City of IF

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover

Chapter 15 - The Ascent up Mage Mountain






Name: Bridgette Saliva,
Status: RPG Character
Creator: Dinranwen

In the Computer Room just under the Dream Chamber, the Undead Dinranwen called up the information, and hit Enter.

Din liked being a shadow, and liked her cloaks. But there was no way to go back to the City from the Realm of Dead IFians as herself 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.

And that was why she had decided on being Bridgette Saliva.
The City of If was over run by Rpg characters...why not be one of her own that wasn't currently in use...


All of a sudden a gentle light enveloped her form, and when it faded, she found herself in her new body, Bridgette.
There she stood, with 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 in any light. Around her neck she wore a necklace, with a gem set into it.

Bridgette, Din in disguise, grinned from ear to ear. 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. After all who didn't enjoy free live television, endless beverages, and pleasures for eternity?


Having already sent Smudger back up through the Soul Well into the city disguised as a striking young man in military uniform, and with most of the Dead IFians also already gone to the city disguised as Tourists or Guests, Dinranwen was the last to go. Stepping out of the computer room, she climbed the ricketty stairway upwards further, until she was out on top of the roof of the Tavern. Catching her breath, she felt herself being sucked upwards into the yawning hole in the sky, that was the crack in the Soul Well.

~ ~ ~

The first thing she had noticed upon returning to the City of IF was that it was pre-dawn. The second thing she'd noticed was a burning desire to find Rai...a throbbing passion that kept pushing her even though something of her conscience told her something was quite right with that the desire. It was like there was something wrong, but every time she tried to figure out why her fingers slipped off the problem like oil on water.

Having felt drawn towards Mage Mountain, Bridgette had set off towards it's foothills, deftly ducking and avoiding the guards IM had sent out, presumably to herd back RPG characters to the Games section.

Now, standing and looking up at the mountain she sighed. The mountain was beyond her skill to try. There was no guarantee that even if she managed to climb it she might find Rai there...although why she had the insane urge to find the Dragoness was beyond her.

As she stood contemplating the Mountain...the back of her was on fire, screaming at her to climb the mountain, to find Rai....

She did not notice two figures scrambling up the rocky path ahead of her, the figures of...







...IM and Smee, who were making quick progress up the slope of Mage Mountain, pausing only to shoot a spammer that lurked in a hidden cave.







Below them, Dinranwen fought with the urge to find Rai.

"Why?" she asked herself. "Am I suicidal or something? After all Rai did kill me in the first place?
Doesn't matter...you need to find Rai...you need to talk to Rai...make her understand...apologise...and follow Rai...
No." Din told her mind. But whatever it was wouldn't stop, and Din weakened from Death as she was...couldn't resist.
But she could talk to Rai...which is exactly what the back of her mind wanted to do.
Maybe, Rai could help. Or IM... She couldn't help feeling somehow that he was somewhere around her.

Sending a P.M. Rai's way, Din sat down at the bottom of the mountain and waited for the answer.
The message said,

"Rai, I think we need to talk...X and Spite will know who I am.

Signed Bridgette."


~ ~ ~

[Crunchyfrog]

Unaware that they had left the disguised Dinranwen at the bottom of the mountain, Smee and IM continued to climb. As they gained altitude the fog seemed thinner, and they could see that the sky was beginning to lighten on the horizon. IM knew that the Council Meeting was iminent, and they had to reach Rai before then. Gathering their strength, they pushed on up the slopes, until they finally reached the cavern where Rai was hiding.

They stood tentatively outside the cavern mouth. IM reflected that it probably wasn't wise that he'd left all of his moderator adornments in his other robes. Listening carefully, they could hear Rai inside, talking to her cronies.







"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. 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..."

Rai, seated between Cami and Angel, paused with what she was doing, as she spotted movement outside.

"Never mind Rath, it seems they've already arrived."

Slowly IM and Smee walked in, both looking as wary as well...mages in a cave full of dragons. Rath settled back down before Rai's feet, looking at them calmly.

"Gentlemen," said Rai courteously, "good of you to arrive."

"Well, you did send for us. You said Lordy was after me...why?"

Rai shrugged.

"All I know is that Lordy became very excited when I mentioned I had a copy of your book. He shrugged it off when I said I no longer had it but...well when Lordy expresses interest in something it's generally not good for the current owner."

IM nodded, he could understand that.

"You were working for him, weren't you." said IM accusingly. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Rai snorted.

"Working with him, not for him. As for the change of heart...when the death threats started in I realised that if I wanted my heart to remain where it was I had better start choosing my steps wisely. Lordy isn't likely to threaten me. Send hordes of Raver Demons after me sure, but not threaten."

"But why suddenly start working with us?" persisted IM.

Rai raised an eyebrow.

"Was I ever working against you?"







Legalese, double-talk, politician, IM understood it all. He'd make a great mayor one day, if he ever got off his fat arse. But Rai's story had a ring of truth to it. She was, after all, an assassin, and they were known to be loyal only to themselves. IM must have factored in somewhere in her plan; otherwise he'd be dead meat in a few different bellies at this point in time. IM nodded slowly.

"You do realise, of course, that once their services are no longer required, your characters will have to go back to their places in the Games district, yes?"

"Ye- wait, their services are required?" Rai was puzzled.

"Of course. With your and their permission, of course, I'd like to see if Smee and I can break the curse on Key right now. We're drained, but you lot aren't."

Mages and dragons had a history together, and in many tales it was written in shed blood. IM could only hope that this animosity would be put aside temporarily in light of the crisis upon IF.







Rai looked at her ladies. "Well you lot, willing to pitch in and turn a Key into a King?" The dragonesses rolled their eyes. "Very well and good then."

Rai pulled the gem off her left hind leg and each of her dragonesses let a single drop of blood fall upon it. Slowly the gem began to glow with power, purple from Angel, red from Rath, and golden from Cami.

When the flow of power had depleted itself enough Rai deftly plucked the gem up. With the tip of a talon she laid open both Smee and IM's left palm, placing both upon the gem's surface. "If you're ready to proceed gentlemen, I'll anchor your attempt." After all, nothing could ground magic like a highly resistant dragoness.

It was about this time that Rai received a PM from...no it couldn't be. But it was...dinranwen...

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover

Chapter 16 - Explosion!!!







IM and Smee flung themselves into the spell weaving like nothing before. They didn't immediately move their hands about moulding energy, though. This was precision work. If they only hit a few aspects of the curse, then Key could be stuck like he was forever. IM unconsciously pulled out his tome and opened it so that if he needed information, his body could look it up for him.

Power. Raw power and hatred. Smee's thoughts flickered across the ether.

Hmm. Emotional spells are always harder to break, they're infinitely more convoluted. IM was busy tracing the spell itself; it seemed like one thread fed back into itself constantly, like one of those darn Mobius strips.

But find the key thread and tug it, and it all falls apart. What is the source of the anger?

...It seems similar to the fog of souls hovering over the city...but it's coming from outside the wall...

Spammers, flamers, and trolls, then. Makes sense. But what mage in their right mind would aid them?

...It wasn't a mage...it was a daemon.

Oh dear. This will be interesting. Wait, I've found something, it looks to be the core of the curse.

Hang on, let me look...Yeah, that's defiantly it. All the loops pass by that point. Ready?

Yup. Let's do this then!

IM and Smee focused their thoughts and wove power through the intricate weaves of the curse to build up in the core of the curse. More, more...then there was a deafening, mountain-shattering BOOM.

The force that was used to break the curse caused Mage Mountain to explode in a brilliant flash of light. Key was restored, that much IM knew. Then IM hit the ground, and knew no more.






The explosion on Mage Mountain shook the city.

In the rooms of the archives that had not been blown to bits, the books had toppled from their shelves, burying Jez and Solus.

Somewhere in the streets, Masterweaver took cover as falling masonry crashed to the ground.

In the dungeons of the palace, Xansta gripped the wall as the very fabric of the building shook.

D stumbled as the ground beneath him swayed.

Bridgette fled the falling boulders as they tumbled down the disintegrating mountainside towards her.

Polokin watched for flying rocks as he scurried through Jester Park, unwittingly running past the motionless Lebrenth....






"Whoa!" Rai flapped as hard as she could, reattaching the gem to her hind foot. Luckily it hadn't vaporised in the flash that blew Mage Mountain and half the Archives out of the city. Hovering in position she scanned around her, watching as Angel, Cami, and Rath all shook their heads and stood on wobbly legs.

Sniffing about Rai managed to locate IM but not Smee...it seemed he'd been knocked into sometime next week. Checking the mage for injuries she could treat, Rai muttered to herself about the fragility of mortals and thanked every power she was willing to admit existed that she was a dragoness of some toughness.

"Although I could do with some sleep soon...I've been stretching myself way too thin." She snorted. That had to be the understatement of all understatements... She felt strangely torn, as though a part of her was missing. Putting the feeling down to tiredness, she decided she'd be fine...for now.

With the injured IM on her back, she and her ladies winged their way to Jester Park. Landing next to her glyph and Lebby, Rai set IM down next to the skiffy mod, and then checked Lebby closely, ensuring that the Crypt spider was still firmly attached to his neck.

Rai finally admitted to needing some sleep, she'd been stretcing herself way too thin. She turned to her dragonesses again.

"Rath, I understand you'll be returning to Games soon...you'd better grab the others to go back with you. Cami, stay here and guard me, you belong in the Park anyway. Angel...since the mountain has been destroyed you may take over guarding my Council Hall Lair."

The dragonesses bobbed their heads. Slowly Rai walked over to the aHEM guildhall. Opening the door she made it all the way down to her Lair in there, curling up on her mounds of gold. Setting the formidable guildhouse defences on high alert, and locking down the Lair just for safety sake, Rai finally dozed off...

