FanFic: Dark Forces - Complete

[Kupi]

Well, here it is. My second fanfic. A poll that probably sank into the pits of obscurity long ago nigh-unanimously named this fic as the one to write, so here it is. Enjoy, and let's hope the next chapter doesn't take as long to finish. ^_^()

***

Four human forms marched rhymically, if uncoordinatedly, into a thin, stony cavern.

"You're sure this is the place?" asked one.

In response, one of the others said, "This is where she got the reading before. But if you're not certain, then... 02, check your scanner again."

"Yes, Sir!" chirped a third form with unnatural cheerfulness. Her demeanor could be explained by the composition of her body: it was almost completely metallic, save for a few biological components where they could make her more efficient. One type of reading that could be made with more accuracy by living tissue than mechanical implements was taken as the lime-green android girl named, "oh-two," closed the structures that were made to look like eyes momentarily. When they reopened, she nodded her head. "Confirmed, Sir! I Am Getting A Force-Like Reading, Though Faint, Inside This Cave!"

The second form's lower eyelid twitched momentarily. "Remind me to turn down her perky level if we get back to the Pioneer 2," he groused.

"You mean when," corrected his counterpart.

"If."

The grumpier of the two figures beckoned his team onward with one of the handguns that he held in both hands. They were high-power firearms, designed to put as much firepower in the general area in front of them when the trigger was pulled as possible. Making sure the firepower actually struck what it was intended to was a nonissue with whomever had designed the guns. That decision suited the guns' bearer perfectly, as he had little concern for doing his job precisely. As long as what needed to happen happened as fast as it could be made to, he would be pleased. His body armor had been created with the same idea in mind; it covered the most essential parts of the body, but left anything nonessential exposed. Even the helmet was little more than a metal band that left his short black hair exposed. The armor, at least, could be excused by explaining that less bulk gave its bearer more freedom of movement. Appropriately, the man wearing the lightest armor advanced into the cavern at a much quicker pace than the others could keep.

"Rade! Slow down!" yelled the optimist even as he tried to quicken his pace, producing groans of protest from the plates covering his body. "Don't want to go up against it alone, do you?" As Rade, the gun-bearer, slowed to stop, the more armored of the two came to a matching halt. Accordingly, his armor ceased to raise its incessant complaints.

"We need to be careful," said the armored man with a chastising tone. "We don't know what this Force is capable of, and going up against it alone would be suicide."

"Stow the teamwork crap, Blaid," was the growled response. "I've been double-crossed enough to know that the only person I can trust is myself."

"Does that mean that you can't even trust the androids you built yourself?" asked the armored man, Blaid, while raising a quizzical eyebrow. He always did that sort of thing when trying to point out something that didn't seem to make sense.

Attempting to get the last word, Rade growled, "Not even them."

He wasn't allowed to have it. "They're programmed to obey you unswervingly. It would take a total reprogramming to turn them against you, and that can't happen unless you let it. So you do have someone you can trust unless you get careless."

Rade's left gun was suddenly pointing at Blaid's face. "Who do you want dead more, yourself or that Force?"

Even if his compatriot was wrong, Blaid was well aware that he was dealing with a man going through trying conditions, and had no desire to drag him any lower. "All right, all right, let's go get this overwith," he said, intentionally withholding a sage comment about the dangers of fighting within the team leading to failure on the battlefield. He and the others would just have to march a little faster, and there was little harm in that.

The last of the four figures, bringing up the rear, followed in stoic silence. He was the cause of the plural form of "androids." If the land rovers of old were to take on a humanoid form, this mechanical man would be the result. His shoulder joints, each nearly the size of his head, were placed at asymetrical levels on the torso. They were close enough to the same distance from the ground to avoid displeasing the eye, but too far apart for the android to be considered professionally made. Of course, the rest of his body was hardly professional-looking, either. The dull grey metal plates that composed the majority of his body practically seemed like they had been lifted from the junkyard and put together in whatever manner worked at the time. Appropriately, the hulk of a machine answered to the name, "oh-one." He hefted a large bowgun in both arms, which looked more like a seige weapon than something one would use on a search-and-destroy mission. 01 produced no sound except the heavy clunk of his boots on the stone floor.

The cave itself was deep, dark, blue, wet, and terribly uninteresting. The limited light provided by electric torches at each member of the party's shoulders offered them a limited glimpse of the area they were heading into; just far enough before them to react to any sudden dangers. Though their progress was impeded by the lighting and the dense stalactites and stalagmites, the group made remarkable time toward their goal by machine efficiency in the case of 01 and 02, stalwart determination in the case of Blaid, and unadulterated wrath in the case of Rade.

"Please Stop," chirped 02 at a significantly decreased volume. When the two humans looked at her, she explained, "The Force-Like Reading Is Just Beyond This Turn. I Suggest That We Prepare Our Weapons."

Blaid and Rade nodded in response. Rade's guns were already out, as they always were anywhere but the colony ship, but everyone else was in a state of unpreparedness. With an air of boredom, Rade said, "Alright, then... everyone, draw weapons."

01 snapped his shotgun's firing arrays out, 02 pulled the rifle in the sling on her back out of it, and Blaid drew a sword. It was a simply crafted sword about as long as his arm, made of a metal that shone even in the limited lighting. It had little to show off by doing so; at best, the weapon was an ancient saber that reflected light well. Rade stared at it incredulously.

"You're going to use THAT?!" he sputtered at last, and was almost immediately shushed by the blade's bearer.

"The Force is just around the corner!" said Blaid at a shouted whisper.

"Don't try to change the subject!" rasped Rade back. "I can't believe you're actually considering using that thing against a Force!"

"My father gave it to me. He always said this sword destroys evil spirits. I'm willing to bet any Force we'll be trying to kill is an evil spirit."

Rade clutched his head as if in pain. "I can't believe this! ...look, you! If it has a body, it's gonna die just as easily from a bullet as a stab wound, probably easier!"

"Forces have powers beyond the mortal body!"

Rade ground his teeth in frustration. Someday he'd find some subject on which this partner he'd just gotton was wrong, and never let him hear the end of it! "Fine! Just don't get in my line of fire!" There was a pause as Rade thought for a second. "Okay, get ready to turn your lighting units up to full blast. We'll blind it first, whatever it is, then decide what to do from there." Blaid nodded and raised his free hand to his shoulder, as did 01 and 02.

All four Force hunters turned the corner and flipped the switch they had readied. It was indeed a blinding blast of light, except that nobody was paying attention to it. Sprawled on the cave floor was a rather emaciated female figure. The four guns and one sword were all ready to attack at the slightest provocation. They didn't receive any.

"Cut the lights, but keep that thing visible," ordered Rade as he kept his handguns trained on the woman. "Looks like she's already dead..."

"No, she's breathing," answered Blaid.

"How can you tell?" wondered Rade. "You're barely even looking at her! Scared she's some kind've medusa or something?"

Indeed, the sword-wielder was only using his peripheral vision to view the unconscious woman. His only reply was, "She's naked. Not polite to stare."

Rade practically tore his short hair out. "I don't bloody care if she's naked! She's a Force, and by the looks of it, a newman, too! We're here to kill her, and that's what I intend to do!" Rade pulled the trigger on the left gun, but his aim was suddenly thrown off as Blaid yanked his arm upward and the plasma bolt struck the far wall. The newman was apparently unconscious enough to avoid being roused by the noise.

"We don't know that!" Blaid shouted at Rade angrily. "02 got a Force-LIKE reading, not a definitive Force reading! For all we know, this could be a hate-crime victim! Where's the justice in killing her then?"

Rade jerked his arm free of Blaid's grip and growled. "Fine! 02! Another reading! Close range and on-guard!"

02 dutifully marched up to the fallen newman, rifle in hand. She closed her eyes for several seconds, then reopened them and reported the findings. "The Reading Is Stronger Here Than Before, However, It Is Likely Due To The Increased Proximity. She Is Not A Force, Though She Is Something Close."

Blaid didn't say anything out of awareness that his personal safety was probably still threatened, if not by the sprawled woman on the floor.

Rade neither admitted nor denied anything. Instead, he ordered 02, "Check her vitals."

02's eyes traced the length of the newman's body. "All Body Functions Operational But Unstable, Sir." For a moment, the green android seemed to be confused, insomuch as a solid-steel face can exhibit that particular emotion. "The Instability Patterns Match The Trends In Newborns," she said at last.

Rade blinked, honestly surprised. "A newborn newman? Down here? In that condition?"

02 nodded and cheerily confirmed, "All Input Variables Confirmed And Correct, Sir," missing the point entirely.

Blaid kept his mouth shut and waited for Rade to make the conclusion he'd already come to. The gun-wielder did so quickly, and verbalized his thoughts. "Well, I guess that means we've got to take care of her. 01, go pick her up." As the giant mechanical man shouldered his shotgun and advanced, Rade continued. "We ought to sneak her back to base through the alleys..."

"For decency?" prompted Blaid, interrupting.

"No," answered Rade. Blaid saw an uncharacteristic expression of contemplation cross his partner's face for a split second. There was more to the answer, and something important, but Rade obviously felt it important to withhold it. Blaid knew that Rade was rash, but not stupid. If he thought it was best not to explain his reasons, Blaid would trust him.

---

Two blazing blue ovals pierced the darkness in Rade's room that night. They were not what woke him, however. It was the pressure just beside his ribcage on either side that did it. Those eyes belonged to a pair of feet which were uncomfortably placed at his midsection. The eyes stared at him from above. They dared Rade to speak. He was not the type to refuse.

"Lumin."

The eyes narrowed and the almost unbearable squeezing got worse. "You Have Taken Charge Of A Newman," growled a metallic voice. The creature speaking to him was an android.

Rade cursed under his breath. He could've sworn he hadn't seen anyone following them. He was well aware that the eyes were scanning him with sensors that didn't use light, and could see his every facial expression. He let his anger show anyway.

"All Newman Unable To Provide Proof Of Registration Are To Be Terminated."

"Yeah, well guess what? We got in late and I didn't have time to check her face against the registration database. Tell the Council I'll check her in the morning."

The vice tightened again. "Unacceptable."

"What? You want me to..." Rade gasped, "Kill her now? The buddy I got stuck with wouldn't like that, y'know. He'd want to know why. I might be forced to tell him."

Lumin's feet started digging into the flesh between Rade's ribs. "You Shall Do No Such Thing."

"S'the only other option, toots. I either check her tomorrow, or she dies tonight and I spill the beans. What's it gonna be, huh?"

Rade's bed shook as the android leapt off of it. The eyes, now level with his own, narrowed. "You Will Find The Newman Dead In The Morning. You Will Say Nothing To Your Partner, Or You Will Both Die."

The bed covers flew up as Rade brought himself up straight, arms extended, machine guns at the ready. "Y'know, I seem to recall you being the only good, strong 'droid the Council's got. You're not really expendable, and these things're programmed to trace your signal. Get out. Now. Tell the Council I know everything about their little plan, I know they know I know, and right now I'll stay quiet because it could mean a lot of trouble for us all if anyone spills the beans. Capice?"

In a moment, the blue lights disappeared, and silence fell over the room. Blade kept his guns out and followed their practically magnetic tracing program to make sure that the android didn't make any unexpected moves. When he was sure she had left, Rade fell back on his pillow and wheezed, "Closer and closer every time..."

---

Voices in the dark spoke to one another. A presence stilled them; each voice spoke in its turn, never speaking again. The presence answered them.

"Report."

"Subject?"

"The Mates?"

"Still Honeymoon."

"Revenue?"

"Optimal."

"Taxman?"

"Come And Gone."

"The Superstitious?"

"Have Encountered The First Daughter."

Displeased murmurs from the crowd.

"Knowledge?"

"None."

Brief silence. The barrage resumed.

"Pandora's Box?"

"Closed For The Present."

"For the present?"

"An Attempt Was Made."

"Thwarted?"

"Yes."

Silence.

"The Clock?"

"Ticking."

Silence. The next order came as a statement, not a question.

"Bioweapon."

"It Has Begun."

General sounds of approval flowed all around.

"Dismissed."

"A Message."

"Give."

Rade's voice filled the chamber. "Tell the Council I know everything about their little plan, I know they know I know, and right now I'll stay quiet because it could mean a lot of trouble for us all if anyone spills the beans. Capice?"

Displeasure in the voices as the presence left.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kupi on 2004-07-13 19:26 ]</font>

[Gnarled_rose]

That was slightly confusing, but very, very good. I really liked it. Keep it up.

[Chaos_Phoenix]

A bit confusing, yes. But, it was still quite good. I'm glad to see that there are plenty of good writers out there ^_^

[Skett]

I didn't think it was too confusing but next time try to clear stuff up better for those who were confused. Anyways, good start. Keep it up.


This post was rated B for Badaboom

[KaFKa]

*applause*

VERY good start. i see that it starts out a little hazy, which is good (IMO) keep it up http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Kupi]

Oh, don't worry. I'm trying to keep everything in a haze for now. Trust me, it'll all fall together in the end...

[Black000Moon]

Don't really get why all forces are bad in this story but I like it.

[Kupi]

Holy crud, this board moves fast! O_o BlackMoon, the answer to your question is "continuity." It's just part of the story... Forces are bad for you, yo!

Chapter Two Followeth

***

"How is she, 02?" asked Rade.

"Still Unconscious, Sir!" answered the android who had been addressed. She was standing by the door to the newman's room, scanning through the wall and keeping an eye on the vital signs of their guest.

"You know, I think we ought to try to wake her up," commented Blaid from the bathroom. The door was open and he was putting in the last of the restraints that kept his brown hair in a long and elaborate ponytail.

Rade nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right... I need to find out what her name is."

"Why?" wondered Blaid aloud.

"To check her against the registry. You know the law..."

Ponytail completed and ready to face the day, Blaid emerged from the lavatory after conscientiously turning the light off. He had a depressed look on his face and clicked his tongue. "It's a stupid law," he muttered. A brief pause followed before an idea crossed his mind. "Can't you just send them a picture for inspection?"

"Better to know her name."

It didn't make sense; almost all registry checks were done with visuals. But Blaid was becoming used to that kind of behavior out of Rade. With a shrug, he said, "All right, then. Shall we go in?"

"Got your sword?" asked Rade, near instantly.

Blaid blinked. "Why would I need it?"

"We still don't know if she's violent. Best to be on the safe side, right?" There was a hint of sarcasm in Rade's voice. Slightly wounded but happy to see Rade displaying some forethought, Blaid ducked into his living quarters and returned with his saber in its sheathe at his waist. The two nodded to each other and, after 02 stepped aside, passed through the door.

The newman was, as 02 had indicated, still asleep in the bed she'd be laid on in a set of Rade's old clothes. The fact that Rade had been the one to drop her there was apparent in the way her brown hair was strewn about her shoulders. The clothes didn't fit her diminutive figure at all and ballooned out in odd wrinkles and folds over the bedsheets. Only one thing kept her from looking about as pathetic as she had the night before, and that was her facial expression. Granted, she was only wearing the emotionless visage of slumber, but it was an improvement over the sickness apparent on her face before. Rade quietly stepped to the side of her bed closest to the door. Blaid followed, quieter. Rade then grabbed her shoulder and shook her rather more forcefully than Blaid thought was appropriate and practically yelled, "Hey, wake up!"

"Rade!" said Blaid, but before he could launch into a proper scold, the newman's eyes opened.

She smiled at them dreamily. It was largely due to the fact that her mind was not yet clear. As soon as the fog lifted from her eyes, a look of pure terror washed over her face and she made a noise like an awfully surprised wounded kitten and fell off the opposite side of the bed in her attempt to get away from the two men standing next to her. Almost before the thump could hit Blaid and Rade's ears, she was on her feet and backed into the corner, staring across the bed with wild eyes.

"Easy, easy," said Rade, holding a hand out to try to calm her. In a second he realized that his hand had instintively gone for his gun and he was pointing it at her. The problem was corrected with utmost haste.

"02, close the door," said Blaid. She did. The newman hardly noticed; her timid eyes were locked on Blaid and Rade, and her tall, pointed ears were intensely focused on hearing their next words. She did not seem to have any sense of their meaning, but rather made inferences based on the tone. Blaid, sensing that she couldn't understand what he was saying, made sure to keep his voice as soothing as possible. "It's all right, we won't hurt you," he said. Rade chortled under his breath.

"What?" asked Blaid indignantly, but with the calming lilt still hanging on. The unusual fusion made Rade snicker even harder.

"You... just... sound like... you're... talking to... a stray dog... or something..." Rade panted between gasps.

For reasons entirely unrelated to the prior exchange, the newman's eyes widened even more in the style of one who has just remembered something dreadfully important. "Who are you?!" she screeched, catching the Force hunters off-guard.

Blaid said what came to mind first, slowly, and with hand gestures to match. "I am Blaid. This is Rade. What is your name?"

"Who are you?!" screamed the newman again.

Blaid blinked, and looked to Rade. The latter returned a shrug for the former's pleading look. "Tell her again, I suppose," he said, at last.

"I am Blaid. He is Rade. What is your name?" inquired Blaid of the newman.

"Who--" began the newman, stopping herself suddenly. A quizzical look took hold of her face, and she looked down at her own body. "--am I?"

"That's what we'd like to know," groused Rade undetectably.

The newman's questions continued. "What is this place? Where is it? What's happening? Why am I here?"

"Slow down! Slow down!" said Blaid, holding out a hand in a "stop" gesture. "We're as puzzled as you are!"

The newman tilted her head to one side. "Puzzled?"

Blaid scratched his head. "Confused, maybe?"

In almost the exact same tone, the newman said, "Confused, maybe?"

Rade rubbed his temples. "She's a freakin' parrot..."

The newman gave Rade a quizzical look, but did not repeat his words. Her head tracked from Rade to Blaid, then back again, and to and fro several more times. Finally, she looked toward the floor and was silent. Blaid and Rade exchanged glances, and Blaid made another attempt at communication. "Do you have a name?"

The newman perked up. "My name is Miray!" she blurted out.

"Well... pleased to meet you, Miray," answered Blaid awkwardly.

"Duh!" said Rade suddenly, drawing puzzled looks from the other two.

"What?" interjected his cohort.

"I learned about this whole pattern back in college; I can't believe I forgot! This is the way it always works with newborns. They may be made to have a certain level of intelligence, but they gotta 'boot up' first. If she knows her name, she's past that point," Rade explained.

Miray said what was on her mind. "What?"

"Nothin'," said Rade, turning to go suddenly. As he passed, he whispered, "Got her name. Keep her talking, find out what you can," in Blaid's ear. Miray observed the man's exit with curiosity, but had far more interest in Blaid, who she'd talked to far more. Apparently, she felt comfortable enough to sit down on the bed.

As soon as Rade had left, Miray began her surge of questions anew, but this time she asked them as though expecting an answer. "Where are we?"

Blaid answered as simply as he knew how. "At our home. Rade's and mine, I mean."

Miray thought for a moment, reconciled the fact in her mind, and returned another question without responding to the answer to the first. "Why am I here?"

Giving an answer to that one demanded more caution of Blaid, but her didn't want to leave anything out, so he recounted it in the same precise, simple tone. "We found you naked and unconscious in a cave on Ragol. We brought you back here."

Strangely, "What's 'naked?'" was the first thing that came to Miray's mind. Blaid would have pegged her for asking about Ragol first.

"Well, um.. it's... the state of wearing no clothes."

"What are 'clothes?'"

Blaid was certain that, were he there, Rade would have been cracking up. Blaid, however, was not. He was far more concerned with coming up with a definition of clothes. How many times did one ever have to do that in one's life? Ultimately, Blaid settled on an object lesson and tugged at the shoulder of his shirt. "Things like these. Stuff you wear over your body to keep covered."

Miray realized, for the first time, that she was clothed. She found Rade's hand-me-downs uncomfortable and tugged at them. "How do you get them off?" she asked.

Blaid rubbed the back of his head. "Most people tend to keep them on..."

"Why? They're uncomfortable."

"It's... a societal standard, mostly."

"What's a... that thing?"

Blaid sighed. He almost wondered whether Miray had lived in a cave all her life, but then recalled that that might just have been the case.

---

Outside, a shadow lurked, its presense made known only by a pair of blazing orange eyes. At full height, it stood just over seven feet tall. It clutched an ominous scythe like the spirit of Death watching its two quarries through the walls from its elevated position on the adjacent skyscraper. It was as silent as the night that it blended into. Its every sense was focused on the two forms below, but just enough of its hearing was free to hear the click of a handgun's hammer being pulled back behind it.

