-1"You can say that again. What the hell do we do now? We're almost at the last sector of the Phobos base. If we can't find some kind of transport soon, we're screwed."

"Let's keep looking. C'mon."

The quartet continued on their way, occasionally passing a zombie or an Imp. Once they were attacked and had to run from a Pinky Demon, but they found some stairs that it couldn't follow them up. Flynn picked up more shotgun shells, and even found what he called a chain gun. Finally, they reached what Flynn said was one of the teleportation devices that the researchers had invented.

"This'll take us to the last part of the base. Just walk on the platform, okay?"

Nomu nodded and walked inside. Jack and Iz gasped as he disappeared in a flash of green. Then they followed.

Taking the slipgate was not as hard as one might think. It was virtually painless and lasted under a second. In no time the quartet was inside a small brick room with no windows or doors.

"Well this is just great. Where the fuck are we?" Jack groaned.

"Wait. This isn't right…they don't use bricks up here."

Suddenly, one of the walls began to shudder. Nomu drew his sword at the noise. Then the wall slid up. What greeted them could only be described as macabre. There was a large pentagram-shaped platform adorning the floor, and on this platform was a large number of Pinky Demons and Imps. Their backs were facing the quartet, because they were all gazing, transfixed, at a crucified demon on the wall. The demon had a pink body, a bull face, goat legs, and bull horns.

"Jesus Christ…" Jack muttered.

"Time to crash this party!" Flynn shouted. As the demons were turning around to see what the noise was, Flynn unslung his chain gun, held it in his two hands, and began firing. The belt-fed gun quickly dried up, but Flynn loaded another one fast, before the demons could make it to them. After the second belt, they were all dead.

"This is some pretty jacked up shit," Flynn said softly, shaking his head. The room below was a bloodbath, literally. The quartet hurriedly walked across it, turning their shoes, and in Nomu's case feet, red. They were now in a red-brick hallway. They silently crossed it and came upon a brightly lit room. There were two darker rooms to their left and right.

"Iz and Jack, you take left. Nomu, we'll take right."

Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. Iz's stupid side said, "Now's your chance!" as he walked behind Jack. But no. He had to wait for the opportune moment, when Nomu couldn't suspect it was him. He could wait. Sandra could wait.

The two walked into the room. It was dark and empty.

"Phooie. Alright, Jack, let's roll."

Jack nodded and went back to the bright room. There was another, much larger hallway to their left, but first they'd keep going to the room Flynn and Nomu were in. When they were a few yards away, they heard a shotgun blast and a roar, so they broke into a run. When they got inside, they found Nomu cutting down an Imp and Flynn grappling with a Pinky Demon. The muzzle of his shotgun was in its mouth, and he was struggling to pump it. Finally he did, and pulled the trigger. The thing's brains flew out the back of its head, and it died.

"How come you guys got the cool room?" Iz asked jokingly. Flynn laughed and they left the room. Somehow there was another Pinky Demon in the bright room. Flynn put it down with two shots from his shotgun, and the quartet went into the large hallway. It was made of stone, and at the end there was a door. A monumentally large door. The only problem was the door was raised about ten feet off the ground. As they approached it, however, the floor began to raise in a staircase.

"Nifty!" Iz exclaimed. They got to the top, and were not surprised when the doorway opened automatically. It was an old-fashioned wooden door.

The room was huge. It had five hallways all around it, each one leading to a dead end. They got narrower as they went out. The walls, ceiling and floor were all blood-red. Jack stood in amazement as he realized what he was in: the room was in the shape of a giant pentagram.

In the center was a small building. There were two doors adjacent to each other.

"Let's check that out," Jack said. They started towards it, but when they got close the doors slid open. Out of each one came the beast they had seen crucified earlier. But this time there were two of them, and they were alive. They stood at about ten feet tall and there roar shook the building.

"HOLY FUCK!" Flynn shouted. The quartet scattered. They were all too scared to get close to the monsters, so it was up to Flynn to kill them. That was assuming they could be killed.

