Evil Game Master Society

Wouldn’t It Be Good… - Story Arc #3

Wouldn’t It Be Good…

[Tuesday Night, May 11, 1999]

The sky is beginning to darken as the Sentinels gathered at their base, having answered a message from Aidan that they needed to meet. As each member arrived, they were ushered to a meeting room with a large oval table and large, comfortable chairs, and each place had a sheet of paper set at it.

Having managed to arrive fairly quickly for once, Jez’s boredom set in as she waited for the others to arrive. Luckily - for everyone else in the room - she did manage to find something to keep herself occupied without irritating anyone, hopefully. Her diversion was not so lucky for the piece of paper that was laid out for her to use. With much concentration, as was evident by the amount of tongue sticking out of the corner of Jez’s mouth, she slowly folded and spindle the small sheet of paper. Ten minutes later the piece of paper resembled a one winged ostrich. Or was it a prancing, three legged horse. Well, whatever it might be, she quite proudly set it in front of herself and pushed it a few more inches towards the middle of the meeting table.

As the other team members arrived, Jez was leaning her head sideways against the surface of the table, admiring her creation from various angles and perspectives.

Guardian looked at the paper figure that Jez was so intently examining from were she was standing. In her usual monotone voice. “Why are you looking at the piece of paper. Wouldn’t scrunching it up be more effective?”

“What and ruin a perfectly good snail!?!” Boreas paused for a moment. “It is a snail, right Jez?”

Jez glanced at Guardian with a mildly irritated expression. She then tipped the paper animal forward slightly with her fingertip and added some sound effects, “Mooo.”

Biostorm sat in the background and tried to keep a straight face as she watched Guardian deal with humans. She looked over at Nathan and says, “A Snail?!? Please, anyone could see that it is a cow.”

Nathan looked up in confusion at Biostorm. “A wha… sorry… I wasn’t paying attention.”

In the table top was set a large piece of the same material that the bases of the small holographic projectors that each has near their computer are made of. Aidan’s image floats above the table, and he had a look that could only be described as slightly amused and curious.

“As you all may know,” he said as everyone was seated. “There was a bit of excitement at the convention centre on Sunday afternoon. Several things have arisen out of that event.”

Once Aidan started speaking, Jez appropriately redirected her attention to his image. She didn’t lift her head up from the surface of the table though. Instead she seemed to have his image framed through her paper animal.

“First, the Sentinels were introduced to York. It was a bit earlier than had been anticipated, but I must say it was an opportune time. The target of the kidnapping that Guardian helped stop was Duke Otto von Wichten. He is the son of the Prince of Brechtelstein, the ruler of that small principality that has been thrust into the forefront of the technology race by the discovery of the metal durillium.”

“I have learned that both the RCMP, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Prince himself all wish to thank Guardian for what she did. It turns out that the people who were attempting to kidnap the Duke were mercenaries belonging to a group called the Wolf Pack. There are outstanding warrants for all members of the Wolf Pack for a variety of crimes, ranging from murder to aggravated assault to grand larceny.”

“As I mentioned earlier, there was another event which arose out of what happened Sunday. There was an ad in the Classified sections of the three major newspapers in York, and I think you will all be interested in it. The ad has been reprinted on the sheet of paper in front of you.”

The reverse side of the paper had a printout that read:

“Looking for the Guardian Sentinel of the convention and friend.
Gillian-look-alike wants info. Please call 416 555-7211.”

Boreas turned towards Guardian. “Hey Guardian, wasn’t that the girl who was also involved in the altercation? I think she was trying to help. You don’t suppose she’s a Harbinger do you?”

Guardian turned to look at Boreas. “At this time I have no information that would lead me to believe that she would be a Harbinger,” she replied. “Nor do I have any information that would lead me to think that she is not a Harbinger.” She looked back at the image of Aidan. “What course of action would you recommend that I take in regards to the ad?” Guardian asked in her usual monotone voice.

“It would be advisable,” Aidan answered. “To contact this woman and see what it is that she wants. There were no visible signs she was involved in the conflict in any way other than her attempting to assist Boreas with the wounded security guard. I can provide you with a phone line which would be secure and untraceable.”

Gillian finally lifted her head from the table and looked at Guardian with a confused expression, “How does she know what I look like? You’re not carrying polaroids of me or something are you?…” She didn’t really wait for a reply from Guardian, instead she pointed towards Guardian’s ration of paper. “Are you going to need that?”

“Jezebel, the article is not referring to you but to a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Gillian Anderson.” Guardian face shifts into a deep frown.

“Oh, she meant THAT Gillian.” Jez replied, doing her best to sound knowledgeable on the subject. Truth be told (by the expression on her face), she hadn’t the foggiest idea who this Gillian was.

Jez shrugged and then did her best to nonchalantly snag another piece of paper, grabbing the sheet in front of Boreas. She began to fold the paper, apparently ignoring everything that was going on around her.

“Soo… We either have a friend or a foe…. or someone in between … like another reporter. But who is the ‘friend’ she’s referring to??” Nathan looked at Guardian curiously.

Looking at Aidan, Guardian replied to Nathan’s question. “Boreas was also at the convention in her secret identity. She helped look after one of the downed guards. And as for the phone call if there are no more questions then perhaps it would be an appropriate time to make the phone call.”

“I guess she could be referring to me.” Boreas said with a shrug. “I am sure you have done a thorough background check on her like you did with the rest of us Aidan. If there is any information you would like to impart on us before this call, I am all ears.”

