"Well, that totally sucked." X and Zero were both back at Hunter HQ, trying desperately to get warm. X shivered in his nest of blankets, and sipped a mug of cocoa as Zero spoke. It felt like the chill of the dead had permanently invaded him. Maybe if he took a nap… "That woman was a bitch. I hope Sigma bombs her ass."

"Somehow, I doubt it would make much of a difference." X commented as Zero scowled and gulped his coffee. "Is it just me, or is the world going completely insane?" Zero sighed.

"It's not just you. Remember the look at Signas face when we told him about the ghosts?" X nodded glumly. If it hadn't been for all the other weirdness afflicting the world, Signas would probably have sent them both for checkups and counseling. But all through the world, things were getting really weird. The Hunters had already been called out several times to deal with Mavericks who turned out to be not really Mavericks. X tried in vain to forget about the blob incident. No one was quite sure what it had been, but it had started in a school and devoured several students, a teacher, and severely injured two Hunters before they'd found a weapon that would work on it. Which had involved water guns filled with a solution of salts taken from the chemistry class. One of the students had come up with it. Given the organic nature of the residue, after the monster had shriveled, they doubted it had been Sigma's work. What it had been was open for speculation.

The only real plus side to all the bizarre activity was that, according to their informants, the Mavericks were suffering just as much as anyone else. To everyone's confusion, Sigma had assaulted one of his own facilities to rid it of… something. Or maybe someone. Mavericks didn't seem to be immune to the changing effects many humans and Reploids were experiencing, and X had no idea what effect that would have on the Maverick virus. Although… the fact that the Mavericks were also being targeted made finding an explanation for all the events much harder. There was only one person…

"We need to find Axl." X said, sipping his cocoa. Zero shrugged.

"Alia's on the lookout, and we've got every police force in the country keeping their eyes peeled. We'll find him sooner or later. Hey, I'm starting to feel warmer." Zero said. X nodded… the cocoa was finally thawing the chilly feeling in his guts, too.

"Me too. I hope she finds him soon, though." X wanted an explanation.

"God, Azak! Can you drive at all?" Axl complained, then gagged as the car jerked to stop so sharply, the cross-body seat strap dug into his neck.

"I said I could drive manual. I didn't say I was good at it. I got the knowledge from Domina, remember?" Azak grumbled, shifting gears. The car suddenly jerked into a higher speed. "There." There was a loud clanking sound, and the car bounced as it hit a bump in the road.

"Ugh. I hate Rent-a-Wreck. Remind me to do something nasty to them." Axl muttered, then winced as Tip landed on his head.

"Curse their urinals with eternal stench?" She suggested brightly, and Axl grinned.

"I would, but I bet it'd be redundant. How about some magical graffiti? Guaranteed not to be wiped off by anything except actual explosives."

"Now you sound like a cheesy commercial." Pip commented, joining Tip on Axl's head. That was a bit too much for him, and he shook them off. They fluttered down onto the dash. "So where exactly are we going again?" Axl grimaced, and pulled out a leather thong he was wearing around his neck.

"Wherever the stone takes us." Tip and Pip both averted their eyes from the item swinging from the cord, and Axl could hardly blame them. As magical creatures, they were even more vulnerable to it then he was.

Anyone watching would have been quite puzzled, though. The stone dangling from the leather necklace looked like nothing more than a faceted crystal. Very nicely faceted into a ball, with perhaps ten sides, it was large and looked expensive, like a rather fine piece of Swarovski crystal. A watcher's puzzlement might have turned to alarm, though, when they gazed inside it. At first, a watcher would catch glimpses of their own past, strange visions and reflections that were sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange, and always entrancing. Eventually, though, they would become aware of something else… something that was looking out at them even as they looked at it. The more sensitive would feel the alien force and terrible malice of that regard. One of Axl's followers had stumbled over the pendant almost by accident, and they had all been horrified that someone would make jewelry that deliberately created a view into a plane of lesser reality.

