"Ghost Story"

Chapter Two: Search for the Holy Quail

A tale of Sailor Moon Expanded

Because a lot can happen in a thousand years.....

By: Matthew Campbell

E-mail me at <mgcampb@clemson.edu>

When we last tuned in:
	It's the twenty-third century and the presence of Crystal 
Tokyo hangs over the world like a.... well not like a shadow, but it's 
certainly having an effect.
	Our heroine, Wylah Koeing, traveled to the city of 
Pacifica, first underwater colony.  There, she reported in to her 
boss Dr. Martin Spectre, an aging scientist/adventurer, for her new 
job as his research assistant.  However, on the way, she ran into 
another visitor coming to see Marty, none other than the legendary      
_Sailor Mercury_!
	The presence of the scientist and the Senshi was brought 
about due to the discovery of an ancient artifact of unusual power 
on the ocean floor.  Unfortunately, the artifact was almost 
immediately stolen by Ender, a necromancer of great power and 
little conscience.
	Ender escaped (though not without taking damage from 
an irate Mercury), and was tracked on a course to a city in South 
America.  The local law was alerted, but Marty determined to go 
after Ender himself and try to somehow recover the artifact 
(dragging Wylah along).  Afraid of Mercury would interfere (due to 
a mysterious connection she shares with Marty), the duo kept their 
plans a secret.

And now, the story continues.......


