Chapter 7

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

-T.S. Eliot

3:40 pm

Smiley burst into insane laughter as he tore through the ruined front door. His eyesflashed around like a wild man as a man came around the corner. This man had the nerve to look surprised as Smiley brought his arm straight out, popping his spurs right through the poor soul's lower throat. Arteries were severed and blood pumped freely from the open wound, coating the samurai with a crimson red that seemed to fuel his mood.

"By the numbers, people, don't get cocky." Remy said as he pushed his way inside, catching up to Smiley just as he slid his spurs out of his victim. Remy motioned his head to an open room just inside the entrance. "Smiley take right flank."

Smiley replied with a frenzy. "Yes, fearless leader."

"Guido?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"Take left." Remy ordered as he paced himself into the room and made sure there was no one else about.

"Got it, boss?" Guido lumbered his way through the archway and into what looked like a living room. It was quite large and was filled with antique furniture. However, there was no sign of any guards.

"Remy? Bloody hell, are ye there?" Hamish's voice came over the commlink.

"A little busy right now, Ham."

Hamish snorted. "That's what I wanted to say to yer, mate. I jus' has four goons on the back chasing after me drones. Well it seems that they heard Guido the troll barbarian tearing through the front door. So yer's gonna have some company pretty soon."

"Thanks for the warning." Remy said as he gave the room a quick survey. There were four open exits from the living room. One was a flight of stairs that lead up to the second floor.There was also an open archway where the group had come in. The third opening was anarchway on the opposite side of the room. There was also a set of closed doors facing the rear of the house. "Guido, Smiley?"

The troll grunted.

"We got incoming, least four guards maybe more. We split up we can check this place out quicker. Take the archway. If Lola Domingo is in here she's probably going to be locked in a basement or in some bedroom upstairs. She if you can find the basement, but keep alert. Me and Shard will scan the upstairs."

The closed doors that were facing the rear of the house suddenly burst open. Four goons wearing heavy jackets stepped in and immediately drew aim at the runners. Remy was the first to react, instinctively grabbing Shard by the arm and triggering his heavy Ares Predator II at the same time. The whole time making a run for the stairs as the guards opened up with sub-machine guns, turning the furniture to shreds.

Smiley tucked and rolled himself into the archway as the guards started firing, narrowly avoiding a stitching of explosive rounds. Through the onslaught, Smiley never lost the insane grin on his face. The troll took a few rounds in the center of his armored jacket, but he only grunted at the impact. Guido slowly walked toward the archway while his AK97 spat fire. At least one guard took a three round burst, opening up his shoulder to the world.

"Guido make a hole in you de size of a chicken pot pie!" Guido bellowed. "And me Guido just wuv chicken. 'Specially when it's baked."

Remy continued to work his way up the stairs as Shard through up a bullet barrier to keep the hail of lead off of them. Shard almost slipped once, but Remy caught her and pulled her along side him.

Remy keyed his commlink. "Hamish, see if you can get one of your drones in the back inside. Maybe you can draw off any more security personal that might be about. And keep Fulcrum outside for astral support. We don't want any frag-ups." Remy could hardly hear Hamish's reply. The rapid fire from the goons below was drowning out the sound. Those goons were already starting to move in and cover both pairs of runners. Remy could let that happen to quickly. He could still see Guido popping away with his assault rifle. So Remy pulled a smoke grenade from his belt and tossed it in the middle of the guards below him. At the same time he yelled "Smoker!" to Guido and Smiley.

The smoke spat out by the grenade filled the room in an instant. It looked like the entire house was on fire. The guards stumbled around for a second, trying to get their bearings straight. Remy's eyes shifted to a thermographic and he saw two of the guards still stumbling and coughing. However, the other two guards had moved back behind the doorway and werelooking around like there was no gas at all. They must have some sort of thermographic imaging as well.

Remy allowed himself to smile for a moment, then he lead Shard up the stairs and onto the second floor. Guido and Smiley took the hint when the grenade went off. They too disappeared in search of the basement. Both of them quite ready for when those goons would get back up and give chase. Smiley took it upon himself to booby-trap the archway. He tapped a grenade to one side and strung a thin line across it. This way anyone not paying attention would catch their foot on the line and pull the pin on the grenade.

