Brother Lucas
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                                        Part IX

        Lucas hurried on his way to the toy store, darkness gathering 
rapidly.  He paused at the door to look around, and, seeing nothing unusual, 
let himself in.  He wandered into the darkened building, his footsteps 
echoing down the shadowed aisles ahead of him, and flicked on the first row 
of fluorescent lights so he could find his way to the break room.  A dull 
buzz filled his ears as they flickered to life to light his path.  Just the 
same, though, one row of lights wasn't really enough in a place like this; 
it was still pretty dim.
        He walked down the row, somewhat uneasy that he was the only one 
here and thinking of all those plushies he'd gone through earlier.  What 
if...
        He forced the idea out of his mind, willing himself to stick to what 
he came for and not worry about it.  Besides, the idea was crazy... right?
        After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the break room.  
There it was, right there on the counter where he'd left it.  He sighed 
deeply, releasing much of his unease and relaxing most of his body.
        As the door shut and latched behind him, he figured he might as well 
put himself at ease for his trip home and convince himself that all those 
plushies were still there on the shelves where he'd left them.  He wandered 
down the back hallway and unlocked the store room door.  When he did so, he 
froze in his tracks.  On the shelves he saw a grand total of zero plushies.
        He turned quickly, slammed the door shut, and hurriedly locked the 
door.  "This is not happening..." he tried to convince himself.  Somehow, 
though, he knew it was.  He prayed silently as he quickly walked to the door 
he'd come in.  5 feet... 4 feet... 3 feet... 2 feet... he flipped the lights 
off... 1 foot... he pulled the door open... and was through. 
        Lucas closed his eyes and leaned against the door to breathe a sigh 
of relief.  When he opened his eyes again, he rather wished that he hadn't.  
In front of him, he saw the whole darkened parking lot, nearly devoid of 
cars.  Desptte the darkness, however, he could see hundreds of dark forms 
moving about.  He took a deep breath, said a few more words in prayer, and 
started walking forward, setting out across the field of asphalt in the 
direction of home.
        At first, the beings didn't seem to notice Lucas and the path he was 
taking from corner to corner.  The further he went, though, it became more 
and more obvious what was actually happening.  They were intentionally keeping 
their distance, allowing him to take the path he wished, then closing the 
gap again behind him.  He made it nearly halfway across the lot before his 
pace ground to a halt underneath the single operating streetlight, when they 
all suddenly started to converge on a single point--the one in which he was 
standing.
        One of them came into the circle of light cast by the light pole and 
hissed at him silently with its forked toungue.  He looked it over carefully, 
and with some difficulty was able to recognize it as having once been a 
plushie.  Huge, jagged spikes now ran from head to tail along the spine, 
uneven and razor-sharp teeth pointed every which way from its jaws, 
hook-shaped talons curled from both its powerful hind legs and only slightly 
smaller forearms.  Instead of plush it was now covered in bony scales the 
color of night, and the only part of it showing any trace of its original 
purple-ish hue was its eyes which glowed with some internal fire.
        It was then that he noticed a taller figure among them, standing off 
in the distance, making its way closer to him.  He soon recognized the 
person approaching him as Mike, the store owner, whose own eyes glowed with 
the same eerie light as the creatures surrounding him.
        "Lucas Lucas... You should have known better.  But, nevertheless, it 
is too late for you to join with the one true ruler of humanity.  I'm sorry, 
Lucas, but tonight you must die."
        Lucas's eyes narrowed to a glare, focusing his rage on the "man" 
before him.  "How can you betray your fellow humans like this?  Or were you 
ever human?  No, I shall *not* die tonight!" he snapped, 
hurriedly unleashing a jolt bolt at his foe before it could grow to full 
strength.  The blow knocked "Mike" backwards a ways, but otherwise did not 
affect him.
        "KILL HIM!" he snarled at the beasts.
        At that exact instant, a cloud of dust surrounded Lucas, obscuring
his view briefly as well as that of his attackers. When the cloud 
dissipated, he could see his friend Thomas standing beside him, carrying a 
set of robes over his arm and a pair of staves in his hand.  He tossed a 
staff and the robes to Lucas.  "You were late, so we thought we 
should check on you," he grinned.
        "Glad you did, my friend," Lucas boggled, the attackers still 
standing in bewilderment.
        "Get dressed.  I'll watch your back."
        Brother Thomas was as good as his word, and within seconds they were 
fighting, side by side, smashing daemon plushies with righteous dignity.  As 
they fought, Lucas gradually became aware of the fact that similar fights 
were taking place all across the parking lot--pairs of robed figures fought 
with smaller, vicious beasts.  Claws raked across the tough fabric of the 
robes, quarterstaffs sent creatures airborne, teeth and gore flew.  Here and 
there magic bolts flickered across small distances between skirmishing 