"Face me."

With no noise but the air the machine displaced, it turned around and looked at the person who had addressed it. She was as red as it was black. The hair that curled around her neck, the tight-fitting clothing she wore, the beret on her head, even the gun she held, were all red as blood. She only wavered a fraction of an inch as the machine's schythe fell into its right hand. No fear. She'd sworn it to herself... no fear.

"I know you're watching. You're watching through this thing's eyes. Well, know this! My father's blood screams to be avenged, and I shall answer it!" She pulled the trigger. The scythe twitched and the bullet angled into the colony ship's artificial night, never to be seen again. The android moved like lightning. It lunged into its assailaint shoulder-first, producing an audible crack and knocking her over. She writhed, but made no noise. She had sworn to herself... no fear. The scythe rose... and a voice spoke in the monster's ear.

"Non-fatal."

Machine proficiency brought the point of the scythe into her eye socket, no farther. Her scream split the silence of the night. The vow was broken.

---

Voices in the darkness. A familiar presense spoke.

"New Entry."

"Proceed," said the dominant voice.

"Name Cyclops. Gender Female. Objective Destroy Sponsored. Motivation Unknown. Threat Minimal, But Caution Recommended."

Silence.

"No more?"

"All Known Has Been Said."

"Good. Observe the Mates."

"I Shall."

Silence, and the presense departed.

"She should be eliminated."

"No-- there will be an investigation."

"We may put a stop to it."

"We must not risk drawing attention to ourselves in any way."

"The threat is minimal..."

"She may become useful..."

"If Sponsored betrays us?"

"Yes. I see. Very well. She shall live."

"For now."



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kupi on 2004-02-02 17:39 ]</font>

[Kupi]

It's amazing how fast this board moves compared to how it used to be. O_o Aaaanyway, here's Chapter Three. All questions about continuity and setting answered within.

***

A week passed uneventfully. Blaid and Rade found that Miray was completely ignorant of the circumstances leading up to her plight in the caves and situation that the colony ship they had their residence in was in. Thus, bit by bit, they explained what was going on to her. Their home planet (the concept of "planet" had to be defined as well), Coral, had been in an inexplicable state of ecological collapse. Vital lifeforms were slowly dying out, sending ripples of extinctions through the various food chains. The humans had done everything they could to halt, then slow, then adapt to the catastophe, but their struggles were in vain. Even the most domestic animals and plants were simply withering away. In response, the humans searched the cosmos for a planet similar to their own, and discovered the planet Ragol. Massive colony ships were built, enough to carry the entire population of Coral, and sent out in waves to tame the new planet.

The first wave of ships, the "Pioneer 1," discovered a paradise compared to Coral. Generations that had only known of a single type of plant found thousands of species thriving in Ragol's forests. The animals were docile and friendly, whereas the late Coral's creatures had been ravening, vicious monsters. Furthermore, there was no trace of any prior sentient civilization. Ragol was humankind's for the taking.

The Pioneer 2 arrived seven years later. That day was practically a holiday. The technitians prepared to open communications with the settlement on Pioneer 1. Just as the line opened, just as the face of the Principal on Ragol appeared before the Principal in orbit, just as that former Principal's smile appeared on every broadcast receiver on Pioneer 2, it vanished and was replaced by static. Confusion erupted over Pioneer 2. Frantically, the technitians tried to reopen communications. Everything they tried produced the same result: nothing. After a week of fruitless effort, the administration called for volunteers to investigate Ragol, as near all of Coral's military had been part of Pioneer 1.

The investigators, collectively called Hunters, found what every communications expert on Pioneer 2 had already turned up: nothing. Or, rather, almost nothing. They found the infastructure of the Pioneer 1 fully intact, but there was no trace of the humans that were supposed to be inhabiting it. In addition, the wildlife had become violent and the plants poisonous. When the news reached the administration on Pioneer 2, all travel to Ragol was suspended indefinitely. This condition had been in effect for months. The Pioneer 2, freed of Coral's curse, could sustain a food supply as long as it needed to, but subsisting on rations made of Coral's pale imitation of wheat was torture when the idea, if not the reality, of paradise was clearly visible through any window.

Blaid and Rade were both employed as Hunters, but they were a special division of Hunters. They were private investigators specializing in a specific type of criminal-- Forces; people with extraordinary powers. What powers a Force could be expected to have was unknown; they existed in legend more than fact. However, as power tends to corrupt its holder, Forces were certainly a threat to the continued health of those onboard Pioneer 2, and Blaid, Rade, 01, and 02 were charged with the task of apprehending them. The fact that hadn't actually seen a Force yet was little deterrent to Blaid's enthusiasm for the job; Forces were elusive, he said. Rade wasn't as convinced. Months of false alarms and red herrings had left him skeptical of the existence of Forces.

In the third week of Miray's residence with the Force hunters, that skepticism was dispelled.

"Force-Like Reading Discovered, Sir!" said 02 over the radio that Rade always kept powered up. Instantly, Blaid and Rade were at attention, and Miray perked up in her seat just because Blaid and Rade seemed like they knew something important was about to happen.

"Alright," Rade responded as if to the air. "Get back here and transfer the coordinates to 01."

There was a brief silence. 02, as an android, was incapable of emotion, but she was programmed to simulate it. The emotion of the moment was confusion. "Sir? Should I Not Stay Here And Make Sure The Force Does Not Leave?"

"We need you to watch Miray."

"Of Course, Sir."

Miray blinked. "Don't I get to come?" she asked.

Blaid shook his head at her. "I'm sorry, but no. We don't know who you may be important to, and we can't risk your safety."

Miray stood. "I want to come!"

"And you're not going to!" Rade shouted at her, eyes ablaze. "You're going to stay here, and if you ask again I'm going to act on the fact that 02 mistook you for a Force!"

Miray shrank back at the verbal assault, cast a wounded gaze to Blaid, found no solace there, and subsequently bolted to her room. There was a moment of silence afterward.

At last, Blaid said, "You didn't have to be that harsh..."

"Shut up and get your gear," Rade spat back.

02 arrived just as Blaid finished strapping on the last pieces of his armor. The data transfer to 01 took less than a second, after which the female android made for the door to Miray's room and stood guard. With a final nod of confirmation, Blaid and Rade followed 01 to the site. It was an old, run-down apartment building on the ship Vega. All apartment buildings in Vega were run-down, as the jest of the time went. In truth, the majority of Vega's residential areas were sturdy, but because registration defaulted to that colony ship unless the colonist could pay for access to a better one, the poorest and sometimes least moral voyagers tended to be found on Vega. Rade ordered 01 to guard the only obvious entrance to the building and led Blaid inside.

There was nothing special about the lobby. Even as young as the building would have to have been, it had all the signs of old age and decay. The paint was peeling off of the walls, the floor creaked eerily underneath the two hunters' feet, and even the air smelled of age. Cautiously drawing their weapons as they went, Blaid and Rade advanced across the lobby to the elevator.

Rade broke the silence with a whisper. "We'll check every floor in sequence, just stay quiet. We don't want them to know we're here."

Blaid nodded his affirmation and added, "I just wish they had stairs here," as he pushed the call button. The doors slid apart instantly and without sound. As soon as the duo stepped into the comparment, the doors shut, straining Blaid's ability to take circumstances in stride. His fears were confirmed when he looked at the options on the control panel. "Something's wrong with these buttons," he said as he looked over them. "Basement, floor 5, 2, 17..."

Rade shot Blaid a questioning look. "What's wrong with that?"

"That's the order they appear in. And this building is only five stories tall."

A few seconds passed as that fact sank into Rade's mind. At last, he said, "Let's get out of here."

Blaid punched the "open door" button several times, to no avail. He then sheathed his sword and tugged at the slit between the doors. They slid apart easily, revealing a man in a white robe that lacked any sort of decoration. His face was covered by a veil that was attached to a sort of turban that covered the rest of his head. The only thing left to see were his eyes, which widened in surprise at the sight of two people in what was apparently his elevator. Rade shot him in the face.

His blood spattered on Rade's arm, but instead of falling dead, he flipped backward to a handstand and continued the roll until he was upright and facing the hunters again. At that point he did what anyone who had just been shot in the face would do, which is turn tail and flee. Rade continued firing at him with both guns, hitting him repeatedly in the chest and legs and not slowing down the man a bit. The man turned a corner to the right, took a bullet in the side, and disappeared. The gunshots echoed up and down the halls. When they faded at last, Blaid and Rade exchanged glances.

"Found the Force," said Rade.

Blaid couldn't find a reason to disagree, and advanced into the hall. "Call in 01. We might need help if he can take that many shots to vital areas and move on unharmed..." The armored one sheathed his sword and knealt to examine the nearest blood spatter. He carefully dabbed his right index finger in it, determined that it wasn't corrosive, and then sniffed it. "Smells human," was his analysis.

"Problem," answered Rade. Blaid stood and listened. "No contact from the outside. I'm getting static and the transmitter's shot."

"Maybe we can get out by the elevator," suggested Blaid. "Let's get a contact with the outside first; that Force is probably leading us into a tra-- ...puh." Blaid's eyes were suddenly fixed on the elevator. Raid, having stepped out, turned to see what was the matter and quickly discovered that there was a solid stone wall where the doors used to be.

"Crap." Rade put a gun away and ran the free hand over the wall. Stepping back to the dumbfounded Blaid, he pulled the holstered gun out again and emptied the ammo clips of both into the wall. It was quite solid. As the echoes of those gunshots dissipated, Rade reloaded and said, "Yep, trapped. Let's go get that Force."

Blaid drew his sword and nodded. Just as the two turned to start their pursuit, a voice behind them said, "Are you quite finished?" Rade turned and fired, catching the Force's head squarely in the face. It was withdrawn from the corner with utmost alacrity. Blaid and Rade followed. As they turned the corner, they saw the Force diving around the next corner, which was immediately followed by a rather severe explicative. Rade turned the corner next and opened fire on the Force, who had found himself in a dead end. When those ammo clips had been spent, the Force growled, "Would you stop that? You're getting my robe bloody, and it's made of a very hard type of fabric to clean!" Indeed, the robe was now practically dyed red, but still unbroken.

Sheepishly, Blaid whispered, "Maybe we ought to try talking to him," to Rade.

"You first," Rade answered.

Blaid turned back to the robed man, who had folded his arms across his chest, and cleared his throat. He found himself at a loss for words. What kind of thing were you supposed to say to a Force? "Are you a Force?" slipped out of Blaid's mouth first.

"I believe the answer to that is obvious, good sir," said the Force, sarcastically. Rade finished reloading, and the Force managed to slip a, "Bloody--" before several bullets went through his skull again. "You know, that's becoming rather old."

"Rade, quit it!" Blaid shouted. Rade kept his guns pointed at the trapped man, but ceased fire.

"Would you at least like to know why you aren't dead yet?" inquired the Force.

"Tell us your name, first," Blaid commanded.

"Fine. My name is Ghoste," responded the Force. "My chief power is, as you can see, that I am impervious to death. If it will kill me, I regenerate instantly. It does not prevent me from feeling pain, however, so if you'd kindly STOP SHOOTING ME, I'd greatly appreciate it."

Rade smirked. "That doesn't tell us why we're not dead. You just forgetful, or did I take out that part of your brain?"

"Impossible to do so, sir, and I'm getting to that. I am, indeed, a Force, but not the kind you're looking for. You are supposed to track down dangerous Forces, threats to this ship? Am I correct?"

Blaid raised an eyebrow. "Yes. How...?"

"Sensing motivation is one of my other powers. It's not full mind-reading, but I know what people want. And I believe that I can help you. You see, I can sense the other Forces on this ship and lead you to them."

"We can do that already," growled Rade, not trusting Ghoste at all.

"I can tell you how to fight them, then. There are very few Forces on this ship... four, including myself. I have done battle with them all, I know how they think and function. Certainly this would help you, would it not?"

In truth, Blaid didn't trust Ghoste either. "Why help us? What do you have to gain?"

"I want the same thing you do; a safer Pioneer 2."

There was a long silence. Blaid and Rade exchanged glances, then opinions. They came to the conclusion that, for the moment, then would trust Ghoste. Blaid delivered the verdict. "We'll take you at your word. Meet us--"

"That won't be necessary. I'll find you when the time comes," Ghoste said, abruptly. "You will find that the wall you shot up is an elevator again, and it will take you back to the Pioneer 2. Now, if you don't mind, I've got a night's washing to do," the Force concluded as he walked past Rade, turned the corner, and disappeared into a corridor. The Force hunters, slightly dazed by the speed with which the conversation had stopped, returned to and found the elevator just as predicted, and returned to the normal world. In all, their first meeting with a Force had gone altogether differently than they'd expected. And they weren't even sure it had actually happened.

[KaFKa]

w00t! chapter three http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

great as always, man http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[White_Knight]

cool evil mages (don't you just hate that)

[Kupi]

Woot! Chapter Fwar.

***

Blaid and Rade, feeling exhausted despite not having done much, entered their home base and were instantly greeted by Miray, who had apparently decided to forgive them, with a cheery, "Hello!" Blaid's eyes widened. 02 quickly advanced upon them, stood at attention, and explained with a tone laced with sheepishness, an unusual feeling to hear in an Android's voice.

"Based Upon The Assumption That Miray Would Be Staying With Us For An Extended Period Of Time, I Decided To Allow Her To Purchase Some More Appropriate Clothing Within The Boundaries That You Two Would Likely Allow According To The Personality Records I Have On File. To Elaborate, The Outfit She Is Now Wearing Was Of Her Own Preference And Covers Twenty Percent Of Her Flesh, Greater Than The Minimum Seventeen Percent Available In The Catalog. I Believed That To Be The Point At Which Mister Blaid Would Compromise." At last, 02 noticed that her masters were still in a state of stunned silence. "Have I Miscalculated?" she asked.

"I... I... suppose, not?" stammered Blaid, whose mind was spinning in circles trying to decide whether it should make the head turn away, ponder Rade's reaction, or be insulted that it had been profiled.

Rade took the initiative and said, "I don't have time for this." He ducked past 02, shoved Miray out of the way, and passed through the door to his room before it was halfway open.

Miray, hurt, looked to Blaid with pleading eyes. "Are these okay clothes?" she asked.

Blaid rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you have the important bits covered, at least, I mean, I can't think of a suit that wouldn't, at least, not in the clothes catalogues we'd have, though Rade might-- er, could you excuse me?" Blaid followed Rade's path to his room, except that after ducking past 02, he spun around Miray, avoiding contact. Blaid tapped the open switch on Rade's door, which added a deterring buzzer to its typical confirmation bleeps. "Rade? Rade!" the swordsman shouted at the door as he tried to open the door again, to no avail. He'd been locked out. Not loud enough to be heard by the others, Blaid wondered aloud, "What the devil is wrong with you?" Considering some of the files that Blaid during a curiosity-driven investigation some time ago, he would have pegged his cohort as the type to gawk. However, the inconsistency would have to be addressed later, as Rade was obviously not in the mood to talk.

---

The issue never arose the next day. Rade sulked at his computer for the majority of the morning, working on code indecipherable to Blaid's limited knowledge of computers. Around mid-morning Miray reiterated her concern over whether her clothing suited Blaid, who in turn reiterated that so long as they covered what they were supposed to and stayed on, he didn't have a greivous issue with them. Blaid did add that he would have preferred something more conservative, at which point Miray asked what that term meant and Blaid told her not to worry about it. Soon afterward Miray retreated to her room to amuse herself by looking through an encyclopoedia that 02 had given her. She couldn't read, but the pictures were interesting enough to keep her occupied for short periods of time.

Almost exactly at noon, Ghoste was sitting on the sofa. Blaid was occupied with fixing lunch and Rade was glued to his computer, so neither would have noticed if 02 had not immediately declared, "Strong Force-Like Reading In The Immediate Vicinity, Sirs!"

"That would be me, yes," answered Ghoste in full seriousness. "And I believe we established that that's not going to work." The latter statement was made because Rade had drawn and was pointing a gun at Ghoste's face.

Rade holstered the weapon and growled, "How did you get in here and what do you want?"

Ghoste happily explained. "Yet another of my many talents, sir. I can be where I want to be, when I want to be there. And I want to talk business, and it's dreadfully difficult to talk business without a cup of tea. Would you mind?" He gestured to Blaid, who nodded and tried to remember just where he put the kettle, or if they even had a kettle. Blaid wasn't even sure they had tea; he tended to stick to water and Rade was an avid coffee drinker.

"Strong Force-Like Reading In The Immediate Vicinity, Sirs," repeated 02.

"Do shut up, please," said Ghoste, sending her a disinterested look.

"Yes, Sir."

Rade's gun was again free and pointing at Ghoste. "How did you do that?!"

"Please, put that dreadful thing away. I can sense motives and to some extent control them. You put some living bits in this metal maiden, and I told them what to do. Calm down."

Rade only put the gun away grudgingly. Upon further consideration of the preceeding night, Rade had lost any will to trust Ghoste with anything, least of all control of HIS android. In the meantime, Blaid had managed to find some old tea worthy of its recipient's name, brew it, and bring it over. Ghoste concocted an elaborate thank-you and, after a sip, stood and said what he had to say.

"I wish to discuss the nature of our relationship. As I said before, I too wish the incarceration or removal of the Forces from the Pioneer 2. However, I, unlike you, have been unable to do anything about this desire. You see, two of the other Forces are Newmen, and the other has discovered a way to absorb life force like a Newman, though I have never been close enough to her to ascertain how she accomplishes it. The reason this bars me from contact with them is that I cannot allow them to drain me of anything, as the powers I have come into are far too dangerous to be allowed to fall into their hands. You, however, are far more, shall I say, expendible, though that's hardly the proper word for it. In any case, you two can do what I cannot, and I can do what you cannot, namely locate a Force with precision. So, I offer you my ability to find your quarry and any knowledge I have of them, and you, in return, do what you've been doing. How does that sound?"

Before Blaid or Rade could answer, Miray stepped out of her room and walked toward the living room where the others were. She looked to Blaid and announced, "I'm hungry." Then her eyes fell upon Ghoste, standing right in the middle of the room. His gaze, in turn, fell upon her. Something clicked, or perhaps snapped, inside Miray's mind. With a bestial screech she leapt for Ghoste, arms spread out like a pouncing tiger's, ready to strike with her her mere fingernails as though they were claws. Ghoste's response was as lightning fast as Miray's attack; with remarkable dexterity his right hand made its way to her throat and dangled her struggling body in the air.

"IF YOU TRY THAT AGAIN I WILL CRUSH YOUR NECK AND DRINK THE LAST BEATS OF YOUR HEART!!" he roarded at her before hurling her back into the hallway from whence she came. Stunned and confused, Miray scrambled back into her room and shut the door. Blaid and Rade, witless throughout the entire exchange, suddenly regained the ability to function. Naturally, it was Rade who made the first move and that move was drawing both guns and pointing them at Ghoste's head.

"Y'know, I almost bought the whole 'help ya out' spiel but that was downright evil. You'd better have one Hell of an excuse for that one, dress-boy."

Ghoste's polite demeanor had already taken front position. "First of all, it's a robe, not a dress. Second, it's a self-defense mechanism. The other Forces are brutally efficient at what they do, and it's best to be prepared to strike preemptively, and with extreme prejudice. I do hope that that is sufficient explanation?" Rade shot him.

"Rade!!" shouted Blaid, flabbergasted. He then remembered that Ghoste was going to be fine and the most he had to worry about was the bloodstains.

Ghoste blinked twice, waited for a moment, and then said, "I believe I shall wear my red robes when I come to speak with you two in the future. What of my story rings false with you?"

"Nothin'," growled Rade. "That was because I don't like you."

"I dread what should happen if you ever had a legitimate reason to fire upon someone. Well, fellows, I must be off to wash out my robes. Frad is such a terribly difficult cloth type to cleanse. Ah, and Blaid, please send Miray my sincerest apologies, but take food with you. I sensed a terrible hunger in her." With that, Ghoste blinked out of the room, leaving only the red in the carpet and on the wall behind.

Blaid was in the kitchen already. "That was entirely unnecessary, you know."

Rade chuckled and replied, "Bloody unnecessary, if you ask me," mocking their visitor's tone, and turned for his computer.

