Chapter 2 Present Tense: Here and Now

Ryan forces his eyes open.

His head hurts... it hurts to the point that even the faint light from the stars and moon cause him actual physical pain. He can feel their light burning into his mind...

... and didn't his house just blow up?

He forces himself to roll to his side... and he realizes that he's laying in a pile of rubble. Bits of wood and concrete that used to make up his home are under him... around him... on top of him.

As he works to push the bits of wall and ceiling off of him, he remembers fighting against a black void creature... The Four. He remembers searching the remains of the Knights of Human Purity camp for Justin... who was not there. He remembers a flash of light... and the girl that caused it.

Frail...

He pushes himself up to a sitting position, and watches in amazement as Saphir and Brad are in the midst of battle with the girl.

Well... as much in the midst as they can be, seeing as how she doesn't seem to be there at all.

When they attack, she is behind them. When they try to flank her... she isn't there. It's doesn't look like she's moving to avoid them... it's like she isn't even there in the first place.

But, Ryan knows better.

He pushes himself to his feet, and concentrates long enough to send a wide arc lightning blast at the fighting group. As the magic strikes Brad, it is absorbed by his armour, but Saphir takes the full hit and falls to the ground. Arrowny feels bad about this, but that feeling is short lived as the spell also connects with the girl, causing her to stumble back.

This is the momentary distraction that Brad needs. He spins wide, and buries his new axe in her stomach.

The girl stumbles back as Brad pulls his axe free of her flesh... but rather than the usual blood and guts, she seems to be filled with energy... a vibrant, powerful energy that actually heals her before they even get a chance to feel good about the attack.

She glares at Brad, with hatred in her eyes, and a blast of energy sends the Warrior flying back to what would be the basement of the house. That is to say... he lands in the kitchen, but since the floor is totally gone from that area, he falls all the way through to the basement.

Saphir struggles to his feet, and she sends another blast of energy, causing him to fall back, landing beside Arrowny... who raises Sky Render...

“Frail... how?”

She does not look happy with Ryan.

“You... LEFT ME THERE! You didn't even KILL ME! YOU JUST LEFT ME!”

She starts moving toward Ryan... floating just a few centimetres above the rubble that she created. Ryan can't even defend himself. Sky Render drops to the ground, and he is choking... and she hasn't even touched him yet.

She is still a few meters away... and with just her own inborn power, she is choking the life from him.

“Hey... she-bitch...”

Arrowny suddenly finds himself able to breath as the girl turns to face Brad, who just climbed his way out of the basement, without using the, now pretty much non-existent, stairs. He is standing there, looking rather intimidating. His armour shines like obsidian... his eyes seem hollow.

In one hand, he holds his new axe... smooth metal, thick and made to crush.

In the other... he holds a cold blue, two bladed sword... one blade thin and sharp... one wide and dull. This is the sword given to him by the now dead hell god Jove... the sword that makes him just a little bit evil.

He smiles a twisted, sadistic smile...

“... let's go!”

Brad jumps at the girl with a speed that no human, even one as well trained as he, could ever manage without mystical help. The girl doesn't even try to move out of the way.

Jove's sword connects with the girl... and shatters. There is no flash of light... no loud explosion. The sword, forged by the hell god, shatters as it connects with the energy surrounding this girl.

Brad's eyes return to normal... and he looks down at the handle of the sword which is still held tightly in his hand. He's not sorry that the sword is gone... he knew that if that attack had actually worked, Ryan and Saphir would have had to kill him almost right away to prevent the same events that happened last time he picked up that weapon...

... but he kinda thought it would work.

By the time Brad looks back up to see the girl... she's gone. Brad looks around the rubble, just a little confused.

“Um... where is she?”

Saphir glances up from his nice comfortable spot on the ground.

“I think she teleported.”

“Oh... okay then. What about this?” Brad tosses the handle of the broken sword to the ground beside Saphir's head. “I didn't think that thing could be destroyed.”

“Yeah... it can't.”

“Oh...”

Brad reaches down, and helps Saphir up. They both look around at what used to be their house... and then they look around at the crowd of their neighbours that have gathered around what used to be their house.

Brad waves his axe toward the crowd, and smiles.

“Hey folks! We're just finishing up a movie shoot! Watch for 'The attack of the angry girl', in theatres near you this summer!”

Saphir and Brad are left to wonder about the stupidity of the human race, as most of the neighbours actually accept this excuse.

Brad just blinks repeatedly, and Saphir shakes his head as he turns to the others.

“We've got about ten minutes before somebody figures out that there aren't any cameras around here... what do we do?”

“More importantly!” Brad, in a very menacing way, points his axe at Arrowny. “Who is she? She seemed to know you pretty well.”

Arrowny just shakes his head in disbelief.

“Her... she... we called her 'Frail'...”

Brad laughs.

“'Frail'! That's a joke, right? She just blowed up our house! And YES god damnit!” Brad snaps at Saphir before he can be corrected, “I said 'blowed up'!”

Arrowny pushes the axe away, and stands up to face them.

“'Frail' as in her body is weak... she's got other... strengths though. She was at the Academy.”

“So she somehow escaped the giant bomb that took out the entire place five or so years ago?”

“Actually... that's a funny story. She died about a year before I left the place.”

Brad laughs again.

“Okay Ryan... here's what I need from you. Write up a list of all your old girlfriends that you think are dead, but are actually going to come back as super powered big bads and try to kill us... because it's happening far too often!”

“It wasn't like that... it was...” Ryan shakes his head, and looks around for Sky Render. “Look... it doesn't matter. Here's the deal... that thing with Minion was supposed to be the last big battle for us... so I'm going to go figure this out. You two, gear up and go kill her.”

Saphir shrugs...

