City of IF

[JezSharp]

Just then the crystal about Rai's neck dissolved in a low scream and a puff of choking smoke. Dam, Rai thought as she remembered that she needed to obtain authorisation from China or Key within a specific time period for its use to shut off sectors, or else the enchantment failed. The TI's power was instantly restored.

In the TI Jez wasted no time in re-securing all the defences, luckily Rai had only glimpsed a small fraction of the tunnels from the Tourist Info booth. Last time I bother to go to the trouble of getting involved in maps he thought angrily, well I may as well send out the copy I have to other Council members - then I'm not the only one with such specialist knowledge. Quickly he PM'ed all but Lordy and Rai (given one made him suspicious and the other wasn't on his Christmas card list for some foreseeable time) with copies of the map worded:

Dear all, came across a version of the Master Map which I copied, and I wondered if it would be of any use to you. One place looks very interesting, but I would approach with care. Then he sent it.
Good, hopefully that will stop people raiding my home for a while...I think now that the place is completely secured, I'll let the trolls have an extended break and head out into Fantasy Forest for a stroll.

[Crunchyfrog]

To say that Crunchyfrog was frightened would have been an understatement.

To say that he was about to crap his pants would have been a lot closer to the truth. His feeling of general unease had been mounting quickly and without abatement throughout their adventure under the Palace. The slaying of the slug and the rescue of Key was heightened further by the bloodcurdling scream of Din echoing through the tunnel. The scream still resounding in his ears even now... he couldn't get it out of his mind.

Now, the sudden automatic security lockdown on IM's mansion had perturbed him even further...and what of D-Lotus?

D-Lotus was only partially conscious, he was murmuring, none of it making any sense, but he seemed to be dreaming...having a conversation with someone....

IM seemed resolute about what he was doing. Crunchyfrog took a deep breath and tried to contain his terror. After all, he was in the company of a mage. Nothing could go wrong. Could it?

[Kalanna Rai]

Rai looked at the small pile of dust that was her main pendant. "Oh no you don't." Biting her tongue she allowed several drops of blood to fall on it, speaking a few words as they did so. There was a flash and a puff of vile smelling smoke, but when it cleared her gem gleamed back at her. "Now to reset the parameters and..." There was a slight charge that told her things were working well again.

"I've got to pay more attention or I'm going to do something stupid." Just then another of her gems dinged and she took a quick peek at it. "Oh good, the book is done. Transcribe and hardcopy please..."

[Idea master]

IM thrust his hands out through the fabric of the spell. A small portal opened up and he grasped what he hoped was his book. Then he carefully left the Necronomicon in it's place, and drew his hands back with his book. As he did so, he could hear a bellow of rage and felt a jab of magic in his direction.

All went black. IM knew he had his book, but what did that magic do to him?

[JezSharp]

With the TI and Tourist Info now fully working and under his permanent and complete control, Jez was able to continue on through the passageways and out into the lush confines of the fantasy forest.

There he spent some time exploring and studying the beautiful yet treacherous surroundings as usual, as well as picking more fungi for the trolls. Reaching the secret entrance to the tunnel he echoed out a whistle to signal the trolls back...and back they came more than before - great, now I'll need to come back and pick more fungus... Jez thought wearily, but at least they might be able to dig the tunnel a little faster. He watched them file down the tunnel making their little panted muttering speeches to each other and sighed. He hardly ever went to this amount of trouble for something - he only hoped it was worth it.

[D-Lotus]

The gloom in D-Lotus' head began condensing...it began to cool and encroach on him...then it suddenly exploded in a wave of heat. D reeled inside, stunned and confused. Then his mind started to clear and he found himself in a room, a small wooden room. D stared at his hand, and found that it seemed hazy, as if his molecules kept rearranging, as if he were in a dream. And he was.

The room had no windows, its walls being covered in innumerable screens instead. D watched the constant motion of the people inside the screens, yet he could find no pattern. It vaguely reminded him of a Matrix movie.

D's eyes kept searching for something familiar, until he stopped when he saw a figure standing in front of a large screen. The man was wearing a white-T and jeans. He seemed intent upon the screen, but he kept flickering on and off. D guessed that he himself must look that way too, flickering in and out of consciousness.

Suddenly the man disappeared for a few minutes. D sensed him speaking to someone in the real world. Everything in the room was amplified; even D's feeling of fear and surprise at the man's disappearance. He felt lonely, strange, and afraid to move from where he'd awoken, and the room noticed. As D stood up, suddenly the man reappeared, this time on D's side.

