A Prickly Ally

Sky says, "Who here speaks Jap? Ask this jasper for what reasons we should withhold from putting him six feet under the farm he's buying right now. And hey -- if someone were to mar or efface the magic letter mark whatis doing him healing, would the healing stop?"

Sky cuts the cards in his hand with a onehanded cut

With his other hand, he grabs one of his guns out of his dropped coat without burning himself on the hot metal. Good thing Daddy Masterson always taught his son to wear gloves.

Sky cuts the Ace of Spades.Luck is smiling his way again!

He grabs a gun by the handle, which by great good luck was in a small puddle and isn't steaming hot like the rest of the gat.

Kaze says, gently:

"Ah, Saburo...
"Ani, Watashi wa anata o minogashite iru"
"Youkoso, Ani.."

Saburo, perhaps out of a wish to be polite to the Grimnoir, replies in English.

"I thank you, Kaze, but I need the pain. It is how I know the kanji has been purged from my essence."

He gasps, and drops the burnt-out torch.

"It ... is done," he says. "You are now safe."

Kaze says, "You are joining us, Saburo?"

To the others, "His powers are at odds with his personality, but he does fight well."

"Do you know where they would have retreated?"

Saburo says, "Joining ... you? No. The Grimnoir seek and destroy magic they consider evil. They cull the very Power we need to make us strong. I could never help you in that quest."

"No, I removed my Bottomless Well kanji so that Hitomi can no longer track me. It gave me great reserves of Power -- I could make a spear as long as a pine tree, or armor a meter thick -- but it taps from the same reserve Hitomi uses, so he can sense when I use it, and where I am."

"Hitomi left me to die. He broke my neck, in fact, but I had the foresight to grow a second spine on the left side, so I did not die. Thus I saw him explode a company of Special Air Landing Force commandoes, to prevent the war between Japan and America which would eventuate from such a blatant invasion of American soil."

"I cannot serve a master who would sacrifice me so. I am a ronin, a samurai without a master. I would not be even a samurai, but the Power chose me and I cannot be other than what I am now."

"Hitomi will start a war. It is not his intention, but he goes about everything with the impetuous fury of a drunken bull. So many kanji have given him the unshakeable belief that he is all-powerful, and that all difficulties will be overcome by the force of his destiny. And if he is even partially correct, his crusade will bring all the Earth incomparable ruin. So I will help you kill him, and those who have taken fire from his crusade and must be killed as well."

Kaze says, "Your help is welcome, but Saburo, when evil magicians are culled, the magic doesn't go away. It goes back to the Source, does it not? To be distributed again."

Saburo replies, "The magic, yes. But not the skill. That is lost forever, when all humanity may have need of it at any moment."

Kaze: "True .. although it does appear Hitomi has discovered a way to intercept the magic as it returns. Is that itself a magical gift or is it a manipulation of forces that others might learn?"

She muses.

"Though more to this moment's problem, where have the Iron Guard gone now... and what will they do with Richter, the dying man they took with them?"

Saburo says, "Hitomi has teleported them to his American headquarters, where they will recover their strength. He has American Actives, many of them, on his side, and likely will start bringing them up to combat readiness. This may take weeks or months; they are young, and do not seem serious."

"Richter will not die. Hitomi will not allow it. And if he does, why, Hitomi is a Lazarus. So he will talk."

"Hitomi wishes to know how to gather more Powers into himself. Richter seems to have done this with the kanji on Hitomi's severed leg. This is a talent Hitomi himself does not possess. When he takes a kanji, he takes the soul as well. It is, I think, one reason for his insanity."

"So Richter will suffer until he tells. And once he does tell, he will teach Hitomi how to transfer Powers. And then, Hitomi will indeed transfer Powers, all he can reach. He has students at this American school with virtually every one of the Thirty-Six Talents. He has not stolen their Powers before, because killing them would dishearten the others, perhaps weaken their connection to the Source. They have not yet been branded with the Bottomless Well, so their Powers are yet weak. But once he does not need to do so, they will be copied. Hitomi has a variation of the Well, called Great Disorder Under Heaven, on himself, so large it wraps around from front to back. Once he copies a Power, it will operate at a great intensity."

"But I have not answered your question. This thing Hitomi does is not his own Power. It is something he learned, from the Chairman and others. What he can learn, others can learn. Richter appears to have learned a variation, in which he moves Powers from one person to another without killing them."

Voinovich has been looking back and forth from the two Japanese. Now he interrupts.

"Where exactly is his American headquarters?"

Saburo nods. "Of course. It is in St. Louis, Missouri. The Carpenter School for Talented Children."

Voinovich: "He'd have Richter there?"

Saburo: "Of course."

Voinovich: "And what else? You said he had students."

Saburo: "Students, yes. American Actives, mostly children, whose Power he is developing with training, though not so rigorous as we undergo in Japan."

Saburo nods to Kaze, as though they had something in common.

Saburo: "We had exactly one Shadow Guard and one Iron Guard squad covertly present in the United States. Hitomi has expended both. There is no more to draw upon, without summoning reinforcements from the Home Islands. And this he cannot do, for the others on the Advisory Council do not know of his plan to gain supreme Power, nor, I think, would they approve if they did know."

Voinovich: "And what does he intend to do with this power once he has it?"

Saburo: "That ... I do not know. I was never told. Yurasu and Rock were his confidants in the Iron Guard. We were informed that anyone who has seen the Power, the Source as we call it, with his own eyes was to be gathered and thoroughly interrogated. Ben Bernardi, Jake Sullivan and Faye Vieira are the only three surviving persons who fit that description. Other units are working on them. Or were ... we do not as a rule assign Blanks to covert operations on American soil, because their loyalty cannot be assumed."

