Dermian Sequel

[JAGuar]

This is the first part to my NaNo Writer story.
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Keir quickly ducked out of the way of the oncoming punch in the training center. He did not know how fast it was coming, but knew that it wasn’t fast enough. However, after ducking out of the way, he was kneed in the face by his attacker. He fell to the floor, holding his forehead.

The attacker came at him, about to perform a diving kick into Keir’s chest. Keir rolled out of harm’s way just in time. The attacker became unbalanced and Keir held out his hand and tripped him up.

“You should have stopped while you were ahead....” He said softly as he broke the attacker’s neck.

Shortly after the snap of the attacker’s neck, the voice on the speaker announced, Training Simulation, over. And the body of Keir’s attacker vanished. Keir got up, brushed himself off, made sure nothing was bleeding and headed out the door into the viewing room.

Inside the room, there were two other dermians, Rer and Garret.

“Well, the simulations aren’t half bad....” Keir said, wiping off sweat from his face with a hand towel that Garret had given to him. “For a second there, I could have sworn it was the real thing. My brother’s a genius.”

“Still, though,” Rer said, “you were basically winning the whole time. We’ll have to find some way for the holograms to adapt to the environment.”

Keir couldn’t contain his laughter. Rer just stared at him, while Garret joined in.

“What’s so damn funny?” Rer asked at last.

It took Keir to catch his breath, but when he finally did, he answered, “You. You used to hate everything about science, and nowadays you’re acting like it’s your best friend. Sometimes I wonder about you, Rer.”

“Yeah, well, don’t worry about me.” Rer said confidently. He looked at Keir and smirked. “At least I’m not getting beat up by imaginary people.”

All three dermians started rolling in fits of laughter. Humorously, Keir put his arm around Rer’s head and started to stage punch him.

“Speaking of Leoc,” Garret spoke for the first time since Keir came out of the training room, “where is your brother, Keir?”

“Probably making modifications to the program as we speak.” Keir said with certainty. Once Leoc had started on something, he didn’t finish until he was sure it was perfect.

Garret looked at the clock on the wall. It read 6:30.

“We should probably get down to the Meeting Hall, guys.” He said, and with no further word, he threw his towel into a basket and walked out the room and entered into the familiar halls of the Dermian Center.

“Yeah, he’s probably right.” Keir said hesitantly. He looked through the glass into the training room, remembering how easily the hologram had caught him off guard.

“Dude, don’t worry about it,” Rer said, understanding Keir’s reluctance to leave, “you caught the hologram off guard just as much as he did you.”

“But the hologram’s fake. If that was a real enemy, he never would have made an error in judgement like that. I can counter a hologram’s programming, because I know that it’s gonna stick to common fighting rules and styles. If I ever want to beat Engzom-or Vark for that matter-then I have to know how to fight without fore-knowledge of what my opponent will try to do.”

“You worry too much.” Rer observed, slapping Keir on the back. “Come on! We’ve got a meeting to attend. And I hear that one very good looking male is supposed to be speaking there.”

“You’re full of yourself.” Keir said, throwing his towel into the same basket that Garret threw his into earlier.

“That may be,” Rer said, taking Keir’s cue and putting his towel away, “but at least I wasn’t almost beaten by a computer.”

“You wont ever let me live that down, will you?” Keir asked, jokingly.

“I might,” Rer said, pretending to consider, “if you were beaten by your son. That would be much funnier.” Rer jumped back as Keir grabbed for him in a playful motion. Quickly, Rer ran out the room and into the hallway.

Keir chased Rer all the way down the hallway that Garret had entered earlier.

They had nearly ran Russ over while going by him and did not stop to explain the circumstances. After all, he was a doctor, he should be able to figure it out.


Russ looked at the two figures getting smaller in the distance.

“That’s right,” Russ said, “you just keep on having fun. It makes it so much easier in the long run.”

Russ turned to continue his business. He was going to go to the hospital wing and talk to a member about the local politics. The dermian he was planning on talking to was a big Keir supporter and didn’t much like Rer.

As he turned a corner, he saw Kipp and Blake standing in the hall.

“What are you two doing here?” He asked non-politely.

“It’s a free country, aint it?” Kipp asked, bouncing a ball against the wall opposite him. Blake just stared at the floor, lost in a daydream.

“Even so...” Russ said. “Isn’t it past your bedtimes?”

“Listen to this man, Blake.” Kipp said, catching the ball and putting it in his side pocket. “He thinks we have a bedtime. I wonder why that is. You see, Russ, we don’t have a bedtime. We don’t need one. Besides, it’s hard to sleep with all the action going on around here. Not to mention it’s only 6:30.”

“You look sick.” Russ said, trying to stall the two and throw them off their guard. For the past couple of months he had suspected that Keir’s two children had known what he and Jr. were up to. He did not have the means or the time to prove it though. He could not kidnap them either. When you’re the two boys of the most loved dermian in the area, people are gonna wonder where you went.

“Well, maybe that’s because I am sick,” Kipp said, chewing a nail, “sick of all the dirty deeds that go by unnoticed in this place.”

Russ looked from one boy to the other. Kipp had a smug grin on his face while Blake was still looking at the floor with that same look on his face. He wasn’t gonna get anything from them. But young boys talked. He would find children who would tell him what he needed to know.

“Shouldn’t you be going?” Kipp asked, looking down at an invisible watch on his wrist. “I heard you were supposed to meet with Stangley in a couple of minutes.” Then, turning towards Blake. “Big supporter of Dad, you know?”

“What’s your point?” Russ asked. After all, the two boys could prove nothing. He was a doctor. “I have to treat him.”

“Well, gee. That’s funny,” Kipp said with a fake laugh, “because I talked to Stangley earlier and old Stang says that he feels fine. That he’s only visiting you to discuss...what was that word? “Local” politics? That sounds about right.” He looked to Blake for clarification and for the first time since the conversation started, Blake nodded his head in agreement.

“If we want to talk about politics, I don’t see why we can’t.” Russ said. The two boy’s interference with his plans were making him furious. “After all, it’s not like an old fart and a doctor can do anything about it, right?” He put on a false laugh. Kipp joined in on the laughing too, although his was mocking laughter.

“Well, I guess you don’t want to miss your big appointment.” Kipp finished, looking down the hall. “Infirmary’s that way, in case you’re lost.” He pointed his finger to the direction behind him.

With all said and done, Kipp and Blake walked the opposite way from the infirmary and entered into a perpendicular hallway.

“Those meddlesome kids.” Russ said to himself silently. He had started to walk towards the infirmary again. Kipp was right about one thing, Russ did not want to miss the appointment. “They think they know everything about my plan, but all that they seem to know is that I have one. No matter, very soon it will be executed and all Hell will break loose. Hopefully, they both die in the ensuing confusion.”

Russ turned a corner and saw a long dermian figure sitting on a bench.

“Stangley, how are you doing?” Russ said in the most polite voice he could muster up at the time.

[JAGuar]

Stangley Byron was a dermian out of the prime of his days and in the eve of his years this young rebel finally settled down and learned some type of patience. In his younger years, Stangley was an active voice, making sure that everyone knew his position on whatever side he was for and against. He would never make the excuse of not being well informed enough to have his opinion matter.

When he was younger, Stangley probably would have went along with the plan that Russ is about to present to him. However, Russ has come to Stangley too late in his life and Stangley is no longer the young, fiery political enthusiast he used to be.

Right now, Stangley was known as the “Old man” in the Dermian Center and had no problem with it. He would rather forget about his past life in political activism anyway. Right now though, Stangley was being reminded of his younger days and was surprised that he took joy in his reminiscence.

“So, what do you think about the current leadership of the Dermian Center?” Russ asked casually.

“Well, I’ll have to be honest,” Stangley said, “I think that Keir would do a much better job at the leadership position than Rer would. However, nowadays it doesn’t really matter. Even with Rer put into the leadership position, he still goes to Keir for advice before he does anything.” This statement had made Russ almost jump in excitement.

“What does that mean?” Russ asked, now totally enthralled in the conversation, no longer thinking about Kipp’s and Blake’s knowledge of what was going on.

“Exactly how it sounds.” Stangley said, taking a drink from his cup. Russ wanted to slap the cup out of the man’s hand and choke him until Ross gained the information he required. He had to restrain himself, however. Physical violence wasn’t gonna help at this point. “Whenever there’s an important decision to be made, Rer seeks Keir’s council. In fact, that’s the biggest problem people have with Rer nowadays. They don’t think that he would be able to stay in control if Keir wasn’t around to tell him what to do. This idea was reinforced when Keir left for his parent’s funeral last summer and all hell broke loose while he was gone. You didn’t know about all this?”

“No...I didn’t.” Russ said slowly. He knew that what Stangley was saying was true, he was the one that implanted the idea. He was just surprised that so many other people knew about it. He couldn’t worry about it now, though. He needed to enact his plan before Blake and Kipp finally do discover what he’s planning to do.

“So...you’re saying that Rer isn’t competent enough to hold his position of power?” Russ asked slowly, making every point clear and concise.

“Well...not exactly,” Stangley said, taking off his glasses and squinting his forward in thought, “well maybe...yeah. Not exactly what I meant, but you make a valid point. I’m just wondering why you’re talking about Rer like this. After all, you’re the one who put him in power.”

Russ had to smile at this statement. This man was much smarter than what he gave off to people at first glance. He pretty much knew everything that was going on around him. Politically and not.

“Okay, I’m gonna be blunt with you, Stangley.” Russ said. Stangley just stared at him, putting on a wide-eyed mock of confusion. “You’re a smart man, you know what’s going on. You know that it’s impossible to avoid a mutiny if things keep getting worse. The next catastrophe that does happen, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rer is kicked out in less than 24 hours afterwards.”

“Okay....” Stangley said slowly. He’s trying to process this all, Russ thought to himself, that’s good. He’s not a sheep. I think I chose wisely.

“Listen. I need someone to help show the mistake that I made.” Russ said, down tot he point of it all. Now it was the trickiest part of the plan. He had to use his talent of deceit to convince this man of what he wanted to convince him. “I would do it myself, but that just simply wouldn’t do. I’m in too much of a position of respect around here. If I admit that my choice of leader was wrong, I’ll be thrown out of here without so much as a goodbye. If you argue against me, than maybe they’ll agree with you and I’ll still be here.”

“You want me to argue against you?” Stangley asked.

“You want me to go around, saying that Rer is a bad leader and that we’d be better off with Keir instead? I don’t see the difference between the two. They’re both founding members of the Center. If you want to argue leadership, why doesn’t Darik’s name come up? Or Amanda’s, or Aledia’s?”

