Posted by: Splenetic

The tall, blue-cloaked figure stalked around the room, occasionally walking into thigh-high tables that were scattered randomly throughout the long, low-ceilinged room. She disregarded this, however, and continued to stare angrily into the distance.

She reached out a hand and, while grasping what looked like a handful of air, wrenched it savagely. When nothing happened, a low animal scream came from her throat and she collapsed on the floor, sobbing heavily.

Loneliness was her constant companion, her only friend, her weary lover.

Yes, she thought bitterly. She was very thankful that she was lonely.

Drenched violet eyes opened slowly to look out the window opposite. A man's profile appeared briefly, then disappeared. The woman's eyes narrowed briefly, then were lost in her own grief again.

Posted by: Coota

Coota looked back and saw the pure wall of water rushing towards them. Luckily, he noticed Dalen, Davel and the bunny suddenly dissapear, so he figured they'd managed to use magic somehow.
It was time to do two things to save their asses: magical and non-magical.
"NoMel, use some of that magic crap and freeze that wall of water NOW!" shouted Coota, pulling out a brick of thermite and a lighter from his bag of tricks.

"It shall be done," replied NoMel, beginning to chant.

Coota then quickly rushed in front of NoMell, ripped five chunks of thermite from the brick and tossed them onto the walls of the sewer pipe. He then activated the lighter and tossed it into the thermite, which immediately started to spark and glow with a large amount of heat: the walls of the sewer where it was implanted immediately started to curl in.

Coota himself was burned badly from the initial wave of heat, but his plan had succeeded somewhat: there was a wall of metal quickly forming between them and the huge stream of water that was gaining on them.

NoMel, meanwhile, was putting the finishing touches on his spell...

Posted by: Evania

With a bright flash of blue light, Evania, Dalen, and Davel appeared in another section of the labyrinthine sewers.

This light was noticed (with great interest) by exactly 1,657,32 eyes. Of the owners of these eyes, only one was limited to a single pair.

"I did good, didn't I?" The rabbit was ecstatic. "We're HERE and not THERE!" It was too dark to see well, but the others could hear the pride in her voice.

Suddenly, they heard a noise behind them. The owners of the eyes were coming closer...

Posted by: LaughingMoon

NoMel snaps out of it. "why the hell am I chanting?", he wonders, as he lays Rabidazal down and lays the weopons near him. NoMel sighs and puts away his shades. "Everyone, stand back, I don't want any of you getting caught in this" , he says as he walks straight towards the wall of liquid death. His eyes glowing in the dark. Suddenly a blue nimbus surrounds him, and ice begind to form in the muck of the sewers at his feet. He concentrates and the blue glow spreads outwords, along the walls and floor of the tunnel. Thick sheets of ice appearing where ever the blue glow touches, behind him our heros begin to feel the effects of NoMels power, his curse, as they begin to shiver.

Coota looks around, grabs Rabs shirt and begins to tug him back "Everyone you heard the...man! Keep moving! He'll take it from here. We'll know soon enough if he fails!" meanwhile, back down the tunnel NoMel has his arms spread wide, and with a sudden flash of blue light and frigid cold a wall, some 50 foot thick, builds itself of ice, anchored into the very stone and dirt of the tunnels, NoMel drops to one knee as the cold that is his burden returns to him, the nimbus fading. He turns and walks back to the group, catching up to them quickly, "It is done. That should hold it long enough for us to get out."

Posted by: Daemos

The 4 jumped in the hole that Coota made. At the bottom they fell into a pile of sludge. No one wanted to know what it used to me, but they could tell by the smell. All 4 of them struggled there way out.

NoMel finished wiping the nastiness off, and asked, "Where are we?"

"We’re in the catacombs beneath the city." Coota said as he pulled out a map. He pointed out a direction, "We go this way."