Voinovich: "What's a Blank?"

Saburo: "Persons without Power."

Voinovich: "Mr. Masterson, it seems to me we need to interrupt Hitomi's interrogation of Richter before he learns too much. Should we proceed there at once, calling in any other Grimnoir who may be able to meet us there?"

Out of the Ashes

Someone staggers through the ash-caked pines.

"On the RIGHT!" Voinovich raps out, and takes cover behind a log. He pats his chest and legs for a gun he doesn't have.

The man approaching has bone spurs sticking out all over his arms and back. He wears the tatters of an ivory tunic, and the loose black trousers of an Iron Guard. He is, in fact, that same Shard whom Sonny-boy exploded and Belle sent blowing into the woods. Oh, and Michael shot him, too.

He doesn't look all that dead, but he's hurt. A trail of steam in the drizzling air shows a healing kanji doing its work on his shoulder.

He sees the Grimnoir, meets their eyes, but does not say anything. Instead, he limps over to a tree trunk which is still burning brightly.

With a kiai, he strikes a thick limb and snaps it free. He grabs it by the needled end, so he holds a sputtering pine torch in one hand.

Pulling his tunic open at the neck, he applies the torch to his own side, just over the lower ribs. He holds it there, straining to control the pain, as his skin sizzles and crisps.

In Richter's Absence, an Emphasis on Dice

Wind at Twilight (Kaze) bows to Sky Masterson. And waits expectantly.

Sky bends over to see what is on the ground that is so interesting that Kaze is looking at it.

It could almost pass for a bow.

"I believe Mr. Richter designated you as his lieutenant. How shall we proceed?"

Sky looks at her, dumbfounded. "Mister Richter did WHAT?! I had been unfortunatively uninformated during the recent meeting and jaw sessions, wherein I did sleep very slumberly, so I have not the least inkling of a scintilla of an idea what is going on, or who these Jap goons are, or what the tattooed man has gots him too many extra type powers, if you asks me. So the uh firs things we does is -- uh -- helps the wounded and, uh, buy more guns, and, lemme see, organize a crap game with some yoiks I know, in case we needs the cash to buy guns."

Kaze says: "The 'goons' are the Iron Guard. My former classmates at the Academy. They did what they are trained to do. Their objectives are to capture Christine Taine and, incidentally, myself. They will work to complete that mission, but you have given them unacceptable casualties among their prime operatives so they are regrouping. 

"I do not recognize 'the tattooed man' but he must be very strong-spirited to have gained so many kanji."

She is beginning to tend the wounded while she says this. "Mr. Richter's Grimnoir contacts will have guns and money. They were due to meet up with us, I believe, and should be arriving presently."

When he hears Kaze say the Grimnoir will be here soon, Voinovich stops grinning and looks around for a weapon.

Belle finishes her work:

SONNY-BOY's leg hurts, but he can walk with a crutch. There isn't anything broken.

VOINOVICH has a wound through his lower leg. He froze it, but his leg is stiff.

JANET is scorched all over her front. She can move, but it's stiff and painful.

SKY is burned on his back and shoulders. Swinging his arms is difficult.

MICHAEL, BELLE, KAZE and CHRISTINE are fine.

Kaze: "I can relieve pain, as I did for Mr. Voinovich, if someone wishes it."

Sky says, "Miss Tane is first in line, cause woman and children first, and then Voinovich, Sonnyboy and me can cut cards for who gets healed next, best two cuts out of three with an unopened deck, aces high and jokers wild." He pulls an unopened pack of cards out of his pocket, grinning, and notices that it is now a wetted lump of paper that was partly burned. 

Sky frowns.

"Coin toss it is... And, uh, then we can shoot craps to see who should be in charge while I am drunk and inebriated, on account of I do not have such a good memory for where we was planning to go next. Were we going to rob a bank, or is we the good guys at the moment? When can we mug more japs?" 

He raises his voice, "Hey! Did any of youse mugs or dames hear Mr Richter saying I was in charge when he was outta the picture? I am kinda hoping Miss Case, or Miss Cassy, or Miss Craze -- how do you say your name again, doll? I got too many teeth in the way to enunciate distinguishedly -- Miss Kazz says he said it was my gig, but I am thinking that I should doublecheck a second time around, because of maybe she was nooked on the noggin and is rememberating the comment sidewards or something, right?"

Kaze: A small smile at the lingo.

"Surprisingly, I do not believe Miss Taine was injured in that last fight. As to when you received your promotion, it was back in our first hide-out."

She looks at him curiously. "You were a little tired, but you did acknowledge it."

"By the by, my name may be pronounced Kah-zay."

She turns to Voinovich. "Would you like assistance?"

"I've got it frozen," he says. "So no pain and no bleeding. Of course, I'll need stitches, and there may be an artery that needs mending -- I've never been hit in an artery before, but it feels as though I imagine it would. I do not need help at present"

 

"You are actually much more badly hurt," Kaze says to Janet. "If you wish, I can try to lessen your pain."

Gone in a Flash

Belle moves toward the wounded, to see if she can help them. She immediately recognizes Richter as terminally burned, but Sonny-boy's leg wound is bleeding badly. (He hasn't noticed). Michael is also trying to help, but he hasn't written Richter off as a lost cause yet. Richter is clutching the severed leg in both badly burned hands, and won't let go.

