Chapter six! Only...1,2,3, 4 more chapters until chapter ten! I'd like to thank you all for your ideas and all who reviewed the last chapter, which was particularly long. I'd also like to thank those of you who reviewed my other story 'a cat, a dog and a goldfish bowl' my other story, which is in the books section under Garth Nix, if you'd like to read it. Anyway, on with chapter six!

Chapter 6

A City Destroyed

The porthole ride wasn't too bad. Well, not for Z, having already gone through several portholes in his journey. Lirael wasn't so comfortable with it. "Charter help me." She moaned as the porthole violently tossed her out of its depths. Z followed after, smartly stepping from the porthole as if his atoms hadn't just been torn apart.
That wasn't so bad." He said brightly, drawing his pistols. "Speak for yourself." Said Lirael, rubbing her head. "Where are we?" "I don't know." He took a look around. Houses, well, more slums than houses, were squashed in rows down a long narrow street. Z grimaced. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in Victorian England." He muttered to himself.
Lirael heard. "How do you know we're not?" Z pointed down the street. "For one thing, the pedestrians aren't human. They're ears are to long." Then he pointed to the sky, below the rising sun. "And that tower, there's nothing like that in England. Oh and the obvious one. The flying vehicles."
He glanced above them and to Lirael's astonishment a large hulk of painted metal flew above them. She'd never even seen a car. "Hover Cars!" Z smiled. It had been so long since he'd smiled. "So where are we?" Asked Lirael, still gazing at the wonderful vehicles above her.
"Haven City." (Haven City is the main area (or hub) of the game Jak II Renegade for the PS2)
Z looked to his left, an abandoned Hover Car lay at the roadside. A slow smile spread across his features. "I'm going." He said to Lirael. "Where to?" "To anywhere where I can get shelter. Or, even better, a way out of this place. You coming?" Lirael stared at him. "Do I have a choice? Stay here and die, or come with you, the ruthless hostage taker."
"Okay. Hold tight, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Z slid into the cockpit of the machine and started the engine, the aircraft whirring into life. Quickly Lirael climbed in, afraid of being left alone. Alone, like she always had been. Until now...
Z did not wait any longer, pulling back the acceleration handles; he grabbed the steering device, pushing the aircraft up to full power. The ground sped along behind them as the craft gained speed and height. Z loved flying. Now he was flying once more, twenty-four hours earlier he had thought he might never have the chance to do it again.
He hit the turbo stick, pulling it back violently. "AHH!" Screamed Lirael, her breath taken by the rushing wind. "Your going to get us killed!" "Oh, pipe down!" Laughed Z.
Suddenly the craft lurched forwards, hit by the vehicle behind it. "MOVE!" Shouted the man from his hover car. "Get out of the way! Don't you know what's happening?"
The smile vanished from Z's face. "What? What is it?" "It's the Metalheads! They've punctured the cities gas tanks!" "How long have we got?" "Ten minutes at the most!" Roared the man as his hovercraft sped by.
Z slammed the turbo stick as far as it would go, racing on through the city. It was a huge city, a massive place, but Z could already see great plumes of gas and explosions going on as gas met fire. The Metalheads were destroying the city! But why? They weren't supposed to. There had to be a greater evil behind all this...
The craft raced on and then, totally without warning, a terrible screech rang out, a scorching red laser hitting the back of their hover car. "We're being attacked!" Screamed Z, hitting the turbo. "And this damn ship has no weapons! Curse it!" Another laser scraped their craft, almost spinning it.
Z looked behind him. Two men were piloting a very small craft, with a very large laser cannon. He gasped. The men! Their armour, their masks, the same gang who had attacked him twice back in Blitzen City! They were still following him! Hunting him...
Z spun the craft quickly, instantaneously reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small velvet bag. "Lirael! Take these!" "What are they?" She asked, gasping as they missing crashing into a neon sign post by a centimetre. "Stones." "Why do you keep a pouch of stones?" "You'll see why in a minute. Now, follow my instructions, when I say, drop the bag's contents out of the craft. Got it?" "Okay." Lirael wasn't sure what a few stones would do, but if Z wanted her to do it she'd just have to do it.
Z waited, steering the craft onto a long, straight road. "NOW!" He roared. Lirael opened the bag, and threw it out the hover car, the stones fell, catching the immense wind they rushed behind their hovercraft. The stones hurtled backwards, picking up speed and momentum and soaring into the enemy craft.
The first stones smashed the craft's windscreen, the next knocked out the pilot and the last few punctured the craft's metal and got stuck in the engine, jamming it up. The other man tried to take control, but the engine gave up and the car smashed into a nearby building, disappearing in smoke and flames. "Wow!" Gasped Lirael. "I always carry a few stones when I'm flying. Just in case."
There was a huge explosion behind them. Z turned to see half of Haven City in flames, the gas had nearly reached them and where there was gas, there was fire.
Z pumped the turbo stick, dodging a passing police craft. By his estimate they had less than three minutes before the entire city was consumed. This would take some nifty flying.
Z dodged the traffic ahead, choosing a quicker route across the rooftop of a flaming building. He could see the Wastelands ahead, safety from the fire and smoke. Ahead of them were the Wasteland gates. Why was there traffic there? Oh God, thought Z, the gates are shut; we're locked in the city! The Crimson Guard were heaving at the gate, but it wouldn't budge. Fire had consumed the control room and there was no way to get it open.
"Okay." Said Z. "The only way out is the gate, but its locked so we're going to have to take a bit of a detour." "This dosen't involve breaking the cities deflector shield does it?" Asked Lirael. "Er, well, yes actually." "But we don't have weapons!" "There might be another way. Hold on tight."
Z flew towards the shield, a huge protective dome, which covered the entire city. He looked around; two massive control panels seemed to generate the shield, if he could only destroy them...
Z flew closer, no further than a metre from the shield. "What are you doing?" Screamed Lirael in a mixture of puzzlement and fear. "Your going to get us killed! We'll fry alive if you touch that!" "Lirael?" "What?" "Shut up."
Okay, thought Z, only ten feet to the first control panel. He plucked a Concusser Grenade from his belt. Five feet. He pulled the pin out. Three feet. He threw it. Perfect! The grenade spiralled threw the air, landing wedged between two large switches.
Z surged his craft forward, the control panel exploding behind them. Flames from the city were rising now, licking their vehicle, smoke billowing out from below making it hard for Z to see where they were headed.
The deflector shield flickered at the destruction of the first control panel, shutting of for a few seconds, which was more than enough to allow Z to send the craft flying through, out of the city, Lirael screaming all the way.
Their ship flew down into the Wastelands, skimming the surface of the sand. "Phew!" Z breathed, smiling again. "That was a close one! Lirael? Lirael?"
Lirael looked up at Z from the backseat of the craft, where force of their landing had knocked her. "Oh, so you're a backseat girl are you?" Laughed Z. "Lets see what's on the radio..." Z fumbled with the knobs until he got a good reception. Foreigner was on. "Yeah! Foreigner!" Z turned up the volume to full power.
'Click' the radio stopped. It took a moment for Lirael to realise Z had turned it of. "Why did you..." Then she saw. Ahead of them lay the huge city of the Waste Landers, but it was burning. Metalheads attacking it from every direction, carcases lay everywhere, men fighting the terrible beasts.
"Metalheads here to?" No. Not just Metalheads. Worse. Over the hill Z could see something coming, spears rising over the horizon, swords and horses, goblins and men astride them, riding into battle with a terrible cry. An army of what must have been over ten thousand fighters. They poured down the hill like water from a jug, charging full on into the city, their terrible battle song ringing out.
Then the sky rained arrows. "Duck!" Shouted Z above the cry. Z and Lirael stopped the ship, jumping under it as arrows fell like rain, puncturing the ships gas tank and rendering it useless.
Ahead of them a large golden ball of light appeared. "A porthole! Get to it!" Screamed Z, running forwards despite the arrows. Lirael followed, grabbing his hand, for a moment Z contemplated casting her a dirty look, but there was no time for that. The porthole was closing and a group of Dark Warriors had seen them and where now charging towards them.