They ran through the catacomb looking for an exit. Coota led them through the twisting and turning passages. Daemos was not moving fast enough and he mind began to wander, remember the times before he came to this world, before he left his, before the war that ended all life there, all life save for he and his brothers. There were tears in his eyes, those memories hurt a lot. Memories of him fighting the Daemos next to his brother Jedaen. Together with Jedaen, protecting Dalen.

NoMel noticed this, "Daemos are you ok?"

Daemos removed his helm, and wiped the tears away, "I’m fine, I’m not hurt."

"That’s not what I mean. Talk to me if you need to.", NoMel knew better, but was not going to push the issue.

The soon made there way out, Daemos noticed that a few people were not looking so good, "Coota come here, and let me look at that, Dalen you Look at the guy on the ground."

"Daemos.." Coota began to say.

"Quiet, let me heal this" Daemos cut the man off. Coota was surprised. Daemos continued to heal the man’s burns. After he healed the burns that Coota received from the thermite, Daemos looked at Rabidazell, even though he just told Dalen to do it. "Dalen I need you help with this one"

Daemos had not noticed that Dalen was not with them. "Dalen’s not here." NoMel told Daemos.

Daemos looked up, he did not see his remaining brother. "Dalen, Dalen" Daemos yelled. Daemos yelled again, only louder and with more desperation. Daemos yelled again, and again, but there was not response. Daemos looked back into the exit that they came out. "Dalen must be in there."

"No, he’s not there..." NoMel was cut off as Daemos picked him up off the ground.

"Where is he?" Daemos snarled, hit eyes filled with insanity. NoMel did not want to hurt Daemos, but he also did not want Daemos to hurt him either. Slowly Coota walked next to Daemos and punched him solidly in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.

Daemos shot up from the ground and turned to Coota, "BY THE GATE, you have better have a good reason for that."

"I do." Coota replied coolly, "Dalen is ok, he teleported with Davel, and the rabbit before the wave hit them."

Daemos looked startled, and a relief began to show on his face, "I though that I had lost them both." He reached around his neck and pulled a shimmering crystal that was under his armor. "Good it’s still shinning, that meant that Dalen’s still alive."

"What do you mean Daemos?" NoMel asked.

"I guess I have to explain this, but to do that we have to go back a little further." Daemos sighed, "A long time ago I lived on a different world, a world filled with people like me, as well as humans. The humans of my world were hunted by their masters to be sacrificed to become demons. We hunted down the demons, and restored as many people as we could. Soon after I became a Knight of Faldra, The demons began to wage war on us. During the final battle of that war, I found out that Jedaen had betrayed us and sided with the Daemon Queen. After that, to put it simply, I went mad and shattered the world. At that same time the blades opened one of the gates, and took me, Dalen, and Jedaen away. The Daemon Queen followed us with her birth father. Jedaen rejoined with them and fled me, eventually I hunted them down, but Jedaen challenged me. On this world I confronted Jedaen and defeated him in battle, but I had wounded him to seriously, and he died, I was not able to save him." Daemos began to stumble over his words.

"You ok?" Coota asked, this was more information than he needed, but it seemed as if Daemos had to say it.

"I’m ok" Daemos said as he caught his breath, "When I saw him again, I was reminded of what happened before, all that sadness, If I lost Dalen, I’d more than likely go nuts. This gem is my heart, quite literally, Dalen is the closest thing to me, and this crystal can sense him, and all that I care about. If he’s gone, this crystal will go out. It’s kinda my way of know if he’s ok, a way to check up on him if you will." Daemos places the gem back under his breastplate. "Thanks for listening guys, I did not mean to lay it on your shoulders. Now that that’s over with, let me take a look at Rabidazell, he’ll live, but there’s something wrong, that I can’t identify."

Posted by: MrIrony

Mr Irony had gotten a haircut, some new clothes and a pair of shades. He was dressed very casually, but anyone seeing him immediately knew him to be working for some sort of organization.
He sipped his coffee quietly, not acknowledging the presence of his agents nearby. After several more minutes, he finished up and left the cafe, agents in tow. They piled into the car and drove off to the airport. When they arrived, a helicopter was waiting.