"I hope you realize that you're cleaning that blood up, and some time before it starts to smell," Blaid scolded.

"Whatever. 02, get that cleaned up."

"Yes, Sir!"

"No, ma'am," Blaid said to the android, and followed by sending a more parental "You're cleaning it up" to Rade.

As Rade begrudgingly headed for the closet at the end of the hall, Blaid followed with a tray full of food. There wasn't much of a selection, since the Pioneer 2 had only brought one type of crop from Coral and recent imports from Ragol were rigorously inspected and taxed, but there was a lot of what foods there were. Miray had proved ravenous in the time she'd been with the Force hunters. The government agency that Blade and Rade worked for paid them well, even for simply performing their most fruitless of investigations, and food consumption was practically unrestricted, so they could afford to keep up with her appetite.

As soon as Blaid had been allowed into Miray's room, largely because Miray saw the food, Rade took the bottle of cleaner back to 02 and said, "02, clean that up."

Blaid figured that he had about as long as it would take Miray to get through the platter to speak with her. If that was the case, he hadn't much time; she was already a quarter of the way through the food. Blaid still tried to choose his words carefully. "The man in white apologizes for what he did."

"I don't care," said Miray with half a cracker still in her mouth.

"Why not?"

"He is prey."

Blaid blinked. In all honesty, he hadn't known what answer to expect, but that wasn't even on the list. "I see. Why is he prey?"

"I don't know. I don't care. Something inside me says to kill him." As if to emphasize the point, Miray ripped a roll in half, and bit one of the halves into a quarter ferociously.

"Can you suppress... I mean, can you hold back that feeling?"

Miray tore into the other half of the roll, having already swallowed what remained of the first half as Blaid was speaking. "Why should I?"

Blaid thought for a moment on how to phrase it. "He's a friend of ours, and a friend of yours. Certainly you wouldn't kill a friend?"

"He is prey," Miray repeated, not giving her answer directly.

Blaid decided to take a chance. "If not for a friend, then... for me?" The swordsman tried to look as tender and pleading as he could, turning his eyes from hers only to check the food plate. It was empty. He had chosen the worst time to play that card, and it showed in the way Miray yawned, stretched out on the bed, and mumbled a decisive, "No."

Blaid decided not to press the issue and left with the barren tray. This sudden mood swing was a total turnaround from Miray's behavior the whole way prior. She had been so docile, and now she had become violent and defiant. Moreover, she had seemed to developing an affinity for him, at least moreso than she had for Rade or the androids. Then again, the force hunters were the only people she'd ever known, so the fact that she preferred Blaid's company to Rade's wasn't that surprising. Of course, there could be an upside to the change. If Ghoste was "prey," perhaps the same rule applied to all Forces. Miray might be an asset on the battlefield... but Blaid wasn't willing to put her in the line of fire. Not a chance.

---

In the same spot as before, in the same pose, stood the shadow of the death. It was motionless and silent, as before. If not for its evil nature, it might have been pristine.

The stillness was broken again, this time without the warning click of the hammer about to fall. From the building adjacent to its perch, a shot rang out and momentarily illuminated the darkness with the flash of a ricochet as the bullet struck the shadow squarely in the head. Alerted, it swiveled to direction it had already determined that the shot came from and saw the figure that was recoiling in horror. One thud and the monster was airborne, making an impossibly high jump from its spot to its assailant. It landed with barely a sound and moved with such lightning speed that the crimson-clad woman never saw the scythe's pole coming past her vision as it moved to her neck. She was trapped. A voice, not the shadow's, spoke.

"Blood Red. That's what you want to be called, isn't it? I'm watching you and your designs. Know this: you cannot defeat this android; he is the ultimate killing machine. He will serve his purpose if you continue to interfere. Run while you can and stop trying to end machinations you have no power over."

The polearm was removed from her neck, much slower than it had been placed there. Blood Red sensed the android taking only one step away from her. She turned, and found it was gone.

---

"Status report, Lumin."

"Subject?"

"Heavy."

"In Need Of Tissues."

"...who came up with that one?"

"Shut up! ... the Artist?"

"Nonproductive."

"We must increase the funding, then. Archaeology?"

"An Impasse."

"Name."

"Full Status Report Requested, I Will Upload To Central."

"Very well. Report on Bioweapons."

"Apparatus Is Functional, The First Attempt Failed."

"Circumstances?"

"The Superstitious Befriended The Prey."

The voices grumbled. "Likelihood of pattern?"

"Low."

"Good. Dismissed."

The light departed from the room.

[White_Knight]

cool and mesterious.

[-Z]

(just got time to read this)

great job so far! only one thing that i dissaprove of...

ghoste, ghoste, ghoste... don't ya know its only fun being evil? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

hooray for us evil forces! ^_^

[Skett]

I just read the chapters and I have to say good job. This story is doing very well. I actually see no real problems. Keep up the work.

[Kupi]

Gosh, the first page of this post is likely to be huge. Ah well, I'm glad it's all text.

...hey, if we still have those auto-refresh ads, that's going to disrupt the reading. Hrm. Sorry? ^_^()

Chapter 5: Kinda Dirty

***

Though Miray reverted to being relatively tame as soon as she woke up from her nap, seeing Ghoste seemed to have changed something within her. For the rest of the day, she was agitatedly pacing around the apartment for no obvious reason despite Blaid's warnings that she ought to be resting her back. The trend continued into the next day. At last Miray finally wrapped her mind around what was wrong:

"I want to go out."

"Pardon?" said Blaid.

"I want to leave like you two do. I don't want to stay here."

Blaid shot Rade a concerned look. "Hold that thought," he told Miray, and whispered with Rade at the computer.

"She could get us into trouble..."

"Like how?"

"I don't know! What if we walk by a Force in disguise?" theorized Blaid, trying to come up with some reason why it was a terribly bad idea.

"So what? The agency'll bail us out. They cover anythin' else we do. Besides, she's gonna need a weapon if she tags along on a Force hunt, right?" Rade had already heard about Blaid and Miray's conversation the preceeding day.

"That's if! She could get hurt!"

"Yeah, and so could we, too. What's the difference? Besides, if she's trained to hunt Forces, why not let her? Someone's using her for somethin' and we can't know what it is until it happens, so let it happen."

Blaid remained silent for a moment as he tried to work out a counter-offensive against that idea, and found himself at a loss. "Fine," he conceded, and straightened up. No longer at a whisper, Blaid said, "Okay, Miray. We're going to shop for a weapon for you. If you want to catch your 'prey,' you'll have to use something other than your bare hands. Coming with us, Rade?"

"Nope, I've got work to do," answered Rade. In truth, he was watching a little victory dance animation. "Oh, and Blaid... how about a bet? Winner picks pizza toppings for lunch."

It didn't sound like much to lose. Blaid shrugged again. "What?"

"I say she's gonna buy a Morning Glory."

---

As Blaid desperately tried to brush the nasty smell of garlic, onion, and anchovies out of his mouth, he observed Miray's futile attempts to strap the bladed glove she'd settled on onto her hand in the living room and attempted to guide her through the process verbally.

"'o Murry, ih gohsh odduh udder sied. Udder sied! Udder sied! 'o 'o, ish bahkwardsh." Blaid ducked into the bathroom, spat into the sink, then returned. "Pointy side goes away from your hand! Like that. Now hold your hand like this and slide your fingers into the holes. There you go." With the glove properly affixed to her right hand, the three blades extended about six inches beyond her knuckles. Pleased with the victory, Miray gave the unusual weapon a few swings into the air, producing a silky whistling noise as the air parted around the three knives.

"Woah, woah, hold on!" shouted Blaid. Miray froze in mid swing and turned to face Blaid with a look like a disciplined puppy. She clasped one hand to the other right in front of her face. Blaid tried to sound calmer as he explained his concern. "Just one second to talk about weapon safety. First thing, always remember that you've got a knife strapped to your hand. If you'll notice, you've managed to put your fingers in your weapon. If you did that just slightly to the side, you'd have sliced your fingers in two. Second, never swing that thing around at random; pick a target first. And finally, never use it unless one of us tells you to, or we're not around and you need to. Here..." Blaid walked over and took Miray's hand in his to look at the Morning Glory. In a short time he located what he was looking for, a small lever on a "box" on the top of the glove. Blaid pulled it back and forth several times, which caused a series of snapping sounds as the claws receded into the box. "See? You can keep the hand part on your hand, but without the sharp bits. Any time you want them out, you just hit this part..." Blaid pressed down on a black rectangle in the middle of the box and the claws reformed. "...and you're ready to go." After that, Blaid returned to the bathroom, since he could still taste anchovy on the back of his throat and Miray practiced toggling the Morning Glory's states.

---

The next day, precisely at noon, Ghoste was suddenly in the apartment, wearing red robes. He took one look at Miray, and was just as suddenly behind Blaid, who was coming out of the kitchen to serve lunch. "Bloody damnation, you gave her a weapon?!" he yelled. This drew Miray's attention, and, with total disregard for Blaid's presence, she lunged. In an attempt to blatantly overuse the word "suddenly," Ghoste and Blaid were suddenly behind the room's entrance and the tray, no longer supported by anything but air, crashed to the floor.

"You gave that madwoman a weapon?!" reiterated Ghoste.

Blaid was still shellshocked and withheld his reply, which worked to the favor of his image since the reply ready to go at that moment was, "Buh... wur?" The sound of fingernails scraping at the door and Rade yelling at the owner of the fingernails to cut it out hurried the process of getting comprehensible thought into Blaid's mind along, since he knew that once you heard Rade shouting, it wasn't long until you heard gunshots going off. "We were hoping you'd show up when she was asleep!"

Ghoste shook his head woefully. "I should like to have been informed about that gamble before it was taken, sir!"

An idea struck Blaid, prompted by the further manic clawing at the door and the way Miray was ignoring Rade's orders to settle down. "Can't you make her calm down or something?"

Ghoste blinked, aghast. At last, he commented, "You know, mortal terror makes one forget the most obvious of things." Immediately he stepped up to the door and said simply, "Calm down." The clawing persisted to Ghoste's vexation. "Calm down," he said again, more forcefully. There was an almost imperceptible reduction in the time between strokes. "Calm thyself, child! CALM DOWN!" Slowly, the strikes slowed and stopped. Ghoste breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door, confident that Miray was at last settled. When the door opened, however, she was still snarling, much to Blaid's surprise. Nevertheless, Ghoste bypassed her and made for the living room.

"Master Rade, would you kindly bring the girl over here and sit her down?" said Ghoste, gasping the words. He seemed to be exhausted, as though running the last legs of a marathon. Rade shrugged and guided Miray to the couch. She seemed willing enough to follow the force of his hand, but never took her eyes off of Ghoste. "You two may sit down as well," continued Ghoste after Miray was sitting, and they did. Ghoste cleared his throat and began a monlogue in the same breathless tone.

"I believe that I have located a Force. It was more difficult than it sounds; as soon as they sensed that I was looking for them, they took flight and found somewhere else to stay, so I couldn't tell you their whereabouts. One, however, has decided to stay put. Her name is Harba, and I want to warn you of her abilities before you go rushing off to fight her. She's a seductress, far beyond what the word implies. I have seen men and women alike entranced by one look at her body and then led away, never to be seen again. Whatever you do, be careful not to look at her for long, if you can help it. I don't know of her other abilities, if she has any... nobody has ever forced her to use them, as far as I've seen. She has taken up residence in a cave in the Gal Da Val region. If you've a map, I can show you where it is." Rade stood to find the region's charts, which were stored in an extremely disorganized trunk underneath his bed. Ghoste took the opportunity to sit next to Blaid and continue on a tangent.

"Watch Miray carefully, Master Blaid. Her hunger is more powerful than her will to live. I could sooner make you wish to stop living than I could make her desist her attempts to kill me. I had to make the will to obey me stronger than that hunger to settle her, hence my," he exhaled and inhaled painfully, "strain. Watch her carefully... something must come of this hunger, and if I find the time, I shall attempt to discern what it is in advance." Rade returned with the map, and spread it out on the coffee table. It took Ghoste but a second to discern the map's meaning, and he circled an area on it with a fingernail. Strangely, a red circle appeared where the fingertip had run its course. Ghoste stood. "And with that, I need to go. Miray is becoming terribly difficult to restrain. I thank you for refraining from shooting me this time, Master Rade."

"Hey, I can always do it now," said Rade, cracking a cynical smile.

Ghoste held up a hand defensively. "That's quite all right," he answered, as was gone. Miray jumped up from the couch and let out a screech. Her gaze darted about the room madly, trying to find Ghoste and failing at every turn. After exhausting every possible option, she turned to Blaid.

"Why did you let him get away?!" she screamed at him.

Blaid kept his seat, intentionally avoiding any confrontational body language. "I told you before, he's not your prey. He's a friend. We can't let you kill him."

Miray glowered at Blaid for several seconds, and found no sign of wavering in his face. She knew she couldn't turn to Rade for solace; if Blaid would not yield, Rade wouldn't either. Her growls turned into sobs in an instant, and she fled to her room in tears.

"That girl has issues," commented Rade. Blaid nodded his affirmation reluctantly. Rade continued, "But if she goes that psycho near Forces, she'll be a natural for taking them down."

"'Taking them down?' Rade, we're supposed to apprehend them if possible."

"We're gonna kill them, first thing," responded Rade bluntly.

"You're talking about cold-blooded murder!"

"What do you think that Harba character's plannin' for us? A game of chess, winner take all? Nah, if she's waitin' for us, she's got somethin' planned. I wouldn't be surprised if Ghoste was in on it, too. I don't trust any Force, least of all a demigod who 'needs' our help takin' out his friends. It doesn't add up." There was a pause. "'sides, if Harba's anything like Ghoste, Miray'll get pitched across the room and you'll have your talk."

"Duly noted," said Blaid. "However, until Ghoste gives us reason to think he's up to something, we'll have to take him at his word."

"Whatever. I'll be ready to fire over your dead body when he turns on us," said Rade, turning his back to Blaid and heading for the computer. Coming from him, it didn't sound like a joke.

---

The next morning, Miray had entirely forgotton the previous night's outburst. It seemed as though the mad Force-induced fury caused her something subconscious to take control of her mind, and vanish like a dream when lucidity was restored. Blaid and Rade thus dismissed the episode and proclaimed her sound enough to join them on the mission to capture Harba. Their transport ship placed them no more than a mile away from the location where the cave had been marked on the map; if Harba wasn't going to be scared of Ghoste, she wouldn't be scared of a single four-man shuttle. Rade posted 01 and 02 at the mouth of the cave and ordered them to fire on anything that wasn't them.

The cave showed signs of recent inhabitance. Torches lined the walls as the tunnel snaked its irregular path inward. The hallway eventually ended in a door, adorned with all manner of skulls and obscene symbols. Blaid drew his sword and motioned to Miray to stay behind. Rade had had his guns out from the beginning. Blaid was the one with a free hand, so he turned the knob on the door carefully and pulled it open.

The stench of rotting meat burst through the crack, sending all three adventurers into coughing fits. Blaid slammed the door shut, which did little to alleviate the smell. It was so thick that it had been trying to get out; what had escaped was unwilling to dissipate. A voice spoke from somewhere behind the door. "Come in," it said. It was the most beautifully silken woman's voice that Blaid had ever heard, and that made him worry, because it meant that Ghoste's warnings probably rang true. Still, they were here to get her, so... he opened the door again and slipped inside, followed by Rade, then Miray.

A percussive force at Blaid's hand knocked his sword into the air. A blur of black swept past his eyes and it was gone. He heard it clatter against wood to his left... there was a table, splattered with blood. The description applied to most of the rest of the room, in fact. He had little time to analyze that fact, however, as he was kicked in the spine and sent flailing into a pile bones halfway to the table. From there, he heard Rade shout and two distinct knocks, followed by similar clatters at the table-- Rade had been disarmed.

"Hello," the voice said suddenly. Harba wasn't speaking to Blaid; she was speaking to Rade and Miray. Miray... why wasn't she attacking? Wasn't she supposed to go nuts when she saw a Force? From his prone position, Blaid dared to shift and look. All three seemed frozen in place, if not for their breathing. Both Rade and Miray were transfixed by Harba's face, at least at first glance. It turned out that Rade's gaze was angled lower, with good reason. Suddenly, Harba moved. "Come with me," she said to Rade, and started to cross the small room, weaving around the skeletons that littered the floor. Rade followed like one ensorceled. The thought struck Blaid like a brick: he was. Of course! It was just as Ghoste had said; it was looking at her that did you in. Whatever Harba planned to do on the other side of the room, Blaid couldn't allow it to happen. In one motion, he spun to his feet, keeping his eyes away from Harba at all times, and swung a fist at Rade's entirely defenseless cheek. The blow sent the gunslinger reeling to the floor. Harba barely noticed.

"Futile," she commented.

"The Hell was that for?!" shouted Rade.

"Don't look at her!" Blaid shouted back, dealing Miray a gentler but still firm slap across the face and repeating the admonition. Keeping his head down, he dove for the table that his sword was resting on. From where Harba was last, to his memory, Harba couldn't possibly have gotton between him and his weapon in time. Yet somehow she did. Blaid turned for the door-- she got around him with inhuman speed and barred his progress. Blaid backed away, practically tripping over a spare ribcage in the process. "Corner! Get to the corner!" he yelled to his compatriots, who did so entirely unimpeded. As soon as he felt safe to do so, he turned and joined them in staring at the wall.

Harba spoke. "I see you've talked with Death. It doesn't matter if you can evade my glamour. There is but one exit to this room and all the body's powers are mine to use to prevent you from reaching it. I shall guard your weapons the same way. My stamina is limitless. Yours is not. One way or another, you shall tire, and I shall consume you. Choose wisely between the ways you may meet your end."

Rade submitted his analysis. "I've never felt like I've wanted to--"

Blaid cut him off. "Don't even think about it. Think about the grime. Think about the blood. More importantly, think about her intentions and some way to get us out of this."

Silence fell over the room. Harba started to hum an eerie tune. Rade recognized it as an ancient classical work, "March of the Machine Men." He remembered that he had backup that couldn't be seduced, and pulled the microphone into position and whispered urgently. "Androids, move--!" Harba snatched it from his head and snapped it in two with a single hand, then retreated to the table with the same remarkable alacrity with which she'd crossed the gap previously.

"I told you, every power of the body is mine to command. That includes hearing, sir."

---

"Androids, move--!"

01 looked to 02 and made various modem-like noises. 02 answered in the human language.

"Command Inconclusive. Continue With Last Directive."

---

Time passed slowly for the three stranded Force hunters. Blaid could intuitively feel Harba's gaze on his back. If any of them turned, the first thing they'd see would be her face. Therefore, the wall and each other were the only things that they could possibly look at safely. Hunger set in as time advanced for what felt like eternity twice over. Blaid's mind wandered all over, but finally he thought of Miray's lack of action. There ws little to reveal to Harba by wondering aloud, and anything beat the stone for interest.

"Miray?"

Miray looked up from her sitting position, communicating her attention wordlessly.

"Why didn't you try to kill Harba? Isn't she the prey?"

"I don't know," said Miray. "She made me feel funny when I looked at her. What is that feeling?"

Blaid shook his head. "I'll explain it some other time. Don't think about it now. Think about hunger. Think about thirst. Think about boredom. Think about anything but that fee-- Rade! Eyes on the wall!" Blaid grabbed his friend's head and twisted it back to the wall.

Across the room, Harba chuckled. "Your friend is weak, squire. He desires lust even without my spell."

"Shut up!" Rade shouted at her. And again, "Shut up!"

"You cannot deny it."

"Shut up!" Rade repeated, adding an unflattering name for a woman to it. Harba simply smiled to herself.

Time passed.

And passed.

And passed.

Blaid guessed that it must be after nightfall. They'd set out at morning, an hour after breakfast. They had missed two meals and the urge for sleep was pressing at his eyes. And whatever he was feeling, the others must be feeling double. His voice was running dry from reminding them to stay focused all the time. They were showing signs of weakening, and he was quickly running out of stamina to donate. Think, think, he told himself. There must be something, anything at his disposal. A coordinated attack would fail as soon as they saw her face... she'd block easily enough if they kept their eyes closed... they had no weapons left... but wait-- they did. Miray had forgotton to keep her claws out, and the glove simply looked padded without the blades. All the powers of the body at Harba's disposal... but perhaps a mental surprise could do the job!

