Well, someone needs a glass of warm milk!

Really, from what I've seen in my few brief years of life, things tend toward decay more than construction, especially group projects. Ironically enough I was part of a group story like this about a year back, it may get a new post any month now. (Besides, I'm saying this is a 50:50 pass/fail, not that it's doomed to failure.)

I don't see how DD has anything to complain about. Those are the risks of being part of a group story. If someone uses your character, tough. That's the nature of a collaborative story. Personally, you could take my characters tomorrow and kill them both; as long as it furthered the story, I really wouldn't complain. If DD has specific complains, PM them to Strato. We don't need an argument to clutter this thread.

superjwren, this story may have been going on for some time, but we have put a lot of effort into it. I think it is very likely that we will finish this, even if we only have two or three authors in the end. I inted to stick it out, in any case, and I'm pretty sure Slay feels the same. If you have some helpful critique, then by all means , say it as unoffensively as you can. As it stands, your comments are not contributing anything but frustration.

....This isn't exactly going according to plan, is it? Heck, insanity is just taking over and nothing is getting done. Let's all calm down, and come to some agreement. Now, if we just calm down, we'll get this place nice and settled down.

Now, ya'll calm yourselves down, ya hear?!

So... who's up next?

I can never remember. I think it's Cobbi but I'm not certain.

Next one after Cobs please. Or anyone after her who wants to write a chapter and who posts within a few days.

C'mon people, get a-typin; you don't want me to do something now do you; you don't want it to come to that...

suer we do also, we want to see you on msn.. plz.

Hey, if nobody else has time I can whip up something.

(And I'm on MSN early, you're on late.)

Originally Posted by Coppertop

DD, it is your turn next.

Oh, I'm reposting the list here for convenience's sake. Tick, I'm not certain when you write, hence the question mark.

Cobra.
Spaztic?
Coppertop.
Alex.
SlaYo.
Risp.
Acid.
Ducky.
Doubble Dutch.
ToxicBunny.
Strato.

Reposting for the sake of convenience, I realize that this list is out of date but it will have to do until I have more time to correct it.

It is my turn to write next, I will start immediately.

Huzzah! We're gonna get a treat now!

Okay, so I realize it's been over a month since I started. I do apologize most profusely for the wait. Life has been unpredictable, to say the least.
And, since I don't write four page chapters, this one is comparably short. Again, sorry.


The spy network is an amazing thing. Anything worth knowing, regardless of how inconsequential it may seem, somehow finds its way through the appropriate channels, to the ears of those interested most.
Reg’s call sparked a chain of events. Jesse Aimon’s name ensured that the information was passed on, filtered through informants and contacts, until it fulfilled its purpose and was filed away for future reference.

Adrian had built a fairly complete picture of Jesse. Fierro and Hayley had done their work efficiently, if somewhat hesitantly. He had been put in contact with an agent, alias Lyndsey Savon, who had been instrumental in the removal of the Aimon family. Her failure to eliminate Jesse seemed to have been excused by her handler, but Adrian did not approve of such errors. He disregarded the fact that Jesse had also eluded him, justifying it with the fact that his slip would shortly be rectified. It did not appear that this agent had even made an attempt on Jesse’s life, following his escape from the fire that had consumed his home. Adrian questioned her further, attempting to learn Jesse’s character and personality, before excusing himself amiably.
Ten minutes after their parting, Lyndsey Savon became the tragic victim of a drunk driver, who walked away from the accident and disappeared. Adrian was nothing if not thorough.

Fierro’s call came the next morning. Adrian had found another vehicle, nondescript and generic, procured from one of his many contacts. He was already preparing to move out when his phone rang.
“Adrian.”
“Fierro here.”
“Line’s clear?” Adrian demanded.
“Yeah, I’m sure of it. Got news on the Aimon kid.”
“Talk,” the dark-furred rabbit said tersely. Fierro did.
Adrian was not a stupid fellow. His mind was working long before Fierro finished.
“Tetracolyhydroxide?” What could he possibly want that for?
“That’s the stuff,” Fierro confirmed. “This kid’s not an addict, is he?”
“No,” Adrian said shortly. “Not with his psych profile. Not the type at all. He wants it for something else.”
“I’d say, since he got about two and a half gallons of the stuff.”
“Right. Anything else?”
“He paid the dealer in Carrotan gems. Medium quality, not large stones. Had a fair quantity.”
“Gems? Carrotan gems?”
“That’s what I said. That’s all the info I’ve got for you.”
“Where do I find the dealer?”
Fierro told him.
“Alright, thanks Fierro. I’ll follow up.”
“Yeah. Keep your trail clean, Adrian. Later.”
Fierro broke the connection before Adrian could respond.
Adrian was not a stupid rabbit. He had an excellent memory and a keen intelligence, which enabled him now to recollect the pertinent facts about tetracolyhydroxide. Putting two and two together was easy. Adding in the Carrotan gems, which indicated another ally for Jesse, and the result was logical.
He’s leaving Diamondus.
Well, Adrian would follow him. He had a score to settle, which was becoming intensely personal. The kid knew his name, knew his face, knew his voice and mannerisms, knew altogether too much for Adrian’s comfort.
The black rabbit conveniently forgot that his authority did not extend past Diamondus, indeed did not go past the edge of southern territory. To him, this had become a matter of self-preservation.

Jesse woke suddenly, coming fully alert in the darkness. The sound of his father’s voice still echoed in his ears, carried over from dreaming into the waking world. The teenager sought the comforting hum of the ship’s machinery, eager to erase the dream dialogue from his memory.
He dreamed frequently of Jonathan Aimon, these days. It was bitter irony that he should cringe from the memory of his father, once his greatest hero, now a dangerous, treacherous enigma. He had not approached Verity about her experience with Jonathan, and shied away from the idea. His image of the general had crumbled far enough. He had no wish to aid in its further destruction.
Something had woken him, not the dream; he rose silently and padded into the hallway, leaving the cabin he shared with Icarus. The other rabbit slept soundly, and Jesse had no wish to wake him. Their day had been busy, painting the ship with the tetra he had obtained. Icarus had been exhausted by nightfall.
Once in the hallway, the youth paused and listened carefully. Something was different about the ship’s sound, some ineffable variation that he could not place, that should not be present during the night cycle. Following his instincts, he drifted towards the cockpit, feet soundless on the deck. He paused at the threshold, observing the interior of the room and its’ sole occupant.
Verity was hunched before one of the terminals, its brightly lit screen painful to Jesse’s dark-accustomed eyes. She was not yet aware of his presence, and he debated leaving her to her solitary research. She bore him no love, after all, and his presence would undoubtedly prove unwelcome.
He had made no noise, but Verity twitched and swung around regardless, sensing his gaze. Her eyes widened and then narrowed with ill-concealed suspicion. Jesse looked away and considered the blank terminals, deliberately refraining from eyeing her screen.
“What do you want?” she demanded, her voice loud and jarring in the dimness. Jesse shrugged after a few seconds, laconic, attempting to look unthreatening.
“I heard someone,” he said. “Guess it was you.”
She favored him with a hard glare. Jesse wanted nothing more than to avoid this female, to ghost back into his room and return to sleep.
“You hate him so much,” he said suddenly, on impulse. “Jonathan. You hate him enough that you were going to kill me just because I look like him.”
“I thought you were him,” she snapped. “I’m still not convinced.”
She was lying, he thought. She distrusted him for other reasons. But he found suddenly that he needed to know, badly.
“What did he do to you?”
The question was so childish that Verity stared, briefly silenced, and in that moment Jesse looked younger than his seventeen years. He was so quietly confident that those around him often forgot that he was still a teenager, inexperienced by most standards. The reminder was unwelcome to Verity.
“None of your business,” she said, brushing away the concern and pain that Jesse’s voice expressed.
“It is my business,” he said quietly. “It became my business when I almost died because of what he did. I think I deserve to know what you almost killed me for.”
“No one needs to know except myself and Jonathan,” Verity said sharply, lifting her chin and daring him with her eyes to argue. Jesse dropped his eyes to the floor, considering his words. The silence stretched between them.
“You know he’s dead,” he said finally, breaking the quiet. “They burned his house to the ground with him and his family in it.”
“You can’t know that,” Verity objected flatly.
“It was all over the news,” he said quietly. “Showed his picture. He looks a lot like me. People said so then, too.”
He wanted desperately to tell her that he was Jonathan’s son, that Jonathan had hurt him too. Verity did not have to tell him what kind of a character his father was. Others had mentioned things as well. Reg, the lizard dealer, seemed to know Jonathan well; he had seen the resemblance between the two and his puzzled comments to Jesse had told the teenager far more than Reg knew. He wanted her to know that he shared the same kind of pain.
Of course, her predictable reaction would be to transfer blame from father to son, and carry out her revenge. Jesse was keen on survival. He kept his mouth firmly shut on the words he would like to say.
“I don’t believe you,” Verity stated, and the truth of that was obvious. Jesse shrugged again.
“Don’t, then.”
She spun her chair about and went back to the terminal, studiously ignoring Jesse. The white rabbit eyed her curiously.
“What are you doing, anyway?”
He began to wonder if she had even heard him, when she finally replied.
“I’m verifying our data,” she said, flicking to a new screen. “We have one chance. I want off this ball of dirt.”
“I can understand that,” he said dryly.
No answer was forthcoming, and she resumed ignoring him. Jesse turned, inwardly amused, to return to his cabin.
Tomorrow they would make their attempt, and Jesse prayed fervently that it would succeed. He, too, wanted off of Diamondus, but for his own reasons.
Adrian was still out there, and he had neither forgiven nor forgotten.

