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The heroes must topple the despotic regime of Citizen Harmon, leader of the Conquerors, by breaking the leader of the resistance out of a maximum security prison, and Nightmunk encounters someone he thought he would never see again.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "While attending the unveiling of a new teleportation device at Harmon Labs, Nightmunk, Nightfox, and three teen heroes answer a cry for help from another dimension, only to find themselves trapped in the nightmarish world of Multifaria, a world ruled by the Conquerors, an evil version of Earth's greatest hero team, the Champions. The heroes must topple the despotic regime of Citizen Harmon, leader of the Conquerors, by breaking the leader of the resistance out of a maximum security prison, and Nightmunk encounters someone he thought he would never see again.", "writing": "[center]Cracked Mirror[/center]\n\n[center]a story set in the universe of Champions Online[/center]\n\n\t\"Okay, Nightmunk!\" said the big man wearing clown makeup, leather and spikes, and brandishing a machete. \"Let's see what you look like without your skin!\"\n\tI backed away slowly from him and the five other people, also dressed like psychopathic clowns, who were closing in around me in a cul-de-sac formed by three steel cargo containers on the riverfront of Millennium City's Westside district. They were members of the Maniacs, a particularly violent local gang, and were armed with a diverse array of weapons, including chains, tire irons, baseball bats with nails sticking out of them, and the aforementioned machete. \n\tI extended the claws from my gauntlets and held them up before me defensively. \"Ha!\" Machete Man chortled. \"You think we're scared of some sawed-off, second-rate version of Nighthawk? We're the Maniacs! We rule these docks!\"\n\tI didn't reply, just waited for them to make their move. Machete Man lunged at me, his blade describing a shining arc, and I blocked with my claws, metal ringing on metal. I didn't strike back, though, just kept up my defensive stance. \"What's the matter, you furry little freak?\" Machete Man jeered at me. \"Scared?\"\n\t\"You calling anyone else a freak is really funny,\" came a woman's voice from above us. The Maniacs all looked up. There, silhouetted against the moon, stood a woman in a black and gray skin-tight costume, with a hood and mask that covered her entire face. On her chest was the stylized head of a fox. She dropped down behind the Maniacs, removed something from her belt that telescoped into a six-foot steel fighting staff, and assumed a combat stance.\n\tThree of them charged at her, weapons raised, and she moved like quicksilver, striking each of them in turn. There was no wasted motion, each move blending seamlessly into the next. It was like watching a dance. One, two, three, and they were all sprawled on the ground at her feet. Two more moved up and tried to flank her. Her foot shot out, catching one in the stomach and dropping him. The other swung his chain, wrapping around her staff, and yanked her toward him. She somersaulted and kicked, her foot striking him on the jaw, and down he went. That left just Machete Man.\n\tAny sane, rational person would have realized at this point that they were completely outmatched and either surrendered or fled. But, as their name implies, Maniacs are neither sane nor rational. With a howl, he charged at her, machete raised to strike. One end of her staff hit his wrist, causing him to drop his machete. Then the other end struck his leg, driving him to his knees. Then the first end delivered a whack on the side of his head, and he fell face down at her feet. She turned toward me, and though I couldn't see it, I knew she was smiling behind her mask. \"How was that?\" she asked.\n\tI nodded. \"Not bad. You probably should have identified yourself before you knocked them all out, though. Now they can't tell their buddies they were beaten up by Nightfox.\"\n\tShe looked down at the unconscious Maniacs. \"Damn, I forgot about that.\"\n\tI shrugged. \"Establishing a brand name is important for a fledgling hero. You want them to learn to fear you. Other than that, though, your technique was flawless.\"\n\t\"Thanks,\" Nightfox said. \"I never realized how much fun it could be fighting bad guys.\" She giggled. \"It's actually kind of a turn-on!\"\n\tI raised an eyebrow. \"Is that an invitation?\"\n\tShe came over and got down on one knee, looking me in the eye. \"Could be.\"\n\tI reached out and pushed back her hood, then lifted her mask, exposing a pretty face with short brown hair and brown eyes. I leaned forward and pressed my muzzle to her lips, kissing them, and she put her arms around me and pulled me close.\n\t\"I love you, Julie,\" I said quietly.\n\tShe smiled at me, stroking my fuzzy cheeks with her gloved hands. \"I love you too, Alvin.\" We kissed again. Then she stood up and put her mask and hood back on. \"Come on, race you home!\" And she leaped effortlessly to the top of one of the cargo containers and disappeared. I blinked, then leaped after her. For what came next, we wouldn't be needing our costumes.\n\n\tI was kneeling at the bottom of one of the fight pits on Monster Island, cradling my brother Simon in my arms as his blood soaked into my fur. We were both naked, as manimals generally are. Above us, the top of the pit was lined with other manimals, creations of the mad geneticist Dr. Phillippe Moreau, great-grandson of the Dr. Moreau from the novel by H. G. Wells. He'd created my brothers and me in the likeness of Ross Bagdasarian's famous singing chipmunks as an amusement, and then discarded us to survive among his other savage creations as best we could, which, unsurprisingly, was not very well. After less than a week, there were two of us left. Soon, there would be only one.\n\tI held Simon's broken body tightly, trembling and sobbing as the life drained out of him. He looked up at me, but there was no fear in his eyes. Only love. He reached up and stroked the side of my face gently, his fingers leaving crimson trails on my cheek. Then his eyes went blank and he was gone, just like that. I clutched his limp form against me and screamed. Then I woke up.\n\tI sat bolt upright in bed, my eyes wide, my heart pounding in my chest. Julie sat up beside me. \"Alvin?\" she said, concern in her voice. \"Are you okay?\"\n\tI hugged myself and nodded. \"Yeah. It was just a nightmare.\"\n\tShe put her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder. \"The pits again?\"\n\tI nodded, my heartbeat and breathing starting to return to normal. \"Yeah.\"\n\tShe squeezed me gently. \"I'm sorry, baby.\"\n\tI sighed. \"It's okay. They're just dreams.\"\n\t\"Have you thought about seeing someone?\"\n\tI looked at her. \"You mean like a shrink?\"\n\tShe nodded. \"You're not the first person to suffer from PTSD, you know.\"\n\tI scowled. \"I don't have PTSD! I just have bad dreams every once in a while, like everyone else!\"\n\t\"What was it about?\"\n\tI swallowed. \"Simon,\" I said, quietly.\n\tJulie made a sympathetic sound and pulled me to her, kissing my cheek, coincidentally on the same spot where Simon had touched it in my dream. I turned my head and pressed my mouth to hers, and we kissed deeply and passionately. I broke the kiss and gazed into her eyes. \"Thank you for being with me, Julie,\" I said.\n\tShe smiled at me. \"You're quite welcome! Thank you for turning me into a superhero!\"\n\t\"That wasn't exactly my doing,\" I said.\n\t\"Well, if we hadn't been walking home together that night, we wouldn't have met that dying ninja, and he wouldn't have passed his soul into me and given me his powers.\" She grinned. \"You know, every time I say that, it sounds so ridiculous it's all I can do not to laugh!\"\n\tI chuckled. \"This coming from someone who sleeps with a talking chipmunk.\"\n\tShe nodded. \"Our lives are crazy! And I love it!\" She kissed me again, and our arms went around each other, and we lay back on the bed together. It looked as if things were heading in a very promising direction. Then my cell phone rang.\n\tGroaning, I reached over to the nightstand by the bed where it lay, picked it up, and checked the caller ID. My eyes went wide. I hit the answer button and held it to my ear. \"Hello?\"\n\t\"Nightmunk, this is Defender,\" came the voice on the other end. \"How are you this morning?\"\n\tI glanced over at Julie, who was nuzzling my cheek while her hand stroked my furry chest. \"Just fine, thanks. What can I do for you?\"\n\t\"I have a favor to ask of you.\"\n\tI blinked. It wasn't every day that the leader of the Champions, the world's greatest superhero team, asked little old me for a favor. \"Sure, name it!\"\n\t\"I've been asked to attend the unveiling of Harmon Industries' new teleportation device, but I've a prior commitment. I was wondering if you might go in my place.\"\n\tI was astonished. \"Me? You want me to take your place?\"\n\t\"If it's not too much trouble.\"\n\t\"No, no trouble at all!\"\n\t\"Excellent! The unveiling is at ten o'clock at Harmon Industries.\"\n\tI checked the time. It was nine-thirty. Just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, suit up, and get over there. \"Okay, I'll be there.\"\n\t\"Thank you, Nightmunk. Defender out.\"\n\tI put down the cell phone and looked at Julie. \"I heard,\" she said. \"No time for nookie?\"\n\tI shook my head. \"Sorry, duty before nookie.\" She looked as disappointed as I felt, which was considerably, since I'd been looking forward to a nice roll in the hay with her. Then I got an idea. \"Why don't you come with me?\"\n\t\"You sure that would be okay?\" Julie asked.\n\t\"Why not? It's just a press conference, and we could use it to introduce Millennium City to its newest superhero, Nightfox!\" Then I grinned. \"Who knows, maybe a supervillain will crash the party and you can show the whole world what you can do!\"\n\tShe grinned back at me. \"Here's hoping!\"\n\t\"You know,\" I said, \"it would save time if we showered together.\"\n\tJulie raised an eyebrow. \"Are you sure? Remember what happened the last time we took a shower together.\"\n\tI made a little growl deep in my throat. I remembered it well. \"Just keep telling yourself, duty before nookie.\"\n\tJulie nodded, and we both jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom.\n\n\tJulie and I arrived at Harmon Industries—a huge steel-and-glass skyscraper in downtown Millennium City—a few minutes before ten, riding on my grav bike. I found it hard to suppress a little surge of pride as we walked together through the cavernous lobby in our costumes. I'd met Defender only a couple of times, most recently when I'd fought an immortal Chinese vampire named Lung Hung, but apparently I'd impressed him sufficiently that he'd chosen me to substitute for him at this unveiling ceremony. The fact that I was a manimal made it even more of an honor, since most people regard us as curiosities at best, and freaks and monsters at worst. I wasn't just representing myself, or even Team Nighthawk, but my whole race.\n\tWe stopped at the information desk to get directions, then took an elevator to the underground laboratory where the event was taking place. The room was filled with high-tech machinery, one wall dominated by a large circular portal that was presently inert. It was already crowded with reporters and VIPs, and there were three other members of the superhero community present. Sort of.\n\tOne was Borlan Lar, a.k.a. Ironkid. His father was Ironclad, a warrior from the planet Dorvala and a member of the Champions, whose skin was covered with living metal. Ironclad had fathered a child with a Nigerian woman named Fulani Okonkwo, who was an agent of UNTIL—the United Nations Tribunal on International Law—an organization that polices supercrime around the world. The first time Ironclad had touched his infant son, the living metal on his skin had recognized his DNA in the child, and some of it had flowed over the boy's body, giving him a metal coating like his dad's. Ironkid was now twelve years old, with shoulder-length black hair, glowing yellow eyes, and dull blue-gray metallic skin. His outfit consisted of red gauntlets and greaves, a gold strap across his bare chest, and a red kilt-like garment with a gold cloth in front that hung down to his knees. A sword resembling a Roman gladius, similar to the one his father wore, hung from his hip.\n\tBeside Ironkid stood Flora. Her origin was significant to me, because I'd been indirectly involved with it. A few months back I'd gone to help a friend in Ireland, where I'd encountered a couple of faeries who'd been awakened from their centuries-long sleep by dark magics being performed in the area. One of them was a pumpkin-headed creature called Streng, one of a race of faeries called the Fir Bolg. When I'd left Ireland, Streng had been staying at the home of an Irish girl named Katie, who'd been helping him learn about the modern world. Since then, I'd learned that Streng and Katie had fallen in love and conceived a child together. I'm not sure how that worked, since Streng's body is made up of plants, but I guess with magic anything is possible. Flora was their child, and despite being only a few months old, she resembled a teenaged girl, though with green skin and green hair with flowers in it. She wore no clothing, but her body was covered with leaves and flowers.\n\tFinally came the reason for my \"sort of\" qualifier. The last of the three was Dorgok, a Lemurian boy. Lemurians are a reptilian race that ruled the Earth before mankind and worship dark gods called the Kings of Edom, who had been imprisoned eons ago. I'd first encountered Dorgok in an other-dimensional realm called the Qliphoth, a delightful place if you like chaos and madness. He was the son of Samtiss, a Lemurian who had turned against the Kings of Edom, and Yareen the Defiler, a fanatical zealot who sought to free them from their prisons so they could ravage the cosmos once more. Yareen had raised her son to be a loyal servant of the Kings, but Samtiss had rescued him and brought him to Earth to try to rehabilitate him. To that end, he had placed Dorgok in the Millennium Guard, a group of teenaged heroes, to which Ironkid and Flora also belonged. Dorgok had a lizard-like head with a webbed crest, needle-like teeth, and eyes with vertical slits for pupils. His slim body was covered with blue scales, with a white chest and belly similar to that of a snake, and he had clawed fingers and toes. He wore nothing but a decorative purple loincloth. \n\tGot all that?\n\t\"Nightmunk!\" said a tall, handsome, blond-haired, blue-eyed man in a very expensive suit as he walked toward me, smiling, hand extended. I knew who he was. Everyone did.\n\t\"Hello, Mr. Harmon,\" I said, taking his hand and shaking it.\n\t\"Please, call me Jim,\" he said. He looked at Julie. \"And who's your companion?\"\n\t\"Nightfox,\" Julie replied. \"Hero-in-training.\"\n\t\"Pleased to meet you, Nightfox,\" said Harmon, shaking her hand as well. \"Welcome to the community!\"\n\t\"Thank you, Mr. Harmon,\" said Julie.\n\t\"Umm, Jim,\" I said, \"not that I'm questioning your choices regarding the superhero contingent here, but don't the others seem a bit . . . young?\"\n\tHarmon shrugged. \"Not really my choice. I asked Ironclad to come, but he was busy with some business on Monster Island, so he sent his son, and Ironkid brought Flora and Dorgok along for the ride.\"\n\t\"What about the other Champions?\" I asked.\n\t\"Sapphire has a concert in Los Angeles, Kinetik is in Europe, and Witchcraft is in some sort of meditative trance and can't be disturbed.\"\n\t\"I see,\" I said, looking back over at the two teen heroes . . . and Dorgok. \"So it's just us B-listers.\"\n\tHarmon frowned. \"There are no B-listers here, Nightmunk. You're all heroes.\"\n\tI smiled up at him. \"That's nice of you to say.\"\n\t\"Look, we're running a little behind schedule. I have to check on a few things. Feel free to mingle and enjoy the hors d'oeuvres.\"\n\tI nodded as he walked away, and started wandering around the room, Julie staying close to me. I noticed that there was one other manimal present—Adam, the hyperintelligent chimpanzee who worked in Harmon Industries' advanced projects division. He was wearing a lab coat and arguing about something with one of the human scientists. I couldn't hear what they were saying, and probably wouldn't have understood it if I could.\n\tI'd never met Ironkid or Flora before, so I decided to go over and introduce myself and Julie to them. They both seemed to be nice enough kids, and welcomed Nightfox to the superhero club. I asked Flora how her parents were doing, and she said they were fine. Then I turned toward Dorgok. He was gazing down at me with those snake-like eyes, arms folded across his scaly chest, his black forked tongue flickering. \"Hello, Dorgok,\" I said, glancing at his right hand. \"I see you grew your hand back.\" \n\tHe nodded, and replied in a high, raspy voice, like a child with a sore throat. \"We Lemurians can regrow lost body parts, unlike you inferior creatures. Then again, I would not have had to bite it off if you had not chained me up in your apartment.\"\n\t\"I wouldn't have had to chain you up if you hadn't tried to prevent us from stopping your mother's plan to free the Kings of Edom.\"\n\tHis vertical pupils narrowed slightly. \"I swore then that I would kill you, manimal. My mind has not changed in this.\"\n\tFlora gasped. \"Dorgok, what a thing to say!\" Ironkid's metal fingers moved to the hilt of his sword.\n\t\"It's okay, Flora,\" I said, grinning up at Dorgok. \"Better than you have tried, boy, and I'm still here. However, this is probably not the best place for a murder attempt.\"\n\tDorgok nodded. \"No, not now. But soon.\"\n\t\"I'll be waiting,\" I said.\n\t\"And so will I,\" said Julie. Dorgok just looked at her and said nothing.\n\tOur mutual loathing was interrupted by Harmon stepping up to a microphone and addressing the crowd. \"Ladies and gentlemen,\" he said, \"it is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the beginning of a new age in transportation.\" He gestured to the portal behind him. \"This portal will allow us to transport objects to a companion portal in a Harmon Industries facility fifty miles away. Allow us to demonstrate.\" He turned to Adam, who was standing at a console nearby. \"Adam, if you would do the honors.\"\n\tAdam nodded and started pressing buttons, and the portal began to glow as a low humming sound filled the room. Then, without warning, the portal began to pulsate, glowing and dimming as the humming sound rose and fell. Harmon looked over at Adam in alarm. \"Is it supposed to do that?\" he asked.\n\tAdam shook his head as he frantically pushed buttons on his console. \"Something's coming through!\"\n\t\"What?\" Harmon asked. \"But the companion portal isn't even active yet!\"\n\t\"I don't know where it's coming from,\" said Adam, \"but it's definitely coming!\" As he spoke, a humanoid shape appeared in the portal and stepped out into the room. It was a huge figure of a man, wearing camouflage trousers, combat boots, and a black T-shirt with a skull on it, a machine gun slung across his back. His skin was the color of wet paper, and his bones showed through in various places. His grinning skull was half exposed, and his eyes glowed a hellish red. I recognized him immediately, because the last time we'd met, he'd nearly killed me.\n\t\"Dead Man Walkin'!\" I cried.\n\tI reacted instinctively, snatching a bolo from my belt, swinging it above my head, and sending it spinning through the air toward him. It wrapped around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides. I knew from past experience that it would hold him for only a few seconds, but hopefully it would buy someone else enough time to act.\n\tIronkid gave a war yell and leaped through the air toward him, his sword raised above his head with the tip pointed down. Landing before Dead Man Walkin', he plunged his blade into the undead assassin's chest. Dead Man roared in anger, and one booted foot shot out, slamming into the boy's midriff and sending him flying back into the crowd of spectators. Then he flexed his massive arms, snapping the thin steel cable of my bolo. He reached up, plucked the sword from his chest, and let it fall to the floor, where it clattered at his feet. Of course, there was no blood on it.\n\tNightfox was next, running toward Dead Man, doing an acrobatic flip over him, and swinging her staff in a wide arc, connecting with the side of his head. He grunted and swatted at her, missing as she dodged nimbly away, and all the while my heart was in my mouth, because I was watching my girlfriend fight one of the deadliest foes I'd ever faced.\n\tFlora raised her hand, and thick vines appeared around Dead Man, wrapping him up and immobilizing him, though I doubted they'd hold him much longer than my bolo had. Nightfox, Ironkid, and I closed in around him, and I popped the questionite claws from my gauntlets. I still wasn't sure how we could beat this guy, though, since he was immune to almost everything. Fortunately, that turned out to be a moot point.\n\t\"Wait!\" he said, in that hollow, grating voice he has. \"I didn't come here to fight! I'm lookin' for help!\"\n\t\"And why would we help you, villain?\" Ironkid demanded.\n\tHe stared at the boy, a puzzled expression on his half-skull face. \"Villain? What are you talkin' about?\"\n\tI answered for Ironkid. \"It might have something to do with all the murders you've committed, Williams.\"\n\tHe turned his head to look at me, and his red eyes widened in astonishment. \"A chipmunk?\"\n\tI nodded. \"Yes, just like I was the last time we fought.\"\n\tHe shook his head. \"I don't know what you mean! I've never met you before now!\"\n\tThat caught me off guard. \"You are Darren Williams, a.k.a. Dead Man Walkin', aren't you?\" I asked warily.\n\t\"Darren Williams is my real name,\" he replied, \"but I've never called myself Dead Man Walkin'. I'm called Revenant!\"\n\tI was now thoroughly confused. While he looked like Dead Man Walkin', he certainly wasn't acting like him. I noticed that he was gazing at me with something akin to fear, which was also completely out of character. The Darren Williams I knew wasn't afraid of anything, least of all a chipmunk manimal with no superpowers.\n\t\"You said you were looking for help,\" said Nightfox. \"Help with what?\"\n\t\"To overthrow Citizen Harmon!\" said Revenant.\n\tThere was a moment of stunned silence, which was finally broken by James Harmon. \"Did you say Citizen Harmon?\" he asked.\n\tRevenant nodded. \"I'm from a world called Multifaria. It's ruled by an evil dictator named Citizen Harmon and his superpowered goons, the Conquerors. I'm a member of the Resistance, the group that's fightin' against them. We broke into the Conquerors' base and seized control of a dimensional portal there, and the Resistance sent me through to find help.\" He looked at us all desperately. \"Please, you've got to help us! Our leader, the Old Man, has been captured and the Resistance is almost finished! This was our last chance!\"\n\tWe all looked at each other. \"What do you think?\" Nightfox asked.\n\t\"It's too fantastic not to be true,\" I replied. \"Nobody would make up a story that sounded this crazy.\"\n\t\"So, are we going through?\" asked Ironkid, looking excited at the prospect.\n\tAdam, who had been monitoring his console, spoke up. \"The portal is losing stability. It could collapse at any moment. So if you're going through, do it fast!\"\n\tI looked over at Flora, whose vines were still holding Revenant. \"Release him,\" I said.\n\tFlora nodded and the vines vanished. Revenant grinned at me with the half of his face that wasn't always grinning. \"Thank you!\"\n\t\"Are you sure this is a good idea?\" asked Nightfox hesitantly.\n\tI shook my head. \"No. But I've never ignored a cry for help yet, and I don't intend to start now.\" \n\t\"I am with you,\" said Ironkid, picking up his sword.\n\t\"As am I,\" said Flora. She turned to Dorgok. \"Are you coming?\"\n\tThe Lemurian boy's tongue flickered. \"This is madness. I want no part of it.\"\n\tI smirked at him. \"Does a Lemurian fear to follow where a manimal leads?\"\n\tDorgok hissed, and electricity began to crackle around his scaly body. He rose into the air, flew past me into the portal, and disappeared.\n\t\"Let's go!\" I shouted and ran into the portal after him, with Revenant, Nightfox, Ironkid, and Flora right behind me.\n\tWe emerged from the other side of the dimensional portal into a room I recognized, sort of. In layout and general appearance it was almost identical to the defense control room in Champions Headquarters. I'd visited it once with Julie as part of a guided tour of the building that was given to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays. There were large consoles and monitor screens on the walls, with which the Champions kept tabs on events happening all over the world. One major difference, however, was that this room reeked of blood, as there was currently a battle going on right in front of us between a motley bunch of humans armed with some sort of energy weapons and . . . sharkmen.\n\t\"What the hell?\" I gasped, staring at the creatures in disbelief.\n\t\"Karkaradons!\" growled Revenant, unlimbering the machine gun slung across his back. \"We've gotta get outta here!\" As he spoke, the portal behind us flickered and died. It seemed we were stuck here, at least for the moment.\n\tThe karkaradons looked basically like anthropomorphic sharks, with humanoid bodies but sharklike heads, clawed fingers, and large dorsal fins sprouting from their backs. Their skins were blue, gray, or brown, and like most aquatic creatures they were countershaded, with pale bellies and darker backs. In size, they ranged from my height to about seven feet. Their appearances echoed a variety of shark species, including hammerheads, whose eyes stuck out to the sides on broad, flat planes. They wore only trunks and boots and were armed with spears and nets, as well as wide mouths brimming with triangular teeth. As I watched in horror, one of them lunged at a wounded Resistance member lying on the floor and sank its teeth into his chest, then shook the man's body violently, the way sharks do to tear a chunk out of something too big to swallow whole. I felt my breakfast rising in my throat. Even manimals weren't this savage.\n\tRevenant's machine gun chattered loudly, and several of the karkaradons sprouted bullet holes. They were apparently tougher than humans, however, because the wounded ones didn't fall. Instead, they charged at us, toothy maws gaping. Nightfox and I dodged aside as weighted nets came flying through the air toward us, but Ironkid, Flora, and Revenant were all entangled, as was Dorgok, who was hovering in the air above us. I slashed with my questionite claws at the net holding Revenant and was pleased to see the thick, fibrous strands part like butter. Nightfox blocked the karkaradons charging us, spinning her staff, as I cut Flora free of her net, while Ironkid tore loose from the one binding him with sheer brute strength, and Dorgok burned the net holding him to ashes with a burst of electricity.\n\t\"This way!\" roared Revenant, heading toward a door off to one side.\n\t\"I know the layout!\" I shouted back, running after him across the bloodslick floor, which was littered with the corpses of many humans and a few karkaradons. The surviving Resistance members joined us as Revenant blasted a path through the sea of sharkmen, aided by Dorgok's lightning bolts, while Flora locked down most of the other karkaradons in the room with her vines.\n\tThe next room was the Hall of Champions, or in this case, the Hall of Conquerors, lined with towering holographic statues of the group's current membership. I didn't really have time to look at them, though, because there were more karkaradons charging down it toward us, flinging nets and spears. Dorgok provided us with air cover, blasting the nets to ash in midair with his lightning bolts. Much as I hated to admit it, the Lemurian boy was proving to be damned useful. \n\tThen a spear struck my shoulder. Fortunately, my armored costume protected me, but the force of the impact was still enough to knock me on my back. Apparently, karkaradons are really strong. Nightfox batted another spear aside with her staff, while a third one broke on Ironkid's metal chest. As I lay on my back looking up, my eyes focused momentarily on the hologram standing almost directly over me. It was a man encased in plated purple armor, with golden boots, gauntlets, belt, shoulder-piece, and a vaguely Roman-style helmet that covered his entire face. His eyes glowed red, and a long cape made of golden streamers hung from his shoulders. I had no idea who he was, but he looked scary as hell. Then Revenant tossed a grenade down the hall, which detonated among the karkaradons, sending sharks flying everywhere. I got to my feet, and we headed into the main lobby.\n\tAs I'd feared, the lobby was swarming with sharkmen. However, that actually worked in our favor, since they were packed together like sardines. Ironkid took point, charging into them, slashing with his sword. Nightfox and I protected his flanks while Revenant mowed a path through the sharks with his machine gun. Flora used her entangling vines to keep us from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and Dorgok continued providing air support by raining lightning bolts down upon them.\n\t\"Come, my friends!\" Ironkid shouted joyously as he cut down one shark after another. \"Let us revel in the glory of battle!\"\n\t\"You got that from your dad, didn't you?\" I said, as I buried my claws in a karakardon's belly.\n\t\"Uh, yeah, I did,\" the boy of steel replied sheepishly. I scowled as I continued my bloody work. This wasn't some goddamned game. We were killing people. Granted, the karkaradons were vicious, bloodthirsty monsters with no regard for human life—what I'd seen back in the control room attested to that—but they were clearly intelligent beings, and I'd had more than my fill of killing in the fight pits of Monster Island. This slaughter made me sick to my stomach. Still, it was us or them, and I decided I'd rather it were them. Plus, we were protecting the handful of Resistance members who'd survived the massacre in the defense control room. So I told my conscience to shut up and go sit in a corner while I did what I had to. Eventually, we reached the front doors, the bodies of dozens of dead, dying, or unconscious karkaradons strewn about the floor behind us. Ironkid pushed them open, and we got our first glimpse of the world of Multifaria.\n\tThe sky was red and overcast, bathing everything in a sinister glow. To the west I could see the spires of the Renaissance Center, just like in Millennium City, only they were black and ominous-looking. Around them hovered floating billboards, much like those in the RenCen back home, only instead of benign advertisements for various businesses, products, and TV shows, they simply flashed words, like \"Work,\" \"Fear,\" and \"Obey.\" \n\t\"Welcome to New Harmon,\" grunted Revenant, \"the latest in fascist regimes.\"\n\tI glanced to the south of us, where UNTIL Headquarters stood in the Millennium City I knew. The familiar steel-and-glass skyscraper had been replaced by a bunker surrounded by a high chain-link fence, guarded by humanoid robots. Robots I recognized from file pictures I'd seen of them.\n\t\"Those are Destroids!\" I cried. \"Doctor Destroyer's robots! What the hell are they doing here?\"\n\tRevenant looked down at me. \"Who?\"\n\t\"Albert Zerstoiten, a.k.a. Doctor Destroyer, the most dangerous supervillain in the history of our world,\" I explained.\n\t\"Never heard of any Doctor Destroyer,\" said Revenant, \"but Citizen Harmon sometimes calls himself Shadow Destroyer.\"\n\t\"Is he the guy in the purple and gold armor whose hologram I saw in the Hall of Conquerors?\"\n\tRevenant nodded. \"That's him.\"\n\tAs I was pondering this, Dorgok turned his head toward the RenCen, his black forked tongue flickering. \"I sense Qliphothic energy over there,\" he said.\n\tRevenant's eyes widened. \"What do you know about the Qliphoth?\"\n\t\"I've been there,\" I replied, \"and Dorgok was born and raised there.\"\n\t\"The Old Man said the Qliphoth is where Citizen Harmon draws his power from,\" said Revenant.\n\t\"Great,\" I muttered. \"We've got to go to ground somewhere and figure out our next move.\"\n\tAt that moment, the bunker to the south of us erupted into chaos, with energy bolts flying every which way. Revenant scowled. \"This is bad.\"\n\t\"How so?\" asked Nightfox. \n\t\"That bunker is a Destroid control and communications hub,\" Revenant explained. \"Beta Team was supposed to set off an electromagnetic pulse device there to temporarily neutralize all the Destroids around Conquerors HQ and cover our escape, but it looks like they've run into trouble. Unless that hub is taken out, ain't none of us gettin' out of here alive!\"\n\t\"Well, let's take it out, then!\" I said. \n\tWe all ran down the steps of Conquerors HQ and across an open area toward the bunker while plasma beam weapons fire continued around it. Members of the Resistance were battling against vaguely skeletal humanoids made of dull blue-gray metal guarding the bunker. Even from here, I could see that they were being overwhelmed. Hopefully, we could turn that around.\n\t\"To the fray!\" shouted Ironkid, leaping gleefully into the middle of the fight and slashing about with his sword, cleaving Destroids in half. Nightfox and I jumped in after him, me slashing with my claws while she swung her staff. The shriek of metal tearing through metal made me grind my teeth. Flora's vines snaked up around the arms and legs of a dozen Destroids, immobilizing them, while Revenant cut them down with bursts of machine gun fire and Dorgok's lightning bolts arced from one metal body to another, shorting them out. Within a few seconds, more than half of the robots had been reduced to smoking piles of scrap metal.\n\tThe Destroids weren't without resources of their own, however. As I turned from the one I'd just finished ripping apart, I saw something the size of a basketball flying toward me. It was a leader drone, made in the likeness of Doctor Destroyer's own head, with the familiar twin pronged device atop its brow. Before I could react, it hit me with a burst of high-frequency sound that pierced my ears. It was as if someone had taken the sound of my claws rending metal and amplified it a hundred times. I couldn't move, couldn't even think. Then, twin lasers shot from its eyes, striking the center of my chest. I could feel the searing heat through my body armor, but I was helpless to do anything about it. Fortunately, Nightfox came to my rescue, sailing past me and bringing her staff down on the drone, smashing it to pieces.\n\t I recovered from my paralysis and grinned at Nightfox, nodding my thanks to her. Our respite was short-lived, however, as through the smoke of battle another of Destroyer's creations came clomping toward us. This one was an annihilator bot, a humanoid of dull purple metal, with gold boots and gauntlets, a silver belt bearing a skull insignia, spikes protruding from its elbows and knees, and an emotionless metal face. A purple cape hung from its shoulders. It was one of the rarest and most powerful kinds of Destroids.\n\t\"Onward to victory!\" shouted Ironkid, bounding toward the annihilator bot with his sword raised to strike. The annihilator raised its arms, and a burst of tiny missiles, each one no bigger than my finger, shot from its wrists. They struck Ironkid in midair and sent him flying back thirty feet. He landed on his back with a loud \"oof!\" Then a rod of light resembling a certain weapon from a certain well-known movie franchise extended from the annihilator's palm, and it began walking toward Ironkid's stunned form.\n\tI moved to interpose myself between the annihilator and the still-stunned Ironkid. It looked down at me with its expressionless metal face and swung its laser sword. I dodged and hurled a bolo at its legs, entangling them. The annihilator fell forward, and Nightfox leaped on it from behind, raising her staff. A point sprouted from the tip, and she rammed it into the thing's back. It gave an electronic squawk that sounded for all the world like a robotic cry of pain, and swung its arm around, knocking her away. She somersaulted in midair, landing on her feet. The annihilator began to rise, but by now Ironkid had recovered. He kipped up, ran toward it, and beheaded it with a single stroke of his blade.\n\tThe battle was over. The Resistance had polished off the few remaining Destroids and were now hooking up the EMP device to the Destroids' charging station. Apparently, they intended to use the Destroids' own charging station to power the device that would deactivate them. Pretty clever. I turned to address my troops, which was how I thought of my fellow heroes from Millennium City, since I was the most experienced one present. \"You all did fantastic work here today. Even you, Dorgok.\"\n\tThe Lemurian boy folded his arms across his scaly chest. \"I trust you will not question my courage again, manimal.\"\n\t\"I was pretty sure you had it in you. After all, I know your dad.\" I smirked at him, and his tongue flickered in what I'd come to recognize as a Lemurian expression of annoyance. I kicked the annihilator bot's severed head with my boot, sending it spinning away. \"I'm still wondering what these things are doing here, though.\"\n\t\"Could this Citizen Harmon be Doctor Destroyer?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"As far as anyone knows or can prove, Albert Zerstoiten died during the Battle of Detroit in 1992, killed by his own orbital laser.\"\n\t\"There was no body,\" Ironkid pointed out. \"All that was left of him was his burned, shattered helmet, the one on display in the Battle of Detroit Museum.\"\n\tI nodded. \"I know. I've seen it. But anything that could do that to his armor would certainly have killed the man inside. And while Destroyer had more lives than a bag of cats, I think we can safely dismiss the possibility that he's Citizen Harmon.\"\n\t\"Why is that?\" Flora asked.\n\t\"Because if Citizen Harmon draws his power from the Qliphoth, like Revenant says, he must be some kind of sorcerer, and Destroyer loathed magic. More likely, as his name suggests, he's this world's version of James Harmon.\"\n\t\"Does that mean everyone on our world has a duplicate here?\" asked Nightfox. \"Including us?\"\n\tI shrugged. \"Maybe? The whole idea of an evil mirror universe is nutty beyond belief.\"\n\t\"And yet, here we are,\" said Nightfox. She turned to Dorgok. \"Maybe we'll meet a version of you that isn't an asshole.\"\n\tI chuckled. \"Nice as that would be, it's not very likely. He isn't native to our universe. He was born in the Qliphoth.\"\n\tDorgok opened his mouth to say something, but I never found out what it was. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a dark blur, and his head snapped completely around, so he was looking over his own back. He made a weak, strangled sound, fell to his knees, and flopped forward onto the ground. We all stared in shock at the figure standing behind him.\n\tIt was a woman wearing an inky black, skin-tight costume that covered her completely from head to toe. Only her eyes were visible, and those had vertical slits for pupils and glowed with a strange purple light that I'd seen before, in the Qliphoth. Mounted atop her head was a sleek, white, Art Deco fin, and a stylized lightning bolt covered each ear. Lightning bolts ran down the sides of her costume as well, from shoulders to legs. It was almost identical to the costume of the Champions' speedster, Kinetik, except black where his was red. The idea of a cold-blooded killer with Kinetik's speed was just about the most terrifying thing I could imagine. You'd be dead before you could draw a breath.\n\t\"Oubliette!\" croaked Revenant, starting to lift his machine gun. She became a black blur, reappeared before him, and slammed her palm against his chest, sending him flying back ten feet. I reached for the sleep gas pellets on my belt, though my mind told me it was futile. If this Oubliette was anything like Kinetik, she thought as fast as she moved. She would have already run a dozen variations of this fight in her head, anticipating everything we might do.\n\tShe moved on to Ironkid next, while I was still closing my glove around a handful of gas pellets. Since there wasn't much she could do to actually hurt him, she instead chose to simply neutralize him, grabbing his arm and running around him in a circle at incredible speed, spinning him like a top. He may have been invulnerable, but his inner ear worked like anyone else's, and suffering from extreme vertigo, he wouldn't be good for much of anything. By now, my hand was halfway out of my pouch of gas pellets.\n\tOubliette had taken out half our team before we'd even moved. I'd never felt so completely outmatched in a fight. I watched helplessly as that black blur headed toward Nightfox, despair welling up inside me. Once again, I was about to watch someone I loved die, and there was nothing I could do about it.\n\tAs it turned out, there was something Nightfox could do about it. As Oubliette approached, their eyes met, and for a moment—just a fraction of a second—Oubliette stopped dead in her tracks. That was all the time we needed. In that fraction of a second, Flora's vines sprouted around Oubliette's ankles, and she was held fast to the ground, unable to move. As she struggled to free herself, my sleep gas pellets landed around her, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.\n\t\"Damn it!\" came a voice from above me. \"Why does she always run on ahead? Doesn't she understand the importance of teamwork?\" My heart froze, because I knew that voice. It was a voice I'd been sure I'd never hear again. I looked up at the source.\n\tThere were two people floating about twenty feet above us. One was a woman dressed in the most trashy manner imaginable, with a short black jacket over a sports bra, booty shorts, fishnet stockings, fingerless gloves, and stiletto heels. She wore a spiked collar around her neck, and her blue hair was worn in a short punk style. I recognized her as this world's version of Sapphire, the Champions' force projector. But she wasn't the one who interested me. It was her companion, the one who had spoken.\n\tHe was small, just a little taller than me, wearing a suit of blue-and-black body armor, a jetpack mounted on his back, some kind of high-tech rifle held in his arms. A huge pair of goggles covered most of his face, and his blunt, bucktoothed muzzle with an inverted black triangle of a nose stuck out from beneath them.\n\t\"Simon,\" I gasped.\n\t\"It's Lapis Lazuli and Dr. Sciuridae!\" shouted Revenant, who had regained his feet and was leveling his machine gun at them. It sang a staccato song of death, spraying a stream of lead. Blue spheres of force sprang up around both of the floating figures, deflecting the bullets harmlessly away.\n\tDr. Sciuridae shook his head, tsking. \"You rebels never learn. You can't beat the Conquerors. Never have, never will.\" He glanced over at Lapis Lazuli. \"Take 'em down, baby.\"\n\tShe grinned wickedly. \"With pleasure, [i]mi amor[/i]!\" She dropped down into the middle of our group and released a blast of blue physical force that sent us flying in every direction. I felt as if I'd been hit by a bus. Nightfox and I, both trained acrobats, landed on our feet, but Flora, Ironkid, and Revenant didn't fare as well, being knocked flat on their backs and stunned. And Dorgok, well, he was dead.\n\tMeanwhile, Dr. Sciuridae took a bead with his rifle on the EMP generator by the Destroid power station, which was still in the process of building up a charge. \"Oh, I don't think so,\" he said. I reacted instinctively, hurling a throwing blade, which embedded itself in the weapon's side. He squealed in surprise and anger as his gun shorted out, and turned to see where the projectile had come from. His eyes went wide behind his goggles and his mouth fell open. \"Alvin?\"\n\tFor a moment, time froze as we stared at each other, and I could only imagine what was going through his head. Was I dead on this world? If so, had this Simon killed me? My speculation was cut short as I noticed Lapis Lazuli holding her hands out before her, building up a force bolt aimed at me. I'd seen enough footage of Sapphire in battle to know that if she hit me with a full-power bolt, I probably wouldn't be getting up again any time soon, if ever. So I dove and rolled, trying to make as hard a target of myself as possible. She released her bolt, and it tore a rent along the asphalt, narrowly missing me. A second later, Nightfox was on her, battering her with her staff. Unfortunately, her blows had little effect, since Lapis Lazuli apparently had the same ability to absorb kinetic energy that Sapphire has.\n\t\"[i]Muere, perra[/i]!\" snarled Lapis Lazuli, and generated another concussive burst, which sent Nightfox flying away from her. I took advantage of the opening to toss a handful of gas pellets at Lapis Lazuli. They burst around her feet, and she swooned and fell to the ground.\n\t\"No!