Operation Pacifica: Epiphanies "We have not yet lost this war, but we are overdrawn on the Bank of Miracles." -- W.J. Brown CHARN-EL'S TOWER, PACIFICA ISLAND TIME UNKNOWN DAY TWELVE OF OPERATION PACIFICA "Well, what have we here?" a Wyrm-Minion sublieutenant asked as she and her squad of Sponges aimed their rifles at the slightly out-of-breath form of Slider. Slider could have responded with "I am da law!", "I'm Batman!", or "Yer wurst nitemare," but he settled for "Da only git dat'll be walkin' outta dis room." "Sure," the Wyrm-Minion said. "You won't live long enough to walk three steps! Fire on my mark!" The Sponge-Minions heard the word "fire" and did just that, sending a hail of bullets at Slider which he barely managed to avoid by throwing himself to the ground. "Aw, shit!" he yelled, rolling on toward a wall while reaching for his ER PPC. Suddenly, everything turned blue... ... When Slider could make out distinct shapes again, he saw a strange sight indeed. He stood in a room about fifteen feet square, with the floor arranged like a chessboard in alternating ivory and ebony squares, which in turn was smeared with a lot of blood. Also in the room was not only the Albino, but Windigo, Shardik, Hanover, DarkSide (what was *HE* doing here?), Jace, the bedraggled forms of Deadlock and Blackblood, and a few more dead thanatins. Already, Windigo and Shardik were blinking, and wondering why they weren't dead yet. Hanover and DarkSide looked about as confused as Slider was, while Deadlock and Blackblood did their best to clean the dried blood off themselves, wearing expressions usually found on people who just found out they had eaten a baby or three. This was not good. The Albino motioned for silence as he relieved Deadlock of the Barney-Slayer like a parent taking a toy out of a sleepy child's grasp. Gingerly handling it as he drew it forth, he intoned, "This was an unholy act brought about by the trickery of Charn'El. No more..." "Never again shall my adopted children raise Claws against each other," the Albino said as he regarded his reflection in the blade. And then recognition hit Slider. 'That git Charnie tricked DL and Sam into fighting each other in the same manner as he tricked DS into attacking me!' he thought. Rearing the sword back, the Albino snarled, "Never again!" before he ran Deadlock through on the Barney-Slayer. # Napalm Death "Twist the Knife (Slowly)" _"Mortal Kombat" soundtrack_ Pain the likes of which had never been known before or since smashed into Slider's body like a tsunami into a sand castle. Oh F*CK did this hurt. At the same time, an identical wound to Deadlock's opened on Slider's chest, as well as on those of everybody else in the room save the Albino. Meanwhile, Slider was making sounds like Super Dave Osborne after a stunt attempt: agonized cries occasionally interspersed with such gems as "Record pain!" To picture what the Maenads were going through, try this: Imagine that you've just been stabbed in the chest. At that same moment, your blood has been suddenly replaced with white-hot magma. Can you imagine that? Good. You're nowhere near it. The pain was enough to bring the toughest man in the world to his knees. "Never again shall any Maenad be deceived like this," the Albino said as he gave the Barney-Slayer a twist. Slider, who by now was hurting in places he never thought could hurt, considered the pain from that a mere drop in the bucket. At length, Feral yanked the Barney-Slayer from Deadlock's chest, breaking off a sizable portion of the tip in the process. Another surge of pain raced down Slider's already-overloaded nervous system, and then... the fire merely went away, leaving only warmth in its stead. # Orbital "Halcyon + On + On" _"Mortal Kombat" soundtrack_ And what a warmth it was, bringing not just relief, but renewal to his tortured nerves. It was as if the pain had left as quickly as it came. With the release of pain came a certain feeling. No, it wasn't camaraderie; this went much deeper, crossing into the realms of kinship. Looking up at his fellow Maenads, Slider could feel a connection to them that would normally be felt for a favorite brother or sister. This was most peculiar. 'I've only been a Maenad for two days,' Slider thought. 'Why am I feeling this way toward the rest?' 'Wondering what this is, I am,' Windigo's voice spoke, directly into his head. 