Chapter Ten == A Night at the Museum
ONE
The Corporates looked at their master, whose expression was as unreadable as always, trying to get some trace of sarcasm or fun from it.
"Get you this Saturnite?" asked Jin. "Get it from where?"
"Oh, you want the details right now?" Arianne asked back at him. "That would hardly be a good thing, since you're not going anytime in the next three weeks or so. I intend on sending you in the first week of July. If I told you the details now, you'd probably forget them by the time you'll really need."
Mari cleared her throat loudly.
"Sorry, Mari, I meant no offense", added Arianne, quickly.
"None taken", she retorted. "And if you don't want to send us now, why tell us now?"
"Because now you have an objective. These three weeks will be the time you'll have to get used to these weapons you chose and to get as good with them as you can get."
"Will that really be necessary?" asked Amy. "I mean, all we'll have to do is find that metal for you, isn't it?"
"You won't have to find, I know where it is. I said you'll take it and bring it to me."
"Take it? I don't like the sound of that. Take it from whom?"
"The Grand Museum of Anthropology, in Jacksonville."
Most of them blurted out a "what". Amy spoke up again:
"You want us to rob a museum?" she asked, scandalized.
"The thing is in there. Or rather, will be, in the first week of July. It'll be part of an exhibition of minerals. It is a rather large nugget, and it'll be exemplifying iron ore. There will be security, of course, but nothing that a group of twelve Soul Crafters can't take care of."
Sieghart seemed upset as well.
"Steal! That's what you're asking from us. Steal from a private museum!"
"Pretty much, yes", said Arianne, in an authoritarian voice. "Got a problem with that?"
"If you want to steal, then you should do it yourself, not send someone else to take the blame for you!" he answered.
He's sure got guts, reflected Elesis, looking at her cousin's defiant expression. Arianne's expression, though, was twice as scary.
"Take the blame?" she asked. "If you do your job right, Sieghart, there will be no blame to take. A skilled Soul Crafter can enter, take whatever he wants and exit a more secured place by himself, without being even seen. You'll be twelve. Even if there is a fight for it, you can win without being recognized. I'm not sending you to do my dirty job, Sieghart, I'm sending you so that you can see the true nature of what you can do now."
Sieghart, even though still angry, remained quiet.
"Besides, I don't know if you ever heard it, but there's this saying: Let bad things wait for their time to happen. You are worrying for something that might not even happen. Why don't you worry about now instead of tomorrow, for a change? This goes to all of you."
"But master," said Ryan. "If we're really going into this, then shouldn't we, at least, know the place?"
"What, you've never been to Jacksonville before?"
"Well, yes, but not looking for a museum."
Arianne sighed.
"You don't need to. You'll know when the time comes that the security and the protection that simple humans can provide will do little to stall you. There's still an idea in your minds, that you can't get past an alarm system or that you can't assault a place because there's a trained guy with a handgun at the entrance. What's frightening you is that idea, and as long as it exists, you'll still be too frightened to become all you can become. To free yourselves, you have to prove to yourselves that you are more than these things.
"Now, who will be the first to test themselves against me?"
TWO
Ronan placed his left arm more comfortably in the improvised white support, grinding his teeth at the pain. His arm was not broken, but it got close to it enough to put him out of practice for a while. All of the Corporates were now in The Corporation, and Ronan was not the only one to show signs of recent wounds. Lire's right femur was broken when she fell (or rather, was thrown) from a balcony and hit the ground almost thirty feet and five seconds later; Arianne fixed the bone immediately, but her healing skills were not good enough to put the leg completely where it should be, so Lire was now walking in a way that slightly resembled Dr. House's, until Arianne could find a way to completely restore the elf. Jin and Victor were both with at least two broken fingers and Sieghart was complaining about all of the joints of his sword-wielding arm, the right one.
Completely uncaring about any of this was Lass, who not only was better than all of them with his daggers, but also could get hit as much as he wanted. As long as Mari could follow, he had five broken bones during the last training session. At a time, she'd watched as Lass and Sieghart exchanged some hits: Lass won. Sieghart had passed through the demon's defense and managed to break two of his ribs. Believing the match to be won, he lowered his own guard, which was all that Lass needed to chain twelve slashes and kicks and knock Sieghart out of the fight. Mari felt strangely upset by the belief that nothing could hurt Lass.
