🚀 go-pugleaf

     The Magistrate gathered two magi into his arms and the three began to
intone softly.  The Ritual gained strength, even as shells and bullets exploded
around them.  Donald Chance could feel the power in his hands growing... the
gateway beginning to be rent asunder.  It was dangerous to summon one as mighty
as this, but they had no choice -- against all odds, against all prophecy, they
had to fight and win!
     And that meant summoning the One of the Dark.
     "Alislade!" he cried in the ancient tongue.  "Alislade donesti!"
     //Alislade,\\ a hideously dark and powerful voice intoned in response.
     "Canaldu!" the Magistrate called in his most powerful voice.  Red
lightnings split the heavens, and the sky began to open into darkness.
     //Who Calls Me!!!!!\\ The One of the Dark screamed, in a voice that
plunged to the heart of magi and revolutionaries alike.  //Who Would Dare
Disturb My Rest!\\
     "I call upon you to smite out enemies, in the name of the Law of the Host
and Garters!"
     "Host and garters?" one of the magi asked, confused.  "What kind of an
oath is host and garters?"
     "Shut up," the other mage offered helpfully.
     There was a deep rumbling.  All eyes were cast high, as the power gathered
and the Gateway opened further.  Therein, they saw the hideous, all-powerful
form of the One of the Dark, as he flowed through the crack of the heavens.
//By The Pact,\\ it rumbled, //Thy Enemies Shall Be Smote And Forever... Eh?
What's This?\\
     The Magistrate, the power ripping at his very soul, was stunned.  "What?
What do you mean?  Come on, get smiting!"
     //Wait A Moment... Wait A Tick... That's *Bulletproof*\\
     "Yes!  Smite Bulletproof and all the rest oh mighty one!"  The Magistrate
was torn between desperation and rage -- he didn't have the strength to hold
the gate open that long!
     //Are You Nuts?  That's Bulletproof!  I'm Not About To Bloody Well Fight
Him!\\
     "You must!  The Law--"
     //Sod Your Bloody Law!\\ the ancient evil cried.  //I'm Out Of Here Before
He Notices I Came!\\
     "But you could crush him easily!"
     //If It's So Easy, You Do It, Mate!\\  And with that, the One in the Dark
thrust his form back into the Gateway and slammed it shut behind him, willingly
taking aeons of imprisonment over fighting Bulletproof.
     The Magistrate collapsed into unconsciousness.  It had taken all his
strength to summon the One in the Dark.  His last thought was that the
prophecies were right... they were all going to die.

                                   ***********

                        A SYMPHONY FOR TAROT AND BUZZSAW
                                Second Movement
                                "Black Metallic"

                                   WRITTEN BY
                             (in alphabetical order)
                 Lawrence Brown, Eric Alfred Burns, Bill Dickson,
            Mason Kramer, Chris Meadows, Gary W. Olson, Daniel Pawtowski,
                    Bill Paul, Jesse Taylor, and Dominic White

                            EDITED INTO COHERENCY BY
                                 Gary W. Olson

                                   ***********

     The jet plane was a bit larger than a Boeing 747. It did resemble a 747 to
some extent, but the size and the color was generally about as far as it went.
The jet was white, with some darker markings, and it had three or four rows of
windows along the sides, and it had wings and a tail section, but that was
really about as far as it went.
     It was actually somewhat sleeker than a Boeing, and somewhat bigger--
perhaps more on the order of a C-130 cargo plane, maybe.  And its wings could
swivel for vectored-thrust vertical or short takeoff and landing.  So far as
Ray Sterling knew, it was the only one of its kind in this altiverse.
     Also so far as Ray knew, it hadn't ever been inspected by the U.S.
government and declared fit to fly.  Not that this really bothered him,
because neither had his Alpha, and he put the utmost trust into the M.E.C.H.A.
headquarter's CAD/CAM systems.  And Ray himself had never taken a flight
examination or been licensed by any civil aviation authority, either.
Sometimes Ray liked to consider the irony of an unlicensed pilot flying an
unlicensed plane with no flight plan.  Mister Safety would undoubtedly have
convulsions.  But most of the time, Ray just flew.
     The destination was Bob City, and it was only a few more minutes away.
It was getting close to time to break radio silence, to get details of when
and where the attack would commence, and what flyby position to take up.  Come
to think of it, it was just about time to launch the Alpha.
     Ray hit a key on the intercom.  "Dr. Science?  Could you get up here,
please?"  He engaged the autopilot, got up and stretched.
     "On my way."  In a few moments' time, Dr. Odd Science entered the flight
deck.  "Here I am."
     "Good.  She's all yours."  Ray indicated the stick, which was gently
moving itself now that the autopilot was on.
      Dr. Science nodded and took his seat.  "My cameras are set up, network
newsfeeds are being recorded.  Whatever happens, it shall all be recorded for
later analysis."
      "Ah, okay, whatever."  Ray turned to walk out the door, then stopped to
say on his way out, "Y'know, funny thing, doc.  Over the intercom just now, I
had this sudden weird urge to call you 'Bruce.'"

