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Chapter -8- Out of the Frying Pan...

June 21, 1999, 2:50pm Marseille, France ...

"You going to let me cut loose, or hog all the fun again?" Mike glanced at Karla with a smirk. "I mean, seriously. You were hyper and went overboard against those guys in Lyon."

Karla eyed him for a moment. She smiled at Judge and shook her head. "Oh, geeze, fine. Go have your fun." She stepped in front of Chance, protectively, with her arms folded. "Go on."

Michael rolled his sleeves up and approached the creature. "Wow, you are a creepy looking bastard, ja? Let's get this ball rolling, as they say." He drew his hands up and balled them into fists. "Your move, ugly."

The lumbering creature took a swung at him. Mike jerked his head back and kept his stance open for balance. Moving defensively, he buried a fist in the creature's stomach.

The flesh gave way and bodily fluids spilled down over the being's waistline, groin and thighs.

"Are you serious?" he exclaimed, eyes wide.

Karla stayed quiet. She remained in front of Chance,

The creature took another swing but with the Michael's subconscious ability, he was ready. Mike lifted his arm and blocked the monster's strike.

The pure power behind the creature's swing immediately broke Mike's left wrist and knocked him back several feet. He scrambled away, feet slipping in a gooey mess of body fluids.

Mike made his way back to a pillar where there was a fire hose, axe and extinguisher mounted in a glass case. "I got this!" he called back to Chance and Karla.

Mike gripped the bottom of the case and pulled himself up, careful not to slip again. He elbowed the glass case only to find it was plastic, which shattered due to a perforated cut in the front. He reached in, took the axe in his right hand, and turned back to the creature.

"You sure?" asked Karla. "Cause it looks to me like you're struggling. It's not age, is it?" she teased.

"I'm not a minute man, I like to take my time, warm up, then I bring on the show." Michael gingerly brought his aching left hand beneath his right one on the handle of the fireman's axe. "This ... This _monster_hits pretty hard, though." He took two steps forward, pivoted for power, and swung his weapon.

The axe disappeared into the creature's shoulder. It appeared unfazed. Mike stepped back and favored his left hand with his right.

The handle jutted straight out of the center of the creature's chest.

Bodily fluids ran down the large being's arm and chest, pooling on the floor.

It reached for Mike with a grunt of pain. The monstrous being couldn't lift its left arm due to the gash in its shoulder.

"Damn that thing is resilient," Judge said. "Where's a necromancer when you need one?" Again, the creature swung its right arm in his direction.

Michael ducked the attack, careful not to slip on the floor. "Scheisse," he muttered beneath his breath. He reached up, took the handle of the axe, and jerked on it. He stumbled back, slipped in the goo on the floor and went to his backside. The handle was still in his hand but the head of the axe was missing. "Scheiss! Es ist defekt!"

Karla yawned. She unfolded her arms, then put her hands on her hips. "What's that? What're you 'shit'-ing about?"

"I said it's busted!" he exclaimed.

The creature brought its right hand down. He held the handle horizontally, using it to deflect the creature's attack.

The fiberglass pole cracked.

The creature closed its talons around the handle with a tight grasp.

Mike put his foot into the being's lower gut and rolled backwards. He released the cracked axe pole.

The deformed being flew through the air and slid to a halt adjacent to its broken stasis chamber.

"They're not your average zombie!" Mike announced. "That thing gripped the pole. Certainly not a dumb Hollywood zombie, that's for sure."

Mike got to his feet. He prodded his left forearm, checking his injury. "I might have broken my wrist. Hopefully it's just a bad sprain - that would heal quicker."

"Oh, great," Karla said with a chiding tone. "Es ist defekt," she said, repeating what he'd uttered moments ago. "You ready for me to handle this thing yet?"

"No! _I'll_handle it!" Michael withdrew a handgun and pointed it at the creature, which rose to its feet.

Chance and Karla quickly brought their hands up to their ears.

The pistol discharged, followed by a cacophony of echoes throughout the building.

Chance's eyes widened in horror. "It didn't work!"

The creature got back to its feet. It reached towards Michael upon approach.

Judge fired the weapon four more times. "Five bullets should do the trick."

Slowly, the creature dropped to its knees and flopped onto its side.

"It's not dead," Chance said. "How can anything live through that?"

Michael moved behind the monster and put a round into the base of its spine.

It stilled but continued to make freakishly raspy noises and move its mouth.

Mike sighed and shook his head. "Well, it's paralyzed. Damn. Should have brought a bigger gun. If I had another axe I could take the head off."

Karla approached and held her hand out, palm down. The head of the axe appeared on the floor adjacent to Michael's feet, covered in discolored goo. "You want me to try and fuse it back to the handle? I can teleport them together."

"Handle is cracked," said Michael with a shrug. "I hope that's the only one of these things."

Chance sighed. "Obviously it won't be, especially now that you've said that. Superstitions are a cliché, really, but that thing freaks me out, Judge Richter."

"You're a real optimist, young man. Know that?" Michael opened and closed his left hand several times. He gingerly arched his hand at the wrist with a grimace of pain. "The break isn't at the joint. It's further up the forearm. I'll be fine."

"Can I fight the next one?" Chance smiled weakly, but his joke appeared to amuse both Karla and Michael. "I mean, it is my turn, now, right? Anyone have a shotgun?" He paused, and then, with an incredulous expression, exclaimed, "DOOM?! Come on, you guys had to have played Doom, right?"

Karla smiled sheepishly. "Yeah. But a little while later the third _Duke Nukem_came out, you know ... the 3D one ... and I never looked back."

Chance grinned. "Why, because of the control scheme, or because the risqué humor?" He rubbed his forehead, adding, "Why can I remember video games, but still nothing else about my past? I swear..."

Karla began walking in a random direction, an adventurous glimmer of mirth in her bright green eyes. "I liked Duke Nukem because of Jon St. John's voice. The rest was a bonus."

Chance's grin broadened. "I never took you for a gamer, you know?"

Karla flashed a toothy smile. "You kidding? I used the cheat codes to win. I suck at video games, baby-boy."

"So why play them?"

The succubus shrugged her shoulders. "They amuse me and I really like technology, so I play'em every now and then."

Chance looked back at Michael.

The older man shook his head. "I stopped after pong, kid."

"Actually," Chance said, "I was going to say, 'let's go,' and then I was going to follow her. But, uh ... Pong is cool, I guess, if you have two players."

"Mm..." Mike smirked, adding, "Dumpfbacke."

Chance hurried after Karla, adding, "I remember Doom_and _Duke Nukem. They only came out a few years ago. I remember playing them. I think I'm starting to get some of my marbles back."

"Good! It's about time! I need to know what to call you if your name turns out to be something other than Chance." She led the trio through the large room full of various computers.

Some of the equipment was comprised of standard desktops piled together and running as a network.

Other pieces of computer equipment looked as though that had been built specifically for the compound, based on their design and the way the rack-mount computer cases were machined to fit between several stasis tubes.

Further into the large building, the setting took on a warehouse layout with support pillars and five foot high cubical-style walls.

At the far end of the warehouse was an office.

Karla reached into her handbag and withdrew a handkerchief. She paused and looked back at Chance and Mike. "Call me old fashion; I used to drop these to get boys. Great ice breaker back in the day." She wrapped the cloth over the handle and turned the knob. Karla frowned. "Locked. Nuts."