Belle kneels to apply a tourniquet. She also begins summoning rain to put out the fire. Getting clouds to rain is not an instant action, especially with the updraft from the burning airship.

Voinovich runs through the flames unharmed. Steam bursts from his footsteps as he freezes the burning brush. He slips on the ash, scrambles on all fours, and makes it to the other side.

Then a bullet hits Michael's gun. Fortunately, no one ever aims a Thompson like a rifle; they sweep them from the hip. The bullet rings off the weapon's receiver and flicks past his eyes, less than an inch away. He feels like he's been punched hard in the gut, but doesn't lose his wind.

Voinovich makes fists of absolute zero and swings them through the air. They leave tracks of ice in their wake. Quickly he builds up a wall of ice thirty-three inches thick between Christine, Belle, Sonny-boy and Michael and the shooters on the cliff.

A bullet hits the ice and stops. Another hits it and cracks the ice. A dozen more hit it and splinter the surface.

Voinovich keeps freezing more onto the back while the gunners chip away the front …

… and a one-legged man covered in tattoos Travels in, grabs Richter around the belt, and disappears.

+++

Kaze replies to Rock:

"I might be willing to do that, but these Westerners have honor..."

Out of her peripheral vision she can see several preparing attacks.

"And it seems they do not run." A ghost of a smile.

She attacks Yurasu with karate, fading in and out as she does so, like the shutter on a moving picture.

Yurasu lands a killing blow on Kaze’s neck, but it goes through her. Kaze counters with a spear-hand punch to the kidney, which doubles Yurasu up in pain.

The Heavy gestures at Kaze, applying his power and waiting for her to solidify again. However…

Sky asks Belle if she can pick up his coat (where his two pistols are) with an updraft and blow it over to him. Belle, however, is dealing with the wounded, and does not hear him. All right, time for Plan B ...

Sky peers carefully through the flames. As the Heavy turns his back to Sky to confront Kaze, he takes a switchblade knife in either hand, kissing his St. Cajetan medal (he is not Catholic, but why take chances?) says his Viddui prayer (the traditional prayer before death), using as much stealth as he has and all his brawling experience ...

.... and leaps across the fire onto the back of the Heavy, and tries to leave one knife in the Heavy's liver, the other in his trachea. He holds the blade and strikes just like Pappy Masterson taught him.

The Heavy is focused on Kaze and really didn’t expect anyone to leap through the flames. Sky Masterson, his hat, shirt and trousers on fire, stabs the Heavy in the neck and chest.

The Heavy cries out. Everything near him loses all weight. Sky hangs four feet off the ground, burning, unable to reach the dirt. The Heavy hangs in his grip, slowly relaxing his arms, then drops. Sky drops too.

Rock goes for Kaze. Janet passes a Faded hand through his head, leaving some rocks and sticks behind. Rock spasms and collapses, repeatedly kicking the ground. Janet doesn’t manage to get Yurasu the Brute, because she is already on the ground, out of the fight.

The Torch sets her on fire, as everyone expected him to. Janet grits her teeth and shoots the Torch, dropping him to one knee. She could Fade, and perhaps the fire would go out, but then the Torch could just kill Sky with a gesture. So she shoots him again, and watches him fall, before Fading out.

Turns out, Fading does indeed put out fires! So Janet is merely hurt bad, rather than dying.

The flames on Sky's clothes expire in a hiss of steam. Voinovich limps to a halt. He's run from the fire to the other fire, picking up a leg wound from the gunners on the cliff, and put out Sky's flames. He touches his bloody pant leg and freezes the wound shut.

The blue Mover is the last Iron Guard on his feet. He snatches his hand backwards, yanking Yurasu and Rock to the top of the cliff along with him. The Torch, he leaves; he’s seen dead men before.

For a moment, all is still save the crackling of the flames.

Then a blue flash and a thundering CRACK echo from the top of the cliff! Blasted splinters shower down. An effect like a Boomer, but much louder, has blown up all the soldiers and Iron Guardsmen.

When the Grimnoir reach the top to investigate, there are unidentifiable bodies scattered here and there, but wearing canvas and leather only. No silk, no brocade, and no trace of the Iron Guard …

Except at the point to which all the fallen trees point, the center of the Boomer blast. There in the ashy earth are three sets of footprints, one quite large, and two silhouettes of people curled on their sides, one small, one tall.

In The Fire

Belle tries to blast Tattooed Man with the full force of the winds. Her hope is to distract him at least briefly, to allow her teammates to escape him.

Sonny-boy explodes the Tattooed Man. He (the Tattooed Man) is blown into the air, then hit with gale-force wind while not in contact with the ground. His kanji flash, but apparently whatever he chose doesn’t help when you aren’t touching anything but air. He flutters away like the leaves which are stripped from the trees, vanishing in the distance.

Sonny-boy knows his Power went home. Michael saw the Tattooed Man clearly hurt, but still moving his arms and legs. Belle didn’t see any details.

Christine, similarly off the ground, was also whirled away into the distance. Then she stops, short, as though brought up short by an invisible cord.

Ronald Richter staggers out of the flames. His clothes are on fire, his hair is fried away, his eyes are staring mad, and his face is difficult to look at. But the glowing kanji on his chest allow him to use his stolen Mover Power to lower her safely to the ground.

Richter crumples into his own flames. Voinovich frosts the fire out, but the damage is done.

+++

“Try to save Sky,” Voinovich said, as he hastened toward the fire.

Kaze bows solemnly to Voinovich and then headed into the fray. She tackles Sky and Fades him, leaving Yurasu’s bent-metal shackles behind.

