The Den Games Network Forum RPG
Page 2
Game Masters:
virtualoctopus, CKW, Wesforce, Nyerguds
(Nyerguds)
"Frag... we got interference again! Tahun, get out there and check the antennas. This is the fifth time this week!"
Tahun sighed. "Aw man... it's probably just a bird or something."
"We can't have birds nesting in our comm systems." the other guy replied. "Now get out there."
"Okay, okay..."
Tahun sighed, walked to the wall and pushed a button. A hatch opened, and a ladder came down.
"Why the frag does it always have to be the highest antenna?"
"Beats me." the controls guy replied. "Good ol' Murphy I suppose."
Tahun crawled up. "They should've installed some fraggin' elevators here." he grumbled.
The top hatch opened with his special keycard. This was a dangerous place. The wind could blow you off in a split second... and unlike most inhabitants of Terganon he didn't have wings.
Silvia looked up when she saw the hatch opening.
The elf that crawled out of it looked shocked when he saw the girl standing on the platform, firmly holding the antenna they used for short-distance air traffic communications.
"How... how the frag did you get here?!"
"I came from the side." Silvia replied with a grin, and pointed to the walls that went down with an angle of about 70 degrees.
"Right... I hope you didn't damage any of the walls with that stunt."
"Sleg no! I didn't even touch 'em!"
"Look... stop playing mind games with me here, allright? Now come down with me."
Heh... mind games.
Silvia thought about when she last met Mary. She had said about the same thing when she was teasing Wirecat.
She looked at the elf in green maintenance uniform. She knew that she'd get sanctioned when she came down with him... not to mention their reaction if they scanned the explosive collar.
Let's just get out of here.
In a quick shift her skin tuned green, and her elven body was in a full chainmail of tiny dragon scales.
Tahun frowned. "Oh frag. You're a halfie, aren't you?"
"I sure am," Silvia grinned, and removed her clothes with the storage spell.
"What are y..."
The elf's eyes got bigger. The green girl before him was completely naked, except for the weird collar around her neck.
Silvia quickly unfolded her wings, and dove into the abbys.
"Meddling slegger. I just want a place to be alone."
She flew on, over the city center, and on to the outside parts. It was calmer there, and greener. Dragons mostly prefered volcanic environments, but her dad was more a nature type. He loved his big garden.
Silvia has a lot of good memories from that garden. She smiled when she saw the big green field appear in the distance, and the big green dragon lying in it.
"Hey dad!"
Vorug opened one of his eyes.
"Hey Silvia." He opened the other eye, and got up on all four legs. "What've you been up to?"
"I know what she's been up to." a voice shouted from the house. "Mischief. Again."
"Aw mom... I was just sitting there! It's not like I do anything wrong with that!"
"I just got an angry call from the air comm center. You were disrupting their traffic control by holding the antenna. Static electricity, you know. Oh, and Silvia... you can't fool anyone. There's only one half-dragon in this city."
"Sleg."
"Indeed." Miranae replied. "I don't want to get any trouble, and I don't want you blown up because some security guy wants to get that collar off your neck, so you better behave a bit."
Silvia sighed. "I'm gonna check my mail. I'm expecting a message from a friend."
She walked into the house.
Miranae sighed. "She's getting uncontrollable. This is more than just a desire to fly. I don't know what happened to her, but these adventures somehow gave her a taste of something... new. A freedom she never had before."
She paused for a few seconds. She looked a bit sad.
"Our girl's growing up, Vorug."
The big green dragon looked at his wife; the small elf woman at his feet.
"I know it's hard to let her go, but we can't keep her in a cage when she longs for distant skies."
***
"MUNDI delegates?" the blackwatch frowned.
"Yep. We're monitoring da decker c'nvention." Alanya replied. "Don't worry, we won't do anything that might disturb da peace. We're just here ta wotch."
"What about him?" he said, nodding in Wirecat's direction."
"David? He's hum'n all right... but unfortunately mutated by da comet. Y'know what they say... shit happens."
"Hmm. Okay." the blackwatch guard said. "You can go through."
"Freaks." He grumbled, as they drove on.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
Draco, with his average suit-clad European human male appearance, completely unfazed Belinda and her gang.
The girl with the Bladecuffz, Elenia, with her back to the approaching Draco, took a nod from Belinda, hearing the furious man a mile off with her hi/lo frequency hearing.
"Hey, chill out fragger, whats it to you?!" Belinda told him.
"Blocking my fragging way, white-faced b0ll0cks."
"Thats not very fragging nice language, frag-face," The girl said. One of the boi's snickered, edging around to the sides of Draco. They formed an oval, with Draco at one end (Varos keeping to the side) and Belinda at the other, staring him down.
"You're on our turf old man. We demand satisfaction. We want - OW!"
Belinda flinched, then collapsed to the floor, twitching. Her grapple-arm fired in reflex, puncturing Draco's leg painfully. A current surged down it, putting him to the floor too.
As he went down, hearing the gasps of the Robogoths, he noticed the trail and the dart lodged in Belinda's neck - A tazer dart. He didn't know if the electricity coursing through him was from that or from Belinda's cyber-arm. But he couldn't move.
"FRAG! KILTIES! SCATTER, FRAGGERS!!" Elenia yelled. The robogoths ran off in all directions. Three Blackwatch men ran after them, firing tazer darts. Two more of the robogoths went down.
"Heh, fragging goth razorbitches. All that cyber-crap. Tazers get 'em every time, aye." Said one Blackwatch man, who had to be carrying twice as much cyberware as the typical robogoth - His reactions and aim with the tazer had been pinpoint accurate.
"Oi, Jim, who's this fragger the bitch got?" One man said.
"Wait, this is my, uh, husband." Varos said, timidly.
"Outta the way, ya wee bint'" Jim said. Taking his stun rod from the belt on his kilt, he smacked Belinda unconsious, then came and leant over Draco.
"Cause trouble in MY section of mall, eh?"
And then Draco's world exploded into sparks, at the end of an IWS AZ-170 stun baton.
***
Just as the scuffle was dying down, Raven and Crystal strode though the sparse onlookers towards the girl. She was dishevelled, unkempt, with the standard 'wow-what-a-big-place' look in her wide eyes.
"Howdy." Crystal said with a cheery wink, introducing herself and Raven.
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"Ow! Be careful with that... Hurts."
Draco arose a few seconds later.
The guard checked his batton, surprised.
"Are the batteries of this thing running off? this shock could even stun a dragon!!"
"You have stunned a DRAGON, mister. I am Lord Draco Firetongue."
The guards looked eachother, laughing.
"So, you don't believe me, eh?"
Varos stepped towards. "Draco calm down. These guys are doing their job."
"Mph! OK. I will leave the mall, fragger pimps-in-skirts. But you will hear from me!"
The guards bursted in another laugh until one noticed the slightly reptilian eyes of the couple.
