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Text File | 1994-10-28 | 58KB | 924 lines

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Subject: STORY: Darkworld Ch 2 (Rifts,etc)
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Date: 27 Oct 1994 14:05:34 -0400
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Warning: The following story contains gratuitous combat.
Send all comments to: [e-mail]

                         TALES FROM THE DARKWORLD
                             By Tony Figueroa
                          Chapter 2: Arena Death
                           Copyright 1990

    As Jake entered from the side of the arena, he didn't notice the large
crowd sitting in the stands behind the transparent armor barriers.  Today,
Jake's challenger was a foul looking brute of the title Frank Head
Splitter.  MR. H.S. was bald, 7 ft tall, muscled, and had never brushed his
teeth in his life.  The commencement klaxon let out an ear-splitting
emmision.
    Frank charged from the northern entrance he had appeared through.  He
clutched a solid steel sledgehammer in his hands.  Jake tensed his arms
that held a metal stave in each hand.  Frank began a right hook with his
hammer and Jake smashed his left stave into it which made a muffled
clanking sound heard only by nobody.  Jake thrusted his right arm upward
which brought his right stave straight up into Frank's chin.  The head
containing the bleeding chin whipped backward violently causing its owner's
body to stagger away from Jake.  Jake pointed both staves at his prey's
chest and rammed them both into it.  Frank fell on his butt and tightened
his grip on the hammer.  Jake advanced with both staves held in position to
be thrust downward.  Frank rose and brought the sledgehammer over his head
and back down again in the direcion of Jake's forehead.  Frank's target
ducked and jabbed both staves into his attacker's kneecaps causing the
sound of shattering bone and grinding flesh to be heard by both gladiators.
The hammer of the screaming contender landed behind Jake as he pulled his
staves out of Frank's knees that now had been entered and exited by the two
metal poles forged from taelon, the most durable metal on the USD periodic
chart.  Jake dropped his left blood covered stave and gripped the remaining
one in both hands in vertical position.  The hysterical Frank made one last
attempt to rise as he saw the metal rod rocketing towards his head.  The
taelon staff entered his mouth and bent his teeth backward as it exited the
back of his head and plunged into the dirt.
    That night as Jake was flipping channels on the commvision, he paused
to watch the newsman on Channel 77 report on local sports.  "Convicted
felon, Frank 'Head Splitter' Fultir, completed his death by arena sentence
for the 23 children he maimed and murdered in the New Denver complex."
Jake did not smile at the report.  There was nothing to smile about.  He
had friends in the law enforcement career who lived there and shared his
feelings about the tragic killings.