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover

Chapter 17 - Through the Soul Well






Sasuke and Crunchyfrog had already made good progress out through the city and into the burnt trees near Jester Park when the explosion happened. The ground rumbled and a crack opened up with wisps of fog rising from it. They found the hole that they'd emerged from when they'd escaped the labyrinth that morning, and crawled back inside.

Keeping his hand tightly closed over the object D had given him; Crunchy followed Sasuke, as they pressed onwards through the tunnels. After an hour or so they noticed the tunnels rising slightly - they must be inside the cliff now. Crunchyfrog remembered the damp cool air, and the strange mushrooms.

Finally they arrived in the cave where the tunnels converged. The pools were still there.

"It's over to you now, I guess." said Sasuke, settling back on his hind legs.

"Yeah, I guess..." replied Crunchyfrog.

Approaching the pools, Crunchyfrog stared at the one that Masterweaver had fallen into, almost 24 hours ago. He looked over his shoulder at Sasuke.

"If I'm not back in 12 hours, go and find D." He said.
Sasuke nodded bravely.

Crunchyfrog turned back towards the pools, one of which now swirled like a whirlpool, glowing softly, as if it was expecting him.

Sasuke watched as Crunchyfrog took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and walked towards the pool like someone condemned...

In one second he was grabbed, stretched, warped, twisted and sucked down into a glowing vortex... In the next, the pool darkened and was quiet - and Sasuke was alone.


Crunchyfrog's stomach churned as he fell through void after void. He tried opening his eyes to avert the nausea, but the swirling clouds, light and movement that flashed in front of them made him feel even worse....

As he continued to fall through the Soul Well, Crunchyfrog began to feel his body being bounced from one rocky wall to the other, collecting bruises to be proud of. He scrabbled with his hands and feet every time he felt something he could hold on to, to break his fall, until finally he lodged himself in what seemed to be a rocky shaft. Feeling the blood rush to his head, he realised he was facing downwards, and, alarmed, he opened his eyes to see what kind of abyss awaited him.

Incredibly, he saw light... a whole world stretched out below him. It looked beautiful, tranquil, a small village, fields, forests... but how could he be in a cave... in a hole up in the sky? He craned his neck to get a good look at the sky from his position - it was angry, with great vortices swirling in it.

He had no idea that below him was, in fact, the Realm of Dead IFians.

Crunchyfrog lost his grip and fell towards it.

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover


Chapter 18 - In the Archives






Deep in the Archives, the dust was still settling after the huge explosion on Mage Mountain, that had shaken the city.

A pale hand and arm shot out of the pile of books, followed by a second. Then Jez's head emerged, looking slightly dazed. Panting he pulled himself out and shouted.

"Solus!"

There was a muffled reply nearby and the sound of sliding books as she emerged.

"Ok," Jez said relieved, "what on Earth was that...?"

Solus didn't respond, and she too looked rather confused. "Never mind," Jez said as he stared disconnectedly at the jumbled heap of books, reading the titles with some despair, 'The Adventures of Goth...How to clean a sewer - Wayne Pipe...Treasured Secrets of IF by Keavney...What to do if you're accosted by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Troll by... Wait a minute, that sounds promising, he thought as he scooped down and picked up the Treasured Secrets of IF. Turning to Solus he said,

"Perhaps you should head back to the TI, I'm not quite sure how safe it is here."

Dust was still falling from the ceiling...besides it's not exactly healthy spending so much time in here anyway, he thought as he awaited her response.






..."Well, that rather spoilt the opening"...hissed the voice inside Solus's head.
..."like it wasn't already..." she retorted silently

Solus quickly reached up to pull the hood back over her uncovered face, then stopped. What was the point? Jez was her brother after all...

"Why should I go back to TI?"

Deep black eyes peered at him curiously from beneath long white hair. This appearance on a teenager of age roughly 14 - 17 looked unnatural - but what didn't in this place? It was obvious that Jez was surprised at this new look.

..."So he has noticed you've changed"...
..."It would be hard not to - but that doesn't matter"...

"What's going on?" Solus finished.

She had heard the unspoken words in his tone of voice.
..."Yes, it is unhealthy - but that's my problem - I've lived with it this long"...
..."He is just trying to help"...
..."The books"...

Solus looked around in horror at the jumble of books lying on the floor as if she had just realised.

"I should sort out the books..." She muttered softly, almost to herself as she bent down and picked up a book. Placing it back on the shelf, she bent down to pick up another but a restraining hand on her arm stopped her.

"It doesn't matter - it would take ages to sort out these books," said Jez. "How about you just go to TI and wait there?"

"Wait for what? Where are you going?"

Jez hesitated, then shrugged.

"I have a council meeting."
..."I don't want to leave here"... Solus's silent words drifted inwardly.
..."I know what you mean - but maybe it is better if you go to TI... "
..."I don't like TI. It's too light...why can't I just stay here?..."

"Can I come to the council meeting too?" she asked suddenly. "I'll hide so they don't see me if you want - I've done that before!"

An annoyed frown crossed Jez's face for a fleeting moment.

..."I thought you didn't want to leave here..."
..."I don't know why I said that!..."
..."Well, I suppose it can't do any harm..."

"Well..." Jez started.






"Really, why is she acting so strangely?" The elf thought, puzzled. Sighing he replaced the frown with a smile,

"Ok, sure," he said as he dived into the tunnel. Once Solus had slipped in after him he ordered the trolls to try and sort the books into alphabetical order, something that a few of them could just about muster.

Quickly he strode along, his eyes scanning the first few pages of the book. Flicking over a couple more he found an original sketched map of some of the key places in IF. Nowhere near as exact or precise as the original, but each with a ream of information hidden within the book.

As they reached a door, Jez adjusted the lights so that they were far dimmer, and behind he heard Solus relax slightly.

"She really does spend way too much time underground at the minute, I thought I was bad... " he thought to himself.

It wasn't long before they once again reached the heart of the TI,

"Ok, we can travel there by tunnel or by car", Jez pondered out loud, "which do you think, Solus?"






"Tunnel." Solus replied without hesitation. As she did so, she frowned slightly.

..."Are you annoyed that he hasn't commented on your new appearance?"...
Solus was becoming irritated with the voice.
..."He has hinted at it..."
..."Hardly worth the effort..."
..."It wasn't meant for that, anyway - It was so I could prove it to myself..."
..."To me?"...
..."To myself..." she repeated under her breath.

Solus frowned slightly as she followed Jez through a door, absentmindedly wiping her hands on her robes as she did so. She hoped there wouldn't be anymore trolls in this tunnel. They really did disgust her - and the thought of them touching all those beautiful books...
...she shivered.
She wished she had stopped Jez from asking them - now that she knew that the trolls had fingered them, she would have to think twice before picking them up.

..."They're all ruined..." she said inwardly.
..."Not all..."
..."Oh yes - there is that one..."

Hand moving to a concealed pocket in her long black robes, Solus fingered the top of a small book that was hidden there.
..."Just this one..."

Seeing her brother striding ahead down the tunnel, Solus hurried to keep up with him. He hadn't said when the meeting was about to start, but judging by the urgency in his step, she guessed it was soon.

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover

Chapter 19 - The Gathering of the Council


Editor's note - This part of the chapter has been presented differently from the rest of the story. The reason is because it was too difficult to get the story to flow easily without some serious cutting out of text. Therefore, I decided to rewrite the entire part of this story from one perspective, using as much as the co-author's original material as possible. My sincere apologies to the authors concerned, but it was the only way it could be done.

This part of the story is credited to the following co-authors:

Dinranwen, Kalanna Rai, IdeaMaster, Lebrenth, CrunchyFrog.



The sky began to lighten over the City of IF.

All over the City smoke swirled pink and gray. Dents, Scraps, and several blasts peppered the city, much of the damage done by warring RPG characters IM had let loose earlier.

Mage Mountain was no more, reduced to a pile of rubble.

Wigs, parts of clowns, gaudy garments lay about the park, sorched and some of them still smoking.....piles of melted wax from rides lay across the scene. the flicker of smouldering coals lit up the remainder of the night. Even the mighty ferris wheel of Tempting Fate was distorted in a odd way by the heat of the earlier fires.... Jester Park was a mess, and it would take more than the duty moderators to clear it up.

In the centre of the park, there was a glowing glyph, signalling where the Council meeting was to be held. Currently there were only two members present, Lebrenth and IdeaMaster, and they both appeared to be lying on the ground, unconscious.

Presently, a small, punkish looking woman, looking more like a RPG character than a regular citizen, approached the prone pair. Kneeling between the two of them, she screamed momentarily.

This was not because of the fact that she had discovered two people unconscious on the ground, but in particular, one of them, Lebrenth, had a large Crypt spider settled on his neck, it's fangs firmly buried into his skin.

The woman hated spiders. However, she pulled out a dagger from a concealed pocket in her clothing, and set about carefully prising its jaws out of his veins. Then, using a two-by-four she squished the thing until it was flatter than the ground it laid on. Turning back to Lebrenth, she blinked... was it her imagination, or did he just blink as well?

She was so focused on his state, that she did not notice IdeaMaster coming to. He rose up on one elbow, and looked around, with a confused expression on his face, as if he did not recognise his surroundings. He stared momentarily at Lebrenth lying next to him, and the small woman kneeling over him, her back turned to IdeaMaster. He seemed not to recognise either of them, and edged away slowly, until he was at a safe distance to get up and wander off into the fog.

Still focused on Lebrenth, the woman watched curiously, as he began blinking for all he was worth. What was he doing? What turmoil could he be going through inside?

The truth was, Lebrenth wanted to hug the woman as she removed the spider. He would have been happy to do about any action if it meant he was no longer paralysed. When she noticed him blinking, he felt a wave of relief. It was rough, but he could communicate. Then again, how the hell do you blink: "Find Lordy Now!" ?

