Sineritrii walked down the hall, seemingly lost in thought, his robes swishing beneath him as he shuffled down the hall. Several people turned to look at the strange man who had become Guido's advisor seemingly out of nowhere, but shook their heads or turned them away when Sineritrii lowered his black-eyed gaze at them.

Guido was only a puppet in the larger scheme - a marionette which dangled from the fingers of the one who controlled him. And those fingers were indeed Sineritrii's. Still, he despised bowing to anyone, vowing to serve them, or even making promises to them for even a short time. He hated to give any of himself, even in appearance, and thus kept a dry, aloof manner about him that betrayed no emotion. Yet, inside he was in a sea of thought. Always thought; neverending thought, always thinking two moves ahead on the chess board. This was and had always had been, his way. Yet he still felt disgusted at having to bow to this man whose greed and ambition he was all too familiar with.

^All for the greater advancement of necessity..^ he thought to himself as he made a turn in the maze of hallways, heading for his makeshift office. Necessity. How he had sacrificed for that one single precept! He yearned to be free of the subterfuge, to run to the goal, to seize the prize he wanted by brutal force.

But that could not be his way, was never his way. His sense and wisdom got the better of him. If he wanted to acheive his goal, he would have to do it in secret. If he tried to be more...direct...things would become chaotic. And chaos was not something he enjoyed much of...some of the time...

So for now, he would remain the part of the faithful servant, despite the power which he harbored within himself. After all, it was only a matter of time. It would only take two. Two...the two chosen spheres, one from each world. Each with a power unique from all others. And within his reach. His minions would find them. Even now they combed the streets of both worlds looking. Reaching the door to his office, he unconsciously took out the sphere he had showed Guido before, even as he was thinking about the spheres.

He gave a small smile to himself as he stared into the swirls of colors in the sphere. What Guido had not seen, had not detected in the short time the thing was in front of him, was quite obvious to Sineritrii - but then, he had known the nature of these since the beginning of time. It was understandable that a mortal like Guido, even one as perceptive as he, would not be able to see what was in the very heart of the sphere.

The colors swept by effortlessly in the red outline of the sphere Sineritrii held. But in the center, right where he focused his eyes, was where the activity was important. The small circle of colors there whirled in a pattern, one almost inconceivable to the human eye . And in that minute and seemingly insignificant pattern, an image was formed, and could be seen.

The image of a human face. Screaming in agony. Unable to leave, unable to die out. Forever locked within the bounds of mortal space and unable to be sent to the other plane where it belonged. The face became distorted in the whirls, then became substantial, then distorted again, futilely attempting to free itself from its prison.

Sineritrii smiled, his eyes going red. It would only take two.

Two human souls.

*****

Laura picked her way through the rubble of yet another ruined building, the others following along behind her and Walski. She still couldn't get used to how the city seemed to be a ruin in only a few hours. Over there, was the park she used to take a walk in when she wanted to think. And there, the place where all the anime and manga was sold. Even the restaurant, which they had passed a while back and from where they had bought all that food for the club had been reduced to nothing but a pile of rock. It unnerved her, though her face betrayed no emotion.

"How many more blocks do you think it is to the Sebec building?" asked Walski, helping Laura over the uneven pile of rock.

"I'm not sure," said Laura. "But when we get there, I'm gonna get that bastard for what he did to Caroline and the others."

"Whoa now, girl," said Walski. "We'll get there. Don't be so headstrong."

"I'm not being headstrong," said Laura a little loftily.

"That's good," said Walski, struggling to get over a pile of overturned cars which blocked the road of the main street.

"I'm just gonna be the first to pound the guy's face in the ground," said Laura, slapping her fist into her hand.

Walski almost lost his grip on the top (or rather, the bottom) of the car as he heard Laura's words. He sighed. "Well...we just have to be patient. Our opponent is most heinous and would stop at nothing to relieve us of our precious, yet sometimes taken-for-naught, lives." He grunted as he hefted himself over. "Truly we must be patient, for it is the patient who are loved better than the rash and impetuous."

Laura blinked, yet again wondering if Walski had any idea what he seemed to slip into sometimes.It was certainly obvious - he seemed to fall into a sort of manner at times in his speech. Almost..poetic, in a way. *Could he be becoming more like Kunou?* Laura thought as she looked at Walski, who was attempting to look past the streets from the top of the car pile up. *If so, how I am _I_ becoming more like Ranma?* she thought as she looked at her own hands.

Laura was snapped out of her train of thought as Bradster, who had caught up to her, and touched her on the shoulder. Laura glanced briefly at Bradster's bandaged arm, proof that the battles coming from the school to here with the demons had been touch-and-go. Luckily, with the power they possessed they had been able to defeat the little demons, but a chance scratch from one of them during the last skirmish had caught Bradster bad on the shoulder, causing them to stop to find suitable first aid. It was good for them that they had found a kit intact next to a fire truck which had been turned on its side, and they had patched him up with it. Now Lori held it, just in case. At least the one thing they had gained from it was that the incessant chittering from the demons had stopped - at least, close to their area. *They knew not to mess with us, I guess...* she thought.

"Hey, you ok?" said Bradster, squinting slightly at her.

"I'm all right," said Laura. "How's the arm?"

Bradster shifted his narrowed gaze to the bandage. "It's fine," he said, talking as if it was an inconvenience rather than a bad wound. "It still stings a little. The lacerations probably won't heal for awhile." He squinted back at her.

"Yeah," said Laura, puzzled by the peculiar way Bradster was looking at her.

Rex and Lori caught up with them. "Do you see anything from up there?" said Rex, cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting to Walski.

"Yeah," Walski shouted back. "It's bad news. There's a wall of fire along the middle part of that street, and it looks like it stretches for several blocks to either side. The Sebec Building's beyond that street, and we have to pass it in order to get there." He jumped down from the tall pile, easily landing on his feet in front of the others like a cat.

