Touch the World

Part Five: Shootout

shley had been unconscious on her first trip through the building, and now she was realizing that she hadn't missed all that much. An ominously empty tenement tagged with gang graffiti and far too many bullet holes... as if there were such a thing as an 'appropriate' number of bullet holes.... wasn't very high on her list of places to tour. The Great Pyramid, it was not. The place stank on so many levels that it was no wonder it was now empty. The physical stench... a noxious mixture of urine, sweat, and industrial-strength cleaning products... made the fine hairs of her nose burn. Added to that was the visual stench. Stains of every conceivable shade of yellow and brown... and a few INconcievable shades... covered almost every surface. Even the cheap ceiling had moldy brown patches growing from its corners. The place LOOKED like it stank, and this was one instance in which appearance and reality were in firm agreement. Finally, there was the psychic buzz whispering at the edges of Ashley's mind. There were no ghosts here, but years of death, violence, grief and despair had left a discernable mark... like a psychic water-stain, or an ethereal version of the mold spreading across the ceiling. No wonder there were demons (well... at least one) running around here. The people of this building and most likely this entire section of the city had created a perfect nest for them. Such entities were attracted to places like this like flies to rotting meat. The flies didn't CREATE the rot or the stench... they just made use of it.

As the reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped out onto the street (which smelled only a little better), Ashley turned her thoughts from revulsion to trying to figure out exactly when she was going to escape. The man behind her, with the gun presumably pointed at her kneecaps, was taking her to Braxis and his little pet monster.... neither one of which Ashley was in a mood to see right now. Braxis was insane. The LAST time they'd met he had tried to sacrifice her to a djinn. Now he was back with his own personal demon... and her psychic abilities wouldn't work on either of them. All of that added up to a very unpleasant experience in the very near future. But so far, she hadn't been able to dig so much as a name out of the guy currently marching her down the sidewalk. Braxis and/or Tomas Velazquez had done some work on him. There was (almost) no doubt that she could force her way through whatever psychic defenses he had but the instant she tried, he had promised to shoot her. As memories of the last encounters with Braxis and his Velazquez became more vivid in her mind, the thought of a shattered kneecap or two didn't seem all that bad of an alternative. But hopefully she could avoid BOTH alternatives...

"What's your name?" Ashley asked.

"None of your business," the man replied.

"You know... whatever Braxis did to you, I might be able to undo it." A lie. Ashley had no such ability.

"Now why would I want that?" the man said with a half-laugh.

"You like being a lackey? You actually enjoy being a fetch-boy for some nut and his kid?"

"Fetch-boy? Girl you have no idea-"

"I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking that you've seen doc and that kid do some pretty amazing things... things that YOU couldn't possibly do. So why do they need you? What possible use are you to them? Errands and odd jobs? What are you... a butler? Chauffeur? And I bet you don't even get paid."

"There'll be pay enough when-"

"When what? When Braxis takes over the world?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Braxis doesn't want to take over anything."

"Oh, like he DIDN'T take over this neighborhood?"

"This place was sick. He healed it.... same as he's gonna do to all the other sick places."

"Newsflash, fetch-boy... everbody here except me and you is dead."

"This place was worse than the others... he started with the worst part first," said the man, his voice was slowly taking on the monotonous quality of a recitation. "It's like a cancer. A lot of it had to be cut away to save the body."

"Ohhhhhh," Ashley said sarcastically. "I see."

"Hell, girl, people like you and me wouldn't have been able to walk down this street three weeks ago. Now, all it needs is a good cleaning... and under Braxis's guidance it'll regenerate into something healthy. Good people can move in here. Good, healthy people; not the disease that was here before."

"And who do you think is gonna be doing all that cleaning, eh, fetch-boy?"

"I think you need to shut up now."

"Now I don't know who you are, but I'm guessing you were a reasonably intelligent guy before. So ask yourself this: three weeks ago, if somebody had told you they were gonna save the world by turning all the poor people in bad neighborhoods into slaves... then killing them... along with anybody else who got in the way, like the cops for instance... what would you have said?"

There was a confused silence from behind her. She was getting somewhere.

"Don't tell me what you think NOW," she continued "Tell me what you WOULD have said weeks ago, before you met Braxis and that kid."

"I would have told that person they were crazy," the man said defiantly. "But things are different now."

"What's different?"

"Braxis has opened my mind to things I didn't realize before."

"Braxis has given you a stealth lobotomy... you THINK you still have free will and a mind of your own, but you don't. You're just a sock-puppet. A lackey. A lapdog."

"Once again, the time has come for you to shut your mouth."

"I can prove it."

"Shut-"

"Betray Braxis."

"What? You think it's gonna be THAT easy to get me to let you go?"

"Oh, I know you're not gonna let me go. I'm just trying to help you out... help one last person while I still can."

"By getting me to betray the one person that's gonna make a difference in the world? No thanks-"

"I don't want you to DO anything... you won't try, because you'll think I'm trying to trick you. No, what I want is for you to THINK about betraying Braxis. Just in your mind... a mental exercise. Fantasy. Fantasize about turning your back on him... or shooting him... or even just disobeying one of his orders. Just fantasize about it... do it in your mind...."

"And what would THAT prove?"

"It'll prove that can't do it. You can't even think about it. Braxis has made you so subservient that you can't even THINK about betraying him. Why? Because you have no will. He reached into your head and pulled that part of your brain right out of your skull. He's probably got it in a little jar somewhere-"

"That's enough. Third time, and I mean it: shut up."

"You know its true. You're still trying and you still can't do it. NOW you're starting to realize that you don't have any control over your own mind-"

The gun jammed painfully into the small of Ashley's back. If she were badass like Sebastian, she would have spun around, snatched the weapon from the man's hand, and pistol-whipped him with it five or six times before the guy even blinked once. But she wasn't Sebastian.

"OUCH!"

"I mean it!" the man hissed. "I will shoot you!"