As if that wasn't enough, hordes of Pinky demons streamed from the hallways. The quartet met back up behind the building, and formed a circle, their backs to each other.

"Time to fight!" Nomu said.

"I'll take the big asses. You three are crowd control." Flynn commanded.

All three shouted, "YES CORPORAL!" Flynn smiled to himself, pumped his shotgun and darted back to face the beasts. Jack, Iz and Nomu charged into the Pinky Demons.

They met the main line head-on. Jack swung the Purple Rose into the nearest one. It connected, and the demon fell to the ground snarling. Another was soon on him. As the thing's maw came upon him, he stuck the Purple Rose into it. The beast choked and fell, and Jack hit it on its head with a crushing blow. But there were more. Tons more.

"Hey, kid. I'll worry about the fags later. You guys need help. Let's go!" Flynn shouted from behind him. Jack didn't reply, he was too busy surviving hordes of pink demons. One would leap at him; he would parry it away and bash another one on the head, just to have the first one attack him again. Jack needed to try something new. He focused his mind…

There was a blinding flash of white light in which all of the Pinky Demons were temporarily blinded, and sat stunned. In the center was Jack, holding the Purple Rose in his right hand and the Green Rose in his left.

"Well done, Jack." Nomu smiled to himself, then drove his blade into the head of a nearby Pinky, the blade disappearing up to the hilt. His sword was red with blood.

Jack was angry. Holding both Roses seemed to do that to him, he didn't understand why. All he understood at the moment was he wanted to kill all of the demons, needed to bring death to every single one. He got started, spinning and hacking every which way. He heard Flynn's gun going off numerous times. He'd killed tons already, but they'd barely left a dent in the horde. Then, another of those infernal fireballs hit right next to him and exploded. It was larger even than the Cacodemon's. He looked for the source, and found it was one of the giants. Normally he'd have run, but he could take this fiend. He jumped at it just as it threw another fireball. He couldn't fly; it hit him. Searing with pain and seething with anger, he was thrown into the wall, which he bounced off of. He should be dead, but this barely fazed him. Now the other giant was throwing balls at him. He charged at them, darting left and right around the fireballs. Then the beasts got a little smarter, and coordinated their shots together. It was slowing him down; he was still a hundred yards away or more. Now he couldn't dodge; he slashed the Roses through the fireballs, cutting through them like butter. This worked, but it still slowed him down. Now they started firing in bursts of two at a time, still coordinating their shots. When four gigantic fireballs were about to come crashing into him, he jumped, doing a flip over them. When he was directly over the balls, he downslashed the Roses, sending the balls flying in all different directions. He landed right in front of the giants and began to fight.

Meanwhile, Flynn was having problems of his own. Without a melee weapon he couldn't defend himself. He was also out of ammo for everything except that infernal pistol. He dodged around, using the little martial arts he knew from his childhood, shooting bullets one at a time, using them only as stopping power. He was so involved he didn't see the fireball heading straight for him until it was almost too late. It hit about three feet from him and sent him flying. He landed right next to the corpse of Tex Davis, one of his fellow marines. So, he thought, some of them DID make it this far. Clutched in Tex's hand was a

"CHAINSAW!" Flynn shouted with glee. The Pinky Demons had almost smothered him by now; one was on top of him. Flynn's right hand was holding it back. With his left hand, his dominant hand, he reached for the saw. Finally he got it. He kicked the demon off of him, grasped the pull tug in his left hand, and revved the engine. An evil grin came on his face as the engine sputtered to life. The demon leapt at him, but he drove the saw into it's mouth. The beast whined and died.

"Okay you bastards, who's next!?" he shouted, slicing the stomach of another open.