Thank you for that most wonderful chapter Copper. I feel almost guilty being after a chapter as well written as this one was. I am just not quiet sure if it does not clash with the storyline the three of you had going so far. Thank you for writing though.

I guess I'm up next.

A golden chapter from our copper, all you can do is go for silver Slay.

I'll try

< ct 3

Since this has been on my "to-read" list for a while now, I decided to do something about it. That something was to turn the thread into something I can read on my Palm.

A text file with pretty much everything chapter-like from this thread is here, and a PalmDoc version is here.

This is probably not the most accurate collection (there's many disagreements over chapter numbers and the like), but it should all be there. I've tried to keep section breaks, but they may be wrong as I placed them by using the powers of Find/Replace. I've also credited each chapter to the current username of the poster.

Feel free to ignore this, I'm only posting it as if someone else wants the same thing then it saves them an awful lot of Copy/Paste.

Quick edit: if anyone would rather I didn't make this available, let me know and I'll disappear the file.

*Hem hem!*

Well then... anyone?

Almost done now!

I figured I'd post the first half of my chapter up now. More to come in a day or two.
Have fun reading.

---

Chapter 44: Crossroads.

Thomas turned away from Susan, planning on running down the stairs and out of the house as fast as he could.
Susan grabbed him by the arm and gave a short tug at his sleeve.
"You are not planning on going out there are you?" Susan tried to give him an angry look, but her fear took the upper hand.
Thomas was determined to aid his friends and he pulled his arm free from her grip.
"I'm going Susan. Go to the basement and hide until all of this is over..." Susan wanted to interrupt him, but he shook his head.
"Not this time Susan, you'll listen to me for a change."
His eyes showed no sign of fear and she knew there was no point in trying to stop him, she passed Thomas and descended the stairs as she whispered for him to be careful.
Susan entered their small basement, a washing machine whirred in the corner. The small opening between it and the wall provided her with a place to hide.
She took a quick glimpse out of the window and her eyes grew wide as she saw a severed arm lying inches away from it.
"This is madness."

Thomas stepped outside, Louie's body was resting on the ground, his fur covered in the thick mud that had formed after the rainfall.
His eyes were open he did not move a muscle. His stomach was ripped open with one clean cut and his arm had been forcefully torn from his body.
Tier's head rolled to Thomas' feet. The rest of Tier's body was trying to fight of the Werewolf with a combination of ballet and 'You stepped on my toe.'
"Oh god, we're doomed." Thomas whispered.

Tony and Michelle had accepted Majo's invitation to warm by her fire, clean themselves up and rest.
The warm water felt like eternal bliss after the hardships they had to endure. Tony's worries ran down the sink as he closed his eyes.
He heard Michelle enter the bathroom. She stripped down from her blood soaked clothes and looked at herself in the mirror above the sink.
Her fur was hanging loose in several places to reveal deep, black gashes. She slowly brushed over them with the top of her fingers, she grind together her teeth waiting for the incoming signals of pain that would not come.
Tony's hand came out from behind shower curtain, he felt around for the towel Majo had provided him with. He wrapped it around his waist and got out.
Michelle gave him a faint smile and looked into the mirror again. She sighed and rested her hands on both sides of the wash basin and looked down at the droplets of blood that made their way down her body.
Tony stood behind her, looking over her shoulder at the same body, looking past the deadness he saw beauty and insecurity.
"I think..." He wanted to start a sentence, but he could not think of the right words. Their eyes met in the reflection of the mirror and she turned around to wrap his arms around him and kissed him.

Alexander was miles away from any kind of comfort, he walked through plains and meadows. For miles and miles with no clear purpose.
Hours after he had left the village he sank down in the tall grass of a field and looked up at the clear, dark sky.
The two moons lit up the area around him, he calmed down and the anger in him cleared up to make place for sadness.
He had been cursing his co-workers for their ostentatious nature.
All he could think about now were their good attributes and the pictures of their families adrift in the seas of blood.
His hands clutched several patches of grass and ripped them out. He has lost everyone he was even remotely close to in one night.
He could taste the bitter tears that ran down his cheek and entered his mouth.
A bright light flashed in the night sky.

The ship shook on all sides as the crew entered the cockpit in shock.
Verity avoided all contact with Icarus' eyes out of shame over something that was not her fault.
Icarus sat down in the chair next to her and looked over the controls and the on screen status report. The shields had been completely knocked out after the first four hits.
The fifth shot had hit the ships stabilizers and they were now being pulled down to the planet by it's gravitational field.
Verity brought the main defenses of Carrotus on screen. 'I'm afraid we ran into some technical difficulties. Our estimate was 80 kilometers, seemed we were a bit off."
Icarus shook his head silently as he saw another blast of energy was released from the planet's surface.
It made impact as they entered the planet's atmosphere. The right side engine shook heavily and would not last much longer.
Naomi pushed Jesse down in the seat and put on his safety belt. He was incredibly afraid and he pushed his back into the chair with so much force that he was afraid he might throw it out.
"We're going to crush into the planet." Verity said stating the obvious. This wasn't the way she expected this to end, she wanted to find the vampire that would embrace her, but life often took unexpected turns.
They were so close to the planet right now and Icarus tried his best to keep his ship under control. With an incredible noise the right side engine broke off and it crashed down into a nearby field shooting up dust, sand and grass into the sky.
Only ten seconds to impact.

The werewolf laughed at the sight of Thomas in front of him. "Look at this, I just defeated a vampire and a zombie. And now I have to take on an accountant. Oh the horror." His voice was deep and ancient.
That's exactly what the young man was thinking. What on earth was he supposed to do? Take out his pen and write him to dead?
"Well, I'm going to..." Thomas wanted to start a brave speech, but before he had a chance to even finished his first line the beast came running at him with both his claws and fangs bared.
Several things flashed through his mind 'Why did I get involved in all of this? Will Susan be alright? Why didn't I bring a clear pair of shorts?"
There was one thing the werewolf had forgotten however, Thomas' wife who would always stick by his side, no matter what.
Susan slammed an iron rod into the wolf's teeth and it, being caught by surprise, fell down to the ground groaning in pain.
She hit it over the head a couple of times after this, until the beast had stopped twitching.
She ran over to Louie first, seeing as how he was the only one with both supernatural powers and a clear head.
"Please, wake up." She took his arm and slapped him across the face with it. "Just wake up will you, you have to get us out of this mess." She shouted.
The wolf groaned, making notions of getting up soon.
Louie looked over at Susan, giving at least a sign of consciousness. "You have to get up, he's going to rip me and my Thomas apart if you don't."
The vampire twitched and took his arm back and placed it against the hollow socket in his chest where it once used to be, it fused together as if it were metal melted together under high temperature.
Susan looked at him in awe as he stood up and kicked Tier's head back to it's body. "I need a little something to get me going Susan." He said.
She jumped as he looked at her with blood red eyes. "I need blood, please get me some soon before I'll do something I'm going to regret."
He opened his hand and revealed his sharp claws after which he reached out his arm for her neck. "Now!" He shouted and he had the hardest time to keep him from grabbing her tr oath and devouring her.
Thomas shoved a fat rat in his mouth and he devoured it in an instant. The color returned to his face and he looked over at the wolf which was crawling up and gave him a frightened look.
"You're not going anywhere." He grabbed the wolf by the skin of the neck and pushed it against the wall of the house. The bricks cracked as the wolf wash pushed against it, bleeding and groaning.
"How many of you do we have to kill before you get the message Sebastian?" The beast gasped for breath and it's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.
"Stop it, just stop" Susan shouted and Louie released his grasp on the wolf immediately. "Can't you see what you're doing? You are no different from him."
The vampire stood in front of her and it felt like he had grown inches and cast a deep, dark shadow over the fragile woman.
"Thank you for saving us however, that was really kind of you." She said with a small voice.
Tier had picked up his head and placed it on top of his body just in time to see the wolf was getting back up again, on his way to bury his paws inside of Louie.
He had pulled his arm off and smashed the sharp end off it through the werewolf's brain. "Stay!" He shouted to the beast and giggled over his own terrible joke.
Yakira picked up her backpack and threw it over her shoulders, she was ready to go and there was no doubt in her mind that Susan hadn't changed hers.
They would all be getting out of here tonight and she was re leaved that they would all be leaving togheter.
Louie wanted to be sure however. "Do you still feel like staying behind Susan?"
Susan walked inside and emerged from the house minutes later with both her bags and Thomas' packed.
She took one more look at her house and burst into tears. "I'm sorry I've been so stubborn, I really am."
Tier took another sip from a small flask of liquor he had taken from their house and raised his shoulders Apathetically when he noticed Louie's disgruntled look.
"We'd best get to Peddleburg station and take the train to Earian, I know a place over there where we can hide and where no one would ask questions." Louie looked at his traveling companions, who wear all incredibly tired and beat.
Either that or drunk. "So you are suggesting we run and hide?" Tier smelled of liquor and gave him a half cross-eyed look.

