"All clear, guys. Nobody's home."

Damien, Claire, and RJ followed him in. The four were a temporary cabal, friendly to each other, and dedicated to a more aggresive approach to the defeat of the Technocracy and the restoration of magick to Sleeper(mortal) lives. Earth, in 1998, was shrouded in technology, which was just another magick, but one Sleepers accepted. Many Sleepers now beleived that magick never existed. The Technocracy encouraged this belief, to better control mankind, and magick continued to weaken.

"So, what is this place?" asked RJ, panning his flashlight over the strange machines.

"My sources say it's a HIT Mark factory. If we destroy it, they lose the ability to make those robots that have been casuing us so much trouble." Claire pointed to the 'bot parts littering the area, showing where the humanoid killer robots were being built.

Damien smiled, looking at the robot parts strewn across tables as well. "So the Technomancers lose their biggest HIT Mark factory, and we get less killers breathing down our throats. Two birds with one stone. Perfect target."

"Yeah, too perfect." RJ was an eternal pessimist. "I dunno, it just seems, well, too easy. " He checked around, but all the bugs were already disabled. "Shoudn't there be, well, more defenses for this factory?"

"Not if they're all down on fourth street." Max grinned lopsididly. "Since I turned off the HIT Marks left to guard the place. Although. . ." He trailed off, and frowned, then shrugged and smiled. "Never mind. So how does this grenade work?" He tossed it from one hand to the other, then gave it to Claire.

"You press this button for the five minute timer, "she said pointing to one, "and this one if something goes wrong and you need a deadman's button. The cover is magick-proof so that no one else can trigger it with magick. Not that we'll need the deadman switch. I hope. Anyways, let's set it and scram. I have a bad feeling about this. . ."

"You should have listened to it, miss." The four companions spun at the sound of the cold, sinister voice behind them. Five men were there. Four wore the mechanical attachments that identified them as Technocracy cyborgs, while the fifth, wearing an expensive suit, radiated magic, and was obviously a mage of the Technocracy. "Fools!" He laughed. "This was a trap! We knew you were coming the whole time. Now, reality deviants, surrender, or you will die."

"Never!" shouted RJ, acting faster then anyone. A bolt of energy flew from his hand and blasted a cyborg through the room's only door, destroying it. His next shot took out the wall behind the mages.

"Everyone for themselves! Run for it!" screamed Claire. Still holding the grenade, she cast a spell and flew for the ceiling. Damien dove behind a table, overturned it, sending parts flying, and cast a protective spell on it. He fumbled for his gun. RJ threw another energy bolt, then ran for the hole he'd opened. Max dove under a metal desk, and enchanted it as well.

The technomage pressed a button on his lapel, and was instantly surrounded by an energy field. Damien shot it, but he couldn't pierce it with a handgun. Two of the three remaining cyborgs, in unison, sent flame arcing towards Claire. She collapsed, on fire, and dropped the grenade as she tried to put it out. The third shot a small missile into RJ, catching him in the back and breaking his protective spell. The next missile was unstopped, and RJ fell, dead.

Damien, casting another quick spell, fired an impossible stream of bullets from his handgun at a cyborg. It was unprepared for the power of his attack, and fell with over a hundred bullet holes in it. The technomancer and the cyborg that shot RJ took cover from the lethal hail of bullets.

Claire, having put out the fire on her, teleported behind the second cyborg and tried to hit it with a steel robot arm. It spun, prepared, grabbed the arm, and fired its flamethrower at point-blank. Claire blocked it, but it proved too much exertion, and she collapsed, unconsious. In the meanwhile, Max had had an idea. He tried to leave the shelter, and a missile almost took his head off. He decided to use magick. Just then his, scanner, which he had left on, told him that four more cyborgs were coming towards the building, but not from where. The cyborgs both went for cover, after one tied up Claire in case she woke up.

Damien also noticed the scanner's report. There was no escape now, because he was pinned down, and couldn't out-fight six cyborgs. Then max called him telepathicaly. "Distract them, Damien. Neither of us will probably survive, but we can at least take out these guys." Damien grinned and conjured an Uzi to help him out a bit. Distract 'em, eh? He could do that.

Max, meanwhile, was slowly pulling the grenade towards him with magick. Inch by inch, he pulled, until it close enough for him to grab, and flip up the cover over the deadman's switch. At that moment, the four cyborgs burst into the room, through the hole RJ had made. Max was still under cover, but Damien was caught unprepared, and was cut down like wheat. Max grimaced. It was over. He couldn't survive this. He called: "Stop. I'm coming up. Don't shoot!" He rose slowly, holding the grenade with the deadman switch held down.

"Do you surrender?" asked the Technomancer, smiling.

"Well, no, but I do have two things to say." Max noticed that Claire was under a thick magic-protective barrier. He hoped it was two-way.

"Oh, really? What's that?"

"First, if anyone hurts me or her, I'll let go of this button, and the whole building will be blown up." He grinned in slightly crazed fashion. The technomancer looked at him, and at the grenade, and paled. He waved his cyborgs back a few steps.

"So I suppose you'll demand freedom?" he asked. He knew his cyborgs' guns were longer in range then the grenade. Unfortunatly for him, so did Max.

"Nope, cause you'd just shoot me once you were out of the blast radius. No friends, all I have to say is this:" He put all his protective magick over Claire. It wasn't nearly enough to save him, but, mixed with the no-magick wards on her, it might save her. "Die, technocrats!" With that, Max let go of the grenade, and heard a shout from the technomancer. He felt a moment of pain, then nothing. Ever again.

Any Sleepers out that late at night would have seen a massive explosion as an empty warehouse suddenly flashed white and vanished. Some, more perceptive, might have sworn they saw a woman pulled into a vortex formed by the aftershock of the blast.

Report: From Jack Saunders, New World Order Vancouver branch to Autochnia.

Subject: HIT Mark Factory #1725 and Mage cabal code-named X2E4

I regret to inform you that Agent Samuels was killed in action recently. He set a trap for a group of superstitionalists that have been hindering our timetable in Vancouver. The trap was successfulin that the superstitionalists were killed, but one of them had a vortex grenade. Angent Samuels, eight cyborgs, and HIT Mark Factory #1725 were destroyed in the blast. Please send supplies for a new factory ASAP, because we will be weakened until it comes. A full account of the encounter has been attached. Sincerly, NWO Vancouver.

PS- We will also require the coding to fix a nasty computer virus that has been going around. We suspect the creator was one of those killed in the blast. Also, a talisman detection system would be appreciated.