City of IF

[DeadManWalking]

This is something slightly different.

This is actually a creative story I have been writing for a while.

However, I now have writer's block.

I figure that this is the best way to get the plot moving.

So there won't be any polls in the beginning, until I get to my story so far.

That doesn't mean I don't want comments on what I'm posting. I would appreciate any comments that you could give me.

Since I actually have quite a bit written, I will post this in segments.

I shall start with a prologue.

Thank you.


Prologue


If you could be like everyone else, would you really want to be?

This is the question that I ask myself every day. Every day I look out at the “normal” people, walking through the streets going through their normal, everyday lives. Every day, I wonder what it would be like to worry about the stuff they worry about, and not have to worry about people knowing what I am.

And every day, looking down on the people walking through the streets like ants, soaring above the world with the air currents rushing against my face and streaming through my hair, the clouds rushing to meet me, I find the answer anew.

You see, I am not normal. All my life, I have always been different. Ever since I was small, I have always been different from everybody else. I could never relate with anyone in my classes. I was always regarded as weird by my peers, as different, because I would go off on my own and stay apart from others.

When I was eight, I found out just how different I was.

One day I woke up and found that I had grown wings. They were small, but they would soon grow until they became big white fluffy things.

And one day, months later, when I gathered the courage, I found I could fly.

Oh it was a glorious experience.

Of course, I couldn’t keep it hidden forever. I was eight years old. I barely kept it a secret for an hour. My parents, wondering why I was not downstairs at the T.V. as I usually was on a Saturday morning, came up to find me huddling under my covers.

My father was horrified that I would become even more of a freak than I already was. My mother was too, at first, but eventually she loved it. I was truly her little angel now. She defended me against my father, and eventually he came around to her way of thinking. In fact, he went further.

And so, I became famous. You could see my face on the face of magazines and newspapers around the world. Televangelists everywhere spoke my name, and I was a miracle, a gift from God, an angel of the Lord. I was also completely miserable.

My parents became rich, and I, their source of income, was kept “safe”, confined in rooms. I was like a pet bird, kept forever in a cage.

I wanted to be free.

When I was twelve, my parents divorced. My father had been cheating on my mother. And when the divorce papers arrived, my parents haggled over me.

Two weeks later, I ran away.

And that’s been my life.

I’ve been on the run since, begging or stealing food, hiding my wings, flying by night, or when the sky is cloudy.

And I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Sure, I have to keep hidden, and sure, sometimes I go hungry.

But now I can fly.

And that more than makes up for it.

[scissorkitty]

I like the idea of this very much! Makes me think of Archangel in the latest of the XMen movies.

So how old is this character now?

[DeadManWalking]

He's about 15.

And yes, i actually did use the X-men as a source of inspiration.

At least it began that way....

Then things got slightly out of hand.

Same with Hellboy, actually.

[scissorkitty]

So when does the next section of story show up? *grin* I want to hear more!

[DeadManWalking]

I believe I should wait for a couple more people to show interest.

Maybe in a couple days.

[Kalanna Rai]

This reminds me of a short story I read long ago and cannot recall the title of. It is excellent but your formatting put me off Dead. You'd find a return between each paragraph would bring in a few more readers.

*settles back and awaits the next installment*

[Traveller]

I agree with Rai that you need to look at the formatting...but that aside, you have a real neat concept here...look forward to see what adventures this winged boy will take us.

[scissorkitty]

It's funny that you brought up Hellboy.. the name of this story is pretty close to the organization from those stories, eh?

"Department of Paranormal Research and Defense" i believe it was.

[Crunchyfrog]

F5 the tips on formatting - split it up into paragraphs for an easier read.

But an interesting prologue, and interested to know how much you already have written before the DP's start kicking in.

Looking forward to seeing more.

:)

[DeadManWalking]

thanx for the tips.

[DeadManWalking]

I am posting the first part of this story. Before you start reading this, however, I would like to warn you of something.

If you enjoyed the contemplative manner of the first part, I had problems trying to get that to work with the rest. It's a lot more actiony now.

Barring editing, 1343 words left.

Part I In which I almost wet my pants.

It’s been three years since I ran away. I’ve managed to make a harness out of rags to hide the wings, although I try to wear it as little as possible. It’s really uncomfortable, and afterwards, I have cramps for hours. But life really isn’t all that bad. I do some jobs for some of the more… unsavory types when I really need the money. It’s not like I really need to worry about a criminal record. People were already looking for me and, whether I had a criminal record or not, I would be caged. Anyways, how many policemen are really going to believe eyewitnesses who say they saw a boy with wings?

I remember, back when I was newly free, I used to see my face on TV’s and milk cartons everywhere, and I had to hide my face all the time. I used to go hungry a lot more back then, because I couldn’t get odd jobs. I had tried, once or twice, but they always tried to bring me back. Apparently there was a huge reward for my safe return.

That’s stopped now. I guess my parents gave up on me. I wonder what the televangelists are saying now. How would it look if their angel of the Lord ran away from home? Well, anyways, that’s good for me, because now no one’s really looking for me anymore.

Tonight I’m doing a job for one of the better bad guys. Or at least that’s what he says. Although, admittedly, he does break the law a lot, he goes out of his way to help outcasts and runaways. Like me. Just as long as they work for it. So I’m working for it.

I’m on the rooftop of a warehouse somewhere downtown. I have a borrowed cell phone that I’m supposed to call him with if “Anybody, anybody at all looks like they are heading toward the building.” Usually I like lookout duty. It’s up in the air, at least for me, and I can usually stretch my wings, as long as I’m careful. You’d be surprised at how rare it is for somebody to look up. But tonight was freezing.

So, I’m sitting there, in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold. And its boring as hell (actually that’s a really bad analogy, ‘cuz one, hell, at least is warm, and two, I don’t think that hell would be boring at all). Seriously though, the worst thing about lookout duty is that it is really boring. Especially since I have no idea what he’s doing. Not that I want to, but it would make it a lot more interesting. For all I know, it could be a book club.

Suddenly, I hear a rustling. I look around for something, but I don’t see anything. It’s probably nothing. The human mind plays remarkable tricks. The first time I was lookout, I was always jumping around, ‘cuz I kept hearing noises and investigating. I hear it again, this time from an alley below. I look down again, but I see only darkness.

Huh. Maybe I should investigate.

I jump off the building, flapping my wings lightly to slow my fall. I land softly in the alleyway, alert for any signs of life. Then, shots pierce the night draped over the building, and I hear screams. I run to the front of the building, passing running people.

What I see knocks the breath out of me like a baseball bat.

I see what looks like some sort of wolf-man, although it looks nothing like those old movies with the rubber masks and the long fingernails. This thing stands six feet tall, hunched over, and its head looks to be a foot long, from its snout to its long pointy ears. The fur I can see is mostly silver, although there are hints of grey and brown. Its back is to me right now, but it seems to be fighting something.

I stand there in shock. I know that I can’t be the only one who’s out of sync with society, but it’s still a shock to actually see….

Then the woman the thing is swinging at ducks under its arm and kicks it in the back. Like a kung fu kick. I notice that she has an empty sheath at her back. She also has long black hair, and she’s breathing heavily. I mean, not that I was really looking or anything. She’s like ten years older than I am. Although she is pretty. Not that I…. Oh just never mind.

Anyways, she kicks it and it stumbles a little, then it gives a roar. And not like your old TV snarl. This is a ROAR like RAAWWWWWWWWR. And not like Lion King roar either. Like shatter-glass-at-five-miles-away roar. So while I and the rest of those in the five mile radius clutch our ears in pain, the beast just backhands the woman and she goes flying at me. I duck, and she brushes past my wings. I hear a thud as she hits the wall of the alleyway. I start to turn to see if she’s all right. Then I get a little distracted.

The beast turns toward us, and I really see it for the first time. I nearly wet my pants.
Its eyes aren’t yellow like most people would think, and they weren’t strangely human either, like Hollywood goes for. They’re black, glinting evilly in the dark. They’re like bottomless pits of darkness, which somebody could fall into and sink forever into those icy depths.

By the time I absorb this captivating quality, I also notice something else. It’s looking straight at me. And it’s growling.

Again, I would like to repeat, I almost wet my pants.

Then it pounces. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. One moment, it’s crouching there, and then the next, it’s in the air leaping for my throat with its fangs bared and its claws unsheathed.

For a third time, I would like to repeat, I almost wet my pants.

Then someone pushes me to the ground and yells “MOVE!!”

I fall to the ground.

I’d like to think that I hit my head on the pavement or that I was hit by the werewolf, or that a stray pigeon dropped a rock or that a small meteor came out of nowhere, but I am sorry to say that I am pretty sure I faint at this point.

[Masterweaver]

Decision Point: Wherein the author leaves his ehro at a crossroads at the end of a chapter so that his readers can suggest and vote on options for the hero.

Great first chappy. I don't go for hardcore gorefests, so the way you write and deal with it seems to be very good. You've certainnly fixed up the formatting, and the way the guy tells the tale is realistic. I'll let eceryone else go over the vocab. I have no idea if anything's wrong there.

[scissorkitty]

Okay.. i'm liking it more and more! I get why there's no DPs yet, as you warned us ahead of time that you have plenty of story to share before needing our "help" through DPs and plot input. I'm impatient for that to begin, however! I'd like to see this guy find his reflection in a plate glass window, or something, and kind of give us more information on what he looks like. Wouldn't the bound up wings give him something of a hunchback appearance, as well? And his bones- wouldn't he be more fragile?

[DeadManWalking]

Yes, I do know what a Decision Point is.

However, this is something of a special case.

I originally started this as an independant project for fun, but have hit a brick wall, and need some help.

So I though I'd post it, and get some ideas.

However, I do have a fair amount written already, and I didn't want to post it all at once, as some of the later parts I have are somewhat choppy and need some editing.

So I will have DP's eventually, once I finish posting the stuff I already have.

I wasn't sure exactly where to post this, so I put it here.

Thanks for the compliments.

But a question.

What exactly do you mean by gorefest?

EDIT: didn't see kitty's post. Now that I actually look for it, I never actually have a description of him. Will be fixing that.

And about his bones.... I will also attempt to explain that off.

[Traveller]

Interesting start...looking forward to participating!!

[LordoftheNight]

I'm liking it Dead. The style is pretty different from most stories on here, which makes for a refreshing read. It might be difficult to keep it up later though, especially when more starts happening.

In the end though, who does want to be just normal?

[DeadManWalking]

The next part is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(i like exclamation points and am very short on sleep. Bear with me please.)

Anyways, I was going to make this a longer installment, but the only real place to stop that wasn't something like 3000 words away was here.

oh well.

12615 words left. (I would like to note that I forgot a zero on the last "words left" tally. Will be fixing that.

By the way, the absurdly bad quality of the chapter titles is because i didn't write this in parts, and am separating them for you now.

Part II I have rabies

When I wake, I find that I was somewhere white. My first thought, of course, is heaven. I mean, most of my life I’ve been like an angel or something. I figure that should count for something.

Then I notice the walls and the ceiling and all. Oh well. It was a nice fantasy.

I also notice some guy sitting next to me. He looks to be thirty or so, but he’s wearing some sort of old clothing. Not like from the sixties or anything like that, but medieval. He has like a hooded tunic, and he’s sitting cross-legged, eyes closed. As I start to rise, he opens his eyes, and stands. One eye is brown, and the other green. As I watch, his brown eye turns blue, and the green one turns grey. He puts a hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down.