"Braxis wants me alive, remember?"

"He can fix whatever I put holes in."

"All right. I'll shut up. I'm done talking anyway."

"Yeah, you sure are... because here we are."

They had almost reached the next block, and now two figures were turning the corner. One was a tall, distinguished elderly man who smiled warmly the second he saw Ashley. The other was a demon squirming around in a seven-year-old boy's body... wearing the kid's soul-less body like a suit of ill-fitting clothes. Tomas Velazquez hissed at her, launching a small spray of drool from his greenish-gray lips.

"Very well done, Mr. Phillips!" Braxis in his smoothly disarming southern accent. To Ashley, he sounded like a cross between Foghorn Leghorn and that creepy old guy on Poltergeist II. With just the slightest touch of Hannible Lecter thrown in for good measure. "I must say I am quite pleased you've managed to intercept our little lost starling. And how are we doing today, Ms. Ricks?"

"Today sucks," said Ashley. "But it'll get much better when I get to watch Sebastian and Jason kick your head around like a soccer ball."

Braxis laughed.

"Ohh, what a vivid imagination she has! But unfortunately, Mr. Brooks' arrival will be delayed. He's entertaining a few unexpected guests at the moment. And as for your other friends," Braxis looked at Mr. Phillips. "Was there any sign of Ms. Dobbs and that young man with the long knives?"

Brandon Phillips shook his head.

Tomas Velazquez made a series of chattering noises... like several large beetles rustling around inside a paper bag.

Ashley winced. The 'noises' actually made sense. They weren't words.. . but they contained some sort of psychic modulation, like a weak radio signal from the boy's brain. It took a second to figure out, but the demon had just 'spoken.'

"-Master Tomas says he senses both of them in the building you just left," Braxis interpreted. "Are you sure?"

"You sent me to get the girl; I got the girl," said Phillips. I didn't go hunting around for strays."

"Why don't you send your fetch-boy up to look for them?" Ashley suggested. "That oughta be fun."

"If the kid knows where they are, then let HIM go," Brandon said quickly... as if trying to rush the words out before they disintegrated in his brain.

"Why, I think that's a splendid idea, Mr. Phillips. Tomas? Retrieve Ms. Dobbs... and get rid of that other one."

The kid crouched down and sprang forward in a leap that was far too long to have come from his scrawny legs. He landed on all fours, stood up, and then proceeded down the sidewalk in a rapid serpentine gait that reminded Ashley of those water-walking lizards she'd seen on the Discovery Channel. When he reached the building that Ashley and Brandon had come out of...

...he went right past the door and crawled up the wall on his hands and knees, as if he had his own personal gravity that had suddenly shifted by 90 degrees.

"And you think there's nothing wrong with that kid?" said Ashley.

"The boy has many talents," said Braxis. "Once I unlocked the potential in his mind, those talents were allowed to reach full bloom-"

"That boy's mind was an empty house," said Ashley. "All you did was fix it up and slap on a nice coat of paint... which happened to attract the first demon that came by."

"So what if it did?" Braxis replied. "I'll use his power to further my own interests while I can. And when the time comes, I'll move on to something... stronger. Like you."

"ME!?"

"Tomas was only a temporary solution to a rather serious lack of firepower on my part. But when I saw what you could do... when I heard Tomas tell me what you were, I knew that I had found my permanent solution. I'll unlock your potential just as I did his... just a little more carefully, so as not to leave any doors open. Then all of that power will be mine."

"What do you mean 'what I am'?"

"He said you didn't know." Braxis chuckled. "Please pardon my amusement, but I do find that extremely funny. Here you are... partnering around with Mr. Brooks and Ms. Dobbs when you are capable of much, much more. Especially when I have finished my renovations. Now, as much as I would like to get started right away.... I'm afraid you'll have to wait. That kind of work is extremely delicate and not suited for ghetto streetcorners. Mr. Phillips, would you be so kind as to hand me your weapon and then go fetch the car?"

"Eh?" said Brandon.

He was trying it. She had gotten through to him, and he was trying to resist...

"The car, Mr. Phillips. Go get the car."

"R-right. Yeah, sure."

Even without being inside Brandon's mind, Ashley could feel his 'willpower' dissolving. She could hear it in his voice.

"Right away," he said. He stepped from behind Ashley, handed Braxis his gun, and walked back the way that Braxis and Tomas had just come.

"I thought you didn't like guns," said Ashley.

"I don't," Braxis replied. "But even though you can't get into my mind, I do have a new appreciation for your abilities..."

"If you did, you'd know that that gun won't stop me."

"Is that why you hide behind Mr. Brooks, then, Ms. Ricks? ...because you are NOT afraid of guns?"

"I could squash you like a bug."

"Do your worst."

Ashley did.

eiling.

That was the first thing he saw. He was laying on his back, on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. Like a machine at start-up, Sebastian performed a quick inventory:

Memories and mental faculties intact. Senses functioning at slightly reduced levels. Sharp, localized pain from various parts of his body. No shattered bones, but several ribs may be cracked. Severe bruising. Concussion. Wound in shoulder... blood loss and head injury were likely responsible for reduced senses.

Estimated time until he bled to death.... unknown.

Weapons: none, but his sword and the woman's gun were in the other room.

Fighting ability: impaired, but not severely against a human opponent, assuming he retrieved his sword.

Situational assessment: Very Good.

Marilyn Dobbs hadn't woken up yet. She had collapsed on top of him, and was now laying across him with her head face-down in his lap. The humor of her position escaped Sebastian entirely. He reached out, grabbed her hair and chin in his hands, and was a muscle-twitch away from snapping her neck when a noise drew his attention. It came from the adjacent apartment... it sounded like something climbing out the window. Or climbing in.

he demon that was Tomas Velazquez didn't bother with such things as stairs, hallways, or doors. It may have had to do so once, but the longer it remained in this body... the longer it wallowed in the boy's considerable psychic energy, the more powerful it became. Now, after only a few days, it could dispense with the inefficient human modes of mobility in favor of something more natural. Natural for a demon, anyway.