Carefully thinking up his own version of Morse code, Lebrenth started blinking. Surely, with a pen and paper, someone could decode a message. However, the only message she guessed was that his eyes must be dry.

"Paralysis sucks." he thought, giving up for a while. But he hoped that the woman would not go away just yet. At least not until some of the other Council members turned up for the meeting.

But just as he was beginning to give up hope of seeing any of them, Rai appeared, bleary from a very short sleep, that had been interrupted by a timer set for a few minutes before the meeting was due to start.

She stood over Lebby and the RPG woman. The woman whirled around, spider-gut covered 2X4 in hand.

"You..." she began.

"Good to see you again, Dinranwen. I knew you'd find your way back."

Lebrenth blinked quickly. The woman was Din? "But how...?" he thought.

Through his mod ring he had been able to hear about some of the events of the city. The news was scattered and confusing, but most of all frustrating. There had been nothing to make him suppose that any of the councillors would be going around in disguise. What had been going on? He stopped blinking, and instead concentrated on listening to the conversation going on over his head.

RPG character Brithil Cirya, or rather Dinranwen in a new disguise, smiled at Rai.

The advantage of being an escapee of the Realm of Dead IFians, was that generally, being buried in rubble from exploding mountains didn't affect you that much. Din had felt herself being zapped somewhere in the back of her mind, but reconstructing she simply became another of Rpg characters.

So, with nothing more than a slight headache and a few bumps, Dinranwen, having shifted from the form of Bridgette Saliva, into that of the ever punk-ish Brithil Cirya.

"Yeah, but I need to get my form back...as of right now, I'm stuck my various RPG characters until I can harvest my shadow half...which by the way was only thing that survived after that nasty little fall."

Pausing a moment, Din looked at Lebby, "I would ask...." shaking her head Din decided against it, "But I won't prove the saying of Curiosity Killed the Dinranwen twice in one day thank you." Cocking her head Din decided to take a chance...after all there wasn't much worse things that Rai could do other than kill her again. "I suppose I owe you an apology though...what can I say I'm insanely curious and sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me."

"Curious my tail." Rai growled, "Curiosity I can forgive...but it's not like you to threaten. Beg maybe...but never threaten."

"I know," Din said as she knelt next to Lebrenth with a bag she had conjured from Rain's possession, Din knew she could return it soon enough. Working various herbs into a mixture, Din went about making a potion whilst she talked, "I'm curious about that myself...In the tunnel it was just curiosity that drove me at first but after I came back...." Din shook her head and added a dash of something else in the mix, "It was like my curiosity had doubled itself...quite unlike me. If I am correct enough to guess, I would say someone placed a spell on me to get me to spy on you."

"I wonder who..." Rai muttered. "No time for that now, the meeting will be starting soon."

Din poured the green goo into a chalice she pulled from the nearby shadow, and using the same shadow sent Rain's healing bag back to it's owner.

Prying Lebby's jaw open she forced the substance down his throat.

Responding to the curious look from Rai, she muttered:
"It's anti-venom venom taken from the spider over there, quite harmless in this form."

Whilst they watched for any change in her temporary patient, Din said:

"That reminds me...could you help me with..." Din gestured over her current form helplessly, "I would like to appear as myself at the meeting...I can't get to my Council Chambers in time to weave together my new 'form'. Can you help? I am afraid the only thing I can offer is some priceless information about the fog in the city, and maybe a valueless ancient antique from another plan...but would you do it for me, please?"

Rai sighed...if she could just...nevermind. With a few quick movements she pulled a few shadows from around the park, stretching and pulling with tendrils of magic twisted throughout. Holding out a shapeless shadow-form she raised an eyebrow.

"Hopefully this will work...I don't do shadow-weaves much anymore." With a massive yawn the dragoness curled up on the ground and closed her eyes partway. Still alert, still keeping an eye out, she settled into a half slumber.

"Tap me when everyone gets here?" she asked, drifting off to sleep.
Din nodded, and sat down, watching Lebrenth closely, and waiting patiently for a change in his paralyzed state. There seemed to be no difference at all, when suddenly -

"LORDY!!!" Lebrenth bellowed loudly.

Neither Din nor Lebby expected the surge of energy that sprung him to his feet.

The sound of it was quite unsettling to those who heard it. Even Rai, who was used to it, was jerked out of her slumber in alarm. Then Lebrenth's body went into overdrive; as though all the time spent holding still was charging up suddenly exploding.

"Ah! Thank you Din, I owe you one Rai. What's going on and why did you put that nasty spider on me and leave? Do you even know what it feels like to be paralysed? But wait, I have to find Lordy before the Soul Well implodes I have no time to explain goodbye!"

Lebrenth ran away before his words were fully understood.

"What's in that green stuff?" Rai asked Din sleepily. Then she snapped to a higher level of alertness. "Wait a minute, I knew something was missing when I got here. Where did IdeaMaster go?"

Dinranwen looked about her, and realised for the first time, that IdeaMaster had disappeared without her noticing. Damn! Where could he have gone?

"Well I think if anyone shows up here at all, it will be a miracle." muttered Rai. "There would have been four a few moments ago, and now we are two. You may as well use the wait time wisely, and go do what you have to do with that shadow."

[Crunchyfrog]

Looking from the sleeping dragoness to the lifeless two-dimensional shadow form Din held in her hands and then back, Din sighed. It wasn't much to work with, but she knew sunrise wouldn't be far away. The Sun would bring council members to Jester Park and the resulting Council Meeting. There was simply not enough to be fussy....besides the Council Members would probably be curious if they saw a RPG character and not Dinranwen, HEM Cleaning MOd at Large.

Folding the shadow form neatly, Din grabbed a drain pipe to scrabble up the nearest roof. A few falls, bumps, and scratchs later Din sat trimpuphantly on the roof of a nearby building that gave her a very nice view of Jester Park.

Settling down, she pulled out a needle and thread and began her work. Stiching here, pulling there, twist that, and tugging this, Din widdled the little that remained of the night working on the shadow. Holding up the finished article Din look at the shadow, it was still flat as a piece of paper but at least it looked more lifelike than before. Still she could have done much better work if she had her loom.....ah well.

Stealing a link of chain mail from Brithil's regaila and a couple of gems from a braclet, Din hurriedly stiched a quick cloak tie. Swirling the shadow around her shoulders, Din sighed contendly as the shadow swirled and conformed to Brithil's smaller frame. It was a long shot from being returned to her body, but at least now she partially looked like her oldself even if Brithil's form was under the cloak.

When she had finished, Dinranwen quickly returned to rejoin Rai.







Sitting down next to Kalanna, Dinranwen peered through the fog, and waited, as finally some shapes came into view. The first she could see was Smudger.

"Hey, Smudge!!" she yelled, relieved that he was still around in the city. Kalanna narrowed her eyes, and snorted.

"That's Smudger?" she asked incredulously, looking at the tall uniformed man striding towards them. He looked nothing like the little hunchback she knew of old. "What happened to him?"

"He fell down the bottomless pit to the Realm of Dead IFians, after me." replied Dinranwen darkly. "Like me, he is borrowing a body to appear in IF."

Waving at Smudger, Dinranwen asked of the whereabouts of Muaddib and the others.

"They are all waiting on the edge of the park." replied Smudger, as he approached the meet point, and touched what was left of his Mod ring on the glyph, to confirm his attendance.
"When I told them I would be attending a Council Meeting, they decided to hold off any action until afterwards. They felt that they needed to learn more. Besides, they no longer want to be here. They want to be back in their Realm."

"Well I intend to reveal everything I have learned at this meeting." replied Dinranwen. "This is going to be interesting."

"Indeed, " added Kalanna. "It will be very interesting, looking at what I'm seeing over there..."

She pointed a talon at a figure running full pelt, sort of towards their general direction, although still some distance away, calling out for Lordy at the top of his voice.


~ ~ ~


Having realised that the council meeting was about to commence, Lebrenth now expected Lordy to be back at the place he had just left. He'd turned heel and was running for all he was worth, dodging the piles of melted wax and scorched clown bits, back towards the meeting point.

"LORDY!!!" he bellowed.

The panic and adrenalin levels within him were rising. He had to tell Lordofthenight NOW about the iminent danger of the Soul Well imploding, and its likely repercussions.

Unfortunately for Lebby, he ran straight into a tree. The collision took the wind right out of him. He was showered with apples, and then unexpectedly flattened by one very confused Ideamaster, who lost his grip of the branches.

"Ideamaster! What were you doing in that tree?"

"I was hungry." replied IM. "Care for an apple? Who are you anyway? And who's Ideamaster?"

Before he could answer to these unexpected remarks, Lebby thought he saw a figure looking very much like D, ducking behind a tree.

"D-Lotus! Is that you?" he hissed. But there was no reply.






Hearing Lebrenth, D-Lotus hid behind the large oak, gnarled and hollow. He leaned against its rough surface carefully, without making much sound.
He turned his head towards the ominous Ferris Wheel in Jester Park. Searching his body, he discovered to still be in possession of the Stupidium gun. Why was Lebrenth here in Jester Park, when he'd promised D he'd assist at the Soul Well? Hmmm...

If he hurried, he could make it in time for the council meeting. Indeed, what better time to expose everything? Yet, how much good would that do, if seemingly Lebrenth could not be trusted? At least D-Lotus trusted in Crunchy's ability to close the breach in the soul well. After all, the sacrifice was made so that the soul well would not go beyond control.

He felt fully comfortable with his abilities now. It all seemed funny, that he'd been wandering around IF like an unwitting fool, when in reality he'd possesed such stealth. But there hadn't been the painful memory of his actions then. When he'd killed it, D-Lotus had felt as though he had murdered a part of his own self as well.