'Now,' Slider thought, 'we are in the Twilight Zone.' This was even more peculiar than the sympathetic vibes he was getting from the rest. It was just the same as the thought-intermingling the Lizards put on for them at the heights of the 801 Grand building. Blackblood's voice broke the silence: "Nobody in this room has Claws(tm) anymore... and DarkSide has a gaping chest wound?!?!?" Looking down, Slider noticed that his Claws (tm) were gone, to be replaced by a rather stylish pair of fingerless gloves with the backhand plating wrapped in barbed-wire from his Claws (tm). They also had a number of spiked studs along the knuckles. But there were no blades on the fingers. "Da 'ell?" Slider asked. Windigo got up and walked toward Darkside, pointing a finger at him that immediately sprouted a claw. A metal claw, to be exact. She looked at the new metal claws that had replaced her natural ones, and looked at DarkSide, smiling. Slider followed her gaze and got the same impression from him as with all the rest. That was when his mental jukebox cued up "We Are Family" by the Pointer Sisters only to be beaten into submission. "Nemesis the Feral," Windigo said, "you be and known as, you will be." Slider absently pointed at Nemesis, trying to duplicate Windigo's feat. To his surprise, the trick worked. Suddenly, a metal blade sprung forth from his fingernail! Extending his perceptions into the fae realms, Slider could not detect Glamour nor any other magic coming from the claw. It seemed like it was now a natural part of him. "Wonder iffn I can play da akkordiun too?" he asked as he did the mix and match thing with his newfound natural metal claws. Springing them all out at once, one finger on each hand, it was all good. Damn good at that. "No longer will my children be unarmed and alone," the Albino smiled and said. "You shall seek the HellWyrm in all forms and never be deprived of the tools to destroy it." Windigo responded the only way she could. She sounded the war-cry, and soon everyone else joined in of their own accord, as if they were wolves about to go on the prowl... "NYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" As soon as the war-cry died down, Slider turned toward Feral and asked, "Wot 'bout my friends? Surely yer not gonna leave 'em stook in da wall like dat!" "They're quite all right," he replied. "I teleported them to safety at the same time I teleported you." He then motioned for Windigo and Deadlock to follow him to a secluded corner of the room and whispered a few words to them. ... WHILE THAT WAS GOING ON... "What the--?" Siona asked, surprised to find herself inside a tent with about ten Khornate troopers instead of being stuck in a wall somewhere in Charn'El's Tower. "Great," Ed said out loud. "Where are we?" The Chosen of Khorne went for their weapons before a big sergeant with blond hair and light blue skin shouted, "Hold your fire!" "Wonderful," Siona whispered. "We go from being stuck in a wall to being in the company of Chaos Smurfs." If the sergeant heard her, he gave no outward indication. "I don't know why, Brother-Sergeant Gideon," replied a Chosen with blood-red hair and mottled grey skin. "They're wearing nagenta." "Brother Damon, do go right ahead," a third Chosen with floppy dog ears set above his normal ones responded. "Look at them. They're fine physical specimens." "Do we look like we're in perfect condition?" Ed mumbled before he passed out from the strain of being teleported. "Look what you did, Ellison," Damon snapped. "You made him pass out!" "Since when do Sponges look like they've been fed for weeks?" Ellison retorted. "Silence, both of you!" Gideon thundered. Both redcap and pooka shut up in the face of their sergeant's anger. Another blue-skinned Chosen looked at Siona and said, "You'll have to excuse Brother Ellison. He has a problem with telling the truth." Ellison risked a dirty look from Sgt. Gideon to say, "It's just a speech impediment, Sister Deirdre." Deirdre took a deep breath and let it out slowly. At length, she asked, "Now, how did you get here?" "I wish I knew," Siona replied, still trying to figure out who exactly these strange people were. ... BACK AT THE TOWER... Windigo and Deadlock were grinning like idiots by the time the Holy Albino had finished saying what he wanted to say. He opened a portal back to Mutie Keynes before turning toward the rest. "I must leave now," he said. "It ain't all smoothness steppin' sideways for me, not now... I'll be about if you need me." He shot his adopted children a wink and a grin before saying, "Now go an' kick some Lyran arse." And with that, the Holy Albino slipped back through the Veil and disappeared. Slider turned to find Shardik looking at him coldly. "Do you live to be irritating?" he asked. Slider regarded him with a confused expression on his face before Shardik pointed at his T-shirt. He looked down and his eyes widened. Slider had picked it out because he liked the icon of House Cawdor, but now remembered that Shardik was a member of House Orlock during his mortal life... Shardik caught Slider's blush and said, "It's no big thing, really." "Yeah, good ting I didn't pick da Delaque symbul," Slider mused. "That would mean instant death," said Shardik. [1] "Oi!" Slider shouted