Boomerang cried out in surprise and dove to his left, the bullet of the ARM just barely missing him. However, the wall was not so lucky. The fake Noble Knight cursed under her breath and aimed at Boomerang again, but she had to wait for the bullet to load into the barrel. Boomerang took this opportunity to run across the room and tackle the imposter, sending the ARM sliding across the floor. She kicked him off of her and crawled over to the ARM.

Just then, Zed entered the room. "Zed! Do something!!" Boomerang yelled, getting to his feet. Zed just grinned and lit a lantern. It was then that Boomerang could see that it was not Zed, but someone who looked exactly like him! The fake Zed's only difference between himself and the swordsman was the fact that his hair was a deeper shade of green and his eyes were blood red.

"Sure, I'll do something," Zed's imposter spoke with a sinsister grin. He then unsheathed a long sword that was strapped to his belt and leaped toward Boomerang. Boomerang managed to dodge once again, but cried out in surprise and fear as he saw that the fake Noble Knight had recovered her ARM, but instead she was holding two long swords. It was then that Boomerang noticed the twin sheaths on her belt. The imposters flashed an evil smile at the demon and then leapt for him again.

The two got on either side of Boomerang and slashed at him again and again. By either fast reflexes or extremely good luck, Boomerang was able to dodge each of the strikes. However, Zed's imposter managed to land one vastly good blow, slicing Boomerang's right arm even through his orange, gold, and black armor. The demon choked back a cry of pain as he clapped a hand over the gash. "What the hell is going on?!" Boomerang heard Elmina and Rudy shout in unison. The two imposters looked down the hallway and grinned again as four of the Dream Chasers came out of their rooms. It was Rudy, Jack, Cecilia, and Elmina.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!" Jack cried when he saw what was happening. "Noble Knight! Zed!! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Uh...waking up?" came a male voice behind them. The four warriors spun around and came face-to-face with the true Zed and Noble Knight.

Cecilia's eyes widened as she asked, first pointing to Zed and then to the imposters, "But...if you're here...then who are they?"

The two imposters backed away as someone else entered the room from the front door of the inn. He wore silver, red, and gold armor and a silver and red helmet with a black visor that hid his face. Underneath the visor, the blood red glow of his eyes could be seen. Strapped to his gold-colored belt were two circular disks with hollow insides that were razor-sharp on the outside.

He looked exactly like Boomerang!

Placing a hand on his hip, Zed's imposter spoke, his voice slightly deeper than Zed's, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dazer."

The fake Noble Knight stated, sheathing her swords and getting out her Hand Cannon ARM again, "My name's Dark Knight."

Dazer motioned toward the fake Boomerang, "And this is Chakrum." Chakrum nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Th-They're-They're CLONES!!" Rudy stuttered.

"So that's what those damn tests were for!!" Noble Knight growled.

Dark Knight laughed, "Yep! I'm the result! Dazer and Chakrum came from Mother's knowledge of the strengths and powers of Boomerang and Zed."

Zed had gone back into his room just long enough to recover the Doom Bringer. He poised the sword and prepared to charge. His action did not go unnoticed by Dazer. Seph came out of Noble Knight's room with her gold-colored sword in his mouth. Noble Knight took the sword, but did not wait for an opening. She bolted toward Dark Knight, catching the clone by surprise. Dark Knight managed to dodge somehow and fired the Hand Cannon at Noble Knight, hitting her full in the back. Noble Knight went flying across the room, slamming into the wall.

The area exploded into action. Boomerang and Rudy went after Chakrum, Zed and Elmina attacked Dazer, and Noble Knight, Cecilia, Jack, and Seph all fought Dark Knight whom they thought was the most dangerous of the three.

Suddenly, as Elmina managed to cut Dazer across the torso with her sword, the clone only groaned while Zed screamed in pain and fell to is knees, clutching his stomach. Elmina and the other Dream Chasers froze, staring at Zed. There was not a mark on him. Had he actually felt Elmina's sword?

Dazer laughed sinisterly, amazingly ignoring the deep slash mark on his stomach from which blood now poured out, "Uh oh! Now you've got a problem!"

