Hm, this is a difficult chapter and I'm probably playing with fire here. I hope you'll stick with me till the end.

Chapter 4
Awakening

The rays of the morning sun forced their way through the thick layers of fog clinging to the sides of the mountain range when a large convoy of military trucks was following the dirt road at its foot, leaving deep grooves in the by the last days' rain soggy made ground.

The further the convoy advanced into the mountains, the worse became the condition of the roads. Brushwood overgrowing the path and deep potholes were no scarcity, and Sean and his comrades were thouroughly joggled about the truck.

Among the passengers in the truck were also six children, five girls and one boy, all pale and unrested looking. Valkyries, how they called them, their key to the gates of Valhall. Of course he had heard about them, the numerous stories that were told among the troops, but it had not been until last week that he had actually seen one. And he had been surprised to learn that there were also boys among them. They would not be able to serve as Valkyries as such, but it was anticipated that they would prove themselves to be useful in other ways, and if it was only for reproductive purposes.

Valkyries, Valhall, the three worlds - a few years ago, he would have dismissed such things as nothing more than old, dusty legends and declared everyone taking them for real as idiots, lunatics. Today, he was one of them.

--

Once again, they drove through a deep pothole and Bridget's back painfully banged against the seating bench.

The longer the journey took the stronger grew the feeling of sickness that had befallen her yesterday. She felt a vague dizziness, her head was aching and her heart seemed to be out of rhythm, beating too fast, pushing her pulse too high. She looked at her hand: the veins were swollen and bulging out like thick, blue worms under her skin. She hid her hands in the sleeves of her jacket, hoping no one had noticed.

Fear's icy grip had taken hold of her heart again. Was this how the disease began? It couldn't be, not now, not when she was so close. No, they would have noticed something during the many examinations of the past days.

--

Kurt Thomsen was holding the jeep's steering wheel firmly with both hands and was concentratedly looking at the path and the vehicles in front of him when the road followed several sharp turns. At least the visibility had heightened during the drive, the fog and mist had almost completely cleared and now the sun was shining. It would be a nice day in spring.

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard and then turned his head towards his passenger. "Not much longer than an hour and we should be there."

Lilah Morgendorffer just nodded.

"Any news about the incident?" he asked after a while, trying again to start a conversation.

"You're the one working for intelligence, aren't you?" asked Lilah slightly amused.

"Even we don't always know everything," answered Kurt with a small smile.

"So I take it you're still in the dark regarding the whereabouts of the preparations?"

"Well... there are the usual suspects, of course... unfortunately, we have no confirmation that First District was involved. We probably have to get used to the idea that a new pawn might have entered the game." Or an old one.

Lilah contemplatively looked at the road in front of them. "I wouldn't know how an ordinary human could pull off something like this."

"Do you think a HiME could?"

Lilah slightly tilted her head. "Hard to say," she answered slowly, "but it had to be someone with the power to control higher order matter."

"Hm." Kurt nodded in agreement. "And it's worrying to know that someone with already that great powers is now in possession of the serum. How difficult would you say it is to gather the constituents and the production process from the preparations?"

"Quite difficult. The molecular structure is very complex and even if you managed to map all its components, that doesn't necessarily enable you to replicate them." She smiled. "And certainly not if you don't possess the required raw materials."

"True." Kurt nodded vaguely. "Well," he added after a while, "at least we're not too far behind schedule, you managed to prepare six new doses pretty fast."

Lilah shook her head. "It takes only four to five days, so that was the usual time span. But what worries me is that we're slowly running out of resources."

"Oh, I heard Eclipse 2 is about to be finished?"

"Yes, but it will still take some time until we will get new probes."

"Hm..."

--

Their long journey finally ended on a ridge.

Bridget climbed out of the truck with the others and zipped up her jacket, shivering in the harsh wind sweeping across the ridge. She looked around. The vegetation up here was more sparsely than in the lower regions, consisting mostly of grass and moss, and isolated, crippled deciduous trees.

The tall, blonde man who had introduced himself to her and the others as Thomsen was coming towards her, carrying a padded bag in one hand, and instructed her to come with him. She followed him through the knee high grass, along a hardly visible trail leading down the slope, into a vale.