                                   ***********

     Daydream Believer moaned, and started to sit up. The knife at her
throat told her that this was not the best of ideas.
     "Just hold still and I won't separate your head from the rest of you,"
the knife said, conversationally. A bit of coherent thought later told her
that it was more likely the holder of the knife, or the person fitting the
gag in her mouth. Satisfied that the gag was secure, the voice continued,
"Now, roll over on your stomach, there's a love," helping her roll. She
caught a glimpse of the knife holder, and almost giggled. The man looked so
much like John Cleese that she was tempted to look around for the Masked
Bruce.
     At the man's direction, she lifted one hand behind herself, then the
other, and allowed them to be tied. "As long as he doesn't blindfold me
before I get another look at him..." she thought.
     Luck was with Daydream Believer, it seemed, even if her Nightmare was
not. She saw his eyes, and swam in.
      John, for lack of a better name, was startled to notice that this was
not some anonymous mage out to destroy the world, but his own love Jenette.
"Jenette!" he cried, tearing the gag from her mouth and untieing her hands.
"Jenette, how did you get here? I thought..."
     "Hush, dear. It's not important. Come, let's get out of this place." So
saying, Daydream Believer led John to the cell that had been intended for
her. She removed his weapons as they walked, John's eyes being slightly
glazed and his mouth moving incoherantly.
     After she closed and locked his cell, she cut off the dream. His eyes
focused, and he screamed, "No! Don't take her away again!" as she let the
other prisoners out.

                                   ***********

     When the charge began, Radian flew straight up, avoiding a volley of
gunfire that strafed the ground where she had been standing.  She flew
towards the east tower, the source of the gunfire, and let loose with a
blast of radiation.  A pained scream, and the cessation of the gunfire was
her reward.
     'You need me,' was what Kyoko had said, so long ago.  And it was true -
she did need Kyoko, the part of her that could kill, would kill without
mercy, or emotion.  The sociopath inside her, that had once nearly coaxed her
into destroying the world.
     The question was, once the crisis was over, assuming the impossible
occured and she survived, would she be able let go of Kyoko again?
     Kyoko, the dream entity, was conveniently silent on this point.
     Radian soared down the face of the tower, and away from the building,
heading towards the field of battle.  She spotted Prizm, and swooped in close.
Prizm saw her, and matched her slower velocity, reaching an arm out towards
her.  Radian grasped her hand, and they dove on a group of bubbas who were
setting up a rocket launcher inside the compound, clotheslining them into
next Tuesday.  But there were more who rushed to finish their work, even
as Prizm let go of Radian's hand and soared upward, over the wall and away
from the prison.
     The door at the base of the tower was open, and Radian flew in, knocking
Fred, the guard-who-would-be-warden, against the wall, just as he had been
staggering to his feet.  Radian saw Daydream Believer escorting a group of
prisoners out.
     "Where do you want 'em, Shiela?" Daydream Believer asked, smartly.
     "Well, unless they want to join the fight, they'll probably be safer
in here," Radian said.  "It's going to get extremely hairy out there, before
long.  Where's Deckmaster, Ariella, and Shadebeam?"
     "They escaped, late last night," a woman said, making her way to the
front.
     "Hunter!" Radian exclaimed, leaping back.
     "Look again," Hunter told her.  "You must know who I am, Dark Goddess."
     Radian looked, focusing on the woman's aura.  It was far, far stronger
than it had been when she had last seen Hunter, at the Denny's in Ithaca.  She
realized that she knew who Hunter was, that Hunter had been deliberately
damping down her magic before.
     "You're the Sorstrata..." Radian said.  "But...why...?"
     Hunter, or the Sorstrata, didn't answer.  Instead, she spoke some sharp
words, and gestured with her recently freed hands.  Seconds later, she was
gone.
     *Well, that's gratitude for you,* China said.
     "That's all the prisoners, I think," Daydream Believer said.  "Doesn't
look like they took many."
     "Right," Radian said.  "We'd better get back to the battle."
     They emerged from the tower and almost ran into the massively huge
armored form of Ginsu World Class.