"Leb?" D exclaimed, as his feeling of gladness echoed around the receptive room. He knew Lebrenth could feel everything inside him. For a few moments longer, they spoke silently in this way. Then Lebrenth broke the external silence...

[Kalanna Rai]

Rai knew she had been compromised when IM yanked his book back, replacing it with a Necromicon of all things. Sending out a rather potent Curse, one of the Dralico one's IM seemed to be so fond of, Rai cursed a blue streak. Checking her gems to make sure all relevant objects were still within she had more reason to curse when she noticed TI was no longer responding.

Eye twitching as she watched Lebrenth on the ground Rai wondered what to do. "Only one thing to do." Drawing the shadows about her Rai's form slowly faded out.

[JezSharp]

Jez returned down the narrow winding passageways, holding his nose to block out the smell of ten sweaty trolls shouldering picks and shovels. Eventually they stopped by one of the doors which Jez opened for them, and continued on to build the tunnel. Then Jez strolled back into the main laboratory of TI and ran a system check. The Technical Institute was well defended (chiefly because Jez very rarely left it, and tended to be more than a little paranoid, given the number of creepy and scary figures that were to be found lurking amongst the darker corners of IF). Looking at his mail he observed the PM Lebrenth had sent,

Oh great, the meetings in less than three hours, and at Jester Park...

[Idea master]

After what seemed like an eternity, IM woke up. He was in a huge room, much larger than he remembered having at all. He brought his hands up to cradle his aching head with when he realised something was wrong. He checked his hands and figured out what it was.

They were no longer hands, but paws.

Quickly twisting around, IM realised that the curse had transformed him into a fox. He attempted to access his magic, only to be met with an invisible barrier. IM looked about to find CrunchyFrog and Sasuke still untouched by whatever curse was upon him. D was unconscious and moaning, and Key...

Key was still a key, but now Key was on a small leather necklace around IM's neck. IM looked up at Sasuke and was surprised to find that he could indeed speak intelligibly. "We need another wizard."

[Crunchyfrog]

Crunchyfrog looked first from the burbling D-Lotus, to the transformed Ideamaster, to the two recently opened holes in the floor, to the bungee ropes and gas masks dangling from the ceiling. The most logical and decent thing to do at this point, he thought, would be to faint.

But he remembered Sasuke, who was quite young, and judging by his recent quietness, also rather overcome by recent events, so Crunchyfrog mustered what bravery he could, and stayed standing up.

"Now then, Crunchyfrog," said Ideamaster. "You must be my hands. I need you to check my messages before we go further. "

IM the fox trotted over to a small screen in the corner of the room and pointed his nose at it.

"Touch the yellow button underneath it, there's a good fellow."

Crunchyfrog obeyed, and a small square appeared on the screen with the words 'you have 1 message' written on it.

"Open it..."

It was the notification of the Council meeting in Jester Park.

"Hah!" chuckled IM. "Well if Kalanna's not contained the escapees from the Games forum within the next 3 hours, that meetings going to have some very unexpected visitors."

"Are you going to attend?" asked Crunchyfrog.

"With that lot out there? Are you crazy?"

[Idea master]

"No," IM said, "I'm not going anywhere near there. Instead we have to wake D up somehow. Push the red button."

CrunchyFrog pushed the red button and a vial popped out. "What is this?" CrunchyFrog asked as he picked it up.

"A very powerful cure-all for anything save physical wounds. Crack open D's mouth and pour three drops in, it ought to wake him up."

CrunchyFrog did so. A few seconds later, D sat up, sputtering, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "What was that?"

"Nevermind. Everyone put a gas mask on, and Crunchy, stash that vial somewhere. We have to go through this tunnel, through the Dream Chamber, and out into the city. Rai will never be expecting that. Crunchy, it'll be your duty to wake me up when we're through, seeing as there are no gas masks for foxes. Just pour some of that potion down my throat. We'll need to find another magi, I know just the person..."

[dinranwen]

Din after several hours of sweet talking, threatening, and allowing time for those drops of Verific Tonic (Truth Potion) she had carefully placed in Muadib's tankard, was finally able to get the answers she need. Glancing over at Muadib whose eyes were glazed over, an unfortunate effect of the tonic, Din kept her voice soft and low. "Muadib," Dinranwen whispered her voice as sweet as honey laced with arsenic, "there is this heavy fog on the surface. What I know is that is most likely made up with the souls of the deceased ifians. What I don't know is why do y'all not like Chinaren, and why start a rebellion?"

"Hey look, my dear," Muadib said swaying and stuttering like Jake Sparrow, Captain Jake Sparrow, "I don't think I should be answering that question. It's questions like that get people killed for answering."