	Mercury wrapped up her remaining investigations fairly 
quickly.  Maybe she just had pressing experiments to get back to in 
her Crystal Tokyo lab, but I think it she was just bothered by all the 
adulation she had been receiving.  Even Dr. Hood, Dr. Robin Hood 
as it turns out (his parents had a funny sense of humor), seemed to 
put aside whatever bitterness he felt towards  Crystal Tokyo to be 
charmed by her presence.  Marty told me privately that Mercury 
had always been uncomfortable about that sort of thing, more so 
than any of her sister senshi.  I had to wonder how he would know 
something like that.
	The day she left, Marty and I were headed back to 
mainland Australia, to catch a flight to the Jungle. We were most 
definitely not, Marty insisted, in pursuit of any dangerous criminals.  
It was all perfectly safe  The fact that he felt it was so safe he 
couldn't allow Sailor Mercury to hear even a hint of his plan was 
not lost on me.
	I was pretty excited about the whole trip, even if the 
thought of being within a hundred miles of Ender did send chills 
down my spine.  Pacifica was impressive in its way, but when all 
was said and done, it was just a difficult feat of engineering.  The 
Jungle, that was different, dangerous.  It was a place of strange 
beasts, exotic life, and rugged adventurers.  Well, so read all the 
guide books, and they did have a certain basis in fact.
	I caught my first sight of it as our plane broke through the 
clouds and started circling into the city.  The only details I could 
make out from so high up were the colors.   Unsurprisingly, most of 
it was your basic forest green, but here and there were occasional 
patches of a region of plantlife adopting another color of the 
rainbow, whether it be gold, indigo, or pure white.  Then I caught 
the bright blue ribbon of a river far below, and the plane turned 
enough so that I caught my first sight of [cityname], one of the 
famous walled cities of South America.
	The city was shaped like a half circle, its circumference 
squished up against the shore of the river.  Literally miles of docks 
ranged up and down the river, one of the tributaries of the mighty 
Amazon, and ships dotted its waters so thickly, I wondered how 
they avoided running into one another.  From the edges of the 
docks rose the walls that marked the city limits.  Pushing outward, 
they formed extremely shallow arcs, slowly curving around to meet 
each other.
	The wall wasn't the same all the way around, rising higher 
or lower and having different appearances based on what 
neighborhood that particular section happened to border.  I looked 
for bulges, places where it might have been pulled back to provide 
more room for expansion, but it remained surprisingly uniform.  
Here and there were gates, but the roads leading from them were 
swallowed from sight into the thick wilderness surrounding the city.
	The plane had descended enough so that I could get a 
view into the interior of [cityname].  Skyscrapers reached hundreds 
of stories into the air, separated only by the occasional narrow 
street.  Bridges hung in the air between these towers, allowing 
people and vehicles to travel between them without descending to 
the ground below.  The entire place seemed full of buildings built 
on top of building, with none of the sprawling that I had seen in 
more normal cities.
	I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at what passed 
for a landing strip there.  Our airplane's path of descent passed both 
under and over the arching sky-bridges, wingtips at times coming 
within mere meters of the buildings on either side.  The concrete 
pad was barely long enough to get rid of our momentum, and that 
was while braking hard enough to make my seatbelt straps tug at 
my body.
	Stopping uncomfortably close to a concrete wall, the plane 
turned and wheeled us over to a discolored patch of strip.  I was 
looking vainly around for something resembling a terminal, when 
the ground appeared to rise up around us.  In reality we were 
sinking, as a hidden elevator pulled us down into an underground 
complex.  Doors slid out to close the opening we had descended 
through, feeling like tomb being pulled closed with us inside.  
Another plane was probably landing on the newly-cleared strip 
above us, even as we were signaled to disembark.
	The terminal was bustling with people from every country 
and culture in the world.  They ranged from serious-looking men 
dressed in business suits and guarding some sort of case, to a bunch 
of tourists giving off the famed "Crystal Tokyo stare".  As for 
Marty and I, he was wearing a faded blue jacket over a striped shirt, 
and I was dressed in a utilitarian jumpsuit.  We blended in nicely.
	I felt a little intimidated by the crowd and tried to cover by 
saying, "I can see why,"  I lowered my voice, "Ender would come 
here.  How could you find anybody in this place?"
	He gave me a small smile and said, "If it were just a matter 
of hiding, there are many places that would work just as well, and 
some that would be even better.  [cityname] is one of the trading 
centers of the world.  As you can observe for yourself, folk from all 
nations come here to buy whatever new treasure has come out of 
the Jungle every week.  If Ender does wish to sell the orb, this is an 
ideal place.
	Besides, you know that this is a mana-sink.  Think of the 
implications."
	I snapped my fingers, "Oh yeah, I bet the orb doesn't even 
work here.  There's too high a level of natural mana.  That means 
it'll be harder to find."
	I realized I was talking to thin air.  After finishing his last 
sentence, Marty had begun walking over to one of the small booth-
shops that were strung out along the sides between the various 
gates.  I followed him and found him turning a brown leather hat 
over in his hands.  He put it on his head and asked, "What do you 
think."
	I was kind of annoyed by him having vanished in the 
middle of our conversation, but it wasn't the first time he'd done 
something along those lines.  What could I say but, "Uh, it's you 
boss."
	"I thought so," he happily replied, and took a few seconds 
to buy the hat.
	We claimed our bags without any trouble, but as I headed 
towards the elevators leading to the surface, Marty steered me in 
another direction.  I asked him what was up, and he told me that a 
friend of his was going to be meeting us.
	"So why didn't he meet us at the gate?", I asked.  He didn't 
answer, being distracted by something.  I nudged him and asked 
again.
	"Eh, my apologies Wylah. No doubt she didn't want to go 
through security.  Didn't want to take the risk that any harm could 
possibly befall that hammer of hers...."
	Before I could ask what he meant by the bit about the 
"hammer", we had arrived at the cafeteria where Marty had said his 
friend would be waiting.  The place was crowded, but he quickly 
located the person he was looking for and pointed her out to me.  
I'm not surprised he was able to find her so quickly, since she didn't 
exactly blend into the crowd.
	The first thing I noticed about her, was her unusual skin 
color.  It wasn't any shade I'd ever seen on a human being before.  
Her skin with a light bluish-gray, with just enough gray in it to pass 
first glance, and enough blue to appear distinctly odd on second 
glance.  It nicely complimented her inky-black hair, which was 
shoulder length and hung loose, twisting up into natural curls.  That 
was the first thing I noticed.
	The second thing was that she was quite beautiful, in a 
cold sort of way.  She appeared to be in her early twenties, her 
body was athletic, and her face looked reasonably attractive, even if 
the expression on her face was somewhat grim.  Despite her beauty, 
the people around her left a wide gap between them and her.  She 
seemed to be giving off some sort of "don't mess with me" aura.
	It was an aura which Marty was quietly ignoring as he 
crept closer to her.  While I had been busying goggling, he had 
quietly dropped his bags and begun sneaking around in a circle, 
obviously attempting to approach her unobserved.  He moved 
quickly, but with a silence that surprised me.  I had just enough 
time to think that there was something vaguely familiar about the 
woman, when Marty completed his approach.
	As he came up behind her, she reached her hand back, and 
caught him by the shirt.  With a strength that seemed out of 
proportion to her body, she easily flipped him over her head.  I was 
afraid she would slam him to the ground, but she reached out and 
caught him with her other arm.  This left Marty being held 
helplessly off the ground, and not in any position to get away.
	As I ran towards them, I noticed that the hat he had just 
bought had somehow remained on top of his head.  Amazing the 
things that catch our attention in times of stress.
	"Hey, puthimdownnow!", I yelled.  Admittedly not the 
smartest thing to do when confronting someone strong enough to 
toss an adult human being around like that, but as you may have 
noticed, when I was younger I didn't always think things through.
	I was surprised when both Marty and the strange bluish 
woman burst into laughter, him coming dangerously close to being 
dumped onto the ground as her grip weakened.  Before he could 
fall, the woman turned Marty right side up and placed him carefully 
back on his feet.  She then said to me, "Don't worry, I'd never really 
hurt Martin here.  He and I are old pals."  Her tone was friendly 
enough, but the look on her face said she was wondering just who I 
was to be making demands.
	Martin explained, "My only intention to see if I could 
finally manage to sneak up on her."  Turning to the woman, he 
added, "I really thought I had you that time Shadey.  I suppose I'm 
just not ninja material."
	She smiled at him and reached out, gripping his hands with 
her own.  Marty gazed into her eyes and their faces grew closer to 
each other.  For a second, I thought they might kiss.
	Then the moment was over, and Marty drew away. He 
cleared his throat and spoke.  "Ah, my apologies.  Shadey, this is 
Wylah Koeing, my research assistant.  Wylah, this is Elayne Aino, 
my best friend."
	On hearing the name, I finally understood why Elayne 
seemed so familiar.  "Excuse me, did he say your last name was 
_Aino_?"
	She rolled her eyes as if she had heard the question too 
many times before, and she probably had.  "Yes, I'm one of  
'Venus's children'.  I think that's what the press is calling us these 
days.  Yes, Aino Minako, better known as Sailor Venus, is my 
mother.  I'm surprised you picked up on it so quick.  Even with the 
skin, most people are too dumb to ever make the connection."
	I think she was being a little harsh.  The Ainos were, and 
still are, pretty good about keeping their privacy, and 'Venus's 
children' weren't all that famous.  The thing is, I used to be quite 
obsessed with the Senshi as a young girl, and that obsession had 
extended to their children as well.  I'd probably seen her picture in 
some obscure shot off the internet at one point or another.
	Determined not to make a fool of myself, I made some 
sort of polite comment and went back to get the bags I had dropped 
before someone ran off with them.  Elayne and Marty followed me, 
and Marty picked up his own suitcases.  Elayne grabbed one of 
them from him and hefted it with the same easy strength I had seen 
before.  Marty looked a little embarrassed, but muttered "Thank-
you.  If I remember correctly, it's a long walk to the hotel."
	She just winked at him, and together we ascended to 
ground level.  I noticed she wasn't offering to help me with my 
bags, but after all, fit as he was, Marty was in his late fifties.  From 
my current perspective, I can say that you really start to appreciate 
the benefits of porters after the big 'five zero'.
	The two walked side by side with the easy closeness of 
two old friends.  Elayne was wearing a flowing cloak, whose edge 
softly knocked the side of Marty's leg with every step.  They didn't 
seem to have very much to say, so I tried to strike up a 
conversation.
	"So um, 'Shadey', how do you and Dr. Spectre know each 
other?"
	She threw a piercing glance in my direction and told me, 
"First off, you can call me Aino or Elayne.  Martin here is the only 
one who can get away with calling me Shadey.  Just one of his 
dumb nicknames.  We've known each other ever since we were 
both kids.  He parents took him to visit Crystal Tokyo, and we met 
up and hit it off.  Been best buddies ever since."
	My boss added, "Unfortunately our respective lifestyles 
seem to keep us apart all too often, but we do our best to keep in 
contact with letters and messages."
	I'm sorry to say I was too busy goggling to pay attention 
to his addendum.  I should have known better, but to hear a woman 
who looked about my age talking about having known Marty when 
he was a child threw me off.  Elayne noticed my surprise.
	"Yeah, I'm a bit older than I look.  It's a gift from dear old 
Dad and his youma genes.... along with a few other things.  But 
hey, it's great having a young and beautiful body."
	Marty forced a smile, "Indeed, being around you always 
makes me feel like I share your youth, Shadey."
	There was an awkward silence and I wondered. I thought 
of was how hard it must be, watching your friends get old and die 
while you barely aged at all.  Elayne was still young enough not to 
have seen too many deaths, but it would have been hard on her, 
seeing everyone else of her generation get gray hairs and wrinkles.
	It occurred to me that it would be just as strange on her 
friends.  That strange moment she and Marty had shared when first 
greeting each other, did it mean they had stronger feelings they 
weren't acting on?  Was it because of Marty's mortality?
	I didn't know the answers, and I suppose I still can't say 
for sure.  After all, I can't read the secrets of the human heart.  Still, 
in light of what has happened since, I think I my first impressions 
were probably the right ones.
	I do know that both of them picked up their pace, and I 
had a hard time keeping up.  We caught a quick ride on an 
underground rail system directly from the airport.  I noticed 
something strange on the route map.  Many of the rails seemed to 
lead out of the actual city entirely.  Before I could ask about it, 
Marty and Elayne hurried me out of the train and on to the street.
	They didn't leave me much time to look around when we 
finally entered the city proper, and that was too bad because it was 
a fascinating place.  It seemed like a mishmash of all types of 
commercial and industrial structures pushed together.  I saw one 
building that was a church on the ground floor, some sort of factory 
for the next few levels, and sprouting the balconies of an apartment 
complex at the very top limits of my sight.
	The streets themselves were crowded with a constant 
stream of vehicles coming and going.  They weren't moving very 
fast though, usually loaded down with some sort of cargo and 
crawling barely quicker than the foot traffic to either side.  Marty 
was right, it wasn't a short walk.  We had to go several blocks, 
which is a lot more than it sounds with the constant mass of people 
we were pushing through.
	Marty and I might have had even more problems, but 
Elayne led the way with the same aura of repulsion she had shown 
in the airport lounge.  I asked her about it later, but she denied that 
there was anything mystical involved.  It was just a matter of body 
language and facial expression, or so she claimed.
	I was surprised to see that many of the people had some 
sort of weapon hanging from their clothes.  Mostly it was just 
shocksticks and knives, but I saw the occasional gun holster.  This 
time I pretty much forced an answer out of Marty.  Politely of 
course, since he was after all my boss.
	"Well Wylah, you must understand that on very rare 
occasions some dangerous creature from the Jungle will somehow 
make its way into the city. I assure you 99% of those you see will 
never encounter such a beast, but there's a strong tradition of the 
right to bear arms among these people.  The local government 
couldn't get away with disarming the populace even if it took a 
mind to.  They would never stand for it.  There seems to be a 
general belief here that a well-armed society is a free and polite 
society."
	As he spoke these last words, we finally arrived at the our 
destination.  Instead of going inside, we crowded into one of many 
elevators built into the outside of the building.  I though Marty had 
finished his explanation, but he added, "Of course they do have a 
murder rate ten times higher than most of the rest of the world, but 
then, what society is perfect?"  I studied his face, but he seemed 
perfectly serious.
	Elayne however wasn't, and she bantered, "What about 
Crystal Tokyo?"
	Marty replied, "You lived there once and now you do not.  
If it was perfect, why did you leave?"
	"Because it was no fun of course!"  To punctuate her 
point, she stuck her tongue out at him.
	He responded by twirling his new hat at her, and she 
laughed and thumped him solidly across the shoulders.  They 
seemed to forget I was there, but before either one could get up to 
anything too childish, the elevator stopped at our floor.  They were 
both too busy to notice, and I actually had to drag both of them by 
the collars.  Obviously, age is no guarantee of dignity.
	There were no real problems checking in, and we unloaded 
our luggage fairly quickly.  It was getting to be time for dinner, so 
Marty suggested we all go out to eat.  Truthfully, I think they 
would have preferred to go alone, but they could hardly not invite 
me, having dragged me to a strange city and all.  I certainly wasn't 
going to stay behind just out of politeness.
	Just getting to the place was interesting.  We had to cross 
two sky-bridges, first going up ten levels, and then down twenty.  
Our destination turned out to be a small bistro that neither of my 
companions had been to before, but that they had heard good things 
about.  We sat down with our menus, and Marty started the 
conversation rolling with a question.
	"Shadey, you told me in our correspondence that you 
would be spending a few weeks here, but you never revealed the 
details of your present assignment. What happened to the water 
treatment designs you were outlining in California?"
	Leaning back, Elayne flipped a bit of hair out of her eyes 
and made a few vague gestures with her hand.  "Simple really.  The 
guys I 'borrowed' the design from caught wind that I was the one 
copying their concepts.  Turns out they had some influential friends 
who made trouble for me, so I decided to change hemispheres for a 
while.  This job-"
	"Excuse me," I interrupted, "but what do you mean by 
'borrowed' and why would anyone be after you?"
	Marty snickered.  "Shadey, I believe Wylah has stumbled 
on to your little secret."  He turned to me, "As much as it pains my 
heart to say it, my best friend is a thief!"  He clutched his chest and 
threw out an arm in an overly-dramatized expression of shame.
	"Oh quit hamming it up!"  Elayne physically pulled him 
back to sitting straight up in order to make her point.  She 
continued, "It's like this Wylah.  I'm sort of a technological 
crosspollinator.  A company has a problem and needs something to 
fix it.  I go to my contacts and see if I can find anyone working on 
something that might help.  When I find someone, I sneak in, scope 
out their work, and use my own not-inconsiderable talent to adapt 
it to solve the original problem."
	"So-it's-like-industrial-espionage!"  As you may be able to 
tell, I was getting over-excited again.  Not only was my response 
lacking in tact, but I said it far too quickly and more importantly, 
far too loudly.
	Elayne winced, and gestured for me to keep it down.  In a 
low tone she said, "No!  Well, not exactly.  I try not to work for 
direct competitors, more applying solutions from one branch of 
industry to another branch."
	"Isn't it illegal?"
	"Tech break-throughs seem like they don't come often 
enough these days, and most governments have recognized that.  
People like me exist to keep things from stagnating and having 
everyone keep every new invention to themselves.  There's a big 
temptation not to let anybody else in on new technology, even if it 
could help a lot of people
	Of course, they can just go ahead and patent their 
discovery, but the way the laws are, they're actually almost forced 
to license the stuff out to whoever wants it, with limits on how 
much they can charge.  It's more profitable for them to just keep it 
to themselves.  That's where I come in.  I make new discoveries 
available to everyone.  Of course, companies are welcome to hire as 
much security as they can afford to keep me out, but the law in 
most jurisdictions won't act against us tech-spies.  We prevent 
stagnation.
	Even the companies who 'contribute' usually don't kick and 
scream too much.  They realize that tomorrow they could be the 
ones who need to hire me."
	"Except for this bunch in California," I couldn't help 
adding. 
	She looked annoyed.  "There's trouble in every line of 
work.  Anyway, I'm not worried about those guys anymore.  It's the 
assignment I've been working on this past while that's been kind of 
weird."
	Marty's ears didn't _physically_ twitch at the word 
"weird", but I could tell Elayne had his full attention once again.  
During her impromptu job description, his mind had understandably 
wandered, and he had been occupying himself studying a collection 
of tools adorning the walls of the restaurant.
	"In what manner is it weird?", he pressed.
	Elayne's brow wrinkled up, as she tried to explain.  "I don't 
know what the whole thing is about!  I was brought in and told to 
build a specialized model of a Golden energy chamber."
	"What's the big deal?", I asked.  "Those are standard for 
constructing magisci devices."
	Many people don't have the personal energy reserves to 
imbue technological works with mana, so some near-forgotten 
genius came up with the Golden chambers a couple of hundred 
years ago.  They focus free mana into an object so that it can be 
permanently fixed into specific effect using automatic low-level 
spells.  Without the chambers, most magisci would have to be 
laboriously built by hand.  With them, mass production is possible.