“I have done some checks,” Aidan replied. “The information will not be relevant until the woman’s intentions are made clear.”

“If no one has any objections,” Aidan said. “The call will be a conference call.”

“Dialing.” The assembled team could hear the phone ringing.

**********

Nicole sat staring at her computer screen. Captain Trask was about to be vapourised by the Argestian assassin, and she had no idea how to save Trask. What about Irdith. Would she be down in that section of the ship….. Her train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of her telephone.

This shall be interesting… Nathan eased back in his chair, his eyes closed, waiting.

Shit. Nicole reached across her desk and picked up the phone. “Hi! You’ve reached 416 555 7211. No one is available to take your call at the moment; but if you’ll leave your name and number we will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank-you,” she said in her best friendly monotone.

A smile tugged at the corners of Nathan’s mouth. Just our luck, or waita minute… Nathan sat upright, scribbled something furiously on the pad of paper in front of him and held his pad up for all to see. - NO BEEP!! IT MIGHT BE HER! -

None of the others in the room seemed to noticed what he had done.

Guardian looked at the Aidan with a befuddled look on her face. “How is it that she is answering the phone if she is saying that she is not there? This makes no sense.” Anook, why are humans so confusing.

Jez couldn’t fight the urge to shake her head at this, despite her “not paying attention” attitude

The look on Guardian’s face intensified. Mimicking the woman’s pleasantness with her own voice Guardian, she spoke. “Hello this is Guardian of the Sentinels. I am sorry but I am unable to talk to you as you are not home.” Guardian paused trying to think of what to say next. Anook, what is the appropriate response?

Boreas leaned over towards Jez and whispered, “Am I the only one who thinks that putting Guardian in the role of spokesperson may not be such a hot idea?”

“She makes a good politician though.” Jez replied in a normal tone voice. She reduced her voice to the expected whisper. “Totally and completely removed from regular reality.”

Boreas suddenly blanched at Jez’s louder than expected response. She then tried to look nonchalant all the while suppressing a grin at her muffled jape. She wasn’t sure, but she suspected that more than one member could overhear hushed conversations at the table. Jez as always appeared to be apathetic about such concerns.

An answering machine is a device which plays a recorded message, then the caller leaves a message after a tone is played, Aidan explained. Most humans usually hang up when they think they have reached an answering machine. However, in this case, there has been no tone. It is possible that the woman is attempting to make the caller believe they have reached an answering machine. If the woman does not speak, tell her to call (416) 555-5586 at her earliest convenience.

Nicole sat up straight, Captain Trask and the Argestians forgotten in her excitement. “You’re Guardian!? The one from the convention? Ohmigod, I can’t believe you called me!”

Having returned to her project at hand, Jez can’t help but shake her head again. “A meeting of the minds…” she mumbled under her breath.

Nathan shrugged, placed his pad back down on his desk, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes again. Young…. and excitable…. and why would she be so…. excited to actually talk with Guardian…

Yeah and after she tells her friends, every wacko and nutcase is going to be taking out ads in the paper. Boreas smiled to herself.

“Yes I am Guardian. You wished to speak to me?”

Meanwhile Boreas casually reached over in front of Jez to pick up the obvious snail origami. She then proceeded to draw eyes and antennae on what she considered to be the “head.” Afterwards she drew spirals on each side of the “shell.” Placing the pen down again, she inspected her work, tore off an offending third appendage and dropped it down in front of Jez with a satisfied smirk.

Jez paused, in mid-fold, to watch Boreas contribution to the project. A puzzled look started to appear on her face as the eyes and antennae took form. The confused expression grew deeper as the spirals on the “shell” were added. Jez sat, stock-still, and stared at the “snail” as it was dropped back in front of her. Her eyes slid sideways, but her head did not move, to look at Boreas out of the corners of her eyes for a second. Her eyes then slid back to the snail at hand as she slowly moved her head around it and looked at it from various angles again.

With a shrug, Jez decided not to comment, and went back to work on her new project.

“Yeah, I do. Hang on a sec.” Nicole hit “save” on her computer. “Hi, again. I saw your interview in the paper the other day and I have a question for you.” Nicole took a deep breath. This was going to be weird, but she decided it was all or nothing. Guardian hadn’t mentioned a telepath in her interview; maybe they needed one. “May I join your group?”

Nathan blinked once.. twice, then rubbed one hand across his forehead. He then looks about the group, a look of disbelief on his face.

“I’ll take it from here guys…” Jez announced, with a smile. “Okay, what we’re going to need is our standard twenty-page application forms filled out in triplicate. Unless you’re an alien, of course, in that case you can use the EZ form. Submit those to us and we’ll need about a month… We’d have to loose one copy, bury one in the backyard, and feed the last copy to the Blugblatter beast in the basement. Then we’d have to have a meeting, kick the idea around a bit… Maybe we’ll do lunch and interview you there.”

“Unless you wanted to be my sidekick,” Jez continued, her smile now a smirk. “In that case, you’re accepted.”

Jez paused and then glanced at the faces of her teammates, “Ummm…. Of course, I don’t speak for the rest of the team.”

“Thank god.” Boreas said in a low voice to those around her. She then leaned back in her chair and after stretching her arms out, placed her hands behind her head. This should be an interesting spectacle to watch, she thought as she relaxed a bit. I wonder how Guardian’s going to handle things?