Tomas crawled... not climbed, but crawled... up the side of the building with surprising speed; arms and legs moving in complete disregard to the joints, muscles, and tendons that comprised them. When he reached the window of the apartment where Ashley had been found, he slipped inside without getting so much as a stab from the broken glass. Instead of dropping to the floor, he crawled across the ceiling toward the hole in the opposite wall. Halfway there, he paused.

There was a sword on the floor.

Long, and sharp, and shiny. It even had fresh blood on it.

Very pretty.

"OOooooo..."

Like a child hypnotized by the flashing lights of a cartoon, Tomas stared at the blade... then crawled over toward it. He descended the wall and reached down to run his finger along the length of the blade... intending to have a taste of the blood. But when his finger touched the metal, an electric shock went through the demon's body. His hand jerked away involuntarily, with the index finger burnt black from the tip to the first knuckle.

"EEEEEE!" Tomas squealed, scurrying back up to the ceiling and looking angrily down at the sword. The blade was of holy metal; its cold touch burned like the fires of heaven. Tomas could not play with it, OR with the lovely blood...

Disappointed almost to the point of tears, Tomas went back to the matter that had brought him here in the first place. He crawled across the ceiling and paused at the hole leading into the next apartment. From his awkward (for a human) vantage point, he could see a single human female on the floor... alive, but not moving. But there was someone else in the room. Using the boy's psychic abilities, the demon pinpointed where the person was hiding. It was an unarmed male human, standing with his against the wall, waiting for him to enter the room. THIS one had an interesting soul, but there were no psychic abilities or other goodies, so he was therefore useless.

The demon decided he would kill them both, despite what the old fool had asked. He would kill one quickly, just because he like the way humans looked when they died unexpectedly. The surprised looks on their faces were so precious... if he could get a human face to freeze in that expression permanently, he would cut the head off and carry it around to look at when he got bored. Maybe he would try that. He would kill the other human slowly and with much pain, just for fun.

Tomas backed away from the hole and then dropped to the floor. Then he walked in.

The flurry of motion to his right was very fast. Had Tomas not been expecting it, then the male human would have succeeded in doing any number of potentially unpleasant things to him. But he HAD been expecting it, and so, with a mental shrug, he threw the male human across the room and slammed him into the wall.

The human did not scream, and that frustrated Tomas. Tomas did not like being frustrated. THIS would be the one that he killed slowly.

Tomas curled his fingers into claws and made a slashing motion at the air. The boy's telekinesis abilities lashed out in an identical pattern, forming into invisible talons that raked across Sebastian's flesh.

shhrrRIP!

Four long, shallow lines drooled blood across the male human's chest.

"heeheehee!" Tomas giggled.

Still not screaming, the human stepped away from the wall-

Tomas shoved him back, and held him there with an invisible fist. He slashed again-

SHRRRIP!

The human growled at him! No screaming... no begging... no pleading...

This was not fun. He slashed again, deeper this time.

SHRRRRIP!!

Now there were twelve bloody groves crisscrossing the human's chest. The last set had scraped across the man's ribs, cutting down to the bone. There was still no screaming, but the blood and shredded skin gave Tomas an even better idea.

What if he skinned this one? Peeled the skin off slowly....

...could he do that? Tomas didn't see why not. He had skinned a rat earlier today... how hard much difference could there be?

So, while the male human exerted a surprising amount of strength to try and pull free of the wall, Tomas grabbed a tiny scrap of the man's flesh with his mind. Next, he formed a small telekinetic blade... just like the claws he had used earlier... and slid it under the skin.

The human jerked and made a hissing sound.

Oh yes, this WAS going to be fun!

Tomas started to saw the blade back and forth, concentrating so hard on his entertainment that he failed to notice that there was now someone else in the room. His first indication was the sudden confused look on the male human's face. What was he looking at? Something behind Tomas-

Tomas turned-

And a silver dagger... not a knife, but a DAGGER with an eight-inch serrated blade... flashed briefly in front of his eyes before sinking into his chest, slicing through his flesh and anchoring itself into place just a few inches above his heart.

"Hey," said James Royce. "Remember me?"

"AAAAAEEEEEEEEEEE!" Tomas screamed, lashing out furiously with the boy's power-

-Nothing happened.

The dagger twisted and throbbed in his flesh... even though the unexpected intruder's hands were no longer holding the weapon. Tomas reached for the blade, but Royce caught his arms. As a demon in a human body, Tomas should have been able to physically throw Royce around like a doll... but the only strength Tomas could muster came from the boy's own muscles! Tomas tried to jump into Royce's mind-

-Nothing happened. The demon was trying to use power that, for some reason, wasn't there any more. But every time he tried, the dagger in his chest twisted and bit deeper.

The Dagger!

"You're trapped," said Royce. "No power, no magic. You're trapped inside that pitiful little body, you little demonic f@#$! Think you can slip out of hell, intrude where you aren't wanted, slap me around, and then get AWAY with it!? No such luck... now you've got an appointment to go see the big boys."

James Royce picked Tomas up and tucked the screaming child under one arm.

"EEEEEEEEE!!" Tomas squealed in rage and pain.

"...Royce," Sebastian hissed. With the boy's power gone, Sebastian had fallen to the floor and was bleeding quite copiously from the shredded mess that was his chest.

"Unfortunately I don't have time to kill you, properly" said Royce. "I've got to make this delivery... and I don't want to keep the bosses waiting any longer than necessary. So... see ya around, kid-"

Then, James Royce did something that he should not have been able to do:

With a screaming Tomas Velazquez held firmly in one arm, Royce smiled... and disappeared.

Sebastian blinked, thinking that he had hallucinated the entire episode. But that would have meant that the holes in his chest were an illusion, and they were most certainly real.