She waved her hand at the door. It ripped off its hinges, taking part of the modular wall with it. She stepped into the office and tucked the decorative hankie back into her purse.

Mike and Chance exchanged glances.

Chance scoffed with a grin of amusement. "Really, Karla? You go from being all dainty, opening the door with that thing, then you suddenly rip it all down? There's no middle of the road for you."

"I don't care how it opens, sweetheart. So long as it gets out of my way and I don't leave fingerprints."

Chance nodded.

Karla shrugged and, in a matter-of-fact tone, added, "It was in my way." The succubus sat down at a chair behind a desk and waved her hands like a symphony conductor. Drawers opened, file folders opened then closed.

A Rolodex telekinetically opened on the desktop, and rotated through various paper slips. A few of its index cards had numbers, including local emergency services, and a few eateries with delivery service.

Chance leaned down and picked up an Ethernet cable on the floor. "I guess they plug in with a laptop when someone is in?"

"Don't touch things with your fingers," she murmured. "Wipe it off with your shirt."

"Sorry." Chance did as he was told.

Karla smiled at the Rolodex and announced, "I think I might have something, gang. There's a number here with a name - A. Sokolov. I knew a man named Aris Sokolov, once. He worked with Jonathan Parker for a while but it was short-lived. Guy was pretty smart. A scientist, actually. Into genetics and eugenics and all that stuff."

"What is eugenics?" asked Chance.

Michael frowned. "Remember how the Nazis were obsessing about blond hair and blue eyes?"

"Right. Thee, uh, Aryan race thing, right?" Chance paused with a smile. "See? I didn't fail Social Studies after all."

"Good for you. You must be proud to know something about one of the darkest moments in modern human history." Michael rubbed his left forearm. "Eugenics is all about selective breeding."

"I can't think of why anyone would want to..."

Karla looked up from the Rolodex again. "I can. If this guy is Aris Sokolov, he was studying supernatural-only breeding. At the time, the EC was interested in his research. They were saying how mundane human DNA added 'junk code' to people with abilities, making it so that some children, or their descendants, might not have abilities. Not sure what they concluded in the study but I think it's safe to say that everyone has a little bit of everything in their gene pool by this point. It's the 90's, baby!"

Michael shrugged. "It's ultra-rare for a person to manifest abilities in Africa, the poor sections of China, South America..."

Karla cut Michael off with a gesture of her hand. "Or it goes unreported, or their ability isn't anything extremely noteworthy. I get what you're implying. But you're being a sauerkraut."

"It has been suggested that Africans do not have Neanderthal DNA, while the rest of the world does. Is it so difficult to consider the possibility that there are parts of the world that have not crossbred with Specials?"

Karla ran her hands back through her hair. She pushed her locks back from her face. "I get it, Mike. You think that there might have been a 'first people' with abilities from thousands of years before Christ."

"It's true," Michael replied. "And they mixed, mingled and diluted their genes with everyone else on the planet, but mostly with people above the commoners. If you could conjure fire with your mind, would you sleep with the meek or diseased? The filthy or the poor?"

Karla rolled her eyes. "Depends if I'm an alpha male who wants to dominate and fuck my way into power. That's the kind of person that wants to have power over anyone, no matter how little land she owns."

Mike snapped back, "It happens but it is rare, and that is why it is rare for the meekest of humanity to manifest as Specials. That is why the Esoteric People are spread out and rare."

"I hear what you're saying," Karla replied in a flat tone. "But I don't buy that shit without proof. Conjecture and rumors. Myths. After all, Aborigine Australians are said to have come from Africa, back far enough, and there are several noteworthy supernaturals from down under."

"The genes were brought to Australia when Europe shipped their genetic troublemakers there, Karla."

The succubus sighed with a groan. "Okay, whatever. If it turns out that you're right, I'll be the first to admit I was wrong, okay? For now, let's not talk racial genetics. It's as annoying as talking about politics."

Chance fidgeted. "And we all know what happens when people mix politics and racial genetics. You get hate groups. Again, didn't fail Social Studies..."

Karla smirked. "Not that you can remember, sweetheart." She plucked a contact card from the Rolodex and put it into her purse. "These stupid paperweights are about to go the way of the dinosaur."

Mike blinked. "Pardon?"

Karla pointed to the Rolodex. "These things. I keep all my numbers in my Handspring Visor. And before long, I'm pretty sure they're going to mix PDAs with cellphones. I'm surprised it hasn't happened by now, because it seems like the next obvious choice. Like I said, it's the 90's! We're supposed to have flying cars by next year, according to the 60's and 70's pop culture. Star Trek, The Jetsons ... a few decades ago, people expected us to leave the 90's with flying cars and..."

"You're going off on a tangent," Chance said with a weak smile. "Let's check the rest of this place. Half a million dollars, remember?"

The succubus offered a genuine smile. "You're right. I keep you on your toes, and now you're keeping me on mine. Thank you, sweetie. Let's go find this damn mirror."

Mike turned to Chance and offered a discrete nod of approval.

Karla stood up from the chair and waved her hand. The desk went flying out of her way, knocking down the rest of the modular wall.

She looked back at the wide-eyed gaze of Michael and Chance. "What? It was in my way," she said with a smile.

Michael blinked and tilted his head. He looked from left to right, paused, and then he looked over his shoulder.

Karla saw the look on Michael's face. "What is it?"

"That creature ... I think it's trying to get up and start more trouble. My 'Spidey Senses' are tingling, children."

"I thought it was paralyzed?" asked Karla.

Chance shook his head. "I ... don't think it is anymore. I have a weird feeling in the pit of my gut." Chance cleared his throat and added, "I know you're looking to fight, so I'll take one for the team and pass on my turn to throw punches. You're welcome."

Karla grinned.

Chance replied with a forced smile. He looked back in the darkness, towards where they'd fought the creature earlier. "But the feeling of hunger is gone. I'm feeling frustrated ... agitated ... angry."

"Anger?" Judge sighed through his nose. "That's not a good thing."

In the distance, they could hear something dragging on the floor.

Michael added, "That thing looked like it had already seen more action than we put it through. Like someone stuck it in a microwave until it blasted apart, then kept going to town on it, as the expression goes. God only knows, maybe it heals."

"I love microwaves. After almost four hundred years, I'm finally cooking."

The noise continued, but they couldn't see the creature yet.

Michael frowned. "You don't cook? Is there anything feminine about you?"

"Hey...!" Karla pursed her lips together. She reached over and flicked her finger against his left forearm.

Michael recoiled in pain.

Karla smiled. "Meaniehead. Christ, I swear, I'll be glad when chauvinism dies. And yes, I like microwaving stuff. I wait until the counter gets down to one second, then I open the door before it reaches zero. Makes me feel like MacGyver."

"Are you seriously kidding me?" Michael grumbled. He checked the rounds in his gun and pointed it into the darkness. "Mein Gott ... ich bin in großen Schwierigkeiten." He shook his head. "I am going to die trying to protect you two dimwits."

Chance licked his lips and frowned. "I ... uh ... I'm the same way. It's like being a bomb defusing expert in an action movie. I wait until there is one second left before I open the microwave."

Karla reached over, used her telekinesis to lift Chance's hand, and high-fived him. "That's what I'm talking about. And put that gun away, Mikey-boy. You're going to make me deaf in here. I'll handle that thing when it finally lumbers its way over here. If it ever gets to that point."

Silence. They all waited to see if the creature would approach them.