Nathan smiled back at Jez, and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. The smile widened as he noted Guardian’s perplexed look. Guardian certainly hasn’t had much exposure to sarcasm. Wonder if she had a sense of humour before…

Guardian looked at Jezebel with a look of perplexion on her face. Anook, why was I not informed of this process?

There is no such process, Guardian. Jez is attempting to be humorous.

I fail to see the humor in this. Guardian looked at Jezebel and then said out loud. “Our comrade is attempting humor. Please ignore her comments. Why is it you wish to join our group and if you do what special…..talents do you possess.?”

Jez has certainly found herself a ’straight-man’… Nathan thought to himself.

“Attempting humor?!” Jez replied in disbelief. “I thought I was being funny… Ignoring me only makes me worse, by the way.” Jez’s smile grew slightly, “Of course, I was serious when I offered the sidekick position. I need a straight man for my act.”

Nicole smiled. “Tell your comrade that Blugblatter beasts are rarely satisfied with only twenty pages of application form. Forty would be more appropriate; although raw haunch of arrogant female — especially from one that keeps her Blugblatters in the basement, they need lots of sunlight and fresh air, you know — is quite the best option for the feeding of such a creature.” Nicole shrugged and leaned back in her chair.

Ah! Jez thought with an amused expression. Finally a challenge! “Medic! Medic!” Jez started groaning from her seat. “I’ve been mortally wounded!” And, as long as you’re not another she-beast amazon with no sense of humor… Jez’s thoughts went on. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.

“Seriously, I want to join your group for a variety of reasons. Curiosity. I need some excitement in my life.” Nicole smiled and added, “Plus I have an unalterable conviction that you need me. As for my special talents; I would rather not discuss those over the telephone. Why don’t we meet somewhere to talk about my… qualifications?”

Biostorm mentally questioned the idea of destiny, but kept her opinions to herself. When the suggestion of a meeting came up, she thought about it for a moment and then wrote something on her pad. She displayed it for the rest to see. “Trap?”

Jez leaned over slightly to face Boreas, “I thought I was the token spoiled brat for this team…? This girl sounds like…” At that, Jez went silent and concentrated on the telephone again, a brooding look covering her expression.

“Sounds like what Jez? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little competition,” Boreas said with a wink and a smile.

Jez failed to respond to this, which, in and of itself, would be considered odd. What’s more noticeable is the fact she seemed not to even hear Boreas. She just continued to stare blankly ahead of her.

Boreas sat up in her chair. “Sounds reasonable to me guys.” She then whispered, while covering the mike, “Unless you think it’s some kind of trap?” She then looked over at the Aidan construct, “I guess you have as much stake in this as any of us. Do you think we can trust her?”

“Based on the information I have,” Aidan replied. “There is no reason to believe she is being insincere. I will, of course, seek to obtain further information on this person to verify this.”

“Sounds like a plan to me guys,” Biostorm said. “Lets say we set this meeting up someplace that is both neutral and out of the way.”

“Um, Aidan don’t you have one of those spider thingies spying on her?” Boreas tried to sound sincere as she baited Aidan.

“Yes Boreas,” Aidan replied in a deadpan voice. “I have a construct spying on every person that is alive at this moment.” Anyone looking at the hologram could almost swear there was a flicker of amusement on his face.

Guardian looked at the image of Aidan. “I would suggest meeting at the base of the CN Tower tomorrow night at midnight.”

Jez took on a sullen demeanor, not even acknowledging the jokes and barbs of her comrades. One might even think she’s taken a certain amount of insult to the conversation.

“CN Tower, tomorrow night.” she repeated as she started to stand up. “Sounds good to me. I don’t know about the rest of you, but tonight I plan on catching a movie.”

Jez then moved casually around the meeting table, looking for the newspaper that the classified ad came from. She was disappointed to see that there was no paper in sight.

Nicole, who had been glancing through a magazine throughout the last exchange, started and said, “CN Tower, tomorrow, midnight. Excellent. Come alone and unarmed, I suppose. I’ll be there.”

Nathan hesitated, but nodded somewhat reluctantly at Guardian’s choice. Hmm…. don’t know about that choice, but nothing better comes to mind. We could possibly use the surroundings to our advantage, in case things aren’t on the up and up.

Guardian looked at the other around the table after the phone was hung up. “If that concludes this meeting I have things to attend to.” And with that Guardian walked out the doors at a rather quick pace.

“I guess we’re done here,” Nathan says more to himself than anyone else. He looked around the room, then stood, walking out of the room and out of the base.

Guardian headed down the hall to the elevator and walked in to the seemingly waiting elevator. After a relatively short trip Guardian stepped out of the elevator and headed to the entertainment room. Walking up to the VCR, she pushed a button to call up the tape inside she took the tape heading down the hall towards her room.

Walking into her room Guardian then put the tape in on of the many VCR’s in her room and sat on her bed and hit play.

Nathan returned to his apartment, and being restless, did small chores all about. It is not until several hours later that he realized what he is doing. He sighed. I think the time is right for a little soul exploring…

Making sure that everything is securely locked up, Nathan went upstairs. Once settled, starts to descend in the depths of a trance.

**********

Jez left the base and headed directly for the CN tower to look around. About 45 minutes later, she was wandering the area at the base of the building. She had no idea what she was even looking for.

“Hey! Jillian!” A male voice interrupted her musings. She looked around and saw a teenager waving at her with a big grin on his face. It was what’shisname, the guy from school that she was kind of seeing right now.

Gillian spun around quickly and immediately assumed a fighting stance. The last thing she expected was someone to be spying on her when she was doing her spying… Seeing who it was, she relaxed her stance slightly, but only slightly. She still wanted to look as annoyed as she was feeling.