Getting weakly to his feet, Sebastian staggered toward the bedroom... where, hopefully, he would find a needle and thread.

oyce was a bit disappointed when the nature of his new abilities was revealed to him. With the quarry he was going after, he was expecting something a bit more... well, just a bit more.

But now, Royce was beginning to see the advantages phase-shifting. It was more than just being invisible... that was child's play, and not nearly as useful as people thought. But being able to step out of reality itself and move around 'behind he scenes'... THAT was something. He could walk through walls. He could sneak up on just about anyone or anything. He could move around completely undetected... even by most other demons. Probably by Knights, too. Sure, he had to phase back in order to do anything useful, but while he was 'outside' he could get as close as he needed to whatever he wanted without a scent, a shadow, a footstep, or even a stray thought to give him away.

It had certainly been enough to get the drop on the squirming piece of excrement he had under his arm. Tomas Velazquez...who's real name was something that rhymed with 'KLAzthURKreCKx'... never saw him coming. And now, with a Binding Dagger firmly affixed to the stray ethereal's chest, the job was all over except for the delivery.

When Royce got to the bottom of the stairs, he walked through the door and out into the alley beyond. It took him a second to get his bearings... as things tended to look different from the 'outside'. There wasn't much color, for one thing. Everything was gray, ... like surreal version of an old black and white movie. And perspective was screwy, too. Sometimes things weren't exactly where they seemed to be... thus the need to shift back before interacting with the material world. Hell, just getting down the steps had taken a fair among of concentration. Royce imagined that he could have just dropped straight down through the floor if he'd wanted... but he wasn't willing to try that trick just yet-

"GRAG-THX! The Velazquez kid squealed.

Royce took his free hand and thumped the kid across the head.

"THX! Ingririlthariumisk!" the captive demon said emphatically.

"Sorry, I don't speak gibberish."

Royce carried his prisoner out into the deserted street. There weren't any cars coming, which disappointed Royce slightly. He thought it would have been fun to stand out in traffic and let a few vehicles pass through them... the little demon probably would have crapped his pants.

<sniff>

Actually, it seemed like Tomas had already done that.

There was something interesting going on further down the street. The old man Braxis and the snotty psychic bitch were up to something-

"GRAAAAAAAAAA!" Tomas screamed, trying to wiggle free from Royce's arm. Royce didn't know what 'graaaaa' meant, but he imagined that the kid was calling for help. He smacked Tomas across the back of his skull.

"Hush up, junior, they can't hear you."

Tomas mewled like a kitten trapped in a tree, and Royce kept walking.

They went one block east and two blocks south, moving deeper into Braxis' playground. Royce imagined that his employers would put as stop to the doctor's social experiment before long... he only hoped he was the one that got to kill the doctor himself. That old man had pissed him off... made him look like a fool. Some revenge was in order. Perhaps when he finished with the boy he would be allowed to sneak up behind good old Braxis with an axe and cleave the old man's head down the middle.

The thought made Royce smile.

"Oh, happy day..." Royce said before launching into a series of whistles that formed a decent rendition of a gospel song. Royce liked gospel... it was perhaps the most humorous and entertaining thing these human monkeys had come up with. Except for TV Evangelists.... now THAT was entertainment!

Whistling loudly, Royce brought Tomas to within sight of the large apartment building at the end of the street. Then he took a right, ducking into a dead-end alley. There was a brick wall at the far end. Royce walked up to the wall and stopped.

"Here we are," Royce said. "You know, if you're lucky we'll end up working together and I can abuse you from now until the end of time. And if you're NOT lucky... I'll get to kill you. Either way it'll be a pretty good deal for me, eh?"

With an effort akin to swallowing air to make yourself burp, Royce dropped back into phase. Color flooded back into the world, and several nearby buildings shifted. Royce found that he was standing two feet to the left of where he THOUGHT he was, but the difference was insignificant... he was still in the right place.

With his free hand, Royce began to trace a pattern in the air in front of the wall.

"You see, kid," he said as his hand worked. "We've got this town pretty much sewn up. Not even the Knight knows what's going on here... but when YOU and that old man show up and start drawing attention... well... it complicates things. If people start looking at YOU, then they might start noticing US, too. We can't have that. So you've got to go..."

Royce finished the access pattern with a flourish. The shadows in the alley got darker and began to spread across the wall before him. The encroaching blackness deepened, formed the illusion of an open doorway that hadn't been there before. The doorway WAS just an illusion... for a few seconds. Then it became real.

A faint wind tinted with the scent of dust and the sound of screams huffed into the alley. Royce inhaled deeply.

"Aaaahhhh, home," he said, smiling. "All right.. in ya go-"

"And where do you think you're going with him, cop?"

"Huh-?"

Still holding Velazquez, Royce turned-

The sound of the gunshot was like a bomb going off in the alley. Royce only got a glimpse of his attacker... a tall man with a hat and a cloak....

No, not a cloak. A COAT.

Royce's shoulder exploded. It did not explode IN PAIN or any such metaphor... it exploded. The joint shattered from the bullet's impact, sending shards of bone ripping through muscles and tendons.

"AAAGH-"

Royce fell backward, dropping Tomas Velazquez as he went down. He hit the filthy concrete sprawled on his back... one arm stretched above his head, halfway into the phantom doorway.

The doorway picked that exact moment to close.

There was a gust of dry wind, and the shadows began to boil. The dark rectangular doorway dissolved right before Royce's eyes. Royce tried to move his arm, but with a shattered shoulder he could do nothing but watch as the darkness separated him from his right arm, severing the limb just below the elbow.

"NOOOO-AAAAAAAAAA, YOU BASTARD!!"

Royce shifted back 'outside' just as the second shot came.

The large-caliber bullet whispered through him and hit the concrete beneath his head. It ricocheted upward, and bounced again off of the brick wall behind him-

The series of ricochets sent Tomas Velazquez screaming out of the alley, rushing past the tattered and bloody human that had saved him, and with one hand tugging desperately at the blade protruding from his chest.