Kaze shouts, "Giri Sutenresu!"

Yurasu shouts “Tetsu ishi!” automatically. It’s like a call-and-response reflex; Yurasu isn’t even looking in Kaze’s direction.

The Mover and the Heavy have also snapped to attention and bellowed “Tetsu ishi!” in alarming unison.

When the heavy sensation vanishes, Sky takes off running. He feels a partial return of weight as he breaks contact with Kaze and stops being Faded.

Now, instead of five Iron Guard facing Sky, five Iron Guard face Kaze.

“Kujiku-san!” says the Torch incredulously. “Kanojo wa iru Kaze!”

Rock, who did not respond to Kaze’s shout, smiles.

“You have chosen a strange time to return to speaking Japanese,” he says in English. “Some would say, too late.”

“Honorable Teacher Nigiru wants you alive,” he explains. “And the activator. The others, we can slay or not. Become solid again, and we need not kill your comrades.”

To the others, he snaps, “Kasai, kokkyō bōei! Keikoku!”

The Torch sets a wide area around Kaze and the Iron Guards aflame. No one can reach her now … unless they can Fade, Travel, Ice out the flames, or blow them out with winds … actually, a lot of people can reach them.

Seeing the fire surround the Iron Guard, the troops on the cliff top start shooting at the Grimnoir near Christine: Voinovich, Michael, Sonny-boy and Richter. Any of them who remains standing will probably be shot.

At Five to One, the Payoff is Huge

(A point of order: anyone who feels left behind in this rush of posts is free to assert that during the last few moments, she has been doing this or that, and I’ll be generous with allowing it to succeed. After all, if no one is paying attention to you, you can get it done without interference.)

Sky is out of oomph. He has that sinking feeling that accompanies being without his usual cloud of luckiness. But of course, that doesn't mean it's time to deal himself out! Maybe the other guy's outta luck too, or he has luck but loses his moxie. Gotta have the moxie.

"Where did I leave my rifle and my ever-loving baseball bat?" he says aloud as he is running, to no one in particular. He is looking for Voinovich, last seen being clobbered by his own rifle.

Voinovich is not near his rifle. There is blood on the rifle stock, but Voinovich isn't anywhere to be seen ...

"Stand still! I've iced the ground!" calls Voinovich. He's behind a fallen log, covered in wind-drifted leaves.

Sky notes the frost shimmering under the grass. He almost walked into a patch which has been glazed to be slippery.

Having heard Sky's lament vis-a-vis his armaments, Voinovich says,

"I've got a knife. Can you use that better than I can? Perhaps you can Travel into stabbing position."

Voinovich holds his hand toward the ground and forms a three-foot-long icicle. He snaps off the end, making a wicked point.

"Don't worry about me. I'll make my own."

Sky beckons the Brute girl, Yurasu, toward him, hoping she slips on the ice. He asks Voinovich to spread snow on the burning hideout.

Sky notices that his coat, discarded by Yurasu, is in the dirt behind her. She probably didn’t even notice the weight of the guns in the pockets …

Yurasu advances hesitantly. What is she waiting for?

Suddenly Kaze leaps out of the darkness, tackles Nick and Fades him. Needles stab down from directly overhead, bypassing any cover the Grimnoir might be hiding behind.

Voinovich spun toward Kaze at the last moment and stabbed upward in self-defense, but she’s Faded, so she’s okay.

“Thanks,” he says. “I have to put out the fire. Can you keep Sky alive?”

He turns and runs toward the blaze, already spraying frost from the air.

Fortunately, Sky has advanced far enough toward Yurasu that the shower of needles misses him. The Mover doesn’t want to hit his own teammate.

Make that “teammates”. The Torch, Rock, and the Heavy are all converging on Sky as well. The Heavy is keeping his own weight up to resist the wind, and extending that courtesy to the Torch as well. And Rock has wrenched his arm right up out of the soil and stone with which it was melded by Sky. Apparently, adding rock and dirt to his Massive arm doesn’t really change its mass or composition much.

Sky’s knife suddenly weighs a ton. He feels a finger almost snap before he can drop it and let it bury itself to the hilt in the dirt.

The Torch lights up the area behind Sky, to flush out any allies he might have. It would have gotten Voinovich and Kaze, had they not dropped back to deal with the fire. (Although no one’s really sure where Kaze is, what with the night and the stealth and all.)

Yurasu kicks out at Sky’s legs, while Rock comes in on his blind side. Sky dodges the leg-breaking blow, but that forces him left, into Rock’s path. The Massive doesn’t get his arms all the way around Sky, but his sheer weight does force Sky to the ground, with a Massive pinning his legs down.

This leaves him two arms and a head. But all of those seem cast of solid lead, and he cannot summon the strength to lift so much as a finger. Sky realizes he isn’t hurt, or going into shock – he’s just being Heavied.

Yurasu pulls a tungsten rod from her wristband. Flexing it between her hands, she bends it like taffy, which heats the rod’s center red-hot. She blows on it to cool it, then bends it around Sky’s arms, pinning his hands behind his back.

Meanwhile …

Michael runs over to Sonny-boy to see what kind of shape he's in, and give what help he can right off. Apart from his leg being stiffly immobile, Sonny-boy feels fine. Michael heads toward the fire with Sonny-boy and the tungsten rod.

He is trying to get Sonny-boy to a better, more hidden spot, and himself to the fire to see if he can help Richter and Christine.

He gets to a position where he can see Christine, but the heat is intense, beating on Michael’s face and hands.