“How are we supposed to kill her?”

“And on that same note,” Brad motions back toward the hole that leads down to the basement, “how are we supposed to gear up? That evil sword is the only weapon in the house that survived the explosion.”

Arrowny suddenly becomes very depressed...

“... my weapons...”

And that's about the point where Saphir realizes that his library is also gone. There are a few scraps of pages lying around the rubble, but other than that, no trace of the room at all...

“... my books...”

Brad's eyes go wide. He practically jumps to where the living room used to be, and starts digging through the wreckage. Eventually he comes upon one of his worst nightmares... the very top of a gamecube, the part that you close down over the game disk... all alone... the rest of the system sent to oblivion...

... unlike the others, he does not get depressed... he gets angry.

“... my GAMECUBE!”

Brad chokes up on his axe, and starts to walk off, grabbing Saphir by the collar as he passes by.

“Let's go KILL THIS BITCH!”

* * * * * *

Arrowny sits on the beach. He made a quick run through town to get everything he needed for this, but with all the people looking at him funny, what with the katana he's carrying around and all, he thought it would be best to get somewhere out of the way quick.

So, that's what he's doing on the beach... being out of the way.

He makes a circle in the sand around him, and places a single black candle off to his right, just outside the circle. He sits facing out into the water... or, more precisely, out to what most people see as the water of the Bay of Fundy. He, and other people with the applicable knowledge, see the ruins of what was once a great castle, built on the surface of the water itself.

The Academy.

Years ago, Ryan finds himself forgetting the exact number, the place, the very building where he grew up, was blown up. Destroyed by Castor and Pollex on orders from Joseph. It is just rubble now... much like Ryan's own house.

Shaking off the fact that the every home he's ever had has exploded in some way, Ryan lights the candle with a low level fire spell, and turns his attention over to the task at hand.

Arrowny had been told, time and time agian, that the fight against Minion and The Four was the last great battle that he would have to endure. His name appeared in no more prophecies... there was no new destiny that had to be fulfilled.

It was just supposed to be over.

Now, with Frail returning, it isn't... and he wants to know why.

He hopes that he remembers the correct chant. If it all works, he will summon a guide that is from outside his own space-time. This guide should be able to tell him why he's been pushed headlong into yet another major battle, even though he's not supposed to be.

Hell... they didn't even have time to sleep after taking care of Minion...

Just as he is about to start the necessary chants to bring forth the guide, a hand reaches down, and pinches out the flame on the candle.

Ryan's head snaps to the side, an ice spell already forming in his mind, ready to attack the intruder... but once his eyes fall on the person, he realizes that he won't have to use his magic.

“Justin... how're things?”

Ryan stands up to face the technomage. Justin smiles...

“Not bad really. You?”

“Same old. You know how it is... save the world from the ancient evil of the Four, and get your house blown up by a psychokinetically gifted girl that was supposed to die years and years ago. But, tell me... you didn't show up to fight Minion. What gives?”

Justin places his right hand over his abdomen, and winces a little.

“Well... here's the story! One of the Knights of Human Purity stabbed me pretty good. I was dying, so I kinda had to go back to my own time to get healed in time. I spent a few days in the hospital, and when I was getting ready to head back in time to help you guys fight Minion, I was politely informed that new laws had been passed which made it illegal for me to use time travel as a method of demon fighting. I was not allowed to go back and help you guys fight. And, as it still stands, I am never going to be able to help you fight ever again.”

Ryan looks a little confused...

“Um... okay. But... we all know you helped us out! You gave Brad the new axe. You helped Saphir by taking down the forcefield around the CRUSADER Card... and you gave me that potion to stop my bleeding. Plus, the preprogrammed interdimensional cube thingy... that rocked too!”

“Yeah... loophole in the law. I can't come back to fight... but, if I'm sneaky enough, I can come back to do other things... put axes in random spots, disable random forcefields... put random potions in random books. And, things like show up here and now to talk to you.”

A troubled look comes to Ryan's face.

“You're... telling me that you're not here to help us fight Frail, right? Man... we can't do this with just the three of us. We need your help.”

“Well... I have no help to offer. I can only give you knowledge.”

Ryan suddenly realizes something.

“This ritual... for the guide that is outside of my time frame. It's you, right? My spell worked! That's cool!”

“Actually... I stopped you from chanting because you forgot the right words. If you'd started, you would have summoned a Truagualla Demon Lord from the hell dimensions... it would have eaten the Earth. Do me a favour, and don't try spells without getting Saphir to look them over first, okay?”

“Right... I'll remember that.”

Ryan feels a little down now. He fully expected that his spell would work.

“But, that doesn't mean you can't help me, right? Loophole and such.”

“Very true.” Justin shrugs... “as far as I can tell it, Frail doesn't matter in the grand plan. There are very few records of this fight that you're facing. The only thing I can say is... however it ends... it ends. This isn't going to be something that lasts for years... and it isn't going to be something that causes a lot of problems. I can't say if you guys live or die... but whatever happens... it will end.”

Ryan just shakes his head...

“That's not really a great bit of help Justin. Of course it's going to end... eventually the universe will collapse in upon itself, ending everything. I need actual help man.”

“Fine. I was kind of figuring that you would work this out on your own.”

Justin points out over the water of the Bay of Fundy, at the ruins of the Academy where Ryan grew up.

“That's where you first met Frail, right? Maybe you should go back there, and check it out.”

Ryan looks out at the Academy, and laughs.

“Justin, there's nothing left out there.”

Arronwy turns back to face the technomage, only to find that Justin is no longer there. He swears under his breath, pulls out his cellphone, and makes a call.

“Saphir... yeah. Get Brad, and meet me at the beach. We're going out to the Academy. ... Just trust me on this. We'll find something.”