Jack had immediately thrown the Purple Rose at the first giant, it had glanced off, drawing blood. He leapt into the air, caught the rebounding Rose in his right hand, and swung the Green Rose into the thing's face. He hit it with such force that the beast was thrown back twenty feet into the wall. It slowly got to its feet. Jack faced the next one, deflected a fireball, raised both Roses in the air and shouted "LAMPO!" He'd been taught by Saburo to not focus his entire being into an attack, but he did so anyways. The double Roses amplified the spell into something that dwarfed in comparison Sugo's. Hundreds of lightning bolts, each larger than the beast itself, rained down from the skies. It fried the giant and the Pinky Demons alive; there were nothing but ashen heaps left afterwards. The bad news is that Jack collapsed afterwards. Flynn had gone back to help Jack. Just as the second beast was about to throw a fatal fireball at Jack, Flynn leapt up at it, holding the chainsaw out. It made a cut against the thing's stomach, cutting it open. But the beast did not stop. By now Iz and Nomu were helping Jack to safety. Iz threw his spear into the beast. It barely felt it. Flynn, Nomu and Iz ran to one of the hallways. There was the corpse of another marine at the end.

"Flynn! He has a weapon!" Iz shouted. Flynn whirled around and checked the marine. Mickey Salamon. A rocket launcher was on the body.

"Gimme that!" he shouted. Iz picked up the launcher and threw it to Flynn, who had set the chainsaw down. The launcher was loaded. He held the trigger in his left hand with the but resting on his shoulder.

"Don't stand behind me!" he shouted. They moved and he fired. The rocket soared into the beast's open stomach. It finally died. Flynn collapsed laughing.

"WHOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" he shouted. "Yeah! Are you guys alright?"

Nomu nodded and Iz gave a thumbs-up. Jack was still unconscious. Flynn checked his pulse.

"Fuck! His heart-rate is low, he needs meds!"

The other three watched in bewilderment as Flynn scooped Jack up and began frantically searching for something.

"No med kits! SHIT!" he shouted. Then his eye caught something in the building the giants had come out of. It was blue and floating; it had a smiling face in it. A sphere shape. He was drawn to it; it was in the compartment on the left. He got inside, reached his hand out and touched it. It immediately exploded into a thick blue liquid which crawled its way up Flynn's arms and covered his whole body. He felt completely recharged. His energy returned; he felt minor cuts and abrasions heal up perfectly. A scar on his forehead that he'd had since he was 14 disappeared. He took Jack into the other compartment, praying there was another one. There was! He dropped Jack on it, and in no time Jack was awake and feeling 100 better.

"What happened?" he asked. Nomu and Iz had seen the blue sphere work its magic on Jack. Flynn explained.

"Okay…so what do we do now?"

"I want my chainsaw back," Flynn stated. Without waiting for a reply he started back towards the corner where he'd left it. The smoldering remains of the giant were still smoking near them. Flynn returned, toting the chainsaw. "What now?"

Before any of them could answer, the walls shook and began to raise.

"There it is."

"Wait, what should we call those things?"

"How about Hell Knights?" Iz suggested.

"That's crap. Ooh, I've got it! Barons of Hell," Jack replied.

"That's not bad," Flynn said. "Barons of Hell it is."

The landscape outside was bleak. Brown earth with a fiery red sky. There was a single building in the midst of all the nothing. The quartet jumped down from the building on to the cold Martian surface.

"This is wrong…the pressure. You three should be dead."

"Good thing we're not. Let's go."

They walked to the building. Unsurprisingly, the door slid open for them as soon as they got close. Inside, however, was the one thing they wanted to see least in the world. A horde of the pink giants.

"Oh my God!" Iz shouted. The beasts let out a savage roar and volleyed a hundred fireballs. They all tried to dodge and block, but to no avail. The four heroes were incinerated.

Jack woke up naked in a cold, metal room. Nomu, Iz and Flynn were all lying near him, also naked. They too were waking up. They surveyed each other, realizing they'd lost their clothes. Jack got up and covered himself, so did Iz and Flynn. Nomu made no attempt.

"Nomu!" Iz shouted.

"What?"

"You may not have realized, but your robes are gone."