"Okay," Din said correctly guessing that the potion hadn't yet taken full affect, "Maybe you can answer this one for me. How do I get back to Life in the city and not as a spirit in the fog either?"

"You want to know how to get out of here?"

"Yes, now will you answer my question?" Din said keeping her breaths slow and steady to keep her from loosing her temper.

"No," he said. But then Muadib leaned forward his hand sneaking under the table. "You want me to show you the back room? I'll be happy to answer your questions there."

There was a blur and a flash as Dinranwen moved so fast that her movements couldn't even be seen. Grasping the wraps near Muadib's neck and pressing the dagger she had positioned in a very uncomfortable place for Muadib, Din looked like she was going to kill Muadib and she probably would have too if he hadn't already been dead.

But then something changed her mind, and smiling so sweetly it almost hurt, Din purred, "Maybe we should do that. Show the way."

Muadib cocky, arrogant, and excited wouldn't know what hit him. ~ ~ ~

Emerging from the back room, Din wiped her daggers clean with a piece of cloth that looked like a piece of Muadib.

Lifting her head so her cheery lips could be seen, Dinranwen's lips curled in a smile that almost froze half the room. She had got her answers, and she had just unloaded weeks worth of anger and boredom on Muadib's unfortunate head. As for Muadib, let's just say he would be very sensitive for the next few weeks, have very vivid nightmares, and would probably never get over the scars....

Spotting Smudger from across the room, Dinranwen nearly floated over to him. Physically removing him from the bar stool were the hunchback was muttering something about "Nothing's ever easy...", Din pulled Smudger up on a table, and pulling down what appeared to be attic stairs Din spoke downwards to Smudge. "Come on," Din said pulling the very drunk hunchback along, "I found out how to get us out of here but if your not going to co-operate..."

"I coming...I coming" Smudger muttered.

"Hurry, if we don't get there in time it may be too late."

"Too late for what? New Years..." Smudger muttered some more, "Sorry, already missed that."

"No, silly. Too late to tell everyone what is really going on." Din said as climbed up the ladder, "Apparently, the spirits didn't plan a revolt all by themselves...in fact most of them don't want to leave the Tavern. Someone in If is controlling them all."

"What! Who?"

"No time to explain," Din said, yanking Smudge up the last couple of steps into what looked like a colourless void, "We have places to go and people to see, and I don't about you but I would like to get back to life."

[Crunchyfrog]

Crunchyfrog pulled three gas masks down from the ceiling, placed one over his head, and helped D-Lotus with his. Although D seemed to be conscious, he was still not completely coherent, his mind seemingly still connected elsewhere. But physically at least he was good to go, standing, swaying, sort of. Well, kind of Jack Sparrow like.

The third mask he handed to Sasuke, who had a little trouble fitting it over his half human half draconian snout, but he managed after a little struggling.

"Which hole do we go down?" asked Crunchy.

"That one," replied the fox, indicated the one that curved away. "It takes us to the Dream Chamber."

"What's the other one?" asked Crunchyfrog.

"That is the one that goes directly to the Realm of Dead IFians."

Crunchyfrog shuddered. He didn't particularly want to go there.

Crunchyfrog then threw three bungees down the hole that curved down and away. After helping D onto one of the ropes and lowering him down, he hoisted the fox that was Ideamaster up under his arm. Then he picked up the spell book, the vial, and the remainder of the chocolate chip cookies that they made in Key's kitchen, and he and Sasuke descended into the hole.

As the tunnel levelled out, Crunchyfrog put the fox down, and the foursome walked quietly into the darkness. Behind them they heard a rumbling noise and a clang, as the hole sealed itself behind them.

[Idea master]

IM sniffed. What was that? Dream vapour up ahead? Oh no, this wouldn't be good...He could smell something more sinister trying to mask it's own scent with the vapour. By the time IM realised who it was, he was out like a light.

[D-Lotus]

Before Lebrenth could say anything, D suddenly felt himself pulled out of the room by something which tasted unpleasant and acidic. Lebrenth could feel D-Lotus' distaste, but was incapable of doing anything. The strange force pulled at him, and D resisted. He knew that there had to be answers in this room- it couldn't all be a delusion. He had to share his secret with Lebrenth.

Eventually, he felt the power of the mind overcome science. D reappeared as Lebrenth had done. Yet he could feel his body somewhere else, like a sleepwalker. His true presence was in the astral world. He glanced towards Lebrenth, sure that he was experiencing everything the same way...