[SME Note:  Some of Pyrite's early work, naturally.]

	"Believe me, this one wasn't standard.  First of all, it's in 
two connected parts.  Second, the shielding on this thing is 
complete overkill, utterly ridiculous.  Then there are a bunch of 
bizarre specs that I was told to meet.  My theory right now is that 
it's a toy for some rich mage's private lab, but I still can't figure how 
he or she expects to use it.
	To tell the truth, I didn't even do any spying and prying on 
this one.  All the modifications are product of yours truly.  These 
guys would have been better off just hiring a standard design team, 
but they brought me in instead.  It was a rush job too.  They 
insisted on me giving them the specs as I wrote, so that they could 
start building before I was finished designing."  She slammed her 
fist onto the table in frustration, causing it to shake a little.
	Marty had an odd expression on his face, and I couldn't 
tell what he was thinking.  He pulled a pen out of his pocket and 
began doodling idly on a napkin.
	"Ummm, Elayne?"  I was a little hesitant to say anything, 
given her obvious frustration with the mystery.
	"What?!", she barked.
	"Well, maybe secrecy was important to them, and that's 
why they hired you.  I mean, I guess you keep a low profile for 
your work and all."
	"Of course they wanted secrecy.  Why else would they 
have made me sign all those non-disclosure agreements?"
	"Then how come you're telling us about it?"
	An expression of surprise crossed the engineer's face, like 
she hadn't actually thought about it.  Nevertheless, she answered, 
"Hah!  I think they're a bunch of creeps, and anyway I'm a criminal.  
Besides, I finished this morning and collected my final payment, so 
what are they going to do?"

[SME note: Elayne isn't actually a very nice person.  Oh, she's got a 
good heart, but she can be rather harsh to people a lot of the time.  
In fact she's usually more arrogant and rude than you've been seeing 
her here.  She tends to behave a lot more around Marty, and will 
limit herself to very mild teasing where he's concerned.  One theory 
is that she's rebelling against the values of her parents.  Another is 
that Serenity messed up and included a few too many youma genes 
in her make-up.
Just in case anyone ever wants to use her in a story.  Not that you 
will, I'm sure.]

	At this point Marty slid the napkin he had been writing on 
over to Elayne and asked, "Is this anything like what they had you 
build?"
	She glanced at it for a moment.  "Some of the equations 
don't look too far off, but your design sense hasn't gotten any 
better."
	He answered a bit more stiffly than usual.  "What precisely 
do you mean by that last remark?"
	"Come on Martin, you couldn't create a circuit board to 
save your life, and what you've drawn here seems based on the idea 
that the Laws of Thermodynamics reversed themselves.  As a 
scientist, you're first rate; as an inventor, you have less talent than a 
turnip.  You know it and I know it, and you only get this stubborn 
about it out of habit.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.  Heck, your 
theories have shown me the way out of a problem dozens of times."
	As she said this last bit, Elayne's voice was kinder than 
anything I'd yet heard from her.  She went so far as to reach out 
and pat Marty gently on the back.  He slumped a bit, then suddenly 
seemed to recall that I was there and immediately straightened his 
shoulders, trying to retain some dignity.
	"Ah, perhaps I should not dwell on it, as you say.  For a 
moment I merely had a strange idea about the possible nature of 
your employers....... but it was merely a passing fancy.  Ah, I 
believe our waitress is here.  Does everyone have their order?"
	The napkin he had written on slid from the table and 
fluttered gently to the floor.  As we turned the discussion to happier 
topics, it stayed there, forgotten by us all.