"WAIT!" Jason Brooks turned to go after the fleeing child. His bullet-eaten coat flapped around him. "WAIT! Come back! I'm HURT! You're... supposed to fix me! C'MON!!!"

Brooks limped after the boy, leaving a trail of bloody footprints and splatters on the sidewalk as he went.

James Royce... minus half of one arm and all of his good mood... went unseen after both of them.

or almost a minute, Ashley dug deep into the recesses of her mind, plunging into the dark corridors where she hid the bulk of her power... drilling down further than she had ever ventured before-

-and coming up with absolutely nothing.

She had wanted to pound Braxis into a smear on the pavement... or deliver a telekinesis smack that would knock the head from his shoulders. Or EVEN twist his head and body in opposite directions until they came loose in her grasp.

As the seconds ticked by with no fantastic display of mental fury, Ashley lowered her standards. She would have settled for one good shove to make the old man him fall down and hurt himself.

But even THAT proved vaporous.

Undaunted, she switched tactics and plowed into the old man's mind with the mental equivalent of a barbed-wire chainsaw. But, despite her best efforts to turn the doctor's thoughts into whipped cream, the only reaction she got from him was a polite yawn.

"Oh, my..." Braxis said, covering his mouth with a dainty hand. "Pardon me; I hope my yawning didn't distract you. Oh, are you finished, Ms. Ricks?"

"Uhhhh..." said Ashley. "Yeah."

"That's what I thought. I mean, it did look like you were finished... but sometimes its hard to tell. You can go on if you want."

Ashley sighed. Braxis was still protected from mental attacks, and her telekinesis wasn't cooperating. She was stuck with this madman until someone rescued her.

"You see, Ms. Ricks, your problem is not your ability... you have proven your talent many times in some quite spectacular ways. But what you have is like... well... I once had a motorcycle that had a loose wire in the electrical system. It was a pretty fast and fancy machine when it worked, but just gettin' it TO work was the damndest exercise in frustration I ever did see. That bike seemed to have a mind of its own; it ran when it wanted, and when it didn't it just sat there like a mule. A stubborn machine, it was. Now I reckoned myself to be a right decent mechanic, so I fiddled with it off and on for months before I finally broke down and took it to a professional. He went right in there and found that loose wire in no time. After that, she ran like a racehorse."

"A lecture on motorcycle maintenance from a psycho," said Ashley. "Nice."

"Do you see what I'm gettin' at, Ms. Ricks? Your mind is the motorcycle... and I am the mechanic. Until I reach in there and fix that loose wire in your head, there's really nothing to fear from all that ability you have locked away. At best, your chances of using it at any given time are... what... 50 percent? Probably worse than that, I imagine."

"So why the gun?"

"Well... my motorcycle DID run on occasion. As a rule, it was best not to be standin' in front of it in case it decided to go out for a spin."

"You can't even fix a bike, and you expect me to let you inside my brain? I don't think so-"

"Well you don't really have a choice in that matter, Ms. Ricks."

"Really? My friends might have something to say about that."

"I assure you that Ms. Dobbs and Mr. Brooks... if he is still alive... are in no position to help you. Very shortly, Ms. Dobbs will be working for me... as will you. And Brooks... being hunted down like a dog by the local police is much better than he deserves. If they don't shoot him in the street, I'll have to get myself invited to the 'official' execution. I'm not a fan of capital punishment, but in this case I think its appropriate."

Braxis looked past Ashley at the building behind her.

"...I wonder what's keeping Tomas," he mused.

"He's probably busy being carved into little bits and pieces right now," Ashley smirked. "But don't worry; you'll get your turn soon. You know... I'm not a FAN of cutting crazy people into tiny pieces, but in this case I think its appropriate."

"You have a lot of faith in your friends, Ms. Ricks. What a pity that disappointment is just around the corner."

"Boy is it ever," said Ashley, smiling.

'ust around the corner,' Jason Brooks was leveling his .454 Casul at the back of Braxis's grey-haired skull. He wasn't hiding, but he was standing just inside the shadow of a building, taking care not to let the sun glint off of the chrome barrel of his weapon. He took aim... and took an extra second or two to consider what he bullet was going to do when it exploded out of the doctor's cranium. Would it hit Ashley? Possibly. Jason adjusted his aim by 2.47 millimeters. There... she was in the clear now. She was still going to get splattered, but, at worst, Jason would end up buying her a new shirt.

"The doctor," Jason whispered. "...is out-"

"JASON, INCOMING!" Donovan shouted into Jason's ear.

Before Donovan could add 'BEHIND YOU' to his warning, Jason was already turning-

Tomas Velazquez came racing down the alley behind him... his tiny arms and legs moving in a surreal pantomime of human motion. The kid had a big, ugly knife in his hand, and a large bloody hole in his chest, just above his heart. The blood had stopped gushing, and the surrounding flesh had shriveled in on itself, creating a mouth-like aperture in the child's flesh.

Jason's first thought was... as expected...

"What the HELL!?"

But the Affinity had already sprang up to protect him. Jason had one gun already drawn, and the other flew from it's holster as the first fired-

BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!

Three shots: Brain. Heart. Throat.

Bullets moving faster than the speed of sound streaked toward their targets. To Jason, they were like slow but unusually accurate insects buzzing lazily in the air. His eyes focused past them... where the child's murky aura was exploding outward, surrounding him just as the first bullet-

-veered away and took a small chip out a nearby wall.

Jason didn't wait to see what happened to the other shots. He turned and sprinted out of the alley. He heard two ricochets behind him, followed by the sound of a roaring tornado with about a hundred snakes and one small, angry child swirling around inside it.

As Jason turned the corner and darted past the front of the building, the entire structure underwent a single, massive convulsion. Bricks, rock, and glass rained down onto the street below-

"Donovan, this kid has gotten STRONGER!" Jason shouted as he veered into the street, away from the rain of deadly debris. "Any suggestions!?"