And then it eases, instantly, washing away. The fire opens up and rolls back, parting before Richter, who peels it back like a curtain.

“Atta girl, Christine!” he says. “We’re out! Now give me Crackler again and we’ll wrap this up!”

Christine is flushed and wild-haired from the heat. Her mouth drops open in horror.

“What’s the matter?” Richter snaps, looking back at her.

She is looking past Richter, into the unburned wilderness, where the Tattooed Man, wearing a metal-and-wood prosthetic leg, has just appeared.

The Tattooed Man activates a kanji on his arm, and gestures. Richter is flung back into the fire.

“At-uh lasuhtuh,” the Tattooed Man says in difficult English. “Wituh yoo-uruh Power, I wi’ notuh need anyone-uh else!”

He extends his hands toward Christine, and her feet float free of the ground as she is drawn towards him …

Traveling Fast

Sonny-boy rolls to the side, trying to get out of the path of the rod. Unfortunately, it’s coming as fast as a bullet. It doesn’t hit him squarely, but takes a leg out from under him, dropping Sonny-boy on his back. His leg doesn’t hurt yet, but it’s numb, and may well be broken.

Sonny-boy raises his hand and blows the Shard up in mid-air. Since the Shard weighs about one ounce (thanks to his Heavy partner), he is blown spinning across the valley, flipping like a poker chip. He hits hard, and rolls to all fours, clearly dazed. Then he slumps over, with a bullet in him contributed by Michael Bor just before Sonny-boy blasted him.

So quickly is the Shard blown away that Sonny-boy can’t even get one shot on him.

Sky fakes left, dodges right, travels left, and gets a burning tree between himself and the Torch. 

Then he reaches for his handgun, and then remembers he left it in the pocket of his coat, which he left over the head of the brute lady. 

"Luck, be a lady this fight!" he mutters. He draws his switchblade, and decides to switch partners. A Torch is the last person he wants to fight. 

Hoping he still had enough oomph left for three travels and a lot of luck, he tries to put some distance and some cover between himself and the Torch. 

Kaze Fades in and throws 3 shuriken in rapid succession at the Mover, the Torch, and the fellow in the green tunic. Two strike home; the Torch is annoyed, the Heavy seriously distracted by blood in his eyes. The Mover stops the shuriken in mid-air and throws it back along its line, but Kaze has already Faded again, and it goes through her harmlessly.

Sky falls supine. He imagines a straight line running from the Torch to the Massive to a point within arm's reach beyond that, call it one foot. To that point he travels. He is lying on his back nearly underfoot. 

His crazy-stupid-genius plan is this: timing it perfectly burning up his last bit of luck, he waits for the Massive to raise a foot or raise a fist to smash down and crush Sky flat. As soon as the limb, whatever it is, is descending, Sky travels to a spot right above the descending limb, and Travels, carrying himself and the Massive in the direction of moving nine inches or so toward and into the ground, hoping the foot or fist will reappear inside the ground itself, stuck in place, and pin the Massive painfully to the spot. 

Rock, the Massive in question, does indeed punch downward at Sky. He gets his fist and forearm painfully embedded in the soil. He howls.

At that point Sky runs for cover. Unfortunately the Torch has caught up with Rock and can see Sky. He’s about to incinerate Sky when a shuriken appears half in and half out of his upper arm. The Iron Guard are supposed to be able to ignore wounds, but that’s not an easy thing to practice. It appears Sky’s luck has indeed run out, as the Torch steels himself and directs the fire from the top of the cliff to gather into a seething ball of incandescence and dive right down on top of Sky Masterton. Fortunately (a word frequently associated with Sky’s adventures) Belle’s windstorm keeps the fireball from descending fully. It washes overhead, searing Sky’s face and arms with oven-like heat, but not actually causing any serious damage. The fireball then plows into the ground near the moonshiners’ hideout, sending the brush and trees up in a scorching rush that claws at the clouds, causing very serious damage indeed. Christine Tane and Ronald Richter are still in the hideout, which is inaccessible, unobservable, and on a great deal of fire.

Michael will go to the nearest person he sees that seems to need help, or if he can't see anyone that he can help, he will try to find a better spot to shoot from.

Kaze (which means “wind”, incidentally) moves with Belle to another position so the enemy cannot triangulate their position.

Belle keeps the wind blowing hard as she can, concentrating on those who seem the most affected and trusting her companions to handle the rest. Rock and Yurasu are hanging in there (indeed, Rock seems anchored against the worst of the wind’s effects) but the softer Iron Guard are very wind-vulnerable, and the Heavy and Torch go tumbling away. The Mover anchors himself to the ground and diverts the wind around him. He opens his fist to reveal about half a pound of needles … dozens of them.

Belle considers diverting a gust to bring Sky's hat back to his head, but decides it would be tragic if someone died because she was showing off. Besides, who knows where Sky's head will be next.

She can't help showing off a tiny bit though. She causes one tiny tendril of winds to blow Sky's hat to a place where it can easily be retrieved, just short of the burning hideout.

To review: The battle can be divided into left, center, right, and rear.

LEFT: Voinovich has not done anything since the Mover clobbered him with his own rifle. The Mover is preparing to do something terrible with his handful of needles. Sky is lying on the ground, still feeling the heat on his skin, with his hat landing in the dust a few feet away.

Gunfire has resumed from the top of the cliff.

CENTER:   Rock and Yurasu are both anchored to the ground, one voluntarily, one painfully not. Kaze and Belle are near a stand of trees which are bending in the wind, but so far, no enemy has spotted them.