“Oh god help me…” she muttered out loud not really caring who heard her. “It’s Gillian. GGGGGGillian. You could at least remember how to say my name.”

To the casual listener, both his pronunciation and Gillian’s sounded almost the same. Of course the casual listener might not notice that Gillian couldn’t, for the life of her, remember what his name was.

“And will you please stop saying my name out loud like that?” she went on to say, still with the same annoyed tone of voice. “I’ve only been in business for two days and you’re going to give away my secret identity already.”

She finally relaxed her fighting stance now and just stood looking at the well-meaning boy like a mother scolding her child. “You shouldn’t be here anyway. I’m in the middle of a dangerous investigation and I can’t keep you from getting hurt while I’m at it.”

Gillian can’t help but wonder why her life seems more and more like a bad movie she’d watch in the middle of the night.

“Dangerous investigation? In business? What the heck are you talking about?” The young stopped where he was standing and stared at Gillian in confusion.

Gillian’s expression softened a little as her annoyance faded quickly. She couldn’t keep herself mad at him, after all, he was still sort of cute. She started walking towards him now in a normal enough way, it was the easiest way to smooth out of her tense fighting stance.

“You can call me Jezebel.” she said with a proud smile. “I’m a super-hero now.” Of course last week she planned to be a rock star. The week before she had aspirations for painting. The week before that she was planning on being a writer… So forth and so on.

“If you don’t believe me…” she said, seemingly recognizing his disbelief (or assuming him to be so). “You can tag along for a bit. But if things get hairy, don’t expect me to bail you out of it…”

“A superhero? Cool,” he replied, then a look of excitement crossed his face. “Really? You’re a superhero? Do you know Guardian? She’s, like, so cool! I mean, she got shot in the back by a plasma rifle and it didn’t even phase her. Could you get her autograph for me?” He began to dig through the pockets of his coat, looking for something to write on.

The stun of the unexpected verbal attack takes a moment or two to fade from Jez’s frozen face. A snappy, witty comeback failed to come to her, so she said the only thing that came to her mind before she even thought about what it was.

“I took her down.” she mumbled out, and the added, “It was a training exercise, of course… But I beat her…” Beat her to the ground, anyway, Jez thought with a mental shrug.

“Look, I don’t have all night to stand around talking you know…” Jez said quickly, tying to change the subject. “You don’t know anyone who looks like that Gillian woman on TV, do you? You know, the one on that Z-Files show. Or was it X-Cars…? It’s one of those sci-fi shows I never watch…”

“You mean Gillian Anderson? No, I don’t know anyone who looks like her. Why?” A satisfied grin crossed his face as he pulled out a small notepad. “Cool. Here,” he said, holding it out to Gillian. “Could you get her to sign this? Oh, and can you get her to write ‘To Max’ on it?”

Yeah, whatever.” Gillian replied with an offhanded shrug. She took the pad from Max and tucked it into her pocket, never again to see the light of day.

“Well, I need to find this girl and I don’t really have any leads other than we’re supposed to meet her here tomorrow.” Gillian looked around absently, trying to think of anything that might help her locate this thorn.

“You don’t have today’s newspaper do you? I need to find an ad in there… It might have the telephone number to find this girl…” Gillian looked back to “Max” now. “How would you like to meet Guardian? If you can snag me a ride back to around the Don Valley Parkway then maybe I can get her to talk to you?”

“You can take me to meet her? Cool!” Max paused. “But isn’t a superhero base supposed to be, like, secret? I mean, you can’t let just anybody know where it is. What if your archenemy created a new Supercharged Ionic Blast Cannon and wants to you your base for target practice? You want him to be able to blow up your base and endanger thousands of innocent people?” Max looked at her in almost indignant disbelief.

“Well,” Gillian said with a shrug. “You’re not going to tell anyone, right? Then don’t worry about it.” It’s not like I was going to take you to the front door, you dope, Gillian thought while still smiling and waiting on the potential ride.

“Yeah, but we’d have to take a cab,” Max replied. “Don’t you remember? My car died a rather spectacular death when Leech robbed that bank last week. I don’t have any wheels.”

“Probably a good time for me to start looking into the ‘Jez-mobile’ or something.” she said with a shrug. “Maybe another time then…” She could always get a cab on her own, so she didn’t need him for that. And the idea of putting Guardian on the spot wasn’t worth suffering through any more of this.

“I’ll get you her autograph…” she said, with the best smile she could offer. “And depending how well our date goes tomorrow night, I’ll see if I can get her to pay you a visit.” Of course, up until that last sentence, they didn’t have a date tomorrow

night. Without waiting for a reply, Gillian turned to leave.

“Where are you going now,” Max asked, catching up to her.

“I’m going home,” Jez replied with a shrug. “There’s nothing going on here and I know I’m never going to find this woman…” She paused and then shrugged as she turned around, “You don’t have any better ideas, do you?”

Max shook his head. “No, sorry. So, do you want to go see a movie or something………?”

Jez paused, in midstep, then turned around slowly. Just slow enough to give her a few seconds to think up a witty reply…

“Sure, if you’re paying.” she replied with a shrug. Maybe she should have taken even longer to turn around.

“Where do you want to head?” she asked, only giving him about two seconds to reply. She then rattled off a list of local movie theatres to see if any of those were what he had in mind.