                                  -----

    Jake was part of the 51st Tactical Defense Squadron.  His home was a
spacious 18' by 20' room in the 51st's personal personnel bunker.  The
average roster of the 51st had 40 names on it which is the reason the
51st's PPB was quite a large complex.  It also held their equipment and
vehicle hanger and housed an average of one to three dragons who spent most
of the day metamorphisized into other forms such as human, however, dragons
prefer to sleep in dragon form which requires large rooms with retractable
ceilings.
    Jake stashed the day's arena winnings in his MEP wallet and went to
sleep being quite tired.  He took his Matter-Energy Pocket for granted.
Such an attitude would boggle most living beings.  They, the MEPs, were a
major expense, and the mere possession of one was a powerful status symbol.
It converted the argor money to energy and stored it in its energy clip
more often called an E-clip.  When needed, it would convert it back to
argor.  In the process's early developmental days, many feared such
technology would render a currency system useless.  However, not even in
the Jackhammer's time did the USD possess the capability to produce new
matter.  Only the same matter could be rematerialized.
    Jake was awoken at 8 AM by his commvision.  The word MISSION flashed on
the screen as the USD anthem played loudly.  He reached onto his nightstand
and grabbed the remote control.  He put the CV on mute and clicked a
response telling the CV to get on with it.  The screen displayed, "Mission
Assignment: One Week of Earth Patrol.  Your entrance point will be 80 miles
from Chi-Town, Illinois.  Be at the equipment hanger at noon."
    Jake was relieved.  His mission could have been worse.  For example, he
could still be on vacation and be bored out of his mind with nothing to do
but fight condemned criminals with slow reflexes.  For you see, Jake
happened to be a renowned warrior monk of Tir, a Tirock.  All of the 51st
and other TDS's were comprised exclusively of such unique individuals as
dragons, mages, and others who were simply unique.  Jake's power lay in his
speed.  He could deliver punches faster than the eye could see, hurl them
with deadly accuracy, and could use any weapon with the same devastating
rate and aim.  In short, he was the fastest man in the 51st or at least
with his attacks.
    He was quite interested by the fact that he was to be serving with
Razner, an Astral Saint.  Long ago, beings from the astral plane had come
into the world and assumed worldly forms.  Here they stayed for generations
until they nearly completely became the creatures they resembled, but some
still retained a link to the originator of their species.  This link
empowered them with cosmic magic abilities which they had to discover for
themselves, and often the Saints didn't exactly know their linked astral
being's identity.  Luckily, these powers never made a Saint their patron if
the Saint was good and the power was evil.  Saints had played important
roles in Arcanar's history.  In fact, it had been the Demon Saint Lord
Baalek who caused The Shifting.  The USD prayed that Baalek was dead, but
with an Astral Saint, death is never certain.  Razner happened to be the
Rose Saint.  His astral-cosmo blast attack was the "Thorn Slash Fist" which
ripped foes limb from limb, and he carried the Rose Mace both of which Jake
had heard of and was impressed by.  Saints were encouraged to name every
aspect of themselves, and thus they nearly always knew more than one
language.  Battlecries were more than common, they were necessary.
    In a good mood, Jake gathered his favorite weapons and prepared for
war.  First on his list was to get out of his slept-in street clothes and
into uniform along with some battle armor.  As usual, Jake chose his
customized hardsuit which was basically powered enviromental body armor.
It doubled his strength, was capable of running 75 MPH, and made him even
faster with his fists.  This he kept with him in his barracks room.  It was
something he owned personally and not merely issued equipment.
    Now for some weapons, thought the Tirock.  Jake lifted both of his
Culloch Warswords onto his back.  His Warswords were quite impressive and
enough to frighten most enemies.  Both were four foot two-handers.  They
were better than razor sharp, capable of slicing taelon like butter.
Luckily, the vibroscabbards created a protecting force field to hold their
blades.  He then reached for his main weapon, a custom grav shotgun from
Legacy Weapons.  It was adjustable from pump to auto, used bolts of gravity
for shells, and could fire all of its 50 shots in about two seconds not
considering the aura of speed Jake generated as a fighting Tir monk trained
in the Arck Mountains since the age of fifteen.  He also slid his E-clip
case into place on his left hip.  The warrior then had twelve reloads for
Hammer, his shotgun.
    Jake checked his HUD (Head Up Display) and made sure he had a week's
rations in his chestplate compartment.  He left for the equipment hanger,
satisfied with his condition.
    Razner and General Cochise were already there.  The General was known
to be 43 years old, 6.5 feet tall, and weighed 200 pounds.  His weight came
from eating large numbers of Twinkie-Wiener sandwiches, a gourmet pastry
composed of twinkies and sausage.  They were quite popular among
high-ranking officials.
    Razner was considerably younger than the General.  He was only 21, six
feet tall, and weighed 160 pounds.  He wore his red Cloth and was only
equipped with his Rose Mace.  His Cloth was the physical manifestation of
his astral-cosmo powers and a suit of armor which channeled power.  It was
definitely not of technological design.  No face plate was present,  the
helmet being more like headgear while the rest of the Cloth consisted of
chest plates, gauntlets, armored forearms, shin guards, and boots. Razner's
USD uniform was visible in areas his Cloth didn't cover, and his Rose Mace
was attached to his left forearm, the rosebud striking end towards his
elbow.
    "Your mission is the same routine," Cochise spoke the headhunter oath.
"Here is your beeper.  Fight the good fight, gentlemen."
    "Die with the enemy's heart in your hand, Sir!" Jake and Razner
replied.  The general had always been known for his reporting of the Terran
mercenary credo.  This was a widely known thing amongst those in the
military for he'd been ordered to stop its use many times, and this was
even known in the civilian population.  To be that well known was a rare
thing.  His very presence filled one of the soldiers with pride.  The Rose
Saint was disgusted by the mercenary credo.  He couldn't help but feel he
was being sent out as a killing machine, but he'd joined the military for a
chance to help make the world a better place.  Now, he was being sent to a
world he'd never been to before.
    Jake and Razner stood before Cochise and prepared for a shift.  The
General closed his eyes and began to murmur in a low voice.  Jake secured
the beeper to his hardsuit since the beeper was what produced the signal
that said they were in the right place to be brought back.   Between the
General's outstreached arms, blue lightning raced back and forth.  The
General's eyes opened and produced a blinding red light.  Jake and Razner's
world went black.
    Without warning, sight came back to them.  Disorientated, Razner lost
his balance and fell on his rump.  Having done this more than a few times,
Jake maintained his balance.  Jake saw a mountain on the horizon in the