The wind blew unhindered across the shallow vale, swept through the blades of grass inducing almost wavelike movements, and it seemed to Bridget as if they were wading through a sea of grass. She watched the blades of grass swaying forth and back and a tinge of vertigo overcame her. She blinked, stopped and screwed up her eyes. The headache had become worse and was throbbing in her temples, her heart beating wildly. She opened her eyes again and inhaled deeply, yet it seemed as if not enough oxygen was reaching her lungs.

Thomsen had noticed that she wasn't following him anymore and turned around. "Everything ok? You look a bit pale."

"It's nothing, I'm ok," she lied and moved on with wobbly knees. whereupon Thomsen turned around again and walked on, too.

A vague numbness spread through Bridget's limbs and she felt strangely distant to her own body and everything around her. Her surroundings drifted into surreality. The movements of Thomsen who was tramping through the grass a few metres in front of her seemed oddly snatchy, like the ones of dancers in the strobe light.

Thomsen stopped after a while and looked around, his free hand akimbo. "This place here's ok. I'll set up the instruments over there," he motioned to his left, "where they won't hinder you. Please get prepared, so that you can begin with the ritual when we give the signal. Is everything clear so far or you you have any questions?" he asked finally.

Bridget shook her head. "No, everything's clear."

"Alright. Then good luck."

She watched how Thomsen went a few metres away to the left and trampled down the grass a bit before he pulled a metallic, box-shaped device out of the bag and carefully put it on the ground. The device had several antannae which he extended and then it looked as if he was pressing some buttons or the like. After that, he walked back the trail they had come from.

--

Sean climbed onto the bed of the truck and went to the front end. He loosened the belts securing the fuel containers that were kept there, took one in each hand and carried them to the rear end where one of his comrades received them. Then he went back and got two more. He shortly put them down at the edge of the bed while he was jumping down into the high grass and picked them up again to bring them to their destination point.

Completely assembled and ready for operation, it topped the other vehicles by far: the impressive howitzer they all jokingly called the space cannon. It was the prototype of a long range cannon that was designed for stationary use and was now mounted on the chassis of a truck for the test runs. And with it a generator that should provide the immense power that was needed to operate it.

As it had turned out, it had been failed to control the fill level of the generator's tank, and now the tank had to be filled with the fuel from the trucks' jerrycans.

When he reached the armed vehicle, his comrade was already busy with decanting the diesel fuel.

The cannon was mounted on the rear end of the truck's bed, the generator at the front end, right behind the driver's cab. In between, there was a more than one metre wide, not used area, where thick, black cables were meandering across the aluminium panelled ground, from the generator to the cannon.

Sean heaved the containers onto the bed there, and his comrade looked up and said, "Wait a sec, you can take the empty ones back." He lifted the fuel can a little higher to shake out the last drops, then he came over to Sean, screwing on the cap of the can, and put it next to the full ones.

"That one and then it's probably already enough, the tank's almost full," he noted, while picking up a new fuel container and starting to open it.

He turned around to go back to the generator but in that moment he snagged with his foot on one of the large screws protruding out of the metal panels and fell, dropping the container. The container thudded with a dull bang, tilted, and its contents gushed onto the ground.

"FUCK!" The other soldier scrambled back on his feet and picked up the fuel container. "Fucking shit!".

Sean had snapped out of his momentary paralysis and climbed onto the truck, watching the large puddle of fuel between the cables. He scratched his head. "How are we going to clean up this mess?"

"More important, how am I gonna get this shit out?" cursed the other one, unzipping his jacket whose one side was completely drenched with the fuel.

--

Kurt clambered the last part of the slope and joined Lilah. "All units are in position. A minor problem occurred with the ILC-R6, but this should be solved in a little while so that we can finally start."

"Problem?" Lilah asked worriedly.

"The tank of the generator was not sufficiently filled. It's better not to think of what could have happened if we hadn't noticed and the R6 had run out of power in the middle of operations. I ordered to fill the tank using the trucks' jerrycans, that shouldn't take too long."

Lilah nodded. "Even if we don't intend to put it to full use, it's better to be prepared."

Kurt let his eyes wander over the vale and the various squads positioned along its edges. "Yes, we are well prepared...," he said quietly, more to himself than to Lilah.

She watched him attentively from the side. "Can I ask you something?"

Kurt looked surprised. "Um, sure."

"You seem... to be reserved towards this operation."

"That's true," he admitted slowly.

