Sarloch gathered a small amount of his mystical energy into hands. The energy swirled around, forming a bright green ball. "This will be more pain than you ever thought possible, girl," the wizard threatened.

"Yeah?" Montoya asked, her voice unsure. "Looks like a big, translucent booger to me."

Sarloch smiled and threw the energy ball at Montoya, hitting her square in the chest. She fell on her back, screaming and flailing her limbs about.

"I told you," the wizard said as he turned his attention from the girl to the two men. "Now it is your turn."

Damien muttered a quick stunning spell and hit Sarloch dead on with it. It didn't do much more than faze the wizard, knocking him back a few feet.

"A sorcerer," he said, his voice hinting on interest. "How amusing."

Damien stood up and looked the wizard over. "You know," he said. "Every keeps assuming that I'm a sorcerer."

"You saying you aren't?"

Damien smiled and manipulated as much of his energy he could. "I'm way more powerful than that," he said before speaking the words to another spell and sending a ball of energy at Sarloch.

The ball hit Sarloch in the chest and exploded around him, tendrils of red electricity enveloping his body. The wizard dropped to the ground for a moment before casting the spell off. Slowly, he stood to his feet.

"I apologize, wizard," Sarloch said, giving Damien a half bow. "You are indeed much stronger than a sorcerer. But not as strong as I, I am afraid."

Sarloch felt a hand wrap around the back of his neck and lift him off the ground. He turned his head as much as he could, which wasn't far. Montoya looked him in the eyes.

"Does it really matter?" she asked before snapping his neck with a sickening crack. Without hesitation, she dropped Sarloch's lifeless corpse to the ground.

Network stood up and fixed his glasses. "You're kidding me?" he said, astonished. "Shoot him with arrows, set him on fire, hit him with magic and all it takes to kill him is breaking his neck?"

"He isn't dead yet," Montoya said. She picked up the wizard's body and walked to the bar, looking at the large picture window. The few people that remained inside quickly backed away from the window. Montoya lifted Sarloch and pushed his head through the window, then quickly bringing his body down on the sharp, broken glass and decapitating him. Once again, she dropped the body.

"That should do it," she said, wiping her hands off on her skirt.

"Montoya," Damien said, walking towards the dark haired woman.

Montoya spun around and wrapped her arms around Damien. "Hey, lover," she said before placing a kiss on his lips. "I'm pumped. You want to come downstairs with me and help me relax?"

Damien pushed her away. "This isn't you," he said.

"Oh it's me, stud," she said. She reached her hands up to the night sky. "Free at last, free at last."

Network put his hand on Montoya's shoulder. "Montoya," he tried to say before she grabbed it and snapped it at the wrist. Network screamed. Damien pushed Montoya away from his friend.

"Just can't keep your hands off me, can you, Nathan?" she said loud enough for all the onlookers to hear. She turned to Damien. "And what's your deal? A hot woman throws herself in your lap and you're all not interested? What are you, gay?"

"Montoya would never do this to her friends," Damien told her. "You aren't her." Montoya laughed. "Oh, I am her, Damien. I'm the her she was so scared of. You remember me, don't you?"

Damien just glared. He cast an eye to Network. "You okay, Nate?" he asked.

"She broke my wrist," he muttered, painfully.

"You're lucky," Damien said. "This is the Montoya I told you about. The one who helped us beat The Shadowed Man."

Montoya started to sway her hips and it took Damien a minute before he realized that she was dancing. "Damien," she said, a soft melody to her voice. "Are you afraid of me?"

"Not really," he answered.

Montoya straightened right back up. "You should be," she said before grabbing a female bystander and throwing her at Damien.

Damien caught the woman, but before he could put her down, Montoya had fled into the night.

"There's...nothing we can do now, Damien," Network muttered. "Let's get inside."

"She's dangerous, Nate," Damien said. "She'll kill."

Network nodded to the body of Sarloch. "I'm aware. But we best see how Paul is."

Xavier knelt before The Master. "I'm sorry to bring you bad news, master, but the wizard had fallen."