Through the swaying leaves he caught view of Smudger and Rai, and others converging under the glyph...





...and watched as Lebrenth dragged IM to his feet. Again, Lebby cast an eye towards where D was hiding, but was more concerned at the moment with the state of IdeaMaster.

"Come on, let's get you to the meet, " groaned Lebrenth, and he guided IM towards the glowing glyph.

"Meat?" asked IM hopefully. His stomach was growling.

D was worried about IdeaMaster too. Having been unaware of what happened on Mage Mountain, D did not know whether Key had been successfully reconstituted.

Stealthily, he crept closer to the meeting point, stopping to hide behind a huge rock on the ground, that had once been a part of the mountain. Now he could see them a little more clearly.
He counted the council members. Strange, he did not recognise them. Who were the others with Rai? Her shape was obvious... the two next to her he couldn't make out. There was a shadowy one... could it be Din? He hadn't seen her since he'd left Key's palace many hours previously.

Two other figures emerged from the fog, coming from the opposite direction. One of them was obviously Jez, he could tell by the tall, slim shape, but he couldn't make out who had arrived with him. He wondered what tale Jez had to tell.

With Lebby and IM approaching the meeting place, that made seven. That was more than enough council members to constitute a meeting. He knew that when at least five had confirmed their attendance on the glyph, the chairperson would arrive.

He had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be Lordy.

~ ~ ~

[Crunchyfrog]

Meanwhile, Polokin sat quietly on a bench in Jester Park, surveying the chaos around him. Oddly, it was the same bench he'd sat on just 24 hours ago. He smirked at the irony. He'd gone on a journey around IF hunting down D, and really if he'd sat on that same bench all the time, D would have eventually come to him.
Still, there was much in store to see for this spectator, and he waited hopefully to see the Council members converge at the meeting point, for the Council Meeting. Although judging by what he was seeing, he wondered if they were even capable of doing that...


~ ~ ~





Rai yawned and stretched, eyeing the glowing glyph to make sure it was still sending out it's signal. Sitting up she put on her poker face and flexed her wings. It was interesting seeing her fellow mods acting like novice spammers...but it also troubled her.

"Has everyone lost their minds?"

"Humm?" Din looked up at her.

"Nothing...nothing at all." Narrowing her eyes the dragon wondered if this sudden outbreak of erratic behavior was the cause of her earlier power-grabbing behaviour. That was unlike her, she preferred to be an intimidating, figure lurking just off screen. "Now who could benefit if we all went crazy?"

Rai could think of only one person...










She watched as Jez and Solus arrived at the glyph, followed by Lebrenth and IM. Each touched their mod ring on the glyph to confirm their attendance, except IM, who had left all his mod regalia in his other robes. IM instead took his seat around the huge glowy thing inscribed in the ground. He wondered now, whether he was going to get something to eat. He stared at the huge red dragon, next to it a tall man in uniform, and a woman in a shadowy cloak. Next to them was a tall elf in a cream suit, under a dark cloak, and what appeared to be a barefoot female enshrouded in a black cloak, that looked far too big for her. He looked at Lebrenth, who looked dishevelled, his own cloak stained with some sickly smelling substances.

And who was this Idea Master they were talking about? Why did that name sound so familiar?

There was a flash of flame, and suddenly a red, green, and blue jester hat appeared in the middle of the glowing thing. There was a piece of paper attached to it, but it was the hat that started the triggering.

A sudden chink of light broke the oblivion in his mind. For a fleeting moment, all his memories were there, in all their glory.

A memory of a conversation, one that was recent, one that he fancied had taken place during his spell of unconsciousness, wandered through his mind.

"Ah, IM, I see you restored Key. This sets my plans back, but not irreparably so. I have already dispatched some interesting characters to 'take care' of that problem, but seeing as you're still around, I figured I'd teach you a lesson.....

Ah, yes...I'll just...wipe your memory, shall I? Don't be worried, you might gain it back, D-Lotus did the same, after all. Farewell..."

The feeling of enlightened realisation, however, was shortlived, as the curse snapped back over his mind, and the conversation, along with the rest of his memory, was taken from him again, and he was plunged into an unfamiliar world of unknown people and surroundings once more.

IM reached out for the hat, but before he could pick it up, Rai swiftly swiped it away from him.






Rai raised an eyebrow when Lordy's bloodstained Jester hat popped into existance on the glyph. Snagging it she cleared her throat and read the note aloud. "Sorry all, will be slightly delayed. Don't start without me." There were a few groans from the assembled mods who, without a doubt, had better things to be doing. Like getting the city back in order.

Still it was the tiny scrawl underneath that message that caught Rai's eye. She didn't understand it, nor did she repeat it out loud. Had she been capable, she would have paled.

"I'll do all my talking at the meeting." she muttered. "He can just wait..."

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover

Chapter 20 - The Council Meeting







Lordy was going to be delayed at the meeting?
This was enough for Lebrenth. Too much time had been wasted already. The Soul Well was about to implode, and he needed to find Lordy and let him know about his recent contact with D-Lotus, before it was too late. Perhaps it already was too late, in which case, Lordy might be in deep doo-doo, even too deep for himself to overcome without help from the rest of the Council. Perhaps this was the very reason why he was delayed.

This, was serious.

"I have to go!" Lebrenth cried urgently. "I have to find Lordy. We can't stand around and wait for him to arrive, not after what I have learned."

He turned to leave, but Kalanna's tail thumped down in front of him, blocking his path.

"And what exactly is it that you have learned, Lebby?" smiled Kalanna sweetly, playfully dangling the jester hat above his head, slightly out of his reach. He could see Lordy's note, and he could see there was some other scrawl underneath the note, but the hat was swinging about too much for him to be able to read it.

Jezsharp's eyes narrowed. This was not the Kalanna he knew. Or rather it was in a sense... in as much as she usually had her own motives for whatever she did, but... the Kalanna who had breached his TI and imprisoned him in his own quarters the previous night, the Kalanna who was menacing Lebby now, this was not right. She normally had more respect and loyalty towards her friends. But looking around at the rest of his fellow Councillors, he had to admit that none of them really seemed to be 'themselves'. Din and Smudger had taken on different guises, for reasons he was not aware, Solus looked strangely different, Lebby was uncharactaristically panicky, and Idea Master appeared to have lost his mind.

Jez stepped forward.

"Kalanna, we'll all do our talking at the meeting. At least until Lordy arrives.
Because one thing we can be sure of, is that chaos rules the city right now. We dont know why Lordy is delayed, or even if he will turn up at all."

All the moderators nodded in agreement.

"And for now," continued Jez, "I will chair the meeting, if everyone is happy with that. We will start by each of us sharing our observations with the rest, so we can all understand the whole picture. From there, we can decide our plan of action. Okay?"

"Okay, but make it quick!" said Lebrenth. "All those in favour?"
Solus, Lebby, Din and Smudger immediately put their hands up. Idea Master watched them, and thought it would be fun to put his hand up too. Reluctantly, Kalanna raised the tip of her tail.

"Okay." said Jez. "Who wants to step up and speak first?"






A momentary silence enveloped the mods, like a sudden lack of oxygen that made them all hold their breath. Then someone stepped out from behind one of the blown off rocks from Mage mountain.

"I'll speak first." he said, as he stopped in front of all the surprised mods, except for Lebrenth, who quietly assented to himself. If Lordy wasn't here, then things would have to be done without Lordy. After all, there wasn't much time left.

As D-Lotus stood there, his face conveyed a sense of absolute seriousness. His hand was composed, close to a large holdster that bulged with a protruding gun. Kalanna suddenly reared herself, but the others shot curious glances at her and she returned to her reclined position somewhat tensely.

"D, what are you doing here? You're not a mod." asked Jez.

IM giggled. Some memory of something was causing ticklish sensations in his mind.

D-Lotus furrowed his brows significantly.

"I need to tell you all something very important. But before we begin, does anybody have any objections?" He spoke in a grave tone and glanced directly at Kalanna, his hand close to his gun.






Rai's eyes narrowed at D. "If you're threatening me D you're making a very big mistake. I guaruntee you that if you turn that gun on me it will be the last mistake you make." She growled very softly. "Plus think very hard what will happen if you fire Stupidium at me."

Everyone blinked once. It was well known that, next to Chinaren, Rai had more real SG's going than anyone. Firing Stupidium at such an Idearium laiden target might well vaporize a good sized portion of the city...and while it was certain Rai would be wounded there was no real assurance she would die.

After all, Dinranwen had been dead, Rai was rather certain of that fact, yet here she sat as plain as day. D's hand slowly moved away from his gun.

"Good. Now speak your piece D. Mod or not I'm curious to hear exactly what you've got to say that you fear you'd have to kill me to express. But then I wouldn't be the first...would I?" Watching D-Lotus's shocked expression Rai grinned. "Go ahead. I've got less to lose."






Polokin hid in the bushes and began to watch the council meeting.

What could Rai be talking about, she wouldn't be the first? What did D do...?

[Crunchyfrog]

How could she know? wondered D-Lotus. This only confirms my suspisions that she has been working with Lordy all along. Up to now he had no real proof, but now it was definite. Recovering from her comment, D faced the council and their unusual meeting place.

"I feel it is my duty to inform you," D said, speaking with caution, "That Lordy is attempting to take over this city, and that Kalanna Rai is in association with this dastardly plot."

Various gasps escaped from the council members, and the wind began to pick up, whistling madly.

Sweat dripped down IM's forehead and immediately dried as he attempted to regain his perturbed knowledge.

Rai didn't twitch, she simply smiled smugly and continued in her non-challant stance. I know she is affected, she just isn't showing it, thought D as he examined the eternally cold-hearted dragon. Her manipulation will have to end.

"Continue." she said, almost laughing.