	The morning after our arrival dinner, I woke up early.  It 
wasn't because of some desperate soul knocking at my door in the 
dead of night, but because Marty had, without explanation, ordered 
me to meet him in the hotel lobby at around 4 AM, local time.  He 
didn't explain why we had to meet at such an unusual hour, but 
when the boss-man calls, the wise employee cometh.  Besides, what 
with the sudden change in time zones, it would have been difficult 
for me to get up at any hour, reasonable or not.
	The 'lobby' was just as strange as the rest of the city.  
Unlike every other hotel I'd ever been to, what they called the lobby 
was located in the middle of the residence floors, rather than 
ground level.  Beyond that, it resembled a lounge, being populated 
lots of tables and chairs, as well as an enormous window that ran 
the length of one wall. It probably wasn't too comfortable for those 
suffering from vertigo, but it certainly provided a spectacular view 
of the city.  The desk for check-ins and check-outs sat 
unobtrusively in the one corner, manned only by a single sleepy 
worker at that hour of night.
	All this was just what I saw in the first glimpse of the 
elevator door opening.  Most of my attention was fully fixated on a 
bank of coffee machines in one corner.  Once I'd stumbled my way 
over to them and woken myself up, I was able to take a second, 
clearer look around.
	I was unsurprised to see Marty standing by a table near the 
window, perusing a pile of papers scattered across its surface.  He 
was dressed in short sleeves, but the material of his shirt looked 
tough enough to take outdoors.  His pants were denim, and came 
down to a pair of heavy brown boots that looked like they could let 
him walk across a bed of hot coals without feeling it.
	All that was fine.  It was the other thing he was wearing 
that made me frown.  On top of his head perched the same brown 
hat he had bought the day before.  I had been hoping it was just a 
passing fancy, because I had lied to him then.  The hat didn't suit 
him, and in fact, looked kind of dumb on him.  It might have been 
fine if he hadn't had his hair in that ponytail, but as it was, it made 
him look like a sort of toadstool.
	His clothing I could have politely ignored.  What 
frustrated me was that he didn't look tired in the least.  I was about 
to run over and shake the secrets of his restful dreams out of him, 
employer or not, when the sight of the woman standing net to him 
shocked me into immobility.  It was Elayne.
	My sleep-fogged brain wondered vaguely if she would 
warn him about his fashion sense, but looking at her own mode of 
dress, it was unlikely.  She liked black, Elayne did, and it showed in 
the slick black pants she was wearing.  They glistened in a way that 
made me think of water-repellent, but grabbed her body tightly in a 
way that I certainly couldn't have gotten away with.  A sort of half-
robe covered the upper part of her body. It was of the darkest blue, 
but looked loose enough to make it barely possible she wouldn't 
burn up in the tropical climate.  (Of course, being who she was, I 
didn't doubt she could take temperature extremes much better than 
the average mortal.)  All in all, it wasn't as bad as the hat, but I was 
still pretty sure she didn't have a future career as a fashion 
coordinator.
	I wondered what Elayne was doing there.  The impression 
I had gotten the night before had been that she was just meeting 
Marty for dinner.  No matter what her reasons, I determined that I 
wasn't going to do anything to make a fool of myself.  Slowly, I 
began running through words in my head, trying to find the perfect 
opening to make myself appear unconcerned and in control.  Too 
bad this had the unanticipated effect of me standing there staring at 
Elayne and Marty with a slack jaw and an unfocused look in my 
eyes.
	"Wylah, are you feeling quite well?"  Marty's voice was 
soft and concerned, and he went so far as to take a step towards 
me.
	At that moment I realized how I had been acting, and all 
thoughts of appearing calm vanished from my mind.  "Oh, I'm fine 
Dr. Spectre, fine really, I was just surprised to see Ms. Aino here 
and what are you doing here anyway Ms. Aino, no don't answer 
that it's none of my business, hey what's that you're looking a-"
	Simultaneously with my speech, I had been hurrying as 
quickly as possible over to the table the other two were gathered 
around.  The reason I so suddenly cut off was because I had tripped 
on the rug and was about to knock my face against the ground.  
Moving with unnerving speed, Elayne sped out and caught me 
before I hit the floor.  Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about 
the cup of coffee in my hand, and a considerable portion of it 
splashed against my leg.
	"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"  Yes, the coffee was quite hot, 
and yes it hurt a lot.  I hadn't been so much drinking it before, as I 
had been scalding my lips and letting the pain wake me up.
	Elayne scowled, "I don't believe this!  Here!  Feel better 
now?"
	To my amazement I did, I looking down at my leg, I was 
amazed to see why.  Surrounding the spot where the coffee had hit 
me was a small cloud of darkness.  It wasn't merely black, it was 
the total absorption of all light that entered the space it occupied.  
There was no reflectivity whatsoever.  Inside the cloud, I could feel 
the heat of the coffee being slowly drained away.
	I looked up at Elayne, and she gave a slight nod of her 
head, acknowledging responsibility for the event.  Unable, to say 
anything, I just shook my head up and down to tell her that yes, I 
did feel better.  She pulled me completely to my feet, and I walked 
to the table.  As I sat down, the cloud dissipated.  There was still a 
burn, but whatever Elayne had done would keep anything more 
than a small blister from forming.
	Marty didn't seem to know quite what to say, but Elayne 
commented dryly, "If I understood you right, and I'm not sure I do, 
you wanted to know what I'm doing here.  Like I told you last 
night,  I finished my job here yesterday.  I figured as long as I'm at 
loose ends, I might as well hang around and bug Marty for a day or 
two.  Unless you have a problem with that?"
	I shook my head frantically to indicate, no, I didn't have a 
problem with that.
	Marty cleared his throat and said, "Now that Wylah is 
here, perhaps we should go over the day's agenda?"  He began 
outlining our plans for the day, and I sank into my seat, glad not to 
have to say anything.
	I was a bit disappointed with the extent of Marty's planned 
"inquiries" into locating the orb Ender had stolen.  I had been 
envisioning mysterious contacts in the dead of night, but he merely 
decided to place a few phone calls, after a brief discussion with 
Elayne.  It didn't even count as 'the dead of night', since he waited 
until just before we left the city, later that morning.  He said he 
didn't want to wake anyone up.  It wasn't exactly the stuff of spy 
novels.
	To my initial surprise however, he was serious about 
studying some of the specimens that had been coming out of the 
Jungle.  After thinking about it a bit, I realized I shouldn't have 
doubted him.  As upset as he was over the loss of the artifact, 
Marty was hardly going to travel around the world to sit in a hotel 
room and hope someone could find it for him.  Even if nothing 
turned up (and I privately doubted that anything would), he could 
make sure it wasn't a wasted trip by spending his time on other 
matters.
	As for me personally, I was looking forward to the chance 
to do some real research.  Dodging evil magicians and playing 
tourist was all well and good, but this would give me a chance to 
prove myself to my employer as an assistant.  At least, I thought it 
would.  Of course, the object of this "real research" wasn't exactly 
the kind of thing I thought I'd be doing.
	"So we're going bird watching?"  I couldn't keep the 
incredulity out of my voice.
	Marty's face took on a pained look, and I wondered if I 
should have phrased my last statement better.  "Not really.  Bird 
watching is a recreational activity carried out for enjoyment.  We 
are attempting to track down this so-called "Time Quail" in order to 
better understand how temporal magics relate to biological life 
forms."  He paused to reflect.  "Of course, if you did engage in the 
sport of bird watching, I suppose this would be a greatly desired 
addition to your lifetime record."
	Elayne snickered.  "Yeah, we're a bunch of great hunters, 
going after a little bitty bird.  You want to shoot quail Martin, I 
know this hunting range in Carolina.  It might be a bit more of a 
challenge."
	"Since I am by no means a biologist, I don't see the need 
to capture or kill an actual specimen, and as you know very well, 
Shadey, these aren't quail in the traditional sense.  That's merely the 
appellation given them by their discoverer.  The Time Quail is the 
first known animal life form to demonstrate an inborn ability to time 
travel.  Previously, such has only been found in certain vegetative 
species, most recently the 'Sundown flower', which was known to 
transport itself from sundown one day to sunrise the next."  He 
seemed to direct this last to me as much as Elayne.
	I really hadn't minded the brief lecture.  This sort of thing 
had always fascinated me.  In fact, I had sort of been hoping he 
would continue, but instead Marty began placing the various maps 
and reports he had been studying back into the briefcase.  He said, 
"The rental shop is due to open shortly.  I arranged in advance for 
them to set aside the equipment we'll need, so that shouldn't be a 
problem.  Of course, I hadn't counted on you coming along Elayne, 
but I'm sure they'll have an extra pack.  Either that, or you can carry 
mine."  He tossed a wink towards Elayne.  "Now let's be on our 
way!"
	I understood why he felt we had to hurry.  The Jungle 
throws out new species at an incredible rate, but they usually 
disappear just as quickly.  Only a few of its products, such as the 
light vine, have ever achieved any kind of permanent presence.  The 
Time Quail had been discovered only a few months ago, but there 
might very well have ever only been a single generation of them.
	Actually Marty was wrong about the shop being open.  
They were closed and we ended up standing outside the doors for 
close to half an hour, while Elayne threw him many a dirty look.  
Eventually we were able to get some specimen kits, carry packs, 
and a Global Location device to help us navigate.  A quick ride on 
the mass transit system, and we were at one of the city gates.  The 
area where the Quail had been sighted wasn't too far away, so we 
hopped on one of the harvest transports and sped off into the 
Jungle.