He’s surprisingly strong.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m a little woozy, actually. I must have hit my head on the ground or something.”

He smiles slightly, but replies only, “Well the wooziness is to be expected. I’ve never used that particular healing spell on an Aphen before. I had to adapt it slightly, and I’m not sure how well it worked.”

“Well besides the dizziness, I- Wait, what?”

As you see, I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

He then launches into a long-winded lecture which, as far as I can figure out, is about healing spells and anatomical and special immunological differentials. I, however, was interested only in what he had called me. Aphen. I have not heard it before, but somehow, it felt familiar. So I listen carefully, waiting for him to get to what I want to know.

Eventually I butt in, as he shows absolutely no sign of stopping (I believe he was now talking about hallucinatory side effects of the “transitional encouragement” brand of healing).

“Excuse me, but what was it that you called me? Aphen?” I inquired politely.

“Well that’s what you are, isn’t it?”

“He doesn’t know.” A new voice enters the conversation. I turn and see the black-haired woman from the night before. “He was adopted by mundanes, and they never told him he wasn’t theirs. He was on television a couple years back.”

The man in the tunic replied, “Ah, yes. Him. I was wondering why an Aphen had such malformulated wings. According to the tomes, they’re luminosity should be greater at this age.”

As you can imagine, my understanding of this conversation was not entirely complete. However, I did catch one thing.

I was adopted?

This surprised me, but now that I thought about it, it made sense. I had never really connected with my parents. Plus the fact they didn’t have wings or anything, and I did. I’ve just really never thought about it before.

Then the events of last night picked then to hit home.

I blurted out questions suddenly, “Wait just a second. What was that thing last night? Where is this? How did I get here? What’s an Aphen? Who are you guys? And how do you know I was adopted?”

The man in the tunic looked at me with amusement in his eyes (which, by the way, were now purple and gold).

“Well that could take more than a second. But the answers, respectively, are thus: That thing, as you put it, was a Lyken, which by the way, was not last night; This is the headquarters of the BPDR, the Bureau of Paranormal Detection and Response; Falba carried you here; Aphens are a nearly extinct species of species that we term Homo Avien; I am John Doe, and this is Falba Laranthos, and your adoption is obvious, for no Homo Sapiens could possibly give birth to an Aphen. Is that all your questions?”

“Wait… you’re really named John Doe?”

Again, I would like to say I am slow on the uptake. It takes me five whole seconds to realize that he had just told me that I had been unconscious more than a couple hours, and the fact I’m not human doesn’t register until a couple seconds after that.

Although, I have to admit, I’ve known I wasn’t exactly human for a while.

I set that aside for now.

“Exactly how long was I out?”

His eyes are now red and hazel.

“You were unconscious for a full thirty-six hours. I had to purge your entire system. I found traces of tuberculosis as well as bird flu, pneumonia, rabies, and at least fifteen different cold viruses in your system. Even as strong as the Aphen physiology is, your immunological defenses were about to be overwhelmed.”

Falba speaks up from where she stands.

“This isn’t exactly the time, John. He’s got to be taken through basic training, and the team wants to meet him. It’s not every day you get to meet an Aphen.”

“I see. Well, you’re in perfect health now, Gabriel, so off you go.”

I start to get up. Then I realize that beneath the sheets, I’m completely naked.

“Umm… Can I get some clothes?”

Falba raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t know how to do the photonic materialization?”

“Huh?”

She rolls her eyes.

“John, get him some clothes. I’ll wait outside.”

[DeadManWalking]

i feel bad that nobody has replied at all.

:(

so I have spent sleepless nights contemplating why this would happen.

And so, to regain interest, i will set up a poll.

you shall see for yourself.

[LordoftheNight]

I think the reason no-one has replied Dead, is because it currently is practically Linear. There's a reason Linear storys get less comments - the lack of decision points leaves people without anything to focus upon.

If I were you, I'd leave it as a storygame - but either rewrite the linear aspect with DPs, or get through it as quickly as possible, until we arrive at the storygaming section.

[DeadManWalking]

BUT THE STUFF I ALREADY HAVE IS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or at least I like it....

And I'm not quite sure how to work in the decision points.

[DeadManWalking]

Since only three others voted, and two of them voted for 3000 words, I will post 3000 words.

here we go.

Part III

A couple minutes later, I come out of the room wearing a surprisingly modern pair of pants. They’re khakis, not the weird tight things that John’s wearing. I’m not wearing a shirt, because I didn’t have my harness, and I couldn’t fit the wings into any of the shirts. John seemed slightly surprised by this. I’m not sure why.

So anyways, when I come out, I see Falba talking with a girl my age. Falba’s back is turned to me, (I notice that she is still wearing the sheath, and now it has a REALLY REALLY big sword) and I can see the girl’s face clearly. Her hair is red, and her eyes are blue. She looks straight at me for a few seconds, and then goes back to talking. Falba, however, catches the glance and turns to me.

“Finally. How long does it take to put on a pair of pants?

She holds up her hand...

“Never mind. I don’t want to know. We’ll take you to meet the team. Anyways, this is Sarah.” She gestures to the girl next to her who starts to speak.

Falba cuts her off.

“Yes, I know, Inferno. But he’s going to be part of the team and he’s going to learn your real name eventually. Anyways, Gabriel, follow us”

She starts to walk quickly along the corridor. Sarah walks slightly behind her, while I tag along. They walk fast.

Eventually, we get to a big room. There are couches and TVs and stuff. It’s awesome. Best place I’ve seen in years. The ceiling’s like fifty feet up, AND it’s got a sunroof. It’s almost like being outside. With TVs and electricity and stuff.

I repeat, it’s awesome.

There are a couple other people in the room. Sitting on one of the couches playing a video game are two guys a couple years older than me. One has a purple Mohawk and a lot of piercings. If he walked into a magnet store he’d probably bleed to death. The other one is really ordinary. He has brown hair and eyes. The only way he could possibly stand out was because he was so ordinary. On the other side of the big room is a woman curled up in a chair, reading a magazine. She is HOT. I mean, I had said Falba was pretty before, but compared to this…. Think something like three hundred year old cat lady compared to a twenty year old Brazilian supermodel, and you might get some idea of what the comparison’s like.

While I’m staring at the woman in the chair, Falba has started talking. I only catch the end.

“…the atrium, where we all recuperate after a mission. These two couch potatoes are Joshua and Marcus, and the girl in the corner whom you’re staring at with your mouth open is Suzie. Well you’ve met the team, now let’s get you briefed.”

She starts walking again, this time through one of the other doors leading to the atrium. I blush. I guess it was pretty obvious. Suzie gave me a wink. Marcus says something, but I don’t really catch it. Sarah stays behind.

We go up a couple flights of stairs, and eventually we get to a smaller door. We seem to be pretty high up.

“This is your room.” Falba says, opening the door.

It’s pretty small, but I like it. It’s got a small bed, and a smaller sink, but no TV. The redeeming feature, though, is a glass window and a balcony. I walk there immediately, and see the view. It’s incredible. There are no buildings for miles, and all I see is forest and mountains all around. There's a lake too. There are no railings, but that doesn’t bother me that much. I jump off and flap my wings.

Falba yells to me “Hey, Gabriel!”

I turn in midair and, after not a little fumbling and a couple of frantic dives, catch what she throws to me. It looks like an ear plug or something. I put it in my ear, and immediately I hear Falba’s voice in my ear.

“I’ll call you on this when we need you. Try not to get lost. And watch out for the eagles. Got it?

I can’t find any speaker or anything so I just give her a thumbs up.

“K, Witch out.”

Witch? Inferno? This place was weird. I put it out of my mind for a couple minutes though, and just concentrate on finding some updrafts. I flap towards the mountains, and caught an air current up. It was great. The cool air rushing past my face. I launch into a series of twirls and loops, until I get over the lake. The surface is suprisingly calm, and I can see my reflection in the water. It's been a while since I've seen myself. I see a teenager, with unruly blonde hair and blue eyes. A poster boy for the Aryan race. But he's scrawny. And he has wings. Big white fluffy wings, spread several feet to each side. His hair is a little long from neglect. As I see my reflection for the first time in years, I think about the unanswered questions I have. Who am I? Who are these people? And what the heck was a Lyken anyway? I resolved to ask. Later. Right now, I had more important things to do. I dive toward the ground, flapping my wings to brake at the last second.

A couple hours later I landed back at the balcony. Falba hadn’t called me yet, but I had thought over the unanswered questions I had and I wanted answers. With my incessant ache for flying mollified for now, these questions had taken on a new urgency. What was this place? John’s answers hadn’t really satisfied my curiosity.

I decide to find Falba or John, and so I walk to the atrium. No one’s there, except Joshua. He’s still playing a video game. When he sees me, he tosses the controller aside, and says, “It’s not as fun as playing from the inside, but Fal wanted me to be here when you came back. Everyone but me and Sarah are on a job. Some extradimensional rift in Manhattan. Sarah wanted to go, but she’s a little young, so I got to babysit. Well, what do you think? Is this place awesome or what?”

Playing from the inside? Never mind.

“It’s nice, but what is this place? I’ve never even heard of the Bureau of Paranormal whatever. Is it like a government thing or whatever?”

“A government thing? Well I guess. The Bureau was started by the U.S. government back in the 60’s, but one of the presidents cut our funding. Don’t really remember which one. It was before my time. Although I think Falba and John were there then. Anyways, apparently, they split off and became an independent agency. A couple years back, though they saved some rich guy from a ghost and he’s funded us ever since. It’s sorta funny actually. We save the world from hundreds of demons and aliens and stuff and our funding gets cut and we save some rich guy from a ghost and we’re set for life. Awesome, ain’t it?”

“But what does the Bureau do? Are you saying that aliens and stuff are real?”

“Dude, why wouldn’t they be? Look at yourself. How many people would say that a kid with wings was real? But as for what we do, well, I don’t think I’m the right guy to tell you that. Falba usually does the briefings.”

The door behind me opens and I hear footsteps.

“Well, speak of the devil. Here she is. Hey Fal! How did the mission go?

“I told you never to call me Fal again. I will rip your head off.”

“So not so good, huh? What went wrong? Did one of those evil emperor types choose Suzie to be his immortal concubine again?”

“Shut up.”

At this point, I seriously fear for Joshua’s life. He, however, doesn’t seem to share my fears. He continues to poke and prod until he gets Falba to tell him the story.

“Some idiot sorceror summoned Cerberus again. Suzie got slobbered on. She’s taking a shower now.”

At this point my head pretty much explodes. However, I recover in time to ask my own question.

“Wait. Cerberus? You fought Cerberus? As in immortal three-headed dog of the dead Cerberus?”

“Sort of. We made a deal with him a while back. When he gets summoned, he slobbers a lot and looks mean, and we get to put him back as fast as possible. He hates our world. Says it plays hell with his sinuses.”

“He talks? The three-headed killer Rottweiler of hell talks?”

My skepticism at this point knows no bounds. About here, however, Josh cuts in.

“Again I repeat. Winged boy. Anyways, back to your question. Gabe here wants to know what we do.”

I interrupt before Falba can answer. I had just noticed something.

“Wait. How do you guys know my name? Have you guys been following me or something?”

Falba and Josh exchange sheepish glances, but Falba soon answers.

“Yes, actually. We’ve been following you for a while. But only because we were considering adding you to our team. You see, we’ve been losing members really fast lately. The traditional number of members for our team is seven, and we lost Charles about a month ago. We found your aura, and we’ve been trying to find out if you were suitable. When a Lyken attacked while I was trailing you, I was forced to bring you here. Does that answer your question?”