southwest.  As Razner rose to his feet, he saw it as well.  The mountain
happened to be the forty-level city of Chi-Town, the seat of the
Coalition's government and rose a thousand feet into the sky.  They noticed
their precarious position as they examined their enviroment.  The pair were
on the roof of a devastated skyscraper.  Jake knew that was extremely bad
since the small mountain 80 miles to the southwest meant they were in the
ruins of Chicago.
    Chicago was known for being a deadly place to be.  The entire area was
flowing with magic energy which was an invitation for supernatural
creatures and assorted monstrosities.  Second, it was heavily patroled by
the Coalition who considered it an off-limits zone.  Unknown to Jake and
Razner, one of these patrols had them in sight.  The duo of SAMAS power
armor had noticed a flash of light from atop the building and moved in to
destroy the source of the disturbance.  The SAMAS was an aeriel vehicle.
Its dark blue color added to the grim visage that the suit's Death's Head
helmet created.  It resembled a suit of bulky body armor and was eight feet
tall.  A pair of large jet engines were mounted side by side on the back,
and wings were placed at the shoulders and knees.  The wings were swung
down against the upper arms and lower legs of the two walking SAMAS
advancing on the two USD soldiers.  The pair held their railguns with both
hands and moved within fifty feet of the skyscraper's south side.  They
stood in the rubble that surrounded the building for a hundred feet and
took aim at the structure's summit.
    "We'd better get down from here before it collapses," Razner said as he
rose a foot into the air.
    "Let's do it," Jake said as he walked to the side, still facing
Chi-Town.
    Jake walked off the edge, and his hardsuit fell like rock.  Jake tensed
up as he determined the skyscraper to be around 23 stories tall.  Razner
simply floated to the edge and proceded to float downwards at a leisurely
rate.  Jake's feet dug 4 inches into the pavement, and he fell backwards
slamming the hardsuit helmet into the concrete wall of the skyscraper
behind him.  His curses were silenced by the armor.  Rose Razner grimaced
and wondered what sort of maniac he was working with.
    The SAMAS opened fire on the roof of the skyscraper sending fragments
flying into the air.  After they got off their first shots, they noticed
the hardsuit slam into the ground.  They fired simultaneously at their new
target.  One of their shots hit the suit dead center in the chest knocking
it on its back, and the other shot missed to the right, causing the sound
of shattering concrete to be heard in the distance.  The suit pulled a
shotgun out from underneath itself as both SAMAS hit the suit with their
second shots sliding it backwards on its rear.
    On his back, Jake aimed for the left SAMAS and held the Hammer's
trigger down.  The fifty gravitational pulses slammed into the SAMAS
detonating it into a mini-mushroom cloud and sending the remaining SAMAS
ten feet to the right.
    Razner, seventy feet above the exploding SAMAS, sped towards the enemy
laying on its side and screamed, "Thorn Slash Fist!" A vortex of red and
black energy flew from Razner's outstreched arms and slammed into the
SAMAS's head as it tried to get back on its feet.  The off-balance SAMAS
attempted to aim its railgun at Jake who was now standing.
    With Hammer reloaded, Jake aimed at the the head of his prey and fired
off a burst of 25 pulses.  The helmet bent inward and ripped off the
shoulders of the SAMAS.  A spray of red mist was in the air as the headless
SAMAS fell backward.
    Razner floated down to the decapitated power armor.  He removed the
railgun from its hands and aimed it like a rifle at the skyscraper.  He
fired a off a burst at the building's roof and missed.  The recoil had no
effect on the astral warrior.  "Too heavy anyway," he muttered and dropped
it on the ground.
    Jake slid Hammer onto his back and examined his damage.  Three
shattered craters were in his chest's armor.
    "You O.K.?" Razner asked as he walked within twenty feet of Jake.
    "My ears are ringing, but it'll take more than three hits to beat me,"
Jake replied happily. "Let's get outta here before someone else finds us."
    "Good idea."
    Razner rose off the ground and headed south into the city ruins at 30
MPH.  With his hardsuit's legs moving at a comparable speed, Jake joined
the airborne Rose Saint.
    Two blocks down, Jake ducked into the remains of a former pawnshop.
Razner lowered himself down next to the hardsuit.
    "Whatcha stoppin' for?"
    "Repairs."
    Jake opened a panel on the inside of his left forearm with his right
hand.  He entered a short code into the keypad causing a panel in his chest
to slide away.  A small palm-size staplegun-like unit emerged from the
opening.  Jake took hold of the device in his right hand and pressed it to
his chest armor.  The hardsuit was engulfed in a bright light.  The light
vanished in the span of a second.  The three craters had all but been
filled with an armor resin that was rapidly cooling.  Three small dents
were all that remained.
    "Bet you're glad ya brought that along."
    "You're right, but it wasn't me.  The armor restorer comes standard
with this model.  It's not as good as new, but it'll hold."
    "Have any other surprises?"
    "Only this," Jake said as he extended a laser sword from his right
forearm.  After letting the blade retract, Jake replaced the armor
restorer. "This is my other hidden ace."
    "It ever come in useful?"
    "No.  Anyway, I prefer my Warswords."
    "Whadda ya say we get outta here before dark?"
    "Good idea, but there's no rush.  It's only noon."
    "True, but the sooner the better."
    "I agree."
    The two warriors took to the streets at 25 MPH and headed south.
    Approximately a minute later, the sound of jets became loudly audible.
Jake commanded, "In here!" Razner ducked with Jake into the remains of an
apartment building without hesitation.
    The jet roar increased and decreased as the air units passed overhead.
Razner asked, "Who is it?"
    Having consulted his hardsuit sensor readings, Jake knew who they were,
what they were, and how fast they were going.  "Four Coalition Sky Cycles
probably looking for us.  I think it's safe to assume that those SAMAS
reported back to their superiors before or during their battle with us.
Don't you?"
    "I thought they probably did."
    The building they were in was not as in bad a condition as most of
Chicago's buildings.  At least half of it was still standing and it had
retained its original shape by still possessing most of its walls. The
stairs and elevators were rubble.  Their was no color.  It was dark, empty,
and dusty with small and large pieces of rubble littering the floor.  A
large granite statue stood in the lobby.  The two warriors noticed that the
eight foot statue didn't look very artistic. It had a basically humanoid
shape, but no face other than two onyx eyes.
    "How about some souveniers, Jake?"
    "Like what?"
    "We shouldn't have much trouble getting a good price for those onyx
eyes back in Relo."
    "We're soldiers, not thieves."
    The stone monolith took a step forward.  Jake twisted his face into a
humorless joking expression and pointed at his partner. "He did it!"
    "Who, me?"
    The giant stomped its way forwards at a quick pace.
    "Thorn Slash Fist!", Razner screamed, thrusting his arms forward.
    "Big old shotgun!", Jake laughed as he pulled his shotgun.
    A vortex of red and black energy flew from Razner and impaled itself