[Lebrenth]

Lebrenth stirred in his poisonous sleep. The potion, for the poison was not its only effect nor even its main effect, had separated mind from body, and caused it to shift in the layers of the superconscious, sometimes referred to as the Astral Plane. He found D-Lotus, quite to his delight. He'd been looking for him.

"You look clearer," Lebrenth says amongst turbulent grey shrouds of a shifting plane of existence. D-Lotus did not exactly understand the words at first. Then he remembered what happened to his memory.

"No. I feel clearer there," D-Lotus replied.

"What do you mean?"

"At least there I know which side I'm on."

"I've wanted to ask you about that. What made you change your mind?" Lebrenth asks, his image shifting in clouds of thought.

"How do you know I did?"

"I saw a recording...."

"I don't understand, what did you see?"

"You were investigating, I could see that before I was shut out of the system for unauthorised access..." Lebrenth says ironically with a brief shower of yellow light tickling the realm of thought. The cloud of secrecy continues to billow around D-Lotus.

"Then you didn't see everything," D-Lotus says, his words turning the black clouds into a dark hue of red.

"What did you do?" Lebrenth asks, as the uncurling of his thoughts scatter with confusion.

"What had to be done. But I didn't do it for you or Rai or Lordy," D-Lotus says, the clouds of red glowing like coals of a fire, then dying away into grey smoke which floats away.

"What did you do? And if not for us then who?"

"For the city," he said and marvelled at his hands, now glowing like moonlight. Still there was hollowness to his words that made him feel like he was melting away. His hands dripped away like tears. "... I murdered him."

"What have you done? It has already begun, we can't send them back!" Cracks of thunder amplified Lebrenth's fear.

"You don't know that," D-Lotus says, watching his arms drip away as his hands did. "There is a way. That's why I called for you. You have to help me. We need to use the Soul Well."

"Do you know what you're asking me to do?"

"I do."

"Then return to your body while you can still retain some of your memory. I will do what I can."

"You have to do better than that."

Then a storm of violent and hateful thoughts swept across them, obscuring their vision and tearing at their consciousness. It was not their storm, but the storm of rioters and mobs, and lost souls ruled by enmity, and they feel carried away by it. But they will not become part of it. They retreat to the only place they can.

Lebrenth's eyes open, and slowly focus on Rai standing over him.

"Don't move yet," Rai says. When he sees what she's done to bring back to consciousness, he does exactly as he's told.

[Kalanna Rai]

Imparting a last message to Lebrenth Rai knew that she'd overstepped herself. "I'm not the mastermind here...and yet I'm ending up doing all the work. Humph. I've already had to replace my gems once and..." Rai was cut off by the thunder of wings as a massive black dragon with blood red spines landed in front of her cloaked figure.

"Rath? What are you doing free?" The dragoness hissed at her.

"IM has released the denizens of the Games forum." Rai wondered for a moment as her Games characters all grouped around her. Did IM expect her to go corralling them? Not bloody likely. Rai snorted to herself, doing a quick roll call to assure herself everyone was there.

"Rath, Spite, Ryuu, Rhys, X, Dove...good. Spite, X...I want the pair of you to head over to the Council hall and keep watch on my chambers. Rhys, Ryuu, Dove...keep watch on the aHEM guildhall. Rath you're coming with me."

"Where?" Rai grinned.

"We're going to spring Cami and then sit back and watch the City tear itself apart. I got onto this for fun...now it's just work. Time to get the fun back."

[Polokin]

"... Time to get the fun back." Kalanna said to Rath as she flew towards where Cami would be.

"Great..." Polokin mumbled to himself, "Kalanna has bodyguards and she's about to free another one of her characters... I'd better find D quickly..."

Polokin looked around.

"I really hope I find a clue soon... Walking around aimlessly hasn't helped yet..."

[Kalanna Rai]

Freeing Camwyre from her storygame in Jester Park was easy, after all Rai was the HEM mod. Carving a small glyph on the ground where the Council meeting would take place, Rai gestured to her two guards. "I think it's about time we leave this City. It should be much more fun to watch it fall apart than it will be to actually help tear it down."

Winging their way to the all but forgotten Mage Mountain, which still loomed over the city from the edge near the Archives, Rai landed and knocked on the door of the den of the dragon of the mountain. Angel poked her snout out grinning. "Ah, bout time you come visit me."

"Care to watch the fun down below with us Angel." The dragoness, another of Rai's cronies, bobbed her head and they all curled around the mountain, settling for a comfortable, yet good, view.

"Anybody bring some sheep to toast?"

[Crunchyfrog]

D snapped back to reality, in a cold sweat, not knowing whether his encounter with Lebrenth was a dream or not. But the memory he was left with chilled him to the bone. It wasn't so much the conversation with Lebby, but of... of... what he had done at the New Year's party.