The succubus sighed impatiently. She turned her head and shouted into the darkness. "Hey! Creepin' Moses! What're you waiting for?! Christmas??"

Chance frowned. "I don't think it was going slow out of necessity. I think it was trying to figure out what direction we're in ... thanks, uh, for giving it a head's up, Karla."

"My pleasure." She put her hands on her hips and stepped in front of the two, with a devious smirk on her face.

The strange dragging noise stopped. Everything became silent.

Karla tilted her head. "Well? Did it get bored?"

A creature came into view, its disfigured face contorted in the dim illumination hanging above the cubical she'd destroyed. It ran on the balls of its feet, silently, approaching at an incredible speed.

Michael lifted the handgun. Karla reached over, and guided it downwards. "No. Just ... watch a pro."

  Mike scoffed and gestured with an outward wave of his left hand. "Nach Ihnen, heroischen Kämpfer."

  "Aww, you called me heroic. That, uh ... that's the only word I caught."

  "Typical - you hear only what you want. Will you kill that thing already? Sometime today, succubus." 

  "Hush. Wait for it," she said.

  The creature slowed, as if considering its surroundings. It continued its approach, causing both Michael and Chance to appear nervous. 

  Karla cut her eyes towards the two. She glanced back towards the approaching creature. "Just stop, guys.  You're distracting.  Enjoy the show." 

The creature broke into a sprint.

Karla watched it carefully, judging the distance.

She put her hands behind her back. She slid her shoes off and scooted them to the side. Her fists began to glow. To amuse her peers, and mostly herself, she held her hands out and stood on one foot, with her other one elevated. "Almost," she whispered.

Michael and Chance backed away from her.

The creature continued a straight-line charge towards Karla.

She opened her hands, pointing her fingers downwards, still balancing on just one foot.

The creature came at her like a freight train.

Karla kicked her other foot up. Her upper body flashed in a brief yet bright carnation glow. "Crane kick!" Her foot came up and met the creature, launching it straight up into the air.

The abomination struck the roof of the building, tearing a gash into the ceiling. It careened through the rafters, striking several horizontal beams.

The creature came down and slammed into the ground. Momentum carried it over into a roll. It stopped fifteen feet from where it landed, motionless.

"Mister Miyagi style." Karla turned to her shoes and slid her feet back into them.

She mock-bowed to Michael, then pivoted towards Chance and bowed again. "That is how you do it ... I suddenly feel the need to prune Bonsai trees or buy Arnold's Diner." She walked away from the others and approached the creature on the ground.

Chance and Michael exchanged glances in silence.

Karla waved a hand, telekinetically flipping the monster onto its back. She tilted her head with a frown. "Huh. It's still alive." She glanced back at Chance and Mike. "Hey, boys, it's mending! Albeit slowly, but still."

"Seriously?!" Chance exclaimed. "After all that punishment, it's still coming back for more?"

"Wach auf..." Michael picked up a section of the broken modular wall. He carried it over, lifted it up, and brought it down hard.

The creature's head separated from its shoulders.

"See, girlie? Ya just gotta remove the head from the body," he told the demoness. "It's dead now. Bist du nun zufrieden?"

"Girlie, huh?" She waved her hands, putting three feet of distance between the head and the rest of the creature. "That was sudden and anticlimactic."

"The sooner we leave, the sooner you collect your cash. I want ten grand for helping you."

Karla nodded with a shrug. "Smart. You won't have to pay any taxes on a gift of ten grand or less."

"Richtig. Now, let's find that damned mirror."

The trio regrouped. They took to exploring the warehouse again, but further into the building, the entire floor angled downwards.

Chance asked, "Why is the floor sloped like this?"

"Sie können mich gern berichtigen, I believe the grade of incline is befitting for forklift use." Michael pointed to two light gouges that stretched about eighteen inches.

Chance nodded.

Michael added, "It looks like someone didn't have their forks all the way up, there. It brushed the ground, then they put them up. Could have done that after dropping a skid, or angling the forks while picking up something like ... maybe one of those tubes. Just a guess."

The group continued down for several minutes. The floor leveled out into an enormous underground complex that defied belief.

Michael looked around, astonished. "How can all of this be down here, beneath Marseille? Surely the Government would have to know about something this large, this deep. It would interfere with subterranean infrastructure if the city didn't know to avoid it."

"How deep you think we went?" Karla looked up at the high ceiling. She turned back to Michael. "I'm surprised we're not beneath the water table."

The old man rubbed his chin in thought. He scratched his fingernails against light blond stubble. "Quite a few stories, but I don't know the math. I'd have to know how long the ramp is and its angle. But if I had to guess, I'd say almost a half-mile. Twenty-five hundred imperial feet. Adrenaline is starting to thin out. Forearm is starting to hurt now. You're a healer, korrekt?"

Karla smirked. "Yeah. But I don't heal broken bones as fast as that creature apparently does. Takes two or three days. It's actually a succubae defense."

"Oh? How's that work?"

"If we're marred, we're not attractive. If we can't be attractive, we can't have sex, and we die. We evolved that ability after people used to mark our faces. Not many people know we can heal, now, though. Some demon hunters still try to mark our faces, hoping it will cause us to starve to death."

"Jesus. Just because you like sex, ja?"

"Ever heard of Elizabeth Short? She was marked at death. Her killer thought she was a succubus because of the fact she was promiscuous. They left her in an empty lot in Los Angeles."

"Jesus," Michael said, eyes wide. "And she wasn't a sex demon? When did this happen?"

"Nope. Just an aspiring actress. Uhm ... back in 1947, I think?"

Chance turned to Michael then back to Karla. "Why would we know about a single murder from the forties?"

Karla tilted her head. "You've never heard of the Black Dahlia murder? It was a pop culture sensation, and it's still an open case."

Michael rubbed his chin. "Okay, yeah I think I've heard it by that name."

"Not me," Chance murmured. He held his hands out, stopping his peers suddenly. "Wait," he hissed softly. "Someone is up ahead. Don't look at me, I can't control it yet. No, I didn't telepathically know about the Black whatever-murders, but I'm telling you that there is someone here and they're up ahead."

Karla pursed her lips. "Do they know we're here?"

Chance nodded. "I think they are expecting us. They're a little nervous but over-all confident and ready."

"Well," Karla smoothed her blouse, followed by her skirt. "Let's not keep them waiting," Karla said. "Mike, do they have powers?"

Michael tilted his head. "If they do, then they're too far away for me to sense it. My reach is pretty shallow. Maybe fifty meters. Seventy meters if it's quiet and there's no one else around."

Karla sighed. "So you've got nothing at this point."

"I know my limitations," Michael whispered. "It's kept me alive this long."

"I'm going to wager a guess," Chance said. "My money is on someone with an ability. They're alone and they're confident. Wait ... no, they're not alone, but ... wait, I think they're fighting something already."

"You really need to start practicing, Chance. C'mon." Karla upped her pace.

The trio hurried through the large underground section.

The lighting was significantly brighter, although still somewhat dim, letting them see distant walls hundreds of feet away on the left and right, but there was no obvious end in sight up ahead.

From what the group could see, the distant walls were lined with shelving that went to the ceiling. Occasional forklifts were parked every so often.

The center sections had pillars but they were spread far enough apart that the area seemed structurally impossible.

Chance looked down at his feet. Faded numbers read, '1893' in the concrete. "How was the floor laid over a hundred years ago this deep?"

