Jason Low presents a Project HEARD fanfic GOLD DIGGER: SHADOW PUPPETS 13 JULY 1998 0945 GINA DIGGERS' UNDERGROUND HOME/LAB COMPLEX Gina found herself wandering aimlessly around the labs. It was a quiet day, and without Cheetah around, it was so much quieter--almost to the point of being boring. It was the Monday after the wedding. Stripe and Cheetah had gone off on their honeymoon, and Gina, Brianna, Seance, and Genn had returned to the complex alone. Gina hadn't noticed how much Britanny had contributed to the atmosphere of the place until she was gone. The eldest Diggers sister found herself missing Brit's hollering about the lack of tuna in the fridge (Brianna was usually just as upset about the lack of seafood, but it just wasn't the same). Gina was passing the elevator that led to the gym. On a normal day, after Bri' and Brit's run, one would find Britanny inside the fitness center, working with the weights, clanking them around loud enough to wake the dead. Today, however, the room was silent and dark. Gina continued on without a purposeful direction, coming across the ready room and its lockers. On the floor lay a charred hat, and as she bent over to retrieve it, she smiled, despite the memories it brought up: One of Brianna's creations had been set loose with a few grams of ultra-high-explosive, and Brit and Bri' had cornered it in Gina's room. In the ensuing firefight, somehow, Brit had managed to get one of Gina's hats on her head, where it stayed when they exited victoriously with the Peebo's explosive charge intact. Just as things seemed to be stabilizing, though, the priming charge--but not the Nitro--went off, and everyone got a little singed. And the hat, still atop Cheetah's head, somehow got set aflame. Gina nearly tossed the burnt-up piece of headgear in the trash, but as she looked through the hole in its top, she thought about it, and smiled again. She popped open Brit's locker, still full of gear, and wedged the hat into the top section. Carrying on, she passed through the garage and went back upstairs to the house. At the elevator, she met Genn, who was apparently just getting up. "Greetings," the Rakshasa said with a smile as Gina approached. "Hi, Genn," Gina sighed. They got into the elevator. "You know, you're ALLOWED to miss her," Genn said. "What?" "It's obvious what you were doing," the shapeshifter said with a gesture towards the level they were departing from. "She's a big girl, though, and now a wife as well.. she's going to want to be with her family--her new one--now." Gina nodded with another sigh. "I suppose." "Are you going to be okay?" "I think so," Gina answered. "Everything's been so hectic lately, that's all. Sometimes I feel like my life's out of control, like somebody's pulling my strings from somewhere else." "Well," Genn said, "it's not like she's gone forever or anything. I'm sure she'll be visiting fairly soon after the honeymoon's over, so long as Stripe doesn't have something lined up for her." After a pause, the Rakshasa added, "Speaking of having things lined up--do you have any adventures waiting to occupy us with.. or are you too tired from the last few weeks' events?" Gina cracked a smile finally. "Nothing, unless you count a shopping trip with Bri'," she said wryly. "She wants some help in getting the groceries today." "Count ME out," Genn said promptly. "I've tried shopping with her before--I know exactly what you mean about it being an adventure. Best of luck to you." Gina laughed as the elevator door slid open. "Thanks," she said. "By the way, we'll be stopping by mom and dad's after we get the groceries, so don't expect us back too early." "Understood," Genn nodded, heading off toward the kitchen. "See you after." Ten minutes later, Brianna and Gina were on the way to Food Buffalo. "So," Brianna said to her sister as the latter drove, "how long do you think they're gonna stay away on their honeymoon?" Gina shrugged with a smile. "Idunno," she said. "They've both been through a lot recently. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd wager it's gonna be more than a few weeks." "I hear ya," Bri' said. She watched the road for a moment, waiting just long enough for Gina to pick up her diet Coke off the console and suck on the straw, then added: "Wanna place bets on how soon we have a niece or nephew?" Carbonated soda sprayed all over the inside of the windshield, and the car swerved briefly as Gina nearly dropped the plastic bottle. "Geez! You did that on PURPOSE!" she railed at Brianna, pulling some tissues out to wipe the window clean enough to see out of. Brianna was laughing, though she helped clean off the windshield, and then said, "So you gonna answer me?" "Um.. well, I hadn't THOUGHT about it, Bri'," Gina smiled. "Tell you what, put me down for any time nine months or later from now." "Aw, you're no fun." Brianna let another few seconds roll by, then: "Didja think they were ever gonna finally DO it?" Gina blushed briefly as she misunderstood her sister; then she realized she meant the marriage itself. "Yeah, I did," Gina nodded. "It was only a matter of time." Now it was Gina's turn to pause before continuing: "Did YOU?" Brianna knew what Gina was getting at: Brianna was, after all, part Britanny. "Yeah," she nodded after a long moment. "I'm over that. I'm all me now--I've long since realized that Stripe is for Britanny, and I'm going to have to find someone of my own to mess around with." Brianna's hand went, almost unconsciously, to rest on her right leg, over her pants pocket, inside which a soft yet firmly-shaped object, formed in the shape of a puzzle piece, sat. This time Gina didn't have a drink in her mouth, so she didn't choke on the last part of Brianna's statement, but it was close. Chuckling, she said, "Genn declined to join us today--something about knowing your shopping habits all too well." "Wuss," Brianna jokingly muttered as her sister pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket. A couple of hours later, the trunk and back seat of the car packed with groceries, the pair turned north on the freeway and headed for their parents' mansion. Gina couldn't help but notice that the car wasn't nearly as full as it would've been had Brit still been around. she realized. They continued to chat as they got onto I-20. The talk turned to their expectations of how things would go on adventures without Britanny. Both agreed that it wouldn't be the same, but it'd be workable. They arrived at the mansion and went inside. There was no one around. "Dad? Mom?" Gina called out from the foyer, hearing her voice echo through the mammoth house. After a moment, Gina's mother Julia appeared at the top of the stairs, seeming surprised at her daughters' unannounced visit. "Hello," she said quickly. "I gather you heard?" "Heard? Heard what?" Gina asked, then realized her mother had her beaten and nearly-worn-out leather jacket on. Gina told herself. "We're going to Jade," Julia said hurriedly. "There's big trouble there." "Why didn't you SAY SO?" Bri' enthused, taking the steps three at a time to join Julia on the second level. "When do we go?" "Your father and I are leaving as soon as we get ready--in just a few minutes," Julia said. "Are you two saying you want to come with us?" "You bet!" Gina nodded. "Just gimme a few seconds to get some stuff from the car." She dashed out the door. "Gina, get my plasma rifle for me!" Bri' called to her sister, then added, "And the mobile extender! And a couple clips for my GyroJet, and.. um, hell, I'll just come get it all myself!" She bolted down the stairs and out to the car as well. Gina rooted through the car, shoving aside the groceries and the piles of junk. "Aw, c'mon, don't tell me--" "What?" Bri' asked. "I don't have my GyroJet with me." Brianna pulled out a spare handgun from her stash and slapped it into Gina's hand. "Anything else?" "Um.. I left my hat at home, too.." Bri' reached under the passenger seat. "Like I always say about guns, tech- toys, and escape routes: Always have two spares." She handed the hat to Gina. "Thanks, sis," Gina smiled, putting the hat on her head and heading back to the house. In moments, the four of them were whisked away by Dr. Diggers' spell. A FEW MINUTES EARLIER BROD'S OBSERVATORY, JADE Mesha and Tark looked up sharply as heavy footfalls sounded from the other side of the door. They were relieved as, after a moment, Brod entered and closed the door behind him. "What are things like out there?" Mesha asked. Brod shook his head. "Not well." He moved away from the door, after locking it securely. "It would appear that almost all the humans are behaving as you described." "Have you ever seen this kind of thing before?" He had to pause while the sound of one or two rogue, crazed humans slamming against the door, then running away, was heard. "Not here, no." Brod lumbered over and deposited his massive form in a seat. "It only appears to involve the humans--no one else has been affected. I can see no rhyme or reason for how it spreads, either. Were you able to contact Dr. Diggers?" "We did, and he's on his way with Julia," Tark supplied. "Perhaps they will be able to shed some light on this, then," Brod sighed. "What can we do in the meantime?" Mesha asked. Brod looked at her. "Wait for Dr. Diggers, and pray that the door holds." JADE'S NORTHERN REGION ROOK'S (FORMER) TOWER Dorn looked up as the door was opened an inch or two and then knocked upon lightly. A subordinate was looking for permission to enter. "Report," Dorn tried to thunder. It wasn't very effective; he wasn't of any grand stature in any way, a mere five feet tall, and not very muscular either. Still, because of Dorn's record of how he treated his subordinates, the creature cringed as it entered. "It is working well, master." "How well?" "Almost