into the golem's chest.  The golem jerked to the right but continued its
advance as Razner's blast dissapated leaving rose thorns imbedded in the
thing's stone chest.
    "Let's get outta here!" Jake yelled to his comrade as he pumped five
blasts from his shotgun currently in pump mode rather than auto.  Jake
retreated back into the streets, and Razner floated back with him.  The
golem's left arm hit the floor as Jake and Razner reached the street.
    They headed south as they left the golem in a cloud of dust.  The four
Sky Cycles overhead watched as a suit of power armor, a flying guy in red
body armor, and a one armed golem took to the streets.  The Coalition craft
increased their speed to catch the two men.  The Sky Cycles resembled a mix
between a motorcycle and a jet fighter.  They were ridden just like a
motorbike but were ten feet tall, four feet wide, and nine feet long.  The
lower section of the Sky Cycles held a missile launcher on each side, and a
double-barrel laser turret was mounted just under the Death's Head motif
which was the section the pilots were leaning into holding onto their
handlebars.  Each Sky Cycle's three jets shot flame out the back as they
maintained their 200 foot altitude.
    The Sky Cycle on the left launched five missiles as he passed the
golem.  The golem was incinerated by the plasma mini-missiles.  The Sky
Cycles lowered their altitude from 200 feet to 70 feet.  Jake's hardsuit
stopped and turned around aiming the Hammer at them.  Simultaneously,
Razner twisted around tripling his altitude to 30 feet.
    Jake aimed Hammer at the Sky Cycles on his right and decided to leave
the bogies on his left to Razner who was to his left.  He used his HUD in
helping him acquire a lock on the Sky Cycle which was coming at him from
500 feet at 80 MPH.  Jake held down his trigger and   blasted his foe with
20 pulses as laser bolts flew around him and melted into his hardsuit.  The
Sky Cycle lurched to Jake's right as its laser turret imploded, and its
missile launchers lauched five mini-missiles at him.  Jake leaped to the
right as the foot-long plamsa missiles hit where he had been standing.  The
30 foot explosion blew him ten feet up the concrete side of a building.
    While that happened, Razner looked at the two Sky Cycles attacking
him, pointed himself at the left Sky Cycle's pilot behind the Death's Head
forehead windshield, and screamed, "Thorn Slash Fist!" channeling his
energy into a red and black stream of death.  The two Sky Cycles shot forth
laser bolts that dug pits in his Cloth, but he held his position as the
astral energies flowed from him.  Razner's astral attack broke through the
pilot's windshield shattering it into a hundred transparent shards.  The
pilot in his black enviromental body armor with the Death's Head motif
helmet flew backward leaving his Sky Cycle to rocket forward in a wild
spin.  Razner grabbed the Rose Mace from his left forearm in his right hand
and twisted around catching the pilot of the other Sky Cycle in the back of
the neck as he passed causing a deep dent in his armor.  The pilot slipped
off his craft and fell to the ground in a daze.  Meanwhile, the runaway
crafts slammed into the ground and exploded into a fifty foot mushroom
cloud a hundred feet past him.
    Jake slammed into the ground leaving his imprint ten feet up the
building he had encountered in his flight.  The two Sky Cycles sped
overhead, shot straight up a hundred feet down the road skimming a
skyscraper, twisted around, and headed back at Jake and Razner.  The pilot
with the shredded laser cannon fired five of his remaining ten
mini-missiles at Jake.  The pilot laughed with joy at the thought of Jake's
fiery demise.  Jake realized his shotgun was nowhere in sight.
    He saw the oncoming plasma warheads and used the one-shot jump jets in
his hardsuit's lower legs.  The hardsuit leaped eighty feet straight up. As
he shot up, he grabbed the two sword hilts on his back and drew both
two-handed Warswords.  The Sky Cycle pilot ground his teeth and propelled
his craft towards Jake with the intent of splattering him on the Death's
Head motif, but the hardsuit crashed and slid against the Sky Cycle's
Death's Head.  The force of the collision turned Jake into a spear.
Screaming, he drove both swords into the Coalition pilot's chest and out
the back of the Dead Boy body armor.  The Sky Cycle went into a dive being
driven downward by its pilot's and Jake's weight on its instrument panel.
Jake ground his feet into the Sky Cycle's control panel and leaped forward
bringing the pilot with him who was impaled on his swords.  Jake hit the
Sky Cycle's tail fin so fast he didn't see it.  The unconcious man in the
hardsuit and the dead soldier in the Dead Boy body armor dived off the rear
of the Sky Cycle and plummetted to the ground.  The Sky Cycle slammed into
the remains of half a building at the end of the street.
    Jake was in pain.  He was laying on his back, and there was a Dead Boy
laying to his left with two Warswords driven halfway through his chest.
Suddenly, he remembered where he was.
    "Jake!" Razner was kneeling to his right and shaking him.
    "Let me rest a minute!" Jake closed his eyes and concentrated.  He felt
increasingly better as the bruises on his body dissapeared, and his
headache vanished. "OK, we can go now." Feeling good as new, Jake sat up
and rose to his feet. "Where's my shotgun?"
    "I don't know.  Maybe it got vaporized."
    "There it is!" Jake ran over to the ruins that he had been thrown into
by the plasma blast.  His grav blaster lay in the rubble at the base of the
building.  Lifting the gun, he opened his hip pack and removed the E-clip
from the weapon.  As he slid the drained E-clip into the case, he pulled
out a fresh one and clicked it into the underside of Hammer.
    Razner walked over to the impaled Dead Boy, put his foot onto his
chest, and said, "Rest in peace."  He grabbed the two swords and pulled
them out causing a metal against metal screech.  The sword ends were
covered with blood and dirt which made him have to fight back a his
queasiness in his stomach. "You might want to clean your swords, Jake!"
    Jake walked over to Razner and slid his Warswords into place along
with Hammer.  He surveyed the smoking and burning street.  "Are those other
Dead Boys dead too?"
    "Yeah, the the fall killed 'em."
    "Good riddance, let's be on our way."
    Razner's temper flared at his partner's merciless attitude.  "How can
you say that!  You didn't know them!  They were just acting on Emperor
Prosek's propaganda!"
    "Oh yeah?  Maybe they joined the military because they liked to kill!"
    "Forget it!"
    "Sounds good to me."  Jake once again brought forth his armor restorer
and regenerated his smoking and cracked hardsuit.  Rapidly-cooling molten
resin hardened onto the now patchwork taelon armor.
    Jake and Razner continued their southward journey.  They carefully
raced through the devastated city at 30 MPH.  Their view was blocked by the
surrounding remains of buildings one moment, and then there was nothing
standing for a hundred yards but rubble and a shattered a wall here and
there.
    "Where are we going, Jake?"
    "There's this town south of here.  It's called Kyrel.  I was there a
couple of years ago, and it was a nice haven for magic-users and psychics."
    "In that case, there's a good chance the Coalition has wiped it out by
now."
    "I know, but do you have a better suggestion?"
    "No."
    "Good, then it's settled.  It's only around 10 miles south of here.  We
should be there in under half an hour."