"Hmph. What a bother," said Bradster in a detached tone. "Does this mean we have to find another way?"

Rex shrugged. "Well, don't ask me. I'm not sure I know this part of town this well."

"Walski?"

"You got me," he replied. "We're going to have to find a better way, though, if we want to-" Walski's voice was cut off as a high-pitched scream sounded from the street one block over.

The group immediately looked around, looking for the source of the noise.

"Over there," Lori said softly, pointing down a side street.

"Let's go, then!" said Walski, as always, the first to charge into a battle. He was off and running before the others heard Lori finish.

*Damn...another innocent in trouble* thought Laura as she sped down the narrow street. *Guido...you're gonna pay when I get to ya...*

They arrived on the street where the scream had come from, just as another cut through the silence.

"There." said Lori, pointing to the right.

A bus stood in the middle of the street, illuminated slightly by the streetlight whose brightness blinked in and out of existence. On one side of the bus, a girl backed away from three of the small demons they had fought earlier in the school. The demons had their backs to the group, but they all knew from the acid that dropped from their claws in their wake that they were ready to tear the girl in front of them apart, or worse. The girl angrily swung a piece of board she had picked up from one of the buildings at the demons, but to no avail. The demons advanced slowly, even as the girl tripped on a piece of rubble and tumbled over backwards, her weapon spinning out of her reach. She covered her face with her arms and prepared to let out another scream.

And then Walski was there. Bokken flashing into his hands, the blue light around him lighting up the street for blocks, he gave the nearest demon a vicious side slash which decapitated the creature in a single stroke. The second creature did not last much longer than its counterpart as Walski's Twin Blue Thunder Slash carved an X into the creature, maiming it.

The third creature turned, hissed, and lunged at Walski from behind, but was sliced clean in the gut by Rex's umbrella, which returned, spinning, to its master. Rex watched the last of the demons die as the image of Ryouga once again hovered above him.

Walski gave a thankful look to Rex, then helped the girl up as the rest caught up with him. "Are you ok?" he asked, concerned.

"Yes," the girl answered. "Thank you." She was a girl of medium height, with short black hair which framed her face and black eyes. She wore what appeared to be a soccer jacket, which was torn in several places. Her eyes glistened with tears borne of fear and terror as she looked around at the group with gratitude. "I don't understand.." she said, becoming more fearful. "what's happening here? My friends...they...I just can't handle this..I can't..!" She looked to be on the verge of hysterics.

"Ok, calm down. It's ok. What's your name? What happened here..?" asked Laura, calmly and reassuringly.

"My name is Renee," the girl said, her voice trembling. "I'm a member of the soccer team at my high school...I...we...that is, the whole team, was returning from a game out of town. Then there was that terrible storm, and the lightning. We had to stop to take shelter in the cafe...some of uis stayed on the bus and some of us went inside. Next thing I know....it's chaos...all these people, running, screaming....the storm getting worse and worse...buildings getting hit by the lightning...I was in the bus, and I saw the cafe get hit by a stray bolt...."she closed her eyes, the tears falling down her face. "It..collapsed...and the coach, and half my friends, the driver...were all in there...oh God..." She buried her face in her hands.

Lori knelt down, put a comforting arm around Renee, and tried to reassure her with soft words. Renee nodded in response and continued. "Well," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself, "that was the last thing I saw, because the next thing I know, I hear some kind of boom, and something heavy fell on me. When I came to....I saw..." she shook her head, unable to continue.

"Saw...?" said Bradster, squinting at her. Renee shook her head again, and wordlessly pointed to the bus, with the doors still open. Walski stood up, climbed the stairs to the bus, and looked inside. His eyes went wide with disbelief, and were still so as he came back down the steps. "My God.." he said, "what _happened_ to them...?"

Laura blinked. Walski was not easily shaken. "What's up there..?"

"Go and look," he said, shaking his head. "I don't know what to make of it.."

Laura ascended the steps and looked in the bus. With one look she closed her eyes in disgust at the sight.

The bus was full of corpses.

Laura hesitantly opened her eyes again to examine the scene.

They all seemed frozen in positions of fear and terror - some with their throats ripped out, others with wounds in the sides, and yet others with none at all - but all were dead. The strange thing about all the corpses was that all were horribly emaciated and thin, the skin on their faces stretched across like rubber, their fatal wounds having no blood flowing from the openings, and no stench from the dead flesh - even that was gone. What's worse, it looked like all of them had aged in seconds, the way their skin was wrinkled, although they were clearly Renee's age, seeing as some wore the same soccer jacket she did.

*What happened here?* she thought as she looked on final time before going to descend the bus steps. *This..just adds insult to injury...* She shook her head to clear her mind of the disturbing image, steeling her mind to it with thoughts of defeating the man responsible for the death, the chaos, and the destruction.

It was a grim Laura who descended the steps. Renee looked a lot calmer now, and was explaining what was on the bus to the others, some reacting differently than the rest. Bradster merely narrowed his eyes while Lori clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from emptying her stomach. Rex just shook his head and closed his eyes.

"Well? What do we do from here?" said Bradster, his voice grim. "We still need to get to the Sebec building.."

"And there's no way through the streets since that firewall is in place. It goes for way too long.." Rex pointed out.

"There's a subway," Renee said, her voice more calm now in the company of others. "We passed it on the way to the cafe. It's one block up and it leads underground to the other side of the city. It's the only chance to get there if you want avoid that fire."

"We have no other choice," said Laura, nodding. "Let's go. You'd better stick with us in the meantime, Renee," she said to the girl, "for safety's sake." Renee nodded, and they all set off towards the underground subway system.

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