all of the humanfolk in Jade are now feeling the effects of your spell. There isn't a corner of this domain that hasn't been affected." "What of the remainder? Have they developed some sort of immunity?" "Doubtful, master--it just takes time for the enchantment to travel, I believe. Some of the humans may not have been touched by an affected human yet." "Very well. Leave me now." "Yes, sir." Dorn smiled as he watched the door close. The plan was working! Soon, Jade would be his own personal playground--and there would be no need to conquer, for all those who could put up a fight worthy of the name would be turned into mindless slave-warriors. he nodded. Yes, everything was in place. He'd only need to wait until the blind rage that was a side-effect of the enchantment wore off. he grumbled to himself. The more a 'good' person resisted the enchantment, the fiercer it would make their rage after it took them over, and the longer said rage would last. BROD'S OBSERVATORY The two elves and troll jumped to defensive positions as a sphere of light swirled into existence on the other side of the room, announcing a mage's presence. They relaxed somewhat as the sphere resolved itself into Theodore Diggers and his family. Your arrival is most timely, Dr. Diggers," Brod greeted the party. "Things are beginning to get out of hand." "Please, explain all you can, and leave nothing out," Julia said. Brod and the others did just that: They told the Diggerses everything they knew about what was going on in Jade at that very moment. Most of the human inhabitants had gone crazy, attacking everyone and everything in sight. Those who didn't show signs of the illness--or whatever it was--right away certainly did after they came into physical contact with someone who DID have it. "And the very first few that we noticed afflicted with this," Tark added, "seem to have spent all their anger, and just sit on the ground weeping and whimpering." "Odd indeed," Theo said, holding his chin in his hand. "You say only humans are affected?" "We have seen no one else become deranged upon the touch of one of these people," Brod said. "In fact, during my last sortie for supplies, I was attacked by a mob of afflicted people and it didn't affect me at all." "Attacked!" Julia blurted out. "Are you all right?" "It did not appear to be a concerted effort," the old troll reassured her. "No one party was in charge, and some were more interested in simply fighting--be it with me or with the others there--rather than assaulting me." "Does it affect all the humans, or just..?" Bri' trailed off. "It's hard to tell, Brianna," Mesha said. "Some people don't appear to be affected, but there's no way of knowing whether they're immune, or if they're just too skilled to get touched by someone who is under the insanity's spell." THE FOREST NEAR MAIN GUARD TWENTY-SEVEN MILES NORTH OF THE OBSERVATORY Two men stalked silently through the underbrush, under cover of the cloudy, moonless night. Still, even with the impressive cover given them by darkness, they continued to duck behind trees and into the foliage whenever someone neared. They weren't deranged, but they were doing their best to stay hidden from those who were. They'd learned early on--when ten of their friends succumbed to the madness--that it seemed to be spread by touch, and there was no way these two were going to let themselves fall to the insanity that had taken over their friends, literally, as they watched. Men who'd banded together as comrades for years, never harming another peaceful creature, violently attacked the lunatic that had been shoved into their midst by a haphazard mob--and then they turned on themselves, attacking one another as if they were sworn enemies. The shorter of the two--though he was not quite a dwarf, at six foot one--was saddened to note that at least one of his fellows had gone down in the resulting fighting, and not risen back up again. The more bulky man, easily towering over the other's head by a foot and carrying 200 more pounds, spoke quietly as they inched through the forest. "Harlan, don't blame yourself--there has to be some kind of outside force at work here." "I'm the LEADER, Rico," Harlan said with disgust. "It's my NATURE to feel responsible." "There was nothing anyone could do," Rico responded. "We're lucky WE escaped with our lives, I dare say." "That doesn't make it any less a tragedy." "Agreed, but perhaps we should concentrate on finding out what's happened and how to correct rather than looking to place blame and agonize over it." Harlan wore a nearly-humorless smile; Rico always was very bold, and not just because he was Harlan's lieutenant, either. "I understand, Rico. I apologize. Have you ever witnessed the likes of this before?" "Never, Harlan," Rico said, shaking his head. "Though insanities have always been held as excuses for some of the more legendary battles of Jade." "I don't think this is as simple as a battle gone out of hand," Harlan protested. "Think of how Alen--rest his soul--reacted when that drunken boor slammed into him. That's happened dozens of times before, and he's always shrugged it off. But today, for whatever reason, as soon as the poor sod touched him, Alen went berserk and beat the man senseless! And when Rork and Wain tried to pull him off, they showed the same signs of derangement immediately.. I'd bet my blasted sword that there's something that's being transmitted by touch, Rico." "So what shall we do?" Rico asked, opening his arms wide in a gesture of hopelessness. Harlan looked southward, towards the numerous towns that dotted the lower half of eastern Jade. "Find a mage or someone like that, who can hopefully shed some light on the situation," he said with determination. "And remember where we last saw our friends, so that maybe he can help us cure them." he didn't add. BROD'S OBSERVATORY "Do we have a plan of attack, then?" Julia asked Brod. "Actually, we were waiting for you, so that we could see if there was anything that could be done before we started attacking these poor souls physically," he answered her. "Without knowing what exactly the enchantment is that they're under the spell of, I cannot create a counteracting spell," Dr. Diggers said with a shake of his head. "It would be easier to try to locate the source of the problem and work at it from that end." "Well, what are we waiting for?" Gina said energetically. "I'll just upsize my force-field to cover us all, and we can be off." "Patience," Brod rumbled. "I am not sure what time it was when you left home, but here, it is very late in the evening. Jade will survive if we all take the night to rest and gather our strength for the morning." THE NEXT MORNING Gina awoke uncharacteristically late--the others were already discussing the situation, over, it seemed, breakfast. "Good morning, finally!" Brianna blurted cheerfully, reaching under Gina's rising head to grab the packsack that had been in use as her pillow. "Did I miss anything?" Gina sleepily said. "Nothing crucial," Mesha supplied. "We were simply going over what we believe to be our options at this time." "Perhaps we should establish what we know to be fact," Theo said. "From there, we can build a plan of action." "Well, what we've seen is a curse of some sort," Tark began, "that, when it takes hold of the individual, sends them into a frenzied rage. And, after a period of time--appearing to be a day or so--the rage melts away, leaving the person a sobbing wreck, their will seemingly destroyed." "And the curse seems to be transferred from victim to victim by touch, right?" Gina said, reaching for a chunk of bread. "Correct," Brod nodded. "And only humans appear to be susceptible to it. I have seen no other creatures become afflicted." "Oh, that's cute!" Mesha said, and Gina was thrown off by the statement. She turned to see that her elfin friend wasn't speaking of the curse at all; rather, she had seen a trio of Peebos that Brianna was mucking about with. Julia, too, enjoyed the AIs' appearance and design. Brianna began to explain the concept of the Peebos to those gathered there. Gina, her mind wandering, let her eyes roam until they looked upon the sack that the Peebos had most likely been in. "Um.. sis," Gina said, her color draining and her expression changing to one of shock, "Tell me that that isn't the same duffel I had under my head all night, okay?" Brianna looked at the bag. "This one? Yeah, it is," Bri' said unconcernedly, then turned back to continue her description of the bit-bombs. "And did it have those monsters in it??" Gina retorted with a quavering voice. "Monsters?" Brianna shot back, collecting the small robots into her arms. "Don't you talk about my babies that way, Gina!" "BABIES??" Gina echoed with disbelief. "Girls.. please," Dr. Diggers said to his daughters. "There are more pressing problems at the moment." "Sorry," Gina said. "You're right. Brod--do we have a plan of action?" "Indeed," he said. A few words later, a magical map of the east half of Jade spiralled into view. "The first occurrences of the strange behavior were noted here, in the north.. and I don't believe I need tell any of you what's in that region." Julia's eyes narrowed. "Rook's old castle," she seethed. "Yes," Brod nodded. "And it isn't exactly in a state of disuse, either." "What do you mean?" Theo asked. "We've noticed a significant amount of activity in that particular area," Tark said. "Black knights, rogues, and other such unscrupulous creatures. They've been gathering for several weeks." "Could Rook be back?" Brianna asked. Julia shook her head. "Not unless he can figure a way to teleport back out of walls." "Is there another explanation?" Theo asked. Brod drew a breath, then supplied, "It is within the realm of possibility that one--or some--of