"It is true, I was investigating the case. BS had somehow gained knowledge of a network of tunnels, and he also had somehow found out about some ceremony involving the wells." D-Lotus paused, then continued genuinely, "I tortured the information out of him, that's why he's looking for revenge."

Everyone in the council eyed D, with newly appraising eyes. How much of what he was saying was true?

"I learned from him that one of his employers was planning a ritual in Smee's basement, that same night, the night of New Year festivities. I rushed to my office to grab suitable weaponry, and departed towards Smee's. When I got there, it was almost too late."

Everyone was listening now, fully immersed in his story.

"Upon arriving, I found the house in a mess, as if some explosion had racked it. I descended to the basement, because it was there that the epicenter seemed to lead, due to the increasing levels of disarray."

D-Lotus paused again, as if to give himself courage to proceed.

"With its back turned to me, there was a shadow, an evil presence greater than any encountered before. The darkness of its laughter consumed the air and immersed everything in a monstrous sulphuric smell.

It was chanting and pouring its blood onto a horn, into which it dipped its thin and callous finger. It purred as it wrote cryptic symbols on the wall from its own blood. I knew that this thing had killed Smee, or worse. Instintively, I knew that it was trying to release the dead souls that Chinaren had enclosed. Perhaps it was too late, but I felt I had to stop this inherently sinister being. I unsheathed my knife and stalked behind it. As I crept up behind it, it gave no sign that it had noticed me. Precisely as I brought my knife down onto its back, though, it cackled most evily and horrendously than before, as if my actions were its personal victory.

My knife reached into its heart, and cold, dark blood issued forth, staining my clothes and body. I reeled back from the yet laughing being, and felt myself faint as it suddenly burst into pieces and dissappeared. I felt as though part of myself had died, as if the natural evil inside me had been ripped out and accompanied the evil presence to its death. I felt that all I had left was tainted goodness, worthless without its counterpart."

Up to now, D-Lotus had been deeply enthralled in his own tale. He looked up from his clutched fists.

"When I woke up, Lordy was there. I had had strong suspicions that Chinaren's dissapearance was related to him, but then I realized he was also trying to gain advantage from the strange occurence that had just happened. I was tied up in a chair. He told me that he planned to continue the ritual, when he collected the necessary items. He had obvious admiration for the being that I had slayed, and told me that I had destroyed a great source of power. He scorned me for my actions. He even told me his plans to fully open the well and take over the city before he wiped my memory."

All the council members were still listening attentively.

"But none of that matters now. Lordy doesn't realize that it won't make a difference whether he opens the well completely or not. Lebby and I have journeyed in our dreams to an astral plane, where we have learned of the city's imminent destruction. All I did was buy us time, the process is not on a stand-still, the souls are gaining more and more power.

I've sent Crunchy to try and delay them until we can figure something out. He is not affected by the souls as much as we are, because he is a newcomer to the city. However, now is the time to unite. We need all the help we can get before the souls explode in the well, before everything goes out of control- beyond Lordy's control, even. And we need to stop Lordy from fulfilling the ritual, or then all will be lost without hope of return. We all need to unite now, or face utter destruction."

Even Kalanna seemed somewhat shaken. Perhaps she hadn't known all of this. But what would happen now? Would the councillors overcome their differences and work together to stop this 'greater evil' that menaced the City of IF?






During D-Lotus' revelations, IM fought inwardly. The story was tugging away at the effects of the curse, until, suddenly, momentarily, again something snapped in IM's brain, then almost unsnapped. The memory curse was beginning to become undone. IM discovered that he could, for example, remember that Lordy had wiped his memory. He could also remember that he had attempted to restore Key with Smee and Kalanna's help, and the small mental conversation Lordy had imparted just before IM's mind was lost. IM could also remember his own name. But that was about it.

Getting to his feet, IM wavered, his hands clasping his head, his face twisted in complete concentration as he clung to what little memory he had found.

"He's telling the truth," IM stated. "But for the life of me, that's all I can remember right now. Rai may have started on the opposite side, but she has helped me earlier."

More gasps as heads turned to him.

"I had conversed with Smee, who, it turned out, was not quite dead. He had merely been blasted forward in time. He told me some strange figure was in his basement attempting to crack open the Soul Well. Smee did his best to stop this person, but all he accomplished was making everyone fear the entrance that is now where his house used to be."

There were whispers as the validity of D's story was confirmed by another council member.

"I accelerated his reconstitution and brought him with me to Mage Mountain, my old Archived storygame, where we met Rai. She lent us power so that we could attempt to break the curse on Key. He had literally become a key."

IM gestured towards a piece of rubble.

"All I know is that the curse was broken, but it seems to have had quite an adverse effect upon IF."

Rai growled. "I couldn't find Smee or Key, you were the only one that managed to stay in the present time." She clutched the jester hat closer to her as she said this.

IM nodded. "After I landed, the person who cast the curse invaded my mind and wiped my memory." IM paused for dramatic effect. "I think it was Lordy."

People all around the circle nodded. IM held his hand up to his temple, a bolt of pain had lanced through his head, as Smudger helped him sit down again.

[Crunchyfrog]

Rai recovered from her shock quickly. Some of those details she hadn't known. Blast the demon for keeping her in the dark. But Lordy wasn't the one she was actually mad at. A very evil grin split her muzzle.

"It's true I worked with Lordy for some time on several projects the first of which was this." The gem on her left forpaw shimmered and a 3-D image of the Master Map was projected into the air.

"When I first became a mod Lordy approached me with an offer. It didn't seem like much at the time, just a quick copy job of some old documents one of which turned out to be the Master Map of IF."

"So you stole the map!" cried Polokin as he emerged from the bushes.


"No I didn't. I copied what Lordy brought me and recognized this for what it was so I made an advanced copy for myself with my mod tools. When I'd finished Lordy put them back again. The real map theif was none other than Jez Sharp."

Everyone turned to look at a fidgity Jez.






Solus looked at her brother, aghast. So Jez had stolen the mastermap?

To be quite frank, she hadn't even realised it had gone.

She had not known anything of what had happened during the New Years party, let alone whether Lordy had anything to do with anything

The fact that there was a Greater Evil she had become aware of a while ago for her now, but the description was not unwanted. The ones she had recieved had been shady and contradicted each other.
..."But you knew something was wrong..."
..."It was hardly something I could ignore..."
..."Yet you didn't go to help..."

No, she hadn't. Afterall, being able to hear the lost souls didn't seem to help anything, did it?

Brushing her long white hair behind her ear, Solus turned deep black eyes to look at Jez as most people were, waiting for him to give an explantation...






... however, Rai thumped her tail on the ground to get everyone's attention again.

"But now's not the time to dwell upon the past! Now we need to pull ourselves together! We're not acting like ourselves which means we're acting according to this things wishes. I, for one, am fighting this change in myself as hard as I can. Maybe when the rest of you decide to as well we'll actually get something done!"






IM nodded quickly, he could feel the curse beginning to reform. He screamed out, "MY mansion! I must be brought to MY mansion!" Then IM collapsed.









"We need to stop Lordy and convince him to join us against the greater evil." D-Lotus said to the council. "It doesn't matter what anyone did in the past. We must forget our differences."

"So what will it be? Are we in agreement? If you are, proudly raise your hand and say, Aye."

D-Lotus raised his own hand and said "Aye." He waited for the council's response.

[Crunchyfrog]

Polokin was about to raise his hand and be the second to say Aye, but held back due to the fact that D had been lying to him all this time.
"He could've told me..." He thought, "I could've helped him before it came to this."
Polokin sighed, "Oh well, we all have to work together anyway."

It seemed as though nobody wanted to be the second, so Polokin raised his hand and said, "I'm with you, D."






Before anyone else had a chance to vote for D's proposal, a rumble, followed by a high pitched whistle and a deafening thunderclap resounded through the city. What windows hadn't been broken so far, shattered.
A giant flash split the sky momentarily, as a plume of dark green smoke started rising from the direction of the gorge and the cliff edge, where D and Crunchy had found themselves stranded at sunrise of the previous morning.

The fog sizzled with energy momentarily, then stopped swirling and whispering. It hung silently and heavily around them.

"Solus!" cried Jez, as she cried out, and crumpled to the ground.

Solus's eyes opened, glazed. She whispered unintelligably. The councillors turned their attention from the explosion towards her. As D crouched down beside her, she gazed at him.

"...D... I sent Sasuke to find you after twelve hours," she whispered. "Where is he? Was I too late?"

"What is she talking about?" asked Lebrenth.
D-Lotus went pale. No, it couldn't be. Could it?

"Is that you talking, Crunchy?" he asked hesitantly, looking closely at Solus.

"...I jumped into the pool, and left Sasuke to wait for my return...I fell...then I found myself in a world, of rolling hills and fields, small villages, a tavern, but everyone had gone... Except one, a wraith, who spoke of the impending disintegration, and the exodus, lead by one named Dinranwen... I have learned a great deal..." Crunchyfrog's words came weakly through Solus.

"She's describing the Realm of Dead IFians! " cried Din excitedly, nudging Smudger, who had been very quiet. Din turned to the others.
"Smudger and I have been there, we met many individuals, named Muaddib, Rave and Wing, Reiso, Shady.... I brought everyone out of..." continued Dinranwen.

"That can't be right!" cut in Lebrenth. "I saw them all in a deep sleep in the Dream Chamber..."

"Shhhhh!" hissed D. Turning back to Solus, he whispered - "Crunchy, are you still there?"

"...I was told how I had fallen out through the biggest of three vortices in the sky - and how Dinranwen and the rest were sucked up through it earlier. They must come back here, D... They must journey from this Realm via the Dream Chamber to unite with their bodies if they wish to return to IF properly as Live Citizens..."

"But did you find the fissure from where the Souls are escaping?" asked D.