                                   ***********

     Daybreak found Team M.E.C.H.A., or what was left of it, moving in on the
old Bob City prison with the rest of the Counter-Revolutionaries.  Link and
Summer were riding to one side of the Killer RV, and Robert and Sarah Conner
were on the other.  When the battle commenced, who could tell where they'd end
up?
     "I don't understand this code system that the Masked Bruce has set up,"
Robert said.  "We just call each other...Bruce?  And Sheila?  Wouldn't that be
hopelessly confusing?"
     "It's not code, it's humor," Sarah Conner said.  "Don't tell me you've
never seen any Monty Python."
     "Monty who?"
     "Argh!!!"

                                   ***********

     Seeing Ginsu World Class emerge from the entrance of the Bob City
Correctional Facility would be more than enough to send most people screaming
in terror.  Seeing Ginsu World Class walk through enough gunfire to win a
major war without even flinching would make most people suddenly wish they
were on another planet.  In a different solar system.  On the other side of
the galaxy.  Those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of Ginsu
World Class's sonic disrupter stood a frighteningly good chance of having
their wish granted.
     Nightmare reared up and kicked wildly at the air, screaming at the top of
his lungs as a wall of sound slammed into her.  Daydream Believer fought to
climb into the saddle while at the same time trying to keep her ears covered.
Bulletproof windows embedded in the prison's outer walls wobbled like Jell-O
and finally shattered under the sonic onslaught.  Radian clenched her teeth to
keep them from being jarred loose.  Mages everywhere struggled to cast sound
dampening spells before their brains turned liquid.  In the M.E.C.H.A. jet,
circling high over the facility, Dr. Odd Science tore off his headphones and
stared aghast at the cracks forming in the craft's Plexiglass viewports.  In a
dingy downtown Bob Quik-E-Mart, a would-be stick up thief was distracted by the
piercing howl and fell victim to a surprise blow on the head from a leather-
jacketed Punk with a Gun.
     Ginsu World Class looked on calmly from the sound-proofed interior or her
armor as her disrupter hammered into the attacking counter-Revolutionaries and
cranked up its output another fifty decibels.  Trees began to splinter now,
engine blocks and gun mechanisms began to shake apart, and dozens of magi, who
were either not fast enough or not adept enough to protect themselves, crumpled
to the ground in waves, blood trickling from their noses and ears.  Still, as
effective as this first salvo had been, Ginsu World Class could see that this
particular avenue of attack had played itself out; Dar and Hecate had
successfully cast a spell to shield the bulk of the anti-Revolutionaries from
the disrupter's effects.  She shut down it and warped it back into the Silly
Dimension while simultaneously calling up the armor's weapons menu and making
another selection.  A less fearsome looking gun appeared in her hands,
trailing a hose that ran to a shielded container mounted on her back.  As Dar
was about to launch into another round of spell casting, she pegged him in the
face with a projectile loaded with sticky black goo.  Blinded and silenced, he
was forced to duck quickly out of the way to avoid the fire raining down from
the top of the prison wall.
     Eager to make the most of a successful ploy, Liz instructed the armor's
tracking systems to single out all possible mage targets and began
systematically neutralizing them.  A casualty count appeared next to the
ammunition reserve indicator and casually began ringing up totals.
     Ginsu World Class's only pause came when Daydream Believer, astride
Nightmare, tried to run her down.  She sidestepped her easily, but just as she
turned back to her grim task, the tracking systems sprang to life and filled
her display with warnings.  She stepped back just as a Battler Cyclone roared
towards her and fired a round of missiles.
     An extra layer of plating grew onto the front of the armor along with a
thick, hand-held shield.  A fireball blossomed out of the spot where Ginsu
World Class stood as the missiles found their target, obscuring her from view.
The Cyclone pilot spun around and lifted his visor to inspect the damage, then
buzzed back into motion when Ginsu World Class came stomping out of the
conflagration with hardly a scratch on her.
     Liz heard a muffled tapping and suddenly realized that 20mm cannon shells
were bouncing off her outer plating.  Maintaining her additional shielding,