\" shrieked Dr. Sciuridae, and hurled some kind of grenade at me. It went off right in front of me, there was a flash of white, and suddenly I was blind. Fortunately, I've been trained to fight in the dark. The sound of his jetpack grew louder as he flew toward me. Julie told me later that he'd been holding his damaged rifle like a club, intending to bash my skull in with it. When he was close enough, I lunged. I heard a squeak of surprise, followed by a grunt of pain as I grabbed him and threw him to the ground, my talons raised to strike. My eyesight was already returning, and I watched as his face faded into existence beneath me, his eyes wide with fear as they looked up at my talons from behind his goggles.\n\tI swallowed around the lump in my throat as I gazed down at him, searching for some trace of the brother I knew. Despite his fear, I could see that he was thinking, always thinking, just like the Simon I remembered. \"How can you be alive?\" he asked, more to himself than to me. Well, that answered that. I definitely wouldn't be running into another me here. Then realization appeared in his eyes. \"Of course! You're from an alternate reality!\"\n\t\"You always were the smart one, Simon,\" I said. \"Yes, we're from an alternate reality, and we've come to take down your Citizen Harmon.\"\n\tHe blinked, then laughed. \"And you were always the one who thought he could do anything! You have no clue what you're up against, Alvin!\"\n\t\"I've been to the Qliphoth, Simon. I do have some idea.\" He frowned at that, brow furrowing. Then I became aware of a rumbling sound, like distant thunder. I glanced up, and a chill went down my spine as I saw a literal army of Destroids advancing toward us. Looming above them were several gigantic metal humanoids, thirty feet tall, with spiked shoulders and the twin-forked crest of Doctor Destroyer on their foreheads. Mega-Destroids. I'd seen these things before. Doctor Destroyer's hidden automated factories, still functioning decades after his death, occasionally sent them to attack Millennium City, requiring every available hero to stop them. \n\tFlora, Ironkid, Nightfox, and Revenant had come over to join me as I stood guard over Simon's prone form, and were anxiously watching the approaching Destroid army. I looked over at the Resistance soldiers by the EMP generator. \"Isn't that thing ready yet?\"\n\t\"Almost, sir!\" one of them replied.\n\t\"Well, you better use it now, because those Destroids are going to be here any second!\"\n\t\"But we won't get maximum yield!\"\n\t\"Better that than nothing!\"\n\tThe soldier nodded and was about to throw the switch when a hoarse voice said, \"Perhaps . . . I can help.\" My head spun to the source. Dorgok was slowly getting to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck.\n\t\"Dorgok!\" shouted Flora, running to him. \"You're not dead?\"\n\t\"It would seem not,\" he replied.\n\t\"But your neck was broken!\" Ironkid protested.\n\t\"My skeleton is cartilage,\" said Dorgok. \"I have no bones to break. However, I am in quite a lot of pain.\"\n\t\"Never mind that,\" I said. \"You said you could help?\"\n\tDorgok nodded and went to the EMP generator, touching the cable that linked it to the Destroid charging station. Immediately, electrical current poured from his body into the device.\n\t\"It's fully charged!\" announced the soldier.\n\t\"Then hit it!\" I yelled.\n\tThe soldier did so, and instantly, a shower of sparks burst from every one of the Destroids as their circuits overloaded and shorted out, and they fell to the ground, just so many piles of inanimate junk.\n\t\"You're dead, Alvin!\" Dr. Sciuridae snarled, glaring up at me.\n\tI nodded. \"Yeah, I got that.\"\n\t\"No, I mean [i]you[/i] are dead! Harmon will kill you for this!\"\n\t\"We'll see about that,\" I said, retracting my claws.\n\tHe looked up at me, puzzled. \"You're not going to kill me?\"\n\tI shook my head. \"I saw you die once. That was enough.\"\n\tHe growled, getting to his feet. \"Don't think I'll show you the same mercy when we meet again, Alvin. And I promise you, we [i]will[/i] meet again!\"\n\tI managed to smile at him. \"I'll be waiting,\" I said. Then I turned to the others. \"Come on, let's go.\"\n\tWith Revenant leading the way, we left the compound, while Dr. Sciuridae stood there glowering at me.\n\n\t[i]I was counting on you\n\tTo stand by me\n\tTo see me through\n\tI was counting on you\n\tThey moved the moon\n\tWhile I looked down\n\tWhen I looked away\n\tThey changed the stars around\n\t\t\t\t\tWarren Zevon[/i]\n\n\tI was sitting on a crate of canned pears in a large underground chamber that was part of the sewer system beneath the city of New Harmon. The chamber was crowded with bedraggled-looking Resistance fighters with hollow eyes and weary faces, along with a few guard dogs. I noticed a number of the fighters giving me furtive, suspicious glances, and now I understood why Revenant had regarded me with fear when we'd first met. I was a chipmunk manimal, just like Dr. Sciuridae, a member of the hated Conquerors. I saw that Ironkid was getting dirty looks too, which also made sense, since he resembled a pint-sized version of another Conqueror, Drogen Lar. Apparently, Multifaria's version of Ironclad hadn't bothered to come up with a moniker for himself and simply went by his given name.\n\t\"Are you still in pain, Dorgok?\" asked Flora, coming over to the Lemurian boy, who was sitting on another crate nearby. \n\t\"Yes,\" he replied. \"Oubliette must have torn some of the muscles in my neck when she twisted my head around.\"\n\tShe nodded. \"Here, let me help.\" She placed her green hands on his neck, and tiny flowers of white, red, and yellow began sprouting from his blue, scaly skin, vanishing as quickly as they bloomed. \n\tDorgok sighed with relief. When Flora withdrew her hands, he turned his head slightly to each side. Apparently finding that there was no longer any pain, he looked at her, puzzled. \"Why did you do that?\" he asked.\n\tShe smiled at him. \"What a silly question! You're my teammate!\"\n\t\"Not by choice,\" he said. \"My father forced me to join the Millennium Guard. It was that or be imprisoned.\"\n\tShe shrugged her leaf-covered shoulders. \"It doesn't matter. You're on my team, so it's my duty to look after you.\" She smiled again. \"I'm glad you're not dead. I was afraid Oubliette had killed you.\"\n\t\"Afraid? Why would you fear my passing?\"\n\tFlora rolled her eyes. \"I already told you, you're on my team!\"\n\t\"But I do not like any of you!\" he protested.\n\tI decided to butt into the conversation. \"It's called loyalty, Dorgok. Surely you understand the concept.\"\n\tHe swung his head around and glared at me. \"My only loyalty is to the Kings of Edom!\"\n\t\"Why?\" I asked. \"They don't give a damn about you. They think of you the same way we think of bacteria.\"\n\t\"You know very well why, manimal!\" he snarled. \"They created my people!\"\n\t\"Has it ever occurred to you that you only have their word on that?\"\n\tDorgok blinked. \"What do you mean?\"\n\t\"I mean maybe they lied. Maybe the Lemurians evolved completely naturally, without any help from the Kings, in which case you don't owe them a damn thing.\"\n\tHe stared at me. Apparently, he'd never considered the possibility that the things he'd been told all his life could be wrong. \"That . . . that is sacrilege!\" he said at last. \"Blasphemy!\"\n\tI shrugged. \"It was sacrilege and blasphemy in medieval Europe to say that the Earth went around the sun. Guess what? It does. And even if the Kings of Edom did create your people, so what? Moreau created me, and I dont feel any loyalty toward him. Or I wouldn't, if he were still alive.\"\n\tDorgok shook his head. \"I will not hear any more of your lies, manimal!\"\n\tI wasn't interested in saying any more anyway, because the conversation had gotten me thinking. Was Multifaria's Moreau still alive? If so, what was he like? By the twisted logic of this world, he should be a regular Albert Schweitzer. But why would such a man create manimals? I'd have to find out, if I ever had the chance.\n\tSomeone sat down on the crate beside me. It was Julie. She had her mask off and her hood back, and she was looking down at me with a sympathetic smile. \"How are you holding up?\" she asked.\n\tI sighed. \"Physically, I'm fine. Emotionally, I'm a mess.\"\n\t\"Yeah, I imagine you would be.\"\n\t\"The brother who died in my arms is alive again, but he's a vicious psychopath working for a fascist dictator. How the hell am I supposed to feel about this? It's completely insane!\"\n\tShe nodded. \"I wish I could say I know what you're going through, but I really can't. I don't think anyone can.\"\n\t\"It also occurs to me that an evil version of Simon would make an extremely dangerous adversary. I played countless games of chess with my Simon, and he beat me every time.\"\n\t\"That's . . . troubling,\" said Julie.\n\t\"Still, I never stopped trying to win. That was my thing. He had the brains, but I had the will. Maybe that's why I survived and he didn't.\"\n\tWe were interrupted by a soft hissing laugh from Dorgok, and we both looked over at him. \"Nightfox is your woman,\" he said. \"I recognize her from the picture of the two of you in your apartment.\"\n\tI growled. \"If you tell anyone back home . . .\"\n\t\"A moot point,\" replied Dorgok, \"since it is highly unlikely that any of us will ever be returning home.\"\n\t\"That's not a very encouraging thought,\" said Flora disapprovingly.\n\t\"Giving up, Dorgok?\" Julie asked, smirking at him. His tongue flickered back at her.\n\t\"Oh, I think we have a excellent chance of getting home,\" I said.\n\t\"What makes you say that?\" Dorgok asked.\n\tI began counting off points on my fingers. \"First, Ironkid's dad is going to want to find out what happened to his son, and one of his fellow Champions is Witchcraft, who can hop dimensions the way other people hop busses. Second, I'm friends with two of Earth's most powerful sorcerers—Dr. Ka and Robert Caliburn—who can also hop dimensions. Third, Flora's father is a faerie, so who knows what kind of magic he might have? And finally, there's your dad, who is also friends with Ka and Caliburn, and loves you a hell of a lot more than you deserve. So, as you can see, there's several ways we could get home. This is why it's good to have friends, Dorgok.\" I smiled at him.\n\t\"All right, people,\" said a hoarse female voice, \"listen up!\" I looked over at the source. The speaker was a weathered, gray-haired woman in combat fatigues. She had been identified to me when we'd arrived here as General Susan Connors, acting leader of the Resistance since the capture of the one they called the Old Man. \"Darren here has managed to find us the help we were looking for,\" she said, nodding to the hulking figure of Revenant, who was standing off to one side with his hands clasped behind his back.\n\t\"Yeah,\" one of the Resistance fighters sneered, \"three kids, a chipmunk manimal, and a chick with no super powers! Nice work, Darren!\" Revenant simply glared back at him.\n\tConnors frowned. \"Stow that, Thompson! We're in no position to be picky! These folks have risked their lives to help us, and they saved our people from Karkaradons and Destroids, so show some gratitude and some respect! Now, the way I see it, they're the best chance we have of breaking the Old Man out of prison.\"\n\t\"What?\" exclaimed Thompson. \"You're gonna send them into the New Harmon Re-Education Facility? Why don't you just put bullets in their heads right now? It'll be quicker and less painful!\"\n\tConnors was about to retort, but suddenly vines wrapped around Thompson and covered his mouth. \"Please continue, General,\" said Flora, smiling at her.\n\t\"As I was saying,\" said Connors, \"we have people on the inside. They should be able to get our friends here to the maximum security level and break out the Old Man. He knows more about the source of Citizen Harmon's power than anyone. We need that knowledge if we're going to beat him.\"\n\tAt that moment, there was a commotion at one of the oval iron security doors, and we all looked in that direction. A couple of sentries were talking to someone I couldn't see. \"It's okay!\" one of them said. \"It's Macy!\" They opened the door, stepped aside, and let a dark-haired girl in combat fatigues enter the room. Immediately, the guard dogs jumped up and started barking like crazy.\n\t\"Destroid!\" shouted Connors, drawing her pistol and aiming it at the girl. The girl's arms suddenly transformed into some kind of energy cannons, and she started spraying the room with bolts of plasma. Connors fired, but her bullets just bounced off, leaving silver marks where they tore away the robot's fake skin. Revenant's machine gun and my throwing blades didn't fare any better. Dorgok's lighting bolt, however, caused it to pirouette about wildly, cannon arms flailing. It collapsed, circuits burned out, but more Destroids were already pouring in through the now open door.\n\t\"Fall back!\" roared Revenant, mowing down the advancing Destroids with his machine gun. The Resistance fighters began running toward a door on the opposite side of the room, shooting as they retreated. Flora slowed the advance of the Destroids with her vines while Ironkid, Dorgok, Nightfox, and I dealt with the few that got past them, but it was obvious that we were fighting a losing battle, as the Destroids' numbers seemed endless. Slowly, we withdrew toward the exit.\n\tResistance fighters were already setting demolition charges in the tunnel beyond, with the intention of collapsing it to prevent pursuit. We kept the Destroids bottled up as long as we could, and then bolted into the tunnel, running past the clusters of blinking charges to rejoin the others.\n\t\"Everyone's clear!\" I shouted at General Connors. \"Blow it!\" She nodded and pressed the button on a remote detonator, and I covered my ears, anticipating a very loud boom.\n\tNothing happened.\n\t\"Shit!\" swore Connors. I looked back at the doorway. Destroids were entering the tunnel.\n\t\"I'll get it,\" grated Revenant. He looked back at me. \"Make this mean something.\" I nodded mutely as the big walking corpse ran down the tunnel, Destroid plasma bolts striking him but not slowing him down. He crouched beside one of the charges, and I covered my ears and hit the dirt as a terrific blast I felt in my guts tore through the tunnel, filling the air with choking dust. I got to my feet and followed the others away from the rubble, coughing and gagging, my eyes watering.\n\tOnce we were clear of the dust cloud from the collapsed tunnel, Connors handed me a map. \"This will show you the way to a tunnel beneath the New Harmon Re-Education Facilty,\" she said. \"Take the ladder you find there up to a hatch in the ceiling. There'll be a security guard there named Nathan Hutton waiting for you. He's one of us. He'll provide you with further instructions and equipment.\"\n\t\"Equipment?\" I asked.\n\tShe chuckled. \"You can't very well walk around the facility in your costumes, can you?\"\n\t\"No, I guess not.\" I tried to think of something to say, but couldn't come up with anything better than: \"I'm sorry about Revenant.\"\n\tShe sighed. \"He's not the first friend I've lost in this war. But maybe, if you're successful, he'll be the last.\"\n\tI nodded. \"We'll do our best, General.\"\n\tShe saluted us. \"Good luck, all of you.\"\n\tEveryone but Dorgok saluted back. Then we headed off in the direction indicated by the map.\n\tAs we walked along through the dark, dank sewer tunnel, I glanced over at Ironkid. \"You know, there's a good chance we'll end up fighting the Conquerors again. That means you'll probably encounter this world's version of your dad.\"\n\tHe nodded. \"Yeah, I've been thinking about that.\"\n\t\"Have you thought about what you'll do if that happens?\"\n\tHe looked over at me. \"The same thing you did when you encountered that alternate version of your brother.\"\n\t\"We might end up having to do more than that.\"\n\tDorgok nodded. \"It was stupid of you to let him live.\"\n\tI growled. \"Of course you'd say that! You [i]want[/i] to see your only living blood relative dead!\"\n\t\"Much as I hate to admit it,\" said Nightfox, \"he's right. You should have killed him, Alvin. Dr. Sciuridae is our enemy, and we have enough enemies in this world as it is.\"\n\t\"You were there too, and I didn't see you trying to kill him!\"\n\t\"I've never killed anyone before. You have.\"\n\t\"You're right, I have! I racked up forty kills in the fight pits on Monster Island! Hooray for me!\"\n\t\"I would think that would make it easier,\" commented Dorgok.\n\tI stopped and whirled on him, which caused him to recoil. \"What would you know about it? I watched you torture your own father in the Qliphoth and enjoy it! You don't have a conscience! You're a psychopath!\"\n\tThe Lemurian boy regarded me impassively. \"In that case, you may be reassured that I shall have no qualms about killing your brother should you lack the courage to.\" He looked over at Ironkid. \"And that goes for your father as well.\"\n\tIronkid shrugged. \"Multifaria's Drogen Lar isn't my father, any more than Dr. Sciuridae is Nightmunk's brother. They're different people who've lived different lives. If killing him becomes necessary, don't hesitate. I won't.\"\n\tFlora nodded. \"We're trying to free a world from tyranny. That's more important than our personal feelings.\"\n\tWe resumed our march down the tunnel in silence.\n\t\n\tAfter a time we reached a chamber with a rusty iron-rung ladder leading up to a manhole in the ceiling. I went first, climbing the ladder and lifting the cover up. The room above was pitch dark, so I took out my flashlight and played it around. It appeared to be a storage room, full of boxes and miscellaneous items. Then a pair of shiny black boots appeared in front of me. I shone the light upward. Above me stood a square-jawed man with short, neatly combed brown hair. He was dressed in a black tunic and breeches that looked like something a member of Hitler's SS might wear, which I supposed made sense. His eyes widened when he saw my face.\n\t\"A chipmunk?\" he asked in disbelief.\n\t\"I take it nobody told you what to expect,\" I said, as I climbed up out of the hole to stand before him.\n\tHe shook his head. \"Communications between me and the rest of the Resistance are necessarily limited to short coded messages. I'm Nathan Hutton.\"\n\t\"Nightmunk,\" I said. \"And these are Nightfox, Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok.\"\n\t\"Nice to meet you all,\" said Hutton, studying each member of our group as they came up through the hole in the floor to join us.\n\t\"You know we're from another dimension, right?\" I asked.\n\tHe nodded. \"Yes, they mentioned that. They didn't say that most of you would be kids.\" His eyes fixed on Ironkid. \"Or that one of you would look like Drogen Lar.\"\n\t\"I'm Borlan Lar, son of Drogen,\" said Ironkid. \"On our world, my father is a hero.\"\n\tHutton smirked. \"I wish I could say that about our Drogen Lar.\" He looked back at me. \"And I suppose you're this other world's version of Dr. Sciuridae?\"\n\t\"Not quite,\" I replied. \"Dr. Sciuridae is Multifaria's version of my brother, Simon.\"\n\t\"I see,\" said Hutton. \"Well, this does present us with a problem. I was going to provide you with prison uniforms so you could blend in with the other inmates,\" he held up a yellow jumpsuit, \"but there aren't any kids here. They're kept in another facility, for 'indoctrination.'\" He grimaced at that.\n\tI nodded. \"Turning them into good little members of the Harmon Youth, I imagine.\"\n\t\"My son is there,\" said Hutton. \"The last time I saw him, I didn't even recognize him anymore. He thinks Harmon is a god.\" He suddenly looked very sad and tired, and I began to understand why he'd joined the Resistance.\n\t\"Lots of people have tried to pass themselves off as gods,\" I said. \"It tends not to end well for them.\"\n\t\"Here's hoping,\" said Hutton.\n\t\"I may have a solution to the problem of our appearances,\" said Flora. \"My father is a faerie, and he taught me a simple glamor spell I could use to disguise myself when I went out among humans.\"\n\t\"Can you use it to disguise us?\" asked Nightfox.\n\tFlora grinned. \"Easily.\"\n\tI glanced over at Ironkid. \"Even him? I seem to recall that faerie magic doesn't react well to iron.\"\n\t\"Hmm,\" said Flora, gazing at him, \"that could be a problem.\"\n\t\"My skin isn't really iron,\" said Ironkid. \"It's a living metal of alien origin.\"\n\t\"Well, let's find out,\" said Flora. She spoke some syllables in a strange, trilling language and traced some glowing symbols in the air with her finger. Suddenly, Ironkid was a black human a foot taller than he had been, wearing a yellow jumpsuit identical to the one Hutton had shown us. He looked down at himself and chuckled.\n\t\"Looks like it works!\" he said, grinning.\n\t\"How long will it last?\" I asked Flora.\n\t\"Until you will it to stop,\" she replied.\n\t\"Okay, then do us all.\"\n\tIn short order, all of us were magically disguised to look like adult human inmates. For me, it was a little disconcerting, because my actual hands, which were now invisible, were a good deal lower than the hands of the magical image cloaking me. I'd have to be careful about how I interacted with the physical world.\n\t\"Okay,\" said Hutton, \"now that we've got that out of the way, here's the skinny on the prison layout. There's four blocks: A, B, C, and D, plus the Super-Max cell. We're in A block now. That's for the lowest risk prisoners—normal humans. B and C are for more powerful prisoners—low-level superhumans. D is for the really dangerous prisoners. They're kept in perpetual comas, a condition called hotsleep. Finally, there's the Super-Max cell, which contains only one inmate: the Old Man. That's who you're here for.\"\n\t\"What's so important about this guy?\" asked Nightfox. \"Why is Harmon so scared of him?\"\n\t\"He's a tactical genius,\" replied Hutton, \"and he knows more about Citizen Harmon's technology than anyone alive.\"\n\t\"Then why does Harmon not just kill him?\" asked Dorgok.\n\t\"I don't know the answer to that,\" replied Hutton. \"Presumably, there's some reason he's keeping him alive, but damned if I know what it is. Now, A block connects with B and C blocks. You're going to need to create a distraction in A block to get into B block. There's a guy named Macruder presently in a holding cell in A block. He's a wizard with machines. They locked him up because he kept messing with their security. Take down the guards in front of his holding cell and break him out. He'll help you create that distraction I mentioned.\"\n\t\"Sounds easy enough,\" said Ironkid.\n\tHutton grinned. \"You think so, huh? Well, listen and learn, boy. There are guardbots that roam around A, B, and C blocks constantly, scanning guards and prisoners alike. The scan forms a ninety-degree arc directly in front of them out to a distance of twenty feet. If they detect anyone they don't recognize, like you, you'll only have a few seconds before they teleport you to a holding cell. That's why you'll need these.\" He handed each of us what looked like a tiny hand pistol. \"Those are miniature EMP projectors. If a guardbot spots you, shoot it. The pulse will scramble the bot's circuits and force it to re-initialize its programming. That should give you enough time to get out of its scanning area. Once it reboots, the last few seconds of its memory will be wiped, so it won't remember detecting you and will go on about its business. Of course, the projectors have no effect on human guards, so try to avoid attracting their attention. I'll be waiting for you in B block with the next stage of the plan. Got it?\"\n\tI nodded. \"Got it.\" I turned to the others. \"One last thing before we go in. As Flora pointed out, we're fighting to free a whole world here. That means we can't risk jeopardizing this operation for any one person. So if anyone gets caught, we can't afford to attempt a rescue. The rest of us will just have to go on without them.\"\n\tDorgok, who now looked like a blond human in his late teens, smirked. \"I am sure you will be heartbroken if I am captured.\"\n\tI sighed. \"Dorgok, I don't like you, but you've been a valuable member of this team and losing you would reduce our chances of success, so for what it's worth, yes, it would make me unhappy.\"\n\t\"It would make me unhappy, too,\" said Flora, who now appeared to be a normal-looking human girl with red hair and green eyes.\n\tDorgok looked at her, seemingly puzzled.\n\t\"All right,\" I said, \"let's do this.\" I opened the door to the storage room and went out into the hall.\n\tThe five of us walked along a drab corridor which opened up into a large common room full of men and women in yellow jump suits milling about listlessly. Some had cuts and bruises on their faces, and all bore expressions of depressed resignation. Roaming slowly around the room were hulking, headless, metallic humanoids—clearly the guardbots Hutton had mentioned. Every few seconds, a cheerful male voice would utter a slogan over the public address system. Examples included \"Citizen Harmon knows what's best for you,\" \"Everyone in New Harmon is happy,\" and \"Citizen Harmon protects us from anarchy and chaos.\" A large sign on the wall read, \"Security: Order Without Fear,\" in white block letters on a black background.\n\t\"Welcome to 1984,\" I muttered.\n\tNightfox nodded. \"Without fear my ass.\"\n\t\"What are they being kept secure from?\" asked Ironkid.\n\t\"Freedom,\" I replied.\n\tAs we made our way toward the holding cells where this Macruder guy was being kept, Flora strayed a little too close to one of the guardbots. It began beeping loudly and said in a grating electronic voice, \"Unidentified entity detected!\" Surprised, the girl froze. Fortunately, Dorgok, who was closest to her, aimed his EMP projector at the guardbot and fired. The thing spasmed for a moment, then said, \"Guardbot disabled. Re-initializing.\" Flora quickly backed away from it, and it resumed its patrol as if nothing had happened.\n\t\"Thank you, Dorgok,\" Flora said, smiling at him.\n\t\"Why did you not use the device Hutton gave you?\" the Lemurian boy snapped.\n\tFlora blushed. \"I . . . was startled. I didn't think to.\"\n\t\"Next time, think to, you foolish girl!\"\n\tFlora looked down, mortified.\n\t\"Back off, Dorgok,\" I said. \"She's new at this.\"\n\t\"Inexperience is no excuse for incompetence,\" he shot back. \"Her blunder could have gotten us all killed!\"\n\t\"That's why we have teammates—so we can cover for each other's mistakes. Now come on, let's go.\" As we got moving again, I noticed Nightfox putting an arm around Flora and giving her a hug, which made her smile.\n\tWe entered the room containing the holding cells. There were three security guards wearing the same black uniforms as Hutton, armed with batons and tasers. Two were playing cards at a table while the other sat at a security console. They stared at us in surprise as we entered. \"What are you doing here?\" one asked.\n\t\"Ending this,\" I replied. I launched myself at one of the card players, socking him in the face, while Nightfox dropped the other card player with her staff and Ironkid sailed through the air, slamming his metal fists down on the guy at the console. We quickly found out which cell Macruder was in and opened it.\n\tMacruder turned out to be a sandy-haired man with an easy smile and a friendly, cheerful manner, surprising to find in a place like this. \"So, you're the rescue team, huh?\" he asked. \"Nice to meet you all. I'm Macruder, but you can call me Mac. Ready to have some fun?\"\n\t\"If by fun you mean not getting killed,\" I replied.\n\tHe nodded. \"I think I can arrange that. Now, what we're going to do is start a little riot in A block. To do that, we're going to need to get some weapons to the members of the Resistance who are already in there.\"\n\t\"And where are we going to find these weapons?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"We're not,\" said Macruder, grinning. \"We're going to make them.\"\n\t\"Make them out of what?\" I asked.\n\t\"I'll need a few things,\" said Macruder. \"First, some coffee filters. You can find those in the guards' break room, but you may have to bash in a few heads to get them. Then, a box of ballpoint pens. You can find that in the break room too. I'll also need some duct tape, which you can find in the storage room you entered from the sewers. Finally, I need some of those orange vinyl traffic cones. There should be some in the common room to mark where the floor has just been mopped.\"\n\tI stared at him. \"You're going to make weapons out of coffee filters, ballpoint pens, duct tape, and traffic cones?\"\n\tHe nodded, grinning. \"Yep!\"\n\t\"Are you sure the guards haven't smacked you on the head one too many times?\" asked Ironkid doubtfully.\n\t\"Trust me,\" said Macruder, \"this will work. I've got it all figured out.\"\n\tWe all looked at each other and shrugged.\n\t\"Okay,\" I said, \"Nightfox and I will go to the break room and break some heads. Ironkid and Flora, you get the cones. Dorgok, you're in charge of the duct tape.\"\n\tDorgok looked uncomfortable. \"I . . . what is duct tape?\"\n\tI sighed. Of course. He was from the Qliphoth—why should he know what duct tape was? \"Strips of silver adhesive that comes in rolls.\"\n\tMacruder nodded. \"Get a lot of it.\"\n\tWe all headed off to our respective destinations. As we walked along together toward the break room, Nightfox said, \"Do you think it was a good idea to send Dorgok off by himself?\"\n\tI shrugged. \"Someone had to be on their own. Let it be him, since he thinks he's so great.\"\n\t\"I just don't know if I trust him.\"\n\t\"I don't like him either, but he's in the same boat as the rest of us, and he's been dependable so far.\"\n\t\"I'm also not used to seeing you in the role of leader. You're normally such a loner.\"\n\t\"Well, someone had to step up to the plate. I'm the most experienced, so I was the logical choice.\"\n\tShe chuckled. \"I think it suits you. I like it.\"\n\t\"Thanks. I'm just hoping I don't screw it up.\"\n\t\"I have faith in you, Alvin.\"\n\tI smiled at her. \"Thanks,\" I said again. \"That means a lot.\"\n\tWe entered the break room, where four guards were lounging about, chatting and drinking coffee. They all stopped and stared at us as we entered. \"Hey,\" one said, rising, \"prisoners aren't allowed—\" \n\tThat was as far as he got. I bounced a blunted throwing blade off his head, which sent him crumpling to the floor. The others began reaching for their tasers. Nightfox leaped into the middle of them and dropped two with her staff, and I took out the last one with another throwing blade. The guards dealt with, I collected my blades and searched the cabinets against the walls, quickly locating a box of ballpoint pens, while Nightfox recovered a stack of coffee filters from the cabinet under the coffee maker. We headed back to Macruder with our loot.\n\tDorgok was already waiting for us back at Macruder's cell with a cardboard box full of rolls of duct tape. \"You took the whole box?\" Nightfox asked, surprised.\n\tDorgok shrugged. \"He said to get a lot of it.\"\n\tA minute later, Ironkid and Flora arrived, each carrying a stack of orange vinyl traffic cones in their arms.\n\t\"Nobody asked what you wanted with those?\" I asked them.\n\t\"We just told the guards we'd been ordered to collect them,\" replied Ironkid.\n\t\"Excellent!\" said Macruder, grinning. \"All right, now, watch me.\" And watch we did while he went to work converting these banal, innocuous items into a weapon. It was amazing, ingenious. I never would have thought it could work, but it did. In a few minutes, Mac was holding a crude but quite effective weapon in his hands.\n\t\"Unbelievable!\" I said. \n\t\"Think you can do this?\" he asked.\n\tI nodded. \"Now that you've shown us how.\" We all got to work, repeating what we'd seen him do, and soon there were fifteen of the things lying before us.\n\t\"Okay,\" said Mac, \"take these to the common room and start handing them out to members of the Resistance. You'll be able to recognize them by their white armbands. Once they're all distributed, start the party, and then head for B block while the guards are busy trying to get things back under control. Good luck!\"\n\t\"Good luck to you too, Mac!\" I said. We gathered up our weapons and headed back to the common room. Once there, we split up and began handing out weapons to everyone we saw wearing a white armband, taking care to keep to the shadows and avoid the guardbots. Fortunately, the human guards weren't paying too much attention to their charges. The Resistance members accepted the things without even looking at us. Apparently, they'd been told what was going down. Swiftly, all the weapons were distributed. \n\tThe cheerful voice over the public address system informed us, \"Citizen Harmon is a true hero!\" I took a deep breath and shrieked, \"Citizen Harmon sucks!\" Instantly, the room erupted into chaos as armed Resistance members started shooting at the guards. A siren began blaring as the guards retaliated with their tasers and batons. In the midst of all the confusion, we headed toward the entrance to B block.\n\tWe had almost reached it when a huge figure appeared in the doorway before us, a figure I recognized. He was a gigantic bear of a man, almost as wide as he was tall, with unusually long arms that terminated in massive, hairy hands, giving him a rather apelike appearance, which was accentuated by his thick unibrow and muttonchop sideburns. On Earth, I had known him as John Cowens, codename Kodiak, a special agent for the FBI, and we had been friends, teaming up on cases and sometimes even going out for a beer together. I also knew that he was superhumanly strong, having once seen him lift the rear end of a car without effort. This version of him was wearing a black uniform and a black leather trenchcoat, like a member of the Gestapo, though like his Earth counterpart, his enormous hairy feet were bare.\n\t\"Kommandant Kodiak!\" shouted one of the Resistance members, taking a bead on him with his improvised weapon. Kodiak roared and sailed at the man like an enraged gorilla, fist raised, slamming him into the ground with a sickening crunch. It didn't look as if the man would ever be getting up again.\n\tI hurled a throwing blade at Kodiak, and it cut into his arm, leaving a red gash. He snarled and glared at me and then leaped in my direction, covering a distance of some thirty feet in a single bound, his fists raised above his head. Knowing what those fists could do to me, I tried to dodge, but was only partially successful. One of them struck me a glancing blow and sent me skidding across the floor. Even with my armor, that had hurt a lot.\n\tInstantly, Nightfox was on him, striking with her staff. He growled and swatted her aside as if she were an annoying fly. I noticed that her disguise vanished when he struck her. I looked down at myself and saw that I, too, now looked the way I normally did. Apparently, Flora's glamor couldn't survive being hit.\n\tA bolt of lightning struck Kodiak, momentarily paralyzing him and making him roar with pain. He looked up at Dorgok, who was hovering in the air above him, and leaped, driving his fist into the Lemurian boy's chest and destroying his disguise. Dorgok plummeted to the floor and lay there, stunned and gasping for breath. A second later, Ironkid leaped toward Kodiak and slashed with his sword, cutting two bloody gashes into the big man's chest. Kodiak howled with rage and brought his fists down hard on Ironkid, knocking him on his ass and causing him, too, to revert to his normal appearance. This made Kodiak pause for a moment, staring at the metal-skinned youth, apparently startled by his resemblance to a member of the Conquerors. Then he was distracted by Flora's vines wrapping around him and pinning his arms to his sides. As he struggled to free himself, the rest of us used the respite Flora had bought us to regroup, while she knelt beside Dorgok and placed her hands on his scaly chest. Tiny flowers sprouted and vanished on his body, and his breathing returned to normal.\n\t\"Do you think we can take this guy?\" asked Ironkid doubtfully.\n\t\"I don't know,\" I replied. \"He seems to be just as strong and tough as Earth's Kodiak, maybe more so. But we can't stop now.\"\n\tDorgok rose to his feet, crackling with electricity. \"I, for one, desire some payback!\"\n\tI nodded. \"On three.\" I counted down, and we all attacked simultaneously, just as Kodiak burst free of Flora's vines. My claws and Ironkid's sword sank into his flesh, while Nightfox struck with her staff, Dorgok blasted him with lightning, and Flora hurled some kind of mystical bolt. Kodiak groaned, flailing at us, but he was clearly on his last legs. After a few more seconds of our concentrated attacks, he collapsed to the floor and lay still, a red puddle spreading beneath him. Flora knelt down to heal him, but I grabbed her shoulder and held her back.\n\t\"We can't risk him coming after us,\" I said.\n\tShe nodded, biting her lip. \"Let us proceed, then.\"\n\tAs we left Kodiak where he lay and headed into B block, I spared a glance back at the body of the man whose counterpart on Earth was my friend. In my mind, I knew he was not the same person. No doubt this Kodiak had done a lot of evil things. But I still felt bad about leaving him to die. Who knew, maybe the prison doctors could save him. Then again, maybe it was better if they didn't. Maybe it was better to just put him down, like a mad dog. I still didn't understand how this world could be the way it was—so much like the Earth I knew, yet so different. Its existence defied all sense and logic. And yet, here I was, in it. Then my thoughts shifted to Dr. Sciuridae. Somehow, I knew for certain that I'd be seeing him again. Could I bring myself to kill him? I still wasn't sure. Guess I'd find out. I shook my head and continued on.\n\tHutton was waiting for us in the corridor that led to B block. He looked a little nervous, which was perfectly understandable, but managed to smile when he saw us. \"You made it! Great! Congratulations on taking down Kodiak. I've lost count of how many prisoners that bastard has killed or crippled. Trust me, he won't be missed.\"\n\t\"Thanks,\" I said, dryly. Knowing how bad he'd been made me feel just the teensiest bit better. \"So, what's our next move?\"\n\t\"Starting a riot got you into B block, so we're going to do the same thing to get you into D block. Unfortunately, you won't have Mac to help you, but I doubt his improvised weapons would have much effect on these inmates anyway. So you're going to have to try something a little different.\"\n\tI shrugged. \"Variety is the spice of life. What did you have in mind?\"\n\t\"There are two main factions among the inmates in B block,\" said Hutton. \"The Dogz and the Elementalz.\"\n\tI blinked. \"Werewolves and mutants?\"\n\t\"You know them?\" Hutton asked.\n\t\"They have counterparts back on Earth. The Dogz are led by Black Fang, and the Elementalz leader is called Ferd.\"\n\tHutton nodded. \"Same here, and they hate each other's guts. So what you're going to do is light this little powderkeg by going to the mess hall, poisoning the Dogz' food, and blaming it on the Elementalz. That should be enough to set them at each other's throats.\"\n\t\"Where are we going to get the poison?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"From the dispensary,\" Hutton replied. \"The head nurse there is Sophie Bellman. She's one of us. You'll have to take down a few guards, but that shouldn't be a problem. Once you've got the drugs, create a little distraction, like setting a grease fire or something, and dose as many plates as you can. Then one of you go tell Black Fang that you saw one of the Elementalz do it. He's spoiling for a showdown with Ferd anyway to prove who's top dog around here, so he'll jump at the opportunity. While those two lunkheads and their followers are fighting, you slip into D block.\" He looked over at Flora. \"Can you do that disguise trick again?\"\n\tShe nodded. \"Easily.\"\n\t\"Good. Except this time, just change their clothes. Normal-looking inmates actually attact more attention in B block than unusual ones.\"\n\tFlora cast her glamors again, and soon we all looked like our normal selves, but garbed in yellow prison jumpsuits. Nightfox giggled as she looked down at me.\n\t\"What?\" I asked, examining myself to see if there was some flaw in my disguise.\n\t\"You are the cutest convict ever,\" she said, smiling.\n\tI rolled my eyes. \"Thanks.\" Then I looked over at Dorgok. \"I expect before long you'll be dressed like that for real.\"\n\tDorgok glared at me, flicking his tongue. \"Hopefully for killing you, manimal.\"\n\tI grinned back at him. \"We'll see.\"\n\t\"Are you two finished?\" Ironkid asked, looking annoyed.\n\t\"For the moment,\" I replied.\n\t\"Then can we get back to business?\"\n\tAs we headed into B block, Hutton said, \"I'll meet you at the entrance to D block. And remember to keep an eye out for guardbots.\"\n\tWe entered the mess hall of B block, which looked like a typical cafeteria, with long tables at which inmates sat eating silently. The members of the opposing factions were easy to identify. Even in their human forms, the Dogz were hairy, with bestial faces, yellow eyes, fangs, and claws, while the Elementalz sported a variety of strange hair and skin colors, including blue, green, orange, red, and purple. Each group sat only at tables with their own kind. Along one wall was a counter where the inmates lined up to be served by the kitchen staff, who were all normal-looking human inmates. Guardbots moved slowly around the room, scanning the prisoners constantly. We took care to avoid them. A few inmates threw us curious glances, but nobody spoke to us. They probably just assumed we were new arrivals, more lost souls condemned to purgatory.\n\tWe followed the signs to the dispensary, which turned out to be a rather small room with a handful of beds and outdated-looking equipment. It didn't appear to be all that clean, either. As we approached, I turned to Nightfox and said, \"Act sick.\" Immediately, she groaned and clutched her stomach, doubling over, and Ironkid and I supported her as we entered.\n\tA dark-haired woman in a white tunic and trousers came over to us. There were also four guards standing around, but they didn't make any move to help. Not in their job description. \"What seems to be the trouble?\" the woman asked. \n\t\"I don't know,\" I replied. \"She just started groaning in pain, so we brought her here.\"\n\t\"Lay her on the bed,\" the woman said. We did so.\n\t\"Inmates aren't allowed in here without authorization!\" the guard barked at me. \"Get out!\"\n\tI looked up at him with my most pitable expression. \"Aw, can't we bend the rules just a little, sir? After all, she's my girlfriend!\"\n\tThe guard stared at me, then at Nightfox as she howled in feigned agony and thrashed about wildly on the bed. Taking advantage of the distraction, I rammed my foot into his gut, doubling him over. Dorgok blasted the second with an electric bolt, Ironkid dropped the third with a right cross, and Flora's vines wrapped around the fourth, paralyzing him. I slugged my guy, and down he went, while Flora's victim collapsed as well. The guards dealt with, I turned to the nurse while Nightfox stopped playing sick and slid off the bed. \"Sophie Bellman, I presume?\"\n\tShe nodded. \"You must be the heroes from another world Nathan told me about. Over here.\" She led me to a cabinet full of jars and bottles, selecting four small vials containing clear liquid. \"Sprinkle this on as much of the Dogz' food as you can. It's tasteless, colorless, and odorless. Within a few minutes, they should start complaining about stomach pains.\"\n\tI accepted the vials and handed one to each member of my team. \"Okay, I'll create a distraction, then you guys dose the food while I go tell Black Fang a pack of lies.\" I looked up at Bellman. \"Do you know where he is?\"\n\t\"Probably the gymnasium,\" she replied. \"He usually hangs out in there.\"\n\t\"Okay, let's go!\" I said, and we left the dispensary, Bellman wishing us luck.\n\tWe returned to the mess hall, and the others moved to the counter, where there lay dozens of plates of raw meat for the Dogz. I opened the gate that led behind the counter and entered the food preparation area. The kitchen staff looked at me strangely as I approached. \"Hi!\" I said, smiling and waving cheerfully. \"I'm new here. I've been assigned to the kitchen staff.\"\n\tThe kitchen staff supervisor, a big burly man with a moustache, glared down at me. \"They'd never assign a manimal to work in the kitchen. You'd get fur all over the food!\"\n\tI shrugged, surreptitiously removing a thermite charge from my belt, which was hidden by my illusory prison jumpsuit, and attaching it to the side of the stove. \"Well, those were my orders. Maybe you should take it up with the warden.\"\n\t\"Maybe you should get the hell out of here, freak!\" the man growled.\n\tI frowned. \"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say! I'm an inmate here, just like you! We're all in the same boat!\"\n\tThe man held up a frying pan, threatening me with it. \"Get lost!\"\n\tI backed away, holding up my hands. \"Okay, okay, no need to get hostile!\" \n\tI exited through the gate and headed for the entrance to the corridor that led to the gym. When I was halfway across the room, the stove suddenly began spewing flames and smoke billowed up from it. As the kitchen staff rushed to put out the fire, I watched my companions sprinkle the contents of their vials over the plates of raw meat, their actions mostly obscured by the smoke. I grinned and ran down the hallway toward the gym.