room was a group of about twenty bedraggled looking people, some of whom I recognized.

Ravyn bounced into the room, nearly skipping with joy at seeing so many familiar faces. She called out names as danced forward. “Moira! Herne! Alana!”

The faces of the obviously tired—and in many cases injured—ORC’s lit up as they saw the ever cheerful Ravyn moving towards them. She was closely followed by the Frau and Jim. I hung back, still nervous of some sort of trap.

Cerrydwen had stepped into the room and then slid to the side, hanging back in the shadows herself.

Zenny had shuffled quietly after Ravyn and the others, leaving Cerrydwen and I to our quiet shadows.

I looked over to her, studying the pained look on her face. “Cerrydwen, you don’t seem to happy to see us all together again.”

She shook her head, looking form the joyful group of long time friends and survivors to me, her expression remained stoic. “Rusty, you perhaps more than anyone else here understand how difficult it is to hold something dark and terrible inside, hoping to keep it buried forever. Tonight, I had to use abilities that I long ago sworn never to use again.”

I nodded. “I do. You can bury those abilities again, if you want to. I’m sure it wasn’t something that you enjoyed doing.”

Her lips quivered ever so slightly into the briefest of chilling smiles before she regained her stoic expression. She turned to watch the reunion as she responded in a quiet whisper. “That’s the problem Rusty. I really like it. It makes me feel so alive when I use those powers. I enjoy the pain that my victims feel. That is why those surviving trolls feared me enough to serve me. They recognized a kindred spirit when they saw me torturing and killing their companions.”

I reached out to touch her on the shoulder. She flinched as I did so. “I understand.”

Ravyn had finished her round of hugs. She turned to wave in my direction. “Hey Rusty! Come here!”

I moved from the shadows to join the group. I recognized a number of Ravyn’s students from the Coop as well as Moira and Herne. The others were strangers.

Jim was standing with Herne and a shorter, dark haired woman with an easy laugh and a slightly raspy voice.

As I approached, she came forward, offering her hand. “Rusty, I’m Alana Danae from the San Diego Circle. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

I nodded as I shook her offered hand. “Likewise. I hear you’re pretty handy with computers.”

Ravyn interrupted with an impatient clap of her hands. “OK folks, I’m so glad to see each of you alive, but we really need to know where Alexa and Naomi are right now.” She glanced at each face in the gathered circle. “Do any of you know what happened to them? Cerry? What happened?”

Cerrydwen had joined with circle with little fanfare. Her face hardened as she took one step forward into the group and spoke up. “When we transported from Michigan to the safe house, we were attacked the moment we finished the transport. I was out of it before I realized who had attacked us, although I presume it was Papa Locks and El Diablito. I never saw what happened to Alexa or Naomi. Did anyone else see anything? Zenny?”

Zenny fidgeted with her hijab before lifting her eyes to look at everyone. “I saw the dark giant you call Papa Locks strike Cerrydwen with his fist before she could react. Naomi tried to escape with Alexa back through the portal but one of the doppelgangers grabbed her and prevented her from leaving. The one you call the Little Devil cast some sort of enchantment on me that caused me to lose consciousness at that point.”

Moira nodded. “A group of doppelgangers must have slipped into the safe house with the refugees from the San Diego Circle, because just as we were tending to the wounded and getting ready to call you, several of those that we thought were our allies attacked. The fight was over before we knew it.”

Herne coughed. “They were unbelievably quick. Once the doppelgangers had us subdued, El Diablito and Locks came through the portal with several armed goons and that freaky female, Rose. Moira and I had been paralyzed by some poison that the doppelgangers had used on us, but we were able to watch all of it.” He looked down at the floor, ashamed. “Once the doppelgangers had Naomi and Alexa, El Diablito turned to the largest of them and said: ‘There, you have your prize, now, I expect you and your masters to hold up your end of the bargain.’ The thing snarled at him and said: ‘The Fire Witch was slain as promised, it is not our fault that she was brought back. Our bargain is now complete.’”