Losing members really fast? That was really encouraging.

“NO!! What is the Bureau? What do you guys do? Why me?”

“Well the Bureau basically defends this dimension from extradimensional rifts from the dimensions connected to ours. We also stop chaos from engulfing this region as best we can by fighting otherworldly organisms like the Lyken we saw a few nights ago.”

She caught the uncomprehending look on my face.

“Let me put it this way. There are creatures that stalk the night. We find them and shoot them.”

This I understood.

“As for the brilliantly original question of why you, I will reply with the stereotypical answer. It’s because you are special. You probably already know that, but it’s what we say to every new recruit. You have powers that go beyond regular human ability. Everybody here does. For example, Josh here is an electromagnetic organism who exists solely on an energy based level. What you see here is a robot body we made. Sarah, or, as she wishes to be called, Inferno, is a pyrokinetic human who developed her power through a genetic quirk. John is an immortal sorcerer from another dimension who was born in a time before your Middle Ages. Marcus is one of the few good Lykens. Suzie is an Aphirus. We’re all different.”

“And I’m an Aphen. What’s exactly is an Aphen? And what is a Lyken, or an Aphirus?”

“Well… It’s a long explanation. John could explain this better than I could. Ummmm…. Ok, how about this. You know about alternate dimensions, right? Alternate dimensions occur when there is a decision or a random occurrence that could have multiple results. When an event like that comes, the dimensions split off, and become multiple different ones, one with each different result. This, of course, means that there are a huge amount of variations. All the dimensions together make the multiverse. The way alternate dimensions are located in the multiverse is a grouping. The most similar dimensions group together into what we call annans. Annans are made of relatively similar dimensions with only pretty small differences. Sometimes, dimensions are so similar that they eventually just meld together. If that’s the case, that just means that nobody really remembers which way the decision went. If a decision would change that dimension really radically, then it goes farther away, and starts its own annan. The dimension that starts the annan is the nucleus of that annan. It’s the most…ummmm… solid, I guess. Our dimension is relatively new, so it hasn’t been named yet, but it split off to form its own annan.”

“What has this got to do with Aphens or Lykens?”

“Be patient. There are some things you need to understand first. Years ago, there was a species that found out about the multiverse and figured a way to travel it. People started taking vacations to these different dimensions. They didn’t interfere in local cultures much, so it was all right. However, it didn’t stay that way. A group of people eventually found a way to leech the energy from entire dimensions to make themselves more powerful. However, this group was relatively small, so they weren’t a big problem yet. The real problem was the people who tried to take over other dimensions, to create multidimensional empires. Eventually, they created a group to combat both these groups, a sort of police force. This police force doesn’t really have a name, and was called something different for every dimension they were based in. This police force has one group for every annan. The Bureau is this annan’s incarnation of that police force. Since this annan is pretty new, we have John. He’s from one of the older police forces. Also, because this is new, a lot of us are from other annans. Suzie is from a different annan, although she is a newer recruit. Josh is from yet another one, in the other direction though. Marcus and Sarah are from one of the dimensions in this annan, as am I. Sarah’s home is actually really close to this one. I am actually from this dimension, the nucleus of this annan, as are you, in a way. Aphens were one of the older races, one of the first to find out about the multiverse. Their universe was destroyed quickly however, by one of their own, named Lucifer. The Aphens have been a nomadic people ever since, traveling the dimensions. Lucifer would always chase them, however. The last place they were seen was in this dimension, on a planet not too far from Earth. Actually, they were a big influence on humans. However, they have all disappeared pretty recently. We investigated, but we couldn’t find anything but ruins. As far as we know, you’re the last Aphen left.”

This shocks me considerably, for some reason. Yesterday, I was alone. Today, I’m still alone. But knowing that I am part of an alien race that had suddenly disappeared makes it worse. Thinking you’re the first is always less painful then knowing you are the last. I recovered quickly however. I had never known anyone else who was like me. I haven’t actually lost anything, I remind myself. Still it’s hard.

My contemplation is interrupted as alarm bells go off. Falba looks up.

“Josh, Gabe. Come with me.” As we hurry through one of the doors, Sarah and Marcus come and meet us. I notice that Marcus’s eyes are now yellow, like a wolf, while Sarah’s now glow with flame. Sarah starts to plead with Falba.

“Pleeeeeeeeaaase can I come?”

“No. Go back to your room.”

“How come Gabriel gets to come? I’ve been here longer than he has! I should get to go if he goes!”

I totally agree with her. I’ve been here all of two days, most of which was spent unconscious. Why was I coming?

“Gabriel is an Aphen. Aphens can take care of themselves. You, however, are still human. Go to your room.”

Let’s just say that I have much less confidence in myself than Falba seems to have.

“But that’s not fair!”

“Josh, bring Sarah back to her room. If she won’t go peacefully, you have my permission to shock her into submission. Now GO!”

At this point Sarah literally runs. Josh follows, a grin on his face. Falba calls after him.

“If we need you for this one, we’ll call you. Otherwise, you’re on babysitting detail.”

“Yes, ma’am. See ya Gabe.”

He waves back.

We keep on going, joined by Marcus.

Falba stops in one of the side corridors and knocks on one of the doors.

“Hey, Suzie. You done with your shower yet?”

An emphatically negative reply comes back. Even shouting obscenities, her voice is lovely, like a chorus of flutes on a summer day, or the trill of the first bird of spring.

“Fine! We’ll handle this one without you.”

She trots on, talking to us over her shoulder.

“It looks like it’s just us and John. You ready Gabriel?”

She enters a room without waiting for my reply. John is already in the room, sitting at a huge table, waiting for us. Falba sits, as does Marcus. I stand. The chairs don’t exactly look comfortable for my wings.

John nods to each of us, then starts talking.

“Just the four of us? We really need to get Sarah trained. Seven is really the proper number.” He shakes his head. “Anyways, this mission is in the Mutafsa annan, my old precinct. Chedi says they have multiple crises right now, and they’re spread thin. They’ve called the three nearest annans in. That means us, Nakin’s group, and the Lukra.” Marcus growls. “Yes, Marcus, I’ve already made them promise not to try and kill you. They admit they made a mistake last time and Mirash says he wants to apologize personally the next time we meet. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter. The Lukra will be reinforcing Chedi’s group, while we will be working with Nakin. He says he’s a little short-handed, so it’s only gonna be him and two others. We’re not quite sure what we’re up against, but they’re going up against a class nine, so don’t expect reinforcements for a while. All the info they’ve got on our threat is sort of an evil blackness.” Falba raises an eyebrow at this. “No, Falba, do not accuse them of sloppy recon. I scried the site myself, but that’s all I saw too. It reminded me a little of that thing with Frok, that Lyken. It’s very strange. I’ve never really seen anything like it. Either it’s something from a new dimension or it’s a really powerful sorcerer.”

Marcus frowns thoughtfully. “Who’s Nakin bringing?”

John frowns also. “I forgot to ask. We should be fine however. Most of Nakin’s team is pretty competent, and Nakin himself is no slouch. Anyways, I have the transportation and translation spells ready, so we can be off now. Is everybody ready?”

At this point, I interject. “WAIT! What am I supposed to do? I fly. How am I supposed to fight?”

John frowns, and turns to Falba. “No one told him about the photonic materialization?”

“I was getting there. But since we’ve already got a mission, I figure he’ll figure it out when he has to. It’s in his blood right?”

John sighs. “Fine. I guess that might work. Until then, here.” He concentrates briefly, his eyes turning white and red. There is a susurration, and the light ripples. Suddenly, he holds a gun. “This is a manifestation of one of my emergency spells. I decided you might do better with a more familiar format. Pull the trigger and a bolt of divine energy comes out the muzzle. Its range is pretty much infinite, so don’t miss. Got it?”

He hands the gun to me and I take it reluctantly, but before I have the chance to say anything, he starts to speak again. “Well, we have to be going. Time moves faster there, so we need to hurry. He mumbles, and waves his hands and then says, “The translation systems are up. And we’re off in three. Two. One.”

So this is the next part.

Thoughts please.

or i will be very sad. :(

[DeadManWalking]

no thoughts?

oh well.

*sigh*

anyways, will post the next part soon in the hopes that everyone is actually reading this without posting.

Would have done it sooner, if not for a stupidly huge term paper.

[DeadManWalking]

Here is a fourth part.

BPDR Part IV I disappear in a vortex of swirling light.

The room suddenly spirals and I feel like I’m gonna throw up. I feel like I’m going through a garbage disposal backwards. It hurts.

By the time I’ve recovered, we’re in a forest. Except the trees are bright yellow, and growing down from the sky. Weird.

Josh asks me how I am, and when he hears my reply, he starts to mutter about alternate physiology. I ignore him, because I notice that we aren’t alone.

Three other… ummmmm… people are there.

The one in front, who I assume is Nakin, is a sort of giant humanoid alligator carrying what looks like one of those blaster rifles from Star Wars. To his left is a guy who looks like one of those stereotypical alien things, all green and tall and stretchy. On the right is a rock. I kid you not. A rock. A big boulder.

The alligator says something, but I don’t understand it.

“n’sy?anA draSk?????xvu?dh kahrin?ya???????ranmaw”

As you can imagine, I’m like, “Huh?”

However, John replies, “Yeah, we found him not that long ago. He’s replacing Charles.

“Nana drn?ya????sk?????xvu?dh ka’sy? hri??r?anask”

“Hey John… What’s he saying?”

“Can’t you understand? Oh, yes… I completely forgot. The Aphen spell immunity must have kicked in. I’ll just up the voltage. Here you go.”

“??skn?ya????????? to meet you. I’m Nakin. What’s your name?”

The translation spell doesn’t work like I think it will. Instead of his voice changing, or me hearing a little voice in my head, translating, I just understand. It’s sorta like he’s speaking English now, with no need for translation at all, except that I can still hear what he saying in his language. It’s disconcerting. In fact, it’s so disconcerting that by the time I remember he asked a question, he’s already talking again.

“First time? Sorta obvious. You’ll do fine. This, on my right is Urg&dsa*s ffasD$$sht?n ?e??aehgawec KeaW?as?awb (This doesn’t completely translate.), or Kea, for short.” Kea gives a quick nod, then goes back to talking with Marcus (who by the way now has claws and brown fur). “On my other side is Urd. His name doesn’t really translate into either of our languages, so that’s what we call him.”

The rock sort of… flickers, I guess. It doesn’t really move, but I get the sense of movement.

Nakin noticed my bewilderment. “He really doesn’t move in the six planes available in your dimension. His home has one hundred and seventy-two planes, and he moves on eleven through one hundred and twenty-five. He’s technically the senior member, but he doesn’t communicate very well, so I do the talking. Speaking of senior members…” He turns to John. “How are you, sir? We’ve missed you.” Nakin turns back to me and says in explanation, “He used to be our senior member before he transferred to you guys. What was that, three millennia ago? You haven’t changed a bit.”


I blink. Three millennia? He looks about thirty.

“Wait a sec. Isn’t this your home precinct? Must feel good to be home, huh?”

John’s face goes blank.

“Let’s just get to the job at hand.”

He goes on one knee, and waves his hand. A little whiteboard appears, along with some markers.

“I think that Urd should be recon, as whatever it is, it is unlikely to touch on all of the dimensions he uses. Agreed?” Flicker. “Alright. We’ll wait here. If you don’t come back in… Damn… I forget what units of time you use. Is it liptons?” Flicker. “Okay. Let’s say, thirteen liptons, then we’ll come after you.” Flicker. At this point, I’m wondering what this guy does to say no. “Alright. We’ll be waiting.”

