The mysterious shaman and his magical wolves plowed Twitch over like a hurricane. He collapsed to the ground, slashes tinged with magical energy covering his body. The shaman continued the barrage on the prone Twitch, lacerating him from every possible angle. He moved much too fast for Menniker or Raille to help. The shaman then skidded to a halt, his companions disappearing and his magic retreating back into his body. He walked over to where Twitch now lay lifeless in a swelling puddle of his own blood. He turned Twitch over to confirm his kill.
"Not-too-bad," Twitch suddenly said, and thrust his cybernetic fist into the shaman's stomach.
When he finally came to, the shaman was wrapped in duct tape and, inexplicably, bubble wrap. The three runners were standing over him.
"We should kill you," Menniker said, "but Twitch has urged us not to. Instead he insists that we bring you along." The shaman only mumbled his reply.
"Tell us your name," demanded Raille, her former sympathy gone. The shaman looked up, his hair falling from his twisted face, his demented smile still pasted on.
"M' name?" he asked.
"What-people-call-you-when-they-see-you," Twitch replied, maybe sarcastically. The shaman lowered his head again and fell silent. After a few minutes he looked up at the three, his brow furrowed in deep thought, warping strangely around his scar. Finally, his eyes brightened and he squeaked out, with a degree of accomplishment, "Erg!"
"…Are you okay?" Menniker asked.
"Erg!" he replied, "M' name's Erg! P'pul seeses me, I do th' flash thing, they fall down and go, 'erg!'" He said all of this with almost a sense of longing behind his asymmetric eyes.
"Okay, then, Erg. You have two choices. You can join us, or remain bound and eventually die of starvation. What will it be?" said Raille, realizing immediately that starvation was probably an empty threat to this walking skeleton of a boy. Again, Erg went through his complicated process of thinking something over.
"'k. I go with you, no starve, no die," he said. Then he threw off his trappings as easily as if they had wrapped him in tissue paper, and tackled Raille, screaming, "Fren'! I got a fren'!" Raille shoved him off and gagged.
"Okay everyone, let's go inside. We all need to eat, and I think our new dog could use a serious bath."
They all did as commanded and followed Raille into her mother's mansion. The entry hall was humongous. Raille directed the group into the kitchen, and was horrified to witness the Boys, as she had come to call them, immediately begin to eat her out of house and home. She escorted Erg to the shower and was quite surprised to find that he already knew how to use one. She left him to his devices and went to her room. She went to the back of her walk-in closet, opened a secret panel in the wall, and removed what she had come for: her favored black leather suit and her twin gun-knives. She changed, holstered her weapons, and went back downstairs.
The group reunited in the living room, which was the size of a normal house in itself. Twitch had somehow already been cured of his lacerations and was stretched out, watching TV with an energy drink in hand. Menniker was without his coat for the first time since Raille had met him, thus wearing only a tight shirt and some nice slacks. She caught herself staring at his surprisingly hunky frame. Erg was noticeably cleaner. His hair was not a tangled, greasy mess anymore, and instead hung straight and shiny, reaching halfway down his chest. His skin had gained some degree of color, and his teeth gleamed off-white. After a few moments spent in total relaxation, Twitch looked around and said, "Well…should-we-go?"
The group walked outside, and into a massacre.