\n\tThe gym reeked of sweat, as most gyms do, but in this one the odor was so strong it made me wrinkle my nose. They really needed to go over this place with some disinfectant. It was stocked with exercise equipment that was old, tarnished, and badly maintained. Several Dogz were in the process of working out on the stuff that wasn't broken. They looked at me as I came in, and grinned, baring their fangs. I did my best to ignore them, concentrating on the massive black-furred figure in the center. \n\tBlack Fang was in full werewolf form, over seven feet tall, his prison jumpsuit peeled down to his waist, the sleeves tied together to keep it from falling off. His barrel chest and clawed feet were bare. He was in the process of lifting what had to be over a ton of weights above his head, his inhumanly huge muscles flexing beneath his ebony fur. He glanced down at me as I came over to him, and for a moment I knew how it would feel to be a real chipmunk being eyed by a real wolf. \"Excuse me, Mr. Black Fang, sir?\" I said nervously.\n\t\"What is it, lunch?\" he growled, in a thick German accent.\n\t\"Um, I'm afraid lunch has been canceled, sir,\" I replied. \"I saw some Elementalz in the mess hall putting something on your food!\"\n\tBlack Fang's yellow eyes went wide. \"WHAT?\" he roared, slamming his barbell down onto the floor with a mighty crash that made everything in the room shake. He crouched down on his digitigrade legs and leaned forward, his glistening black nosepad only inches from the tip of my muzzle. I nearly gagged as his foul breath washed over me. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. \"And why should you warn us? You are a manimal, not a werewolf.\"\n\tI nodded. \"I know, sir, but I'm in here with you guys now, and I figure us furry types gotta stick together, right?\" I managed a weak smile.\n\tThe corners of his black-lipped mouth pulled back in a toothy grin, his white teeth gleaming. \"If what you say turns out to be true, runt, there may be a place for you in my pack. Maybe you can replace Freddy.\" I followed his gaze to a mangy little werewolf who was crouching off to one side, holding a mop, with a pail beside him. He wore nothing but his brown fur, patches of which were missing, and his tail dragged on the wet floor. I'd never thought I could feel sorry for a werewolf, but this one looked so miserable and pathetic, I couldn't help myself. Still, I guess every pack needs an omega. Freddy looked at me, his ears pricked up, and he grinned at the prospect of not being bottom dog anymore. I almost felt sad that I'd have to disappoint him. Almost.\n\tI turned back to Black Fang. \"That's very generous of you, sir!\" I said, nodding eagerly.\n\tHe merely grunted in response, then said, \"Now, let's see what is going on here!\" He began walking toward the mess hall, and I had to run to keep up with the strides of his long lupine legs.\n\tBy the time we arrived, several of the Dogz were writhing on the floor, groaning and clutching their stomachs, while the rest of the inmates and the kitchen staff looked on in confusion. The Elementalz and the remaining Dogz were already glaring at each other with open hostility. I searched for my companions and saw them standing together off to one side, watching the drama unfold.\n\tBlack Fang's jaw dropped. \"By the moon, you were telling the truth, runt!\" He grinned and ruffled my hair with one huge clawed hand. \"You are now a Dog. If anyone lays a finger on you, they answer to me!\"\n\t\"Gabba gabba, hey!\" I said, trying to sound enthusiastic.\n\tHe loped off toward the common room, and with a nod of my head I indicated to my companions that they should follow. Along with several other Dogz—including Freddy—Black Fang and I arrived in the common room. It was identical to the common room in A block, a cavernous space with multiple levels of cells ringing a large open area. Black Fang howled out a challenge. \"Ferd, you piece of inbred redneck mutant garbage! You think you can get away with poisoning my pack? I will rip your throat out!\"\n\t\"Bring it, Dog!\" shouted Ferd, grinning a gap-toothed grin down at him from three levels above. \"It's time you mutts were put in your place!\" He was a big, bald, muscular man, and clearly deformed. One of his arms was longer than the other, and his hands had only three thick fingers. He hailed from a region in the southwestern United States called Burning Sands, where nuclear testing in the 1950s had spawned numerous mutations, the most powerful being the giant, green-skinned, four-armed monster called Grond, who was possibly the strongest superhuman on the planet. Many of these mutants were perversely proud of their twisted bodies and had banded together into a cult dedicated to spreading the Word of the Atom, kidnapping normal humans and exposing them to radiation. Those who survived swelled the cult's ranks.\n\tBlack Fang snarled, bounded from the floor to the second level in one mighty leap, and began climbing up toward Ferd. In response, the mutant lobbed bolts of green radiation at the werewolf, which weakened but did not stop him. The room exploded into chaos as Dogz and Elementalz began mixing it up, fangs and claws being met with blasts of fire, ice, electricity, psionic energy, and radiation. While werewolves and mutants battled around me, I snuck away to rejoin my companions, and we made our way through the fighting toward the entrance to D block.\n\tFrom out of the doorway to D block charged a huge man dressed much like a Roman gladiator, with a bronze helmet, boots, and belt. A bronze pauldron and gauntlet adorned his left arm, while his right arm was bare. A scarlet loincloth hung down from his belt to his knees, and in his right hand he held a sword resembling a Roman gladius. Most strikingly, however, his entire body was covered in dull gray metal, which bore numerous nicks and gashes, mementos from past battles. I recognized him immediately as Drogen Lar from the planet Dorvala—on Earth, the Champion who called himself Ironclad, Ironkid's father—except that Multifaria's version of him had cruel-looking spikes on his pauldron, gauntlet, and boots.\n\t\"Ha ha!\" he bellowed in a deep, resonant voice as he rushed toward the fighting. \"At last, battle! My sword is thirsty!\" Then he saw us and stopped dead, his glowing yellow eyes staring at Ironkid. \"What . . . what is this?\"\n\tIronkid assumed a defensive stance, sword held horizontally above his head. \"Go on,\" he said calmly. \"I'll handle this.\"\n\t\"You don't really think we're going to let you fight him alone, do you?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"You can't hurt him,\" Ironkid replied. \"I'll keep him busy while the rest of you go into D block.\"\n\tI spoke up. \"Much as I hate to say it, Julie, he may be right. I don't think there's anything any of us could do to Ironclad.\"\n\tIronkid glared at me. \"Don't call him that! He's not worthy of that name!\" He turned back to Drogen Lar. \"Fight me!\"\n\tDrogen laughed haughtily. \"I came for glorious combat, not to train pups!\"\n\t\"Fight me!\" Ironkid demanded. \"I invoke the Code!\"\n\tDrogen's eyes narrowed. \"What do you know of the Code, boy?\"\n\t\"I know no Dorvalen Space Marine refuses a challenge to honorable combat! Or are you afraid?\"\n\tDrogen smirked. \"I have never been afraid.\"\n\t\"Then fight me!\"\n\tDrogen lowered himself into a combat crouch. \"Very well, boy. Let us see how long you last!\" He lunged with his blade, and there was a piercing clang of metal on metal as Ironkid first executed an odd, oblique parry that threw his opponent's sword way off its mark, and then whirled about, the tip of his blade carving a line across Drogen's metal chest. \n\tDrogen took a step back, clearly surprised. \"That was the [i]kala-makri[/i]!\" he gasped. \"I learned that move in the Malvan gladiatorial arena! Where did you learn it?\" \n\tIronkid grinned. \"Where I come from, they teach that move in kindergarten! Is that the best you've got?\"\n\tDrogen smiled and readied himself for another attack. \"Perhaps this will prove more entertaining than I thought!\"\n\tWith Drogen Lar preoccupied, the rest of us ran for the entrance to D block. I could see the looks of distress on Flora's and Nightfox's faces at the thought of leaving Ironkid behind. I couldn't read Dorgok's face, but his tongue was flickering, which might have meant he was upset as well, though I couldn't be sure. I didn't have an opportunity to ponder it, though, as suddenly something bowled into me and sent me skidding across the floor away from my companions—something brown and furry. \n\tI twisted around to find Freddy glaring down at me. \"No!\" he snarled. \"You can't go! I don't want to be omega anymore!\"\n\t\"Get the hell off me, you stupid mutt!\" I yelled, popping my claws. His attack had dispelled Flora's glamor, so my costume was visible once more. I tried to stab him with my claws, but he seized my wrists, and even though he was the bottom wolf of his pack, he was still exceptionally strong, a lot stronger than me.\n\tAs we struggled together on the floor, I heard a harsh electronic voice above us say, \"Unidentified entity detected!\" Freddy had knocked me right in front of one of the guardbots. And with my arms immobilized, I couldn't reach the EMP projector stuck in my belt.\n\t\"You idiot!\" I shouted at him. \"You're going to get us both caught!\" I looked over at the others. Nightfox and Flora were running toward me, but Freddy had knocked me quite a ways and the projectors had a very short range. They weren't going to make it. Dorgok was flying ahead of them, his EMP projector in his clawed hand. He [i]might[/i] arrive in time to disable the guardbot. I was rather surprised that he was even bothering to try.\n\t\"Activating teleportation procedure,\" the guardbot grated, and suddenly the world around us faded out of existence.\n\n\tWe materialized in a small room with bare concrete walls, surrounded by black-uniformed security guards. Freddy looked around, his ears flattening. \"I . . . I was trying to capture this traitor!\" he whined. \"Long live Citizen Harmon!\"\n\t\"Get off of him, mutt!\" one of the guards ordered, and Freddy immediately obeyed, letting go of my wrists and standing up. I got to my feet and looked around. There were ten guards, all of them armed with tasers and batons. I seriously doubted I could take them all down before they shocked me into unconsciousness.\n\t\"You're one of those terrorists who came through the portal in Conquerors Headquarters!\" one of the guards said.\n\t\"What gave it away?\" I asked with a smirk.\n\t\"Where do you come from?\" the guard demanded.\n\t\"Ross Bagdasarian's worst nightmare.\"\n\tHe fired his taser at me, and I fell to the floor, every muscle in my body locking up as my teeth clamped together. After a few seconds, when I could breathe again, he repeated his question.\n\t\"Where all manimals come from, you dimwit,\" I muttered. \"Monster Island.\"\n\t\"Only one manimal meeting your description has ever left Monster Island,\" the guard said, \"and you're not him.\"\n\t\"Well, then I guess I must not be here,\" I said. He fired his taser again, and I went rigid on the floor as the volts coursed through my body. Funny thing about electricity—it's not even painful. Just really, really uncomfortable.\n\t\"Take him to the interrogation room,\" the guard said. Two of his buddies picked me up and cuffed my hands behind my back while the others kept their tasers aimed at me. They marched me out the door and down a hall to another room. I didn't see what happened to Freddy. I imagine they patted him on his head, gave him a treat, and called him a good boy.\n\tThe interrogation room looked exactly as I expected it to—bare concrete walls, a chair with shackles for the wrists and ankles, and a table bearing a lot of painful-looking instruments of torture, all lit by a single naked bulb. It reminded me of the House of Pain on Monster Island, where Moreau had done unspeakable things to his creations. I'd never had to go through that experience, thankfully, as I'd enjoyed a privileged existence as what amounted to a house pet—until he'd sent me and my brothers to the fight pits—but I'd snuck in once to check it out when nobody was there. It had stunk of blood, and the floor had been sticky beneath my bare feet. There was no blood here, but there was a drain in the center of the floor. The guards shackled my legs to the chair and then carefully removed my cuffs, holding my arms securely. They tried to remove my gauntlets, but found they couldn't. There's a trick to that, and they didn't know it. So they just shackled my arms to the chair with me still wearing them. Then they went away. I sat there, unable to move, reviewing the mental techniques Nighthawk had taught me for resisting pain and drugs.\n\tThe door opened, and in walked a familiar figure in blue and black armor, huge goggles over his eyes. \"Hello, Alvin,\" said Dr. Sciuridae, his buck teeth gleaming as he grinned at me. \"I told you we'd meet again.\"\n\tI nodded. \"And I told you I'd be waiting.\"\n\tHe walked over to me, gazing down at me from behind his goggles. \"It's not hard to guess why you're here. You came to rescue the Old Man.\"\n\tI shrugged. \"Could be.\"\n\t\"He's not what you think he is, Alvin.\"\n\tI chuckled. \"And your Citizen Harmon, or Shadow Destroyer, or whatever he calls himself, isn't what you think he is, either.\"\n\tHe leaned forward, peering at me intently. \"What do you know about Shadow Destroyer?\"\n\t\"I know he draws his power from the Qliphoth, which means you're a fool to serve him.\"\n\t\"What makes you say that?\"\n\t\"Because I've been there! I've seen horrors you wouldn't believe, and I've seen what they do to the dimensions they conquer! Shadow Destroyer is going to suck your world dry like an orange and feed its husk to his masters, the Kings of Edom! My Simon was at least smart enough to realize when he was being used!\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae scowled. \"If your Simon was so smart, why is he so dead?\"\n\t\"Because he was gentle and kind. He decided he'd rather die than kill.\"\n\t\"Whereas you clearly opted for the latter path.\"\n\tI nodded. \"Sometimes I wish I'd been strong enough to follow Simon's path. But I wasn't. And I have to live with that every day.\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae smirked. \"Pacifism is a morally bankrupt philosophy, Alvin. A pacifist may refuse to fight, but that just means someone else dies in his place.\"\n\tI growled at him. \"Nobody died in my Simon's place. And I don't need a murdering psychopath like you lecturing me about morality.\"\n\t\"You're making a lot of assumptions about someone you know nothing about. As you pointed out, I'm not the Simon you remember.\"\n\t\"Then let's get to know each other a little better,\" I said. \"I heard Lapis Lazuli call you '[i]mi amor[/i].' Was that just a term of endearment, or are you and she an actual couple?\"\n\tHe stared at me, clearly surprised by the turn the conversation had suddenly taken. \"What's it to you?\"\n\t\"I'm just curious. My Simon never had a girlfriend. He was too shy.\"\n\tHe shrugged. \"We have a thing.\"\n\t\"Do you love her?\"\n\tHe snarled and seized my arms, his nose inches from mine. \"I don't feel the need to share my personal life with you, 'brother!'\"\n\tI fixed my eyes on his. \"I asked because if you do love her, you won't want to see her sucked into the Qliphoth along with everything else.\"\n\t\"You still haven't convinced me that's going to happen.\"\n\t\"It [i]will[/i] happen, 'brother,' because that's what the Kings of Edom do! They're like cosmic locusts, going from dimension to dimension, eating them like popcorn. And if Shadow Destroyer serves them, then that's what he has planned for this dimension! He doesn't care about you or anyone else! Only his masters! He wants to free them, and if he has to feed them a trillion souls to do it, he will!\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae glared at me, and I could see anger and uncertainty warring on his tan-furred face. I didn't get a chance to find out which would have won, however, as suddenly that face went blank and his eyes glowed with magenta light. It was an effect I'd seen before, in people under the control of psionic powers.\n\t\"Simon?\" I asked. \"Simon?\" No response. He was completely entranced. I decided to take advantage of his incapacitation, as whoever was doing this to him probably wouldn't be able to do it for long. I slipped a lockpick hidden in my right glove into my fingers and began working on the shackle holding my right arm. In a matter of seconds, my arm was free. I quickly removed the other shackles and hopped down off the torture chair. Then I paused a moment, gazing at Dr. Sciuridae. He was still frozen, utterly helpless. No, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. Maybe in the heat of battle. Maybe. But not like this. I sat him down in the chair, shackled his hands and feet, and left the room.\n\tI ran through the prison, following the signs toward D block. Everywhere I went, I saw guards and inmates standing motionless, their eyes glowing magenta. Whoever was doing this was controlling dozens of minds at once, possibly hundreds. There were only one or two mentalists on Earth with that kind of power. Of course, this wasn't Earth, it was Multifaria; so it might be this world's version of one of them, or it might be someone entirely new. I skirted a guardbot as it continued to perform its duties, its electronic brain immune to psionics, and kept heading toward D block.\n\tI rounded a corner and almost ran right into Ironkid. He was leaning against a wall, panting, his costume in tatters, and was bleeding from several gashes in his metallic skin. He lifted his head and looked at me, his long black hair hanging in his face. \"Hey, Nightmunk! Nice to see you again!\"\n\t\"Likewise,\" I said. \"You look like you've taken a beating.\"\n\tHe nodded. \"It was a hell of a fight! My dad would always hold back when we'd spar, but this Drogen went for broke! I took everything he could dish out and gave it all back to him, plus interest!\" He grinned proudly, his bare metal chest heaving.\n\tI took a coagulant and anesthetic spray from my belt and treated his wounds. \"Did you beat him?\" I asked.\n\tIronkid frowned. \"I didn't get the chance. Something froze him in the middle of our battle! I could have killed him, but that wouldn't have been honorable. So I just clonked him on his head and knocked him out.\"\n\tI nodded. \"Commendable. Looks like you'll have some nice scars in that metal hide of yours to impress your dad with when you get home.\"\n\tHe grinned again. \"My dad says a scar gained in battle is a badge of honor!\"\n\tI chuckled. \"He would. Come on, let's rejoin the others!\" Together, we ran toward D block.\n\tWe entered a large, dimly-lit room with a recessed floor made up of rings of concentric levels that grew smaller as you went down, like an amphitheater. Each ring held transparent cylinders eight feet tall, containing humanoid forms suspended in liquid. There was a similar chamber in Stronghold Prison, the superpowered detention facility in New Mexico back on Earth. There, it was used for prisoners whose powers made them too dangerous to allow to remain conscious, so instead they were kept in an induced coma known as hot sleep. The legality of hot sleep had been challenged on several occasions, opponents claiming that it violated the prisoner's civil rights and the Eighth Amendent's proscription against cruel and usual punishment. Advocates countered that the only other way to protect the public from these individuals was to kill them, so hot sleep, regrettable as it was, constituted the lesser of two evils. It remained a contentious issue, even within the superhero community. I wasn't entirely comfortable with it myself, but I couldn't think of any better solution to the problem. I was at least glad I lived in a society where there was a debate about it, as opposed to Multifaria, where civil rights didn't exist and no debate was permitted.\n\tThe cylinder at the very bottom level of the amphitheater had been broken, and two figures were kneeling beside it, but in the dim light I couldn't make out who they were. Ironkid and I ran down the stairs to them. One was a young man with short red hair. The other was a young woman with long pink hair, her hand on the young man's shoulder. They were both wearing yellow prison jumpsuits, and their eyes blazed with magenta light. I recognized them as Simon Poe and Stacy Turner. On Earth, they went by the names Psimon and Mind Slayer. Psimon was the leader of a criminal organization of psionics called the Parapsychological Studies Institute, or PSI. Mind Slayer was his chief enforcer and assassin, as well as his lover. I'd fought both of them on several occasions, most recently during a trip to an other-dimensional world called Zoolok populated by talking animals not unlike myself.\n\tSimon didn't appear to be aware of us, his brow furrowed with concentration. However, Stacy looked up at us. Without the sneer of contempt and disdain I was used to seeing on it, her face was actually quite pretty. \"Your friends broke us both out of hot sleep,\" she said in a strained voice, answering the question I'd been about to ask. \"They're headed for the Super-Max cell. You can still catch up with them, but please hurry. Even with my powers reinforcing his, Simon can hold everyone for only so long.\"\n\tI nodded. \"Thank you, Stacy,\" I said.\n\t\"Long live the Resistance!\" she replied, through clenched teeth.\n \tIronkid and I ran up the stairs to the other side of the hot sleep chamber and then down a series of corridors, past dozens of paralyzed guards, until we finally rounded a corner and saw the entrance to the Super-Max cell in front of us, a massive steel vault door that wouldn't have been out of place in Fort Knox. Before it stood Nightfox, Flora, Dorgok, and Nathan Hutton. \"Alvin!\" Julie cried, running to meet me. We threw our arms around each other and held each other close. I'd never felt anything so good. \"I was afraid we'd lost you!\"\n\t\"You're not getting rid of me that easy,\" I said, nuzzling her cheek through her mask. She pulled up her mask to uncover her mouth and kissed my muzzle hard.\n\t\"Let me help you, Borlan,\" said Flora, coming over to Ironkid and making little flowers bloom around his wounds, closing them up.\n\t\"Will the scars still be there?\" he asked anxiously.\n\tShe nodded. \"I fear so. I can only make wounds heal faster, not better.\"\n\tHe grinned. \"Good!\"\n\t\"Good?\" she asked, staring at him.\n\t\"He wants them so he can impress girls,\" I said, smirking.\n\t\"I do not!\" Ironkid retorted. \"I want to show them to my dad, so he can see I'm a real warrior!\"\n\tFlora rolled her eyes. \"Men!\"\n\t\"Being wounded in battle is a sign of incompetence,\" said Dorgok, \"not proficiency.\"\n\t\"Then Alvin must be really incompetent,\" said Julie, \"because he's got scars all over him!\" We both grinned at each other and hugged again.\n\t\"I hate to break up this happy reunion,\" said Hutton, \"but we came here for a reason.\" He stuck a security card into a slot by the door and keyed in a passcode. Slowly, the huge door began to grind open. \"This is as far as I go. I don't want my image to be captured by the security cameras inside. That way, if things don't work out . . .\"\n\t\"If things don't work out,\" I said, \"I doubt it's going to matter much if anyone knows you helped us or not. Anyway, how, exactly, are we supposed to get the Old Man out of here?\"\n\t\"Don't worry,\" said Hutton, \"he'll take care of that. Good luck!\" He turned and began walking away.\n\t\"What do you mean?\" I asked his back.\n\t\"You'll see soon enough,\" he replied, walking faster.\n\t\"I don't like this, Alvin,\" said Nightfox, as the door continued to grind open.\n\t\"Neither do I,\" I said.\n\t\"I have suspected from the start that there was something the Resistance was not telling us,\" said Dorgok, tongue flickering.\n\t\"That's because you don't trust anyone,\" Flora admonished him.\n\t\"No, I do not, because I am not a fool.\"\n\t\"That is highly debatable,\" said Flora.\n\tI nodded. \"Anyone who serves the Kings of Edom is either a fool or insane.\"\n\tThe door had opened wide enough that we could get through, and we entered the Super-Max cell. It was a large room, brightly lit, with consoles covering each wall. In the center, floating in a large cylinder much like those in the hot sleep chamber, was an elderly, white-haired human male in a yellow prison jumpsuit. I couldn't quite make out his features through the distorting effects of the the fluid he was suspended in, but there was something familiar about him. I didn't have a chance to look closer, though, as there was a sudden flash of light, and before us floated a young woman with long red hair. She wore a black sleeveless tunic with gold trim, a gold tiara, a belt made of gold discs, gold boots that rose to the knees of her bare legs, gold bracers, and black gloves. Down her back trailed a long cloak made of strips of purple fabric. I recognized her face as that of Witchcraft, the Champions' resident sorceress, but her eyes glowed with the same purple light I'd seen in Oubliette's eyes—the light of the Qliphoth.\n\t\"I am Warden Arcana,\" she announced, her voice echoing hollowly, \"Shadow Destroyer's apprentice! Prepare to die!\"\n\t\"Spread out!\" I ordered, and my allies did so, Dorgok and Flora moving off to my left while Nightfox and Ironkid went to the right. I wasn't exactly sure what we'd be facing here, but I knew Witchcraft cast a lot of spells that had wide areas of effect, so we'd have a better chance if we weren't bunched together.\n\tArcana surveyed us with a haughty expression as she hovered in the air before us. \"Children and manimals? This is what the Resistance sends against me? Pathetic!\"\n\t\"I am no manimal!\" shouted Dorgok. \"I am a Lemurian!\" A massive bolt of lightning shot from his clawed hands, striking Arcana. An aura of purple energy crackled to life around her, absorbing it.\n\t\"Stupid lizard!\" she sneered. \"I command the power of the Qliphothic realm! I've killed heroes before, and I'll kill you too!\" She raised her hand and a purple bolt shot from it, striking Dorgok dead center. The Lemurian boy staggered, fell to the floor, and lay motionless, smoke rising from his chest.\n\t\"Dorgok!\" cried Flora, running to him and casting her healing spell, causing little flowers to bloom all over his body. Ironkid, Nightfox, and I took advantage of the distraction to charge Arcana. \"To victory!\" the metal-skinned boy yelled, leaping toward her, his sword raised high. He brought it down hard, striking at Arcana, but with that purple aura protecting her, she barely seemed to notice. Nightfox and I struck her with staff and claws, respectively, achieving no greater success. Her aura flared, and all three of us were hurled away, Nightfox and I landing on our feet while Ironkid was sprawled on his back. First round to Arcana.\n\tI glanced at the cylinder containing the Old Man. It appeared to be surrounded by some kind of shimmering force field with a console outside it. Arcana noticed my glance and grinned. \"You think you can free the Old Man, manimal? Think again! His prison is protected by an impenetrable force field controlled from that console, and the only way to it is through me!\"\n\tIt was hard seeing her like this, almost as hard as it was seeing Simon as Dr. Sciuridae. Witchcraft had always been kind to me, helping me through some difficult moments. She'd taught me how to find peace within myself when my anger and sorrow threatened to overwhelm me. In some ways, she'd been almost as important to me as Julie. I looked over at Dorgok, who was being helped to his feet by Flora. \"Thank you,\" he said.\n\t\"You should be more careful,\" she admonished him.\n\tDorgok hissed in the Lemurian equivalent of a laugh. \"I believe, as the humans say, that ship has sailed.\"\n\t\"It could always turn around,\" Flora said.\n\tThe Lemurian boy looked at her strangely for a moment, then turned his attention back to Arcana.\n\tI sent a smoke bomb rolling across the floor toward Arcana, and it detonated directly beneath her, engulfing her in a thick column of inky black smoke. With any luck, it would buy us a few seconds to get close to her while she was blinded. Ironkid, Nightfox, and I charged her again, while Dorgok fired another lightning bolt and Flora hurled a glob of some kind of green liquid at her. I slashed with my claws, Nightfox struck with her staff, and Ironkid hacked with his sword, and this time it actually seemed to have an effect on her, as she cried out in pain. So she [i]could[/i] be hurt. That was encouraging.\n\tHer purple aura flared again, hurling us away from her, and she glared at us furiously. \"You worms are not worthy of my attention! I will let my minions deal with you!\" She uttered an incantation, and a blossom of purple energy expanded out from her. I could still dimly make out her silhouette floating motionless inside it.\n\t\"She has opened a rift to the Qliphoth!\" cried Dorgok.\n\t\"Any idea what might come through?\" I asked.\n\t\"None, but it is unlikely to be anything good.\"\n\tI smirked up at him. \"Tell me something I don't know. Nothing good ever comes from that place!\"\n\tSomething came shambling out of the rift. It was human-sized, squat and powerfully built, with clawed hands and feet. Its body was transparent purple, and its face had no discernible features.\n\t\"A riftling!\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"What the hell is a riftling?\" Nightfox asked.\n\t\"A piece of Qliphothic energy given a semblance of life. My mother used to summon them for various tasks.\"\n\t\"Are they dangerous?\" I asked.\n\t\"Not especially, unless there are a lot of them.\" As he spoke, another one came through the rift. Then another. And another.\n\t\"Start taking them out before we're buried!\" I shouted, and hurled one of my throwing blades at the riftling nearest me. The blade tore through the creature, dispersing it, but more were coming through the rift at an alarming rate. Ironkid was laying into them with his sword, as was Nightfox with her staff, while Dorgok was blasting them right and left and Flora was strangling them with vines, and still they kept coming. One jumped on top of me, pinning me to the floor, and its claws raked across my armor. I plunged my talons into its sides, and it evaporated, but I barely had time to get to my feet before two more were on me. I was forced to retreat, slashing at them with my claws as they pursued me.\n\t\"There are too many!\" I shouted. \"Form a circle!\" Nightfox and I linked up with Dorgok and Flora, the four of us standing back to back, while riftlings closed in from all sides. Ironkid was cut off from the rest of us, surrounded. They didn't seem to be able to hurt him, but he'd been overwhelmed by sheer numbers to the point where he couldn't move. He kept hacking at them with his sword, but it was like fighting an avalanche. Eventually, he disappeared beneath a wave of purple.\n\t\"Borlan!\" cried Flora, sending streamers of vines toward him, piercing and dispersing a dozen riftlings, which were replaced almost immediately.\n\t\"How many of these things can she summon?\" Nightfox muttered, swinging her staff in wide arcs. I could tell from her voice that she was getting tired.\n\t\"They draw their power from the rift,\" Dorgok replied, blasting more riftlings. \"The more she summons, the weaker it gets.\"\n\t\"So if we kill enough of them, the rift will collapse?\" I asked.\n\t\"Correct.\"\n\t\"How many is enough?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"I do not know.\"\n\t\"Well, if this keeps up much longer,\" I said, \"we're all going to drop from exhaustion!\"\n\tDorgok nodded. \"That seems likely.\"\n\t\"There must be something we can do!\" said Flora.\n\t\"There is,\" said Dorgok. He flew up above us, sparks crackling around his body. \"Get down!\" Nightfox, Flora, and I hit the floor as Dorgok exploded into a huge ball of lightning, a webwork of crackling blue-white streams dancing over the riftlings, arcing from one to the other, piercing and dispersing them. My fur stood on end, and the air reeked of ozone—a smell like a cross between gunpowder and bleach—which made me choke.\n\tThe crackling stopped, and I raised my head and looked up in time to see Dorgok plummet to the floor and land with a thud, unconscious. The riftlings and the rift that had spawned them were gone. Arcana was floating where the rift had been, looking somewhat surprised as the rest of us got to our feet. Ironkid was unhurt, but there was nothing left of his costume save for a few scraps of red cloth barely keeping him decent. Flora ran over to Dorgok, crouching beside him and trying to heal him. I turned toward Arcana, grinning wearily but triumphantly at her. \"I think that round goes to us.\"\n\tArcana just glared at me. Clearly, she wasn't accustomed to losing even one round of a battle. She raised her arms and chanted, \"Essence of Chaos, heed my call!\" Then she brought her arms down quickly, and something appeared in the air before her. It was black, the black of a cave miles underground that had never been touched by light. It was shaped like a humanoid torso that ended at the waist, beneath which were only wisps of black mist. Its head bore several spikes pointing straight up, and its shoulders flared out as if it were wearing pauldrons. Its blackness was interrupted only by glowing purple orbs on its arms, on its shoulders, in the center of its chest, and where its eyes should have been. At the end of its long arms, its fingers terminated in curved black talons. \"I claim your essence as my own, demon!\" said Arcana. \"Fight for me and feast upon my enemies!\" Then she pointed at me. \"Kill that one first!\"\n\tThe demon spoke in a deep, sonorous voice. \"As you command it, so it shall be, Mistress.\" It began moving toward me.\n\tI drew a throwing blade from my belt as the demon advanced, but as I was about to hurl it, Arcana gestured and uttered an incantation, and purple tendrils rose from the ground, wrapping around my arms and legs and holding me fast. I strained against them, trying to break free as the demon bore down on me. Fortunately, Nightfox and Ironkid came to my rescue, interposing themselves between me and the demon. \"Hands off, ugly!\" Nightfox said, swinging her staff and striking the demon in the head, which made it grunt. I had to admire Julie. All this craziness was still new to her, but she was handling it like a pro.\n\tThe demon took a swipe at her with its huge clawed hand, but she danced out of its reach, and Ironkid took advantage of the opening to jab with his sword, burying the tip in the demon's side. It howled in pain and struck at him, its claws raking across his metal chest. I gritted my teeth, straining every muscle in my body against the tendrils binding me, and felt the ones holding my arms snap. I used my claws to free my legs, the tendrils severing easily. \"Can you hold that thing?\" I asked Ironkid. The boy just nodded, parrying as the demon flailed at him. I turned to Nightfox. \"Let's take down Arcana!\" \n\tNightfox nodded, and we charged toward Arcana while she floated before us, scowling. \"I will not be undone by a manimal!\" said the sorceress, firing a bolt of Qliphothic energy at me.\n\t\"I'm surprised at you, Bethany!\" I said, dodging her attack. \"One of your fellow Conquerors is a manimal!\"\n\t\"That worshipper of technology?\" she sneered. \"He belongs back on Monster Island with the rest of his misbegotten kind, dancing naked around a campfire!\" She shot a blast at Nightfox, who dodged it easily.\n\t\"Lapis Lazuli doesn't seem to think so,\" Nightfox said, moving warily toward her while I did the same from the opposite side, forcing her to split her attention between us.\n\t\"Lapis Lazuli is a whore who will lie with anything that moves!\" Arcana growled. \"It's not surprising she would take a manimal into her bed!\"\n\t\"What about Shadow Destroyer?\" I asked, grinning at her. \"Is he teaching you more than just magic?\"\n\tHer eyes flashed. \"Our relationship transcends the physical!\"\n\tNightfox chuckled. \"In other words, no nookie.\"\n\tArcana made a furious sound and fired another bolt at Nightfox, who dodged it. While Arcana's attention was on Julie, I launched myself at the sorceress and slashed at her with my claws. She cried out in pain as red gashes appeared on her left arm, and whirled on me, blasting me and sending me flying away from her. My armor soaked up most of the damage, but I still landed on my back, stunned.\n\t\"Alvin!\" Nightfox cried, running toward me. Arcana fired another bolt at her, and it struck, knocking her off her feet.\n\t\"In your concern for your companion, you forgot the first rule of combat!\" Arcana gloated. \"Never take your eyes off your opponent!\" She raised her hands, building up a pair of powerful Qliphothic bolts to finish us both off with.\n\tAll at once, vines sprouted from the floor beneath Arcana, snaking around her body and binding her arms. \"Enough, Arcana!\" said Flora, standing with one arm raised. \"This ends now!\"\n\tArcana grinned at her with malicious delight. \"Foolish child! You dare pit your powers against mine?\"\n\t\"I am fey,\" said Flora calmly. \"My magic comes from light and life. Yours comes from darkness and death. Let us see which is the stronger.\"\n\tArcana's aura flared, tearing apart the vines holding her. \"This is Multifaria, child,\" she said, her eyes blazing purple as her body crackled with Qliphothic energy. \"And in Multifaria, darkness is all!\" \n\tShe lashed out with a purple bolt, and Flora countered by spinning a shield of leaves and vines before her, absorbing it. Then Flora raised her arms, and the floor around Arcana erupted with whiplike vines covered with thorns that slashed across her body, leaving bloody trails in their wakes.\n\t\"Argh!\" Arcana cried out, clearly in pain. \"Essence of Chaos, I claim your power!\" She gestured at the demon that was still fighting Ironkid, and the thing dissolved into a stream of purple mist that flowed back to Arcana, healing her wounds. She grinned at Flora savagely. \"I said you were a fool to think you could beat me, child!\" She raised her hands, building up another Qliphothic bolt.\n\t\"Heads up,\" said Flora, smiling. \n\tArcana whirled, and her eyes went wide as she saw Ironkid sailing through the air toward her, sword held above his head in both hands, point downward. The boy plunged the tip of his sword into her chest, bearing her to the ground beneath him, the impact driving the blade through her back and into the floor. \"Die, witch!\" Ironkid growled, twisting his sword a few times for good measure, then pulling it free and standing over her corpse triumphantly, his blade dripping scarlet, his metal chest heaving.\n\tI got to my feet, a little shaken by how brutally Ironkid had killed Arcana, but I reminded myself we were playing for keeps here. She'd made it quite clear that she intended to kill all of us, and had almost done so. \"Good work, everyone,\" I said. I turned to Dorgok, who was coming over to join us. \"Thanks for taking out that rift, Dorgok. I don't think we could have beaten her if you hadn't.\"\n\tThe Lemurian boy looked down at his claw-toed feet and rubbed behind his head, seeming uncomfortable at my praise. \"You are welcome,\" he said at last, quietly. Then his golden eyes went wide as Flora threw her arms around his scaley chest and hugged him.\n\t\"We'll make a hero out of you yet!\" she said, smiling at him.\n\tDorgok's tongue flickered as he pushed her away. \"Do not be absurd! I have no desire to be a hero! In any case, that maneuver drained all my energy. It will take hours for me to recover. Until then, I fear I will be of little use.\"\n\t\"Hopefully,\" I said, \"once we've done what we came here to do, that won't matter.\" \n\tI walked over to the console that Arcana had said controlled the forcefield around the cylinder the Old Man was floating in. The controls appeared simple enough to operate. I deactivated the field, drained the cylinder of its life-sustaining fluids, and opened it. The Old Man staggered out, his yellow prison jumpsuit dripping wet. I could see his face clearly now—white-haired, with a high domed forehead, prominent cheekbones, ice-blue eyes, and thin lips. I put his age at around eighty. There was something damnably familiar about him, but I still couldn't place him. \"Hello, sir,\" I said. \"I'm Nightmunk, and these are Nightfox, Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok. We've come to rescue you.\"\n\tHe looked at each of us in turn. Then without a word he pushed past us, walking with a slight limp, and went over to a large steel door in one wall. He tapped in a code on a keypad beside it, and the door slid open. He went inside, and the door slid shut behind him.\n\t\"Thanks for rescuing me!\" said Nightfox indignantly.\n\t\"You said it!\" said Ironkid, frowning.\n\t\"That was very rude!\" said Flora. \n\tI didn't say anything. Something about the Old Man was really bugging me, and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't figure out what it was. Then the door slid open, a tall figure strode out, and my blood turned to ice water in my veins. \"Oh god, no!\" I gasped.\n\t\"It's . . . it's not possible!\" protested Nightfox.\n\tIronkid and Flora were speechless. Only Dorgok was spared. He'd been raised in the Qliphoth and had no idea who he was looking at, or why it should cause such a reaction in the rest of us.\n\tHe was armored from head to toe, with a silver breastplate and helmet, black arms and legs, and gold gauntlets, pauldrons, belt, and boots. His helmet was topped by a gold crown ringed with spikes pointing upward. His breastplate bore a familiar twin-pronged device, and a long, scarlet cape flowed down his back. He stopped before us and laughed, a laugh that haunted the worst nightmares of almost everyone on Earth.\n\t\"At last!\" he declared, in a deep, gravelly voice. \"The true Destroyer has returned!\"\n\tWe all just stood there, staring at him: Albert Zerstoiten, son of a Bavarian dollmaker, the most feared man in history. A child prodigy who had earned two doctorates by the age of twenty, he'd served as a scientist in the Third Reich, inventing brilliant, deadly weapons for the Nazis, and then sold out his masters when it became clear that they were going to lose. After the war, he'd worked briefly for the U.S.'s atomic weapons program, devising more things that killed people, before relocating to the jungles of South America, where he'd set up his own criminal empire, financed by sales of advanced weaponry, and become the supervillain known as Doctor Destroyer. He'd tried to conquer the world several times, and for three months back in 1984 he had actually succeeded, using mind control satellites to enslave almost everyone on Earth to his will. His ruthless attack on Detroit in 1992 had reduced most of that city to rubble, killing tens of thousands of innocent people. More than a dozen heroes had perished before he'd finally been defeated for what everyone had hoped was the last time. \n\tApparently, everyone had been wrong.\n\tHe glanced at Arcana's body, gave a contemptuous grunt, and then turned his gaze on us, examining each of us in turn. It was hard not to feel like a bug under a microscope before him. \"I know you,\" he said finally. \"You and I are of the same Earth.\"\n\tI swallowed and found my voice. \"How . . . how did you know that?\"\n\t\"Elementary. One of you is a Lemurian. There are no Lemurians on Multifaria. Only Karkaradons.\"\n\tDorgok blinked. \"No Lemurians?\"\n\tDestroyer's eyes focused on me, and I tried not to flinch. \"You are a manimal, one of Moreau's creations, like that upstart Dr. Sciuridae.\" He turned his gaze to Ironkid. \"And you bear a marked resemblance to Drogen Lar.\"\n\t\"I am the son of our Earth's version of him,\" said Ironkid proudly. \"There, he is a hero!\"\n\tDestroyer chuckled ominously. \"Excellent! The time has come to end this charade! You will help me take my revenge upon this inter-dimensional interloper, this Shadow Destroyer, who has dared to steal my technology and imprison me like a slave!\" He clenched his gauntleted fist. \"Together, we will send him screaming back to Qliphoth!\"\n\t\"And why would we help you,\" Flora demanded angrily, \"when we know who you are and what you've done?\"\n\tDestroyer looked at her in apparent surprise. \"Why? Because you are heroes.\" He managed to make the word sound like a sneering insult. \"Because if you don't, the Resistance will fall, thousands will die, and Shadow Destroyer will once again turn his eye toward our world. You need my aid to defeat him, here in the heart of his power. You may hate me for my past actions, but you cannot deny that what I say is true. So speaks Doctor Destroyer!\"\n\tI couldn't help myself. His pomposity was just too much for me. I spoke up. \"You want some mustard with that ham, Zerstoiten?\"\n\tHe turned his helmeted head and gazed down at me, and I immediately regretted opening my big mouth. Destroyer's tendency to casually murder anyone who annoyed him was well known. A chill ran down my spine as he regarded me with those pitiless eyes for a long, terrifying moment. Then, he finally spoke. \"You have helped free me from captivity, manimal. In return, I shall refrain from blasting you to atoms for your impudence. Let it never be said that Destroyer does not pay his debts. Now, cease your feeble attempts at humor and let us attend to the task at hand!