“Let’s head for the Eaton Centre. I’m pretty sure we’ll find something there.” Max hurried to catch up with Jez and they headed towards Union Station to catch the subway.

**********

As the credits began to roll, Guardian stopped the tape playing in the VCR and hit the rewind button. She stood, turned off the tv, then left her room and headed deeper into the base.

The smell of chlorine greeted her when she reached her destination. The water in the olympic-sized pool was still and inviting. Guardian walked over to the edge of the shallow end and stopped, her toes flush with the edge. There was a small click and a hissing sound, and Guardian dove into the water.

**********

Nathan knew he was in the base, but he didn’t remember ever seeing this portion of it. There was a huge swimming pool and as he looked around he could see something in it.

It was kind of octopus-like, with a rather weird main body. It had an almost human-shaped head, with a long neck which curved down to an almost box-like torso, and the whole was covered with some kind of dull metal. He could see what looked a lot like Guardian’s tattoos on the head of the thing, going down its back, just as it did on the woman.

Guardian was standing statuelike at the edge of the pool, her face completely impassive. She didn’t seem to notice anything around her, let alone the creature approaching. The creature’s long silvery tentacles changed number and shape as it swam towards his teammate. Nathan could count at least eight of them.

Nathan suddenly saw Guardian’s face up close, and to his horror, he saw no signs of life on it. Her eyes were dead and staring off at the far wall, her lips were slightly apart, and she wasn’t breathing.

His perspective jumped back and he could see the creature had reached Guardian, and its tentacles began to wrap around her as to began to climb up her…..

Nathan started, thrust rudely from his trance. Disoriented, he shook his head and looked around, realizing he was in his bedroom above the book shop.

“By the lower devils…. Guardian.. Aidan.. ” Nathan stopped blabbering when he realized he was talking to himself. “Aidan.” Running to the room where the computer is hooked up, Nathan checked to make sure that it’s on.

“Aidan?? Aidan?!?! Are you awake?? Is Guardian alright?? I saw something.. alien.. that looked like it was attacking her… and she, she … she looked … dead.”

Nathan finally paused, the last word left hanging, as the realization started to set in.

“Take a deep breath, Nathan, and relax.” Aidan’s calm voice came through the speakers. “Tell me what exactly you saw, and how you saw it.”

A sigh of relief escaped Nathan as Aidan spoke. He’s not panicking. Doesn’t even sound surprised.

As he started to describe the scene he witnessed, Nathan’s voice became almost monotonous, his eyes closed, trying to remember every detail.

“How did I see it?? I don’t know… I was in my bedroom, and I … needed to take care of a few matters… so I went into a trance .. and the next thing I knew I saw this pool at the base.. and this creature in the water… almost like a squid or octopus, but silver … a box like torso and I think it had a head …. tattoos.. like Guardians on.. yes it did have a head and neck.. the tattoos were along its head and neck. It swam closer to Guardian, but she didn’t see it… it got closer, and she still

didn’t move… looked like she was staring off into space.. it got closer, and I realized that Guardian wasn’t breathing, and this was starting to climb up Guardian.

“At that point I snapped out of my trance… which was only about a minute or so ago…. whatever it was may still be in the base! She needs our help now!”

“Perhaps you should come to the base immediately,” Aidan replied. “I will check into the situation and see if it warrants scrambling the rest of the team.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Outwardly calm, Nathan’s shock was starting to wear off, and while he had a few questions for Aidan, he didn’t quite trust the computer to answer fully. But why wasn’t he aware of this before I called?? Isn’t he aware of everything that happens in the base?? And where was that pool… It was almost as if Guardian hid it from us… and how did she know the base that well??

Nathan left in a rush, barely remembering to summon his costume. This is as good a time for the introduction of my new other self. Making the best time that he could to the base, Nathan arrived in the meeting room. Guardian was sitting the table, looking rather alive and well, except for the look of surprise on her face when he burst into the room like a monster was on his tail.

Anook, why is *he* here, Guardian asked Aidan through their mental link.

Why don’t you ask him, Aidan replied calmly.

Upon entering the meeting room, Nathan looked squarely at Guardian and stopped dead in his tracks.

“You’re alive!! But.. how?!?!?”

Guardian frowned. “What do you mean by that statement, Mage?” Nathan couldn’t read anything from her body language - she was sitting as still as a statue.

Nathan closed his eyes. What do I MEAN?!?!? He took a deep breath before replying.

“I saw you, and you appeared dead. No vital signs, no breathing, and even less facial expression than you normally have, that is what I mean. I panicked, and reached Aidan, and he suggested that I should come to the base… so here I am…. and now I find that you aren’t dead.. and I’m wondering why we are here…..”

Once he’s finished his diatribe, Nathan opens his eyes, and looks squarely at Guardian. I know that this is dangerous, but I’m still not sure what is going on here…

“Stupid Mage,” Guardian said, her voice full of scorn. ” What makes you think I should be dead? What did you see?”

Nathan was somewhat taken aback by Guardian’s reaction, and forgetting how soundly she could beat him, he looked at her squarely.

“A mage I might be, however stupid I am not. You want to know what I saw?? Well, I certainly hope you can take this. I saw a pool, a large pool. Here at the base. Probably down in one of the sublevels that we haven’t seen yet. I saw you, standing looking off into space, and a silvery-grey form in the pool. It had a body like a squid, but the torso was boxlike, and the creature had a head. There were tattoos much like yours, along the head and neck. It swam towards you, and as it got closer, I realized that you weren’t breathing. No facial expression. You looked dead. As the creature started to climb up your body, I came out my vision and contacted Aidan.

