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Slaughterhound smashed in the door to the Guardian headquarters.

“Clear some beds, now!” he ordered the first person he saw. Gaspod, not questioning his orders, rushed upstairs and threw everything off of one of the dorm beds. Just as he cleared it, Uron came storming into the room with a limp Dart on his back. He placed the body on the bed. Gaspod just stared at the pale, life-less body, glanced at Uron, then back at the body. Rezzenthel (known more commonly as Rez), founder and former leader of the Guardians, put down the book he was reading and opened his door.

“What’s going on out here?” he asked. Then Slaughterhound came running up the stairs with a comatose Lunos in his arms. Rez stood in horror at what he saw. Lunos’ left leg was gone. There was nothing but a bloody stump from his knee. Lyn and Delphi were out cold on Slaughterhound’s shoulders. And Slaughterhound himself didn’t look too good. He had a limp in his step and his armor was cracked in several places.

“By the Gods!” he exclaimed. “What happened?” He ran in after Slaughterhound. Slaughterhound placed Lunos on the bed. Rez took Lyn of off Slaughterhound’s shoulder and left the room. Slaughterhound followed with Delphi. They placed the girls on their bed. Then they went down into the den where Gaspod and Uron were waiting.

“I’ve contacted Tuaros and he says the healers will be here as soon as they can. Bryon and Tye are outside hiding ya’lls trail.” Gaspod said. They all sat down. After what seemed like hours, Rez finally broke the silence.

“What happened to you guys? And where are the others?” Slaughterhound lowered his head when Rez mentioned the others. A few seconds later, tears were seen splashing on the floor. Never before had anyone ever seen Slaughterhound, the invincible goliath and destroyer of evil, shed a tear.

“They’re all dead!” he finally managed to say. “Dib, Jamie, Jacob, Jessie, Karen, Lil, Dart, Shadra, and Ebon; all dead! We only managed to save Dart’s body.” He let out a long deep breath.

“It all happened so fast…Dib, Uron, Jamie, Lunos, and I were heading to the Sureblade house to see if any of them would like to play a game of Tackle Ball. About a mile away from the house, I smelled smoke. Seconds later, a loud explosion was heard and the ground below us shook slightly. When the shaking stopped, Lunos dashed the rest of the way to the house with us on his trail. When we rounded over the last hill, we froze. The Sureblade home and the surrounding forest were on fire. We were about to run down to hunt for survivors when another explosion directed our attention to the west. There, in a clearing, we saw the entire Sureblade clan along with Bryon, Ebon, Tye, and Shadra battling for their lives with three strange creatures. Without even thinking, we rushed over to help.”

Slaughterhound paused for a moment. “As we neared the battle, Jamie spotted Lil hiding behind some boulders. She was madly trying to revive Bryon, who was insensible. Off in the distance, Jacob was lying against a tree; also unconscious. Jamie stopped to check on Lil. Dart, Lyn, Jessie, Shadra, Delphi, Tye, and Karen were attacking three monsters. These things were like nothing I have ever seen before in all my travels. Their bodies were made entirely out of metal. They were different sizes. The first one, the one I presumed to be the leader, had no legs. Instead, it had odd shaped wheels that moved very peculiarly. The wheels dug into the ground a little, giving it more traction. It had four arms coming from its sides. On the end of each of these arms, were barrel shaped devices that were shooting some kind of magic beams out of them. On its shoulders it had two more arms; these ones however had claw-like hands on the ends and were able to extend to lengths long past the limits of humans.

The second one was nearly twice my size. It’s only visible weapons were a giant mace and axe it had for hands. The third one was the smallest one; it was about three-feet-tall, maybe a little taller, and had no visible weapons. It wasn’t until our approach that we learned its weapon was its speed. It ran at us with such speed that even Lunord himself would have had difficulty just keeping up with it. Lunos was ahead of us all and he saw it coming. He changed course to find a different way to get near them, but the little one was parallel to him in no time. Its eyes started to glow red. Lunos, realizing this was another weapon of his, changed direction just in time to avoid being hit with the beams that shot out of its eyes. Uron ran in to help Dart, Tye, and the girls with the leader. But it was able to parry each and every single attack from all seven of them with no problems. Dib and I rammed the big one hoping to knock the thing over, but not even our combined strength was enough to move the gargantuan beast. Next thing I knew, I was on my back in a crater. The big one had hit us with its mace. Karen started to scream. The leader had grabbed her with its claw-like hands and was holding her by her shoulder. She tried changing to wolf form to break its grip, but that did her more harm than good so she changed back. Tye was gnawing at the thing’s arm trying to break Karen free, but the leader didn’t even seem to notice him. Even in the hole, I could hear the leader speak clearly.
‘All you organics are the same. Nothing but weak water sacks. Although, you have provided us with an excellent warm-up, it is time we said goodbye.’