\" And with that, he turned and began striding toward the wall.\n\tMy cheek stung as Nightfox smacked me across it. \"You idiot!\" she hissed. \"What the hell were you thinking? This isn't some bush-league supervillain, it's Doctor-freaking-Destroyer! You know, the guy who flattened the city we both live in? He could have killed you just now! If you don't care about your own life, at least think about me!\"\n\tI swallowed and looked down, unable to meet her eyes. She was right, of course. Taunting Destroyer had been a stupid, selfish, irresponsible thing to do, and I felt ashamed of myself for having done it. I raised my eyes to hers and said, in a small voice, \"I'm sorry.\"\n\t\"You damn well better be!\" she shot back. Yeah, she was furious with me right now, and I absolutely deserved it.\n\tDestroyer raised his arms and fired a massive bolt of energy at the wall of the SuperMax cell. There was a deafening blast, and when the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the wall big enough to drive a bus through. Without waiting for us, Destroyer flew through the opening into the blood-red Multifarian sky. The rest of us followed, clambering over a dozen feet of steel-reinforced concrete.\n\tThe scene outside was not encouraging. Destroids of every kind were converging on the prison from all directions, and in the sky above them floated the purple-and-gold armored figure of Shadow Destroyer. Apparently, he'd finally decided we were worthy of his attention.\n\tDoctor Destroyer flew up to him, and the two villains faced off against each other in midair. \"James Harmon!\" Destroyer declared. \"Face me!\"\n\t\"Albert Zerstoiten,\" Shadow Destroyer replied, his voice sounding distorted and mushy, as if it were passing through an electronic filter. \"I had hoped to keep you alive a bit longer. Your Destroids have proved to be useful servants.\"\n\tDestroyer laughed. \"So useful that you brought my army into your city! You are a fool, Citizen Harmon! With this armor once again in my rightful possession, I take back what you have stolen!\" He tapped a control on his left wrist, and every Destroid in sight stopped moving and stood silent.\n\t\"I, a fool?\" asked Shadow Destroyer, with mock offense. \"You are nothing but a builder of toys, Zerstoiten, like your father before you! Your armor is merely metal. Mine is the glorious child of magic and science! I wield powers you cannot imagine!\"\n\t\"You will need them, Harmon!\" Destroyer replied, his hands starting to crackle with energy. \"Prepare to face the boundless wrath of Doctor Destroyer!\"\n\t\"It's a ham-off!\" said Nightfox, staring up at them.\n\tI nodded. \"With two supervillains, you get twice the monologuing.\"\n\t\"And with six, you get eggroll,\" said Nightfox.\n\tDorgok looked at her strangely. \"Eggroll?\"\n\tDestroyer struck out at his adversary with an energy bolt worthy of Zeus, so bright it hurt to look at. A dark portal opened before Shadow Destroyer and absorbed the bolt, then spat it back out. It struck Destroyer and knocked him into the side of a nearby building, caving it in and causing it to collapse on top of him. \n\tWe all ducked down as a huge cloud of dust rolled over us. \"Holy shit!\" Ironkid managed to choke out, coughing.\n\t\"That was impressive,\" I said, covering my muzzle with my cape.\n\t\"Painfully predictable, Zerstoiten,\" Shadow Destroyer said to the heap of rubble. \"Clearly, you have learned nothing since our last encounter.\"\n\tSome of the debris slid aside, and Doctor Destroyer climbed out into the scarlet sunlight, looking uninjured save for his pride. He looked over at us. \"Well?\" he said. \"Must I do everything? I have given you all the tools you need!\" He gestured to the deactivated Destroids standing nearby. \"Pilot my Mega-Destroids to the Renaissance Center and destroy the dimensional anchors that stabilize his portal to the Qliphoth! I will keep him occupied!\" He launched himself into the air, rocketing back toward Shadow Destroyer.\n\t\"He might have bothered explaining what the plan was,\" grumbled Nightfox.\n\t\"He probably thought it was so obvious he didn't need to,\" I replied. \"Come on, let's grab some Mega-Ds!\" I began running toward the inert robotic behemoth nearest to me.\n\tAs I mentioned before, Mega-Destroids are humanoid robots thirty feet tall, armed with a variety of weapons: rocket launchers, flame throwers, particle cannons, sonic projectors, neat stuff like that. I hadn't known they could be piloted, but it made sense. Dr. D always had contingency plans; therefore, he'd evidently designed the Mega-Destroids so his human agents could operate them in the event that their software was compromised.\n\tI fired my grapple gun, latched onto one of the twin prongs atop the robot's head, and hit the retract button, reeling myself upward. A hatch in the thing's back yawned partly open, inviting entry. I obliged, climbing inside and plopping down into a pilot's seat. I took a moment to assess the controls. They were much like those of a tank, with two levers to control speed and direction of movement. There were four video monitors which had activated the moment my butt hit the seat, displaying what was happening to the front, back, right, and left of me. All the weapon systems were clearly labeled. Operating the thing seemed pretty straightforward, so I donned the headset that hung beside the seat and switched it on. \"This is Nightmunk in Mega-D One,\" I said. \"Anyone copy?\"\n\t\"This is Nightfox in Mega-D Two,\" I heard Nightfox say. \"I read you, Alvin.\"\n\t\"Ironkid in Mega-D Three,\" came Ironkid's voice, sounding excited. \"Hey, how come you get to be Mega-D One, Nightmunk?\"\n\tI grinned. \"Because I'm the leader, of course.\"\n\t\"What difference does it make?\" Dorgok complained. \"We all know who we are. This naming convention is pointless.\"\n\t\"Yeah, but it's cool,\" I replied.\n\t\"Yes,\" said Flora, \"stop being such a wet blanket, Dorgok!\"\n\t\"Everyone got the controls figured out?\" I asked.\n\t\"I think so,\" said Nightfox.\n\t\"Yeah, no problem,\" said Ironkid. \"It's just like playing Fight Area. I kick ass at that game! I even beat my dad!\"\n\tThe thought of the sober, dignified Ironclad trying to beat his son's score at a video game made me giggle. \"Okay, Mega-D Force, to the RenCen!\" \n\tI pulled on the levers, and my Mega-Destroid wheeled around and began walking toward the Renaissance Center, the others following my lead. Even though we were moving fairly fast, the robots looked as if they were walking in slow motion, due to their long stride length.\n\t\"I feel like I'm in one of those cartoons where a bunch of Japanese teenagers are piloting robot animals, or something,\" said Nightfox.\n\t\"Yeah!\" said Ironkid. \"And they can all combine to form one big robot!\"\n\t\"I don't think these things are capable of that,\" I said, \"though I wouldn't put it past Dr. D.\" In my forward monitor, I could see New Harmon security forces streaming toward us from the RenCen: robot tanks and helicopters, along with hordes of black-uniformed secret police. \"We've got company at twelve o'clock!\"\n\t\"But the house is a mess!\" Ironkid said in mock dismay.\n\t\"Then let's clean things up a bit, shall we?\" I said, aiming my particle cannon at one of the helicopters and firing. A white-hot beam lanced from my robot to the helicopter, which began trailing smoke and then exploded in midair. My companions fired at other helicopters, shooting them down as well. I had to admit, this was kind of fun. It helped knowing there was nobody inside those things.\n\tMy robot shook as the tanks retaliated, firing shells that exploded when they hit. I remembered reading that Mega-Destroids were made of an extremely tough alloy that Destroyer himself had invented, called destreum, because what else would he call it? They could withstand a fair amount of punishment, but they were hardly indestructible, as the heroes of Millennium City had demonstrated countless times. I targeted a group of tanks with my rocket launcher and sent a barrage of missiles spiraling toward them, detonating and blowing them to smithereens. Yeah, this was fun.\n\t\"Use the sonic projectors on the police,\" I instructed my allies. \"Let's try to keep casualities to a minimum.\" It was naive to think that someone wasn't going to be killed, what with all these explosions hurling chunks of burning metal everywhere, but at least we could do our best to avoid unnecessary deaths.\n\t\"Roger that!\" said Nightfox, blanketing a nearby group of security men with waves of high-frequency sound, which laid them out unconscious but unharmed. Unfortunately, another group wasn't feeling nearly so merciful as we were trying to be, firing shoulder-mounted rockets and energy weapons at her Mega-D and causing explosions to blossom all over it.\n\t\"Nightfox, are you okay?\" I asked anxiously.\n\t\"Not really!\" she replied. \"There's smoke in here and a lot of warning lights are going off!\"\n\t\"Withdraw and activate the self-repair diagnostic!\" I shouted. \"I'll cover your retreat!\" \n\tI moved to interpose myself between Nightfox and the ground forces shooting at her. Again, my robot appeared to be moving painfully slowly. A burst from my sonic projector put the men down, but I could see that there were more helicopters closing on me fast. I gritted my teeth as their missiles impacted on my robot, shaking me like one of James Bond's martinis.\n\t\"Hold on, Nightmunk!\" said Ironkid, as he, Flora and Dorgok picked off the helicopters with their particle cannons.\n\t\"Much obliged,\" I said as the last of the helicopters dropped. Now that I had some breathing room I activated my robot's own self-repair diagnostic, and it stood motionless, all its power going toward fixing whatever damage had been inflicted on it. Much as I hated to give Albert Zerstoiten credit for anything, this was a hell of a machine.\n\t\"The way to the plaza is clear, for the moment,\" said Ironkid, who was now the farthest ahead. \"I see five big glowing birthday cake things that don't look like they belong here. In the center is a dome with purple light coming out of it.\"\n\t\"That is Shadow Destroyer's portal to the Qliphoth,\" said Dorgok. \"I can sense the power flowing through it!\"\n\t\"Then those things around it must be the dimensional anchors Zerstoiten mentioned,\" I said.\n\t\"In that case,\" said Ironkid, \"I think I'll blast one.\" \n\t\"Borlan, wait!\" Dorgok cried.\n\tHe didn't, firing his particle beam at the nearest anchor. It exploded, showering the plaza with debris. \"One down, four to go!\" Ironkid said triumphantly. Then his tone changed to one of alarm. \"Uh oh!\"\n\t\"What? What's uh oh?\" I asked, frustrated that I wasn't close enough to see.\n\t\"There's some kind of swirling vortex forming on the ground!\"\n\t\"As I thought,\" said Dorgok, \"Shadow Destroyer has placed warding spells on the anchors. Destroying them must summon some horror from the Qliphoth!\"\n\t\"What kind of horror?\" I asked.\n\t\"I fear we shall see soon enough.\"\n\t\"Surely it's nothing that can stand up to five Mega-Destroids,\" said Ironkid confidently.\n\t\"Maybe, if all five of us were there!\" I shot back. At the moment, only Ironkid was actually in the plaza. Flora and Dorgok were the next closest, while Nightfox and I were lagging well behind.\n\t\"Something's rising out of the vortex!\" Ironkid shouted, \"Holy crap, it's—\" That was all we heard. There was a bright burst of light from the plaza, like some kind of explosion, and then silence.\n\t\"Borlan?\" I yelled. \"Borlan?\" There was no reply.\n\t\"This does not bode well,\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"Flora! Dorgok, stay where you are!\" I shouted. \"Do not enter the plaza until Nightfox and I get there, understood?\"\n\t\"Understood,\" Flora replied.\n\t\"I had no intention of doing so,\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"Nightfox, is your Mega-D done fixing itself?\" I asked.\n\t\"It seems to be,\" she said.\n\t\"Then let's go!\" I slammed both levers forward as hard as I could, and my robot began lumbering toward the plaza.\n\tIt took almost a full minute for Nightfox and me to reach the edge of the plaza where Flora's and Dorgok's Mega-Destroids waited for us. As in the RenCen back in Millennium City, the one in New Harmon was circular, with a recessed area in the center and several ramps leading down into it. I could see the things that Ironkid had mentioned, the dome with purple light coming out and four big glowing black birthday cake things around it, as well as a pile of smoking debris where a fifth one had been. Beside the debris lay Ironkid's Mega-Destroid, smashed like some giant metal bug. Over it stood the cause of its destruction.\n\tIt was humanoid, thirty feet tall, with a thick, squat build. Its body appeared to be made entirely of some kind of glowing purple crystal, with sharp points protruding from it in every direction. It had no face, fingers, or toes, being just a crude parody of a human form. It stood silent and motionless over the wrecked Mega-Destroid.\n\t\"What the hell is that thing?\" I asked.\n\t\"I've no idea,\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"Didn't you grow up in the Qliphoth?\" asked Nightfox.\n\t\"Yes, but the Qliphoth contains countless horrors, and I hardly ever left my mother's citadel. No doubt there are many I never saw.\"\n\t\"Do you think Borlan could still be alive?\" asked Flora anxiously.\n\t\"He could be trapped inside the wreckage,\" I said, \"or unconscious.\"\n\t\"Or dead,\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"Regardless,\" I said, \"we need to take that thing out. Head down the ramp. When you're in range, hit it with your particle beam.\"\n\t\"Roger that!\" said Nightfox.\n\tOur four giant robots lumbered down the ramp toward the crystal colossus, which seemed to be oblivious to us until we reached the bottom. Then it turned and began advancing slowly toward us—or rather, its size made it appear to be moving slowly.\n\t\"Fire particle beams!\" I shouted. A white-hot beam lanced from the forehead of each of our four Mega-Destroids, striking the colossus and cutting into its crystalline body, sending purple shards flying everywhere. \n\tIt continued advancing, and the purple glow around its body began growing brighter. \"It is building up a charge of Qliphothic energy!\" shouted Dorgok.\n\t\"Raise your shields!\" I replied. A forcefield sprang up around each of our robots just as the colossus released a blinding burst of purple light. I felt my Mega-Destroid shudder under the impact, and red warning lights flashed all over the tiny cockpit, while the monitors informed me how badly damaged each system was. \"Everyone still here?\" I asked.\n\t\"More or less,\" said Dorgok.\n\t\"I'm still hanging in there,\" said Nightfox, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.\n\t\"I'm fine,\" said Flora, \"though I can't say the same for my robot.\"\n\t\"That crystal thing looks hurt,\" I said. \"Let's see if we can finish it off.\"\n\t\"With pleasure!\" said Nightfox.\n\tAgain, four particle beams struck the colossus, boring holes into it. The thing walked up to me and swung its thick stump of an arm, connecting and sending my robot staggering backward, but the others continued to press the attack, their beams slicing off chunks of its glassy flesh, which fell and shattered on the ground. In a few more seconds, the colossus simply crumbled, reduced to nothing more than a pile of crystalline rubble.\n\tI activated my Mega-Destroid's self-repair diagnostic, opened the hatch, and climbed out, swinging down to the ground to land beside the wreckage of Ironkid's robot. Nightfox and Flora joined me, while Dorgok remained in his Mega-Destroid. Ironkid's robot had fallen on its back, which meant the access hatch was facing down. \"Damn it!\" I swore. \"How are we going to get him out of there?\"\n\t\"There are times when your stupidity astounds me, Nightmunk,\" came Dorgok's voice through his Mega-Destroid's public address system. \"Move away.\"\n\tWe did so, and Dorgok's robot crouched down, grasped Ironkid's, and rolled it over onto its chest. Nightfox, Flora, and I jumped onto the wrecked robot's back, trying to figure out how to get the hatch open. This turned out to be a moot point, as Ironkid pushed it open from the inside and climbed out. \"Thanks, Dorgok!\" he said, his metal face grinning up at the robot towering over us. \"It was getting a little stuffy in there!\"\n\t\"You are quite welcome,\" Dorgok replied.\n\t\"Are you hurt?\" asked Flora, looking concerned.\n\tThe boy of steel shook his head. \"Nah, just knocked around a little. My Mega-D is toast, though.\"\n\t\"Serves you right,\" I growled. \"You should have waited for the rest of us!\"\n\tIronkid sighed. \"Yeah, I screwed up. I'm sorry.\"\n\tNightfox looked up at Dorgok. \"So, is one of those things going to show up every time we destroy a dimensional anchor?\"\n\t\"It seems likely,\" the Lemurian youth replied.\n\t\"Oh, terrific!\"\n\t\"We should be fine as long as we take them one at a time,\" I said. \"One of those crystal colossi by itself was no match for four Mega-Ds.\"\n\t\"I was thinking more about the time it'll take,\" said Nightfox. \"How long can Doctor Destroyer keep Shadow Destroyer busy?\"\n\tI smirked. \"Those two windbags are probably still trying to out-monologue each other. Come on, let's get to it!\"\n\tNightfox, Flora, and I climbed back up into our Mega-Destroids, Ironkid joined Flora in hers, and we all converged on the closest dimensional anchor, blasting it to pieces. As before, a vortex formed, and a crystal colossus began rising out of it. This time we knew what to expect, though, and planned accordingly. We backed off and started blasting it with our particle beams even before it had finished emerging. The colossi didn't appear to have any ranged attacks, and that burst of Qliphothic energy they gave off had a radius of only about a hundred feet, so as long as we kept at least that far away, we were relatively safe. This colossus quickly collapsed into a heap of glittering shards, and we moved on to the next anchor, methodically working our way around the plaza. The New Harmon security forces didn't harass us, as they very sensibly didn't want to get anywhere near the colossi either.\n\tWhen the last birthday cake and its colossus had been destroyed, the dome in the center of the plaza began to pulsate, its purple glow brightening and dimming. \"The portal to the Qliphoth is becoming unstable!\" cried Dorgok.\n\t\"That's a good thing, right?\" asked Nightfox.\n\tBefore Dorgok could reply, all the panels in the cockpit of my Mega-Destroid started sparking and it began filling with smoke. Apparently, the pulsations from the portal were frying its circuits. I decided it was time to vacate the premises, so I popped the hatch and jumped out, swinging down as my Mega-Destroid staggered and collapsed with a thundering crash. I saw that the same thing was happening to the other four. Nightfox, Ironkid, and Flora had no trouble escaping theirs, but Dorgok was still powerless after that stunt he'd pulled where he'd wiped out Warden Arcana's legion of riftlings. He jumped from the back of his Mega-Destroid and fell thirty feet to the concrete floor of the RenCen, landing with a thud. I remembered that his skeleton was made of cartilage, but even so, that had to have hurt. We all ran over to where he lay on his back, groaning, and Flora made little flowers bloom all over his body, healing him.\n\t\"You okay?\" I asked Dorgok as he got to his feet.\n\tThe Lemurian youth simply nodded. \"Yes, I am fine.\" He looked at Flora. \"Thank you.\"\n\tShe smiled. \"You're welcome, Dorgok.\"\n\t\"Heads up,\" said Nightfox. We all looked upward. \n\tThe purple-and-gold armored form of Shadow Destroyer was flying toward us, closely followed by the silver-and-black form of Doctor Destroyer. They both landed before an entrance in the side of the dome. \"Your portal is near collapse, Citizen Harmon,\" Destroyer sneered. \"How much power do you dare draw though it now?\"\n\t\"Brave words, Zerstoiten,\" Shadow Destroyer shot back. \"Your Destroids lie in pieces, and you are nothing without your robots! My portal to the Qliphoth gives me power beyond imagining! This is nothing but an inconvenience!\"\n\t\"Oh my god,\" groaned Nightfox, \"they're still at it!\"\n\t\"Told you,\" I said.\n\t\"Enough of this!\" snapped Shadow Destroyer. \"You've become an annoyance, and for that, you must pay! Death is too simple a fate for you! I will crush your bodies, and feed you to my Masters!\" He raised his arms skyward. \"Crystals of Qemetial, give me your power!\" There was a blinding flash, and suddenly he was hovering before us, ten feet tall, crackling with Qliphothic energy. \"Now, you die!\"\n\tI shivered a little, because I remembered hearing Earth's archmage, Robert Caliburn, mention the name of Qemetial before, and his normally sardonic voice had been tinged with fear. Apparently, it was a fusion of long dead cosmic entities that mindlessly consumed anything that got near it, like a supernatural black hole. If Shadow Destroyer could command the power of something like that . . . I shook my head. I was just a chipmunk manimal who liked punching out crooks. This cosmic stuff was way above my pay grade. And yet, here I was, in a twisted alternate universe, leading a team consisting of my girlfriend and a bunch of kids, fighting what amounted to a demigod. How in the hell does stuff like this happen to me?\n\t\"Surrender, villain, or face certain defeat!\" shouted Ironkid, leaping at Shadow Destroyer, blade raised to strike. Good move, drawing fire like that. The boy knew his role. He was the invulnerable one. Every hit that metal skin of his took was one the rest of us didn't have to. He was his father's son—brave, honorable, and selfless, every inch a hero. Ironclad would have been proud.\n\t\"Insect!\" snarled Shadow Destroyer, firing a blast of darkness at the boy and sending him flying backward to skid along the floor of the plaza for about a hundred feet. The rest of us were quick to exploit the opening Ironkid had provided for us. I jumped in and slashed at Shadow Destroyer's armor with one of my claws, while Nightfox jumped up with her staff raised and brought it down with a solid metallic clunk on his helmeted head. Doctor Destroyer fired a blinding bolt of plasma at him that struck dead center, while Flora summoned a shroud of strangling vines that enveloped Shadow Destroyer's arms and legs. Ironkid, too, was back in the game, hacking with his sword. Only Dorgok had nothing to contribute, having drained himself wiping out Warden Arcana's army of riftlings earlier. The Lemurian boy stood watching the battle, his tongue flickering in agitation. I almost felt sorry for him.\n\tShadow Destroyer actually seemed surprised by the ferocity of our attacks. He turned his head toward Doctor Destroyer, glaring at him while the rest of us kept attacking. \"This is your army now, Zerstoiten? Freaks and children? Pathetic!\"\n\t\"It is more than you deserve, usurper!\" Destroyer declared, firing a plasma blast whose heat singed my fur.\n\t\"Will both of you just shut up and fight?\" asked Nightfox, battering Shadow Destroyer savagely with her staff.\n\t\"Fat chance of that,\" I muttered, my claws cutting gouges into Shadow Destroyer's armor.\n\tShadow Destroyer reverted to his normal size, looking a little unsteady from all the damage we'd inflicted on him. He raised an arm, gesturing at the opening in the side of the concrete dome that contained his portal to the Qliphoth, and a sphere of purple energy about six feet across floated out of the opening and began drifting across the plaza. Tearing himself free of Flora's vines, Shadow Destroyer began running toward it.\n\t\"A shadow crystal!\" cried Dorgok. \"Don't let him reach it! It will restore him!\"\n\tFlora summoned her vines again, wrapping them around Shadow Destroyer's legs, but they only slowed him down. He continued struggling toward the shadow crystal, which was drifting in his direction. Destroyer blasted him, but he shrugged it off and kept right on going. I turned to Dorgok. \"What do we do?\"\n\t\"Destroy it!\" he yelled. \"It is unstable! Any sufficient force will disperse it!\"\n\tNightfox, Ironkid and I ran to the shadow crystal and began slashing and smacking at it while Destroyer kept blasting Shadow Destroyer. It had no real substance to it, but it began to flicker as our weapons passed through it. For me, it also brought back unpleasant memories of being in the Qliphoth, making me feel queasy and bringing disgusting thoughts to my mind. The Qliphoth is a realm of chaos and madness, and anyone who comes into contact with it becomes corrupted, mentally and even physically, if they're exposed for long enough. Of the three of us, I was the only one who'd been there before, and I wondered if exposure to it was cumulative, like exposure to radiation. If so, I might end up becoming a danger to my allies, maybe even turning into one of its horrors myself. Not a happy prospect.\n\tThe crystal flickered out and vanished, and I breathed a sigh of relief. That relief was short-lived, however, as I saw that another one had emerged from the portal, and a second, and a third. It was spitting them out like an assembly line. I growled at Shadow Destroyer, who was still fighting with Doctor Destroyer and Flora. His strategy was diabolical. If we didn't attack the crystals, they'd recharge him and we'd never defeat him. If we did, we risked becoming corrupted, perhaps going insane or turning into horrors. Bastard!\n\t\"Concentrate on Citizen Harmon!\" came a familiar voice from above me. \"We'll deal with those spheres!\" I looked up, astonished, as Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli flew by overhead. He aimed his energy rifle at one of the shadow crystals and fired, while she shot a blue force blast from her hands. The crystal flickered out and vanished.\n\tShadow Destroyer glared up at them. \"Traitors! I'll have your heads for this!\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae smirked. \"Not if we win!\" He and Lapis Lazuli proceeded to blast another crystal out of existence.\n\t\"I hope you know what you're doing, [i]mi amor[/i],\" said Lapis Lazuli doubtfully as they bore down on a third.\n\t\"Don't I always?\" Dr. Sciuridae replied.\n\tShe grinned. \"Well, there was that time you let me handcuff you to the bed.\"\n\t\"I thought we agreed not to talk about that,\" Dr. Sciuridae growled through clenched teeth.\n\t\"But you looked so cute!\" Lapis Lazuli teased.\n\t\"Shut up and shoot the spheres!\"\n\tWith the crystals being neutralized, the rest of us were free to concentrate on Shadow Destroyer. Nightfox, Flora, Ironkid, Doctor Destroyer, and I pounded on him with everything we had, and it was clearly hurting him. In desperation, he raised his arms and shouted: \"Come forth, Endbringer, spawn of my Masters! Make this world like your own!\"\n\tThere was a bright flash, and suddenly something was standing before the entrance to the dome. It was gigantic, fully twenty feet tall, even hunched over as it was, its stony body all gray with vicious-looking curved talons on its hands and feet. Its head was vaguely bird-like, with glowing purple eyes and a huge axe-like beak. Protruding from its back were a pair of enormous wings made of gray crystals that didn't appear to be physically connected to each other but moved as if they were.\n\t\"Oh shit!\" said Dr. Sciuridae, looking at in in awe.\n\tLapis Lazuli glanced at him. \"Still sure this was a good idea?\" Sciuridae didn't reply.\n\t\"Kill them all!\" shouted Shadow Destroyer, and the huge monstrosity began lumbering toward us.\n\t\"Get behind me!\" yelled Ironkid, moving cautiously toward Endbringer with his sword raised defensively. Even he wasn't brash enough to just hurl himself at something that big. Nightfox, Flora, and I moved up behind the metal-skinned boy.\n\t\"What can we do against something like that?\" asked Nightfox anxiously.\n\tI shrugged. \"The best we can, I guess.\"\n\tDoctor Destroyer glared at the immense gargoyle. \"Summoning horrors will not save you, Harmon!\" He fired a bolt of plasma at Shadow Destroyer, who was hovering in the air beside Endbringer, surrounded by a purple globe of Qliphothic energy. The globe absorbed the plasma with no visible effect. It seemed that for the moment, Shadow Destroyer was invulnerable to harm. However, he also didn't appear to be doing anything, so at least we could focus all our efforts on the horror before us.\n\tEndbringer charged toward us, and every time it took a step, the ground beneath us shook. It raised a clawed hand and took a swipe at the tiny form of Ironkid, knocking him away with a loud smack. The boy went sailing through the air in a parabolic arc, hitting the ground about a hundred feet away and then bouncing and rolling for another thirty or so. I couldn't tell if he'd be getting up again.\n\tVines snaked up around the horror's taloned feet, immobilizing them, and Nightfox and I ran in to attack its legs. My questionite claws were able to cut into its stony flesh, but I wasn't sure if I was actually hurting it, or if it even felt them. Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli swooped down and strafed the thing with energy beams and blasts of force. Doctor Destroyer joined in as well, firing a plasma bolt and striking it in the center of its chest, which got its attention. It lunged with surprising speed, seizing Earth's greatest villain with both hands and squeezing him. He struggled in its grasp, and part of me was glad to see him suffer. Hopefully, it would buy us some time to figure out how to beat this monster.\n\tSince her staff didn't seem to be having much effect, I gave Nightfox a handful of particle mines from my belt. \"Attach these to its leg!\" I said. She nodded and began doing so, and I did the same to its other leg while Flora continued to hold them still for us. Endbringer paid no attention to us, focusing all its attention on crushing Doctor Destroyer. Maybe it would succeed, and we'd be rid of him. On the other hand, he was the biggest gun we had, and even if we defeated Endbringer, there was still Shadow Destroyer to deal with.\n\tEndbringer apparently had had enough of failing to crack Doctor Destroyer's armor. It hauled back like a major league pitcher and hurled him at Lapis Lazuli. He struck her, and they both went flying out of the plaza together. Seeing his squeeze knocked away like a croquet ball, Dr. Sciuridae shrieked and flew straight at Endbringer, blasting at it with his energy rifle. The horror swatted him aside the way you would an annoying bug, and he went skidding across the floor of the plaza, while Nightfox and I ran to get clear before the mines we'd planted on Endbringer's legs went off.\n\tThe mines detonated, sending shards of Endbringer's stony flesh flying in every direction, and Nightfox and I had to hit the dirt to avoid the shrapnel. I lifted my head and looked back to see the horror sway, then fall to its knees, leaving its feet behind, its legs reduced to broken stumps. It made no cry of pain, but then it hadn't uttered a sound since Shadow Destroyer had summoned it. \n\tEndbringer's great crystal wings flapped and it rose from the ground, flying toward the closest target, which happened to be Dr. Sciuridae. He was sitting up, shaking his head groggily. When he saw the horror approaching, he raised his rifle and fired at it, which didn't even slow it down. He tried to activate his jetpack, but it was a smashed piece of junk on his back. He swallowed, realizing he couldn't outrun Endbringer, and watched helplessly as the gargantuan horror bore down upon him. Then he yelped as my grapple gun latched onto his shoulder and yanked him away just as Endbringer's clawed hand slammed down were he'd been been sitting a moment before, leaving an impression in the concrete.\n\t\"Thanks!\" said Sciuridae, getting to his feet.\n\tI nodded. \"Don't mention it. Like I said, I saw you die once already.\"\n\t\"You may still get the chance to see it again,\" said Sciuridae. Endbringer was flying toward us, apparently none too pleased at being denied its prey. We both began backing away, Sciuridae firing with his rifle while I hurled throwing blades, neither of which seemed to bother it much.\n\tVines sprang up again and wrapped all around Endbringer's torso, holding it fast, as Ironkid came leaping through the air, the tatters of what was left of his kilt fluttering behind him, his sword raised above his head, point downward. He landed on the horror's back and plunged his weapon between its shoulderblades. Nightfox jumped up to join him, battering it with her staff, and Doctor Destroyer and Lapis Lazuli came flying back, blasting it with plasma and force bolts. Endbringer thrashed around wildly, pinned to the ground by Flora's vines, as it was pummelled mercilessly. Finally, it slumped to the ground and lay still.\n\tLapis Lazuli flew down and landed beside Dr. Sciuridae, throwing her arms around her chipmunk boyfriend and giving him a kiss, which he returned, while Ironkid and Nightfox posed triumphantly atop the defeated Endbringer. We had only a second to savor our victory, however, as the purple globe around Shadow Destroyer vanished and he glared down at us, red eyes blazing with hate in his gold helmet. \"Qliphoth is home to horrors without number,\" he said, in his mushy, distorted voice. \"I can still destroy you all! I—\" \n\tHe stopped, seeming to become aware of something. \"What? The gate shouldn't—\" He whirled in midair to stare at the doorway in the side of the dome that housed his portal to the Qliphoth. There stood Dorgok, facing the portal, waving his arms about and drawing a stream of purple energy into himself, his blue, scaly body crackling with it.\n\t\"No!\" shouted Shadow Destroyer, clearly alarmed. He raised his hands and blasted the Lemurian boy with a Qliphothic bolt, but the aura around Dorgok just absorbed it. Then the purple glow inside the dome began pulsating faster and faster, and Shadow Destroyer was drawn toward it. \"No! I embody destruction!\" he cried, as the swirling purple vortex sucked him in. \"MY MASTERRRRSSSS!\" He vanished into the miasma, and it winked out of existence, leaving nothing but concrete.\n\tWe all stood there silently for a moment, staring at the spot where Shadow Destroyer had disappeared. Then I turned to Dorgok. \"What did you do?\" I asked.\n\t\"Doctor Destroyer said the portal was near collapse,\" the Lemurian boy replied. \"I just gave it a little push.\"\n\t\"Dorgok, you're wonderful!\" cried Flora. She ran over to him and hugged him, kissing him on his snout. Dorgok's golden eyes went wide, as they had the last time she had hugged him. However, he didn't push her away as he had before. Instead, he hesitantly put his arms around her leaf-covered body and held her close. His golden eyes closed and he sighed with pleasure.\n\t\"I despise magic,\" sneered Doctor Destroyer. \"So . . . imprecise.\"\n\t\"Citizen Harmon is really gone, isn't he?\" said Dr. Sciuridae, sounding as though he could barely believe it.\n\t\"It was inevitable,\" Destroyer said airily, \"once he set himself against Destroyer. I will return to rule this place once Earth acknowledges Destroyer's supremacy. This, too, is inevitable.\" He turned to face us. \"You have seen the awesome might of Destroyer, and the depth of his foresight. Do not forget them!\" And with that, he rocketed into the sky and was gone.\n\tFlora scowled. \"Pompous windbag, trying to take credit for what Dorgok did!\"\n\t\"I think we all did our part,\" I said. \"Even Destroyer.\"\n\t\"You think he's really going to try to conquer the Earth again?\" asked Nightfox, sounding worried.\n\tI sighed. \"One thing nobody could ever accuse Albert Zerstoiten of is making empty threats.\" Then I looked at my companions and grinned. \"Fortunately, there's a whole new generation of heroes ready to thwart him.\"\n\tIronkid grinned back. \"I can hardly wait!\"\n\t\"Well,\" said Nightfox, \"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to go home.\" She looked at Dr. Sciuridae. \"Do you think you can get that dimensional portal in Conquerors HQ up and running?\"\n\t\"Of course!\" he replied, smiling confidently.\n\t\"I'd like to talk to you in private before we leave, Dr. Sciuridae,\" I said.\n\t\"I was thinking the same thing,\" he replied.\n\t\"Shall we take a walk?\"\n\tHe nodded, and we headed off together, leaving the others behind in the plaza.\n\t\"So, I guess you're going to come out of this smelling like a rose,\" I said. \n\tHe chuckled. \"They might even make me their new leader.\"\n\tI glanced at him. \"You think they'd choose a manimal as their leader?\"\n\t\"I have a lot of dirt on a lot of powerful people,\" he said, smirking. \"But you're not interested in our politics.\"\n\t\"No, not really.\" I decided to broach the subject that was uppermost in my mind. \"Is Theodore still alive here?\"\n\tSciuridae's smirk faded. \"No.\"\n\tMy heart sank a bit. It would have been nice to see Theodore again, even this world's version of him. \"Did you kill him . . . and me?\"\n\tHe frowned. \"What makes you think I would have done that?\"\n\t\"You have to admit, it's a reasonable suspicion.\"\n\tHe was silent for a moment as we walked, and I got the feeling that this was a painful subject for him, which actually made me like him a little more. At last he said, \"When Father Elk, Brother Whitehart, and Qwyjibo launched their attempt to take over Monster Island, your counterpart and I sided with them. Theodore sided with Moreau, and stuck with him to the end.\"\n\tI stopped and stared at him. \"Wait, what? Moreau was good here, right?\"\n\t\"I prefer to think of him as having been naive and foolish. When he found out that Wells's book was true and that he was the original Dr. Moreau's great-grandson, he felt it was his duty to come to Monster Island and try to civilize the descendants of his ancestor's savage creations, teach us how to love one another and create a peaceful society.\"\n\tI shook my head. \"Okay, now I'm confused. I thought this was some crazy mirror world where everything was backward, but it sounds like your Theodore was a lot like mine!\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae arched an eyebrow. \"Hmm, that [i]is[/i] interesting! I wonder if there are others who are consistent across both worlds.\"\n\t\"So, your Moreau didn't actually create any manimals?\"\n\t\"No, we were already there when he arrived on Monster Island.\"\n\t\"Then, you had a mother and a father?\"\n\t\"That would follow.\" He glanced at me. \"You mean you didn't?\"\n\t\"No, I was grown in an artificial womb from a genetically modified cell.\" I looked at him curiously. \"Does the name Ross Bagdasarian mean anything to you?\"\n\tHe shook his head. \"No. Should it?\"\n\t\"My brothers and I were made to resemble cartoon characters he created.\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae blinked behind his goggles. \"Seriously?\"\n\tI nodded. \"But if that cartoon didn't exist here, how can you be the spitting image of my brother? It doesn't make any sense!\"\n\t\"You're right, it doesn't. It's like someone's deranged fanfic.\"\n\tI glanced at him. \"You have those here?\"\n\t\"Oh yes. You'd be surprised at some of the things people have written about me and Lapis Lazuli. They weren't allowed to openly mock or criticize us, of course, but even so . . .\" \n\t\"I think I'd just as soon not hear about that, if it's all the same to you.\" I turned to face him. \"It was good seeing you again, Simon, even if you're not the way I remember you. It makes me feel a little less lonely, knowing there's some version of you alive somewhere.\"\n\t\"It was good to see you again too, Alvin. You know, if you miss being with your own kind, there are other chipmunks still on Monster Island. You could stay here, maybe even find a mate and raise a family, if that's something you'd want to do.\"\n\tI shook my head. \"Thanks for the offer, but my life is back on Earth, and I already have a girlfriend.\"\n\t\"You mean Nightfox?\"\n\t\"What makes you think she's my girlfriend?\" I asked sharply.\n\t\"Nightfox, Nightmunk. You have to admit, it's a reasonable suspicion.\"\n\t\"She's my partner,\" I said. \"Let's leave it at that.\"\n\t\"All right. Shall we rejoin the others?\"\n\tI nodded, and we walked together back to the plaza.\n\tAs we approached our companions, we saw that there was someone new with them, a woman wearing gold and silver armor with metal wings protruding from her back. The wings had a vaguely Art Deco look to them, rising to points above her head, which was covered by a golden helmet that exposed only her tan face. Her eyes were solid blue, with no pupil or iris. The design of her armor reminded me of that worn by Celestial Boy, a member of the Millennium Guard, the same group of teenage heroes to which Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok belonged.\n\t\"What's going on?\" I asked my companions. \"Who is she?\"\n\t\"This is Golden Seraph,\" said Nightfox. \"She just appeared here while you two were off chatting.\"\n\t\"Welcome, Nightmunk and Dr. Sciuridae,\" Golden Seraph said, in a strange, echoing voice with an accent that sounded like a cross between Irish and Creole. \"And congratulations on your victory over the forces of darkness and chaos this day. You have done a great deed. Your actions have averted a chain of events that would have led to the destruction of this world.\"\n\t\"Thank you,\" I said. \"I have to ask, though, why didn't you help?\"\n\t\"I was not given leave to,\" Golden Seraph replied. \"On this occasion, my task was only to observe. But I was confident that you and your allies could handle the situation, and I am pleased to see that my confidence was not misplaced.\"\n\t\"Well, I guess we should be flattered then,\" I said.\n\t\"Is there some point to this visitation apart from stroking our egos?\" asked Dr. Sciuridae.\n\t\"Indeed, there is,\" replied Golden Seraph. \"I have been authorized to offer you all membership in the Elysium Guard. We are an ancient order dedicated to opposing all manifestations of evil from the Qliphoth, whatever form they may take, and preserving the light. Some of you already know one of our members, the one called Castor, who on Earth goes by the name Celestial Boy.\"\n\t\"I knew it!\" said Flora.\n\tWe all looked at each other. This was nothing any of us had been expecting. \"What does membership in the Elysium guard entail?\" I asked.\n\t\"Only that you come when we call,\" said Golden Seraph. \"Otherwise, you are free to continue with your lives as normal. We shall neither help nor hinder your more mundane activities.\"\n\tIronkid pointed at Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli. \"You think these two villains are worthy?\" he asked disapprovingly.\n\t\"Membership in the Elysium Guard transcends simple morality,\" replied Golden Seraph. \"We are concerned with the fate of the cosmos itself. And there is always the possibility that they may see the light, in time.\" She smiled at the pair, who looked none too comfortable.\n\tI looked up at Nightfox. \"What do you think?\"\n\tShe shrugged. \"Sounds like fun.\"\n\t\"Okay,\" I said, \"you've got two new recruits, Golden Seraph.\"\n\t\"Three,\" announced Ironkid, surprising nobody.\n\t\"Make that four,\" said Flora.\n\tGolden Seraph nodded, and turned her blank blue gaze toward Dorgok expectantly.\n\t\"But, I am a Lemurian!\" Dorgok protested. \"My people were created by the Kings of Edom!\"\n\t\"You have been told a falsehood,\" said Golden Seraph. \"Your people arose in the oceans of Earth's distant past through the natural process of evolution. Beset by great monsters of the deep, they turned to the Kings of Edom for protection. The Kings seduced and corrupted your people, but they did not create them. They cannot create anything. They can only destroy.\"\n\tDorgok stared at Golden Seraph, his tongue flickering, as she told him that everything his mother had taught him, everything he'd believed all his life, was a lie. Then he swallowed and nodded. Golden Seraph smiled and turned to Dr. Sciuridae. Sciuridae glanced at me, then back at her. \"I'm in,\" he said.\n\t\"Me too,\" said Lapis Lazuli.\n\t\"Thank you all,\" said Golden Seraph. \"I can make no promises, save that you will face danger and death.\"\n\tI shrugged. \"We do that anyway.\"\n\t\"So be it,\" said Golden Seraph. Then she smiled. \"Can I offer you a lift home?\"\n\tI blinked. \"You can do that?\"\n\tShe gestured, and a glowing doorway appeared beside her. \"This will return you from whence you came. Until we meet again.\" And with a flash of light, she was gone.\n\tI looked up at Nightfox, then over at Dr. Sciuridae. \"Well, it's been real and it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun. See you around, Simon.\"\n\tDr. Sciuridae nodded. \"Later, Alvin.\"\n\tAs we walked to the glowing doorway, Lapis Lazuli put her arms around her chipmunk lover and squeezed him. \"I feel like celebrating,\" she said. \"Do you still have that serum you made to increase your virility?\"\n\tI could almost see his cheeks blush through his fur. \"That didn't exactly work the way it was supposed to.\"\n\tShe giggled and nibbled his ear. \"No, but it was fun!\"\n\tI didn't hear the rest of their conversation, for which I'm glad.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Cracked Mirror


a story set in the universe of Champions Online


\t"Okay, Nightmunk!" said the big man wearing clown makeup, leather and spikes, and brandishing a machete. "Let's see what you look like without your skin!"
