Old Friends

Part 4

Rich's miracle came in the form of a disembodied, genteel-sounding voice.

"Hello? Your minds are reading agitated. Are you quite alright?"

Rich looked around confusedly as he made for the tree-line. He didn't see Jeremy anywhere.

"Jeremy! Where are you man? I can't see you. Well whatever- we need help, we got Adrian out but your two agents are dead, and we are being chased. Any help you can send us would be wonderful."

Rich stayed behind Hal, who was supporting Adrian. Adrian had woken up during their run uphill; Hal was able to get him to at least walk quickly beside him. It was better than carrying him. In front of Hal was Collin. Rich supposed it was something of an unspoken agreement that they had to protect Hal since it would be hard for him to protect himself while supporting their other roommate.

Rich glanced over his shoulder, watching the 3 gigantic machines following him. One of them stopped, and raised a large metal arm that ended in a missile launcher instead of a hand.

Rich thought he could see red lights blinking in the "head" of the metal man. Targeting? Not good.

"Jeremy, if you can hear me, now would be an excellent time to-".

"Get to the tree line' Jeremy's voice said, though Rich couldn't even figure out what direction it came from. Was he talking in Rich's head?

"I'll have Michael open a portal for you there, but you'll need cover before you enter it."

"Listen, Hal" Rich began. But Hal cut him off.

"Yeah we got it Rich. Jeremy spoke to all of us."

"I suggest you hurry, then." Rich said, glancing worriedly over his shoulder.

Fortunately for them, the machines behind them seemed to have considerable trouble traversing the hill up to the tree line. Rich, Hal and crew made it with plenty of time to spare. They stepped through the silver oval hanging in the air, and into the open area in front of Michael's desk in the Library.

Jeremy was standing beside Michael's desk, looking the most agitated Rich had ever seen him.

That is to say- he looked mildly worried.

Hal was halfway through his story when Jeremiah cut him off.

"Michael" Jeremy said sharply, "Why isn't that portal closed?"

Rich turned to look over his shoulder. The portal was still there. Rich could see the forest where they had just been through the slit. And there was a large metallic figure moving towards them in a hurry.

Rich whipped his head back around to stare at Michael, who was tapping furiously at the half dozen monitors arrayed in front of him.

"I totally don't know man" Michael said, sounding anxious, "it's not workin' for some reason, I think some dude must be blockin' me."

Rich glanced around the room they were in. The chairs were all empty, there was no one else in the room any more except for them. And Rich did not think they could handle something like that. Where was everyone anyway?

"Oh SHIT" exclaimed Hal as he noticed the figure heading for them.

"He doesn't look happy". Collin muttered, half heartedly.

The figure lumbered through the gateway and into the Library. It only stood about seven feet tall, but it was still massive. The whole thing was a metallic blue color, and it looked heavily armored. The right arm ended in a muzzle of some sort, and the left hand was holding what looked like a giant silver mace.

As the thing stepped into the room, the tile floor beneath it cracked slightly from the weight.

Collin and Rich took several steps backwards, and scooted behind Michael's desk. Adrian already was seated at another desk, looking wild and confused. Michael was still doing something to his computer screens, and frowning. The music blaring out of his headphones wasn't turned down any though.

The machine stopped after it ducked through the portal. Its head swiveled to the right, and Rich could see what looked like a white reticule blinking in the thing's visor. It seemed to be staring at the far right wall and scanning to the left. When it reached the giant wood door to the library it stopped. Rich thought he saw the reticule turn red.

"Hey, idiot!" Hal said, pointing a finger at the metal giant. "Get the hell out of here!".

Rich looked towards Hal in surprise. He hadn't moved an inch from where he was before. He stood only a few feet from the thing that had come in the portal. And on top of that, he was yelling at it. Did he have a death wish?

Rich got an itching feeling in the back of his mind. Was someone missing? He looked around. He didn't see Jeremy. Where had he gone? He didn't run away did he? That would be very bad.

Rich's attention was turned back to the thing in front of him, as it continued staring at the library door.

What was it doing?

Other than swiveling its head, the thing still hadn't moved an inch.

Jeremy emerged from the library door just then, juggling at least half a dozen gigantic books in his arms. He calmly laid them down on an empty table, opened one, and began skimming it with a finger.

Rich saw Hal turn towards Jeremy.

"You're reading BOOKS?!" Hal yelled at him, outraged. "What the hell?"

Jeremy ignored him. By his reaction, you'd think Hal hadn't spoken at all.

Rich was about to say something to Jeremy, when he noticed Adrian marching by him to stand in front of Hal.

"Listen" he began, addressing the metallic blue armor, "I've got no clue what's going on, but I'm guessing it's YOUR fault. So get OUT." Adrian raised his fists.

Rich sighed. He was almost as foolhardy as Hal.

The head turned down slightly to regard this newcomer. Then it raised its left hand and backhanded Adrian across the chest, the force sending him up at a dramatic angle and across the room. Adrian soared through empty space, and crashed into the sparring mats in the back. The armor then turned and flung its giant mace into the far left wall. It lodged there, stuck in the cement.

Fury warped Hal's features, and he walked forward, his amulet clasped around his right hand. The thing turned towards Hal, and lowered that right arm with the cannon on the end. It was now pointed directly at Hal, point blank.

But before anything else could happen, Rich heard loud, strangely resonant words from behind him. He turned.

It was Jeremiah. He was calmly walking towards the metal machine in front of the portal. In his arms was a massive open book, which he was reading from. It was in some language Rich didn't recognize. It sounded high and lilting and soft. Was this the angel language Dan had told him about?