Russ silently cursed himself. This man was smarter than what even Russ gave him credit for.

“Basically,” Russ answered, “you see? If you show how well of a leader that Keir is. Show how much of a natural born leader he is, you know? Then Rer will be taken out of his position very gently and Keir will be put back in it. I think it’s only fair. The last thing I want is a Center-wide vote thing. All that’ll do is cause debates and chaotic panic.”

“You make a strong point, Russ.” Stangley said, scratching his chin. Russ could tell that he was growing on Stangley already. “You remind me of me when I was your age. Wow, I really miss those days.”

Here’s the part where he starts to remember his more radical days, Russ said, fully knowing what Stangley used to be like, that’s good. That means that he might consider doing this after all. I should just get the question out now so as not to draw this out longer than it needs to be drawn out.

“Okay, here’s what I want you to do,” Russ started, “I need you to convince the other dermians that Rer’s a poor excuse for a leader and Keir is much better in a position of leadership. Hopefully, they’re wont be any conflicting ideas and sides and we can get out of this with minimal damage and all of us still standing in one piece each.”

“I’m flattered that you thought to come to me for your...your...” Stangley flipped his hand around to show his thought process. Then, suddenly he changed his emotion. “Your black-mailing, coercing evil scheme. I’m not gonna openly destroy someone’s career in something unfairly. I promised myself long ago that I would never do that, and I don’t intend to start now.”

“But I need you, Stangley!” Russ almost shouted. This wasn’t going at all the way he thought it would when the man had started to reminisce. “Without you, the others will never be convinced that Rer was the wrong choice.”

“If Rer was the wrong choice,” Stangley started, “Why the hell did Keir tell us to let Rer lead us then? If Rer was the wrong choice, does that mean that Keir is the wrong choice as well because he chose the wrong choice? What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. It’s way too broad an outlook and all it will do is cause chaos.” At that point, Stangley’s eyes widened in realization.

“Listen, Stangley....” Russ started, but he had no end to his started topic.

“You want that, don’t you?” Stangley accused. “You want this Center to be thrown into chaotic turmoil. You want us to destroy each other, fighting over what dermian is better to run this place. Not only that, you want the two parties involved to start to hate each other over it as well.”

“Okay, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Russ said, settling into a more comfortable position, “that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“Why the hell would you do something like this?” Stangley asked, clearly outraged and disgusted.

“It’s because I want to take over.” Russ said simply. He stood up and walked to a nearby plant that was against his wall. “You know that in Native American culture, the woman were the ones in charge. But at a time of war, the men were put in power?” He turned to Stangley. Seeing that the other dermian had nothing to add, Russ continued. “Well, I kind of want that to happen now. And I can’t very well take over this center in a time of war and protect it from oncoming disasters and events if I’m not handed the position of leader. I’ll never get the position fairly, because I’m not a founding member. And half of the dermians here hate me anyway. Don’t you see my problem?” He finally asked, grabbing Stangley by the collar.

Stangley’s breathing started to increase when he was grabbed roughly by Russ.

“Now listen here, you old ass!” Russ started shouting, not realizing that there were tremors rising up and down Stangley’s arm at the moment. He was too enraged. “I need this! Don’t you dare take this away from me! I could kill you right where you sit without even flinching, you know that? However I wont because too many dermians here know you. And they’ll likely be missing you when you don’t show up to your normal routine tomorrow.” At this point, Stangley’s whole body started to tremble violently. Still, Russ ignored these common signs of a heart attack and became increasingly angry.

“So you’re gonna help me or you’re gonna die!” Russ said. “I know I said I wouldn’t kill you, but you’re old, I can make it look like a...a...heart attack!” He finally said, grabbing on to the world like it was the last assurance in a non-assured life. He had not realized the irony at the time though. “So I say this again. You tell the other dermians that Rer is a bad leader. Send this place into chaotic upheaval and when I become leader, maybe I’ll put you in a higher position of membership.”

Russ stared at Stangley for the longest time before finally realizing what had happened. Quickly, he let go of the collar and checked Stangley’s pulse at the wrist, like any doctor would do. He did not know when Stangley had died, whether it was when he first grabbed him or when he said “You tell the other dermians....”, but he did know that this was bad. Of course, it wouldn’t be hard for him to cover up, but he really needed Stangley alive to perform Russ’s tasks.

[JAGuar]

Quickly, Russ put on his lab jacket and started to think up the lie he would tell Rer and Keir.

I was giving him a routine checkup, he thought to himself, putting on the sleeves of the jacket, then I went into the other room to get my equipment to check his heart. When I came back into the examining room, he was already dead.

Russ started arranging everything to set the body up to look like it was an accident, which shouldn’t be too hard, because it was.

As Russ left the room and turned off the light, he did not realize the most ironic thing of the meeting that had just ensued between him and the now dead Stangley. The point where Stangley actually died was when Russ shouted out the words “heart attack!” so triumphantly at the time.

This was a detail that Russ would not find out for the rest of his life. Which is probably a good thing for him and others around him alike.


We have a problem. Russ sent to Jr. telepathically. He continued through the hallways, not seaming to go anywhere. He didn’t hear Jr. answer him and after a while he was about to reiterate what he just said when Jr. cut him off.

What type of problem? Jr. asked.

Where are you? Russ sent back.

I’m down by the training room. Jr. said. Russ sensed a bit of humor in that mind voice.

Training room? Russ repeated, extremely confused by the answer he had just received. What are you doing at the training room?

I’m watching two dermians train right at this moment. It’s actually quite relieving to see two other sentient beings fight. It’s a nice break from fighting yourself.

Russ turned around, ignoring Jr., to make his way for the training room when he suddenly realized something. There was no way that two dermians could be training because all of the Center’s fighters were at the weekly meeting to discuss happenings at the Center.

Who’s training? Russ asked, hoping that he would get a satisfactory answer. Hopefully, there weren’t more dermians considering training to be able to fight. That would make Russ’s job much harder.

It’s Furbal and Boxer. Jr. replied.

The two names caused Russ to stop dead in his tracks, nearly tripping from the momentum. He started laughing. If he was right, and he thought that he was, then this was all going to work out perfectly. He was pretty sure the two kids were Rer’s and Keir’s children and they should know better than anybody that children are not allowed to go into the training room, due to possible danger. This was perfect, it looked like they didn’t need Stangley after all.

So what’s this problem you keep bringing up? Jr. asked, tired of wasting time.

Did I say problem? Russ asked, wiping a tear from his eye. I meant to say that we have an answer to all of our problems. I’ll explain when I get there.


Boxer hit the ground hard, gripping his bloody nose. All of a sudden an unseen force drop kicked him. He screamed in pain.

“No fair!” He shouted. “How’m I s’pose to defend myself when you’re invisible and I can’t see you?”

“No idea.” Came Furbal’s voice from an unseen place in the room. He sent another punch into Boxer’s ribcage, against causing him to howl in pain. “Give up yet?” Furbal asked, humorously. When Boxer nodded his head, Furbal re-appeared and helped Boxer to his feet.

Both boys had grown quite a deal in the last two years. Now a full 10 years old, as he’d like to say. Boxer was starting to show signs of increased strength in his arms, his shoulders extending farther than any regular 10 year old kid.

Furbal, who was now 13 years old himself, had not gotten much wider in his teenage years, but his body had lengthened, causing him to look much taller than what he was. He was extremely athletic for his age and often played soccer in the yard behind the Center.

Any passerby would not only be able to tell others that these two were best friends, but that they were also almost exactly like their respective fathers, right down to their common interests.

“Can we just go now?” Boxer asked, wiping blood from his forehead.

“Ah, you’re no fun.” Furbal teased. He crouched down and picked up a rock. He gave it to Boxer and told him to throw it as far as he could. Boxer did as he was told and Furbal lost track of it long before it landed on the ground.

“Okay, can we go now?” Boxer asked again, growing bored by all this standing around. “I’m hungry.” Furbal laughed at his friend’s comment.

“Fine, we’ll go, kid.” He said, putting his hand on Boxer’s shoulder and leading him towards the exit.

So, without another word, the two friends walked towards the door to leave the training room. They had no idea that two figures were already in there, waiting for them.

[JAGuar]

Furbal and Boxer walked through the door, only to see Russ and Jr. Furbal’s first thought was to turn himself and Boxer invisible and to make their escape while Russ and Jr. were pre-occupied. Then he realized that the two adults had probably seen them while they were training, like they shouldn’t be doing.

“What were you two doing?” Russ asked, looking from one to the other.

“We were-we were just-“ Furbal stuttered, but Russ raised his hand to cut him off.

“You do know that you’re not allowed in there, don’t you?” Russ asked. “Or do you think you get special treatment because of your parents?

“We don’t think that at all!” Boxer shouted, balling his fists.

“You’re gonna argue with a senior member of this Center?” Russ said, getting angry.

“Senior member?” Boxer shouted. “I’ve been here longer than you have, you power-hungry jackass!”

“Where did you learn those words, little boy?” Russ asked, moving his index finger back in forth in a “naughty boy” gesture.

“Why the Hell should I tell you?” Boxer asked, taking a step towards him. “We’ve done nothing wrong, so let us through.”

“But you have done something wrong,” Russ started, clearly gratified by getting these two children in trouble, “you know as well as I do that you’re not allowed in the training room because of the dangers that you could face.”

“You don’t care about the dangers.” Furbal said, clearly disturbed by this notion. When push came to shove, Furbal could probably take his father if he had the intent to do it. The thing that the grown ups didn’t realize was that Furbal and Boxer had been going out and street fighting for extra money. Boxer didn’t do so well in hand to hand combat because he was still a kid, but Furbal had picked up to it quickly.

“Young man, I can assure you that your health is what concerns all of us the most here at the Dermian Center.” Russ said, in a mocking adult voice.

“Don’t give me that “young man” crap.” Furbal said, taking a step up, to stand by Boxer who looked like he was about to blow. Furbal was sure of one thing. Boxer may not do very good on the street, but he could take Russ. “All that you’re concerned about is your own welfare. And don’t even pretend that you’re hurt by that remark because everyone in this room knows it’s true.”

“You have no proof of that, young man,” Russ said slowly as if explaining, “I swear, Jr. These kids and their imaginations.”

“That’s bull crap!” Boxer shouted, joining back into the heated argument. “My brother, Kipp will find out what’s going on. I’m pretty sure he’s already almost figured it out.” This had caused Russ to flinch slightly. Furbal didn’t notice because he was watching Jr. but Boxer had. He knew this was his chance to strike.

“You know, don’t you?” He asked, slightly intrigued. “You know that my brother is onto your little game, but you can’t do anything about it because of our father. Oh, it must make you feel so bad to know that you can’t even take care of a little kid just because of a technicality.”

This had gone too far, Russ jumped towards Boxer, picked him up, and started choking him by the neck. Furbal and Boxer were both clearly stunned by this awkward show of strength from their family physician.

Jr. did not hesitate, though. He was aware of Russ’s hidden strength and knew that when his anger was tested, he could possible blow. He was watching the argument closely, hoping that Russ could control it, but had to sigh when Russ started hurting Keir’s son. Out of all the people in the Center to choke.
Stop it, Russ! Jr. sent. Slowly, Russ stopped shaking Boxer and let him back on the ground slowly, brushing him off.

“You’re lucky if I don’t tell my dad what you just did to me.” Boxer said, choking. Tears were coming out of his eyes.

“You wont tell your father what I just did.” Russ said, matter of factly.

“And why not?” Furbal asked.

“Because in order to tell them, you’d also have to tell them that you were breaking the Center’s rules.”

“No we don’t!” Boxer said, still clutching his burning neck.

“If you don’t, I will.” Russ said simply. This had caused both boys to freeze, shocked by the statement made by the doctor. They knew that he was smart, but like most youngsters they thought they were smarter. Not once in the whole argument until this moment did it even cross their mind that Russ would win in a battle of wits.

“I see you have nothing to say.” Russ said, sneeringly. He was clearly enjoying his momentary triumph.

“...So what do we do now?” Furbal asked slowly, fearing the answer. Still though, he was pretty sure that he knew what it was.

“Well, we all walk away and forget this ever happened.” Russ said, conspiratorially. Boxer and Furbal exchanged glances as if to say, I don’t know if we should do this.

But they had no choice. In the end, they had to agree to it. It benefitted everybody in the short run. As for the long run...well, they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

“Okay.” Furbal said slowly. Russ was a little disappointed by this. He was hoping that the Boxer/Furbal relationship would be the opposite of the Rer/Keir relationship. He hoped that Boxer was in charge, it would make his job much easier.

“Good.” Russ said, looking at Jr. “I think we can all agree that it’s time to go. So here’s what we’ll do. Jr. and I will leave first and then you two will leave in five minutes.”

“Whatever works for you.” Furbal said, passing it off as unimportant side information.

With everything said, Russ and Jr. made their way for the door. While opening the door, Russ stopped to look back at the two kids.

“Just remember this,” he said seriously, “if you cross my path the wrong way again, I wont care who’s children you are.” He turned to leave when, to his astonishment, Boxer answered.

“Well, you just remember this. Next time you cross our path, you’ll be needing your own doctor when we're through with you." Boxer said.

Russ had no answer to this threat, it was too unexpected to retort to. Angrily, he pulled the door open, nearly tearing it off it’s hinges. Jr. stayed back a couple of seconds, looking at Boxer. Finally, appearing to be satisfied, Jr. left as well.

“Well that’s just great.” Furbal said, after he was sure they were gone. “We’re now being blackmailed by a doctor!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Boxer said, calming down now that the situation was avoided.

“What’s not to worry about?” Furbal nearly screamed. “This guy has got us! He’s got us good!”

“No he doesn’t.” Boxer said, confidently.

“What are you, blind?” Furbal asked, voice squeaking.
“Were you here when we were forced into an impossible position and we had to make a deal with him?”

“We weren’t the ones forced into the position.” Boxer said calmly, putting a hand on Furbal’s shoulder. “He was. You have a lot to learn when it comes to reading poker faces, kid.”

“I still don’t get what you’re saying here.” Furbal said, more confused than before.

“Don’t you see?” Boxer asked. “He came down here just to bust us. If he really was concerned, he would have made us get out of the training room much earlier. Nothing was turned on, as I’m sure he well knew. However, he waited. He was relishing the moment of confrontation. He wanted to make us feel inferior. However, we got a one up on him. By pointing out that we could get him thrown out of here faster than a stock market can crash, he knew he had to play nicely. Therefore, we backed him into a corner.”

“How the hell could you know this?” Furbal asked.

“Simple,” Boxer started, grinning widely, “when he was trying to throttle me and Jr. had to send him a mental message, I knew something was up. Something was obviously pre-planned and then we screwed it up. That’s why he was so angry. It wasn’t because of words being said or because it was us, it was because we had altered his plans.”

“Sometimes, Boxer,” Furbal started, heading for the door, “not even I know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Well, I don’t suppose you’re supposed to.” Boxer said, smiling.

They stared at each other for a while, then both cracked smiles. Two seconds later, they were both on the floor laughing. Later that night, right outside Boxer’s room Furbal made the comment, “Friendships like ours last a lifetime.” If only he knew the half of it.

[JAGuar]

Keir found himself starting to nod off again during one of Leoc’s “great scientific discovery” reports. He quickly shook it off, took a sip of his coffee and sat straight up. This stuff may bore him, but he had to act like he was interested, for formality sake.

“And so,” Leoc concluded, “by using these innovative designs, if I do say so myself, I can actually make it possible for something to turn invisible.”

“And by invisible you mean...” Darik said, head leaning on his hand.

“I mean invisible as in “not there.” Leoc said, slowly. He had grown accustomed to Darik’s random sparks of extreme idiocy but he was shocked that Darik wasn’t extremely excited about this development.

“Oh!” Darik said. His head slipped off his hand and hit the table, hard. “Okay then, Smart Ass, what is this “something” that you’re referring to?”

Leoc was pleased by this question, it was the best part of the whole report.

“Why, I’m glad that you asked, Darik,” Leoc said, putting up his pointer and turning to face the whole room. The meeting room was longer than it was wide and there was a table in the middle. On each side, there were 12 seats. There was a seat on the end facing the door as well. That was Rer sat. To his right was Keir, to Rer’s left was Darik.

To Keir’s left were the following; Amanda, followed by Lucius, followed by T-bone. To Darik’s right were the following; Aledia, followed by Garret, followed by 3 empty seats. One for Russ, one for Rubbles Jr. and one for Sting Ray.

Thinking of Sting Ray’s betrayal made Keir think about all the members they had lost already. Most of all Ace, Penny and Stakur. They were the three that had the biggest effect on him, he thought it was perhaps because of the way they died.

“It can turn anything invisible.” Leoc finished.

“Anything?” Darik said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. It can turn me invisible. It can turn you invisible. It could turn this whole board room invisible. It could turn the whole Center invisible.” At this, Leoc got the reaction he was hoping for. Everyone suddenly perked up to see what Leoc was talking about exactly. If this worked, they wouldn’t have to worry about enemies anymore.

“This truly is great.” T-bone said, shocked beyond belief.

“Are you sure that you can get this to work?” Rer asked Leoc.

“Of course I can,” Leoc started, “all I have to do is reroute the-“

”Never mind about that.” Rer said. He got up and stared at the window, standing right behind Lucius.

“It’ll work, all right?” Leoc said, in his best convincing tone.

“I believe you.” Rer said.

“Is it time to eat yet?” Darik asked. He was quickly hit in the head by his wife.

“Sometimes I don’t know why I married you, you big oaf!” She yelled at him.

“No no no,” Rer started, cutting off anymore of Aledia’s words, “he’s right. We have been here a while. Is there anything else to go over before we all leave?” He looked around at the silent board members. “Well, if there is nothing else to say, I think we should call it a night.” Everyone murmured their agreement and started heading for the door.

All of a sudden, a dermian named Rof came running into the room.

“Rer!” He shouted. “You have to come quick! Something’s happened!”

“What happened, Rof?” Rer asked. At this, Keir was surprised. He had seen this dermian around the Center from time to time but never really got to know his name. And if he was ever told, he passed it off as unimportant and forgot about it. Rer truly was a better leader than he was.

“It’s Stangley.” Rof said simply.

“And?” Darik interjected.

“And he’s dead.” Rof said, nearly choking on his words.

“Where is he, Rof?” Rer asked.

“He’s in his room. I just went down there to have a chat with him and there he was, just in his chair, not breathing. So, I checked his pulse and it wasn’t beating. Oh my God, he’s dead!”

“Settle down, Rof.” Rer said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Without speaking another word to him, Rer had managed to calm the frantic dermian down. Now Keir truly was impressed.

They all set out to go find Stangley’s dead body. Most of them were mildly curious but all Darik could think was, Well, I guess this day wont be as boring as thought to be after all.


They traveled through a series of intertwining hallways. After five minutes of straight walking, Keir started to think that they were never going to get to Stangley. Which was a bad thing, too. Stangley was a valuable member to the team.

Finally, they got to his room.

“Here it is.” Rof said, stopping at the doorway.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Darik said, “open it!”

Rof did as was ordered. The room was very badly lit and the dermians couldn’t see a thing in there.

“Turn on the lights!” Darik yelled at Rof. He enjoyed picking on lowly guards because they were too scared to fight back. Again, Rof did as was bid and everyone in the room except for Darik jumped back from the shock of the dead body. Keir couldn’t help but wonder how long he had been dead, but knew that it wasn’t a regular heart attack. This had to have been a violent one because of the way the body was positioned on the couch.

“Damn.” T-bone said under his breath. He stepped over an overturned pot. “Was this here when you found him?” He asked Rof.

“No.” Rof said, nearly tripping over his own feet. “When I saw him, I thought I was gonna throw up and I knocked it over as I tried to turn around to go get you guys.”

“Well, was there any type of mess here when you got here?” T-bone asked.

“Um...” Rof hesitated. He was clearly under a lot of stress and was not able to think straight. “...No!” He finally screamed after a long silence.

Poor guy, Keir thought to himself, one of his friends gets killed and he gets questioned for it. I know I wouldn’t be able to handle that.

“Are you sure?” T-bone questioned further. He took two steps closer to Rof. Rof was shrinking back from T-bone as if he was a mouse hiding from a cat.

“I’m...pretty sure.” Rof said lamely. Keir barely heard him.

“You’re pretty sure?” T-bone asked, clearly getting annoyed by this. “Are you pretty sure that he was even dead when you got here? Maybe he was still alive.”

“No!” Rof screamed, starting to cry. “He was dead! I think I’d know if my own best friend was dead!” He stopped and stared at the blank and empty faces, finally coming to the realization that Keir had minutes before. “Wait a minute....Wait a minute! You think I did this? Why would I kill him? He’s all I’ve ever had. Isn’t it obvious that he’s died of a heart attack anyway?”

“It looks set up to me.” T-bone said softly.

“What’s that mean?” Rof asked, confused from all the chaos.

“It means that somebody killed him and set the crime scene to make it look like a natural death.” Keir answered in a voice he didn’t recognize as his own.

“I didn’t set this up!” Rof shouted, getting closer to the door. Lucius quickly moved to block his way. Keir made a mental note to thank him of this later. It really helped out matters. Seeing that he was trapped, Roff decided to talk his way out. “I have no reason!”

“We believe you.” Keir said, putting a hand on Rof’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Speak for yourself.” T-bone said, crossing towards Leoc who had remained silent the whole time.

“I know that you’re friends betrayed you, but we have no reason to betray each other.” Lucius said. At this point, Keir made a mental note not to thank Lucius later. He had just screwed everything up thanks to his ignorance. To Keir’s relief though, T-bone did not press the matter. Instead he tried to change the subject.

“It still looks like a set-up to me.” He said in a finalized tone.

“It does to me, too.” Keir said agreeing with T-bone totally. “It’s just that I’m certain that Rof didn’t do this. Like he said, he had no reason to do this. Stangley was old, maybe he died and someone just placed his body.”

“Then why the hell didn’t they come to us in the first place?” T-bone asked.

“Maybe they were afraid that we’d start blaming them for the incident.” Keir returned.

Rof just looked from T-bone to Keir, not fully understanding what was going on between the two. They had usually gotten along so well.

“I think it’s time to go and report this to Russ.” Rer said after a long hesitation in the room. Rer, Darik, Amanda, Aledia, Leoc, Lucius and Garret all left the room. Keir and T-bone stayed back to talk, not noticing that Rof was still in the room.

[JAGuar]

“What the hell happened back there?” T-bone asked, after he was sure the others were gone. “You know as well as I do that foul play was involved.”

“I do know that, yes,” Keir said, “but I’m convinced it wasn’t Rof. Did you see the look on his face? The look of total naivete and complete innocence?”

“Okay,” T-bone said, “I’m sorry. I just find it hard to trust people anymore.”

“I understand.” Keir said, comforting T-bone. It was at this point they realized that Rof hadn’t left the room like all the others.

“What are you still doing here?” Keir asked Rof, ignoring T-bone for now.

“He was all I had.” Rof said, shaking his head slowly. “My only friend. My only family.”

“Are you okay, Rof?” Keir asked, edging closer to the boy. He was a grown up, but he was still young. Keir didn’t think the kid was a day over 21.

“I want to be like you guys!” Rof said, turning to Keir and T-bone. “With training from you two, I could become a great fighter!”

“Now, wait a minute!” T-bone said, shocked. “I think we’re being a little hasty here.”

“Why not?” Keir asked. “I’m up for it. What about you, T-bone?” He turned towards the ex human SOLDIER.

“Sure,” T-bone said, “I guess we could use as many fighters as possible.”

Rof nearly jumped through the ceiling at this. He hugged both Keir and T-bone before running out of the room into the hallway, all but forgetting the death of his best friend. Keir and T-bone stared after his diminishing figure running down the hallway.

“Why did we just do that?” T-bone asked. “He could die out there.”

“We did it because he wants to die,” Keir answered, staring into space, “and I don’t want him causing a problem here in the Center itself. I don’t think we can afford another catastrophe.” T-bone could only nod at this. What they didn’t know was that an old friend was also off, making acquaintances.

[JAGuar]

“Are you sure you want to do this?” The gypsy asked Engzom. Engzom glared at him and threw his cigarette into the grass, crunching it with his boot. “You’re the boss.” The gypsy added after seeing this display of a convinced decision.

Engzom listened as his newest ally, Eispyg started to chant a ritual to bring back his brother from the untold Hell dimension that the bastard Rer had sent him to.

“He will pay.” Engzom said to himself. Unfortunately, Rex heard all of this.

“What did you say, boss?” He asked, hoping Engzom was not referring to him.

“Do I need to explain myself to you?” Engzom said, turning on his most trustworthy minion.

“Sorry, boss.” Rex said, putting his head down and stepping back. Engzom noticed that Eispyg was almost done with his ritual by now.

Everyone in the field listened as Eispyg’s chant came to a stop, clearly finished. They all waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Engzom was losing his patience fast. After 10 seconds, he took action.

“Grab him!” He ordered his soldiers. “Make sure he doesn’t live long enough to shout “Help me!”

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking and the skies grew cloudy. The ground split into two and three of Engzom’s soldiers fell into the cracks, possibly to Hell itself. Then a cage with chains around it came up out of the ground. The chains were completely aflame.

Slowly, the chains started to unwrap from the cage, which was also set aflame. When the chains were taken off, the cage came slowly open. Inside it there was a figure wrapped in a burlap bag with chains around him as well.

Without so much as a blink of an eye, the figure busted out of the burlap sack and the chains around him in one quick movement.

Engzom nearly cried in joy, seeing his brother for the first time in two years.

Droech took a step and ended up on flat surface. He was completely naked and looked confused.

“Where am I?” Came a hoarse voice.

“You’re home, brother!” Engzom shouted, hugging Droech. Then, letting go. “You’re home. Let him go!” Engzom yelled to his soldiers who were holding Eispyg.

“Thank you, oh gracious, Engzom.” Eispyg said.

“Don’t feed me that crap!” Engzom said happily. “You brought my brother back to me! You shall be treated like a king here. I will make you my personal mage.”

“Forgive me, oh great evil one,” Eispyg started, “but I’m not staying here. One; I’m not a mage, and two; I have other places to go.”

“Fine.” Engzom said. He snapped his fingers to order his henchmen to kill the gypsy once more. If Engzom wasn’t gonna have that much power, no one would.

He felt a breeze fly past him and turned around to see that Eispyg was no longer there.

“Where did he go?” He yelled at his soldiers.

“He escaped.” A soldier of his said. Engzom always loved the part where he killed his own soldiers, but he had a better idea. He turned to Droech.

“Why don’t you take this one, brother?” He asked, giving his sword to his twin. “I believe you know what to do.”

Droech looked down at the sword in his hand and then up into the face of his soon to be victim. Without a single word, he thrust the soldier into the soldier’s gut. The guy died slowly, blood coming out of his mouth in what seemed to be pints. Droech laughed a long, cold laugh.

“Man, it’s good to be home.” He said, pulling the sword out of the man’s stomach. He then wiped off the blood with his hand and then rubbed the blood all over his face.

“It’s good to have you back,” Engzom said, laughing with his twin, “Brother.”

[JAGuar]

Rof blew apart the target with ease. He had been training under T-bone and Keir for almosttwo weeks and, while originally excited, he was now bored with all of the repetitiveness of his training sessions. He found it redundant and a waste of his time. He sighed and turned his head to watch a bird fly by.

“I told you!” T-bone shouted, throwing his own gun over his shoulder. “Always look at your target! Never take your eyes off of it! You never know when it might come back to bite you in the ass! You really want to shoot someone and turn around just to be shot in the back?”

“I don’t think the bag’s gonna fight back.” Rof said jokingly. He looked at T-bone only to see his teacher wasn’t laughing.

“Oh, wanna make jokes now, huh?” T-bone asked, verbally attacking his student. He got face to face with Rof.

“I’m sorry,” Rof apologized, “it’s just this is so boring.”

“War isn’t supposed to be fun, son.” T-bone said, taking a step away from Rof.

“Well you know what I meant.” Rof said. But looking at his teacher, Rof realized that T-bone didn’t have any idea what he was talking about.

“When am I gonna stop shooting bags of flour and actually shoot moving things? Bags of flour don’t move, if I can shoot them that doesn’t mean I can shoot moving targets. Besides, shouldn’t I be learning how to fight hand to hand just in case I drop my gun or it runs out of bullets or whatever?”

“You’re right,” T-bone said, massaging his brow, “but I’m not training you in the physical things. I’m training you in technological warfare. Keir’s the one that’s training you to fight people with your bare hands. Hasn’t he been doing anything with you?”

“Not really.” Rof said slowly. This had caused T-bone to spin around on his heels.

“What do you mean?” T-bone asked.

“All we’ve been doing is studying my “enemies weaknesses” and going to the gym to work out. I think it’s kind of stupid just punching bags as well.” Rof decided to add, knowing he was already in trouble, he might as well complain while he was at it.

T-bone laughed a the simplicity of Keir’s training.

“You really do have a lot to learn, kid.” T-bone said after his laughter had ceased.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rof asked, confused. This had caused T-bone to crack up laughing again. When he was done with his fit of laughter, he took a deep breath.

“He’s training you to know your opponent before fighting him. It’s a great strategy to stay alive. Trust me, it may be boring, but he’s not cheating you out. You’ll thank him after your first battle.” T-bone explained.

“Oh.” Rof said, finally understanding. “Well, in that case, what do you say we go kill a bag?”

“I think we can move up to ducks today.” T-bone said, putting his arm around Rof’s shoulder. Teacher and student walked away, laughing at the things that friends often laugh at together. They did not realize that someone had been watching them all the way through their little training session.

Vark stood up from behind the bush he was using to not be seen by T-bone and the boy he had never seen before.

“So, Keir’s finally starting to learn how to become useful.” Vark said, genuinely impressed. He heard a noise to his left and quickly snapped his head in the direction. He saw a guard that had also happened to see him.

The guard’s eyes widened in realization. He drew in a breath to warn the others in the compound about Vark’s presence. Vark did not give him the chance though. Quickly, he sped over to the guard and broke his neck, noticing the coffee stain on his shirt and the two different types of socks.

“Man, you’re having a bad day.” He said to the dead body, laughing at his witty humor. “I should probably leave before they find him.” Vark looked around to make sure that no other Dermian Defenders had seen him at all, hid the body behind the same bush he was hiding behind, and transported off the grounds.

[JAGuar]

“Guess what happened, Blake.” Kipp said, closing the door and taking off his jacket. He had just gotten done running his daily two miles and was sweating like crazy. “Stangley’s dead.”

“What?” Blake said, putting down his newspaper. He took his feet off the coffee table he was resting them on and stood up to question his brother. “How?”

“Apparently he had a heart attack.” Kipp answered.

“Man, that’s too bad.” Blake said.

“You know what this means.” Kipp said.

“Yeah!” Blake shouted. “It means that I have no grown up to talk to about how this place was to start with, back in the early days.” Kipp slapped his hand onto his forehead.

“Wow, for a genius you sure are stupid!” He said to his brother. “Listen closely. We find out that Russ plans to talk to Stangley about the way the Center’s being run. We confront Russ first and make him angry. Then, he goes to talk to Stangley. Now, all of a sudden Stangley’s dead of a heart attack? You don’t believe that there was no foul play behind the heart attack, do you?”

“I see what you mean.” Blake agreed, sitting down on the couch slowly. He was just about to ask what they do about the situation when all of a sudden, the door to Boxer’s room opened.

He came out, wearing sweat pants, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Rise and shine, dufus.” Kipp said, getting a reproachful look from Kipp.

“Don’t mess with me,” Boxer said, taking his hands off of his eyes, “not today.”

“What’s wrong?” Blake asked his brother.

“Just this place!” Boxer yelled. “I’m sick of it! Now Furbal’s afraid to do anything just because of Russ.” Kipp and Blake looked at each other in sudden realization.

“Russ?” Kipp asked. “What did he do?”

“Well, I promised not to tell....” Boxer said.

“Did you promise Russ or Furbal?” Kipp asked.

“Kinda both, actually.” Boxer answered, obviously having an inner turmoil.

“What happened, Boxer?” Blake pressed.

“Russ and Jr. caught Furbal and me training in the new training center.” Boxer said quickly as if afraid someone might be listening. “Then we had an altercation and Russ and Jr. decided not to tell our parents then they left.”

“Really?” Kipp asked.

“Yeah!” Boxer said. “Russ was pissed off at us!”

“When was this?” Blake asked.

“Around 8:30 on the day that Stangley died.” Boxer answered, a little unsure.

“You knew that Stangley died?” Blake asked. “Why the hell did everyone find out before I did?”

“Because you were too busy putting your nose into those books and filling out college applications.” Kipp pointed out. Blake shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s nothing wrong with going to college.” He said, unperturbed by Kipp’s obvious distaste.

“There is when you’re only 16.” Kipp said, sitting down in the Lazy Boy.

“Where’s mom and dad anyway?” Boxer asked, looking around.

“Dude, it’s 1:00 in the afternoon.” Kipp said, pointing at the clock on the wall.

“They’re away,” Blake added, “doing their jobs.”

“Is it really 1:00?” Boxer asked, stretching.

“Forget about that!” Kipp shouted. “Don’t you see what’s going on?”

“No....” Boxer said.

“My God, you two are idiots!” He shouted, growing angrier at their stupidity. “Here’s what happened. Russ went to talk to Stangley. We stopped him and he got mad at us. He went to talk to Stangley after words. Then, Stangley dies mysteriously, after his “talk” with Russ, of a heart attack. Knowing that he had a perfect opportunity, he decided to get Furbal and Boxer in trouble.”

“Why would he want to get us in trouble?” Boxer asked. “We never did anything wrong to him. I kinda liked the guy.”

“Because he wants to cause trouble....” Blake said, slowly, starting to understand where Kipp was going. “He wants to cause chaos. He wants to destroy the Dermian Center.”

“We have to tell Dad.” Boxer added in.

“No!” Kipp shouted. “Dad and the rest of the grown-ups have too many other things to do. We can’t disturb them with this problem, too. I think it’s time that we solve a problem for ourselves. We have to stop Russ.”

“But we don’t know what to do!” Blake complained.

“Did Dad know what to do when he had to deal with the human SOLDIERS?” Kipp retorted. “Did he know what to do when his best friend became his arch nemesis? Did he know what to do when his cousin became evil and tried to destroy the world? Did he know what to do when Sting Ray betrayed us? You can’t go through life avoiding things that you don’t know how to do simply because you don’t know how to do it. That’s the coward’s way out. I think it’s time that we learned to stick up for ourselves.”

Boxer and Blake reluctantly nodded in agreement. They knew, deep down that Kipp was right. They would have to eventually stand up for themselves in the world, and why not sooner than later?

“Okay,” Boxer said, “what do you want me to do?”

“Just make sure that Furbal doesn’t tell anyone about what’s going on.” Kipp said.

“What about Russ?” Boxer asked.

“You leave him to us.” Blake said, looking at Kipp. They both grinned in agreement. Even if they couldn’t do anything to hurt Russ, they could make his life a living Hell.

[JAGuar]

“Hey, Russ. You got something in the mail.” Jr. said as Russ walked into the door of his apartment.

“What are you doing here?” Russ asked, perturbed.

“I just knew you’d want to talk to me.” Russ answered simply. He was right of course. Russ realized that Jr. was always right when it came to what he wanted. He started to think of how long he and Jr. had known each other. Was it 23 years, 24 maybe.

“It was 23.” Jr. answered, taking a drink of his coffee. Russ wasn’t gonna ask Jr. how he knew about this because he was used to it. Jr. was strong in the telepathic sense, although never a great fighter himself. Russ was always the muscle behind the machine that spun both of them around in fate’s hand.

“If you’re so damn telepathic, why don’t you tell me what I got in the mail?” Russ asked, picking up the sealed envelope from his table.

“I don’t interfere with other people’s affairs.” Jr. said calmly, taking another drink of his coffee.

“Yeah, except for mine.” Russ mumbled, opening the envelope. He nearly dropped the envelope in excitement. He looked around the room as if someone was watching him. The letter was typed and it said the following.

We know that you caused the death of Stangley. We also know that you want to destroy the Dermian Center. We haven’t told anyone yet, but if you want to know who we are or what our conditions are to keep our mouths shut, you better meet us behind the bush at the training grounds.
Signed: Black and Scarlet.


Russ crumbled up the envelope and threw it into the waste basket against his wall. At first he thought about who Black and Scarlet were. It didn’t take him long to realize that those were actually aliases.

“Well-“ Russ started. Jr. had cut him off, throwing his hand up in the air and taking another drink of his coffee.

“I know.” He said, putting his hand and coffee cup back down.

“Okay, now I have to ask. How do you know?” Russ inquired.

“You don’t have to be psychic to understand a reaction like the one on your face right now.” Jr. pointed out to his long time friend.

“Fair enough,” Russ said, “so what are we gonna do?”

“I know that you want to meet these people who are trying to extort you.” Jr. said. Russ started to think that Jr. knew him too well. “I only have one question. Did you mean to kill Stangley?”

“No!” Russ shouted. “You know me. I lost my temper, started yelling, started threatening, but never meaning any harm! The old bastard died on his own.”

“I believe you.” Jr. said.

“So I have to meet these guys?” Russ asked, seeking advice.

“That’d be the best way to go about it.” Russ said. Russ wondered how that could possibly be, but then shrugged it off.

“That way, if they cause any trouble,” Jr. continued, “we can take care of them.”

“What do you mean “take care of them?” Russ asked.

“What do you think I mean?” Jr. answered.

“We’re not killing anyone!” Russ argued.

“Correction!” Jr. yelled. “I’m not killing anyone. You’ve already started to. The only difference between you and I is our tempers. Mine just happens not to get the best of me in an enraged state of emotion. We’re gonna finish this plan out! These people need a real leader! Not some under-experienced, barely in their 20's kids! They’ll all be grateful when you take over because they wont have to be faced with responsibility anymore. You know that as well as I do, and I think it’s time that you started to act like you knew it!”

“Okay,” Russ said softly, “I’ll do what I have to, for the good of Dermians everywhere.”

“Good,” Jr. answered, “because it would be a shame if anything happened to you, or anyone else at this Center for that matter.”

Russ just stared at Jr. wondering what happened to his long time pal. Russ started to wonder if the same thing was happening to him as well and that he was maybe too angry at everything to realize it. He wanted to back out of the plan, but it was too late. Things had already begun to set themselves into motion.

“When does it tell you to meet them?” Jr. asked Russ.

“It doesn’t say.” Russ answered, taking a deep breath.

“Then why don’t you go down there now?” Jr. suggested, taking one last drink of his coffee.

Russ left Jr. alone in his apartment, wondering what had just happened. Five minutes ago Russ thought everything was going to plan and that he was in charge. Now, a couple of nosy dermians with nothing better to do have found a means of distorting him while his long time companion and best friend was suddenly the one in charge.

Then Russ remembered his favorite quote, “Things change....” He said, closing the door. “And not always for the better.”

[JAGuar]

Russ had done exactly what his instructors told him to do. He traveled out to the courtyard to meet with them and ask them exactly what they wanted. The whole way over there, Russ could feel a feeling of dread come over him. He didn’t know how to explain it, he just didn’t feel like it was right to come to this spot at this point in time.

Getting to the training ground, he noticed Keir training Rof once again. This had angered Russ beyond recognition when he first found out about this. The last thing he needed in his plan was for another dermian to learn how to fight. He wanted chaos, not order. Oh well, he had to move on with his intentions. He decided to sit there and wait for the two to finish, Rof was sweating vigorously and they surely must be done in a short amount of time.

Russ had waited for an hour and a half before falling asleep and nearly falling off the log he was sitting on. Once he felt himself falling, he quickly woke up and regained his balance. He couldn’t believe that the two were not done training yet. It looked like Keir was trying to train Rof especially hard, so the kid wouldn’t get hurt in battle.

Russ was originally scared by this, thinking that Keir knew, but eventually realized that Keir didn’t know, not really. He just had a sense that something big was gonna happen. He had felt the air calm down like it does right before a big storm hits.

All of a sudden, Keir knocked Rof to the ground and stepped on Rof’s chest to hold him down. Russ was almost awed by Keir’s display of power and wondered how in the world Rer could be stronger than him.

After about 2 seconds, Keir stepped off of Rof and extended a hand to help him up. Rof put both of his hands around Keir’s wrist and Keir pulled him off the ground. Finally, they were done training. There was one problem Russ had not realized though, they were walking straight towards him.

“That was a great session, Rof.” Keir complimented his student. Russ noticed that Keir had taken a real liking to the boy. “Your heart seemed to be in it today.”

“Oh, it was.” Rof said. And for the tiniest moment, Russ thought he saw untold knowledge in Rof’s eyes, almost believing that Rof sent him the letter. “I talked to T-bone and he explained to me why you were doing what you were doing, so I decided to listen to what you taught me. After that, it’s just a matter of simple calculation.”

“Well, go home and rest, Rof.” Keir said, slapping him on the back. Rof did as he was bade and ran off through the fields. Russ noticed the kid already seemed to be in much better shape, only after two and a half weeks of training.

“I got to hand it to you, Keir,” Russ said, looking after the diminishing figure, “you’re doing a good job with that kid.”

“Yeah, well, they’ve got to want to learn.” Keir said, picking up a towel and wiping off sweat from his face.

“The little runt wear you out?” Russ joked. Keir joined in on the laughing and put the towel over his whole face.

“Actually, he did.” Keir said after finally wiping down his face.

“Really?” Russ asked, shocked. He never would have been able to tell that Keir was tired from the way he seemingly so easily knocked the kid to the ground.

“Yeah. He’s a quick learner. He reminds me of me, back in my younger days.” Keir said.

“You’re still not that old.” Russ pointed out.

“You’re right, but 33 feels ancient right about now.” Keir said, agreeing with the doctor.

“Oh?” Russ stated. “And why is that?”

“All the stuff that’s going on.” Keir answered simply. Looking over at Russ and realizing the doctor wanted a better answer, he took in a breath to tell him. “Penny dying, Rer taking over, me being a descendent of evil, Stangley dying, everything. It’s all out of whack. I can’t deal with so many things at once.”

“But you’re not dealing with them,” Russ said, chuckling, “Rer is. You’re not the leader, Keir. You don’t have to deal with it.”

“But if I don’t, who will?” Keir asked.

“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure that one other dermian at this Center is responsible enough to take care of funeral arrangements. I know your parents recently died, but would they really want you stressing out over stuff so much that it becomes unhealthy for you?”

“No, I guess they wouldn’t.” Keir said, not quite convinced.

“Come now!” Russ said. “There’s no need to worry. Stangley was a great man, and it’s sad that he’s dead, but bad situations can bring up good things from time to time. How about you check out his room, remember what he was like?”

“You’re right!” Keir said. “I’m gonna hang out with Stangley one last time before I let him go forever. Thanks, Russ, you’re a true friend.” With all said and done, Keir put his towel around his neck and ran out across the field in the same direction Rof headed out to.

“Now, I can finally meet up with the two bastards.” Russ said, looking after Keir.

He walked over to the row of bushes where he was supposed to meet them and saw a figure leaning against a tree in the forest behind it.

“Clever,” he said to himself, “this way I don’t see both of them at first glance.” He made his way around the row of bushes to meet his would-be extortionists. “I’m sure once I talk to them, we can all get along.”

He came from the side of the tree so only saw the arm at first glance. He decided to take it upon himself to surprise his unknown enemy and grab him by the arm. As he did so, he noticed the arm was cold and yanked the body.

To his utter horror, the body flew away from the tree and fell to the ground, it’s neck completely turned around. Russ had to struggle not to scream in horror and took another glance at the man.

He was a guard that Russ had seen around the grounds many times before. Another one of the young ones, like Rof. Possibly could have been a friend of the kid, Russ really didn’t know. Either way, the guy was dead, and he hadn’t been dead for long. His body was cold, but he still smelled, which meant that it couldn’t have been more than three days.

Russ felt the guys neck to see the bruise left by his attacker, thinking the guy might have just fallen out of the tree and landed in that position, although in the back of his mind Russ knew this was not possible. He wasn’t listening to his brain though, he needed to know what happened to this man. He turned him over and felt his neck for the number of breaks in it.

To his horror, whoever killed this particular man was either incredibly skilled at killing, incredibly strong or both because the neck wasn’t connected in one place. Russ dropped the guy back down on his face. He stood up and wiped the dirt off his pants.

That’s the point where Russ gained the worst realization of his life. Not only was he last seen near the scene of the crime, but his finger prints were all over the guy’s hands and his neck.

“This is bad!” Russ yelled, not paying attention to whether or not there was someone watching or listening to him. “This is really bad!”

He remembered that there was a pond a little south of there. Maybe he could fix this problem of his, too. Surely not many dermians actually knew who this guy was. And a dermian was free to go whenever they wanted to, without anyone hassling them about it.

As quickly and quietly as he could, Russ set out to cover up yet another death that he had walked in on at the wrong place and the wrong time. It never occurred to him that it was just coincidence. He was convinced that Black and Scarlet, whoever they were, were not only trying to extort him, they were trying to frame him, too.

After his job was done, Russ ran back to his apartment, sending a telepathic message to Jr.

Jr. You still in my room? He asked of his friend.

Yeah. Replied Jr. Russ knew that his friend wasn’t gone, but needed to make sure. Why? Did you meet the two people who threatened to turn you over?

Russ did not answer at first. He just kept running, turning here and there.

Russ? Jr. asked a second time, wondering if the connection was lost.

We have a problem.... Russ said simply. He could have sworn that he heard Jr. groan.

He ran all the way back to his room unseen. This was probably a good thing because he had blood and feces all over his hands and clothes from dealing with the dead body earlier. It never occurred to him to wash it all off.


At about the time Russ revealed to Jr. that they had a problem, Kipp and Blake showed up to the meeting place. They wanted to get there before Russ did, just to write something in the dirt and carve stuff in the tree. They were having the time of their lives screwing with him and they were going to keep doing it as long as it worked.

As they got to the tree behind the bushes that they were gonna carve into, they noticed a body lying on the ground.

Blake quickly bent down to check the guy’s pulse. This was not necessary because the guy’s head was backwards.

“He’s dead.” Blake said, also unnecessarily.

“I can see that.” Kipp retorted.

“We have to tell someone!” Blake said in a panic. “We have to tell Dad! This guy hasn’t been dead for very long!”

“Shut up, Blake!” Kipp yelled. “We’ll tell Dad, okay? In fact, let’s go now. I feel creepy just standing here for some reason.”

“Gee, maybe it’s the dead body.” Blake said sarcastically.

“No, it’s not that!” Kipp yelled. “Something wrong happened here....”

“You mean other than someone being murdered?” Blake said, again sarcastic.

“Let’s just go!” Kipp said, starting to get angry at his nervous brother. Without another word, they quickly sought out their father to break the news to him.

Darik Jr. was dead.

[JAGuar]

“Are you awake?” Came a voice from outside of Furbal’s window. He turned his head to see that his alarm clock said 12:27 pm. He couldn’t believe that he’d been asleep for so long. He turned towards the window and the sound of the voice.

“Depends,” he said, sitting up on his bed, “who’s asking?” Furbal had a slender, sinewy build. His muscles were well-toned to his body, making him look like the soccer player he was. His build was probably inch for inch exactly like his father’s all those years ago. He got up and opened his window to see Boxer.

“Who do you think?” Boxer asked, looking into his best friend’s face.

“Come on in.” Furbal said, motioning for his companion to climb in through his window.

“Generally people come in through the door.” Boxer pointed out.

“Well yeah, but my dad is asleep.” Furbal answered. He again motioned to Boxer to climb in through the window.

This time, Boxer did as was bid and climbed through the window. Furbal looked at his friend and noticed how big he was for a kid that was only ten years old.

“What’s up?” Furbal asked, helping his friend up. Boxer noticed Furbal’s polka dot boxers and started to laugh. Furbal also noticed and hit Boxer in the back of the head. “Shut up! It’s laundry day.”

“It’s Wednesday!” Boxer said, rolling on the floor laughing. Furbal took his cue and pulled on some jeans.

“Now, what the hell do you want?” He asked.

Boxer looked around, making sure that no one was listening in. Furbal made a mental note of how dumb this was, a thunder storm wouldn’t wake up his dad.

“Okay, here’s what’s going on.” Boxer said. Again he listened for any footsteps that might be coming. “Apparently Russ killed Stangley and tried to get us in trouble to cover it up. However, my brothers have found out that he’s plotting to destroy the Center and now they’re gonna screw around with him a bit. They told us to leave things be and to just sit back until everything was said and done, but I’ve got another idea.”

“What’s that?” Furbal asked, suddenly intrigued at the idea of possible revenge.

“We throw ourselves in there!” Boxer said, sitting at Furbal’s computer. “We fight! Kipp and Blake are just having fun with him, leading him around on a chain, but we can actually do something.”

“Why?” Furbal asked.

“Do you have to ask?” Boxer said, nearly falling out of the computer chair. “First of all, he’s killing people, Furbal. Killing people! Then he tries to get us in trouble for doing something that any kid would do! He’s putting way too much thought and planning into this to just want to destroy the Center. He wants something else.”

“You’re extremely paranoid.” Furbal said.

“No, I’m not.” Boxer argued, picking up a baseball and tossing it up and catching it as it came back down.

“Okay then, what does he want to do?” Furbal asked, calling for the ball. Boxer passed it over to him and Furbal started tossing it up and down.

“I don’t know,” Boxer started, leaning back in the chair, “maybe he’s just trying to kill us. Maybe he’s trying to kill our fathers. Maybe he just wanted to kill a few random people.”

“You’re right,” Furbal said, “this guy’s a murderer. We’d be doing a civil service to stop him. Even if we got in trouble ourselves. I think him killing people is much worse than us training in a concealed room.”

Boxer nodded in agreement. Furbal tossed him the baseball and Boxer shot back to an upright sitting position as fast as he could to catch the oncoming ball. He kept the slow pattern of throwing the ball up and catching it as it came down going.

“So what are we doing?” Furbal asked, putting on a training jersey.

“I just have one question to ask you.” Boxer said, putting the baseball down on the computer desk.

“What’s that?” Furbal asked, putting on his tennis shoes.

“Have you seen Darik Jr.?”

“No,” Furbal answered slowly, standing up and stretching his arms, “I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning.”

“That’s strange.” Boxer pointed out.

“You better believe it,” Furbal said, sitting back down, “he was on guard duty yesterday. It must be nice to be a thirteen year old, 6'3 kid. It makes him look much older than what he really is. It also makes him much tougher than other thirteen year olds. Namely me.”

“Forget about that!” Boxer interrupted Furbal. “We have to figure out what happened to him.” With his part said and done, Boxer jumped out the window, hitting his arm on a tree. Furbal cringed at the sound of his friend screaming in pain.

“Stupid little...” Furbal muttered, jumping out the window after his buddy, easily avoiding the tree.

When Furbal landed, he straightened up, dusted himself off and helped Boxer up off the ground. With just a slow head shake by Furbal they both turned and started to run towards the Security office.

[JAGuar]

Keir was working at his desk that was sitting catty-cornered from Rer’s when the door opened and Darik stormed in. Quickly, he headed towards Keir’s desk and pounded both his fists onto the surface of it.

“Where’s my son, Keir?” Darik asked. Keir slowly rose his head. He had no idea what was going on.

“You can’t find your son?” He asked, startled.

“No!” Darik shouted. “And the last person who saw him was you!”

“Me?” Keir asked, thinking back to yesterday morning. “I haven’t seen him in over 24 hours. He came here and punched in then he went to patrol the grounds. I haven’t seen him since. I was training Rof yesterday.”

“Oh, it’s always about that stupid little shit, isn’t it?” Darik shouted. “Every time I talk to you, it’s always “I was with Rof” or “Rof needed help.” Well, that’s not a good enough excuse anymore!” He shouted, again pounding on Keir’s desk.

“Settle down, big man.” Keir said slowly, standing up.

“Don’t you tell me to settle down!” Darik shouted. “Would you settle down if one of your boys was missing, possible dead? And don’t say you would, because I know you wouldn’t. You’d have less restraint than me. I know, because I’ve seen you in that situation before.”

Keir quickly recalled the time that Boxer nearly died in child birth and couldn’t help but get a twinge of anger at the thought of it. He slowly nodded in agreement.

“So, what do you want me to do about it?” Keir asked.

“I want to search for my boy.” Darik answered.

“Okay, we’ll search for Darik Jr.” Keir said, picking up the phone. He punched a number and made an announcement. “To all Security faculty out there,” he started, “I want to tell you to make sure that you look for Darik Jr. He came into work yesterday and no one has seen him since he set out on his rounds.”

Keir hung up the phone and turned towards Darik.

“That’s the best I can do, man.” He said, still looking at Darik.

“Thank you, Keir.” Darik said, sitting down.

“I’m sure he’s fine.” Keir said, trying to settle his big friend down.

At that moment, the worst thing that could possibly happen had happened. Blake and Kipp came running into their dad’s office. They did not notice Darik in their haste.

“Dad! Bad news!” Blake shouted, breathing heavily.

“What happened, Blake?” Keir asked, a little terrified.

“It’s-it’s-it’s...” But it was all in vain. Blake was too out of breath. Kipp, much more used to running long distances took over for him.

“It’s Darik Jr.” He answered.

“What happened?” Darik asked, straightening up at the sound of his son’s name.

“....He’s dead.” Kipp barely choked out. It wasn’t from fatigue. It was from the realization of how Darik was gonna react to the statement. He worried Darik might get angry and take his anger out on everyone in the room.

Darik did no such thing, though. Instead, he turned towards the door and ran towards it. He didn’t stop to open it, instead he ran right through it, not slowing down a bit. The three in the room were shocked at Darik’s strength. They felt sorry for the man who killed his son.

Keir and his two sons all looked at each other. In silent agreement, they all chased after the large body of Darik who happened to not turn at all in his anger. Nothing was gonna stop him. They saw him run right through a building even.

Kipp again worried about the fate of whoever killed Darik Jr. That guy was gonna get the worst wrath known to man or dermian on this planet.


It had taken a full 20 minutes for Keir, Blake, Kipp and 3 Center guards to pull the raging Darik off of his son long enough for him to settle down. Once he took a couple of breaths, he calmed himself and started crying uncontrollably.

“Darik,” Keir started hesitantly, “what can I say? I’m sorry. I never suspected this would happen.”

At first he thought that Darik wouldn’t say anything. He was proven wrong as Darik decided to speak up.

“All right!” He shouted at the guards. “Who did this? Did any of you see who did this?”

The three guards shook their heads in answer. This only further infuriated Darik. He punched a whole through a nearby tree.

“Darik!” Keir shouted to stop his friend before he caused irreparable damage. “Stop this! You may have lost a son, but you still have a wife and a daughter to worry about! You can’t let them down!”

“What do you know?” Darik argued with Keir. This had caused Keir’s eyes to widen in shock. “You’ve never lost a son.”

“I lost Boxer....” Keir replied coldly.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Darik started, staring straight at Keir’s eyes, “your son that you’d never seen before died before you had a chance to see him.”

He looked away from Keir and Keir did the same. Keir had to grudgingly admit that Darik did have a point.

“That must have been so hard on you,” Darik continued, “to lose a son that you didn’t even know. And here must have been the hardest part. He came back to life! Well, that just must suck! I’ve known my son for 13 years, and I know that one child isn’t better than another, but you’re acting like this isn’t a big loss.”

“That’s not what I’m acting like.” Keir argued.

Darik went on, as if Keir weren’t even there. “And why should we question you? You’re the savior, right? You’re the chosen one, right? Hell, you’re so holy that when people you love die, they come back to life! Gee, why can’t Rer or I have that type of luxury?”

This was going too far, Keir was not going to listen to his friend’s rant anymore.

“How dare you?” He screamed back, looking at Darik. “I lost my mother and father in a car accident! You think that my cousin turning evil and denouncing all things that lives isn’t losing him? You think that my best friend becoming my worst enemy isn’t losing him forever, too?”

“But you still see them, don’t you?” Darik asked. “You still see your cousin and your best friend. You know, even your best friend’s brother left, he isn’t coming back. Ace died too. Everyone’s dying, Keir. That is, everyone except your family for some peculiar reason.”

Keir was really over the top now. He was about to burst.

“What the hell are you two fighting about?” Kipp yelled at the two full grown men who were much bigger than him. Such a retort from a teenage kid had startled both of them out of their anger. “There’s no reason for this! You’re not enemies, you’re friends, dammit! All I know is something’s going on here at the Center, meaning this is probably an inside job. First Stangley dies of a heart attack after talking to Russ....” Kipp trailed off, thinking that it may have been his fault that his buddy was dead.

“There generally has to be a second for their to be a first, kiddo.” Keir said. Kipp’s scolding had settled the two men down enough to make them forget about everything. Keir turned to the three guards. “Grab him. Take him to the burial ground with Stangley.”

The three guards hesitated at their orders. Keir again ordered them to pick up the body and carry it to the burial area.

“We can’t.” The one on the left said to Keir.

“And why not?” Keir asked, annoyed.

“There is no burial area.” The guard in the middle croaked in a high pitched tone.

“What?” Keir screamed in disbelief.

“Stangley’s followers wont let us bury him.” The guard on the right answered slowly, realizing it was his turn to walk the gauntlet.

“And why not?” Keir asked.

The three guards looked from one another nervously. Finally the guard on the left spoke up.

“Apparently they don’t want Stangley to be buried in an area of ground that’s under the rule of Rer. They said they would only allow him to be buried if you were the leader. It was in his will apparently.”

“Oh, that’s just great!” Keir said, kicking the ground in anger.

“I’ll carry him.” Darik said.

“Are you sure?” Keir asked.

“I’ll carry him.” Darik repeated, this time staring at Keir. Keir nodded his head. Without a word, Darik bent down, picked up his son and headed back towards the Center.

“Great!” Keir said after Darik was out of sight. “Rer takes the day off, Darik Jr. is killed by God only knows who, you two think Russ is evil, we can’t bury Stangley and Darik and I nearly killed each other! What else could possibly go wrong.”

Keir looked over to see Darik carrying his boy, but to his dismay he did not see his gigantic friend. Instead, he saw Garret running towards him.

“Now what?” He asked his two sons. They both shrugged their shoulders. He saw the three guards also shrug their shoulders for no reason and had to stifle a moan. Finally Garret had reached them.

“We got a problem, Keir!” He said, out of breath.

“What is it?” Keir asked, not totally wanting to know the answer to his question.

“There are two rebel fighter dermians at the door,” Garret started, “they claim that they want to talk to you.”

“Who are they?” Keir asked.

“They wouldn’t say,” Garret answered as if he knew Keir would ask him that question, “but they say that they know you.”

“Well they obviously know me if they know my name.” Keir said to no one in particular. He looked at his sons and in silent agreement, he and Garret set off for the Center.

“I hope this isn’t bad news....” Keir said to himself.

[JAGuar]

Keir did not have to hope for not having bad news because he knew once he got closer to the door that it was gonna be bad news. Very bad news.

“Hey...” Keir said slowly, looking at two figures.

There was a boy and a girl, they looked like they may be brother and sister. Keir figured they were probably twins because of how much alike they actually looked. The boy was tall, about 6'5 and looked in moderately good shape. He had a fighter’s body, Keir noticed. The girl also had a fighter’s body, but she was much shorter than her brother. She was only about 5'8 or 5'9. They both had sandy brown, messy hair and aqua green eyes.

“Hello, Keir.” The boy said in a voice that seemed too old for the body.

“We need to talk to you.” The girl said in a fairly gruff voice.

“Who are you?” Keir asked, interested in any answer he could get.

“We can tell you about that later.” The girl had answered.

“Right now we need to talk to you.” The boy said, seriously.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Keir said, motioning for the “twins” to walk in. They stepped into the great hall that Onil had stepped in not too long ago with news that more trainers would come and take his place as leaders of the Center. Keir hoped that this was not the case because these two looked like kids, maybe 17 years old.

“Do you have a private room we can talk securely in?” The girl asked.

“Sure, follow me.” Keir answered, starting up a spiral staircase. The twins followed his lead and went after him. He led them both through a long corridor with the pictures of the founding members on there. He saw the pictures of Ace and Sting Ray and felt a tug on his heart.

They came to the end of the hall and ran into two gigantic doors. Keir opened one of them and they all walked in. After making sure the twins were inside, Keir closed the door and sat down behind his desk.

“So, what’s so urgent?” Keir asked.

“We’re being chased.” The girl said.

“What?” Keir asked, not sure he heard correctly. “Chased? By who?”

“Maybe we should tell you our names first.” The boy said slowly. Keir spun his wrist in a motion telling the boy to hurry it up. “My name is Aon and my sister’s name is Tao.”

“Well at least we’re getting somewhere.” Keir said grumpily.

“Did we do something to offend you?” Tao asked.

“No,” Keir said quickly, “just been a bad day.” Aon and Tao nodded their heads in understanding.

“Continue, Aon.” Tao encouraged her brother.

“I guess I should tell you about our story before explaining our current situation.” Aon said, clarifying.

“That would probably be best.” Keir agreed.

“Well, when we were 10 years old, our parents were murdered.” Aon said gravely. This had caused Keir to cringe. For somebody to be so young, but to have to live with so much was just unheard of in his opinion. “After that, the murderer came after us.”

“You were chased by human SOLDIERS?” Keir interjected.

“No!” Tao answered, trying to get the idea out of his head. “They don’t bother us much, we’re talking about someone you know really well.”

“Who?” Keir asked, worried.

“One of your founding members,” Aon answered, then slowly, “Sting Ray.” This had caught Keir’s attention. This had to have been right after Sting Ray left the Dermian Center.

“Tell me everything.” Keir ordered. They both knew it wasn’t a request.


“Okay, here’s how it happened.” Aon said, looking around to make sure no one was listening. “Apparently Tao and I have a special type of power that very few possess. It’s probably only shown in twins, is what I’m guessing. Either way, we had it and we don’t even know what it is. Sting Ray claims that he needs us to save his planet.

“When he begged my mother to let him take us and she refused, he grew angry. Which is very rare, Sting Ray may be evil, but he hardly ever gets angry. He’s horrible when he’s angry. He destroyed our house while our father hid us away in a friend’s cabin. Our father went back to confront Sting Ray and was also killed.

“This time, the killer was not Sting Ray but some gypsy I had never heard of before. His name was Eispyg or something. Anyway, our father easily beat Sting Ray but Eispyg our father aflame and he died slowly and in a great amount of pain. Needless to say, they really wanted us.

“Somehow, after torturing enough citizens, Sting Ray and Eispyg found our parent’s friend’s house. We called him Uncle Buck, Tao and I. Anyway, they killed Buck after he refused to reveal where we were and burned down his house. Apparently there was someone protecting us because we were hiding in the bushes outside the burning house and heard Eispyg reveal to Sting Ray that he could no longer “feel our presence.”

“Knowing that they thought we were dead, we knew that we could no longer live in society, so we went out on to living on the street. Apparently, since we had been killed, Eispyg was angry at Sting Ray and nearly killed him. Sting Ray barely got out of the situation alive, but we didn’t really care. He killed our mother.

“Since they now thought we were dead, we decided to start a rebel group to defend ourselves against what was now our biggest threat, the human SOLDIERS. For the last 6 years, we’ve been leading around a group called The Street Gang and been doing pretty well. Dermians are always coming and going, but none really die from SOLDIER hands or anything.

“Somehow, either Eispyg or Sting Ray has found out we’re still alive and that person is following us now. Whichever one it is, we don’t win. Eispyg wants to suck our powers out of us and then feed us to whatever demon he’ll call up and Sting Ray just wants to flat out kill us. Either way, we die.

“That’s when we heard from a reliable source that you had made an alliance with a small band of human SOLDIERS that have seen the light. We decided to seek your help. However, there are very few Street Gang members left, thanks to current killing rates. I’m guessing that Sting Ray gave our whereabouts to the SOLDIERS and it would fit his profile, since he’s done it once before.”

Keir recalled this memory all too vividly and none too fondly. He then motioned for Aon to wrap it up.

“So, we headed out here. Along the way, we accidentally made another enemy. Your cousin, Vark, he realized that he could use our hidden powers to boost his. So now, we have nowhere left to hide, because with the SOLDIERS wanting to destroy us, Vark and Eispyg wanting to steal our powers and Sting Ray wanting us for some unknown reason, we know that we’re in a lot of trouble.” Keir nodded in agreement.

“We also figured that if all these people were after us, then the Triple E’s would be after us as well.” Tao explained.

“Why would you think that?” Keir said. “What makes you even think the Triple E’s know about you two?”

“They know Eispyg.” Tao said simply. It seemed to Keir that Aon was done explaining things for now.

“How?” Keir pressed.

“Also along our travels, we came across an unbearable site,” Tao started, “we saw Eispyg and the Triple E’s performing a ritual....A “rebirth ritual.”

“What the hell’s a “rebirth ritual?” Keir asked.

“Exactly what it sounds like.” Aon said sourly.

Keir still did not understand exactly what they were saying, he was still shocked that these two powerful forces could possibly know each other.

“It means that they were bringing someone back to life.” Tao explained helpfully.

This caused Keir to actually fall out of his chair from the pure shock of it all. When he got back up, he noticed that the twins weren’t laughing. They realized the importance of the situation.

“Excuse me for asking,” Keir started, perturbed, “but do you know who they were bringing back to life?”

“Droech....” Tao answered with little hesitation. Even in his heightened sense of shock, Keir still had enough sense to realize that these two had probably rehearsed this whole thing before coming here.

They just sat like that for a while, two kids staring at a battle-hardened veteran and vice versa. All of a sudden, Keir spoke up.

“Is that all that’s going on? Or is there someone else we have to protect you two from?”

“No, I think you’re cool.” Tao said helpfully.

Again there was a long pause until finally Keir leaned back in his chair.

“Well...this is bad.” He said, looking at the two kids.

[JAGuar]

I'm just gonna post my story up to this point, so bear with me, because I'm like 12 pages behind.
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“I leave you alone for one day!” Rer shouted as he and Keir walked on the training grounds, watching T-bone train Rof. “One day! And all Hell breaks lose! No wonder Russ put me in charge!”

Keir stopped and turned to his best friend.

“Oh yeah, blame me!” Keir retorted. “It was all my fault that things fell into place! And stop worshiping Russ for Christ’s Sake! He’s probably the one behind it!” Now Rer could not believe what he was hearing.

“Russ?” He asked, unbelievably. “The doctor? He wouldn’t hurt any of us. Russ is one of us. He’s in just as far as we are. How much do you think he likes being blamed for everything?”

“All I know is that both people that died were associated with him.” Keir said.

“They were also both associated with you....” Rer pointed out. Keir had to admit that Rer had a point. A very good point.

“That’s true,” Keir admitted, “but I still feel that he’s behind this somehow.”

“Of course!” Rer said sarcastically. “It’s all a great big conspiracy against us, isn’t it Keir? You know, sometimes I wonder which side you’re fighting for.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Keir asked.

“Nothing!” Rer defended himself. Then thinking to himself he decided to add. “Everything. It’s just...you’re a dermian, right?”

“Yeah.” Keir said, curious as to where this was going.

“Okay,” Rer acknowledged, still thinking of a way to phrase his point, “we’re at war against the humans, right?”

“....Yeah.” Keir answered after realizing Rer wanted an answer.

“Then why the hell does it seem like you’re always fighting for the humans and against the dermians?” Rer said, hitting his point.

“I don’t think I understand.” Keir said slowly.

“If something bad happens and we blame a human for it, you protect him. For example, T-bone. But you always turn around and blame any dermian that happens to cross your mind at the time. And you don’t even blame people worth blaming. If I were to blame dermians, I’d blame Engzom or Vark. Not Russ, he’s a freaking doctor!”

“I’m just saying, I haven’t fully trusted him from the beginning.” Keir replied. Rer wasn’t listening.

“I don’t care, Keir.” He said, sitting down on the same log that Russ was sitting on the other day. “This is a group, a team. If you want to be on that team, you’re gonna have to play nice with everybody, even the ones you don’t like.”

“It’s not a question of like!” Keir retorted. “I don’t trust him.”

“Well, you’d better suck it up.” Rer said simply.

“Fine,” Keir said, “after all you’re the leader, right?”

“Right.” Rer said, no humor in his voice.

“So are we gonna let Aon and Tao stay with us or not?” Keir asked Rer, sitting down next to him on the log.

“I’m gonna leave this one up to you, Keir.” Rer said softly.

“What?” Keir argued. “Are you out of your mind? You just gave me that speech about how you’re in charge and I’m not. Now, you’re gonna turn around and put me in charge when something important happens?”

“Fine!” Rer said. “It’s my choice. I choose to let them stay! But not because of you, I’m just looking forward to fighting whoever wants to come after us.”

“That’s all you’re in it for, isn’t it?” Keir asked unbelievably. “For the god damn fight! News flash! We’re losing warrior after warrior and they’re gaining more and more fighters. The difference is getting noticeably overwhelming.”

“We just got three new fighters.” Rer pointed out.

“Yeah! But they’re trainees. They’re kids!”

“We were kids once, too.” Rer argued.

“That may be so, but we were more experienced.”

“How do you figure?” Rer asked. “If watching your parents and a family friend die in front of you or seeing your best friends dead, cold body lying on the floor of his apartment, all but forgotten isn’t enough to make you “experienced” then I don’t know what is.”

“Now, what are we gonna do about Stangley?” Keir pressed.

“You’ll just have to convince his followers to let us bury him.” He stopped and looked at his friend. Keir looked like he was about to blow again so Rer explained. “You’ll have to take this one, Keir. They’re you’re followers, they’ll listen to me. If I try to convince them, then they’re gonna just shrug me off and turn their shoulders, thinking I’m just trying to make myself look better. Plus, he named you his beneficiary in his will.” Keir’s eyes widened at this.

“Will?” He asked. “I didn’t know he had a will.”

“Yeah,” Rer said, not as excitedly, “and get this. He wants to give $57,000,000 to the Center.”

“Well that’s great!” Keir said, all problems forgotten in his excitement. Finally something good had happened for him.

“There’s a catch,” Rer said, waiting for Keir to settle down, “I have to give power over to you.” This caused Keir to forget his excitement. He looked at Rer and Rer looked at his own hands.

“So, what are you gonna do?” He asked after a long hesitation.

“I’m gonna give it to you.” Rer said, scratching his nose and looking at the clouds. “What else can I do? You know as well as I do how much money the Center needs.”

“Is that why...?” Keir left his question unfinished.

“....Yeah....” Rer said slowly. “That’s why.”

“Well, I think it’s time to go meet with Aon and Tao.” Keir said after the two sat, staring at each other for what seemed like the longest time. Keir stood up and waited for his friend.

“Okay,” Rer said, getting up. And suddenly, “hold on a second. What’s this?” Rer reached into a knot in the log and felt around for something that Keir could not see.

Keir waited patiently for his friend to find the item he was looking for so they could go meet with the twins. Rer finally got a grip on the item and slowly pulled it out, making sure not to drop it back in. It looked to Keir like a shot needle.

“What the hell do you think this is?” Rer asked.

“It looks like a needle.” Keir revealed.

“Or a syringe....” Rer added. “Whose do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.” Keir lied. In truth, he suspected it was Russ’s needle from the second he saw it, but he didn’t want to throw this evidence away as well.

“Well,” Rer said, holding the needle out, “you’re the security chief, so I’ll let you investigate.”

“I’ll do my best.” Keir said, feeling false.

To Keir the clues were just starting to add up. Russ attacked his children, was waiting by the training field, hardly around the common halls anymore, meeting with people who die moments later and now apparently he was carrying weapons around. Keir didn’t just suspect it was a syringe like Rer said, he knew for a fact that it was. He was pretty sure that Russ was gonna use it on Darik Jr.

But if Russ used it to kill Darik Jr., Keir thought to himself, then why the hell is it over here?

Keir looked at his friend who was watching T-bone knock Rof to the ground.

Unless that is, he thought to himself, if he was meaning to kill Darik Jr. but someone beat him to the punch. But who would kill Darik Jr.? No one here has a real reason to do it. Then again, I never would have thought Russ had a reason before either. Things are going crazy lately.

“Let’s go!” Keir said, breaking out of his thoughts. “It’s getting chilly out here.”

“Okay.” Rer said.

They both turned towards the Main Building and headed out for the meeting hall. Keir hoped that nothing too bad would happen between Rer and the twins.