"The Soul Well is cracked open. Supernatural power from the souls is seeping out slowly, weakening its walls and fueling the hauntings in the fog. The fog itself comes from somewhere underneath the City, but not from the Well. The fog is just a conduit, a medium for the Souls to inhabit...

I stood underneath the vortex, holding the crystal shard you gave me, above my head, its sharp end pointing towards the centre. Lightning from the centre of the vortex connected with the shard, and I buried it in the ground. The hole in the sky has become smaller... the sparks continue to connect the vortex with the shard in the ground."

"Well done, Crunchyfrog!" applauded D-Lotus.

"....Wait! " Solus's eyes quivered again, as more words came from her mouth. "It won't hold for long. The soul power has only been diverted downwards, instead of out into the fog. The ground is here breaking up due to the opening of the Well - soon this Realm will be no more... I fear then the Soul Well above me will explode..."

This further confirmed Lebrenth's fears, and Lotus's story.

Solus's eyes then flickered, and refocussed.
D watched Jez take care of her as she sat up and came to her senses. Crunchyfrog had left her, and was still in the Realm of Dead IFians.

D looked around at the councillors, as more hands rose, to indicate their acceptance of his proposal.

[Crunchyfrog]

Din rose her hand immediately. It wouldn't be easy, she thought, trying to convince Lordy to help them when he could just as easily help or be the greater evil. She puzzled over Crunchy's words for a moment. It was true that since she had returned to If she hadn't been completly herself, with only half her mod powers, and a quarter of the half of her shadow skills, Din had not even been able to use the Near Shadowed If transportation system.

But as long as she was using Brithil as her body, she could access all of Brithil's skills, as well as what little remains of her own since death.

Swinging off the rough shadow-cloaked she made earlier, Din heard a loud gasp followed by whispers behind her. Watching the shadow fall and fly away to the places from where it had been taken, she smiled.

"Dinranwen," D said his voice adoubly shaking and his eyes the size of sauce pans, "You don't have a cloak on."

"Chill, D" Rai said, "It's just Brithil. Din's borrowing one of her rpg forms to appear in If until she can get back to her body. Sheezz. You think they never saw a girl before."

Reaching back to the expandable staff Brithil perfered, Din twirled it experimentally. "I'm in complete disguise, and I have the skills of my RPG character in place of my own. So, what do you want me to do? Point and I'm there," Din finished her smile expanding wickedly.






Looking around the group, D counted the hands raised. Dinranwen, Smudger, Kalanna, Lebrenth, Ideamaster.... he noted that even Polokin had indicated his agreement. He turned to Solus and Jez.

Neither had put their hands up, and neither had yet spoken their piece at the meeting.







Jez, however, was more concerned with the welfare of his sister, who still seemed to be murmuring incoherently to herself, or perhaps to someone...something else... she seemed agitated, defensive almost.

"...What happened to me?.....but you do....tell me now!....What? I thought, How?...Permission?.....I'm still your superior...."

Jez could make out some other occasional words, but none of it made sense.

Suddenly, Solus shivered, then stiffened abruptly, looking up at Jez.

"Hey Jez - I'm fine," she muttered, shaking his hand off her shoulder. "What - what did..." She stopped, and started murmuring to herself again.


..."No!!...He's my brother...I dont....I....Just go away, leave me alone for a bit...I need to rest...."

"Solus...?" Obviously Jez was having doubts about whether she really was fine.
"Yeah. Don't worry about me." The question about what had happened during her being used as a medium between the Realm of Dead IFians and her friends came to mind again, but she pushed it back. She would ask herself later, but she really wasn't in the mood right now.






"Well?" asked D Lotus, still waiting for Jez and Solus' decisions.

Jez snapped back to the Council Meeting agenda.

"Wait - Solus may not have been aware of the conversation you had with Crunchyfrog just now..." he said defensively, clutching his book "The Treasures of IF" even closer to his chest.






"Um..." Solus hesitated and glanced at everyone around her.

Right now, she just wanted to be alone, in the archives. Right now, she wanted to sleep.
But then again, she had just sleep recently. Lately, she had been becoming more and more insomniatic, hardly sleeping. So this much in such a short time?
She shook herself.
/Stay awake, Dammit!/
Concentrating to stop herself from shaking, Solus stood up and leaned against a nearby tree. Somehow, she felt more comfortable here, and not so nauseous.

[Crunchyfrog]

Kalanna pushed her huge head through the group and got right into Jez's personal space.

"It's a majority vote." she said. "Either you both say your piece now, if you think it is going to change things, or we close the meeting now, and act based on D-Lotus's revelations. Which is it to be?"






Rai glared down at Jez, about ready to rip his head off, when she noticed her own irrational behavior and throttled the urge to kill back into her psyche. Shaking her head she snorted, what was happening to her to them? It dawned on her.

"The fog is charged with the power of the souls and, to an extent, manifests their will. Supposedly this power is being siphoned off but...we're all beings sensitive to magic here. What if we're all being affected by the wills of the dead?"

Realizing just how dangerous the situation was about to become Rai decided to lay everything she had on the table.

She took the massive gem from around her neck and gazed at it with a sigh. Was she really going to do this? Looking back at Jez and the book he was hugging like a baby, and back at the rest of the council she extended her right forepaw. "I'd like to shake all your hands goodbye."

"What?" D looked like he was about to explode and the color drained from several faces.

"I'm afraid I cannot join you in convincing Lordy, nor can I aid you in restoring Idea Master."

"Why?" asked D again.

Rai again gazed into the depths of the gem.

"Because now I know there are suddenly two gateways that have been momentairly opened, gateways I need to go through before they shut. If, by some miracle of cosmic humor I survive, I will join you in the assault on the well itself."

She looked around the circle of mods, realizing that even should she succeed they would probably kill her later. "Good bye, and good luck."

With that the dragoness faded out of existance....






D-Lotus stamped his foot in frustration, pulling at his hair as he watched powerlessly the dragoness dissapear. The waving leaves seemed to mock him.

"Always! Always the same! She always leaves with absolutely no explanation, off on her own thing..." He exclaimed, exasperated. He turned towards the somewhat preoccupied mods.

"I guess we'll have to trust her. We have no option."

Jez raised his hand to speak

"What if its all part of Lordy's plan?"

"I don't think so." said Leb, "The truth is too troublesome for plots of that kind."

"Well, we'll have to divide the mission." said D-Lotus, calming down visibly. "Half the group should deter Lordy, and the other half should journey to the Realm of Dead IFians, to see what can be done. Any volunteers?"







Grabbing Smudger forcefully, Din raised her other hand. In her Brithil disguise, dressed in a green dress overlaid with silver chain armor, Brithil didn't like anyone to mess with. If, of course, you ignored the fact that not only was she bare footed, 4 foot 7 in, and ridocolously slender. In fact Brithil looked like someone who could easily become someone's lunch.

"Smudge and I," Din said looking pointedly at Smudger, "Will take the Dream Chamber. It's close to one of the major openings of the soul well so if anything goes wrong in that district, we will be close by. Besides, the Dream Chamber will place us closer to our bodies."

Beginning to walk off as she dragged Smudger behind her, Din paused after only a few steps and turned.

"Would someone please remind what I'm suppose to do again?"

[Crunchyfrog]

D looked around at Din, and indicated for her to wait.

"You need to journey to the Dream Chamber from the Realm of Dead IFians, if you're to get reunited with your bodies. " he replied. "That is what Crunchy's words were. Besides, you are most needed in that Realm, right now - there you will have access to the Soul Well, maybe get those displaced Dead IFians back where they belong, and you will be in the right place to journey back to the Dream Chamber to reunite your soul with your body."

"D is right." added Lebrenth. "If you go directly to the Dream Chamber from here, the body you are borrowing will succumb to the mists, and fall into a deep sleep. I know, I've tried it."

"Indeed." continued Jez. "I had to revive him using my special tonics at the TI. And it was not pleasant..."

"What about getting me to my mansion?" asked IM.
"IM, you turned your mansion into a fortress, and unless your memory curse is broken, there's no way you'll remember how to pass that security." replied D. "There is only one route in that is unguarded, and that is the tunnel I took to get here... Only it goes via the Dream Chamber."

Everyone groaned.

"However..." continued D, "to get out, I used a gas mask. There are three gas masks at the tunnel entrance. Sasuke, Crunchyfrog and I used them when we exited IM's house, some hours ago. So three people can go safely to IM's house through that tunnel that takes you via the Dream Chamber. From IM's house there is a hole going directly to the Realm of Dead IFians. I vote that Smudge, Din and IM should travel that way. IM can then do whatever he needs, and after that Din and Smudge can travel to the Realm of Dead IFians through the hole in IM's drawing room floor."

At that moment, there was a sudden scuffle, and the sound of a glass bottle being kicked, and a winged figure could be seen running away.

"What was that?" asked Smudger.

They were unaware that the figure was, in fact, Christalnightshade, a relative newbie, who was very much struggling with her own problems related to the Greater Evil.

The bottle rolled to Jez's feet. It had a stopper in it, and a label. Scrawled across it in hurried handwriting, it said 'Greater Evil Gas. Beware, split personalities.'

He read the label out loud. Everyone looked stunned.

"Looks like this needs analysing..." he announced. "I...er...have the equipment back at the TI..."

D nodded his agreement for Jez to return to the TI. He turned to the rest.

"Lebby, Solus, you're with me. We're off to find Lordy." As he said this, D picked up the jester hat, that had been forgotten by Kalanna. He looked at the two scrawled messages attached to it, and scratched his head. "I only hope that we can find him in time"

"Can I come with you too?" asked Polokin.

"Of course." replied D. "Okay, let's go!"

"Wait a minute!" shouted Lebrenth. "Everyone - synchronise your Mod rings. We need to be in constant contact with each other throughout this..."