                                  -----

    Shortly after, Jake and Razner reached the southern end of the city.
The city simply melded with the forest.  A large elm rose up next to the
ruins of a skyscraper.  The pavement, now almost non-existant, allowed the
streets to turn into a field of grass.  Jake slowed to a walk, and Razner
slowed his flying to an equal pace.  Jake didn't know what to think of his
comrade, practically napping, floating along beside him as if a force not
his own was carrying him along.  They were now in the forested section of
the street.
    Jake turned the decibel level of his external speakers to ninety. "LOOK
OUT!"
    Razner dropped to his feet ready for combat.  Jake was standing there,
smiling inside his armor.
    "What's your problem, Jake!  Trying to alert the entire Coalition?"
    "Let's not slow down."
    "You slowed down first!"
    "Yeah, but it looks safe to speed up now."
    "Baka," Razner muttered.
    "What?", Jake asked.  It was probably best that he didn't know he'd
been insulted in Japanese.
    "Nothing," the Rose Saint said, but the monk didn't believe him.
    Jake and Razner increased their speed to 30 MPH.  The trees zipped by
as they sped through the forest.  Razner lashed the Rose Mace back and
forth in front of him bringing down even the largest tree to get in his
way.  He cut down a four foot thick oak without slowing.  Jake used similar
methods with his laser sword.
    "I thought you said that thing was useless, Jake!"
    "Why don't you try dodging some trees, 'Mr. trying to alert the entire
Coalition' !"
    A loud crack was then heard that registered on the hardsuit's sensors
and hurt Razner's ears.  An explosion erupted to their left.
    "We have a Spider-Skull in pursuit, Razner!"
    The Coalition machine scuttled through the forest at 80 MPH paying no
attention to the trees in its way as it ran them down.  The 28 foot
juggernaut was a huge Death's Head supported on six mechanical spider legs.
Its two rail guns were mounted at where the ears should have been and were
like monstrous howitzers.  A double-barrel laser cannon was placed under
its chin and in the back of its head.  The weapon under its chin was
spraying forth ruby beams that sliced down the forest in order to locate
the USD soldiers.
    "Razner, fly above the trees and get its attention!"
    "You owe me a weeks pay!", Razner yelled as he complied.
    Razner rose above the tree line and the Spider-Skull Walker halted.  It
tilted its skull upward to bring its rail guns into firing  position.  The
two cannons hammered away mercilessly as Razner dodged the rail gun rounds
trying to pay more attention on focusing an astral attack.
    On the ground a hundred yards before the Spider-Skull, Jake pulled out
Hammer and let loose a fifty pulse blast.  The machine's blood red
searchlight eyes shattered as Jake reloaded.  Angered pilots in the death
machine opened fire with its chin laser and continued firing the big guns
on Razner.  Gritting his teeth and praying, Jake held down the trigger for
a second and a half, emptying a second clip into the Spider-Skull.  Lasers
pulsed around Jake too close for comfort.  The war machine's face was now a
cratered mess with fire burning here and there, but it continued attacking
undaunted.  Four laser pulses melted into Jake's hardsuit as he reloaded,
and a fiery aura was now glowing around Razner as he dodged the rail guns
with his eyes closed.  The warrior monk unleashed another fifty grav pulses
into the Spider-Skull.  Before the rail gun volleys had even passed him,
Razner stopped in midair and screamed "Thorn Slash Fist!"  The grav blast
ripped off the right side of the skull's face sending a chunk of armor and
a rail gun flying.  The red and black astral attack collided with the
skull's forehead, burrowing a hole into it and blowing out the back of its
head.  The Spider-Skull Walker brought the skull face-first into the ground
like a hammer.  The legs, connected at the base of the neck, held their
position.