The four guards seemed to stumble around for a few seconds after the grenade hit. One of them lay sprawled on the floor with blood pumping from his shredded shoulder. Eventually they pulled themselves together. However, instead of splitting up like Remy hoped they would do, the three remaining goons all headed for the stairs.

3:45 pm

"Who are you?" Lola asked. She had a hollow, sinking feeling in her stomach. She still felt very uncomfortable. She had wondered into a large room where the ceiling rose for two stories high above her. The only light in the room came from an overhead skylight and through a pair of huge bay windows. On the floor in the center of the room there was an elaborate circle drawn in blue chalk. At the outer boundaries there was various objects. Some of these included candles and bones, but a few jewels were scattered about. The circle was quite large. Lola guessed that it must be at least twelve meters across.

Above her on the second level of the room, a figure stepped out onto the balcony. He was tall for a human with dark red hair pulled back into a ponytail. His clothing looked lavishly expensive, the latest in Tres Chic. Lola couldn't be sure, but she felt like she had seen this person before.

"I? I am Dervish." He said in a deep, rich voice. "I am the beginning and the end."

Lola looked perplexed.

"More accurately, I am the beginning and the end....." He smiled slightly, and lifted his hand. This movement caused the candles on the hermetic circle behind Lola to catch on fire.".....of you."

Lola's eyes widened, suddenly having a terrible feeling from the room. Though she didn't know exactly what Dervish had in mind, she was sure that she would be safer someplace far away from him. She turned for the open door, but a wave from Dervish's hand closed it. She tugged on the handle, but it was sealed shut.

"Now I wouldn't want you leaving so soon." Dervish said as he lifted his hands, muttering under his breath. In a smooth motion the spell caste over his person quietly floated him off the balcony. "We have merely begun...."

Dervish's spell suddenly leapt toward Lola. It flipped her upside down then horizontal. Lola screamed, but only in fear at first. Then it hit her. Waves of agonizing pain swept through her body as she hovered in the air, slowly being positioned above the hermetic circle. She screamed for help as loudly as she could, but no one seemed to hear her. Her suffering felt like it would never end.

3:50 pm

"What was dat?"

There was a faint boom from the hallway behind Smiley and Guido. Smiley tilted his head as Guido picked his nose. A minute later there was a loud scream, then silence.

"That would be my grenade going off, stupid."

Guido shook his head. "Guido didn't hear grenade."

"How can you not here it?!"

Guido listened for a moment. "Guido hear something else. It sound a lot like."

A sound like growling and barking filled the hallway. Smiley turned around to face apart of the hall where it turned a corner.

"Oh, drek." He sighed as a pair of sinister looking black dogs rounded the corner. Both of them barking, snapping, and drooling their way to the two runners. Almost like the two animals were rabid. Smiley pointed his shotgun at them. "I really hate shooting critters. They're so much more nice than people at times."

Guido's eyes bugged out of his skull. "Dogs!" The troll bellowed. "Guido hate dogs! Guido really REALLY hate DOGS!" Guido turned around and start running down the hall."Guido really, really, REALLY HATE DOGS!"

Smiley was left with his mouth hanging open. Stunned at the troll was running away from a pair of simple puppies. In speaking of puppies, Smiley turned back around in time to see both animals leap for his throat. "Son of a....., Guido get back here!"

Guido didn't listen. He just kept on bolting away as fast as his feet would carry him. He nearly gave two guards a heart-attack. The sight of a troll running full steam with a AK97 in one hand and a combat axe in the other is enough to give the shakes to just about anyone.

"GET OUTTA GUIDO's WAY!" The troll bellowed as he literally ran over one guard,trampling him under a size twenty-four combat boot. To the other guard he gave a wide swing with his axe. The result was so that the man cleanly lost his head above the jaw. The one that had Guido's footprint implanted in his chest promptly struggled to his knees and grabbed onto the troll's belt, trying to pull him down.

Guido only glared at him with eyes bugging out of his skull. "Let go o' Guido! Guido hate DOGS!" And kicked him aside. The guard folded up and grunted, but Guido didn't let it go at that. "You try ta' let dogs get Guido?! Me, Guido, no like that!" The guard cringed as Guido proceeded to pound him into something resembling a smashed prune.

Smiley, on the other hand, grabbed the first rabid hound and flipped it right over his head. Only to be greeted when the second animal leaped for his thoat, only to be stopped by Smiley sticking out his right hand. The animal bit down, forcing him to drop his shotgun.