when Windigo and Deadlock looked like they had finished conferring amongst themselves. "Wot's da plan?" "Simple, it is," Windigo replied. "Deceive the deceiver, we will." ... WHILE THAT WAS GOING ON... "You're WHAT?" Siona asked Sergeant Gideon incredulously. "We call ourselves Kithain," the troll replied. "Faerie changelings, if you will. Quite literally, we are the stuff dreams -- and nightmares -- are made of," eyeing the two redcaps in the squad as he made that aside. A second redcap had joined the gathering in the past five minutes, while Gideon was making his spiel about the Kithain. The only things noticably different about this one was that she was female, and had her Dave Lister-esque plaits pulled back into a ponytail. She said, "Although we're not quite human, we're not quite fae, either. Kinda like elfin magic in a crunchy human shell." "Fi," Damon said, 'has anyone told you you need better metaphors?" Fiona gave her brother a I-thought-you'd-say-that-but-I'll-look- shocked-for-appearance's-sake look. "Will you hush? I've never had to explain this before." "For a mortal like yourself to perceive our fae seemings means you must have been enchanted, either by the thanatin creation process, or by another Kithain who wanted to use cantrips on you," Deirdre added. "Now that you mention it," Siona noted, "J-Rock was acting kinda funny when he found us. Sprinkled a bunch of four-leaf clovers on my head. But the minute those things touched me, I felt better than I had in a while." Every member of the Khornate Kithain's eyes widened at the mention of J-Rock performing cantrips. "Rest now," Gideon said. "We have much to discuss amongst ourselves. Your information is greatly appreciated." Siona flopped back down on the cot as the trolls herded the rest of the Chosen warriors out of the hospital tent the medics had set up. 'It's been a long three months,' she thought. ... INTERCESSION [The video clip for this one is simple: A carnival of carnage ensues as the Maenads fight their way to Charn'El's sanctum.] Invest time, invest life Invest it all, reinvent yourself Before you know it, your essence is renewed with something fresh Your will, your way will earn you respect in your day Let the glory-sharpened knife carve the future of your life Let's not praise the past, just a fact, Built to last Old school, or the new, doesn't mean a thing if your heart's not true Greedy ones faded fast, we're here, Built to last For the fun, not a fad, the love and the truth so powerful Work out the snags of the past Work out the snags that won't last Mistakes have finished my brothers Mistakes will guide all the others Your will, your way might shape a better day Eradicate the stagnancy Eradicate it like disease Let's not praise the past, just a fact, Built to last Old school, or the new, doesn't mean a thing if your heart's not true Greedy ones faded fast, we're here, Built to last For the fun, not a fad, the love and the truth so powerful As we've seen around the world, WE WON'T GO AWAY! Cause we'll always feel this way, WE'RE HERE TO STAY! And our impact will be felt, WE WON'T GO AWAY! If we feel it, if we feel it, WE'RE HERE TO STAY! Built to last! -- Sick Of It All "Built To Last" _Built To Last_ ... "Ten cases of Jolt this be the place," Nemesis said as the Maenads beheld a door of seamless obsidian set flush with the wall. "Let's see, then," Shardik replied as he pulled the door open by an iron handle, producing a glass-grinding screech as it opened. Hanover managed a sarcastic "Nifty" as his hearing was assailed by the sound. Slider took one look through the door and muttered a reverent "Fooooooooooooccccccckkkkk meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........." For what lay beyond the door was the flattest expanse of obsidian plain he had ever seen. And in the middle of it all, a black tower stood what seemed like a mile from the door, when it _should've_ been at most 200 feet away. The tower pointed upwards like a finger beckoning them forward or showing its owner's defiance of the gathering of might sent to lay siege to it. Windigo said, "Not trusting this at all, I am," as she searched in vain for the room's visible edges. It was like walking into the TARDIS from any given European castle still standing. "C'mon," Deadlock cackled as he herded a reluctant Hanover (as well as the rest of the Maenads) across the threshold. "His Yellowness has a promise to keep." --- THE OBSCURE [1] All of this is in reference to the houses of Necromunda, Sheridan's birth planet. House Orlock has had a long-standing feud with House Delaque over what could be termed as industrial sabotage. As for House Cawdor, they are a house of religious zealots who hate everybody who does not follow their puritanical, apocalyptic religion. To be continued in "Racing Lyra"...