Rook's former underlings have finally put together enough courage to attempt to bring back his reign of terror." "Those imbeciles?" Julia scoffed. "Rook was skilled, but a poor leader--and his minions struck out on BOTH counts! This is going to be EASY!" "Don't be so sure," Mesha warned. "It's been a while; they might've learned something in the meantime." DORN'S TOWER Dorn entered the mage's chamber and sought out the resident. It wasn't an easy task, as usual, because Kirak always seemed to know when Dorn was coming, with just enough time to create a disguise before the self-proclaimed black knight appeared. Such was the case this day as well, Dorn realized, as he spun about the room, seeing no one else there. "Kirak, you spineless weasel!" Dorn railed at the walls. "Show yourself! I know you're in here!" After a few silent moments, Dorn caught movement out of the corner of his eye; he turned and watched the table in the corner slowly ripple and shift until it became an old man on all fours. Subsequently, the man stood up, dusting off his hands and robes, and said tiredly, "What is it now, Dorn?" Dorn seethed; Kirak still refused to call him 'master', and he was pretty much the last holdout--everyone else gave Dorn the respect he felt he deserved (at least, they said it to his face). Kirak was the only one who knew that Dorn truly didn't have any power of his own, mystic or otherwise, and that his triumphs were all as a result of trodding on the backs of others. Others like Kirak, who had promised Dorn that by now, the human populace of Jade would be mindless slaves ready to obey Dorn's every command. However, by the reports that Dorn's subordinates were giving, not even a quarter of the humans fit that description yet, and nearly all of the other three-quarters were in a fit of rage that was brought on as an unexpected side-effect of the enchantment that Kirak had cast upon them! "You know very well what I want," Dorn snapped at the mage. "I want what I hired you to do! You promised results by today, and I have none!" "These things take time," Kirak shrugged, as if he couldn't care how loud Dorn yelled or how much he threatened (which was exactly the case). "The madness was unanticipated as well.. and it seems to be taking quite some time to wear off in most cases." "What of the ones in which it's already worn off?" Dorn asked. "Surely they'll be under the control of someone else before I can address the lot of them all at once!" "Fear not," Kirak said with a dismissing tone. "The enchantment is designed to remove their sense of what is right and what is wrong. They will do what they are told without question, but only if it comes across to them as a sensible command--and none of them are capable of issuing such commands any more." "If their sense of what is right and wrong is eliminated, how can they evaluate what is and isn't a sensible command?!" Dorn argued. Kirak held up a hand, as if to say 'enough'. "They will not take orders from any afflicted human, nor will they take orders from a non-human of any kind. Since there will be no unaffected humans in Jade, except yourself, of course, they will only accept orders from you, and they will obey them, as I said, without question. Anything you say to an affected person will sound entirely reasonable to them, and they will do it. This I guarantee." "You'd better," Dorn said, pointing at the mage. "And it had best happen sooner rather than later, or I'll be back, and I won't just threaten!" The heavy wooden door thudded shut behind Dorn, and Kirak looked at the walls. he mused. The midmorning light found Harlan and Rico still trudging southwards. Harlan was tired; he'd taken the second watch--naturally, one of them had to stay awake at all times to protect the both of them from attack, and naturally, Rico had insisted on protecting his friend and leader on the first watch. Neither of them had really had any sleep at all through the night, anyway; the whole situation was upsetting them quite a bit. That, and the fact that they'd only managed to get about halfway to the southern half of eastern Jade, their destination. "Out of curiosity, Harlan, why south?" Rico was asking as the two of them hacked their way through the woods southwest of Dim Crag. "Why not northeast, towards a place like Tessa?" Harlan smiled slightly. "Perhaps it's my superstitions coming to the fore again, Rico, but if there was a savior of sorts here in the south, it would add some symmetry to the whole thing. I've been thinking about the first incidents of strangeness--from before all our men were affected--and it seemed to start in the far, far north, in the Land of Fear. Yin and yang, and all that. Perhaps there's a pillar of good down here to match." Rico nodded. "Right." He paused for a moment, then added, "Harlan.. you don't mean Rook's place, do you?" Harlan shrugged. "It's something I'd expect of him." "But he's gone, Harlan," Rico pointed out, turning to walk backwards and face his friend. "Our old teacher, Julia, imprisoned him in the walls of his tower years ago--" Rico's eyes widened as Harlan suddenly picked up speed and lunged towards him. Rico thought at first that Harlan had somehow contracted whatever disease had befallen all their comrades, when instead Harlan rushed past his large friend and swung quickly, digging deep into a berserked attacker that had been about to make contact with Rico. "On the defensive!" Harlan ordered as the deranged man fell. "There may be others nearby." Even as Rico readied his sword, he could see them in the woods surrounding him. "There's about twenty," he told Harlan. "All around us." "Well then, let's not keep them waiting," Harlan said, raising his own blade to a ready position. "Wait--" Rico said, holding his arm up to stop Harlan. "I recognize them. I know some of these people." "Well, you can be sure they don't know you," Harlan shot back. "They're all as crazed as the others." "Still, let me try." Rico took a step forward. "Garen?" he said aloud. "Do you recognize me? It's Rico and Harlan. We want to help you--" Rico hopped back three or four steps and put up his sword in a defensive gesture again as Garen rushed him, roaring an unintelligible cry. Rico and Harlan dodged, Garen overshot and had to turn around to try another attack, and then all the others came literally out of the woodwork. "Try not to kill them!" Rico said to Harlan. "Subdue them some other way." Harlan scoffed. "How do we do that? We can't use our pugilistic skills for fear of being infected ourselves, and you don't want us to use deadly force.." Rico sidestepped one man, turned his sword sideways, and used the flat of its blade against the man's back to sweep him around into the path of another; the collision knocked them both out and sent them crashing to the ground. "Get creative," Rico answered simply. And so, for the next ten or fifteen minutes or so, the two men tried to knock their friends-turned-enemies unconscious or otherwise remove their ability to fight. Most were knocked out, but one or two were cut by Harlan and Rico's blades, just enough to cause them to stop and roll around in agony. One man ended up hopelessly tangled in the dense undergrowth. Rico stepped up to him, remembering to stay just out of reach. "Lou, can you hear me, do you know who I am?" "He appears to have realized that anger won't get him out of the bramblebush," Harlan observed. "Looks like he might burst into tears at any moment." Rico had to resist the urge to grab his acquaintance by the shoulders and shake him. "Lou!" he shouted again. "Tell me you recognize me!" "I recognize you," Lou said right away in a sobbing voice without even looking up. "What happened to you? Who did this?" "Where were you when this happened?" Harlan contributed. "Do you remember anyone attacking your party? Think hard, try to remember," Rico told Lou. Lou appeared to be having a nervous breakdown; he would try to answer one of their questions while they were still asking it, and then they'd ask another, and his first answer would run into the next, as he tried to answer it too. His eyes darted back and forth between the two men as they kept peppering him with queries. "please.." he whimpered at one point, in between gasps for air, as he tried to keep up with their demands. When Rico told him to calm down, he did, briefly; then his breathing became ragged and he appeared agitated again. At once, after another barrage of questions from the two, he stretched as much as he could, reaching out for Rico, who leaned aside so as not to get touched. Lou let out a chilling scream of "HELP ME!!", then went limp. Harlan studied him for a moment. "His chest isn't rising and falling," he said quietly. "I think he's dead." "What IS this, Harlan?" Rico said with barely any composure. "Is it going to kill our friends and acquaintances like it killed Lou? And will it ultimately get US?" "Not if I have a say in the matter." Harlan stood up straight and faced south again. "Let's get moving and see if we can't find some help." SEVERAL MILES TO THE SOUTH Brod led the group to the door of the observatory, all of them loaded for bear. He turned to issue a word of caution: "Remember that once we leave these walls, you and your family will be susceptible to whatever it is that we are fighting against, Julia." "No we won't," Gina said. She gestured to her belt buckle. "I'll turn my force field on--I added my anti-magic generator to it after breakfast, and it should be able to protect us quite nicely. It's a simple design, really, and I only had to take a 16% power hit to expand the field to cover the bunch of us for up to 2 days--" "All right, Gina, I think you're boring them," Brianna smiled, walking past her sister. "Let's just get on with it." "We'll head north," Brod