The rock vanishes.

“So the anomaly is a couple miles south. I think we should split into two teams. Luckily, we have two healers, two long-range fighters, and two close-range. I think it should be….”

At this point Nakin interrupts, as he notices the old-fashioned revolver I’m carrying. “Wait. Why does the Aphen, whatever his name is…” “Gabriel.” “Fine, Gabriel, have one of your spells? Can’t he do the light thingy?”

Falba answers for John. “When we said not that long ago, we meant literally, not relatively. We picked him up about, one thousand five hundred and sixty liptons ago. He hasn’t been trained, and he doesn’t know his powers, but we’re a little short handed as well.”

“Shit! (He doesn’t actually say that, but an obscenity that doesn’t really translate.) So we’re going in this with a new recruit? With one of John’s spells. Shit! (See previous note)”

I sort of want to defend myself, but I really don’t know what to say. It’s true. Luckily, Falba answers for me.

“He’s an Aphen. Even if he doesn’t know his powers, he’s tough. Remember Peter?”

Nakin seems slightly mollified by this.

John continues, “Anyways, the two groups should be like this. Kea, Nakin, and Marcus will angle to the west a little. Gabriel, Falba and I will take the east. Kea and I will maintain telepathic contact at all times. If it gets broken off for some reason, the default plan is to hit it from both sides with a pincer movement. If I don’t think that will work, I’ll send up a green flare. Got it?” Nods from everyone but me.

Urd appears suddenly. John turns to him (it?).

“What did you see?”

I watch carefully out of curiosity. So far I had only seen Urd say yes. How would he communicate something more complex? Maybe Morse code or something?

As far as I can see, at least, Urd stays completely still, as does John, but John’s eyes start to glow blue.

Eventually, John’s eyes darken back to more normal shades (now brown and gray) and he nods and relays Urd’s message to the rest of the team. “Urd says that there is some sort of giant humanoid coming this way. He says that it may have noticed him, so it sees on the higher planes. It’s not that big, only about twenty times the body mass of a standard humanoid of this dimension, which would only be about five times bigger than one of us. Apparently, it has scales and lots and lots of eyes. Interestingly enough, on the sixteenth plane up, it doesn’t even exist, so I’m thinking, construct. This also means that Urd is of minimal use here except as an extra pair of eyes, as planes eleven through sixteen are nonphysical. Sorry, Urd. Anyways, since it doesn’t seem to have a very long reach, I’m thinking that Gabriel should get above it and shoot down. This also reduces the chance that he’ll hit one of us, unless Marcus or Falba gets in the way. The rest of you know what to do. I’ll tell you any changes when I see the thing. Let’s go.”

With that we split up, jogging over the hilly terrain, ducking under the tips of the upside-down trees. As we jog, the sky, or whatever it is, grow darker, as do the trees. After a while, as we start to go over a hill, I see the monster slightly to the right. It’s a big scaly thing, sort of like a cross between a bear, a crocodile and a turtle. It only stands about twelve feet tall, but it has huge claws. They had to be at least sixteen inches. It also had at least twenty eyes, scattered in strategic spots around his body. John sees it too, and pushes me down.

“It would be so much easier if your wings weren’t so bright. Wait a sec… Are they glowing? Shit! (This time it really was Shit!) Try and turn it off. You’re giving away our position.”

I look at my wings. They actually are glowing! They’re emitting a harsh, glaring white light. I look back at the monster. It’s looking straight at me. Too late now. It takes a deep breath.

It exhales and a stream of fire launches itself in our direction.

Falba jumps to the left, while John scrambles back down the hill, using it as a shield.

I leap into the air, and flap my now-glowing wings, trying to gain altitude, dodging the upside-down trees, trying to keep out of sight. The foliage would normally shield me from its vision, but the light from my wings give away where I am. However, the foliage does stop me from seeing anything below.

I fly lower, once I think I’m far enough away.

I look back, and guess what I see?

The monster is following me. I can see John and the others behind it desperately trying to catch up, but it runs about as fast as I fly.

The monster inhales, and blows fire at me again. I duck under, and see the foliage above my head start to burn. There goes that route. I start to run again, but hear a voice in my head. Which I thought was bad, until I realized who it was.

“Gabriel. This is Urg&dsa*s ffasD$$sht?n ?e??aehgawec KeaW?as?awb. Try to stall it. We need to catch up.”

How? I can’t really dodge it forever, and I definitely can’t attack it.

“You have the spell, remember? Use it.”

Oh. Yeah. That.

I pull the gun out and aim it. I shoot once. A bright blue bolt bursts from the gun. The recoil pushes me back several feet in the air.

I watch as the blue bolt sails through the air at the monster… and misses, going about seven feet to the left of it.

“And try not to hit us.”

Easier than it sounds.

I try again, using my wings to hover in place. I take more careful aim. The monster stops for a second, cocking its head almost curiously. The bolt bursts out again.

A direct hit! …That just bounces off its scales back at me.

Shit.

I duck under the bolt as it crackles over me, soaring relatively harmlessly into the burning forest behind and above me. I think I hear a tree fall to the ground.

“…Never mind. Just try dodging. We’re almost there.”

At that moment, I see Falba charge from behind one of the hills with her sword raised, as Marcus leaps at its throat from the other side, now almost fully lupine.

The monster ducks under Marcus, becoming surprisingly small, and swats Falba back about twenty feet in the direction she came. As she flies back, she lets go of her sword, which slices Marcus’s belly open as he lands in a heap next to where Falba now crouches.

At this point, the monster turns its full attention on Falba and Marcus, inhaling deeply. Falba picks Marcus up, and tries to run, but trips over a bump on the hillside. She falls onto the ground, hitting her head on a rock, and falling unconscious. Marcus lies beside her, panting heavily.

Wow. Talk about bad luck.

Everything starts to go in slow motion, including me.

I start to fly at full speed toward them, flapping my wings furiously, but I know I won’t make it in time. I can see John and the others now, but they are even farther away.

The monster exhales, fire springing through the air slowly toward the bodies.

I flap my still-glowing wings even harder, trying to get there faster. The fire is halfway there. I dive, using what little height I have in a desperate maneuver for more speed. I wrap my wings around myself to become more aerodynamic. It still isn’t fast enough. The fire is five feet away from engulfing the two. Suddenly, reflexively, I … twist, I guess would be the best way to define it, and suddenly, I’m there beside them. Two feet away. I can feel the heat. My wings grow, covering the three of us like a protective tent. And then the fire is there. I sense, more than feel, the fire reflecting upwards off the arch of my wings. I hear creaking, as the trees above us are weakened, and I twist again, and we’re next to John and the rest.

It’s awesome.

Kea, Marcus and Nakin stare in amazement, until John reminds them of the monster.

Nakin nods, still staring and says “Gabriel could probably take the thing on by himself.”

John smiles, as he starts to tend to Marcus. His hands glow as he sort of pulls the skin back together. Kea starts on Falba, putting his hands on her head closing his eyes.

“He might be able to, but he’s just found his powers and he doesn’t know them all yet. So why don’t you help him? Falba and Marcus should be joining you shortly.”

Nakin grunts, but shoulders his blaster rifle thingy and turns to the monster, which is now standing looking confusedly at the spot I had been seconds before.

“This thing doesn’t look too bright, does it?”

I watch it looking around stupidly, and find myself agreeing.

“Hmmmm… Let’s try something. You distract it for a sec. I want to try something.

I’m much less hesitant about this, now that I know that I can block its fire. I twist, and suddenly I’m hovering in the air not three feet in front of the monster. I wave, and it takes a swipe at me. However, now I’m a couple feet out of its reach. It roars and inhales.

I hear repeated blaster fire (which sounds almost exactly like the sound effects of Star Wars, interestingly enough), but none of it seems to be hitting the monster.

Then a whole bunch of burning trees fall on it, knocking it out.

Which was funny, to say the least.

As I land next to Nakin, I have to ask, “If you could shoot the trees down on it, why didn’t you do that before?”

He winks it me and says, “I should ask you the same question. Why didn’t you disappear in a vortex of swirling light before?”

Is that what it looks like?

“Well, I didn’t know I could do it before.”

“Well, there you go.”

And so I leave that dimensions on very good terms with Nakin’s group. After a little experimentation, I find that I can twist back to our annan without much difficulty.

Unfortunately, I end up in Suzie’s room. Which is when I get slapped; which is how I end up back in the healing room unconscious.

I wake up to Falba sitting beside my bed reading a book. She sees my eyes open, and, after carefully marking her page in the book, speaks.

“At this rate, you’ll spend longer in here than in your room.”

I smile wanly. I feel like crap. It feels like my innards were sucked through a two-inch pipe before being poured into a blender. Ironic how I survive a monster twice my height unscathed only to be slapped unconscious by my own teammate (whose skin was really really soft by the way)

“What happened?”

“Well, Suzie is an Aphirus; I told you that. Never piss an Aphirus off, especially when they’re not wearing clothes. It’s… actually, Suzie should tell you. I’ll get her. She asked me to call her when you woke up.”

Falba leaves the room. After a while, Suzie enters. I notice she’s wearing a skintight suit that covers almost her whole body, complete with gloves. If I hadn’t been as weak as I was, I’m sure things might have got a little… embarrassing.”

“Hi. Sorry about that. I sorta overreacted. How do you feel?

“I’m fine. A little weak, but fine.”

I felt more than a little weak, especially compared to my exuberance from before, but I wasn’t exactly going to say that in front of her.

“Really? Usually my touch does more than that.”

She smiles. I get the feeling she know pretty much exactly how I feel.

“What did you do? All I remember is you slapping me.”

Her smile vanishes pretty much completely.

“That’s all I did. But well… here, let me show you.”

She looks around the room for a second, then her eyes settle down on the fruit bowl on the bedside table. She takes off one of her gloves, and picks up an apple.

Before my eye, it seems to shrivel, turning black and dehydrated.

“Whoa. Does that happen whenever you…?”

“Yeah. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

She leaves suddenly, throwing the apple into the wastebasket and putting her glove back on.

Falba enters, noticing the dried husk in the trash.

“I guess she showed you her… ummm… talent.”

“Yeah…she seems sorta …uptight about it though.”

Falba sits back down in the chair she was in.

“Well… it’s a long story. But her background is a lot like yours. She went by for the first years of her life with no idea she was different. Then, one day, her… talent… emerged. She can’t have physical contact with anyone or anything anymore, unless she wants to hurt them. It’s how Aphirus feed. They have to drain the energy of others. It’s like… Oh what was that legend the humans have… succubus and incubus.”

“As in the seducing demons that killed their lovers?”

“You really know your mythology, don’t you?”

“I spent the last three years of my life thinking I was an angel or something. Of course, I researched.”

“Makes sense. Anyways, it’s not exactly like that, although those stories were started when dimensional rifts opened and some Aphirus came through. That’s how most of the legends start actually. Same with angels and werewolves. Anyways, Suzie’s curse is that she can’t turn her power off. You’re much luckier than she is. At least your powers didn’t change your life that much.”

While I can debate this, as my powers caused me to be famous and eventually run away, I don’t. It’s true. Having wings is much better than not being able to touch people.

“That must be tough, especially looking like… well, you know.”

Falba laughs.

“What does she look like? Tell me, Gabe, what color is her hair? Or her eyes? Or her skin?”