Nomu looked down, realized what had happened, and covered himself. "I apologize. Those robes are weightless, I can't feel them even when they are on."

For some reason, they all had their weapons. Even Flynn's chainsaw had remained with them.

"Where do we get some clothes?" Jack asked. The stench of rotten lemons crept up his nostrils, but he couldn't cover them.

"Zombies! They have clothes!" Flynn shouted.

"No way. If you think I'm gonna wear clothes that've been on a dead guy, you're out of your mind!" Iz shouted.

"Fine, go naked. I'm gonna get some clothes." Flynn seized the chainsaw and darted out of the room. Jack took a look around. The walls were adorned with flashing lights and numbers and symbols that meant nothing to him. They heard a grunt from the halls, the revving of the chainsaw, a sickening splatter, and after a few minutes Flynn came back in in full clothes, and toting a new pistol.

"Look what I found!" Iz exclaimed. The wall where he was sitting was jutting out. It was a drawer.

"Clothes!"
Jack and Iz looked at each other for a second and burst out laughing. Flynn's face got red. "Laugh it up," he muttered.

For the next few minutes, they silently got dressed. Jack was pulling on a pair of pants Flynn called jeans, and he'd put on a t-shirt that read "Save Water" and right below that, "Drink Beer". He thought the shirt was hilarious.

Iz was wearing jeans too, but his were darker. His was a plain red long-sleeve shirt, a little tight.

Nomu's dressing experience could only be described as funny. He first pulled a pair of jeans on, but he found them so uncomfortable that he tripped. So he put on what Flynn called sweatpants, which seemed to work. It also seemed he'd never worn a t-shirt before, so when he put it on his head came out one of the arms. Iz burst out laughing, and went to help him.

"Don't you want new clothes? Those must be disgusting," Jack asked.

"I fought for these, and by God, I am going to wear them."

Jack shrugged. "Wait…we fucking died! Where are we?"

It dawned on them what had happened. "We're on the Deimos base. I don't have a clue why…we did die!"

They paused for a minute, then Flynn said, "Well, let's not just sit here. Maybe we didn't die. Let's keep looking for a transport."

They agreed to keep going. They passed out of the room into a hallway. Jack noticed the naked dismembered body and gagged. Since his sheath was gone, Nomu carried his sword in a battle stance. So when they turned the corner he was the first one to cut down an Imp after they were ambushed. There were several Imps and an entire regiment of zombies. Jack summoned the Purple Rose and attacked the nearest Imp while Iz threw his spear into one. He then jumped over to it and retrieved his weapon. Nomu slashed a fireball out of his way and put down another Imp.

Jack heard several shots ring out. Thankfully, none of them were hit, for the zombies had terrible aim. But it was only a matter of time. Flynn sprang into action. Holding the pistol in both hands, he emptied his clip into the regiment. He only brought down one or two. He reloaded and aimed. Fired one round. It blew up one zombie's head. Fired another. POP! went the zombie. Another and another went down. He killed ten zombies with ten bullets. There were only two left. He put one down, and Jack threw the Rose at the other, killing it. They were at another dead end, however.

"There's a slipgate over there," Jack said. He took off towards the corner of the room, and everyone followed.

"Indeed there is. Okay, I'll go first." Flynn disappeared in a green flash. Jack followed, then Iz, then Nomu.

The four found themselves in an almost identical room to the one they'd just come from. The only difference were the inhabitants. Instead of zombies and Imps, there was a Cacodemon. Flynn shot it down with six shots from his new shotgun he'd picked off of a zombie in the previous room.

"Well? Now what?"

"Over there!" Flynn said, pointing to a section of wall that was a shade darker then the rest. He got to it, pulled out his pistol and shot. The wall slid up to reveal a room who's walls were a shade of tan. There was a door at the end, and a Cacodemon spitting fireballs at them. They scattered left and right, Flynn shooting at it. Jack struggled to his feet, Rose in hand, and leapt at the Caco. The demon had it's back turned to him, it was preoccupied with Flynn. Jack leapt at it and kicked it in the back. It flew about five feet forward and spun around. Jack was there, and he swung the Rose into it's eye. This killed it.