declared, opening the door and peering around to ensure the coast was clear. "Should we actually have to travel all the way to Rook's tower, we have quite a journey ahead of us." AT THE SAME TIME DORN'S TOWER One of the things Dorn did learn from Rook, he realized as the door to his chamber opened, was how to compose a fighting team. Three undead warriors led by a living lieutenant--the position Dorn had held under Rook's iron fist--came in and stood before him. "I grow weary of the delays Kirak obviously built into this spell of his," Dorn told his subordinate. "Take your warriors out and find out what's happening out there. Do you understand that the more someone rages, the quicker it wears off?" The lieutenant nodded. "Use your warriors to provoke some into fights if you have to, to get them into the slave-phase. But whatever you do, don't get touched yourself--I can't afford to have my underlings affected. You'd be as good as dead to me then." The lieutenant got the underlying meaning. He nodded, made a follow-me gesture to his undead henchmen, and they left. Dorn sighed and shook his head. "Okay, everyone get within 2.1 meters of me and I'll turn the shield on," Gina said. Her father regarded her. "Gina, if we encounter something that requires my attention, I will have to be outside your anti-magic field in order to cast any spells." "Brod and Tark and I are immune to whatever's afflicted the humans here," Mesha supplied. Gina looked at her mother and sister. "I suppose we gotta salvage your pride, huh, sis?" Brianna joked. "Hurry up and get inside before I lock you out," Gina shot back with a joking but cold tone. They walked northwards for an hour or more before they encountered anyone--a dead man trapped in a bush. "He doesn't appear to have been injured too badly," Theodore said. "Nothing fatal, for certain." "There are signs of a fight here," Julia added, gesturing to the broken branches and trampled ground of the miniscule clearing. "Whatever happened here was the work of more than just one or two people." "So where are they?" "Well, some of them are right here," came a booming, friendly voice from within the forest. All of them turned to see a pair of tall men enter into view wearing smiles. "By the stars!" Julia exclaimed. "Is it you?" "It is indeed, teacher," Harlan smiled, arms wide. "Forgive us for hiding, and for trailing you, but we had to be certain you were.. how do I put this? Sane." "You've seen it too?" Theodore asked. "We have," Rico nodded. "It caused this man's death and has affected hundreds of others all across Jade." "Forgive me," Julia said to the others. "This is Harlan, and his partner Rico. They used to be fellow adventurers of mine." "You mean 'students'," Rico smiled. "We could never hope to equal your skill." "Oh, stop it." "In any case, not to get right to business, but this is--WAS--one of Rico's acquaintances, and he was definitely NOT behaving as he should have been. Our group of adventurers showed signs of the same disease, or curse, or affliction, a couple of days ago, when we.. when we fled from them." Julia was sympathetic. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said. "We've encountered instances like that as well. Have you any ideas as to what could be causing this, or what we can do to correct it?" Harlan shrugged. "We were heading south to try to locate a mage, to see if he could shed some light on the situation." "This is obviously some sort of spell designed to cause the humans to turn against one another, to allow someone to do something else while everyone is busy fighting one another," Theo said. He glanced over his shoulder at the body tangled in the brush. "I'm unsure how the other element you mentioned plays into this. Perhaps it's a normal psychological reaction to being submitted to such rage for so long. In any case, I cannot counteract the spell, not without knowing what the exact casting was." "Fair enough," Harlan said, "Perhaps it's best that the lot of us stick together, hm? Find out what's going on and what we can do about it." "We were going to go pay a visit to Rook's castle," Julia said. "It's a sure bet that if there's someone inside, they're behind this." "Fine, then," Harlan agreed. "Since we've just come from that way, hopefully we can take you on a path that's safe to travel. It will take at least a day and a half to reach the Land of Fear, and we will need to remain protected when we stop to rest." A FEW HOURS LATER Gina looked up to see Harlan regarding her. "Forgive me," he said when he noticed her gaze. "I was trying to understand your magical protector device, nothing more." "My..?" she said. "Oh, you mean the force-field?" "If it is not magic, then how do you make it function?" "Subatomic particles and hyper-charged ions," she said. "This latest version uses an antigravity generator to throw a sphere of those particles up around me--and/or anything within 2.1 meters of me--and will repel anything, including magic attacks. (Added that part after our LAST trip to Jade.)" "I will pretend I understood at least part of that," Harlan smiled. "Sorry," Gina said. "I tend to forget that not everyone is as versed in high- technology as me. ..It's a scientific thing." "I see," he nodded. "There are a few on Jade that try to balance science with magic.. they are in the minority, which is why scientific solutions aren't as obvious to us as they would be to you." "Technomages?" Gina wondered aloud. "Beg pardon?" "Oh.. nothing," she said. "Just thinking out loud." "It does look formidable, though." "Thanks," Gina smiled. "It keeps me safe." "That's right--you're an adventurer too, am I right?" Gina looked at him. "Your mother has always talked about you," he explained. "Told me of your, to use her word, 'exploits'." Gina smiled. "You've known her for a while, I take it?" Harlan smiled as well, tossing his head back to look at the sky. "It must be fourteen or fifteen years, now.. we--meaning Rico and I and our band of men-- came across her one day as she was making her escape from the Dunca Mines, up north. She came bursting out of the shaft just as we happened by, with NINE cavers and a couple of wolves hot on her heels. She was fighting them all bravely, and despite the fact she was surrounded, faring pretty well, I might add. She had a fierce devotion about her, as if she wanted to do it on her own, as if she carried a very 'loner' attitude with her for some reason. Still, I was young and impetuous at the time, and figured she'd need some help.. so the lot of us joined the fray. For a few moments, I wasn't sure who she wanted to fight more--the cavers, or us for assuming she'd need our assistance." Gina laughed quietly as Harlan carried on. "In any case, after we'd all put down the beasts, we were properly introduced, and as it turned out, she DID need a hand after all." Gina blinked. "You're serious? There was something there that Mom couldn't handle?" "Yes," Harlan said with a grin, "the spoils of her victory. There was no way she was going to be able to haul off by herself the stash the cavers had been guarding.. so, after agreeing on a seventy-thirty split--the larger part to her, naturally--the lot of us went back into the Mines and collected our reward." This time, Gina laughed out loud. "That's an impressive cache," Rico nodded to Brianna. "Like it?" she said, reaching up and removing the shotgun/rifle from its over- the-shoulder holster. "They're all of my own design." "I gathered," he answered her. "I guess you might've figured out I'm intrigued by your projectile weapons--from Earth, I mean. We most often use sword and staff here." "Really?" Brianna said. "Well, we do resort to pugilism sometimes as well," he shrugged, punching the air ahead of him, "but that's been basically banned, what with the curse." "Uh-huh," she said. "Normally I carry a lot more than this, and wear a suit of armor, but we hadn't expected to be gearing up for a fight. Gina and I just stopped by mom and dad's place after shopping." "You should always be prepared for anything," Rico said. "Tell me about it," Brianna nodded. "Usually I am, but this was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing." "Tell me more of these devices," Rico asked, indicating her guns. "Well," she said, hefting the long gun again, "this here's a combination plasma thrower/pulse rifle, with over-under"--she racked the slide once--"forty millimeter grenade launchers. Here, feel the weight." Rico held the rifle in his hands; to Brianna, he looked like Jade's answer to Rambo. "Well balanced," he said with a nod. "Sturdy, firm handgrips too. You know your weapons well." "Might say I was born into it," she smirked, surprised she could joke about it. "Anyway, that's my loud talker for today. This's just a backup." She extracted her GyroJet from its shoulder-holster. "Some, like my sister, say it's overkill," she shrugged, "but I'd much rather be accused of overkill than getting stuck without a way to defend myself." "I agree," Rico said. "Harlan often has the same things to say about me, when we prepare for a large battle. Like you, we too were caught unawares by this situation, and only had time to bring our swords." "Well, I think we've all got enough to handle anything anyone can throw at us," Brianna said with a grin. "No sweat." Brianna looked up just as Rico did; a pair of lone crazies were rushing the party, one headed for Rico, the other towards Gina. Rico used the flat of his blade to knock the one into the other, both of whom slammed off of Gina's force field and, despite being stunned, ran off in a random direction once more. "This, now this is unreal," she said, gesturing to the two departing people. "I mean, I'd always heard of these sort of things happening in movies and such, but to see it up