Chapter 0
In ever city of any size there is a place for the outcasts, for
those that do not fit in with regular society. There are places for the
homeless, for the punks and other street trash. For the judges and the
good Samaritans. They all have a place they can live in a city. At the
very fringes of the sprawling metropolis that was a few miles away is
an area called by its inhabitants The Canyons. The reason for the name
was because The Canyons had been created when a large earthquake had
devastated the area years before forming a series of canyons, in which
the inhabitants had built their homes from the ruins of the old city.
It was a rather clear night for the area. Someone could even see the
stars through the pollution if they had been here to see it. In one of
these places is where this story starts. If there had been anyone to
notice they would have felt a chill wind cutting through the area, but
without touching any of the thrash on the ground. Then if they had been
paying particular attention they would have noticed a faint golden glow
appear in the sky, a glow that grew strong quite rapidly. If the
hypothetical observer had been at all religious they probably would
have started praying at the sight of the growing disk of golden energy.
As it grew it started to shoot out golden sparks of energy that burned
whatever they hit. As the disk grew so did the size and power of the
sparks. In a few minutes the sparking disk had grown to about 3 meters
in diameter, any observer would probably have been gibbering in terror
or running screaming by the time the sparking disk spat out a figure at
the road below it. By the time the figure hit the ground the disk had
collapsed back into itself and with a muffled explosion, vanished. The
figure moaned slightly from where it was laying on the ground before it
was able to pull itself into an upright position. Looking around the
figure climbed up the remains of a collapsed brick building. When the
figure got to the top a stray breeze blew the long black cloak away
from its body and knocked the hood off of the head underneath it,
allowing the long white hair to escape and blow into the ebony skinned
face of its owner. Anyone would have been able to tell it was a woman
in the cloak from the exotic figure displayed. The woman tucked her
hair back behind her pointed ears and pulled the hood back over her
head. She stood on the remains the building, gazing off in the distance
at the huge city sprawled in front of her.
With a sigh the woman started mumbling to herself. "Did
everything make it? I'm missing my staff, but I've got my dagger. Got
both pouches and my backpack," putting a hand into one of the pouches
she frowned, "But the enchantments on them broke, damn!" reaching into
the backpack she pulled out a rather heave book bound in a beat up
leather cover. "Good, my spell books made it at least, so I can
recreate anything that got damaged."
Her inspection complete she sighed once before turning her
thoughts to her current predicament. She had no idea were she was. Form
what she could see of the city sprawling out before her she could tell
it did not use magic. What little she knew about technology did not
come close to what she could see. All she really knew was that she was
finally free. She had been used as a pawn for longer then she could
remember. Her father had plans for her before she had even turned six.
But because of a single mistake her father and Matron Triel had made
she had been able to escape, all thanks to her cousin, Drizz't. In Drow
society the family lines are only traced on the female side, because of
this the Matrons had never discovered the fact that Drizz't Do'Urden
was related to her through their fathers by their grandfather. Her
cousin had found out of her existence and had freed her and in the
process had started the downfall of Lloth the Spider Queen, Dark
Goddess of the Drow. Shaking her head Maya Do'Urden walked down the
pile of rubble and entered the outskirts of the city. If she had
noticed off to one side or the road there was a small broken sign, and
even if she had noticed she wouldn't have been able to read the
Japanese printed on it.
MEGA-TOKYO CITY LIMIT
***********************************************
Seven Hours Later
A red haired inspector for the Mega-Tokyo ADPolice walked down
the corridor in the Police Department in search of his partner. He was
carrying a folder in one hand and an amused smirk was twitching at his
lips. Spotting the person he had been looking for talking to a familiar
redhead woman in a police uniform. He casually yelled out, "Hey Leon!"
Leon paused mid sentence and waved his partner Daley over before
continuing, "... So you think you can help me with the Hemmingway case,
Nene?"
"What's in it for me Leon, hmmm?" Nene asked coyly.
Leon sighed then pulled out two brightly colored coupons, "Two
coupons for a free ice-cream sundae at that new parlor a block from
Headquarters."
"You got a deal." She quickly snatched the two coupons and tucked
them into her purse. "But I'll work on it tomorrow, I'm off work right
now. Hi Daley."
"Hi Nene, hey Leon got something for you. You might find this
amusing."
"Hmm?" Leon looked up and saw the folder his partner was waving
in front of him with an odd expression on his face. "Hey, Daley. What's
up?"
"There was a disturbance down in the canyon and we've been
ordered to investigate it."
Looking carefully at Daley's face, Leon asked, "Why do I get the
feeling this isn't the usual Boomer crisis?"
"Come on. I'll tell you on the way."
"Sure," Leon said uneasily, getting out from his chair. Whenever
his partner got like this it meant something REALLY strange, and
potentially lethal, was going on.
As they walked down halls, Daley elaborated.
"Three of the members of the Outriders got themselves nearly
killed trying to mug someone a black cloak down in the Lower Canyons.