"Why?"

"It has too much of an execution for my liking, that's all."

"It's necessary if we want to achieve the greater goal."

--

Bridget watched the green flare in the sky. Her signal.

Her heart was beating so wildly that she could feel it throughout her whole trembling body. But this was not the time for breaking down. All her life she had been waiting for a chance like this, she mustn't screw this up. She closed her eyes while inhaling deeply. No, she mustn't screw up and she wouldn't, she could do it. Again, she took a deep breath, then made a few steps forward and stretched her right arm horizontally away from her body, index and middle finger of her hand pointing out, forming a direct prolongation of her arm.

She closed her eyes again, concentrating, channelling the energy, feeling how it was pulsating in the fast rhythm of her heartbeat, weak in the beginning, then growing stronger, emerging, flowing, from her heart into her arm, her hand, her fingers, and further still.

When she opened her eyes, she could see the lambent, blue plasma flickering out of her fingertips.

She started walking widdershins in a large circle, with her fingers drawing a blue line into the air. The line was pulsating, wafting, reticulating, expanding more and more with every single step she took, eventually forming a large, blue glowing sphere around her, its one half visible above the ground, the other one hidden beneath.

Bridget moved into the centre of the sphere - her shield and shelter, guarding her and keeping her from all harm during the events that were lying up ahead.

It was now time to perform the actual ritual. She drew a blue circle on the ground, in a small distance to the walls of the sphere, and in the same direction as she had raised the sphere. After closing the circle, she continued with drawing a pentagram around her on the ground, so that its edges touched the walls of the sphere, beginning with the lower right edge, then up to the left edge, the right, down to the lower left, then up to the top and finally back to the lower right edge.

Now she could start writing the runes. Moving from one corner of the pentagram to the other, in the same order she had drawn them, she painted two convoluted hooks on the ground above each pentagram tip, on the ring between circle and sphere wall. It was the rune jera, a symbol for a good year, a good harvest. It would ensure the success of her ritual.

The ring around the pentagram was now divided into five segments. Into each of those segments, she wrote the runes laguz, ansuz, þurisaz and urisaz, forming the word laþu, a magic formula for evocations.

Now everything was prepared and she stepped back into the centre of the pentagram. She closed her eyes and spoke the incantation.

Giants from the lands of frost and ice,
And from the fiery heights,
Spirits born of darkness, born of light,
Hear my call and rise!

Remember the bond forged with blood,
At the beginning of time, before the highest god,
Remember and honour the ancient vow,
Follow my call and tread the path woven for us long ago.

And when we meet again on the barren fields,
We think of that day in the hall of shining shields.
And as we perform the rite once more,
Our souls and minds are linked again as written in the ancient lore.

You are my guardian, your power at my will,
My life the pledge you will redeem,
On the day the old world will end and the new one will arise.

In the honour of the sacred oath,
Hear my call, come forth!

With her eyes still closed, Bridget was waiting, letting her mind wander into the velvet darkness, fumbling, searching...

--

Lilah and Kurt watched attentively how Bridget was performing the ritual.

"Nothing seems to happen," said Kurt after a while and lowered his binoculars to look at Lilah.

Lilah vaguely shrugged and studied the screen of the surveillance system with furrowed brows. "There is a slight increase in radioactivity... though it shouldn't take that long... we were assuming a few seconds, not minutes." She bit on her lower lip, thinking. "Maybe we should wait a bit longer... and if there's still no change then, we abort and the next one shall take a turn."

Kurt nodded. "Ok, we'll wait a few minutes."

He returned to looking through his binoculars while Lilah made some notes on her palm pilot.

"There! Something's coming!" shouted Kurt suddenly.

Lilah looked up and she couldn't fight off the feeling of excitement that overcame her when she caught sight of the blue plasma cloud forming in the air above Bridget.

The cloud grew, incessantly changing its shape, becoming darker until it was black, slowly materialising into a large, curled up creature. Then black, leathery wings of bat unfolded, revealing a predatory beast from a distant past: a sabre-toothed tiger, darker than the night, with long fangs, white as snow, and eyes glowing like fire.

--

Bridget cried out and broke down on her knees when a sudden, sharp pain shot through her skull.