"Yes, for now. Untill we can come up with a better plan." He grabbed Yakira by the hand and she could feel that he was trembling with fear over what was to come.
Her vision was improving and she was sure she'd be fine without him guiding her, but she did not want to let go off his hand and walk beside him quietly into the night.

Tony woke up the next morning with his arms around Michelle and to the smell of fresh coffee.
Michelle smiled as Tony kissed her on the cheek, she turned over to him and held him tight.
"You made me feel alive again last night." And she was so full of love and lust for life again.
Tony got out of bed and grabbed his pants as he heard a noise downstairs at the front door.
Someone came running upstairs and almost kicked the door to the spare bedroom open. Majo averted her eyes when she saw the two of them weren't dressed yet.
"Hurry up and get dressed" She said out of breath. "There's police and special armed forces and by the looks of it, they are here for the both of you."
Tony catched his clothes and got into them as fast as he could, almost ripping apart his shirt.
Michelle got dressed and grabbed Tony by the arm. "You have to get out of here, let me..." Tony put a finger on her lips.
"I'm not going anywhere without you." He kissed her again, maybe for last time, but he did not want to think of that.
Majo interupted them. "Someone ratted you out. The lot of you are all over the news. They say you are plotting to assassinate Gary Parker."

The light in the sky grew bigger and Alexander could make out the outlines of a ship that came rushing in towards the planet's surface at high speed.
The engine broke apart from it and he started running towards the lake, it crashed into the ground and the enormous force of the collision made him fall face down into the grass.
He could count himself lucky, if he had not noticed it sooner, it would have crushed him and reduced him to a sticky pile of bone and fur.
Alexander got up and followed the ship, whoever was in it would need help. And he was not about to let anyone else die today.
Naomi faced the back of Icarus chair and wanted to shout out to him that she loved her when the ship slammed into the body of water.
Water shot out of the lake and almost washed Alexander away if he hadn't grabbed on to a tree in time. The back of the ship stuck out of the water and was slowly sinking down.
There was no time to panic and hesitate and Alexander dived into the water after the ship to see if there were any survivors.
"Oh god, we have to get out of here. Icarus, Icarus please wake up." Verity shouted as water started running into the ship through cracks in the window and outer hull that were caused by the impact.
The cracks in the window grew larger every second and she knew it wasn't long before it would give in to the enormous pressure. She slapped Jesse in the face to get him back to his senses but it was of no use.
The safety belt on his chair had snapped and flung him through the cockpit. Judging by several stains of blood against the far wall he had smashed into it and then into the ground.
Jesse breathed heavily and grind his teeth together not to shout out in pain. "Please Jesse." Verity spoke softly, the other two were rendered unconscious but still breathed and had been blessed by Carrotus.
Only a small cut in Icarus' forehead and several bruises on Naomi's arms and legs, but they had bumped their heads against the back of the seats and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake them up.
"Please, someone help us." Verity needed an extra pair of hands to get her new found friends to safety. If she opened up the door, she would only be able to swim out with one of her friends and the ship would sink to the bottom of the lake.
Out of her reach, leaving two of the people that got her to Carrotus to a cold, watery grave.
Alexander swam into view and Verity shot up. "Help us, help us!!" She shouted and knocked on the front window.
The window cracked and a large hole appeared, a stream of water ran into the cockpit, Alexander tried to swim away but he couldn't and he got caught in the stream of water that entered the ship like a small waterfall.
He was pulled towards the ship and the window caved in under his pressure. The cockpit would now be filled to the brim in a matter of seconds.
"They are all still alive, you have to help me save them." Verity looked around panicked. She usually kept a cool head, but that is what being stuck in a sinking ship minutes away from dead does to you.
"You grab her." He said as he pointed at the unconscious Naomi. He grabbed Icarus and Jesse and tried to stay above the water which was now up to his mouth.
He glanced over at the door and shouted for Verity to open it, swallowing the fresh water of the lake in the process.
The young girl let go of Naomi's body for a second to push the door open, she came up with her moments later.
"We can't get out." She coughed up some water she had accidentally swallowed. "It's no use, we're trapped in here."


Tier silently walked in front of Thomas and Susan. Followed by Louie and Yakira.
None of them said a word as they walked to Peddleburg train station.
It would take them another hour, but the cool and calm night put everyone at ease. And would help get Tier over his drunken state a little easier.
He hated all of this responsibility, he had his fair share of it in the past. Tier just wanted to be left alone, but he got in to this to deep to turn back now.
Yakira's sight returned ever so slightly. She could now make out the outlines of the people near to her. Susan's slender body holding her hand and her husband Thomas, his silver-rimmed spectacles gave a little sparkle in the moonlight.
Thin and fragile, yet he sounded so strong and confident in the midst of all of this. And he was always there for her.
Tier, the arcane turtle with the unique scent, she thought of how lonely he must've felt in the ages passed.
And the there was her protector, tall and determined and always on the look out for everyone but himself. She felt sorry for him, she just felt how scared he was and she knew he knew so, so much more then he was telling them.
She thought he must've been quite handsome as well, she had stared at his face trying to see, but her vision was too blurry still. A
And when he turned to look at her she quickly looked away and pretended to be pre occupied by the blurry trees in front of the dark background.
They arrived in Peddleburg early in the morning, right on time to catch the next train.
Thomas wanted to buy five tickets but Tier stopped him. "You might want to read this first." He said as he pushed the newspaper under Tom's nose.
The article showed holographic images of him and the other people he had been involved with over the past few months.
"This is terrible." Thomas gasped. "I know." Tier said. "It's a terrible picture."


"Step aside m'am or we will enter your house by force." A tough looking turtle covered in metallic armor stood in front of Gerda.
The entire village was overrun by men in armor and hovercraft's. "You are harboring two highly dangerous criminals suspected of assassinating Governer Parker. If you do not step aside, we will use violence."
She abided but shot the man a mean look. "Don't be to harsh on them."
He entered the small house with six other turtles while the rest of them spread out to cover the grounds making sure to leave Tony and Michelle no means of escape.
The turtle demanded that the last man closed the door and leave Gerda standing outside. "If they won't come quietly, you'll shoot them without any hesitation?"
They moved up the stairs, guns ready to be used if the occasion arised. "Tony Waterbeck and Michelle Crompton. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come with us quietly and no one will get hurt."
Michelle jumped out from behind a door aiming Tony's blaster at the turtles. "Wrong, there's going to be a world of pain awaiting you."
She opened fire and shot at the commander. She hit the metallic armor he was wearing and the bullets bounced right off of it.
He aimed his gun at Michelle and fired, but the agile rabbit managed to evade the hail of fire from the unit and jumped into the bedroom where Tony was waiting.
"We can't get out through the window." He said as he pointed to the three units waiting outside.
"You're not suggesting we'd surrender, right?" Tony looked at his feet with nothing much to say. "We're outnumbered at least fifty to one, I'd say we'd better go with them and make a run for it when the odds are a bit more even."
She kissed him and shouted for the commander to stop firing as she kicked her gun over the floor and out of the door for the unit to see.
Tony and Michelle stepped out of the room with their hands in the air.
"I think you made the right choice." Auntie Gerda walked into view.
"Thank you for turning these fugitives in ma'am." The commander told her.
"I'll do anything to keep my little girl save from these madmen."

I know this is a bit unusual, but I did write another chapter. It takes place before CT's last contribution, and its placement only makes sense there (thus the 42.5). I don't know how it'll work out exactly but for now I think it's enough that I actually bloody wrote something.

-----------------------------------
Chapter 42.5: Icarus's Augury
-----------------------------------
"These should do the trick," Icarus said as he walked out of the hull of the ship. He was carrying two objects that looked suspiciously like hand held vacuum cleaners. Jesse knew immediately what they were and nodded as a broad smile crept over his face.

"I haven't seen one of these since I was a child," he said, "and my father and I..." Suddenly his smile narrowed and his eyes turned downwards.