A brilliant spark of light flashed up ahead.

The group hurried towards a fight in the distance.

Karla began to breathe hard. "I jog every day and this is still too far to go. Hold on, you two..." They all disappeared.

A hundred feet later, they reappeared, only to disappear once more. They crossed another hundred foot gap. Karla moved them across the enormous underground gap one hundred feet at a time in a series of teleportation blips.

The group reappeared a thousand feet from where they started.

Karla slumped into Chance, panting softly. "That's a rush, huh? I've never had an open enough area to try that. Damn."

Up ahead, a woman with long red hair faced off against four attackers, all of which appeared to be using supernatural abilities.

"I sense something from everyone," Michael confirmed. "Except the redhead throwing fire. She's ... a void."

Karla blinked. "I'll be damned! That's JC's wife! I didn't know she could throw fire!" Karla inhaled deeply to catch her breath, held it for a second, and shouted, "HEY! You jackasses leave her alone!"

With a fresh burst of adrenaline, Karla disappeared and reappeared closer to the woman.

The woman cut her golden gaze towards Karla. She tilted her head.

Karla's tired expression brightened a bit. "Sinopa, right? I'm Karla - I used to do a few jobs for the Esoteric Council with your hubby."

"Ah. I recall you, Karla-san." Sinopa snapped a tessen war fan shut and pushed it into a sheath on her sash. She reached for the handle of a katana on her other hip.

"You want some help?" Karla grinned.

"Hai, your assistance is appreciated, but these people are quite impressive." She drew a Japanese combat sword in one hand, with a fireball hovering above her other. A wisp of steam rose above the katana.

The four attackers ceased their advance and glanced at one another. They turned and glared at Karla and her friends.

Michael approached the two women. "They're assessing us to determine our threat level."

Chance hurried over, not wanting to be left alone. "They can't be much worse than that zombie creature thing upstairs."

One of the men ground his teeth together and clenched his hands into fists. "You morons freed one of those creatures?! God help us all."

"We cut its head off," Karla snapped. "And, for your information, it was _already_free when we came in here. Pretty big place to have just one dumb guard out front."

"You stupid fucking girl, those things cannot be killed!" The man spoke American English. "If you separated the head from the body, we now have two of them lurking around up there."

Another man said, "The head will regenerate a body; the body will regenerate a head. He's right, now there are two of them up there. It was in stasis because that's the only way to keep them from harming anyone - they're impossible to kill. If you didn't release them, then who did?!"

Chance, not liking the way they raised their tone towards Karla, stepped up, moving in front of her, and said, "Don't yell at her! It broke out, there was glass on the floor on the outside of the tube. Maybe you morons freed it! We came for a mirror so we can take it to a safe place. Where's the mirror?"

A smile spread across Sinopa's lips. "You've come a long way," said the redhead to Chance. "And in only a month. Very impressive. I, too, am here for the mirror. We cannot let Sokolov's people have it, nor can we let the Esoteric Council take possession of it. The mirror must be earned by someone worthy of it. It requires a keeper so that it is not abused."

One of the men pointed at Sinopa Parker. "Shut up and go home, fox-bitch. You're not allowed here. There's a treaty banning you people. Get the fuck off of our planet."

Karla gawked at the way they spoke to Jonathan Parker's wife.

Sinopa narrowed her eyes. "I am a three-tail. I'm not breaking the rules of the treaty until my fifth tail."

"That's up for debate. We don't want you freaks here. So if you don't leave, we're going to kill you and your friends."

Chance blinked, offended at how they spoke to the woman wearing the Japanese kimono. He approached her and glared at them. "Everyone just needs to calm down. There's no reason we can't talk this out."

No one replied. The tension in the area felt like a weight on Chance's shoulders. He turned back to Sinopa Parker. His eyes met hers ... and all at once, he remembered her face from the night of the car accident seven months ago.

Sinopa tilted her head.

Chance licked his lips. "You. Sinopa Crevan-Parker."

"Oh dear. Tamamo's attempt to block your memories didn't hold. You must have a strong mind and a strong will."

"You pulled me from the car that day. I looked up and saw your face ... wait, why would someone block my memories?"

Sinopa frowned thoughtfully. "You read me. You saw everything."

One of the attackers snorted disdainfully. "You aren't allowed to know what the so-called 'gods' know, kid. So they wiped your memories. But if you're telepathic ... the council doesn't allow you people walking around either. So there it is - you're not going to get it any easier from us."

Chance swallowed down a lump of apprehension. "You four were hired to murder this woman and cover it up to look like an accident. I can't let that happen."

The leader of the four Specials clenched his hands into fists. He turned back to the other three. "No choice, here. We kill them all."

Sinopa lifted her sword. The blade ignited in glowing flame. "You will stay away from him. He is under my protection, as are his friends."

"You're pregnant, you freak! You can't stop all of us with a handicap like that. I'm giving you one last chance to surrender your sword and the telepath."

Sinopa launched an orb of pure fire towards the one running his mouth.

He reached towards the incoming fireball and turned it into a gaseous form, extinguishing the projectile. "I already told you that won't work on me."

Another man added, "The fact you're pregnant is disgusting. That's like bestiality. You're gonna die you dumb fox-bitch."

Chance approached the nearest of four and made a fist - the one who appeared to be the leader of the group. "Your name is ... Foster. If you don't tell your men to talk to her with respect, Mr. Foster, we're going to have serious problems."

"Kid, you don't want to tangle with me." Foster held his hands out. The air re-ignited into a burst of fire, throwing Chance backwards, eyebrows singed.

"Hey!" Karla stormed towards the four men. "You wanna swing on him? You go through me first!" She reached up, plucked her earrings out of her ears and shoved them into Chance's hands, along with her purse. "Hold my earrings; I'm about to bring the 'Hood to France when I straight-up ghetto-stomp these punks." Karla pushed her already-short sleeves upward for dramatic effect.

Michael moved towards Karla, ready to provide support.

Foster, the pack leader, laughed at Karla and her group. "Seriously? A pregnant fox messenger, two children and an old man? Perhaps it's better to just leave you four to the fate of that creature ... creatures. They'll not stop until they devour you idiots." He turned back to the other three. "Get the mirror and move it. I'll cover you." He ignited a flat field of air between himself and Karla, creating a wall of controlled fire.

Another one of the men scoffed. "You're going to let that fox-bitch freak live? We should cut out those abominations she calls kids and..."

"I said move!" Foster exclaimed, his voice audible over the wall of fire.

The other three Specials hurried away.

Chance collected his wits and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Why did the guy with the offensive mouth call you that name?" Chance asked of Sinopa.

The woman's sword sputtered out with a sizzling sound. She used the hot blade to edge up her lengthy kimono, displaying three large red-furred foxtails. "I am a kitsune. A Shinto messenger in service of Inari-no-kami."

Karla approached. "Why were they being racist pricks like that?"

Sinopa frowned. "Deities are banned from Earth due to a treaty from long ago. Some gods have messengers that they send to Earth in their stead. If we, the messengers, become too powerful, we are recalled. The supernatural community upholds the treaty. Those men are racist against my kind and I generally ignore it."

Michael asked, "Why were you in battle?"

Sinopa turned to Michael and acknowledged him with a nod. "That mirror cannot be in their hands. It would allow the Esoteric Council access to communicate with my kind. It is to be left with a responsible keeper, because it was documented in the treaty that the head of the council would be allowed to use it to ask an audience with our people, in case it is necessary."