“Are you satisfied?”

“I told you, Anook, that this Bedwyr was tricking you!” Guardian leapt out of her seat and launched herself at Nathan, her face announcing in no uncertain terms that she wanted to rip him limb from limb. Guardian’s left arm swung back to strike at Nathan’s head.

But the blow didn’t come. Guardian was suddenly frozen in place, almost like a paused frame in a video. Nathan could hear a roar of rage coming from inside Guardian as her chest exploded outwards in a mass of silvery tentacles.

Nathan stepped back, the words of invocation, and the sigils for several spells already coming to mind.

What the?!?!? Inside?? Outside?? Nathan opened his mouth to speak, but the forming question turned to the

rapid incantation of a spell when the tentacled mass screamed in rage again and attacked. Nathan felt his power build up then dissipate as he lost control of the magical flow.

The tentacles lashed out and grabbed Nathan. Two tentacles wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his side and another wrapped around his throat. As the creature began to squeeze, Nathan could see nothing but hatred and rage in the cold black eyes looking at him out of the metallic shell.

“Guardian.” Aidan’s voice filled the room. “Stop this at once. He is not Bedwyr, nor is he your enemy.”

A strangled cry of rage and frustration sounded from the metallic head. Sounds that had never been heard issued from the head as if in protest to Aidan’s words. With a great reluctance but the hate still brewing the ‘thing’ unlatched it’s self from Nathan and settled on the floor between him and Guardian, It’s silver tentacles withering around it as the cold black orifices on the head seemed to glare at Nathan.

Rubbing his throat, Nathan took a few deep breaths. His eyes flickered around the room and suddenly stopped when he saw Guardian. She was standing there lifeless with a huge hole in her chest. He started, then realized it wasn’t so much as a hole as a kind of door. As he looked closer, he saw what looked like circuitry inside….

“He lied to you!” The strange sounds from the figure were being almost echoed by Guardian. “He is Bedwyr. Only Bedwyr would know. Only Bedwyr would see!”

“Guardian, I did tell you there are humans with the ability of clairvoyance,” Aidan replied calmly. “It allows them to see into areas where they are not.”

“But… He is Bedwyr! He does what they can do! He is evil! He is….”

Nathan could hear the frustration in the voice. “Blasted human language. What is word? His power corrupts! His power destroys! His power is…. Argh!”

“The word you are looking for, Guardian,” Aidan said. “Is Chaos.”

Nathan’s face became a cold mask, his voice lost all its humour, replaced by nothing but a cold rage. “Chaos?? I’m not CHAOS, I hunt it. Chaos is the unraveller, the unbinder. I am not one of Their brethern”

“Liar”! Guardian shouted, the silver figure rising up to its full height. “The Zien-Anook are dead, gone for centuries. There are only the Spaceborn to fight against the Bedwyr.” As the creature took a step forward, Nathan suddenly realized that the voice he was hearing from the motionless form of Guardian was a split second behind the sounds coming from the creature, almost as if it were translating.

Zien-Anook??? Nathan’s mid raced.

“It was Bedwyr that killed my family. It is Bedwyr that slaughter my people. It is Bedwyr that seek to destroy my planet. It is Bedwyr that use magic. Magic *is* Chaos.”

That explains a few things… must remember to thank Aidan sometime… The mage opened his mouth to speak.

“Guardian!” Aidan’s voice was stern but calm. “Did you not read the information I gave you about mages of this world that hunt mages that use Chaos?”

He knows of the Order?? But how?? Nathan was astonished. Where had Aidan learned about the Thaumaturgia?

“Lies. All lies. You have been deceived, Anook.” The silver figure shifted. “Only the Zien-Anook used magic to hunt the Bedwyr.”

“You know what Bedwyr magic looks like,” Aidan asked.

“Yes! It is black. It is evil,” Guardian replied emphatically.

“And the magic that you have seen Nathan cast. Is it black?”

“No…. He must be hiding it behind illusions. The Bedwyr can do that.”

Nathan spoke quietly, almost a whisper. “Of course anything black that appears white must be tainted in some way.

Guardian, Mage I may be, evil I am not. I have made mistakes, some larger than others, some for which I may never atone.

“You judge me without knowing me, based on your experiences. You have little knowledge of us or our customs, yet you still judge me by your standards.

“I have sworn oaths, binding both legally and morally. I could have eavesdropped on all of the members of this teams thoughts, but I have not done so, out of respect for their privacy. I now open my thoughts, my experiences to you. Only then will you be truly able to judge me.”

Nathan slowly dropped his mental shields, flinching at the distant murmur from the city, and the rage of Guardians thoughts. Pulling a small sphere of the purest crystal out of his costume, Nathan sat cross-legged on the floor.

“Guardian, what I am going to do is to give you access to my memories and experiences. If I am as you claim, I will not be able to hide my taint. Please, join me. Let’s put an end to this.”

All of a sudden, there was a large puff of sulphurous smoke and flames, and a huge Demonic being appeared, complete with huge batlike wings, large horns and deep red skin. Approaching almost eight feet in height he was a most impressive sight. He looked slowly about the room taking in all the surroundings and noted the combat that is momentarily at a halt.

By the Lower…. Nathan stopped his preparations and slowly stood up. He backed up slightly and brought his mental shields back into place.