Axl closed his hand over the pendant, feeling the throb of the seeking spell he had placed on it, and considered the nature of reality. Everyone on Earth lived in a four dimensional universe. But above and below that were other planes of existence. The higher planes had more dimensions, more reality, so when they intruded onto a lower one they could be obscenely dangerous. However, for a higher being to intrude onto a lower plane, it had to suffer with a loss of it's familiar reality. Not many would subject themselves to that. Lower beings, on the other hand, were a different matter. The lower dimensions lacked the reality that made individual life possible, and lacked the most important dimension of the material world… time. They only existed, beneath the radar of the world, like a scummy pond residue. The entities that existed there… not lived, nothing could really live without time… craved the reality that was denied to them, and would try to break through any weak point they could find. They were constantly watching, and hated every living thing, from the tiniest bacteria on up, for having the reality they didn't. That was what made the pendants so dangerous.

And some idiot was making them, which had led Axl to rent a car and start cruising. He'd narrowed down the maker to this city, but something was messing with his detection spell. He'd have to be almost on top of it before the spell signaled-

Axl suddenly felt a warmth in his palm, and a tug. "Here! Pull in here." Azak immediately started shifting gears again, and Axl winced as a car behind them honked. But they managed to pull in without incident.

"A shopping mall?" Tip said dubiously, fluttering up on her milkweed down wings to get a better look. Pip followed, his butterfly wings fluttering energetically.

"A really ugly mall. Are you sure this is it, boss?" Axl grinned at Pip, as Azak looked disgusted. The little faeries were adapting quickly to the modern world, and had taken to calling Axl boss. He really preferred that to being called Master, but many of the others were a bit inflexible on that point.

"Definitely, Pip. And it makes sense… where else would you buy crystal shtick?" That stumped the faeries, who fluttered over onto his shoulders. Axl unbuckled himself, and got out of the car. "Let's see what's going on."

They noticed something before they even made it out of the parking lot.

"Hey, Tip, look at that!"

"What? It's a fake pixie dashboard ornament."

"Look closer."

"…Eww. It's not fake, it's stuffed." Axl blinked and turned to look at that, seeing the gilded and shellacked little pixie hanging from the rearview mirror of a minivan. With its insect wings spread wide, it actually made a very pretty ornament. If you ignored the expression on the tiny face. "That must have hurt."

"Yick." Axl grimaced, shaking his head. Pixies were basically the vermin of the faery world, so the two faeries were only grossed out, not horrified. Still, it was a pretty disgusting way to use a pixie. "Want to bet someone bought that from the same place as the pendant?" Tip and Azak both looked grim, but Pip perked up.

"I wonder what else they got? Ow, hey, no hitting! I hate pixies, okay?" Pip defended himself from Tip, and they both fluttered off Axl's shoulder, attracting a few strange looks from people entering the mall. Or maybe it was Azak. Even in street clothes, the red-eyed giant did tend to stand out. Axl was also in a t-shirt and blue jeans, looking like plenty of other teenage boys. He'd found that with all the people looking for him, hiding in plain sight was sometimes the best tactic. A very minor disguise spell hid the scars on his face.

Walking into the mall, they began a meandering tour of the concourse, getting a feel for the reality of the mall. It still felt solid, pretty much, but there were some intriguing anomalies.

"That doll MUST be magical. Should we mention it to the sales girl?" Axl murmured to Azak, who looked over with a frown. The porcelain doll in question was in the display case of a shop devoted to the Dalton porcelain company, but it surely hadn't been made by it. With their mystical abilities, Azak and the faeries easily penetrated the glamour that was supposed to make it go unnoticed.

"Is that really a porcelain figure of a dirty old man wearing a raincoat?" Azak finally asked after a few minutes of steady regard. Tip and Pip both giggled, heartily amused.

"Looks like. Eh, forget about it." Axl turned away, shaking his head. Someone else could deal with it, if they cared to.

Eventually, they found the shop they were looking for.

"Very kitschy." Axl said, looking over the merchandise. "If you ignore all the spells." Someone had obviously got ahold of a pretty expansive repertoire, and was using it to make money. Probably quite a lot of money. The girl at the cash register was watching them with a frown. Axl ignored her, and with a wave of his hand, triggered almost a half dozen spells. Her mouth fell open when all the little frogs in the display started to dance and sing. Alas, they were singing several different songs. The resulting cacophony made everyone wince.

"How did you do that? You've got to say the right word." She said accusingly, and Axl tilted his head.

"You mean the magic word?" He said disingenuously, smiling at her.