The normal police where the ones who showed up at first, because they
had thought it was either a prank call or just the witnesses having
hysterics, because the person defended themselves by throwing a
lightning bolt at the muggers, but it turns out that they where at
least somewhat right. When they got down there they had two gang
members on the ground suffering from what looked like they had been
standing next to a lightning strike and the third had the crap beaten
out of them." Daley opened the folder and passed a photograph to Leon,
who in turn whistled at the two smoking forms lying on the ground. "The
muggers where still smoking slightly after 15 minutes when the
ambulance got there."
Nene peeked over Leon's arm before gasping, "What could do that?
I can't think of anything that someone could carry that could zap them
that badly."
"Exactly, the normal police probably would have kept the case and
pawned it of as a new weapon of some sort if it hadn't happened again
the same night. Apparently some of the other Outriders heard of this
and they decided to do something about it. They found the person
responsible half an hour ago, check these out." He handed some more
photos to Leon. The first on showed someone lying on the ground. "There
where seven of them this time and the police where able get a sketchy
chain of events together this time. The first guy got his hand broken
when they kicked the knife out of his hand. They then punched him in
the chest cracking three ribs and knocked him out with a second kick to
the head." The next three pictures had two guys and a woman each of
them with bandages wrapped around their chests. Those three got blasted
by energy bolts of some sort, the thing is they only got hit with one
each, and the cloaked figure shot around fifteen of them. The others
swerved out off target and blasted holes in the walls." The last of the
pictures had some more people that didn't appear to be hurt at all, but
were just lying on the ground in weird positions. "Those three tried to
run and got blasted with an energy beam of some sort, it paralyzed them
stopping them in their tracks. They just collapsed and their muscles
locked up. So they got arrested when the cops got there and saw the
weapons they where packing. When asked the Outriders and the witnesses
all agreed that the perpetrator was not carrying any weapons other then
a big knife they were wearing on their belt."
Leon saw where this was heading. "So when their superiors heard
about this cloaked weirdo shouting energy blasts and stun rays they
figured it must be a Boomer and got ADPolice on the case?" The
resignation in his voice told Daley that he already knew this as
inevitable fact, due to the stupidities of the upper command.
"Bingo."
"You never get bored in this city," Leon sighed, shaking his
head. The three of them finally got to the front of the building.
"Alright, let's go arrest this...cloaked menace."
"Maybe they'll give us a magic sword when we catch them," Daley
said cheerfully. "Bye Nene, have a nice ride home."
Leon snorted and had to smile. "I'll believe it when I see it
with my own eyes. See you tomorrow, Nene."
"Bye you two, good luck." She walked over to the edge of the
street and looked around. Waving her hand at a small green car across
the street she proceeded to walk over to it using the crosswalks. *I've
got to tell Sylia about this.*
In ever city of any size there is a place for the outcasts, for
those that do not fit in with regular society. There are places for the
homeless, for the punks and other street trash. For the judges and the
good Samaritans. They all have a place they can live in a city. At the
very fringes of the sprawling metropolis that was a few miles away is
an area called by its inhabitants The Canyons. The reason for the name
was because The Canyons had been created when a large earthquake had
devastated the area years before forming a series of canyons, in which
the inhabitants had built their homes from the ruins of the old city.
It was a rather clear night for the area. Someone could even see the
stars through the pollution if they had been here to see it. In one of
these places is where this story starts. If there had been anyone to
notice they would have felt a chill wind cutting through the area, but
without touching any of the thrash on the ground. Then if they had been
paying particular attention they would have noticed a faint golden glow
appear in the sky, a glow that grew strong quite rapidly. If the
hypothetical observer had been at all religious they probably would
have started praying at the sight of the growing disk of golden energy.
As it grew it started to shoot out golden sparks of energy that burned
whatever they hit. As the disk grew so did the size and power of the
sparks. In a few minutes the sparking disk had grown to about 3 meters
in diameter, any observer would probably have been gibbering in terror
or running screaming by the time the sparking disk spat out a figure at
the road below it. By the time the figure hit the ground the disk had
collapsed back into itself and with a muffled explosion, vanished. The
figure moaned slightly from where it was laying on the ground before it
was able to pull itself into an upright position. Looking around the
figure climbed up the remains of a collapsed brick building. When the
figure got to the top a stray breeze blew the long black cloak away
from its body and knocked the hood off of the head underneath it,
allowing the long white hair to escape and blow into the ebony skinned
face of its owner. Anyone would have been able to tell it was a woman
in the cloak from the exotic figure displayed. The woman tucked her
hair back behind her pointed ears and pulled the hood back over her
head. She stood on the remains the building, gazing off in the distance
at the huge city sprawled in front of her.
With a sigh the woman started mumbling to herself. "Did
everything make it? I'm missing my staff, but I've got my dagger. Got
both pouches and my backpack," putting a hand into one of the pouches
she frowned, "But the enchantments on them broke, damn!" reaching into
the backpack she pulled out a rather heave book bound in a beat up
leather cover. "Good, my spell books made it at least, so I can
recreate anything that got damaged."
Her inspection complete she sighed once before turning her
thoughts to her current predicament. She had no idea were she was. Form
what she could see of the city sprawling out before her she could tell
it did not use magic. What little she knew about technology did not
come close to what she could see. All she really knew was that she was
finally free. She had been used as a pawn for longer then she could
remember. Her father had plans for her before she had even turned six.