All that time, even with their own weapons, the Corporates were ordered by Arianne to magically block the deadly items' bladed edges, so that they could get used to their weapon of choice's weight and shape, but do so without slicing each other to death. Elesis' sword, though, was apparently immune to magical manipulation, because the spell used to cover the blade just didn't work when she tried it. For that reason, she was forced to look for two hours in Arianne's weaponry for a sword just like the Undoing, but not magically shielded.
"You use this one to train with me and your colleagues, and if you ever join a serious fight, you use the Undoing", Arianne had said, after placing the cover spell on the unnamed substitutive sword.
Ronan went back to the present when Lass entered the living room, carrying two cans of beer. The demon offered one of the cans to Ronan.
"Thanks", he said, opening it with his teeth. It was a trick Sieghart had crated exactly for situations like that one, when one of the drinker's hands was incapacitated.
Lass opened his own can and, after a long gulp, asked:
"Do you know that beer is bad for broken bones?"
"Who said that?" asked Ronan. Lass simply waved his shoulders. "Besides, my arm's only swollen, the bone's already fixed. But even if it was bad, who cares? It's not like it's good for anything else. I don't understand beer. I mean, it's almost a poison, and it still only loses to water in the 'top most consumed drinks'."
"Know what I don't understand?" said Lass. "Pizza."
Ronan laughed.
"Pizza?"
"Yeah, I mean, pizza is weird. It's round, but it comes in a square box and we eat it in triangular pieces. How the fuck does that work?"
"You're fucking crazy. My arm's killing me and you talk about shapes. How many of these—", he raised his can. "—did you already have?"
Lass ignored him.
"So it's still hurting?"
"It will get better. Wish I had your power, right now."
"No, you don't. Today I was reading this book I found in master's library, which spoke about the history of the demon race. My race. And all the bullshit we did throughout the history of the All-World."
Something in Lass' tone told Ronan that can of beer wasn't even close to his first one.
"So you actually believe the All-World exists?"
"Is there a reason not to believe? Hell, when this year began, I didn't even believe in demons. Now I'm one of'em."
"Well, I'll only believe in another reality once I see one."
They were quiet for a minute, drinking, and then Ronan asked:
"You said something about the bullshit the demons did in the All-World. Got any more info on that?"
"Do you remember when master told us about the First Born, how they were powerful, wise, all perfect and everything?"
"Yes."
"And do you remember how they were wiped out down to the last in this event that come to be known as The Scourging?
"Yup."
"Guess who scourged them", said Lass, darkly.
"The demons vanquished the First Born?" Ronan said, surprised.
"With the help of some god-like entity they came in contact with. And that's not all of it. There was this place in the All-World, a kingdom, with a strange name, Kuna, Kauna, I don't remember. It was a place where both humans and elves sought to live and grow equally, or so the book said. The demons destroyed it as well."
"Why? Any grudge against humans or elves?"
"Beats me. Maybe they were just jealous for not being included in this surface Rapture."
Ronan remembered the undersea city, with its dark tunnels and savage Splicers, and felt a chill run down his spine.
"And how do you feel about that?"
"I don't", Lass retorted, surprising Ronan. "It's not like I was there to do it. It was, like… a long, long, long, long time ago."
"How long?"
"Let's see…" he stopped to make some accounting. "The Scourging happened more than two thousand years ago, and Ka-whatever's destruction was a little less than one and a half millennium after that… That puts it somewhere six hundred years before now."
"Wow, long indeed. Can't even picture two thousand years in my head. I'm eighteen and I already feel old."
They remained quiet for some time, Ronan drinking and Lass thinking, since the demon had already finished his beer minutes ago, until Ronan asked:
"So, any candidates for owner of your soul?"
"Anyone I can sell it to for nice green papers."
"Green like recycled paper?"
"Money, you shithead."
"So it's literally selling your soul, is it?"
"Quite literally."
"Ok, now stop joking. You said you could do it in a desperate situation, and now we have a mission. What if you need more power?"
"I won't do it. Can we change the topic? Like talk about your soul, instead of mine?"
"Come on", pressured Ronan. "Are you really telling me that if you were to find yourself in a situation where it would be this or watching, let me see… Elesis dying, you would just let her go?"
Lass didn't remember ever telling Ronan about his feelings for Elesis.
"Why her?" he asked, cautious.
"Well, Lire says you like her. Since she's never wrong about this sort of thing…"
"Did she mention any proof of such a claim?" interrupted Lass.