Icarus set down the sprayer and snapped his fingers at Jesse's face, "We need to get this over with quick. It's best to do this efficiently and fast in case there's someone on to us."

Naomi and Verity were already inside the ship, prepping it for launch. Naomi had given Icarus a walkie and her voice suddenly chisseled through the static. "You there, Icarus?"

Icarus set down the other sprayer so Jesse could pour in the Tetracolyhydroxide. He pressed down the green talk button on his walkie without taking it off his belt and said, "Sure am. What's on your mind?"

"Verity told me that although the Tetra will disable our shields, it's a fine way to see if the stuff is actually working. So I'm going to start her up in standby and activate them. We'll let you know once they've been rendered obsolete."

Icarus almost laughed. "Rendered obsolete, ten-four, batten down the hatches," he mumbled to himself. A very strange, foul smell was suddenly snaking its way into his nose. Then he remembered to press down on the button, "Gotcha, love." He turned towards Jesse and noticed he was very carefully pouring the Tetra into the sprayers. "Is that what that God-awful smell is?"

"Oh, sorry about that," Jesse started, setting down the Tetra and pulling a couple face masks out of his satchel. He tossed one to Icarus and pulled the other over his mouth and nose. "This stuff will certainly make your hairs stand on end. I had forgotten what it must smell like." Icarus pulled his own mask into place and nodded absentmindedly. Jesse finished pouring in the Tetra as the ships engines began humming idly. Snapping the tops into place, he looked up at Icarus. "What if this doesn't work?"

Icarus returned the look but didn't answer. Instead he grabbed the sprayer by the handle and took the hose in the other, turning towards the ship. But Jesse wouldn't let it rest, and he asked it again. "What are the stakes?"

"The stakes, Jesse without an I or a last name?" Icarus asked wryly. "What am I supposed to tell you? You know your own stakes. I've been smuggling people on and off this God forsaken planet for years and never wanted to know their stories." He hadn't turned around until now to face Jesse. "I'm not one to get involved. So don't look to me to tell you what will happen if whatever you're running away from catches you. Let's just get this over with, shall we?" Jesse nodded and they began spraying down the ship.

Icarus began spraying the chemical onto the ship, but not thirty seconds later Naomi was speaking over the walkie. "Icarus? Icarus, are you there?" He set down the sprayer, moved his face mask down over his chin, and pressed the talk button.

"There a problem, Naomi? We just started spraying on the Tetra moments ago."

"The shields are already down. If you only just started spraying that stuff on it must be pretty powerful." Icarus breathed in deep and got a sudden whiff of the stench.

"Indeed."

"Are you alright?"

Icarus coughed. "I'll be fine, this stuff just smells something fierce. I'm gonna coat the ship with more, we can't be too careful." He quickly put the mask back over his mouth and nose but felt a little dizzy. Nothing came back over the walkie so he simply picked the sprayer back up and continued.

It took hours to completely coat the ship. Everyone figured they had done much, much more than they needed. Jesse had even opted to quit early, to Icaris's chagrin. By the time it was finished he was utterly exhausted. He entered the ship fully intending to go straight to sleep, but Naomi greeted him as he entered his room.

"You look terrible!" She exclaimed.

"Thanks," he mumbled and plopped down onto the bed. She scooted close to him and held his face.

"I.. we need to take off immediately. I was hoping you could be in the control room with Verity and me as we went. I'm still a little worried and I was hoping you could be there.." Icarus, however, didn't feel like he was in any place to be doing much of anything right now. The sickly stench seemed like it was still lingering in his nose. It was almost as if he could taste it. And he was so tired. So unimaginably tired.

He tried to reply but felt he couldn't move his jaw or his tongue. His eyelids drooped as if tied to weights. Distantly he became aware that Naomi had left the room. "I must have gone to sleep," he thought. Then he started. "How am I thinking if I have gone to sleep?"

Suddenly that unbearable weariness left him and he felt a stinging roll of electricity race up his spine and explode in the back of his brain. It was as though all the energy in the world had spontaneously built up and was released the only place it knew to. Tentacles of fire raced through his skull in a burning fury. He felt himself sit up with completely open eyes and looked around him.

The walls of the room began to quiver and flow as if they were standing pools of water suddenly disturbed by a dropping pebble. He felt his paws move up to his temples but he wasn't controlling them. What was going on? His heart raced and his fur became damp with sweat. The walls continued to wobble and soon the floor joined in. The waves became larger and larger until everything seemed to run into itself.

And then, there was nothing.

Icarus felt himself to be freely floating in a perfect empty void. He had no limbs, no body, no eyes. There was only silence. He could still think, however, and it all seemed to register somehow. And then the silence was broken with a distantly familiar voice, but he could not tell where it came from.

"No one's going to die," it said.

"What?" Icarus thought. The phrase seemed to register as being recent.

"No one's going to die," it repeated. And another time. It continued until Icarus thought he was going to burst. How, he didn't know, but it had to stop. Its simplicity and calmness was even more maddening. "No one's going to die. No one's going to die. No one's going to die."

In what seemed like an eternity later, a rush once again came over him and the void was replaced with a beautiful meadow of grass. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue and two moons hung in the sky. He became aware of himself again and that he was laying down. Naomi's face appeared above his looking panic stricken. "Icarus!" she yelled and pulled him up.

As he rose from laying in the grass to rising to his feet, the scene around him completed obliterated. Dark clouds rushed overhead and the ground shook violently. There were rabbits running everywhere. "We have to go!" Naomi said and tugged at his arm. He looked down and found a gun in his right paw, but it did not strike him as unusual. In the distance he saw a ship crash into the ground, bursting into flames.

"This is Carrotus," he thought. "We made it!" But what was going on? Naomi tugged again at his arm and they began running through the grass. Naomi raced ahead, letting go of his arm, and Icarus strained to keep up. He was panting and his legs felt like they were going to give. The beautiful girl before him slowly went further and further ahead until she was a speck on the horizon. Icarus gave up and stopped running. He stooped down to catch his breath, staring at the dirt and his paw touching it.

He blinked. When his eyes reopened his surroundings had again changed. The grassy meadow had become a dark, abandoned house. "Now where am I?" There was a crashing sound from above him and he heard struggled screaming, seemingly from a female. A bizarre urge came over him that he must go upstairs immediately, so he stood. He squinted and tried to find a staircase or a promising hallway, but once he attempted to take a step forward the floor gave beneath him and he fell through it.

There was a short sensation of freely falling before he hit the ground. It was no longer dark. As he turned to look up, expecting to see the ceiling of the house, he was greeted once again with a blue sky. This time, however, he was surrounded by dirt. His limbs felt weak and he couldn't stand, but he opened his mouth to try and yell for help from above. A smiling face greeted him, looking into the hole, but the smile wasn't friendly. It disappeared and suddenly his mouth was filled with dirt. Someone was burying him. He struggled but it was of no use. The light from above slowly faded to be replaced with the weight of more and more dirt.

Once again, there was nothing.

And I am glad you did decide to get something done since it made for a good read and it feels in place. I will post the second half of my chapter up as soon as I can. Welcome back Tik.

I continued this chapter and I included a flashback.
This is the flashback by the way. I'll post up the final part of this chapter soon!!

---


Louie was awakened early in the morning by the sound of the creaky crypt door. Tobias entered with a cup of coffee and sat down next to him on a cold, marble slab.
He was annoyed to see that the old man was still in his house as he rubbed the sleep from his face.
"Good morning." Tobias' friendliness went to waste as the vampire turned his back to him and walked out of the crypt to wash himself clean in the pound outside.
The old hare walked over to the grave at the center of the crypt.
"Here lies Lawrence Greenthorpe, founder of the Greenthorpe village. Visionair, husband, father."
Tobias' hands followed the letters. "I miss you old friend."
Louie had cupped his hands together and was about to wash his face as the words the old hare had spoken reached his ears.
He walked back to the crypt, his fur wet from his early morning bath. "You knew my father?"
Tobias smiled. It had taken him a while but he had finally reached out and made contact with Louie.
"He was a brilliant and charismatic man." A tear ran down Louie's cheek and it seemed as if he had finally woken up out of a long coma.
As if the realization had set in ... "He's gone, isn't he?"
The stranger came over to him and gave him a warm hug, as his father often had done when he was sad and he grieved over their loss.
He sat down by his mothers grave and stroke the marble as to feel a physical link with her. "I miss you mommy."
Tobias walked over to the pound to wash himself up. Together they had made a start to a long and slow process.