RIGHT: Sonny-boy is down, hurt. He’s got a tungsten rod available, if that helps. Michael is near him, covering him with his Tommy gun. The Torch and Heavy have been blown off their feet and are far away in the pines.

REAR: The hideout is on fire, with Christine and Richter presumably inside.

Teamwork Prospers

Belle focuses her a wind against the incomers. She watches to see what is affected, who is swayed.

The whole fury of the windstorm is scouring the valley, centered on Rock and Yurasu. Rock and Yurasu are both strong and tough, but only Rock is actually heavy. Yurasu, the Brute, is driven back several steps by the fury of the wind, before she punches her fist into the ground to anchor herself.

Both Rock and Yurasu are dashed and bedazzled, unable to see which way to go. They are, for now, out of the fight.

Kaze is concerned by the screaming coming from the bootlegger hideout... but she knows the three or more Actives coming their way means she'd better stay close to the weather lady. Close enough to keep her Faded. She tries to keep a cool game face as her old colleagues approach. Or don't approach, depending on how the Weather treats them.

Sky puts down his rifle, takes off his coat and hold it in one hand, draws a switchblade in the other hand, and runs toward the brute lady, yowling the famous Rebel Yell to which his own Jewish ancestry as the son of a New York pawnshop owner in no way entitles him. He loses his hat in the gale force wind Belle is whipping up, but he will buy a new one later.

As soon as Rock turns toward him, Sky ducks behind a tree, then Travels to a spot immediately in front of the massive, spits in his eye, then travels immediately behind the brute lady, throws the coat over her head, and cuts at the rope with his knife.

Sky feels his magic buzz as things that were going to happen to him don't quite happen. It's a good feeling. Yurasu's punch just misses, but the wind of it spins Sky around anyway. He'd have been oatmeal if she had hit him.

He runs away from her parallel to the rope, figuring that if she follows him, the thing on the end of the rope, whatever it is, will move backward if she moves backward. And he keeps hacking at that rope.

Kaze hurls her sai overhand and hits the rope, too.

THWIP! The rope parts.

And the wind whips away the concealing smoke, showing what lies at the other end ... the other four Iron Guard, none of whom, apparently, had the strength to walk against the wind.

Those Iron Guards are now crouched, shielding their eyes against the wind. One of them, wearing a green tunic over his tan denim baggy pants, points to Sky and barks an order; another one, this one in a red silk tunic with golden brocade, makes fists and turns his fingers outward. Lots of things in front of him burst into flame; every tree, most bushes, some of the grass, a boulder whose mossy covering is just dry enough to burn ...

And Sky Masterson, except he isn't there any more. By great good fortune he chose to Travel just as the Torch lit up the environment. Sky's tie smolders, but that's all.

The third Iron Guard wears ivory silk. He stretches out his arms and bones grow out of his body; curving claws, stabbing spikes at elbow and knee, jointed jaws from his eyebrows. He grinds his teeth, and the bone spikes grind together in unison.

The fourth Iron Guard wears blue silk with ivory brocade. He sweeps his head left to right, and everyplace he looks, dust spatters outward, as though his glance is a wind sweeping the ground clean. He locates Sonny-boy, and points triumphantly, shouting to his buddies ...

BLAM! Voinovich shoots him right in the head. Except for the last three inches, because that's where the bullet stops, glowing with heat. Just hanging there in the air, a handswidth short of the blue Iron Guard's face.

The Iron Guard nods, and the bullet goes back on an exact reverse course. Voinovich shouts in alarm as it shatters his gun barrel.

The Iron Guards are taking the following actions:

ROCK, the Massive, tries to walk against the wind, and fails.

YURASU, the Brute, takes a tungsten rod from her belt. It weighs about thirty pounds. With one arm buried in the ground to the elbow, she throws the rod with her other hand, overcoming the force of the wind and sending the heavy metal rod spinning end over end toward Sonny-boy.

The TORCH turns, locates Sky, and starts igniting everything around him. If he manages to set Sky on fire, it won't do any good for Sky to Travel; he'll just end up burning somewhere else.

The GREEN TUNIC guy grinds his fist into his open palm, straining. The wind spraying Rock and Yurasu shrinks toward the ground, still very fast but no longer in their faces, as its very air becomes heavier and heavier.

The SHARD (with the bone spikes) slaps the GREEN TUNIC on the shoulder and runs foward. He suddenly weighs as little as a feather, and lofts through the air to drop on Sonny-boy just a moment after the tungsten rod gets there. If the rod doesn't get him, the spikes will.

Finally, the MOVER (in blue) gestures at Voinovich. Voinovich's shattered rifle leaps into the air and spins around, alternately threatening Voinovich with the butt and the jagged barrel. Rock and Yorasu are both strong and tough, but only Rock is actually heavy. Yorasu, the Brute, is driven back several steps by the fury of the wind, before she punches her fist into the ground to anchor herself. Voinovich looks like he's going to freeze the gun.

Blown Away

Janet goes grey just long enough to get to the nearest cover. Then returns fire with her gun as best she can.

The men on the cliff top are silhouetted against the burning trees. They're easy targets, and Janet is pretty sure she hit two or three of them. Then, of course, she has to reload.

Michael stares at Richter taking more kanji for a couple of seconds before moving (while muttering about more kanji being a bad idea) to a better spot to shoot from, and opens fire.

His Tommy-gun chews up a section of shrubbery. A couple of men fall out of it, and the others scramble for cover. For a minute or two, no one is shooting at Michael and Janet.