                                  -----

    Jake moved forward to inspect the damage as Razner floated down next to
him. Jake turned to Razner.  "Do you think the Coalition will notice?"
    "I think they already have.  This whole area is gonna be crawlin' with
Coalition forces once they find out all of their stuff we've shredded.
Let's hurry and get to Kyrel.  My flight spell won't last forever."
    "I wonder if the pilots are still alive in there?"
    "Does it matter?  Let's get to that town of yours."
    "We don't want them to tell the Coalition what we look like, or who did
this, do we?"
    The pilot of the Spider-Skull Walker struggled to keep consciousness.
He could not manage to remove the helmet of his Dead Boy body armor from
the control panel it had been smashed into, and was currently unaware that
his copilot had been impaled by a metal beam that had penetrated the
reinforced pilot's compartment.
    "I don't care.  They won't be able to say much anyway," said Razner.
    "Fine, you start movin' and I'll catch up."
    Razner took flight and pushed his magic to the limit as he flew through
the forest at 50 MPH.  He took special care not to carelessly hack down any
trees this time.
    Jake reloaded his grav shotgun and prepared to fire it at the more
intact remains of the downed enemy robot vehicle.  Deciding it wasn't worth
the E-Clip, he turned southward and ran his hardsuit at 75 MPH into the
forest.  He only knocked down a couple of trees catching up to Razner.
    In a little over ten minutes, the tree hacking duo arrived at Kyrel.
Quite surprised, Jake called for Razner, who landed next to him.  "Looks
like we need to find another town!"
    "You're correct, and it looks like I've wasted a flight spell," Razner
said due to the fact that the 20 minutes of flight the magic provided had
now expired.
    The clearing that was once the community of Kyrel was still a clearing.
It was a blackened and cratered clearing with debris here and there, and it
wasn't going to be showing up on any lists of the most populated places
either.
    "Well Jake, from the looks of the destruction, I'll bet this happened a
few months ago."
    "There's something over there, Razner."  Jake pointed his shotgun to
their right.  A video camera and speaker with a piece of blackened wood
mounted on top of it swiveled to point at them as they advanced on it.  The
contraption wasn't over a foot tall.
    "Who are you?", asked the device.
    "I'm Jake, and he's Razner.  We're from the USD.  I was here two years
ago, and I'm looking for Kyrel.  Who are you?"
    "I'm the guy looking at you through a camera.  What's your last name,
Jake?"
    "Jackhammer.  Yes, I'm serious."
    "Hold on."
    Razner turned to Jake.  "With a wise guy like that on the other end,
I'm surprised this thing isn't scrap."
    "So am I."
    "Ok guys, we've decided you're alright.  Kyrel is in a cave located
seven miles east of here.  Don't worry, you'll find it eventually."
    Around five and a half hours later, the two soldiers find Kyrel.  Their
fast walk through the forest was mostly peaceful, except when they had to
hide from Sky Cycles and the occasional SAMAS.  They also had a brief
encounter with a Thornhead.  The ten foot monster with the pair of horns
and snake-like tentancles sticking out of its head was blown away by Jake
with just one clip and Razner's help.
    The cave's entrance was a small hill with an entrance that went down
into it eastward.  Three hundred feet later, they arrived inside the cavern
that held Kyrel.  Two seven-foot earth elementals requested the duo's name
before allowing them to enter.  The humanoid mounds of dirt and rock were
quite intimidating and met no resistance from Jake and Razner, who had been
informed what a pain elemental's could be.
    The cavern was about 30 feet high and 300 feet wide.  Four earthen
pillars rose from the ground to the ceiling.  Electric lighting was
attached to the pillars, and wires from them ran into a two-story building
to the left of the entrance.  Razner turned to Jake.  "This is too perfect.
I'll bet some elemental magic was used here."
    "I believe you're right.  If I didn't, I wouldn't argue anyway."
    "This place looks more like a small community than a town, Jake."
    "I remember Kyrel as being much bigger, but you're right, it takes
more than ten or so small stone buildings to make a town.  These must be
the only survivors of the attack, or they're just the survivors who decided
to stay here."
    "Do you want to look for people you remember?"
    "I don't even remember the guy who gave us directions, and I hope he's
not the only one who knows me.  Let's find out."
    A brown-haired man was walking towards them from somewhere on their
left.  "Jake, Razner, hello!  I'm Bob.  So, what brings you here?"
    "Just a routine anti-evil mission.  How do you know me?"
    "Carla talks about you every now and then.  I'm not familiar with your
military terms so what's a routine anit-evil mission?"
    "We've been sent here for a week to destroy monsters from rifts, bad
guys, and trigger-happy Coalition troops."
    "Who's Carla?"
    "She came back with me when I was here before on vacation.  When she
came back here, she had been trained by the troglodytes as a nuker.  I had
no idea she had such psionic potential.  I hear you were trained by trogs
too."
    "I was raised by them as well."
    "So, Bob, is Carla here?"
    "I thought you'd ask that.  She'll be back sometime.  Right now, she's
wandering around in some other part of the caverns, but I have no idea
where.  You can wait for her in the third building on the right.  I have to
man the security system today."
    Bob waved goodbye, walked over to, and entered a two-story building to
the left of the entrance.  "So, how'd you get a the last name of
Jackhammer?"
    "It's not really my last name.  It's a nickname I got from my many
battles in the arena."
    "Really? What did you do?"
    "I usually fight with two staves and pound them into my challenger or
challengers so fast they're dead before they hit the floor."
    Upon hearing more of his partners violent nature, Razner changed the
subject.  "You had said this place was a haven for mages and psionics did
you not?"
    "Yeah, I said that," Jake said removing his helmet.  Razner was
surprised when he finally saw his partners face.  Jake looked older than
his 19 years, but Razner could still see that that he was older than the
monk.  Jake wore his black hair short like Razner's but didn't look a bit
like the blonde-haired Rose Saint.  Razner walked over to the nearest
pillar.
    "Good, then I think I'll try to find someone who can increase my magic
knowledge to more than my current one spell."  Razner jettisoned his Cloth,
and it reformed into its Neutral state at the base of the pillar.  The
Neutral state resembled an art deco statue of a large rose.
    "Good luck, I'll see what or who's in that building Bob suggested,"
said Jake, noting Razner's USD uniform which showed he was only Private 2nd
Class.  Jake held the rank of Sergeant 3rd Class which out-ranked him.  He
walked over to the small one-story building and opened the wooden door.
There was nobody inside.  A table was in the middle of the room, and a suit
of female Gladiator enviromental body armor hung on the wall.  In general,
a vast array of junk was everywhere.  After removing his hardsuit, Jake set
it against the wall.  He then walked out into the cavern with the hope of
finding someone.
    Carla had just come back from exploring the cavern.  Her long red hair
didn't quite hide the TX-30 Triax Ion Pulse Rifle holstered across her
back.  She didn't fail to notice that a total stranger had just left her
house.  "Hey!  Who are you?"
    "Hello, Carla!  Long time, no see.  Remember me?", Jake said with a
stupid grin on his face to the lady in the blue jumpsuit.
    "Jake!", she said as she got closer.  Without warning, she leaped at
him, knocked him over, and kissed him.
    "I'm happy to see you too," he said as they rose to their feet.
    Her face then became somewhat more serious.  "I see you're a soldier
now."
    "How'd you guess?"
    "What are you doing here?"
    "I have come here to defend truth, justice, and shoot bad guys."
    "Anyone in particular?"
    "No, finding the enemy is part of the mission.  My partner and I found
plenty on our way here."
    "Then I don't think you'll mind what I have in mind."
    Razner came up to them having conversed with Bob about the mages who
resided in Kyrel.  "Hello, I'm Razner and pleased to meet you.  Would you
happen to be Carla?"
    "Yes, that's me.  Are you Jake's partner?"
    "Yes."
    "If you will both follow me back to my place, I'll fill you two in on a
possible mission for you to help me with."
    The duo accepted and followed her inside.  She laid her rifle on the
table.  "Please, have a seat."  She then sat down herself.  "Jake, do you
remember my brother, Loki?"
    "Yes, I do.  Has he become the powerful mystic he was aspiring to be?"
    "Yes, he knows quite a few spells and possesses a fairly good psionic
strength.  However, he isn't as powerful as I am, and even I would have
trouble escaping from a Coalition base of operations without using my
teleport power which Loki doesn't have."
    "You're saying he's being held in one?", Jake said apalled by the
thought.
    "He was captured yesterday, and I need help to save him.  I know he's
alive.  He sent me a message along a Ley Line, and then astrally projected
himself close enough to use telepathy.  We know where the base is because
of him.  They're keeping him alive, so they can learn the location of
Kyrel.  I wish I could teleport in and teleport him out with me, but I've
never been there before and that means my power won't work."
    "What about the rest of Kyrel?  Won't they help?"
    "They're definite that if they try they'll be killed, and they're
probably right.  I'm glad you're here, because I had just decided I would
go alone."
    "Don't worry, we'll go with you, and we'll get him out.  Is there
anyone here who can recharge E-Clips?  I only have eight left."
    "The truth is we do.  Lembar made one for us.  He's the same
techno-wizard who made our mystic generator for Kyrel.  He should be here.
I think he's here now.  What do you say we leave at night which should be
in about three or so hours?  Does anyone else need anything before we go?"
    The USD soldiers both agreed to go.  Razner stood up and said, "I'd
like to know where this Coalition base is, inform Loki of our plans, and
heal myself.  I can do both on the astral plane."
    "Hold on, I'll get the map." Carla went around her room, searching.
    "Where would I find Lembar?" Jake interrupted her.
    "You should ask Bob."
    "Thanks, I'll be back as soon as I can," he said as he smiled and
walked out with the E-Clip case of his hardsuit.