Mr Irony: "What's this?"

Agent: "Gore's orders. you're to be brought home ASAP now that your mission's done."

Mr Irony: "Oh..."

Relunctant but conceding, he was led into the waiting vertibird. It lifted as the blades spun too fast to see and the airport shrank away below them. Mr Irony sighed.

Posted by: Orin

The cadillac moved slowly through the streets of Paris until eventually it passed through the gates of the American embassy and came to a halt in front of the main entrance. An agent earing the trademark sunglasses issued to the secret service stood on the stairs and mumbled something into his cuff roughly to the tune of,
"Heads up boys, head honcho's home, better stop the poker game."
He walked up to car and opened the door.
"Welcome back Mr Gore, I trust your tour was satisfactory?"
"Yes... yes, I saw what I needed to see..." Gore mumbled.
He stepped out of the cadillac and started walking up the steps deep in thought. Mr Irony worried him, he was a loose trigger that had to be controlled. He had given his spin doctors orders to fix up the media problems. Gore sighed. He did not like the thought of explaining to the French government exactly why it was necessary to level three blocks of Paris. Perhaps it was a bit rash to keep Mr Irony on in Black Ops, then again he would rather not release that nut onto the streets without keeping him on some measure of a leash. He was beginning to get the impression that Irony was mentally a few choc chips short of the whole cookie. Hmmm... cookies...
"Smith!"
An agent appeared instantly at his side as he walked down the corridor towards his makeshift office.
"Yessir?"
"Have some of my boys keep an eye on Irony, I want hourly feedback. If he so much as takes a leak I want to know about it. Next time half a city goes up in smoke I want to know about it before the fact. Is that understood?"
"Yessir! Rightawaysir!"
"Oh and Smith..."
"Yessir?"
"Get me some cookies... choc chip. and a glass of milk..."
"Yessir!"
The agent stepped back and began to mumble into his cuff, looking around him suspiciously.
Gore sighed, being evil wasn't all it's cracked up to be, you had to deal with a lot of incompetence.

Momentarily Gore sat in his seat pondering his next move. Despite the reports of the idiotic agents he sent out there he knew better than to believe Coota and his little band of crusaders were dead. Subsequent DNA tests on the corpses, investigations into irregularities in the underground sewer system and two tons of ice had confirmed his suspicion. He did not think it wise to tell Irony about this, he needed him to calm down before he got out of control. He briefly considered sending him to Hawaii for a bit of rest and relaxation, but he'd probably end up blowing that up too, and besides, his mother-in-law was out there now. come to think of it. perhaps he should send Irony after all. No, no, he would need him now, much as he hated to admit it.

The vice president sighed. News from Venezuela was not good. In fact there was no news at all. And he had specifically sent four of his best agents at out there. The shadow creature was not forthcoming either, he had neither heard from nor seen it since it left. He shuddered, at the thought of it. He didn't like them one bit, but his. employer. used them as his eyes, ears and mouth. They were so deathly cold in their manner, evil is one thing, but those things were as bad as it gets. To be honest they scared him half to death, it's just a pity they didn't seem to get involved themselves, he was sure they would be far more competent than those pathetic agents he was continually wasting.