“So that crinkled old man needed those things to take me down, did he?” Ravyn snorted derisively as she spoke. “OK, so do we have any idea where the doppelgangers took them and why they wanted Alexa in the first place?”

Herne nodded again. “Even as I was paralyzed, Alexa looked over to me and I heard what must have been her older self speaking to me. She said, ‘Herne, let the others know that this is what must happen. I am in no imminent danger from the An’girasii or their servants. They need me alive and unharmed. Don’t try to rescue us—it will only cause us harm if you do. When the time is right, we shall return. Until then, gather our friends, help them to heal and grow strong once again, and prepare to weather the coming storms. El Diablito and his new organization must be stopped from gaining too much control.’ Then they disappeared through the portal and I lost consciousness.”

I stepped forward. “Look, I don’t think we have much more time before El Diablito and Papa Locks recover from Ravyn’s surprises and come looking in on things here. We need to get out of here fast.” I looked at everyone’s faces. They all appeared eager to be quit from this place as well. “I know of a place that El Diablito doesn’t. It is a safe place the Drake had created to store all of the things he had collected over the millennia to fight the An’girasii. I can take us there now so that you all can recover, heal up and take stock of where we are as an organization. We’ll have all of the resources we’ll need to regroup and take on El Diablito when we’re ready.”

The nods of agreement and smiles of relief that greeted my recommendation were overwhelming. So with little more debate or discussion, I summoned the Shadow and opened a portal to our new, secret destination.

For the first time in a long, long while, a plan of ours was enacted without any changes or major surprises. The ORC’s disappeared from El Diablito’s stronghold and went into hiding while we regrouped.

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 4

I was up and running towards the third troll before his spear stopped skidding behind us. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got to him, since I didn’t have a weapon in hand.

It had already turned its attention so fray between the Frau and his companion, so my leaping kick landed squarely on the side of his enormous kneecap. I felt and heard the crunching of the bone. His leg buckled and collapsed on itself.

I tucked and rolled out of the way of a massive fist that sought to crush me as the thing lashed out n a blind rage at its sudden immobility.

By the time I had tumbled to safety and regained my bearings, I saw that Jim had already found his own footing and was racing to help the Frau in her struggle.

Ravyn was striding forward towards the troll that was now trying to hobble towards me. She smiled as she sent a lancing bolt of flame into the back of its skull, ending his miserable life before his smoldering corpse hit the floor.

I turned to see how Jim and the Frau were faring just in time to see Excalibur slash downwards in a fatal stroke across the already tattered throat of the final troll. The Frau had rolled clear in time and stood on all fours, panting with exertion. Her fur was torn and bloody in several spots, but it wasn’t entirely clear how wounded she might be. Most of the blood seemed to be darker ichor of the troll.

I jogged back to pick up my batons and joined the rest of them near the mangled body of that final victim.

Jim mopped the sweat off of his forehead and nodded as I approached. “I can’t wait to give you back this damn sword and let you play at being the hero Rusty. I’ll be more than happy to resume my roles as a counselor, researcher, and treasurer.”

I chuckled at that. “Yeah, this sort of stuff is a lot less worrisome when you’re already dead.”

Before anyone else could join in the banter, there was a loud grating of stone on stone as a very large doorway opened in the back of the chamber. Several more armored, well armed trolls marched into the chamber, their hobnailed boots echoing in a strange unison as they lined up four to a side on each side of the doorway. The strangest part of this scene was the two smaller, hooded figures that emerged from the shadows behind the trolls. They looked to be human and seemed to have a distinctly feminine aspect to them that was not entirely concealed by the heavy cloaks that obscured their faces. One of the women was clearly taller and heavier than the other, but neither carried any weapons in their hands.

We all turned to face these new foes, each of us wondering how we would be able to face eight trolls and these two women of unknown strength.

Jim broke the silence first. “Fuck! Why would this damn sword choose now to go quiet?”

I glanced over at the blade in his hands, which was now no longer glowing. It had cooled and quieted as the women had entered the room.

