---Chapter 19
What seemed like hours later, after having passed many locked doors and light-controlling breaker boxes, they came to another place where a ladder led up to an iron hatch. With looks that were almost haggard, they glanced at each other and then up at the door. There was no way they could think of that this would be the same one they had entered earlier. Unless EX-2 had been warping reality to bring them back to this point, in order to wear them out. Lenny began to wonder if EX-2 was not going to kill them immediately so that he could enjoy himself leading them in circles until they died of exhaustion or starvation.
On the other hand, this hatch was shut, whereas they have left the one they had come down through open. But did this one just lead back out to some useless spot on the noxious jungle world?
There was only one way to find out. Lenny heaved himself up the cold, metal bars and pushed gently on the hatch. It opened a crack, letting in a beam of eerie light. He peered out and saw a pathway paved in small, square bricks of a lavender hue. They led up to a set of cement steps, then... Lenny’s eyes traveled up the sides of a towering stone palace. Pushing open the hatch further, he climbed out, his companions right behind him. They gathered in a knot on the pathway, looking up at many turrets outlined against the fearsome sky.
The sides of the palace ran into clumps of bushes and trees on either side, almost hiding what was behind them from sight. But Lenny could just make out a gleam which seemed to be of steel tubes, coils of wires and glass tanks hidden behind the shrubbery. All of it connected to the looming walls of purple stone.
“Look!” Amber seized his arm painfully, pointing towards the palace entrance at the top of the steps.
A pair of braziers burned there with a crazy, white light, their shadows flickering palely on the palace walls. Between them, on the top steps, sat a figure dressed in purple and black. His head was bowed over a luminescent sword which rested on his lap, its blade light and faintly curved. Thin, plated armor with wide shoulder pads covered his arms and chest, falling into a short skirt of leather flaps over his legs. The smooth hair on his head was black, gleaming with purple highlights like a wild animal’s fur.
The figure looked up slowly, his eyes rings of pale, fiery light.
“It’s Dansei,” the girl gasped, moving forwards towards him impulsively. But Lenny caught her back as the figure rose to his feet. It did look like the Ninja, but there was an aura of light around him, as if he was glowing with energy. Purple energy.
“Welcome,” the Ninja’s voice was light as ever, but missing the truly cheerful tones it had used to carry. Now there was an edge to it, of power and inhuman sharpness. “I have been waiting for you. And the front step is not comfortable for a man in armor, I will tell you.”
“Dansei, what happened to you?” Jax asked, squinting his eyes up dramatically, as if the Ninja were too bright to look at.
“I destroyed the master’s outer defense system with my bomb,” Dansei explained, gripping his sword by the hilt and holding it point-down just above the ground. “To replace it... I was made the master’s dragon!”
With the last words, he sprang into the air, flicking his blade upright in a glow of intense light. At the same moment, ghostly wings of purple fire leaped from his shoulders, unfurling to either side. He hung in the air for a moment as the travelers stared upwards in shock. When plunged down towards them, his sword was glowing and the aura of light described a meteor’s tail around him. Most of the crew dashed to one side or the other, getting out of his way. But Jackal took aim with his rifle, while Lenny only stepped back a single stride and made his energy lance leap forth, shining blue in the dim light.
Crack! Jackal’s aim was true and his gun fired perfectly, but the bullet simply skipped away when it hit the aura of light. The Ninja slammed into the ground between the two resistors, swinging his sword at Lenny’s throat. The lance came up to slash back at it in a blow that would have melted through any regular sword and severed it in half. But this was no regular sword. The blow was blocked. Sparks leaps up as their blades collided for just a moment.
Dansei moved quicker than Lenny would have thought possible, flicking his blade this way and that, trying to slash in under Lenny’s guard. Though he carried the energy lance always, and had asked for it to be installed, the young man was really no fighting expert. Soon he was back-peddling, barely being able to block each swipe and thrust with a clumsy sweep of his own.
Behind Dansei now, Jackal grasped his gun like a club and jumped towards the Ninja, swinging for his head. Dansei was quicker, spinning about and slashing down through the weapon so that it was sheared in half. Jackal was left holding the barrel of his gun, looking at the place where the stock used to be. Not one to be astonished for long, he whipped up his pistol with the other hand and fired it at Dansei’s face. The Ninja laughed as the bullet bounced away, before spinning around just in time to whack Lenny’s seeking lance back again.
It was then, with a wild yell, that Raggsy joined them. Running forward with only a dagger gripped in one paw, he jumped forward, cannonballing himself straight at the enhanced Ninja.