\tI backed away slowly from him and the five other people, also dressed like psychopathic clowns, who were closing in around me in a cul-de-sac formed by three steel cargo containers on the riverfront of Millennium City's Westside district. They were members of the Maniacs, a particularly violent local gang, and were armed with a diverse array of weapons, including chains, tire irons, baseball bats with nails sticking out of them, and the aforementioned machete.
\tI extended the claws from my gauntlets and held them up before me defensively. "Ha!" Machete Man chortled. "You think we're scared of some sawed-off, second-rate version of Nighthawk? We're the Maniacs! We rule these docks!"
\tI didn't reply, just waited for them to make their move. Machete Man lunged at me, his blade describing a shining arc, and I blocked with my claws, metal ringing on metal. I didn't strike back, though, just kept up my defensive stance. "What's the matter, you furry little freak?" Machete Man jeered at me. "Scared?"
\t"You calling anyone else a freak is really funny," came a woman's voice from above us. The Maniacs all looked up. There, silhouetted against the moon, stood a woman in a black and gray skin-tight costume, with a hood and mask that covered her entire face. On her chest was the stylized head of a fox. She dropped down behind the Maniacs, removed something from her belt that telescoped into a six-foot steel fighting staff, and assumed a combat stance.
\tThree of them charged at her, weapons raised, and she moved like quicksilver, striking each of them in turn. There was no wasted motion, each move blending seamlessly into the next. It was like watching a dance. One, two, three, and they were all sprawled on the ground at her feet. Two more moved up and tried to flank her. Her foot shot out, catching one in the stomach and dropping him. The other swung his chain, wrapping around her staff, and yanked her toward him. She somersaulted and kicked, her foot striking him on the jaw, and down he went. That left just Machete Man.
\tAny sane, rational person would have realized at this point that they were completely outmatched and either surrendered or fled. But, as their name implies, Maniacs are neither sane nor rational. With a howl, he charged at her, machete raised to strike. One end of her staff hit his wrist, causing him to drop his machete. Then the other end struck his leg, driving him to his knees. Then the first end delivered a whack on the side of his head, and he fell face down at her feet. She turned toward me, and though I couldn't see it, I knew she was smiling behind her mask. "How was that?" she asked.
\tI nodded. "Not bad. You probably should have identified yourself before you knocked them all out, though. Now they can't tell their buddies they were beaten up by Nightfox."
\tShe looked down at the unconscious Maniacs. "Damn, I forgot about that."
\tI shrugged. "Establishing a brand name is important for a fledgling hero. You want them to learn to fear you. Other than that, though, your technique was flawless."
\t"Thanks," Nightfox said. "I never realized how much fun it could be fighting bad guys." She giggled. "It's actually kind of a turn-on!"
\tI raised an eyebrow. "Is that an invitation?"
\tShe came over and got down on one knee, looking me in the eye. "Could be."
\tI reached out and pushed back her hood, then lifted her mask, exposing a pretty face with short brown hair and brown eyes. I leaned forward and pressed my muzzle to her lips, kissing them, and she put her arms around me and pulled me close.
\t"I love you, Julie," I said quietly.
\tShe smiled at me, stroking my fuzzy cheeks with her gloved hands. "I love you too, Alvin." We kissed again. Then she stood up and put her mask and hood back on. "Come on, race you home!" And she leaped effortlessly to the top of one of the cargo containers and disappeared. I blinked, then leaped after her. For what came next, we wouldn't be needing our costumes.

\tI was kneeling at the bottom of one of the fight pits on Monster Island, cradling my brother Simon in my arms as his blood soaked into my fur. We were both naked, as manimals generally are. Above us, the top of the pit was lined with other manimals, creations of the mad geneticist Dr. Phillippe Moreau, great-grandson of the Dr. Moreau from the novel by H. G. Wells. He'd created my brothers and me in the likeness of Ross Bagdasarian's famous singing chipmunks as an amusement, and then discarded us to survive among his other savage creations as best we could, which, unsurprisingly, was not very well. After less than a week, there were two of us left. Soon, there would be only one.
\tI held Simon's broken body tightly, trembling and sobbing as the life drained out of him. He looked up at me, but there was no fear in his eyes. Only love. He reached up and stroked the side of my face gently, his fingers leaving crimson trails on my cheek. Then his eyes went blank and he was gone, just like that. I clutched his limp form against me and screamed. Then I woke up.
\tI sat bolt upright in bed, my eyes wide, my heart pounding in my chest. Julie sat up beside me. "Alvin?" she said, concern in her voice. "Are you okay?"
\tI hugged myself and nodded. "Yeah. It was just a nightmare."
\tShe put her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder. "The pits again?"
\tI nodded, my heartbeat and breathing starting to return to normal. "Yeah."
\tShe squeezed me gently. "I'm sorry, baby."
\tI sighed. "It's okay. They're just dreams."
\t"Have you thought about seeing someone?"
\tI looked at her. "You mean like a shrink?"
\tShe nodded. "You're not the first person to suffer from PTSD, you know."
\tI scowled. "I don't have PTSD! I just have bad dreams every once in a while, like everyone else!"
\t"What was it about?"
\tI swallowed. "Simon," I said, quietly.
\tJulie made a sympathetic sound and pulled me to her, kissing my cheek, coincidentally on the same spot where Simon had touched it in my dream. I turned my head and pressed my mouth to hers, and we kissed deeply and passionately. I broke the kiss and gazed into her eyes. "Thank you for being with me, Julie," I said.
\tShe smiled at me. "You're quite welcome! Thank you for turning me into a superhero!"
\t"That wasn't exactly my doing," I said.
\t"Well, if we hadn't been walking home together that night, we wouldn't have met that dying ninja, and he wouldn't have passed his soul into me and given me his powers." She grinned. "You know, every time I say that, it sounds so ridiculous it's all I can do not to laugh!"
\tI chuckled. "This coming from someone who sleeps with a talking chipmunk."
\tShe nodded. "Our lives are crazy! And I love it!" She kissed me again, and our arms went around each other, and we lay back on the bed together. It looked as if things were heading in a very promising direction. Then my cell phone rang.
\tGroaning, I reached over to the nightstand by the bed where it lay, picked it up, and checked the caller ID. My eyes went wide. I hit the answer button and held it to my ear. "Hello?"
\t"Nightmunk, this is Defender," came the voice on the other end. "How are you this morning?"
\tI glanced over at Julie, who was nuzzling my cheek while her hand stroked my furry chest. "Just fine, thanks. What can I do for you?"
\t"I have a favor to ask of you."
\tI blinked. It wasn't every day that the leader of the Champions, the world's greatest superhero team, asked little old me for a favor. "Sure, name it!"
\t"I've been asked to attend the unveiling of Harmon Industries' new teleportation device, but I've a prior commitment. I was wondering if you might go in my place."
\tI was astonished. "Me? You want me to take your place?"
\t"If it's not too much trouble."
\t"No, no trouble at all!"
\t"Excellent! The unveiling is at ten o'clock at Harmon Industries."
\tI checked the time. It was nine-thirty. Just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, suit up, and get over there. "Okay, I'll be there."
\t"Thank you, Nightmunk. Defender out."
\tI put down the cell phone and looked at Julie. "I heard," she said. "No time for nookie?"
\tI shook my head. "Sorry, duty before nookie." She looked as disappointed as I felt, which was considerably, since I'd been looking forward to a nice roll in the hay with her. Then I got an idea. "Why don't you come with me?"
\t"You sure that would be okay?" Julie asked.
\t"Why not? It's just a press conference, and we could use it to introduce Millennium City to its newest superhero, Nightfox!" Then I grinned. "Who knows, maybe a supervillain will crash the party and you can show the whole world what you can do!"
\tShe grinned back at me. "Here's hoping!"
\t"You know," I said, "it would save time if we showered together."
\tJulie raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Remember what happened the last time we took a shower together."
\tI made a little growl deep in my throat. I remembered it well. "Just keep telling yourself, duty before nookie."
\tJulie nodded, and we both jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

\tJulie and I arrived at Harmon Industries—a huge steel-and-glass skyscraper in downtown Millennium City—a few minutes before ten, riding on my grav bike. I found it hard to suppress a little surge of pride as we walked together through the cavernous lobby in our costumes. I'd met Defender only a couple of times, most recently when I'd fought an immortal Chinese vampire named Lung Hung, but apparently I'd impressed him sufficiently that he'd chosen me to substitute for him at this unveiling ceremony. The fact that I was a manimal made it even more of an honor, since most people regard us as curiosities at best, and freaks and monsters at worst. I wasn't just representing myself, or even Team Nighthawk, but my whole race.
\tWe stopped at the information desk to get directions, then took an elevator to the underground laboratory where the event was taking place. The room was filled with high-tech machinery, one wall dominated by a large circular portal that was presently inert. It was already crowded with reporters and VIPs, and there were three other members of the superhero community present. Sort of.
\tOne was Borlan Lar, a.k.a. Ironkid. His father was Ironclad, a warrior from the planet Dorvala and a member of the Champions, whose skin was covered with living metal. Ironclad had fathered a child with a Nigerian woman named Fulani Okonkwo, who was an agent of UNTIL—the United Nations Tribunal on International Law—an organization that polices supercrime around the world. The first time Ironclad had touched his infant son, the living metal on his skin had recognized his DNA in the child, and some of it had flowed over the boy's body, giving him a metal coating like his dad's. Ironkid was now twelve years old, with shoulder-length black hair, glowing yellow eyes, and dull blue-gray metallic skin. His outfit consisted of red gauntlets and greaves, a gold strap across his bare chest, and a red kilt-like garment with a gold cloth in front that hung down to his knees. A sword resembling a Roman gladius, similar to the one his father wore, hung from his hip.
\tBeside Ironkid stood Flora. Her origin was significant to me, because I'd been indirectly involved with it. A few months back I'd gone to help a friend in Ireland, where I'd encountered a couple of faeries who'd been awakened from their centuries-long sleep by dark magics being performed in the area. One of them was a pumpkin-headed creature called Streng, one of a race of faeries called the Fir Bolg. When I'd left Ireland, Streng had been staying at the home of an Irish girl named Katie, who'd been helping him learn about the modern world. Since then, I'd learned that Streng and Katie had fallen in love and conceived a child together. I'm not sure how that worked, since Streng's body is made up of plants, but I guess with magic anything is possible. Flora was their child, and despite being only a few months old, she resembled a teenaged girl, though with green skin and green hair with flowers in it. She wore no clothing, but her body was covered with leaves and flowers.
\tFinally came the reason for my "sort of" qualifier. The last of the three was Dorgok, a Lemurian boy. Lemurians are a reptilian race that ruled the Earth before mankind and worship dark gods called the Kings of Edom, who had been imprisoned eons ago. I'd first encountered Dorgok in an other-dimensional realm called the Qliphoth, a delightful place if you like chaos and madness. He was the son of Samtiss, a Lemurian who had turned against the Kings of Edom, and Yareen the Defiler, a fanatical zealot who sought to free them from their prisons so they could ravage the cosmos once more. Yareen had raised her son to be a loyal servant of the Kings, but Samtiss had rescued him and brought him to Earth to try to rehabilitate him. To that end, he had placed Dorgok in the Millennium Guard, a group of teenaged heroes, to which Ironkid and Flora also belonged. Dorgok had a lizard-like head with a webbed crest, needle-like teeth, and eyes with vertical slits for pupils. His slim body was covered with blue scales, with a white chest and belly similar to that of a snake, and he had clawed fingers and toes. He wore nothing but a decorative purple loincloth.
\tGot all that?
\t"Nightmunk!" said a tall, handsome, blond-haired, blue-eyed man in a very expensive suit as he walked toward me, smiling, hand extended. I knew who he was. Everyone did.
\t"Hello, Mr. Harmon," I said, taking his hand and shaking it.
\t"Please, call me Jim," he said. He looked at Julie. "And who's your companion?"
\t"Nightfox," Julie replied. "Hero-in-training."
\t"Pleased to meet you, Nightfox," said Harmon, shaking her hand as well. "Welcome to the community!"
\t"Thank you, Mr. Harmon," said Julie.
\t"Umm, Jim," I said, "not that I'm questioning your choices regarding the superhero contingent here, but don't the others seem a bit . . . young?"
\tHarmon shrugged. "Not really my choice. I asked Ironclad to come, but he was busy with some business on Monster Island, so he sent his son, and Ironkid brought Flora and Dorgok along for the ride."
\t"What about the other Champions?" I asked.
\t"Sapphire has a concert in Los Angeles, Kinetik is in Europe, and Witchcraft is in some sort of meditative trance and can't be disturbed."
\t"I see," I said, looking back over at the two teen heroes . . . and Dorgok. "So it's just us B-listers."
\tHarmon frowned. "There are no B-listers here, Nightmunk. You're all heroes."
\tI smiled up at him. "That's nice of you to say."
\t"Look, we're running a little behind schedule. I have to check on a few things. Feel free to mingle and enjoy the hors d'oeuvres."
\tI nodded as he walked away, and started wandering around the room, Julie staying close to me. I noticed that there was one other manimal present—Adam, the hyperintelligent chimpanzee who worked in Harmon Industries' advanced projects division. He was wearing a lab coat and arguing about something with one of the human scientists. I couldn't hear what they were saying, and probably wouldn't have understood it if I could.
\tI'd never met Ironkid or Flora before, so I decided to go over and introduce myself and Julie to them. They both seemed to be nice enough kids, and welcomed Nightfox to the superhero club. I asked Flora how her parents were doing, and she said they were fine. Then I turned toward Dorgok. He was gazing down at me with those snake-like eyes, arms folded across his scaly chest, his black forked tongue flickering. "Hello, Dorgok," I said, glancing at his right hand. "I see you grew your hand back."
\tHe nodded, and replied in a high, raspy voice, like a child with a sore throat. "We Lemurians can regrow lost body parts, unlike you inferior creatures. Then again, I would not have had to bite it off if you had not chained me up in your apartment."
\t"I wouldn't have had to chain you up if you hadn't tried to prevent us from stopping your mother's plan to free the Kings of Edom."
\tHis vertical pupils narrowed slightly. "I swore then that I would kill you, manimal. My mind has not changed in this."
\tFlora gasped. "Dorgok, what a thing to say!" Ironkid's metal fingers moved to the hilt of his sword.
\t"It's okay, Flora," I said, grinning up at Dorgok. "Better than you have tried, boy, and I'm still here. However, this is probably not the best place for a murder attempt."
\tDorgok nodded. "No, not now. But soon."
\t"I'll be waiting," I said.
\t"And so will I," said Julie. Dorgok just looked at her and said nothing.
\tOur mutual loathing was interrupted by Harmon stepping up to a microphone and addressing the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you to the beginning of a new age in transportation." He gestured to the portal behind him. "This portal will allow us to transport objects to a companion portal in a Harmon Industries facility fifty miles away. Allow us to demonstrate." He turned to Adam, who was standing at a console nearby. "Adam, if you would do the honors."
\tAdam nodded and started pressing buttons, and the portal began to glow as a low humming sound filled the room. Then, without warning, the portal began to pulsate, glowing and dimming as the humming sound rose and fell. Harmon looked over at Adam in alarm. "Is it supposed to do that?" he asked.
\tAdam shook his head as he frantically pushed buttons on his console. "Something's coming through!"
\t"What?" Harmon asked. "But the companion portal isn't even active yet!"
\t"I don't know where it's coming from," said Adam, "but it's definitely coming!" As he spoke, a humanoid shape appeared in the portal and stepped out into the room. It was a huge figure of a man, wearing camouflage trousers, combat boots, and a black T-shirt with a skull on it, a machine gun slung across his back. His skin was the color of wet paper, and his bones showed through in various places. His grinning skull was half exposed, and his eyes glowed a hellish red. I recognized him immediately, because the last time we'd met, he'd nearly killed me.
\t"Dead Man Walkin'!" I cried.
\tI reacted instinctively, snatching a bolo from my belt, swinging it above my head, and sending it spinning through the air toward him. It wrapped around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides. I knew from past experience that it would hold him for only a few seconds, but hopefully it would buy someone else enough time to act.
\tIronkid gave a war yell and leaped through the air toward him, his sword raised above his head with the tip pointed down. Landing before Dead Man Walkin', he plunged his blade into the undead assassin's chest. Dead Man roared in anger, and one booted foot shot out, slamming into the boy's midriff and sending him flying back into the crowd of spectators. Then he flexed his massive arms, snapping the thin steel cable of my bolo. He reached up, plucked the sword from his chest, and let it fall to the floor, where it clattered at his feet. Of course, there was no blood on it.
\tNightfox was next, running toward Dead Man, doing an acrobatic flip over him, and swinging her staff in a wide arc, connecting with the side of his head. He grunted and swatted at her, missing as she dodged nimbly away, and all the while my heart was in my mouth, because I was watching my girlfriend fight one of the deadliest foes I'd ever faced.
\tFlora raised her hand, and thick vines appeared around Dead Man, wrapping him up and immobilizing him, though I doubted they'd hold him much longer than my bolo had. Nightfox, Ironkid, and I closed in around him, and I popped the questionite claws from my gauntlets. I still wasn't sure how we could beat this guy, though, since he was immune to almost everything. Fortunately, that turned out to be a moot point.
\t"Wait!" he said, in that hollow, grating voice he has. "I didn't come here to fight! I'm lookin' for help!"
\t"And why would we help you, villain?" Ironkid demanded.
\tHe stared at the boy, a puzzled expression on his half-skull face. "Villain? What are you talkin' about?"
\tI answered for Ironkid. "It might have something to do with all the murders you've committed, Williams."
\tHe turned his head to look at me, and his red eyes widened in astonishment. "A chipmunk?"
\tI nodded. "Yes, just like I was the last time we fought."
\tHe shook his head. "I don't know what you mean! I've never met you before now!"
\tThat caught me off guard. "You are Darren Williams, a.k.a. Dead Man Walkin', aren't you?" I asked warily.
\t"Darren Williams is my real name," he replied, "but I've never called myself Dead Man Walkin'. I'm called Revenant!"
\tI was now thoroughly confused. While he looked like Dead Man Walkin', he certainly wasn't acting like him. I noticed that he was gazing at me with something akin to fear, which was also completely out of character. The Darren Williams I knew wasn't afraid of anything, least of all a chipmunk manimal with no superpowers.
\t"You said you were looking for help," said Nightfox. "Help with what?"
\t"To overthrow Citizen Harmon!" said Revenant.
\tThere was a moment of stunned silence, which was finally broken by James Harmon. "Did you say Citizen Harmon?" he asked.
\tRevenant nodded. "I'm from a world called Multifaria. It's ruled by an evil dictator named Citizen Harmon and his superpowered goons, the Conquerors. I'm a member of the Resistance, the group that's fightin' against them. We broke into the Conquerors' base and seized control of a dimensional portal there, and the Resistance sent me through to find help." He looked at us all desperately. "Please, you've got to help us! Our leader, the Old Man, has been captured and the Resistance is almost finished! This was our last chance!"
\tWe all looked at each other. "What do you think?" Nightfox asked.
\t"It's too fantastic not to be true," I replied. "Nobody would make up a story that sounded this crazy."
\t"So, are we going through?" asked Ironkid, looking excited at the prospect.
\tAdam, who had been monitoring his console, spoke up. "The portal is losing stability. It could collapse at any moment. So if you're going through, do it fast!"
\tI looked over at Flora, whose vines were still holding Revenant. "Release him," I said.
\tFlora nodded and the vines vanished. Revenant grinned at me with the half of his face that wasn't always grinning. "Thank you!"
\t"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Nightfox hesitantly.
\tI shook my head. "No. But I've never ignored a cry for help yet, and I don't intend to start now."
\t"I am with you," said Ironkid, picking up his sword.
\t"As am I," said Flora. She turned to Dorgok. "Are you coming?"
\tThe Lemurian boy's tongue flickered. "This is madness. I want no part of it."
\tI smirked at him. "Does a Lemurian fear to follow where a manimal leads?"
\tDorgok hissed, and electricity began to crackle around his scaly body. He rose into the air, flew past me into the portal, and disappeared.
\t"Let's go!" I shouted and ran into the portal after him, with Revenant, Nightfox, Ironkid, and Flora right behind me.
\tWe emerged from the other side of the dimensional portal into a room I recognized, sort of. In layout and general appearance it was almost identical to the defense control room in Champions Headquarters. I'd visited it once with Julie as part of a guided tour of the building that was given to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays. There were large consoles and monitor screens on the walls, with which the Champions kept tabs on events happening all over the world. One major difference, however, was that this room reeked of blood, as there was currently a battle going on right in front of us between a motley bunch of humans armed with some sort of energy weapons and . . . sharkmen.
\t"What the hell?" I gasped, staring at the creatures in disbelief.
\t"Karkaradons!" growled Revenant, unlimbering the machine gun slung across his back. "We've gotta get outta here!" As he spoke, the portal behind us flickered and died. It seemed we were stuck here, at least for the moment.
\tThe karkaradons looked basically like anthropomorphic sharks, with humanoid bodies but sharklike heads, clawed fingers, and large dorsal fins sprouting from their backs. Their skins were blue, gray, or brown, and like most aquatic creatures they were countershaded, with pale bellies and darker backs. In size, they ranged from my height to about seven feet. Their appearances echoed a variety of shark species, including hammerheads, whose eyes stuck out to the sides on broad, flat planes. They wore only trunks and boots and were armed with spears and nets, as well as wide mouths brimming with triangular teeth. As I watched in horror, one of them lunged at a wounded Resistance member lying on the floor and sank its teeth into his chest, then shook the man's body violently, the way sharks do to tear a chunk out of something too big to swallow whole. I felt my breakfast rising in my throat. Even manimals weren't this savage.
\tRevenant's machine gun chattered loudly, and several of the karkaradons sprouted bullet holes. They were apparently tougher than humans, however, because the wounded ones didn't fall. Instead, they charged at us, toothy maws gaping. Nightfox and I dodged aside as weighted nets came flying through the air toward us, but Ironkid, Flora, and Revenant were all entangled, as was Dorgok, who was hovering in the air above us. I slashed with my questionite claws at the net holding Revenant and was pleased to see the thick, fibrous strands part like butter. Nightfox blocked the karkaradons charging us, spinning her staff, as I cut Flora free of her net, while Ironkid tore loose from the one binding him with sheer brute strength, and Dorgok burned the net holding him to ashes with a burst of electricity.
\t"This way!" roared Revenant, heading toward a door off to one side.
\t"I know the layout!" I shouted back, running after him across the bloodslick floor, which was littered with the corpses of many humans and a few karkaradons. The surviving Resistance members joined us as Revenant blasted a path through the sea of sharkmen, aided by Dorgok's lightning bolts, while Flora locked down most of the other karkaradons in the room with her vines.
\tThe next room was the Hall of Champions, or in this case, the Hall of Conquerors, lined with towering holographic statues of the group's current membership. I didn't really have time to look at them, though, because there were more karkaradons charging down it toward us, flinging nets and spears. Dorgok provided us with air cover, blasting the nets to ash in midair with his lightning bolts. Much as I hated to admit it, the Lemurian boy was proving to be damned useful.
\tThen a spear struck my shoulder. Fortunately, my armored costume protected me, but the force of the impact was still enough to knock me on my back. Apparently, karkaradons are really strong. Nightfox batted another spear aside with her staff, while a third one broke on Ironkid's metal chest. As I lay on my back looking up, my eyes focused momentarily on the hologram standing almost directly over me. It was a man encased in plated purple armor, with golden boots, gauntlets, belt, shoulder-piece, and a vaguely Roman-style helmet that covered his entire face. His eyes glowed red, and a long cape made of golden streamers hung from his shoulders. I had no idea who he was, but he looked scary as hell. Then Revenant tossed a grenade down the hall, which detonated among the karkaradons, sending sharks flying everywhere. I got to my feet, and we headed into the main lobby.
\tAs I'd feared, the lobby was swarming with sharkmen. However, that actually worked in our favor, since they were packed together like sardines. Ironkid took point, charging into them, slashing with his sword. Nightfox and I protected his flanks while Revenant mowed a path through the sharks with his machine gun. Flora used her entangling vines to keep us from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and Dorgok continued providing air support by raining lightning bolts down upon them.
\t"Come, my friends!" Ironkid shouted joyously as he cut down one shark after another. "Let us revel in the glory of battle!"
\t"You got that from your dad, didn't you?" I said, as I buried my claws in a karakardon's belly.
\t"Uh, yeah, I did," the boy of steel replied sheepishly. I scowled as I continued my bloody work. This wasn't some goddamned game. We were killing people. Granted, the karkaradons were vicious, bloodthirsty monsters with no regard for human life—what I'd seen back in the control room attested to that—but they were clearly intelligent beings, and I'd had more than my fill of killing in the fight pits of Monster Island. This slaughter made me sick to my stomach. Still, it was us or them, and I decided I'd rather it were them. Plus, we were protecting the handful of Resistance members who'd survived the massacre in the defense control room. So I told my conscience to shut up and go sit in a corner while I did what I had to. Eventually, we reached the front doors, the bodies of dozens of dead, dying, or unconscious karkaradons strewn about the floor behind us. Ironkid pushed them open, and we got our first glimpse of the world of Multifaria.
\tThe sky was red and overcast, bathing everything in a sinister glow. To the west I could see the spires of the Renaissance Center, just like in Millennium City, only they were black and ominous-looking. Around them hovered floating billboards, much like those in the RenCen back home, only instead of benign advertisements for various businesses, products, and TV shows, they simply flashed words, like "Work," "Fear," and "Obey."
\t"Welcome to New Harmon," grunted Revenant, "the latest in fascist regimes."
\tI glanced to the south of us, where UNTIL Headquarters stood in the Millennium City I knew. The familiar steel-and-glass skyscraper had been replaced by a bunker surrounded by a high chain-link fence, guarded by humanoid robots. Robots I recognized from file pictures I'd seen of them.
\t"Those are Destroids!" I cried. "Doctor Destroyer's robots! What the hell are they doing here?"
\tRevenant looked down at me. "Who?"
\t"Albert Zerstoiten, a.k.a. Doctor Destroyer, the most dangerous supervillain in the history of our world," I explained.
\t"Never heard of any Doctor Destroyer," said Revenant, "but Citizen Harmon sometimes calls himself Shadow Destroyer."
\t"Is he the guy in the purple and gold armor whose hologram I saw in the Hall of Conquerors?"
\tRevenant nodded. "That's him."
\tAs I was pondering this, Dorgok turned his head toward the RenCen, his black forked tongue flickering. "I sense Qliphothic energy over there," he said.
\tRevenant's eyes widened. "What do you know about the Qliphoth?"
\t"I've been there," I replied, "and Dorgok was born and raised there."
\t"The Old Man said the Qliphoth is where Citizen Harmon draws his power from," said Revenant.
\t"Great," I muttered. "We've got to go to ground somewhere and figure out our next move."
\tAt that moment, the bunker to the south of us erupted into chaos, with energy bolts flying every which way. Revenant scowled. "This is bad."
\t"How so?" asked Nightfox.
\t"That bunker is a Destroid control and communications hub," Revenant explained. "Beta Team was supposed to set off an electromagnetic pulse device there to temporarily neutralize all the Destroids around Conquerors HQ and cover our escape, but it looks like they've run into trouble. Unless that hub is taken out, ain't none of us gettin' out of here alive!"
\t"Well, let's take it out, then!" I said.
\tWe all ran down the steps of Conquerors HQ and across an open area toward the bunker while plasma beam weapons fire continued around it. Members of the Resistance were battling against vaguely skeletal humanoids made of dull blue-gray metal guarding the bunker. Even from here, I could see that they were being overwhelmed. Hopefully, we could turn that around.
\t"To the fray!" shouted Ironkid, leaping gleefully into the middle of the fight and slashing about with his sword, cleaving Destroids in half. Nightfox and I jumped in after him, me slashing with my claws while she swung her staff. The shriek of metal tearing through metal made me grind my teeth. Flora's vines snaked up around the arms and legs of a dozen Destroids, immobilizing them, while Revenant cut them down with bursts of machine gun fire and Dorgok's lightning bolts arced from one metal body to another, shorting them out. Within a few seconds, more than half of the robots had been reduced to smoking piles of scrap metal.
\tThe Destroids weren't without resources of their own, however. As I turned from the one I'd just finished ripping apart, I saw something the size of a basketball flying toward me. It was a leader drone, made in the likeness of Doctor Destroyer's own head, with the familiar twin pronged device atop its brow. Before I could react, it hit me with a burst of high-frequency sound that pierced my ears. It was as if someone had taken the sound of my claws rending metal and amplified it a hundred times. I couldn't move, couldn't even think. Then, twin lasers shot from its eyes, striking the center of my chest. I could feel the searing heat through my body armor, but I was helpless to do anything about it. Fortunately, Nightfox came to my rescue, sailing past me and bringing her staff down on the drone, smashing it to pieces.
\t I recovered from my paralysis and grinned at Nightfox, nodding my thanks to her. Our respite was short-lived, however, as through the smoke of battle another of Destroyer's creations came clomping toward us. This one was an annihilator bot, a humanoid of dull purple metal, with gold boots and gauntlets, a silver belt bearing a skull insignia, spikes protruding from its elbows and knees, and an emotionless metal face. A purple cape hung from its shoulders. It was one of the rarest and most powerful kinds of Destroids.
\t"Onward to victory!" shouted Ironkid, bounding toward the annihilator bot with his sword raised to strike. The annihilator raised its arms, and a burst of tiny missiles, each one no bigger than my finger, shot from its wrists. They struck Ironkid in midair and sent him flying back thirty feet. He landed on his back with a loud "oof!" Then a rod of light resembling a certain weapon from a certain well-known movie franchise extended from the annihilator's palm, and it began walking toward Ironkid's stunned form.
\tI moved to interpose myself between the annihilator and the still-stunned Ironkid. It looked down at me with its expressionless metal face and swung its laser sword. I dodged and hurled a bolo at its legs, entangling them. The annihilator fell forward, and Nightfox leaped on it from behind, raising her staff. A point sprouted from the tip, and she rammed it into the thing's back. It gave an electronic squawk that sounded for all the world like a robotic cry of pain, and swung its arm around, knocking her away. She somersaulted in midair, landing on her feet. The annihilator began to rise, but by now Ironkid had recovered. He kipped up, ran toward it, and beheaded it with a single stroke of his blade.
\tThe battle was over. The Resistance had polished off the few remaining Destroids and were now hooking up the EMP device to the Destroids' charging station. Apparently, they intended to use the Destroids' own charging station to power the device that would deactivate them. Pretty clever. I turned to address my troops, which was how I thought of my fellow heroes from Millennium City, since I was the most experienced one present. "You all did fantastic work here today. Even you, Dorgok."
\tThe Lemurian boy folded his arms across his scaly chest. "I trust you will not question my courage again, manimal."
\t"I was pretty sure you had it in you. After all, I know your dad." I smirked at him, and his tongue flickered in what I'd come to recognize as a Lemurian expression of annoyance. I kicked the annihilator bot's severed head with my boot, sending it spinning away. "I'm still wondering what these things are doing here, though."
\t"Could this Citizen Harmon be Doctor Destroyer?" asked Nightfox.
\t"As far as anyone knows or can prove, Albert Zerstoiten died during the Battle of Detroit in 1992, killed by his own orbital laser."
\t"There was no body," Ironkid pointed out. "All that was left of him was his burned, shattered helmet, the one on display in the Battle of Detroit Museum."
\tI nodded. "I know. I've seen it. But anything that could do that to his armor would certainly have killed the man inside. And while Destroyer had more lives than a bag of cats, I think we can safely dismiss the possibility that he's Citizen Harmon."
\t"Why is that?" Flora asked.
\t"Because if Citizen Harmon draws his power from the Qliphoth, like Revenant says, he must be some kind of sorcerer, and Destroyer loathed magic. More likely, as his name suggests, he's this world's version of James Harmon."
\t"Does that mean everyone on our world has a duplicate here?" asked Nightfox. "Including us?"
\tI shrugged. "Maybe? The whole idea of an evil mirror universe is nutty beyond belief."
\t"And yet, here we are," said Nightfox. She turned to Dorgok. "Maybe we'll meet a version of you that isn't an asshole."
\tI chuckled. "Nice as that would be, it's not very likely. He isn't native to our universe. He was born in the Qliphoth."
\tDorgok opened his mouth to say something, but I never found out what it was. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a dark blur, and his head snapped completely around, so he was looking over his own back. He made a weak, strangled sound, fell to his knees, and flopped forward onto the ground. We all stared in shock at the figure standing behind him.
\tIt was a woman wearing an inky black, skin-tight costume that covered her completely from head to toe. Only her eyes were visible, and those had vertical slits for pupils and glowed with a strange purple light that I'd seen before, in the Qliphoth. Mounted atop her head was a sleek, white, Art Deco fin, and a stylized lightning bolt covered each ear. Lightning bolts ran down the sides of her costume as well, from shoulders to legs. It was almost identical to the costume of the Champions' speedster, Kinetik, except black where his was red. The idea of a cold-blooded killer with Kinetik's speed was just about the most terrifying thing I could imagine. You'd be dead before you could draw a breath.
\t"Oubliette!" croaked Revenant, starting to lift his machine gun. She became a black blur, reappeared before him, and slammed her palm against his chest, sending him flying back ten feet. I reached for the sleep gas pellets on my belt, though my mind told me it was futile. If this Oubliette was anything like Kinetik, she thought as fast as she moved. She would have already run a dozen variations of this fight in her head, anticipating everything we might do.
\tShe moved on to Ironkid next, while I was still closing my glove around a handful of gas pellets. Since there wasn't much she could do to actually hurt him, she instead chose to simply neutralize him, grabbing his arm and running around him in a circle at incredible speed, spinning him like a top. He may have been invulnerable, but his inner ear worked like anyone else's, and suffering from extreme vertigo, he wouldn't be good for much of anything. By now, my hand was halfway out of my pouch of gas pellets.
\tOubliette had taken out half our team before we'd even moved. I'd never felt so completely outmatched in a fight. I watched helplessly as that black blur headed toward Nightfox, despair welling up inside me. Once again, I was about to watch someone I loved die, and there was nothing I could do about it.
\tAs it turned out, there was something Nightfox could do about it. As Oubliette approached, their eyes met, and for a moment—just a fraction of a second—Oubliette stopped dead in her tracks. That was all the time we needed. In that fraction of a second, Flora's vines sprouted around Oubliette's ankles, and she was held fast to the ground, unable to move. As she struggled to free herself, my sleep gas pellets landed around her, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
\t"Damn it!" came a voice from above me. "Why does she always run on ahead? Doesn't she understand the importance of teamwork?" My heart froze, because I knew that voice. It was a voice I'd been sure I'd never hear again. I looked up at the source.
\tThere were two people floating about twenty feet above us. One was a woman dressed in the most trashy manner imaginable, with a short black jacket over a sports bra, booty shorts, fishnet stockings, fingerless gloves, and stiletto heels. She wore a spiked collar around her neck, and her blue hair was worn in a short punk style. I recognized her as this world's version of Sapphire, the Champions' force projector. But she wasn't the one who interested me. It was her companion, the one who had spoken.
\tHe was small, just a little taller than me, wearing a suit of blue-and-black body armor, a jetpack mounted on his back, some kind of high-tech rifle held in his arms. A huge pair of goggles covered most of his face, and his blunt, bucktoothed muzzle with an inverted black triangle of a nose stuck out from beneath them.
\t"Simon," I gasped.