"Bad dog!" He screamed, smacking the animal across the nose. "Bad, BAD dog!"

The hound that he flipped behind him scampered to its feet and bit into Smiley's calf.Though he could barely feel the canine's teeth through his body armor. However, it was the dog's twisting and pulling that caused most of Smiley's discomfort.

"I said BAD DOG!" Smiley twisted his forearm painfully in a sharp arch, one that thedog could not meet. When the animal let its vicious jaws go, Smiley popped the spurs mounted into his wrist. A pair of razors jutted out and slashed the dog's windpipe in one smooth motion.The hound yipped, gargled blood, and limbered away. Only to collapse a few feet down the hall.

The other dog kept snapping at Smiley's knee, now really digging in it's teeth. Smiley snapped his shotgun up on his foot and kicked it straight up. He caught the weapon in mid-air and spun violently around while bring the butt of the shotgun in line with the dog's head. A loud<thunk> followed by the yelp of the animal followed. Smiley didn't waste time. As soon as he completed his spin, Smiley brought the barrel of the shotgun in line with the rabid beast that had been chewing him like he was a T-Bone. The smartlink lit up a bright red triangle in Smiley's vision, centered on the brain casing of the mutt. A quick squeeze of the trigger and a three-round burst splattered blood and bone in a wide patch, blasting the headless body three feetdown the hall, leaving it to quiver without thought.

"Stupid mutt." Smiley sighed and thumbed new shells into his shotgun. "In speaking of mutts, GUIDO!" Smiley called and started trotting off in the direction the troll had went. "The little puppy dogs have gone to sleep, you can come out now!"

Smiley kept moving down the hallway until he came to a corner. He peaked around thecorner, half expecting to see the troll standing on top of a chair screaming like a girl."Guido...?"

What he saw was something very different. On one side of the hall was a was a mentally deprived corpse. The missing half of it's anatomy was still spinning a slow circle about a meter from it's owner. Then there was the troll, pounding on something that looked like smushed grape.

Smiley stood for a moment just staring. Wondering why a troll that was so afraid of dogs had just mauled two heavily armed guards. Then his senses came back to him. "GUIDO!"

Guido looked up with a real shocked expression on his face. "Uh......yeah?"

"What're you doing?"

Guido looked a Smiley, then at the pummeled fruit, the Smiley, then the spinning head on the floor. "Uh......me, Guido...uhm..."

Smiley shook his head. "Just, nevermind, stupid."

Guido shrugged. "Okay-doky, what about doggy? Guido hates doggies!"

"They went to eat there kibbles-n-bits, now come'on for drek's sake."

"Duh..., where we going?"

"Just," Smiley shook his head. "Just follow me, that can't be too hard."

"Okay-doky"

3:55 pm

"I don't understand why no one ever follows Smiley and Guido." Shard remarked asboth her and Remy ducked into a open door as bullet riddled their path.

"I guess that they just love us to death, now keep moving." Remy replied as he pushed her behind a couch for cover. That same instant one of the guards chasing them came to the doorwayand opened up with a compact Colt Cobra. Lead slammed against the couch, tearing gappingholes in the antique woodwork. Two rounds stitched across Remy's Torso. One was stopped by armor, but the second found a crease between the plates and buried itself into Remy's shoulder.

Remy hesitated for about a quarter of a second. Then his wires kicked in, allowing him to bring up his Predator with a blinding speed. The round he snapped off flew true and tore the guard's throat in two.

"Remy?"

Remy clenched his shoulder tried to bring up his arm to stop the bleeding. "Yeah, I took one." He said as he rolled over the couch. Another house guard came to the doorway and used it for cover. From there he began peppering the couch with automatic fire. "Now try and clear these guys out a little, Shard."

Shard nodded and took a small peak over the couch to get a view of her target. She was careful not to expose herself too much. She then jerked a small ruby from her coat and muttered a phrase in Latin. A fireball formed from the red ruby and engulfed the guard. He screamed in pain as his ammunition started cooking off, tearing his body in two.

"Let's keep it moving girl." Remy said as he pulled Shard up by the arm and through a door at the other end of the small lounge. Shard stumbled a bit, but didn't slow down. She moved as quickly as she could through the door. Then hunched up against the side as Remy bolted through.

