Rebirth

Flinch, Snare, Kali, and the rest of the Di-Gata universe belong to Greg Collison and Nirvana Entertainment."

Flinch was swimming. Flinch was swimming through a woody nut-brown sea and was having the time of his life. In other words, Flinch was dead to the world, as he had drunk his fill after many months of abstinence. In more words, Flinch was a happy drunk. Moreover, in his happy sleep, Malco, Brackus, or Lord Nazmul did not bother him, for they were all gone, dead and gone, and he, the long-nosed little runt, survived, and was now carrying out his plans of eating his fill and doing a formal libation for the deceased co-members of the Order of Infinis. Currently, he did both, and was going on with the next part of his program, that is sleeping off the alcohol. But here he was interrupted.

The shock came sharp and sudden. "Wake up you little moron, and talk!" barked a sharp voice a sudden shower of cold water poured onto the diminutive scientist's head. "What is going on? Why is no one responding at the headquarters?" snarled a rough voice.

"Hah?" Flinch opened his eyes, feeling the first steps of a headache coming on. "Who in damnation are you?"

"You don't remember me?" the snarling voice from behind the metal mask had an odd accent that made it sound not quite human. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. With your body weight and these weight of the bottles-"

"I was doing a libation – for Lord Nazmul, and Brackus, and even Malco, if only because no one else is probably going to do it," Flinch snapped, startling his interlocutor. "Anyways, I believe I remember you – you're the bounty hunter Brackus and Lord Nazmul employed from time to time, though your name escapes me at the moment. It's Trapjaw, right?"

"No, the name's Snare," the lizard man snarled. "Snare, got it?"

"Fine, fine, whatever," Flinch said absentmindedly. "The name's Snare, so now go on wherever you were going."

"Actually, I was looking for you."

"For me?"

"Well, more like for someone who knows what is going on… and what are you talking about? A libation?"

"That's right," Flinch smiled venomously. "While you, Snare, were doing your thing I know not where, Lord Nazmul had to deal with both the Defenders and Brackus' treason. With my help and Malco's muscle, he was able to destroy Brackus, but the Defenders got him through the Nova Stone. So now, Malco is dead and gone, Brackus has been given to the Spirits of Dako, and Lord Nazmul, and his guardian the Megalith, and probably the Nova Stone itself, the Defenders destroyed them all. Got it?"

The bounty hunter of the Order got it all completely - on one level. On another, it looked like he tried to smash a tree with his head and failed to do so. "You're not kidding, aren't you?" he asked, more rhetorically than specifically. "Well, that is certainly a curve. So much lucrative business has vanished. Those damn Defenders! I am almost tempted to track them down for free and explain to them, with great prejudice, the depths of inconvenience they cast me down into!"

"So why don't you?" Flinch asked, showing the minimum amount of interest, as he packed up and was preparing to leave.

"Because I already did me free job of the month," Snare shook his head.

"Oh? Who?"

"Me," spoke a figure, emerging from the shadows.

"Who's he?" Flinch asked, as he continued packing up.

"She. Kali, one of Nazmul's better agents."

"Really, what does this make you?"

"I was talking about infiltration agents. Me, I am more of a "capture and bring them alive or dead" kind of guy."

"And you decided to capture me for free? Gee, should I be flattered?"

"No he tracked you down for free because of me!" Shadowy Kali got tired of being ignored by the other two.

For their parts, Flinch and Snare actually forgot about Kali being here, nor that were they going to neither admit nor care about it.

"Tracked me for you?" Flinch's voice could peel paint. "Yeah right! Malco was the ladies man, not me! Frankly, for my part, I do not care what you two had, because he is gone, and I am through with him, so good-bye!"

"Oh, and where will you go, little man?" Snare said sarcastically. "Into which hiding place will you scurry, coward?"

Flinch stiffened and slowly turned around his axle, looking directly into the bigger humanoid's eyes. His own eyes, moments ago unfocused and opaque from alcohol, now were completely sober and as hard as metal.

"I may be a coward," he snarled, "but I was there when the Defenders defeated Nazmul, and got out only when the Megalith came forth, while you, you money-grabbing fat cat, were busy doing I know not what I know not where, so shut up and go back to wherever you came from!"

"Maybe I will!" Snare snarled, his own hackles rising. "The Order of Infinis is as dead as Brackus, and if you're the last senior member, then rebirthing it is pointless!"

"Who said anything about rebirthing it?" Flinch said, genuinely confused. Slowly, the two males turned towards Kali, who was still standing in the shadows, obviously unwilling to get involved in their showdown. Now, however, with their attention fully on her, she began to regret that she did not interfere sooner, when the conditions were more in her favor.

"What?" she said, feeling oddly defensive before the combined glares. "After all, what shall you two do?"

"I'm going back to bounty hunting, not that I have ever left it," Snare shrugged casually.

"And when the warranty on your gadgets runs out?"

"Hey, I made those gadgets in the first place! Lord Nazmul wanted his bounty hunters to have the best equipment ever, but since he was a wizard and a nobleman, he turned to his second-in-command – Brackus – to deal with it, and since Brackus knew neither hide nor hair in science, guess who had to make them? Me, that's who!"