Dansei’s sword was busy fighting the lance at the moment, so there was an opening in his side. Raggsy slammed into him, dagger crumpling uselessly as it struck the force shield around him. But Raggsy himself went through it, hitting into the Ninja with his full weight, making him stumble to the side. Angrily, Dansei flung the Ratperson off, slashing down at him with his blade.
“No!” Amber cried, running forward. Everyone else did as well; Leaflow and Patch with blades drawn (the pirate only had a knife, now, as his cutlass was lost to the Bloodsworn) while Jax had the Hyperblast Hand-Cannon drawn from his telestorage. Amber had her own dagger, but was more intent on reaching Raggsy than using the knife.
The Ninja’s blade slashed down and Raggsy started to roll aside, but before he could get out of the way, his left paw was caught between blade and stone. With a shearing noise followed by an animal scream, the blade sunk into the brick pavement.
In the next moment, the Ninja was mobbed.
EX-2 was giving him a huge amount of power, more than any Power Core had been allowed to wield at once. With a burst of energy, the Ninja’s attackers were swept away, flinging them back into the shrubbery all around. Only Amber was left, bending over Raggsy with concern. He lay curled up on the ground, clutching at one arm in agony.
Dansei was panting, but he turned to the girl with his eyes blazing evilly. Unlike Hotcho, he was not going to ask her to step out of the way because she was a girl. He drew back his sword, the edge gleaming with pale fire.
Two things struck him at once. First was a bolt from the Hyperblast cannon, which Jax had jumped up and fired at him. This powerful weapon struck his shield and ate into it, making it flicker away to nothing for just a moment. And in that moment, Leaflow threw his sword.
Whether the sword was magic and wished to strike just where the cloaked one wanted it to, or if Leaflow was an expert aim with his weapon used in this awkward manner, Lenny could not tell. But the blade twirled in the air once, sliced through the flickering barrier, and struck through Dansei’s throat.
The Ninja stood perfectly still, his eyes flickering from pale fire to dark shadows. With a choking sound, he dropped to his knees, sword clattering from his hands. The phantom dragon's wings withered away to nothing. Dansei pulsed once... then exploded outwards in a blinding flash of neon light.
Lenny felt the heat of it from where he stood at the edge of the jungle and threw an arm up to cover his face. The blast knocked him from his feet, making him fall into a sticky, sickly smelling bush. The others were tossed around him and it singed Amber’s hair into little curls at the ends as she bent over Raggsy, trying to protect him from the heat.
A moment later, the flash had cleared and there was nothing left except for a shadow in the shape of a dragon on the bricks and Leaflow’s sword laying next to it. The cloaked man was the first to move, going over to retrieve his blade.
“It’s a shame, really...” he commented softly, running his hand down the sword, “now it has purple char marks on it. I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of those.”
He went over and knelt down by Raggsy and Amber. “Is he badly injured?”
“His paw was cut off,” Amber said shakily, avoiding looking behind her as if she would see a ghost there, where Dansei had stood. “But I still have a few drops of healing potion left. I’ll put that on it.”
As the Ratperson bravely held out the stub of his arm, she dripped the medicine onto it. In a moment, the wound healed over, leaving a patch of tender, bare skin where his paw had been. But there was not enough potion to heal it any further, or make the hand grow back.
Raggsy stopped squinting in pain and looked at the end of his arm in surprise, waving it up and down. He gave a lopsided smile and said, “well, I guess it’s better than losin’ my snout. Then I couldn’t eat. And I’m sure you can build me a new hand that’s almost as good. Just like yours.”
Lenny and Jax were looking at the shadow on the pavement, while Patch and Jackal commiserated over the rifle that had been cut in half. A sound from the place made them all look up in surprise.
It was a deep, humming noise that rose into an inhuman roar that somehow had a voice running through it.
“Now I will destroy you no matter what it takes!”
The roaring grew to a growl so loud that Lenny could hear nothing else over it, except for a deafening report as the palace wall cracked down one side. A moment later, the ground began to shake and split as if an earthquake were coming through, but with cracks running in all directions. The world shook, the roaring went on, everything was blurred with purple energy.
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Looking into one crack, Lenny saw only a deep, pulsing blackness below. The sky was also slashed with darkness, like shadows made alive. This dimension was coming apart at the seams.
“Into the palace!” he shouted, trying to get his voice above the sound of the world coming apart. He did not know if anyone heard him, but he pointed at the palace door at the same time, and everyone started running that way.
The door at the top of the steps was still shut and though Lenny tried it, the door would not open. Whole chunks of the ground were falling away just beyond the steps, disappearing into the swirling void. His head was ringing with pain from the constant noise, but Lenny knew there was only one way for them to survive. He flipped out his energy cannon and blasted a hole through the center of the door.