Chance frowned. In a quiet voice, he said, "You want it back because the Esoteric Council can use it to bridge the two realms. They would be able to attack your kind at will."

Sinopa grimaced. "That is privileged information."

"So break it," Karla said.

Sinopa shook her head. "The mirror cannot be broken, so that is not an option."

"Wait, wait." Karla held her hands up. "If the treaty says the head of the council can have it ... why are you upset the EC has possession of it?"

"That man was killed centuries ago. We deem who is or is not responsible enough to have it. The last man we entrusted with it was named Niall, and he died in 1908. The current Esoteric Council is not worthy of possession."

Karla smoothed the fabric of her blouse with her left palm. "I've been hired to take it to a woman named," she trailed off and looked back at the wall of fire. In a quieter voice, the succubus said, "Natalia Kincade. She wants it so that she can hide it from the EC. Is, uh..." Karla offered a weak smile. "Is Natalia worthy?"

"The vampire?" Sinopa tilted her head and smiled. "Hai, she is worthy to be a keeper of the mirror. But she cannot know its true purpose. However, she has the resources to keep it safe."

Karla jerked her fist down and hissed the word, "Yes!" Followed by, "I'm gonna be rich."

Silence.

The succubus cleared her throat and pointed at the wall of fire. "Let's get these assholes! I'll teleport something over there then back, and we'll see how deep his wall goes." She withdrew the handkerchief from her purse then it disappeared.

A moment later it reappeared, on fire.

Karla swatted at the handkerchief. It fell to the ground and she stomped on it. "Dammit! That was fifty feet back, maybe more! We need a way through this!" She snagged her purse back from Chance and shouldered it.

"They're getting away," Chance said with a frown. "They're getting further and further from me." He looked back at Sinopa and swallowed. "Please don't erase my memories again. I don't want to forget meeting Karla and who I've become."

"Then do not read my mind and start spouting my memories aloud the way you did when I pulled you from the car accident. Those things cannot be shared, please. I suggest you forget what you've learned about the mirror as well. Else, I will have little choice but to suggest to my sensei that you lose your memories again."

"I ... I think it was just manifesting or ... whatever the term is. I vaguely remember I was being taken to the hospital because I had a headache beyond belief. And we hit ... or ... maybe ... we were hit by something. It was burning. You somehow made the fire recede a little. Then you pulled me from the back of the car. And I looked up at you and just ... started saying the first things that came to my mind. I didn't mean any of it."

Sinopa sighed through her nose. Her heart ached for the boy. "I see. You were suffering from a serious head injury. Jonathan owned a mobile phone in his car. He called for an ambulance. My sensei, Tamamo-no-Mae, who watches over me from her permanent resident in the Celestial Realm, wiped your memories. She said you'd remember some things, eventually, but the memories of what you saw when you gazed into my mind ... that, she was confident, have been permanently removed."

"I just don't want to forget Karla. Please?"

"Very well, young man."

"Will we meet your sensei? Can she help us?"

Sinopa shook her head. "Unfortunately, Tamamo cannot come to this realm because her physical form was slain here many centuries ago. Also, for her to come to this realm would be a breach of the treaty."

Karla and Mike stole a glance at one another. Karla turned back to Chance and Sinopa. The succubus cleared her throat and asked, "Now what? Those jerks are getting away."

Sinopa nodded. "We need to fall back and find out where this building goes, and see if we cannot determine their escape path. At the very least, we need to determine where they're taking the mirror next so I can reclaim it and hide it properly. Those are my orders from the Celestial Realm. Please do not stand in my way."

"If you say Natalia can be its keeper, then we're going to help you," Karla said. "I've been hired to do a job. I'm going to do it. Where is your husband, will he be helping us?"

"Iie, he is in Rome. His task is of great import. Nearly as important as our own." She glanced at Michael and Chance. "Are you with Karla in support of me?"

"I'm supposed to be Karla's boyfriend," Chance said with a wan grin. "That's what she told me after we surrendered her rental car to the police. That's been my role ever since."

Sinopa turned to Karla with a soft smile. "He's a sweet boy. Treat your beau well."

"I do," Karla replied with a grin, thinking back on how she'd gone down on him in his sleep the night before.

Chance turned white. "K-Karla...!"

"Oh, you saw that, huh?"

Michael approached Sinopa and offered his right hand.

Parker moved her sword to her left hand, and used her right one to receive his right. "Ah, a handshake. How ... European." She smiled. "You are one of Nathanial's friends, hai? The Four Horsemen?"

"I've not been called that in a long time, Mrs. Parker. So ... you're the legendary goddess friend he mentioned. All these years, I thought he was lying about being friends with a legitimate goddess."

Karla grinned. "Nathanial wouldn't 'bullshit'- to use his favorite word - about something like that."

"Apparently not," Michael said. He drew his hand back and reached to his left forearm, favoring it. "So ... now what? Fire wall in front of us ... zombie creatures back the way we came."

"Uh, guys..." Everyone turned to face Chance. He replied with a weak smile, which turned to a frown. Chance pointed back across the enormous underground complex, back in the direction of the ramp. "I think we now have to deal with the fire wall and the creatures at the same time. Here they come ... and those guys were right ... it's two, now."

Karla grinned towards Sinopa. "We've been taking turns fighting. You're the newest member to our gang, Mrs. Parker. That means it's your turn." Karla's grin broadened. "You can pass, if you want, though. That would make it Mike's turn. I kind of want to see him fight those things with a broken forearm and whatnot. He thinks he's badass, so it's funny to watch him try and prove he's not old."

"That's not fair," Michael said. "I'm not immortal like you, I just age slowly. But just because I don't have my good looks anymore doesn't mean anything. I'm a sugar daddy when I have to be ... and I'm still quite capable, girlie."

"Let us have quiet, kudasai," said Sinopa in a stern voice. She assumed the position of authority. "We need to consider our options against these unnatural beings. They were part of a genetic enhancement program that failed. They are not to be trifled with. I've removed the head of one earlier, but as those men pointed out ... it creates two."

"Wait..." Michael blinked, looked over at Karla and Chance, and back at Sinopa. "If you cut its head off ... then there were already two. And we decapitated one ... so that means there are now three."

"We only saw the one, earlier," Chance said. "However many there are ... they're on the bottom of the ramp, now. And they're on their way."

"They stay down while they regenerate," Karla said, cracking her knuckles. "Let's tear them apart and get that mirror back."

Sinopa gave her sword a twirl. It whooshed through the air. "It is my turn, is it not? Allow me the honor, by all means. But know this ... they're quite immune to fire, and become exceedingly more dangerous when they attack while fully ablaze. We should try to keep them away from this wall of fire behind us.

All at once, the wall of fire began to move forward towards the group.

Chance balled his hands into fists. "Aw, man, are you serious?! I don't even think that guy is still on the other side, anymore. I think he ran off with his buddies. How is it moving towards us??"

"You might be wrong, and he might be listening," said Michael. "Or his range of control over this wall ... it could be very impressive."

Chance grimaced. "Mister, uh, Judge Richter, you're injured. Mrs. Parker is Pregnant. We're being pushed towards those creatures. Let's not praise the other side for how impressive their range is, okay?"

Michael backed away from the wall, as did the rest of them. "Under consideration of the fact this wall is moving towards us, combined with the creature-things that are coming for us from the other direction ... Karla, I'm thinking two separate payments of ten grand. I'll bank one and put the rest in a mattress."