Estella woke up the same day, miles and miles away from Greenthorpe.
The fresh corpses of two young, dead men held her company. She had drained them from their life fluids and snapped their necks. They lay on the bed together in a macabre entanglement.
Estella had not spared a single life ever since Louie's, she kicked the lifeless rabbits out of her bed and got up.
The thick, brown curtains were drawn close and a thick musky scent filled the room and made her nauseous.
She drew open the curtains and the sunlight covered her milky, white body.
"Time to move on precious." She told herself. Estella had lost her mind ever since she ran away from Louie and had grown more mad with every bite from every corpse she took.
Nothing mattered anymore. She stepped over the corpse of one of her latest victims and got into her clothes. She clipped her garters to her panties and smirked.
Men were the easiest prey there was, all it took was one pretty smile and they were hers.
Estella opened the nightstand of her rented room in another random town and picked up a volume of the chronicles of Bruhn. "I've not given up looking for you yet, pretty." She said as she cackled like a maniac.
"You'll set us all free." Estella kissed the book and put it in her handbag, she walked out of the room to become a lady again for a few more hours.

"Focus." Tobias shouted as he knocked Louie on his back for the fifth time in half an hour.
"I can't, I've had enough for today Tobias." Three months had past and Louie had grown close to his mentor. Who had shown up to give him company. To teach him both the ways of the warrior and the scholar.
They were sparring with sticks on one sunny morning as Tobias told him to count up to a hundred in Gastarian, a dead language used by the first followers of the temple of Carrotus.
"Nijan, Garo, Pathek." Louie felt tired and with one firm blow Tobias smashed the stick out of his hand and into the lake. He firmed his grip on his own stick and with a steady hand made a notion to hit Louie over the head who in returned grabbed it and brought the old man out of balance making him roll to the grass.
"You're growing stronger." The old man coughed as he tried to get up, Louie reached his hand out to him to help him up. "You're forgetting one thing though, don't think you are victorious before you are."
Tobias grabbed Louie's hand and threw him into the lake.
The vampire grabbed his own stick and jumped back into the shore with such a force that his feet were buried ankle deep into the soft shore. He made a swoop with his stick and broke Tobias' fighting stick in half.
"I give up." The old man smiled, proud of his young pupil.
"Let us go inside and rest under the pleasure of a cup of tea. I think you've earned it."

"You know I can't drink this, Tobias." Louie said and Tobias laughed as he said "I may be old, my friend. But I'm not quite senile yet." His eyes sparkled with life.
"This is tea from Kahani leaves, they grow near the mills of Pneum Arklik. Quite an extraordinary place. You should see it for yourself some day."
He poured two cups, a feint flowery smell emerged from the pot of yellowish tea.
"This tea evaporates inside of the drinkers body and the steam has healing properties. Not that you need that with your regenerative capabilities, but an old man like me likes to treat himself with a cup or two every now and then."
He winked at Louie who smiled at him. Meeting Tobias was the best thing that had happened to him after years of loneliness. They took their cups in their hands and clinked them together over the good work out they had.
The vampire had always taken his friend for granted but a question had been burning on his lips for a while now and in a quite moment he blurted it out.
"Why did you come here Tobias?"
Tobias put his cup down. "You're father and I were best friends, we told each other we would always look out for one another. Unfortunately, I failed to do my job."
"You could not help it, Tobias. It was by his own hand he died. It would not have mattered any whether you had been there or not."
Tobias nodded his head. "You can not help it either Louie, but does that make you feel any less guilty for what happened?"
Louie quietly shook his head and the old hare continued.
"When I could not help him, my concerns for your father became my concerns for you. Concider it my inheritance."
Tobias paused for a moment to take another sip of his tea. "I was devastated to hear that your father had past on into the next life and after I heard eyewitness reports from this area that told of a creature haunting the Greenthorpe mansion. I knew it could only be you."
Louie was shocked to hear this. "But, how did you know? How come you know about these mythical beings that are a secret to the rest of the world?"
Tobias laughed. "My dear Louie, a secret this big can hardly be kept without someone uncovering it. Do you think Estella and you are the only vampires that roam Carrotus? The world is filled with mythical beings. Vampires, zombies, ghosts, there are thousands, hiding in the dark."
Louie's had spun, Zombies and ghosts? Surely he must have been joking. "Are you sure there are no side effects to this tea?"
Thomas continued as if he had not heard him. "Your father was not just a wealthy industrial land lord, Louie. Him and I have studied the occult ever since our years in high school. We have done excessive studying into the nature of these beasts and their history." Louie was sitting on the edge of his seat hearing all of this. He could not believe his father had been involved in all of this.
"I think it's time I showed you something, follow me." Tobias stood up and walked out of the drawing room to the grand library.
Louie followed after him and noticed him grabbing a book and turning it to a page with a strange, dark symbol on it. Tobias pronounced it and the floor of the Library shook. Four lines of equal size formed in the floor forming a perfect square.
It materialized to turn into a trap door which opened itself up revealing a flight of stairs that led down underneath the ground.
He treded down the stairs, lights in the long walkway popped on as he past them, as if they were controlled by magic and after what seemed like ages he entered a library that seemed at least four times as big as the one upstairs.
A skeleton of a beast he had never seen before stood in the far, right corner of the wall. A plaque underneath read 'Loup-garou'. "A werewolf." He mumbled to himself. "Unbelievable."
He looked around some more and noticed a drawing of what seemed like a large mill with several hooded figured kneeling in front of it worshiping an deity.
Mounted on the wall in front of him hang a framed picture of a ghastly being imprisoned behind bars of earth and bone. "I notice he caught your attention." Tobias' voice startled Louie.
Everything seemed so much more scarier in this damp air. "Yes, who is he?"
"His name is Bruhn, he gave birth to evil." Tobias said. One short sentence but the impact was enormous, because Louie had never heard fear in Tobias voice until now.
"It is written that he will return and clean the world of all that is good, he will act as an executioner and only the wicked will roam the earth."
"Surely this is just a legend?" Louie asked him hoping to see Tobias light up and slap him on the shoulder while letting out a hearty laugh.
"It could be." Tobias tried to calm him down and walked over to the first bookcase to the right of the stairs. "Follow me."
Louie walked backwards towards Tobias, not breaking free from the terrible eyes of the end of everything.
"I want you to read this, it's a story of sacrifice and bravery.Your father showed me this once and he had always believed it to be the absolute truth. I want to hear what you think of it."
Tobias pushed the book into Louie's hands and walked back up the stairs, Louie followed after casting one more glance on Bruhn.

Another month had passed and the book had revealed a lot to the vampire. It's title was 'Rapture' and it spoke of the return of Bruhn and the fall of all that is good.
It was a doom scenario that spoke of how there would be no resistance against it, and how our happiness would be carried away on the wings of the horned god.
The world would tumble through the vast universe for all of eternity and infect all of those it would come into contact with. It was, absolution.
The book gave no hope and Louie wondered why Tobias had given it to him, he feared Bruhn, the beast from which there was no escape.
He sat by the lake one day when he heard the cry of a young girl. "Tobias?" He shouted, hoping he would hear her too, but there was no answer. It was then he decided to do something he had not done in a very long time.
Louie passed the gate that lead to the village of Greenthorpe and followed the cries until he came to a clearing in which a young girl lay with a bleeding knee.
He moved closer to her to see if she had been hurt, she must have been no more than two years old and he wondered how she had gotten here in the first place.
He picked her up in his arms and noticed two hungry wolves who emerged from the thick bushes up ahead.
They growled at him and slowly moved closer towards their prey. The wolves bent through their front legs a little, making notion to jump until Louie let out a terrifying growl that sent them running back into the bushes.
He picked up the girl and carried her in his arms to the village up ahead.

"Oh, my little girl." A man came running towards him and took her in his arms and held her tightly to his body.
The villagers rejoiced when they saw her and gathered around her and her father.
"Oh, how can I ever repay you kind sir, for bringing our daughter back to us?" The mother asked Louie, she gulped when the daze of glory left her and she noticed his pale complexion which looked far off from the norm on this bright, sunny day. "I, uhm..." The villagers stepped back a little.
"You're welcome." Louie spoke and he walked back to the mansion where he was greeted by a worried Tobias.
They went inside, Tobias had made his famous tea. "That was a very noble thing of you, Louie."
"I could smell her fear, I could practically taste her blood in my mouth. And I wanted to Tobias, I wanted to." He shook his head in shame and anger.
"But you did not." The old man said with a twinkle in his eyes. "And that is what sets heroes apart from monsters."
A stone crashed through the window of the mansion hitting Tobias against the side of the head.
"Tobias, are you alright?" The old man crawled up, a trinkle of blood ran down his face. Louie looked outside, a horde of angry villagers had picked up their torches and pitchforks and were on their way to the mansion.
"You save a life and this is how they repay you, I'm sorry old friend." Tobias felt true regret for Louie, if only they could understand he was different from the true monsters. Then they would surely understand.
Another stone entered the room through the crumbling window and barely missed Louie, instead taking out a small vase on a cabinet.
Louie and Tobias made their way out of the house through the windows in the back of the drawing room that led to the lake, but were stopped by several angry villagers.
"Don't hurt them Louie, they don't know what they are doing." One of the villagers threw his torch at Louie and a patch of his fur was burned away.
"Stand still beast, you will never touch my child again." The father of the girl who had expressed his gratitude earlier now came rushing towards Louie with his pitchfork drawn up, read to impale the beast through his chest.
Louie could quickly jump aside but the villager impaled the weak Tobias with his pitchfork.
"No, oh god, please, Tobias!" Louie screamed at the top of his lungs and sank down on his knees next to Tobias who had been mortally wounded.
The vampire took his mentors head into his hands and begged for help, but the villagers all took a step back. It had never been their intention to hurt an innocent man. They only came here to slay the beast.
"Tobias, please. You are the only person I have left." Tobias grabbed Louie's hand and motioned for him to come closer.
"Don't believe everything you read, my friend. You can still put a stop to the rapture." He coughed up blood and grind his teeth togheter.
"I don't understand Tobias, what are you trying to tell me."
"The end is not inevideble. Find, them. You can not do it alone." Tobias coughed again and reached for his pocket.
"You a... the pure vampire." Tobias spoke in riddles and handed him the dark, black symbol he had used to open up the hidden library. "Take this."
He closed his eyes and with his last breath he spoke a single word. "Hope."