A new source of gunfire erupted from the lounge as two guards charged in. One was at the doorway while the other took a few steps inside and ducked near the couch. He was pulling a grenade from his belt when Shard pointed her finger at the man breathed a harsh phrase in magic. What followed next was a rasping pain for the two guards. The manablast hit the men with such force that it shattered the ribs of the one behind the couch. He doubled over in pain.The one at the doorway had his eardrums burst. The force of the spell blew him over the railing on the balcony. He fell to the unforgiving ground below.

Remy dropped the clip out of his pistol and inserted a fresh one. "Remind me never to buy a house with a balcony." He said, clenching his shoulder.

Shard put her hands on Remy's wound. "How bad is it?"

Remy shrugged. There was a growing fire where the bullet had struck him, but he wasn't going to let it show. "It's not bad. The fragging slug is still in there. I can feel the blasted thing rubbing against by bones."

"I can heal it a little,"

"But I'll still have that slug there." Remy reached into his coat and pulled a patch. He stripped of the adhesive layer and placed the medicated side on his wound. "I'll be fine until we get out of this place. Let's go."

4:00 pm

"It's all nominal, really. There is no point to our existence." Dervish said as he waved his hand lazily. Lola hovered no less than a meter off the ground just above the center of the vile mage's hermetic circle. The waves of pain that had been agonizing her had stopped, leaving her exhausted and cramped. Now Dervish was quietly walking around the circle. He would occasionally stop to light a candle or sprinkle dust on an arcane symbol. For the most part, though, he just talked. He rambled on like he didn't have a care in the world. "Our lives are nothing more than a blink in time. A mote in the tea if it were. No matter what feat we perform, in the end we will always cut us back down. This place is harsh. It doesn't care who we are. This world will spin us all round and round." Lola whimpered while Dervish continued his recital. "In the end we will all fall down."

Lola started to cry.

"Oh?" Dervish almost sounded concerned. "Don't shed a tear. For it is the nature of things. Take this pathetic construct, for example." The mage turned his head up and whispered a single word. "Nigel?"

At it's master's command, the fire elemental manifested near the top of the chamber.It's brilliant light filtered through the skylight above as it graced itself, slowly floating down to the level of the mage. Nigel's appearance was unlike most fire elementals. Its body was totally black with a demon shaped head and long, vile arms. The fingers on the end were long, sharp talons. It was surrounded in an aura of fire that danced about it like a lost lover.

"This spirit, though it looks dangerous and powerful, is weak and bound to my command." Dervish explained, talking mainly to hear himself talk. "It bends to my will. For Nigel, I am the world, and I will spin him round and round...." Dervish grinned. "And make him fall down. Unless he does as I command."

The elemental stood quietly. It did not even have an expression of emotion on its blackened face.

"Command...." Dervish said to himself. "Command is such a simple word, yet it carries so much weight." The elemental seemed to bow a little bit at the words. "Nigel, I do not wish to be disturbed, yet mundanes threaten my privacy. You will silence them. Make them sing no more in this world of hate." He glanced at Lola. "And I? I will further myself in the world. I will spin the world around....."

4:03 pm

Guido snorted a deep breath of air. "Me, Guido, smell a barbeque. Guido like barbeque."

"What are you talking about, stupid?!" Smiley questioned the troll.

Guido started to lumbar off. "Guido go dis way."

"That's not the way to the basement, stupid."

"But Guido smell something."

Smiley sighed, then hunched over in a mockery of the troll's walk. "Well me, Smiley, smell something too, but me think it's just you."

The pair wondered off to a set of heavy oak doors toward the end of a hallway.

4:05 pm

"I'll be right back."

"Now where in the saint's name are ye going, Fulcrum." Hamish scorned as Fulcrum opened the Bison's door. "Everything's quite, I think we took care of most of the bloody security. Remy told us to wait outside and make sure we didn't fetch and trouble from LoneStar."

"I know, Hamish, what we were told." Fulcrum looked at the house. "But Remy has no idea what he has gotten into. Indeed, none of us really know. All of the signs are there, the time is near."

"Time?" Hamish questioned. "Time for what?"

Fulcrum smiled. "You shall see." With that he stepped outside and made his way across the street.

Hamish huffed. "Well, I'm bloody well not gonna see it while sitting on my arse." He unhooked the datacords from his temple and picked up has AK97 compact. "Wait up, mate!"