                                  -----

    The house was empty when Razner returned from the astral plane.  He
reappeared four feet above the ground and flew from that point across the
room and into the floor.  "Stayed to long," he thought to himself.  He got
to his feet, brushed off his newly healed Rose Cloth, and ran out the door.
    Jake, Carla, and Lembar were talking about how things were going on
their respective worlds when Razner came in.  "Well, I know what the base
is like if you'd like to make plans."
    "You've only been gone for a couple of minutes!"
    "I move fast, Jake."
    "So, tell us all about it."
    "It's a small base with one two-story building.  There's a solid wall
around ten feet tall all around it, and I'd say the base covers something
like 200' x 200'.  It had an UAR-1 Enforcer, an IAR-2 Abolisher, three
Spider-Skulls, and an empty landing pad that looked like it could hold far
more SAMAS and Sky Cycles than we destroyed.  It looked like all five of
the robot vehicles were powered up."
    "Did you talk to my brother?"
    "No, I'd have had to become visible to speak.  There wasn't anyway I
could tell if I'd be seen or overheard.  Everyone there seemed to be on
guard duty.  My guess is that the five robots were ready to intercept
whatever their airborne friends might find.  In other words, they were
probably looking for us."
    "Then let's wait to like 10 PM to strike," Jake commented.
    Razner turned and faced Lembar.  "Do you or anyone else have
explosives, preferably fusion blocks?"
    "You asked the wrong person.  Carla has a few, however."
    "I have three, two medium and one heavy.  I salvaged them from a small
skirmish with some gun-toting fools in the woods.  They haven't been of
much use so far."
    Razner turned to the techno-wizard. "Lembar, do you know any
invisibility spells you could cast on the fusion blocks and me before we
go?"
    "Why, what are you planning?"
    "To blow a leg off an Enforcer and Abolisher."
    "I'll just teach it to you.  How's that for goodwill?"
    "Thank you, I'm in your debt!  It's just the kind of thing I've been
hoping for!"
    The hours passed.