Sonny-boy moves in closer, going from cover to cover as well as He can. When He's in range he fires his weapon, then pauses and blows up a tree. That scatters the opposition, so he blows up another one. And as He's going He thinks to Himself how much easier this without barb wire.

Between Sky, Michael and Janet's gunfire and the Boomer explosions, the enemy's fire has been almost completely suppressed. Most of the enemy are still alive, but taking cover.

Belle first tries to push away the smoke that the opposition is following, so it is not near them.

Then, she tries to hit the cliff with a series of twisty, gale-force winds, so anyone who is near it, on top, on the side, at the bottom but not nailed down, will either get swept off or smashed into it.

The updraft used by the Tattooed Man can easily be sustained and expanded into a gale battering the cliff. Men tumble away from the edge, and those few still trying to shoot are blinded by flying dust and leaves.

The burning airship rolls over and falls onto the cliff top. Men scream as the firey gasbag collapses on top of them.

Belle only has a small gun, so she can't shoot unless the enemy gets close...and she's not fazed, but she'll have it ready, just in case.

Kaze stays close to Belle ... and remains alert for anyone sneaking up and/or Traveling.

Somehow, a hundred troops have been neutralized by a few Grimnoir knights. Well, Belle really gets the crown here, but others were helpful, too.

Out of the fluttering dust storm comes a tall Japanese with bare arms and bare feet. He pounds with great effort against the wind, heading straight for the greatest apparent threat. Which, as far as he can tell, is Michael Bor, whose chattergun is ripping the heck out of the trees on top of the cliff. Neither Belle nor Sonny-boy's Power gives any clue to its source, although someone close to Sonny-boy would see the sparks on his hands as he aimed his Power.

Right behind him comes a smaller Japanese woman with massive gold bracers on forearms and shins. She is sticking in the lee of the big man, using him as a windbreak.

One of her hands is cocked to swing a fist. The other trails behind her ... and is pulling a stout silken rope. The other end is lost in the dust devils, but it seems to be pretty heavy.

Six of Iron, Nine of Gold

Janet looks for opening or a group of trees to use to try and sneak towards the soldiers. She picks up rock and avoids as much of the fire and explosion as she can.

WHACK! A bullet misses her foot by inches. Either a shooter has seen her or he's just lucky. Janet's instincts tell her to freeze in place, but that may not be a good idea.

Sky unlimbers his rifle and looks for an unburning tree into which he can travel, preferably one where he can draw a bead on the sharpshooters. If he cannot find a tree, he tries to find a rock.

His plan is to shoot at the guys shooting at him.

He shouts, "Can someone douse that flare? Who here got icy powers?"

Zzoosh! The flare goes out, smothered. The soldiers on the cliff are now backlit by burning trees, shooting into the dark where the Grimnoir hide.

Nick Voinovich scrambles out from behind cover and slides on sheer ice fifty yards to another hole. The tree he left remains upright, sealed in a block of ice.

The front of the ice is splintered from bullets.

"Thirty-three inches," Nick says, "in case anyone needs to know."

Sky picks off the shooters on the cliff face. He runs through ten shots and reloads, but the survivors do not retreat. So sky shoots some more. The Imperials try to shoot back at his muzzle flashes, but they can't seem to pick him up. Unlike Great War vets, these young men are not used to fighting at night.

Unless Belle objects, Kaze gets her away from the flare's glare.

"I know some of these," she whispers. "They are... were my classmates. The tall one, Kujiju-san, is a massive--unstoppable as far as we know when his power is on. Yurasu, she with the bracelets, is a brute. The strongest we've seen. The young man against the rocks is Kasai, as his name implies, a most impressive Torch."

Richter, Sonny-boy, Michael, and Christine Tane remain in the briar-hidden hollow. They can see the cliff top, but they can't see the valley, where the Iron Guard now are.

"Christine, give me Crackler," Richter orders. "Got to keep their heads down!"

Christine makes a fist and pulls it in toward her heart. Richter's hands and hair light up with electricity.

"And while we're at it," he says, "let's get the rest of these kanji off that leg and out where they can do some good!"

She touches the leg and starts transferring kanji to Richter. He howls in pain as the tattoos bite.

Scratch One Gasbag

Belle continues her work, but keeps a little of her attention listening to those around her, in case anyone has additional suggestions.

And as she does so, she fades to a translucent gray. And just in time, because a bullet whacks through the space she occupies a moment later! It whines off a rock with a Hollywood ricochet noise.


Janet asks Ronald Richter: "Do you want me to sneak around the soldiers and try and get close enough to stick a few rocks in them, or fade some of them into the ground?"

Richter says, "Right. But there's a ton of them, so don't let the survivors see you!"

Kaze is looking for the tattooed man--or anyone else she might recognize from the Shadow Guard or the Iron Guard.

As it happens, most of the six Actives dropped into this fight are the same age as Kaze, give or take a year, and were therefore in the School for Gifted Young Wizards at the same time she was!

From her posture, the young woman who dropped out of the airship is Yurasu Yoma, the strongest Brute ever recorded. She had to wear heavy weights on her limbs in order to walk without leaping into the ceiling with every step; they also help her exert leverage. She is wearing her gold bracelets now, but they're lead underneath. Yurasu is only average at karate, but excellent in slipping or dodging blows. Her Brute strength gives her extra toughness, as we just saw.

Next to her is Kujiju-san ("Rock"), a Massive from Hokkaido. He's the tallest Japanese anyone's ever seen, but he has Ainu blood, so he's paler and curlier-haired than most Japanese. Sometimes foreigners don't see it. Rock, when his Power is active, cannot be hurt by anything the Imperium has available.