Jeremy continued his slow walk forward, the words tumbling over themselves in the air. For such a soft sounding tongue, it sounded so powerful somehow. It was as if the ancients were all speaking, in a chorus, behind Jeremy's every syllable.

Suddenly Rich felt a strong breeze blow through his hair. The clothes of everyone in the room began flapping in it. And then a whirl of sand leapt out of Jeremy's book, expanding outward as it emerged. It hung in front of him for a moment, spinning round like a tornado of sand. Then it jumped forward and ripped straight into the armor in front of the portal.

For several seconds Rich couldn't see that metal thing in front of him at all. It was completely wrapped in swirling sand. Then he saw pieces of metal being torn outward in a circle from the machine. Sand swirling at several hundred miles an hour was tearing through the thing and ripping it clean.

After nearly a minute of this, the wind abated and the sand dropped, seeming to disappear. The figure fell backwards, pieces of blue metal littered the floor all around him and throughout the room.

Rich realized now that the figure was actually a man. He had been wearing the armor, it wasn't an empty machine. Most of his armor was gone now, especially the plates on his chest, his arms, and his helmet. Even his clothes were little more than torn rags, and Rich could see a hundred tiny scratches on his bare chest.

He was pretty huge, even without his armor. He had dark skin, and-

Rich's thoughts were interrupted in a big way when the man stood up. His jaw dropped.

The helmet fell off the man's head as he stood up, since it had been so damaged. He paused as he regained his feet, and looked at all of them.

Silence reigned supreme in the room.

It was Derek.

Their old roommate. He was the one who had attacked them. From a technocrat camp.

Blood dripped down Derek's face from cuts on his forehead as he regarded his old friends.

"You have no IDEA what you've gotten yourselves into." Derek Cho said, in his gruff voice. Then he turned and jumped back through the portal.

"DEREK" Hal growled loudly, making his way for the portal. But before he got there, the portal winked out of existence. Everyone swiveled to stare at Michael.

"YEAH! I got it!" Michael shouted in exultation. He was standing up, his head phones around his neck, blinking wires hanging from his hip, a bead of sweat on his forehead. But he did look pretty excited for his achievement.

"DAMNIT" Hal said, as he punched the ground in frustration.

Jeremy went over to Michael's terminal, and they quickly became engaged in an intense discussion about what went wrong.

The three roommates just sat there for a moment, staring at one another. None of them knew what to say. Derek was alive. And he was working for the Technocracy.

Collin was the first to break the silence. He tilted his head to one side and put a finger to his ear. A curious expression moved over his features.

"Does anyone else hear that beeping?" he asked.

Rich listened. He was right. There was a repeating high pitched noise coming from nearby. He scanned the room quickly. He couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

They spread out and searched the room. Rich went to the back near the sparring mats. Adrian was still there, shaking his head. Rich checked to make sure he was alright, and then continued searching. What could it possibly be? Had Derek left something behind?

After a few more minutes of fruitless searching, it hit him.

The mace. Of course. It was still stuck in the far left wall. Rich ran to it and gripped the handle experimentally. It was stuck fast.

"Over here!" Rich shouted, as he began pulling it as hard as he could. No luck.

Then Hal was there, and he pushed Rich out of the way roughly.

"Move" was all he said. He was clearly still very angry about Derek.

Collin and Adrian appeared over Rich's shoulder.

"Is it a bomb?" asked Collin nervously.

No one responded. It was a stupid question after all. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Wordlessly Adrian stepped past Rich and began trying to loosen the cracked cement the weapon was lodged in so Hal could pull it out.

After five minutes of very little progress on the part of Hal and Adrian, the duration of the beeping grew shorter, and sounded more insistent. Nervously, Rich and Collin stepped back

Hal was practically frothing at the mouth now as he pulled at the handle 'til his face turned red.

"Maybe we should-" Rich started to say, but a voice behind him cut him off.

"What are you doing?" Jeremiah inquired from across the room, his voice sounding slightly edgy.

Abruptly the beeping stopped. Collin and Rich looked at each other, and then immediately ran and dove as far as they could, practically in tandem.

Rich looked up from his prone position behind a desk as Jeremiah sprinted across the room, waving an amulet in the air.

That was when Rich heard the deafening explosion, and felt intense heat wash over his body.

Rich and Collin left the apartment together to go visit Hal and Adrian at the hospital 2 weeks later . Rich shook his head as they approached the room his roommates were in. Hal and Adrian had made up a story about them playing with canisters of gasoline

Poor Adrian. This was not a great introduction to the House of Hermes. They had been lucky that Jeremiah had got close enough to shield them from at least some of the heat and force from the explosion. Otherwise they would have been killed. As it was they would be in the hospital for a few weeks. Not to mention the huge hole in the wall and ceiling of the Library's office room.

The medics at the Library had said that messing anymore with their Pattern (meaning the use of magic for healing) would be dangerous at that moment, since they had both already been changing themselves so much that day. They were already sore from those little cuts they came back with every day when using magic outside the chantry.

The strange thing was, even though Adrian was bewildered with everything that had happened to him, he still was always asking Rich and Collin many questions about Hermes. And especially about what the Chameleon had done while Adrian was unconscious in the Technocrat lab. Adrian claimed that he didn't remember anything about the entire episode.

As Collin and Rich entered, Hal and Corey sat up in their beds and greeted them. After a little small talk, there was an awkward silence.

Collin looked around the room, at the two injured roommates. He sighed loudly and stretched his arms behind his back. The devious smile on his face betrayed the farce, and told Rich what was coming.

'Whelp" Collin said from beside Hal's bed, "At least we found Derek". By looking at Hal's face, Rich knew Collin was lucky Hal couldn't move.