"You?"

"Yeah! Want me to short circuit the whole thing to prove my point?"

"No need," Snare shook his head: he could smell that the little man was not bluffing at all, and decided that he did not want to push him to point of action. "Tell you what. If you do not want to spend the rest of your life just being drunk in various parts of Rados, come and work with me as the technical support guy or something like that. How does that sound?"

"Hmmm… How much will I get paid?"

"Twenty percent from each bounty?"

"Twenty-five percent."

"Twenty-two.

"Twenty-three."

"Twenty-two and a half?"

"Deal."

"Excuse me?" Kali's voice rose, as she realized that the two males were completely serious in their bartering and forgot all about her. "Just what are you two doing?"

"Thinking about the future," Snare shrugged. "The Order of Infinis is dead and gone-"

"No it's not! We're the Order of Infinis now!"

"No, sister, I thought about it quite a bit," Flinch shook his head. "Lord Nazmul was the Order of Infinis if to speak honestly, none of us here could ever match him, and now he's gone for good – just like the Megalith, his great guardian. Without them, any Order we'll get up and running will be a poorly made parody of what he had."

"His bootlicking aside, the scientist here got a point," Snare nodded. "Without Nazmul and the Megalith the Order would be a bully without the bull – an empty threat. Want no part of that, thank you!"

"Oh, so you're going to stick with bounty hunting?" Kali's voice lacked its old bite.

"Pays the bills," Snare shrugged and Flinch nodded in affirmative. "Plus it's not like you were doing anything different with your life before, is it?"

"I was pursuing a higher goal," Kali ground out.

"Yeah, the little goal for Lord Nazmul's new body," Flinch nodded sagely. "In the end, though, he had to do with Malco. Maybe that was his undoing. After all, Malco was hardly-"

"Shut up! I don't care about that!" Kali squealed. "Darn it, you want to fade into obscurity when we could-"

"We can do nothing!" Snare snapped. "Yo, scientist, got some of that libation wine left?"

"A bit, just a spot on the bottom. Why?"

"Give it to her, would you? I think she needs her own closure."

"But I did the libations already – to do them twice would be sacrilege!"

"So she'll do it for the Megalith or something," Snare shrugged. "Sacrilege or not, she needs closure."

"I don't need your stinking wine, be gone from my sight!"

The two males whirled around, and stared right at Kali's face, as the shapechanger was currently in her giant serpent's shape. Snare snarled. He did not want to come to this, but if the legless female thought that she could push him around, she had another thing coming-

"Let's go," Flinch spoke up, seeing that his potential new investment was in danger of being mangled before he actually got his allotted twenty-two and a half percent. "The lady obviously is feeling irrational today."

That caused an unexpected reaction in Snare. The bounty hunter remembered that according to his culture, the females were supposed to be irrational, and it was the males' job to be the rational ones. "Fine," he snarled out. "Scientist, let's go. She wants to act insane, it's her choice."

"Fair enough," Flinch nodded; relieved that for once he avoided being caught in a middle of a fight that did not really involve him. "Here's some wine left, if you want to do your own libation, feel free."

Kali did not cry as she watched Snare and Flinch leave the clearing; she was beyond such emotions; but the sounds that came from her as practically all of her hopes and dreams vanished into thin air sounded remarkably like dry sobs.

These sounds reached the ears of Snare and caused him to pause. Flinch noticed that and paused as well.

"You know," he said slowly, "maybe it's not the best idea, leaving behind a shapechanger who's angry at us, you know?"

"You have a point," Snare nodded. "Let me try one last thing."

The two turned and came back, catching Kali flat-footed, figuratively speaking. "What do you two want?" she hissed, hoping that neither will notice the reddish tinge in her eyes.

"Look," Snare said, "we're not friends, but I don't want our acquaintance to end so poorly."

"Well, that's too bad, because we have nothing to speak about! I care about the Order-"

"Look," Flinch rolled his eyes. "No offense, but you look as bad as some of the ladies that got acquainted with Malco on a personal level and regretted it. We, however, want to mend the bridge so look, how about we do one more job for free and that's it?"

"Now see here, scientist, I am not in a fashion of overdoing free jobs!" Snare snapped.

"It won't have to be free," Kali said slowly. "I want you to take me to the Order's headquarters."

"Why, weren't you there before?" Flinch was genuinely surprised.

"No and neither was he," Kali snapped.

"Okay," Flinch said slowly. "I can get us there."

"And the paying part?" Snare asked, ruffled that once again the legless female seemed to get the situation back to her advantage.

"The Order's treasury, of course!" Flinch said slowly. "Brackus may've depleted it somewhat by paying his mercenaries, but it's still mostly full!"

"The treasury, you say?" Snare's spirits perked up immediately. "This warrants a look. Hit it, scientist."

Several moments later, the clearing was empty. Moreover, although neither the Defenders, nor the Ethos and their agents, nor the Order itself knew it, but the Order was back.

And it was going to stay back in business as well.