"Strategic withdrawal!" Donovan replied.

"I think I've got that covered."

"Then I suggest you do it faster!"

There was a series of small explosions as chunks of brick and stone started hitting the asphalt. Tomas Velazquez walked calmly out into the center of the hailstorm and lazily extended one hand-

-the last of the debris halted in mid air. The boy gestured, and several dozen cinder blocks and other fragments took off after Jason, traveling soundlessly at more than twice the speed they had been before.

"BEHIND YOU; VEER RIGHT!"

Jason didn't bother too look behind him; that's what he had Donovan for. When he heard the shout, he simply changed directions. So did the bricks.

"GAINING FAST!"

Jason changed directions again, running into another alley, where he immediately spotted a large metal dumpster sitting under a fire escape. He ran for the dumpster, but at the last moment he jumped and grabbed the bottom rung of the scaffolding.... using his own momentum to swing his legs up out of the way just as the debris pummeled the dumpster, turning it into a hunk of twisted scrap that slid out the other end of the alley.

t the sound of Jason's first gunshot, Braxis turned toward the sound-

-whereupon Ashley kicked the gun out of his hand and ran like hell.

"Damnation!" the old man swore as the gun skidded away on the asphalt, stopping just before falling into the gutter. He hurried after the girl, who was running for the building that Tomas had gone into to fetch the others. "Your friends can't help you!" Braxis called after her. His words may have caught up to her, but he certainly had no hope of doing so himself. She was going to get away-

So he decided to shoot her.

He fired twice... both shots missed her back as she ran up the concrete steps to the front door of the apartment building.

"SEBASTIAN!" she screamed as she snatched open the heavy door.

Ashley didn't expect her cry to be answered quite so quickly.... but when she opened the door she nearly ran into Sebastian, who promptly shoved her aside, nearly knocking her back down the steps.

"A-" Braxis started to say something. He didn't get a chance to finish. Sebastian had Detective Dobbs' gun in his hand, and he fired all four rounds the instant he saw Braxis.

Two bullets ripped through the doctor's upper torso. A third burrowed into his abdomen, while the forth hit him in the neck, shattering his tracea and severing his jugular vein.

Mouth open and with a look of comical surprise on his face, Braxis staggered backward...

His right hand quickly clamped onto his throat, fingers digging effortlessly into the flesh to repair the damage. His left hand dove into his chest to go after the bullets in his heart and lungs. His efforts faltered for a moment as he collapsed...

...and then they continued. Now with an undamaged heart and one functional lung, the doctor's hands swam deeper into his flesh.

"He's fixing himself!" Ashley shouted, pointing. "STOP HIM! SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD!"

"Empty," Sebastian said weakly. He tossed the empty handgun away, drew his sword and descended the steps.

The doctor's hand came away from his newly-repaired throat. He looked at the bloody sword-wielding maniac bearing down on him, and screamed:

"TOMAAASS!"

Tomas Velazquez had been scurrying toward the alley after Jason, but at the sound of the doctor's voice, he stopped.

The child looked at Sebastian, then rose into the air and started accelerating toward him.

"Handle the demon," Sebastian shouted behind him to Ashley.

"HANDLE!? You want me to handle THAT!?"

"You did it before. Do it again!"

Paying no further attention to Tomas OR Ashley, Sebastian continued toward the doctor.

"HSSSSSSS!!!" The levitating child swerved toward Sebastian. Ashley rushed between them.

"BACK OFF!" She shouted.

Tomas kept right on coming,... but now the demon's attention was focused on HER instead of Sebastian. Ashley dove into her own mind, trying to come up with something... anything... to throw at the creature.

This time, she got a spark.

Something in her mind connected, and a ripple of power fluttered through her-

Tomas recoiled in the air as if he'd been swatted, flipping end over end several times and dropping to the ground, loosing his bloody knife somewhere along the way.. The child came up in a low crouch and immediately sprang at Ashley again, simultaneously pouncing like a leopard and screeching like an owl. Ashley hit him again, but whatever had worked last time wasn't enough for a second try. Snarling, Tomas collided with her, knocking her backward. She fell, and Tomas road her chest all the way down, his tiny hands clamped around her throat.

Tomas hissed loudly in her face, spraying her with foul saliva as he throttled her. Ashley tried to shove him back, but his supernatural grip held him tightly in place. But beyond the physical assault, Ashley felt the demon's madness trying to push its way into her mind.

The demon wanted to get INSIDE her!

Ashley raised her mental defenses.... the demon's thoughts thrust past them. Ashley pushed back, shaping her willpower into a battering ram that plowed through the demon's assault, temporarily shattering its own efforts.... but the foul attack came again an instant later, much stronger than before. Grunting, Ashley formed a tight barrier around her mind...

"ssssSSSTRONGER THAN YOUUU!!" Tomas hissed. "SSSTRONGER THAN YOU!"

Ashley's defenses began to wither under the demon's psychic assault. She had the raw power to resist his will, but some of his foul thoughts began to seep through into her mind, poisoning her will. It was like trying to wrestle someone who'd been coated from head to toe in raw sewage. She was stronger... maybe... but the stench of his mind was weakening her...

"GET OUT!" Ashley growled through tightly clamped lips. She started punching him in the head, but her efforts only brought more wet squeals of rage from the monster. "OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"WILL HAVE YOU!! WILL BELONG TO MEEEeeeEEE!" Tomas's words drooled fresh slime onto her face, while waves of filth slammed into the barrier surrounding her thoughts. Images of rape, torture, and grotesque abominations sprayed across her mind like the splatter from a exploding toilet.

At first, Ashley thought the buzzing roar in her ears was the demon gaining a foothold in her mind... or perhaps oxygen starvation, but no...

...it was something else.

"TOMAASS!" Doctor Braxis howled, back pedalling away from the relentless, bloody shape before him. Sword clutched firmly in hand, Sebastian stalked the doctor like a Hollywood serial killer.... eyes filled not with rage, but with cold, calm and unwavering murder. "TOMAS, Forget the girl and save ME!"