He spoke an a deep and very hoarse voice. “Hey kiddies didn’t me to bust up a good fight…I know it really pisses me off when somebody does that to me”

He turned and looked as if he was looking for something to sit on. “Any chairs around? I’ll just sit and wait till you’re done”

Having said that he sat down. With a grin filled with sharp teeth he made a gesture and a cigar appeared in his hand which he lit with a flame appearing at the end of his pointer finger.

So why doesn’t it say something about it’s plan coming together?? Nathan thought nervously.

The bar of lights along the top of the walls in the conference room began to flash red. “Intruder alert. Teleportation blocks breached. Possible enemies located in Conference room A.” A female voice that neither Guardian nor Nathan recognized repeated the warning. “Activating defensive systems.”

As long as there are no other possible enemies, but something about this doesn’t feel right… Nathan kept an eye on the demonic figure.

“Identify yourself and state your business here.” Aidan’s voice had the tone of a commanding general.

The demon took a long draw on his cigar and blew the smoke out in a series of complicated rings. “I’m Flar. As for my purpose this happens to be where I ended up. I guess the big G has something up his sleeve”

Guardian wasted no time in getting back into the suite. Nathan watched as the tentacles entering the opening in the chest and metal “torso” of the creature slid into cavity. There was a slight movement and the chest slid shut with a soft hiss. Had Nathan not seen the opening with his own eyes he would have not believed that there had been a hole there.

Guardian ran over to Flar, wound up and swung at the demon, hitting him squarely on the left shoulder. His face was calm as he and the chair fell over backwards with a crash.

“Hey! You know the good old demon greeting. Cool.” Flar grinned as he got to his feet.

“Chaos spawn,” Guardian yelled, moving in to attack again. “I will destroy you and then your master!”

“Guardian, wait.” Aidan’s disembodied voice was calm as usual. “Flar, please explain your last statement.”

“Aidan,” Guardian stopped in mid stride with a look of complete disbelief on her face. “But he is the enemy!”

Flar smiled broadly. “Hey sweetie I’m not the enemy…yet! That was a pretty good punch but if you want rumble I’m always up for that” Flar flourished his claws without dropping his cigar and then continued. “As for explaining my last statement, I take it you mean about the Big G being up to something what are you people atheists…you know God, the old bastard himself making my life miserable as always…a few little nasty deeds and you get a reputation ”

Flar stood there for a second. “Look babe, why don’t you just pop a couple Midol, have a drink and I’ll tell you all about Flar ex-Demon Prince’s great adventure…or I can put my cigar down and bounce you around the pool room for awhile” Flar flexed his claws again and grinned broadly.

Nathan’s mind reeled with amazement and shock. Well he is as tough as he looks, and solid too….. could this be real??

As he started to deal with the concept of seeing a real demon, Nathan’s training kicked in. Several spells came to mind, his fingers dancing in anticipation of their release.

Nathan stared at the demon for a moment once the spell was cast. He fairly glows glows with magic, but….. Wait a second. I know I cast the spell correctly, but… He swallowed. He is not Tainted. But… I thought all demons were Chaos beings.

“Oh great,” Flar said, looking at Nathan. “A peepin’ Tom.”

“Well, Flar,” Aidan’s disembodied voice was calm - as always. “Are you willing to further explain what you are doing here? Your story is still a bit unclear to me.”

Guardian stood silently, looking back and forth between Nathan and the demon, her fists clenched and a frown on her face.

Nathan unconsciously took a step back, and waited for Flar’s response to Aidan.

Flar sat down once again, took another drag off his cigar made a gesture. A glass tumbler with a thick red liquid appeared in his hand.

“Bloody Mary anyone,” he asked. “Helps to clear the throat,” he added in his normal raspy voice, giving a genuine smile of friendship.

Nathan’s eyes lit up momentarily… That is soo tempting right now… But then I guess that’s what he’s here for…

“Well as for my story, I suppose you want the short version the one minus all the X-rated stuff. Well a long time ago God, the grand orchestrator of problems, created the universe. Well along with the universe he created a race of beings that he wanted to unload all his shit jobs on…us, the angels.” He took another drag on the cigar.

“Well Lucy, a fellow angel, disagreed with him on a couple of things and we got the boot. So, since we were angels and still had our job to do, we went about guiding man. We quickly determined that mortals like yourself had this tendency to want to screw up things for themselves by selfish assholes. So we went with that. After all, we were kicked out because of a disagreement in policy. We felt we shouldn’t judge others so we ended up as the bad guys. We ended up the way we are cause the big G wanted people to be afraid of us. Obviously it didn’t work.

Flar looked up. “Screwed up again…there’s a shock”

“Anyway, I was one of the originals,” Flar continued. “My original name was Uriel, and I was the greatest understander of magic among the Archangels. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten some things. Of course, this universe is a bit on the wussy side for magic as those things go. Anyway, I lived my life tempting man and woman,” he smiled at Guardian. “Until I met a demon named Alaendra. Quite a babe and boy was she good in bed. Most demons had another name for her, mostly bitch. Not to her face of course after all she was HellWalker. You see she was one of your people - a nasty, vicious, truly evil person who got promoted up through the ranks. She and I had a kid we named him Merlin. Maybe you’ve heard of him?” Flar paused.

