Operation: Phoenix: Good Times Bad Times by J. FoxGlov, foxglov@ksu.edu [Stand up, Praetor. Defend yourself, or die.] J squinted at the two X'hirjq in the doorway, dressed in black armor plating, grey tails lashing the floor behind them, reptilian faces sneering, and plasma rifles leveled at his head. This would normally be a time when I'd be concerned for my safety, he thought. If there was any feeling of surprise or dismay upon the X'hirjq arrivals, it was currently being pushed down or overruled by other, more disturbing thoughts. He glanced at his left hand again, half-ignoring the lizards. His Glov was gone. It hadn't been taken off, so it stood to reason... He felt his ears perk up at the thought. This was beyond weird... but there was more to it; it actually seemed... A huge grin set his face alight. No seeming. This was Cool. Not your run-of-the-mill-gee-golly-whiz kinda cool, this went Much farther, into So-many-assholes-so-few-bullets, You-tell-'em-I'm-comin'-and-hell's-comin'- with-me, I'm-Jesus-with-a-machine-gun-and-you're-all-going-to-hell, fuck- the-bullshit-it's-time-to-throw-Down. Cool Like Dat. He let his hand drop slowly to one side, and turned to the X'hirjq, the grin becoming all the more maniacal. By looking at the armed lizards, he could see... no, it was more than that. He could *sense* something... was it confusion? [There's a disturbance. I can't read...] "What...?" J could almost see the eyes on the X'hirjq bulge. "What? What can't you read?" He stepped away from his chair, towards the door. The X'hirjq, true to form, held firm. There was something, though... "You wanted to step back. You didn't, because it would be retreating." J saw it. They had been trying to psionically probe his mind, but for some reason, they weren't able to. There was a pretty certain reason, though... but it would have to wait. First one rifle blazed, then the other, pointed at the spot where J... Had been. From four feet in the air, he sailed through the air between the plasma blasts, arms outstretched. J's hands impacted on the foreheads of the X'hirjq, just above the snout. In a blue flash, within fifteen seconds all that remained were black helmets, bracers, and piles of slightly caustic ash on the floor near the doorway. J dusted his hands off, and stared at the palms. He knew what had happened, and had half-expected it. There was a lot more to think about... a Lot more. -- "Ngnnn..." Owsen bent over forwards, teeth clenched and beads of sweat suddenly appearing on his forehead. His eyes shut tight, then bulged open as he raised his head, obviously in pain. CyberPyro jumped up from the seat he had used to watch Owsen as he scryed and crouched in front of Owsen. Before he could get a word out, Owsen held up his hand. "It's all right...it's passin'." "Well, what was it? Did you find him?" Owsen paused, the pain gone from his face. He stared forward and nodded. "Yeh...I think...I did." -- Having given up on pacing, J now floated around the room, legs crossed, leaving a trail of sparks in the wake of his tails. He looked down at the floor, two feet below. "OK, let's not get carried away here..." Coming to a stop, he stepped down and stretched. "There's gotta be more to this." He knew, first of all, that the worst thing he could do would be to get freaked out. Sure, up until now he'd thought the Glov was absolutely necessary to his existence. If that wasn't true anymore... J started tensing and relaxing all his muscles and joints. They *felt* all right... "which may or may not really mean anything. Gah..." He rubbed his forehead and looked down at the X'hirjq remains. Reaching down, he picked up one of the plasma rifles and rubbed the dust off. He held it in one hand, twisting it around to view both sides. "Interesting." He located the trigger mechanism and aimed at the wall. "Never had much use for guns made by humans... why should one from alien lizards be much different?" Five seconds after he judged the hole in the opposite wall created by the preceding blast, his attitude began to change. "Bad ass." As he resumed turning it around in the air, squinting at it from various angles, he became aware of its size. The plasma generator near the rifle's butt was about the size of a football, and the barrel about a meter away reminded him of an