she raised her free hand high in the air and nearly cut the Cyclone in half
with stroke from her atomic-powered electric blade.  The shimmering blue axe
fell again and again, but, perhaps because of the weight of the added
shielding, the Cyclone was somehow able to stay ahead of her strikes.
     The tactical computer suddenly spoke up and informed Liz that her
opponent was making coded transmissions to someone in the area.  The defensive
systems automatically threw the code-breaking algorithms into gear and scanned
for responses, attempting to triangulate the messages' intended recipient.
Liz's instincts told her that the transmissions were probably calls for
reinforcements, which prompted her to prep the long range sensors.  By the
time they came on-line, however, they were no longer needed: a figure in a
black hardsuit landed at the Cyclone's side only a few seconds after the last
transmission ended.
     Summer's first attack against Ginsu World Class was really only symbolic
in form.  While dozens of digitally enhanced views of her gleaming black
hardsuit danced on Ginsu World Class's display, she marched into position just
out of range of the electric blade and stood her ground, challenging Liz to
make the first move.  Liz responded in like fashion, shutting down the
electric axe and discarding the extra shielding, and they stood nose to nose,
sizing each other up.
     Summer was saying something, but between her heart and the almost
constant gunfire, there was too much pounding going on for Liz to hear clearly.
It actually took her nearly a minute before she remembered exactly who it was
she was facing.  A playback of the call the Superuser had placed to Team
M.E.C.H.A. HQ some months ago scrolled onto her display.  The armor's
computers digitally enhanced Summer's face and attached a clip of it to the
wire-frame model of her hardsuit.
     "Children," Liz thought, "they're sending children to fight us!  How can
they be so heartless?!"
     When Summer decided that she'd waited long enough for Ginsu World Class to
respond, she set herself for an attack and brought up her fists, motioning for
Liz to come at her.  A threat assessment flickered across Liz's screen and she
grunted, then retaliated against Summer's bravado by simply ignoring and
walking right past her.
     "Well?" said Link as he pulled the Cyclone up next to Summer.  "What are
you waiting for? Go after her."
     "I'm not going after her; you go after her!"
     "What do you mean me?  You're the one with the super powers!"
     Just then, the Superuser's voice came crackling over Summer and Link's
comm-links.
     "Pardon me for interrupting," he said, "but I couldn't help overhearing
that both of you are failing to call each other Bruce!"
     "Sorry Bi--, uh, Bruce," replied Link, "but we're having a tough time
trying to stop Ginsu World Class."
     "I see," said the Superuser tightly.  "Right Bruce, I'm going to let you
in on a little secret: Ginsu World Class has one weak-- excuse me for a second,
Bruce.  Hey you!  Yeah, Punk, I'm talking to you!  Can't you see there's a
battle going on here?!  It's not safe!  No, I don't have any beer!  No, I
don't know how to get to the nearest Quik-E-Mart; I'm not from around here!
Now please, leave the area before you get hurt.  Bloody spectators.  Now where
was I?"
     "The armor has a weak something?" Summer ventured.
     "Oh yeah, right.  The armor has a small weakness.  The anti-missile
tracking systems have trouble dealing with multiple targets fired from the
rear; if you can get behind Liz and target all your missiles for the small of
her back, you just might be able to take her down."
     "But," Summer protested, "with that many missiles... she could be killed!"
     "She'll get knocked around a bit, yes, but there's a lot of extra
shielding in the armor's back to keep the Silly Dimension gateway generators
from coming unglued.  I'm hoping the jolt will knock some sense into her."
     "And just how are we supposed to get the drop on her, Bruce?!" Link
demanded.
     "That's for you to puzzle over, Bruce," the Superuser replied. "Me, I'm
only in charge of the sheep dip.  Bruce out."
     "We'll need some extra hands," Summer noted.
     "Count me in," said Daydream Believer as she and Nightmare approached.
     "I think I might be able to lend a hand from up here, as well!"  Dr. Odd
Science chimed in from the M.E.C.H.A. jet.
     "Okay.  Let's soften her up a bit then.  Daydream Believer, you're first.
Link... uhm, I mean, Bruce and I will cover you."

(continued in part two, following...)