The larger of the women gave a short, throaty laugh as she reached up and pulled back the hood to reveal her face. “Maybe that blade doesn’t want you to swing at a friend by mistake.”

Ravyn gasped. “Cerry? Is that really you?”

Cerrydwen nodded before turning to the trolls that now seemed to be under her command. She grunted an order in their guttural tongue that sent the guards trooping back from whence they had come.

I had my doubts. I had seen Excalibur go quiet on me at inconvenient times before. “Careful everyone, she may be a Doppelganger. And we don’t know who the other one is yet either.”

The smaller of the women stepped closer and brought her gloved hands up to her own hood. Zenny Al Farhan’s soft, musical voice spoke from within. “Rusty, we are not shapeshifters. You can touch me if you would like to confirm that.” She pulled the hood back to reveal her face.

“How is this possible? We had heard that you were captured by El Diablito and Papa Locks.!”

Cerrydwen walked forward slowly. As she came closer, we could each see that her face was badly bruised. “We were caught by surprise at the safe house and were captured with Alexa and Naomi. It’s a long tale though and I don’t think we have the time to tell it here. We need to leave before either El Diablito or Papa Locks return. My control over those trolls will not survive long if they comeback. I’ve found out though, that the trolls can tell who the Doppelgangers are. They are very efficient at hunting them, when they choose to do so.”

“Wait, where are the others? Where is Alexa?”

Her face clouded over in obvious pain. “I don’t know where Alexa or Naomi are right now. But almost all of our other allies who had been taken in the raids and were brought here are safe. Herne and Moira are watching over them on the next floor up since some of them were badly wounded. Let’s go get the others and get out of here. We can tell our respective tales once we are safely away from this place.”

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 3

I gripped the batons in my hands and stepped forward onto the bridge that the Frau had created and led the way towards the shattered doorway of the tower.

Jim followed close behind, muttering half heard imprecations under his breath. Ravyn swung back onto the Frau’s humped back, burying one hand into the thick black fur to maintain her balance. With Ravyn secure on her back, the Frau shambled behind Jim, bringing up the rear of our small party.

Passing through the portal, I felt a wave of magickal energy pass over me that was similar to passing from one world to another. Inside, the dark grey monotony of the Shadowland was replaced by the vibrant colors and rich textures of the ‘normal’ world. I was standing in the brightly lit foyer of what could have easily passed for a modern office building. The walls and floors of the place were of highly polished red and white marble tiles while the abundant golden fixtures gleamed in the bright yellow light that they put out.

I had stopped in the middle of the foyer, caught off guard by the opulent setting until Jim bumped into me from behind. I stepped to the left and forward, batons held at the ready despite the apparent emptiness of the place, to allow Jim and the others to join me inside.

Jim stood there as stunned as I was. All he could muster was a whistle and a look of consternation that reflected how I felt myself.

Ravyn slipped off of the Frau’s back again and stood to her right, eyes narrowed as she tried to take in the sights as well.

The Frau gave off a wuffling snort and scraped a disdainful paw across the marble. “Children,” she called out to us mentally again, “don’t let this man’s illusions distract you from what we are trying to do. Rusty, watch out!”

Just as she called out, I felt more than I saw the presence of another being come up in front of me. Her warning came just in the nick of time as I jumped back just as the head of a huge warhammer landed right where I had been. The fine marble flooring shattered under the impact, sending red and white shards to go flying.

Excalibur leapt into action as the hammer head hit the floor. Before the unseen creature who had swung the massive weapon could pull it up for a second swing, the shining, singing blade lashed out and sliced into the massive wooden haft of the weapon, severing the metal head from the handle, pulling the surprised Jim in front of me as it did so.

A lancing bolt of red hot flames erupted from Ravyn’s outstretched hand and struck the unseen creature full in the chest. The explosion of energy that ensued shattered the illusion of opulence and modernity and laid bare the face that we were in a huge, unlit stone chamber that was littered with the bones and refuse of a trio of troll-like guardians.

The other two creatures that had been shambling into position to lay their own ambushes on us now gave up all pretense of sneaking by roaring out their own challenges and coming forward in attack mode.