"Oh..frag... They are DRAGONS! We should call for reinf..."
"just shut up. They donīt want to cause trouble at all. Maybe they got upset when those robogoths... Anyway, we were doing our job. We need no apology."
The kiltie faced Draco.
"Just stay out of trouble or we will get you."
Varos humbly replied. "Thank you".
***
"What am I doing? I canīt let this guy attempt to drag me to his room. It is not good. I am not a woman, at least in the mind" Emmie thought.
"Just because a fragging mutation, and the fragging alcohol I look like the perfect bitch now. If I were fine..."
The other guy noticed the different reaction of the woman. For some reason, she did not reacted like the others to the alcohol trick. She looked more shy and depressed than ever. She also seemed to be aware of her drunk situation.
---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)
"Motorcycles? Back there... sir." The parking guard said, a bit confused by Wirecat's appearance. "All the way to the back and into the vehicle elevator."
"Thank you." Wirecat smiled, and went on. Alanya and Sarah had already left; they'd agreed to meet at the entrance of the CKWAGE hall.
"All the way to the back..." David sighed. "They should've installed shiftavators for the parking too."
Wirecat looked around in the car park, and stopped when he saw a familiar vehicle somewhere in the back.
"Well I'll be damned... I'd recognise that beaten up thing anywhere."
He put the bike on the side, and walked to the van for closer inspection. He saw the back doors had been replaced recently.
"So... they're here too then. Great."
He walked back to the bike, and drove off to the elevator.
I wonder whether Linith's with them...
***
"Finally!" Silvia yelled. She read the mail Mary had written to her.
-->Hello, Silvia.
Dorodo got mutated when we were in Geneva... he got a small tail. I took your MP5 player with me for safe keeping while he was in the hospital for recovery, but I kinda forgot about it. I work in the Transys Arcology now, in Scotland, and this place is going crazy with the decker convention here.
Can you come to Scotland? I really can't fly to Terganon any time soon, and I know this is too important to you to send it through the air mail.
I included all information here.
I hope you'll get here soon,
Mary.<--
"Great!" Silvia rushed down, and ran into the garden, while 'storing' her clothes and shapeshifting at the same time.
"Silvia!"
Silvia looked around, and saw her mom.
"There's someone here to see you."
Silvia saw a man behind her mother, and recognised him immediately. It was the elf from the antenna platform.
Miranae looked surprised when she saw her daughter had done a complete shapeshift to dragon form. She hadn't done that since Geneva; Silvia preferred just to shift her skin ever since she learned the trick in Orkistonia,
She gave Silvia a suspicious look. "What are you doing?"
"Sorry mom. "That chat'll have to wait."
Silvia flapped her wings, and flew further into the garden.
"I'm gonna pick up my MP5 player, in Scotland! Don't worry, I'll be back soon!"
She flew to the edge of the floating city, and dove off.
Miranae frowned. "Scotland?! But... she's never done an intercontinental flight before!"
She sighed, and turned to Tahun.
"I'm really sorry about this. I hate it when she does that."
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
"THERE IT IS!" The Decker yelled, pointing in some random direction. "The Transys Neuronet 2-A Inbuilt Datajack, possibly the finest piece of Decker Tech since....since....since the Datajack it's self!"
Needless to say, Nixie was bored. The world famous CKWAGE convention, a load of deckers sitting around with Cyberdecks while they drool over the exhibits and ID0 play on in the background. They'd leave soon anyway.
"Come on, Ve must go!" The wolf shaman insisted as the decker leaned over her own deck.
"Hold on a minute." Was the mumbled answer she received.
"Vot are yo......" Nixie began to question, until she saw the screen of another. Goblin Revolution propaganda on every decker's screen, And the BlackWatch were moving in fast. Nixie didn't say a word, she closed the Deck, much to the dislike of Squeaky and slid it under a table. She took the Goblin Decker into her arms as the Blackwatch walked past. "She is a bit over excited. You know 'ow Children get at these big events."
The Blackwatch must have took her as a dwarf, it was hard to tell under the wolf mutation. They walked on without blinking an eye.
"I'm not a child!" The decker protested.
"You 'ave a better Idea to cover your foolishness?" Nixie asked. "Now, let us get out of 'ere."
After Squeaky retrieved her deck, The wolf shaman dragged her out, almost knocking over a pale human girl, or boy. It was a close call. S/He was too engrossed in his/her decking to care.
***
Holmer pulled up outside CKWAGE, he glanced two suspicious looking characters on their way out, Dwarves, Gobboz or very short Humans. He got out of his golf cart, hammer in hand. He didn't have to walk far before he was surrounded, They must be the ones he was after.
An Ork, Troll, Human and a female Goblin and Elf formed a circle around him. All were dressed like the Neo-Soviet Military and all of them had decks.
"Well, well. I guess yer the ones upsetting my mate at WindWhispers?" They didn't scare the dwarf, They were only kids, and easily scared.
"And what if we are?" The Goblin woman asked him, a snide grin on her face.
"Yer can go eat wherever scum like you eat!"
"Kan I beet 'im up now Mastamind?" The Ork asked the Gobbo.
"No Brute, he could be useful." She signaled the others to move away from the Dwarf and walked up to him. "You see, one of our men. A dwarf much like yourself, has been captured by an enemy Mall gang. If you can go free him, we'll leave your friend alone."
"Ah what the frag am I? An errand boy?" Holmer shook his head. "Alright, Ah'll do it.....but yer better keep yer word.....or else!"
"Thank you Master....?"
"None of yer damned business, just tell me where ah gotta go, and ah'll go!" He stepped back into his Golf Cart as the Goblin give him directions. This was going to be a long day.
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
Draco noticed that the guards still staring at him.
Both him and Varos got inside a restaurant. Draco limped slightly, and he was dropping some stains of blood. The wound was not severe, though. It would heal in no time. Whisperwind hall was the name of the restaurant.
They took a seat. The local was almost empty.
And elven waitress approached the couple.
"May I help you?"
Varos whispered into Dracoīs ear.
"Well, we will have two deluxe menus and dwarven beer"
The elf gave a strange look. She didnīt believe that such people could afford a meal like that.
Draco pulled out one of his chipcards.
"Do you accept a Visa GoldCard?"
"Yes...yes... Sir"
Frag it. They could afford it. Only VIP and ahead had those kind of chipcards.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
Chance and Ash had seen the scuffle from a distance. Spectators.
This frustrated Chance, and the Wolf in his head. It was odd now, he thought, Lupus snarling, trying to goad him, that Ash spent as much time calming him down as he had used to do to her. Fortunately, some of their recent experiences in the shadows had taught her to be a little more restrained.
The maglev-coaster zoomed by at breakneck speed, a few dozen feet in the air, suspended between the chrome and glass facades of the shopping mall floor and the one above it, full of screaming kids - Humans, Elves, a couple of Dwarves (but no greenskins).