“Well, he’s been known to muck around in mortal affairs. Anyway I checked him out with a spell of prophecy to see what would come about in my kid’s life. As it turns out, he ends up having a kid with Morgana le Fey. Another bitch if I ever met one. That kid was Andella. The spell of prophecy showed I’d fall in love with her and start on the path of redemption. So that’s what happened. I met her, fell in love, and for some stupid reason I still haven’t figured out, started to become a

gooder guy. I had an evil sword filled with another Demon Prince I had entrapped during a fight a few millennium ago. Idiot that I am, I decided that he had undue evil influence over me. After all he was one of you sick mortal demons. So in a long complicated spell I broke the sword and released him. Damn I miss my sword.” Flar reaches back as if reaching for his sword and sighs.

“Well, I final was starting to get somewhere with Andella…you know the whole shooting match, sex and everything. Boy I miss her. It must be the love, but she was the best lover out of my 98,974 give or take lovers I’ve had. So as I was saying, things were going great. She was pregnant, the kid was going to be a great saviour and all that when I get jumped by the Demon Prince and four other demon princes.” Flar paused and smiled. “So I made a couple of enemies”

After a sip of his Bloody Mary he continued. “Well I drew them away from Andella and we had a fight. I killed two of them, crippled one so he is as good as dead and thought I had died. Only it’s worse. I ended up here! I don’t know what the

grand bastard has in mind but he’s not gaining any points with me.” Flar stood and wrapped a huge arm around Nathan’s shoulders in the buddy gesture. Guardian quickly stepped out of his reach and glared daggers at him.

Nathan looked at the arm wrapped around his shoulder and tried to suppress a shudder. Learn Magic … from a demon???? The Order should be told of him….

“At least I’ve found some people to hang out with. Gotta teach you some real magic, mage old buddy, and teach this young lady over here how to loosen up.” He leaned over and whispered in Nathan’s ear in a stage whisper. “Teach her some new vices.”

Nathan’s eyes popped open in surprise at his remark about teaching Guardian some vices, and he tried to escape Flar’s grip, expecting Guardian to take exception to that comment.

Guardian’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly, then she let out what could only be described as a war cry. She flung herself at Flar but missed completely, landing with a crash in a graceless heap on the conference room table.

Flar stepped towards her. “You know girl, I’m beginning to doubt you’ve got any brains in that thick skull of yours. I’ve been around a lot of years and met people from one end of the good-evil spectrum to the other. I won’t tell you I’m some kind of paragon of goodness and virtue cause I ain’t. You may think you’re holier than thou and maybe you got a reason to hate me I don’t know about. Maybe you’re pissed I didn’t boink you when I was boinking all your sisters.

“What I do know from all the millenniums of my misspent youth is that trust, love, compassion have to be earned. You’re attacking me because of how I look on the outside. I may look nasty and evil to you but I ain’t as bad as all that. Hatred, anger, genocide - these things come about because of intolerance, because people strike out with blind prejudice at those who have a different skin color, different religious views. Hell I’ve seen people beat up cause they put an earring in the wrong ear.

“Most people that hate me hate me for a good reason, not just because of bad propaganda. I’ve seen the good guys murder, rape, destroy in blind rage or because they thought their cause just. I’ve seen the most vile and evil beings your worst dreams have ever conjured fight and die for something so insignificant as stopping some hooker from being beat and raped by some asshole. Evil can take a manifest form and I doubt you’ve truly seen them. But evil begins in the heart and that heart can be in any body or form.

“You attacked me without provocation not knowing who I am, how powerful I am. If I had been half my full power whether you in your crusading and just heart believe it or not and I wasn’t willing to talk, you would be dead. You would be serving no good cause you would be serving blind hatred, ignorance, prejudice. You begin a war, you would be the one bringing the very chaos you profess to fight.” Flar in very obvious and slow gesture extended his right hand in a gesture of peace (a handshake) and with the left curls his claws up in a gesture of preparation to rip something apart.

“One hand is peace, trust and friendship, the other is the hand of death, war and destruction. Make your choice. I ain’t sweet, innocent, and pure but I’m not the enemy unless you make me one. You are obviously a crusader who seeks to help those who can’t help themselves. We’re on the same team even if our uniforms look a tad different for one thing mine is such a bootiful shade of red. Your choice. Trust or start chaos gaining more power then it already has.”

What or who am I listening to??? He looks like one of the Tainted, but his words ring true…. By Fate’s smiling eyes, he just might be the way to get Guardian to relax… Nathan quietly cleared his throat, and addressed Flar.

“I think I can shed some light upon your purpose here…. Guardian here is not native to our planet…. but I think that you may already know that.”

“There has also been some…. tension .. most notably between her and I, quite similar to what you have just experienced…”

Guardian stood up and looked at Nathan and then Flar. “Don’t ask me to be your friend. I will work with you, for now. And Nathan, you know nothing about me.” With that Guardian turned and walked out of the room the door hissing shut behind her.

Guardian walked through the base and to the elevator that hissed open at her approach. Walking in Guardian pressed the button for the top of the base. Stepping out of the elevator she walked to a ladder near the end of the warehouse and climbed up it to the roof. Upon the roof Guardian went to the highest spot were the stars were the clearest and slid open the chest piece the eyes seemingly to gaze upwards.

Zen-Anook. You saved us. Gave us the means to fight back. You made me to fight the Bedwyr. But now you have sent me to a place beyond the barrier. You have separated me from myself. I feel my pain. I am alive in death. I am so lost. Can this be were you went after the great rebirth? Is this why I am here?……

Guardian looked out over the water feeling the part of her she has been separated from. Demons, supposed Zen-Anook…..I’m so lost…yet the words…they were not Bedwyr…What am I to do?……

(Continued in Interview With A Demon)

© Lisa Hartjes, 1999,2006.