close, it's.." "Madness," Rico agreed soberly. "Almost as mad as they themselves are." The day passed without great fanfare, unless you count the fact that they were a day closer to reaching the land formerly known as Rook's domain; they chose a spot to camp for the night, and under the protection of Gina's force-field, they all allowed themselves a few minutes to relax. "Before I forget again," Julia spoke up, directing her words to Harlan and Rico, seated around the other side of the fire from her, "thank you for your help." "Thank YOU," Harlan nodded. He looked at Dr. Diggers. "I know it is unusual for a warrior to seek so much assistance from a mage, but.." "But these are extenuating circumstances," Theo nodded. "I understand. Think nothing of it." They chatted for a while longer, remembering old times, and exchanging old "war stories" between Julia, Harlan, and Rico, entertaining all the rest of them; then, as the talk dwindled down, someone remembered that all the people they were reminiscing about were now deranged and rampaging all over Jade. That effectively killed the talking for the night; everyone except Rico went to sleep, as he took the first watch in case any attacks came. THE NEXT DAY They were on the way again, with Rook's tower almost in sight now, yet still on the horizon. To pass the time, they all chatted about who they thought was involved. "It would have to be a mid-level mage," Brod supplied. "If this indeed is a spell or enchantment, that is. It appears to completely take over one's mind, yet requires contact to be passed on. The first part indicates to me that he who cast the spell knows what they are doing. The latter, though.." "I was thinking of that same thing," Theodore told the troll. "Relying on that method of transfer indicates, to me, that the mage doesn't possess the highest skills. It's an odd combination." "Are there any mages left that have been known to lend themselves out to evil purposes?" Julia asked. "That's a good question," Tark piped up. "There WERE some rogues around, but those that we've seen of late have become afflicted with the curse when they were caught unawares." If Theo had any negative reaction to that, he didn't show it. "So.. any other ideas?" he said. "What about who's in charge?" Julia said. "Harlan, is Drak still around?" Harlan looked surprised, slightly. "Drak? As in Rook's old henchman?" "That's the one," Julia nodded. "Or Collen, or Dorn, or Spence.. they were all pretty cozy to Rook's way of doing things. After I got rid of him, maybe one-- or MORE--of them decided to pick up where he left off." "Are you certain Rook is gone?" Rico asked Julia. "Like I said earlier, unless he's found a way to separate his own molecules from those in a stone wall in his tower, no," she shook her head. "Shall we work on the assumption that it's one of the people we've mentioned, then?" Harlan asked. "Sounds fair to me," Julia said. "Then we should all put our heads together and review what we can about our experiences with those people," Harlan added, "to prepare for what may come." Later that morning, everyone turned to regard Gina as she began to emit a beeping sound. "Jinkies!" she exclaimed. "Battery's going dead--we need to stop so I can change it." "Very well," Theo said. "Everyone form a perimeter and prepare for anything." "Ready, Gina," Brianna called out a few moments later. "Okay," Gina said. "It's coming down.. now." The bluish-grey globe that had shimmered around Gina and the rest for more than a day suddenly faded away to nothing. She knelt, removing her backpack to get the spare battery out; she took a few items off her belt, too, to extract the nearly-dead one. As expected, attackers came out of the woodwork just then. It became a free- for-all, as each defender had at least one foe to deal with, and in some cases, two. They battled for about thirty seconds before the attackers noticed one another and fought amongst themselves as well; in a moment, the defenders had only one or two left to deal with, as the rest of the fight had turned against itself and moved on. Still, one or two stayed around to get hacked and hammered by our heroes. Bri' looked up and gasped. "SIS!" she bit out quickly, but not quickly enough; Gina looked up just in time to get bowled over by one of the attackers. Everyone stood in abject horror for a moment; the only sounds were of Gina shouting in surprise at the assault, and Julia calling Gina's name in a choked voice. Still everyone remained in shock as Gina lay still, letting the man pummel her; then, without warning, he was thrown through the air and into the trunk of a tree as her force field reactivated. "Gina!" Tark said with relief. "We thought you were--" Tark cut himself off as Gina turned towards him. Her face was twisted into a look that conveyed that she'd come truly unhinged. With a ferocious grin and laugh, she rushed him, and he dodged, more out of reflex than necessity. She didn't reverse course to come back at him; in fact, she carried on in a straight line, heading off into the woods, laughing evilly all the way. Theo had to restrain Julia, of course. "GINA!" she cried out, only held back by Theo because somewhere inside she couldn't bring herself to use her fighting skills to break his grip. "Julia!" Theo protested. "There's nothing we can do for her right now!" "We can PROTECT her! And we can protect others FROM her!" Julia shot back. "Mom," Brianna cut in loudly, "Gina's force field's good for another few hours--I know for a fact her spare batteries needed recharging too--so nobody's going to get to her. Furthermore, she dropped her only gun"--Brianna held the weapon up--"and she's probably not going to get far against the likes of creatures on Jade using her bare hands. Am I right?" "Who knows, with that blasted curse overpowering her?!" Julia said, throwing her arms wide in protest. "She could be--" "Julia," Theo interrupted, "you KNOW that Brianna's right. Our best bet is to carry on and find the cure, then return for Gina and return her to normal once her force-field drops again." "How will we know where to find her if we don't follow her?!" Julia asked. Brianna looked inspired. "Hold that thought," she said. She slipped her pack off her shoulders and reached into it. "I'd forgotten I reprogrammed these ones," she declared, extracting a Peebo. She set it on the ground and, crouching down, spoke at it. "Peebo, command mode," she said. "Peebo!" it answered her. "Inert the charge." "Confirmed," it said with a hint of dejection in its voice. "Follow mode." "Subject?" "Gina." "Confirmed." "Go!" "Weee!!" the device squealed as it raced off into the forest, following Gina's trail. Everyone simply stared after it, except Brianna, of course, who stood up and smiled. "That should take care of that," she said. "I just hope Gina stays out of trouble." "As do we all," Theo said. "Let us carry on." "Theo--" "Julia, we HAVE to," he said. "It's the only way we can help Gina." She finally relented. "Then let's do it," she said tiredly. They carried on walking, for another hundred meters or so; almost immediately thereafter, four people leapt from the bushes and encircled the group. "I should've known," the apparent leader said. "A mage in league with some non-humans. Dorn was right to send us here to finish you!" "Identify yourself," Theodore said. "I am Voal," the man in the armor nodded, performing an overelaborate bow. "I--" "Voal??" Julia blinked in surprise. "You used to be one of Rook's servants. How does it feel to rise to the rank of expendable peon?" "You don't scare me, not even with your insults," Voal said. "We will have you in no time at all." Julia was again dumbfounded. "You don't RECOGNIZE me?" she said. "Why, should I?" he sneered back. She spun her sword in the air. "Did the legend of Julia Brigand ever make it down to the servants' quarters in Rook's fortress?" she said slowly. "You are not Brigand," Voal scoffed. Julia looked at Theo, then Harlan and Rico; all three shrugged. "Do tell," she told Voal. "I may not be Brigand any more, since my name became Julia Diggers, but I am still the same armsmaster I used to be." she reminded herself. "You cannot be Brigand! She is much taller than you! At least nine feet tall, and able to take on a pack of nightstalkers without batting an eye; able to.." He trailed off as Julia began to nod. "Seems the legends were slightly flawed in your neck of the woods--at least, the nine-feet-tall part." She readied her sword and aimed it at Voal. "Now. You are in the way of me getting what I need to save my daughter. Will you step aside, or be cut down?" Voal was about to respond when a rumbling sound erupted from behind Julia and her group. Voal looked, and saw nothing; Julia and the others picked up on it and looked behind them, hearing the sound but also unable to see where it was coming from. Abruptly, a stampede of fifty or more enraged humans crested the hill, rushing at the two parties. "Look out!" Brianna exclaimed, drawing her rifle. "No!" Theo protested, holding a hand up in her direction, while still keeping an eye on the approaching mob. "Be CERTAIN that Gina's not in with them before you fire!" "Don't worry," she answered, as the others readied themselves too. "It's in Stun Mode--" She lowered the rifle, raised it to look through the sight again, then pulled it away from her eye one more time. "The ones in front," she said with a puzzled tone. "They're not--" "RUN!" the people in question shouted as they neared the group. "Save yourselves!" So, in actual fact, there were two mobs; one of about forty berserked people and one of ten or so sane ones, who were trying their best to stay that way. One woman stopped just before Brianna. "What are you doing?!" she hollered. "You've got to escape before there's no more