	I suppose the time has come to say a few words about the 
Jungle.  I know everybody has at least heard of it, but most people 
don't see to appreciate the why's and wherefores of its existence.  
So take pity on an old scientist, and allow me to practice my 
specialty again.  Just a brief lecture on mana theory, I promise.
	When Serenity uncapped the world's mana wells, it had a 
lot of unanticipated side-effects.  Mana, the very stuff of magic, 
changes physical laws.  It makes the impossible a reality.  It is, to 
quote an ancient movie, "the stuff that dreams are made of".  
Uncapping the planetary mana wells allowed it to spread over the 
entire world.
	The Jungle would have to be a prime example of the 'just 
plain weird' category of unexpected side-effects.  Imagine the wells 
for a moment, pouring their energies out across the earth.  Just as 
with a spring of water, most of their output is reabsorbed into the 
earth.  Some however, form "puddles" in "low" spots.  The 
technical term for these puddles are mana sinks.  These are places 
where the mana emitted from the various wells has flowed together 
to form an area of extreme high magic.  There are a few such areas 
around the planet, but by far the largest and most important covers 
a large portion of the continent of South America.
	It isn't the same as the area around a mana-well, though.  
Not at all.  A mana-well emits pure mana, direct from the earth 
itself and ready to be molded to any purpose.  The mana of a mana 
sink is contaminated.  It has been altered in a thousand minor ways 
by the auras of every living thing it flows through.  To keep the 
explanation as simple as possible, it is oriented towards life.
	More precisely, it changes life.  I've heard that back during 
the early twenty-first century, the South American rain forest was in 
danger of destruction.  I suppose that's still true, in the Central 
American region, outside of the mana-sink.  There, the human 
population continues to grow, and what's left of the forests is 
pushed back every year.  Rare natural species are falling extinct.  If 
not for a few far-sighted individuals and corporations, the non-
magical plants and animals of those areas would already be gone.

[SME Note:  Frank, this should help patch with your Mother-
goddess story]

	Within the area of the mana-sink, it is humanity who is in 
constant danger of destruction.  The plants and animals mutate into 
new magical species on an almost daily basis.  Everything from fire 
flowers to cheetah-ants has appeared at one time or another.  
However, from the first appearance of the mana-well effect, it has 
never changed all equally.
	Plants were affected first, and then animals, with the 
higher order animals such as the great cats being changed the least.  
In fact, the great cats still revert to their original non-magic line 
every few generations.  Contrariwise, there may not be a single 
plant specimen in the Jungle that hasn't been altered one way or 
another.  The famed limited run of NK computers, who processing 
power has not been equaled in the last hundred years, was the result 
of certain crystals naturally produced by flowers discovered in the 
Jungle.  Then the flowers disappeared, and science has since been 
unable to duplicate the components.

[SME Note: This can provide something of an explanation for 
technological inconsistencies that are bound to creep in from story 
to story.  Any given device was perhaps made possible by the 
processing of biological components from the Jungle.  Then the 
components disappeared, and eventually so did all the run of 
devices.]