parties.  It was sorely evident, however, that the monks were greatly 
outnumbered, perhaps by as many as ten or twenty to one.
        Lucas and Thomas whirled in a dazzling pattern of blocks and 
strikes, edging closer to the nearby car as they did so.  Suddenly, one of 
the beasties' claws raked across Brother Thomas' side, ripping clean through 
his robes and donating a large amount of blood to decorate his side.  He 
screamed in agony, and fired a blast of jolt at the attacker that had done 
it, destroying it instantly,  but the damage was done.
        "THOMAS!" screamed Lucas.  He caught his fellow monk with his 
left arm while still whirling the quarterstaff with the other, straining to 
swing it rapidly enough to defend them both.  He opened the  door of the 
Taurus and tossed his brother inside, safe for the time being, then climbed 
to the roof of the car.  He scanned the battlefield as he defended against 
the flood of attackers, and noted that it was not going well for the good 
guys.  Rage began to build within him, and he reached out with his mind in 
prayer and concentration, reaching for the power and help that Grimace gave 
to his friends.  Everything seemed to slow down, the creatures near him 
appearing nearly in stop-motion as he raised his staff above his head, held 
in both hands parallel with the roof of the car.
        "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he cried out.  
"LORD GRIMACE!  HAVE MERCY ON THY HUMBLE SERVANTS, THAT THEY MIGHT 
OVERCOME THINE ENEMIES AND PROTECT THE INNOCENTS!  HEAR ME NOW, AND GRANT 
ME THE STRENGTH I NEED!"
        He stood, holding his position, pouring every ounce of will and 
energy into the growing, swirling fury of the spell.  Dark violet lines began 
to move away from Lucas's raised staff like ripples in a still lake.  When 
they reached the outer fringes of the battle, they promptly ceased expanding 
outwards, instead packing closer and closer together until they were more a 
rippling sheet of energy than distinguishable as individual lines.  The 
ground trembled slightly as thunder rumbled from all around, despite the 
cloudless sky.
        Battle ceased momentarily as all present were awestruck with the sheer 
power of the spell.  The attacking beasts began to quiver in fear as it grew 
with each passing moment.
        A shaft of light shone upwards from Lucas's body into the shifting
curtain above the battleground.  The shimmering grew to a furious climax as 
power arced through it.  A bolt of bluish energy surged downwards, homing in 
on one of the dark beasts until it ultimately engulfed it in an aura of 
energy.  Another blast followed it, flying at another beast.  Then a pair of 
them lanced out at separate targets.  Then five.  Then ten.  The speed and 
fury of the strikes raced towards limits unknown, ceasing growth only when 
every creature had been stricken.
        As the spell's tumult at last began to fade, the monks continued 
their crusade.  They struck down the weakened plush-beasts with their 
staves, crunched them with whirling blows, and disintigrated them with their 
own magic blasts.
        The creatures, already reeling under the magical storm's wrath, soon
found themselves in a hopelessly losing situation.  Most of them could only 
flail helplessly as they vanished into nothingness when the blasts hit home;
those few who managed to survive were rapidly dealt a finishing blow from 
one of the monks.
        Lucas lowered his staff, knocked a struggling creature away from his 
feet and hopped down to the ground, where he took Thomas out of the car. Lucas 
knelt over his brother, where he said a brief blessing unto him from the Lord 
Grimace that he might heal his wound.
        "I'll be fine." Thomas said.  He looked over Lucas's shoulder and 
noted the lone figure towering behind him before fixing him with his eyes. 
"Finish this."
        Lucas rose and looked around him.  Only one opposing figure still 
remained.  Mike.  He strode towards his final enemy and gazed deep into his 
lavender eyes.
        They stood, staring into each other's eyes, for a few seconds. Mike
whirled rapidly, claws sprouting from his fingertips to seek the soft flesh of 
Lucas's belly.
        Lucas stepped back and to his right, spinning himself and slamming
the end of his quarterstaff into the side of its head.  The blow caused it 
to fall sideways and sprawl onto the pavement.  "You shall not harm another 
innocent," he proclaimed. "Yield," he demanded, holding the end of his 
staff at the tip of Mike's nose.
        "Never!" snarled the beast as it grabbed the end of the staff.  It
yanked backwards, seeking to pull Lucas closer.  He let go, however, and as 
the monster whirled in one direction, seeking to club him with the staff, 
Lucas spun the other.  As he came about, facing his foe again, a blast of 
chilled liquid flew from his sleeves and impacted its chest.  It roared in 
horror and agony as it split into multicolored strips which swirled in 
circles around what was once the center of its torso before vanishing into 
the darkness, gone from the face of the earth forever.

-----------
To Be Continued in Brother Lucas Part X
        
"Brother Lucas"
Copyright 1996
David R. Hibbs

        

-- 
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"In the end there will be only one OS, The Mind.. Ponder that for a while..."
        --unknown
"But if the mind is an OS, then there will be infinite OS's, and a vast
        majority of them will still suck."  --me
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