I clawed my way out of the crater in time to watch a helpless Karen get vaporized before my eyes. It then brought its attention to Tye. It grabbed him and hurled him off in the direction of Bryon. One by one they started picking us off. Lunos flew out of nowhere and landed at my feet. He was terribly beaten and his left leg from the knee down was gone. The leader turned toward a sound he heard. It was Jamie and Shadra dragging Jacob away from the battle into the woods. It raised its arm and fired a green ball of liquid at them. It completely covered the three of them. After several seconds, the liquid dissolved and all that was left were stone figures. Then the big one used its mace to crush them into dust.

‘JAMIE!’ I heard Uron cry. In a blind fury, he charged at the leader with his sword drawn. He hacked at the thing and dodged attacks for a few moments until the leader seemed to get bored. Dib saw that Uron was in danger so he ran into the fray to pull him out. But something happened. As Dib managed to get him away, the thing grabbed Dib with its claws, threw him high into the air, and fired a shot. All we saw was a big explosion in the air.

Dart yelled at us. ‘Slaughterhound, we’re getting massacred! Grab anyone you can and run! That’s an order!’ I grabbed Lunos, Lyn, and Delphi and ran. Uron and Jessie were right behind us. Tye managed to get in front of us all. Bryon had been healed by now. Ebon had taken to the sky and Bryon was trying frantically to hold Lil back. Jessie slipped on some loose debris. The leader, who was having some fun with Dart, saw this and fired a shot. At that very moment, Lil broke free of Bryon’s grip and ran out to Jessie. As the shot hit the two of them, Dart fell limp. The leader grabbed him with one of his claws and launched him at us. The body landed a few feet in front of us. Uron bent over to pick him up and then ran like I never saw him run before. I turned to make sure we didn’t leave anyone else behind. The leader was charging up a shot that I believe would have finished the rest of us off, but just before it fired, Ebon came swooping down and hit its arm; diverting the shot away from us. It blew up what little remained of the Sureblade home. The final thing I heard as I ran from the battle scene was Ebon’s screech as he too was blasted.”

Slaughterhound paused again, this time to let loose a river of tears. Every word seemed to hurt him more than any physical injury he had ever undergone. “In ten moments, those monsters did what others have wasted their entire lives trying to do. They destroyed not only the Guardians, but the Sureblade clan as well. Delphi and Lyn are the only Sureblades left; just as you, Lunos, Uron, Bryon, Gaspod, and I are the only Guardians remaining.”

Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes like hours. Rez could not accept what he was hearing. Dart…Lil…Dib…all dead. He continued to run the words over and over in his head.

“I should have been there,” he said at last. “I could have saved at least one of them.” He slammed his fist onto the table, leaving a small indention, and got out of his chair. “If I had been younger, I would have gone with you and…and…and I could have…have managed to save them!”

“Hey now mate…don’t go beating yourself up about this. You didn’t know…none of us did. No one here is at fault. Besides, if you had gone, we might have lost you too. We need someone who can study, and research on a very high level. Those things didn’t even get a scratch from us…I’m sure they would have had some way of beating you down too.”
Bryon and Tye entered the room and sat down in a couple chairs.

“I’ve hidden our trail. The only ones who will ever find this place are those who know where it is.”

“And I created a false trail for them to follow…” added Tye.

********************

An hour passed by with no activity in the headquarters. No one moved, for fear of disturbing the silence. The healers had arrived earlier and started working at once. The healers took a look at everyone who had been in the fight; however, they paid special attention to Lunos.

Lyn and Delphi were in their room mourning their loss. Their injuries were mostly mental. Their minds had been linked to each and every one of their family members creating a chain of seven…and now with there only being two of them left…there were echoes in their heads where the other five had once been. And then there was also the loss of their sister-in-law, Shadra. She hadn’t known them for as long, nor had she the mental link as the others, but she was family just the same.