\t"It's Lapis Lazuli and Dr. Sciuridae!" shouted Revenant, who had regained his feet and was leveling his machine gun at them. It sang a staccato song of death, spraying a stream of lead. Blue spheres of force sprang up around both of the floating figures, deflecting the bullets harmlessly away.
\tDr. Sciuridae shook his head, tsking. "You rebels never learn. You can't beat the Conquerors. Never have, never will." He glanced over at Lapis Lazuli. "Take 'em down, baby."
\tShe grinned wickedly. "With pleasure, mi amor!" She dropped down into the middle of our group and released a blast of blue physical force that sent us flying in every direction. I felt as if I'd been hit by a bus. Nightfox and I, both trained acrobats, landed on our feet, but Flora, Ironkid, and Revenant didn't fare as well, being knocked flat on their backs and stunned. And Dorgok, well, he was dead.
\tMeanwhile, Dr. Sciuridae took a bead with his rifle on the EMP generator by the Destroid power station, which was still in the process of building up a charge. "Oh, I don't think so," he said. I reacted instinctively, hurling a throwing blade, which embedded itself in the weapon's side. He squealed in surprise and anger as his gun shorted out, and turned to see where the projectile had come from. His eyes went wide behind his goggles and his mouth fell open. "Alvin?"
\tFor a moment, time froze as we stared at each other, and I could only imagine what was going through his head. Was I dead on this world? If so, had this Simon killed me? My speculation was cut short as I noticed Lapis Lazuli holding her hands out before her, building up a force bolt aimed at me. I'd seen enough footage of Sapphire in battle to know that if she hit me with a full-power bolt, I probably wouldn't be getting up again any time soon, if ever. So I dove and rolled, trying to make as hard a target of myself as possible. She released her bolt, and it tore a rent along the asphalt, narrowly missing me. A second later, Nightfox was on her, battering her with her staff. Unfortunately, her blows had little effect, since Lapis Lazuli apparently had the same ability to absorb kinetic energy that Sapphire has.
\t"Muere, perra!" snarled Lapis Lazuli, and generated another concussive burst, which sent Nightfox flying away from her. I took advantage of the opening to toss a handful of gas pellets at Lapis Lazuli. They burst around her feet, and she swooned and fell to the ground.
\t"No!" shrieked Dr. Sciuridae, and hurled some kind of grenade at me. It went off right in front of me, there was a flash of white, and suddenly I was blind. Fortunately, I've been trained to fight in the dark. The sound of his jetpack grew louder as he flew toward me. Julie told me later that he'd been holding his damaged rifle like a club, intending to bash my skull in with it. When he was close enough, I lunged. I heard a squeak of surprise, followed by a grunt of pain as I grabbed him and threw him to the ground, my talons raised to strike. My eyesight was already returning, and I watched as his face faded into existence beneath me, his eyes wide with fear as they looked up at my talons from behind his goggles.
\tI swallowed around the lump in my throat as I gazed down at him, searching for some trace of the brother I knew. Despite his fear, I could see that he was thinking, always thinking, just like the Simon I remembered. "How can you be alive?" he asked, more to himself than to me. Well, that answered that. I definitely wouldn't be running into another me here. Then realization appeared in his eyes. "Of course! You're from an alternate reality!"
\t"You always were the smart one, Simon," I said. "Yes, we're from an alternate reality, and we've come to take down your Citizen Harmon."
\tHe blinked, then laughed. "And you were always the one who thought he could do anything! You have no clue what you're up against, Alvin!"
\t"I've been to the Qliphoth, Simon. I do have some idea." He frowned at that, brow furrowing. Then I became aware of a rumbling sound, like distant thunder. I glanced up, and a chill went down my spine as I saw a literal army of Destroids advancing toward us. Looming above them were several gigantic metal humanoids, thirty feet tall, with spiked shoulders and the twin-forked crest of Doctor Destroyer on their foreheads. Mega-Destroids. I'd seen these things before. Doctor Destroyer's hidden automated factories, still functioning decades after his death, occasionally sent them to attack Millennium City, requiring every available hero to stop them.
\tFlora, Ironkid, Nightfox, and Revenant had come over to join me as I stood guard over Simon's prone form, and were anxiously watching the approaching Destroid army. I looked over at the Resistance soldiers by the EMP generator. "Isn't that thing ready yet?"
\t"Almost, sir!" one of them replied.
\t"Well, you better use it now, because those Destroids are going to be here any second!"
\t"But we won't get maximum yield!"
\t"Better that than nothing!"
\tThe soldier nodded and was about to throw the switch when a hoarse voice said, "Perhaps . . . I can help." My head spun to the source. Dorgok was slowly getting to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck.
\t"Dorgok!" shouted Flora, running to him. "You're not dead?"
\t"It would seem not," he replied.
\t"But your neck was broken!" Ironkid protested.
\t"My skeleton is cartilage," said Dorgok. "I have no bones to break. However, I am in quite a lot of pain."
\t"Never mind that," I said. "You said you could help?"
\tDorgok nodded and went to the EMP generator, touching the cable that linked it to the Destroid charging station. Immediately, electrical current poured from his body into the device.
\t"It's fully charged!" announced the soldier.
\t"Then hit it!" I yelled.
\tThe soldier did so, and instantly, a shower of sparks burst from every one of the Destroids as their circuits overloaded and shorted out, and they fell to the ground, just so many piles of inanimate junk.
\t"You're dead, Alvin!" Dr. Sciuridae snarled, glaring up at me.
\tI nodded. "Yeah, I got that."
\t"No, I mean you are dead! Harmon will kill you for this!"
\t"We'll see about that," I said, retracting my claws.
\tHe looked up at me, puzzled. "You're not going to kill me?"
\tI shook my head. "I saw you die once. That was enough."
\tHe growled, getting to his feet. "Don't think I'll show you the same mercy when we meet again, Alvin. And I promise you, we will meet again!"
\tI managed to smile at him. "I'll be waiting," I said. Then I turned to the others. "Come on, let's go."
\tWith Revenant leading the way, we left the compound, while Dr. Sciuridae stood there glowering at me.

\tI was counting on you
\tTo stand by me
\tTo see me through
\tI was counting on you
\tThey moved the moon
\tWhile I looked down
\tWhen I looked away
\tThey changed the stars around
\t\t\t\t\tWarren Zevon

\tI was sitting on a crate of canned pears in a large underground chamber that was part of the sewer system beneath the city of New Harmon. The chamber was crowded with bedraggled-looking Resistance fighters with hollow eyes and weary faces, along with a few guard dogs. I noticed a number of the fighters giving me furtive, suspicious glances, and now I understood why Revenant had regarded me with fear when we'd first met. I was a chipmunk manimal, just like Dr. Sciuridae, a member of the hated Conquerors. I saw that Ironkid was getting dirty looks too, which also made sense, since he resembled a pint-sized version of another Conqueror, Drogen Lar. Apparently, Multifaria's version of Ironclad hadn't bothered to come up with a moniker for himself and simply went by his given name.
\t"Are you still in pain, Dorgok?" asked Flora, coming over to the Lemurian boy, who was sitting on another crate nearby.
\t"Yes," he replied. "Oubliette must have torn some of the muscles in my neck when she twisted my head around."
\tShe nodded. "Here, let me help." She placed her green hands on his neck, and tiny flowers of white, red, and yellow began sprouting from his blue, scaly skin, vanishing as quickly as they bloomed.
\tDorgok sighed with relief. When Flora withdrew her hands, he turned his head slightly to each side. Apparently finding that there was no longer any pain, he looked at her, puzzled. "Why did you do that?" he asked.
\tShe smiled at him. "What a silly question! You're my teammate!"
\t"Not by choice," he said. "My father forced me to join the Millennium Guard. It was that or be imprisoned."
\tShe shrugged her leaf-covered shoulders. "It doesn't matter. You're on my team, so it's my duty to look after you." She smiled again. "I'm glad you're not dead. I was afraid Oubliette had killed you."
\t"Afraid? Why would you fear my passing?"
\tFlora rolled her eyes. "I already told you, you're on my team!"
\t"But I do not like any of you!" he protested.
\tI decided to butt into the conversation. "It's called loyalty, Dorgok. Surely you understand the concept."
\tHe swung his head around and glared at me. "My only loyalty is to the Kings of Edom!"
\t"Why?" I asked. "They don't give a damn about you. They think of you the same way we think of bacteria."
\t"You know very well why, manimal!" he snarled. "They created my people!"
\t"Has it ever occurred to you that you only have their word on that?"
\tDorgok blinked. "What do you mean?"
\t"I mean maybe they lied. Maybe the Lemurians evolved completely naturally, without any help from the Kings, in which case you don't owe them a damn thing."
\tHe stared at me. Apparently, he'd never considered the possibility that the things he'd been told all his life could be wrong. "That . . . that is sacrilege!" he said at last. "Blasphemy!"
\tI shrugged. "It was sacrilege and blasphemy in medieval Europe to say that the Earth went around the sun. Guess what? It does. And even if the Kings of Edom did create your people, so what? Moreau created me, and I dont feel any loyalty toward him. Or I wouldn't, if he were still alive."
\tDorgok shook his head. "I will not hear any more of your lies, manimal!"
\tI wasn't interested in saying any more anyway, because the conversation had gotten me thinking. Was Multifaria's Moreau still alive? If so, what was he like? By the twisted logic of this world, he should be a regular Albert Schweitzer. But why would such a man create manimals? I'd have to find out, if I ever had the chance.
\tSomeone sat down on the crate beside me. It was Julie. She had her mask off and her hood back, and she was looking down at me with a sympathetic smile. "How are you holding up?" she asked.
\tI sighed. "Physically, I'm fine. Emotionally, I'm a mess."
\t"Yeah, I imagine you would be."
\t"The brother who died in my arms is alive again, but he's a vicious psychopath working for a fascist dictator. How the hell am I supposed to feel about this? It's completely insane!"
\tShe nodded. "I wish I could say I know what you're going through, but I really can't. I don't think anyone can."
\t"It also occurs to me that an evil version of Simon would make an extremely dangerous adversary. I played countless games of chess with my Simon, and he beat me every time."
\t"That's . . . troubling," said Julie.
\t"Still, I never stopped trying to win. That was my thing. He had the brains, but I had the will. Maybe that's why I survived and he didn't."
\tWe were interrupted by a soft hissing laugh from Dorgok, and we both looked over at him. "Nightfox is your woman," he said. "I recognize her from the picture of the two of you in your apartment."
\tI growled. "If you tell anyone back home . . ."
\t"A moot point," replied Dorgok, "since it is highly unlikely that any of us will ever be returning home."
\t"That's not a very encouraging thought," said Flora disapprovingly.
\t"Giving up, Dorgok?" Julie asked, smirking at him. His tongue flickered back at her.
\t"Oh, I think we have a excellent chance of getting home," I said.
\t"What makes you say that?" Dorgok asked.
\tI began counting off points on my fingers. "First, Ironkid's dad is going to want to find out what happened to his son, and one of his fellow Champions is Witchcraft, who can hop dimensions the way other people hop busses. Second, I'm friends with two of Earth's most powerful sorcerers—Dr. Ka and Robert Caliburn—who can also hop dimensions. Third, Flora's father is a faerie, so who knows what kind of magic he might have? And finally, there's your dad, who is also friends with Ka and Caliburn, and loves you a hell of a lot more than you deserve. So, as you can see, there's several ways we could get home. This is why it's good to have friends, Dorgok." I smiled at him.
\t"All right, people," said a hoarse female voice, "listen up!" I looked over at the source. The speaker was a weathered, gray-haired woman in combat fatigues. She had been identified to me when we'd arrived here as General Susan Connors, acting leader of the Resistance since the capture of the one they called the Old Man. "Darren here has managed to find us the help we were looking for," she said, nodding to the hulking figure of Revenant, who was standing off to one side with his hands clasped behind his back.
\t"Yeah," one of the Resistance fighters sneered, "three kids, a chipmunk manimal, and a chick with no super powers! Nice work, Darren!" Revenant simply glared back at him.
\tConnors frowned. "Stow that, Thompson! We're in no position to be picky! These folks have risked their lives to help us, and they saved our people from Karkaradons and Destroids, so show some gratitude and some respect! Now, the way I see it, they're the best chance we have of breaking the Old Man out of prison."
\t"What?" exclaimed Thompson. "You're gonna send them into the New Harmon Re-Education Facility? Why don't you just put bullets in their heads right now? It'll be quicker and less painful!"
\tConnors was about to retort, but suddenly vines wrapped around Thompson and covered his mouth. "Please continue, General," said Flora, smiling at her.
\t"As I was saying," said Connors, "we have people on the inside. They should be able to get our friends here to the maximum security level and break out the Old Man. He knows more about the source of Citizen Harmon's power than anyone. We need that knowledge if we're going to beat him."
\tAt that moment, there was a commotion at one of the oval iron security doors, and we all looked in that direction. A couple of sentries were talking to someone I couldn't see. "It's okay!" one of them said. "It's Macy!" They opened the door, stepped aside, and let a dark-haired girl in combat fatigues enter the room. Immediately, the guard dogs jumped up and started barking like crazy.
\t"Destroid!" shouted Connors, drawing her pistol and aiming it at the girl. The girl's arms suddenly transformed into some kind of energy cannons, and she started spraying the room with bolts of plasma. Connors fired, but her bullets just bounced off, leaving silver marks where they tore away the robot's fake skin. Revenant's machine gun and my throwing blades didn't fare any better. Dorgok's lighting bolt, however, caused it to pirouette about wildly, cannon arms flailing. It collapsed, circuits burned out, but more Destroids were already pouring in through the now open door.
\t"Fall back!" roared Revenant, mowing down the advancing Destroids with his machine gun. The Resistance fighters began running toward a door on the opposite side of the room, shooting as they retreated. Flora slowed the advance of the Destroids with her vines while Ironkid, Dorgok, Nightfox, and I dealt with the few that got past them, but it was obvious that we were fighting a losing battle, as the Destroids' numbers seemed endless. Slowly, we withdrew toward the exit.
\tResistance fighters were already setting demolition charges in the tunnel beyond, with the intention of collapsing it to prevent pursuit. We kept the Destroids bottled up as long as we could, and then bolted into the tunnel, running past the clusters of blinking charges to rejoin the others.
\t"Everyone's clear!" I shouted at General Connors. "Blow it!" She nodded and pressed the button on a remote detonator, and I covered my ears, anticipating a very loud boom.
\tNothing happened.
\t"Shit!" swore Connors. I looked back at the doorway. Destroids were entering the tunnel.
\t"I'll get it," grated Revenant. He looked back at me. "Make this mean something." I nodded mutely as the big walking corpse ran down the tunnel, Destroid plasma bolts striking him but not slowing him down. He crouched beside one of the charges, and I covered my ears and hit the dirt as a terrific blast I felt in my guts tore through the tunnel, filling the air with choking dust. I got to my feet and followed the others away from the rubble, coughing and gagging, my eyes watering.
\tOnce we were clear of the dust cloud from the collapsed tunnel, Connors handed me a map. "This will show you the way to a tunnel beneath the New Harmon Re-Education Facilty," she said. "Take the ladder you find there up to a hatch in the ceiling. There'll be a security guard there named Nathan Hutton waiting for you. He's one of us. He'll provide you with further instructions and equipment."
\t"Equipment?" I asked.
\tShe chuckled. "You can't very well walk around the facility in your costumes, can you?"
\t"No, I guess not." I tried to think of something to say, but couldn't come up with anything better than: "I'm sorry about Revenant."
\tShe sighed. "He's not the first friend I've lost in this war. But maybe, if you're successful, he'll be the last."
\tI nodded. "We'll do our best, General."
\tShe saluted us. "Good luck, all of you."
\tEveryone but Dorgok saluted back. Then we headed off in the direction indicated by the map.
\tAs we walked along through the dark, dank sewer tunnel, I glanced over at Ironkid. "You know, there's a good chance we'll end up fighting the Conquerors again. That means you'll probably encounter this world's version of your dad."
\tHe nodded. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that."
\t"Have you thought about what you'll do if that happens?"
\tHe looked over at me. "The same thing you did when you encountered that alternate version of your brother."
\t"We might end up having to do more than that."
\tDorgok nodded. "It was stupid of you to let him live."
\tI growled. "Of course you'd say that! You want to see your only living blood relative dead!"
\t"Much as I hate to admit it," said Nightfox, "he's right. You should have killed him, Alvin. Dr. Sciuridae is our enemy, and we have enough enemies in this world as it is."
\t"You were there too, and I didn't see you trying to kill him!"
\t"I've never killed anyone before. You have."
\t"You're right, I have! I racked up forty kills in the fight pits on Monster Island! Hooray for me!"
\t"I would think that would make it easier," commented Dorgok.
\tI stopped and whirled on him, which caused him to recoil. "What would you know about it? I watched you torture your own father in the Qliphoth and enjoy it! You don't have a conscience! You're a psychopath!"
\tThe Lemurian boy regarded me impassively. "In that case, you may be reassured that I shall have no qualms about killing your brother should you lack the courage to." He looked over at Ironkid. "And that goes for your father as well."
\tIronkid shrugged. "Multifaria's Drogen Lar isn't my father, any more than Dr. Sciuridae is Nightmunk's brother. They're different people who've lived different lives. If killing him becomes necessary, don't hesitate. I won't."
\tFlora nodded. "We're trying to free a world from tyranny. That's more important than our personal feelings."
\tWe resumed our march down the tunnel in silence.
\t
\tAfter a time we reached a chamber with a rusty iron-rung ladder leading up to a manhole in the ceiling. I went first, climbing the ladder and lifting the cover up. The room above was pitch dark, so I took out my flashlight and played it around. It appeared to be a storage room, full of boxes and miscellaneous items. Then a pair of shiny black boots appeared in front of me. I shone the light upward. Above me stood a square-jawed man with short, neatly combed brown hair. He was dressed in a black tunic and breeches that looked like something a member of Hitler's SS might wear, which I supposed made sense. His eyes widened when he saw my face.
\t"A chipmunk?" he asked in disbelief.
\t"I take it nobody told you what to expect," I said, as I climbed up out of the hole to stand before him.
\tHe shook his head. "Communications between me and the rest of the Resistance are necessarily limited to short coded messages. I'm Nathan Hutton."
\t"Nightmunk," I said. "And these are Nightfox, Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok."
\t"Nice to meet you all," said Hutton, studying each member of our group as they came up through the hole in the floor to join us.
\t"You know we're from another dimension, right?" I asked.
\tHe nodded. "Yes, they mentioned that. They didn't say that most of you would be kids." His eyes fixed on Ironkid. "Or that one of you would look like Drogen Lar."
\t"I'm Borlan Lar, son of Drogen," said Ironkid. "On our world, my father is a hero."
\tHutton smirked. "I wish I could say that about our Drogen Lar." He looked back at me. "And I suppose you're this other world's version of Dr. Sciuridae?"
\t"Not quite," I replied. "Dr. Sciuridae is Multifaria's version of my brother, Simon."
\t"I see," said Hutton. "Well, this does present us with a problem. I was going to provide you with prison uniforms so you could blend in with the other inmates," he held up a yellow jumpsuit, "but there aren't any kids here. They're kept in another facility, for 'indoctrination.'" He grimaced at that.
\tI nodded. "Turning them into good little members of the Harmon Youth, I imagine."
\t"My son is there," said Hutton. "The last time I saw him, I didn't even recognize him anymore. He thinks Harmon is a god." He suddenly looked very sad and tired, and I began to understand why he'd joined the Resistance.
\t"Lots of people have tried to pass themselves off as gods," I said. "It tends not to end well for them."
\t"Here's hoping," said Hutton.
\t"I may have a solution to the problem of our appearances," said Flora. "My father is a faerie, and he taught me a simple glamor spell I could use to disguise myself when I went out among humans."
\t"Can you use it to disguise us?" asked Nightfox.
\tFlora grinned. "Easily."
\tI glanced over at Ironkid. "Even him? I seem to recall that faerie magic doesn't react well to iron."
\t"Hmm," said Flora, gazing at him, "that could be a problem."
\t"My skin isn't really iron," said Ironkid. "It's a living metal of alien origin."
\t"Well, let's find out," said Flora. She spoke some syllables in a strange, trilling language and traced some glowing symbols in the air with her finger. Suddenly, Ironkid was a black human a foot taller than he had been, wearing a yellow jumpsuit identical to the one Hutton had shown us. He looked down at himself and chuckled.
\t"Looks like it works!" he said, grinning.
\t"How long will it last?" I asked Flora.
\t"Until you will it to stop," she replied.
\t"Okay, then do us all."
\tIn short order, all of us were magically disguised to look like adult human inmates. For me, it was a little disconcerting, because my actual hands, which were now invisible, were a good deal lower than the hands of the magical image cloaking me. I'd have to be careful about how I interacted with the physical world.
\t"Okay," said Hutton, "now that we've got that out of the way, here's the skinny on the prison layout. There's four blocks: A, B, C, and D, plus the Super-Max cell. We're in A block now. That's for the lowest risk prisoners—normal humans. B and C are for more powerful prisoners—low-level superhumans. D is for the really dangerous prisoners. They're kept in perpetual comas, a condition called hotsleep. Finally, there's the Super-Max cell, which contains only one inmate: the Old Man. That's who you're here for."
\t"What's so important about this guy?" asked Nightfox. "Why is Harmon so scared of him?"
\t"He's a tactical genius," replied Hutton, "and he knows more about Citizen Harmon's technology than anyone alive."
\t"Then why does Harmon not just kill him?" asked Dorgok.
\t"I don't know the answer to that," replied Hutton. "Presumably, there's some reason he's keeping him alive, but damned if I know what it is. Now, A block connects with B and C blocks. You're going to need to create a distraction in A block to get into B block. There's a guy named Macruder presently in a holding cell in A block. He's a wizard with machines. They locked him up because he kept messing with their security. Take down the guards in front of his holding cell and break him out. He'll help you create that distraction I mentioned."
\t"Sounds easy enough," said Ironkid.
\tHutton grinned. "You think so, huh? Well, listen and learn, boy. There are guardbots that roam around A, B, and C blocks constantly, scanning guards and prisoners alike. The scan forms a ninety-degree arc directly in front of them out to a distance of twenty feet. If they detect anyone they don't recognize, like you, you'll only have a few seconds before they teleport you to a holding cell. That's why you'll need these." He handed each of us what looked like a tiny hand pistol. "Those are miniature EMP projectors. If a guardbot spots you, shoot it. The pulse will scramble the bot's circuits and force it to re-initialize its programming. That should give you enough time to get out of its scanning area. Once it reboots, the last few seconds of its memory will be wiped, so it won't remember detecting you and will go on about its business. Of course, the projectors have no effect on human guards, so try to avoid attracting their attention. I'll be waiting for you in B block with the next stage of the plan. Got it?"
\tI nodded. "Got it." I turned to the others. "One last thing before we go in. As Flora pointed out, we're fighting to free a whole world here. That means we can't risk jeopardizing this operation for any one person. So if anyone gets caught, we can't afford to attempt a rescue. The rest of us will just have to go on without them."
\tDorgok, who now looked like a blond human in his late teens, smirked. "I am sure you will be heartbroken if I am captured."
\tI sighed. "Dorgok, I don't like you, but you've been a valuable member of this team and losing you would reduce our chances of success, so for what it's worth, yes, it would make me unhappy."
\t"It would make me unhappy, too," said Flora, who now appeared to be a normal-looking human girl with red hair and green eyes.
\tDorgok looked at her, seemingly puzzled.
\t"All right," I said, "let's do this." I opened the door to the storage room and went out into the hall.
\tThe five of us walked along a drab corridor which opened up into a large common room full of men and women in yellow jump suits milling about listlessly. Some had cuts and bruises on their faces, and all bore expressions of depressed resignation. Roaming slowly around the room were hulking, headless, metallic humanoids—clearly the guardbots Hutton had mentioned. Every few seconds, a cheerful male voice would utter a slogan over the public address system. Examples included "Citizen Harmon knows what's best for you," "Everyone in New Harmon is happy," and "Citizen Harmon protects us from anarchy and chaos." A large sign on the wall read, "Security: Order Without Fear," in white block letters on a black background.
\t"Welcome to 1984," I muttered.
\tNightfox nodded. "Without fear my ass."
\t"What are they being kept secure from?" asked Ironkid.
\t"Freedom," I replied.
\tAs we made our way toward the holding cells where this Macruder guy was being kept, Flora strayed a little too close to one of the guardbots. It began beeping loudly and said in a grating electronic voice, "Unidentified entity detected!" Surprised, the girl froze. Fortunately, Dorgok, who was closest to her, aimed his EMP projector at the guardbot and fired. The thing spasmed for a moment, then said, "Guardbot disabled. Re-initializing." Flora quickly backed away from it, and it resumed its patrol as if nothing had happened.
\t"Thank you, Dorgok," Flora said, smiling at him.
\t"Why did you not use the device Hutton gave you?" the Lemurian boy snapped.
\tFlora blushed. "I . . . was startled. I didn't think to."
\t"Next time, think to, you foolish girl!"
\tFlora looked down, mortified.
\t"Back off, Dorgok," I said. "She's new at this."
\t"Inexperience is no excuse for incompetence," he shot back. "Her blunder could have gotten us all killed!"
\t"That's why we have teammates—so we can cover for each other's mistakes. Now come on, let's go." As we got moving again, I noticed Nightfox putting an arm around Flora and giving her a hug, which made her smile.
\tWe entered the room containing the holding cells. There were three security guards wearing the same black uniforms as Hutton, armed with batons and tasers. Two were playing cards at a table while the other sat at a security console. They stared at us in surprise as we entered. "What are you doing here?" one asked.
\t"Ending this," I replied. I launched myself at one of the card players, socking him in the face, while Nightfox dropped the other card player with her staff and Ironkid sailed through the air, slamming his metal fists down on the guy at the console. We quickly found out which cell Macruder was in and opened it.
\tMacruder turned out to be a sandy-haired man with an easy smile and a friendly, cheerful manner, surprising to find in a place like this. "So, you're the rescue team, huh?" he asked. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Macruder, but you can call me Mac. Ready to have some fun?"
\t"If by fun you mean not getting killed," I replied.
\tHe nodded. "I think I can arrange that. Now, what we're going to do is start a little riot in A block. To do that, we're going to need to get some weapons to the members of the Resistance who are already in there."
\t"And where are we going to find these weapons?" asked Nightfox.
\t"We're not," said Macruder, grinning. "We're going to make them."
\t"Make them out of what?" I asked.
\t"I'll need a few things," said Macruder. "First, some coffee filters. You can find those in the guards' break room, but you may have to bash in a few heads to get them. Then, a box of ballpoint pens. You can find that in the break room too. I'll also need some duct tape, which you can find in the storage room you entered from the sewers. Finally, I need some of those orange vinyl traffic cones. There should be some in the common room to mark where the floor has just been mopped."
\tI stared at him. "You're going to make weapons out of coffee filters, ballpoint pens, duct tape, and traffic cones?"
\tHe nodded, grinning. "Yep!"
\t"Are you sure the guards haven't smacked you on the head one too many times?" asked Ironkid doubtfully.
\t"Trust me," said Macruder, "this will work. I've got it all figured out."
\tWe all looked at each other and shrugged.
\t"Okay," I said, "Nightfox and I will go to the break room and break some heads. Ironkid and Flora, you get the cones. Dorgok, you're in charge of the duct tape."
\tDorgok looked uncomfortable. "I . . . what is duct tape?"
\tI sighed. Of course. He was from the Qliphoth—why should he know what duct tape was? "Strips of silver adhesive that comes in rolls."
\tMacruder nodded. "Get a lot of it."
\tWe all headed off to our respective destinations. As we walked along together toward the break room, Nightfox said, "Do you think it was a good idea to send Dorgok off by himself?"
\tI shrugged. "Someone had to be on their own. Let it be him, since he thinks he's so great."
\t"I just don't know if I trust him."
\t"I don't like him either, but he's in the same boat as the rest of us, and he's been dependable so far."
\t"I'm also not used to seeing you in the role of leader. You're normally such a loner."
\t"Well, someone had to step up to the plate. I'm the most experienced, so I was the logical choice."
\tShe chuckled. "I think it suits you. I like it."
\t"Thanks. I'm just hoping I don't screw it up."
\t"I have faith in you, Alvin."
\tI smiled at her. "Thanks," I said again. "That means a lot."
\tWe entered the break room, where four guards were lounging about, chatting and drinking coffee. They all stopped and stared at us as we entered. "Hey," one said, rising, "prisoners aren't allowed—"
\tThat was as far as he got. I bounced a blunted throwing blade off his head, which sent him crumpling to the floor. The others began reaching for their tasers. Nightfox leaped into the middle of them and dropped two with her staff, and I took out the last one with another throwing blade. The guards dealt with, I collected my blades and searched the cabinets against the walls, quickly locating a box of ballpoint pens, while Nightfox recovered a stack of coffee filters from the cabinet under the coffee maker. We headed back to Macruder with our loot.
\tDorgok was already waiting for us back at Macruder's cell with a cardboard box full of rolls of duct tape. "You took the whole box?" Nightfox asked, surprised.
\tDorgok shrugged. "He said to get a lot of it."
\tA minute later, Ironkid and Flora arrived, each carrying a stack of orange vinyl traffic cones in their arms.
\t"Nobody asked what you wanted with those?" I asked them.
\t"We just told the guards we'd been ordered to collect them," replied Ironkid.
\t"Excellent!" said Macruder, grinning. "All right, now, watch me." And watch we did while he went to work converting these banal, innocuous items into a weapon. It was amazing, ingenious. I never would have thought it could work, but it did. In a few minutes, Mac was holding a crude but quite effective weapon in his hands.
\t"Unbelievable!" I said.  
\t"Think you can do this?" he asked.
\tI nodded. "Now that you've shown us how." We all got to work, repeating what we'd seen him do, and soon there were fifteen of the things lying before us.
\t"Okay," said Mac, "take these to the common room and start handing them out to members of the Resistance. You'll be able to recognize them by their white armbands. Once they're all distributed, start the party, and then head for B block while the guards are busy trying to get things back under control. Good luck!"
\t"Good luck to you too, Mac!" I said. We gathered up our weapons and headed back to the common room. Once there, we split up and began handing out weapons to everyone we saw wearing a white armband, taking care to keep to the shadows and avoid the guardbots. Fortunately, the human guards weren't paying too much attention to their charges. The Resistance members accepted the things without even looking at us. Apparently, they'd been told what was going down. Swiftly, all the weapons were distributed.
\tThe cheerful voice over the public address system informed us, "Citizen Harmon is a true hero!" I took a deep breath and shrieked, "Citizen Harmon sucks!" Instantly, the room erupted into chaos as armed Resistance members started shooting at the guards. A siren began blaring as the guards retaliated with their tasers and batons. In the midst of all the confusion, we headed toward the entrance to B block.
\tWe had almost reached it when a huge figure appeared in the doorway before us, a figure I recognized. He was a gigantic bear of a man, almost as wide as he was tall, with unusually long arms that terminated in massive, hairy hands, giving him a rather apelike appearance, which was accentuated by his thick unibrow and muttonchop sideburns. On Earth, I had known him as John Cowens, codename Kodiak, a special agent for the FBI, and we had been friends, teaming up on cases and sometimes even going out for a beer together. I also knew that he was superhumanly strong, having once seen him lift the rear end of a car without effort. This version of him was wearing a black uniform and a black leather trenchcoat, like a member of the Gestapo, though like his Earth counterpart, his enormous hairy feet were bare.
\t"Kommandant Kodiak!" shouted one of the Resistance members, taking a bead on him with his improvised weapon. Kodiak roared and sailed at the man like an enraged gorilla, fist raised, slamming him into the ground with a sickening crunch. It didn't look as if the man would ever be getting up again.
\tI hurled a throwing blade at Kodiak, and it cut into his arm, leaving a red gash. He snarled and glared at me and then leaped in my direction, covering a distance of some thirty feet in a single bound, his fists raised above his head. Knowing what those fists could do to me, I tried to dodge, but was only partially successful. One of them struck me a glancing blow and sent me skidding across the floor. Even with my armor, that had hurt a lot.
\tInstantly, Nightfox was on him, striking with her staff. He growled and swatted her aside as if she were an annoying fly. I noticed that her disguise vanished when he struck her. I looked down at myself and saw that I, too, now looked the way I normally did. Apparently, Flora's glamor couldn't survive being hit.
\tA bolt of lightning struck Kodiak, momentarily paralyzing him and making him roar with pain. He looked up at Dorgok, who was hovering in the air above him, and leaped, driving his fist into the Lemurian boy's chest and destroying his disguise. Dorgok plummeted to the floor and lay there, stunned and gasping for breath. A second later, Ironkid leaped toward Kodiak and slashed with his sword, cutting two bloody gashes into the big man's chest. Kodiak howled with rage and brought his fists down hard on Ironkid, knocking him on his ass and causing him, too, to revert to his normal appearance. This made Kodiak pause for a moment, staring at the metal-skinned youth, apparently startled by his resemblance to a member of the Conquerors. Then he was distracted by Flora's vines wrapping around him and pinning his arms to his sides. As he struggled to free himself, the rest of us used the respite Flora had bought us to regroup, while she knelt beside Dorgok and placed her hands on his scaly chest. Tiny flowers sprouted and vanished on his body, and his breathing returned to normal.
\t"Do you think we can take this guy?" asked Ironkid doubtfully.
\t"I don't know," I replied. "He seems to be just as strong and tough as Earth's Kodiak, maybe more so. But we can't stop now."
\tDorgok rose to his feet, crackling with electricity. "I, for one, desire some payback!"
\tI nodded. "On three." I counted down, and we all attacked simultaneously, just as Kodiak burst free of Flora's vines. My claws and Ironkid's sword sank into his flesh, while Nightfox struck with her staff, Dorgok blasted him with lightning, and Flora hurled some kind of mystical bolt. Kodiak groaned, flailing at us, but he was clearly on his last legs. After a few more seconds of our concentrated attacks, he collapsed to the floor and lay still, a red puddle spreading beneath him. Flora knelt down to heal him, but I grabbed her shoulder and held her back.
\t"We can't risk him coming after us," I said.
\tShe nodded, biting her lip. "Let us proceed, then."
\tAs we left Kodiak where he lay and headed into B block, I spared a glance back at the body of the man whose counterpart on Earth was my friend. In my mind, I knew he was not the same person. No doubt this Kodiak had done a lot of evil things. But I still felt bad about leaving him to die. Who knew, maybe the prison doctors could save him. Then again, maybe it was better if they didn't. Maybe it was better to just put him down, like a mad dog. I still didn't understand how this world could be the way it was—so much like the Earth I knew, yet so different. Its existence defied all sense and logic. And yet, here I was, in it. Then my thoughts shifted to Dr. Sciuridae. Somehow, I knew for certain that I'd be seeing him again. Could I bring myself to kill him? I still wasn't sure. Guess I'd find out. I shook my head and continued on.
\tHutton was waiting for us in the corridor that led to B block. He looked a little nervous, which was perfectly understandable, but managed to smile when he saw us. "You made it! Great! Congratulations on taking down Kodiak. I've lost count of how many prisoners that bastard has killed or crippled. Trust me, he won't be missed."
\t"Thanks," I said, dryly. Knowing how bad he'd been made me feel just the teensiest bit better. "So, what's our next move?"
\t"Starting a riot got you into B block, so we're going to do the same thing to get you into D block. Unfortunately, you won't have Mac to help you, but I doubt his improvised weapons would have much effect on these inmates anyway. So you're going to have to try something a little different."
\tI shrugged. "Variety is the spice of life. What did you have in mind?"
\t"There are two main factions among the inmates in B block," said Hutton. "The Dogz and the Elementalz."
\tI blinked. "Werewolves and mutants?"
\t"You know them?" Hutton asked.
\t"They have counterparts back on Earth. The Dogz are led by Black Fang, and the Elementalz leader is called Ferd."
\tHutton nodded. "Same here, and they hate each other's guts. So what you're going to do is light this little powderkeg by going to the mess hall, poisoning the Dogz' food, and blaming it on the Elementalz. That should be enough to set them at each other's throats."
\t"Where are we going to get the poison?" asked Nightfox.
\t"From the dispensary," Hutton replied. "The head nurse there is Sophie Bellman. She's one of us. You'll have to take down a few guards, but that shouldn't be a problem. Once you've got the drugs, create a little distraction, like setting a grease fire or something, and dose as many plates as you can. Then one of you go tell Black Fang that you saw one of the Elementalz do it. He's spoiling for a showdown with Ferd anyway to prove who's top dog around here, so he'll jump at the opportunity. While those two lunkheads and their followers are fighting, you slip into D block." He looked over at Flora. "Can you do that disguise trick again?"
\tShe nodded. "Easily."
\t"Good. Except this time, just change their clothes. Normal-looking inmates actually attact more attention in B block than unusual ones."
\tFlora cast her glamors again, and soon we all looked like our normal selves, but garbed in yellow prison jumpsuits. Nightfox giggled as she looked down at me.
\t"What?" I asked, examining myself to see if there was some flaw in my disguise.
\t"You are the cutest convict ever," she said, smiling.
\tI rolled my eyes. "Thanks." Then I looked over at Dorgok. "I expect before long you'll be dressed like that for real."
\tDorgok glared at me, flicking his tongue. "Hopefully for killing you, manimal."
\tI grinned back at him. "We'll see."
\t"Are you two finished?" Ironkid asked, looking annoyed.
\t"For the moment," I replied.
\t"Then can we get back to business?"
\tAs we headed into B block, Hutton said, "I'll meet you at the entrance to D block. And remember to keep an eye out for guardbots."
\tWe entered the mess hall of B block, which looked like a typical cafeteria, with long tables at which inmates sat eating silently. The members of the opposing factions were easy to identify. Even in their human forms, the Dogz were hairy, with bestial faces, yellow eyes, fangs, and claws, while the Elementalz sported a variety of strange hair and skin colors, including blue, green, orange, red, and purple. Each group sat only at tables with their own kind. Along one wall was a counter where the inmates lined up to be served by the kitchen staff, who were all normal-looking human inmates. Guardbots moved slowly around the room, scanning the prisoners constantly. We took care to avoid them. A few inmates threw us curious glances, but nobody spoke to us. They probably just assumed we were new arrivals, more lost souls condemned to purgatory.
\tWe followed the signs to the dispensary, which turned out to be a rather small room with a handful of beds and outdated-looking equipment. It didn't appear to be all that clean, either. As we approached, I turned to Nightfox and said, "Act sick." Immediately, she groaned and clutched her stomach, doubling over, and Ironkid and I supported her as we entered.
\tA dark-haired woman in a white tunic and trousers came over to us. There were also four guards standing around, but they didn't make any move to help. Not in their job description. "What seems to be the trouble?" the woman asked.
\t"I don't know," I replied. "She just started groaning in pain, so we brought her here."
\t"Lay her on the bed," the woman said. We did so.
\t"Inmates aren't allowed in here without authorization!" the guard barked at me. "Get out!"
\tI looked up at him with my most pitable expression. "Aw, can't we bend the rules just a little, sir? After all, she's my girlfriend!"
\tThe guard stared at me, then at Nightfox as she howled in feigned agony and thrashed about wildly on the bed. Taking advantage of the distraction, I rammed my foot into his gut, doubling him over. Dorgok blasted the second with an electric bolt, Ironkid dropped the third with a right cross, and Flora's vines wrapped around the fourth, paralyzing him. I slugged my guy, and down he went, while Flora's victim collapsed as well. The guards dealt with, I turned to the nurse while Nightfox stopped playing sick and slid off the bed. "Sophie Bellman, I presume?"
\tShe nodded. "You must be the heroes from another world Nathan told me about. Over here." She led me to a cabinet full of jars and bottles, selecting four small vials containing clear liquid. "Sprinkle this on as much of the Dogz' food as you can. It's tasteless, colorless, and odorless. Within a few minutes, they should start complaining about stomach pains."
\tI accepted the vials and handed one to each member of my team. "Okay, I'll create a distraction, then you guys dose the food while I go tell Black Fang a pack of lies." I looked up at Bellman. "Do you know where he is?"
\t"Probably the gymnasium," she replied. "He usually hangs out in there."
\t"Okay, let's go!" I said, and we left the dispensary, Bellman wishing us luck.