"In fact", said Ronan, incisively. "She did. She said that you have difficulty in lying to Elesis, that you look at her longer than at anyone and that you like to overpower her."
Lass decided to skip the first two accusations, in face of the shocking third.
"'Like to overpower her'? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"You beat me in videogames, and you just move to the next opponent. I beat you, you never even once complained. Now, if you lose to her, you are extremely bothered, and if you beat her you brag about it. Need more proof?"
"And what's that got to do with liking someone?"
"How should I know? I'm not a psychostrist, or whatever they're called."
"Fuck me sideways! Does that girl's got nothing to do?"
Ronan laughed, finding his friend's imprecations ironically funny.
"Fuck me sideways… it's been a while since I heard that one."
Lass ignored that when something much more terrifying than being fucked from the sides came up to his mind.
"Does she know?"
"Is this a confession?"
"Just answer me!"
"You are upset!"
"ANSWER!"
Ronan didn't let himself get intimidated.
"I wanna hear it from you. Say you like her."
"That's fucking childish!" cursed Lass.
"Say it!"
Lass weighted the consequences for a second and, extremely angry for letting himself get cornered to the point of having to do that, said:
"May the gods of thunder strike me down! YES, I like Elesis! I like her, and I would never just watch her die. If I could help it, I'd give my soul to do so. Happy now?" he asked, furiously.
"Hell yea!" exclaimed Ronan, triumphant. "I got it! You said it! Who'd have thought I would be the one to get a confession from you. Suck on this, Lire, you are out, I am the Man!"
He started laughing very hard, and stopped ten seconds later when he moved his arm the wrong way and it launched a spire of pain up his shoulder.
"Now answer me. Does she know?" asked Lass.
"No, she doesn't. Want me to tell her?"
"If wanted her to know", said Lass fiercely, getting on his feet. "I'd tell her myself."
He stormed out of the room, leaving Ronan there, sitting on the couch and still laughing.
THREE
Timeless Orb No. 14533, July 1st, 2009.
Lass looked at the blue jewel in his hand, suspicious.
"You want me to believe that my daggers… both my daggers, are in this piece of rock?"
"I already said the 'piece of rock' is a joker", retorted Arianne.
"And what exactly is a joker, if not Batman's enemy?"
"Is a stone that, instead of storing magical energy, is capable of storing magically infused matter. Like your weapons."
"And why's it called joker?"
"Aren't you asking too many questions? It's because, before using the stones, we had to use Spellbound cards, and the people liked to call it jokers. The name simply caught."
"And how do I get them out of the… joker?"
Arianne took the stone from his hand and said "Forth!" in Latin. One of the daggers came up on her right hand, and the other on the left.
"Like this", she said, simply. When she said "Retreat", also in Latin, the daggers disappeared, being replaced by the blue joker. Lass took the stone from her hand.
"Amazing", he commented. "Much more practical than walking around with them. Only bad is you'll become a burglar magnet carrying a pretty stone like this around."
"That's not a problem, there are sockets for these. It makes them hard to be found out. Once you go out on your mission, you'll have to carry your weapons in jokers, so that they won't bother you when you don't need them or when you don't want them to be seen."
"You really intend on sending us to steal the Grand Museum, do you?"
Lass had done some research about the museum: it was an actually famous place, and a favorite for school visits ever since about five years ago. For the sake of their upcoming mission (which the Corporates had begun to mockingly call the "grand chase", due to the museum's name) he'd also looked up on the security of the place. Tight, but not outstanding. Avoidable, he had thought.
"It's been confirmed: there will be a nugget of Saturnite in the Expo. We need it, Lass."
Lass didn't argue with his master, since it was pointless. She would send them whatever his arguments, so he didn't bother. Instead, he decided to go and see if he could draw the daggers from the joker without saying the Commandment out loud. It was possible to issue Commandments or to create Spells without chanting the words in voice, but it required a focus capability that, in Arianne's words: "Some more obtuse specimens of our race do not possess." Finding it hard to accomplish the feat, Ryan had taken the commentary as a personal offense, and the one thing that kept him from attacking Arianne was his own judgment, which told him he had no chance.
The next two real days were spent in intense training on how to control the jokers (it was harder than it seemed at first) and in how to perform Commandments without voicing them. The Skills, as Arianne had stated from the very start, were up to the fighter to create.