"These things are child's play. Let's go."

They walked to the door, and it slid open. All of them had let their guard down, save for Flynn. So when the door opened and they heard the Imp's hiss, Flynn was the one to shoot it down with a shot to the chest from his shotgun. The room had four walls, and there was a slipgate against the wall; and a big sign over it that read "exit."

Without speaking, the four went on to the next sector of the base.

They arrived in something akin to a warehouse; there were stacks of boxes as high as the ceiling, all with the letters UAC stamped on them. Several Imps were their welcome party, Flynn used up the rest of his shells taking them out. The chainsaw was strapped to his back.

"I'm out of ammo," he muttered.

Something caught Jack's eye on top of one of the crates.

"Flynn, there's another shotgun up there."

Flynn looked up and smiled. "Thanks."

He walked over and climbed up. He took the shotgun. "It's loaded! I'm just gonna take this one."

Nomu nodded. "I must say, I never would have thought that guns in other worlds, hell, anywhere, could be so advanced. Back in my world, or what's left of it, our guns held one shot and weren't very accurate. But what really astounds me is how fast you can reload them."

"Well, I've had a lot of training, but yeah, our guns are a long way from the arquebi of your time-uh-world."

Their conversation was cut off by an explosion right next to where Iz was standing. They looked around, two Imps had come from behind the crates. Nomu was on them faster than any of them had time to react at all, and had cut them both down before Jack could even summon a Rose.

"I think you're faster with your sword than I am with my guns," Flynn noted.

"I've had a lot of training," Nomu replied.

Their conversation was cut short with more growls from behind the crates. Nomu immediately swung around to face the new Imps, while Jack summoned the Rose and Iz brandished his spear threateningly.

"Where the hell are they coming from!?" Flynn shouted, putting a shotgun round into the nearest one.

"This isn't working!" Jack called. He was deflecting fireballs with the newly-renamed Violet Rose (he had remembered from Art class that purple was really called violet). There were about four Imps, all taking cover behind one large crate. He was doing his best to hit a fireball back at them, but so far to no avail.

Nomu was dodging fireballs left and right, charging at the Imps. He leapt over the crate they were hiding behind, landed on one's shoulders, and decapitated two others with one slash. The one he landed on crumpled, he drove his sword into its stomach. The final Imp was distracted with Jack, and did not know what hit it when its lungs (did it have lungs?) were pierced by Nomu's sword. Flynn, Jack and Iz ran to catch up with him.

"This isn't working," Flynn said matter-of-factly. "We need to split up and clear this section of the base."

"Excellent idea!" Nomu exclaimed. "Groups of two?"

"No," Iz cut him off. "Let's split completely up. We can cover more ground that way."

"Alright," Nomu said with just a trace of suspicion in his voice. "How'll we know where and when to meet back up again?"

"Radio!" Flynn blurted. "Here, I'll give you all my spares." Flynn withdrew from his pack four small black rectangles, with antennae on top. Of course, Jack, Iz and Nomu did not know what antennae were. He pressed a button on each one and handed them out. "I put them all on channel 17," Flynn said. "It seemed appropriate. Alright, click the button repeatedly to signal us, then hold it down to talk. Oh, and you have to say over when you're done, and release the button."

Jack, Iz and Nomu each took one and pocketed them. Then they went their separate ways.

Jack went down the row of crates the Imps had been coming from. There was another awaiting him; he swung the Violet Rose at it; the Imp went flying beyond the boxes.

All four of them continued like this, fighting through various places. Everyone, save for Flynn, ignored the various weapons and ammunition they found along the way.

Nomu was running through a long hallway that had ceiling traps every ten feet or so; portions of the wall were attempting to crush him. There were also several Imps and Pinky Demons at the other end coming towards him; however, they were not smart enough to avoid the crushing ceilings, and they were all killed before they could be any threat to him.