\tWe returned to the mess hall, and the others moved to the counter, where there lay dozens of plates of raw meat for the Dogz. I opened the gate that led behind the counter and entered the food preparation area. The kitchen staff looked at me strangely as I approached. "Hi!" I said, smiling and waving cheerfully. "I'm new here. I've been assigned to the kitchen staff."
\tThe kitchen staff supervisor, a big burly man with a moustache, glared down at me. "They'd never assign a manimal to work in the kitchen. You'd get fur all over the food!"
\tI shrugged, surreptitiously removing a thermite charge from my belt, which was hidden by my illusory prison jumpsuit, and attaching it to the side of the stove. "Well, those were my orders. Maybe you should take it up with the warden."
\t"Maybe you should get the hell out of here, freak!" the man growled.
\tI frowned. "Well, that's not a very nice thing to say! I'm an inmate here, just like you! We're all in the same boat!"
\tThe man held up a frying pan, threatening me with it. "Get lost!"
\tI backed away, holding up my hands. "Okay, okay, no need to get hostile!"
\tI exited through the gate and headed for the entrance to the corridor that led to the gym. When I was halfway across the room, the stove suddenly began spewing flames and smoke billowed up from it. As the kitchen staff rushed to put out the fire, I watched my companions sprinkle the contents of their vials over the plates of raw meat, their actions mostly obscured by the smoke. I grinned and ran down the hallway toward the gym.
\tThe gym reeked of sweat, as most gyms do, but in this one the odor was so strong it made me wrinkle my nose. They really needed to go over this place with some disinfectant. It was stocked with exercise equipment that was old, tarnished, and badly maintained. Several Dogz were in the process of working out on the stuff that wasn't broken. They looked at me as I came in, and grinned, baring their fangs. I did my best to ignore them, concentrating on the massive black-furred figure in the center.
\tBlack Fang was in full werewolf form, over seven feet tall, his prison jumpsuit peeled down to his waist, the sleeves tied together to keep it from falling off. His barrel chest and clawed feet were bare. He was in the process of lifting what had to be over a ton of weights above his head, his inhumanly huge muscles flexing beneath his ebony fur. He glanced down at me as I came over to him, and for a moment I knew how it would feel to be a real chipmunk being eyed by a real wolf. "Excuse me, Mr. Black Fang, sir?" I said nervously.
\t"What is it, lunch?" he growled, in a thick German accent.
\t"Um, I'm afraid lunch has been canceled, sir," I replied. "I saw some Elementalz in the mess hall putting something on your food!"
\tBlack Fang's yellow eyes went wide. "WHAT?" he roared, slamming his barbell down onto the floor with a mighty crash that made everything in the room shake. He crouched down on his digitigrade legs and leaned forward, his glistening black nosepad only inches from the tip of my muzzle. I nearly gagged as his foul breath washed over me. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why should you warn us? You are a manimal, not a werewolf."
\tI nodded. "I know, sir, but I'm in here with you guys now, and I figure us furry types gotta stick together, right?" I managed a weak smile.
\tThe corners of his black-lipped mouth pulled back in a toothy grin, his white teeth gleaming. "If what you say turns out to be true, runt, there may be a place for you in my pack. Maybe you can replace Freddy." I followed his gaze to a mangy little werewolf who was crouching off to one side, holding a mop, with a pail beside him. He wore nothing but his brown fur, patches of which were missing, and his tail dragged on the wet floor. I'd never thought I could feel sorry for a werewolf, but this one looked so miserable and pathetic, I couldn't help myself. Still, I guess every pack needs an omega. Freddy looked at me, his ears pricked up, and he grinned at the prospect of not being bottom dog anymore. I almost felt sad that I'd have to disappoint him. Almost.
\tI turned back to Black Fang. "That's very generous of you, sir!" I said, nodding eagerly.
\tHe merely grunted in response, then said, "Now, let's see what is going on here!" He began walking toward the mess hall, and I had to run to keep up with the strides of his long lupine legs.
\tBy the time we arrived, several of the Dogz were writhing on the floor, groaning and clutching their stomachs, while the rest of the inmates and the kitchen staff looked on in confusion. The Elementalz and the remaining Dogz were already glaring at each other with open hostility. I searched for my companions and saw them standing together off to one side, watching the drama unfold.
\tBlack Fang's jaw dropped. "By the moon, you were telling the truth, runt!" He grinned and ruffled my hair with one huge clawed hand. "You are now a Dog. If anyone lays a finger on you, they answer to me!"
\t"Gabba gabba, hey!" I said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
\tHe loped off toward the common room, and with a nod of my head I indicated to my companions that they should follow. Along with several other Dogz—including Freddy—Black Fang and I arrived in the common room. It was identical to the common room in A block, a cavernous space with multiple levels of cells ringing a large open area. Black Fang howled out a challenge. "Ferd, you piece of inbred redneck mutant garbage! You think you can get away with poisoning my pack? I will rip your throat out!"
\t"Bring it, Dog!" shouted Ferd, grinning a gap-toothed grin down at him from three levels above. "It's time you mutts were put in your place!" He was a big, bald, muscular man, and clearly deformed. One of his arms was longer than the other, and his hands had only three thick fingers. He hailed from a region in the southwestern United States called Burning Sands, where nuclear testing in the 1950s had spawned numerous mutations, the most powerful being the giant, green-skinned, four-armed monster called Grond, who was possibly the strongest superhuman on the planet. Many of these mutants were perversely proud of their twisted bodies and had banded together into a cult dedicated to spreading the Word of the Atom, kidnapping normal humans and exposing them to radiation. Those who survived swelled the cult's ranks.
\tBlack Fang snarled, bounded from the floor to the second level in one mighty leap, and began climbing up toward Ferd. In response, the mutant lobbed bolts of green radiation at the werewolf, which weakened but did not stop him. The room exploded into chaos as Dogz and Elementalz began mixing it up, fangs and claws being met with blasts of fire, ice, electricity, psionic energy, and radiation. While werewolves and mutants battled around me, I snuck away to rejoin my companions, and we made our way through the fighting toward the entrance to D block.
\tFrom out of the doorway to D block charged a huge man dressed much like a Roman gladiator, with a bronze helmet, boots, and belt. A bronze pauldron and gauntlet adorned his left arm, while his right arm was bare. A scarlet loincloth hung down from his belt to his knees, and in his right hand he held a sword resembling a Roman gladius. Most strikingly, however, his entire body was covered in dull gray metal, which bore numerous nicks and gashes, mementos from past battles. I recognized him immediately as Drogen Lar from the planet Dorvala—on Earth, the Champion who called himself Ironclad, Ironkid's father—except that Multifaria's version of him had cruel-looking spikes on his pauldron, gauntlet, and boots.
\t"Ha ha!" he bellowed in a deep, resonant voice as he rushed toward the fighting. "At last, battle! My sword is thirsty!" Then he saw us and stopped dead, his glowing yellow eyes staring at Ironkid. "What . . . what is this?"
\tIronkid assumed a defensive stance, sword held horizontally above his head. "Go on," he said calmly. "I'll handle this."
\t"You don't really think we're going to let you fight him alone, do you?" asked Nightfox.
\t"You can't hurt him," Ironkid replied. "I'll keep him busy while the rest of you go into D block."
\tI spoke up. "Much as I hate to say it, Julie, he may be right. I don't think there's anything any of us could do to Ironclad."
\tIronkid glared at me. "Don't call him that! He's not worthy of that name!" He turned back to Drogen Lar. "Fight me!"
\tDrogen laughed haughtily. "I came for glorious combat, not to train pups!"
\t"Fight me!" Ironkid demanded. "I invoke the Code!"
\tDrogen's eyes narrowed. "What do you know of the Code, boy?"
\t"I know no Dorvalen Space Marine refuses a challenge to honorable combat! Or are you afraid?"
\tDrogen smirked. "I have never been afraid."
\t"Then fight me!"
\tDrogen lowered himself into a combat crouch. "Very well, boy. Let us see how long you last!" He lunged with his blade, and there was a piercing clang of metal on metal as Ironkid first executed an odd, oblique parry that threw his opponent's sword way off its mark, and then whirled about, the tip of his blade carving a line across Drogen's metal chest.
\tDrogen took a step back, clearly surprised. "That was the kala-makri!" he gasped. "I learned that move in the Malvan gladiatorial arena! Where did you learn it?"
\tIronkid grinned. "Where I come from, they teach that move in kindergarten! Is that the best you've got?"
\tDrogen smiled and readied himself for another attack. "Perhaps this will prove more entertaining than I thought!"
\tWith Drogen Lar preoccupied, the rest of us ran for the entrance to D block. I could see the looks of distress on Flora's and Nightfox's faces at the thought of leaving Ironkid behind. I couldn't read Dorgok's face, but his tongue was flickering, which might have meant he was upset as well, though I couldn't be sure. I didn't have an opportunity to ponder it, though, as suddenly something bowled into me and sent me skidding across the floor away from my companions—something brown and furry.
\tI twisted around to find Freddy glaring down at me. "No!" he snarled. "You can't go! I don't want to be omega anymore!"
\t"Get the hell off me, you stupid mutt!" I yelled, popping my claws. His attack had dispelled Flora's glamor, so my costume was visible once more. I tried to stab him with my claws, but he seized my wrists, and even though he was the bottom wolf of his pack, he was still exceptionally strong, a lot stronger than me.
\tAs we struggled together on the floor, I heard a harsh electronic voice above us say, "Unidentified entity detected!" Freddy had knocked me right in front of one of the guardbots. And with my arms immobilized, I couldn't reach the EMP projector stuck in my belt.
\t"You idiot!" I shouted at him. "You're going to get us both caught!" I looked over at the others. Nightfox and Flora were running toward me, but Freddy had knocked me quite a ways and the projectors had a very short range. They weren't going to make it. Dorgok was flying ahead of them, his EMP projector in his clawed hand. He might arrive in time to disable the guardbot. I was rather surprised that he was even bothering to try.
\t"Activating teleportation procedure," the guardbot grated, and suddenly the world around us faded out of existence.

\tWe materialized in a small room with bare concrete walls, surrounded by black-uniformed security guards. Freddy looked around, his ears flattening. "I . . . I was trying to capture this traitor!" he whined. "Long live Citizen Harmon!"
\t"Get off of him, mutt!" one of the guards ordered, and Freddy immediately obeyed, letting go of my wrists and standing up. I got to my feet and looked around. There were ten guards, all of them armed with tasers and batons. I seriously doubted I could take them all down before they shocked me into unconsciousness.
\t"You're one of those terrorists who came through the portal in Conquerors Headquarters!" one of the guards said.
\t"What gave it away?" I asked with a smirk.
\t"Where do you come from?" the guard demanded.
\t"Ross Bagdasarian's worst nightmare."
\tHe fired his taser at me, and I fell to the floor, every muscle in my body locking up as my teeth clamped together. After a few seconds, when I could breathe again, he repeated his question.
\t"Where all manimals come from, you dimwit," I muttered. "Monster Island."
\t"Only one manimal meeting your description has ever left Monster Island," the guard said, "and you're not him."
\t"Well, then I guess I must not be here," I said. He fired his taser again, and I went rigid on the floor as the volts coursed through my body. Funny thing about electricity—it's not even painful. Just really, really uncomfortable.
\t"Take him to the interrogation room," the guard said. Two of his buddies picked me up and cuffed my hands behind my back while the others kept their tasers aimed at me. They marched me out the door and down a hall to another room. I didn't see what happened to Freddy. I imagine they patted him on his head, gave him a treat, and called him a good boy.
\tThe interrogation room looked exactly as I expected it to—bare concrete walls, a chair with shackles for the wrists and ankles, and a table bearing a lot of painful-looking instruments of torture, all lit by a single naked bulb. It reminded me of the House of Pain on Monster Island, where Moreau had done unspeakable things to his creations. I'd never had to go through that experience, thankfully, as I'd enjoyed a privileged existence as what amounted to a house pet—until he'd sent me and my brothers to the fight pits—but I'd snuck in once to check it out when nobody was there. It had stunk of blood, and the floor had been sticky beneath my bare feet. There was no blood here, but there was a drain in the center of the floor. The guards shackled my legs to the chair and then carefully removed my cuffs, holding my arms securely. They tried to remove my gauntlets, but found they couldn't. There's a trick to that, and they didn't know it. So they just shackled my arms to the chair with me still wearing them. Then they went away. I sat there, unable to move, reviewing the mental techniques Nighthawk had taught me for resisting pain and drugs.
\tThe door opened, and in walked a familiar figure in blue and black armor, huge goggles over his eyes. "Hello, Alvin," said Dr. Sciuridae, his buck teeth gleaming as he grinned at me. "I told you we'd meet again."
\tI nodded. "And I told you I'd be waiting."
\tHe walked over to me, gazing down at me from behind his goggles. "It's not hard to guess why you're here. You came to rescue the Old Man."
\tI shrugged. "Could be."
\t"He's not what you think he is, Alvin."
\tI chuckled. "And your Citizen Harmon, or Shadow Destroyer, or whatever he calls himself, isn't what you think he is, either."
\tHe leaned forward, peering at me intently. "What do you know about Shadow Destroyer?"
\t"I know he draws his power from the Qliphoth, which means you're a fool to serve him."
\t"What makes you say that?"
\t"Because I've been there! I've seen horrors you wouldn't believe, and I've seen what they do to the dimensions they conquer! Shadow Destroyer is going to suck your world dry like an orange and feed its husk to his masters, the Kings of Edom! My Simon was at least smart enough to realize when he was being used!"
\tDr. Sciuridae scowled. "If your Simon was so smart, why is he so dead?"
\t"Because he was gentle and kind. He decided he'd rather die than kill."
\t"Whereas you clearly opted for the latter path."
\tI nodded. "Sometimes I wish I'd been strong enough to follow Simon's path. But I wasn't. And I have to live with that every day."
\tDr. Sciuridae smirked. "Pacifism is a morally bankrupt philosophy, Alvin. A pacifist may refuse to fight, but that just means someone else dies in his place."
\tI growled at him. "Nobody died in my Simon's place. And I don't need a murdering psychopath like you lecturing me about morality."
\t"You're making a lot of assumptions about someone you know nothing about. As you pointed out, I'm not the Simon you remember."
\t"Then let's get to know each other a little better," I said. "I heard Lapis Lazuli call you 'mi amor.' Was that just a term of endearment, or are you and she an actual couple?"
\tHe stared at me, clearly surprised by the turn the conversation had suddenly taken. "What's it to you?"
\t"I'm just curious. My Simon never had a girlfriend. He was too shy."
\tHe shrugged. "We have a thing."
\t"Do you love her?"
\tHe snarled and seized my arms, his nose inches from mine. "I don't feel the need to share my personal life with you, 'brother!'"
\tI fixed my eyes on his. "I asked because if you do love her, you won't want to see her sucked into the Qliphoth along with everything else."
\t"You still haven't convinced me that's going to happen."
\t"It will happen, 'brother,' because that's what the Kings of Edom do! They're like cosmic locusts, going from dimension to dimension, eating them like popcorn. And if Shadow Destroyer serves them, then that's what he has planned for this dimension! He doesn't care about you or anyone else! Only his masters! He wants to free them, and if he has to feed them a trillion souls to do it, he will!"
\tDr. Sciuridae glared at me, and I could see anger and uncertainty warring on his tan-furred face. I didn't get a chance to find out which would have won, however, as suddenly that face went blank and his eyes glowed with magenta light. It was an effect I'd seen before, in people under the control of psionic powers.
\t"Simon?" I asked. "Simon?" No response. He was completely entranced. I decided to take advantage of his incapacitation, as whoever was doing this to him probably wouldn't be able to do it for long. I slipped a lockpick hidden in my right glove into my fingers and began working on the shackle holding my right arm. In a matter of seconds, my arm was free. I quickly removed the other shackles and hopped down off the torture chair. Then I paused a moment, gazing at Dr. Sciuridae. He was still frozen, utterly helpless. No, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. Maybe in the heat of battle. Maybe. But not like this. I sat him down in the chair, shackled his hands and feet, and left the room.
\tI ran through the prison, following the signs toward D block. Everywhere I went, I saw guards and inmates standing motionless, their eyes glowing magenta. Whoever was doing this was controlling dozens of minds at once, possibly hundreds. There were only one or two mentalists on Earth with that kind of power. Of course, this wasn't Earth, it was Multifaria; so it might be this world's version of one of them, or it might be someone entirely new. I skirted a guardbot as it continued to perform its duties, its electronic brain immune to psionics, and kept heading toward D block.
\tI rounded a corner and almost ran right into Ironkid. He was leaning against a wall, panting, his costume in tatters, and was bleeding from several gashes in his metallic skin. He lifted his head and looked at me, his long black hair hanging in his face. "Hey, Nightmunk! Nice to see you again!"
\t"Likewise," I said. "You look like you've taken a beating."
\tHe nodded. "It was a hell of a fight! My dad would always hold back when we'd spar, but this Drogen went for broke! I took everything he could dish out and gave it all back to him, plus interest!" He grinned proudly, his bare metal chest heaving.
\tI took a coagulant and anesthetic spray from my belt and treated his wounds. "Did you beat him?" I asked.
\tIronkid frowned. "I didn't get the chance. Something froze him in the middle of our battle! I could have killed him, but that wouldn't have been honorable. So I just clonked him on his head and knocked him out."
\tI nodded. "Commendable. Looks like you'll have some nice scars in that metal hide of yours to impress your dad with when you get home."
\tHe grinned again. "My dad says a scar gained in battle is a badge of honor!"
\tI chuckled. "He would. Come on, let's rejoin the others!" Together, we ran toward D block.
\tWe entered a large, dimly-lit room with a recessed floor made up of rings of concentric levels that grew smaller as you went down, like an amphitheater. Each ring held transparent cylinders eight feet tall, containing humanoid forms suspended in liquid. There was a similar chamber in Stronghold Prison, the superpowered detention facility in New Mexico back on Earth. There, it was used for prisoners whose powers made them too dangerous to allow to remain conscious, so instead they were kept in an induced coma known as hot sleep. The legality of hot sleep had been challenged on several occasions, opponents claiming that it violated the prisoner's civil rights and the Eighth Amendent's proscription against cruel and usual punishment. Advocates countered that the only other way to protect the public from these individuals was to kill them, so hot sleep, regrettable as it was, constituted the lesser of two evils. It remained a contentious issue, even within the superhero community. I wasn't entirely comfortable with it myself, but I couldn't think of any better solution to the problem. I was at least glad I lived in a society where there was a debate about it, as opposed to Multifaria, where civil rights didn't exist and no debate was permitted.
\tThe cylinder at the very bottom level of the amphitheater had been broken, and two figures were kneeling beside it, but in the dim light I couldn't make out who they were. Ironkid and I ran down the stairs to them. One was a young man with short red hair. The other was a young woman with long pink hair, her hand on the young man's shoulder. They were both wearing yellow prison jumpsuits, and their eyes blazed with magenta light. I recognized them as Simon Poe and Stacy Turner. On Earth, they went by the names Psimon and Mind Slayer. Psimon was the leader of a criminal organization of psionics called the Parapsychological Studies Institute, or PSI. Mind Slayer was his chief enforcer and assassin, as well as his lover. I'd fought both of them on several occasions, most recently during a trip to an other-dimensional world called Zoolok populated by talking animals not unlike myself.
\tSimon didn't appear to be aware of us, his brow furrowed with concentration. However, Stacy looked up at us. Without the sneer of contempt and disdain I was used to seeing on it, her face was actually quite pretty. "Your friends broke us both out of hot sleep," she said in a strained voice, answering the question I'd been about to ask. "They're headed for the Super-Max cell. You can still catch up with them, but please hurry. Even with my powers reinforcing his, Simon can hold everyone for only so long."
\tI nodded. "Thank you, Stacy," I said.
\t"Long live the Resistance!" she replied, through clenched teeth.
 \tIronkid and I ran up the stairs to the other side of the hot sleep chamber and then down a series of corridors, past dozens of paralyzed guards, until we finally rounded a corner and saw the entrance to the Super-Max cell in front of us, a massive steel vault door that wouldn't have been out of place in Fort Knox. Before it stood Nightfox, Flora, Dorgok, and Nathan Hutton. "Alvin!" Julie cried, running to meet me. We threw our arms around each other and held each other close. I'd never felt anything so good. "I was afraid we'd lost you!"
\t"You're not getting rid of me that easy," I said, nuzzling her cheek through her mask. She pulled up her mask to uncover her mouth and kissed my muzzle hard.
\t"Let me help you, Borlan," said Flora, coming over to Ironkid and making little flowers bloom around his wounds, closing them up.
\t"Will the scars still be there?" he asked anxiously.
\tShe nodded. "I fear so. I can only make wounds heal faster, not better."
\tHe grinned. "Good!"
\t"Good?" she asked, staring at him.
\t"He wants them so he can impress girls," I said, smirking.
\t"I do not!" Ironkid retorted. "I want to show them to my dad, so he can see I'm a real warrior!"
\tFlora rolled her eyes. "Men!"
\t"Being wounded in battle is a sign of incompetence," said Dorgok, "not proficiency."
\t"Then Alvin must be really incompetent," said Julie, "because he's got scars all over him!" We both grinned at each other and hugged again.
\t"I hate to break up this happy reunion," said Hutton, "but we came here for a reason." He stuck a security card into a slot by the door and keyed in a passcode. Slowly, the huge door began to grind open. "This is as far as I go. I don't want my image to be captured by the security cameras inside. That way, if things don't work out . . ."
\t"If things don't work out," I said, "I doubt it's going to matter much if anyone knows you helped us or not. Anyway, how, exactly, are we supposed to get the Old Man out of here?"
\t"Don't worry," said Hutton, "he'll take care of that. Good luck!" He turned and began walking away.
\t"What do you mean?" I asked his back.
\t"You'll see soon enough," he replied, walking faster.
\t"I don't like this, Alvin," said Nightfox, as the door continued to grind open.
\t"Neither do I," I said.
\t"I have suspected from the start that there was something the Resistance was not telling us," said Dorgok, tongue flickering.
\t"That's because you don't trust anyone," Flora admonished him.
\t"No, I do not, because I am not a fool."
\t"That is highly debatable," said Flora.
\tI nodded. "Anyone who serves the Kings of Edom is either a fool or insane."
\tThe door had opened wide enough that we could get through, and we entered the Super-Max cell. It was a large room, brightly lit, with consoles covering each wall. In the center, floating in a large cylinder much like those in the hot sleep chamber, was an elderly, white-haired human male in a yellow prison jumpsuit. I couldn't quite make out his features through the distorting effects of the the fluid he was suspended in, but there was something familiar about him. I didn't have a chance to look closer, though, as there was a sudden flash of light, and before us floated a young woman with long red hair. She wore a black sleeveless tunic with gold trim, a gold tiara, a belt made of gold discs, gold boots that rose to the knees of her bare legs, gold bracers, and black gloves. Down her back trailed a long cloak made of strips of purple fabric. I recognized her face as that of Witchcraft, the Champions' resident sorceress, but her eyes glowed with the same purple light I'd seen in Oubliette's eyes—the light of the Qliphoth.
\t"I am Warden Arcana," she announced, her voice echoing hollowly, "Shadow Destroyer's apprentice! Prepare to die!"
\t"Spread out!" I ordered, and my allies did so, Dorgok and Flora moving off to my left while Nightfox and Ironkid went to the right. I wasn't exactly sure what we'd be facing here, but I knew Witchcraft cast a lot of spells that had wide areas of effect, so we'd have a better chance if we weren't bunched together.
\tArcana surveyed us with a haughty expression as she hovered in the air before us. "Children and manimals? This is what the Resistance sends against me? Pathetic!"
\t"I am no manimal!" shouted Dorgok. "I am a Lemurian!" A massive bolt of lightning shot from his clawed hands, striking Arcana. An aura of purple energy crackled to life around her, absorbing it.
\t"Stupid lizard!" she sneered. "I command the power of the Qliphothic realm! I've killed heroes before, and I'll kill you too!" She raised her hand and a purple bolt shot from it, striking Dorgok dead center. The Lemurian boy staggered, fell to the floor, and lay motionless, smoke rising from his chest.
\t"Dorgok!" cried Flora, running to him and casting her healing spell, causing little flowers to bloom all over his body. Ironkid, Nightfox, and I took advantage of the distraction to charge Arcana. "To victory!" the metal-skinned boy yelled, leaping toward her, his sword raised high. He brought it down hard, striking at Arcana, but with that purple aura protecting her, she barely seemed to notice. Nightfox and I struck her with staff and claws, respectively, achieving no greater success. Her aura flared, and all three of us were hurled away, Nightfox and I landing on our feet while Ironkid was sprawled on his back. First round to Arcana.
\tI glanced at the cylinder containing the Old Man. It appeared to be surrounded by some kind of shimmering force field with a console outside it. Arcana noticed my glance and grinned. "You think you can free the Old Man, manimal? Think again! His prison is protected by an impenetrable force field controlled from that console, and the only way to it is through me!"
\tIt was hard seeing her like this, almost as hard as it was seeing Simon as Dr. Sciuridae. Witchcraft had always been kind to me, helping me through some difficult moments. She'd taught me how to find peace within myself when my anger and sorrow threatened to overwhelm me. In some ways, she'd been almost as important to me as Julie. I looked over at Dorgok, who was being helped to his feet by Flora. "Thank you," he said.
\t"You should be more careful," she admonished him.
\tDorgok hissed in the Lemurian equivalent of a laugh. "I believe, as the humans say, that ship has sailed."
\t"It could always turn around," Flora said.
\tThe Lemurian boy looked at her strangely for a moment, then turned his attention back to Arcana.
\tI sent a smoke bomb rolling across the floor toward Arcana, and it detonated directly beneath her, engulfing her in a thick column of inky black smoke. With any luck, it would buy us a few seconds to get close to her while she was blinded. Ironkid, Nightfox, and I charged her again, while Dorgok fired another lightning bolt and Flora hurled a glob of some kind of green liquid at her. I slashed with my claws, Nightfox struck with her staff, and Ironkid hacked with his sword, and this time it actually seemed to have an effect on her, as she cried out in pain. So she could be hurt. That was encouraging.
\tHer purple aura flared again, hurling us away from her, and she glared at us furiously. "You worms are not worthy of my attention! I will let my minions deal with you!" She uttered an incantation, and a blossom of purple energy expanded out from her. I could still dimly make out her silhouette floating motionless inside it.
\t"She has opened a rift to the Qliphoth!" cried Dorgok.
\t"Any idea what might come through?" I asked.
\t"None, but it is unlikely to be anything good."
\tI smirked up at him. "Tell me something I don't know. Nothing good ever comes from that place!"
\tSomething came shambling out of the rift. It was human-sized, squat and powerfully built, with clawed hands and feet. Its body was transparent purple, and its face had no discernible features.
\t"A riftling!" said Dorgok.
\t"What the hell is a riftling?" Nightfox asked.
\t"A piece of Qliphothic energy given a semblance of life. My mother used to summon them for various tasks."
\t"Are they dangerous?" I asked.
\t"Not especially, unless there are a lot of them." As he spoke, another one came through the rift. Then another. And another.
\t"Start taking them out before we're buried!" I shouted, and hurled one of my throwing blades at the riftling nearest me. The blade tore through the creature, dispersing it, but more were coming through the rift at an alarming rate. Ironkid was laying into them with his sword, as was Nightfox with her staff, while Dorgok was blasting them right and left and Flora was strangling them with vines, and still they kept coming. One jumped on top of me, pinning me to the floor, and its claws raked across my armor. I plunged my talons into its sides, and it evaporated, but I barely had time to get to my feet before two more were on me. I was forced to retreat, slashing at them with my claws as they pursued me.
\t"There are too many!" I shouted. "Form a circle!" Nightfox and I linked up with Dorgok and Flora, the four of us standing back to back, while riftlings closed in from all sides. Ironkid was cut off from the rest of us, surrounded. They didn't seem to be able to hurt him, but he'd been overwhelmed by sheer numbers to the point where he couldn't move. He kept hacking at them with his sword, but it was like fighting an avalanche. Eventually, he disappeared beneath a wave of purple.
\t"Borlan!" cried Flora, sending streamers of vines toward him, piercing and dispersing a dozen riftlings, which were replaced almost immediately.
\t"How many of these things can she summon?" Nightfox muttered, swinging her staff in wide arcs. I could tell from her voice that she was getting tired.
\t"They draw their power from the rift," Dorgok replied, blasting more riftlings. "The more she summons, the weaker it gets."
\t"So if we kill enough of them, the rift will collapse?" I asked.
\t"Correct."
\t"How many is enough?" asked Nightfox.
\t"I do not know."
\t"Well, if this keeps up much longer," I said, "we're all going to drop from exhaustion!"
\tDorgok nodded. "That seems likely."
\t"There must be something we can do!" said Flora.
\t"There is," said Dorgok. He flew up above us, sparks crackling around his body. "Get down!" Nightfox, Flora, and I hit the floor as Dorgok exploded into a huge ball of lightning, a webwork of crackling blue-white streams dancing over the riftlings, arcing from one to the other, piercing and dispersing them. My fur stood on end, and the air reeked of ozone—a smell like a cross between gunpowder and bleach—which made me choke.
\tThe crackling stopped, and I raised my head and looked up in time to see Dorgok plummet to the floor and land with a thud, unconscious. The riftlings and the rift that had spawned them were gone. Arcana was floating where the rift had been, looking somewhat surprised as the rest of us got to our feet. Ironkid was unhurt, but there was nothing left of his costume save for a few scraps of red cloth barely keeping him decent. Flora ran over to Dorgok, crouching beside him and trying to heal him. I turned toward Arcana, grinning wearily but triumphantly at her. "I think that round goes to us."
\tArcana just glared at me. Clearly, she wasn't accustomed to losing even one round of a battle. She raised her arms and chanted, "Essence of Chaos, heed my call!" Then she brought her arms down quickly, and something appeared in the air before her. It was black, the black of a cave miles underground that had never been touched by light. It was shaped like a humanoid torso that ended at the waist, beneath which were only wisps of black mist. Its head bore several spikes pointing straight up, and its shoulders flared out as if it were wearing pauldrons. Its blackness was interrupted only by glowing purple orbs on its arms, on its shoulders, in the center of its chest, and where its eyes should have been. At the end of its long arms, its fingers terminated in curved black talons. "I claim your essence as my own, demon!" said Arcana. "Fight for me and feast upon my enemies!" Then she pointed at me. "Kill that one first!"
\tThe demon spoke in a deep, sonorous voice. "As you command it, so it shall be, Mistress." It began moving toward me.
\tI drew a throwing blade from my belt as the demon advanced, but as I was about to hurl it, Arcana gestured and uttered an incantation, and purple tendrils rose from the ground, wrapping around my arms and legs and holding me fast. I strained against them, trying to break free as the demon bore down on me. Fortunately, Nightfox and Ironkid came to my rescue, interposing themselves between me and the demon. "Hands off, ugly!" Nightfox said, swinging her staff and striking the demon in the head, which made it grunt. I had to admire Julie. All this craziness was still new to her, but she was handling it like a pro.
\tThe demon took a swipe at her with its huge clawed hand, but she danced out of its reach, and Ironkid took advantage of the opening to jab with his sword, burying the tip in the demon's side. It howled in pain and struck at him, its claws raking across his metal chest. I gritted my teeth, straining every muscle in my body against the tendrils binding me, and felt the ones holding my arms snap. I used my claws to free my legs, the tendrils severing easily. "Can you hold that thing?" I asked Ironkid. The boy just nodded, parrying as the demon flailed at him. I turned to Nightfox. "Let's take down Arcana!"
\tNightfox nodded, and we charged toward Arcana while she floated before us, scowling. "I will not be undone by a manimal!" said the sorceress, firing a bolt of Qliphothic energy at me.
\t"I'm surprised at you, Bethany!" I said, dodging her attack. "One of your fellow Conquerors is a manimal!"
\t"That worshipper of technology?" she sneered. "He belongs back on Monster Island with the rest of his misbegotten kind, dancing naked around a campfire!" She shot a blast at Nightfox, who dodged it easily.
\t"Lapis Lazuli doesn't seem to think so," Nightfox said, moving warily toward her while I did the same from the opposite side, forcing her to split her attention between us.
\t"Lapis Lazuli is a whore who will lie with anything that moves!" Arcana growled. "It's not surprising she would take a manimal into her bed!"
\t"What about Shadow Destroyer?" I asked, grinning at her. "Is he teaching you more than just magic?"
\tHer eyes flashed. "Our relationship transcends the physical!"
\tNightfox chuckled. "In other words, no nookie."
\tArcana made a furious sound and fired another bolt at Nightfox, who dodged it. While Arcana's attention was on Julie, I launched myself at the sorceress and slashed at her with my claws. She cried out in pain as red gashes appeared on her left arm, and whirled on me, blasting me and sending me flying away from her. My armor soaked up most of the damage, but I still landed on my back, stunned.
\t"Alvin!" Nightfox cried, running toward me. Arcana fired another bolt at her, and it struck, knocking her off her feet.
\t"In your concern for your companion, you forgot the first rule of combat!" Arcana gloated. "Never take your eyes off your opponent!" She raised her hands, building up a pair of powerful Qliphothic bolts to finish us both off with.
\tAll at once, vines sprouted from the floor beneath Arcana, snaking around her body and binding her arms. "Enough, Arcana!" said Flora, standing with one arm raised. "This ends now!"
\tArcana grinned at her with malicious delight. "Foolish child! You dare pit your powers against mine?"
\t"I am fey," said Flora calmly. "My magic comes from light and life. Yours comes from darkness and death. Let us see which is the stronger."
\tArcana's aura flared, tearing apart the vines holding her. "This is Multifaria, child," she said, her eyes blazing purple as her body crackled with Qliphothic energy. "And in Multifaria, darkness is all!"
\tShe lashed out with a purple bolt, and Flora countered by spinning a shield of leaves and vines before her, absorbing it. Then Flora raised her arms, and the floor around Arcana erupted with whiplike vines covered with thorns that slashed across her body, leaving bloody trails in their wakes.
\t"Argh!" Arcana cried out, clearly in pain. "Essence of Chaos, I claim your power!" She gestured at the demon that was still fighting Ironkid, and the thing dissolved into a stream of purple mist that flowed back to Arcana, healing her wounds. She grinned at Flora savagely. "I said you were a fool to think you could beat me, child!" She raised her hands, building up another Qliphothic bolt.
\t"Heads up," said Flora, smiling.
\tArcana whirled, and her eyes went wide as she saw Ironkid sailing through the air toward her, sword held above his head in both hands, point downward. The boy plunged the tip of his sword into her chest, bearing her to the ground beneath him, the impact driving the blade through her back and into the floor. "Die, witch!" Ironkid growled, twisting his sword a few times for good measure, then pulling it free and standing over her corpse triumphantly, his blade dripping scarlet, his metal chest heaving.
\tI got to my feet, a little shaken by how brutally Ironkid had killed Arcana, but I reminded myself we were playing for keeps here. She'd made it quite clear that she intended to kill all of us, and had almost done so. "Good work, everyone," I said. I turned to Dorgok, who was coming over to join us. "Thanks for taking out that rift, Dorgok. I don't think we could have beaten her if you hadn't."
\tThe Lemurian boy looked down at his claw-toed feet and rubbed behind his head, seeming uncomfortable at my praise. "You are welcome," he said at last, quietly. Then his golden eyes went wide as Flora threw her arms around his scaley chest and hugged him.
\t"We'll make a hero out of you yet!" she said, smiling at him.
\tDorgok's tongue flickered as he pushed her away. "Do not be absurd! I have no desire to be a hero! In any case, that maneuver drained all my energy. It will take hours for me to recover. Until then, I fear I will be of little use."
\t"Hopefully," I said, "once we've done what we came here to do, that won't matter."
\tI walked over to the console that Arcana had said controlled the forcefield around the cylinder the Old Man was floating in. The controls appeared simple enough to operate. I deactivated the field, drained the cylinder of its life-sustaining fluids, and opened it. The Old Man staggered out, his yellow prison jumpsuit dripping wet. I could see his face clearly now—white-haired, with a high domed forehead, prominent cheekbones, ice-blue eyes, and thin lips. I put his age at around eighty. There was something damnably familiar about him, but I still couldn't place him. "Hello, sir," I said. "I'm Nightmunk, and these are Nightfox, Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok. We've come to rescue you."
\tHe looked at each of us in turn. Then without a word he pushed past us, walking with a slight limp, and went over to a large steel door in one wall. He tapped in a code on a keypad beside it, and the door slid open. He went inside, and the door slid shut behind him.
\t"Thanks for rescuing me!" said Nightfox indignantly.
\t"You said it!" said Ironkid, frowning.
\t"That was very rude!" said Flora.
\tI didn't say anything. Something about the Old Man was really bugging me, and it was driving me nuts that I couldn't figure out what it was. Then the door slid open, a tall figure strode out, and my blood turned to ice water in my veins. "Oh god, no!" I gasped.
\t"It's . . . it's not possible!" protested Nightfox.
\tIronkid and Flora were speechless. Only Dorgok was spared. He'd been raised in the Qliphoth and had no idea who he was looking at, or why it should cause such a reaction in the rest of us.
\tHe was armored from head to toe, with a silver breastplate and helmet, black arms and legs, and gold gauntlets, pauldrons, belt, and boots. His helmet was topped by a gold crown ringed with spikes pointing upward. His breastplate bore a familiar twin-pronged device, and a long, scarlet cape flowed down his back. He stopped before us and laughed, a laugh that haunted the worst nightmares of almost everyone on Earth.
\t"At last!" he declared, in a deep, gravelly voice. "The true Destroyer has returned!"
\tWe all just stood there, staring at him: Albert Zerstoiten, son of a Bavarian dollmaker, the most feared man in history. A child prodigy who had earned two doctorates by the age of twenty, he'd served as a scientist in the Third Reich, inventing brilliant, deadly weapons for the Nazis, and then sold out his masters when it became clear that they were going to lose. After the war, he'd worked briefly for the U.S.'s atomic weapons program, devising more things that killed people, before relocating to the jungles of South America, where he'd set up his own criminal empire, financed by sales of advanced weaponry, and become the supervillain known as Doctor Destroyer. He'd tried to conquer the world several times, and for three months back in 1984 he had actually succeeded, using mind control satellites to enslave almost everyone on Earth to his will. His ruthless attack on Detroit in 1992 had reduced most of that city to rubble, killing tens of thousands of innocent people. More than a dozen heroes had perished before he'd finally been defeated for what everyone had hoped was the last time.
\tApparently, everyone had been wrong.
\tHe glanced at Arcana's body, gave a contemptuous grunt, and then turned his gaze on us, examining each of us in turn. It was hard not to feel like a bug under a microscope before him. "I know you," he said finally. "You and I are of the same Earth."
\tI swallowed and found my voice. "How . . . how did you know that?"
\t"Elementary. One of you is a Lemurian. There are no Lemurians on Multifaria. Only Karkaradons."
\tDorgok blinked. "No Lemurians?"
\tDestroyer's eyes focused on me, and I tried not to flinch. "You are a manimal, one of Moreau's creations, like that upstart Dr. Sciuridae." He turned his gaze to Ironkid. "And you bear a marked resemblance to Drogen Lar."
\t"I am the son of our Earth's version of him," said Ironkid proudly. "There, he is a hero!"
\tDestroyer chuckled ominously. "Excellent! The time has come to end this charade! You will help me take my revenge upon this inter-dimensional interloper, this Shadow Destroyer, who has dared to steal my technology and imprison me like a slave!" He clenched his gauntleted fist. "Together, we will send him screaming back to Qliphoth!"
\t"And why would we help you," Flora demanded angrily, "when we know who you are and what you've done?"
\tDestroyer looked at her in apparent surprise. "Why? Because you are heroes." He managed to make the word sound like a sneering insult. "Because if you don't, the Resistance will fall, thousands will die, and Shadow Destroyer will once again turn his eye toward our world. You need my aid to defeat him, here in the heart of his power. You may hate me for my past actions, but you cannot deny that what I say is true. So speaks Doctor Destroyer!"
\tI couldn't help myself. His pomposity was just too much for me. I spoke up. "You want some mustard with that ham, Zerstoiten?"