"That's it, then... it's over," Blaid said. "We've lost."

Rade gaped at him, aghast. "What?"

"We can't win this fight, Rade. We might as well make our end... enjoyable." Miray stood up without Blaid's prompting her do so, which worked to his favor. With an air of finality, Blaid hugged her around the neck, drawing his fingernails across her neck deep on the side that was blocked from Harba's view. Then he turned from his friends and stared Harba straight in the face, trying to think of anything but her beauty. He had to stay coherent just a little while longer...

Harba laughed triumphantly, and met Blaid halfway across the room. With every fiber of his being, Blaid consciously wrapped his arms around her and buried his lips in hers. As if in a waltz, he swung to the side, pulling the entirely unresisting Harba along with him until her back was to the other two. At last, his discipline failed and his mind was lost to passion.

"I can't believe you! You go on with all this self-righteous crap about resistin' and you're the one who gives in first!" shouted Rade, his voice tinged with jealousy more than indignation. He stomped his way toward the interlocked couple, fully intending to pry Blaid away, if only to have his way with Harba first. Miray approached as well, face full of resolve. As Rade continued his verbal assault at Blaid's shoulder, Miray punched Harba in the back of the neck.

"All... the powers... of the body..." said Harba whenever her mouth was free. "My skin... is too... thick... to--" She never got to finish her sentence, as Miray had pressed the release button on the Morning Glory, sending all six inches through Harba's neck and loosing a river of blood. Blaid drew his head back as soon as he felt her death twitch, barely evading the knives as they sprouted through the Force's body. The sight of the color draining from her face broke the spell instantly. Miray pulled her arm back, and Harba's lifeless body joined the dead on the floor.

There was silence and stillness in the room as the Force hunters gathered their senses. At last, Blaid said, "Mission accomplished. Let's get out of here and go home." He went to the table, picked up his sword and Rade's guns, then tossed the latter to their owner.

Instantly, Rade discharged both clips into Harba's head, mangling it beyond recognition. "Whore."

---

The trip home was uneventful. 01 and 02 were incapable of questioning their masters, and followed them to the transport ship obediently. It was typical for hunters to return from Ragol bloodied, either with their own or an animal's. Along the way, the Force hunters discussed their plans.

"Dibs on the shower," said Rade.

"Fine. I'm going to get some food," Blaid answered. "How about you, Miray? You must be starving."

Miray shook her head. "No thanks. I'm not hungry."

Blaid and Rade exchanged glances. Miray rejecting food was practically an impossibility.

[Kupi]

Kind've a blah chapter, this chapter 6. Oh well, stuff that needs to happen happens.

***

It was an hour before noon, and Blaid had just entered the living room after leaving Miray's room.

"How is she?" asked Rade.

"Still asleep," answered Blaid.

It was the day after the incident with Harba. Miray had to be forcibly awakened for the first time since she'd been with the base's owners, and even then she refused breakfast, rolled over, and was asleep again in an instant.

"S'weird. She's acting like she's gorged or somethin'."

Blaid canted his head in thought. "But on what? She hasn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday."

"...Harba, maybe?"

"That's impossible."

"I ain't talkin' about her body. I dunno, what makes a Force a Force?"

"Their powers. But it's not like she could suddenly run faster or entrance people with her face after the fight."

"It's somethin' else then. Some kinda weird energy. And right now Miray's full of it."

Blaid rubbed his chin. "Hrm. If she's designed to seek out and take in that energy, she's designed to do something with it... we'd better watch her carefully."

"Now yer startin' to sound like me!" exclaimed Rade, smiling cynically, knowing that it would unnerve Blaid. It did.

---

Miray finally awoke of her own accord, but was still sluggish enough to make Blaid feel as though she ought to stay down. When he brought food, she continued to refuse it. However, Miray seemed eager enough to talk, at least about a subject that interested her.

"Blaid?" she started, innocently enough. "When we fought that bad woman in black, what was that feeling I got when I looked at her face?"

Blaid blinked thrice slowly. Why was it that Miray only asked this sort of question? Why couldn't she ask something simple like, "why is the sky blue," or, "how do you perform multivariable calculus?" Nevertheless, she'd asked a question and he'd have to answer it. Stammering, he began, "Well, when a man and a woman... no. Let me start over." Blaid took a breath. "If certain... eh... chemistry works out... no, that's not right either. You know, I really don't think you're... tell you what, Miray. Let me think about it for a while, and for now we'll talk about battle tactics, okay?"

"Okay!" said Miray with a nod, distracted with utmost ease.

---

Somewhere in the slums of Vega, Blood Red stared into a computer, frustrated at the results of the simulations appearing on the screen. Her quarry seemed absolutely impenetrable. Every permutation of method and delivery ended in her death. Such a simple problem, yet such a stuggle for its solution.

A green light flashed, and the computer's search for an answer halted. The red-haired girl grinned deviously. It would take some shady deals and a great deal of work, but soon Blood Red would have her revenge!

---

Three days passed before Miray stopped refusing food, despite her growling stomach proving that she needed to eat. When at last she expressed an interest in eating, Blaid decided to make an occasion of it and invited the others to head out to a nearby restaurant for dinner. The menu was extremely limited; in fact, the most sophisticated item was a burger made of the meat from some nameless creature on Ragol and the same kind of bread that could be found anywhere else on the Pioneer 2. The meat wasn't even seasoned. After eating and having a brief chat on matters of little consequence, the team began to stroll home.

"Kinda quiet, isn't it?" remarked Rade.

"Come to think of it, it is," said Blaid, looking around. The look stopped him in his tracks. "Um... where is everyone? Nobody's on the roads!"

Rade checked his watch. "It ain't curfew yet."

"Huh. Maybe they called curfew early?"

"Why?"

"Does it matter? We need to find out what's going o--" Blaid saw something moving toward them, straight down the ccenter of the road. It didn't move like a human, but it didn't sound like an Android... even a streamlined machine like 02 made audible noise when she moved. This one had a ghostly silence to its movements, and didn't appear to be made of metal. It was black all over, and eerily smooth. It carried a sythe with both arms, and orange light flared from two spots on its head. Cautious instincts prevailing, Blaid told Miray, "Stay behind me," and held an arm out in a futile gesture of barring the way. He'd left his saber at the base.

Rade, always the one to throw caution to the wind, drew his guns and aimed them at the approaching android. "What do you want?" he shouted at it. The android kept coming, unconcerned. Rade opened fire, and the machine reacted by spinning its scythe in front of it with incredible speed, deflecting every single bullet until the clips were empty.

Blood Red, standing on the nearest apartment building, loaded the special bullet that had taken her so long to make into her handgun. It was tipped with laconium, the so-called "king of metals." There was no way her target could repel it. Don't miss, she told herself.

The android charged. A voice in its ear said, "No fatalities." Accordingly, it batted Rade aside with the blunt of its blade as the man tried to reload and grabbed Blaid's neck, throwing him behind it immediately thereafter. Miray was defenseless now, and the android, before even Miray's catlike reflexes could save her, leapt over her and wrapped its free arm around her neck, having shifted the scythe's balance in midair.

Don't miss. Don't miss. Don't miss.

Blood Red fired.

She missed.

Of course, she'd meant to hit it in the head. "Missing" involved puncturing its left leg at the thigh, causing an electrical crackle that quickly gave way to the sound of machinery grinding to a halt. The voice in the android's ear sounded panicked as it said, "Drop her! Retreat!" Miray was suddenly but tenderly released, and the shadow leapt away and into an alley with remarkable speed for only having one functioning leg.

Above, Blood Red swore and ducked into the nearby stairwell. She'd pay for her mistake with more than just the money it took to make that silver bullet.

Blaid and Rade picked themselves up and comforted and inspected Miray, respectively. She was uninjured and more confused than anything, a sentiment her guardians shared.

"Back to the base," said Rade. "Might be more of 'em and I want to get 01 and 02 with us if that's the case."

It was Rade's idea, but the other two had no objections to running home.

---

"Very good, girl. Very, very good. You almost destroyed my creation and ruined everything. But you failed--"

"Shut up," Blood Red spat at the voice in her ear.

The voice continued regardless of her ire. "I'd never have guessed that there was a laconium supply on Ragol. Too bad I knew to keep my creation's circuits separate just in case something went wrong."

"I knew that, idiot!"

"Idiot? Funny you of all people should say that. You're as bad a shot as your father was..."

"Shut up!"

"Very well. Just be warned that my creation will have laconium plating the next time around." A demonic laugh followed, prompting Blood Red to tear the headset from her ears until it ceased. She slumped in her chair, the single piece of furniture in her secluded apartment. That's it, then, she thought. She'd run out of chances. After tonight, there would be no way to damage that mad scientist's "creation."

Unless...

---

Voices in the darkness chatted idly. The sound of a door opening and rhythmic footsteps passing through silenced them.

"Status report."

"Urgent Matter Superceding Standard Report Material."

The voices murmured.

"Go ahead."

"Audio Message From Cyclops."

"Go ahead."

The message was practiced and to the point. "Bioweapons has betrayed you. Spoiler is dead. Do not allow the First Daughter to be retrieved. Terminate Bioweapons immediately." The last sentence carried a vengeful, angry tone that caused the voices in the dark to burst into relative clamor. They were silenced by one of their own.

"Ulterior motives of Cyclops?"

"None Discernable From Current Data."

"Watch Cyclops. Do not allow the First Daughter to be retrieved."

"Precedence?"

"First Daughter."

"Acknowledged. Further Orders?"

"None. Go."

Lumin left.

"An unexpected turn of events."

"Can Lumin stand up to Bioweapons?"

"We shall see."

***

[Kupi]

It's been way, waaaaay too long since I posted a chapter. The next one will come sooner, I promise!

***

In the dark of the Pioneer 2's artificial night, Rade searched for a specific news story on the Pioneer 2's communication network. It wasn't a headline story, despite it seeming like it ought to be. At last, he found it: Principal Tyrell had called for an early curfew earlier that day, without giving a reason. It was just as Rade had expected.

He already knew Tyrell was just a puppet, with a congress pulling his strings. He already knew that they had a project going on. He already knew that Miray was involved with it. The day's events just confirmed what he knew... and what he had to do.

Rade stood, and made his way to his dresser by touch. He opened the top drawer, the one where he kept all his ammunition. He extracted a single bullet from a clip and a silencer, plugging both into his right-hand gun without looking at any of the three articles. With a final determined nod, Rade stepped out of his room. Carefully, he made his way down the hall and into Miray's room. Silently and deliberately, the gunner found his way to sleeping Miray's side and levelled his gun's barrel to her head.

The door to her room opened, much to Rade's surprise. The lights didn't come on as he'd expected, however. Taking advantage of the darkness, Rade pressed himself into the corner and ceased to breathe if he could help it. He heard footsteps make their way to the bedside, right where he had been standing just moments earlier. It was Blaid's voice that spoke, quiet and uncertain, barely even a whisper.

"I hope you're sleeping okay, Miray." Blaid sighed. He was silent after that, as if considering what he'd just said. Rade was more concerned with not being discovered than his partner's emotions. Blaid continued after nearly a minute of silence, "No matter what, Miray, I'll protect you." Rade then heard Blaid's footsteps padding out of the room, and decided, after a reasonable amount of time, to return to his room.

It shouldn't have changed a thing to him. It shouldn't have mattered. Blaid's friendship shouldn't have been worth what was at stake. And yet it did, and it was.

---

None of the Force hunters woke early the next day. When they did, it was barely in time for lunch. As they were sitting on the couch and eating lunch, still groggy, Ghoste appeared in the living room.

"It is rather queer," he said, "But that dominating motive of Miray's has entirely vanished. I do not sense it at all in her. ...which is why I came into her plain sight."

Blaid blinked some of the sleep from his eyes and muttered, "Hi Ghoste, how you?"

Ghoste blinked back, but in bafflement. "Have I come at a bad time?" he asked.

"Nah, s'okay, just got up is all," said Rade. "Guess ya found us a Force to go hunt down?"

"Indeed," replied Ghoste. "Your... incapacitation works to our mutual favor in this instance, as my briefing shall remain concise. Your target is a Newman by the name of LeRoy, living on the ship Antares, within the eighth block. He eluded me for a great while because I was taken by the same trick he uses on every other... he has the power to alter perceptions, among others concerned with the mind. Once I deciphered and subsequently pierced his shroud, I found that he adhered to a strict daily routine. Thus, wake early tomorrow and patrol the streets. Look for a newman boy dressed in purple robes skipping from place to place; guard your minds and follow him to a private place to engage him. I remind you that I cannot risk a direct confrontation with another Force. Best luck to you." And with that, Ghoste was gone.

A silence that was ultimately broken by Rade followed. "Either 'a you catch what he said?"

Miray summed the general feeling of all three when she said, "What who said?"

---

The next day, bright and early, Blaid, Rade, and Miray along with 01 and 02 set out to patrol the streets of Antares as a group, since Blaid didn't want to risk anyone being forced to take on LeRoy alone. It was a struggle to stay together even when they were trying to do so; the eighth block was an unusually densely-packed sector, a perfect place to hide in plain sight.

"Purple, purple. What kinda guy skips around in purple?" muttered Rade, jerking his head to and fro to keep as many things in view at one time as possible.

"I don't know. One who feels like he can?" said Blaid, answering a question not meant to be answered.

Miray suddenly piped up. "Is that him?" She pointed to what looked like a teenage newman in casual attire, mostly purple, bounding his way down the street in the opposite direction on the other side.

Rade shrugged, but tensed up shortly afterward. "Not gonna be many like 'im, I suppose. Keep on this side and don't lose sight of 'im."

Five blocks worth of "not losing sight of 'im" later, the newman froze in his tracks and looked straight at the hunters. Blade and Rade immediately looked away, but Miray stared on. Then, the newman looked away as well, as though he had smelled something that he couldn't place the location of, and continued on his way. The hunters continued following until he skipped his way into a back alley, at which point they followed him in there as well. Strangely, they found a manhole in the alley, and nothing more.

Rade turned to Blaid. "Okay, so he alters perceptions and 'cause I ain't perceivin' him where he's supposed t' be, I guess he knows we're on him."

Blaid nodded grimly. "Right. Though, I'm guessing he went down into the sewers... they're good and dark, so he'll have any number of places to hide. And if he knows we're on his trail, he'll change the routine and we're back to square one. Into the sewers?"

Rade nodded. "01, 02, stand guard here. If you hear anything from me, find us and kill anything not us." The androids beeped their affirmation. Rade removed the cover on the manhole, and Blaid and Miray climbed down the workman's ladder. Rade followed shortly after, and found Blaid and Miray dead. He also saw the Force standing there grinning at him.

He did the first thing that came to mind, which was draw his guns and open fire. Or, more accurately, opened pansies, as that's what his guns fired. Rade was entirely stymied, and LeRoy laughed out loud. Blaid and Miray stood up and looked around with befuddlement in their eyes. Rade took the hint and looked around himself, and found that the sewer was gone. In everything direction, there was... nothing. But where he was didn't matter; if he could call for help, the androids would find him.

"Androids! Move in! Now!" Rade shouted into his headset.

A robot entirely unlike 01 and 02, egg-like in shape, clanked its way to Rade's side and introduced itself as "the ultimate E-series robot." He proceeded to explode, throwing Rade two miles due stop into the wind and producing a tiny blue bird who was sucked into a gravity well and vanished with the sound of aging cheese.

"Always fun when it doesn't make any sense, isn't it?" said LeRoy, his voice sounding like it had been glued up his nose. All three Force hunters finally managed to focus on him and get a good idea of what he looked like... the purple civilian clothes were gone, replaced by a gentlemanly petticoat with all the trappings of high-society formality. At first it seemed as though he had grown, but the change was only due to shoes that extended a full three inches from whatever arbitrary floor existed in the strange realm into which they had all been flung. On his head, he was wearing a bizarre court jester hat that split in two and hung to his shoulders, with pom-poms on either fork. The entire ensemble was purple.

"You're LeRoy?" said Blaid.

"And here I am thinking you already knew that. Very hard to talk with Death and not learn something about us, I mean, it's his job, isn't it? Trying to kill us?"

"We don't know a 'Death,'" Blaid answered, deducing that the best way to have a chance of living was to keep LeRoy talking while he came up with a plan.

"Hmm? How's that?" LeRoy said. "Keep me talking until you can come up with a plan? I'm afraid that's not going to work, Blaid! See, I've got mind-powers. Perceptions are just a teenchy little fraction of what I can do. For instance, why don't you whump your friend Rade in the stomach?"

Blaid, despite having felt like he was not within the distance he'd have to be to execute the move, elbowed Rade in the midsection as hard as he could and was immediately very sorry for having done so. Rade swore at him anyway.

"Aw, don't be so bitter, Rade. Give your friend a hug!" said LeRoy.

Despite furious attempts to the contrary, Rade ultimately wrapped his arms around Blaid and squeezed.

"Kiss him! Kiss him on the lips!"

Rade thanked the Light for technicalities as he planted a kiss on the side of Blaid's lips with the side of his own. As soon as he felt an iota of control to return, he used it to get as far away from Blaid as he could, which ultimately left him exactly where he had been standing before. LeRoy was rolling on whatever he decided was the floor, laughing hysterically.

Rade's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That ain't funny, kid."

"Yes it is! Yes it is!" LeRoy panted between guffaws.

Rade's voice seemed to come from everywhere. "Why not Miray, then? Stupid kid."

LeRoy stomped his feet and shouted, "I'm smarter than you, stupidhead!"

"I didn't--" Rade said, with an honestly surprised look on his face.

"We're all in my mind here, so I can hear aaaanything you think. And I can make anyone hear your thoughts, too! And why not Miray? She's totally brainless. No fun to play with at all."

Blaid took the chance to speak. "This is just some game to you? What are the rules?" Perhaps if he could find out how LeRoy thought, he could find some way to trick him...

And LeRoy could hear what he was thinking, so that plan collapsed in an instant. The Force leapt straight in front of Blaid's face and yelled, "The rules are I win and you DIE!" before he danced his way back to where he had been standing before. Much calmer, he explained his true intent. "Truth be told, you're the first set of people I'm going to kill as a group. But not straight out; where's the fun in that? No, I'm going to expose your every little secret to everyone else first and make you die embarrassed. Sound fun?" The words were shot out like machine-gun bullets.

"Not at all," answered Rade.

"Shut up! That was a rhetorical question!" the boy shouted back at him, with a wave of his hand that entirely removed Rade's mouth from existence. After another mood swing, he was chanting some odd set of incantations to himself. Rade decided to risk the rest of his anatomy and try to look over at the others. Both Blaid and Miray were in a military attention stance, but there was one vital difference between them. Blaid, like Rade, was trying to look around. Miray was simply staring off into space.

LeRoy stopped his chanting to explain, "I told you, she's absolutely brainless. There's nothing at all trying to stop me from making her do whatever I want to. I have no idea why it took Death so much to stop her. I'll probably kill her first anyway, she's no fun." LeRoy blinked after saying that, and then began to chuckle. The chuckle turned into a full-scale laugh shortly thereafter. The Force snapped his fingers and a file cabinet appeared. This elicited further guffaws.

"This is your brain, Blaid," said LeRoy. "And this is your brain on clogs!" He kicked the file cabinet, which had the effect of dropping the swordsman to the floor, clutching his head. "Hee hee. But I suppose we should get to the real play, where I tell them, Rade at least, just what you think about Miray." LeRoy opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet and started looking through the files. "It's always fun to see what people's heads will manifest as. Tells me a lot about how they think. And you, Blaid, are entirely boring."

With the single moment of control he was allowed, Blaid rose and said, "I suppose that means you'll kill me first?"

LeRoy shook his head, causing the pom-poms on the end of his hat to bob about irritatingly. "Nope. I'm going to kill that brainless bimbo first. Honestly, WHY do you let her dress like that?"

Blaid found his mouth mobile once again. "I just wanted to--"

LeRoy cut him off. "I can read your thoughts, stupid. No need to try to say everything aloud!" The file he was looking for was buried deep, it appeared. "I don't care anyway. The less she wears, the less I have to make her take off."

Ignoring the command to keep everything mental, Blaid shouted, "Take... off?!"

"That's what I said, idiot. Some types of play don't require a mind."

It took a second for what LeRoy was implying to sink in. As soon as it did, Blaid growled, "You'll do no such thing!"