Finally, he made it to the room at the end. There was a red card lying on the ground at the end, guarded by a Cacodemon, three Imps and two Pinky Demons. He immediately leapt at the Caco and drove his sword into its eye, killing it. The Imps volleyed at him, but all missed. The Pinky Demons were charging, and Nomu charged back at them. He double-slashed one across the head and front legs, disorienting it, then he stabbed the other through the mouth. Using this one as a shield, he turned to face the Imps. They were fireballing at him, however the fireballs harmlessly hit the dead Pinky Demon. The Imps gave up on this strategy and moved towards him.

Nomu waited until they were about five feet from the Pinky Demon, then he kicked it off of his sword into them. It flew off and sent them flying to the ground. Nomu ran to the Imps, who were trying to heave their dead companion off of them, and he decapitated all three with one swipe of his blade. Then he turned towards the first Pinky, who was stumbling on the ground. Nomu threw his sword into it, killing it. He pocketed the red card, and retrieved his blade. There was another doorway on the wall to his right, which he made for. Inside were three Cacos and several zombies. The zombies were toting shotguns and rifles, and they began shooting at him milliseconds after he had dove to the right.

"Schermo!" he shouted, brandishing his sword at them. The bullets, shells and fireballs bounced off, and Nomu leapt in the air, doing a front-flip, and landing in front of the zombies. He slashed left and right, and soon three were dead. He heard one behind him, and he jabbed his sword behind him, stabbing through it. He swung it around; the zombie flew off of the sword into one of the Cacos. The other Cacodemon spit a fireball at him, which he blocked with his sword. He started to move towards the Cacos, but when he was about ten feet from them he realized they were floating over a pit of a foul-smelling green liquid. No way in hell he was falling into that shit. Nomu chuckled to himself as he realized that some of Iz was rubbing off on him. Then a fireball to the chest brought him back to earth (or Deimos); and he was thrown into the brick wall behind him. Coughing blood, shuddering and heaving for breath, he scolded himself for letting his guard down. Now he could never win, he needed to rest. His shirt was completely burned off.

Nomu's eye caught a wrought-iron door at the other end of the pit, gray with red trim. He knew what had to be done; he made a run for the pit, dodging fireballs that exploded on the ground to his left and right. At the edge he leapt.

Nomu had expected the door to slide open for him as he approached, as the others had done. No dice. He hit it with almost full force (the pit was only a couple yards across) and almost fell. He managed to grab on with one hand a panel that was jutting out. There was a small opening in the panel, directly above a red button.

Realizing what he needed to do, Nomu held his sword in between two fingers while he dug in his pocket for the red card. A fireball that exploded just a few feet from him almost made him fall; finding the card, he frantically shoved it into the opening in the panel. The red button lit up, and he jammed his thumb into it.

The door slid open, and Nomu swung himself up into it, using up a great amount of his already dwindling energy. It was a rectangular red-brick room. Inside the room were two Imps, Nomu stabbed the first one and slashed through the second in less than two seconds. Then he collapsed on the ground and spit some blood out. The red door slid shut behind him. There was a slipgate against the wall ten feet in front of him. Nomu heaved himself to his feet and staggered through the slipgate.

While Nomu was having his adventure, Flynn Taggart was hurtling through the corridors of a terrifying section of the building. He had stopped to pick up a Plasmagun and plenty of ammo; now he had the pistol holstered and the chainsaw tied around his back. He was being pursued by ten, maybe twenty Pinky Demons. There were images of a fanged, horned beast along the walls that made him want to stop and use a bullet on himself. But he kept going. Finally, he reached the end of the corridor. The wall he was facing was a gigantic image of a demon Flynn remembered from Catholic School.

"Moloch…" he stuttered in amazement. Moloch was very similar to the Barons of Hell from before, except he wasn't pink and he had a ring through his nose. He glared at Flynn with unsettlingly realistic eyes. Flynn tore his eyes away and looked at the approaching horde of Pinkies.