Chance saw aomething else there, for a split-second. Bone. Flesh and steel. A leering skull-visage, the bastard offspring of man, Daemon and Soviet Gunship...
He stumbled.
"Chance!" Ash gasped.
Frag, I've seen worse than that. It'll take more than that to give me flashbacks! The soldier thought, gritting his teeth. But just for a second - The cordite, the blood. He had been there.
Geneva.
"Fine. just fine, babe. Lets get moving."
Ash nodded.
Chance patted the small of his back, ostensibly to scratch an itch. But it was where his 9mm service auto was concealed in a form-fitting holster. It was still there.
"Shouldn't do that in public." Ash whispered a warning.
Frag... Any guard worth his salt may have noticed that. He looked at Ash.
"Damn, you're getting too good for me." They both smiled. She allowed a swift kiss, a peck on the cheek.
They both picked their way through the streaming crowd.
***
"Two... of les Fraggers... Noted." Badjimmy told his Transys Matrixpad(tm). The electronic notebook registered one of his tasks as completed, and the little cellular-modem computer logged it in with his superiors.
"Zut, I want another bière!"
***
Blackwatch Sergeant Mercandlen, the man in charge of watching over Draco received another report: This from one of the Transys Astral Patrol personnel.
"Whatchew got, astral?"
"Ah kinnae make him oot properly, aye" Said the Wage Mage on the other end of the line. "He's got some kind o' astral hazing. Definitely one o' them scaly basties tho."
"What aboot the wee hen, aye?"
"Her too, sarge."
Without a word, Mercandlen broke the connection, and instead called higher up the tower...
***
Draco's wristphone buzzed, annoyingly, just as he was about to eat.
"Dammit to hell!" He yelped, startling Varos, The green-haired Elven waitress, gaining the hovering Blackwatch guards' attention and shatterign the delicate atmosphere in the restaurant.
He tried ignoring it, but his temper was short enough. He answered it, quietly resolving never to wear a wristphone again.
"Ya. What?"
More stares from other eaters. Evidently, they considered this the higher-class form of dining at the arc, and as such not to be troubled with such outbursts. Transys big-wigs all, they turned their noses up.
None of this mattered to Draco. But the crystal-celar picture on the 'phone screen did, however.
It was Gianni Lyall, the Italian Elf who was in charge of all of Draco's stock at Dragon's Paw corporation.
"Mister Draco, there appears to be an emergency."
"Oh really?" Draco sneered.
"Dragon's Paw stock is bottoming out, sir. The market is jittery amid fear of a break-up."
Lyall chose his words carefully, lest he incur his master's wrath. But Draco read him like a book, even without any magic (which he wouldn';t have been able to do iover the 'phone, anyway).
Lyall was basically saying "Get here NOW and sell, while making a speech to the investors, or you'll be worth Frag-all."
"Damn." Draco snarled, yet again.
"What is it?" Varos asked.
"I have to go. I can be back in about four hours if I take an executive Tilt-Wing from the top pad. Do you want to come with me?"
***
Regrouping at their shady corner of Deep red, the Robogoths' De facto leader, Elenia, flipped a ¥50 credstick to the Dwarf on an empty crate behind the bar. He pressed a switch, and the back room revealed itself. The five piled in, the door closing behind them.
The door closed seamlessly, apparently becoming just another section of communist-memorabilia-clad wall.
Inside, the surviving gangers took stock of their situation, sitting down on Hammer & Sickle shaped cosichais(tm) which immediateky switched onto auto-massage mode.
"Frag." Was all anyone said, for a good ten minutes. Narco-sticks were passed around and lit. By the time everyone had had a good few drags, kenia was the first to speak.
"Today is a brave new day for us, my Comrades."
"Elenia, WHAT THE FRAG? Belinda got nicked! We're done for! Unless we rescue her!" Said one of the boi gangers. The men were always subservient in this gang. Elenia beckoned him over.
"What is your name?" She asked him. His jaw was set with determination. Like he intended to challenge her.
"I am - "
Elenia rose in the blink of an eye, punched him in the gut so hard and so fast that three ribs were broken, his stomach developed instant ulcers and he was thrown six feet, in a retching heap on the floor.
"Actually, don't bother telling your name. I won't remember." Elenia said, bubbling with success.
Insurrection dealt with. New leadership in place. I RULE! Awaiting orders...
If the room's dark red light was blue instead of red, it would have picked out her eyes brilliantly. But it just made them look black. She itched the raw tissue around the implants befroe continuing.
***
"Hey buddy!" Came a youthful voice. Overmind jumped and hurriedly tucked away the fibre-optic cable that was plugged into his deck, that he was about to jack into a secluded telcom booth on mall level three.
He turned, paling rapidly. If the kilties find me...
Oh, he thought. Just another fragging kid.,
"The frag do you want?" He said, irritatedly.
"0h w0w! Y0u AR3 a d3ck3r!" He exclaimed, in a broad CAS accent, noticing Overmind's deck and Jack. He had a datajack too, and the rucksack on his back had to contain a deck. He was around 19, slightly overweight. His clothes were slack and grease-satined. He looked like he hadn't seen sunlight for 15 of those 19 years, his hair was grease-plastered to his face, and he had scars where acne had been removed by laser.
"I'm g01ng to the CKWAG3! Ar3 y0u?" He said. Before Overmind could reply he carried on: "The handl3's Chr0m3ball. I'm m33t1ng my buddy, Crash there, 1 th1nk. Says h3's g0nna sh0w m3 s0m3 p0w3r h3's got. Wanna tag al0ng?"
***
"Just you hold on, ye wee hen, and i'll have this wee door open and be sexx0ring ye in nae time, aye!"
Damn, did I say that out loud? Thought 'Studknife. He had, and he said that out loud too. It was the drink talking.
"Aye, its nae me drink. Ah kin handle me drink, aye!" He screamed at the top of his voice.
But nothing could disguise the fact that 'his' Emmanuette had gotten away from him.
Sobbing, he turned back to the difficult task pf slotting his credstick into the door of his apartment. After a whole 15 minutes, he had done so.
Immediately he went to his 'HomeSim' portable sim programmer.
He tried to remember Emmie's exact proportions and figure. Alas, being drunk, he got things a bit meddled up. her skin was polka-dotted like some bizarre comet-mutation. He legs were different lengths. She had three tails.
"Aye, she's a beaut. Nae need ta worry my precious. De Studknife is coming!" He said, slipping the simsense electrodes on.
He'd left the door open, in case Emmie came back.
But then, the 'sexx0ring' began...
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
Varos stared at the young dragon.
"Nah, I will stay here. I think I am fine now. I will manage myself."
Draco nodded.
"OK. Have fun and take care."
He gave her a few credsticks and faced the vidphone.
"Gianni. I have something in mind. Why donīt we buy stock instead of selling it?"