I wonder why she asks the question. Of course I knew her hair color. It was…. It was….

I frown, and Falba laughs again.

“That’s another part of her power. People don’t really see her. They just get an impression of great beauty. That in itself is a curse. No one really sees her like she really is. It’s almost as bad as her touch.”

This I understand. For three years, everyone had only seen the wings. That was all anybody cared for. No one liked me for my intelligence or my personality. All they saw was the big white wings on my back.

But at least I had gotten some benefits. I could fly. What could Suzie do? I felt an overwhelming sadness for her.

Then another question occurred to me.

“Falba, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Depends. What’s the question?”

“Well, Suzie’s an Aphirus and I’m an Aphen and stuff, and all of us have our special powers and stuff. But what about you? What’s special about you? I mean, not in a bad way or anything. I’m just curious. I mean, you said that you came from my dimension. Does that mean you’re human?”

Falba smiles resignedly. “That is personal. I was wondering when you’d ask, though. Before I answer though, I just want to say something. What makes humans so unspecial? Humans can do things that other people can’t. Just because someone is something you’re used to, doesn’t mean they aren’t special. Anyways, back to your question. You know how the legends of werewolves and succubi come from Lykens and Aphirus?” I nod “Well not all those legends come from otherworldly beings.” She pauses. I wonder where she’s going with this.

“Well, Gabe… I’m a vampire.” She bares her teeth, and fangs grow.

I give a muffled yell. Even with all the strange creatures that I had seen lately it’s still a shock.

Falba laughs. “That is pretty much the only part of the briefing I enjoy. And I only get to do that sometimes. Vampires don’t exist on some of the outer fringes.”

“Wait… so vampires are real?”

Falba rolls her eyes. “Wow. You really catch on quick don’t you?”

“I meant, like, in my own dimension. And anyways, if you’re a vampire, why aren’t you affected by sunlight? And do you drink blood? How much of the mythos is accurate?”

“You’re smarter than you look. Half the people who find out about the vampirism spend the first few hours worrying I’ll bite them, instead of trying to find out how much of the legends are true. Anyways, vampires aren’t really affected by sunlight. It’s just that vampires are used to less light, so less light is needed to blind them. Similarly, we require less light than humans to see. So it evens out somewhat. We do need blood, but that’s not all we need to live. I guess blood to us is like water to humans. We need it to live, but we need to eat too. And almost none of the crucifix, garlic, bat, or epitome of evil stuff is true. Vampires are like humans. Some are good, some are bad. Although we are stronger and faster, it’s not by a huge amount. And people who we take blood from don’t become vampires. We have babies, like humans. All in all, we’re very similar to humans. The only thing that is really accurate is the blood-sucking and the immortality bit.”

“Really? You’re immortal? Wait… How old are you exactly?”

Falba smiles. “Gabriel. You should know better than to ask a woman her age. But, since I hear you saved my life, I’ll tell you. I’m about… three hundred.”

“Really?”

“No. A life lesson. If you ask a woman her age, you’ll never get a real answer, not even if you save her life. That’s one of the few things that is consistent in all the dimensions. Speaking of saving my life, I want to thank you for saving my life before. I’m truly glad that you did, obviously. I also hear that you managed to control your powers. Congratulations. Don’t think that it’ll get you out of basic training though. Even the most powerful sorcerer has to learn combat tactics. We’ll start as soon as you get better… which should start any second now.”

Come to think of it, I’m feeling a lot better already. Wait a sec. I hear this weird sort of buzzing noise that I hadn’t noticed before.

“What’s that buzzing noise?”

Falba cocks her head, listening in silence.

“I don’t hear anything. Wait… I have an idea. Show me where you think it is.”

I orient towards it, and I sense more than hear the nexus of energy on the other side of one of the walls. I point at it and Falba rises.

“Wait just a sec.”

She exits the room, and after a few seconds, the nexus of energy vanishes. All of a sudden, I start feeling like crap again.

Falba reenters the room, followed by John.

“It stopped.”

John’s eyes (now purple and blue) widen. “Amazing. He can sense my spells!”

Falba explains. “John was in the next room doing his healing spell. He doesn’t need to be right next to the patient to heal. So you must have sensed his spell, because he stopped when I asked him to. My question is, why couldn’t you do this before?”

John launches into a lengthy explanation about acknowledged awakening and some other stuff, but Falba interrupts.

“In a way anybody but you can understand, please.”

“That explanation was perfectly comprehensible! But since you obviously can’t understand it, I’ll tone it down somewhat. Ummmm… Well, how about this. Now that his conscious mind knows that he has powers, he is slowly able to access more and more of them. Does that make sense? Good.”

He continues without waiting for my answer (which seems to happen a lot, actually). “My question is, does the magic have to be directed at him for him to sense it, or can he sense any magic around him? Thankfully we can test that directly.” He turns to me. “I am going to place a listening spell in one of the eight corners of this room. Point to it.”

After a second or two, I sense a nexus of energy build in the corner of the ceiling to my immediate right. I say this, and John continues his experimentation.

“Well, Gabriel, did it feel the same as the first? Or did it differ in any way?”

I reply that they feel the same, and he continues his speculation.

“So Gabriel is not able to determine the different functions. Perhaps he differentiates schools of magic, or not at all. He starts to make another mystic gesture, but Falba cuts him off.

“This is all very interesting, but Gabriel still needs to recover.”

That is true. In the excitement, I had forgotten how bad I felt.

“That is true. However, I look forward to testing the extent of this later. I will get back to the healing spell.”

With that, John leaves.

Falba looks down at me like a trained zoologist looking at a new species of three-toed sloth. Eventually, all she says is “See you in a while. Ask John how to get to the Palaestra. That’s where we train.”

She leaves.

After that, I fall asleep pretty quickly. I quickly get used to the renewed sense of magic in the next room, and it’s pretty boring right now.

My dreams are dark. I don’t remember most of them. But there is one that keeps coming back. I’m flying through the air as fast as I can. It’s like what happened earlier, with the monster, except there’s no twisting and no teleportation. I’m always too late. I watch Falba and Marcus get burned to a crisp the first time. She screams in pain, and I lose sight of her in the swirling flames. There’s a howl of agony from Marcus. And when I see them again, I see only skeletons. It’s horrible. The dream replays again and again, with different people each time. Sometimes it’s my parents, sometimes it’s Sarah or Joshua. Once it was the man who had hired me to be lookout for him, before I met Falba. One time it was even two Aphens, a man with golden wings, and a woman with light blue ones. And every time they died, and their burned skeletons fell to the earth. And suddenly, my wings would vanish, and I would fall too, toward the hard ground. The very last time, as I woke right before I hit the ground, I thought I saw a figure against the sky, a section of black like the Lyken’s eyes, spreading its wings across the sky and engulfing the night.

I wake up sweating, heart pounding. I take a minute to calm down, wings wrapped around me. When my heart finally stops racing, I notice that I’m feeling a lot better.

I would like to say that the part with all the bad luck was on page 13 of my manuscript. So anyways, Comments please. PLEASE. At least so I know someone's reading.

EDIT: all the ??????? in the conversation was originally a combination of Hebrew and Arabic. However, i failed to realize that the city can't do Arabic and Hebrew before i posted it.

[Traveller]

Just caught up on all of this...I am really enjoying it...not much else to say...just thought you would want to know that someone is reading it...T.

[Adalia]

I was bored, so I scoured the NSG District. I was going to read Into the Fray, but decided to read this one instead. Less gory, apparently. :D

I like the story and humor. So, I'll do my best to keep reading it, just as long as you keep posting it. :)

[Tipico]

i like it its good,

cant wait till it gets a decent dp though.

[Design]

I'm keeping up with this also. I love it. Very simple and the rampant talking keeps the story moving.

[Advarr]

I'm so far have way through it and I am going to read the next half later. I like the story and can't wait for the dp.

[DeadManWalking]

So I just gotta apologize for the delay. I have had finals, and have been feeling pretty lazy. To make up for this, I have made this longer than usual. It is also the first DP. YAY!.

Part V In which I almost become a roasted Chicken.

I start to get up. Damn. I’m naked again. Why do they keep doing that? Maybe the healing spell needs to be performed on a naked subject. But that wasn’t right. I had seen John heal Marcus before without stripping him. Hmmmm… I shrug. It wasn’t that big of a deal anymore.

I simply twist up to my room. Then it occurs to me that I don’t have any clothes in my room. I had hardly been in here. Damn again. I wonder where they put all the clothes I was wearing before.

Then I freeze, as another thought hits me like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Who undressed me?

Shit.

I really, really hope it was John.

Anyways this new and important question didn’t really solve my dilemma.

I start ransacking the room, looking for some clothes hidden somewhere.

Maybe I can use the sheets to make a toga or something.

Or maybe I could just spend the rest of the day with my wings wrapped around me.

Wait a sec. What was it that Falba had said before, the first time I found myself naked in the med bay, when she and John were surprised at my need for clothes? Why would they be surprised that I needed real clothes? I remember now. Something about “photonic manipulation”. Well if I remember sixth grade science correctly (which was hard; I hadn’t touched a science book in three years), photons had something to do with light. So maybe I could make the light cover my body?

It was worth a try.

I close my eyes, and I concentrate on a picture of me in jeans. After about fifteen minutes, I open them and look down. Nothing. Maybe something else.

I realize that I probably look tremendously stupid about now. Here I am standing in the middle of my room naked with my eyes closed.

Oh well. Today was going bad enough as it was. And anyways, it was worth a try. I close my eyes again, and this time, instead of me in jeans, I try something different. I mentally grab at the air around me, like I’m sucking in the light and forming it around me. After a couple of minutes, something touches my skin.

I jump like five feet and look down. Now, I have what looks like a skintight white costume. I touch it and it feels sorta rubbery.

Awesome.

I close my eyes again, and I imagine the light changing into jeans, like I’d originally thought of. It takes shorter this time, because I’m starting to get the hang of it. It’s more like thinking of a vacuum, in the shape of what you want formed. Then the light just kinda gets sucked into it.

The greatest part is, the jeans actually feel like jeans.

If I had known this three years ago, I would have felt a lot better during a lot of those cold nights. Just imagine a big furry coat and Ta Da! You have one.

Then I start to wonder. Could I make other stuff besides clothes?

What should I make?

My mind wanders through the possibilities, and after numerous attractive options, (which included a baseball bat, an HDTV, and a new iPod) my mind lands on Falba’s sword. (I mean, I don’t know much of the last two, so I have to choose something simpler right?)

I think of Falba’s sword, but I don’t think that I could even lift something as big as that. I mean, it’s huge. It’s like a giant freakin’ Meat Cleaver. Except Huge. And it had some ornate scribbly stuff on the back of the blade.

I close my eyes and again think of a vacuum of light in the shape of a sword. I think of a simple sword, nothing too fancy, but it seems to take a lot of effort. When I open my eyes, I pick up the sword. It comes out a lot more detailed than how I had thought of it.

It is about as long as my arm, from the tip of my fingers to my shoulder. The hilt is plain and long enough for both of my hands, wrapped in whitish cloth, but is slightly rough to touch. The guard is also pretty simple, but inlaid with a single milky-white stone in the center, big enough to protrude on both sides. As I hold the hilt the stone glows comfortingly. The blade is double-sided, and is made of a light grayish metallike substance. It shines brightly, despite the fact that the sun is setting on the opposite side of the tower. I swing it a couple of times, and strike a couple of dashing poses. The sword feels as light as a feather.

Awesome.