LeRoy lost interest in his search and smirked at Blaid. "And just how are you going to stop me?"

Blaid decided to skip the telling him and go straight to the action, which was drawing his sword and charging the teenager. LeRoy simply held up a hand, which sent Blaid's sword flying off into space.

Rade felt the limitation on his actions slacken. He drew his guns and opened fire again, which sent real bullets at LeRoy this time. One clipped him in the shoulder, and suddenly everyone was back in the sewer, right under the manhole. It was LeRoy's turn to look surprised. "You're not allowed to do that!!" he screamed, attempting to back away and unfortunately slipping into the sewage. Blaid and Rade wasted no time in rushing the boy and grabbing him beneath the arms.

"No fair! No fair! I'm supposed to win! You're supposed to die! I hate you! I ha--"

Rade used his free right hand to punch LeRoy in the jaw. "Shut up, kid! Our rules now." Blaid might have objected if not for some of LeRoy's last threats.

"Good to take one alive," Blaid said.

LeRoy flailed in open panic and screamed just about every obscene name he could think of several times consecutively. This had the effect of tightening the hunters' grips on him, shaking Miray to her senses by the sheer noise, and calling the androids through the manhole cover. LeRoy had apparently set up his mind trap right below the surface, overconfident in abilities that hadn't fully developed.

"01, 02, stand down," ordered Rade. "We got 'im." LeRoy was still thrashing with all his might.

"Now what? I suppose we call the agency?" wondered Blaid aloud. In all honestly, actually capturing a Force alive wasn't a contingency he'd planned for.

It was then that Miray stabbed LeRoy in the stomach with her Morning Glory, which killed him within moments and caused her to collapse herself.

Not missing a beat, Rade said, "Yep, call the agency. They wanna keep the bodies in any case." Blaid dropped the still bleeding body and rushed to pick Miray up.

Miray groaned. "Did I do something wrong?"

Blaid nodded grimly. "If they can't hurt us, don't hurt them. Just... remember that for next time."

The trip home was quiet and uneventful, and Blaid did not speak to Miray for the rest of the day after ensuring that she'd live through her strange and sudden affliction.

***

I can't say I'm entirely happy with the result, but it moves the plot along. =/

[Kupi]

Chapter 8. Just one more after this, and then we move on to the better parts of the story (or at least the less formulaic).

***

The very next day, Ghoste made his way to the team's living room. Unfortunately, he didn't find anyone there but the androids.

"Strong Force-Like Reading In The Immediate Vicinity, Sirs!" shouted 02, simultaneously pulling the rifle from her back and aiming it at Ghoste's head.

Just as Ghoste was about to tell her to put it away, Rade darted out from Miray's room, machine-guns drawn. Ghoste simply stared at him for a moment, then looked to the 01, who had taken aim with his shotgun, and applauded sarcastically. "Bravo, chaps. A most efficient response time. Would you mind putting those blunderbusses away, now? We already know--"

"Arright, shut up for a sec an' I will," growled Rade, disarming himself. "01, 02, stand down."

As the androids holstered their respective weapons, Ghoste raised his eyebrows and wondered, "Where are the swordsman and the girl? Should they not be awake and active at this hour?"

"Miray's sick an' Blaid's takin' care of her. Why are you here?" Rade had a way of changing the subject to what he wanted to know.

Ghoste sighed. "If there is trouble amongst your comrades, it ought to be dealt with prior to any other business," he said, and hurried past the frustrated Rade.

In Miray's room, Miray herself was laying beneath her bed's covers, and Blaid was sitting on a stool beside the bed. A tray with bread and water, almost untouched, laid on the bed, in front of Blaid. Ghoste walked to the other side of the bed with an eerie lack of noise. There was little more than a shuffle. Rade entered with arms folded, unhappy with the way he had been shunted aside. Ghoste broke the silence when he asked Miray, "How do you feel?"

It was all Miray could do to groan the word, "Sto... mach."

Ghoste shook his head. "Tell me more."

"Queasy."

Ghoste then nodded, and turned to Blaid. "How much has she eaten?"

It was Blaid's turn to shake his head. "Nothing. I've only gotton her to drink a little water, that's all."

"I see. You slew LeRoy, did you not?"

Blaid nodded grimly, and Rade chimed in. "Miray scored the kill."

"Yes, it makes sense now. I shall have to do some research to become certain, but I believe I know the root of the problem. Blaid, ignore her protests and require that she eat. That is the most you can do for her at present. I assume that you do not wish to deal with the last of the other Forces until she may join you?"

Blaid nodded.

"Very well. I shall keep track of the final target until you are ready. If I may be excused..."

Ghoste was in mid-bow when Rade interjected, "No, ya can't. We got stuff to talk about, you an' me." He beckoned for Ghoste to join him outside, and then led the Force even outside the apartment.

When they had reached the hallway, which was one level below the ground floor, Ghoste raised his eyebrows at Rade. "You wish to parley. Very well. Speak your part."

"Yeah, let's talk, Death. Explain that little nickname, if ya can."

"You worry about an insult, friend. I readily admit that I am something of a vigilante; when I sense death impending nearby, I judge the heart of the threatened. The righteous live if it is within my powers to help them, the unrighteous perish, sometimes by my own hand. I may thus be considered a spirit of death. The other Forces simply envy my domain of power. Nothing more."

"Ah, I see. So you can cause death as well as bein' immune to it."

"Indeed. Yet, who cannot cause death, my dear sir? Some are simply more capable of it. Now, is that all you wished to discuss, or have you more greivances?"

Rade shook his head. "Nah, I suppose ya--"

Ghoste was gone.

---

It was a full week before Miray ceased to refuse food. Until then, Blaid had to improvise by tearing the bread into tiny pieces and mixing it with Miray's water, which she would accept on occasion. It at least got the limited nutrition into her stomach and staved off starvation. As before, when Miray recovered, it was instantaneous and total. She was back to her normal self; curious, active, and of course ravenous. Ghoste had promised research, but Rade did some of his own and came up with nothing. Whatever Ghoste thought the problem or the solution had to be, it wasn't anything that Coral or the Pioneer 2 had ever encountered. Nevertheless, Miray's condition seemed to be fine, and "seemed" was as good as it was going to get.

The day after Miray's sudden recovery, the force hunters discovered that they'd run their food supplies down to almost nothing right after dinner. As such, Blaid volunteered to make a run to the supply district and get enough provisions to last a few more days. Miray, ever willing to get out of the apartment and follow Blaid around, volunteered to join him. Rade declined, having an "important job" to do on his computer, which typically meant something else entirely.

Halfway to the supply district, which was located centrally on the Pioneer 2, Blaid took note of the eerie silence that pervaded the streets. It seemed as though everyone were in a rush to get home and shut their windows. As if going to bed for the night. As if curfew had been called early.

Blaid flipped open a portable communication device and speed-dialed home. "Rade! Turn on the news! Now!"

"Cable's been out all day, remember? Can't flip on the news if there ain't a connection," Rade answered.

"Try it anyway!"

Blaid could hear Rade's footsteps and a click, followed by the sound of some popular show, then the brief silence of channels changing, and at last a newscaster's voice saying, "...I repeat, curfew has been called for the night. All citizens are required to return home and turn off any and all lights immediately." Indeed, the streets were already practically empty.

Blaid grabbed Miray by the shoulders and turned her around, shouting, "C'mon, Miray, we're going home!" Miray produced a questioning look but no question; she had learned that when Blaid spoke like that, it was best to simply follow him and ask the questions later.

---

"Who among us told Tyrell to call the curfew?"

"I did not."

"Nor I."

"Nor I."

"Nor any of us, it seems!"

Silence.

"Sponsored has learned of what we know?"

"Difficult to tell. Perhaps he considers himself our equal, with authority to tell Tyrell to call the curfew?"

"We cannot know."

"We have heard that the First Daughter must not be retreived."

"Thus, we must not allow that to happen, in any case."

"All in favor of deploying Lumin?"

"Aye," all around.

"Lumin, prevent the First Daughter's retreival."

"Yes, Sir. Destroy Or Subdue Opposition?"

"Subdue. We must not seem suspicious yet."

"Yes, Sir."

---

It would have looked silly if one did not know what Blaid did, to see a man and a woman sprinting down a highway between rows of apartment buildings, totally alone. The only two who did not know, fleeing from an unseen foe.

Unseen until it landed on the street twenty feet in front of them. Without his saber, Blaid knew he couldn't protect Miray from the black android's intents, whatever they may be. And so, pulling her hand to get her to turn around and follow him, he tried to at least run the other way. The monster simply leapt over him, impossibly high, and landed closer on the other side. Blaid struggled to come up with a solution for the scythe or any of the other disadvantages he was up against, and could find none.

As the black android stepped forward, its utter foil dropped between it and its quarry. This new android was white all over, and cast to look female. She looked more human than the black android, with a face cast to look like a human's, complete with a metal ponytail coming out the back. Her eyes, however, glowed light blue, a trait as of yet not observed in the range of human genetics. Blaid couldn't make out exactly what it was that she held in her right hand, but it looked like a small point of light.

The eerie silence returned as both androids stared at each other with their shining eyes, each waiting for the other to make a move. It was the black one who acted first, but the move was to turn around and walk a short ways before leaping over a building and out of sight.

The white android turned to Blaid and said, "Go Home." Blaid and Miray, baffled at what had just happened, complied immediately at full speed, watching to make sure they weren't followed by anyone.

As they were heading into the basement-level apartment, Blaid made one final check behind him. As he came into the living room, Miray was already heading off to her room, and Rade was watching the news. Blaid was about to tell Rade what happened, when a news story caught Rade's interest and he shushed Blaid.

"Two men, one armed and one not, were found dead in an alley earlier today. Police have confirmed that despite a handgun being drawn, there is no evidence that it was discharged or that there was even a struggle. Both men appear to have died of sudden stoppage of the heart. More details as we receive them."

***

I hope to get more work done on this fic than I have recently... it's not good to neglect your projects, y'know?

[Kupi]

WRITE MORE is necessary.
> Kupi

***

Blaid was beginning to get used to the timing of Ghoste's visits. He had a feeling that the day after the second incident with the black robot, Ghoste would show up. His intuition needed recalibrating, because it was a day off. The Force came a few hours after lunch.

"I see that the condition of our mutual friend has improved. Shall we discuss your last target?" he said immediately upon appearing. There was a mild impatience behind his voice.

"Eh?" grunted Rade, looking up from the television. Once he realized who was speaking, he turned the device off and paid more attention. "Sure sure, talk at us." Blaid and Miray took seats at the couch and listened as well.

When everyone was ready, Ghoste began speaking. "The third and final Force you are to target goes by the name of 'Noctia.' I have only known her to move in the night, or some other form of darkness. In any case, she makes her home in the ancient ruins that this ship has only recency discovered. I must admit that I fear for your safety in this instance, as she allowed me to roam her domain without fearing for her own safety. If she does not regard me as a threat, then she certainly must not have any fear of you."

"Good! Cocky people make for easy shootin'," said Rade.

Ghoste raised an eyebrow. "So long as you do not become overconfident yourself, sir. Harba and LeRoy both channeled mortal powers, but Noctia deals with energies not of this world. She will strike you with what you least expect her to, with things you may not be able to explain." There was a pause as that sunk in, which Ghoste himself broke by conjuring a scroll from thin air. "This is a map of the ruins, with directions to Noctia's lair. Do not lose it, lest you risk being lost yourself." With that, Ghoste bowed and was gone.

Rade chuckled. "Home stretch, buddy."

Blaid returned the chuckle half-heartedly. He couldn't help but feel a little unsettled, though. There was something different about Ghoste, though he couldn't put his mental finger on it. Perhaps his tone? His diction? His word choice? His mood? Or maybe it was simply the subject, the talk of things not of the mortal world that was putting him off-kilter. Along with his reasoning and strategic mind, Blaid was always a little superstitious, and talk of spirits never failed to shake him.

---

As it turned out, Ghoste had made a rather extreme assumption regarding the Pioneer 2's knowledge of Ragol's surface. His map showed how to get to Noctia once they were in the ruins, but how to get there from the Pioneer 2 was visibly absent. Rade worked on the problem for several days, and finally came up with a set of coordinates through a method that he never fully disclosed to Blaid. Early on the day after that, the force hunters got clearance to leave the Pioneer 2 and land in the region, thanks to a formal request by Blaid through the agency. The area was legally restricted, but there were no physical guards at the location.

Blaid drew his sword as the group of five passed through the stone opening in the massive brown egg-shaped ship, out of the light of day and into the darkness of times past. Five paces beyond that point, he asked Rade, "Aren't we going to post the androids as guards?"

"Feh. The other Forces didn't care a bit about runnin' away an' I don't think this one'll feel like doin' it either if she's stronger'n the last two," said Rade. "An' I want all the firepower I can get."

Blaid nodded. "Miray, get your claws out. Androids, ready weapons." 01 and 02 would take orders from Blaid as well as from Rade, so they each removed their respective weapons from their holsters.

Rade hung his head and gave it a few slow shakes. "Honestly, man. Yer scared a' nothin'. This place is a ruin; dead stuff doesn't move by def--" At that point, Rade looked up and realized that the door had vanished and that Blaid and Miray had vanished.

"Ah, crap."

---

"Miray?"

"Yes?"

"Where are you?"

"I don't know."

"I know you're close, at least. Small room, too, the way our voices are echoing. Let me see if I can find the lights..." Rade's investigation into the whereabouts of the ruined ship had produced some other vital information, including the fact that many areas of the ship had been blacked out entirely and needed to have their power restored through emergency cells located on the floor. All you had to do was touch them. Thus, Blaid shuffled around the edge of the room after sheathing his sword and braced for impact with whatever he could potentially trip over. Halfway across the second wall, he bumped into something and took hold of it immediately. It was soft and somewhat squeezable, not at all like a power core.

"Blaid? Is that you?"

"Oh! Miray! Eheh. Sorry," muttered Blaid, sincerely hoping that whatever squishy part of Miray he had just grabbed wasn't one he'd make a conscious effort to touch with the lights on. Three-quarters of the way around the room, he finally found something that felt hard and smooth, and seemed to be irregular in the floor's frame of reference. A simple swipe of his hand over it, and light flooded the room. Once his eyes had adjusted, Blaid drew his saber and looked about the room. It was made of simple grey brick, an odd material to find in a ship designed to travel through space. Miray ducked over to Blaid's side as soon as she spotted him. Blaid pointed to a door that seemed functional now that the power was back on. "Follow me. Don't worry, I'll protect you," he told her.

---

"Full attack mode!"

01's bowgun launched five green needles into the air, each hitting one of five blue and black creatures and tearing through them. The damage would've been fatal or crippling to a human, but these monsters kept on coming with barely a pause. Rade did the only thing he was trained to do in this type of situation, which was to lock both guns on one of the approaching demons and fire away, hoping to mangle it beyond recognition before it could get close enough to put the bright blue blades that it had instead of forearms to use. The plan worked; once half the creature's body had been torn away, the rest evaporated into a cloud of purple smoke.

"01! Focused attack left! 02! Focused attack right!" The monsters were getting closer with every step and they needed to be dealt with quickly. 01's heavy blast tore through the blade-monster on the left in a single shot, but it took 02 several deliberately aimed shots from her rifle to finally cut a line through the rightmost demon. Rade aimed a gun at the two remaining attackers and fired until both his clips and the room were empty. The gunman cast a furtive glance around the rest of the room and confirmed that it was clear. "Follow," he commanded the androids, and made for the door on the other side of the rectangular room while reloading. The three of them had been placed in a long, straight, and narrow hallway, and were attempting to find the end of it.

It wasn't the endlessness of the pathway that bothered Rade, at least, not after the attack. It was the way those monsters had appeared. They had simply been there. If they could appear like that at any time and anywhere, none of them were safe...

---

"Miray, behind you!"

Miray turned around and barely had time to convert the motion into an intentional fall to get out of the way of a purple blade-arm slashing sideways at her torso. The beast to which it was attached swung downward at her, necessitating a sideways roll. Continuing the motion, Miray rolled to her feet and slashed at the demonic humanoid with her Morning Glory to counter its third attack, but the creature simply deflected her attack with its other arm, which was in the form of a shield. At this point Blaid caught up with the melee and thrust his sword tip-first at the still defending monster in an attempt to drive it back. Instead, the saber pierced straight through the shield and transformed the monster into a cloud of purple gas instantaneously.

As the gas dispersed, Blaid asked Miray, "Are you okay?" Miray nodded. The two turned around just in time to see three more of the monstrosities appear out of the air.

Ever chivalrous, Blaid took the head of their triangle formation head-on. He held up his sword to block the incoming first slash from the monster, but instead of clanging off as he had expected the attack to, the sword-arm kept going straight through the blade, just with half of the arm missing. Before the attacker could even look surprised, the rest of its body beginning with the stump vanished into a purple haze. The other two demons showed an uncharacteristic degree of horror and disappeared as quickly as they had come.

Blaid waved to Miray, and cautiously walked through the exit into the next hallway.

---

Blaid, Miray, Rade, 01, and 02 all met after a right and a left turn in their respective hallways. Unfortunately, where they met simply connected to the hallways, which they knew ended in dead ends.

"So we're stuck," muttered Rade. "Great. Just peachy."

"Maybe there's a hidden exit in a wall?" suggested Blaid.

"Don't bother searching. There isn't any," said a grating female voice. The three organics looked about for the source of the voice, and were only able to observe the walls changing around them.

"Noctia! Show yourself!" shouted Blaid. Rade shook his head wearily.

"I am right behind you."

This time, all five members of the force-hunting squad turned to face the source of the sound. Blaid and Rade stepped back in surprise at the sight of what they saw. It was a throne constructed with bones, with its own dark majesty seated upon it. Her face was painted a sickly white, with runic designs in green all over. Her clothes consisted of a simple black halter top and a skirt that ended between her ankles and her knees. On her head, a black beret with a blood red pompom in the center rested a slight slant. Noctia sat with her legs crossed, arms spread to a grasp the armrests of the throne. Casually, she said, "Greetings."

"Greetings yerself, girl!" Rade shouted back. Blaid took stock of the room. It was about as large as the rectangular room he and Miray had fought the demons in before. The throne was at the far end, next to a wall, and there was a door, open, three large paces behind the force hunters.

Noctia tsked. "Such manners. ...I suppose you're here to kill me? Or try to, at least?"

"That'd be the general idea, yeah," muttered Rade.

"Well, there's no need for that. You've been lied to and you ought to know the extent of it."

Blaid's eyes narrowed. "Explain."

"Death has lied to you. He wants all the power for himself, and he's getting it through you poor people," Noctia said. She rose from her seat and began to descend the ramp of assorted bones that led up to it. "I suspect it has something to do with this one," she continued, motioning to Miray.

"Me?"

"Yes, because you have a rather peculiar enchantment upon you. You are a newman, like me. Do you know what we newmen do that makes us so hated?" Miray stepped back cautiously as Noctia drew ever closer, and Blaid moved to step between the two. Noctia, in response, ceased her advance and chuckled to herself without explaining the gesture. She did, however, continue to elaborate upon her point. "We are creatures of death. We absorb free spiritual energy released when something dies. No human," she spat the word, "will ever understand the reason behind the feeling, but they feel that what he do and can't control is wrong. And thus they hate us and persecute us." All of the Force hunters were fixed upon her words, weapons still at the ready. "But you, Miray... you are different. You see, every physical body has a limit as to how much energy it can hold. Exceed that limit, and the rest will simply pour out. But you hold exactly your limit, peculiarly so. You hold Harba and LeRoy within you, Miray, plus some other inconsequential spirits. It is as though you've... stretched." Noctia thought for a second. "She was present when Harba and LeRoy were killed, correct?"

Rade nodded, and continued to point his guns at Noctia's head as he said, "Scored both kills, actually." Noctia didn't seem to care at all.

"And she suffered a grievous illness shortly thereafter, correct?"

Blaid was the one to nod this time. 02 chipped in, "My Logs Indicate A Correlation Between The Two Events."

Noctia clapped her hands together. "And there you have it. Miray has a one-way valve upon the flow of spiritual energy. She cannot release the energy she absorbs. And Death has guided you to destroy us, the other Forces, so that our powers may be gathered in her. He seeks to disrupt the balance of power among us and take the Pioneer 2 for his own ends. Slay me, and you give him all that he desires."

"I knew it! I freakin' knew it!" shouted Rade, finally ceasing to aim at the Force. "I knew from the start we couldn't trust that Ghoste guy!"

"Rade! We can't tell if she's telling the truth!" Blaid hissed at Rade under his breath.

"Oh, it is all quite true," said Noctia. "You may test it to see its truth."

"Y'know what, Blaid? I say we do that. I say we kick his ass and keep him from pullin' anythin' else on us." Rade turned to go.

Noctia's voice suddenly became deeper and more grating. "And yet that would disrupt the balance as well, cretin!" The exit disappeared, and like lightning Rade's guns were squarely aligned toward Noctia's head. The Force continued, "It's been too long since I've had fresh energy to use in my machinations, and you two came here with the intention of killing me. Come and try it. But these--" She stopped the sentence in order to hold out her arms. "--I have no quarrel with!" The two androids were suddenly flung into the walls on either side of the room, where they were stuck despite grinder motors indicating their efforts to move.

Rade opened fire. Noctia held up her right hand and every bullet stopped in the air just inches from her body. With her left hand, she waved toward the bone throne, causing Miray to briefly experience the sensation of flight before she crashed into the seat and was held down by a dozen skeletal hands.

Noctia turned her gaze back to Blaid and Rade, and grinned. Cued by a flick of her wrist, the bullets screeched back toward their sender. Rade rolled to his right and jumped as soon as he was back on his feet, barely avoiding the hail of his own gunfire. Right at the end of his defense, Rade made an error that all fighters sometimes do in that he made the same mistake twice by opening fire again. Blaid charged, drawing Noctia's return fire. Blaid raising his sword in front of his eyes, which put a shield of metal around almost every area of his body. He still winced as the sharpened metal beads crashed against his plating, slowing his attack. Just as he got within his saber's effective range, Noctia let out one grotesque laugh.

A pair of batlike, demonic wings suddenly sprung impossibly from her back, nearly four times her size. The runes on her face became textures on her suddenly scaly, black skin. Her eyes glowed with crimson hellfire. The first beat of Noctia's wings knocked Blaid over and herself into the air. Despite all rational physics, she slowly hovered her way to the area above the throne and remained there, belting out more sickening laughter. Rade loaded another clip into both guns as Noctia bellowed. When he opened fire, she simply stopped the bullets again and let them fall to the floor in front of Miray. Noctia held her hands out in front of her chest, angled inward with a gap in between. The gap filled with a flowing, unnatural fire that Noctia rolled into a ball as she continued to cackle at Rade's growing frustration.

"Get out of the way, Rade!" Blaid shouted at him.

"I ain't stupid!" Rade shouted back as he watched Noctia wind up and hurl the fireball at him. If it had simply struck the ground and scattered as normal fire in such a condition would have, Rade's leap would have gotton him out of harm's way quite effectively. However, the fireball exploded on impact, sending out a shockwave that flung Rade into the wall, knocking the wind out of him.

Blaid took advantage of the fact that Noctia was ignoring him entirely to advance on the throne, hoping to rescue Miray from it. Unfortunately, this attracted her attention. She grinned at him from her position of impunity and said between screeching chuckles, "You're just a lightning rod dressed up like that, do you realize that?" Her body began to spark. "All that metal." The sparks grew larger. "There would be nothing to stop one good thunderbolt from running straight through you!!"

She missed.

However, the thunderclap reverberated throughout the tiny room, pounding against Blaid's head like a sledgehammer and even took Noctia by surprise. Rade, through the double agony of the blow to his back and the pounding in his head, shot off another round with one gun and clipped Noctia in her left wing. Physics demanded its part in the matter and sent her plummeting to the ground after bouncing her off of Miray. Blaid mustered the strength to make a charge, straight into her open hand. He saw a flash of black form in Noctia's outstretched arm and defended with the first thing that came to mind, his sword.

There was a sound like a churchbell's ring. It was one long, continuous note accompanied by a flash of white light that utterly blinded all three combatants and their allies. Everyone struggled to clear the spots from their vision before someone unfriendly did. Blaid was the first to manage it, and what he saw nearly caused him to drop his sword. That would have been ironic, as it was the sword itself that surprised Blaid so. It had been a simple saber, a mere reflective sword, but now runic symbols ran the length of the blade, which shone independent of the light striking it. The hilt, previously bronze and nondescript, was now fashioned in the shape of wings. The handle appeared to be made of gold. Despite the sound that had accompanied its transformation having faded, it gave off a soft hum.

Noctia recovered next, and recoiled at the sight of the weapon. In an instant, she reverted to her more newman self, her skin becoming once again the color of human flesh, the runes becoming mere paint, and the wings liquefying into purple ooze which fell to the floor with little noise. "Enough!" she cried. "I surrender."

Blaid caught himself staring at the sword and decided that it would be best to ponder it later. He maintained a defensive stance and backed away. "So easily?" he wondered aloud.

"You do not understand what you hold, human!" she spat. "I dare not risk defeat by such a weapon... to die is one thing, but to be destroyed is quite another. I will not oppose you."

Rade shook the headache from his brainpan and stood. As he levelled his guns at Noctia's head, he said, "Ya can't possibly expect us to buy that line."

"If... if you would persist in attacking me," said Noctia, looking at their untrusting faces, "Then..." The skeletal hands binding Miray to her seat vanished. "Greater damnation to the world to die by her hand!" Miray's weapon hand flew toward Noctia, pulling its very surprised owner with it. By the time Miray regained her senses, it was too late to change anything; Noctia was dead and her spirit had become overloaded yet again.

Miray practically blacked out, but managed to moan, "I didn't mean to do it..."

Blaid ran over to her and, sheathing his sword, picked her out of the wing-ooze, saying, "I know. It's okay. It's not your fault." Rade mocked his tone silently as he made sure the androids were okay.

"Question." Rade said once he was convinced nothing was going to happen to his creations. "How're we gettin' outta here?"

Blaid shrugged. "Use the map?"

***

I'm sorry this took so long to get out (over a month). I will see this story to its conclusion, as the following chapters are the truly interesting things (read: what I really wanted to write) and it's summer vacation, so I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands. Here's hoping, and thanks for your time as always!

[Kupi]

It's Chapter 10, yo!

***

"So, how is she?" Rade asked from the sofa.

"Asleep, right now," Blaid answered as he came out of Miray's room. It had been two weeks since they had dealt with Noctia, and their mutual friend was showing no sign of improvement. Neither had Ghoste been around. The latter became the subject of the conversation after a pause.

"So, we got one more Force to deal with."

Blaid shook his head. "I don't think so. There's a good chance that Noctia could be lying to us, or simply insane. She had no reason to attack us like she did..."

"Yeah, but yer forgettin' that she was coherent up ta that point. I'd think you'd be the one ta jump on the whole 'we ain't gonna understand the workin' of greater beings' or whatever crap it's supposed ta be."

"Only when they don't act like humans the rest of the time, Rade," said Blaid, gritting his teeth at being misunderstood. "Here we have something that apparently thinks like a human, with a massive, spontaneous change in attitude. How can that be explained by anything but that which would remove our ability to trust what she said?"

"Yeah, an' if she can tell us what's wrong with Miray, she's probably right about Ghoste, too."

Blaid thought for a moment. "So how do you propose we handle Ghoste, then? We hardly know the extent of his powers, but we know for sure that you can't kill him. The Light knows you've tried it enough..."

It was Rade's turn to be frustrated. After mentally flailing for a solution, he let out an exasperated sigh. "Arright, then. I guess we play along with whatever his plans are fer now. But I ain't gonna like it!"

---

Rade really wasn't going to like it. He knew, he KNEW that somehow, Miray factored into someone's plans. Whose, he didn't know for sure. Not Ghoste's, unless the Force was an extraordinary actor. Someone else, someone under the puppetmasters of Pioneer 2. And unless he missed his guess, the plans would be executed very soon; in fact, they were long overdue.

And the solution, the oh-so-simple solution, was to kill Miray.

Yet that would require audacity that even Rade didn't have. Or perhaps the reason was the more characteristic self-interest; if he were to kill Miray, there would be an investigation. No matter how many steps he could possibly take to cover his tracks, the truth would come out. He could be executed for the murder, or worse: expelled from the Hunter's Guild. His one umbrella of safety...

And besides that, there was the fact that Blaid cared about her so much...

---

Three days later, Blaid wondered aloud, "So, what are we going to do now? We finished what the agency told us to do."

Rade shrugged. "So long as there're people, there'll be problems, an' if there're problems, there'll be a Hunter's Guild. We'll find work."

"Are you sure it will be a 'we', Rade?"

"Hey, this whole Force-huntin' business only brought us all together. Nothin' says we gotta split up now that it's done. 'sides, I wanna keep an eye on Miray."

"Why's that?" asked Blaid, taking a seat in the group's recliner.

"We find a girl naked in a cave who goes after forces like a madwoman (or was programmed to, at least) and nearly gets kidnapped twice, and you don't wanna find out what she's around for?"

Blaid shook his head. "It's not that, I just thought--"

Rade cut him off. "--you'd have th'job to yerself?"

"Sorta," said Blaid, his head sinking beneath his hunched shoulders.

Rade's tone changed to one that Blaid hadn't heard from him much. It had neither the anger nor the careless confidence that typically characterized Rade's speech. It was unnerving only because it was so different. "You care about her a lot, don't ya?"

Blaid was too flabbergasted to reply. Was it--

"Yeah, it's that obvious. She's like the helpless princess to yer knight-in-shining-armor act. Ya go outta yer way to make sure she's got everything. Way too much fer some girl we found under a rock fer it ta just be charity. It's kinda obvious how ya feel about her."

Blaid's face flushed red with embarassment. "It's not as big as you make it out to be. She just needs to be looked after; she obviously wasn't made to fit in with humans like most newmen are, and someone has to guide her. That's it."

"So, when ya go into her room at night ta make sure she's sleepin' okay...?"

Blaid would not have made an effective poker player. Rade chuckled at the way his lower eyelid twitched and went on.

"What, ya never thought that maybe I'd have the place wired?" asked Rade, bluffing. The serious tone had long since evaporated. "Ya might wanna start dressing in the bathroom; I saw no reason to rig it."

Blaid stood, a scowl crossing his face. "You... you... you--" he gibbbered, unfortunately unable to wrap his mind around an appropriate word. So, instead, he decided to leave.

Blaid was halfway to his room when Rade shouted, "Ya might want to marry her soon, dude; the government's on a repopulation kick lately!" Blaid ignored the comment and locked the door to his room before he searched for hidden cameras or microphones.

---

After another several days, Miray was finally back on her feet, and ravenous as ever. Shortly thereafter, Blaid resolved to try out a new restaurant that was offering something unheard of on the Pioneer 2: salad and fruit juice. It was something that most Pionerians had never experienced, and therefore extremely expensive. The agency had paid the Force hunters handsomely, so they could afford at least one fancy dinner. However, Rade declined to attend the meal, saying that so long as he could get the necessary nutrition through pills, he would be happy to avoid chewing on plants until the experience became more affordable. Blaid and Miray were thus left alone.

As the two were headed out the door, Rade stopped them. Blaid turned an annoyed gaze upon Rade to preempt any comments that might disturb the mood of the evening, but they never came. Instead, Rade said, "I see yer takin' yer sword. Just in case it ain't enough..." Rade held out one of his guns. "I just wish ya weren't goin' all the way ta Alcyone." Blaid took the gun with only a nod as a response. It was, however, a more conciliatory nod than an affirmative one.

Alcyone was the convoy ship in which the new restaurant was located. It was quite a walk from their Altair home; so far that it strayed into the region controlled by people who spoke an entirely different language. They looked the same for the most part, but the way they spoke and their customs were utterly foreign to Blaid and Miray. For that reason, Blaid advised Miray to keep close to him and avoid trying to speak to them, as the translator he was equipped with didn't extend beyond a few simple phrases. They got to the restaurant without incident.

Thanks to the reservation Blaid had put in, he and Miray were able to skip the extremely long line to the door. The meal they received was simple by any other culture's standards; the same kind of burger one could get anywhere else, plus some almost undrinkably sour juice from a newly-approved kind of fruit, and a bed of nondescript greenery without dressing. If nothing else, it was exciting simply because it was new.

Blaid sat back in his chair and listened to the music for a minute after he'd finished. Miray had finished long before he had, and appeared restless. "Would you like to talk about something, Miray?" Blaid asked her.

Miray's face lit up. "Oo! Can we talk about that thing that makes your face turn all red?" she answered exuberantly. A few people at adjacent tables peered at the duo questioningly. "Like it is right now!" she continued.

Blaid sighed. "Please don't speak so loud, Miray," he said, using his own as the example. He then thought for a moment and tried to speak, with pauses to make absolutely certain he wanted to say what he was about to. "I suppose... the easiest way to explain that is... if two people love each other, they get married, and from there it's--"

Miray interrupted him. "What's 'love'?"

The swordsman chuckled. "That, Miray, is a difficult question to answer. I guess you could say that it's when two people feel connected to each other, as though they could never live without the other."

It took a while for Miray to process the sentence. And once she had, she asked a question Blaid had hoped he'd never have to answer: "Do you love me, Blaid?"

It might have been a long, terrible silence, if not for the fact that a voice speaking the native tongue suddenly began speaking over the requisite intercom. Blaid checked the translator in case the message was something common.

"Curfew has been called early. All citizens must return to their quarters and deactivate lights within a half-hour. No exceptions."

The room was already emptying rapidly, and Blaid could hear the displeased groans from people outside who had waited for over and hour to get sent home without food. Pulling Miray along behind him, Blaid paid the cost of the dinner and bolted. Once on the street, he whipped out his communicator and dialed home base. "Rade! The curfew!"

"Just heard about it. I'll meet you midway as soon as I can. We can get th'agency t'bail us out if we run inta trouble."

For a moment Blaid considered attempting to get home through a back road or side street or even the alleys, but even if he and Miray could avoid being spotted, there was still the junction between ships. The colony ships had been connected to one another when the Pioneer 2 realized how long they could be in a holding pattern above Ragol. However, they had only been connected at one place; therefore, the android that was likely in hot pursuit would simply have to wait at a junction. Besides, who knew what kind of scanners it was equipped with? Hiding was, in all probability, not an option. Blaid and Miray could only run as fast as they could toward home and hope that the android didn't show up.

They managed to get through three different ships before the sight of the midnight-colored machine stopped them in their tracks. Blaid drew the gun that Rade had given him and clasped it in both hands. "Run, Miray," he said. "I'll hold it off! Go the other way!" Miray, like prey knowing it had been spotted, froze. The android bearing down on them awoke in her some primordial terror, a fear rooted in a place she couldn't grasp with her conscious mind.

The black android charged, and Blaid opened fire. Even with both hands trying to hold the gun in place, Blaid had underestimated how much it would buck. The android made no attempt to defend itself; it simply ran headlong into the hail of bullets, all but ignoring those few that plinked off of its armor plating.

"Go, Miray!! Run!!" Blaid shouted over the din. She stayed.

The monster drew ever closer. Suddenly, it stopped. From above, the white robot that had driven it off before dropped between it and the one it pursued. This time, the black android did not hesitate. It swung its scythe at its foe's neck, aiming to dispatch her quickly. The blue-eyed one backflipped, allowing the blade to sever the air above her in two. Bending impossibly, she threw a glowing star at her assailant's leg, which the black android dodged by lifting the appendage. The light blade passed frustratingly close to the dark android's leg; the monster had calculated where it needed to be perfectly. Switching its approach, the black android chopped downward with the pointed end of the scythe, which the white android readily sidestepped and counterattacked. The black android simply tilted its head, and the blazing shuriken flew harmlessly past. At the same time, it pulled the white android's legs out from under it with the scythe's hook and converted the maneuver into another chop. The white android never had time to land before the blade pierced her chest plating. With another swift motion, the original attempt to separate her head from her body was carried out. However, the monster was not yet finished. It continued to swing, cut, and chop at its foe until no two pieces were still connected.

Blaid took a step back, which drew the android's attention. Its charge resumed, and Blaid's will to fight had been broken. He turned to flee, aiming to drag Miray along with him, but the robot caught up with him before he had taken more than three steps. He felt a blunt, crushing pain on the side of his head, and then no more.

Miray never screamed as the android grabbed her around the throat and leapt, impossibly, onto the roof of a nearby building. As horrifying as seeing the white android torn to pieces and Blaid's fall were, something, in the deepest part of her heart, felt as though this was right.

And looking upon the whole scene from a nearby apartment building, Blood Red said to herself, "Photon..."

---

"Lumin has fallen."

"So it is true, we are betrayed!"

"We must contact Cyclops!"

"No! There is no time. We must disperse, cancel all projects and cease communications until a match for Shadow may be assembled."

Red light flooded the room, destroying the anonyminity held so dear to them.

A voice in the intermittent darkness cried out, "Something has breached the complex!"

"Shadow?"

"...yes!"

Sirens wailed.

"Here? How?!"

"I don't know!"

"Everyone to the exits!"

A terrible wailing joined the shouts of those assembled. It was the sound of metal, cutting its way through metal. A door was being cut apart by a scythe's blade. Fourteen people, fourteen voices of the darkness stared in horror as a large triangle was rent from the giant sliding plate that was the door to the room. The monster, still carrying Miray, kicked what it had cut open into the room.

A gunshot went off. He who caused it was the first to die.

The room went red with the alarm's light, and two more perished by the scythe's blade.

The alarms screamed a pointless warning, and four fell in one stroke.

Someone grabbed the scythe. She received it-- point first.

Two more presumed to be heroes. They lost their lives.

The scythe whirled, and its radius claimed three more.

The last of them backed into the corner and whimpered. The Shadow gave him no mercy, adding the red of his blood to the red light illuminating the room.

Within a few minutes, the alarm system detected that the intruder had left and deactivated the screaming sirens and the flashing lights, leaving fourteen voices in the darkness dead.

***

The last bit reminds me of Stabbed in the Back. That's a good thing. ^_~

[Kupi]

Well, here it is. Chapter 11. Pretty much the pivotal chapter of the 'fic. I sayeth no more!

***

"Miray!!"

"Easy, guy! Stay down!"

Blaid struggled against Rade's attempts to keep him down, but eventually gave up and sagged back into his bed's mattress. He could have wondered how he had gotton back home, how long he had been out, or who the woman in red was, but the only real question in his mind was "What happened to Miray?"

Rade didn't answer the question. "Here. Drink somethin' then eat somethin'." Blaid felt a cold glass pressed against his lips, and drank the water he'd been offered. "Can ya sit up? Anythin' hurt too bad fer it?"

Blaid pulled himself up and clutched his head in a futile attempt to cease the bludgeoning pain seated there. "Gnng. Head hurts," he muttered. "Where's Miray?"

Rade shook his head. "Gone."

Blaid winced from a different sort of pain. He was silent for quite some time, hearing only the throb in his skull. Finally, he decided to ask the most pressing of the secondary questions, saying, "Who is she?" and pointing to the woman.

Rade's mouth was halfway open when she introduced herself. "You may call me Blood Red. It would appear that our purposes have intersected; that's why I've come to help you."

"Help with what?" Blaid asked, regretting it as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Talking made the pain worse.

"Stop what is about to happen to your friend, and take my revenge," Blood Red answered.

Blaid winced again and laid back. Rade ordered 02 to get the medical kit, which she brought with all the haste her mechanical frame could muster. Rade administered a bitter-tasting fluid to Blaid, which had the rather remarkable effect of dulling the pain within minutes. Blaid sat up again and listened on.

"What now?"

Blood Red explained what she had explained to Rade. "Your friend, Miray, is part of a project dedicated to creating a biological weapon. I don't know what the specifics are or the timeframe. I just know that my father was keeping track of it for someone and he got found out. The android that nearly killed you, Shadow, killed my father. I only want to destroy Shadow. If that will help you rescue your friend and stop the project that created her, so be it. I want my revenge, nothing more." Blood Red then turned and left. Blaid could hear her walking toward Miray's room; she must be staying with them.

Rade eyed the dazed expression on Blaid's face, sat down on a folding chair that he had brought in, and inhaled cautiously. "Listen, bud, I know this's a lot ta take, but there's more."

Blaid nodded grimly and motioned for Rade to speak.

"Arright then. The P2's under martial law. Tyrell's a wreck, an' I know why. He ain't got his higher-ups no more."

Blaid raised an eyebrow.