	Humanity appears so far to be immune to this effect, 
perhaps because of our higher order intelligence.  However, there's 
no way to say for sure what tomorrow will bring.  It's worth 
noticing that the cities of the Jungle have a slightly negative native 
population growth, and require immigrants to keep their numbers 
up.  People there are worried about having children.
	Perhaps fortunately for ecological stability, these "altered" 
species do not breed true outside the mana-sink zone.  Even those 
that have 'stabilized' and remain more or less constant in the Jungle 
itself will return to their "mundane" ancestral state in a single 
generation.  An obvious solution would be to simply farm them 
within the mana-sink, but that doesn't work either.
	Due to the incredibly accelerated plant growth rate, 
cleared land is unlikely to remain clear for more than a day, and 
there's no way to ensure that the species you want is going to grow 
there.  The positive side of this is that valuable species can be 
heavily harvested without too much fear of "over-gathering" them 
into extinction.
	Given the rate that a new species may disappear 
"naturally", the best strategy has generally been to burn a temporary 
road to an anywhere something valuable has been found, and then 
gather as much of it as you can, as quickly as possible.  The 
companies that do this are somewhat comparable to the prospectors 
of old, except that the same area can be mined over and over.
	That brings me full-circle back to our little expedition.  
The Time Quails weren't valuable in themselves, at least not to any 
of the big companies.  You see, no one had figured out how to 
make computer chips from them.  However, there was a large 
harvest site near the area we were after, and hence we hitched a 
ride on one of the cargo transports to 'mining' operation, from 
where on we would hike.
	The three of us sat in the empty back of the transport 
vehicle, the morning sunlight shining softly through the gap in the 
canopy created by the construction of the road we traveled.  The 
driver was up front in the cab, and none of the three of us felt like 
making conversation.  Looking down at the road below us, I saw a 
faint cloud of powder emerging from the back of our vehicle.  it 
was a coating of antifoliant, intended to keep the road clear another 
day.
	Elayne was curled up and napping softly, having borrowed 
Marty's hat to cover her eyes.  My employer was maddeningly 
awake as ever, observing the wilderness to either side, and 
occasionally penciling notes on a small pad he had.  I was seriously 
beginning to wonder if he slept at all.  As for me, I didn't feel 
comfortable trying to nap in a moving vehicle, but I didn't feel like 
straining my mind in any heavy thinking either.  I stared out at the 
scenery and let my mind wander.
	Suddenly the vehicle took a sharp turn to the right, and I 
nearly lost my balance.  The screen of trees parted to one side, and 
I saw the beginning of acres of fields, covered with crops of various 
sorts.  The fields stretched off into the distance, though I thought I 
could barely see another wall of Jungle on the other side.  Between 
the opening in the trees and the fields was a heavy, nasty-looking 
fence, with stations of some sort posted at long intervals along it.
	I must have made some interrogative comment because 
Marty replied, "It's farmland."  Seeing I didn't look any wiser, he 
continued, "There are 'shallow' regions in the mana-sink, where 
farming is actually possible.  Over time, the cities have charted 
these regions and exploited them as a food source.  What did you 
think keeps those people fed?"
	"I dunno, I guess I thought they imported or something."  
Hey, I was sleepy, that was the best I could manage.
	Marty shook his head.  "Actually, they do have to import 
far too much.  Even exploiting the land as efficiently as possible, 
food can be expensive."
	Looking at the fields, I scrunched up my brow and asked, 
"So how do they get it to the city?  Big trucks like this thing?"  I 
thumped the bed of our vehicle.
	"No, they send it underground, just like most 
transportation around here.  This whole continent is crisscrossed 
with underground rail systems.  I'm told constructing them very 
nearly brought financial ruin to the nations involved, but once they 
were built, they provided a means of quick and easy transportation, 
without the problem of disappearing roadways."
	"So how do you know so much about them anyway?"
	He tugged on his ponytail absentmindedly.  "About ten 
years ago, I helped them with an infestation of giant earthworms 
that were destroying the tracks.  That's where my familiarity with 
this area comes from."
	A loud hrrumpphh came from the seemingly asleep Elayne.  
Marty hastily added, "I should say that both Shadey and I assisted 
in that matter."  Glancing in her direction, he added in a whisper, 
"Though most of the labor was mine.  She merely constructed the 
machine."  If Elayne heard, she wasn't willing to contradict him.
	Soon the truck took another sharp turn and we left the 
farming fields behind.   In short-order, we arrived at the harvest 
site.  There were a few stands of temporary housing set up, it being 
more efficient to sleep in the field than cart workers back and forth 
each day.  They were all out at work already so I couldn't get an 
accurate count, but the barracks didn't look large enough to hold 
more than say fifteen to twenty men.  They were a small operation.
	It's funny, but while I recall most things with crystal 
clarity, I can't for the life of me remember what it is they were 
gathering.  It must have been something small, because I remember 
seeing a worker scouring the ground, with a bag in one hand and a 
magnifying glass in the other.
	Elayne gave Marty back his hat, still stretching the kinks 
out of her shoulders, and together they consulted some maps on 
where to go next.  I was told to, and I quote, "Go check over the 
packs again and make sure everything is stowed away properly."
	Obviously, with Elayne there as a much more capable 
assistant, I was going to be something of a fifth wheel.  My only 
real hope at that point was that she would eventually leave to tend 
to her own affairs, because all I saw before me right then was a 
future of dishwashing and slide-sorting.  I comforted myself with 
the thought that least we had apparently put all the dangerous 
business with necromancers and such behind us.  Just how wrong is 
it possible for one woman to be, anyway?
	This being the first time I was actually in the Jungle, and 
not merely viewing it from a moving vehicle, I took the chance for 
a look around.  I think exotic and unsettling are the best words to 
describe it.  The trees were the worst.  I saw one that was covered 
with some sort of blackish oil that oozed up and down the trunk, 
occasionally throwing out a tendril to snatch some close-flying 
insect.  I saw another tree of incredible beauty, light sparkling 
through its fragile crystalline leaves and fragmenting into a 
thousand prismatic colors.  Still another tree looked perfectly 
normal, but coming close to it, I felt the aura of intense cold it was 
emitting.
	Then there were the insects.  They gave off light, strange 
noises, and unearthly scents, sometimes all three at once.  Luckily, 
they seem almost offended by my mundaneness in this land of 
magic, and refused to cluster around me as more 'normal' insects 
would.  I did notice with amusement that Elayne received more 
insect attention than Marty and I combined.  Her magical nature 
was apparently a larger draw than us mere humans.
	Having finished their consultations, my employer and his 
friend called my back over, and helped me slip my pack on.  To my 
surprise, Marty slipped a shock-stick into one of the loops of my 
supply belt.  I gave him a questioning look.
	He tilted his head to one side and said, "We aren't likely to 
run into anything truly dangerous around here, and if we do, Elayne 
will handle it.  Still, there are regular instances of animals growing 
to unusual sizes.  If you should happen to encounter say, a giant 
frog, just give it a jolt of electricity."
	With that encouraging bit of advice ringing in the air, the 
three of us, two intrepid adventurers and one worried assistant, 
made our way into the Jungle.  Elayne led the way, machete in 
hand.  With her enhanced strength, she was easily able to hack a 
path through that Marty and I could follow.  I'm not going to try to 
catalogue all the strangeness that we passed, except to say that you 
haven't seen shrubbery until you've seen electric blue, levitating 
shrubbery.
	Getting started early had its benefits, because it was still 
slightly before noon when we saw our first Quail. The last traces of 
morning mist remained hanging in the air, momentarily protected 
from the sun by the leafy canopy of trees overhead.  I shrugged my 
pack onto the ground with a grateful sigh, and swung my shoulders 
back and forth, trying to shake the stiffness out.  I couldn't really 
complain though, because 'excellent physical condition' had been 
one of my employment conditions.
	The birds we had traveled so far to see looked..... 
surprisingly normal.  Their plumage was a dull brown, and their 
feather were perfectly ordinary bird feathers.  They looked 
completely mundane, though a bit unusual in the very fact of their 
mundaneness against such a bizarre background.  They traveled in a 
small flock, keeping close together at all times.  There were sixteen 
of them in all, but the count was difficult to make.  You see, they 
kept doubling themselves.
	A Quail would blip into existence, fly to get a choice bit of 
food, and then another would blip out of existence.  Of course, the 
one that blipped out was the same one that had appeared only 
moments before.  It was all rather confusing.
	Marty questioned in a soft voice, "Why do you suppose 
their temporal abilities are in such constant use?  It would not seem 
to provide any great advantage."
	Elayne weakly offered, "Maybe they're worried about 
being attacked by predators."
	As I later learned, erratic uses of power like that denote 
unstable Jungle species that are likely to quickly disappear.  Of 
course, neither Marty nor Elayne knew that, and I wouldn't learn it 
until years later when I returned to the Jungle leading....  Well that 
isn't really pertinent here.  Forgive me for getting off track, I do 
tend to ramble.
	In any case, none of us were biologists, and so could be 
forgiven for not rationalizing behavior patterns.  We were there to 
take measurements on the mana utilization of the Quails, hopefully 
leading to a better understanding of time magics.  I got the dubious 
pleasure of spending an hour planting scanning devices around the 
perimeter of our observation area, all the while hoping the flock 
wouldn't decide to head for greener pastures.
	I was particularly frustrated by what I thought had to be a 
glitch in the readings.  At first it was just a faint echo, traces of 
magical power that were interfering with the readings the Quail 
were giving off.  I thought perhaps it might be one of the rarer, 
more powerful beasts, and I clutched my shock-stick tightly in one 
hand.
	The longer the anomaly went on, the less it read like any 
sort of animal.  In fact, it didn't seem to match any sort of biological 
readings at all.  The fact that the scanners picked it up at all was 