“You know, you could probably materialize objects without closing your eyes.”

I spin around. Falba leans nonchalantly against the doorway, her hands on her hips.

“How long were you here?”

“Long enough to see that you need to learn better footwork. I came up here when I found your bed empty. Nice sword, by the way. Anyways, come on. You missed the last training session, and Sarah’s pissed that you can get away with it and she can’t. Let’s go.”

I materialize a sheath for myself, at my hip, and, after several tries, to Falba’s amusement, manage to slide the sword in.

Then I try to walk suavely past her, to try and regain what little dignity I could.

The reason I say try, is that I trip at least ten times in the six feet between me and the hallway.

Falba almost collapses from laughter.

While we walk down to the Palaestra, (meaning her walking to the Palaestra and me trying to follow without falling down), she comments on this, wiping tears from her eyes.

“And that is why I wear my sheath on my back.”

I flap my wings, and she gets somewhat less smug.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. Well anyways, it looks like you’ll be doing sword training, too. Actually, maybe we should make you learn a whole bunch of weapons. The materialization could come in handy. Just make a whole bunch of throwing knives or something and throw them while hovering in the air. Although you might want to find a way to make something other than white. In every place but the Artic, it really makes you a target.”

It’s true. I had noticed this. My jeans had turned out pure white. Maybe if I…

I close my eyes and think of part of the light being absorbed into something else. According to what I remember for sixth grade science (which is turning out to be exceedingly helpful today (School being helpful? Who knew?))

Falba laughs, and I open my eyes to find that my pants are now tinged pink, and almost transparent. I concentrate again, closing my eyes, and they turn opaque. Whew!

They are, however, as I find out when I open my eyes, still slightly pinkish.

Oh well. Practice makes perfect.

“If you keep on closing your eyes, you’re gonna bump into a wall or something. Try it without closing your eyes.”

I try materializing a white orb floating in midair, this time with my eyes open. It turned out to be easier than making physical objects with weight, as the light didn’t have much mass to begin with.

“That worked well. If you were trying to make a floating rock.”

I concentrate again, and Falba stumbles suddenly. She looks at the ground, and sees the white rock I had materialized.

She raises an eyebrow.

“What? I thought this place might need a couple speed bumps.”

I am not the best person at witty excuses.

“Oh, real mature.” She stops and opens a door. I notice it’s marked with a danger sign. “Anyways, this is the Palaestra.”

Wow.

We step into what looks like a beach, complete with the waves splashing softly against the shore, and seagulls flying overhead.

Wait a second.

I had flown all around this place and I hadn’t seen any water but the lake. There was definitely not any ocean around.

Falba catches my bewilderment. “This is the Palaestra. We used some advanced technology, combined with some magic, and this is what we got. This is all a simulation. None of this is technically real. But as long as you’re here, it feels real. We actually have a bunch of different sections. This right here, when you walk in, is the Proving Ground. This is where John and I test new recruits with some simulated areas. It’s also where you exercise teamwork skills against illusions.” She walks on, walking into the waves. I follow. Surprisingly, I get wet. I do notice however, that Falba is completely dry. She notices my discomfort and taps her head.

“It’s all in your head. If you concentrate on it being real, then it’s real. If you don’t, then it’s not.”

I try it, and am surprised to find that my jeans are no longer soaked.

Eventually, we arrive at what appears to be a giant rock.

Falba walks right into it, and goes through.

I follow slowly. The rock looks really real.

I also go through, and find myself somewhere completely different. Now it looks like a Roman arena, and we’re up in the top seats, looking down at the pit.

“This is where you’ll fight each other. This is an invaluable part of the training regimen. You’ll face Lyken, or vampires, or pyrokinetics before you’re through here, and the best way to learn their capabilities and weaknesses is fighting a real one. Of course, though, it’s not entirely real. You fight through astral projections, so that neither of you actually gets hurt. Of course, you will feel pain. It wouldn’t really be a real fight without that. We’ve got the mechanism somewhere. John likes to change the scenery every few days or so, so it’s not really in the same place all the time.” She walks farther through the arena, finally arriving at an incongruously modern door. She gestures.

“After you.”

I shrug and enter. As the door fully opens, a bucket of water falls on my head.

I hear laughter. Everyone but Falba and I are already in the room, which looks like a modern gymnasium, complete with weights and a wrestling mat. The five team members sit in cleared half-circle near the door.

I take a seat next to Marcus, who seems to be the only one not laughing. He gives me a sympathetic smile.

Sarah, on the other hand (and on my other side), is laughing her head off.

Falba enters behind me chuckling.

“We do that to every new recruit. Helps to prick their big heads.”

She sobers quickly.

“Anyways, John and I have decided that today, we’ll be testing Gabriel, who by the way has learned photonic materialization. Although he has been on a mission with us, we think we should try to find out his full capabilities anyways. Plus we aren’t exactly sure how proficient he is with the materialization yet. So Gabriel will be running the placement course until about 2030. After that, we’ll have him duel with one of the members of our team. Sarah has kindly volunteered.” Beside me, Sarah grins, her eyes aglow. Well this should be really… fun. Yup. Fun is definitely the best word for it. “The rest of you, unless you want to come and watch the duel, you’re free to do whatever.”

Everybody stays.

“Well, first things first. The placement course.”

I follow Falba and John back to the first section. Everybody else tags along behind me. I can hear Josh and Suzie making bets on how long I last. So encouraging.

When we arrive at the first section, the beach has disappeared. Instead, I’m standing in a forest.

“Ok, we’re going to go to the observation deck. We’ll be running a bunch of simulations. Just try to get the red flag.” She shows me a red bandana.

She vanishes, as do the others, leaving me alone in the forest.

What the hell? Her voice comes out of nowhere.

“And we’re starting in three… two… one… Go!”

Suddenly the red flag appears not ten feet away from where I’m standing. I walk to it and pick it up.

Well that was ridiculously easy.

“That was just a test, to make sure you get the concept.”

The bandana vanishes and reappears where I had originally been standing. I start to walk to it, but suddenly, a pit opens up beneath me and I fall.

No problem. I simple twist, and I’m next to the bandana. I pick it up and it vanishes.

This time, it’s floating in the air. Twist to it, but it disappears when I get there, and reappears higher still. I repeat this exercise in futility a couple more times, before I stop twisting and just fly to it. Instead of teleporting, it floats away. I get it. Whatever I do, it does too. Hmmm. This one was more challenging. I materialize knives shooting towards it, and it gets pinned to a tree. However, knives come out of midair and shoot at me. Bad idea. Instinctively I twist, and the flag does too. I try again, but I simple dodge the returning salvo this time.

The bandana remains pinned to the tree. I fly over and grab it. It melts away, and reappears.

I do exercises like this for the next hour or so. Sometimes, the flag is guarded by creatures, and sometimes, the creature is holding it. But every time, I manage to snatch the red flag, sometimes just before I’m about to get stomped on, or burned, or speared.

By the time, it’s over, I’m exhausted. I’m drenched with sweat, and I’m panting.

Falba appears from thin air.

“You did great. But time’s up, and now you have your duel.”

Duel? I was exhausted. Right now all I wanted to do was curl up and hibernate.

However, I follow Falba to the arena. I see Joshua and the rest in the crowds. I notice Josh handing Suzie some money. He looks slightly embarrassed when he catches me looking.

Interestingly enough, Falba leads me not to the middle of the arena, but to a small room on the side. On a table in the room is an old bronze helmet. Falba gestures to it.

“Put it on. The helmet is what makes the astral projection. Basically, a fake you, controlled by the real you gets put into the arena. That means that any injuries that you sustain in the fight don’t hurt you in real life. But again, the pain is real.”

I put on the helmet, and suddenly I experience a rushing sensation.

When I recover from my disorientation, I find myself in the middle of the arena. Sarah’s already there on the other side.

Holding what looks like a cross between an axe and a spear. And she looks like she knows how to use it.

Shit.

I hear John’s disembodied voice.

“In this match, anything goes. It’s to the death, since neither of you will really die. To put this on equal terms, we gave Sarah her halberd, the weapon she used when we go to a medieval world. I forgot to mention this, but on less modern dimensions, when we’re on a mission, you need to stick with that time period. We could very well alter the course of the dimension, which is what we’re trying not to do. One time, years ago, I know someone who brought gunpowder to…”

Falba’s voice, equally disembodied cuts in.

“Anyways, let’s get on with the match. Let’s go.”

A horn blares, and Sarah jumps at me, spinning the halberd over her head.

I twist and end up behind her. I see the spike side of the halberd smash into the ground where I had been. She pulls it out of the ground, and turns to me.

I draw my sword. I don’t know how to use it, but it was better than nothing.

Wait. What was I doing? I launch myself into the air.

Sarah smiles and her eyes glow fierily.

Suddenly, a giant fiery hand comes down out of nowhere and tries to swat me out of the sky.

Yikes.

I dodge barely in time, but it follows, driving me towards the ground.

After a particularly close miss that singes a couple feathers, I decide to let it.

I land on the ground. I could probably hold my own with the sword. I used to take fencing a while back.

Besides, if things went badly, I could always teleport away.

Sarah seems to think of that, and suddenly a ceiling of flames blocks the open air of the arena. I can’t see through it, and I definitely can’t fly through it.

Sarah’s smile broadens. She knows I can’t teleport away anymore. I have no way of knowing how thick the wall of fire is. Heck, it could even blanket the entire arena! I wouldn’t put it past her.

I throw my arm out, daggers forming from midair and hurling themselves at her.

The halberd spins and the daggers fall to the ground and dissolve back into light.

How the hell was I supposed to get past that?

Sarah walks to the center of the arena and just stands there. What is she thinking? I try another salvo of knives. Same result.

Suddenly, the walls of the arena erupt in flames and start to close in towards the center, where Sarah waits.

She was trying to force me to fight her.

Shit.

As if she knows what I’m thinking, Sarah twirls the halberd theatrically, and suddenly the axe head bursts into flames.

Again, shit.

The walls continue to close in.

Oh well. I might as well get this over with.

I twist myself next to her, and lunge with my sword. She simply parries with the haft of the halberd and suddenly the axe head is swinging for the left side of my neck. She was so fast, I didn’t even think of blocking it.

Suddenly the sword is between the axe and me.

I hadn’t even thought about blocking it, but the sword had almost moved itself.

I grin, as Sarah’s smile starts to fade.

Wicked.

We stand like that for a second, the head of her flaming halberd blocked by my sword. Then we both erupt into motion, adrenalin coursing through our bodies. I spin, my right arm flung out, the sword seeking her throat, as she spins too, ducking, her haft low in attempt to trip me. I somersault over the haft (something I have no idea how I did) as my sword swings high over her head. I roll and come up on my feet turning around immediately only to dive to the side as a giant fireball flies at my face.

Two can play at that game.

I form of ball of light between my hands, and thrust. The ball of light flies out at Sarah, who bats it aside with her flaming halberd. She’s still smiling. In fact, it’s wider than ever, and no longer mean.

I find myself smiling too. Despite the fact that I was surrounded by flames and she was trying to kill me with her freaking huge axe thing, this was fun.

I twist behind her, then twist immediately back in front of her as she turns to defend. I crouch low, swinging my sword at her knees. She rolls away, but in doing so loses her halberd. I immediately get between her and her halberd. Now she’s defenseless.

Her eyes glow fiery again and twin blades of flames appear in her hands.

There goes defenseless.