"That is exactly why you will hardly find two similar skilled fighters", she'd said. "They may have similar fighting styles, but the way they use their energy in Skills is almost always unique. Increased strength, speed, the capacity of cutting through almost anything, all this can be achieved with Skills and a proper weapon."
The third day after they received the jokers came to its end, and the silver Moon met the Corporates and their master on the balcony of the Island, during one of the strangest moments of the twelve zannoinen apprentices' lives. They were standing in a circle, wearing the clothes they were to wear during serious fights: skin-tight black suits, with black metallic parts at the joints of the limbs and the feet. To the head, only a nose-and-mouth mask to keep their faces from being seen, which could be removed by a simple button press. The girls were specially bothered by the tightness of the suits, so Arianne provided the group with black capes and hoods, ordering firmly that, in a time of need, they shouldn't hesitate in removing the pieces and leaving them behind. All black, since they were acting at night time. Those who had long hair had them tied firmly in a way taught by Arianne made so that it would not come down so easily. The suits' metallic parts also had small round recesses, which Arianne identified as sockets for placing jokers or batteries. Everything was meant for one purpose: if, or when the time came to fight, they would worry about the fight only, and nothing else. Focus was key.
"It will be simple. I will send you to a place that is nearby, so that it won't be too easy if someone tries to track you. Mari and Victor, who claim to know their ways in Jacksonville, will guide you to the museum. In this meantime, you can still be seen, since you'll still be wearing the coats. After you arrive and start the action, you must avoid drawing attention at all costs. Retrieving the Saturnite is of top priority, and you must take any measures necessary to accomplish this, unless it puts any of you in a mortal danger. If we lose this, there can be other ways, but if you die, there's no turning back. Not that I think there will be such a thing as a mortal danger. You'll be facing simple humans, and that shouldn't be a problem for people like you and me. Since we intend on using the Saturnite to create a POV Link, you'll need this."
She lifted something that looked like a silver locket and explained:
"It's more than just a locket. Once it's open, it'll activate a delayed Spell whose purpose is to make the metal start maturing so that we can use it. Before you take it, open the locket and use the Spell on the Saturnite. After the Spell has been placed, none of you, I repeat, none of you must touch the nugget with bare hands, otherwise it'll recognize the person's touch and the POV Link will work only for that person. If we want it to work with anyone, you must bring it here without touching it. Is that clear?"
"Yes, master!" they answered, altogether.
"Then go, and may the Creator watch over you so that you don't fuck things up too much."
That said, Arianne turned around and looked at the circle drawn on the floor, which the Corporates recognized as a gate. Raising her hand, Arianne executed the Spell, and just like before, the fabric of reality seemed to warp when the circle started glowing and the connection was established.
Lass eased his breath and, just like before, was the first to step through the hole.
FOUR
Jacksonville, July 4th, 2009.
Lass was the first to come out of the hole created by the Twin Gates' magic, but Mari was the last. Not because of fear or hesitation, but only because, after Lass got through, all others tried to follow him, and she decided it would be best to wait. When she came out, the hole behind her closed, and the night became dead quiet.
Looking around, Mari realized why Arianne hadn't placed the gate directly in front of the Grand Museum of Anthropology: what would anyone think if they saw a hole blasted in the air and twelve people wearing black capes and hoods climbing out of it? The place they were now was a dark alleyway, void of people and poor of light, since the only light that could be seen was the one that came from the street outside. Sieghart's voice was heard:
"Time to Rupture, don't you think?"
Mari silently broke her spiritual barrier, unleashing her inner self. The others did the same, except for Elesis, who probably deemed better to save her energy for later. The dark was no longer a problem: Mari could see and feel all around her. The group walked out of the alley, and Mari became uncomfortably conscious of her skin tight suit, and was feeling almost as if naked out on the street. Sieghart seemed to notice this.
"You seem uneasy", he said.
"I am uneasy."
"Anything you want?"
"A BK hamburger with coke and a milk-shake."
Sieghart laughed.
"Well, unfortunately I can't go to Burger King dressed like this. People would think I'm some kind of pervert."
"Would they be wrong?" Mari asked, sarcastically. "I mean, the owner of the only maid café in Florida…"
"My bar is not a maid café", protested Sieghart. "Damn bureaucrats wouldn't let me pass the place as one. Why in fuck is it wrong to have a maid café in Florida, anyway?"