due to the fact that they were just general purpose rentals, and not 
specifically calibrated to the task at hand.  The strange reading 
pulsed in an out in a disconcerting pattern, coming back a little 
stronger and a little closer each time.
	I was beginning to have a strong suspicion it that whatever 
was creating it was manmade.  The problem was that I couldn't 
identify it, and that puzzled me.  I had been exposed to most major 
modern areas of magical study in college, and though I was no 
mage, I felt I should at least be able to identify the basic pattern.  I 
couldn't figure out what brand of magic it might be, that I had never 
even had a chance to observe it.
	Marty and Elayne were busy taking readings on the Quails 
with notebook scopes, and weren't picking up the same strange 
pattern.  I could have asked them for help, but chose not to, 
preferring to try and figure it out on my own.  Then several things 
happened all at once.
	The scanner readings recorded a massive surge, as if 
whatever it was had powered up and was heading our way.  I could 
hear a shout from my two companions, indicating that the increase 
had managed to register even on their tiny notebooks.  I was on the 
other side of a slightly open area, having been attempting to 
gradually encircle the Quails.  The change in readings worried me 
so much, I began to run across the clearing to consult with Marty 
directly.
	At the same instant I stepped forward, the flock of Time 
Quails suddenly doubled in size as every single one of them fled 
from a nasty surprise in the near-future.  The new arrivals 
immediately took flight in all directions, moving as fast as they 
could.  There was a slight rustling from the highest branches of a 
tree overhead, and without warning, a corpse fell on my head.
	A dead body is bad enough.  A moving dead body is the 
stuff that nightmares are made of.  Believe me, I know; I still have 
them.  A sickly smell of rot filled my nostrils as the thing gripped 
me and began to pull.  I must have screamed from the pain as it's 
fingertips dug into the flesh of my neck, and its hands began to 
squeeze.  The world started to go dark.
	Then it was gone and Marty and Elayne stood over me.  
Together they had pulled the thing off and flung it, several feet 
away.  Marty asked, "Are you injured?" while Elayne kept watch in 
case it got back up.  I just lay there in shock, staring up at the sky.
	Looking past the treetops, I could see a dirigible floating 
silently in the air.  It should have looked sinister, painted black and 
maybe with some spikes, but it was merely a dull green with some 
sort of company logo on the side of the gasbag.  It was just the sort 
of thing I had seen casually passing over the streets of the city.  
There wasn't a hint of the darkness within.
	More corpses fell from the airship, hitting the earth all 
around us with sickly thuds.  Most of them were "fresher" than the 
one that had landed on me, not having visibly rotted.  They could 
never have been mistaken for anything alive, though.  The hideous 
wounds that didn't bleed and the waxy pallor of death would have 
prevented that.  That meant I couldn't delude myself for even a 
moment as to what they were, when they slowly rose and began to 
shamble towards us.
	Marty and Elayne spoke the word simultaneously, 
"Zombies."
	Then they were upon us.  I scrambled to my feet, 
desperately trying to avoid our undead attackers.  Elayne pulled the 
machete out of her belt and threw it point-first at one of the 
zombies, splitting its skull down the middle, and causing it to pause 
and try to dig the blade out.  At the same time, one of the closest 
reached out to grab Marty.  He yanked on its hand, twisted and 
executed a perfect throw over one shoulder, knocking it into one of 
its comrades coming from the opposite direction.  Not bad for a 
man with that much gray in his hair, but that left two down, and 
well over two dozen still intent on ripping us apart.
	They moved slightly slower than a human would, though I 
knew from the brief grip one had gotten, that they had an incredible 
strength.  We had only moments before they swarmed us in force, 
when Elayne reached beneath her clothes and pulled out- a 
hammer?
	It was made out of a dull black alloy, and my eyes kept 
sliding off the edges, as if something was forcing my gaze away 
from it.  The head of the hammer was a solid rectangular block, cut 
squarely on both ends and with strange runes curling everywhere 
except the actual striking surface.  From the middle of the head 
hung about one inch of haft, and from the end of the haft a small 
handle extended at a ninety degree angle.  As I watched, Elayne 
grabbed it by the handle and flicked her wrist.  The haft instantly 
uncompressed to about two feet in length.
	While she had been unlimbering her weapon, Elayne had 
made a gesture with her free hand, and globes of darkness now 
surrounded the heads of all the zombies.  From here on out, things 
get a little chaotic.  I'll do my best to describe what happened, but 
only some of it will be from memory, and the rest will be what I've 
reconstructed over the years.
	First, the darkness didn't impair the zombies as much as 
I'm sure Elayne hoped.  It stopped them from locating us visually, 
but they could still sense the force of our life.  None of them 
lumbered off in the wrong direction.  Elayne went on the attack, 
swinging the huge mass of the hammer with ease to force back the 
ranks of the undead.  I'm sure knocking them down did no real 
injury, but her weapon broke bones.  Without solid bones as 
support, the muscles of the corpses couldn't deliver any real power, 
no matter the strength of the dark enchantments they carried.
	Myself, I had no real fighting experience, beyond a few 
hair-pulling incidents as a schoolgirl.  I certainly didn't feel up to 
tackling the forces of dark magic.  Marty though, was emboldened 
by his earlier success and moved forward to try his luck with one of 
the zombies blocking a possible escape route.  Planting his feet 
firmly, he drove a fist straight into its face.  Marty should have 
stuck with throws, because his punch had no effect beyond rocking 
its head back a little.  The zombie on the other hand, took the 
opportunity to grasp onto him in a death hug.
	Elayne caught glanced over her shoulder and saw him in 
trouble.  With a shout of "Martin!" she threw her hammer across 
the intervening meters.
	Shadows seemed to gather about it during its brief flight, 
and it emitted a burst of darkness when it struck, weakening the 
zombie enough for Marty to wriggle free.  Incredibly, the hammer 
continued after hitting its target, executing an arc in mid-air that 
eventually led it back to Elayne's hand.  Soundlessly, she used the 
returned weapon to push back two zombies who had nearly 
overwhelmed her during its absence.
	Meanwhile, Marty stumbled back weakened and nearly 
knocked both me and himself over.  He didn't look good, and 
desperately reached out for something to support himself.  What he 
grabbed was the shoulder bag I had been using to carry the sensor 
devices I was planting.  He pulled one of them from the bag, and a 
look of hope dawned on his face as he examined it.
	"Shadey!" He called.
	Elayne raced past us, getting into position to protect 
Marty and I from the zombies that were approaching from that side.  
She growled, "I'm a little busy right now!"  As she spoke, I noticed 
that some of the globes of darkness.  It was becoming an increasing 
strain on her to keep so many small spaced dark, in so many 
different moving locations.  That wasn't good, because their lack of 
sight was the sole reason we hadn't already been killed.
	Marty replied, "Oh I merely thought I might have a way to 
stop these necromantic animations.  If you prefer to fight it out 
physically, go-"
	"How!" she interrupted, showing a distinct lack of 
patience with Marty's long-winded ways.
	He held up one of my scanners.  "This model works by 
releasing a small magical charge to produce feedback with the 
environment.  If you can cause all the mana batteries of these 
devices to short simultaneously..."
	Elayne finished in between hammer swings, "It might 
disrupt the spells holding these creeps together!"
	"Correct, but it must be on precisely the right frequency 
for such a relatively small release of energy to have any effect.  Let 
me see.  He turned one of the scanners on and observed the it for a 
few precious seconds.  The pattern that had so mystified me didn't 
seem to be lost on him.  After a moment of furious thought, he 
proclaimed, "I have the frequency."
	He called out a string of numbers as Elayne abandoned the 
battle to rush and take the scanners from him.  She dropped the 
hammer and pulled out some tools, but then stopped as if 
distracted.  She clenched her fist, and suddenly the world went 
dark!
	I screamed, only to have a hand placed over my mouth.  
Marty whispered in my ear, "Wylah, it would be best if you 
maintained silence.  Zombie hearing isn't particularly acute, but 
neither is it non-existent."
	I shut up, but Mary must have been able to sense my 
trembling.  I felt him take my hand, though the darkness was still so 
absolute it was as if the sun and all the stars had been extinguished.  
He whispered an explanation.  "Shadey can't both fix the scanners 
and concentrate sufficiently to maintain so many dark fields at once.  
She can however, keep one large field in operation so that our 
undead assailants may still be delayed in locating us.  Fortunately, 
her powers do not impair her own vision."
	I whispered back.  "So what if they get to us before she 
finishes?" He didn't answer.  I suppose he didn't have anything I 
would want to hear.
	I've been in bad situations in my life, but sitting shivering 
in the dark while shambling, rotting things crept closer and closer.  
Well, that ranks right up there.
	Seconds crept by.  Even now, I'm not sure exactly how 
long it was.  I heard a rustling next to me, and then cold, dead 
hands groped me sightlessly, trying to pull me in.  The zombie had 
located a source of the life and warmth it had been ordered to 
destroy, and that source was me.
	There was a cry and I slipped away as Marty charged my 
attacker, knocking it to the ground.  I could hear him wrestling 
desperately with a creature that couldn't get tired or be hurt.  He 
yelled, "Shadey, if these turn out to be my last words, I'll hold you 
responsible!"  He let loose a grunt of pain, then continued weakly, 
"Just joking.  I know.... you're... doing your best....."
	Before the final echo of his speech could fade, a thrum of 
power exploded through me, and I could hear a large thump as 
something dropped to the ground inches.  A moment later the 
darkfield lifted, to reveal a scene littered with what were now 
nothing but lifeless corpses, devoid of animation.  The thump I had 
heard was now the corpse of an elderly man with a wound in his 
side, laying beside where I stood.  It had been about one second 
away from grabbing me.
	Marty was on the ground, desperately trying to release the 
death grip the body of a petite woman had on his throat.  Elayne 
pushed past me before I could move, and bent down to full her 
friend free.  She looked exhausted, as if the fight had taken a lot out 
of her.  I suspect that standing at ground zero of a magical 
explosion hadn't helped either.
	As Elayne pulled Marty to his feet, she commented dryly, 