I attack again, this time without teleporting, and she dodges, instead of parrying the blade as I expect, choosing to strike at me directly with both hands. I flap my wings powerfully, pulling me back. I notice that her blades flicker. Well that makes sense. If they are made of flame, then they aren’t solid. It also explains why she doesn’t parry. Our blades would just pass through each other. But if it wasn’t solid….

I materialize daggers, sending them flying through the air. She twists and dodges, but one cuts her left arm.

I start to materialize more, but she launches herself at me, her blades growing longer. I try to stand my ground, but her longer blades give her the advantage, and I can only dodge them as they are only flames. I am forced to back up, as she now has a longer reach than I.

This was going nowhere. Then an idea occurs to me.

I concentrate and my sword grows longer. It also starts to glow a blinding light.

I continue to dodge until I am almost backed up against the wall of fire. Then I parry her blade on mine.

Since her blades are made of pure heat energy, I imbue mine with light energy.

Her eyes widen, which gives me the chance to get in closer, and my sword cuts through the air towards her throat. However, she jumps back, not quite fast enough, and a line of blood appears on her throat.

I press my advantage, trying to keep her off balance. However, I am forced to retreat with a nasty burn on my leg, as she recovers more quickly than I expect.

And so that dance of fire and light and steel goes on, each of us giving and receiving wounds. I am quickly covered with burns, and she with cuts. Eventually, we pause, gasping for breath. My right leg is stiff, and it hurts very badly, but her left eye is no longer working. Her swords are shorter now.

The walls of fire and the ceiling of flame are gone now. She no longer has the strength to maintain them, and I no longer have the strength to exploit this.

She tosses a small fireball at me. I use a wing to deflect it.

I slash my sword through the air, light springing from the tip to form an arc of light cutting through the air.

She slashes her own sword, and it creates its own arc, this one of flame.

They meet, and there is a flash, then both are gone.

I gather my strength for one last assault, raising my glowing sword in front of me.

Twist.

I appear slightly above her, diving down with my sword outstretched, reaching forward for her head.

She doesn’t move, but instead sweeps her right sword across mine, bringing her left sword in for the kill.

My sword stops glowing, and goes through her flaming blade and into her heart.

She bursts into a hundred flickering motes of light.

I suddenly feel a sucking sensation, and when I reorient, I’m back in the room with the helmet.

I no longer feel the pain of the burns, and my sword is still in my sheath. I also noticed, that I’m less exhausted, although still tired out from the placement course I had gone through previously. I walk out to the open arena. Walking through one of the hallways, towards the open air, however, I bump into Sarah. She seems less sure of herself outside the arena. I extend my hand.

“Nice fighting.”

She smiles and shakes it, but lets go a little quickly.

“You, too.”

We walk out into the open air side by side.

When we exit the tunnels, we are greeted by thunderous applause.

The entire arena is filled with men and women in togas, all clapping and cheering. I don’t recognize any of them.

Near us is Josh and the others.

“Awesome duel! Best fight I’ve seen in years. I don’t often see anybody fight like that, both of you. You two are pretty evenly matched.”

Falba cuts in.

“You actually did pretty well with the swordplay. Where did you learn sword fighting? I’ve never seen some of the forms you did. But never mind. You still need some work. I noticed that Sarah, who specializes in polearms, still managed to give you a run for your money. Good job Sarah by the way. Nice control. You handled a lot more fire than you usually do.”

Sarah blushes.

I ask about the spectators. “Who are all these people?”

Josh laughs and takes a swing at a man in his fifties. It goes right through. “These are just holograms. It’s John’s way of telling you that you did well. But seriously, I can’t wait to go against you.”

Falba holds up a hand.

“I’m sure you’re exhausted. It’s already midnight. Why don’t you catch a couple hours sleep?”

I notice that Sarah is now standing slightly farther away, ignored.

I also notice Suzie giving Josh money.

I shrug, and walk to my room.

And for the first time ever, I sleep in my room at the Bureau of Paranormal Detection and Response. And for the first time in five years, I’m home.

I have more dark dreams. Different ones this time.

I’m being attacked by my team. Falba attacks with her sword, her fangs bared and her face twisted with rage. Joshua shooting electricity from his fingers at me. Suzie charging at me, her gloves off. Marcus leaping, fully lupine, his claws shredding the air, his mouth slavering. John throwing bolts of blue energy from his hands, one eye black, the other red. Sarah wrapping me in tendrils of fire, her eyes burning with hate. For some reason, this hurt me the most of all.

I woke, my cheeks stained with tears, to a knocking on my door. I quickly wipe my cheeks on my sheets.

“What?”

Falba calls through the door.

“We have an alert in our annan. Come on. We decided to bring all seven. This thing seems powerful.”

I get up, still wearing my jeans. I grab my sword and put on the sheath.

I open the door, and find Falba and Marcus waiting.

We walk through the corridors to the room we had gone to last time.

Inside is everyone else. I notice that Sarah has her halberd, while Suzie now has what looks like a shotgun strapped to her back. John starts as soon as we arrive.

“Well, we’ve finally finalized the paperwork. Gabriel, Sarah, you are now officially Bureau members. Anyways, we have a pretty big threat. It’s a Zillasorus.”

Falba whispers to me. “Zillasori are pretty new. They’re only found on this annan, so far. Godzilla was based on a Zillasorus. But they mellowed it a lot.”

They mellowed it? I swallow nervously.

John notices this.

“Don’t worry. They’re not that bad. They’ve got some weaknesses you can exploit, especially you two. He gestures to me and Sarah. Zillasori are sensitive to heat and light, which should make this much easier. They mostly like in underground caves. They’re big enough so that Suzie and Josh won’t be much use, and, since this place is medieval, there’re no computers either, so you two are on crowd control. Let’s go see what we’re dealing with.”

He starts a mystic gesture, but stops and turns to me before I feel energy gathering.

“Sorry Gabe, but I’m going to have to take you along on this teleport spell, since you don’t know where we’re going. I believe I calibrated it so that it shouldn’t have any problems, but I haven’t tested it yet.”

And before I can answer, he finishes the spell, a nexus of energy growing around him. It’s really weird. The energy shoots outward from him, enveloping the rest of us and…

I arrive there and I almost throw up. Again. This time it only feels like I go through a blender.

When I recover, I see John standing over me anxiously.

“How do you feel? Was it better or worse than last time?”

I give him a thumbs-up, trying to catch my breath.

“Ok good. This is Solunaria. Isn’t it lovely.”

I look up and I see an entire city of glass. And I mean a city. The glass towers spiral up into the air, like fingers reaching to the sky. It’s sunset.

The way the light shines through the towers, sparkling and gleaming, forming rainbows of color.

Wow.

My next thought is, “How do they go to the bathroom?”

Falba answers before I ask the question.

“They just go. They aren’t as modest as our world is.’

I glance at her, wondering how she knew my unspoken question.

She laughs.

“That was the first thought that went through my head too. Right before I got blinded as the sun reflected into my eyes from every side. You’re lucky it’s sunset now. When it becomes noon, you can’t see a thing.”

“Enough of that. Gather around here!”

John holds up a white board marked with two X’s one red and one green, with north, south, east, and west marked.

“We’re here.” He taps the green X. “This is where we think the monster is. He may have moved. If he did move, he’s probably moved toward us. If you haven’t noticed, there is no one in the city. They have most likely evacuated.” I hadn’t noticed. I had been too busy looking at the buildings. Now that I looked, though, I saw he was right.

“We should use this city as a base of operations. It should be safe at least until the sun goes down, because…”

A loud crashing noise splits the air, and I look behind me.

Set against the setting sun, I see a huge lizard thing crashing through the buildings.

It did look a lot like Godzilla. Except it had two heads.

It was headed straight for us. My wings started to glow.

Why did it keep doing that?

I grab Sarah and Marcus and twist. I figure that the rest could take care of themselves. I mean, Josh was energy, so he couldn’t really be hurt. And John could teleport the other two. Anyways, I’ve never tried it with more than two other people, and I didn’t know how many I could take.

We appear behind it, at street level. I figured that was safe.

Boy, was I wrong!

A huge piece of glass hurtled down at us. Sarah lifted her hand and flame shot from her fingers, melting the glass.

So now we have molten glass falling at us.

Joy, joy.

So this is as far as I got before writer's block made me start posting it here. And here we have our first DP. What to do? Comments, Suggestions, Critiques are all welcome.

[Adalia]

He could always make some sort of shield that can deflect the molten glass, then bring Sarah and Marcus to some place better. After that, he should go help fight the Zillasorus.

I liked the way you described the duel. It was well played out and made it easier to imagine what was going on. Good job!

Two qualms:

DMW wrote: By the time, it’s over, I’m exhausted.

There's really no need for that first comma.

And Deady wrote: Now that I looked, though, I saw he was right.

I think 'realized' would probably work better.

There are lots of places where it would flow nicer if you combined the sentences. But it works fine as it is.

That's all. :D

[Tipico]

you are picking hairs, that was great!
i agree the duel was totally awesome!

and now they have to fight godzilla!
mmmmmm lizard burgers....
yea twist out of the glass, then fly up with sarah and barbecue the lizard!

[Novelest_Ninjagirl]

Cool! This ROCKS! I cant believe it took me so long ot get around t it. Now I just have to find out a way to write somethkng similar without it soudning like I copied you. . . .*hmm* Anyway, I noticed a few grammer errors, but they certainly didn't stick out at me. I hope you keep this up. How to block it. . . hmm. . . .maybe. . .naw. . .I know! he can martiilize things right? have him bring some sort of shield up that's resistant to hot moilten glass. that's all I got, sorry,

[Tipico]

cmon! put a poll up i cant wait!

[DeadManWalking]

Since Tipico wants a poll, a poll is up.

However, since the suggestions have been pretty much unanimous, i shall have a few suggestions of my own.

[Tipico]

hmm a 4 way draw...

[DeadManWalking]

i am sorry to inform all of my readers that i shall be forced to depart soon for a sleep away summer camp that does not allow computers.

So i will not be able to update this for a while.

:-(

I'll be back in about three weeks.

[Tipico]

noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

[Guest]

I chose construct a shield, that be cool.

[DeadManWalking]

Here's the next chapter.

I forgot to take down the poll before i left, and, while the winner while i left was run around screaming, I am using the option that won at the time of the closing of the poll. Which was Building a Shield.

This is because i had no idea to make Run around screaming into a sufficiently heroic scene.

Hape y'all like it!!!!

Part VI Matrix Reference Time!!!!! (Can't think of a better name right now)


I look desperately around us for an escape, or a way out of this mess.

Nothing.

I look up at the molten glass.

No help there.

Only a few seconds left.

I throw up my hands, pouring my strength into our only chance of surviving this. A circle of light appears above me, spreading slowly outwards into the beginnings of a dome. Too slowly.

It’s like the world’s moving in slow motion. Almost exactly like last time.

I only hope it turns out as well.

The glass hits before the dome is finished.

The pain.

The force of the glass on the dome.

It’s using all my energy to keep it off us.

Not sure I can keep it up much longer. feels like I’m Atlas holding up the world.

My burden starts to lighten, but by then it’s too late.

My world goes black. I think I fell, but I don’t remember.

I wake up to Sarah calling my name. My vision is blurry, but it clears up enough to see her worried face. I also see Falba bending over me, her hands pulsing with a glowing green light.

“You okay?”

I look back at Sarah’s face.

“I’m alright.”

I start to get up, but my body aches all over.

It doesn’t help that Sarah practically tackles me in a misguided attempt at hugging me. Luckily when she sees my face she stops.