He felt a sudden wave of claustrophobia as he became aware of the gas mask he was wearing, and struggled to remove it.

"No, NOO! Dream Chamber ahead!" yelled Crunchyfrog's muffled voice through his own mask, holding up the completely unconscious fox by the tail as an illustration.

D breathed slowly and deeply, trying to calm himself down.
He stared through the glass panes of his mask at the curved redness of the tunnel ahead of and behind him, the swirling white mist rolling in from the front obliterating sight of everything below his knees.

"Crunchy, I did something terrible." he said. "But I did it for the good of the City. You were there when it happened, but you don't remember it...nobody does. I didn't, until now... That flash of light... But I think I know why that map was planted on you now. It has to be you that fix’s' it.

"Fixes what? Why me?"

"Because you were the only person at the party that was not around before the Mass Exorcism... You are the only one that will be unaffected.... "

D-Lotus, Crunchyfrog and Sasuke continued cautiously on through the tunnel towards the Dream Chamber, unaware of the sinister being up ahead...

[JezSharp]

A couple of hours later and Jez was interrupted from his nap by the grunting sounds of a troll speaking over the intercom.

"Hit soft soil, should be very soon...whump, sounds of earth falling to the floor and groans. Ah actually about now in fact." Jez smiled and stood up slowly, there was still time before the Council meeting, assuming he went. Quickly he strode off into the TI maze.

[Idea master]

IM's body was asleep, but his mind and soul were mostly free to wander, as long as he left enough behind to keep his physical body operating. It was a classic mage ability, one that he had practised multiple times, and it didn't require any magic at all, only mental discipline. It was even usable by those that weren't mages.

IM had, fortunately, brought Key along by mistake. "Hey now, what's all this then?"

IM turned around, seeing Key in all his rotund glory behind him. Whatever had transformed his body hadn't yet got to his mind or soul. IM looked at his own hands and were relieved to see that they were indeed hands. "Key, just stick close to me. We're going to see if an old friend of ours is even alive."

Thus saying, IM began to float towards Smee's mansion...

[Lebrenth]

From high on Mage Mountain Rai could still see Lebrenth laid out on the ground. She didn't bother to explain why a large spider had its fangs buried in his neck.

The poison of the rare Crypt Spider, with red and blue echelons on its back, has a strange effect that makes it truly unique. It possesses anti-venom that can dissolve many types of poison, and to some extent even nurture the recipient. The purpose of this quality is likely a measure to help keep a victim alive and juicy for extended feasting. A Crypt Spider can keep its victim alive for a month without food or water. Even dead, it can feed upon for several more months.

But of course it wouldn't be 'poison' if all of the effects were favourable. After the victim is purged of foreign poisons, the anti-venom's effect immediately reverses and paralyses the victim. That's when the feeding begins. Of course by that stage the council members should arrive for the meeting and be able to assist him.

That is, unless they don't come.

[dinranwen]

It turned out Muadib's instructions weren't as clear as Din had thought.

"Your status in If is active...but because your former 'form' (avatar) is dead, you’re going to have to take on a new one." Muadib had said.

"How?"

"Go up onto the roof of the Tavern. The Tavern's roof is roughly located on the bottom left of the Soul Well. If you go straight and slightly to the right, you should see a faint light coming from above." Muadib said pausing for a moment, "There are two ways you can get back alive, one is to climb through the cracks near the well, but you won't return to your form and will only be in spirit under the control of 'someone else'. If you don't want that, you have to find some way to get under the dream chamber...somewhere near there, I don't know exactly where there is a computer room. Enter your name, city key, and go to profile. Once there, choose what/who you will be it's called an 'avatar'. I warn you though, don't take your original form...if you do you'll only end up back here."

Din had tried to follow those instructions but apparently finding your way through absolute darkness was now easy task, not even for a former half-shadow.

Somehow, someway Din had gone a little too far to the right and was now facing one of the many doors in the realm of Dead Ifians.

The door in front of her and Smudge was labelled, "Channel If broadcasting, Enter if you dare."

Muadib, Rave and Wing, and many other dezins of the Tavern had warned her about this room, if she dared to enter and made it past the gang of If characters that ran it, she would be able to see what was going on in If.

Deciding to take the chance, Din entered the Broadcasting moved and then ducked, dodged and made her way to a large area where several former citizens of If were watching the events in If unfold with large barrels of popcorn. Four screens were displayed...one showed the City proper, focusing mainly on Crunchyfrog and Gang. Another showed the confrontation between D and Leb. The third was showing IM and Key in their dream state briefly before flipping to the channel where Rai was featured eating sheep with her denizens. The final one showed an empty screen of a computer room...positioned just below the dream chamber.