Louie turned to face the angry mob. "Why?" He screamed and he tried to get up to walk towards them, but his legs were to burdened with this sadness he had to bear and he fell down on his hands and knees.
"Why did you have to kill my only friend?" He cried as he felt two strong men pull him up and drag him over to the old tool shed by the lake. They threw him in and locked the door before they lit the shed on fire.
Louie clenched the drawing in his hand and rolled it up in a ball to prevent it from burning up as he felt the flames eat away at him.
The villagers stayed to see the shed burn down because they wanted to make sure the monster had been taken care of.
After the flames had died out, the last ones that had stayed behind left.
And out of the ashes came Louie when he thought the coast was clear.
Opening up his dark fist that would take quite some time to regenerate to reveal the picture that had stayed intact.
He would go down into the library and read every book there was, hoping to find a sign. Waiting for the others of whom Tobias had told him.
One word etched into his mind. "Hope."

Finally done with Chapter 44.
On to the next person in line <3.

--

Alexander grabbed Icarus and Jesse and took one last breath before the cockpit had filled itself with water. He looked behind him and noticed Verity pointing at the broken front window.
It was completely under water which meant they would be able to swim out of it without being pulled back into the ship.
It was a long way up however and the slender rabbit did not look like much of an atlethe.
He swam upwards and made rapid progress when Icarus smacked him in the face. He was still out cold but it seemed as if he had a frightening nightmare.
Alexander knew he had to hurry when Icarus gasped for breath and inhaled the filthy water of the lake.
Verity's agile body shot past him and reached the shore before he did.
She surfaced and gasped for breath pulling Naomi onto the shore. She took a second to capture her breath and pushed down on her chest to get the water out of her lungs.
The water ran down Naomi's cheek in small streams and she gasped for breath, still out cold.
She shot up as she heard the splash behind her. Alexander appeared holding Jesse by the fur of the neck. "Where is Icarus?" Verity called out to him as Alexander pushed Jesse out of the water.
"He will be right here little lady." He dived back into the blurry water of the lake, Icarus was slowly sinking to the bottom, kicking and punching making him sink even more rapidly.
'Oh no, you don't. You're all going to live.' Alexander thought as he grabbed Icarus by the arm and brought him safely to the surface.
"Quick, get out of the way." He shouted at Verity as he threw the rabbit down to the ground and pushed down on his chest.
"Oh god, it's not working." Verity panicked and looked over at Naomi who seemed to be in a peaceful slumber. "It's not fair." She mumbled as she thought of Raphael.
Alexander did his best to save the life of this stranger. "Come on man, breathe."
Icarus coughed and sat up straight. "No, no!" He shouted as he tried to whipe the sand from his fur.
It took him a moment to adjust to the fact that he was back in the real world. It had been the second time he had the vision and it had been the exact same as the one he had before.
The voice in his head that told him everyone would live, the mansion and the calm patch of grass and the deep grave he was thrown in and in which he had been covered with sand that entered his mouth, nose and eyes.
He coughed but there was no sand, just water. And everyone lived, just like his vision had told him.
"Naomi." He shouted and he crawled over to her on his hands and knees. "Naomi." He kissed her and stopped panicking when he saw her breathing softly.

Alexander overlooked the smoking engine, it had died down and did not pose any threat of explosion. He examined the close premesis to notice if they had attracted the attention of the creatures of the night.
Everything seemed quite, but it often did before all hell broke loose.
“Thank you for coming to our aid. The name is Verity.” The slender rabbit walked over to him with graceful paces and reached her hand out to him. “The name is Alexander Garand and it was my pleasure.” He told her as he shook it.
He looked over to the other rabbit who was holding the other girl in his arms. “Icarus.” He spoke giving him a quick glance before focusing his attention on the woman he seemed to care a great deal about.
“That's Naomi and this guy here is Jesse Aimon.”
“Sounds familiar.” Alexander said, but he gave it no further thought since Jesse seemed to have woken up.


“We are wanted for plotting against the senators life?” Susan needed a moment to let this news sink in.
"I am wanted for plotting against the senators life?" She repeated softer, her look focused on a trash bin in the far distance, her mind wandering. She saw herself behind bars, eating food out of a tin, unwashed cup with a wooden spoon. Surrounded by hags that were out to brutally ravage her.
"You!" She stood up and pointed her finger at Louie who took a step back. If he had learned one thing about Susan, it was that you do not mess with her. Ever.
She slapped him hard across the face. "You got us into this mess, I demand you do something about it right now!" She crossed her arms and looked at him.
Louie sighed and scratched his head. "Hey, don't get cocky with me. You're going to straighten this mess out and when we're done, I'm going home. Thomas, come with me."
They boarded the train and left Yakira, Tier and Louie standing on the platform. Tier laughed at Louie. "She's a fiesty one, isn't she?"
He followed the loving couple onto the train.
Louie walked up to Yakira to look at the rising sun, covering the trainstation in a romantic, orange glow. He wish he could share this sight with her.
"What will happen to us?" Yakira's question remained unanswered as the conductor motioned for them to come aboard.
Tier shoved his shell in the comfortable cushions of the Earian Express as the television sets in the train were automatically turned on.
Several health product commercials flashed by before the early morning bulletin started.
"Ahum, you might want to watch this." Tier told the others when a newsreport about Gary Parker came up.
The text on the bottom of the screen read 'Governor Parker issues statement about fugitives.'
"Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you not to panic. As you can see, I'm still in one piece." Faint laughter could be heard from the reporters.
"An attempt has been made on my life, but I ask you not to fear. The fugitives can not run far, police are looking for them nationwide and knowing them to be quality men and women, I am sure they will not rest before all of them will be apprehended." The reporters rose up and put up their hands, dying to ask the new governor a question.
"I am proud to tell you that they have already been brought in for questioning and they are interrogated now. It will not be long before we have found their companions. I must go for now, but I ask you again not to panic."
The silence in the coupe was broken by Yakira. "Two of us have been captured?"
She did not notice their portraits were shown on television. The other passengers in the train had noticed the group of fugitives and were nervously whispering to one another.
"Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea." Thomas put his hand on Susan's, the poor thing was shivering with fear.
They heard raised voices come from the next coupe and the door opened. In came a group of heavily armored soldiers, armed to the teeth with the most advanced weapons.
"You are under arrest for plotting against the assassination of a political figure, do not resist or we will open fire."

As Tom Lehrer once said, 'Who's next?'

I've updated both files with the new chapters. Note that the chapter numbering in these files doesn't match the numbering used in this thread - I think I may have a couple of extra chapters in there.

Text version
PalmDoc version

Thank you for working on this Torkell.
(Now go read!!)

Ah excellent, all threads need something like this. Isn't it Ducky's turn next?

Yes, it is. Let's hope she comes here to check on the story sometime soon.

< Slay3

I think we should skip Ducky for now as it seems she has lost interest in this little project or is busy elsewhere, that makes it DD's turn.

FYI, I don't have internet access at home right now, so I'm on VERY RARELY. If I'm not around when my turn comes around, I apologize right now, and you may skip me. I still want to participate in this, so hopefully I'll get internet soon.

And DD's currently banned... who's next?

DD could always PM her take to someone.

Seeing as how nobody else volunteered I will take the next turn... "And then there was one."

SlaYo has asked me to update the story page, which I am currently doing. He has also asked me to fix a small continuity error in an early chapter of his. If anyone else would like any corrections made, please say.