The succubus folded her arms, walking at a steady pace with the rest of the group away from the wall of flames. "God, fine. You did break your arm. I guess I can loosen up with a few extra bucks, but, damn, Mike - stop nickel-and-diming me."

"Not trying to Jew you out of another ten grand, but this is legitimate danger pay."

Karla groaned. "Don't use racist terms. That's down right tacky. You don't have to be like the other Jerries, you know."

"Yeah, this from a woman who called me a sauerkraut, earlier." He smirked.

She smirked back.

Michael shook his head as they walked towards the ramp back to the first sub-level. "Fine, you're right. I surrender."

"Counting today, that's the third time I've heard your country say those words."

Again, they both smirked at one another.

"Okay, okay!" Chance erupted. "Can we worry about being boxed in by a wall of fire and a bunch of super ... freaks?"

"Hai. The young man makes a point."

"Chance," the boy said, licking his lips. Chance looked back at the slowly moving wall of controlled flames as it continued towards them at a walking pace.

"Well met, Chance-san. I wish I could cause these flames to recede the way I controlled the ones engulfing the car in which I found you. But ... I fear that man's control over ignited gas in the air is quite impressive. Perhaps when I earn my fourth tail."

Chance looked back towards the distant end of the large room. He passed one of the pillars that dotted the area every so often. "Those things are getting close. And ... yeah, I think it might actually be three of them. Figures."

"Look on the bright side," said Karla. "Sinopa, here, will cut their heads off. It apparently takes a few minutes for them to regenerate or whatever. They'll lay there, the flame wall passes over them ... then there will be six of them; they'll go in the direction of our new pals, the 'super jerks.' There won't be any more to deal with upstairs, which means we'll be in the clear."

"Nothing is ever that easy for us," Chance said.

Karla smirked. "True."

The four continued to move forward, staying ahead of the wall of flame.

Sinopa lifted her sword. "I see something moving up ahead. They're coming this way. Prepare yourselves."

Michael ground his molars together. "Ja, they have abilities alright. They're beyond my normal range but ... all of them have abilities. It is akin to a bigger magnet for my inner compass."

Chance blinked. "Wait ... I think that other guy is still behind us. He's walking the wall towards us. And he knows about those creatures. He knows exactly what they are."

"How do you mean?" Karla asked. "They're creepy science experiments or something."

Chance glanced back at the approaching wall of fire. He took a deep breath, heading towards the creatures in the distance. "They were humans. Soldiers that were part of a super soldier program."

"How goddamn cliché is that," Karla groused. "The Red Skull trying to copy Steve Rodgers. Art is supposed to imitate life, not the other-damn-way around."

"Yeah, uh ... well, apparently these things are the failures. Someone tried to imbue them with abilities and those things ... that's the results of the first batch. But they're all regenerated versions of the same test subject."

"Jesus," Michael muttered. "There were tons of those pods upstairs. Just imagine how many times those involved have tried to kill it to create all those copies ... before they decided to just freeze them all." He glanced back at the approaching wall of flame. "That guy behind us. I think he must have frozen them so the science team could have put them into stasis. It makes sense. He could change the molecular properties in the air and freeze an entire room of attackers if he had the help of Alan Ridgefield."

"Who?" asked Karla. "Oh ... wait, you mean that guy who could amp up the abilities of people near him? He's dead, Mike."

"Maybe someone else has that ability. Look, I'm grasping at straws here. We're about to be torn apart by an angry schwachkopf who can clone himself on the spot - they're so stupid they can't be reasoned with, yet they fight like experienced warriors."

No one interrupted Mike's rant. He continued, asking, "How is that even possible? Are they all controlled by a main host? Are they all independent of one another? How does brain tissue grow instantly like that when one is beheaded, and how does the body form a skeletal and muscular system from nothing for the heads who lost their body?"

"Maybe that's the reason why they're all stupid," Karla said. "They only have basic inherited abilities. When animals are born, many can walk minutes after birth."

Mike sighed. "Perhaps, but where do they form such a powerful muscular system from nothing? How do they bulk up in such a way from..."

"Shut up, Mike." Karla rolled her eyes. "You make good points, but it's starting to sound a lot like whining. Let me show you what's up."

The succubus quickened her pace towards the approaching creatures. She waved her hands and threw the three deformed beings up into the ceiling.

With a downward thrust of her hands, Karla telekinetically drove them into the floor. "Cut their heads off, quick!"

Sinopa lifted her katana and brought it down over the neck of the monstrous attacker nearest to her.

The creature's head rolled away from its body but minimal blood gushed out. It appeared to scab over at the throat of both pieces, taking only seconds to cease the bleeding.

"It didn't do that before," Michael said. "Maybe it's evolving with every death?"

"God I hope not," Karla said. "They'd be the perfect predator before long."

Sinopa lifted her sword and brought it down on the next creature's neck. However, the sword stopped against the spinal column and didn't separate the head.

"What's wrong?" asked Michael.

Sinopa grimaced. "This one ... seems to have additional fortitude against head removal." The kitsune shifted her sword from left to right, until it became loose in the creature's neck. "If the evolution theory is correct, then this might have been the one I killed before, with a new defense against my blade."

Sinopa placed a sandal on the second creature's forehead and tugged on the sword. The blade dislodged from the being's spine. She turned to the other on the ground and tried to decapitate it but, like the second creature, it seemed immune to a neck strike. "This must be the other half to grow out of my initial attack."

"Look at the bright side," said Karla. "Now we're dealing with only four instead of six. We should go before they..." She sighed. "Aw dammit."

The creatures with the shallow gashes in their necks rose to their feet.

Karla rolled her eyes. "Figures."

Chance looked around. Michael, Karla and Sinopa seemed nervous, pensive even, but all three had enough confidence between them that he remained optimistic. He wondered if he would break down later on.

The other deformed monster on the floor, with a missing head, began to create bioorganic matter from beneath the head and above the body.

The wall of fire continued its approach. The roaring blaze engulfed the legs of the creature's headless body.

Karla kicked the head into the flames. "We need to go!"

She turned away from the flame wall but one of the creatures reached up and closed its talon-like figures around her leg. She went straight to the ground, landing on her handbag with a grunt, which knocked the wind out of her.

Chance gasped, feeling a momentary pang in his solar plexus.

Michael, who was closest to Karla, scooped her up in his right arm. "C'mon, girlie. We've gotta move, now."

Her feet dragged on the tiles. "O...one sec," Karla gasped, winded from the way she'd fallen onto the purse.

Mike struggled to pull Karla's small frame in one arm, due to his broken left wrist.

Sinopa ignited her sword and took another swing at the creatures. Her sword, with flames flickering off of its surface, diced through a creature's waist.

The lower half of the being's deformed body fell away and was soon consumed by the approaching wall of fire.

The upper half began to pull itself along the floor with its arms, trying to pursue at a slow rate.

Another creature swung its arms and caught Sinopa off guard. The kitsune slammed into Chance. They both went to the floor.

The attacker waved its pockmarked arms. It bowled over both Michael and Karla.

The wall of flames continued its steady approach.

The monstrosity stood over Michael and pounded its talon-fingered hands against its chest, celebrating its victory. It lifted its hands above Michael.

Without hesitation, the creature drove a handful of talon-like fingernails into Michael Richter's upper body.