The troll who had been hit by Ravyn’s flame bolt staggered back as it tried to put out the flames that began to consume him in earnest.

The Frau gave an excited snort and leapt to the attack against the troll on the right who was wielding a huge spiked mace. Even as she ducked under his first wild blow, she was growing and morphing into a larger, browner bear with much longer claws. Rearing up on her hind legs, she was as tall and nearly as massive as the nine foot tall troll that she now wrapped in a massive hug of claws, teeth and fur. The two of them tumbled to the ground, growling and snarling at each other in a titanic battle of beasts.

Seeing the final troll rear back and prepare to throw the massive spear in its hands, I dropped my batons so that I could reach and grab Jim with my left hand and Ravyn with my right and dove to my left, dragging them to the ground. The spear struck the stone floor where Jim had been standing creating a shower of sparks and a spray of pebbles.

(to be continued tonight)

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 2

The Frau’s voice echoed in our minds. “Once we get inside that thing, we can’t count on Rusty being able to get us back out of there with his power over the Shadow.”

I glanced in her direction. “Why do you say that?”

She returned the glance before swiveling her back towards the tower and grunting. “I see El Diablito’s handiwork all over this thing. He has created this tower out of magick that hasn’t been used in centuries, if not millennia.”

The Professor was curious now. “You mean things like this tower have been created before? I don’t recall reading about any of these in my text books.”

Ravyn chuckled and gave Jim’s cheek an affectionate pat. “Of course not, silly! Things like this would only be found in your fairy tales and myths when you were growing up, although now you can find references in all sorts of modern fantasy. The Frau is right though, this more than just a traditional Mage’s Tower.”

I looked the thing up and down again, trying to see what it was that made this place seem so unique to them. “I have to admit I haven’t seen too many towers of black rock rotating in the middle of a giant chasm before, even in the Shadowland, but what’s the big deal? I practically own this place. I should be able to zip us in and out without a problem.”

It was the Frau’s turn to chuckle. “Rusty, this tower exists not only here, but in many other places simultaneously. It probably has doorways to each of those places and allows the Little Devil to travel between different worlds almost as easily as you do. It isn’t fully of any one plane, so the only one who knows all of the rules and all of the spells that are active inside of it is El Diablito.” She shifted on her paws and moved closer to the edge of the chasm. “El Diablito is and has been made all too aware of your ability to travel freely in the Shadowland using the power of the Shadow. I am sure he has prepared his sanctuary for just this eventuality.”

“What, so we shouldn’t even try to get inside of it?”

She shook her massive head. “Not for a minute, Rusty. We need to get in and get back out again with any of our loved ones that we can locate, but I just wanted to make you aware that you may not be as free as you think you are to help us escape. In fact, I would caution against summoning the Shadow except in the direst of circumstances once we get inside. He may have any number of traps laid out for you that would take you and anyone who travels that way with you into a place from which there is no escape.” She was looking me right in the eyes as she projected her thoughts. There was a wry twinkle in her eye as she made her last point. “It is what I would do, if you were my enemy.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I got you. I won’t be calling on the Shadow unless there are no other options.”

She nodded. “Good. Now, Ravyn, my Dear, would you be so kind as to unlock the door for us?”

Ravyn’s smile was as wicked as I had ever seen. “I thought you would never ask.”

Sitting upon the Frau’s broad back, Ravyn raised her hands above her head and closed her eyes. The palms of her hands began to glow, first orange, then red, and finally turning bright white. Bright white rays of energy left each palm, joining together at a point a few feet in front of her head into a bright, swirling ball of energy that kept growing in size until it was fully as big as she was.

As the ball of energy seemed to reach a critical mass, Ravyn pushed it forward with a downward thrust of her palms towards the door.

It hurtled towards the massive double doors of the tower and exploded in a shower of energy and sounds. We were showered with white, crackling sparkles and bits of dark matter from the impact.

Jim was the first to break the silence. “Now what? How are we going to get over there?”