"Because that's downright sick?"
This time they both laughed (Mari's laugh was so rare that it actually sent a shiver down Sieghart's spine; he found the sound strangely attractive). Their laugh was interrupted by Victor.
"Hey, Mari, I don't actually know where we are", he said.
"It's okay, the museum is this way", Mari answered, as she started to lead the way.
She knew. Of course she knew. Mari was always curious, and her curiosity often led her to look into maps just to know new places without having to actually visit them. And, once she looked, it would always be there. Right at hand. For times like those, when she knew exactly where to go. The perfect memory could come in handy sometimes.
FIVE
The main gate of the Grand Museum of Anthropology was, obviously, closed.
The museum itself was a set of eight square buildings, each roughly the same size of a medium-sized gymnasium, and the Administration Block, a smaller version of the main blocks. The building dedicated to the Iron Age was the second farthest from the main entrance, and so as far was their target. The museum's grounds were even larger than the establishment itself. With many large trees and benches, it would probably look really beautiful under the sun, but now, under the moonlight, it was dark and full of shadows, which could host the most unbelievable things for those with enough imagination. There was a security cabin to the right of the main gate, but that was not where the Corporates were standing. They were looking at an extension of indifferent, green painted, three meters tall fence, somewhere around the properties' perimeter. Over the fence, there were movement sensors that, at the slightest touch on their lines, would send out an alarm to the security. The Corporates didn't want that to happen.
"Did I mention how you look incredibly attractive in that suit?" asked Jin, looking at Mari.
"You didn't", she answered, simply.
The Corporates had removed their coats and placed them somewhere hidden from the eyes of the pass-byers before deciding where they would get in from.
"Now I do. How about after this whole mess is over?"
"Jin, focus", interrupted Lire. "Keep your mind on the task."
Lass stepped forward. He looked at the fence. About three and a half meters so that there's no chance of setting off the alarm, he calculated. Well, I've jumped farther during training sessions. Strengthening his legs' muscles with energy, he bended his back. When he felt he was at maximum energy, he jumped. About five meters off the floor. Even with this immense height, he fell silently on the other side. Just like a ghost. Or a demon. That thought was crossing his mind way too frequently lately.
A second after he landed, a noise to his right told him someone had followed his lead. He looked and found Elesis standing up. She had landed almost as silently as himself, Lass noticed. She gave him a brief smile and rushed forward so that the others wouldn't land on top of her. Following her example, Lass walked into the woods in front, right on time to not be crushed by Jin's landing. Master was right once again, Lass thought seeing his teammates jump over the three-and-a-half meters as if they were three-and-a-half inches. The security is nothing for people like us.
"Almost makes us think we're unstoppable, right?" asked Elesis, her voice almost inaudible.
"Wha… unstoppable?" asked Lass, confused.
"I mean, looking as how this thing is supposed to keep people from entering and we just… pass it by like this. Makes you think we're… different. Superior."
"I don't feel superior because of this. More like –" he searched for a word to describe it. "– abnormal", he finally said.
She laughed, still almost inaudibly, at the comment. An involuntary smile formed on Lass' mouth as well.
"What? Am I so funny I make jokes without even meaning to?"
"No, it's just that, you know, you're a demon and you're calling a human like me abnormal", she said, looking at the same time amused and guilty. "I shouldn't be laughing at this, I know you didn't choose to be… Well, sorry."
"It's fine, I'm okay with it by now", he said. It wasn't true. His condition as a demon still bothered him, but he just couldn't get offended or angry at her. Besides, he knew she meant no offense. "Although, as far as I know, humans don't get burned by the sun. We're not sure if you aren't abnormal like me."
She was now standing in front of him, still smiling. Even though they were inside a private property which they shouldn't be, committing an invasion crime and planning to steal something, Lass' subconscious still wondered how it would be like to kiss her smiling lips… his increased sensorial state made him the most conscious of her. The skin-tight suit didn't leave much for imagination concerning her body. Her smile emphasized her lips, which were somewhere between thick and thin, and had an intensely red color, matching her tied hair. Her bright green eyes were now shining with what looked like amusement.
"So you dare compare me to you, demon?" she asked. "Is that maybe because you don't want to be the only one?"
Lass, sensing she was taunting him (she did that all the time), decided to play along.
"I must say that being all alone is depressing", he said carefully.