Swinging around before she saw any more, Din drug Smudger out of the Broadcasting room and went in the exact opposite direction of the computer room where she and Smudge could return to the City. "Uh, Din" Smudger puffed in-between bounces, "Aren't we going the wrong way."

"Yes, we are."

"I thought we were going to go back to the City of If."

"We are, and we're going to bring a few residents of this Realm with us too...."

[Idea master]

"Smee?" IM hesitantly asked.

There was a moment of silence. Then, "IM? What are you doing here?"

"Smee! Thank goodness you're okay!"

Smee's form flickered, then solidified in front of IM and Key. "Actually, I'm not okay at all. My body got blasted ahead into the future until tomorrow."

"That's still better than me at this moment in time. Do you remember anything that happened at your party?"

"Yes," Smee said grimly, and began to tell his tale.

"I was making my routine checks around the manor when I entered the basement. I saw somebody casting a spell, and only caught the end of it, something about cracking open an entrance to the Soul Well. Needless to say, I tried to stop him by throwing a fear spell at him. It only got entangled with his spell, though, and now everyone fears the entrance to the Soul Well that is directly where my house used to be. In a fit of revenge, this character cast a spell that would disintegrate me, but I outfoxed him by time travelling. These spells also mixed to kill me now but revive me later. He let off a magic flare afterwards, to signal his work was done, probably, and then ran as the effects of our earlier mixed spell began to take hold. Fortunately everybody in my manor ran before they fell into the abyssal hole."

"Listen," IM said, "We really need you to reconstitute where the fear isn't so strong. You've got a lot of catching up to do."

"I'll try," Smee said.

IM then briefly checked on the tunnel in his manor to the Dead IFians. Hopefully there would be help coming from that direction, otherwise the stairwell he'd spent so long installing would be wasted. Whoever did come couldn't be shot by his security, seeing as they would be dead and all.

[Kalanna Rai]

Watching the city from high on the mountain Rai lounged with a huge grin on her muzzle. Good food, good company, good entertainment...it didn't get any better than this. Glancing around she chortled at the way the Games characters were bringing total ruin onto some parts of the city, watching with interest to see if any mods attempted anything. Naturally none of them did.

If she hadn't been casting such a critical eye on everything she wouldn't have noticed the slight tremor that ran through a section of the shields around the Archives. Angel snorted. "Somebody's messing around down there." Rai shrugged.

"As long as they stay off the Mountain...not my problem." Rai glanced toward Jester Park but, as of yet, none of the Councillors had shown up. "At this rate I don't know why I bothered to put down that glyph. If no body else comes I doubt my remote presence will be required..."

[D-Lotus]

D, Sasuke, and Crunchy ran breathlessly, the fox limply swaying in pace by the tail. Thoughts blazed through D's mind, causing him to tighten his jaw as he tried to justify himself.

Murder, Murderer!

No, no, anybody would have done as I.

Murder, Murderer!

But I saved so many...

BS will exact his revenge, and you cannot refuse it to him.

Finally the fog began to thin, then clear completely. Just as D removed his mask, Crunchy suddenly stopped, dropping fox and key with a dull thump. D looked in the same direction as he. There was some kind of monster standing there, perhaps escaped from the Games forum and wandering aimlessly, although it had the appearance of one of Rai's henchmen.

D met the stare of its yellow, rotting eyes. It was humanoid but it looked like an angel- a travesty angel. It spread its huge wings and bounded forward towards Crunchy. Sasuke, paralysed with fear of the demonic angel, stood back, paralysed. Wordlessly, D shot out his arm and caught hold of one of the wings. The creature snarled and swiped at D-Lotus, who fell back against the wall, clutching a handful of feathers in his grip. He could feel the viscous blood dripping down his face from the cut on his forehead. He got up just as the creature sprang at him, its arms outstretched, and its dirty, jagged nails reaching for D's heart. D-Lotus dodged, and the pulsing fist sunk into the wall. Moving quickly, D held his hands together, in a fist above the creature's monstrous head, and brought it down with strength. The thing arched back in pain, like a cat, and just as swiftly pushed its massive leg into D's stomach. He crumpled onto the floor. The creature cackled victoriously and prepared for the kill. D turned to face the monster for the last time. Unexpectedly, the creature's eyes rolled back and turned white. It dropped onto the floor with a rumble that shook the whole room. The falling monster revealed Cruchyfrog's figure, holding a bloodied rock, and shaking badly in the knees.

