[Okee, I organized a bit more, put titles and endings on 
everything, spellchecked, and now I'm tossing 'em. This is so I 
know where I've sent up to, and to publish the third seg.

Aris TGD]

I'm Still Standing
Aris Merquoni

--=_=--

o/~ I'm still standing, after all this time, pickin' up the 
pieces of my life without you on my mind... I'm still 
standing! o/~
                      - I'm Still Standing, Elton John
--=_=--

	It was nice to have a room again, one that I could call 
my own. A sort of luxury. A place where I could unpack and let my 
vast book collection take over the walls and flop onto my bed and 
read.
	Anyway, that's what I was doing in my room at VRDET HQ 
when Tangaloor Firefoot stepped out of midair carrying a 
suitcase. I looked up lazily. "That's getting to be a habit with 
you, isn't it?" I asked.
	He 'smiled'. Th-varians can take on hayuman gestures, and 
sometimes do, but a tailtwitch is just as eloquent as a facial 
twitch if you know what to look for. "I thought that you would be 
pleased that I brought this," he said, indicating the suitcase.
	I finally noticed the stenciled 'Magick supplies ONLY' 
on the side of the case. "Tee's stuff?"
	He nodded. "Take, take. I've been carrying this for too 
long."
	I took the black case and set it on my bed, then flipped 
it open. There, on top of a pile of black cloth, was a sword with 
a black scabbard and a black handle. I turned back to Firefoot. 
"Tanasha *really* has no creativity when it comes to colors, you 
know that?" I asked him.
	He rolled his eyes. "Flip it over," he suggested.
	I shrugged and did so, noting the trigger set into the 
hilt. The other side boasted a huge fire opal as a setting. I 
groaned. "Tee," I said aloud, "you *know* how I feel about 
ornamenting stuff!"
	That wasn't all. The hilt was covered in... "Bike 
handlebar grips. Creative, Tee." I sighed and pulled it out of 
the sheath and swung it a few times. It was light- probably 
Kai'iit Skysteel. The hilt was comfortable, I had to admit. And 
the whole thing was perfectly balanced. Other than that, nothing. 
It was pure tech, no trace of magical or psi fiddling. 
Refreshing.
	I turned back to the case after sheathing the sword. 
There was also a matching dagger, hayumanstile instead of 
Th-varian style, unfortunately. Underneath that was a unitard 
that had been enchanted with protection spells six ways from 
Sundae, and a "missing you" card. Just like Tanasha.
	I opened the card and read the note aloud. "'Heya, 
'Ristal...' Ooh, does that telepath ever learn? 'I heard that 
you're settling into your vacation well... glad to know that 
you've finally picked up on what entertainment is really about.'" 
I fixed Firefoot with a glare. "Can't you *do* something about 
her?"
	He shrugged eloquently. I grimaced and kept reading. 
"'There have been some interesting developments here... 
interesting in the Chinese sense.' Oh, great, Tee, what'd you do 
*this* time? Misfire a teleport and send someone on an unwilling 
Continuum tour? 'My teleport misfired and sent Matt, Chris, and 
Niel spinning around the Continuum... causing havoc. DTA HQ's on 
my butt for that one, let me tell you.'" I looked up at Firefoot, 
who was trying to contain his laughter. "Not funny."
	I sighed. "'Anyway, enjoy the goodies, and tell Firefoot 
that the dare is a go-' What dare?" I looked up in time to see 
him flick his claws out at me, and then the world spun. I 
flopped onto my bed ungracefully, sending my copy of 'Sun-
Runner's Fire' crashing to the floor.
	I groaned and sat up, sending a glance at my fallen book. 
"You fool! You made me loose my place!" I groused, picking up the 
book and making a futile effort to seek for my page in the 470-
page-thick novel. Something prickled at the back of my mind, and 
I stopped, then turned around.
	Firefoot was grinning at me. I glared. "Okay, *that* was 
not nice," I said. "Hit the 'undo' command *right* now and I 
might spare you."
	He shrugged. "The spell will wear off in due time," he 
said.
	"Or if I go into a magicless region."
	"I don't know of any around here- and that wouldn't 
work, anyway."
	"By your *father*, Harar Goldeneye, what possessed you to 
do that?" I growled. "I'm stuck, in *hayumanform* no less, by one 
of your spells! AND I DON'T EVEN HAVE CLAWS!! YOU MIGHT HAVE 
GIVEN ME *THAT!*" I growled, energy spent for the moment.
	He lowered his eyelids until I could only see a slit of 
his strangely, at least for a Th-varian, gold-colored eyes. "You 
are one of the privileged few, Aristalarus, who I choose to let 
tradition slide with. So far I have not regretted my decision."
	"And you're not going to regret it soon- I'm still your 
main supplier of computer jokes this side of Chaos." I grinned as 
he stared at me, then collapsed in a fit of laughter.
	He wiped his eyes with the back of one paw. "True, 