"Your fear makes you weak." a hissing voice spoke from the shadows. Gore whirled around.
"You! I really wish you would stop doing that."
The cloaked figure regarded him quietly."
The vice president sighed, some days it was just not worth getting up. There was no point in trying to intimidate this thing anyway. He sighed.
"Okay, what do you want."
"Carson Fire was there."
"Where? Oh yes right. well? Where are my agents?"
He could swear the figure was smiling.
"They are without life."
"Well they have always been more like vegetables, . oh you mean they're dead."
"Yes."
"And what exactly killed them, I thought Coota's gang was all in France."
"We met some. resistance."
"What? A rabid squirrel?"
The sarcasm was absolutely lost on the figure. It continued in its monotone voice.
"An elven guardian watches over Carson Fire."
"Right, and the reason you did not intervene was.?" prompted Gore and cocked his head slightly.
He received no response. He might have guessed. These things only answered direct questions.
"So let me get this straight. You went out there, watched this elf kill four of my men and then came here to tell me about it?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't do anything to stop this elf?"
"No."
"It didn't even cross your mind to perhaps. oh say, maybe kill the elf?"
"I have no mind."
"Well that's pretty obvious, I don't know why I bother." grumbled Gore.
"Do not forget who placed you in your position of authority, and whom you serve," hissed the figure. Gore sighed. All things had their price.
"I have not forgotten... I have not."
"That is good. The master commands that you are to continue your. efforts."
"Mighty good of him." mumbled Gore. He was about to send his regards when he noticed the figure was gone. Good riddance he thought. He munched on a cookie. No he decided, being evil was definitely not what it was cracked up to be.

Posted by: Deathstorm

As Coota and his group moved through the sewers, another part of the sewers was active as well. A flash of light drove the hordes of sewer creatures back, as a small man appeared and fell to the water.

"Huh? Oh, man, what happened?" As he looked around, another flash of light appeared, revealing Evania, Dalen, and Davel. The first figure took a look at the group that just arrived, then felt the pressence of many beasts preparing to attack. "Excuse me for a moment, looks like introductions will need to wait." With this, the man began to glow with power, and quickly launched a beam into the nearest approaching group. When the attacked failed to have any affect, he mumbled under his breath, "Looks like I don't have any choice, let's go ... ah... Where'd it go? Oh, crud. Well, one last choice. How'd it go? Oh, yes: Power combined, unpenetrable darkness, unconquerable light, ultimate spirit of both sides, I summon you to this land, come to my aid and strike down all that oppose me!" The culmination of the spell caused a third portal to appear, from which stepped a twelve foot tall creature with glowing eyes.

Glancing around, the creature asked, "What did you call me for? I see nothing that you would need me for."

"Strike those in the darkness, which are not human in form. That is your mission."

With a wave of its hand, everything but the three humans, the rabbit, and the summoned monster was thrown far into the darkness. "There, now I'm going to bed. Next time, do it yourself. Good ni-huh? Where'd my portal go? It should be right here. Aw, man. Look's like I'm stuck here for a while. Make me something to wear, and while I change, you can explain where we are."

Holding his hands out, the man concentrated, drawing his energy to his hands, and soon a set of clothing grew in his hands. When finished, the monster took them and walked around a corner as the man sat down, the glow about him dimmed to the light a candle.

"Whew. Now that that is done," he addressed the three who were looking rather confused about the situation," My name is... Well, hm... Just call me Jason for now. By the way, where exactly am I? What is the name of this planet?"

After Jason was told what was known about the surroundings, a woman came into the light and intruduced herself as Angela.

"So, now what shall we do, Jason, was it?" Angela chuckled.

"Hm. So this place is supposed to be Earth? Doesn't look like anything I remembered it to be... Then again, I never saw much of the sewers. Well, first let's get these two to relative safety, then worry about what to do to get home."

"Say, what is this little rabbit fellow? I don't remember excluding any pets from my spell... Strange, must have been more tired than I thought. Anyway, let's go," Angela created a globe of light to allow them to see their way out of the sewers.

Posted by: Coota

"Alright people, Daemos and I will head up to find Dalen, Davel and da' bunny. NoMel, you grab Rab and drag him out to the exit: it's about 100 yards in that direction," instructed Coota, pointing.

"Alright, fearless leader; you'll probably need this," replied NoMel, tossing him the shotgun he'd picked up.

"Uh, thanks; and thanks for freezing the sewer pipe, NoMel; you saved our butts back there," Coota stated, pushing two shells into the shotgun's chamber.

"It was nothing. I will see you at the rendezvous; hopefully our Rat friend will be there as well," NoMel said.