Chance gasped, feeling an ice-cold metallic sensation in his torso. He clutched at his chest, feeling what Michael felt.

Chance watched helplessly as the scythe-like digits diced into The Judge. Chance tried to shout in fear and agony only to realize he couldn't breathe.

A gunshot erupted from Michael's pistol, blasting through the forehead of the creature.

The monster flinched and froze, giving everyone a moment of repose.

Michael relished in the brief moment of victory. He felt semi-accomplished, but his body began to fail. The feeling of pride faded - The Judge knew it was time to accept his fate.

He felt his life beginning to drain out of his body. Chance felt it too.

Chance gasped, fighting for breath. His lower lip trembled from shock. He felt Michael dying.

The teen experienced every painful second of Michael's death. He experienced the sensation of Michael's organs shutting down. He felt the older man's inability to breathe from having punctured lungs.

Both their minds were in shock, Judge from his wounds, and Chance from the shared experience. Chance mouthed the word, 'no,' unable to accept what he saw unfolding before his eyes.

Michael's mind raced. He felt regrets in his heart. He was angry with himself for not having children. He felt frustrated over having joked that he would likely die fighting with Karla and the teenager. Blood bubbled up his throat, coating his tongue.

Chance tasted the salty metallic liquid on his tongue through Michael.

The old man, his confidence now shattered, grew disheartened. Loneliness nestled into his dying heart.

Chance felt every agonizing second of it.

Michael lamented on the Richter family secret - he was the last living relative of a diluted bloodline. He was the last in a long line of the Richter family, who traced themselves to an immortal from the First Age of people.

All Michael wanted was to take the mirror to Methos and go back into retirement. All he wanted was to see the beach sand of Barcelona. "Zu sterben ist depremierend..."

The creature shuffled away from Michael.

Sinopa got to her feet, lifted her sword, and swung it.

The creature raised its hand. Its fingernails acted like multiple daggers, stopping the fiery blade. The being used one hand to block Sinopa's sword. It raised its hands, throwing Sinopa off balance.

The kitsune stumbled back.

The creature pivoted and looked down. It towered over Karla. The being lifted both hands, above Karla, ready to stab her with its scythe-like claws the way it had just done to Michael.

Everything felt slow to Chance. It was as if time began to crawl.

Chance saw Michael's blood dripping from the talon fingers of the creature. It stood over Karla's body, poised to strike.

Karla lifted her gaze to the creature that would become her undoing. Having been winded earlier, she was only just taking a breath for the first time in what felt like two, possibly three minutes...

Her bright green eyes widened and her pupils shrank to pinholes.

"NO!" Chance shouted at the top of his lungs.

Time exploded forward all at once resuming normal speed.

The creature stumbled backwards into the wall of fire.

Karla gasped for a breath. Her eyes rolled up into her head.

Michael flopped over and dropped his gun. It clattered across the tiled floor.

The wall of flame dissipated and its puppeteer, standing in a protective bubble at the center, crumbled to the ground, unconscious.

Sinopa brought her free hand to her forehead. She blinked a few times and winced, as though experiencing an 'ice cream headache.'

The Japanese demi-god looked back at the motionless creature on the floor. Her amber gaze shifted over to the unconscious man who had been controlling the wall of flame, twenty-five feet back.

She looked towards Karla and Michael, motionless on the floor. Her amber gaze returned to Chance.

For the first time, he was able to see that her pupils were vertical slits, much like a cat or other creature with natural night vision.

Reality set in - everyone else was unconscious; they were safe for the moment. Both Sinopa and Chance scrambled over towards Michael to check his wounds.

The man, appearing in his early fifties, was bleeding profusely. His skin was rapidly growing pale and it was obvious that he had only another moment or two...

Silence.

Michael was unresponsive, as was Karla.

Chance rubbed his moist eyes with the back of his hands. "What just happened?"

Sinopa looked around again. The creatures were not moving. Even the one with the severed head ... its rate of regrowth appeared temporarily disrupted.

The Esoteric Council member was face down on the floor but breathing. Karla was also breathing.

Sinopa turned back to Chance and sheathed her sword. "I believe you projected a telepathic ... attack of some sort. I just experienced intense pain in my head - what I believe humans call a 'migraine.' It seems to be passing, now."

Chance looked from Karla back to Michael.

Sinopa frowned. "Nathanial's friend will not make it, but Jonathan's friend, the succubus ... Karla was it? She will need us to help her leave."

"Dammit ... how did I...?" Chance looked around. There was no denying his ability, now. He felt Karla have the wind knocked from her. He felt sympathy pain for Michael's fatal wound. His emotional outburst rendered everyone in the room completely unconscious.

"Chance-san...?"

Chance shook his head. He struggled with his emotions over Michael, and over everything he'd experienced up to this moment. "Never mind. Should we take that guy, Foster, as our prisoner or...?" Chance took a deep breath and asked, "What do we do? I need to know what to do."

"Take a moment to clear your head. Proper decisions are based on clarity of mind."

"Fine." He took another deep breath. "Do we take that Foster guy prisoner?"

"Iie, I would not know of a proper way to contain him unless we could strip him of his ability. I do not know of a way to do that and I will not take the life of an unconscious man. We should take your friend, Karla, and go."

"What about Judge Richter?"

Sinopa shook her head. "Michael Richter received an honorable death in combat, as he's always wished."

"What...?"

Sinopa tilted her head. "The Four Horsemen of the Council. Nathan, Ethan, Michael and Kalen. They expressed their masculinity by speaking upon how they wished to die ... in combat, doing what they loved. They wished to leave a legacy with song and story."

Chance turned to Michael, lying on the concrete. He approached the aging man. "He's still alive."

Sinopa lowered her eyes. "We have no way to carry him and mundane humans would take notice."

Michael drew his last ragged breath. He grew still, lying adjacent to Karla.

Chance knelt adjacent to Judge Richter. The teen put his ear near the man's mouth.

Michael Richter was completely silent.

Chance got to his feet and worked to get Karla up onto her knees but couldn't figure out how to get her off the ground.

Sinopa moved around to Karla other side and took her by the legs. She helped Chance get Karla off the floor, then assisted with getting the succubus' body the rest of the way up into Chance's arms.

Chance held the succubus' unconscious body the way a man would carry a newlywed wife across a threshold. He arched his back a bit to keep her centered and aloft in his arms. "We have a long way to go. I don't know how far I can carry her."

"She is certainly not that heavy," Sinopa said. "She weighs at least fifteen Imperial Standard pounds less than myself."

With a scoff, Chance began walking with Karla in his arms. "Hi. I'm Chance. I've been in a coma for six months and haven't used my muscles during that time. I'm carrying a buck-fifteen in deadweight. I'm a wimp and my arms are going to give out if we don't hurry."

They made their way towards the ramp. Chance looked up the seemingly endless incline and swallowed. "I'm going to be sore tomorrow," he muttered, trying not to stumble while carrying Karla.

Sinopa walked alongside of him in silence.

He glanced over at the kitsune, breathless, and said, "I see your ears in your hair, now. I can't begin to tell you..." he trailed off to pant, and then continued. "...How happy I am that my ... outburst, or whatever it was, didn't knock you out. Because then I'd have to carry you both out of here. Which ... would have basically been ... me dragging you both by your hands or feet ... a really long way." He began panting again. "Why does this place have to be so damn big."

"Speak less, reserve oxygen for your muscles."