\tHe turned his helmeted head and gazed down at me, and I immediately regretted opening my big mouth. Destroyer's tendency to casually murder anyone who annoyed him was well known. A chill ran down my spine as he regarded me with those pitiless eyes for a long, terrifying moment. Then, he finally spoke. "You have helped free me from captivity, manimal. In return, I shall refrain from blasting you to atoms for your impudence. Let it never be said that Destroyer does not pay his debts. Now, cease your feeble attempts at humor and let us attend to the task at hand!" And with that, he turned and began striding toward the wall.
\tMy cheek stung as Nightfox smacked me across it. "You idiot!" she hissed. "What the hell were you thinking? This isn't some bush-league supervillain, it's Doctor-freaking-Destroyer! You know, the guy who flattened the city we both live in? He could have killed you just now! If you don't care about your own life, at least think about me!"
\tI swallowed and looked down, unable to meet her eyes. She was right, of course. Taunting Destroyer had been a stupid, selfish, irresponsible thing to do, and I felt ashamed of myself for having done it. I raised my eyes to hers and said, in a small voice, "I'm sorry."
\t"You damn well better be!" she shot back. Yeah, she was furious with me right now, and I absolutely deserved it.
\tDestroyer raised his arms and fired a massive bolt of energy at the wall of the SuperMax cell. There was a deafening blast, and when the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the wall big enough to drive a bus through. Without waiting for us, Destroyer flew through the opening into the blood-red Multifarian sky. The rest of us followed, clambering over a dozen feet of steel-reinforced concrete.
\tThe scene outside was not encouraging. Destroids of every kind were converging on the prison from all directions, and in the sky above them floated the purple-and-gold armored figure of Shadow Destroyer. Apparently, he'd finally decided we were worthy of his attention.
\tDoctor Destroyer flew up to him, and the two villains faced off against each other in midair. "James Harmon!" Destroyer declared. "Face me!"
\t"Albert Zerstoiten," Shadow Destroyer replied, his voice sounding distorted and mushy, as if it were passing through an electronic filter. "I had hoped to keep you alive a bit longer. Your Destroids have proved to be useful servants."
\tDestroyer laughed. "So useful that you brought my army into your city! You are a fool, Citizen Harmon! With this armor once again in my rightful possession, I take back what you have stolen!" He tapped a control on his left wrist, and every Destroid in sight stopped moving and stood silent.
\t"I, a fool?" asked Shadow Destroyer, with mock offense. "You are nothing but a builder of toys, Zerstoiten, like your father before you! Your armor is merely metal. Mine is the glorious child of  magic and science! I wield powers you cannot imagine!"
\t"You will need them, Harmon!" Destroyer replied, his hands starting to crackle with energy. "Prepare to face the boundless wrath of Doctor Destroyer!"
\t"It's a ham-off!" said Nightfox, staring up at them.
\tI nodded. "With two supervillains, you get twice the monologuing."
\t"And with six, you get eggroll," said Nightfox.
\tDorgok looked at her strangely. "Eggroll?"
\tDestroyer struck out at his adversary with an energy bolt worthy of Zeus, so bright it hurt to look at. A dark portal opened before Shadow Destroyer and absorbed the bolt, then spat it back out. It struck Destroyer and knocked him into the side of a nearby building, caving it in and causing it to collapse on top of him.
\tWe all ducked down as a huge cloud of dust rolled over us. "Holy shit!" Ironkid managed to choke out, coughing.
\t"That was impressive," I said, covering my muzzle with my cape.
\t"Painfully predictable, Zerstoiten," Shadow Destroyer said to the heap of rubble. "Clearly, you have learned nothing since our last encounter."
\tSome of the debris slid aside, and Doctor Destroyer climbed out into the scarlet sunlight, looking uninjured save for his pride. He looked over at us. "Well?" he said. "Must I do everything? I have given you all the tools you need!" He gestured to the deactivated Destroids standing nearby. "Pilot my Mega-Destroids to the Renaissance Center and destroy the dimensional anchors that stabilize his portal to the Qliphoth! I will keep him occupied!" He launched himself into the air, rocketing back toward Shadow Destroyer.
\t"He might have bothered explaining what the plan was," grumbled Nightfox.
\t"He probably thought it was so obvious he didn't need to," I replied. "Come on, let's grab some Mega-Ds!" I began running toward the inert robotic behemoth nearest to me.
\tAs I mentioned before, Mega-Destroids are humanoid robots thirty feet tall, armed with a variety of weapons: rocket launchers, flame throwers, particle cannons, sonic projectors, neat stuff like that. I hadn't known they could be piloted, but it made sense. Dr. D always had contingency plans; therefore, he'd evidently designed the Mega-Destroids so his human agents could operate them in the event that their software was compromised.
\tI fired my grapple gun, latched onto one of the twin prongs atop the robot's head, and hit the retract button, reeling myself upward. A hatch in the thing's back yawned partly open, inviting entry. I obliged, climbing inside and plopping down into a pilot's seat. I took a moment to assess the controls. They were much like those of a tank, with two levers to control speed and direction of movement. There were four video monitors which had activated the moment my butt hit the seat, displaying what was happening to the front, back, right, and left of me. All the weapon systems were clearly labeled. Operating the thing seemed pretty straightforward, so I donned the headset that hung beside the seat and switched it on. "This is Nightmunk in Mega-D One," I said. "Anyone copy?"
\t"This is Nightfox in Mega-D Two," I heard Nightfox say. "I read you, Alvin."
\t"Ironkid in Mega-D Three," came Ironkid's voice, sounding excited. "Hey, how come you get to be Mega-D One, Nightmunk?"
\tI grinned. "Because I'm the leader, of course."
\t"What difference does it make?" Dorgok complained. "We all know who we are. This naming convention is pointless."
\t"Yeah, but it's cool," I replied.
\t"Yes," said Flora, "stop being such a wet blanket, Dorgok!"
\t"Everyone got the controls figured out?" I asked.
\t"I think so," said Nightfox.
\t"Yeah, no problem," said Ironkid. "It's just like playing Fight Area. I kick ass at that game! I even beat my dad!"
\tThe thought of the sober, dignified Ironclad trying to beat his son's score at a video game made me giggle. "Okay, Mega-D Force, to the RenCen!"
\tI pulled on the levers, and my Mega-Destroid wheeled around and began walking toward the Renaissance Center, the others following my lead. Even though we were moving fairly fast, the robots looked as if they were walking in slow motion, due to their long stride length.
\t"I feel like I'm in one of those cartoons where a bunch of Japanese teenagers are piloting robot animals, or something," said Nightfox.
\t"Yeah!" said Ironkid. "And they can all combine to form one big robot!"
\t"I don't think these things are capable of that," I said, "though I wouldn't put it past Dr. D." In my forward monitor, I could see New Harmon security forces streaming toward us from the RenCen: robot tanks and helicopters, along with hordes of black-uniformed secret police. "We've got company at twelve o'clock!"
\t"But the house is a mess!" Ironkid said in mock dismay.
\t"Then let's clean things up a bit, shall we?" I said, aiming my particle cannon at one of the helicopters and firing. A white-hot beam lanced from my robot to the helicopter, which began trailing smoke and then exploded in midair. My companions fired at other helicopters, shooting them down as well. I had to admit, this was kind of fun. It helped knowing there was nobody inside those things.
\tMy robot shook as the tanks retaliated, firing shells that exploded when they hit. I remembered reading that Mega-Destroids were made of an extremely tough alloy that Destroyer himself had invented, called destreum, because what else would he call it? They could withstand a fair amount of punishment, but they were hardly indestructible, as the heroes of Millennium City had demonstrated countless times. I targeted a group of tanks with my rocket launcher and sent a barrage of missiles spiraling toward them, detonating and blowing them to smithereens. Yeah, this was fun.
\t"Use the sonic projectors on the police," I instructed my allies. "Let's try to keep casualities to a minimum." It was naive to think that someone wasn't going to be killed, what with all these explosions hurling chunks of burning metal everywhere, but at least we could do our best to avoid unnecessary deaths.
\t"Roger that!" said Nightfox, blanketing a nearby group of security men with waves of high-frequency sound, which laid them out unconscious but unharmed. Unfortunately, another group wasn't feeling nearly so merciful as we were trying to be, firing shoulder-mounted rockets and energy weapons at her Mega-D and causing explosions to blossom all over it.
\t"Nightfox, are you okay?" I asked anxiously.
\t"Not really!" she replied. "There's smoke in here and a lot of warning lights are going off!"
\t"Withdraw and activate the self-repair diagnostic!" I shouted. "I'll cover your retreat!"
\tI moved to interpose myself between Nightfox and the ground forces shooting at her. Again, my robot appeared to be moving painfully slowly. A burst from my sonic projector put the men down, but I could see that there were more helicopters closing on me fast. I gritted my teeth as their missiles impacted on my robot, shaking me like one of James Bond's martinis.
\t"Hold on, Nightmunk!" said Ironkid, as he, Flora and Dorgok picked off the helicopters with their particle cannons.
\t"Much obliged," I said as the last of the helicopters dropped. Now that I had some breathing room I activated my robot's own self-repair diagnostic, and it stood motionless, all its power going toward fixing whatever damage had been inflicted on it. Much as I hated to give Albert Zerstoiten credit for anything, this was a hell of a machine.
\t"The way to the plaza is clear, for the moment," said Ironkid, who was now the farthest ahead. "I see five big glowing birthday cake things that don't look like they belong here. In the center is a dome with purple light coming out of it."
\t"That is Shadow Destroyer's portal to the Qliphoth," said Dorgok. "I can sense the power flowing through it!"
\t"Then those things around it must be the dimensional anchors Zerstoiten mentioned," I said.
\t"In that case," said Ironkid, "I think I'll blast one."
\t"Borlan, wait!" Dorgok cried.
\tHe didn't, firing his particle beam at the nearest anchor. It exploded, showering the plaza with debris. "One down, four to go!" Ironkid said triumphantly. Then his tone changed to one of alarm. "Uh oh!"
\t"What? What's uh oh?" I asked, frustrated that I wasn't close enough to see.
\t"There's some kind of swirling vortex forming on the ground!"
\t"As I thought," said Dorgok, "Shadow Destroyer has placed warding spells on the anchors. Destroying them must summon some horror from the Qliphoth!"
\t"What kind of horror?" I asked.
\t"I fear we shall see soon enough."
\t"Surely it's nothing that can stand up to five Mega-Destroids," said Ironkid confidently.
\t"Maybe, if all five of us were there!" I shot back. At the moment, only Ironkid was actually in the plaza. Flora and Dorgok were the next closest, while Nightfox and I were lagging well behind.
\t"Something's rising out of the vortex!" Ironkid shouted, "Holy crap, it's—" That was all we heard. There was a bright burst of light from the plaza, like some kind of explosion, and then silence.
\t"Borlan?" I yelled. "Borlan?" There was no reply.
\t"This does not bode well," said Dorgok.
\t"Flora! Dorgok, stay where you are!" I shouted. "Do not enter the plaza until Nightfox and I get there, understood?"
\t"Understood," Flora replied.
\t"I had no intention of doing so," said Dorgok.
\t"Nightfox, is your Mega-D done fixing itself?" I asked.
\t"It seems to be," she said.
\t"Then let's go!" I slammed both levers forward as hard as I could, and my robot began lumbering toward the plaza.
\tIt took almost a full minute for Nightfox and me to reach the edge of the plaza where Flora's and Dorgok's Mega-Destroids waited for us. As in the RenCen back in Millennium City, the one in New Harmon was circular, with a recessed area in the center and several ramps leading down into it. I could see the things that Ironkid had mentioned, the dome with purple light coming out and four big glowing black birthday cake things around it, as well as a pile of smoking debris where a fifth one had been. Beside the debris lay Ironkid's Mega-Destroid, smashed like some giant metal bug. Over it stood the cause of its destruction.
\tIt was humanoid, thirty feet tall, with a thick, squat build. Its body appeared to be made entirely of some kind of glowing purple crystal, with sharp points protruding from it in every direction. It had no face, fingers, or toes, being just a crude parody of a human form. It stood silent and motionless over the wrecked Mega-Destroid.
\t"What the hell is that thing?" I asked.
\t"I've no idea," said Dorgok.
\t"Didn't you grow up in the Qliphoth?" asked Nightfox.
\t"Yes, but the Qliphoth contains countless horrors, and I hardly ever left my mother's citadel. No doubt there are many I never saw."
\t"Do you think Borlan could still be alive?" asked Flora anxiously.
\t"He could be trapped inside the wreckage," I said, "or unconscious."
\t"Or dead," said Dorgok.
\t"Regardless," I said, "we need to take that thing out. Head down the ramp. When you're in range, hit it with your particle beam."
\t"Roger that!" said Nightfox.
\tOur four giant robots lumbered down the ramp toward the crystal colossus, which seemed to be oblivious to us until we reached the bottom. Then it turned and began advancing slowly toward us—or rather, its size made it appear to be moving slowly.
\t"Fire particle beams!" I shouted. A white-hot beam lanced from the forehead of each of our four Mega-Destroids, striking the colossus and cutting into its crystalline body, sending purple shards flying everywhere.
\tIt continued advancing, and the purple glow around its body began growing brighter. "It is building up a charge of Qliphothic energy!" shouted Dorgok.
\t"Raise your shields!" I replied. A forcefield sprang up around each of our robots just as the colossus released a blinding burst of purple light. I felt my Mega-Destroid shudder under the impact, and red warning lights flashed all over the tiny cockpit, while the monitors informed me how badly damaged each system was. "Everyone still here?" I asked.
\t"More or less," said Dorgok.
\t"I'm still hanging in there," said Nightfox, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.
\t"I'm fine," said Flora, "though I can't say the same for my robot."
\t"That crystal thing looks hurt," I said. "Let's see if we can finish it off."
\t"With pleasure!" said Nightfox.
\tAgain, four particle beams struck the colossus, boring holes into it. The thing walked up to me and swung its thick stump of an arm, connecting and sending my robot staggering backward, but the others continued to press the attack, their beams slicing off chunks of its glassy flesh, which fell and shattered on the ground. In a few more seconds, the colossus simply crumbled, reduced to nothing more than a pile of crystalline rubble.
\tI activated my Mega-Destroid's self-repair diagnostic, opened the hatch, and climbed out, swinging down to the ground to land beside the wreckage of Ironkid's robot. Nightfox and Flora joined me, while Dorgok remained in his Mega-Destroid. Ironkid's robot had fallen on its back, which meant the access hatch was facing down. "Damn it!" I swore. "How are we going to get him out of there?"
\t"There are times when your stupidity astounds me, Nightmunk," came Dorgok's voice through his Mega-Destroid's public address system. "Move away."
\tWe did so, and Dorgok's robot crouched down, grasped Ironkid's, and rolled it over onto its chest. Nightfox, Flora, and I jumped onto the wrecked robot's back, trying to figure out how to get the hatch open. This turned out to be a moot point, as Ironkid pushed it open from the inside and climbed out. "Thanks, Dorgok!" he said, his metal face grinning up at the robot towering over us. "It was getting a little stuffy in there!"
\t"You are quite welcome," Dorgok replied.
\t"Are you hurt?" asked Flora, looking concerned.
\tThe boy of steel shook his head. "Nah, just knocked around a little. My Mega-D is toast, though."
\t"Serves you right," I growled. "You should have waited for the rest of us!"
\tIronkid sighed. "Yeah, I screwed up. I'm sorry."
\tNightfox looked up at Dorgok. "So, is one of those things going to show up every time we destroy a dimensional anchor?"
\t"It seems likely," the Lemurian youth replied.
\t"Oh, terrific!"
\t"We should be fine as long as we take them one at a time," I said. "One of those crystal colossi by itself was no match for four Mega-Ds."
\t"I was thinking more about the time it'll take," said Nightfox. "How long can Doctor Destroyer keep Shadow Destroyer busy?"
\tI smirked. "Those two windbags are probably still trying to out-monologue each other. Come on, let's get to it!"
\tNightfox, Flora, and I climbed back up into our Mega-Destroids, Ironkid joined Flora in hers, and we all converged on the closest dimensional anchor, blasting it to pieces. As before, a vortex formed, and a crystal colossus began rising out of it. This time we knew what to expect, though, and planned accordingly. We backed off and started blasting it with our particle beams even before it had finished emerging. The colossi didn't appear to have any ranged attacks, and that burst of Qliphothic energy they gave off had a radius of only about a hundred feet, so as long as we kept at least that far away, we were relatively safe. This colossus quickly collapsed into a heap of glittering shards, and we moved on to the next anchor, methodically working our way around the plaza. The New Harmon security forces didn't harass us, as they very sensibly didn't want to get anywhere near the colossi either.
\tWhen the last birthday cake and its colossus had been destroyed, the dome in the center of the plaza began to pulsate, its purple glow brightening and dimming. "The portal to the Qliphoth is becoming unstable!" cried Dorgok.
\t"That's a good thing, right?" asked Nightfox.
\tBefore Dorgok could reply, all the panels in the cockpit of my Mega-Destroid started sparking and it began filling with smoke. Apparently, the pulsations from the portal were frying its circuits. I decided it was time to vacate the premises, so I popped the hatch and jumped out, swinging down as my Mega-Destroid staggered and collapsed with a thundering crash. I saw that the same thing was happening to the other four. Nightfox, Ironkid, and Flora had no trouble escaping theirs, but Dorgok was still powerless after that stunt he'd pulled where he'd wiped out Warden Arcana's legion of riftlings. He jumped from the back of his Mega-Destroid and fell thirty feet to the concrete floor of the RenCen, landing with a thud. I remembered that his skeleton was made of cartilage, but even so, that had to have hurt. We all ran over to where he lay on his back, groaning, and Flora made little flowers bloom all over his body, healing him.
\t"You okay?" I asked Dorgok as he got to his feet.
\tThe Lemurian youth simply nodded. "Yes, I am fine." He looked at Flora. "Thank you."
\tShe smiled. "You're welcome, Dorgok."
\t"Heads up," said Nightfox. We all looked upward.
\tThe purple-and-gold armored form of Shadow Destroyer was flying toward us, closely followed by the silver-and-black form of Doctor Destroyer. They both landed before an entrance in the side of the dome. "Your portal is near collapse, Citizen Harmon," Destroyer sneered. "How much power do you dare draw though it now?"
\t"Brave words, Zerstoiten," Shadow Destroyer shot back. "Your Destroids lie in pieces, and you are nothing without your robots! My portal to the Qliphoth gives me power beyond imagining! This is nothing but an inconvenience!"
\t"Oh my god," groaned Nightfox, "they're still at it!"
\t"Told you," I said.
\t"Enough of this!" snapped Shadow Destroyer. "You've become an annoyance, and for that, you must pay! Death is too simple a fate for you! I will crush your bodies, and feed you to my Masters!" He raised his arms skyward. "Crystals of Qemetial, give me your power!" There was a blinding flash, and suddenly he was hovering before us, ten feet tall, crackling with Qliphothic energy. "Now, you die!"
\tI shivered a little, because I remembered hearing Earth's archmage, Robert Caliburn, mention the name of Qemetial before, and his normally sardonic voice had been tinged with fear. Apparently, it was a fusion of long dead cosmic entities that mindlessly consumed anything that got near it, like a supernatural black hole. If Shadow Destroyer could command the power of something like that . . . I shook my head. I was just a chipmunk manimal who liked punching out crooks. This cosmic stuff was way above my pay grade. And yet, here I was, in a twisted alternate universe, leading a team consisting of my girlfriend and a bunch of kids, fighting what amounted to a demigod. How in the hell does stuff like this happen to me?
\t"Surrender, villain, or face certain defeat!" shouted Ironkid, leaping at Shadow Destroyer, blade raised to strike. Good move, drawing fire like that. The boy knew his role. He was the invulnerable one. Every hit that metal skin of his took was one the rest of us didn't have to. He was his father's son—brave, honorable, and selfless, every inch a hero. Ironclad would have been proud.
\t"Insect!" snarled Shadow Destroyer, firing a blast of darkness at the boy and sending him flying backward to skid along the floor of the plaza for about a hundred feet. The rest of us were quick to exploit the opening Ironkid had provided for us. I jumped in and slashed at Shadow Destroyer's armor with one of my claws, while Nightfox jumped up with her staff raised and brought it down with a solid metallic clunk on his helmeted head. Doctor Destroyer fired a blinding bolt of plasma at him that struck dead center, while Flora summoned a shroud of strangling vines that enveloped Shadow Destroyer's arms and legs. Ironkid, too, was back in the game, hacking with his sword. Only Dorgok had nothing to contribute, having drained himself wiping out Warden Arcana's army of riftlings earlier. The Lemurian boy stood watching the battle, his tongue flickering in agitation. I almost felt sorry for him.
\tShadow Destroyer actually seemed surprised by the ferocity of our attacks. He turned his head toward Doctor Destroyer, glaring at him while the rest of us kept attacking. "This is your army now, Zerstoiten? Freaks and children? Pathetic!"
\t"It is more than you deserve, usurper!" Destroyer declared, firing a plasma blast whose heat singed my fur.
\t"Will both of you just shut up and fight?" asked Nightfox, battering Shadow Destroyer savagely with her staff.
\t"Fat chance of that," I muttered, my claws cutting gouges into Shadow Destroyer's armor.
\tShadow Destroyer reverted to his normal size, looking a little unsteady from all the damage we'd inflicted on him. He raised an arm, gesturing at the opening in the side of the concrete dome that contained his portal to the Qliphoth, and a sphere of purple energy about six feet across floated out of the opening and began drifting across the plaza. Tearing himself free of Flora's vines, Shadow Destroyer began running toward it.
\t"A shadow crystal!" cried Dorgok. "Don't let him reach it! It will restore him!"
\tFlora summoned her vines again, wrapping them around Shadow Destroyer's legs, but they only slowed him down. He continued struggling toward the shadow crystal, which was drifting in his direction. Destroyer blasted him, but he shrugged it off and kept right on going. I turned to Dorgok. "What do we do?"
\t"Destroy it!" he yelled. "It is unstable! Any sufficient force will disperse it!"
\tNightfox, Ironkid and I ran to the shadow crystal and began slashing and smacking at it while Destroyer kept blasting Shadow Destroyer. It had no real substance to it, but it began to flicker as our weapons passed through it. For me, it also brought back unpleasant memories of being in the Qliphoth, making me feel queasy and bringing disgusting thoughts to my mind. The Qliphoth is a realm of chaos and madness, and anyone who comes into contact with it becomes corrupted, mentally and even physically, if they're exposed for long enough. Of the three of us, I was the only one who'd been there before, and I wondered if exposure to it was cumulative, like exposure to radiation. If so, I might end up becoming a danger to my allies, maybe even turning into one of its horrors myself. Not a happy prospect.
\tThe crystal flickered out and vanished, and I breathed a sigh of relief. That relief was short-lived, however, as I saw that another one had emerged from the portal, and a second, and a third. It was spitting them out like an assembly line. I growled at Shadow Destroyer, who was still fighting with Doctor Destroyer and Flora. His strategy was diabolical. If we didn't attack the crystals, they'd recharge him and we'd never defeat him. If we did, we risked becoming corrupted, perhaps going insane or turning into horrors. Bastard!
\t"Concentrate on Citizen Harmon!" came a familiar voice from above me. "We'll deal with those spheres!" I looked up, astonished, as Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli flew by overhead. He aimed his energy rifle at one of the shadow crystals and fired, while she shot a blue force blast from her hands. The crystal flickered out and vanished.
\tShadow Destroyer glared up at them. "Traitors! I'll have your heads for this!"
\tDr. Sciuridae smirked. "Not if we win!" He and Lapis Lazuli proceeded to blast another crystal out of existence.
\t"I hope you know what you're doing, mi amor," said Lapis Lazuli doubtfully as they bore down on a third.
\t"Don't I always?" Dr. Sciuridae replied.
\tShe grinned. "Well, there was that time you let me handcuff you to the bed."
\t"I thought we agreed not to talk about that," Dr. Sciuridae growled through clenched teeth.
\t"But you looked so cute!" Lapis Lazuli teased.
\t"Shut up and shoot the spheres!"
\tWith the crystals being neutralized, the rest of us were free to concentrate on Shadow Destroyer. Nightfox, Flora, Ironkid, Doctor Destroyer, and I pounded on him with everything we had, and it was clearly hurting him. In desperation, he raised his arms and shouted: "Come forth, Endbringer, spawn of my Masters! Make this world like your own!"
\tThere was a bright flash, and suddenly something was standing before the entrance to the dome. It was gigantic, fully twenty feet tall, even hunched over as it was, its stony body all gray with vicious-looking curved talons on its hands and feet. Its head was vaguely bird-like, with glowing purple eyes and a huge axe-like beak. Protruding from its back were a pair of enormous wings made of gray crystals that didn't appear to be physically connected to each other but moved as if they were.
\t"Oh shit!" said Dr. Sciuridae, looking at in in awe.
\tLapis Lazuli glanced at him. "Still sure this was a good idea?" Sciuridae didn't reply.
\t"Kill them all!" shouted Shadow Destroyer, and the huge monstrosity began lumbering toward us.
\t"Get behind me!" yelled Ironkid, moving cautiously toward Endbringer with his sword raised defensively. Even he wasn't brash enough to just hurl himself at something that big. Nightfox, Flora, and I moved up behind the metal-skinned boy.
\t"What can we do against something like that?" asked Nightfox anxiously.
\tI shrugged. "The best we can, I guess."
\tDoctor Destroyer glared at the immense gargoyle. "Summoning horrors will not save you, Harmon!" He fired a bolt of plasma at Shadow Destroyer, who was hovering in the air beside Endbringer, surrounded by a purple globe of Qliphothic energy. The globe absorbed the plasma with no visible effect. It seemed that for the moment, Shadow Destroyer was invulnerable to harm. However, he also didn't appear to be doing anything, so at least we could focus all our efforts on the horror before us.
\tEndbringer charged toward us, and every time it took a step, the ground beneath us shook. It raised a clawed hand and took a swipe at the tiny form of Ironkid, knocking him away with a loud smack. The boy went sailing through the air in a parabolic arc, hitting the ground about a hundred feet away and then bouncing and rolling for another thirty or so. I couldn't tell if he'd be getting up again.
\tVines snaked up around the horror's taloned feet, immobilizing them, and Nightfox and I ran in to attack its legs. My questionite claws were able to cut into its stony flesh, but I wasn't sure if I was actually hurting it, or if it even felt them. Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli swooped down and strafed the thing with energy beams and blasts of force. Doctor Destroyer joined in as well, firing a plasma bolt and striking it in the center of its chest, which got its attention. It lunged with surprising speed, seizing Earth's greatest villain with both hands and squeezing him. He struggled in its grasp, and part of me was glad to see him suffer. Hopefully, it would buy us some time to figure out how to beat this monster.
\tSince her staff didn't seem to be having much effect, I gave Nightfox a handful of particle mines from my belt. "Attach these to its leg!" I said. She nodded and began doing so, and I did the same to its other leg while Flora continued to hold them still for us. Endbringer paid no attention to us, focusing all its attention on crushing Doctor Destroyer. Maybe it would succeed, and we'd be rid of him. On the other hand, he was the biggest gun we had, and even if we defeated Endbringer, there was still Shadow Destroyer to deal with.
\tEndbringer apparently had had enough of failing to crack Doctor Destroyer's armor. It hauled back like a major league pitcher and hurled him at Lapis Lazuli. He struck her, and they both went flying out of the plaza together. Seeing his squeeze knocked away like a croquet ball, Dr. Sciuridae shrieked and flew straight at Endbringer, blasting at it with his energy rifle. The horror swatted him aside the way you would an annoying bug, and he went skidding across the floor of the plaza, while Nightfox and I ran to get clear before the mines we'd planted on Endbringer's legs went off.
\tThe mines detonated, sending shards of Endbringer's stony flesh flying in every direction, and Nightfox and I had to hit the dirt to avoid the shrapnel. I lifted my head and looked back to see the horror sway, then fall to its knees, leaving its feet behind, its legs reduced to broken stumps. It made no cry of pain, but then it hadn't uttered a sound since Shadow Destroyer had summoned it.
\tEndbringer's great crystal wings flapped and it rose from the ground, flying toward the closest target, which happened to be Dr. Sciuridae. He was sitting up, shaking his head groggily. When he saw the horror approaching, he raised his rifle and fired at it, which didn't even slow it down. He tried to activate his jetpack, but it was a smashed piece of junk on his back. He swallowed, realizing he couldn't outrun Endbringer, and watched helplessly as the gargantuan horror bore down upon him. Then he yelped as my grapple gun latched onto his shoulder and yanked him away just as Endbringer's clawed hand slammed down were he'd been been sitting a moment before, leaving an impression in the concrete.
\t"Thanks!" said Sciuridae, getting to his feet.
\tI nodded. "Don't mention it. Like I said, I saw you die once already."
\t"You may still get the chance to see it again," said Sciuridae. Endbringer was flying toward us, apparently none too pleased at being denied its prey. We both began backing away, Sciuridae firing with his rifle while I hurled throwing blades, neither of which seemed to bother it much.
\tVines sprang up again and wrapped all around Endbringer's torso, holding it fast, as Ironkid came leaping through the air, the tatters of what was left of his kilt fluttering behind him, his sword raised above his head, point downward. He landed on the horror's back and plunged his weapon between its shoulderblades. Nightfox jumped up to join him, battering it with her staff, and Doctor Destroyer and Lapis Lazuli came flying back, blasting it with plasma and force bolts. Endbringer thrashed around wildly, pinned to the ground by Flora's vines, as it was pummelled mercilessly. Finally, it slumped to the ground and lay still.
\tLapis Lazuli flew down and landed beside Dr. Sciuridae, throwing her arms around her chipmunk boyfriend and giving him a kiss, which he returned, while Ironkid and Nightfox posed triumphantly atop the defeated Endbringer. We had only a second to savor our victory, however, as the purple globe around Shadow Destroyer vanished and he glared down at us, red eyes blazing with hate in his gold helmet. "Qliphoth is home to horrors without number," he said, in his mushy, distorted voice. "I can still destroy you all! I—"
\tHe stopped, seeming to become aware of something. "What? The gate shouldn't—" He whirled in midair to stare at the doorway in the side of the dome that housed his portal to the Qliphoth. There stood Dorgok, facing the portal, waving his arms about and drawing a stream of purple energy into himself, his blue, scaly body crackling with it.
\t"No!" shouted Shadow Destroyer, clearly alarmed. He raised his hands and blasted the Lemurian boy with a Qliphothic bolt, but the aura around Dorgok just absorbed it. Then the purple glow inside the dome began pulsating faster and faster, and Shadow Destroyer was drawn toward it. "No! I embody destruction!" he cried, as the swirling purple vortex sucked him in. "MY MASTERRRRSSSS!" He vanished into the miasma, and it winked out of existence, leaving nothing but concrete.
\tWe all stood there silently for a moment, staring at the spot where Shadow Destroyer had disappeared. Then I turned to Dorgok. "What did you do?" I asked.
\t"Doctor Destroyer said the portal was near collapse," the Lemurian boy replied. "I just gave it a little push."
\t"Dorgok, you're wonderful!" cried Flora. She ran over to him and hugged him, kissing him on his snout. Dorgok's golden eyes went wide, as they had the last time she had hugged him. However, he didn't push her away as he had before. Instead, he hesitantly put his arms around her leaf-covered body and held her close. His golden eyes closed and he sighed with pleasure.
\t"I despise magic," sneered Doctor Destroyer. "So . . . imprecise."
\t"Citizen Harmon is really gone, isn't he?" said Dr. Sciuridae, sounding as though he could barely believe it.
\t"It was inevitable," Destroyer said airily, "once he set himself against Destroyer. I will return to rule this place once Earth acknowledges Destroyer's supremacy. This, too, is inevitable." He turned to face us. "You have seen the awesome might of Destroyer, and the depth of his foresight. Do not forget them!" And with that, he rocketed into the sky and was gone.
\tFlora scowled. "Pompous windbag, trying to take credit for what Dorgok did!"
\t"I think we all did our part," I said. "Even Destroyer."
\t"You think he's really going to try to conquer the Earth again?" asked Nightfox, sounding worried.
\tI sighed. "One thing nobody could ever accuse Albert Zerstoiten of is making empty threats." Then I looked at my companions and grinned. "Fortunately, there's a whole new generation of heroes ready to thwart him."
\tIronkid grinned back. "I can hardly wait!"
\t"Well," said Nightfox, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to go home." She looked at Dr. Sciuridae. "Do you think you can get that dimensional portal in Conquerors HQ up and running?"
\t"Of course!" he replied, smiling confidently.
\t"I'd like to talk to you in private before we leave, Dr. Sciuridae," I said.
\t"I was thinking the same thing," he replied.
\t"Shall we take a walk?"
\tHe nodded, and we headed off together, leaving the others behind in the plaza.
\t"So, I guess you're going to come out of this smelling like a rose," I said.
\tHe chuckled. "They might even make me their new leader."
\tI glanced at him. "You think they'd choose a manimal as their leader?"
\t"I have a lot of dirt on a lot of powerful people," he said, smirking. "But you're not interested in our politics."
\t"No, not really." I decided to broach the subject that was uppermost in my mind. "Is Theodore still alive here?"
\tSciuridae's smirk faded. "No."
\tMy heart sank a bit. It would have been nice to see Theodore again, even this world's version of him. "Did you kill him . . . and me?"
\tHe frowned. "What makes you think I would have done that?"
\t"You have to admit, it's a reasonable suspicion."
\tHe was silent for a moment as we walked, and I got the feeling that this was a painful subject for him, which actually made me like him a little more. At last he said, "When Father Elk, Brother Whitehart, and Qwyjibo launched their attempt to take over Monster Island, your counterpart and I sided with them. Theodore sided with Moreau, and stuck with him to the end."
\tI stopped and stared at him. "Wait, what? Moreau was good here, right?"
\t"I prefer to think of him as having been naive and foolish. When he found out that Wells's book was true and that he was the original Dr. Moreau's great-grandson, he felt it was his duty to come to Monster Island and try to civilize the descendants of his ancestor's savage creations, teach us how to love one another and create a peaceful society."
\tI shook my head. "Okay, now I'm confused. I thought this was some crazy mirror world where everything was backward, but it sounds like your Theodore was a lot like mine!"
\tDr. Sciuridae arched an eyebrow. "Hmm, that is interesting! I wonder if there are others who are consistent across both worlds."
\t"So, your Moreau didn't actually create any manimals?"
\t"No, we were already there when he arrived on Monster Island."
\t"Then, you had a mother and a father?"
\t"That would follow." He glanced at me. "You mean you didn't?"
\t"No, I was grown in an artificial womb from a genetically modified cell." I looked at him curiously. "Does the name Ross Bagdasarian mean anything to you?"
\tHe shook his head. "No. Should it?"
\t"My brothers and I were made to resemble cartoon characters he created."
\tDr. Sciuridae blinked behind his goggles. "Seriously?"
\tI nodded. "But if that cartoon didn't exist here, how can you be the spitting image of my brother? It doesn't make any sense!"
\t"You're right, it doesn't. It's like someone's deranged fanfic."
\tI glanced at him. "You have those here?"
\t"Oh yes. You'd be surprised at some of the things people have written about me and Lapis Lazuli. They weren't allowed to openly mock or criticize us, of course, but even so . . ."
\t"I think I'd just as soon not hear about that, if it's all the same to you." I turned to face him. "It was good seeing you again, Simon, even if you're not the way I remember you. It makes me feel a little less lonely, knowing there's some version of you alive somewhere."
\t"It was good to see you again too, Alvin. You know, if you miss being with your own kind, there are other chipmunks still on Monster Island. You could stay here, maybe even find a mate and raise a family, if that's something you'd want to do."
\tI shook my head. "Thanks for the offer, but my life is back on Earth, and I already have a girlfriend."
\t"You mean Nightfox?"
\t"What makes you think she's my girlfriend?" I asked sharply.
\t"Nightfox, Nightmunk. You have to admit, it's a reasonable suspicion."
\t"She's my partner," I said. "Let's leave it at that."
\t"All right. Shall we rejoin the others?"
\tI nodded, and we walked together back to the plaza.
\tAs we approached our companions, we saw that there was someone new with them, a woman wearing gold and silver armor with metal wings protruding from her back. The wings had a vaguely Art Deco look to them, rising to points above her head, which was covered by a golden helmet that exposed only her tan face. Her eyes were solid blue, with no pupil or iris. The design of her armor reminded me of that worn by Celestial Boy, a member of the Millennium Guard, the same group of teenage heroes to which Ironkid, Flora, and Dorgok belonged.
\t"What's going on?" I asked my companions. "Who is she?"
\t"This is Golden Seraph," said Nightfox. "She just appeared here while you two were off chatting."
\t"Welcome, Nightmunk and Dr. Sciuridae," Golden Seraph said, in a strange, echoing voice with an accent that sounded like a cross between Irish and Creole. "And congratulations on your victory over the forces of darkness and chaos this day. You have done a great deed. Your actions have averted a chain of events that would have led to the destruction of this world."
\t"Thank you," I said. "I have to ask, though, why didn't you help?"
\t"I was not given leave to," Golden Seraph replied. "On this occasion, my task was only to observe. But I was confident that you and your allies could handle the situation, and I am pleased to see that my confidence was not misplaced."
\t"Well, I guess we should be flattered then," I said.
\t"Is there some point to this visitation apart from stroking our egos?" asked Dr. Sciuridae.
\t"Indeed, there is," replied Golden Seraph. "I have been authorized to offer you all membership in the Elysium Guard. We are an ancient order dedicated to opposing all manifestations of evil from the Qliphoth, whatever form they may take, and preserving the light. Some of you already know one of our members, the one called Castor, who on Earth goes by the name Celestial Boy."
\t"I knew it!" said Flora.
\tWe all looked at each other. This was nothing any of us had been expecting. "What does membership in the Elysium guard entail?" I asked.
\t"Only that you come when we call," said Golden Seraph. "Otherwise, you are free to continue with your lives as normal. We shall neither help nor hinder your more mundane activities."
\tIronkid pointed at Dr. Sciuridae and Lapis Lazuli. "You think these two villains are worthy?" he asked disapprovingly.
\t"Membership in the Elysium Guard transcends simple morality," replied Golden Seraph. "We are concerned with the fate of the cosmos itself. And there is always the possibility that they may see the light, in time." She smiled at the pair, who looked none too comfortable.
\tI looked up at Nightfox. "What do you think?"
\tShe shrugged. "Sounds like fun."
\t"Okay," I said, "you've got two new recruits, Golden Seraph."
\t"Three," announced Ironkid, surprising nobody.
\t"Make that four," said Flora.
\tGolden Seraph nodded, and turned her blank blue gaze toward Dorgok expectantly.
\t"But, I am a Lemurian!" Dorgok protested. "My people were created by the Kings of Edom!"
\t"You have been told a falsehood," said Golden Seraph. "Your people arose in the oceans of Earth's distant past through the natural process of evolution. Beset by great monsters of the deep, they turned to the Kings of Edom for protection. The Kings seduced and corrupted your people, but they did not create them. They cannot create anything. They can only destroy."
\tDorgok stared at Golden Seraph, his tongue flickering, as she told him that everything his mother had taught him, everything he'd believed all his life, was a lie. Then he swallowed and nodded. Golden Seraph smiled and turned to Dr. Sciuridae. Sciuridae glanced at me, then back at her. "I'm in," he said.
\t"Me too," said Lapis Lazuli.
\t"Thank you all," said Golden Seraph. "I can make no promises, save that you will face danger and death."
\tI shrugged. "We do that anyway."
\t"So be it," said Golden Seraph. Then she smiled. "Can I offer you a lift home?"
\tI blinked. "You can do that?"
\tShe gestured, and a glowing doorway appeared beside her. "This will return you from whence you came. Until we meet again." And with a flash of light, she was gone.
\tI looked up at Nightfox, then over at Dr. Sciuridae. "Well, it's been real and it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun. See you around, Simon."
\tDr. Sciuridae nodded. "Later, Alvin."
\tAs we walked to the glowing doorway, Lapis Lazuli put her arms around her chipmunk lover and squeezed him. "I feel like celebrating," she said. "Do you still have that serum you made to increase your virility?"
\tI could almost see his cheeks blush through his fur. "That didn't exactly work the way it was supposed to."
\tShe giggled and nibbled his ear. "No, but it was fun!"
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