"Right, see yah there; c'mon Daemos, lead the way," Coota suggested.

Daemos took out the crystal and started heading in a direction that led somewhat further down the sewer pipes, deep in the recesses of the Parisian waste system. The crystal seemed to glow brighter and brighter the deeper they went. "Dalen is fine. I know it. Otherwise the crystal would be incredibly dim, or completely blank of any light," stated the Faldren Knight.

"That, or some creature taped him to the side of a wall with it's saliva and is going to impregnate him with it's young," replied Coota.

"What?!?" shouted Daemos in reply as they continued.

"Well, not that I've ever heard of it happening, but I saw 'Aliens' one too manys times," Briggs explained.

"Remind me to pummel you when we get out of here," Daemos growled.

"Suggestion noted... wait, I'm picking up something on my motion tracker...," Coota stated, interrupting his witty retort.

"I think you really did see 'Aliens' one too many times," replied Daemos.

"No, it's programmed into my glasses... something moving fast this way...," Coota trailed off and leveled the Remington double barreled shotgun towards the direction of whatever was coming.

It was one of the tentacled creatures and it looked scared. Strange, thought Coota, how can a tentacled sweet potatoe thing look scared? Well, no matter. He proceeded to unload both barrels of the shot gun into the creature, turning it into a gelatin mass.

"You didn't need to do that, my friend; we would have taken care of the creature for you," a voice came out of the darkness.

Coota, not liking voices in the darkness, quickly slammed two more shells into the barrel and switched from motion tracker to infrared vision on his glasses. Four humanoid figures and a small bunny like figure popped up on the heat scanner. "Geezus, who the hell are you? You didn't even show up on the motion tracker...," wondered Coota.

"Well, I'm Jason..." the man started.
"And I'm Angela," a woman behind him finished.

"And I take it those people behind you are our friends?" Coota questioned, roling his eyes.

"Why yes; they told us you'd come looking for them. The shifter is actually quite the conversationalist...," Jason began.

"Look, we can have this little moment of happiness about increasing our merry little band later; right now I'd like to get out of these sewers, to the rendezvous point, and then a friggin' shower. Now, does anybody have any objections to that?" Coota asked, looking around at the group.

"Would it matter if we did?" Jason asked.

"Absofragginlutely not. Let's move like we got a purpose," Coota stated, turning around and moving quickly towards the exit. Daemos, meanwhile, was happily embracing his little brother.

Meanwhile, no one heard the bunny reply, "A-ffirmative."

The group quickly moved itself towards the exit of the catacombs, and into the sunlight. It was good not to be in the stinking hole anymore. Though the fact that they still smelt like the stinking hole didn't improve their moods. Coota rubbed his head, trying to ease the migraine he was getting. No cartoonist was worth this...

Posted by: MrIrony

Mr Irony watched the ground zip by underneath and muttered under his breath.

Mr Irony: "Stupid Gore, thinks he's so hot... Ooh, look at me, I'm mister supremacy, everyone's gotta listen to me... send me back home when my mission's done... was just starting to have fun... kill those who... huh?"

Something on the ground caught his eye. It flirted by and was out of view quickly as the copter zoomed by, but as he watched closer, he saw more little white specks go running by.

Mr Irony: "No, it can't be..."

He watched for a few more moments, and suddenly yelled excitedly: "It's not over!!! Turn this copter around right now!"

Pilot: "Uh, sorry sir, I can't. Gore's orders were to bring you back home, no matter the cost."

Mr Irony, suddenly drawing a pistol and putting it to the pilot's head: "I've found that some prices just aren't worth the pay-off! Does 'no matter the cost' include your brains across the glass?"

Pilot: "Can't say that it does..."

With that, the copter wheeled around and headed back. The pilot was at a loss, but Mr Irony seemed giddy with anticipation...