Lebrenth, Jez and Solus synchronised. Smudger and Din were without theirs, but where they were ultimately headed, they would not be able to use them anyway.

And with that, the group split up.

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover


Chapter 21 - Journey to IdeaMaster's House






Nodding to D, Din or rather Brithil gently took IM's hand. She wasn't sure exactly how much of his memory he had regained, but the last thing she needed was to lose the holder of the games district and subsequently the Idearium Mines in the city with half-a-memory.

"Don't worry IdeaMaster, we will get you back to yourself no time," she said, as reassuringly as she could.

Using the other hand to corral Smudge, Dinranwen led the group through Jester Park, on the start of their journey towards IdeaMaster's house.


Keeping a firm hold on both Smudge and IM was no small task, but with Smudge more often absent in mind though present in body of late, she couldn't afford to lose him either. Besides, Din had a feeling she was going to need all of the help she could get.

However, the itch on the back of neck that had been bothering her ever since before she'd been 'killed' by Rai, was getting worse and the short cut Din planned on using through Jester Park was turning disastrous. Apparently something had gone terribly wrong in aHem with both her and Rai missing from action.

Mysterous creatures in odd shapes, colors, and worse horrifing clowns beyond imaginings were bombarding the tourist groups attracted to the heat-warped rides in Jester Park.

"Oh, Din," Smudge said from behind her, "Aren't you going to do anything about this?"

"No, why?" Din said, pushing past an orange fuzzy thing with purple spots that had only one eye and a giant horn on it's face.

"I mean aren't you curious about what's going on?"

"Strangely, no." Din said pausing as she waited for a mob of two legged pink elphants to pass. The creatures were heading for the breaking-up council meeting, but Din didn't bother with that. "We are going to IM's house. We have more important things to do than to explore or clean right now. Besides, isn't this chaos just a wee bit fun?!?" Din said laughing loudly.

"Yeah, but oh Din?" IM said looking in front of them as Din turned to idly watch a group of men dressed as women explode a sweet tart.

"Yes, IM dear?" Din said idly looking towards the Idea Master.

"We may have a problem." IM said pointing in front of them.

In front of them a large hole had been blasted in the old Laboratory, and even as they watched monstrosities with horrible senses of humor were pouring out of the hole. Smiles split across the monsters faces as they saw the group of mods trying to make their way through Jester Park.

"Ah drats," Din said as realized to late that she was going in the wrong way after all, "There goes my short cut."






They were suddeny taken by surprise, as a feisty IFian suddenly landed from nowhere, on the ground in between Din's party and the oncoming attackers.

"Well, isnt utter chaos a bitch?" she smiled. "Could I be of some assistance, mistress of shadows?" Lilith smiled, turning to face the party of monsters. She then erected an energy barrier, which appeared to be impenatrable to the likes of these foes.

"What are you doing?" Din asked, a little perplexed.

"Holding them off so you can get away! Now go, and hurry! This is very taxing!" Lilith replied, sweating a little as the monsters attacked the barrier.

Without hesitating, Din took off with Smudger and Idea Master. Once they were off to safety, Lilith released the barrier and conjured a quarterstaff.

She smiled menacingly. "Let's dance, beasties!"

Meanwhile, Din, Smudger, and, IM reached the entrance to the tunnel where the masks had been left.


"Okay, guys. Here goes," said Dinranwen, and with that, she applied a mask to each of them and they travelled off together towards the Dream Chamber.

[Crunchyfrog]

Through her mask, Din looked back and waved at Lilith, who continued to singlehandedly fight back the monsters and abominations that attempted to follow them. Grabbing Smudger's hand with her left, and IM's hand with her right, and making sure that their masks were both secure, she stepped into the grotto at the edge of the park, and found the hole in the ground that led down to the tunnel that led towards the Dream Chamber.

The gentle white whisps of mist swirled around their calves as they walked carefully along the dimly lit tunnel. It was quite wide, and serenely peaceful. The mists became thicker, until they could see it billowing out from an opening on the right, and some greenish light glowing.

"This must be it..." came IM's muffled voice from inside his mask.
Smudger nodded, his footsteps hesitating.
The diminutive figure of Brithil led the way, pausing at the entrance. Dare they look? With the masks on, they would be safe.

From the entrance, she could just about make out the white furry figure of Shady Stoat, curled up in the corner. And Muaddib...Reiso... RavenWing... familiar figures of people she had seen down in the Realm of Dead IFians. And then she gasped.

A small, hunchbacked figure could clearly be seen in the shallow mists lying on his side... and beside him, in an area not as well lit by the green light, her own familiar cloaked shape...

"Smudger, its....its us!"

IdeaMaster pointed to two other bodies, just behind those of Dinranwen and Smudger. One, a young half human, half dragon, sleeping peacefully, and another, of a small, round bellied greenish figure with long thin limbs, dressed in loose green clothing.

"Crunch... and .... Sasuke?" said Dinranwen. "I thought only Crunch went to the Realm.... Maybe Sasuke got caught in that explosion with the green smoke... hmmm."

"And the only way we can get back into those bodies is to go back to the Realm of Dead IFians and go direct to the Dream Chamber from there?" asked Smudger.

"Somehow, as Souls, yes...I guess...." shrugged Din. "I guess it will all become clear one we're there."

"We must keep going." said IM, turning away from the entrance to the Dream Chamber, and continuing down the tunnel. "D said that the entrance to my mansion was this way, and that there was an entrance from there, directly to the Realm of Dead IFians."

They continued along the tunnel, until it began to rise. It gradually got steeper and steeper, until it became too steep to climb. The ropes that had been left by D, Crunchy and Sasuke on their exit from IM's mansion many hours ago, happily, were still hanging from the opening in IM's floor at the top. They each grabbed hold of one, and began to climb.






As they emerged from the hole in the floor, IM looked around the room. It all seemed so familiar, and yet, so alien at the same time. He saw what could be a computer, so he went up to it. "Computer," he said, not really expecting a response.

He got one, though. The liquid crystal screen lit up. Voice analysis confirmed. Iris match confirmed. Please place right hand on screen.

IM carefully put his hand on the screen, which flashed quickly. Processing...Fingerprint match confirmed. Thy bidding, master?

IM was vaguely shocked, but plowed on nonetheless. "I have lost my memory. Help in regaining it would be appreciated."

There was a whooshing noise to IM's left. A section of the wall rotated to reveal a small cylindrical chamber. The screen lit up again. Memory restoration pod now active. Please enter.

"Also," IM said, "I have two friends here that must get to the Realm of Dead IFians."

Two sets of over-the-face glasses were ejected. Place these over your eyes and you should be able to see the installed stairwell.

IM handed the glasses to Dinranwen and Smudger, who obediently put them on, and then faced the memory restoring chamber. "Here goes nothing," he muttered, and entered the chamber.






Just as he was about to close and activate the memory chamber, there was a buzzing sound, coming from inside a cupboard on another wall. IM stopped, and curiously went over to find out what it was. On opening it, he found that it was a robe closet, with another set of robes hanging inside. The buzzing was coming from within the robes. Quickly, he located the source of the sound, and pulled out from the robes, a ring... his Mod ring. On it was an image of Jez's face.



IM froze, "What is it....er....um, whatsyourname.... Jez?"

Jez voice was sounding urgent. He had found an interesting thing within the bottle. "IM I found that the bottle does contain gas as written on the paper, the half of the bottle is scorched by fire and I found Chinarenn's fingerprints on it"

"But Chinaren is not about. So how did the bottle find its way to the Council meeting?"


"That you'll have to find out some other way IM"....

IM looked up, and he noticed a gas bottle stuck into a pipe. It looked almost exactly the same as the one found at the meeting...

"Jez we have a problem, there seems to be a bottle of that gas planted in here... One wonders where else these bottles might be lying"...

[Crunchyfrog]

"Holding Jez, stepping on Pad to regain memory." IM stepped on the pad and there was a bright flash but when IM immerged he looked just the same except for a evil sparkle and the smile of revenge planted on his face. "When I get to Lordy..."

"What's that?" Jez's voice crackled again.

"Never mind." Im said quickly, "We have to deactivate and remove these bottles before they go off. I may not know what they do but I don't want to find out."

"And how exactly are we going to do that pray tell?" Jez said sacrasm rining in his voice.

"Don't know but I'll come up with something," IM said before shutting down the line of communcation between him and Jez. Turning toward where Din and Smudge stood, IM jumped in surprise, "Din, Smudge, what are you doing here? Why didn't you go down to the Realm of Dead Ifians?"

"I had an odd feeling you may need our help, and blast it if I wasn't right." Din said pushing up her sleeves. "It seems to me what you need is some assistance."

"Yes, No." IM stuttered uncertainly.

Taking that for a yes, Din frowned, "Stand back, I'm not sure if this is going to work. I haven't exactly done it before."

Striding over to the nearest shadowy corner, Din reached in and twisted and twisted again, then pulled. Nothing.

Reaching further into the shadow, Din stuck out her tongue in concertration and repeated what she did before this time muttering something under her breath.

There was a pop and a bumb as Din landed on her backside, and two figures sailed across the room barely catching themselves before crashing into the far wall.

"It worked. It really worked." Din said clapping her hands exicedtly in between rubbing her sore bum. Her enegy soon vanished however as she turned an unbecoming sickly pale color. "Man I'm tired. But it worked."

Across the room rubbing their bruises, Lilith and ChristalNightShade were looking really confused.

"Well, we're off." Leaving IM to figure out to do with his new 'help'. Din and Smudger began to descend the long stair to the Realm of Dead Ifians.






As they watched Dinranwen and Smudger descend down the stairwell, IM opened a panel on the wall, and pressed a discreet button. The two holes in the floor, the one curving away to the Dream Chamber, and the one leading directly to the Realm of Dead IFians closed without a trace of ever being there. He looked around at his new companions.