"...but...but Sir."
"Iīll explain the details later."
Last thing Varos saw of Draco was that he was talking with a BlackWatch Guard trying to figure out where to claim the non admitted goods in Transys. His sword. It was not needed to travel at all, but gave him security.
***
"kid. I have little time to deal with l33t speaking bums like you. I have heard also of that Crash guy, too. Not a bad decker... if you ask. But, still..."
He coughed.
"...Not as good as me."
The kid laughed. "Donīt be silly gobbo. Few people are better than Crash."
Overmind pointed at a data disk of one of your pockets.
"This is AEROS, or the A-version Emulated Reiterative Operating
Script. This copy is for you. Courtesy of Black Ace."
The decker opened wide the eyes. Black Ace... Black Ace was almost a living legend. Some deckers even said that he knew also how to develop software.
"Are you that hacker? Black Ace?"
Overmind nodded.
"You didnīt see me NOR I gave you that disk" And then he added.
"OK, i need someone to distract those bouncers and get in, so I may go with you."
And then, just then, he would have his hacking joke. He added mentally. Kids. You offer them a candy like the buggered as hell first "hydra" developed by him, AEROS, and they were drooling.
He wondered what would happen if he had offered the ZEROS "hydra". Nah. ZEROS was still a secret, not know by anyone.
***
Emmie noticed something wrong in the moment that the door was left open.
That guy... was weird. So she urged to know what was going on.
And then the grotesque picture.
A twitching sweating half corpse with electrodes in his sensible parts, staring at an aberration hologram that somehow resembled emmie, just because it looked more female than male.
She noticed the lights were out...
By that time, she was recovering from the alcohol. She was starting to feel the hangover, and her mind was more clear than before.
She suddenly switched the lights on. It had the desired effect.
The pupils of the womaniser suddenly became small, and his instinctive reaction was to cover them.
"OW! MY EYES!"
Emmie cutted down the guy.
"Just think what the hell are you doing with that ...er gross-alien from-outer-space hologram?"
She asked, still upset with the guy for making her a cheap trick.
"Ah...Emmie..."
The drunken half-comatose twit replied. He arose, and headed towards emmie, electrodes still hanging out.
"Stop!"
Emmie felt as if her head was going to burst. Using magic while a hangover was not a good thing.
But it had worked. The manīs muscles were frozen, and was unable to move.
"You have offered me a beer. Therefore, you need a reward. But not that kind of reward you wanted anyway."
She kissed the guy in the cheek. Gross. But at least he would not be so... broken hearted. She carefully dropped a small piece of paper with a contact number on it.
"When you are fine, you may talk with me."
And she left.
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
Nixie threw the decker into a corner outside CKWAGE, Blackwatch guards were still running around. Looking for culprits.
"They're going to get us!" Squeaky yelled into the Wolf-Goblin's ear, she recoiled in pain....damned wolf hearing.
"Grab on to my Robes." Nixie instructed, she was planning to pull off a teleportation spell....A tiering operation that barely ever worked, but it would give them some time. Squeaky grabbed on, while she closed her eyes and concentrated.
***
"Well, this is quite a place when you get down to it. Should provide a perfect backdrop for our oper...." Bulldog stopped mid-speech, he turned around. A couple of Kilties were breathing down his neck.
"Ah, Yer again eh laddie?" Asked the taller Scotsman, same one who took him in first time. "Word in teh mall is, That yer stinkin' Gobboz are trashin' up CKWAGE.....yer wouldn't know anythin' aboot that, would yer?"
Bulldog sighed, He'd told Nixie NOT to let her near CKWAGE! There goes the element of surprise.
"I assure you that we have had nothing to do with any such incident, we don't even have Decks!" He spotted the mistake as he said it.
"Ah, so yer knoo there were Deck's involved aye? How's that one come aboot?" A smirk was on the officer's face, he was sure that he had the goblin THIS time. Bulldog was about to reply, but Tami burst into tears.
"Why can't you just leave us a fragging alone!" she sniffled. "Coming on Honey Moon to Scotland....AND ALL WE GET IS HARASSMENT BY GUARDS!"
She buried her face in Bulldog's chest, he had to admit....she was an A-Class actor.
"Now look what you've done!" Bulldog protested. "You've made the lady cry."
"Erm.....We're sorry Sir.....Mam, We'll be off now..." The other Kiltie said, slightly embarrassed. He dragged the bigger one off, who glared at Bulldog as he left.
When they were out of ear shot, Tami whispered to him.
"If I EVER have to do that again, I swear I will kill you!" She punched Bulldog in the stomach, she'd have done something else but it might have made too much noise.
"Let's just get back to Deep Red." Bulldog insisted, still recovering. "That Decker is going to get it for this!"
The two walked off in the direction of the bar.
***
Holmer's golf cart rolled along, looking for any signs of this dwarf. His Hammer was secured in the back, under the protective screen. He was still wearing his armour.....a big risk to take. He noticed a group of suspicious looking characters running off, they were dressed like mimes. Crazy Mall Gangers.
He thought nothing of it, until he saw one with a cyberdeck. He pulled up outside the alleyway that had ran from, he could hear groaning coming from within. He approached to see a battered Dwarf in Neo-Soviet uniform, he had a shaggy ginger beard and a lightly freckled face. His bright green eyes seemed to sparkle on viewing Holmer.
"By gum! It's a dwarf!" He said quite cheerily, although he was battered up quite bad. "Yer wouldn't be able to do me a favour, eh lad?" Holmer sighed, here we go again.
"What? Take yer back to yer mallers? Git yer cyberdeck?"
"Nah, Nah. They dun't matter." The dwarf insisted, shaking his head. "Ah want yer to find me a lady friend!"
Holmer's tolerance had reached boiling point.
"For frags sake! Ah'm a fraggin' dating service now....Oh all right then, but yer al owe me one fer this!" He lead the dwarf to his Golf Cart.
"Thanks mate! The name's Gyro by the way!" The Dwarf seemed over the moon with Holmer's help.
"Holmer Thurman...." Holmer shook the other dwarf's stubby little hand.
"Yer really need a nickname laddie. How about.....The White Dwarf!"
Holmer paused, staring at the dwarf.
"Don't be silly lad! That's bloody ridiculous!" He started pedalling. "Now let's see if we can find yer a date eh?!"
Once again he took off, wondering when this madness would end.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
The shiftavator beeped, and Mary got out of the passenger bay. For a suprise, she had been the only person in the lift for the whole trip, and thus it had been quite quick, able to acceleate down the grav-altered shaft quickly, without her feeling anything.
Outside, this was level 5, with the massive aquarium complex opening out infront of her. Groups of Neo-Japanese tourists milled around, entering through the guarded gateway, where Transys seemed to be making a tidy profit from it's takings. The mag-coaster had a loop literally through the glass tanks, in a rock-hard permitex tunnel, and as Mary looked around, a long train, red and yellow striped, whizzed through.