Posted by: Rabidazell

"Ugghhh"
Light, too much damned light.
"uuuggghhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Rabidazell fully opened his eyes.
He still had the plasma gun in his fist.
"Christ, that was a ball tearer"
He noticed that nomel was waiting by the side of the sewer entrance, hosing himself off."Er, where are the others?"
"Ahhh your awake, bout time. I see you still have that gun, remind me to hit you for firing that thing."

"righto, guess ewe will just have to wait"
Rabidazell took a swig at a bottle hanging from his belt labelled 'break fluid'.
and waited, resting on a metal pole that started to spark with static........

Posted by: Orin

Dharlè watched as the crackling flames licked the sides of the fireplace. The warm orange glow lit up his face beneath the cowl. His eyes were unfocused, his brow furrowed. He had not expected that creature. He tried to think what it could be, in all his travels in all his years he had never come across anything so dark. The blackness! he remembered. realisation struck. Shadows! It had to be! So they walk the earth again. this did not bode well. Where the Shadows walked fear, hatred and destruction trailed in their wake. In a word they were the incarnate influence of the darkness.

Carson was running his hands through the soft fur of the wolf eagerly accepting his attentions.
"Quite a friendly fellow isn't he?"
"He likes you," Dharlè smiled. A glimmer of Carson's potential was beginning to show.
"You should feel honoured," he chuckled, "The last stranger who tried to pet him almost had his hand bit off."
"You wouldn't think so," said Carson as the wolf nuzzled into his hands, "What's his name?"
"Ferris. Some years ago I found him deep in the woodlands, abandoned during the winter snow. He was just a cub so I took care of him until he eventually rejoined the wild pack, but at times he still accompanies me on my travels."
The wolf yawned and lay down placing his head over Dharlè's feet.
"Well he seems quite devoted to you."
"Yes. yes he is," said Dharlè absent-mindedly. Soon Carson would begin to have the same effect on those around him. In some ways he already had. He let his thoughts stray to the group of warriors fighting their way here. It would not be long now. Already they have seen so much destruction, and there was more. so much more to come.

"In don't suppose you would explain to me just how you did all that?" said Carson interrupting his line of thought.
"Hmm? What?"
"You know, the whole not-ending-up-as-a-shish-kebab act. fireballs, freezing the bloke's sword, the lighting."
Dharlè stared at him for a while, considering whether it was time to begin... No, he is not ready yet, it will take more time. He sighed, his questions did deserve an answer.
"Most magic, including Elven magic, is based on harnessing chaos and channelling it to alter reality. Users of this kind of magic often suffer a considerable toll for their use of it."
Carson nodded as the elf sat back and continued.
"But there are those, who have. a gift. to harness the latent power of the elements, who can to some measure draw on nature for their strength."
Carson frowned. It all seemed a little much to take in over the last few days. But he had no reason to doubt what he heard. After all. he had been given rather good demonstration.
"I see." He tried to make some sense of that he knew. "So. a dragon for instance? I take it they actually exist?"
Dharlè's eyes gleamed, it was so long since he had been able to teach. Those at home rejected his words. They would rather cling foolishly to their traditions and books of old. It had almost brought him much persecution from the elder council. It would bring their downfall, he had tried to warn them. but they would not hear. He looked at the man seated across him and nodded.
"Yes, yes they exist. Theirs is a slightly different case actually. In almost every case their constitution is focused and gives them immense power in the use of one element, most commonly fire, sometimes ice."
"Wow, have you ever met one? What are they like? Where." Carson began to roll off questions, his excitement getting the better of him. All these things he thought were only dreams, ideas. his imagination which would make him wake up in the middle of the night and write, or draw. How much was really fiction? he wondered.
As they talked into the night, the fire died until only cinders remained, but neither seemed to notice. The elf was careful not to say too much, yet he began to teach his eager pupil about the existence of other worlds, other creatures and races. He expounded basic knowledge Carson would need to know in the ordeal to come. Soon, soon he would be ready for the truth, he only hoped they had enough time.