true... I won't regret my waiving of formalities, if only for the 
computer jokes." He looked up eagerly. "Do you have any new 
ones?"
	"Uhh..." I was on the spot. "Err, Microsoft just 
announced an end to aggressive marketing practices?" I shrugged.
	He rolled his eyes. "All right, all right." he turned to 
go, then turned back. "You were on page 261, third paragraph, 
Rohan's convincing Sioned that Pol is still her son, no matter 
who the mother was."
	I blinked as he faded out, then turned to spy the book 
on my bed. "Oh, yeah." I shook my head. "It's nice to have 
friends in high places." I flopped back on the bed and picked up 
the book again, focusing my eyes on the words.
	Five minutes later, tired of reading the same two lines 
while my brain did flip-flops, I sighed and set the book down. 
Rolling onto my back, I pulled out my CD player, plugged it in, 
grabbed a random CD and made sure that soundproofing was active. 
After taking these precautions, I hit 'random-repeat-play' in 
that order and prepared to wince at a big glob of musical self-
inflicted irony.
	I was inflicted with "The Rum Tum Tugger" from Cats for 
a while, until I couldn't take it anymore and grabbed a different 
CD. Then I flipped through the Eagles, Les Mis, Phantom, Elton 
John, Hackers, Barbara Striesand, Newsies, and Weird Al before 
finally settling back on a Dance Mix and practicing handstands 
and leaps in the empty floorspace. After that I was tired enough 
to settle back on Elton John, "It's Easier To Walk Away."
	I think I fell asleep, because the next thing that I 
remembered was a horrid squealing noise right in my ear. I 
leaped up and whirled, hitting the CD player. The contraption 
hit the ground and the CD shot out like a piece of toast out of 
a toaster, embedding itself into the ceiling. The CD player 
burst spectacularly into flame.
	"Burn!" I exclaimed. "That was one of my favorite CDs, 
too!" I grumbled as I poked at the smoking CD player, and then 
reached up to grab the CD. "At least it wasn't Les Mis... Burn!" 
I yelped and shoved my fingers into my mouth, trying to cool 
them, and glared at the smoldering CD.
	The door hissed open and I whirled again. I tripped over 
the wreck of the CD player, spun around, and landed back on the 
bed, nearly biting my fingers off in surprise. "BURN!!" I yelled 
for the third time, and turned- to cut myself on my newly 
acquired sword.
	"Grahh! That's it!" I grabbed the sword, spun it around 
my head, and embedded it in the wreck of the CD player. This 
caused the remaining bits to explode, several of the smaller 
pieces flying about the room. One of them hit the CD in the 
ceiling, and it shuddered, then fell.
	I must have earned a break- the falling CD did *not* hit 
me. It fell, instead, on the guy who had entered the room, one of 
my orderlies. He yelped as the CD singed his hair, then tried 
unsuccessfully to bat the thing off of his head.
	I had recovered by this time, enough to snatch the 
burning thing and run to the sink. I ran cold water over it, then 
turned to a blank spot in the ceiling. "Okay, *someone's* got a 
*lot* of explaining to do! PHYSICAL HUMOR IS NOT THAT FUNNY!!"
	I didn't get an answer, so I went out to see the orderly, 
whose name was George Fink, gingerly prodding the wreck of the CD 
player with his foot. I sighed, pulled the sword out of the 
floor, and sheathed it. "Okay, what's up?" I asked.
	He blinked a few times, glancing from me to the melted 
plastic on the floor to me again. "Uh, sir, I, uh..."
	I shrugged. "Had a CD on infinite repeat for..." I 
glanced at the clock, "ten hours. What's up?"
	He gibbered for a few more seconds, then pulled himself 
together. "Katze... High Councillor Katze's been kidnapped by 
the Lyrans-"
	"WHAT?!?" I yelled, startled. "Howthehelldidthathappen
thatcouldn'thavehappenedshe'sthemostprotectedpersonthiss
ideofchaosandit'simpossibletogetpastthesecurity-" I saw George 
looking at me blankly and belatedly realized that I was yelling 
in Th-varian. "Ri'larr'charr- uh, er, how?! When?! Never mind 
that, what do we do about it?!"
	He shivered. "I was told to tell you to go to briefing 
room 7-S..."
	I nodded. "Great. I'll be there." He nodded again and 
darted out the door. I shut and locked it before changing into 
the unitard and strapping on the sword. Pulling my hair into a 
ponytail, I took one last glance at the mirror. "Great, I look 
like Sonya Blade with brown hair and a sword. Great sense of 
humor, Tee, really great." I turned, and the scabbard hit the 
suitcase that Firefoot had left.
	Three tiny circles of gold flew out of the top of the 
case and bounced on the floor as I cursed my clumsiness. Curious, 
I scooped them into my hand and then shoved them into my 
backpack. I'd look at them later.
	Darting out the door, I headed for the briefing room.

--=_End_=--