                                 -----

    "The base is just five miles NW of here.  We should be there in four
minutes," Carla said getting onto her hover cycle.  She was wearing her
Gladiator EBA, two Ion Pulse Rifles, and had a pair of thermo-imaging
goggles strapped to her helmet.
    Jake was again equipped with all he had brought with them.  Carla,
Jake, Lembar, and Razner moved to the cavern entrance and got pointed in
the proper direction.  "We're ready, Lembar," Jake said. Lembar
concentrated and cast the best spell of invisibility he knew on Jake,
Carla, and her hover cycle.  "Good luck, drive safely," Lembar said as the
two sped off into the dark forest.  Jake ran ahead of Carla at 70 MPH
silently removing trees to clear a path for Carla.
    Razner and Lembar spoke for a while as the Rose Saint waited for his
friends to reach the base.  Razner made sure the fusion blocks were well
positioned inside the Crusader EBA he was attempting to wad up.  He didn't
want them falling out.  Once he cast a spell of invisibility on himself and
the armor he was carrying, he shifted into the astral plane and was gone.
He would have been visible if not for the spell because he was firmly
gripping the armor which was in the material plane.  The Rose Saint shot
after his friends at Mach One.  If he hadn't waited four minutes for his
companions to reach the base, they might have been hit by a speeding suit
of EBA!  Although difficult, he held on to the armor with his incredible
strength all the way to the base.  He was there in 45 seconds.
    Razner joined his fellow warriors at the base of the south wall to the
Coalition outpost.  Going up, he saw the UAR-1 Enforcer in front of him and
the main compound was to his left.  He was tossed the EBA down to Jake who,
being invisible, caught it.  Razner then placed a medium fusion block onto
the Enforcer's waist mini-missile launcher.  The time he set it for was
four minutes 'til detonation.  He then went down to Jake and got the EBA
with the remaining two blocks.  Swiftly, he sped to the Abolisher's right
leg and placed the medium and heavy blocks on the knee.  Razner noted that
it looked as if only the Enforcer was manned.  He zipped back to his
friends, lifted them over the wall, and handed the EBA to Carla who put it
in her back pack.
    The UAR-1 Enforcer was a 20 foot humanoid robot vehicle.  Its right
shoulder had a large railgun on the side of it while the left had a medium
range missile launcher and a sensor turret.  Its head was a Death's Head,
and it had two red eyes that were infrared searchlights.  The robot's
four-fingered hands had pointed fingers and three large knuckle spikes.
The leg's knees were armed with five spikes, and a small laser was mounted
on each shoulder weapon.  This model had been in use for 20 years and was
known to be deadly in combat.
    The IAR-2 Abolisher was a different and new robot vehicle.  It looked
like a Death's Head with arms and legs and stood 30 feet tall.  Six auto
cannons were placed along the top of its head so that there were two in the
front and back and one on each side.  In the lower part of its body was a
doulble barrel laser turret, and it had leg spikes like the Enforcer.  It
required a crew to pilot it.
    Razner approached the double armored doors on the building's east side.
Jake and Carla readied their guns and noticed that their were now ten SAMAS
and four Sky Cycles on the landing pad which ran east to west in the middle
of the complex.  The Spider-Skulls had their fronts pointed to the north
and were on that side of the base.  Razner stood before the door and built
up his astral-cosmo energies for 15 seconds and then released them with the
cry, "Thorn Slash Fist!"
    The doors were blown inward and flew 120 feet down the well lit hallway
before hitting the double-doors at the opposite end of the building.  Four
soldiers in Dead Boy EBA struggled to regain their footing and to aim their
C-14 "Fire Breather" assault rifle / grenade launchers at the Rose Saint
whose offensive move had dispelled his invisibility.  Razner screamed at
the top of his lungs as his ghostly image from the astral plane sped
towards the first soldier and tore his head off with the Rose Mace.  Razner
prepared to strike at the next one but his image suddenly vanished and his
blow never struck home.  Jake and Carla then opened fire emptying their
clips down the hall.  The three remaining soldiers fell backwards looking
like shredded scrap oozing with tomato juice.  Razner impacted into rock
and dirt from four feet above the cavern entrance to Kyrel.
    Carla concentrated on a teleport while Jake reloaded.  As Jake snapped
the clip into place, Razner was teleported back into their midst.  Carla
then reloaded hers.  The double-doors at the end of the hall fell off their
hinges as their warranty expired.  They had also been blown to bits.  The
Enforcer pilot was currently going insane trying to decide what to do.
"He's on the second floor," Razner said to his compatriots.  They rushed
toward the stairs on the right of the middle of the hall.  A desperate Dead
Boy rushed out of a door next to where the rescuers had entered.  He
yelled, "Die!", as he aimed his CR-1 rocket launcher at them.  Carla
whipped her head around and looked at him.  The Dead Boy screamed louder as
sparks flew out of his   armor, and his CR-1 launched straight down.
Impacting with the floor, the plasma mini-missile exploded destroying
everything within 15' of him.  From above the really Dead Boy, burning
rubble fell down blocking the east exit.  They were now ten feet from the
stairs.
    From Jake's right, a Dead Boy with a C-27 heavy plasma cannon burst out
of a door and rushed the hardsuit.  The soldier pulled down on the trigger
as he attempting to jab the weapon into the suit's midsection.  Jake
whirled around and a pulled a Warsword with his left arm.  He brought the
sword down into the plasma cannon and cut it in half just before the
trigger fired the weapon.  Bringing the two-hander up, he caught the Dead
Boy in the chin and knocked him back.  Positioning his right arm, the monk
fired Hammer at the Dead Boy blowing out the back of it with 25 grav
pulses.
    Five Dead Boys ran out some doors at the left end of the hall and
opened fire with their C-12 laser assault rifles while Jake was still
shooting the previous assailant.  A pair of soldiers each emptied their
clips at Razner and Carla, and one went full auto at Jake.  Carla used the
nuke armor power on herself as she dodged to the left wall.  A hail of
laser fire slammed into her psionic armor obliterating it and almost
blowing off her Gladiator EBA.  Razner couldn't believe that he would be
able to dodge the deluge of laser blasts, so he stood his ground and
screamed out, "Thorn Slash Fist!"  The astral-cosmo blast slammed into the
Coalition soldier, blowing his assault rifle to pieces and practically
blasting the Dead Boy EBA apart.  Rendered unconscious was the soldier.
Unaware until too late, Jake got blasted all over which knocked him off his
feet and made his hardsuit look like it might be able to survive the attack
of a water gun.  Obscured by the battle, seven SAMAS pilots ran out the
western exit to their power armor.
    Carla clenched her teeth, rose to her feet, and directed a nuclear
blast at the attackers.  The controlled explosion lit the hall with a
blinding light as the nuker fired an ion spray with half her E-Clip into
the blast caused by her nuclear power.  The light subsided leaving the
rescuers to see the western 40 feet of hallway had its burning walls mostly
intact.  Looking down the hall, it could be seen that there was a flaming
hole in the base's outer wall.  The CS soldiers had been turned to ash
along with their weapons and armor.
    Jake got back up and used his armor restorer on himself and on Carla's
armor which had less armor to begin with.  The three of them finally
reached the stairs.  As soon as they reached the stairs, a Dead Boy leaped
into their midst and emptied his laser assault rifle into Razner at point
blank.  The Rose Saint staggered back, and pieces of his Cloth that were
blown off shattered upon hitting the floor.  Razner brought the Rose Mace
down on the soldier's head.  The soldier parried with the empty laser
rifle, but the Rose Mace shattered it and impacted on his head.  The
soldier panicked as he was hit three more times by the Rose Mace ripping
his torso in two.  Razner grimaced at the bloodshed.
    "Let's not slow down.  I'm fine," Razner said as he ran up the stairs.
They followed him up and got in front of him.
    "We have more armor, so back us up will ya?" Jake suggested.
    "Don't talk, shoot."
    They reached the second floor but didn't enter the hallway.  "He's on
the third door to the left," the Rose Saint told them.
    Jake peered around to the left of the corner of the recess in the wall
made to provide for the stairs.  He saw some CS soldiers and got a laser
blast to the helmet before he could pull away.  "I wonder if there are Dead
Boys down the other end of the hall?"
    "Definitely, you got a blast from the back too," Carla told him.  "If
you'll give me a moment, I can handle this I think."  Carla then turned
herself invisible, leaving Jake and Razner to wonder what would happen.
Walking out into the middle of the hallway, Carla used her multi-stun power
down the left end of the hall, crouched down, and used it down the right
end.  At the left end, the four CS soldiers standing side by side with C-12
rifles were incapacitated and fell over.  The three Dead Boys down the
right end immediately opened fire and then fell over, stunned.  "They'll
probably be up in a minute or so, guys."
    "No problem," Razner said walking out to look at the hall.  "You two
get Loki."  Jake and Carla went to the correct door, and Jake pulled it
apart with his hardsuit's arms.  Razner ran to the left end of the hall and
kicked a hole in the wall level to the floor.  He then threw each Dead Boy
out the hole.  After grabbing one the C-12 laser rifles, Razner used it to
blow a hole in the wall at the right end.  Before throwing those three out,
he cast a flight spell on himself which completely exhausted his magic for
a while.  It also made tossing out the other three Dead Boys in time much
easier as well.  The Rose Saint heard the last one wake up before he hit
the ground.
    Seeing his fellow soldiers being tossed out from the second floor
through a hole, the Enforcer pilot decided to take action.  The Enforcer
grabbed a section of wall around the hole and removed it.
    Razner, a C-12 strapped onto each shoulder along with extra clips, had
just joined an invisible Carla, Jake, and Loki who was now dressed in
Crusader EBA and armed with an ion rifle when they saw the Enforcer's head
and sensor turret appear at the end of hall.  They quickened their pace to
the stairs which was a good idea for the Enforcer was stepping to its left
to bring its shoulder rail gun into position to be fired down the hall. The
Enforcer could not see into the building now that its rail gun was using
the hole it had made so the pilot fired off two shots and hoped for the
best.  Upon the third shot, the fusion blocks on the Enforcer and Abolisher
went off.  The mini-missile launcher on the Enforcer was blown apart and
started a chain reaction that spewed fire from the Enforcer's body and blew
it to pieces as twenty plasma mini-missiles went off.  The third rail gun
shot went through the roof of the structure.  The Abolisher fell over as
its leg was blown in half.  An unprepared communications officer on the
second floor was still trying to get on his Dead Boy EBA at this point.  He
wouldn't be finding any C-12 rifles laying in the hallway either because
Razner had smashed with his foot the ones he didn't take.
    Once out of the hall and at the top of the stairs, Carla teleported
them back to her hover cycle.  A lone SAMAS flew up the stairwell and was
enraged by the sight of a hallway without a wall at the right end, broken
rifles laying on the ground, and at the hall's left end was now some
garbage that looked like it might have been the base's Enforcer.  The
victors were speechless to see that the hover cycle had been blown to bits,
and they had a moment to be surprised before Jake yelled out as he got hit
in the back by a C-40R SAMAS rail gun and thrown forward onto his chest.
The standing three spun around to face the single SAMAS perched on the wall
above them.  It fired off a shot at Razner who turned screaming out, "Thorn
Slash Fist!"  The SAMAS was blown backward and destroyed as it was hit by a
primary astral-cosmo attack, a burst of ion fire, and a fire bolt spell
from Loki.
    "How are my swords?", Jake asked as he got up.  The thought of losing
his swords didn't appeal to him in the least.
    "They're fine," Carla told him.  The nuker then teleported them back
safely to the cavern entrance of Kyrel.
    "Wish I could say the same about me," Razner complained looking at the
hole the SAMAS had made in his Cloth's chestplate.  Cracks covered most of
the Cloth giving it the look of something about to shatter.  "Ah well, I'll
be alright in a day or so."
    "That Coalition place won't be," Jake said smiling.
    Razner was too tired to be disgusted with his partner's 'kill the bad
guy' attitude, and Carla didn't notice.  Loki was busy thanking everyone.
This all escalated into a celebration party in which everyone learned that
earth elementals can't dance.  The Coalition wasn't invited.  The rest of
their week went pretty much the same, except for a certain vengeful
Coalition officer, but that would be another story.

                           The End of This Tale

Note: I must give credit here to sources that I used to write this:  Rifts
by Palladium Books for all information on the Coalition, elementals,
mystics, "Fight the good fight...hand", and techno-wizards; Twinkie-Wiener
sandwich from the movie UHF by Orion;  Cosmo Saints from the TV show Saint
Seiya by Bandai (all I've retained from the original concept would be the
names), and the hardsuit was inspired from the Bubble Gum Crisis OVA's by
Toemi (Toshiba EMI) Video Artmic/Youmex studios although the hardsuit in
this story could have been just any old powersuit.