"This place is big." Chance grimaced, keeping Karla aloft. "I may have to carry her on my shoulder soon. I need to give my arms a break in a minute."

"You need to conserve oxygen, Chance-san."

Chance narrowed his eyes. "I'm new to this, okay? I was thrown into all this crap and I just saw a man die, okay? I need to talk so I don't think about that, okay?!"

Sinopa frowned. "Forgive me, I did not mean to be inconsiderate to your emotions. I am used to my husband - a man who prefers to bottle his feelings and display his manliness by brooding in silence while distracting himself with missions of honor and mercy."

Chance drew in rhythmic, deep, calming breaths. "So ... the mirror is gone, now what?"

"They've covered it with a tarp, or Tamamo-sama would have found it with relative ease. I'm afraid it is my priority, despite my advanced stage of pregnancy."

"Look, if you promise not to let my memories get wiped again, I'll promise to find it for you. I'm not about..." he trailed off again to catch his breath. "...Not about to let a woman in her third trimester go fighting people who can freeze and burn stuff like that guy. Who the hell was that guy anyhow?"

"His name is Paul Foster. He lives in Chicago. He and his wife have been trying to have a baby. I know this because I serve Inari-no-kami. You may think of him as the god of agriculture and reproduction if it's easier to understand."

"Tell you what, if he leaves us alone after today ... you give him that baby." Chance offered a weak grin. "Maybe that'll tie him down for a while and keep him off our butts."

"I appreciate your logic. Do you think he is capable of fathering a child? He is a very dangerous man."

"He's a guy who wants nothing more than to do what he perceives will make the world a safer place."

"I see."

Chance paused for a moment and shifted Karla's weight. He started walking again. "Look, I don't want to deal with fire and ice or having my, uh, molecules get ... messed up. That doesn't sound," again he took a deep breath, trying to keep himself moving forward up the hill. "That doesn't sound very agreeable, you know? The guy can control solids, gases, and liquids on a ... how the hell can people even do shit like that with their mind? That seems way more dangerous than my telepathy."

"You are assuming he survives those creatures," Sinopa replied. "Focus your strength on carrying Karla outside. Did you bring a vehicle?"

"A van. Keys are in Karla's purse, which is banging against my freaking knee." Chance frowned. "Sorry, I'm sure you're not used to hearing a guy complain."

"You are a teenager. That is the primary function of most teenagers, isn't it?" Sinopa smiled somewhat and placed a hand across her pregnant belly. "I suppose I will find out in fifteen years, won't I?"

Sinopa's tone was one of hope. It sounded as though she actually look forward to knowing what her children would be like as teens.

Chance sighed. "Look, can you drive? Because I can't."

"Hai. Jonathan, my husband, has taught me how to drive a stick shift. Do you remember how to return to the hotel?"

"The envelope for the key-card has an address. It's ... in the purse ... god my legs are tight."

"Push through it, Chance-san. You're doing well. You are an impressive boy. I see great things ahead if you remain true to yourself as you are, now. Come, it's not much further."

"Yeah, it is_much further. Like, a _lot further."

"Optimism, kudasai."

"Wish I could drive one of those fork lifts." He paused for a moment, caught his breath again, and continued up the ramp. "I'd better get another kiss after all this trouble." He smiled weakly.

"Knowing Karla's kind, she would be happy to oblige with far more."

"One thing at a time," he said, panting again. "I'm uh ... shy, apparently."

"You do not seem shy to me. You are open about your feelings, and we've only just met."

Chance frowned. "Then I'm nervous around Karla because I, uh..."

"Because she is so brazen. Likely it is your subconscious way to deflect her exuberance and overwhelming passionate drive."

Chance swallowed. He couldn't shrug but he wanted to. "Or maybe I'm just nervous about mushy stuff. I feel weird talking about it right now, and Karla's out cold."

"I've always been amused by the sexually-repressed American people. They turn away from public nudity with a blush, they hide their passions and desires because fear of judgment. Americans are adorable, really. To me, an American..."

"An American wants you to stop, now. Please."

Sinopa nodded. "Karla often uses levity to deflect deeply tense moments. I wished to channel her personality just now."

"Sounds like you know her better than she knows you."

"Tamamo has removed memories from her multiple times. She ... is nosey. I hold her in great respect, and I admire her tenacity. However, she has learned things in the past that would make her a target to very dangerous persons."

"So you and your friend have been looking out for her?"

"For many years. We do such to ease the burden that Nathanial has placed upon himself. I find it strange that he does not accompany her now."

"He said if I read his mind, I'd be a target."

"Ah. Then I will take it upon myself to stay by your side in his stead."

"I, uh ... I think I'm done talking for right now." Chance lowered to one knee and shifted Karla's weight until she was draped over his shoulder, the way a fireman would carry a save.

The kitsune and the teenager fell into silence.

Sinopa and Chance continued up the ramp, through the compound, and headed back towards the main entrance.

Chance took the time to reflect on all that he'd been through in the last month. He thought back to earlier. It was heartbreaking to see Michael killed.

As much as Michael's death weighed on his emotions, that wasn't the image that stuck with him.

Chance looked down at the concrete floor. The scariest image that stuck with him the most was when that creature stood over her...

That image was a game changer.

The teenager came to the realization that his life was now far more complicated than he could have ever imagined. It was scarier than when he first woke up to an assassination attempt. The man with the gun in the back of Karla's rental car on the second of June seemed preferable to men who could conjure fire, and creatures that could multiply when beheaded.

Worst of all, being chased by killers with supernatural abilities took a backseat to the scariest sensation of all - experiencing Michael's death as if Chance, himself, had somehow endured it.

Finally, there was Karla. He couldn't get the image of the creature standing over her body out of his head. She nearly died.

Realization struck. Despite Methos' warning, Chance realized was falling head-over-heels in love with Karla.

There was no point in fighting his feelings, he actually liked the way it felt. It gave him the inner resolve to mush forward on the steep ramp and in the face of this crazy new world playing out all around him.

Now that there was silence in his head, he was left alone with his own thoughts, his own self-confidence, and his own _real_ego.

He knew his feelings for Karla were real, because he wasn't telepathically feeding off of Michael's flirty personality or Karla's lust and over-confidence.

Self-awareness and self-discovery of his own personality was something he would need to reflect on until he could figure out who he wanted to be in life.

He glanced at Sinopa, who met his gaze. "What?"

She shook her head. "You are brooding."

"I'm not your husband. I know how to talk about my feelings. I just don't know how to talk about feeling everyone else's feelings. It's so quiet, now. I have a moment to reflect on myself for once."

She nodded. "I am sorry if I interrupted your train of thought."

"It's fine." Chance looked around. The ramp evened out as they emerged on the first sub-floor. He did his best not to look at the creatures in the tubes. "We're getting close, now."

The silence resumed. Chance paused, switched Karla to his other shoulder, and started walking again. They made it outside and found the lone security officer face down, unconscious.

"Your range is most impressive." Sinopa offered a nod and smile of respect.

"Thanks."

Silence resumed. Chance began reflecting on himself again.

He decided to embrace his new feelings for Karla. After all, having feelings for her gave him a sense of purpose. Purpose gave his life meaning. Discovering that he had meaning in his life made him feel good about himself.

Most importantly, saving Karla and carrying her to safety made him feel ... well, manly.

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Next chapter: (https://www.sofurry.com/view/562401)