Scrambling and tumbling through, the travelers found themselves in a large room, most of which was taken up by the workings of a gigantic computer. It was strangely quiet inside, at first. Lenny saw wires, screens, flashing lights and components that he vaguely understood or knew the names of. Off to the side, one part of the computer had been blown away, ragged bits and burnt wires hanging out of it. On the main screen in the center, a strange room was shown, containing a shadowy figure with no face. The figure pointed a finger at them and said, “Kill!”
The floor began to rumble and shake. Cracks split the stone, running towards the travelers in swiftly widening lines. Sparks of electricity sizzled up between them, whipping out like tentacles towards the traveler’s feet.
Lenny still had his energy cannon out. He did not even stop to think. Raising it to point at the main screen of the machine, he braced himself and gave it every bit of energy he had left in his reserves.
The blast struck the machine, tore into it and started a chain reaction of explosions all across it. Sparks danced between electronic boards and purple lights pulsed around the wires. While the world was falling apart and the computer being destroyed from the inside out, EX-2 screamed, “the end of timmme!”
There was a white flash, and everything blurred together. For a moment, it seemed to Lenny that he was hanging in a no-where realm of pure whiteness. He wondered if this was simply dead space that he had been flung into when that dimension collapsed, or if it was actually the End of Time and nothing would mean anything again for eternity.
It blurred again, and he found himself standing in a darkened room, somewhere that felt oddly familiar.
He was out of energy for his night vision. Blindly, he stumbled around until he felt a light contact on the wall under his hand. He hit it without thinking, his head still ringing from the noise of EX-2’s world falling apart. A pure, soft glow filled the room. He saw that it was an apartment furnished with comfortable, dark-colored items and a spongy carpet. They were so familiar, so homey that he looked around in astonishment at them. This had to be an apartment room in his own dimension.
Everything was silent in the building. Lenny went to the window and rolled up the blinds with a touch, peering outside. He was on the third story, as he could tell by counting the windows below him. But the thing which drew his attention the most was that the scene outside was also very familiar.
This was his own apartment room. Or at least, the one that used to belong to him. His electronics and fish tank had been removed from the desk and all the other personal belongings had been taken away, but he still recognized it. A small, dark stain on the cream-colored walls where he had once splashed a cup of coffee. The thin, cushy pad on the floor with drag-marks on it from his desk chair moving about. The bed, with his initials carved into the headboard. It was his old home.
But where were the others? Jax, Amber, Leaflow...?
None of them were in the room with him. Something strange had happened when he destroyed EX-2. He had been thrown back through the dimensions, not only to his home world but the place in it he had regarded the most as home. What about the others? Were they back at their homes as well?
Or had it all been a dream?
Lenny turned slowly about, taking in the changed furnishings of his apartment. He looked down and saw the small scar across one arm he had got in the fight on Amber’s world. No, it had not been a dream. But he was alone and did not know if his friends had survived. Worse, there was no way for him to find out. Jax had both of the Di-jumps, having taken one from the airship and his original with him when they left. Devi’s machine would no longer be in his lab. Lenny was marooned in his own dimension.
Kneeling by the window, he stared without sight across the city. Smoke was rising from one section of it, while angry protesters marched by underneath, armed with high-powered weapons. While he had been gone, his world had started to fall apart. Pressures had been rising slowly and were brought to a head by EX-2’s invasion and subsequent defeat. For some unknown reason, Stato-drive cars had suddenly begun working much less efficiently as soon as Dr. Devi was dead. He had been tied into the magic of the drive system even before he was a Power Core.
Lenny noted the unrest absently, still staring without seeing the outside world. Instead, he was reliving all of his recent adventures on the mission to defeat EX-2.
The time Jax had jumped through the window, so bold and brazen. When they had first found Raggsy and all the other travelers. All leading up to the time he had been forced to kill Devi and his heart had frozen.
Everything came together again, and Lenny realized that he had completed his goal. Or at least, what he thought had been his goal. But what did he really want with life in this world, now?
He was an outlaw because of his cybernetics. He could never tell anyone here what he was or let them see it, not like he had been able to tell his friends. Sara was the only person here who had really understood him. Her and, to some extent, Markham Brood.
Watching the smoke rise, Lenny thought of all he had lost and for the first time knew that there was no going back. His mind floated in a sort of cold stasis. After hours had passed and the sun was setting, he wondered what there was to live for anymore.
It was then that the door opened and he spun around, expected an angry landlord coming to demand how he manage to get into the room without permission. Instead, a pair of figures strode in, the first one grinning all over his angular face, holding a Di-jump in his hand.