Z pulled out a pistol with his free hand, shooting a Dark Warrior of his horse. "We're not going to make it!" Screamed Lirael. "Hold on tight!" Said Z. "Jump!" They dived forwards together, disappearing in a burst of light as they were taken into the porthole.

The porthole spat them out on the shore of a tiny beach, forest to one side, a mighty river to the other. They landed in a rather embarrassing position. "Oh! Er, very sorry..." Said Z, brushing himself down. "No problem." Said Lirael, blushing deeply. There was a loud screech from behind them, Z whipped round, drawing his other pistol.
A large eagle was flying towards them, a very large eagle, about three times the size of a normal one. The Giant Eagle landed beside Z. "For you." He said bluntly, dropping a piece of parchment at Z's feet. Z opened it, reading aloud.
"Dear Z.
Writing this letter is your safe, if shaken, friend Daz. I am heading to a place called Abhorsen's House and I would like to ask you to meet me there, as I have some very important information. I am sure you know it, please by there, if you can, in three days.
I am heading there myself, where I hope we shall meet again.
Yours faithfully,
Daz."
"So we're going to Abhorsen's House?" Asked Lirael. "Yes." "How long will it take?" "Not long. We're halfway there already." Said Z. "You know where we are?" "Yup. We're on the shore of the great river Ratterlin. Abhorsen's house is not far from here."
"Then lets go!" Said Lirael confidently, even though she was more than a little weary. "Okay. Lets go." Said Z.

Back in Dark Land Daz himself was to about to leave... "This way." Hissed the Mickey creature. "You sent the letter I trust?" "Yes." Daz replied blankly. "As the Master commanded." "Good, now, come this way, you must leave for Abhorsen's House immediately." "How am I to get there?" "By Paperwing." Said the creature, leading Daz to what appeared to be an extremely large hanger.
The hanger was a large metal structure, which protruded from the side of the Mulldack's palace. A tiny dot in the side of the massive building.
The Paperwing sat at the front of the hanger, a large eagle like craft solely made up of paper and magic. As Daz past the bird's face he even thought it winked at him. "Now, get inside." Said the Mickey thing. "The Paperwing will go by itself, you will need to do nothing at all. Also you will have an escort of Gore Crows, just in case you come under attack."
Daz sat inside the Paperwing as it cascaded down the hanger, bounding into the open air, the wind pushed his hair back, stinging his eyes, but he did not care, he sat emotionless, staring into the sky ahead. As he left, his escort of around three to four hundred Gore Crows appeared before him (Gore Crows are featured in the Abhorsen trilogy of books. They are basically dead crows, infused with the fragment of a dead spirit by a Necromancer to make them obey him. They are harmless alone, though can be used as spies, but deadly in flocks) swarming round his Paperwing in a protective motion.
And so Daz began his journey to Abhorsen's House, his Paperwing a tiny red dot amongst a massive, swirling black cloud. Daz looked behind him at the Mulldack's palace, a black monstrosity against the forever-setting sun.

And the sixth chapter meets its end! Even more mysteries rising from the dark cloud that is my demented brain, full of what appears to be evil and dust. Evil is winning! Shock, horror! What will the good side do to prevent the Mulldack from seizing victory? And where the hell is that bloody Crystal Element everyone is talking about? More mysteries unravelled next chapter! Wow! Chapter seven? Only a little way to go till chapter ten! And remember, keep reviewing!
Z