She moved for the escalator downwards, beneath a huge 3D billboard advertising skin cream, after consulting a map revealing the bars to be on level 3. A orkish tout, offering tickets to 'Clone : Da Musical", aproached her, but spotted a likely group of Elves with 3DAnicameras before it reached her.
The escalator trip was quick - Mary had seen 2Dphotos of turn of the century versions, and knew this was one of the few things that hadn't advanced in leaps and bounds. Below her, the simparlour level opened out, with groups of robogoths, orks, and gangly-haired deckers milling around the entrance to the complex's main convention hall. A large banner, "CKWAGE" was hung across the entrance, advertising the deckers convention she meant to pop into some time.
***
Tank ripped some more meat off the bone with his teeth, and gulped it down. He looked up at the other ork.
"So. What you do?"
Barkah looked up, and didn't say anything. He pulled out a dirty notebook, and scrawled bodygard"
"huh? ah. I used to do summa dat, I did. Right now I'ma runner."
Barkah nodded his approval.
"Name's Tank. Tank Bonekurk." Tank extended one grubby and chitinous hand across the table, which Barkah looked at aprehensively.
"Don't mind dat. Had a little run in, with sum magic. Did dis to mah hair too." Tank pointed up to the strands of blue hair hanging down in patches from his scalp. " ' used to be bald."
Barkah took the hand, and showed Tank his security pass. Barkah Oltz
"Good for ya. Shall we get some more grub?"
---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)
Calm down, Sil... not to fast. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Silvia suddenly heard a familiar sound behind her, and turned her head.
"DAD?!?"
The green dragon came closer.
"Yes. What on earth were you thinking? You left without even saying goodbye!"
"But I need to get to..."
"...Scotland. I know, your mom told me. But you forgot a few details. Like your size... I can easily do an intercontinental flight without drinking, but you're much smaller! You'd be dehydrated before you were halfway."
Silvia bowed her head. He was right... as always.
"It doesn't hurt to think things over once in a while, Silvia. Now come on, we have to go."
Much to Silvia's surprise her dad nodded towards the open sea, away from Terganon.
"You mean...?"
"Hurry up, Silvia. It's a long way to Scotland."
Silvia flew towards her dad, landed on his neck and tried to embrace it, her head resting on the flexible but hard dragon scales.
"Wow. Thanks, dad."
The big dragon grinned. "No problem." He turned his head a bit to look at the small figure lying on his neck. "If I take you back you'd try again anyway."
Silvia sighed. "Well she's a friend... and I really want my 'player back."
"I know. Now hang on. I can go a lot faster than you think."
Vorug flapped his huge dragon wings and flew away from the floating city.
***
"Amazing!"
Alanya looked around in the CKWAGE hall.
"So many deckers..."
"Alanya, we ahould wait for David."
"Aw frag. Yu'r right. But dis is so..."
Suddenly, a goblin bumped up against Alanya. He had been looking at a kid that just ran off in another direction.
"Aw frag! Now what?" he cursed.
Hurricane looked at the angry goblin. "What the frag do you think you're..." She suddenly stopped, and took a better look at the goblin. "Hey... I know you! You're that goblin that came with us to Geneva!"
"Overmind." The goblin grumbled, apparently annoyed because she didn't remember his name.
"Right... Overmind."
"Overmind?!" Alanya's eyes got bigger. "The Overmind? Black Ace?"
Sarah gave her companion an odd look.
"Yeah... Black Ace." the Goblin replied nervously. "But please don't shout that through the hall. Who are you?"
"Dina Five." Alanya replied.
"DINA5..." Overmind paused to search his memory. "Ah yes... the MUNDI decker."
Alanya's face turned red. "Wos it... dat obvious?"
"Nope. But I still figured it out." Overmind replied with a grin. "The A5, you know. The name and the persona together made a helpful clue."
"Yeah well... a very subtle one."
"Say... I got a little problem here." Overmind said with a mischievous smile. "Maybe you can help me."
"...or I could arrest yu on da spot." Alanya replied with a similar expression on her face.
"In Transys Arcology? Hah!"
"Why not? I'm shure yoo decked dem too... and I'm just as shure I got the few existin' records of it."
The goblin's smile disappeared. "You... wouldn't."
"No I wouldn't. Lucky yoo, eh?" Alanya smiled. "But as an observer it's mah duty to report you to MUNDI..."
She paused to see the goblin's reaction. He looked a bit pale.
"...after I get back to the UCAS."
Overmind sighed in relief. "Hmm... thanks, Dina."
"Heh. Yoo shud've seen yur face! That was priceless! But don' worry. I respect ya too much ta turn yoo in."
Suddenly, they heard another voice from behind them. "You two know eachother?"
The three people turned around. Sarah's face lightened up. "David!"
"Just... fellow deckers." Overmind replied to Wirecat's question. "You know her?"
"Colleague. She works part-time in the negotiations team I worked in."
"Oh. Well... I got some work to do." Overmind said. "See ya around!"
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"DINA5..." A pretty interesting decker. It was worth it. He could get in trouble by offering it.
"Hey, you want one of these? I have plenty of copies"
A software stick. With the Name AEROS.
"You know this is illegal stuff, don't ya?"
"Who said it was mine?" He smiled.
***
Emmie chuckled. The telephone she gave was a hotline for perverted like that punk.
"And now..."She realised the situation. She had no cash.
The cash... Since she left Rener she had wandered with cash shortage.
That had been three weeks ago.
The mutation.
After harassing the daemons, Emmanuel, how was she called before, became ill. Not for the wounds but for something else.
She still shattered with the pain. Her body slowly changed, some organs being reduced to a bloody pool, some parts painfully growing. A man turning into a woman. And just because of the comet. When she finally realised the pain had ended, she found herself within the current body. Even her skeleton and muscles painfully changed, till the point where it looked like she had never been a man. Like she was born and grown as woman.
But she had to go on. She was still alive.
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
Zaid closed his Deck. Fragging Goblins, almost knocked him over. Ah well.....time to go look around. He brushed his long hair out of his face, it always did that after being bent over a Deck for a couple of hours. He stood up, he'd considered wearing woman's clothing, but had opted for a pair of black trousers instead.
He walked around for a bit, looking to see if there was anything of interest. In other words, he was looking for people to trick. He glaced over at a female elf, she standing by an Ork and what looked like a cat on two legs. He had to go over!
"Hi" He said simply, walking up to the elf, Zaid was already jealous of her! "My name is Jenny Zaid, You looked lost and I thought I could help."
"Jenny....Zaid." Alanya thought a loud. "Where 'ave I heard that befour...."
"Thanks for the offer, but we're fine." Sarah cut in on the Ork's thoughts. "But you can tag a long if you like."
"It would be a pleasure!" A grin was on Zaid's face, another person fooled. Couldn't blame them though, he WAS convincing. "Where too first?"