"It's fraggin' time," Flynn said to himself. He unslung the Plasmagun and held it out. With his left hand he squeezed the trigger. Blue bursts of light flew from the gun at a rate of a hundred rounds a minute. The blue balls of energy cut through the charging horde like it knife through butter. Soon the demons were out of breaths and Flynn was out of energy cells. He decided to keep the gun, so he slung it over his back and took the chainsaw out, revving the engine. It burst to life with a roar, and Flynn, already pumped up, sliced the wall with Moloch on it. To his great amazement, blood spurted from the scratch he had made, and the wall slid open to reveal a long passage with a slipgate at the end. Flynn shrugged and went through.

Chicago, Illinois…

Carol was thrown through the door to this strange world with such force that she hit against a large metal structure parked on the side of the road and bounced off. To her great surprise, the lights on the metal structure began flickering furiously, and a strange wailing emitted from the thing. Shocked, Carol got to her feet and looked around at the bustling street. There were hundreds of people, all running or walking down the sidewalks hurriedly. Nobody had noticed her. Carol noticed the attire they were wearing; most were well covered under T-Shirts, long pants, hats, boots, etc. Carol looked very out of place in something that resembled a silver bikini and matching top, with no shoes.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked from behind. Carol swung around and saw a boy about her age, with genuine concern in his eyes, staring at her. "Did someone push you into that car?"

"Umm…yeah. It's okay. Um, I was looking for-"

"The beach is straight down that way," the boy cut her off, pointing down the road. "Sorry, you're in a bathing suit. It's a little obvious."

Carol looked at him and turned away. "Wait!" he called, but she ignored him and ran down the street, dodging past scurrying people. She hadn't taken into account what she was supposed to do when she got here.

For an hour she ran around the streets of Chicago, not knowing what to do with herself. Finally, she came upon a dark alley. Night was falling; she probably shouldn't have gone back there. But she had to.

It smelled, probably due to a dumpster along the side of one of the buildings. At the end, lodged within the bricks of a building, was a faint glow that Carol was drawn to.

As she passed the dumpster, she felt a grimy hand grab her shoulder and shove her to the ground. She spun around and saw three men, all wearing matching leather jackets, staring at her hungrily. They each held relatively large switchblades in their hands.

"Hey, hot stuff. How's about you take care of me and mine before moving on, eh?" the leader, a dark-skinned boy of about 19 asked.

"Oh, man. You boys just made the biggest mistake of your lives." With that statement, Carol's White Rose was in her hand, accompanied as always with a blinding flash of white light.

The boys, taken aback, all stepped backwards and fell. Quickly getting to her feet, Carol swung the Rose at the nearest boy. The bulb collided with his face, and he was thrown back, hitting off the dumpster with enough force to dent it. The leader made a feeble swipe at her with his knife, which she parried with ease. Then she swung the Rose across his chest, throwing him back to the street, and knocking him out. The last boy dropped his knife and ran.

Back on Mars…

The slipgate Flynn took spat him out in a small, brick four-walled room, with buttons on each wall shaped like a "tragedy face" with horns; and no visible entrances or exits. In the middle of the platform in the center of the room was a large blue vest. Battle Armor.

Flynn excitedly picked it up, squealing like a kid at Christmas. Giggling slightly, he slips it over his head and over his green marine uniform. This armor was made of an evaporated titanium-alloy, and it was stronger than Kevlar. Wearing it could be dangerous, however, because it gave people the illusion of being completely safe.

Then it hit him: Flynn was trapped. There was nothing he could do but press the buttons on the sides. He went to a random wall and pressed the mouth. The mouth depressed slightly, and the face lit up into a "comedy face," still with horns. Then the wall slid open to reveal a similar room, albeit a bit larger and with a doorway at the end. Inside was another of the miracle blue orbs, along with crates and crates of ammunition for a rocket launcher Flynn no longer had.