“Jax! and... Leaflow.”
The cloaked one nodded, commenting under his breath, “I wonder why my name always has that uncertain pause before it?”
But Jax was already gabbling over the top of him. “Hey, Len, great to see you again! Gosh, it feels like forever, though it’s only been, what, five hours since it split us up? But I knew we would find you here. See, everyone was sent home when EX-2 was destroyed, for some reason. I guess his dimension fell apart, and we had to go somewhere. And—”
“You saw the others?” Lenny interrupted, “all of them? Are they alright?”
“Not all of them,” Jax admitted, “the Di-jumps both need cooled, soon. Leaflow found me first, then we found Raggsy together and brought him to Amber’s home, (I wonder how she’ll explain him to her parents?). We checked on the airship when we came here and found it untouched, so we still have to bring Patch his treasure, some time. Though I don’t know how we’ll find him; he could be anywhere, sailing the seas and collecting more loot already. We haven’t gone to find Jackal, yet...”
Jax had to stop to take a breath here, as he had been talking without pause until he could hardly go on. But as soon as he could, he gasped, “and we’ve got a surprise for you!”
“Oh?” Lenny looked carefully at them, but they did not seem to be carrying anything out of the ordinary. He was too dazed at seeing them to think, let alone make a guess at sudden, mysterious gifts. When he looked down at his hands, they were trembling.
“Yep.” Jax was grinning hugely now. He was not the sort of person who could keep a secret for long. “We know where Sara Lancaster is! Or rather, Leaflow does.”
“What!” Lenny jerked upright, hands stilling into fists.
The cloaked one nodded once. “I was connected to EX-2 all throughout the first part of this episode, remember? Through him, I saw where everyone was moving in the dimensions. You, Jax, Sara...”
Lenny felt a swelling of emotion in his chest, the first he had really experienced since Devi had died. “But... why didn’t you tell me before! You must have known all along. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Leaflow gave him a look of cool mockery. “We couldn’t have you running off in the middle of our quest to find your lady-love, now could we? Especially seeing how important you were to it. It could not have been done without every one of us, but you are the one who destroyed EX-2 in the end.”
“Yeah! And boy, you sure deserve a break for that!” Jax exclaimed, slapping him on the shoulder roughly.
Lenny turned away, not sure if he should still be angry or not. It seemed that Leaflow was always leaving important things out, arranging them as he wanted. But he had always given them up when he needed to. And Jax had meant their surprise as a gift in return for helping him on the quest.
“Thank you.” Lenny felt tears in his eyes and realized that his heart had thawed. He would never again be the same as before he started out. His horizons and idea of life had broadened too far. But he was not the cold avenger he had been not so long ago, either.
“We’ll need another roasting pan or something,” Jax told him, “but we’ve already got the dimension dialed in. I think one Di-jump can stand another move today. Ready to go?”
Lenny dashed the tears from his eyes and managed a small smile. “Yes.”
What Soleeryn had told him was true. He would reach his goal. The true one.
---
Soleeryn’s words proved true for every one of the travelers.
She had warned Raggsy that he would lose something of himself but gain a new home.
On Amber’s planet he bent over a blueprint with her, in her workshop. They were discussing plans for a new steam-engine, this one to be coal fired since he could always be there to tend it for her. On his left wrist, a three-pronged paw of metal rested, helping hold down the curling edge of paper.
Far away, Patch sat in a comfortable house, dressed in fine silks and velvet, planning out a daring exploration on a map before him. No one had yet gone beyond the Gates of Coron and returned to tell of it. But he was running out of coins and needed an adventure.
In the palace of the great Emperor Takai Onmeru, a strange, tormented spirit came to rest in a shrine to the dead. For three nights it wailed, because it had been forced to become a traitor to all it held dear. But the servants heard it and brought rice cakes and wine, soothing its pride. Eventually, it became a dispenser of wisdom to all warriors, especially the Shinobi No Mono.
Jax had been told to follow his questions and he would find an answer.
Across dimensions and worlds, through trouble and grand adventure, he followed the questions. The answer was that he needed someone to teach him. He wanted to not only see things, but to know more about them. And how could someone learn to use mental skills?
Leaflow had been forgiven. He no longer blamed himself for the death of Soleeryn. He began to travel with Jax, teaching him everything from reading minds to how one found the best tasting bread and cheese on any world one came to.
Lenny found Sara, the goal that had held his heart through betrayal and ice.
And beyond the Outland mountains, near a grave freshly turned in the tall, moorland grass, a figure carrying a rifle disappeared into the mists. One more crazy adventure to begin...
---
END