The doctor's salvation came not from Tomas Velazquez, but from the dark green Ford Expedition that rounded the corner at an insane speed that raised the vehicle up on two wheels and nearly flipped it over in the street. The SUV righted itself with a noisy 'KA-THUNKUM' and... engine roaring... tires squealing... came straight at Sebastian.

For the first time in what felt like hours but was only seconds, Sebastian's eyes left the doctor. He turned toward the car and quickly judged its speed, distance, and the likelihood of throwing a sword through the windshield and impaling the driver like a bug.

On a GOOD day, certainly... but not today.

Sebastian twisted and ran to the right... while, at the same time, Braxis ran the opposite direction. The dark green SUV shot between them, the driver was already yanking hard on the wheel. The SUV spun.... its rear whipped around-

SKRREEEEEEEEE-

and missed Sebastian by inches. Sebastian threw himself clear, diving into a forward roll that ended in a flip back onto his feet. He landed in a crouching position, then sprang for the motionless vehicle.

The driver's door flew open, and Brandon Phillips leaned out, holding a fully automatic AK-47.

Phillips swept the weapon across Sebastian's path-

BRA-TA-TA-TAT!

The weapon fell from Brandon's hand as large, bloody flowers blossomed across his torso.

Jason's shots blasted Phillips back into the SUV, saving Sebastian's life and buying himself enough time to reload. Braxis had been sprinting for the SUV, hoping to dive inside before Jason spotted him. Jason spotted him anyway. Even if Braxis hadn't been an old man, there was no way he could have reached the Expedition in the handful of milliseconds that it took Brooks to reload and take aim.

For the second time in less than five minutes, Brooks had Braxis in his sights-

A bright flash from across the street saved the doctor's hide. As soon as his peripheral vision caught the sunlight refleting off of a polished weapon, Jason spun exactly 43 degrees and let loose with both guns.

It was like shooting at a mirror.

The SECOND Jason Brooks fired at the same time. Bullets crisscrossed in the street, streaming on the way to their targets. The second Brooks exploded in a blur of superhuman motion, dodging four of his counterpart's bullets while taking another three in the leg, arm, and shoulder. He himself had only managed to squeeze off four rounds in rapid succession.

With three impossible shots, Jason Brooks knocked his twin's bullets out of the air.... then quickly jerked back into the shadows as the second Jason lumbered out into the open and started limping rapidly toward Braxis... covering the old man with random, yet perfectly aimed shots.

"I thought I KILLED HIM!" said Jason, digging into his pockets for more ammunition...and finding none. He was out. Again. "DAMN!"

"WHAT'S THE MATTER, BRO?" the other Jason shouted back. "OUT OF BULLETS AGAIN!!?"

Jason responded with a shout... not at his 'bro' but at the other player on the field.

"SEBASTIAN, TAKE 'EM!!"

Sebastian and Braxis reached the SUV at roughly the same time... but on opposite sides. The driver's side door was barely in Sebastian's grasp when Brandon Phillips' supposed 'corpse' sprang to life on the seat. Phillips slammed the door just as Braxis dove into the passenger's seat.

"GO!" the doctor shouted.

"NNRRRRYAAAA!!!" Sebastian snarled, and rammed his sword through the door. Hardened steel met cheap aluminum alloy... and steel won. The blade sliced through the driver's door and impaled Phillips through the abdomen, traveling completely through the stomach and both kidneys before erupting out the other side.

It was a truly hideous wound.

The fact that Brandon Phillips' foot was already on the accelerator only made it worse.

"AAAAAAARRGGH!"

The SUV lurched forward. The sword cut Phillip's body almost in half as Sebastian yanked the blade free. Now, with a wildly convulsing driver behind the wheel, the SUV roared down the street under full accelleration.

Framed perfectly in the rampaging vehicles windshield was Ashley Ricks and Tomas Velazquez. The Expedition was headed right for them.

Ashley was more or less oblivious to everything that had just happened. When the demon trying to thrust itself past her defenses...attempting to rape her mind... suddenly broke off its attack, the sudden emptiness overwhelmed her. Everything went blurry for a moment. She heard a car... and she heard someone shout her name.

"Sebastian?" she replied.

The world snapped back into focus, and she saw the grill of a 2001 Ford Expedition less than three yards away, traveling toward her at roughly 50mph.

Her life proceeded to flash before her eyes, but before it even got a running start-

-Detective Marilyn Dobbs grabbed her by the arm and snatched her out of the street like an unruly child. Ashley's arm twisted painfully in the woman's grasp, and her shoulder joint popped out of place as the speeding SUV shot past them. Ashley proceeded to scream bloody murder....

...drawing the attention of Tomas Velazquez, who had darted clear a second earlier, and was now intent on resuming things where he had left them before the intervention of the SUV.

"KREEEEEEEEE!" Tomas squealed. His own squeals masked the screech of the SUV's tires as Brandon Phillips... with Braxis's arms buried elbow-deep in his severed torso... hit the brakes and spun the Expedition around in the street.

"What's going on-" Dobbs began.

"It's a DEMON!" Ashley warned.

"MOVE!" Sebastian was running toward them. "GET CLEAR!"

Tomas got to them first.

Dobbs stepped between the boy(?) and Ashley. Tomas made a long, wet, and utterly inhuman sound while making a slashing motion with his hand-

An odd glimmer filled the air behind the boy, and James Royce popped into existence. He brought the ceremonial dagger down in a hard, solid chop... plunging it hilt-deep into the boy's exposed back.

"REEEEEEeeee..."

"ROYCE!?" Dobbs shouted. Not only was her 'dead' partner still alive... but he had just STABBED A CHILD IN THE BACK!?!

"GOT YOU AGAIN!!" Royce snarled, his hand still on the blade.

"DEJA-VU!"

"Huh-?"