Now she was crouching on the ground, squirming in pain, pressing her hands against her head. It was as if her senses had doubled, flooding her brain with far more information than it could process. Her heart was racing and blood drained out from her nostrils, painfully forcing its way through the thin veins, dripping, dripping, faster and faster, crimson drops falling onto green grass.

The ground turned dark when a large shadow was cast on her and a roaring filled the air, droning in her ears: the sound of mighty wings. The draft was lashing across the blades of grass, forcing them to bow down.

Lifting her head and looking up with bloodshot eyes, Bridget first noticed the large cracks in the sphere, and then the enormous, deep black animal hovering above her.

The sabre-tooth was screaming, calling out to her, and her mind reached out, wanting to take away its confusion and fear. It turned its head towards her and as the huge, fiery red eyes locked with hers, she could feel how it touched her mind. She wanted to block it, but too late - her betrayal had been found out and the beast roared and attempted to break their link.

Bridget tried to gain control over the creature, but she was too weak, all she could do was binding it to this world. The beast was struggling, trying with all its might to break free and return to its realm, getting more and more angry with every passing second. It screamed and howled, emitting a very loud, high frequent sound, and she covered her ears with her hands. The frequency of the piercing sound was steadily rising and then it was as if it was fading away until she couldn't hear it anymore. And yet there was this immense pressure building up in her skull, becoming unbearable.

Suddenly, her sphere was shattering and in the same instant, there was a loud bang, followed by a stinging pain in her ears. She screamed out but she couldn't hear her scream, all there was, was a vague noise and the indescribable pain that was almost depriving her of her senses. And the voice in her head telling her that she would never be able to hear again.

She curled up, head sinking to the ground, her hands clutching at her hair, desperately fumbling for something to grab, searching for relief. Shaking and on the edge of syncope, she was clinging to the will of keeping the beast in this dimension.

--

Sean was gawping at the monster that had virtually appeared out of nowhere. Never before had he seen anything remotely like this and he was scared and fascinated at the same time.

The enormous cat-like creature was wriggling in the air as if it was trying to shake something off, its movements becoming more and more desperate while its roars were getting louder and must have been heard throughout the whole vale.

The foremost unit had received the order to attack and he watched them moving forward and opening fire, the purple beams of their laser guns flashing through the air.

The beast howled loudly when it got hit several times, but where the laser beams made contact with its fur and would have singed the flesh of every normal being, they just caused some kind of holes that rapidly closed again.

The creature that seemed to have been been taken by surprise at first, dived into the raving fast zigzag flight of bats, smoothly dodging the shots, and was now starting to attack, too. It was moving with an enthralling grace, almost as if it was dancing, and Sean couldn't help but think that it was beautiful, beautiful and dread. Dread preponderated when he watched horrified how the monstrous beast raged over the other unit like a force of nature unbound, battering down their lines within seconds.

The creature was hovering in the air again, its giant skull turning into his direction, and, despite the large distance, Sean had the impression that the glowing red eyes of the cat were looking right through him. It suddenly opened his mouth wide as if it was about to roar, but - unlike before - no sound was heard. Instead he felt how a slight tremor took hold of his body, grew stronger, first tingling and then almost tearing at his guts. His hair stood on end and cold sweat was running down his back.

As from far away the order to attack reached his ears and he automatically shouldered his gun. The others beside him did the same and started firing, but he only marginally noticed their shots, everything was in a haze.

The beast was now on target for them and Sean was rooted to the spot, unable to form a coherent thought, completely entranced by its deadly dance. The shots of the others didn't impact or even stop the animal at all and it came closer and closer still.

And then it was over them. The sky darkened, the air was filled with the roar of the wings, the fizzing sound of the lasers and the horrible screams of his comrades.

He felt the draught of the creature's wings lashing at him and then there was a sudden, dull whack against his head and the world sank in darkness.

--

Lilah and Kurt watched with horror as the events unfolded.

When Bridget's magic circle had been destroyed and she herself was crouching and squirming on the ground, Kurt had given the order to attack immediately.

But the weapons that were supposed to blow the beast to pieces had practically no effect on it. Shocked, they had witnessed how, in the blink of an eye, the tide had turned and the former hunters had become defenceless prey, left at the mercy of the beast's rage. The vast majority of the troops had been blotted out in no time, their sure-fire, planned down to the last detail mission turned into havoc.

"The R6! Why is no one operating the R6?" shouted Kurt agitatedly.