Louie stared out of his bedroom window over the sleeping village below.
´An insight in the cult of Narash´ was resting in his lap. His hand rested between page 73 and 74.
Ever since Tobias had ´moved on´ a term he preferred over dead he had absorbed the knowledge of the vast amounts of books his father had left him.
His eyes moved over the pages but he could not focus tonight.
It had been five years since the death of Tobias.
He put the book down on the nightstand and stood up to take a look at himself in the cracked mirror against the rear wall.
Louie was wearing his dusty, old dinner jacket which felt a little tighter since the last time he had worn it.
He had kept up his extensive training and his slender figure had grown fuller as he had gained quite a bit of muscle.
His journey over the past few years had been an interesting one. The piles of book and his many hours of training had prevented him from losing his mind.
He had blocked Estella from his thoughts and had made peace with the death of his parents.
Dead was a natural part of life. He brushed the dust off of his black jacket that matched his black pants, laced with a purple line of silk.
The silver buttons on his coat had not lost their shimmer and he buttoned up the final button closest to his chin and seemed content for he walked out of the room for a private moment with an old friend.

He entered the mausoleum moments later. After a quick glance at his mothers grave he turned his head to the wooden coffin he had carefully crafted with his own two paws.
The words ´Here lies Tobias Crane, mentor and friend´ were etched into the dark wood with much precision.
It had costs him close to a day to make his friends final resting place, the man who had thaught him so much, yet left him with so many questions.
He stepped outside and left the door ajar for a moment to think of whether he would go inside for a longer visit or walk back to the house.
He settled with the second and pulled the iron door shut before making his way back through the overgrown bushes that once carried white roses.
As his feet moved over the dry and brown leaves he thought he noticed something in the corner of his eyes and quickly turned around, both fangs and his claws bared.
He shook his head when he saw his own shadow staring back at him, but with a frown of disbelief he realized there was no light source to produce a shadow this vivid.
The shadow crawled out of the ground, rose up and stood face to blank, transparent face with Louie who was searching for words.
A soft "What the..." was all he could manage.
The shadow had the same size and build as him but lacked a face even though he was able to produce noises.
It seemed almost comical. "My, what a rush." It said after finally confirming to itself that it was indeed able to talk.
Louie reached out his hand which was absorbed within the gasiform of the creature, he yanked it back and a small cloud of a gas like substance moved back in place.
"Yah, it's nice to meet you as well kid, where the heck are we?" Louie's shadow scratched his butt and walked towards the entrance of the mansion.
"Classy, very classy. Nice place you've got here." The voice was a ridiculous mixture of gruff and wacky, not half as wacky as the way in which the character moved and looked at the unfamiliar surroundings however.
Louie noticed he wanted to enter the mansion and walked after him, he made a motion to grab his shoulder but realized this would be rather futile.
"I can't remember inviting you in?" Louie noted, but the shadow just laughed and waved his comment away with a flick of his transparent wrist.
"Neither can I." It said as it walked through the door.
Louie ran after him and saw it slowly float into the drawing room where it took place on the piano bench.
"You could at least tell me who you are." Louie told him while the shadow mimicked playing the piano, his fingers not being able to touch the keys.
"I guess I could." It seemed to look up at him and if it had eyes it would look right into his. "I am you."
Louie had the feeling several things were coming back to it's memory all at once.
"I'm what you've left behind actually. The newborn you've left on a doorstep somewhere out there in the cold."
It pointed it's shady finger at the window, the weather outside was cold and gloomy.
The shadow stood up and walked over to Louie. "I can see you are confused." It said "Let me make things a little clearer for you."
It punched Louie in the face and sent him flying into the brick fireplace. His head smacked against the red stones and a dizzy feeling overcame him.

"Is it clear to you now?" It shouted. "I am what you should be, I am the feelings you've put aside for so long and I am here to stay."
Louie was bleeding from the back of his head and from a deep cut in the side of his face, just underneath his left eye he searched for words "This is not possible, you are a mere figment of my imagination. I've just been alone too long again. Leave fiend!"
He closed his eyes and repeatedly stated the fact to himself that he was not crazy.
Louie opened his eyes again and the shadow was gone.
He sighed in relief and tried to push himself back onto his feet.
"You did not think it would be this easy did you?" A whisper and a gush of cold wind descended from the chimney.
Before he knew it he received kicks and punches from every side and he realized he was no match for this creature, he could not hit it because it did not have a physical body. Minutes that seemed like hours crept by and after what seemed like forever the being stopped and took place again on the stool behind the piano.
It played a macabre tune as Louie reached for his chest. His eyes were swollen, his body black and blue and he was missing several teeth, including one of his canines.
"Trust me boy, Tobias was a bad man. A very evil man that wanted to take your true nature away from you." His mothers voice spoke out to him.
The shadow walked over to Louie and stroked his cheek as it's physique changed in that of the beautiful young woman Louie had known years ago. "I'm here baby. Everything will get better now. Do you remember the good old days? You and me devouring a villager by candlelight?" Estella's voice soothed him. She was back and she was here with him.
Louie's shadow portraying Estella planted a kiss on his forehead and took Louie's head in it's hands. "Would you like to go back to the days of yore, love?"
For a moment Estella looked him in the eyes and wanted to cry out and shout "Yes!!" if that would mean she'd stay here, but he thought of Tobias and the many hours of mental training his tutor had pulled him through and the spell his shadow had cast on him was broken.
"No, I'd rather die again." Louie said and he spitted blood right through the transparent face in front of him.
With a sharp crack Louie's neck was snapped and he sank down to the ground.

He woke up the next day and was firmly tied to a metal pipe in the basement of the mansion with the shadow patiently waiting in front of him.
"Good morning sunshine. I realize we got off on the wrong foot and I apologize for this." It spoke in it's own voice, it seemed less rough and more soothing.
"Well, untie me and I will try and find it in my heart to forgive you." He said, trying to hide his fear with the sarcasm in his voice.
The shadow laughed and opened the drawer in an old abandoned desk that once belonged to his father.
"You mean this old thing?" He said and he pulled out Louie's heart and pushed it in his face.
Louie suppressed the urge to vomit as he looked down at the scar in his chest.
"Don't worry pal, I'm just borrowing it." The shadow sat down theatrically and brought the heart up to the hight of his hostage's eyes. He sighed and shook his head. "What use is it to you anymore? You are a vampire, you do not need this old thing."
He walked back to Louie and jammed the heart into his chest, he pulled his hand back and blood seeped over the dusty floor.
"Now, there are a couple of things we have to go over. And I would kindly suggest you behave this time or I'll take something else away that actually has some life left in it."
It reached down between his legs and squeezed him hard in the testes. "Alright, I'll listen." Louie hissed between his teeth.
"I would like you to forget all about Tobias." Louie's shadow asked if it was a simple request. "He has brainwashed you into believing you are something you are not."
"And that is?" Louie asked, careful not to upset his new 'friend'.
"One of the good guys, you are rather dimwitted are you not?" He tightened his grip on Louie's sack.
Louie grind his teeth together because he knew what was about to come would be the most painful experience in his life.
"Go to hell." He grumbled but the pain did not come. The shadow let go and left the room.
He did not return for several days and it was not long before Louie realized what was going on.
"Give me something to eat now. Get down here or I'll kill you." He shouted again and again.
He was being punished for his betrayal to his own killer instinct.
A vampire was a wicked beast by itself, but deprived of food it was a thousand times worse.
His mouth foamed on the fourth day of hunger and his eyes were blood red.
The shadow had thought it was time to check up on his corporal self.
"I have brought you something my friend." He dragged a young girl in with him, they young maiden was bound and gagged and he threw her on the floor in front of Louie's feet.
Muffled screams escaped her lips. There was terror in her big eyes and salty tears ran down her cheek.
Louie sniffed the prey but fought hard to resist the temptation and turned his face away from her.
"Come on, champ. Have a nibble." The shadows face changed into Louie's own and he winked at him. "Just one little bite, you know we want it. Look at her, isn't she beautiful?"
Louie gave in to his cravings and fed on innocent blood. He gulped it down, all of it until there was no more...

Michelle and Tony were standing outside of the small cottage with their hands in the raised in the air.
The people of the village had gathered around to look at the sheer force of the policemen since not a whole lot happened in this town and this excitement made for a welcome change.
One mother pulled back her son who wanted to take a closer look at the weapons the police officers were carrying.
"If I have to warn you one more time you are going straight home." She squeezed his earlobe in discipline. "Do you hear me?" She added and the boy nodded his head remaining quiet for the remainder of this spectacle.
"Where are you taking us?" Tony demanded to know after he was pushed into the back of the small hovering vehicle.
The turtle that had arrested them let out a heartily laugh and yelled to his colleagues. "Hey guys, listen to this one. He demands to know what we do with political prisoners around here."
He was quickly joined in a round of laughs. "You two have won yourselves a luxurious holiday to Castle Neverberg."
Tony looked at Michelle for an explanation but she did not dare to meet his eyes. "Rest a little." She told him as the car drove off.
He took a look outside of his window wondering what was to become of them now.