Lilith looked to be friendly, but Christalnightshade appeared to be insane. One minute looking quite demure in her demeanour, the next looking completely deranged. He vaguely remembered seeing her at the New Years party, and she didn't seem to have her head completely screwed on then.

"So what's your story?" he asked, warily.






"Umm, well..." Crady's eyes rolled a little, in different directions, "My name is Crady. Or Nightshade. Or ChristalNightshade. Whatever you prefer. I remembered the New Year party, and the amazing light show...the drinks...mmmm...."

"Yes, yes, get on with it..."

"There was an explosion... I got sent crashing through all the walls of Chinaren's mansion and then through a window... I found myself lying on this mound, and...well, IF is a complete state. What happened? I am not sure what day it is, really." she giggled, slightly too manically for IM's liking.

"Mmmm, but methinks something has come over me, I have been doing things I don't normally do, sampling drinks, cigarettes, I set something on fire in the ruins of Chin's mansion ...Accidentally of course, and I suppose it didn't matter seeing as Chin's place is pretty much toast already...Ah, why did I wake up? Why am I so bored to go in search of missing people? Where is everyone? Why am I speaking to myself? Aieeeeee!!"

Lilith and IM glanced at one another.

"Mmmmm, then I noticed this glass bottle, that said Greater Evil Gas, warning, side effects, Split personalities! Woohoo!"

IM shook his head despairingly.

"Anyway, boredom took over, so I went to look for some people, and discovered your meeting going on in the Park... But I kind of felt a bit out of place there, so I left again. I took the bottle with me, I dunno why... Anyway, I seem to have lost it now."

She pouted.

"Then I went off in search of more people, and all of a sudden, I dont know how...but....well....here I am!"

IM sarcastically thanked Din under his breath for this. What had he just been landed with ?






He opened communication with JezSharp again.

"Jez, how close are you to completing your analyasis of the actual gas itself?"

"Um, well, so far, I've exposed it to two rats, a hamster and a lizard, one of the rats is playing poker with the lizard, the hamster is pole dancing, the other rat is threatening to sue for cruelty to animals. "

"Yeah, but what about the actual gas itself?" inquired IM.

"Something parasitical. Seems to leach something from the brain. Dont know. I have it under a microscope now..."

Jez's face appeared on the mod ring screen in a bright pink full anti-contamination bodysuit.

"Well, be quick about it," said IM. "I'm locked in my mansion with Crady. I do believe she is under the influence of the gas, and it doesn't look good..."

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover


Chapter 22 - Rai's Sacrifice




Rai padded down a long hallway, tounge flicking out to test the air, periodically stopping to consult her map. What she was looking for was dead ahead. Noticing a subtle difference in the taste of the air, Rai stopped peering into the noon bright darkness. Another round chamber much like the one that had sent Din into the Realm of Dead IFians.

Rai stopped, nervous for a moment. "If I'm wrong about this even the slightest...I'm so dead." She closed her eyes for a moment of mental preparation. Then, as they snapped open, she lunged forward. There was a slight pop and it felt like every nerve in her body was frying but she made it...just barely. "Thank all ye powers...and thank you Crunchy and Sasuke. Without your sacrifices none of this would have been possible."

Reaching out she took the hunk of silk wrapped flesh from it's space on the plinth and placed it in her gem. "Flesh of the present...that makes two."


Rai forced herself to stay on her feet, her legs wobbling under her like never before. She laughed. "In this condition a half trained stable-boy with a moderately sharp kitchen knife could deal me some serious damage." Luckily no such person was anywhere near her present local...nobody was near her present local.

Looking at her gem she ground her fangs. She'd have to fold IFspace once again to shave enough time off of her journy to make her next destination in time. "What a bitch." Here she was running low on sleep, low on power after restoring Key, low on paitence, and low on time. The only thing she still had plenty of was tricks up her sleeve. Still, thanks to the mod gem's power, she managed to make the necessary fold and get through it in one piece.

Reaching the other side though she was panting like she'd just been fighting off three Terrasques. "Hell...that would almost be easy at this point compared to this shit..." Another circular chamber, much like the one she'd just come from and the one she'd shoved Din into, waited for her.

It seemed to be mocking her own weakness...laughing at seeing the dragoness laid low. That sparked an anger Rai harbored in her darkest heart. "DO NOT MOCK ME!" With a roar that turned heads all across the city and shook the unstable ground, the dragoness lunged forward. There was a flash as the defensive spells tried for their kill. Scales were stripped from Rai's skin, spines cracked, feathers tore free from her wings, and blood spattered the stones under her as she landed in an ackward heap with the crunch of splintering bones.

Just before her lay another thing on a plinth, a shard of ivory bone encased in crystal. With the shaking talons of her right forepaw, her good forepaw at this point, she plucked the thing free and consinged it to join the other two items in the red gem around her neck. "Bone of the end...finally I've got them all."

Summoning what might well be the last of herself, Rai ripped open a hole in time and hurled the gem through. Collapsing in on herself the dragoness could only vainly hope that her future self was around to catch it...if not...well at least it'd be safe. "As long as I'm actually there...please let me be there..."

Blood pooled around her form as the time hole closed. Giving a long sputtering cough Rai stared in horror at the bright blood on her talons. A darkness rose up and her head hit the floor...

[Crunchyfrog]

The Hangover


Chapter 23 - Chinaren Hall






Lebby waited patiently, as D-Lotus closed his eyes and concentrated. Now that the Private Investigator's sleuthing skills had returned, he was giving D as much time and space as possible to reach out with his spider senses, trying to locate Lordy, whilst Lebby kept watch for trouble.

The two of them, along with Polokin and Solus were huddled in a side passage between two tall buildings on the edge of the Nobs district, not far from Jester Park. When they had left Jester they had seen Lilith assist Dinranwen, IM and Smudger escape the rampaging monsters and clowns, and Lebby hoped that they had reached the tunnel to the Dream Chamber safely. He had not heard from IM yet. Pulling his Cloak of Forboding around him, Lebby looked down at Solus, who seemed to be weakening with every moment, whispering, seemingly to herself. He was concerned with her condition.

Looking around him, he noticed that although the swirling fog of souls had become still, coinciding with Crunchyfrog's temporary 'plugging' of the Soul Well, that had stopped more souls seeping out into it, he could still hear shouts of rioters echoing in other streets not far away. There had to be more to the cause behind their behaviour than just the fog, he found himself reasoning.

D-Lotus drew breath, and opened his eyes.

"Well?" asked Lebby.

D shook his head.

"Nothing." he sighed. "I cannot locate Lordy anywhere. Maybe I'm not up to full strength yet..."

Lebby tapped his mod ring.

"Jez?" he muttered. Jez's face shimmered into view.

"What? I'm busy!" came the reply. "I'm in the middle of analyzing the Greater Evil Gas. I heard from IM. They got to his mansion safely, but apparently another bottle of the stuff was discovered there. Who knows how many more of them have been scattered about the city. From my analysis so far I would bet that it has had a LOT to do with Kalanna's very overbearing behaviour recently, and maybe even the rioting..."

"Oh?"

Polokin, Lebby and D listened intently.

"I'm doing some final tests, before working on an antidote." continued Jez.

"Jez, we need your help, with finding Lordy. " said D, into Lebby's ring. "You had the map, right? We need to find the most likely place that Lordy might be... "






Jez appeared to be racking his brain. "I recall a certain point on the map that seemed to significant... now what was it?"

"Well, come on then! We're running low on information at the moment and we need to find Lordy before his plan commences!" Lebby shouted at Jez through the ring's image of him.

"Gimme a minute!" Jez's face shimmered and wavered as he tried to recall the area on the map that had been marked important... it had been originally so insignificant...what was it? Maybe he should tell them about the fake in the repository and then placing the real one in Chinaren's chair...

"Okay, I can't exactly remember at the moment where that spot is on the map but I do know where you can find the REAL one." Jez stated, looking nervous. "I placed it in China's chair back in City Council Hall...."








D-Lotus looked down to his left, and noticed a familiar looking bottle laying on the ground nearby, the glass cracked, and a vapour escaping from it, and noticed a strange look coming over Lebby.

He grabbed Lebby's hand, and spoke into the ring.

"Jez, we've got to get out of here. We'll head for City Council Hall and look for the map, but that's a little way from here. If you can, please give us some ideas on where we really should be headed.

The city is too dangerous to be in for long, and we may not have time to go snooping about City Council Hall looking for a map. This gas is clearly starting to have an effect on Lebby..."

"Okay okay!!" came the reply. "I'll check the copies I made on my computer when I get a moment, and I'll look up some references in this book, too. But right now, sorting out this antidote to the gas takes priority..." replied Jez.

"Understood." replied D.

Facing Lebby, he jerked his head in the direction of the next street.

"Come on." he said.

Polokin helped Solus to her feet, and the foursome moved on.


~ ~ ~






A purple coloured hole opened in the steaming remains of what was once Chinaren's public trophy room.

After a moment a dishevelled orange figure shot through, to land on a charred beam. After a few moments the hole in IFspace-time wobbled and collapsed in on itself.

"Ouch," said Chinaren standing up carefully and looking around. He sighed. "Seems I can't leave anything for five minutes without it all going to heck in handbasket. Good job I'm insured."

He walked around, kicking a few burnt items to once side and staring at the floor. Eventually he bent down and pressed something hidden. A trapdoor slid open, revealing stairs leading down.

Taking one last look around, Chinaren climbed in. The door slid closed behind him, as he hurried down the steps to find out what had been happening in his absence.

It took some time for the last 36 hours or so to play back, but at last the recording Orb fizzled out, and Chinaren sat back and took a deep swig of Gungle Juice special reserve. It seemed that IF really had been going to heck in a handbasket since he had been go