BLAM!

Three fingers and a section of Royce's palm became a chunky red spray. Jason Brooks... the second Jason Brooks... didn't even pause to admire his handiwork. He ran past Royce, grabbing Tomas Velazquez and sprinting for the dark green Explorer that was headed back toward them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH YOU MOTHERFU-"

Royce vanished in mid-profanity.

The side door of the SUV swung open. Jason threw the squirming Velazquez boy into the vehicle and then jumped in after him. The door shut, and Phillips hit the accelerator... aiming the Expedition at Sebastian, who stood directly in its path.

Eyes narrowing in concentration, Sebastian raised his sword and prepared to hurl it through the windshield.

But when the swordsman's intention became evident, Phillips swerved the vehicle to one side to avoid him. The SUV roared past Sebastian. As it did, the side door opened and Jason Brooks... the second one... aimed one of his .454 revolvers.

At that exact moment, the other Jason Brooks (with Donovan shouting into his ear) was diving for the 9mm that was laying on the asphalt where Braxis had dropped it earlier.

Sebastian threw himself to the ground as gunfire erupted from two directions. Bullets and shrapnel buzzed overhead. There was a scream of pain from inside the Expedition, but the SUV kept on going.

Jason quickly took aim at the vehicle's fuel tank... but he didn't pull the trigger. He knew without checking that the gun was empty.

A paltry few seconds later, the sound of the fleeing SUV was a memory. It left behind a haggard assembly of dirty, beaten, and bloody individuals... all of whom wore the EXACT same expression of total and utter bewilderment on their faces. Their names were:

Jason Brooks: "huh?"
Ashley Ricks: "...ouch..."
Sebastian Wilde: "...rrrrr..."
Marilyn Dobbs: "#%^&!"

Naturally, Donovan Wilde was nowhere to be found.

"Uhhh..." said Dobbs, reluctantly breaking the long and confused silence. "What the hell just happened?"

"We just got our asses handed to us by an old man, a kid, and two corpses," Jason replied. "that's what happened. Everybody okay?"

"I think she broke my arm!"

"It's just dislocated. Here-"

Dobbs grabbed Ashley's shoulder in one hand and her elbow in the other. She gave a sudden shove-

POP!

The joint snapped back into place.

"Cool," said Ashley, looking up at Dobbs. "Thanks."

Ashley's legs gave way beneath her. Jason caught her before she hit the ground and helped her to her feet.

"...oooowWWWWW!!!!!!!"

"You're all under arrest, by the way," said Dobbs. "I just thought I'd mention that."

"You can't arrest anybody, Dobbs," said Brooks. "You're an escaped murderer."

"No I'm not... the man I 'murdered' was driving that car." Dobbs paused... frowning. "And YOU were in there with him! But before I saw any of that, I saw my DEAD partner come back to life and try to stab a seven year old child in the back. No, correction... he DID stab a seven year old child in the back. Then YOU rescued him-" Dobbs pointed at Brooks. "-and you all drove away. Only you're still standing here. Somebody please tell me something that makes sense."

"We're being framed," said Jason. "Braxis set us both up.... you with a fake corpse, and me with a... well... clone."

"A clone."

"Yup."

"And Royce?"

"No idea."

"The Velazquez kid?"

"Possessed."

"And this neighborhood?"

"Urban renewal... Braxis style. Replace the drug dealers with zombies and then crown yourself the new king of the city."

"Well that clears everything up perfectly," said Dobbs. She pushed the hair back from her face, revealing a set of fresh bruises and one eye that was almost swollen shut.

"What happened to you?" Said Ashley, pointing at Dobbs's face. "You look like you lost a fight!"

"Actually, I won," said Dobbs. She jerked her head at Sebastian. "HE lost."

Everybody turned to Sebastian, who looked like he'd been run over repeatedly by a riding lawn mower and then reassembled from the resulting pieces. Not just his face, but his entire head was one large bruise. The slashes on his chest were stitched shut with... sewing thread?

"We should follow them," said Sebastian. "Before they get too far."

"Uhhh... Sebastian?"

"What?"

"Did she... you know..."

"What?"

"No, couldn't be," said Ashley. "Could it?"

"Oh, man..." said Jason. "Say it isn't so, Sebastian... You got in a fight with a woman... and LOST!?!"

Sebastian didn't respond.

"This... is the saddest moment of my life..." Jason took off his hat and held it to his chest. He cast his eyes downward and gave a sorrowful sniff. "Men everywhere will mourn this day-"

"Oh, stop it," said Ashley. "Can't you see he's hurt."

"Don't feel bad, man, she kicked my ass too. Hit me with a trash can... and I still OWE YOU for that one, Dobbs!"

"You threw up on me, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess we're even, then."

"With the exception of THIS guy..." Dobbs pointed at Sebastian. "...I'm pretty sure I'm on the right side here. Mostly sure. Well, I'm guessing. So what do we do now?"

"We?" said Brooks. "All of a sudden you're WITH us?"

"Just until I get some answers that make sense. THEN you're all going to jail. Especially 'kid highlander' over there."

"Maybe we can share a cell, Dobbs," said Jason.

"You wish."

"Actually..."

"We get back to the car," Sebastian interrupted. "We find out where they went. We follow them. We kill them. Let's go. Now."

"I think two people here need to get to a hospital before there's any more killing," said Ashley.

"And leave you and Brooks to handle things alone?" said Sebastian. "I think not."

"Sebastian, you need a doctor-" said Ashley.

"I'm fine."

"Besides," said Dobbs. "Nobody here is getting out of my sight until this is over."

"We stick together," Jason agreed. "No more stumbling over each other. Next time, we go in and we take care of business as a team. We deal with Velazquez, the fake me, and then Braxis... in that order. Agreed?"

Ashley nodded. Dobbs made a slight motion that could have been a nod. Sebastian snarled.

"Good," said Jason. "Now lets go for the rematch."

[To Be Continued]

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment