The next thing Jai knew she was slammed against a wall and held there as a legion of those four-armed aliens flew past, also completely missing the shadowed opening to the offshoot hallway. After they had past, the arm lessened its pressure on keeping Jai still as she took that opportunity to seize the arm pivot her hips to power her throw and slam whoever was attached to the arm against the wall and put them in a wrist-lock. After the person let out a yelp, she came to her senses and realized that the person before her was none other than the guy she rescued earlier from the hanging cage.

«Do you always greet people like this?» he managed weakly as he tried to look at her over his shoulder.

«You! What the hell are you doing here?» she hissed back.

He sighed and whispered, «I came to repay the favor you've done for me. I thought you could use the help. And it looks to me like you do.»

Just as Jai was about to reply, S interrupted her, -Jai, they're coming. We have to get out of here.-

She didn't even need to ask who the «they» were as she herself could vaguely sense those undead things looking for something - most likely Jai and S - in the general area, and they were getting closer.

«Um, can I have my arm back now?» the man asked with an exasperated look on his face.

Jai growled, at no one in particular, and released the man's wrist. She backed off watching him warily, just as he did the same after turning around rubbing his maltreated wrist. Before Jai could say anything, another group of those aliens ran past in the opposite direction from before, as Jai and the man plastered themselves to the wall.

After they had past the man turned back towards Jai, «Looks like you've made some friends with the Shokan,» he said with a sly look on his face.

Jai ignored him as she picked up S and let him wrap himself around her neck, «We need to get out of here,» she finally responded after a moment.

«I wouldn't advise that right now,» the stranger took a tone that a teacher would if addressing an unruly student which quickly got on Jai's already frazzled nerves, «We're in Shokan territory and they know you're here. I'd just sit tight until things settle down again.»

Jai could feel S's hair start to stand on end as it brushed against her neck in doing so; the Nightmare couldn't disagree with the man more. Jai's mind quickly whirled through the options she had left to her as something finally dawned on her. She took off her pack from around her waist and started rummaging through it for something as the stranger noticed what she was doing and started to come over to her. She pulled out a small hand-sized object with a LED display and buttons on it as S purred in recognition of the detonation device. On their way down here, Jai had left little «presents» of C4 when ever they had stopped somewhere in the Tower long enough to do so. The last one she had laid down was now inside of the wall where the two alien guards were also trapped...

-How many are you going to detonate?- S asked.

-All of them,- Jai replied as she started punching in the detonation codes, -It will make it look like we're going to be attacking from everywhere at once.-

-Total confusion. I love it.- the Nightmare cat purred happily.

The stranger watched her in confusion as he finally asked, «What's that?»

With something finally going her way, Jai just winked at the man and said, «Cover your ears.»

And before he could say anything further, Jai'eesh hit the enter button on the detonator.

Rayden had just opened his mouth to ask the odd woman what the heck she had meant by, «Cover your ears» when his whole world was suddenly turned upside-down. He hit the floor as the blast deafened him as he saw flames and other debris fly past the narrow passageway's opening. The ground beneath him shook so violently that he feared that the whole tower was going to fall down right on top of him. Rubble fell from the ceiling as covered his head as best he could and tried to plaster himself against the wall for some protection. After the aftershocks died down, he tried to stand up and get his bearings again as he noticed the mysterious woman and her cat companion had taken off down the narrow passageway. He cursed as he struggled to his feet so he could purse them.

Even though he had no idea what the hell had just happened, but one thing was for sure as the woman had to be behind the blasts and he couldn't let her slip through his fingers again. Ears ringing loudly, he managed at least a sprint as he took off down the passageway after them. Racing through the halls he hoped he could catch up to her as she had defiantly proved to be the help he needed to get back the Earth Realm and the Elder Gods with that last stunt.

She must be desperate to do something like this, he thought, but how did she do it? I don't think even black powder could have caused that much destruction and I didn't sense her using any magic...

Snapping back to attention he skidded to a halt in front of where the hallway had split into two. He muttered annoyed as he tried to guess which one she may have went down. He thought he heard a noise from the hall on the right even though his head was still ringing and without a second thought he took off once more.

Unfortunately luck was not with the fallen God of Earth Realm as he ran right smack into a rather angry and bewildered Shokan. He and the four-armed giant stared at each other for a moment as Rayden finally decided to break the ice.

«You wouldn't have happened to have seen a young woman with long brown hair and a big gray cat come this way would you?»

Of course the Shokan just lunged at Rayden, as the God narrowly missed getting hit by all four arms coming at him as one. However this left the angry giant open for just a split second that Rayden didn't waste in delivering two solid elbow strikes on the Shokan's ribs before he got out of there. The monster bellowed in pain as Rayden swore he had either cracked one of its ribs or shattered his elbow. However, if it was injured it only seemed to spur it on instead of doing the reverse. That was the key to fighting and defeating Shokan in battle, getting inside their defenses, but the real trick was to avoid those arms as they were all extremely good at pounding things to death with them. Yet maybe luck was still with Rayden as he noticed the Shokan too bore signs of having been caught in one of the strange explosions; abrasions all over his body as well as the fact the creature was favoring one of it's legs very slightly.

While Rayden was also suffering from his ringing ears as well as a growing headache from being so close to the initial blast, he had the advantage of still being in relatively one piece without injury. On top of that, he was the smaller of the two, which gave him twice the room the Shokan had in maneuvering in the cramped passageway. Rayden ignored his headache and focused on the giant's favored right leg. Suddenly it was as if everything clicked as he saw the Shokan gather itself for another volley of attacks and feints with its still quite deadly arms, but it made the mistake of rocking forward on its left leg as it lunged for him.

His attention quickly returned to the Shokan's incoming attacks, but long enough for him to deftly avoid them once more so he could positions himself correctly for his attack. With it defenses compromised in having missed Rayden completely, the Shokan tried to regain its balance by shifting its weight back to its injured right leg as Rayden dropped into a crouch and connected with the inside of the Shokan's right knee with a sweeping left side kick. Rayden didn't dwell too long on the satisfying sound of the giant's knee shattering as he followed up with a solid punch to the creature's diaphragm with his right fist. The whole attack and counterattack lasted for just a split second as half a second later the Shokan crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Rayden jumped back to his feet in a defensive stance warily considering his fallen opponent making sure the Shokan was going to stay down as they had a bad habit of getting back up when you didn't want them to. Suddenly a bright, white light appeared from behind him as he twirled around ready to attack, but was instantly blinded by the intensity of the light for a moment before he put a hand up to block it from his eyes. The light did not mix well with his roaring headache as it resurfaced with a vengeance making it feel like a million tiny daggers were attacking his mind all at once. Trying to block the light and the pain he heard clapping begin as the light and sound of the clapping advance towards him.

As the light finally moved past him her recognized the shape of the odd woman emerged from the darkness. As his eyes readjusted themselves to the relative darkness of the passageway, he noticed the girl looking over the body of the fallen Shokan and then let out a low appreciative whistle for his work. That was also when he noticed that the blinding light was coming from what looked like a strange, long metal tube she was holding in her hand over her shoulder.

She then turned to him with an amused look on her face, «I see you've made friends with the Shokan.»

The joke wasn't lost on him as he shot a wry look of his own and asked, «So how long were you just going to stand there and watch?»

The woman just shrugged at him, «Didn't look like you needed any help to me.»

Rayden looked away for a moment as he noticed the large gray cat staring at him apparently awaiting his response with an odd human-like expression on its face. Disturbed by the cat's un-cat like actions he looked back at the woman and said, «And if I lost?»

«A very wise man once said, `I don't believe in if questions,'» She too regarded the cat for a moment, «A wise man that John DeLancie. He played Q on Star Trek you know and you don't argue with the omnipotent.»*

Omnipotent? Was she talking about a God? Was this Q the one who sent her? His mind whirled as he tried to figure out what she was talking about and valiantly tried to recall any God he knew by either name. Nothing rang a bell as he wondered who this new God could possibly be, but he decided now was not the time to ask her.

At the same instant he swore he saw the cat roll its eyes as if it was exasperated with what the woman had just said. He kept his gaze on the young woman but at the same time he watched the weird cat out of the corner of his eye. Finally the woman glanced at the cat, but only for a moment as he could almost feel something pass between them. Then it hit him as he realized what was going on. However before he could even ask the woman about it she looked back up at him and captured his attention so completely with those huge hazel-brown eyes of hers.

«So you want to come with us? I'm thinking in this place two are better than one.»

He quickly nodded in agreement, but then added slyly, «And three is better than two,» as he saw the cat's head whip around and its gaze narrow in suspicion of him confirming his fears about the creature.

The cat, still glaring at him, then just simply stood up and walked off almost disappearing into the shadows with its amazing gray coat. The woman just raised an eyebrow at him again.

«Very well. Let's go find someplace to rest first,» she then sighed, «I think we are both in dire need of some.»

Rayden nodded his approval and gestured for her to lead the way. She did, following where the cat had disappeared down the hall as he found himself wondering about who this strange woman was for the thousandth time since he first laid eyes on her. Glancing over his shoulder at her in deep thought, something caught his eye.

Suddenly forgetting himself as he pointed to the metal tube that was now extinguished; he just had to know, «What is that thing?»

Just to let you know, this isn't going to turn into some funky Star Trek crossover. Its just Jai'eesh is a huge Star Trek fan and of course being stuck 500 years in the past when the show hasn't even been invented yet no one but Mr. S knows what the heck she's talking about. Oh yeah, and if you haven't guessed yet, Mr. S is short for Mr. Spock which is the poor Nightmare's full name. He just keeps it short because he doesn't want to infringe on any copyrights... =~.^=

Author : WCC

Creation date: 2002-9-23-12-23

Modification date: 2003-9-14-17-33