***
Barkah looked at the other Ork. Both of them were busy stuffing their faces with food. He took a quick glance outside, that crazy dwarf in the golf cart was zooming around again.
"Greet foo huh?" The other Ork slobbered. Barkah nodded. "Hmm....Zizz eh? Ain't he dat ummie ooh flies?" Barkah nodded again. He wondered about his future employer. Where was he?
Oh well nevermind. He'd either turn up, or he wouldn't.
***
Holmer was lost....where the frag would you find a female dwarf? I mean, it's not like they would just be sitting on the side waiting for you.
"THERE!" Yelled Gyro. A dwarf was sitting outside a shop, She had light blonde hair, dark brown eyes, one hell of a beard and was sitting over a deck. "She's.....beautiful."
Well, So much for not finding women on the side. He pulled up beside her. Getting out and dragging the dwarf with him.
"Mornin' ma'am." He said in his politest term. "This young'un would like your company. Perhaps you could get to know each other."
Gyro waved and winked.
"I guess I could go for a meal with this guy. If..." Holmer groaned, he knew what was coming. "You find me the perfect chair for decking."
Holmer didn't say a word. He just got in his Golf Cart, and pedalled away, Gyro still in tow.
***
"Nixie, stop!" Squeaky squealed at the German. "The mages will sense you!"
Of frag.....she'd forgot about that. Oh well, no problem. They'd have to sneak out.
"Ve go back to the bar, yes?" The Wolf Shaman asked.
"I guess, if we can make it past the guards."
"Oh.....Ve Vill!" Nixie just grinned. She knew she was going to get it from Bulldog when she got back.
---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)
"No idea." Wirecat said. "I'd like to eat something now though."
He grinned at Zaid. "By the way... nice aura you got there."
"Uh?" Zaid looked at the cat-man, obviously not realizing what kind of information an aura could reveal to those who could read it.
Alanya got the message.
Something's wrong with his aura. Wait... Jenny Zaid? Oh, of course! The Scarlet Dreamer.
AKA... John Zaid.
She grinned. Wirecat had seen it immediately, of course.
Sarah didn't seem to realize it though, and still looked at Zaid as a possible concurrent. Wirecat clearly had trouble not to burst out in laughter.
Sarah walked closer to David, and whispered in his ear. "Why the frag does she have to come with us?"
"Well, my dear..." Wirecat started, in a pseudo-official tone.. "There's a perfectly logical expla..."
He didn't get any further... he burst out laughing in the middle of the mall. A few people looked around and frowned.
It didn't take long before Alanya was laughing with him.
Zaid and Sarah just stood there, looking incredibly confused.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
Studknife was had been in the middle of his deluded dream of a woman when, completely unknown to him, the woman had come in switched his lights on (he didn't notice that either, being completely dulled to the real world by the simsense electrodes).
He was jolted out of his sim-paradise painfully. Some woman was in his flat! AN INTRUDER! She started yelling at him, words he couldn't understand. Then she started using magic on him!. All at once he felt cold, painfully cold. He couldn't move.
"Why... MEEEE!!!" He tried to scream, but couldn't.
She kissed him.
Then she had left. He fell abruptly to the floor, sobbing.
Minutes later, the man had recovered. He went over to his vidphone, and mashed the keypad, trying to call security.
"S...s...Shomwun's jus' used teh magic on me, AYE!!!"
***
Holmer's path was suddenly blocked by a trio of Transys security goon.
They weren't the Blackwatch - These were just regular security men, in silver and blue uniforms, with peaked caps and armour vests, armed with Daisaka pistols and stun batons.
"'Old it, stunty. Lets be avin' ya." The lead guard said, standing in front of the golf cart.
"What's this all aboot, eh?" Holmer demanded. The lead guard, a silver-haired man in his forties, ignored him, though the two other guards looked at each other worriedly.
"Give these fraggers a going over." The Sergeant barked, his eyes hidden by his cap's visor. "YOU! Stunty, where did you get that uniform?" He shouted.
A real bastard was the impression Holmer had gotten. The feeling was mutual.
The Sergeant sneered at Gyro's female companion.
"Fragging stunty-bitches. Can't tell the difference between them and the men."
The two younger guards were nervously fumbling with their hand-held MAD detectors and chem-sniffers - The former were magnetic anomaly detectors. Since Many weapons were made of plastics these days, but still with metal firing chambers and barrels, the devices were fine-tuned to be able to recognise firing mechanisms. The chem-sniffers were designed to detect the residual propellant residue of even modern firearm ammunition - Standard Caseless ammo. Explosives showed up readily too. That is, those not completely hermetically sealed.
One guard was trying to scan Holmer with the wrong end of his 'magic wand'. The Sarge gave him a clip round the ear, knocking his cap off, exposing crew-cut green hair and bright blue cybereyes.
"OTHER WAY ROUND, IDIOTE!"
***
Chr0m3ball was so excited his chubby little legs wobbled as he ran. He darted through the burly Ork minders at the entrance to the CKWAGE displays. Literally dozens of display stands announcing line after line of expensive new Transys Neuronet software failed to get his attention - In fact, none of the real deckers, as Chr0m3ball thought himself, paid it any attention. REAL deckers get their software illegally, he grinned, making a face at all the excited decker-wannabe kids lining up to hear what the Transys salesmen had to say.
He was also disappointed - This had been billed as a Decker convention, by deckers, for deckers. It had turned out to be just another marketing scam.
He wished he'd taken Angel0fLuv3's advice, and only attended via Matrix.
The youngster bounded up to one of the few unoccupied public Matrix booths, set the glass booth to 'locked' and 'polarise' so no-one could see. Then he took out his deck, powered up...
Seconds later, a smoothly polished Chrome Ball rolled down a ramp into the V1rtual0ct0g0nz Bar and Grill - A Matrix decker hangout that was to the Matrix community what CKWAGE was to Deckers in the meat world.
The deckers in here were what Chr0m3 ball dismissed as n00bs. Whereas better deckers would have beautifully crafted and programmed personas, the ones in here were all copied from Simsense games and simflicks. He saw five 'Neil the Ork barbarians' all in a row, and at least 8 seperate Lei-Fang O'Joneses.
Worse still, the whole bar was rendered in drab corporate interior architecture - Silver and Blue and animatronic potted plants - Just like the arcology mall.
He singled out the beautiful Ang3l0fLuv3 - A beautiful, heart spewing angel, busy directing 's3xx0r', 'ggl' 'gl0mp' programs at random strangers.
"Ang3l!" He exclaimed.
"Chr0m13!" She said, blowing a heart at him that activated the pleasure-loop of his deck.
"S3xxz0r time" She said.
The Metal Ball and the Angel touched each other for a moment, remaining unbeleivably static. You could almost hear the neurons firing, as They both activated 's3xx0r 1.7', a program the two virtual lovers had written together.