"C'mon, let's get out of here,” said D, as he got up. He was too tired as to comfort Crunchy. CF nodded, still stunned at his own behaviour. He picked up the fox and key and followed Sasuke and D, who were already leading further down.

[dinranwen]

Din was grinning from ear to ear...and everyone knew it. Behind her and Smudger, who was trudging along too, was a denizen of dead ifian's, most of them famous. Muadib, Rave and Wing, the barkeeper, and many other well know Ifian's were trudging behind her. All joyful at the prospect of kicking whoever’s *clears throat* back end that was forcing them from their nice comfortable lives in the Realm of Dead Ifian's. After all who didn't enjoy free live television, endless beverages, and pleasures for eternity? They were marched out into the City of If, where they were forced to mindlessly chant "Bring down Chinaren, Kill Chinaren, Must overthrow Chinaren...."

They found it annoying...so needless to say when Din proposed taking them to the surface through the actual Soul Well which the fiend controlling them all hadn't yet managed to control, they had agree...a little to quickly perhaps but they had agreed. Sending the angry denizens in search of their controller under the guise of Tourist and Guest...Din drug Smudger towards the dream chamber only pausing briefly to smile.

Thanks to her, thousands of Dead Ifians were arriving angry and all to eager to help the City...Din wished she could be there when whoever this mystery controller was found out his/her creation was turning on them.

Once near the Dream Chamber, she quickly found the Computer Room she sought. Explaining the situation to Smudge, Din watched as the humble hunchback turned into a rather striking young man dressed in a uniform that would of done Communist China proud.

"Ah your a communist" Din said sagely.

"Actually I'm a socialist...there's a difference you know."

"Communist, Socialist, Tomato, Tomata, Whatever."

Din waited until Smudge was safely back in the City and she was alone to step up to the counsel. Din liked being a shadow, and liked her cloaks. But there was no way to go back to being a half-shadow as her form was broken...and the only way she could harvest her shadow half was to be someone else. At least until she could weave what remained of her former self with new shadows.

Pausing a moment, Din decided. The City of If was over run by Rpg characters...why not be one of her own that wasn't currently in use...

~ ~ ~

Bridgette Saliva freed from the world of Realm...was very different. Flashing red hair that seemed to flame and spark, green eyes that seemed to burn, a clingy red garment that would have been a dress if the skirt was buckled to form a split skirt, and constantly swirling tattoos that glowed red met the City of If's light.

Spinning a dagger made of flames in the palm of her hands, Bridgette set off towards Mage Mountain which a necklace, a necklace that held a gem that looked exactly like a mod jewel, told her Rai was.

It was strange how similar her cold smile seemed like Din when she was about to clean something.

[Idea master]

IM finally came to. He sputtered as well as he could to get the taste of the potion out of his mouth. Then he closed his eyes. His magic was blocked, but not his nature of moderator. He reached out throughout the city...and found Kalanna's characters curiously absent from anything that he could touch. Hmm. IM used his new-found powers over City Central to aid him, and suddenly the majority of the characters that were freed from the Games district that hadn't yet escaped to other parts of the city found themselves sucked back behind newly-appearing walls. A few characters wandered over to IM. D raised his gun instantly.

"Relax, D, these are mine." D looked, to say the least, shocked by a fox speaking in IM's voice.

"These two are my own assassin and warrior. You two are to find whatever characters that escaped and toss them behind the walls. If you find Kalanna or any of her characters, kill them, but only if you're together and they're alone. Never underestimate them."

IM then sat. "The council meeting is in an hour by my reckoning, and it's in Jester Park. I don't believe we should go, though, seeing as some of the council members are either compromised or corrupt. Wait, Lordy is always corrupt. Hmm...Anyway, Smee will be reconstituting half a mile north of us if he can, and when he does, he can break the curses on Key and me. Personally, I'm tired of being a fox."

[Kalanna Rai]

Rai was watching several miners attempt to fight off several dozen escapees of the Games forum when her gem flickered. Sighing she opened the connection. "What Lordy?"

"Why aren't you tailing the others, hmm? Or have you forgotten we still need other things." Rai sighed.

"You know I think I've done my part. I've got what I need and right now I'm pretty sure there are several plots against my life." The demon laughed.

"So you've cut and run...how unlike you Kalanna. I thought you were an assassin of quality and courage." Rai nodded.

"I'm also an assassin of opportunity and prudence. I've got no quarrel with several people who are now firmly entrenched against me, for their own reasons. I'm pretty sure IM is after my blood." Lordy cocked his head at her.