Alexander took another drag from his pipe as he leaned against a rock overlooking the camp they had set up for the night.
It was not much but it would provide them with the necessary protection from wild animals. Alexander would stay awake because he knew wild animals weren't the only threat to them anymore.
They had decided they would get up early the following morning and head to Greenthorpe to meet up with the others.
As he lay there looking at the silent figures in front of him he realized he would not be able to pull of the plan he had formed in his mind all by himself.
He would make sure to keep it to himself until the time was right but vengeance over the loss of his 'family' would be his.
The plains were silent with the exception of the wind that moved through the bare trees at the horizon and the tall grass.
Icarus sat several feet away from him with his back towards Alexander and scratched at a patch of irritated skin his eyes fixed on Naomi who was lying in a tent, resting.
Playing the dream-sequence over and over again in his mind.
Jesse had assured him Naomi would be alright after a good rest and a few good meals of which he had already taken care using natural ingredients he had harvested nearby.
The young man had sought protection from the chilly wind in the hut he and Icarus had made and would share for the night.
They slept in pairs with the exception of Alexander who would keep watch.
Jesse had drifted off into a disturbing slumber as he saw the face of his late father Jonathan in front of him.
In his dreams he was transported back to one night, years ago, he had never forgotten. His father and mother attending his school play.
An adaption of Narion's classic 'The hare in the flame.' He would play the role of landlord Figgarus. His father had already shown his disappointment over him not getting the male lead role in this play and his face did not hide this fact. When it was Jesse's time to get on stage he prepared to deliver the lines he had studied so hard on to remember, but as he looked into his fathers resentful eyes the lines escaped him and he stuttered for a moment before bursting into tears and exiting the stage as quickly as he could.
The drive home that night seemed to take much longer then usual as he apologized to his father time and time again, but his father did not respond.
He lit a cigar when they got home and called for Jesse to join him in the living room.
Jesse knew it was best to do as his father told him and he sat down on the couch next to him.
"I do not blame you, son." His father said and he put his strong arm around Jesse's little shoulders and pulled him against his body in a loving fatherly embrace.
"Your teacher should have given the lead role to you, son. Nothing but the best for you, this is why you failed tonight up on that stage." He paused for a moment to take a drag. The smell was nauseating.
"You did not get what you deserved and therefore you simple did not try hard enough. My son needs the hardest and toughest jobs or he's not challenged enough. It's all so familiar to me."
Another pause in which he seemed to think drift of into thought. "I used to be exactly the same way when I was younger, you know?" He smiled and Jesse who smiled back.
His father had completely missed the point, but you did not talk back to Jonathan Aimon. Everybody that knew him, knew that for a fact.
Especially his mother who was sitting quietly on a chair nearby and tried to put on her best smile when her son looked at her. "I'll ask uncle Damian to have a talk with your teacher and we will both make sure this does not happen again."
Brad Dillany did not show up for class the next day. According to their principal he had been involved in an accident and would not show up for a while.
Mister Dillany never came back and this incident was a drastic turning point in young Jesse Aimon's life.
He would from this day on always strive to achieve the best and do everything to full potential, out of fear more than will.
He opened his eyes and crawled out of his shelter. Jesse took a glance at Verity's tent. She seemed sound asleep and was better of then the rest of them right now.
A small spacecraft flew over his head and made it's way North.

Louie looked around the train cart to see if there was anyway to escape from this mess.
The remaining passengers of the cart were all motioned to move into the next vehicle which was rather overcrowded by now.
Him and his four friends were ordered to sit on their knees and each of them individually faced the barrel of a gun as they put their hands behind their heads.
He could hear Susan´s soft sobs behind him and Thomas´ heavy breathing next to him. He was out of breath and tired after all that had happened the past few days but Louie admired his bravery as he looked into his face and did not see a trace of fear or panic.
The same went for Tier, but it was easier for him. He did not have a lot to fear, yet he decided to remain silent for the sake of the people that were traveling with him.
"Where are you taking us?" Yakira asked with her soft voice. She had learned to fear that which she could not see, especially if it was carrying a gun that could blow a hole the size of a grapefruit through her.
"If you'll ask one more question you'll end up on the bottom of Lake Earian with a rock around your neck." The leader of the heavily armed military unit barked back at her.
"Now listen vermin." He continued on a tone that was not much politer. "You'll just sit there quietly and do not try to do anything funny and you might survive." He smiled. "Well, at least for a while."
They all silently agreed that it would be best to buy themselves sometime and did not speak a word as they traveled further along the track for several minutes.
As the train had passed the village of Evermourne the silence was broken by a soldier that entered the door to their left.
"Sir, the lights. There is something wrong with the lights." He shouted in panic with little regard to the military code. "They are all going out one by one sir. We do not know what's going on."
His leader pushed the soldier aside and looked into the next cart through the shaky doors. The lights inside the cart all went out one by one and it was getting closer. "Keep your guns aimed at the prisoners soldiers." He bared at his men. "You there." He pointed at the soldier who had just reported to him.
"Go to the driver and ask him what is going on." The soldier saluted and rushed to the front of the train.
The first light in their compartment flickered and died. "Sir, what do we do, sir?" One of the soldiers asked while carefully lowering his gun.
"It's you, isn't it?" He looked at Louie and moved closer to him. "If you don't stop this right now I'll shoot one of your friends." The leader of the unit told Louie as he pushed the gun into Thomas' face.
"I know what you are, you disgusting..." The leader was cut short in mid sentence as the rest of the lights in the train were turned off. "Stop it now!"
"I'm not doing it." Louie replied and a cold feeling crept down his spine.
A loud noise of metal ripping apart accompanied by the hysterical laughter of a woman could be heard and the train shook heavily in it's tracks
The soldiers fell down and when the leader was caught off-guard Louie jumped for him and pulled the gun out of his hands. Tier and Thomas followed his example and both picked up a gun that had fallen from their owners hands. Tier punched one of the soldiers that had managed to hold on to it's gun in the face and threw his gun over to Susan who barely managed to get a grasp on it before it hit the ground.
With one clean shot she took out another soldier which wanted to grab the only gun still remaining on the floor.
Another sound of ripping metal could be heard and the train cart next to them was gone.
Thomas looked outside of it and saw nothing but darkness outside of the window.
"Get away from the door now! Hurry up and make your way to the other compartment if you want to live." Tier shouted to everyone of them.
They followed his lead holding the soldiers at gunpoint. One by one they walked into the overcrowded compartment Thomas jumped into it just in time as the other compartment was launched into the air.
The compartment they were in now was filled with people who were screaming and fighting to make their way into the next.
"We won't get out of here alive if we do not figure out who is doing this." Thomas screamed at Louie over the crying voices of the people.
But he did not reply and stood near the door to the compartment that had just vanished as this one was slowly running empty until only him and his friends were left.
"Louie, we have to move along right now." Tier said and as he walked over to Louie he heard the familiar sound of ripping metal.
The roof was being ripped open as easily as if someone tore a piece of paper in two. Thomas led Yakira and Susan into the next compartment and returned for Louie and Tier.
The vampire did not plan on leaving and Thomas and Tier soon found out why.
A person entered through the torn roof. Her slender feet made it's way in first and the rest of her body slowly glid through and floated down onto the deck of the train.
Her body was covered in a beautiful silky white dress that matched perfectly with the color of her fur. Her innocent face did not reveal her true nature and she gave Thomas and Tier a heartwarming smile that nailed them to the spot they were standing on before facing Louie. She had known he was there, yet she seemed surprised to see him after all these years.
"Estella." Louie said and a floodgate in his mind opened and the memories he had suppressed for so long filled him up.
"I heard you've been behaving like a naughty boy killing people left and right." Estella's full lips curled up into a smile. "And your little friends." She said as she turned around to face them again.
"A zombie." She said in a tone of disgust and she shuddered. "I remember you Tier. How long has it been? Six hundred, seven hundred years and look at you. Still rotting away inside your shell."
Tier turned his head away. "And this must be the accountant that has been giving us so much trouble." She laughed again, that hysterical laughter.
She flicked her hand and an invisible force pushed Thomas and Tier into the next compartment. Another flick of her hand and the door closed and locked behind them. "I will deal with you two later."
Estella moved closer to Louie, her bare feet gliding across the carpeted floor.
"We have some catching up to do, haven't we?" She reached her hands out, closed her arms around Louie and placed soft kisses in his face.
Louie did not say a word and closed his eyes enjoying her soft touch, but he soon snapped out of it when he heard the train ripping apart behind him.
He felt several invisible ropes closely wrap around him that cut in his skin. "Do not come after me!" Louie shouted at his friend who stood watching at him from behind the locked door in the other compartment.
And with these words Estella jumped out of the train holding Louie in a grasp he could not escape from.