A new persona materialised - A Man a black leather trenchcoat, big heavy boots, a long black coat, shades and black hair He was festooned with guns - Machinepistols, Submachineguns, Handguns...
"Woah." the newcomer said. "I know Kung Fu."
"Comrade Crash!" Chr0m3ball exclaimed.
"*Gl0mps j00*. *ggl*" Said Ang3l0fLuv3.
"Ugh. No." Said Crash, pushing her away.
"Crash, 1 f0und sum guy call3d Black Ac3. H3 was a r3al..."
"Black ACE?" Shouted Crash. "Wait there, I will meet you by the 'L33t0rz Pr0grams 2064' stand in ten minutes. In person."
And then he was gone.
***
Crystal and Raven too, were feeling the long arm of the law, the mailed fist of Big Brother.
The security had stopped giving her and Raven suspicious looks as they spoke to Jessica, and instead come wading in, apparently suspicious of any 'gathering' of over two people.
Or maybe it was that She and Raven were both mutants. Blue and silver/white hair, four arms and a tail weren't exactly inconspicuous. And Crystal glanced at Jessica too. She...
She looked scared, like she had something to hide. Crystal spotted the duffle bag. It was padded out, but not well enough. A protuding lump had to be the barrel of an assault rifle - A modern, bullpup polymer job.
How had she gotten it into the mall in the first place? She wondered.
If security took a closer look, they'd find it in an instant. If they used MADs they would find her and Raven's pistols too.
"Walk." She said, softly, rolling her eyes in the direction of the approaching silver-and-blue clad goons.
She, Raven and Jessica walked slowly so as not to attract attention. Crystal was glad Jessica knew that much - As not to attract attention, though she didn't know her too well. Only her name so far, in fact, and that she appeared to like assault rifles. The three security men following quickened their pace.
The three ducked around a corner.
A drone was in the space under an escalator. It was like no drone Crystal had ever seen - One wheel, gyro stabilised. A smooth dome for a body. Eight arms on flexible metal tentacles - They ended in tools like pincers, drills, chainsaws and cicular blades...
Blades and Saws? What the frag? Crystal thought, assuming that it had been a cleaning and maintenance drone. Half the height of a human, and the same diameter across the body, the drone revved back, climbed the wall nearby with its pincer arms and disappeared into an airduct that looked far too small for it.
It had borne no markings.
"Well, that was...Odd." Raven pondered.
---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)
Chance and Ash had made it to the 'Elf-Only Bar'.
From the outside it seemed alright - Clean, well-kept, same chrome and silver-finish construction fabric as all the other Mall buildings. There was some gentle harpsichord music playing from inside. A sign depicted a beautiful, red-haired elven maiden who appeared only to be wearing undergarments.
"Shall we go in?" Asked Chance.
"Lets!" Beamed Ash. Things were looking up, after years of hanging around in dives and dens of iniquity.
And behold: A darkened hovel of a bar. It looked twice as small on the inside than the outside. The walls were a patchy shade of pastel blue, the bar was chipped wood-veneer plastic, as were the stools and chairs, and the strip-lights were flickering.
The Elf behind the bar scowled at the two newcomers. His red mullet hairstyle held in pace with a headband, the petty anger in his eyes did nothing to hide his distaste for humans.
"A soykaf. Two." He told the bartender.
"We only serve Elven Ale here." The bartender growled. "On the other hand, we only serve Elves too." His hand gesture took in first the beer tap on the bar - 'Swiftriver's Finest Elven Ale'(tm) (made in Transys Arcology Aqualogy #13), and then a group of the few customers in the bar.
Oh frag, just what I didn't want...
A gang of Elf Posers. Humans with cheap cosmetic surgery to give themselves pointed ears. They were bedecked in studded denims bedecked with crudely drawn Elven Symbols, and the same in tattoos. One ganger - The biggest one - had 'TIR RULES!' tattooed on one side of his mohawked head.
***
Zaid and Sarah's group were interrupted by an unlikely person.
"Excuse me, can you help find my Mummy?"
It was a young girl, apparently human and about six years old, dressed in a sailor suit with cute little pink bows.
She had striking green eyes - Pure, solid green.
"Hey" Sarah said, taking a quick astral peek. "Those are Cyber eyes. What kind of freak would give cybereyes to a kid?"
"My mummy is lost, I can't find her." Sobbed the little girl.
---------------------------------------------
(CKW)
"Step two. Activate the Trojan I already uploaded when the elf punk kicked me out of the convention" Overmind Grinned.
He continued to type like crazy. When he felt unsure about something, he did not use his datajack. He used a old fashioned, 1000 times slower comp.
A beep indicated that the Trojan was already active.
"And now..."
He pressed the "enter" key.
And the show started.
"MWAH HA HA HA YOU HAVE BEEN BLACK ACED! ENJOY OF ANOTHER BLACK ACE ATTACK!" started to appear in random computers.
"Argh!" Chr0m3ball exclaimed. His deck had also been frozen by the Trojan. That Black Ace had a bad sense of humour.
But then, the service was quickly restored.
A message appeared in Overmindīs laptop.
"YOU ARE NOT A GOOD KID."
"Uh?"
He pressed the Esc button repeated times.
"Hmm... Something fishy is in there..."
Who are you?
He typed.
I am what you want you would like. Can you get logged on? I need to talk to you face to face
Was the answer.
"A trick." He thought to himself. He coded a dummy datajack with a warning alarm. It triggered on. If he had entered the Matrix, he would have been sucked.
AI. You are a fragging AI.
He typed again. The other talker faded out.
"Hmm. I had better use a vid-helmet to see what is going on... Shame I had brought no one. Iīll have to emulate it in my screen instead"
A static image, portraiting a shadow, and fearful character sorted out of a final boss of a really old game,an one winged angel or something like that, appeared in the matrix.
"Black Ace is in da hood... well not exactly. I can talk to you with my microphone. I donīt want to go personally in the Matrix"
And...therefore, I donīt need to use my Matrix supervisor position to harass others. He added for himself.
***
"Hmm." Varos thought for a while. She had got out of the restaurant, after Draco had paid the bill. She was way too...noticeable amongst the punk gangers and security goons.
Shame that the hair at the height of the knees, tied with a ribbon at the height of the waist was not helping... Nor it did the long, white dress that spreaded from a bit lower than the neck to her ankles. Also the shining mythril necklace she had... was so sofisticated for the environment.
"maybe Inside a bar i will carry along until Draco returns."
And she headed for the Elf Only Bar.
A small place filled with stetically surged humans.
What had she done?
The waiter scruffly said.
"We only serve elves"
But his attention was drawn when he noticed the slightly reptilian eyes of the woman. Charming green eyes.
"Pl...Please... bar... policy..."
The barman punk started to sweat. He had seen those slightly reptilian eyes before. On 3dtv, when Dunkelzahn was speaking in human form. Those eyes...were the ones of a dragon.