Bryon too was in his bedroom suffering from the echoes of the past. He had lost his brother in that battle. They had been together since day one of their lives…and now he was just gone. He glanced up at the beautiful mahogany bird stand that had been constructed for Ebon…at the golden brown feathers that he had picked off…at the talon marks in the wood. He walked over to the stand and just stood there…remembering. He ran his hand over the pedestal…remembering. After a few moments, he picked up one of the feathers. He wrapped it in a silk cloth and put it inside his shirt pocket. “Farewell…my brother.”

Tye just stayed in the den of the building in wolf form. He stared mindlessly into space. He had lost his whole future in one moment. Karen was still pregnant with their pups but now they were all gone. He began whimpering in sadness. He loved Karen with every fiber of his being and he was so eager to be a father of his own brood of pups…but all those thoughts were forever gone.

Uron didn’t suffer any physical damages, but he too could not escape the thought of most of his closest friends being dead. But what hurt him the most was the loss of his sister. He loved Jamie more than life itself…and was powerless to save her.

Slaughterhound was still in a bit of shock about what had happened. He couldn’t stop trembling and he continued to see flashes of each of his friends dying. He had been in hundreds of battles; had seen many allies, both human and creatures, die; and never once was he affected as much as the loss of Dart and Diablos. They were two of the greatest friends he had ever had…but no more. Lil and the kids were the closest thing had had ever known to family. His physical injuries extended to a limp in his step that would forever haunt him and a couple broken ribs, which had been healed…but even he was lucky compared to Lunos.

With only one leg, Lunos would never run at the speeds he once had; the healers said he would be lucky if he was ever able to walk normally again. They could offer him a walking stick and seal his wound, but nothing more.

Then there was a light tapping on the door. Gaspod got up and answered it. Tarous, the life-long companion of Slaughterhound, Crystal the Helpful, Speed Demon, Sunflash the Mace, who was an old friend of Dart, Rez’s blood-brother Lightfoot the elf, Fingers the gnome who lived with Rez in his tower, and many others who had been involved with the Guardians of Ardania at one point or another in their lives were standing outside the building.

“We came as soon as we heard.” Crystal said.

“Is it true? Is Dart dead?” asked Sunflash.

“Yes…he is. They all are.” Uron sadly stated.

“Where are they?” asked Baludin the dwarf. “Where are the beasts that did this to our friends? I’ll tear ‘em apart with meh bare hands.” He turned and started to run off, but before he could go anywhere, Sureshot the elf grabbed his collar.

“Settle down my friend,” he said.

“How do you expect him to calm down?” asked a paladin in the shadows.
“Simple, Baiya…we plan our counter attack,” a voice shouted from the stairs. Everyone turned to see Lunos standing with the aid of his walking stick. Everyone stared at his wound.

“We tried to hold him down, but he insisted on coming out here,” one of the healers explained.

“What do you expect? For me to sit out of the planning because of a flesh wound? I don’t think so. I lost friends out there too ya know…and I’m going to help whether you want me to or not,” he yelled angrily at the healer.

“Lunos!” a wizard in the group ran forward. “What happened to your leg?”

“Lunos got away lucky from those monsters considering the fate of the others, Gilgamesh. He’s only alive because we managed to get away so quickly,” Slaughterhound pointed out.

“May I have everyone’s attention? Everyone, please, come in,” Lunos shouted down to the crowd of friends. As the crowd of almost a hundred heroes entered the room, Lunos grabbed the guard railing for balance and placed the walking staff aside. “My friends…it is under most grievous circumstances that we gather here today. The death of life-long friends like Dart, Lil, Diablos, Jamie, and the others is a heavy thing to accept. We all lost someone close to us in that battle. Whether it was Dart for his bravery, Dib for his might, Jamie for her benevolence, Lil for her determination, or one of the others, they will be missed greatly by all of us. All of those who escaped from the beasts have injuries that will heal with time, but all of us suffer mentally at the loss. I have lost my own leg, as well as my ability to run, but my pain is nothing compared to what Lyn and Delphi are going to go through. They didn’t only loose friends in that battle…no, they lost their entire family. When we attack these things next time, let’s not do so for our own purposes…our own revenges…our own revulsions of the monsters…but for Lyn and Delphi. Nothing we can do will ever change what happened today, but I vow on the graves of Dart, Lil, Jacob, Karen, Jessie, Diablos, Shadra, Jamie, and Ebon that I will never rest until those…those…things are destroyed and the last two Sureblades avenged. Now who’s with me?”

The roar of agreement from the troop of heroes was so great that the glass windows of the building vibrated from the sound.

***************

Lyn and Delphi were in their room listening to all that was going on outside. The number of people who were willing to give their own lives to avenge the fallen Sureblades moved Delphi.

“Maybe we should go out there and say something,” suggested Delphi. She glanced at Lyn, who had her face in a pillow sobbing. “Oh, c’mon. This isn’t the way heroes are supposed to act.” Lyn stopped sobbing and looked at Delphi.

“Maybe not, but this is the way I act when I’m sad…and I’ve never been this level of depressed before in my life. You’re feeling it too, I know you are…”

“Snap out of it Lyn!” Delphi was about to slap Lyn to get her to stop, but caught herself staring at Jessie’s empty bed. The extra razor stick she had stashed for emergencies was still hanging on the wall pegs. She got up and walked over to it. She slowly lifted it off of the pegs. It felt burdensome in her hands.

“I never realized how strong Jessie was…this thing’s heavy.”

“She liked it like that…helped her train better,” Lyn looked up to see what Delphi was doing.

“Well…” Delphi stared at the red, grief filled eyes of Lyn, “…now it’s how I train. From now on, I use this razor stick. It’s not much different than the swallow I use now, so it shouldn’t be too hard to learn how this thing works.”

She stood still for a few moments and then glanced at the wall, as if she had lost her mind. Lyn knew what was going on…Delphi was talking to a ghost.

[Karen! It’s you…it’s all of you,] she said mentally to the ghost of her sister.

[Yes Delphi…we’re all out here. Listen…there is no time for talking. Those mechanical monsters are coming in this direction. They know you’re here. They’re coming for all of you. We overheard them talking. They are on a hunt and destroy mission to find each and every individual person ever involved with the Guardians. With most everyone gathered downstairs, it’d be easy pickings for an all in one massacre of Ardania’s finest. Go warn them and get out of here now! Oh, I almost forgot…Dib is alive. The blast didn’t kill him it just threw him from the battle; otherwise he’d be here with us. You need to go find him before he does die. Find him…and help him! Tell Lyn that everything will be all right. Agrela already has a plan to help you guys out, but it will take time…a long, long time. Good-bye Delphi.] The ghost of Karen Sureblade then dissipated into a mist and then finally vanished.

“Karen…come back! Don’t leave us!” she shouted aloud. She slowly fell to her knees, staring at the spot where Karen was a moment ago. She pounded on the wall. “Come back! We don’t want to be alone!” she cried out to the empty air. After a few moments passed by and nothing happened, Delphi got up and started walking towards the door. Lyn quickly got up and followed.

All the heroes had gathered in the den of the hideout and were all coming up with their own versions of how to kill the metal monsters. Slaughterhound, Tye, Bryon, and Uron stepped aside into another room. A few moments later, they returned to the group. Not thinking anything of it, everyone returned to the planning. Some thought that an all out frontal assault would be most effective, others wanted to take a stealthier approach, and then there were those who thought that guerilla tactics would be the best course of action.

“Everyone…” all activity in the building stopped. As they all looked up at Delphi “…we have to evacuate the building immediately. The monsters are on their way here. I was told by a very reliable source that they are coming and they know where we are. We are not strong enough to take these things right now. We must retreat and figure out a way to beat them. We have to get…”

Out of nowhere a giant blast erupted outside the building followed by a voice, “Oh Guardians come out and play with us. We never finished our game earlier.”

In a few seconds, another blast hit the roof of the building sending all matter of debris everywhere. Several of the heroes were knocked onto the ground. Large chucks of the roof were falling and breaking everything. Tye grabbed Fingers and pulled him under the stairs when a large support beam nearly crushed him. Riley Quickhands pulled two of the healers out from the path of a large piece of stone. Gaspod was ducking and dodging things until he was safe under the staircase with the others. Lunos was having the most difficult time trying to find shelter. He had dropped his stick and had to crawl on the floor until he managed to find shelter under the large oak dinning table. Slaughterhound quickly ran over to him and pulled him out from under it as another large support beam fell on the table and split it right down the middle.

“Come out and play! We’re in the mood for a little entertainment right now!”

Rez was the first to react. He ran to the fireplace and pulled down on the head of a Roc trophy hanging above it. The fireplace disappeared and a portal of some kind emerged behind it.

“Everyone, in here! We can escape them through this. It leads to a safe haven in the DoomBull clan’s territory in the North and is the fastest means of escape we have. Lunos, you first, everyone else go with him. I’ll join you shortly.”

Rez ran back up into his room and grabbed a small black box. When he ran back down the stairs, Slaughterhound grabbed his arm and yanked the box away from him. “Sorry mate…we need these more than you do.”

“What are you talking about Slaughterhound?” he asked.

“We ain’t going with ya,” Rez looked behind Slaughterhound to see Uron, Tye, and Bryon all still in the room. “We all have a score to settle with these guys.”

“Slaughterhound listen…there is a time for courage and a time for reasoning; this is a time for the latter. You can’t go out there. They’ll kill you all. What good are you going to be to your remaining friends if you are all dead?”

“We’re going out there whether you want us to or not. It’s what we have to do…to make things as they once were. Plus, they killed off our friends…it’s personal. We have to do this…we have no choice.”

“Personal? Personal! You think it’s not personal for us as well? You weren’t their only friends you know. I may have not been in that battle, but I was just as close to them as you, but you don’t see me rushing blindly into battle. If you really want to go out there that bad, then you’ll have to kill me to get out there because I won’t let you go out only to die!”

“Actually, you are one of the friends that they killed off. They killed many of our friends in one big massacre, and we’re here for payback.”

“What? How is that possible? If they killed me off, then how am I standing here?” He looked closer at Slaughterhound. The giant bent over to make eye contact with the old wizard. “You’re not Slaughterhound! Who are you?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you who we are, but I can assure you that we are indeed friends. And we are here to save you. I’m not going to fight you, Rez. If we fail, then you will be the kingdom’s only hope. I’m sorry to do this to you.” The Slaughterhound imposter brought his mighty fist down on Rez’s head hard enough to knock him out. He then picked up his old friend and gently threw him in the portal. He then smashed the fireplace so no one would be able to use it ever again.

“Well…now what?” asked the Tye imposter.

“We wear these…” Slaughterhound opened the box to reveal four Opal rings. “…and we go down fighting. These are Rez’s new inventions; the power rings. He said that they were supposed to increase the physical strength of the person wearing them. The Rez in the future told us that Slaughterhound took these from him, remember. They are extremely experimental right now, in fact, they’ve never been tested on humans.” He slipped the ring on his finger and the others did the same. “Let’s go you three, the time stream depends on us. If we don’t fix their mess here and now, then we don’t have a future to worry about.”

Naram sat down on the church steps. The words haunting him like an angry specter.

“He bought the church?” he repeatedly said to himself. “There truly is no hope left now. No matter how much money I make, Caus will never sell the building. Have the Gods truly vanished from this world?” He didn’t know what to do. Lament’s company was going to destroy the church in the morning, there was no possible way for him to buy the church back in time, and now he was practically homeless because his apartment was on the third floor of the church. After what seemed like hours, Naram got up.

“Guess I better go pack my things.” He spotted the jar of money. “At least I have enough money to last me a couple weeks while I hunt for a job,” he said thinking about the large fortune he had acquired over the past few months. He grabbed the jar and started heading for the door, when he heard someone shouting. He took another step and realized that it wasn’t someone shouting, but someone screaming. He ran to the edge of the stairs and leaned over the marble railing, searching for the source of the screams. He heard a clash of trashcans in the alley. He looked in time to see a lady and her baby carriage get pulled into the back alley by a couple of muggers. His thoughts were mixed. If he called the authorities and waited for them to do something, the muggers would be long gone before the cops arrived. But if he went in there to help her, he might get shot…or worse. The woman screamed once again, but was cut off when one of the muggers clashed his hand around her mouth.

“Well… I got nothing else to loose. Here goes nothing.” Naram jumped over the edge of the railing and landed very clumsily on the ground in the alley. Once he caught his balance, ha started running deep into the alley after them. One of the muggers saw him coming and raised a gun. Naram saw the gun and heard the click and froze just as the gunshot was fired. The pain in his head was excruciating. He thought he was dying. But then he realized that the bullet had done nothing but skim the side of his head. There was some blood, and a lot of pain, but he was all right. He got back up and started running again. He saw that the gun was jammed because the mugger had pulled the trigger a few more times, but nothing happened. Throwing the gun aside, the mugger saw an opportunity. He grabbed the baby carriage and pushed it at Naram, hoping to slow him down. Naram dodged the carriage and kept running. He thought he saw the carriage hit a trashcan and stop, but he wasn’t sure.