Flynn walked through the room, carefully avoiding the orb. He was tempted to take it, but he knew he might need it later.

Flynn gagged as he exited the room. The stench was horrible, like the burning of human excrement. The sky was cloudless and blood-red, and there were several dead trees around him. There was a fifty-foot wall ahead of him, blocking him of going anywhere. He turned to look at the structure he had just exited, and was amazed at the most colossal tower he had ever laid eyes upon. It raised so high into the red sky he couldn't see the top.

There was something else…a deep growl, accompanied by a small thundering. Giant footsteps, getting closer. Flynn walked to the corner of the tower and peeked around.

He couldn't help it. He screamed and fell backwards. The thing was hideous; it was at least twenty feet tall; had the same horns as Moloch, goat legs, flaming red eyes, a nose ring around its bull head, and what looked to be a rocket launcher for an arm.

"What the fuck!?" he shouted, jumping to his feet. It hurt his ears, even though the thing was almost a hundred feet away from him.

Flynn backpedaled slowly as the monster raised its rocket-launcher arm. He nearly lost control of his bladder when a large flaming mass shot from the arm and sailed straight into the ground ten feet in front of him with a large explosion. Flynn dove for cover from shrapnel, then got up and ran, unslinging the plasma gun. He dove behind a small boulder and whipped around. The beast was chasing him. Flynn took careful aim, and squeezed the trigger, letting a barrage of concentrated blue balls of flaming plasma. They hit the beast, searing its skin and making it howl. Flynn dropped the gun and covered his ears, the noise was too loud. Then he remembered something every marine carried: earplugs. He picked his gun up and ran, hoping for the body of a fallen comrade.

Turning the corner, he tripped on nothing but that. It was Greg Hanger, one of his best friends. Flynn gagged, Greg's charred body reeked of sulfur. He dug all over Greg's person, but found no plugs. Then the obvious hit him.

Pulling the small green earplugs out of Greg's ears and stuffing them into his own, Flynn realized he needed a weapon. The plugs stifled most sound; even though the beast was drawing closer the footsteps were a mere thud.

Flynn saw another doorway leading into the tower and went in. Inside was a rocket launcher and several crates of ammunition. Flynn dove for the launcher, and thanked God it was loaded. He turned around and kicked the lid off of one of the crates.

His pockets stuffed with the battery-sized rockets, Flynn ran back outside, scanning for the monster. He could barely hear it, it was on the other side of the building. Trailing the launcher as he'd seen Nomu do with his sword, Flynn ran to the side and saw the beast. It seemed to have forgotten about him. He knelt to the ground, throwing the launcher over his shoulders.

"Hey, asshole!" he shouted. The monster turned towards him and raised his arm-launcher, but Flynn pulled the trigger that launched his own rocket. The UAC rocket flew upwards, leaving a small trail of smoke behind, and crashed into the beast's head. The explosion completely blotted out the demon's face in a cloud of dust, smoke and fire.

"YES!" Flynn shouted. That had to have at least fazed the beast.

Flynn gazed in horror as the smoke cleared, and the beast's face was visible. His rocket had hardly left a mark. The monster only looked angry.

Flynn panicked and shot his second rocket. Then he ran without waiting to see if he'd hit it. He didn't stop until he'd made it to the complete opposite side of the building. There he reloaded the launcher.

"How the fuck do I beat it!?" he shouted to himself.

Meanwhile, on another part of Deimos…

Jack slowly walked into a darkened room. He was in a long hallway, and this door had opened after he killed the hallway's only occupant, a lone Imp. He walked in and felt the wall for a switch that would activate a light. He did find a switch, and threw it.

The room was immediately filled with light from large fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. This room was similar to many of the others on this base, except that it was full of Imps. At least a hundred of them.

In the hallway from which Jack had just entered, a spear was thrown and hit a switch that sealed Jack inside the room.

"Fuck!" Jack shouted as the door slid shut behind him. The Imps all hissed in unison, and Jack had no choice but to fight them.