"No, dumbass." Axl blinked… that was a new approach to customer service. "The word that triggers the voice receptors, duh."

"Oh." Axl restrained himself from rolling his eyes, although it was hard. He could see where this was going. In a time of high technology, that was what people believed in. It was really outright impossible to make little, animated frog robots… the way they danced, jumping, really would require robotics… fit them with vocal receptors, and sell them for… Axl checked the price. Twenty bucks. Yeah, right. Of course, maybe he shouldn't complain. The only reason Tip and Pip could go around in public was the exact same blindness. Most people assumed they were robots.

"Stop playing with those stupid things, boss! I've got the big stuff back here." Pip flew back from where he had been investigating the back of the store. Azak set down a pewter skull goblet, and followed as Axl walked towards the faeries.

They had indeed found what they were looking for. Hanging up in a display of jewelry were dozens of the pendants, with different color crystals. Axl picked one up, staring into it intently for a moment then dropping it with a shudder. It was definitely like the one he already had.

"Is the owner in?" Axl asked the salesgirl politely. She scowled at him.

"If you need something, I can help you." She said stubbornly, and Axl held up his crystal.

"I just want to ask him a few questions about this, if you could get him for me." Azak lent weight to Axl's request by leaning against the counter and smiling at her. Human face or not, his teeth were still distinctly trollish, and the girl paled before scowling and stalking off. Axl could almost read her thoughts… a very loud, 'I'm not getting paid enough for this.'

The human man who came out a moment later made Axl's guns itch. He'd hoped the person making and selling the pendants would turn out to be just an innocent idiot, but it was clear his hopes were not answered. This moon faced, middle-aged man almost radiated decay to Axl's senses. Well, his magical senses. Tip and Pip both fluttered back, very uncomfortable, and alighted on a fragile display of ceramic castles. Axl took a deep breath, and glanced at Azak. The presence of the huge troll hybrid was reassuring.

"Can I help you?" The man asked with a smile, proving that whatever abilities he'd been gifted with, aura sensing was not one of them. Axl gave him a pleasant smile, although he desperately wanted to just shoot him in the heart. But since no one else could sense what he could, that would be difficult to explain, although it might be inevitable.

"After a fashion." Axl held out his pendant, and met the owners eyes in a level stare. "This is very cute. But don't you think it's a touch foolish? Once they get through, they won't have any use for you." The smile drained off the mans face, until the look he was giving Axl was completely blank.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Axl's eyes narrowed at that quiet reply, and with a flick of power and a mental command, the stone in his hand crumpled to dust. Tip and Pip fluttered off their perch, landing on Axl's shoulders, and the man's eyes flickered to them then back to Axl. The salesgirl was standing behind him, interested in the conversation.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Axl said, just as quietly… but with a definite undertone of threat. "And who your masters are. This stops now, understand?" The man regarded him for a moment, then bobbed his head with a smile.

"Boss? Should I call the cops?" The salesgirl said nervously. The man shook his head, turning towards her.

"I think we can handle this without their help, Kimberly," he said mildly, and Axl suddenly drew his gun as he caught the glitter of a knife in his hand. But that was the wrong reaction, because the shop owner wasn't going for him… he sliced open the salesgirl's neck in one smooth move. Her mouth opened in an 'o' of surprise, and she gripped the spurting wound as she crumpled to the ground. Axl shot the man, without remorse, wincing slightly at the smell of burnt meat and less savory things.

Then everything went to hell.

X, Zero, we're picking up a massive energy reading in Calgary. The co-ordinates are… X listened intently as Alia gave them the co-ordinates. There are police on site, and they have spotted Axl.

"Really? That's great! What else have they said about the situation?"

Ah… nothing intelligible. The reports don't agree on anything except Axl's presence and the fact that there have been several deaths. The police are urgently requesting assistance.

"We'll be right there." Zero cut in, and teleported out. X followed a second later.

"Did we get the right place?" X looked around dubiously. They were in the food court of the mall, and while it was strangely deserted, there didn't seem to be any mayhem or strange events going on.

"Hmm." Zero stole a drumstick from someone's abandoned KFC meal, and munched as he purposefully left the food court. "It's noon on a Saturday, X, and the food court's empty. This is the right place. I bet the trouble's just moved along with the people." They both heard the crack of several pistols, the whine of a laser rifle, and the staccato firing of Axl's guns. "Ahh, this way!" They both heard a familiar scream, and dashed towards it.