“Oh. Does that hurt?”

“GAAaaAAAAAAH!”

I can be very expressive when I want to be.

“Sorry. Falba? Can you speed things up a bit?”

“Do you want me to do a good job or not? I could accidentally grow a third arm in him or something.”

“Really?”

“I don’t know. I’m just learning this stuff. Haven’t the foggiest clue what could happen if I mess up. So don’t make me.”

Her hands pulsed an especially verdant shade of green, and the pain began to recede.

Eventually, it goes away enough so that I can get up without pain.

“Thanks Falba.”

She nods acknowledgement, then presses a hand to her ear. “Thanks for the walkthrough, John. We’ll probably head straight into the fray right now.”

Huh?

Who’s she…. Oh

As I said before, I’m a little slow on the uptake.

I forgot about the earpieces. Why are we using them now when we weren’t last time, though? I ask Falba this.
“Some of the dimensions have a kind of… magical interference. Plays havoc with electrical equipment. Means that we can only use it part of the time, at least until John and Josh work out the kinks. Oh by the way. You left this back at the base. I forgot to give it to you.”
Falba tosses me an earpiece and I put it in. Almost instantly I can hear everybody else talking.

“It’s over in the east quadrant.”

“I see it now. Thanks.”

“Near a couple tall buildings.”

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Modified Slingshot?”

“Or we could just go with a Sharpshooter double.”

“Nah the proportions are wrong.”

“People! There’s something weird about this Zilla. Have you seen it’s eyes? They’re pure black. Almost like that unidentified we saw before.”

“Well soooorry John. Not all of us can scry. Or did you forget that.”

“Nothing risky until we know what we’re dealing with.”

“Whatever you say John.”

“Holy…”

A loud yell interrupted the conversation, followed by snarls and roars.

“Who was that? Everybody, status report now!”

“The Zilla’s gone! It just disappeared.”

“Not the most important thing. Who was that?”

“I think it was Marcus. What quadrant was he in?”

I hear panting.

“It’s Marcus. The Zilla was a fake or something. I got too close and it just kinda dissolved into those blade warriors.”

“How? And blade warriors? What blade warrior… Oh shit. You mean the ones we fought in… oh god. I hate the BladeBound?”

“We can ask how and why later. Let's just get this over with first.”

That was Falba.

John spoke.

“Everyone get to where Marcus is. We don’t want a single one of the blade warriors left alive. Those things can be like a plague if we leave them alone too long. John out.”

“Gotcha. Leecher out.”

“Wolf out. Let’s not take too long getting here shall we?”

“God out.”

“Witch out.”

“Inferno out.”

Sarah poked me.

“Ummmm… Gabe out?”

“Did we not tell him his callsign?”

“I don’t think we did.”

“It’s Archangel.”

“If I’m the Archangel, who’s God?”

A chuckle.

“That would be Josh. He did most of the work, so he got to choose the names. Ignore it.”

“… You guys know your supposed to actually STOP TALKING after you say out?”

“Whatever.”

“Could you guys just get over here now? I’m kinda fighting an ARMY over here. Can I PLEASE get some help?”

I couldn’t help laughing.

Falba raised an eyebrow at me, but said nothing. She then turned to both Sarah and I and said, “Let’s go. Gabe, you can follow from the air. Just make sure not to lose us.”

“I’m fine down here.”

I didn’t want to become a target for the Zillasaurus or whatever these blade creatures were. And plus, it might be better to stick together. Safety in numbers right?

“Alright. Let’s get moving.”

Falba pulled out her sword and started sprinting.

Sarah and I follow as closely as we can.

After a couple of minutes, we come to a steep dropoff.

At the bottom of the dropoff is Marcus, in the midst of a bunch of people.

He’s almost fully lupine now, his eyes yellow and his fur a grey dark enough to be almost black. The silky black is stained however by blood, some red, some white. The white blood seems to be from his opponents. His teeth are bared in a snarl and his claws are a long and sharp, as evidenced by the bodies around him.

Falba doesn’t hesitate and jumps straight into the fray, landing on the back of one of the figures and jumping off at another, taking his head off with a single swipe of her blade.

Sarah and I are slightly more hesitant about jumping.

“A little help?”

“Sure.”

I grab her and descend at a quick rate, although much slower than Falba’s jump. She clears a landing zone, filling it with the ashes of our attackers in a short while. I land and we separate. I go right, and she goes left. She takes out a short stick, and it extends to be a double-pointed javelin. She twirls it and it erupts into flame.

I jump to the right, my sword appearing in my hand.

As I attack, I get a closer look at the figures. They’re all at least six feet tall and genderless with completely black skin. They’re not wearing clothes (which was how I know they were genderless. (I also tried kicking one in the balls as a rather desperate measure, which only confused it and me)). They all have blades extending from their wrists. And, as I soon learn, they use them well. Extremely well. The strangest thing however, is that where they’re face should be is nothing. Not a blank slate, like horror movies, but simply a dark void, a hole into nothingness, with no end.

I spin through them, slashing and stabbing at black forms, my wings shielding me from the worst of the attacks. I slash at one’s throat, and it falls to the ground. I kick another, ducking as a third and fourth swing blades at my head. I hack and slash and stab, my sword stained with the white blood of these strange attackers.

After a couple minutes, I find myself back to back with Marcus.

“Hey, Gabe. Thanks for coming. I was starting to tire.”

“You should thank Falba. I had no idea where you were. How’d she…?”

“Magical trace. She’s learning magic from John. It’s kinda useful. Part of the reason her callsign’s Witch.”

I sigh.

“Hey Marcus? Have you ever seen the Matrix?”

“Just a sec.”

He ducks under a slashing blade, grabs the arm, slams its owner into the ground, and bites his face off.

“Yeah I saw it. Josh loves it. He even made his own version.”

“You remember the scene where Morpheus has the two pills the red one and the blue one…”

My sword cuts off one of the creature’s arms.

“Yeah, and the red pill goes further down the rabbit hole and the blue pill goes back.”

“Why in hell didn’t I get a blue pill?”

Marcus laughs.

I do too, after a sec, ducking under a blade. My sword slides smoothly between its third and fourth rib.

We do a good job of slaughtering the BladeBounds, but we start to tire. There’s just too many.

I see Falba starting to become overwhelmed by the attackers. Sarah also seems to be tiring, the flames covering her weapon reduced to the ends. Marcus’s fur is almost all red and white now.

The horde of BladeBound, however, shows no sign of tiring at all.

Then John and the others arrive.

I saw Josh first, his fingers glowing with electricity, sliding around the blades of those who came in front of him and shocking them. BladeBound flew from his fingers as electricity coursed through the bodies of those around him and sent them flying.

Suzie was close behind, the gloves off, ducking beneath blades and fists and sucking the energy from their bodies. As she left behind desiccated bodies, her skin seems to glow with an unearthly beauty.

I almost get killed staring.

Then comes John.

His eyes glow with shifting colors, a kaleidoscope of rage as he flows around the blades of his enemies, slitting throats with twin knives. Even as I watch, he parries a blade with his knife, kicks its wielder in the chest then throws his other dagger into the chest of the BladeBound next to it. Every BladeBound he kills simply dissolves into dust.

Between us, we manage to finish off the rest. It takes a long time, though, and by the time we finish, we’re all exhausted. I hardly remember how we got back, but first things I did was sleep. I just kinda went up to my room and conked out.


The next morning I wake up to a bright sun. Which shines right in my face. At what feels like 6:30 in the morning. So yeah. Not very welcome.

I get dressed and head down to the atrium. Only Marcus is there. As I come in, he turns and notices me.

“Hey Gabe. Howya feelin?”

“Tired. Where’s everyone else? And how are you up already?”

“You’re not the only one who’s tired. Everybody else’s asleep. As for me, well, I heal fast.”

“I see. I have a question. Is there like a class where we learn about all the different creatures that want to kill us?”

That got a laugh.

“Actually, there is. There’s also a rather big book. But if you want to know about the BladeBounds, all you need to do is ask. They’re creatures that have been cultivated especially by the Riders for combating us. They don’t do a very good job, but they improve. We ran into a kind of old strain.”

The Riders? Who were the Riders?

“Oh right. We haven’t told you about the Riders yet. Well you know the whole legend of the Four Horsemen? Well the Riders are like that. They are the people who believe that dimensions are just ripe for the picking, and that they have the right to just… take the energy from that dimension.”

“Isn’t that kind of like what Suzie does?”

“No. Not at all. Suzie doesn’t have a choice. She has to take energy from others. The Riders… They choose to take it, and they do it on a much larger scale, without regret or pity. It’s good there are only four at any one time.”

“Which four are there now?”

“Well, we only know of three of them. The fourth one… is gone. For all we know they could still be choosing the fourth.

“The three that we know of now are Wrath, Temptation, and Hunger.”

“… Those are weird names.”

“Well that’s a translation. It’s not an exact translation. It’s more of a feeling.”

“So who are these people?”

“Well, Temptation is a purely psychic entity who’s been around for a while. It can play mind games and turn you against each other. So all in all, not a good person to be fighting. It’s the main reason the Riders manage to control the BladeBound.”

“And the other two?”

Marcus hesitated.

“Well… Wrath is…”

At this point, we are interrupted by a cow mooing.

Yes. That is correct. A cow mooing.

Marcus looks up.

“Huh. That’s the doorbell.”

That’s the doorbell?

Marcus catches the look on my face.

“Sarah has a sense of humor. Let’s go see who it is.”

Marcus leads me through one of the hallways that I hadn’t used before. After a short time, we come to a set of double doors. Marcus motions me to stand back, then presses a couple buttons on a monitor. A picture pops up.

“SHIT! Gabe, get over here. I need you.”

Marcus presses a button immediately, and the doors open slowly. He grabs my arm and throws me through.

On the other side of the doors is Nakin.

He’s hurt.

He’s missing at least one claw, and there’re slashes all along his body. Very red blood stains his clothes, as well as white blood splattered everywhere. His right claw clutches what looks like a single sword blade with two handles. He’s using it like a cane. He doesn’t look good.

“’Port him to the Infirmary. I’ll get Falba and John. Go! NOW!”

I grab Nakin and twist up to the infirmary. Before I go, I see Marcus hitting buttons on the computer, and alarms sounding.

I let go of Nakin and try to get him in a bed.

He drops the sword and falls onto a bed, staining the sheets red.

“What happened, Nakin? What did this to you?”

“BladeBound… They took the base, They were the elites. Never seen any so good before.”

He coughed up some blood.

“I think… they might even be led by one of the Riders. They wiped out my entire team. I managed to escape. I think we dented their forces. We need to attack now, before they recover.”

“We’ve gotta make them pay.”


Nakin’s team… wiped out? What are we going to do?


ok the DP seems kinda obvious. What to do now? Should they do what Nakin says, and attack now?

Or should they wait for reinforcements?

Or maybe send someone to scout out the base?

Hope you liked it.

Btw, I will be gone for the nest nine days or so. So you all will have to discuss without me.

EDIT: It turns out I will be having some internet access. YAY.

[Phantomfan]

Finally got around to reading and replying...

Great chapter, DMW!
Quote: She nods acknowledgement, then presses a hand to her ear. “Thanks for the walk through, John. We’ll probably head straight into the fray right now.”

I don't know if it was purposeful, but I loved the small reference to your other sg.
The whole chapter was very good, though. Well done.

As far as the dp goes, I would suggest sending someone out to scout the base. Seems like a more sensible idea then just going to attack, or doing nothing but waiting.