"You'll try to get someone on line who can operate the cannon, I'm contacting headquarters," commanded Lilah, who had regained her composure faster.

Kurt nodded and pulled his transceiver out of one of his jacket's pockets.

--

Sean was lying on his stomach and slowly regained consciousness. Pain was hammering in his head and one hand instinctively reached up to the back of his head, the pain source, immediately feeling the wetness and increase in pain when his fingers came in touch with the injury. But nothing was broken, his skull still intact.

He pushed himself up, creeping onto his knees, and then froze at the terrible sight that revealed itself when he looked around. They were all dead. The whole squad, dead, a conglomeration of mutilated bodies.

The wrath of the creature had descended upon them and left a nightmare in red. Dismayed, his eyes wandered over the torn open bodies, oozing entrails and ripped off limbs and his stomach rebelled, emptying itself on the grass and his hands as he jerked forward on all fours.

Trembling, he sat up again and wiped his hands on the clean grass and his trousers. With sweat drops on his forehead and heavily breathing, he finally scrambled to his feet.

Laser beams were flashing in the distance, on the other side of the vale, where the beast was razing another squad to the ground.

He turned around. The cannon was looming large over the ravaged battle ground. A wind came up, blowing across the vale, whispering words of vengeance into his ear.

He groggily walked towards the cannon, stumbled, got up again and walked on and on, step by step, trying not to look at the bloody remains of his comrades until he had reached the armed vehicle.

A maimed body was dangling from the bed of the truck, blood steadily dripping on the grass.

Sean pulled himself onto the bed, keeping as much distance to the corpse as possible. The pungent smell of the fuel that was still everywhere on the ground pricked in his nose. Carefully, so that he wouldn't slip, he went over to the generator, his eyes anxiously running over the control panel. He breathed with relief: the key was in the ignition. He reached for the key, turned it around and heard the engine starting.

It was only at that moment that his eyes fell back onto the dead body lying inmidst the puddle of fuel and the cables, and his heart stood still: yellow green sparks were buzzing from the end of one mangled cable. SH-

--

Lilah's head shot around when several explosions detonated in the distance. Stunned, she stared at the large fireballs, there, where a few seconds earlier some trucks and the cannon had been.

"The R6," said Kurt beside her with a throaty voice. "We're screwed. Dead. Deader than dead."

"We might still have a chance."

"You mean...?"

Lilah nodded. "Yes."

"Ok. Go!"

They grabbed their machine guns and scurried, jumped, raced down the hill, into the vale, towards Bridget, who was still crouching on the ground.

There was a reason why they had positioned themselves on exactly that slope. It was also the reason why they were equipped with light machine guns instead of laser guns like the rest of the troops.

Lilah was halfway down the hill when Kurt, who had fallen behind a few metres, was panically shouting, "It's heading for us!"

She slowed down a bit and turned her head for a moment, instantly spotting the beast, and the realisation that they wouldn't make it hit her.

"You go for the girl, I'll try to stop it!" shouted Kurt again.

How do you want to stop it? thought Lilah, doubtfully shaking her head, but nevertheless speeding up again.

A few seconds later she heard the sound of his gun and she knew that there was no more time left. She stopped running, shouldered her automatic rifle, clicked the safety catch off and aimed for Bridget, who was still a few hundred metres away. She was trembling from the exhaustion and panic, and the first shots missed, but then she hit her target. Frantically, Lilah kept on pressing the trigger, watching Bridget's body twitch with every impact of the bullets, shot after shot, the roaring of the beast and Kurt's screams in her back.

And then it was over. It took her a few seconds to realise. The beast was gone. It was really gone. Their theory was right.

Kurt squirming on the ground, screaming of pain, snapped her out of her daze and she ran over to him.

She barely registered the several long cut-like wounds on his upper body, it got all shoved into the background by the bloody stump that had been his left leg only a minute ago.

He was raggedly breathing, his pain distorted, ashen face covered with sweat. His left arm was limply lying on the ground, and with the bloodstained fingers of his right hand, he was frenziedly fumbling at his belt buckle. When he noticed Lilah's presence, his eyes turned to her, pleading. "... belt...," he uttered under heavy breath.

She nodded and quickly kneeled down to his left, pushing his hand away from the now open belt, and grabbed it to pull it off.