"You'll hold me responsible?"
	"Heh-heh.  I suppose you didn't need the extra 
motivation," he answered, looking embarrassed.
	Elayne said nothing, just looked at him.  After a moment, 
he added, "I had some sort of crazy idea that if I died angry with 
you, I might somehow be able to come back and haunt you."
	Elayne just stood there staring at him for half a minute.  
Then she threw back her head and laughed.  She laughed and 
laughed, and soon Marty joined her.  Somehow they ended up 
hugging each other.  She buried her head in his shoulder and 
muttered something.  I don't think I was meant to hear it, but I did, 
and so I'll record it here.  She said, "God, I hope so."
	Eventually they let go of each other and looked around.  
Marty seemed puzzled, and said, "From the way they appeared, it 
seemed as though our zombie antagonists were dropped from 
above.  I fail to see how that was possible, unless we just 
experienced the strangest rain storm on record.
	"There was an airship," I began.
	Elayne waved me to silence, an expression of fury 
beginning to grow on her face.  It made me want to edge away, 
even though the anger wasn't directed towards me.  "I saw it too.  
It was a Finale airship.  Those bastards didn't even bother to try and 
hide their identities.  I guess they figured there was no way I'd 
survive their hit.  I'm going to show them just how wrong they 
were."  She picked up her hammer and began running her hands up 
and down the haft, an unpleasant look in her eyes.
	"Finale?"  Marty asked.
	"Finale Industries, the company I've been working for.  
They obviously wanted to cover their tracks, and figured taking me 
out would make sure no one knew about their little machine."
	"But zombies are inevitably the tools of necromancers," he 
pondered.
	A chill ran through me.  I had known that, but I hadn't 
really thought about it until that moment.  That explained why I 
hadn't been able to recognize the readings.  Necromancy was 
considered a crime against humanity by every nation in the world.  
They couldn't exactly bring someone in to demonstrate it for 
students.
	Marty grabbed Elayne by the arm.  "Shadey, I you know 
that I came here partially in track of an artifact stolen by a powerful 
necromancer.  When you were talking about your work last night, it 
occurred to me a doubled-chambered Golden chamber along the 
lines you described could possibly be used to transform or 
otherwise alter such an artifact.  I dismissed it as too large a 
coincidence that you would happen to be involved in the matter I 
was pursuing..."
	"But now you're thinking twice, eh?"  Elayne finished.  
"Still, it could be a coincidence.  Anyone that would sink low 
enough to order a murder wouldn't be above hiring a necromancer 
to do their dirty work."
	"Finale," I spoke without speaking.  "Finale is another 
word for end."
	It hit all three of us at the same time.  "Ender!"
	"That is beyond the bounds of coincidence.  There can be 
no doubt it is him.  We must inform the police immediately."  Marty 
said it, but it's what we all were thinking.  At least, it's what I was 
thinking.  Elayne was still caressing her hammer, and looked as 
though she might have preferred to skip the police and go after 
Ender herself.
	The three of us headed back to the encampment at top 
speed, leaving the packs where they lay.  They would only have 
slowed us down.  Normally Elayne could probably have outpaced 
us both without too much effort, but fighting her way through a 
horde of zombies while using her power extensively and precisely 
had left her a long way from "normal".  Marty and I were able to 
keep up without too much trouble.
	Besides, I think there was a mutual unspoken agreement 
not to become separated.  Again, at least that was what _I_ was 
thinking.
	During the trip, Marty pulled me back slightly and asked if 
I was alright.  I thought about the gouges in my flesh where the 
zombie had gripped me, and I thought about the nightmares I just 
knew I was going to have.  All I said was, "Sure, I'm fine."
	He guiltily told me, "Wylah, I deeply regret bringing you 
into this situation.  You might have dies, and it would have been 
because I foolishly underestimated the danger.  If you wish, I will 
arrange for a job with one of my colleagues.  There will be less 
danger and higher pay, I swear."
	The chivalric, foolishly heroic part of me said to reject his 
offer and tell him to do no such thing.  The practical part of me that 
was going to have nightmares said not to be stupid.  So I 
compromised.  "I'll think about it."  I slapped my hand against my 
side, and felt it knock against the shock-stick still tucked into my 
belt.  Suddenly recalling I had been armed the whole time, my face 
turned red.
	Marty saw my face and gently told me, "I don't believe a 
jolt of electricity would have had any great effect upon a walking 
corpse, Wylah."  Giving me a slight smile, he hurried to catch up to 
Elayne.
	As he picked up the pace again, I noticed Marty was 
carefully favoring his left arm.  I was going to ask him about it, but 
honestly, I didn't have the breath.  Call me out of shape if you like, 
but who would have thought 'good physical condition' meant hours-
long hikes through the woods.
	It was mid-afternoon by the time we finally got back to the 
harvesting encampment.  Marty walked up to the supervisor and 
spent five minutes arguing about why the transport truck should be 
sent immediately to take us back, even though it still wasn't full.  He 
got precisely no where with her, and eventually walked off in a huff.  
Then Elayne took her turn, and within a minute be were climbing 
into the back, for the return trip to the city.  I think the way she still 
had her hammer out, covered with bits of dried zombie muck, 
probably had a lot to do with it.
	No one did any sleeping that trip, though Elayne probably 
could have used some.  She sat there, simmering and muttering to 
herself for about half the time, until Marty finally came up behind 
her and began giving her a back rub.  After that, the two of them 
talked quietly for a while, retreating to their own corner of the 
truck.  I both wasn't rude enough, and didn't have enough nerve, to 
try and eavsedrop on their conversation.  That bit of knowledge will 
just have to be lost to prosperity.
	Once we were in the city, Marty consulted with an 
interactive wall map for the location of the nearest police station.  I 
wandered a bit to the right, and caught the headline of the latest 
edition of a local electronic newspaper.  What I saw froze me in my 
tracks.
	Marty, having gotten his map, was impatient to get 
moving.  He called out, "Wylah!"  I didn't so much as stir.
	Frowning, he called out my name again to no greater 
effect.  Walking over to me, he was about to shake my shoulder 
when he looked past me to see the screen.  Seeing the same 
headline I had, he too began to stare.
	Now Elayne joined us, curious as to what we were up to.  
She took a moment to read the headline, and gaped for a bit before 
finally coming up with something to say.  "Well.  A dollar short and 
a day late, I guess."
	The headline read -Hunter team captures most-wanted 
necromancer-.  It was flashing a picture of Ender, eyes closed and 
looking in far from good shape.  As if Elayne's voice had broken a 
spell, Marty tapped his credit number into the machine to get the 
rest of the story.
	According to the article, Ender had been captured at about 
one o'clock that afternoon, just about the time we had been hiking 
back to the camp.  Two Hunters, Bill and Ted (codenamed the 
Wyld Stallions), had been responsible for the bust.  Ender had put 
up some resistance, but had been quickly worn down, ending up in 
a coma.  Most of his henchmen were locked safely away, though a 
few had evaded capture.
	Looking at the pictures, I noticed that Ender had 
apparently managed to heal himself of whatever damage Mercury 
had done him.  It seemed a bit odd at the time, since a Senshi attack 
shouldn't have been so easy to shake off.
	Marty shook his head and said, to no one in particular, "I 
would never have believed that a foe as dangerous as Ender could 
be taken down so quickly.  Perhaps I have underestimated the 
Hunter organization.  I may have to revise my opinion of them yet."
	There didn't seem to be much else to do except phone the 
police to tell them our story.  Under the circumstances, a personal 
visit would have been a waste of time.  Marty did most of the 
talking, with occasional input by Elayne.
	The detective who took our case was sympathetic, and 
promised to send someone out to gather any corpses that were left 
and find their proper burial spots.  He also promised to set a time 
for us to give our statements, but he wasn't really enthusiastic, and I 
couldn't blame him.  There were already many, many crimes they 
could charge Ender and his men with.
	So there we were, bruised and battered, standing around 
trying to figure out what to do next.  Finally I asked, "So is that it 
then?"
	"No, that's not quite it," Marty carefully stated.  "There's 
still the matter of recovering that ancient orb to concern ourselves 
with.  I asked the detective, but nothing of that nature has yet been 
discovered.  Shadey, can you take us to where the chamber was 
being built?  It's possible the orb may have been stored somewhere 
near-by."
	She shook her head, smiling, "I was just designing the 
thing.  They were building it someplace a long ways from here, and 
no one told me where.  But...... I did do some snooping where I 
wasn't supposed to once, and I think I know where everything 
went.  Get this.  It was a small town in northern Japan."
	I gasped, "How could a necromancer dare do anything in 
Japan? Wouldn't Neo-queen Serenity know?"
	Elayne waved a dismissive hand.  "That's just a popular 
myth.  Serenity's special powers don't extend beyond Crystal 
Tokyo.  Outside of there, Japan's a pretty normal country.  Well, 
normal except that it has a lot fewer civil disturbances.  I admit it 
was pretty cheeky of him to set up there, practically under her 
nose...."
	Marty added, "I think we have both had sufficient 
experience with Ender's arrogance, haven't we Wylah?  That sort of 
utter self-confidence would certainly have not been beyond him.  So 
what do you say Shadey, will you show me the way?"
	"Sure, I guess you need someone to come along and keep 
you out of trouble."  Elayne looked much recovered as she said 
this.
	"So shall I go buy us the tickets?"  I said, wanting to be 
helpful.
	Marty frowned.  "You will not be accompanying us.  I've 
been responsible for placing you in jeopardy twice now, and that is 
two times too many."
	By all reason, I should have thanked him and let it go 
there.  I couldn't.  Some part of me wouldn't let me do the rational, 
smart thing.  I think maybe it was the same part that always wanted 
to grow up to be a hero.  I told Marty, "Sir, I've been along on this 
thing since the beginning, and I want to see the end.  You have to 
take me along!"
	He looked towards Elayne, and she confidently said.  
"Don't worry, I can take any henchmen that are likely to be left 
around there.  Without a leader, I bet I can make them run with just 
a scary look."
	With an uncomfortable expression on his face, Marty 
turned to me and said, "Very well, the three of us it is.  I will 
respect your decision.  I just hope you don't come to regret it."
	So did I.


End chapter 2