When they reached the trouble, it was going full swing. Something that looked like a giant squid was half in, half out of the pet store. It had Axl's feet wrapped up in one tentacle, and was swinging him around in a random way. A huge man with bright red eyes, black and blue armor and a giant axe tried to chop off the tentacle, and narrowly missed decapitating his friend. Then the squid managed to swing Axl back and use him to club the man, who went down hard. A police officer fired a shot at the monster, but it didn't seem to do much good.

"If this weren't so serious, I'd say we should get pictures." Zero dashed forward, and tried to severe the tentacle with his beam saber… and nearly got clubbed with Axl. "Woah! This thing is faster than it looks- AUGH!" Two tentacles managed to grab his legs, and tried to hoist him up… then recoiled as he slashed one apart with his beam saber. "Ha! Take tha- OW!" The second tentacle dropped him unceremoniously to the floor, and X fired a shot into the creature, which made a high pitched squealing sound and threw Axl at a surprised X. Axl hit with a stupendous crash, knocking them both to the ground. X managed to sit up, wincing, the spiky haired kid in his arms… Axl was limp, sick and dizzy from his ordeal.

"I'm never going to eat calamari again as long as I live…" Axl said groggily, then squinted at X. "X? What are you doing here?"

"We've been watching for you, Axl," X said gently, smoothing back Axl's hair. He was in his armor, but he'd lost his helmet somewhere… probably from being tossed around and used like a piñata. "And no one could miss the commotion here."

"Oh… right." Axl turned to watch the fight in progress. Zero and Azak were getting the upper hand over the squid beast, chopping and slashing. Axl relaxed, settling against X… his guns hadn't worked well anyway, and he was feeling a bit too nauseous to start searching through his DNA archives for something that would work, when his friends had the situation well in hand. X was willing to leave it to Zero, as well, so he could use the opportunity to talk to Axl.

"Axl, when we're done with that thing you HAVE to come back to HQ with us." X said in a firm, no-nonsense tone of voice. "We need to know what's going on." Axl looked up at him wide eyed, but for a reason X wasn't expecting.

"When the squid is dead? But there are a whole bunch more, X!" X stared at Axl, his heart sinking.

"What do you mean? More squid things?" Considering how much of a pain it was to kill, that was the last thing he wanted to hear. But Axl shook his head.

"Not squids. The asshole who started all this seeded weird things through the whole mall. Some are trapped in stores like the squid, and some are roving around. We were going to hit the Body Shop next."

"What's in the Body Shop?" X asked, although he was pretty sure he didn't want to know. Axl shrugged.

"We don't know, but when the police tried to get in it threw body parts at them. Human and Reploid, both." X blanched. Body shop… body parts…

"Axl, that's… that's twisted."

"Tell me about it!" Axl pushed himself to his feet with a sigh. "This whole thing is twisted. And I can't use magic at ALL or I'll only make things worse." The strain current events were placing on reality was almost intolerable. Axl was betting that the powers in the lower dimensions were hoping to incite him into using his magic so they could break in. Being a powerful wizard-lord wasn't much use when you couldn't use it at all. But then, that was why he had DNA copying.

"Magic?" X questioned, then shook his head. "Nevermind, let's discuss it later. I think they're done with the squid." The pet store was covered in purple goo, and so were Zero and Azak. Azak had come up with the idea of rinsing off in the mall fountain, and Zero had decided it was a grand notion. They were discussing something as they washed. "Let's go." X helped Axl up, and he wavered, but managed to stay upright.

"Boss!" X's eyes widened as a… faerie…? Fluttered down from the upper level and landed on Axl's shoulder. "All the plushies from the toy store are rampaging through the Bay! They've got a bunch of people trapped in the furniture section!"

"Oh… blast." Axl looked over at the escalator, weighing priorities. Whatever was in the Body Shop was probably a lot deadlier than plushies. On the other hand, there was no one trapped in the Body Shop… no one alive, anyway. "Okay, to the Bay!" Axl dashed up the escalator, with X close behind and Zero and Azak belatedly following.

They had people to save.