time!" "Too late!" a man cackled, jumping her; Brianna stepped back, gasping, as the woman fell with the man atop her, scuffling and screaming for a moment before the woman got up and continued the rampage the man had been doing. The woman ran off in the direction of Voal's men, and Brianna ignored that for the moment as she looked at the man that'd slammed into the woman. He was in a crumpled heap where he'd landed, and he appeared to be sobbing softly. In a moment, he curled up into a ball. Brianna looked up, at the other attackers that had rushed into their midst; those who'd made contact with unaffected people (luckily, no one in the Diggers' party) were now lying on the ground, either unconscious or emotionally destroyed. The remainder steamed right through, as seemed to be the norm with the curse, and went after Voal and his men. "This should be interesting," Julia said when she could turn to watch. "Wonder if it'll affect undead warriors." "Voal's undead?" Rico asked. Julia shook her head. "No, just his cronies. Voal's toast." The group watched the bizarre proceedings; still a few of the innocents were fleeing, and ignored Voal and the others as they sped through. In an instant, the attackers were upon Voal's party. The undead didn't appear to be affected, although they fought like they were insane--the three of them had to deal with at least half-a-dozen attackers at once. In no time, they were down to the ground, unable to defend themselves in any way. Meanwhile, another section of the attacking force had rushed Voal. "NO!" he hollered. "Get back!" He drew his sword, but it was too late; he crashed to the ground under the force of several assaults, losing his blade in the process. "Be ready," Harlan warned. "If he survives, he might head this way." He didn't; he got up and raced after the mob of as-yet-unharmed innocents, catching up in no time and pummeling a young man into the ground. Then he collapsed to the ground, as had all the others who'd transferred their part of the curse on to someone else. The area was littered with weeping souls. Julia sprinted forward. "I've got an idea," she said, carefully stepping among the teary-eyed former maniacs to get to Voal. She knelt beside him, deciding not to touch him, for she didn't know if he was still contagious or not. She barked out, "Voal! Look at me! Can you hear me?" He didn't stop crying, but he inclined his head and presented his face to Julia. "Yes," he sobbed. "Good. What you are going to do now is tell me EXACTLY what's going on and who did this, and where we can find them.." FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER The party continued on their way to the fortress after Voal had verified their hunches. "Dorn," Harlan shook his head. "I should have known." "How so?" Brod asked. "Some warriors came around a few months ago--probably including that hopeless wreck back there," Harlan explained, jerking a thumb in the direction of where they'd left Voal--"and tried to recruit other adventurers and warriors for what they said would be a new force to be reckoned with in Jade. It was painfully obvious that someone was setting up an army--and we should've realized it was Dorn. This smacks of his usual tricks--getting everyone else to do the dirty work for him. The fact he's using humans to lead legions of undead warriors probably means he didn't recruit as many as he'd hoped." "Speaking of which, can anybody see them?" Brianna asked, peering into the distance. "I mean, the undead guys and their attackers--are they ahead of or behind us?" "Unless the undead warriors were able to put down the attackers, I'd say they're still ahead of us," Rico contributed. "They know nothing more than fight and flee--and knowing the caliber of people Dorn and his kind deal with, I wouldn't put it past them to flee right back home, despite the fact that the bad guys are right on top of them." "I agree," Julia said. "With any luck, the insane ones'll do our work for us, and all we'll have to do is grab Kirak, threaten him a bit, and then go start saving people. Gina first." She added after a moment, "Brianna, can your device still tell where Gina is?" "It can," Brianna nodded, "but I don't have any screen or anything like that to track it on. What I'll do is, once we get the mage, I'll set one of my remaining two Peebos to take us back to where we last saw Gina. Then I'll have him point us in the right direction to find her." "So you can't tell if anything's happening to her right now?" "No," Brianna shook her head, "but I'm sure she's okay." "I hope you're right." They all looked up; the cliffs that the tower sat upon loomed above them. "Well," Julia said in a determined voice, "Let's see if I can do this one more time." There was no need; the magic-users were able to lift the lot of them up using levitation and wind-gust spells. In moments, the group was at the front door, unchallenged. "Not as heavily protected as when Rook was here, that's for sure," Julia said. "Still, keep your guard up," Rico said. "I get a very bad feeling about this place." "I think you're supposed to," Brianna pointed out, looking up to the ghastly- arranged superstructure of the tower. "Don't worry about Rico," Harlan said dismissively with a smile. "He always says that. But do heed his warnings--I get the same feeling he does." They looked up at the strong, massive outer doors of the tower, closed quite firmly and looking very sturdy. "So is it worth our while to try here, or should we find some other way in?" someone asked. "No time for anything else," Julia said, still in the same flat, angry voice she'd used since Gina had been attacked. She rushed for the door and started attacking the wood with her sword. Everyone was surprised, but moved to help; it wasn't working that well, as if they were trying to whittle a tree down to use as a toothpick, with a penknife. Theo had a fireball prepared, hoping the tower wasn't fortified against magic attacks, when suddenly Brianna edged past him, holding something in her hand. "Everyone get back!" she shouted. They did, and she crouched down and set the object on the ground. "Do me proud!" she said, and it was only then that the others realized she'd let one of her Peebos loose. "Peebo!" it proclaimed, speeding for the door. "Fire in the hole!" Brianna yelled, and then ducked and covered her head. BWAAAMMMM! It took nearly five seconds for the shrapnel and smoke to clear, and then they found themselves with a vaguely door-shaped hole in the wall. "And you sent one of these after Gina?" Tark wondered. "Don't worry, I safetied the Semtex in that one," she said, rushing forward. "Let's go!" The group rushed forward again, aware that others were making their way in behind them, albeit at a distance. They hurried inside past the inner doors, pushing the tall, heavy doors shut after them. "Where now?" Brod asked. "This way, I think," Julia said, pointing to the right. It was the logical choice--the other direction had only a few chambers and corridors, but the right held the majority of the tower itself. They headed off that way and started checking the rooms one-by-one. "I think some of the infected ones are getting inside," Mesha said, hearing the huge inner doors slam open mixed with shouts from that direction. "No matter," Theo said. "We must get to the mage's domain, down below, and find Kirak." "You do what you want," Julia said, brandishing her sword. "I'm going upstairs to find Dorn." "Hold it, hold it, hold it!" Brianna said, holding up her hands. "Let's just split up and hit both places at once, okay?" "I'm staying with Julia," Rico declared. "Dorn might have some guards left." "And if Kirak resists, Dr. Diggers may need some backup," Mesha said. "We'll go with him." "I agree," Harlan nodded, moving towards the large stone steps. "Brianna?" "Coming," she said, joining the two adventurers and her mother. "Be careful," Brod told them as he, Mesha, and Tark joined Dr. Diggers in searching for the stairs going down. It wasn't a short climb, as Julia well knew from her last visit; the spiral staircase held lots of hidden traps and pitfalls--in some cases, literally--and on top of all that, more than once the foursome rounded a corner to come face- to-face with a guard. In one particular instance, just after Brianna had cooked a pair of bats by pumping plasma into them for more than ten seconds straight, a swordsman leapt down five or six stairs to land right in the middle of the group. Harlan and Rico tried to double-team him, but he leapt again and ended up right before Julia. "You probably don't remember me," he said to her, brandishing his sword. "And don't care," Julia countered, pointing her sword at the man. "Or, as my daughter would say, the Give-A-Damn Meter isn't registering." "We last met right here," he went on, "in this very part of the tower. You bullied me into retreat, but under Dorn's rule, I cannot fail!" Julia grinned and readied her sword. "Wanna bet?" Theo and the others had found the proper staircase, and they were descending, perhaps a little too quickly in some cases. Mesha was in front, for whatever reason, and suddenly dropped straight down. Brod reached out and grabbed her by the collar as she screamed, saving her from whatever lay down there. As Brod picked her back up, getting a thankyou which he acknowledged, Theodore cast a spell to negate the obvious cloaking that was there. Six of the stairs vanished, revealing a deep spike-filled pit underneath. "Perhaps we should slow down," Tark said, eyeing the bloody points in the pit. "Agreed," Dr. Diggers said. The four of them made it over the chasm and carried on. Up and down the stairs Julia's party battled, thankfully going more up than down; in a short while they were on a landing that Julia knew to be only a