The Frau reared up on her hind legs and let forth a bellowing roar that echoed across the chasm.

Ravyn must have been warned because she sprang backwards adroitly and seemed to be waiting for something else to happen.

The Frau roared once again, this time even louder and more insistent than before.

The ground beneath our feet began to shake, at first gently, but soon was rocking pretty violently. The screeching of stones cracking and rubbing together in unnatural ways began to drown out the Frau’s voice.

Pillars of solid rock began to jut forth from all different angles both beneath and beside us, coming together to form an arcing mass of jumbled stone that began to bridge the span between us and the tower. Within minutes the bridge was complete.

I looked at both of my female companions with a new found level of respect as I shook my head. “So much for trying to sneak in.”

Jim grasped the glowing blade of Excalibur in both hands again, glanced around at each of us and nodded. “Screw the sneaking, it’s time to go kick some ass, take some names, and save our friends.”

Little Keep on the Borderlands...Part 1

Visibility in this place is always limited, as Shadows flit about, drawn to light sources like moths in the mundane world. Here, our vision was further obscured by the thick, almost bubbling fog that rolled over us in successive waves from the direction where the troll had come from before pooling around our knees. It gathered around the now dissolving mass that was the troll.

Undaunted by any unseen dangers that may have been lurking, I stepped into the mists towards where I had felt the location of El Diablito’s stronghold to be. I soon found myself on a rocky path between steeply rising walls of wet, black stone. The path would have been barely wide enough for that troll to walk through without brushing its shoulders against the sides.

I heard others as they followed behind, Jim right behind me, with the Frau and Ravyn guarding our backs.

The path continued at a slight up hill angle for a few hundred yards, twisting first right and then left. The fog was so thick and flowed so strongly into my face that I felt like a salmon swimming up stream at spawning time. I caught myself leaning into the flow of the fog even though I didn’t feel any resistance. It just seemed like there should be.

The walls on either side fell away as we rounded the last bend and the ground leveled out onto a large, flat ledge that at first seemed to overlook a vast empty chasm. The fog here was much thinner as it flowed in small wispy clumps to form the river of white as it rolled down the constricted path we had followed to get up here.

Jim came up next to me, Excalibur held forth in both hands as if he were trying to keep the alien blade at arms length. The blade was emitting a high-pitched hum that accompanied the pulsating white light that pushed the Shadow back with its harsh glow. “Looks like a dead end, Rusty.”

I shook my head and pointed with my left hand. “No, we’ve just got to find a way to cross over to that…thing.”

He peered into the darkness, straining to see anything. “What, I don’t see anything.”

The Frau padded up beside us and snorted. Her voice echoed in our heads as she projected her thoughts to us. “Rusty’s right, Jim. Show him, Ravyn.”

Ravyn nodded and sent a small red orb flying from her extended palm. It wasn’t very bright, but it didn’t have to be. The light emitted by the orb illuminated a sight that caused us all to gasp.

“Son of a bitch…”

“How the hell is that even possible…”

The orb had only gone about thirty feet out into the darkness before it came to float next to a huge black wall of stone that was rotating clockwise in the air. Ravyn’s hand motions guided the thing up and down, then back and forth until it was clear that the chasm was occupied by a huge, rotating tower of black basalt that was floating in that seemingly empty space. The thing was easily as big as a modern skyscraper, but it had all of scare factor of some Dark Lord’s Tower of Doom.

As we watched in horror and awe, the tower continued to rotate. The opening of what may have been a doorway began to come into view. The rotation slowed as the entrance came to fully face us, not thirty feet away, but with no visible way of crossing the yawning chasm between us and it.

From the Frying Pan into the Fire...Part 5

As I called the Shadow, I formed a heavy, protective bubble around the four of us. The only light in this bubble came from one Ravyn’s small red stones that she held forth in her left palm. The stone’s soft red glow gave the space the feel of a submarine.