They reached the end of the alley and were back out on the sidewalk on the backside of the church. The muggers had abandoned their target and split into two different directions at the fork in the alleys. Naram, seeing that the woman was all right, stopped on the sidewalk.

“Someone stop that man!” he shouted and pointed to the left. He then turned right and followed the mugger in front of him. He chased down the mugger. Naram was out of shape, but he was gaining on the mugger…slowly but assuredly. The mugger could tell he was loosing ground with the man chasing him. He tried throwing anything he could get his hands on into Naram’s path. He knocked over orange crates from the general store, he tipped tables from restaurants, he even went so far as to knock people off of their feet, but each of these things slowed him down more than they did Naram.

Finally, after running for five whole blocks, Naram was finally within tackling range of the man. He dove on the guy and took him down. Naram managed to get a hard uppercut on the guy’s chin before he could react. Naram had knocked him out. Naram pulled himself off of the ground and bent over to pull off the guy’s mask. What he saw shocked all around him. There was no person under the mask. Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted in the air. The world lit up as bright as imaginable, and then went pitch black.

*******

Renni rounded the corner at speeds so fast that he almost lost his balance on the loose gravel. There were two big dogs chasing him down the streets. He had tripped over one of them as he was climbing down from the fence at the back of the school. He had been running for near twenty minutes now trying to lose them, but these dogs had noses that never failed them. He turned another corner only to come to a dead end.

“Great, just what I need…a wall.” He turned around when he heard a sound. The dogs had stopped at the way out and were giving what Renni could have sworn was a smile. Slowly they advanced…knowing too well that they had him cornered. Renni hunted all around him for an alternative way out; a door, a window, he would have been happy with just about anything. Then it came to him…the fire escape! He looked up. Sure enough, there was a ladder about twenty feet up. It was one of the city’s new computer controlled fire escapes. If there was a fire being reported, the fire department could automatically set off an alarm in the building and lower the ladders. Renni became discouraged…he was never going to reach that, unless… He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small handheld. The dogs were halfway down the alley, ever slowly approaching him. After several failed attempts, Renni finally managed to hack into the fire department’s computer and lower the ladder. He put his handheld away in his bag and was about to get ready to climb up the ladder, when it stopped. It was still about ten feet away from him, and he didn’t have the time to try again. Looking around, he spotted a trashcan. Without thinking, he ran and, using the trashcan as a stepping-stone, launched himself into the air enough that he could grab the ladder. He quickly scurried up the ladder and, once he was on the safe roof of the building, looked down at the dogs and laughed.

“Boo-ya! What now you stupid mutts? I’d love to see you guy’s pull that kind of move! That’s why I’m the human…I’ve got the bigger brain and the thumbs to back it up.” He turned and went to the other side of the roof…there was no fire escape.

“Boo-ya withdrawn…” he said miserably at the irony of the situation. He wasn’t sure what to do. With only one fire escape, there was only one way down, and that way was being guarded. There was a fire escape on the building next to him, but it would be suicide to attempt a jump from this height. After further inspecting the side, he found a water drainage pipe. About a third of the way down the pipe, there was a concrete platform used to help support the pipe. He was certain that it would hold the weight of a seventeen-year-old boy. If he were to climb down the pipe to the platform, and then jump from there to the ladder, it would be far less dangerous. The only problem with this plan was that he had never been good with climbing…or jumping.

“Oh well,” he stated. He made sure his bag was secure and closed. He then slowly grabbed the pipe and worked his way down. [This is easy,] he was thinking, when suddenly…the pipe began to come out of the wall. [Of course, something always has to go wrong.] He closed his eyes and waited for the fall to come. As the pipe began to fall, it suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes. The pipe had caught on a cable wire and was holding him, but it wouldn’t for long. He was about two feet away from the ladder with the pipe leaning out. If he could just move down a bit further, he could grab the ladder and lower himself down. Inch by inch, he started working his way to the end of the pipe, until the ladder was in his grasp. As he grabbed the ladder, the pipe broke lose and fell to the ground with a loud clang. Under the added weight of Renni, the ladder broke free and slowly slid down to the ground. When Renni was safe again on the ground, he pulled out his handheld and started to determine the best way for him to get back on schedule. He started walking towards the street. He stopped at the crosswalk and studied his map.