"What do you mean?" Seph growled, baring his fangs and extending his claws.

Dark Knight answered, "We're connected to your friends. When we're hurt, they take the blow. Oh, sure, it still hurts a little, but they take most of the pain. But it doesn't work the other way around. If we hurt them, we don't feel a thing. In fact, hurting them actually heals us!"

Dazer finished for her, "You can't hurt us without hurting them! If we die, so do they!!"

Noble Knight shook her head in disbelief as did Boomerang. Groaning, Zed slowly climbed to is feet, still clutching his stomach. Rudy was about to say something when he noticed that Chakrum was no longer paying attention to what was happening in the room. Instead he seemed to be listening carefully to something. Something in his...helmet?

Chakrum walked over to Dark Knight and whispered something to her, making sure that the Dream Chasers did not hear. Dark Knight growled, "Daaamn! And we were just having fun, too!! Daze, let's go. Zeik's spoiling our fun again..."

"Damn it..." Dazer cursed, sheathing his sword and turning back to the Dream Chasers. "Don't even think that you've seen the last of us!" Then, all three of the clones disappeared.

"Ow..." was all Zed could say.

Jack groaned, "We are in DEEP shit..." Everyone else looked at him and nodded in a wordless agreement.

It was then that Lucied came out of Boomerang's room, yawning and stretching. Boomerang looked at the Guardian of Desire and said jokingly, "Well, you're useless! What the hell were you doing while we were getting our asses whooped?!"

"WAAAAH!! What do you want?!?!" Dazer whined as Dark Knight began to bandage up his torso.

Zeikfried answered, sharpening the blade on the Glumzamber, "I have a plan."

"Well, spit it out!!" Dark Knight snapped, finishing Dazer's bandages.

"Chakrum. You're going to play the biggest role in this plan," Zeikfried stated. Chakrum pointed to himself, confused. "Yes, you, you idiot!!"

"So, what's the plan?" Dazer asked. Then, Zeikfried told them everything in detail.

"Um...where's NK?" Rudy asked as the Dream Chasers exited the inn the next morning.

"Right here!!" came the reply. Noble Knight was running back to the warriors, coming from the direction of the armor and weapon shop. "Sorry, I had to get my sword sharpened."

"Let's get going," Cecilia spoke.

"Where? I'd love to know that," Boomerang said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Uh..." Cecilia struggled for an answer.

Zed suggested, "Why don't we try where the Photosphere used to be? Or the Ka Dingel ruins?"

Elmina agreed, "Yeah. Why don't we split up into two groups? One group will check out where the Photosphere was and the other group will search the Ka Dingel ruins."

Jack nodded and spoke, "Elmina, Zed, Rudy, and I will take the Gull Wing to Ka Dingel. Boomerang, Lucied, NK, Seph, and Cecilia will go on the Sweet Candy and-"

He was cut off by an extremely familiar, female voice saying, "HEY!! I never expected to meet the three of you here!!" Everyone spun around to see a teenage girl about the age of nineteen standing behind them. She wore leather boots, cloth pants, a white t-shirt and a leather vest. On her hands were some thick gloves and strapped to her belt was an ARM like Rudy's Hand Cannon, only slightly smaller. Her hair was bright blonde and her blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

Cecilia laughed, "Calamity Jane!"

"Who?" Noble Knight, Boomerang, Seph, and Elmina all asked in unison.

Jane responded, "Calamity Jane. The most beautiful girl in the southwest, um...next to my sister, that is."

Rudy had to ask, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Jane laughed, "I'm looking for a good profit! Either that, or I'm coming with you..." She looked at them hopefully.

"WHAT?!" Jack yelled, "You want to come with us?!"

"Sure, why not? Business has been slow and I kinda miss travelling with you guys. Um...plus I've gotta enough money to pay for repairs on Court Siem. A group of Orc Lords attacked it and a few houses were demolished."

Jack sighed and said, "Alright...plan change! Jane, you go on the Sweet Candy, and Cecilia, you come with us on the Gull Wing."