“I’m going to take us to the place in the Shadowland where Nicholas was taken by Rose and then made the wrong choice by choosing Rose’s door—which led to a cell. We didn’t get to see all of the different doors in Nick’s memory orb, so I think that is the place to start. I’m not sure if that corridor corresponds with a single actual location or serves as sort of Transit Station within the Shadowland linking multiple different locations. Hang on!”

With the power of my Will, I sent our little capsule hurtling through the Shadowland towards a place we had seen only briefly through the memories of a man I had never met.

The passage didn’t take all that long, but the tension inside the capsule grew thicker with each passing moment.

Jim passed Excalibur back and forth between his sweating hands, using each handoff to dry the offending palm on his jeans.

The Frau shifted on her heavy paws, anxious to be moving.

Ravyn checked and doubled checked her array of pouches and pockets, making sure that the ties that held them closed were secure, but not too secure.

I flexed my palms and fingered the forearm sheaths where my familiar batons were holstered, ready to drop down into my hands with a flick of the wrist.

Sensing that we were drawing near to the place, I set the capsule down gently and looked to my companions.

“As best as I can tell from inside, we’re here. Let’s stick together until we get the lay of the land.”

The Frau grunted and snorted, presumably in agreement as the dark substance of the capsule dissolved, allowing her to set paws upon solid ground once again.

Jim yelped in surprise as Excalibur came alive in his two-fisted grip. He spun in place and lashed out behind the Frau as lumbering figure emerged from the fog, massive club in hand in a pulverizing downstroke that he and the sword managed to parry.

The force of the blow buckled his knees, but the blow that otherwise would’ve crushed Ravyn’s skull was deflected harmlessly into the earth beside the Frau.

Remember the strange physics of the Shadowland, I launched myself into the air as I dropped both batons into my palms and flicked my wrists to open them to their full extension on my way towards the beasts head.

The Frau swung around slowly so as not to unseat Ravyn and shuffled back.

Jim’s upstroke sliced into the troll’s leg just below the groin, Excalibur scythed through the rock hard flesh like a hot knife through butter. Dark fluids erupted in a thick spurting stream towards the spot where Jim had been, but his spinning attack had taken him to the side, sword held aloft in his best hitter’s stance.

Meanwhile I slammed into the troll’s head, smashing his nose and crushing one eye with a series of swings with the batons. The creature’s thick skull and plate like skin protected him from any kind of killing blow, but my attacks were enough to forget the foes at its feet as he dropped the club and reached for my hovering form.

Seeing his chance and feeling the pull of Excalibur, Jim stepped into a two fisted swing that would have made Gary Sheffield jealous and eviscerated the creature as the glowing, singing blade again slipped through the heavy armor of the troll’s hide. Jim had to dodge to the side as the rush of the creatures insides came with a gush.

It took the troll a few moments to realize that it had been slain. When it did, it collapsed onto his knees first, and the toppled forward with a loud, splashing whumpf!

I dropped down beside the thing, looking towards Jim.

His face glistened with sweat and exertion, but his eyes glowed with exhilaration. “Holy shit!”

“Are you alright?”

He nodded, looked at the blade, and gulped. “Yeah, thanks to this thing. I can’t believe how much fun that was! Ravyn, are you OK?”

Ravyn hopped down from the Frau’s back and bounded over to Jim. She planted a big, wet kiss on his lips before answering. “Thanks to you I am.” She spun to face me, accusatory finger pointing in my direction. “Do you think you can avoid getting me killed again, Rusty? If you do get me killed, I’m going to haunt you from now to forever.”

The Frau sniffed the fallen troll and swung her massive head around towards us. Her voice came through telepathically to all of us. “This guy isn’t the only one of these things that guards this place, but it has been awhile since any of the others have been here. I’d say we not take too much time celebrating this small battle when we might not have much time before someone else comes by.”

From the Frying Pan into the Fire...Part 4

After the initial surge of adrenaline passed, Jim looked back to me. “Wait a minute, are you sure this is the best idea? Won’t you need this weapon if we face any powerful foes?”