“Hmmm, limme see. If I’m here at the old church, then that means that it’s going to be another five-hour walk to get to Riveton. Still puts me behind.” The light changed to the WALK sign and the crowd advanced. Suddenly, there was a gunshot heard. Everyone took cover except Renni. He was trying to locate the source of the shot so he knew which way not to run.

He turned around only to see a large bus demolishing cars, trucks, and anything else that got in its way coming down the street. He didn’t know how, but he could see a bullet hole in the window. The driver was dead and the bus was out of control. The bus just got closer and closer to him. People on the sidewalk were yelling at him to move…but Renni couldn’t. He couldn’t just let that bus continue down the street, hurting, if not killing, many people. He wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, he knew he had to stop it. When the bus was only a few feet away, Renni jumped high into the air, did a back flip, and landed on the roof of the bus. He smashed the emergency exit latch and jumped into the bus. He quickly ran to the front of the bus. The driver was indeed dead. His head was lying on the steering wheel, and his foot had been pushed down flooring the pedal.

Renni tried to get the driver out of the seat, but the driver was a big man; too heavy for Renni to move. He looked out the window and, seeing a street light concrete base, got an idea. He lifted the driver’s head off of the wheel and turned the bus. The bus collided head on with a street light post and Renni, not being buckled in, went flying out the window. He landed on the ground and slid and rolled on the ground for a few feet in a painful manner. As he got up and dusted himself off, a loud explosion was heard. He turned around in time to see a large ball of light consume him.

*******

Ase was in a car. He was lying down in the back seat. There was something about the car that was familiar; red, leather interior with a hint of peppermint. Where had he smelled that before? Then a sudden realization caught him. This was his sister’s car; Martha’s car. He sat up and looked around. Roth was in the passenger seat and Martha in the driver’s. The three of them were returning from a vacation in the mountains, away from the world. They had just left a gas station in the small town near their cabin. They had stopped to fill the car with gas and to load up with enough snacks for the trip home. Just as they left town, it started to downpour. The mountainous roads were dangerous enough to drive on when they were dry, but wet? That was an accident waiting to happen. Ase asked Martha to turn around and head back for the inn at the town where they could wait out the storm, but Martha wouldn’t hear of it. She said she’d driven in rain like this before and that she could handle it. For some strange reason, Ase let the argument go. A mistake he soon regretted after a few minutes had passed. The car suddenly started to pick up speed as it cruised down the sloped roads. Martha hit the breaks, but they did no good. A cliff, the curve at the bottom of the slope, the broken railing…it all went by so fast Ase thought it was all an illusion. Just as the car careened off of the cliff, Ase woke up.

He slowly took in his surroundings. The faint, musty odor of beer, cigarettes, and nachos. The sound of billiard balls bumping each other, traffic whizzing by, and the football game on the big screen in the other room. His eyes focused and he remembered where he was. He was in Mike’s Sports Bar; his favorite bar in town.

“Dreaming Ase?” asked a tall, thin man drying out a beer mug.

“No Mike, not a dream.” He recalled his dream, “It was a nightmare.”

“Bout the accident?”

“Yep. Always bout the accident. I just don’t get it. It happened five months ago, yet I’m still seeing flashes of it in my head. Why won’t it stop? I lived through that nightmare. I don’t want it haunting my sleep too.” He glanced down at his mug. “Fill ‘er up…and leave the bottle.”
Mike put down the mug and towel.

“No Ase. You’ve had enough for today.” Ase looked up angrily at Mike, but knew he was right. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten-dollar bill, and handed it over to Mike. He then got up and started to stumble towards the door.

“Ase, sit down. You need to sober up a bit before you start driving. Here’s a cup of hot coffee.”

Ase looked at the cup and realized that it would be smarter to clear his head. He sat back down and started to slowly sip the coffee.

“Are you sure you have to go Ase? You know I can give you a room free of charge until you find a place of your own.”

“No Mike, I can’t. This town reminds me too much of Martha. I’m going to do what I should have done months ago. I’m going to finish this coffee and then I’m leaving town…for good.”

Ase stood up and, with coffee in hand, started to walk towards the door. A fight had broken outside and Ase didn’t want to miss it. Fights always seemed to help him wake up. He stood there enjoying the fight. A guy in a red muscle shirt had made another guy in a leather jacket mad by trying to hustle him in a game of pool. A few uppercuts, jabs, and head bashes later, the biker had won and reclaimed his money.