"And what about all of these stetically modified humans?"
She grinned, whispering to the barman.
Then she noticed the couple. Their outfit betrayed them as runners.
Runners. That could be useful, anyhow.
"Hello..."
The strange woman said to Chance and Ash.
The two looked at eachother. Maybe it was her strong accent, a typical flaw of many dragons, maybe because Chanceīs astral perception, maybe because Ash fire abilities spotted the strong fire magic on her. But both recognized the dragon girl when she came on close quarters.
---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)
Charlie stirred. He must have fallen asleep. Yes that was right, Highness had got tired and fallen asleep in his arms on one of the benches, he must have dozed off with her.
"I think it's time we were going your high.......Your Highness?" He looked at the spot where the young woman had been lying. She was gone. "Shit!" Charlie yelled in blind panic, he got strange looks from the passing strangers.
"Ok Charlie, calm down." he thought to himself. She can't have gone far He took a quick look around. He couldn't help thinking that she hadn't left by her own two feet.
"Excuse me madam?" He asked an old woman who happened to be walking by. "Have you seen a woman walking by, about this tall, looks like the...." He suddenly realized. She LOOKED like the queen, people will think they can get a randsom off her. "Erm, nevermind." he said, frantically leaving the woman.
He cursed himself for his stupidity, he'd have to get the others help.....but where were they? What if she turned up again and he wasn't here to get her? He KNEW it had been a bad idea to bring her here...how could he be so utterly stupid! He felt like sitting on the floor and sobbing, but he needed to find her.....and fast.
***
Loopo couldn't belive his luck. Nor could the other Mimes for that matter. They'd beaten up one of the Neo-SU bastards AND found a lovely young female ready for the picking in the same day. Lady luck had surly blessed them. The white faced man stared at the woman they had picked up, his sharp toothed grin seemed to intimidate her.
"So we grabbed 'er, tied 'er up.....now we 'ave a little fun eh?" The troll imputed into the Psychic links implanted in each of the gangers head.
Not yet Jolly, hold your horses. We gotta get a gag on her first." Loopo replied, holding out a white rag.
"I'll handle that." another ganger butted in, a young Human woman with black hair. Loopo's sister, Dipsy. There were six Gangers in all, all dressed as mimes.
"What's with the weird eyes? Jolly asked, noticing that the Woman's eyes changed colour.
"Who cares?2 replied Dipsy bluntly. "Let's just get this veil off and have ourselves some fun!"
Loopo's eyes went wide as the veil dropped to the floor.
"Holy frag!" were the words that entered the others mind. "This bitch looks like the Queen....maybe we can use this. Groove, get me some sun-glasses, Joggerz get me a camera....we're holding the bitch for randsom!" an evil smirk was on the gangleader's face as he started to write out a note. meanwhile, two near identical elves put sun-glasses on the woman and took her picture.
"We 'ave some fun when we're done with 'er, right boss?" The troll asked, nearly drooling.
"You can bet on it.....a shame to let such a pretty body go to waste." He could hear the other Mime's sinister laughter.....this was going to be great.
***
Zaid was looking at the Catman oddly....what was so funny?
"Hello little girl, I'm sure we can find your Mommy." he said calmly. She seemed to sob louder on viewing him.
"Get this nasty man away from me!" She cried, kicking Zaid randomly....unfortunately her little foot landed inbetween his legs. Wirecat and Alanya laughed even louder, the pain was obvious on his face.
"Hey......Your not female at all!" Sarah accused Zaid, as he was recovering from his "injury".
Wire cat wanted to say something, but was too busy laughing.
"MOMMY!!!!!" The little girl squealed, bringing them all back to their senses. Zaid just backed away from the girl, he didn't want THAT to happen again.
***
Bulldog walked into Deep Red, He took a seat at the bar. Tami just walked off to some other part of the bar.
"Bonjour." The Goblin at the other end of the bar called to him. Pierre. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked.
"I'd rather operate sober." It was a lie of course, he thought the French man might poison it.
The French Goblin just went back to sipping his wine. Bulldog couldn't really care. Just then, his vid-phone rang.
"Hello." Bulldog said as he answered, it was Nixie. "Nixie! What the frag are you playing at!" he yelled.
"I know I 'ave been stupid, but ve need a distraction. Ve are just outside CKWAGE, but ve can't get out.....help us, quick!" The German's face disappeared. Bulldog got ready to go, but Pierre put a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll handle this Un, Oui?" Bulldog was too annoyed to argue. He just let the assassin walk off.
***
Holmer just sighed, today was going from bad to worse. He was positive he was going to be arrested, Gyro looked at him desperately, looking for help. But Holmer couldn't give him any.
"Jus' let me friend 'ere go, eh lad? If there's any problem, yer take it up with me." Holmer said desperately, it was all he could think off.
"Nobody leaves!" The stern voice of the captain replied, Holmer was in deep trouble here.....real deep.
---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)
Mary took the next escalator down, to level three. This was where the guide said the Elf Only Bar was located. She narrowly avoided being run down by some kind of mall-cart being driven by a dwarf, and looked at the next map, surrounded by a gaggle of shoppers. The Elf Only Bar was roughly a mile away, on the other side of the mall. She could take a mall-train, or walk.
She decided to walk, as she had time to get there. She hadn't been around this floor of the mall much before, and paused often, looking into shops, mostly full of clothes. She considered buying something, but thought she could do it later.
Suddenly, she noticed a bad smell. Like burning flesh.
She continued onwards, noticing a couple of ork 'fashun' (translated as 'weapons') shops, before she found out the source of the smell. An Ork restaurant, full of greenskin metahumans, and roasting meat.
Inside, she could see Tank.
---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)
Vorug and Silvia flew over Ireland. Silvia was amazed at the sight of the magnificent elven cities... they were so different from the dark, polluted cities like Geneva.
"We're almost there, Silvia." the green dragon said.
"Incredible... I never knew dragons could go that fast!"
A painful grin appeared on Vorug's face. He remembered the last time he went this fast... about four months ago, fleeing from the buclear explosion in Geneva, unsure whether his daughter would survive or not. It had been horrible to leave her behind like that.
***
Wirecat finally managed to stop laughing, and went to the girl.
"Don't worry... we'll find her."
The girl looked at him with her green cybereyes.
"You're a cat!"
Wirecat smiled. Most of the times it annoyed him when people said that, stating the obvious. But Wirecat really liked children. "Hehe. Yes, I'm a cat."
"Was your mummy a cat too?" the girl asked.
"No... I became a cat not so long ago."
"Ooh! You're a magical cat!" the girl smiled, satisfied because she solved the mystery.
"Heh. Yes, you could say that... Anyway. We were looking for your mother. Where have you last seen her?"
"Umm... I don't know... it was there, somewhere." She looked sad.
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