anti-tank launcher. He replayed the memory of the X'hirjq in his mind. They _were_ pretty well built... but still. "This has to be some advanced metal, otherwise it'd weigh about 75 pounds." Glancing at his skinny arms, he decided the latter was Not the case. He shouldered the rifle and started for the door. There was already plenty to be worried about, and his time was being wasted. "I gotta get Out of here." [Damn right y'do. We're on a schedule here, Fox, and yer holding us up.] J whirled around at the voice, then jumped backwards about ten feet. "ACK!" The face of Lord Owsen hung about 7 feet off the floor, astrally projected across the void. A smirk crossed its face, and the words [Nice form] appeared in J's mind. "Grrf..." J stood up from behind a table and pointed the rifle at the apparition. "That was Not funny." Owsen grinned even wider. [Yah it was. Nice toy y' got there, by th'way.] J crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. He didn't catch the punchline. "Whatever... you're really making it hard to be glad to see you again." [Eh, I might be worried about that at another time,] Owsen answered, [but I'm wi'out time just now. The situation's gettin' worse.] J raised the other eyebrow. "Haven't we got enough on our plate already? What is it now?" Owsen jerked his head upwards, indicating the wall behind J. [Have a look.] J frowned, then turned and walked back towards the wall, and the window. Straining upward, he glanced around. "What am I supposed to see..." His sentence never finished. As his gaze pointed upwards to the sky, his mouth fell open, stopping the words from coming. Where there once was nothing but shades of grey, a thick mist of a horrid magenta color prevented any other hue from showing. J turned back to the specter, pointing to the sky. "Tell me that's not..." Owsen grimly shook his head. [Neh, 'tis. The B'Harnii's shown 'e still knows the old spells.] J's eyes widened, and he jumped down from the window. "Fine... so you know how to stop that thing, right?" [Aye,] Owsen replied, [but I can't do it by m'self. All the interference from the Lyrans 'n the bloody lizards makes it bloody difficult to use Any of my magic. Took me forever to reach yer ass, 'n I still haven't figured out how I did it.] J smirked. "Never mind that... but you can do it with help, I gather." Owsen nodded quickly. [Aye, 'n that's why I need you here. Now hold on.] The apparition wavered and faded as Owsen was seen closing his eyes and bowing his head. "Hey...wait, what do you mean 'hold on'? You just said..." A slight breeze from behind him blew his hair into his eyes, increasing until various bits of paper and debris flew past him, and half his fur was pushed the wrong way. He gripped the rifle tightly to his chest and set his teeth. "Grud... he would use the portal spell... I Told You, Owsen... I HATE THESE FUCKING SPELLS..." At the moment the gale swept him off his feet, a point of light appeared where the wall met the ceiling in front of him. J was flung upwards in a fantastic display of Spielbergian effects, and vanished. -- "How long does this take?" CyberPyro's question was soon answered as a far-off scream became audible. J appeared as if spit out from a point in midair, skidding to a stop on the floor, where he lay still. "Yeow..." CP hurried over. "J, are you all right?!" J's tails raised one at a time in affirmation, and gestured closer. CP knelt down and turned an ear to J's face. CP grinned at the whispers. "He says 'where's Owsen so I can kill him?'" Owsen, brushing his garb off, now stood a mere five feet away. "Mebbe later, a muirin. Get up, there's work t'do." Grumbling, J stood up and looked around. "Where the sneck are we, anyway?" "Des Moines," CP answered. "We're all gathering here... hopefully by combining our efforts in one place we can disperse the Cloud. This isn't something any one of us can do alone." J grinned ironically and shoved his hair back in place. "Glad I could be here, then." He turned to Owsen and tossed his rifle across the room. "Catch." Owsen, eyes round as saucers, fell to the floor unceremoniously under the weight of the rifle. "Oooof..." J blinked as CP rushed back to help Owsen pick the rifle up. "Yoicks... sorry about that." -to be continued All material copyrighted by the original author.