But because of a single mistake her father and Matron Triel had made
she had been able to escape, all thanks to her cousin, Drizz't. In Drow
society the family lines are only traced on the female side, because of
this the Matrons had never discovered the fact that Drizz't Do'Urden
was related to her through their fathers by their grandfather. Her
cousin had found out of her existence and had freed her and in the
process had started the downfall of Lloth the Spider Queen, Dark
Goddess of the Drow. Shaking her head Maya Do'Urden walked down the
pile of rubble and entered the outskirts of the city. If she had
noticed off to one side or the road there was a small broken sign, and
even if she had noticed she wouldn't have been able to read the
Japanese printed on it.
MEGA-TOKYO CITY LIMIT
***********************************************
Seven Hours Later
A red haired inspector for the Mega-Tokyo ADPolice walked down
the corridor in the Police Department in search of his partner. He was
carrying a folder in one hand and an amused smirk was twitching at his
lips. Spotting the person he had been looking for talking to a familiar
redhead woman in a police uniform. He casually yelled out, "Hey Leon!"
Leon paused mid sentence and waved his partner Daley over before
continuing, "... So you think you can help me with the Hemmingway case,
Nene?"
"What's in it for me Leon, hmmm?" Nene asked coyly.
Leon sighed then pulled out two brightly colored coupons, "Two
coupons for a free ice-cream sundae at that new parlor a block from
Headquarters."
"You got a deal." She quickly snatched the two coupons and tucked
them into her purse. "But I'll work on it tomorrow, I'm off work right
now. Hi Daley."
"Hi Nene, hey Leon got something for you. You might find this
amusing."
"Hmm?" Leon looked up and saw the folder his partner was waving
in front of him with an odd expression on his face. "Hey, Daley. What's
up?"
"There was a disturbance down in the canyon and we've been
ordered to investigate it."
Looking carefully at Daley's face, Leon asked, "Why do I get the
feeling this isn't the usual Boomer crisis?"
"Come on. I'll tell you on the way."
"Sure," Leon said uneasily, getting out from his chair. Whenever
his partner got like this it meant something REALLY strange, and
potentially lethal, was going on.
As they walked down halls, Daley elaborated.
"Three of the members of the Outriders got themselves nearly
killed trying to mug someone a black cloak down in the Lower Canyons.
The normal police where the ones who showed up at first, because they
had thought it was either a prank call or just the witnesses having
hysterics, because the person defended themselves by throwing a
lightning bolt at the muggers, but it turns out that they where at
least somewhat right. When they got down there they had two gang
members on the ground suffering from what looked like they had been
standing next to a lightning strike and the third had the crap beaten
out of them." Daley opened the folder and passed a photograph to Leon,
who in turn whistled at the two smoking forms lying on the ground. "The
muggers where still smoking slightly after 15 minutes when the
ambulance got there."
Nene peeked over Leon's arm before gasping, "What could do that?
I can't think of anything that someone could carry that could zap them
that badly."
"Exactly, the normal police probably would have kept the case and
pawned it of as a new weapon of some sort if it hadn't happened again
the same night. Apparently some of the other Outriders heard of this
and they decided to do something about it. They found the person
responsible half an hour ago, check these out." He handed some more
photos to Leon. The first on showed someone lying on the ground. "There
where seven of them this time and the police where able get a sketchy
chain of events together this time. The first guy got his hand broken
when they kicked the knife out of his hand. They then punched him in
the chest cracking three ribs and knocked him out with a second kick to
the head." The next three pictures had two guys and a woman each of
them with bandages wrapped around their chests. Those three got blasted
by energy bolts of some sort, the thing is they only got hit with one
each, and the cloaked figure shot around fifteen of them. The others
swerved out off target and blasted holes in the walls." The last of the
pictures had some more people that didn't appear to be hurt at all, but
were just lying on the ground in weird positions. "Those three tried to
run and got blasted with an energy beam of some sort, it paralyzed them
stopping them in their tracks. They just collapsed and their muscles
locked up. So they got arrested when the cops got there and saw the
weapons they where packing. When asked the Outriders and the witnesses
all agreed that the perpetrator was not carrying any weapons other then
a big knife they were wearing on their belt."
Leon saw where this was heading. "So when their superiors heard
about this cloaked weirdo shouting energy blasts and stun rays they
figured it must be a Boomer and got ADPolice on the case?" The
resignation in his voice told Daley that he already knew this as
inevitable fact, due to the stupidities of the upper command.
"Bingo."
"You never get bored in this city," Leon sighed, shaking his
head. The three of them finally got to the front of the building.
"Alright, let's go arrest this...cloaked menace."
"Maybe they'll give us a magic sword when we catch them," Daley
said cheerfully. "Bye Nene, have a nice ride home."
Leon snorted and had to smile. "I'll believe it when I see it
with my own eyes. See you tomorrow, Nene."
"Bye you two, good luck." She walked over to the edge of the
street and looked around. Waving her hand at a small green car across
the street she proceeded to walk over to it using the crosswalks. *I've
got to tell Sylia about this.*