Rade sighed, realizing that he'd started at the wrong place. "Look, the P2's government was never Tyrell. There was a council a' fourteen givin' him orders. Various interests an' stuff. 'cept it used ta be fifteen. The last guy was me."

Blaid continued to stare at Rade intently.

"They started talkin' about splittin' offa Coral. Gettin' ridda the trash, makin' the genes pure or some crap like that. But they knew the trash was big, an' the trash knows how ta fight. They mostly knew that causa me; I represented the trash in their little circle. So they needed some really big guns ta fight off the resta Coral when they get here. That's how they got the bioweapon project idea. I told 'em they didn't deserve ta kill off mosta the population just fer purity. Only one of 'em took my side, and even then only enough ta tell me they were plannin' ta bump me off. So I registered with the Hunter's Guild. Sounds stupid, I know, but I couldn't just tell everyone on the P2 about it, or they'd have my head fer sure. At least in the Guild they find out exactly how ya died, so the council couldn't try to get me killed any way I couldn't get out of." Rade looked up to make sure Blaid was still following him. Sure enough, Blaid showed no signs of losing interest or disbelief.

"But they still got me. They made up a fake Guild agency with a cockamamy mission an'put my name on the registry along with another dude. Made us both take aliases of our own choosin', get to work, and report every week."

Blaid's eyes widened in realizion.

"Yeah, Blaid. Our little Force-huntin' gig was all a big joke to get me outta the picture. Ya signed up for a dummy quest that wasn't supposed ta go anywhere. An' yet it led us right back to the bioweapon project, eh? Turns out the myths're true an' it all connects in a big tidy circle. An' that's where we really are. I'm sorry ta keep ya in the dark fer so long, buddy... I just couldn't tell ya safely."

Blaid nodded, and finally answered. "I... think I understand. I forgive you; you did what you had to. Is there anything we can do?"

Rade nodded slowly. "Mrs. Red knows where th'facility where th'project is goin' down is on Ragol. S'why she's helpin' us; five fighters're better'n one."

"And several hundred are better than three! We ought to get the Guild's help!"

Rade shook his head. "No-go there, buddy. Hunters can't put in mission requests, an' I don't think anyone's gonna buy our story. The government ain't gonna help us, either... it ain't there. We're on our own. But hey... knight in armor's gotta have a dragon to fight before he gets his princess, eh? We leave tomorrow at dawn, by the way."

Blaid nodded as Rade left to deal with further issues. He didn't worry at all for his own condition; the medicine he had taken would have him in ideal condition within the hour. He could only worry about Miray.

---

Blaid, Rade, and their new partner were forced to sneak their way to their ship. Tyrell was a well-meaning man, but utterly incapable of political decisions of his own. In absense of his controllers, he simply brought everything to a halt through the military, including expeditions to Ragol. This could not and would not stop the Force hunters, however; if they did not stop Project Bioweapons, the fate of the Pioneer 2 was grim at best.

Sneaking off was a complicated affair, as the airlock had to operated from a separate room. Moreover, there was the tricky matter of getting past all the guards, which was generally a matter of introducing the flat of Blaid's sword to the backs of their heads with extreme force after an undetected approach. In the end, five guards lay on the floor of various hallways with absolutely no idea what had hit them. 02 was left behind to operate the airlock as Blaid, Rade, 01, and Blood Red made their way to the shuttle. After their departure, 02 made her way back to the apartment to await their return without incident.

Blood Red guided the ship to the Central Dome, the nerve center of the Pioneer 1 settlement. The walls of the Dome were still standing, but the rest of the infastructure inside had been demolished a long time ago, reportedly by a dragon. The dragon's entrance to the dome had left a long tunnel into a furnace of a cave, which the quartet entered. Though monster attacks were still fairly common, none impeded the travellers as Blood Red used an electronic map to guide them through the superheated zone into cooler regions, through the first vestiges of technology, and finally into a giant sewer. The Pioneer 1 had set up machine centers at an astonishing depth for the amount of time they had been given. For what reason they burrowed so deep, none knew.

From the sewer, Blood Red led them into a technological wonderland. This place, too, was already well-known to Hunters. In fact, it was safer to travel these mines than it was to travel the caves above them; the source of the deadly machines that once roamed these chrome-plated hallways had been deactivated and destroyed, whereas the cause of the mutant beasts above could reproduce itself, and therefore it was difficult to eradicate. Despite the Vol Opt supercomputer's termination, the complex still hummed with electricity, a small world of computer programs still running thanks to the Pioneer 2's curiosity. It was the perfect hiding place for a secret government program, surrounded by technology and limitless electrical power. Under Blood Red's increasingly detailed direction, they made their way deeper and deeper into the mines, into areas less well-kept.

"This is it," Blood Red said at last.

"Looks like any other door in here," answered Blaid.

Rade shrugged. "It's a secret complex, whaddaya expect?"

"More resistance, for one thing," said Blaid. "Coming all this way without a thing trying to stop us seems... wrong, somehow."

Rade snickered maliciously. "Don't worry, Prince Charmin'. You'll get yer dragon somewhere."

Blood Red seemed to be tapping at the wall right next to the door aimlessly, which caught Blaid's attention. "What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Trying to hack into this door control. It's locked. Your 'dragon' is a rectangle three inches wide and four inches long." The command screen blipped prohibitively as Blood Red punched buttons with increasing frustration.

Rade considered the situation for a moment. "I got just the thing fer that. 01: overload Crush Bullet, location twenty feet forward." Blood Red glanced at Rade, then the massive android, which was tapping at an embedded control panel in its shotgun and marching forward purposefully. "Might wanna stand back a bit, Red," Rade continued. Blood Red dove around a nearby wall as 01 pointed the humming, shaking shotgun at the door, no more than an inch away from it. The resulting energy discharge sent a sonic wave through the room that practically knocked Blaid over. Rade clapped his hands together and commented, "Voila. Unlocked."

Blood Red charged him, sputtering. "You imbecile! He knows we're here now!"

Rade shrugged. "Like he didn't know ya were tryin' to hack his system? This way ya won't be surprised when he sends somethin' nasty fer us."

Blood Red made strangling motions toward Rade in the air, but eventually turned her attention toward the rather open doorway that 01 was still standing next to. Heaving a sigh to show Rade just how little pleasure she was deriving from his version of the entry plan, she drew a small red handgun and switched off the safety. "Let's go, then."

As they stepped over the rubble, they noticed that the rooms beyond were of the same style as the ones in the upper levels; polished and shined to a nearly mirror-like capacity for reflecting light. Machinery could be heard running at full capacity, and the area hummed with electricity. There was only one way to go: forward, through a narrow passage. Everyone was on the lookout for anything abnormal.

The next room was entirely cubic. There was a computer terminal embedded in the opposite wall from the team's entry point, just to the left of the door out. Four hallways intersected in the room, each reaching the room in the center of a wall. Blood Red decided to use the terminal to their advantage before Rade had the chance to do anything stupid, and quickly located a map of the facility.

The eastward exit led to the android projects, the west exit led to the living quarters, and finally, project Bioweapons was to the north. The complex was extremely small, it seemed.

With more caution, the quartet made their way down the northward hall, which had a great deal of glowing blue energy transference conduits exposed within. The light the conduits gave off gave it all an eerie feeling.

"What was that?!" Blaid half-whispered, half-shouted as he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"Yer gettin' jittery, dude," said Rade. "01'd pick up anythin' tryin' ta sneak up on us."

In blatant contradiction to this assertion, something pricked Rade in the back of the neck and within moments he fell to the floor, unconscious. Blaid and Blood Red might have been alarmed if a similar state of unconsciousness hadn't already overtaken them as well. 01, looking puzzled from his system attempting to determine which contingency plan it ought to execute, reverted to a standby mode and was immediately introduced to a charge of electricity too great for his system's dampers to handle, and collapsed into a metal heap.

---

Blaid only came to his senses slowly. The first thing he heard was a very repetitious pounding. He mistook this for the dull throb that comes of a stong headache until it started changing its rhythm. The pounding resolved itself into a vague skin-colored blur at the greatest extent of his vision. Blaid wanted desperately to focus, but he couldn't seem to get his mind to do it. Other things were going on, including a giant white thing moving toward him which Blaid again utterly failed to focus upon. He felt as though his entire brain were numb to any feeling except the sudden prick in the neck which snapped the world into focus.

The flesh-colored thing had resolved itself into Miray, pounding her fists against the glass paneling of a massive cylinder. There was just enough glass for an outsider to see all of Miray; the rest was made of metal and decorated with a great deal of gauges designed to monitor variables totally irrelevant to the situation. The cylinder was simply acting as a prison for the time being.

Blaid stepped backward in surprise, which allowed him to see the man who had pricked him in the neck. The man was wearing typical lab dress for a Coralian scientist, which consisted of a long white coat that buttoned all the way down to his ankles. In similar fashion, the sleeves flowed all the way to his wrists, cutting off just in time to keep from restricting the movement of his hands. His build was concealed by the coat; at the very least, he wasn't terribly overweight. His hair, both head and facial, was brown and unkempt and demonstrated that the man hadn't been out in public for quite some time. He grinned at Blaid, which showed off his teeth. His teeth, at least, had been cared for.

"Welcome to my laboratory, Blaid," he said, while dumping a syringe into a nearby sterilized trash can.

Blaid ignored the greeting and looked around the rest of the room. There were two more of the cylindrical tubes, all empty, along the back wall. Slightly left of the room's center was a stand-up terminal connected to an absolutely massive computer tower that ran along the left wall. On the right, the black android Shadow stood at ease. At the sight of that, Blaid reached for his sword.

"There's no need for that," chastened the scientist. "I brought you here to talk to you."

Blaid removed his grip from the hilt. Feeling as though this were all a bit too surreal, he replied, "Alright, then. Let's talk. Where are my friends?"

Bowing his head, the scientist made a "tch" noise repeatedly. "Ah, Blaid! You're forgetting to ask me my name. It is Mortimer Memelovich. As for your friends, they are still in the stunned state that you recently recovered from, guarded by several of my other robots. You may see them later."

Blaid nodded slowly, not relaxing his guard. "Right. On the subject of names, then. How do you know mine?"

To this, Mortimer shrugged. "I knew you were coming before you knew you were coming. Names are trivial information."

The question that should have come to Blaid's mind first now presented itself. "What are you going to do to Miray?"

Mortimer laughed. "Ah! How stultified you colonials are. How do you know I haven't already done it? My purpose may be accomplished and I could be ready to hand her over to you peacefully."

"After killing fourteen people?!" growled Blaid, gritting his teeth.

"I never made that a certainty, you simpleton," Mortimer spat back at him. "You make far too many assumptions. Your kind always does."

Blaid tried to hold back his growing disgust with his captor. "Fine. Tell me what you're planning, so I won't have to make assumptions."

"I thought you'd never ask. Ah, but this is going to take a while. Shadow, go get us some seats," said Mortimer. The android walked past Blaid without even looking at him. As Blaid watched it go by, he saw that there was very little else to the room than what he had seen; the exit was right behind him. As the door slid shut, it dawned on Blaid that Mortimer was now completely defenseless. Seizing the opportunity, Blaid charged Mortimer where he stood, drawing his sword in transit, and pinned him into a grapple that left Blaid's blade at the scientist's neck. But something wasn't right. Mortimer had simply gone limp when he had seen Blaid coming, and now he had begun to laugh that mad cackle of his again.

"Such a Radelike move, Blaid. Brash. Impulsive. Stupid. Honestly, what could you accomplish by killing me? Shadow would hunt you down. Your friends might be killed instantly. This whole place might be wired to detonate itself if my vital signs stop. You can do nothing; that is why I am going to tell you my plans." Blaid released Mortimer from the grapple just before Shadow returned, carrying two egg-shaped devices in his off hand. Mortimer took them from Shadow and set them on the floor. In a few moments, two chairs made of little more than dim colored light materialized in the air above them. Mortimer motioned to Blaid to sit down in one of them and did so himself. Though Miray had ceased pouding at the glass wall long before, Blaid only took notice of it at this point.

Blaid glowered at Mortimer. "Go ahead, then. Speak."

Mortimer grinned, and did. "Let's begin at the beginning, then. You know what the Pioneer Project is for, correct?"

Blaid nodded. "To find a new inhabitable planet for the population of Coral."

Blaid's answer caused Mortimer to chortle maliciously. "A part of the population, yes. But hardly all of it. You see, I've done an analysis of Coral's decay for the late Council. It turns out the extinctions, the increased rate of hostile mutants, the general decay was all caused by overpopulation. Moreover, the majority of that population is genetic trash vulnerable to disease, obesity, heart conditions, infertility, the list goes on and on. And here we have a new start on this planet Ragol. If we were to import those waste products that make up ninty percent of Coral's population, we'd have another Pioneer Project within weeks. They had to be gotton rid of."

"That's terrible!" shouted Blaid, rising. "Those people are as human as you and I!"

Mortimer remained steadfastly rooted to his seat, dismissing Blaid's comment immediately. "You're making assumptions again, thinking with your 'heart' instead of your brain. The best thing for mankind is not preserving all humans, but the best. The weak must die off so that they don't hinder the strong."

Blaid sat back down, stunned. He floundered for an answer under Mortimer's crushingly steadfast gaze. Almost inaudibly, he said, "But... you can't justify... murder..."

Mortimer continued on his previous line of thought, disregarding Blaid's attempt at a response. "As you know, the Pioneer 1 was sent ahead to Ragol with the collective military of Coral, at least those that met the Council's genetic standards. The rest of the fighting men were divided amongst the rest of the Pioneer ships from 3 down in equal numbers according to race and language in order to keep them divided and weak. The Pioneer 2 contains only the most fertile, the most healthy, the most highly evolved members of the human race. By the time it arrived, the Pioneer 1 was to have all the necessary infrastructure in place. Dealing with the trash of humanity would be as simple as blowing them out of the sky as soon as they dropped out of hyper-space."

Mortimer paused to see if Blaid had any questions. Since he didn't, Mortimer continued. "But then the Pioneer 1's population was wiped off the map in that incident. There you can take Tyrell's words at face value; nobody knows what happened there. It changed our plans considerably; without trained fighters, the risk of a real threat by the next Pioneers was greatly increased. Never underestimate the capacity of vermin to survive. Thus, I was commissioned by the Council and informed of the situation. I was to create a new type of weapon for them, to kill everyone on the incoming Pioneer ships. Shadow and Lumin were the result."

"However, I didn't allow the Council to use Shadow as their weapon, for one simple reason. The creation is always less perfect than the creator. No matter how well-built Shadow may be, there will exist ingenuity to find some weakness in him. Blood Red, trash who only made it aboard because of her father, nearly succeeded in destroying him twice. I assure you, there is a way to pierce his laconium plating that I haven't foreseen. Thus, the answer to our question lies in creating a lifeform entirely superior to mankind."

"This is where I split from the Council and removed their spy from my laboratory, because the very nature of my research now contradicted their purpose. I kept in contact with them, but our goals were now at odds because the new, superior lifeform is to be me. To keep this as brief as possible, I will only say that I discovered an undocumented energy source, which was applied to spectacular effect by the Forces you were made to hunt down. It was I who created Miray. Her purpose in life was to gather the energy of the Forces and return it to me. Her task was faciliated by running into you and your friend; she was to have two sisters, but Miray has accomplished the task of all three."

Blaid knew he ought to be saying something, but he couldn't determine what exactly it was.

Mortimer stood and walked over to the computer console. He touched the screen in several places, entered a password, and then turned the screen off. "You'll want a good look at this, Blaid. Stand and observe."

The cylinder that Miray had been placed in was soundproof, so Miray couldn't hear what the others were saying, nor could any noise Miray made be heard through the glass wall except the thump of her fist against the pane. Mortimer had guided Blaid's eyes to Miray's prison because otherwise he would never have noticed that she was reacting to something. From a vent lodged in the wall, a flesh-colored slime was oozing down eerily. As soon as it dropped within view, Blaid shouted, "What is that?!"

"That is what Miray is made of. It is life, condensed. It is a creature without form or bodily function. It desires but two intertwined things, to devour and grow. It is the ultimate receptacle for spirit energy. It is my life's work. And it is the path to my ascention."

There were so many questions that Blaid wanted to ask, but they were all silenced by the fact that Miray, already panicked and screaming inaudibly, was up to her ankles in the slime. It called for something desperate. Blaid drew his sword and charged the the tank, only vaguely hearing Mortimer saying "Stand down, Shadow." His first blow would have shattered a man's ribcage in one stroke, but it did not damage the glass at all.

"The tank's visor is laconium-threaded adaman sheeting," commented Mortimer as Blaid continued to hammer away at it futily. "Though you might break it with enough effort, there is no way to do it in time." The slime had reached Miray's knees.

As much as Blaid hated to admit it, Mortimer was right. Brute force wasn't going to help him. In that case, he'd have to use more finesse. Casting about wildly for an idea, he saw the computer terminal. Of course! That controlled the machinery, so he could use it to get the ooze out of the tank! As Blaid dashed toward the device, the slime climbed halfway up Miray's thighs and Mortimer made no move to stop him.

The first problem that Blaid encountered was the fact that the computer had been turned off. There was a very well-labeled on/off button next to the terminal's screen that activated the computer with a quick tap. In cheery green letters, the words "Input Password" appeared. A keyboard was displayed at the bottom of the screen. Blaid tried everything he could think of. "BIOWEAPONS," "SISTERS," "COUNCIL," "SHADOW," and "PIONEER" all failed. Meanwhile, Miray's hands were lost in the quagmire, and terror had stilled her voice. Desperately, Blaid tried taking the first two letters of both of Mortimer's names and put them it. Miraculously, the words "Access Approved" flashed briefly before "Voice Recognition Check" replaced them.

Blaid glared at Mortimer, who was grinning cruelly. "Do it!" shouted Blaid at him.

Mortimer shrugged. "Shadow, render the terminal useless."

"Access Approved. Input Function" flashed across the computer's screen before a crackle of electricity erupted from the terminal's side. Shadow had pierced the computer's most vital processors with his scythe in a move so fast that Blaid's peripheral vision hadn't even picked up on it. The slime worked its way past Miray's elbows.

Blaid drew his sword and tackled Mortimer, whose only reaction was to say, "Stand down, Shadow." Blaid held end of the blade to Mortimer's throat.

"I don't care what plans you have, they won't do you any good if you're dead!" he growled.

Mortimer made the "tch" noise again. "I leave you no uncertainty. If you kill me, you will die as well."

"That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to keep you from killing most of mankind!"

"But would your friends make it? Can you justify taking Rade's life for your own cause? Would you kill Blood Red to see me dead? You can't possibly justify preventing one murder by another!" said Mortimer, his voice taking on a serpentine quality as he was forced into a whisper by the pressure of Blaid's sword against his throat. Inwardly, and inwardly alone, he enjoyed the anguished look that crossed Blaid's face.

Blaid stopped straddling Mortimer only because he was aware of his own powerlessness in the situation. He looked back to Miray. The slime was just about to crawl over her mouth; she inhaled by reflex. Blaid charged the tank again and dealt the adaman shield one last futile blow as Miray was completely enveloped. For a moment, the ooze was still. Then, with a "bloop" only audible from the inside of the tank, an air bubble burst through the surface.

Miray's last breath.

And then the tank started draining. Blaid looked back, and saw that Mortimer had flipped open a compartment in the mainframe to reveal a small lever. A simple drain control. The simplicity of the solution practically sent Blaid reeling. And right next to that solution was Mortimer, smiling. Smiling at how Blaid had failed to save Miray. Smiling at the fact that he had just murdered someone, in hopes of murdering so many more. Blaid looked back at the tank, and saw the last of the slime draining out of it. Left alone, immaculate, were the clothes Miray had been wearing, the ones that 02 had bought for her after determining them to be acceptable by Blaid's standards. They simply lay there in a heap, the body that once wore them stolen from beneath them. Blaid couldn't shake the image of the bubble rising from inside that fleshy ooze, accompanied by the "bloop" that his mind created in absense of hearing the real thing. Over and over, the bubble burst through the surface in his mind. Mortimer started to laugh. That laugh was what broke Blaid's patience.

"YOU BASTARD!!" he roared, turning on his heels. "YOU INSUFFERABLE BASTARD!!"

Mortimer put up no resistance as Blaid tackled and straddled him again.