Then Ase heard it…the sound of screams. He slowly walked down the street until he was at the corner. He looked down Ardania Avenue and saw nothing. He was about to put it out of his mind when he noticed a man run into the alleyway. Seconds later, there was a gunshot. Ase took cover around the corner. He didn’t know where the shot had come from. He looked back towards the alley and saw a small purple baby carriage roll out and stop a few feet from a streetlight. Something wasn’t right. Suddenly, the sound of metal and glass smashing was heard down the street. A bus had gone out of control. Ase just stared at the oncoming vehicle. There was a kid in the road, he had stopped when he saw the bus.

“Move kid!” Ase shouted, but the kid didn’t hear him. [Is he suicidal or something?] Then, when the bus was almost to him, the kid jumped high into the air. Very high. High enough to do a back flip and then land smoothly on the bus’ roof. Ase stood jaw-locked. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Now the kid had broken into the bus and was trying to stop it. The kid turned the bus hard to the right. It collided head on with a streetlight. The bus had stopped and the kid went flying out the window. Ase was about to go and help him out, when he realized that the streetlight was about to fall over…and the baby carriage was in the path.

Not wasting any time, Ase bolted for the pole. He reached the carriage just as the pole snapped off of its supports and began toppling over. Ase just stood in its path. Then, bracing himself, he caught the pole…but at a price. The pain in his back was excruciating. His hands were numb and he could swear that his head was going to explode. He couldn’t hold it up for long. Trying to save his strength, he quietly yelled for someone to move the carriage.

“Someone…come move…this…thing,” he struggled to get it out. A lady a few feet away heard his silent cries and moved it. Then, harboring the strength that was quickly leaving him, he pushed the pole over his back. It landed on the ground with a loud thud. Ase fell onto his hands and feet with a huff. He was breathing hard. Then there was a loud explosion. He looked up and saw this giant white orb engulfing the city. Still heaving hard from all the energy he had used, he got up and ran as fast as he could muster back to the bar. He got on his bike and turned the key. The bike wouldn’t start. He looked back up to see the sign for Mike’s Bar one last time.

*********

[How did they know it was me? I’ve never slipped up. No one’s seen my face, ever. How did they know?] Airem raced east down Ardania Avenue with the police quick on her trail and thoughts of how to escape from the police.

[How did they find me after all these months?] She rounded the corner south onto Guardian Street. [No one knows who I am except] a sudden realization hit her, […Sol! But he wouldn’t have done that to me…would he? He knows that if he brought me in, I’d get him too. No. It couldn’t have been Sol.]

She spotted an alleyway and turned into it. She turned another corner to hide from site and waited until the sounds of the police whistles died. She slowly peered out of the alley to make sure it was clear. It was all good. She went north across Ardania Avenue to the other side. Just when she thought she was safe, a gunshot was heard. Thinking the police had seen her, she started running again. She headed north on Guardian Street. Once she ran down a block, she realized that is wasn’t the police that had fired the shot and stopped at a grocery store on the corner. Even if it wasn’t the police shooting at her, she was glad she got away; gunshots meant trouble. She knew that all too well. About a minute passed by and she regained her breath when she heard someone shout.

“Someone stop that man!” she heard the voice say. She looked down the street and saw a big man coming straight at her. He was too big for her to tackle, but… She had an idea. She grabbed three oranges from the grocery store and the hairnets off of three of the workers who had come outside to see what all the commotion was about. Something was going on down the street that was holding up traffic and, fortunately, Airem found the last pieces she needed. She ran over to a car with a suitcase on it and pulled the bungee cords that were holding the bag in place off.

“Hey lady…hands off my stuff,” the owner shouted at her.

“Sorry, it’s an emergency.” She laid the pieces on the ground and began construction of her make-shift weapon. She place one orange into each of the three nets. Then, she placed the three nets onto the ends of the bungee cords. As she was doing this, the crook had passed her and was across the street. When Airem was finished, she was holding crude looking bolas. She slowly started swinging them over her head. She took careful aim and fired. The bolas flew across the street and hit its target. The mugger stumbled, but didn’t fall. The bolas hadn’t caught both legs completely. Airem charged at him and tackled him now that he was distracted. She bashed his head onto the ground and he was out cold. Then, suddenly, there was a loud explosion, a ball of light, and then complete darkness.