couple stories below the top, where Rook's chambers had been. "NOW I remember you," Julia grinned as she put the image of her foe and the image of the corridor she was in together, and matched it to a corresponding image in her memory. "And you didn't retreat, you ran away." Julia reflected. "I've learned a lot since then," the swordsman countered. "I've become a lot more skilled." "Honey, that's pronounced 'stupider'," Julia said, taking a swing. It nicked him on the arm. Suddenly Harlan, Rico, and Brianna were helping Julia to surround her quarry; it appeared that the other three had dealt with their enemies already. "You might be able to fare marginally well against one of us," Harlan said, aiming his sword at the villain, "but all four?" "Give up now," Brianna said. "This isn't fair!" came the protest. "Four against one?!" "You visited that upon me last time we did battle, I recall," Julia smirked. "Besides, this isn't a sanctioned duel or a contest," Rico added. "There are no rules." "The wisest thing you could do," Harlan finished, "is run away." After a moment, the swordsman screamed in frustration and headed down the stairs. Julia laughed, as did Harlan and Rico. Brianna got Julia's attention and pointed a bit down the corridor. Julia walked over, the others following, and she stood and smirked at the two armored hands protruding from the wall. "Still hanging around, eh, Rook?" she said. THAT VERY SAME MOMENT Theo and the others arrived at a door that belonged in a dungeon. "This is it?" Tark wondered. "This is where Voal specified.." Theo trailed off. He found the door locked, and was about to try a spell on it when Brod stepped forward. "Save your magic for the real battle," the troll said, putting his massive fist against the door. In a few seconds, the door was a memory, and the foursome were inside what appeared to be an uninhabited room. "We can feel you, Kirak," Theo called out. "We know you're in here. Show yourself." No response. "You're finished, Kirak--others are converging on Dorn even now, and if he goes down without you, you alone will be held responsible for what's happened here." A window on the left wall started to droop, then melt, the sky outside falling with it. It ran into a thin column of what looked like fluid, which heaped on the floor as if it were sand in an hourglass, reconstituting into the elderly man. "You say you're going to finish off that runty little phony?" Kirak said with vigor. "This was Rook's old chamber," Julia whispered to the other three, while they all approached a heavy door at the end of a wide hallway. Two guardposts on each side of the door were empty, which was hopefully a good sign. "Let's do it," Harlan said. They ran for the door, letting Rico go first to open it. He did much as Brod had downstairs, except with his shoulder and all his weight behind it. The door and hinges separated and fell forward, and the foursome spilled into the room, weapons drawn. Dorn leapt to his feet, ready to have the head of whomever had entered his domain. He was surprised to see who was there. "Well, well, well," Julia smiled. "Look what the rat dragged in." They went into battle without a word; Julia and Dorn were at each other immediately. The others were moving in to assist, but guards rushed in from doorways and engaged them promptly. Rico looked up from knocking out his foe to see another rushing in to take his place; on the other side of the room, Julia was beating Dorn back into a side room. "You should've learned the lesson when Rook was done in," Julia said, the words coming out in a ragged stream because of her jabs and slashes at Dorn. "Rook was a joke," Dorn shot back. "He thought he was something special, but he was just a walking joke in a suit of armor." Julia easily dodged a couple of Dorn's attacks. "In that case, you're not even a joke--you're nothing but a punchline." "And you'll be my punching BAG," Dorn hollered, looking to run Julia through. She stepped aside, turned to face Dorn, and stood there with a screwed-up look on her face. "That was AWFUL!" she said. "Come to think of it, both your attack and your desperate attempt at a put-down were hopeless!" "It's unfortunate that you'll leave this mortal coil in such a foul mood," he sneered at her. "There! THAT one was better," she said, rushing and engaging him once more. The others looked up to see Julia and Dorn come crashing into the main room again. They were unable to assist, though, because they were all still busy waging battles of their own. Julia could sense she was wearing Dorn down; his moves had become less fluid, and he had left one or two openings here and there. She hoped she could finish it before her back acted up. "Dorn, you've committed a series of grave errors," she said. "One, you've tried to reinstate Rook's reign of terror, something I cannot allow." They clashed; Dorn was too busy to talk now, having to concentrate fully on his defense. "Two: You've taken my homeland and turned it into your personal slave camp. THAT I cannot let go unpunished." Dorn faltered, leaving himself wide open; Julia put a boot to his torso and sent him falling onto his backside. She moved up and stepped on his wrist. "And three, and the most serious: You have come between a mother and her daughter." She held her sword high. "That I can never forgive!" At that very moment, Dorn smiled. "Perhaps another time, then, woman," he said with an annoyingly mocking tone, and faded away, out of sight. Julia looked around in surprise, realizing that the others had just finished off their own battles and were coming to help her--the only problem being that Dorn had vanished. "Was he a magic-user?" Harlan wondered. "Not as far as I knew," Julia began to growl, then turned to look as a teleportation spell took shape in another corner of the room. She recognized the shapes of Brod, Mesha, Tark, Theo, and another person. "What happened to Dorn?" Theo wanted to know. "He vanished," Julia said, "no doubt by the hand of Kirak." "I am Kirak," the newcomer said, "and I would just as soon teleport Dorn into infinity as save him from a painful demise. He must have done it by himself." "Then he's gone?" Julia asked. "He's gone," Kirak nodded. "He always vowed that he'd leave us all here to fend for ourselves at the first sign of trouble." "What a coward," Brianna exclaimed. "Never mind that," Julia cut in. "Can you reverse the spell you cast over Jade?" "As I said to your husband, yes," Kirak said. "However, there are two things. First, the spell, as it is designed, can only affect a small area or group of people. I have plenty of reserves with which to return Jade's population to their normal state of mind, but I must travel in order to do it." "And the second thing?" "I'm sure that you've witnessed all stages of the effect the spell has on people by now. I can only counteract it efficiently--meaning with enough reserves to cover all of Jade--if the people are in the zombielike final phase. Otherwise, it takes too much energy. But most everyone in Jade should be at that stage by now anyway, so that shouldn't be a concern." "Let's not waste any time, then," Theodore said. A few hours passed while they meandered about the northern half of eastern Jade, giving everyone that still survived their sanity back. Dr. Diggers was able to learn the spell with little difficulty, and assisted in the 'clean-up'. The others set out to find Gina, and find her they did, sans force-field, blasting out into a clearing abruptly. She seemed to recognize them, yet gave them an evil grin as well. Rico and Harlan put up their swords to protect the group. "Don't you dare harm her," Julia warned them. "Keep her from injuring us or herself, but if either of you draws an ounce of blood--" "Julia," Harlan said quietly, keeping his eye on Gina as the three circled back and forth in a pre-fight size-up, "just.. relax." "Go find the mages," Rico suggested, but Julia didn't move anywhere. She called out to Gina, trying to get her to snap out of it, to no avail. "What we need to do is get the rage out of her," Mesha said, as Tark ran off to get Theo. "Then maybe she'll just lie down and rest like all the others did." Harlan looked to the unconscious bodies littering the landscape around them. "Someone help me," he said. "We're going to pick one of these already-cured people and make Gina collide with him." "No," Brianna said calmly, quietly, just before they picked up the man. Harlan looked over his shoulder. "'No'?" Brianna gestured to herself. "Me." Everyone stopped and stared. Julia looked from Brianna to Harlan and back several times, to see if they were going to allow her to do it. "I'm the only sensible choice," Brianna explained when no one else would say anything. She faced Rico again. "It'd be too dangerous for you, Harlan, or Mom to take it, 'cause they'd just go all homicidal.. and it won't affect Brod or Mesha, 'cause they're non-human." She stepped forward. "And I'm PARTLY non-human. So I might be able to take it, yet control it. So.. let's get on with it." Brod was suddenly in her path. "No," he said, "I cannot let you put yourself in danger." To everyone's surprise, including Brianna's, Julia was instantly in between Brod and Brianna. "Brod," she said slowly, hand on her sword, "do NOT make me do this." Brod eyed the small but powerful human before him. "Forgive me, Julia. I do not want to see BOTH your daughters come to harm." "Nor do I," Julia said, looking over her shoulder at Brianna and then edging aside, "but I don't think we've got a choice." Brianna nodded. Without another word, she walked up to Gina and bearhugged her. Both girls stood stiffly for a moment, trembling; then Gina sagged, and Brianna released her unceremoniously to collapse to the ground in a heap. Brianna looked down and gave a scoffing sort of sound. Then she stepped back two paces and held her hands out from her sides, looking concerned, even starting to sweat. "umm.." "Brianna?" Julia said. "m..maybe someone should get these guns away from me.. right now.." she said in a tiny voice, looking down to the twin shoulder-holsters and the backslung shotgun. "..and.. and find kirak.. or my dad, fast.." "Are you all right?" Harlan asked out of concern. "DON'T TALK TO ME!" she shouted angrily. "DON'T SAY ANYTHING! I don't think I can hold this in much longer! Just get EVERYTHING away from me!!" Mesha rushed in to carefully remove Brianna's weapons from her possession. Rico bent down to inspect Gina. Just as Mesha was about to start, Brianna leaned away, snap-kicking a medium- sized tree, which broke into two pieces. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" she roared at Rico. "She's still highly susceptible to spoken commands--anything you say will become an overriding edict in her mind!" Mesha, though she wasn't in danger of becoming infected with the enchantment, was nervous as she plucked Brianna's armaments away from her. "Pockets too, dammit!" Bri' snapped as Mesha stepped away with only the three guns. "Get EVERYTHING!" Mesha said, "I'm sorry, I hadn't thought of that.. you didn't mention--" "I shouldn't've HAD TO!" Brianna shot back. "Can't you do ANYTHING right?" Mesha elected to shut up; she felt hurt, even though she knew it was the enchantment talking. While Mesha carried on, so did Brianna, in a low mutter: "Damn.. they talk about going postal.. hell, that's nothing compared to this.. this is postal, courier-al, pony-express-al, and bloody freight-train-al all rolled into one.." "Finished," Mesha said, backing quickly away. "Where the hell is that wizard?!" Brianna bit out. She went over to the tree she'd demolished and started ripping the limbs off of its fallen trunk. "Brianna--" Julia said. "Don't!" Bri' answered, furiously decimating the wood. "If I don't do this, I'm liable to come do it to one of you!" Suddenly Kirak burst through the forest with Tark and Dr. Diggers. "Everyone, back!" Kirak exclaimed, and magical energy leapt from his hands towards Gina and Brianna. Both girls seemed to shiver for a moment, and then black apparitions floated up into the sky above them and dissolved into nothingness. Gina lay unconscious; Brianna also lay nearby, breathing heavily, staring up into the sky at the demon that had just left her. After a moment, Bri' sat up and put her hands on the sides of her head, and her elbows on her bent knees, and sat there silently looking at the ground. Someone approached and put a hand on her shoulder, and she batted it away before resuming her previous position. "Are you all right?" the person said. Brianna looked up to see Mesha there. She began to nod, then instead shook her head and set it down again. "It's all right--" Mesha began, but Dr. Diggers cut her off. "Mesha, she's obviously overwhelmed," he whispered to the elf. "Let her be." "I haven't felt that way since I was born," Brianna said in a voice muffled by the fact she was still basically sitting with her head between her knees. "Like my.. 'old self'.. was coming back, and.. LIKED.. what she saw." Kirak looked at Dr. Diggers, wearing an apologetic expression. After a moment, he said, "Um.. Theodore.. I know it's not a good time, but.. we have to finish this." Theo slowly nodded. "You're right." He knelt beside Brianna. "Will you be okay?" "I.. think I'm just gonna sit here for a while," she said, her voice still small and trembling. "I need to take a break." She gestured to Gina. "And someone needs to watch her until she wakes up." "I understand," Dr. Diggers said. "When you're ready to move on, just go to the Observatory. We'll meet you there." Brianna, biting her lip, nodded slightly. Theo patted her shoulder as he stood up. He and the others walked away slowly. "Thank you, Brianna," Mesha called out. "You did well." "Commendable," Rico agreed. Brianna turned her head away, but held up a hand briefly, to acknowledge them; then, as they disappeared into the woods, she sat there, elbows on knees, and hands balled up into interlocked fists in front of her mouth, doing nothing but staring, teary-eyed, at her unconscious sister. ONE DAY LATER "Thank you, Dr. Diggers," Tark said, as the entire group was gathered in the observatory to see the Diggers clan off. "We couldn't have succeeded without your help." "I'm glad I was able to," Theo responded. He turned to Kirak. "And I hope we never have to see the likes of this again." Kirak shrugged, as if he didn't care. "Not from me, you won't. And you wouldn't have in the first place, if I'd known Dorn was such a pushover." "Were you able to find any of your men?" Julia asked Harlan quietly. He sighed. "Four," he said. "They all remember their experiences, and say that three of the other six are indeed dead, and the remaining three are simply missing. In any case, it'll take a long time to rebuild." I wish you two the best of luck," she told the two men, slapping a hand on the shoulder of each. "Stay out of trouble.. or, if you can't do that, be in only trouble that you can handle." Rico smiled. "And you." "And visit Earth some time," Julia went on. "I think you'll like it." "How are you feeling?" Brianna was asking Gina, off in the corner. "Okay," Gina nodded. "A little tired still, but okay." "Probably the effects of being so wound up like that," Brianna said. "Do you remember any of it?" "All of it," Gina said, nodding again. "I was conscious of my actions all the time." "So what did you go do, after we left you?" "Well.. like Kirak said, the more you fight it, the angrier you get.." "Uh-huh.." "So, at first, I was fighting it, and before I knew it, I'd beaten three other infected people senseless. It was one of the hardest things I'd ever done, but I.. relaxed and let it take hold.. and it seemed to settle down. I was content with some collateral damage for a while, but I knew you guys were coming back for me.. so I wanted to keep myself near where I got infected.. and I started fighting it again." "But after a while, I figured out how to manage it," she added. "I mean, still it wasn't OK, but I was able to control my resistance to it just enough. I could keep myself from roaming too far, but I ended up killing a bunch of wildlife in the process." Neither sibling said anything for a moment. Then, Gina went on: "Thank you. Thanks for everything you did. I wanted so much to help you, but if I did, I probably would've hurt you instead." "I understand," Brianna nodded. "It's okay." "Brianna," Mesha said as she approached, "Can I have a word with you for a moment?" "Sure," Bri' responded. "Um.. in private." Brianna looked up. "Oh," she finally said, following Mesha as the latter entered her and Tark's room and shut the door. Mesha sat down in a chair and gestured to the bed; Brianna perched on its edge. "What's up?" "I.. haven't returned quite everything to you that I removed from your possession while you were under the spell," Mesha said. Brianna was puzzled until Mesha held up a closed fist. Brianna's hands went to the pockets of her jeans, and her eyes widened as she watched Mesha open her hand. "Where did you get this?" Mesha asked quietly. "It's.. it's a long story, Mesha," Brianna began, but Mesha ran her over. "This is part of a clay golem," Mesha said in slow, careful tones. "There are only a handful of places you can get this, and Jade is one of them. You didn't get it here, I don't think--so you must have gotten it from somewhere else, perhaps from someone who HAS been to a place such as Jade." Bri' relented, and told Mesha about the events that transpired during Brit's wedding. Mesha looked surprised, to say the least. However, she held out her hand nonetheless; Brianna reached out and took the puzzle-piece-shaped fragment of clay and held it for a moment. "Golems can be very dangerous in the wrong hands, even if they don't appear to be--as you found out," Mesha said. "I just felt I should warn you of that." "Thanks," Brianna said. "I understand." "You're STILL going to try to find a way to resurrect it, aren't you? I can hear it in your voice." Brianna kept quiet for a moment, wondering how to answer. "What are you planning to do?" Mesha wondered. "I am serious, Brianna, this could be a very--" "Nothing, Mesha," Bri' finally said. "Nothing like that. My reasons are good, but I'd rather not explain them quite yet." She slipped the piece into her pocket, as if to end the conversation. Mesha regarded her for a long moment. "Very well," she said. "But I hope you are prepared for what you might find." Bri' said to herself, feeling her internal organs flutter again like they did when she first saw Raphiel. Not much later, they were all in the central part of the observatory again, ready to go home. "Ohmygod," Gina blurted out, "I just realized something." "What?" several people said at once, still wary of Gina's behavior after her ordeal. She directed to her father, "I don't suppose we'll be getting back home the same moment we left, will we?" He eyed her. "No, we've been gone for several days, no matter what dimension we're in." Her expression sank. "Ohhh, nooo.." came her voice faintly. "What's the problem?" Julia asked. Gina turned to Brianna in response. "The car's going to be RUINED," she said with a tone of despair. Brianna's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she realized what Gina meant. "You're the one driving," Brianna said. "No way," Gina shot back. "I'm gonna be too busy keeping my head out the window so I can breathe." "Forget that," Brianna said. "I don't need the car at all--I can RUN home." "Oh yeah, rub it in," Gina said as the four of them disappeared into the dimension-door. END