"What?" The Master shouted, springing to his feet. "How? He was the strongest wizard I have ever known."

"The girl, master. She killed him."

The Master turned to Packard. "Is she a Slayer?" he demanded.

Packard shook his head. "Not to my knowledge. Damien made no reference to a Slayer here in New Roanoke, and he does enough damage by himself."

Tiesilead approached Xavier. "What happened to this girl?" the demon growled.

"She fought with her allies and ran off," was the answer.

"Fought with her allies?" The Master asked, curiosity filling his voice.

"Yes, master."

Penelope said, "This is most interesting, master. Perhaps we can set her against them?"

The Master looked at his beautiful servant and offered a small smile. "Yes," he said, dragging the word out. "Yes, Penelope. I like the way you think."

"I'm not so sure, master," Xavier spoke up. "She was strong enough to kill Sarloch. What if she attacks us?"

Packard nodded in agreement. "I'm with him."

"Then I will eat her," Tiesilead said.
Network looked the White Room over. Parts of Paul were scattered everywhere. His workstation was all but destroyed. It was going to take time to fix this.

"Good thing we downloaded all the information out of his memory," Damien said, bending down to pick Paul's head up.

Paul's eyes flickered on. "You do...not...have...it all," a voice that was more mechanical than normal emanated from Paul's speaker slits.

Damien dropped the head as he jumped back.

"Paul?" Nathan exclaimed. "You're alive?"

"I am...not...dead," Paul confirmed. "Energy...draining."

Network said, "Of course! Damien, grab Paul's head and bring it over by my workstation."

Damien bent down and retrieved the robot's head again. "I never thought I would ever hear a statement like that, Nate."

Damien set Paul's head on the workstation and Network brought two large cords over. He flipped Paul's head upside down and after a few moments of trial and error, found where he needed to put the cords.

"Thank you,' Paul said. His voice sounded more artificial now, almost like an actual robot talking.

"I'll set something a bit more comfortable up when I get a moment," Network promised. "I do not require comfort," Paul said. "But thank you for your consideration."

"What happened?" Damien asked. "How are you still alive?"

Paul's eyes flickered for a long time before he spoke again. "Designate: Johann Sarloch destroyed my body using mystical forces. My memory could still function on the emergency generators that were installed at my creation. However, had you arrived any later I fear that you may have been too late."

"But your soul?" Network asked.

"Designate: Dr. Paul Carson's soul is integrated into the life-support of this unit."

"I don't like this," Network said to Damien. "He's starting to sound more like a robot and less like a person."

Damien said, "Probably has something to do with the fact that his body was blown to bits."

"I have to fix him."

"You aren't doing anything until we get your arm fixed, and the police will be here soon. I'm surprised it's been this long already."

'What are we going to tell them about Montoya?" Network asked.

"You let me handle that. All they need to know about what happened is Sarloch attacked us and tried to kill us."

"That'll be hard to explain, also."

"Make something up. I'm going to go look for Montoya."
The officer bounced off the roof of his squad car and landed on his stomach on the ground. The dark haired woman that attacked him walked around the car and bent down next to him.

"Oh," she teased. "Did I hurt you?"

"You should finish him," a female voice said from down an alley. Montoya turned around and saw a woman approach her. "They're more trouble then their worth."

Montoya laughed. "You must be a vampire," she said. "Now why would I want to kill Mr. Gun-and-a-badge here?"

"I meant Damien and his friends," the vampire said.

Montoya stood up and leaned against the squad car. "Well this just gets more interesting, doesn't it? Who are you?"

"Penelope," the vampire said. "I work for The Master."

"I figured. Is this where you try to turn me against my quote-on-quote 'friends'?"

Penelope looked a little shocked but she quickly recovered. "That was the plan, but I can see you are way smarter than that."

"Yeah," Montoya said. "I am. Thing is, I would just rather kill you. Make's for a better time."

Penelope saw her opening. "You're welcome to try after you take care of Damien, Nathan, and that robot."

"I think the robot is already done," Montoya informed the vampire. "Your buddy the big, bad, wizard, he was your buddy right? Well, anyway, I'm sure he took care of Paul."