"How?" Slowly Rai withdrew a dark black book from within one of her gems and Lordy nodded. "A Necromicon...you didn't read it I trust?"

"It might have been a while since I've seen one but, having a copy of my own, I didn't really need to open this one. It reeks of death curse a mile away. Here I planned on returning IM's book at a safe time and," Lordy interrupted.

"Wait. You've got a copy of IM's book?" Rai was wary now. What did Lordy want with IM's book?

"It disintegrated and the ashes were replaced by the Micon. So no." Lordy looked vaguely disappointed.

"Ah, well. Can't have it all. Still I wish you'd come down off that mountain and," It was Rai's turn to interrupt.

"Not a chance." She broke the connection and twitched claws for a moment. Her dragonesses looked at her expectantly. "Alright, alright." Slowly she rang IM, half expecting him not to answer. When he didn't she left him a message. "IM, its Rai. We need to talk, even if you're still a fox. Lordy's after you and if you don't call me back I'll expect the worst has happened..."

[Idea master]

A mental call, how interesting. IM's mansion was paging him. Quickly IM went into his trance again. IM's mind and soul once again freely wandered, this time to enter his mansion and listen in on the message. "IM, its Rai. We need to talk, even if you're still a fox. Lordy's after you and if you don't call me back I'll expect the worst has happened..."

IM was shocked. He quickly ordered his assassin and warrior characters to NOT kill any of Rai's characters or Rai, instead telling them to focus on Lordy's characters and Lordy himself for the time being, though he did tell them to reinstate their old directives if they didn't receive confirmation within a day. Then IM made mental contact with Rai. "You rang me?" he asked, his spiritual presence flickering like a ghost over the familiar terrain over Mage's Mountain.

[Kalanna Rai]

"You may be in deep shit. Here, this is no time for you to be running around as a lower class mammal." With a flick of her talons Rai recalled her earlier curse. "I picked up your book earlier, you dropped it in the tunnels. I was planning on giving it back to you when we had a quiet moment since it's not exactly the type of thing you want lost."

"So why did you send me to IFHI then if you had it?"

"I had reason to believe we were being followed. I'm not entirely sure Din wasn't sent to spy on me...which is why I had to get rid of her for some time. She was making threats after all but never mind about the book...it turned into so much ash." She had the feeling IM knew that.

"We need to meet and we need to do so soon. I'm staying one step ahead of Lordy for now but that won't be for long, knowing him. I do, however, have a bargaining chip for myself, and I know what he's going after."

"Really? And you're so into sharing all of the sudden because...?" Rai grinned at IM sarcasm.

"Because I know he's after you...which means I can assume the kind of measures he's going to take when he encounters you. I can handle those kinds of threats well rather than be blindsided. Plus, the Necromicon that replaced the pile of ashes your book became has your spell signature written all over it. So why don't you join me here on the mountain? It's safer than Jester Park, I assure you."

[Idea master]

"Seeing as it IS my storygame from ages ago, I know the caves and crevices better than you, so I'll feel fine about joining you. However, we still have Key to restore and Smee to find. Tomorrow Smee will reconstitute, and hopefully he'll join with us. It's always better to have multiple magi on your side. Then together he and I will break the curse on Key so that neither one of us will be unduly drained."

IM confirmed his orders with his characters from the Games district, then ordered his more loyal servants to recalibrate the mansion security so that Kalanna would not be at risk, nor any of her characters or any of HIS characters. He then plopped himself back into his own body, grateful to see that he was indeed human once more.

"Parting gift from Rai. She's not really my enemy anymore, Lordy is. We've got to get Smee and get to Mage Mountain. We can hold out there for days if we have to. I'm going to see if I can't accelerate his reconstitution. Let's run, Lordy could be after us even now."

[Kalanna Rai]

Rai turned toward her dragonesses. "Rath, I'd like you to go give the other's a little protection. They may need it. See to it that they make it back here safely." The black and red dragoness dipped her snout to Rai before extending a talon for a small mod tracker that would lead her to IM's location. "I'll send word that I've sent you to help him...and I suppose I'd better tell the others that they shouldn't kill IM or anyone with him. Otherwise they might get overzealous..."

[JezSharp]

Jez stooped under the soft earthen hole, then moved swiftly up through the hole in the stone wall of the underground vault of the Archives. Shelves spanned out in all directions, musty, containing hundreds of unwritten secrets, most fairly useless. But among the ordinary may lay treasures extraordinary, Jez thought happily as he took a glowing lump of lumonosis (phosphorous light green glowing reeds) and slowly stepped forward amongst the dusty corridors - searching for a promising book.