I shook my head. “If we were going in to make an all out attack and to cause damage, then yeah, I’d keep the blade with me and leave you somewhere safe. But right now we just need to get in, find as many of our people as we can, and get back out again. I also don’t know where we would be able to leave you where you would be safe right now. We don’t know who our mole is, other than it is likely not any of the four of us, and so I don’t think it is wise for us to split up in any way.”

The Frau nodded. Her voice came through telepathically again. “I agree with Rusty. Excalibur seems to be OK with you holding it, so let’s not argue about that. I also agree that splitting up is not a wise idea. We’re going to need to move fast and stay together so that Rusty or Ravyn can get us out of there in a hurry if things get too bad. Ravyn, my dear, I’m going to suggest that you ride on my back. We should make quite the formidable duo!”

Ravyn’s face lit up. “That sounds like fun.” Her expression grew more serious. “I’ll carry the computer with us as well since Jim’s going to have his hands full.” She then walked over to Jim, reaching into a pocket of her skirt and pulled out a small pouch. She poured out three small, red, round stones from the pouch into her hand. “Jim, open your other hand please.”

He did so, slightly confused.

She placed the three stones in his hand and closed his fingers over them slowly before planting a kiss on his cheek. “These things will explode on impact when thrown and become fireballs like the one I threw at the Asylum. Just call out ‘Phoenix’ as you throw it. Be careful, you will want to be at least ten to fifteen feet away from the impact point. These things don’t discriminate like that sword does.”

Jim gulped as looked down at the miniature red fireballs in the palm of his hand. “Uh, I’m not sure I want to be carrying this much firepower in my pocket, if you know what I mean.”

Ravyn gave him a sly wink. “Don’t worry, it will only add to what’s already there.”

Jim blushed, cleared his throat and slipped the red pellets into his pants pocket, unwilling to trust his voice at any retort.

I stepped up to his rescue. “OK, when we land, I’ll take the lead. I will try to manipulate the Shadow in the area to obscure our presence as much as possible. I’ll take down any guards as quickly and as quietly as possible while the Frau and Ravyn search around for any prisoners, once any of them are located, let me know, and I will either break the doors down or slip inside through the Shadowland.”

Both Ravyn and the Frau nodded in agreement.

“Jim, you stay right behind me unless I get tied up with a bigger opponent. Don’t try to help me out unless you don’t have any other choice. I’d rather you watched my back. If I have to slip into the Shadow to rescue a prisoner, I’ll want you to be near Ravyn and the Frau. Trust the sword. It won’t generally allow you to swing at something or someone that it doesn’t feel deserves it. Use those fireballs of Ravyn’s to cover our retreat, if necessary.”

He gulped and nodded as well, still holding the sword out away from his body.

I surveyed all of my companions before speaking again. “The opponent I am most worried about is Locks. If he shows up, I’ll take him on myself. He has grown in power and seems to have access to a lot of the abilities that I have, so don’t try to play the hero with him. His body has clearly been highly modified much like mine. I also have a very bad feeling that he is the one that is most tied up with the An’girasii.”

Jim cleared his throat. “Can you face him without this sword?”

I smiled and nodded. “One reason I thought to give you that blade for now was because I have the strangest feeling that the blade would not allow me to use it against him. It would probably allow you to swing at him, but that sword has a perverse sense of fair play that can be all to annoying. So, is everyone clear on the plan so far?”

Ravyn sighed and chuckled. “Yeah, it’s as clear as mud, since we hardly know this place that we are going to, we don’t know who or what we will face, and who, if anyone, will be there to be rescued. Other than those few, insignificant details, it’s about as good a plan as you’ve ever come up with Rusty!”

“OK then, let’s roll!”

Ravyn giggled as she grabbed a handful of thick black fur on the Frau’s shoulder and hoisted herself up onto the Frau’s back. She adjusted her skirt and reached out to take the briefcase that Jim was handing up to her. She took out the shoulder strap from a side pocket and clicked it into place before putting the thing over her shoulder and sliding it to her back, leaving both hands free.

“Last call for all passengers for Zombie Air, Flight 666, going straight to Hell!”