Now Pevara knew why she never bonded a warder. It wasn't the whole Red Ajah doesn't use warders 'rule', no, she didn't like pain. The emotional pain of a lost warder could drive a sister insane. The pain of a warder being beaten into a pulp, while physical and less intense than what the warder himself feels, was something she really wanted to avoid. "This is not going well," Sera snapped peevishly. Of course it wasn't going well, Pevara thought. The ter'angreal had indicated the prescense of active saidin very close to the Tower and the contingent sent to investigate it should have been enough to deal with anyone short of Rand al'Thor himself. Nine sisters and a dozen unbonded gaidin should have been able to deal with any single person on this planet, including Rand al'Thor, may the Dark One blast his soul! "It's the sword," gray-haired Noreata commented calmly. She was referring to the boy's sword, and what a weird sword it was. How had it been properly forged with all those curves in it? "Huh?" Pevara couldn't discern who'd grunted the question, but was relieved she herself hadn't needed to ask. "The sword, it is a ter'angreal. This boy has shown no actual chanelling ability. Every questionable action we've witnessed him commit has been recorded as effects of various ter'angreal. His sword must be extremely powerful to possess so many qualities." It was a possible scenario, but just as likely, the boy was a channeller with a funny sword. "I've never heard of a ter'angreal actually imparting a skill to its user before," Pevara said. Light, she hadn't meant to say that aloud! "You are correct in your assumption, Sitter Pevara." Noreata continued, "Though it is possible for there to be ter'angreal that could teach, I believe this one's weilder to be the holder of the skill." As Noreata finished speaking, the last gaidin still fighitng flew through the Spirit barrier that had resisted all attempts by the Aes Sedai to breach it. "The question you should be asking," the boy commented,"is how you're gonna take my sword from me." **** Over the ring of steel on steel, I heard the gist of the sorceresses conversation. I didn't understand some of the words, but it was obvious they all thought my sword was the source of my power. Fools. "The question you should be asking," I said,"is how you're gonna take my sword from me." If they wanted to believe it, why should I tell them otherwise? "No one defies the Tower," gray hair said calmy, her deep eyes glinting like the broken blades lying at my feet. Tower? Shit! If these women were from 'that' tower, the one with the magic concentration, I couldn't expect any help from its residents. Stupid book, it could at least have had a warning about crazy psycho sorceress chicks. "I still don't understand what I've done to bother everyone so much, much less 'defy' the Tower." As I spoke, I was quietly manipulating a spell within my spatial pocket. It's harder to do this way, but I didn't want the women to know I was planning something. They may not even be sensitive to Talent, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious. By the time any of the sorcesses could think of anything to say, my spell had been cast. The gray haired woman opened her mouth and before she could say anything, a sing song voice completely at odds with her real voice said,"I have warts on my ass!" Hehehehe, and her mouth never even moved, except to open, of course. The woman's mouth snapped shut and she began to turn slightly pink. Her companions looked to be having trouble controlling themselves. One couldn't manage and bursted out laughing. As soon as her mouth opened, a voice not her won shouted,"I masturbate seventeen times a day!" She went straight to the purple range. "Um, that's nice, but I was wondering why I've been attacked without provocation." I'm proud of myself. I actually managed to say that with a straight face. The really great part of this spell is that it only speaks the truth. I wonder how many more dirty little secrets they'd air out before the spell wore off. Hmm, it lasts a little over a month, depending on which month you're in. Heh, redefines the meaning of clean slate, I guess. "I'm in love with my horse." Ouch, that's a bad one. Too bad I couldn't see who said it. "I'm a member of the Black Ajah!" Not a clue what the Black Ajah is, but it got the short little brown haired woman startled glances, snarls, and a magical blow of white magic(that's what it appears to be, but I'm not sure) that knocked her out like a light. Must be pretty bad. The eight remaining sorceresses tried to argue over something, but they just kept on blurting out embarassing secrets. I whistled loudly to get their attention and said,"Have fun, ladies." Shields tight and layered, I shunted the sword into my spatial pocket and rose into the air. Levitation must be completely unknown here, because despite everything that had happened so far, the women looked at me in fear. Not shock, amazement, or even awe. Fear. I'm not complaining. With a final wave, I ascended out of sight. **** Looking back on it, I probably should have waited to find out what they actually wanted with me before activating that spell. Oh well, it sure was funny. I guess they could have a precog somewhere that predicted my arrival. If that turns out to be true, I must do something pretty bad here to earn such an enthusiastic greeting. Maybe it's illegal here for men to use magic. Nah, not likely. Ascending out of sight, while normally a nice way to make an exit, becomes more of a spectacle when you're being struck by bolts of lightning, fireballs, and more fireballs. They really like those fireballs. The woman who acted as the Talent focus was fairly accurate and I was probably five hundred feet up before she