Elesis was obviously going to answer but, before she could do that, Sieghart, who had stood behind the fence to make sure nobody saw them jumping, passed to the inside, and Ronan interrupted them.
"Hey, you guys can talk after we're not inside the highly secured private museum, okay? Preferentially, after we left without being noticed by the well-paid and dedicated, not to mention armed, security."
Lass didn't know whether to be relieved or angry. Relieved because at any time he could commit a lapse and give Elesis an idea of his feelings, and angry because Ronan had spoiled the moment, as misplaced as it may have been. Focus, Lass, he thought, if you fuck things up here, God knows what will come next.
SIX
Mineral Section, Grand Museum of Anthropology. Jacksonville, July 4th, 2009. 23:56.
The room, void of its visitors, was dark and rather silent. The security cameras that usually kept the vigilance of the entrances and exits were frozen in place, showing the same image over and over: stagnancy. Under the influence of a certain Commandment, the cameras were not doing their job. Also were not the motion sensors, the touch sensors or the proximity alarms. Everything was not functional. The Corporates made sure of that. Because of that lack of surveillance, no one noticed when the twelve figures wearing skin-tight black clothes walked into the mineral section, one of them carrying a silvery locket around her neck. No one noticed when the three uniformed men keeping guard on the front gate were brutally slaughtered by small dragon-like red animals, with large wings and voracious fangs. No one noticed when the front gate burst wide open and more than a hundred green, two meters tall, strong and uncommon creatures ran past the gate, carrying heavy weapons and killing every single man in their path. No one noticed when an immense red dragon appeared on the skies above the Grand Museum of Anthropology and, silent like a shadow, landed on the back of the museum grounds. The small dragons converged around their father. The Red Gorgos sensed his prey inside the building to his left and, talking with his mind, commanded the orcs towards the place. The Corporates' Commandments avoided their detection, and the security could do nothing but fall under the hammers of the orcs' soldiers. The clocks hit the top of their revolutions. Midnight.
A new day had begun.
SEVEN
The metal nugget was red. Lire didn't see anything special about it. Anything that could confirm or refute the fact that it was actually Saturnite. What if this is just some iron junk?
"There it is", said Sieghart. "So, who had the locket?"
"It's here", said Elena. She stepped onwards and pushed out the locket from around her neck. "Should I open it now?"
"Wait, let me just remove this…" said Lass, walking towards the nugget, which was under a small glass dome. It obviously had a touch sensor, but the security system was deactivated and, therefore, there was nothing to worry about. In fact, when the demon placed his hands on the glass and moved it around until he found a way to remove it; it came out peacefully, without triggering anything. Elena came to be straight in front of it.
"Well, here goes nothing", she muttered. Sticking her nail in the crack, Elena made pressure.
When the locket opened, Elena quickly pointed it towards the Saturnite. It released a flash of light and, for a moment, a Spell gate (circles that appeared when a Spell was used) shone under the pedestal which held the metal nugget. After it was gone, Lire noticed a change in its appearance: it was more vividly red and looking less like common iron. Maybe master wasn't wrong after all. That woman is never wrong, anyway…
Sieghart started to say something when Lass interrupted.
"We're not alone", he said, briefly.
They all started to turn, but didn't have to go too far. All around them, they were surrounded by roughly fifty medium sized orcs. A really big specimen, almost three meters tall, stood in front of them, carrying a hammer which's weight should be around the same as a massive wooden door. Maybe more. For their surprise, it laughed and said, with a rude and heavy accent, but still in understandable English:
"Good goin', demon boy. You have some nice ears there. Now step away from the metal and gimme those jokers".
CHAPTER END
Author's Afterword: Still Alive is a nice song, even though when GLaDOS sings it, she sounds more like a sentry turret than her usual, dangerous self. But I'm quoting her anyway: Believe me, I am still alive.
My humblest apologies for taking so long. If it is of any good, I put up two chapters this time. This Chapter Ten up there is one of my personal favorites. Now we're getting to the action part of this whole thing. Good? I'm not sure. I've never tried my skills with action scenes before. If I suck, I'll try to improve as quickly as I can. All for the sake of you, who reads this and makes all the hours I spend (spend, not waste) writing when I should be studying. I won't establish deadlines for myself (my boss is in charge of that) but I'll try my hardest to upload again before May 1st.
TheHellequin. We're done here.
PS: Reviews make authors happy.
PPS: Yay! 6000 words!