"I LOVED HER!!" Blaid screamed, smashing Mortimer's jaw with his left gauntlet. He'd forgotton that he had a sword in his right hand. "AND YOU FED HER TO SOME KIND OF CRAP--" the fist returned to the left, striking Mortimer on the way back-- "SO YOU CAN KILL WHOMEVER YOU THINK IS INFERIOR?!"

Mortimer replied with remarkable calmness for having a bleeding face. "Miray was always mine, to do with as I saw fit. The fact that you became hormonal over her is none of my concern."

Blaid's voice fell to a more rational level, but only relatively. He had discovered that he had a very sharp object in his right hand, and pressed the tip of it to Mortimer's throat. "You can drop the overconfidence bullshit right now, because I. Am. Going. To. KILL YOU!"

"You can't kill me. You'll kill your friends. Is your memory that--"

"I don't care any more!!" Blaid screamed at him. "She was what I care about most, and if I have to kill everyone I know to take your precious project away from you, I will!!" With that, Blaid drove his saber through his apartment's floor, all the way to the hilt.

Something was dreadfully wrong.

He realized, slowly, that someone's arms were wrapped around his waist. Their owner released him, and backed away. Blaid rolled over, and saw Ghoste. Though only Ghoste's eyes were visible, they were enough to convey his displeasure. "You have quite nearly destroyed far more than you realize, and what you do realize makes the decision unacceptable in its own--"

Blaid slashed at him, which Ghoste evading by teleporting backward. Ghoste eyed him with a unjustified terror, but the expression quickly reverted to a more disciplinary one. "Very well! I shall take your friends somewhere safe. We shall speak again when you have calmed yourself." Ghoste promptly vanished.

Blaid slumped back to the floor, and groaned. He didn't care about Ghoste. He only cared about Miray, and now Miray was gone.

[Kupi]

What I'm about to post isn't long enough to be called a "chapter." It's only long enough to be called a "chap." Unfortunately, with chap 12, we'd have this big hole between chapter 11 and chapter 13. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif Anyway! Story continues.

***

Several hours passed, which Blaid mostly spent locked in one position, that being sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. 02, who hadn't understood what had transpired when Blaid and Ghoste materialized in the living room, wisely kept her distance. The doorbell rang its cheery three notes dutifully, as it always did when someone pushed the button on the other side of the door. 02 answered the door as she was programmed to, and found Rade, Blood Red, and 01 on the other side. The humans rushed around the android and cast questioning looks at Blaid, who hesitated to acknowledge their presence. When at last Blaid looked up, Rade said, "Dude! What happened? I get whacked in the neck, I can't focus on anythin' fer over an hour, an' then Ghoste's danglin' me over Mintaka an' tellin' me to avoid home until he says otherwise! What's up? And where's Miray? ...oh. Ah... ya don't have ta give me the details if--"

Blaid gave him the details anyway, which took quite a while and forced his listeners to sit down to stay comfortable.

When Blaid had finished, Rade nodded slowly. "I don't blame ya for gettin' upset over it. You know me, I'da shot 'im first thing an' that'd be it." His tone was joking, but Blaid wasn't in the mood to be put in a good mood. Rade took a breath. "'kay, so ya don't want cheerin' up. I can understand that. But we can't just sit here snivelin' if we're gonna save ninty percent of humanity from gettin' nixed."

Blood Red rolled her eyes. "Sure! Let's stage another four-man invasion and just keep our eyes out for cloaked canadine-class robots this time!"

Before Rade could answer her comment, his computer made a short blipping noise to indicate that it had received a message. Rade retreated to his room to check it, and came back in a minute looking baffled. "'kay, somethin's up."

Blaid looked up only long enough to ask "What did the message say?"

"Come," said Rade.

Blood Red said, "We don't need to read a Simple Mail ourselves; you can tell us what it said."

Rade shook his head. "Nah, I was tellin' ya! The message said 'come.' Didn't say where to--" He was cut off by a sudden urgent beeping coming from Blood Red's pants pocket. She took the device she had used to guide the group to Mortimer's laboratory out of it.

She delivered her analysis within a few seconds of looking at the screen. "It's showing the map to Mortimer's lab. Someone wants us to go back there."

All three of the organics in the room exchanged worried glances. As one, they rose from their seats and made for the door, trailed by 01 and 02.

Getting off of Pioneer 2 was much easier than it had been no more than half a day earlier. Security had been tightened in the area since the Force hunters had snuck off, but all they had to do to get to their ship was present proof of membership in the Hunter's Guild. The fact that their shuttle was even there was a further mystery; none of their crew had retreived it. After a day of everything going wrong, far too many things were going too right. And yet they had no choice but to follow the cookie crumbs to their end.

Blood Red guided her compatriots down the same path they had followed before. Again, the entire trip was devoid of resistance even in areas that ought to have been heavily infested with monsters. When they reached the door that 01 had blown open, they found it to be still destroyed. This fact made sense, of course; there was no way for another door of that size in place so soon after its untimely demolition. But the utter lack of attention to the area unnerved all three beings capable of being unnerved.

As the Force hunters stepped over the wreckage of the door, they realized that the wreckage didn't end. The entire place seemed to have collapsed. Only small areas along the walls were free from looking like they had had most of the wall torn apart from behind. The rubble made it difficult to proceed, but in most cases the Force hunters knew where to go, since the parts left undamaged were usually screens displaying an advanced map of the location, which also proved that the map they'd seen before was a fake designed to lure them into a trap.

At last, they reached the location designated by the map. It was the room in which Blaid had witnessed Miray's death. The first difference that Blaid noticed was that the tube that Miray had been killed in was now missing, quite cleanly removed from its location. Some tubes and pipes that had connected to the cylinder were hanging limp either on the floor or towards it. Next, Blaid discovered that the room had suffered from the same sort of mass-demolition that the rest of the complex had suffered. Half-buried under the debris was the body of Mortimer Memelovich. Near the right wall, Shadow was scattered at various locations.

With utmost caution, Blaid led the way into the room. Nothing jumped out at him, fell from the ceiling, or de-cloaked and injected him with a stunning drug. The hum of machinery that had been so pervasive in the room the first time had lowered to a low grind. Midway to Mortimer, something that seemed out-of-place struck Blaid's eye. It was piece of paper, laying serenely on the wreckage. Blaid walked over and picked it up. It was a map of the ruins identical to the one Ghoste had given them earlier, marked with a different path. As Blaid examined the map, Rade pulled Mortimer from the rubble and looked him over. Blood Red was more concerned with Shadow's pieces. Rade waved to Blaid to catch his attention.

"What happened? Can you tell?" asked Blaid from where he stood.

Rade nodded. "Lotta burns an' burnt cuts, but nothin' else. Looks ta me like this whole place blew up an' that's what killed 'im."

Blaid blinked. "He told me that if he were to die, this laboratory would explode. So he can't have been killed by the explosion; something else had to have done it."

"I dunno what else it could be, dude," said Rade, shrugging. "S'no signs've anythin' else." Rade squinted as a memory flashed through his mind. "Two men dead, no struggle, no wounds. ...Ghoste. Ghoste killed Morty!"

Blaid sighed. "One more Force, then."

---

On the way back to the Force hunters' apartment, Blood Red parted company with them. With both Shadow and his creator gone, her desire for revenge was sated. Or so she said.

Later that night, Blood Red was once again staring into her computer's screen, watching scenarios playing out in the virtual world. She was planning to face a regenerating enemy, one that could restore itself within instants. Victory would require the ability to remove large parts of its body at one time, to remove as much functionality from its body as possible and incapacitate it before it could activate its healing factor. She hoped that a photon discharge could do the job. If it couldn't, then nothing could; the newly discovered energy type, "photon," was the most powerful weapon-making tool in existence, with the power to vaporize anything it came into contact with.

As the computer played out yet another successful scenario, a grating voice behind her said, "Blood Red, Death has come to take you."

Startled, Blood Red grabbed for the red handgun loaded with ruby bullets beside her computer and was surprised to find it missing. A gutteral laugh issued from the other side of the room and Blood Red found herself being lifted out of her chair, into the air, by an intense grip on her neck.

"I have been watching you for quite some time, girl," said the voice.

As Blood Red was slammed into a wall-- she couldn't tell which one, the room was darkened-- she felt something snap in her back, and lost the feeling in her legs.

"I know how your mind works."

The insidious grip was tightening, she couldn't breathe...

"You are not happy that Death came for Shadow. You simply changed your focus to me."

Blood Red met the other wall, hard. Something snapped further up, causing her to lose any feeling but the searing pain just below her neck.

"And I am afraid you underestimated me. Death is a force which no human may conquer. And my prophesy calls for two heroes, no more."

With what sense she had left, Blood Red felt that she had been thrown to the floor. The tread of a shoe pressed onto her neck.

"You planned to help those two fight me, and for that you must die. I WILL CRUSH YOUR NECK AND DRINK THE LAST BEATS OF YOUR HEART!!"

And so Death did.

[Kupi]

In Chapter 13, it all comes to a close. This is it, the end of Dark Forces. Enjoy.

***

Blaid and Rade decided that, as with all the other Forces, it would be best to tackle Ghoste in the morning, when they could be fully rested and at their peak. Thus, Blaid attempted to shut the incessant thoughts of Miray out of his mind and sleep so that he could properly do his job. Mourning could wait, under the circumstances.

After eating a quick but filling breakfast and preparing supplies for the trip ino the ruins, the Force hunters and their androids set out to the dock. There, they were permitted to take their ship once again. Rade decided against landing the shuttle very far away from the ruins; there was no doubt in his mind that Ghoste would make his move inside, since he had gone to the trouble of giving them very explicit directions as to where to go. There was nothing that the Force hunters could do but meet Ghoste where he had told them to go; Ghoste had everything one could possibly form a dark design around and the hunters had nothing they could use against him.

Rade kept an eye on the door as the four began their descent into the ancient ruins. Just as in their first Force hunting mission, they had equipped themselves with shoulder-mounted lighting packs, in case the light cut out. That point occured uncomfortably soon, as the door disappeared once they were no more than ten feet in. Rade swore and turned on his light pack. It was a trap, as they had expected. A quick look around revealed that they had found their way into a hallway that might have been lifted from an ancient forum. Ornate stone arches looped over their heads by double their height in sequence, forming a corridor that stretched infinitely before them. Stone rough grey stone walls connected the arches together. Behind them was a stone wall bearing the image of a horrific creature whose huge, gaping mouth was filled with long, jagged teeth. The sight of it made Blaid shudder. Even Rade was unnerved. The picture seemed to be designed to inspire fear in the hearts of the living. For that reason, the Force hunters turned from it and resolved to find the end of the hallway, however infinite it might seem.

As the Force hunters strode through each arch, they started to hear a strange noise which grew louder and louder as they passed through successive arches. It began as an almost indetectable prickling at their ears, but it soon became comprehensible. It was the sound of thousands of voices, whispering simultaneously. Calm, frantic, harsh, smooth, male, female, any type of voice imaginable was represented in the rising cacophony. The conflicted whispering in dozens of languages so unnerved Rade that he ordered the androids to draw their weapons. Blaid followed suit. Some time after the whispers reached their loudest, they began to fade. At first, Blaid thought that they were simply quieting down, but as the phenominon continued, he released that voices were simply dropping out of the multitude. The revelation filled him with an irrational outrage. Someone was killing these people!

Ghoste.

The whispers stopped completely. In their place, a low wind arose. Immediately thereafter, the light packs flickered and died. However, the Force hunters were not left in darkness; the stone arches gave off a low, grey light of their own. The light flickered in accordance with the sound of the wind, dimming as the wind blew harder. Under these conditions, Blaid and Rade continued on through the arches, increasingly unnerved. Then the wind cut out, leaving the world in a silence that 02 shattered.

"Strong Force-Like Re-Re-Re-Ay-Ding-Dong-Ding-Dong...!"

Blaid and Rade turned to face the androids just in time to see 01 snap his shotgun in two over his knee, discard it, and start taking steps backward. 02 was clasping her rifle and convulsing in place, still trying to form a coherent sentence. "Suh-Sir-Suh-Sir Aye I Aye I But What Hap-Hap-Hapsby-Bye Suh-Sir I I I I Nee-Ee--"

A confused look swept across Blaid's face, but Rade had caught on to what had happened. He was raising his guns.

"Nee-Eed Yuh-OOOO To-Tuh-To DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE"

02 started firing sporadically straight ahead, but Rade was prepared for it. He ducked toward the wall and opened fire, puncturing 02's plating all over her molded-metal chest where a human's heart would be. Smoke erupted from the hole and 02 collapsed. 01 charged Blaid, who was taken entirely by surprise. With one gun's full clip, Rade tore 01's head to shreds, causing the monstrous machine to slide to the floor. The gunshots continued to reverberate throughout the hallway long after the shots had ceased. Blaid raised an eyebrow at Rade as the latter rocked with hollow laughter.

"What's so funny?" Blaid asked him.

"My own androids. My own androids, that I built with my own two hands! I turned my back, and they turned on me," Rade replied.

Blaid frowned. "I suppose so."

"Perfect!" called Ghoste's voice, seeming to come from everywhere at once. The archways began to waver before the Force hunters' eyes, becoming blurry and unstable. The disjointed mass they formed took on new colors and refocused itself into something else.

It appeared as though Blaid and Rade had just walked out of a cave. There was a solid mass of rock behind them, with an indentation where the cave's mouth ought to be. In front of them, a field of green grass expanded in a wide circle a hundred feet across, closed in by brown, mountainous rock. The sky was painted blue above them, and whispy white clouds lolled through it lazily. Directly across a field, a massive brown rectangular monument pointed toward the sky. A walkway surrounded the monument, with an altar directly in front of it. The cylinder that had been removed from Mortimer's lab was looking terribly out of place just before the altar. And presiding over it all was the Dark Force, Ghoste, Death.

"I used to be just like you," he said, his voice booming throughout the area and taking on a tone that sounded more human than his usual formal one.

"What do you mean?" said Blaid, bearing down on the white-robed Force while brandishing his sword. Rade brandished his machine guns.

"I used to be... human," Ghoste answered, spitting the last word out with contempt. "That is... until the day I died." From his tone, one would have guessed that he was speaking of his honeymoon. "But, I see that you have no comprehension of my meaning. Let us begin at the beginning, then." Ghoste's formal tone resumed.

"I was once... human. I had a wife, I had children. I was a soldier in the employ of the Pioneer 1, specifically in the scouting and research division. We uncovered the ruins that you see here, and ventured to their deepest depths, beyond the guardians designed to repel us. There, we uncovered that infernal prison in which I was kept."

Blaid shook his head as if trying to make the last sentence make sense. "What? What are you--"

"SILENCE!!" Ghoste bellowed, his voice screaming at the hunters from everywhere. "Our group came close enough for me to reach out to them. I devoured them all, but for myself. Myself, I used to escape the prison. I had a body at long last! That infernal Esper who imprisoned me was thwarted! But this body, the one that stands before you, was and is too weak for my purposes. I sensed life all around me, and in the stars. To increase my power, I took what was terrestrial, and used what I had gained to see what occured above. I saw three great masters of magic, and... humans, lusting for power. The masters I corrupted, and the humans in power I twisted to suit my means. Before long, I had a mechanism to bring to me the power of these three great masters. And as you can easily see, my plans have succeeded. What Mortimer intended for himself, I have taken for broader schemes. At last, a perfect body! At last, a perfect mind! At last, a pefect spirit!"

"And why th' hell're you tellin' us all this?!" Rade shouted over him. "We get th' freakin' picture!"

"Because of the prophecy!" Ghoste shouted back, his omnipresence beating Rade's finite voice.

"What prophecy?" shouted Blaid.

"The one that the Esper cast over me as he locked me in that prison! 'Two heroes shall arise to challenge the Dark Force; one shall bear thunder, the other a sword. As the Dark Force stands ready to cast shadow over the world, these two challenge him. Their fate shall be their world's.' I have done my part to ensure that the prophecy was fulfilled. Now, my last trial is at hand. It is my intent to kill you. Prepare yourselves for the Abyss." With that, Ghoste cast off his veil. The face underneath was still human, but sickeningly blue. Its cheeks sagged below the chin, around a mouth full of jagged, sharpened teeth. Red light radiated from the eyes. It was just like the face on the wall. Blaid's grip on his sword's hilt tightened as the irrational outrage returned. It wasn't that Ghoste had betrayed them. It wasn't that Ghoste had as much of a part in Miray's death as Mortimer did, if not more. It was something else, something that he couldn't put his finger on.

Ghoste held out his right hand, palm first, at Blaid. The air burst open in a sequence of ear-shattering cracks toward Blaid, who braced himself. It didn't help; when the energy wave hit, he was thrown backward and carved a trench into the ground as he slid through it. Rade had already emptied a clip into the Dark Force's body, staining the white robes he wore black with the foul creature's blood. Death turned his scarlet gaze upon Rade and extended his other hand. With a pulling motion, he drew Rade through the air and into a choking phantasmal grip just in front of him.

"Writhe, vermin!" Ghoste cackled at him. "Scream for the mercy that Death gives to no man!" Blaid stood, and Ghoste blasted him further back, practically to the boundary of the valley. "But ever more importantly... DIE!" Death made a squeezing motion with his left hand, and blue lightning crackled all around Rade's body. Rade clenched his teeth, tried to aim either gun, praying there was a bullet left, hoping for something that would distract Ghoste long enough for him to escape. Death took that for a challenge, and doubled the lightning, the crackle of the energy coursing through Rade's body echoing off of the mountains around them. The agony was too much to bear; Rade groaned aloud. Tasting blood, Death redoubled the pain he caused, relishing the screams he received and neglecting the armored man with the sword still making a valiant charge across the field. One hopeless shot rang out, disturbing the dirt by the Dark Force's feet. Blaid took a swing at Ghoste. A lightning bolt crackled from Rade's body and caught Blaid in the chest, knocking him back once more with a resounding sound like a churchbell's toll.

The Dark Force cast a horrified gaze at Blaid. With a final crushing motion, he choked the last of the Rade's life away and threw the body aside urgently. Death knew what that transformed sword represented and the power that it held. He could not let its bearer rise. Stretching out both of his arms, he fired the blue lightning at Blaid, determined to kill him as quickly as possible. But something went wrong; the sword drew the lightning into itself. The wings on the hilt grew larger, the runes on the blades surface glowed brighter. This sword was designed to oppose him and his power; any effort he could put into destroying it or its bearer, it could contain and reverse. Ghoste took a step back as Blaid returned to his feet, intent on his purpose. It was merely Ghoste's intent to kill Blaid, but it was Blaid's destiny to destroy the Dark Force. Ghoste threw his arms up futily as Blaid bore down on him and plunged the sword to its hilt into his heart.

The shriek that ensued practically split Blaid's ears. Dark blue light was streaming from cracks forming in the Dark Force's skin, visible through the robe that was tearing spontaneously. Then, in a massive but silent explosion of blue, Ghoste was no more. Blaid felt his grip clench against itself; the sword had vanished along with Ghoste. His surroundings were melting away as well; the illusion caused by the Dark Force was failing without its creator around to sustain it. The ruins returned to appearing as they were; the grassy field became an arena of stone. Still out of place, the canister of liquid flesh stood by where the altar had seemed to be. And where he had fallen, Rade lay dead. Blaid took a step toward his body, but a rumble that shook the entire area stopped him from continuing. The ruins were collapsing!

Blaid drew the map that Ghoste had given him from its place under his belt. It, at least, had not vanished, and still pointed the way from the entrance to the room. Blaid gave Rade a final look, and said, "Goodbye, my friend." With that, he fled. Blaid's departure was unopposed; no demon remained in that forsaken place to challenge him. Despite Ghoste's trap, the map was drawn accurately, and led Blaid out of the ruins quickly. He had reached his shuttle by the time the last of the great brown egg-shaped ship collapsed into an enormous heap, entombing the threat to Ragol's new inhabitants forever.

But to Blaid, it was an empty victory. In accomplishing his mission, he had lost his weapon, his best friend, a lover, and his will to fight. His greatest battle was won, but it would be his last. Never again could he bring himself to do battle for any cause. The weight of everything sacrificed to save Ragol hung too heavily upon his shoulders. Heaving a sigh, he set the shuttle's autopilot to orbit the planet, rather than return to the Pioneer 2. He would return later, of course, but for now, he wanted rest. With a click of a lighting switch, Blaid let darkness claim the cabin, and slept.