started missing. None of her attacks had done more than dent my shields, but the enormous amount of noise and the bright lights ensured that anyone within a kilometer had seen me. So much for sleeping in an inn or hotel or whatever the things were called in this type of time period. Okay, big white tower of soreresses bitches, that one is off the list. Hmm, mega evil concentration way far away from here. There were a couple other magic center's much closer, and without actually having been to the place, I couldn't teleport to the evil one. And so, the journey begins... Hehehehe, doesn't sound too bad, eh? **** "Wow, all this stuff is neat," Willow said as she and Ryoga helped Mamoru and his friends to sort through all the stuff they'd brought down in the cargo pods. The boy, Ryoga, was abnormally strong, abnormally in comparison to building smashing demons. Willow was equally strange, well strange if you thought that girls that did magic was strange. What was the world coming to? "Yeah, it was designed to work of the flux generators in space. Right now, it's the only way anyone can find to make technology work down here," Mamoru replied. Mamoru watched as Ryoga lifted a reinforced container that he knew weighed no less than three tons. It was also the size of a small car and empty."Ahh, just put that over there with the others." The others had been moved with help from the H.V.E.s and, of course, Ryoga. Was he some kind of magical warrior for love and justice, one without the annoying skimpy clothes? "No problem." Ryoga hefted the container of H.V.E. armor plating over his head and effortlessly carried it to the slowly forming pyramid of metal crates. "Mr. Chiba, do you think you'll be able to do anything for Buffy? That bite is bad," Willow said worriedly. Giant robots didn't normally fall out of the sky, and Willow thought she was handling the situation remarkably well. They weren't aliens, but the technology the men possessed was far more advanced than any she'd previously seen. Maybe Buffy would be alright. Mamoru shrugged."Burton is a great medic, he used to be a doctor, but I'm not sure about your friend, Willow. I can promise you that we'll do everything in out power to save her." Before Buffy had succumbed to her infection and gone into a comma, she too had been moving around massive objects, one-handed. Mamoru had watched the girl pitch a brick through a zombies head. Speaking of zombies. Were in hell had zombies come from?! Sure, he and the senshi had fought a horde or two of zombies, but those were just magically drained and controlled people. The zombies that he'd seen in the last couple days were REAL, flesh eating, living dead. One of the cargo pods had housed a load of automated light defense turrets. Those turrets currently formed a ring around the encampment and occassionally the *zap* *whoosh* of one firing on an animate corpse could be heard. **** "Nerve gas, no, probably wouldn't work...Biotoxin P#453, nah, have to be alive for that stuff to work." Ryu continued to mumble to himself as he mentally catalogued the contents of the enormous bunker of various substances designed to kill people. He didn't hold much hope that any of the tanks would yield positive results, though. Enter Sho Fukamachi. Ryu had first thought the boy to be some sort of Umbrella super weapon. When they'd fought to a stale mate, Ryu'd been willing to listen to the thing's attempt at peacemaking. How was he supposed to know that it was just armor? The armor sure looked like something Umrbella would cook up. From swapped stories, Ryu and Sho managed to convince one another that Chronos and Umbrella were either one in the same, or competitors. Chronos had the more powerful, intelligent mutants, but Umbrella had the ability to turn the world's population into mindless zombies and raving mutants. Sho wasn't in his armor, thankfully. It still gave Ryu the creeps. Alien bio-weapon or not, it still reminded him of some of the horrors he'd encountered in Umbrella's Chinese mountain facility. "Anything worth bothering with?" Sho asked. The teenager, as weak and scrawny as most, didn't look very impressive, but with a single word, he could become most people's worst nightmare. Then again, there were people into that kind of thing. "I moved a few back towards the exit. They may be able to create a cloud of acid, but the identification was sorta vague. You?" Ryu finished, wiping dirt and spider webs from his synthetic hands. "There are plenty of nukes, but the damned things won't work." Sho wasn't in the best of moods. He hadn't been in a good mood for a while. He'd get Chronos, somehow, for fucking his life up. Now, with their processing facilities useless, and a powerful ally, he could see his dreams realized. Ryu hadn't really planned on using nuclear weapons. They tended to be more trouble than they were worth. He hadn't said anything to Sho about that when the kid had mentioned it because he didn't want to deal with the young fanatic any more than he had to. He shrugged."Don't worry about it. We've got the firepower to handle the job. It'll just take longer." **** I might as well have been back on Earth for all the differences in this place. Earth was a little run down now, and most of the cities were abandoned by starving people returning to barbarism. Wherever 'here' was, I'd have to say that the people never really got out of the barbarian phase. Sure, there are some cities, and written language and all the essentials, but my definition of barbarism is just about anything short of tv and a microwave. There were lots and lots of trees, too. Chainsaws really are essential for a good round of deforestation. Once again, I'm not complaining. Fresh air and no electricity to interfere with my senses was nice.