"Paul? You named your robot Paul? Cute. Was that like an ex-boyfriend or something?"

Montoya picked up a broken piece of wood and approached Penelope. "Oh no. He had a soul. Was a doctor of some sort once."

Penelope smirked. "You don't say."

"I do."

"So you going to stake me with that?" the vampire asked.

"Nah," Montoya said. "You're far to amusing."

"Then what are you going to do with that?"

"Kill your friend."

Penelope looked confused, and then shocked when Montoya spun around and threw the makeshift stake into a dark corner of the alley. There was a short scream and then Xavier stepped into what light there was from the streetlight before exploding into dust.

Penelope eyes were wide for a moment. Then they narrowed. "Thank god! You know, I was ready to stake him myself?"

"Is that so?" "Yeah. But he was the one who brought The Master back so I figured it wouldn't be in my best interest."

Montoya walked away from the vampire. "You're smart for a vampire, Penelope. Hopefully you're smart enough to know that I am going to kill your master and all who are with him."

"Why? I mean, you beat up on your friends. Why come after the other side?"

Montoya turned back towards Penelope. A large smile appeared on her face. "It isn't about sides, Penelope. It's about fun. And I'm going to have all the fun I can handle."
"So would you mind telling me what happened here?" the officer asked Network, notebook in hand.

Network looked around and thought hard. "Well, you see," he started. "That guy laying there is, well, dead, and..."

"Looks like he's been dead for a while," the officer interrupted.

Network stared at the officer for a moment. Then looked at the cast on his arm. "Yeah. He's a corpse. I thought it'd be funny to scare a friend of ours and used a corpse to do it. Things got a little out of control and well, it was an accident about the window and the head. I'll be more than glad to pay for it."

The police officer looked up from his notebook. "What about the girl who broke your arm?"

"Oh she didn't break it!" Network jumped up. "I mean, it was already broken, my wrist, and when I went to tell her it was a joke and try and calm her down she accidently grabbed it and it...it snapped again."

"And the lady who was thrown by this friend of yours?"

"Pushed is more like it. My friend was trying to run because she was a little upset and pushed through the crowd. It could be the girl was surprised and lost her footing."

"So how do you explain the dead guy in your lobby?"
Damien walked into the White Room and sat on the floor.

"No sign of Montoya?" Network asked.

Damien shook his head. "I have a cop who saw a woman walking on Kingsbury Street who looked like she was in a fight and stopped to offer help, but she sort of knocked him out."

"Sounds like our girl."

"Yeah," Damien sighed. "How did the police thing go?"

"Well not only do I have to pay for the window Montoya broke, but also a ticket for disturbing the peace and I also have to go to court for grave robbing." Damien raised an eyebrow at Network. "Don't ask."

"And Rick?" Damien asked.

"An explosion in the elevator. Investigators are going to look into it."

Damien put his head between his legs. "I'll miss him, Nate. Rick was a good man."

"Yes, he was. I'll see to it that his wife is taken care of and his son's college is paid for."

Damien said, "We can't keep putting innocent people in the way of this."

"Damien," Network turned to face his friend. "They all are. They just don't know it.
"Xavier was a fool," Penelope said.

The Master looked his servant over. "He was the one who brought me back. Where would you be without him?"

"Master, he would only hinder you. I can serve you much better than he ever did, you know this."

"You presume to tell me what I know, little one?" The Master's voice raged.

"Always were so full of yourself," said a voice from the shadows.

Tiesilead growled, "Who's there."

A man emerged from the shadows. His hair was long and so crimson that it appeared to be black, and it was pulled back into a ponytail. His face was very pale, but he was also very attractive, save for the large and very noticeable scar that cut over his left eye in a starburst shape. Where his eye should be was now just a gaping hole. His clothes looked European, but with a modern-punk flare. He walked with a cane but it was obvious that he didn't need it. His youth was permanent, and he had no limp.

"Come now," the man said with a slight European accent as he walked towards The Master. "Please don't tell me that you forgot your ole pal Rafferty."

THE END