He was trying to lift his hips to make it easier for her, but slumped almost immediately.

It had been enough for Lilah to get the belt off. Turning to the mutilated leg that had been severed shortly above the knee joint, she laid the belt over his thigh and then grabbed the fabric of his trousers to lift the remaining leg while loosely wrapping the belt around it. She let go of trousers and belt, took her knife out of her jacket's pocket, unfolded the blade and carefully cut the trouser leg open, on the upper side. Then she folded the knife, put it on the ground and reached for the belt again. After positioning it a hand above the stump's end and slackly strapping it, she located the artery on Kurt's inner thigh and then picked up the knife again with her free hand. She placed the knife between thigh and belt, pressing it hard against the artery, and then, without loosening the pressure on the knife, she tightly strapped the belt with her other hand and finally buckled it using both hands.

She leaned back, inhaling deeply. The tourniquet would stop most of the bleeding.

Kurt was lying completely still, eyes closed. He had lost consciousness. Lilah reached for his neck to feel his pulse, only then perceiving that her hands were covered in blood. She stared at them for a moment, resisting the initial urge to wipe them somewhere, and then continued and took his pulse. It was weak and fast. He wouldn't last much longer.

She wiped her hands as good as possible on her trousers and fumbled for her palm pilot, checking the time. It's been roughly a quarter hour since her emergency call to headquarters. They had assured immediate dispatch of strike fighters and rescue helicopters, they should be here soon. Though the fighters weren't needed anymore.

Taking out her transceiver, she let her eyes wander over the desolated vale. A picture of total devastation was all that remained of today's mission.

What had gone wrong? They had run simulations. They had calculated everything through. It hadn't been supposed to turn out this way.

Natsuki: Phew, I'm so glad chapter four is over and I didn't even appear once!

Shizuru: Ara, it's not over yet.

Mai: You know, one time, when Natsuki was doing laundry, she...

Natsuki: Shut up!

Shizuru: But I want to hear it.

Mai: ... and then she...

Natsuki: It doesn't matter what you want! And you shut up already!

Mai: ... and then the gnblllllll...

Natsuki: Next time on Mai HiME Reloaded: the very tragic and very unexpected death of Mai!

AN:

Ha, it's over. Well, I hope this wasn't too boring, but it's part of the story and had to be told. HiME cast will be back next chapter.

You probably have a few questions by now, but I think I can say that they will be answered in later chapters. So I will only address the most urgent topics here.

Magick: When Alyssa summoned that vampyre orphan thing in one of the episodes, she touched the ground and some purple, spinning pentagram with fancy magickal symbols appeared, so I thought that's the SEARRS way of making uh summoning orphans, but I didn't want to write 'Bridget touched the ground and then a pentagram appeared and then an orphan appeared', so I wrote the ritual thingy instead. But this was like the first and last ritual you'll see in here (no more crappy spells), and magick will be primarily used by the SEARRS Valkyries to summon the orphanslaves. (And they have to do it that way because they aren't HiME. So much for now.)
About the runes I used in here... it's probably best if you look'em up in wikipedia. The word laþu was found on several bracteates (coin-like amulets, you can look that up in wikipedia, too) and has an invocational function, namely to call the animal-shaped helpers of Odin. I found it fitting, so I used it. As already explained above, jera means a good year in the sense of a good harvest, and the rune was also used ideographically.
Hm... the whole pentagram thing (including the sphere wall) was supposed to look like this, just better: http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1176/pentajq8.jpg
All in all... yes, I'm totally raping the Norse lore and I am well aware that we're in Japan, but many ways lead to Rome. And Sunrise started it, I'm just going a bit further down that path (really only a bit).

Childs, Orphans, Slaves: The creatures the SEARRS Valkyries can summon have both features of Orphans and Slaves, and while the Childs of the HiME were all mechas, the Orphans they fought all seemed to be organic; the creatures of the SEARRS Valkyries are organic, too - for now and for certain reasons. Artemis was not a Child that Alyssa had summoned but one that had been manufactured by SEARRS and been given to her - at least that's how I understood it and how it will be in this story.

Hm... what else... I decided that the sabre-tooth bat could not only emit ultrasound but also infrasound, the ultrasound was used on Bridget, the infrasound on Sean. Look up sonic weaponry on wikipedia (yeah, I love wikipedia).