Kaze also recognizes Kasai, the motor-mouth wisecracking Torch. He's one of the Actives pinned to the cliff by the winds. One of the others in that group of four must be a Heavy, but Kaze doesn't recognize him. She can't see faces, of course, but Kasai's fidgety hand movements, Yurasu's focused crouch, and Rock's height give them away.

The resistance Belle feels to her Power abruptly lets go. The airship is pulled down over the cliff, its keel broken like a stick over her knee. Bullets abruptly stop spattering the hillside as the soldiers all run away from the ship, because it's about to

WHOOMP

explode. Hydrogen flames boil skyward and tear at the belly of the clouds. The crowns, but not the trunks, of all the trees on the clifftop catch fire. It's still technically night, but everyone can see perfectly well.

Including some Imperial sharpshooters. A fusilade of rifle shots cracks apart the tree behind which Voinovich is hiding. Then someone runs to the edge of the cliff, hurling a small grenade like a discus. The grenade falls just short of Belle and Kaze's position behind some rocks, and the grenade then bursts into dazzling white light and gouts out streamers of white smoke.

The officer in charge on the cliff top gives a shouted order.

Kaze can translate for Belle: "Fire! Fire at the smoke!"

The four Actives pinned to the cliff resume falling in dreamlike slow motion. The wind that the enemy Weatherman was using to hold up the airship has ended, and gravity is reasserting a bit of its influence.

A Dreadful Airship Accident

Belle takes a moment to enjoy the sky, the quality of the light, the feel of the wind outside. Like C.S. Lewis and children, Belle loves weather. Any kind of weather.

Then, she glances toward Richter and Kaze. "You just tell me where you want it to go."

Then, she frowns slightly and raises a finger. "Just a moment. It occurs to me to ask: what outcome do we want, ideally?

"Are there innocents on board? In which case, I want it to come quickly but not violently?

"Or, are we not concerned about innocents at this time?

"Basically, whatever I do, their weatherman, if they have one, will try to compensate.

"Now, not to toot my own horn, but. I'm rather good. I also have an intimate knowledge of air ships...which not all weathermen do.

"But, that doesn't mean that in a straight out tug-of-war--weatherman to weathergirl--that I'm a guaranteed winner.

"So I'd like to act quickly, slam the ship to where we want it ...so it goes where we want before their weatherman can compensate.

"But slamming and landing safely are two entirely animals.

"So before I blow this beauty earthward, I'd like a quick rating on where I should try to shoot for in the range between speed and safety."

Richter: "That's no passenger liner -- it's a cargo ship, and an express job to boot. They won't have any innocents, except maybe the crew. But that's a whale of a lot of men standing in the gondola. If they make it down safely, they might could overpower us.

"No, seems to me that we have to take the chance and crash them so hard they aren't in any condition to pursue on the ground."

Belle gives a quick little nod and begins whistling cheerfully.

Using her Weatherman skills and her knowledge of air ships, she carefully calculates whatever will give her the best chance of crashing the ship quickly...and the best place to crash it. As the ship noses over a cliff at some five hundred feet, she plans to drive it suddenly down by creating low pressure below and high pressure above. If there's enough moisture at altitude, that will probably lead to lightning.

As she gathers her magic to do that, the sides of the gondola flop down. Dozens of ropes drop out and the ship flares, venting hot air from its ballast tanks to lose altitude fast. As soon as its ropes reach the ground, dozens of soldiers grab them and slide down the ropes.

However, in rapidly dropping to allow its soldiers to rappel to the ground, the airship has unwittingly assisted Belle's plan. The ship drops, sucked down by low pressure and pushed down by high pressure. The light raincloud above the ship balloons into a huge, dark thunderhead, flickering slightly with heat lightning

KA-CRACK! The gondola slams into the edge of the cliff, hard. Glass breaks and steel bends. Most of the soldiers have reached the ground, but they hit harder than they intended.

A figure in green and gold leaps off the airship's nose. She misses the cliff and falls five hundred feet to the valley slope below, hitting with a terrible crack! Dust and rock chips spray into the air. The woman, whom we now see has odd golden wristlets and anklets, stands up, apparently unharmed from her plummet.

A man in orange and blue dives after her, hitting the ground hands-first. His impact is much louder, like the sound of a boulder snapping in two. He bounds out of a small crater, looking around for enemies.

Four more men leap from the airship just as it begins to buckle in the middle, where its keel is being bent over the cliffside. These men, all in tunics with long, flowing trousers but bare arms, flutter to the ground as softly as leaves. The kanji on their forearms ripple with firelight.

A sudden gust throws the four Iron Guard back into the cliff face, as though they were paper dolls. A mighty wind has blown up, holding the airship's bow up while the crew tries to abandon ship. This wind bends trees, strips leaves, and throws an impenetrable cloud of dirt over the two Massives down in the valley. The four Iron Guards are pinned to the cliff by the windstorm.

The many soldiers on top of the cliff begin shooting. They aren't concentrating on anyplace in particular; they may be trying to scare Belle, wherever she is, and spoil her focus. The airship's back is broken, but their Weatherman is still holding the nose up.

The Grimnoir are in their hollow, shielded from direct sight of the cliff. But Belle, Kaze, and Voinovich are out there in the teeth of the bullet-storm. It's only a matter of time, so it seems, before one of them is hit!

Sky Gambling

Sky says, "Is there any way we can find some marks to wager on the outcome of this combat, say from a nearby town? If we lay them sucker bet odds, we might be able to net some scratch. I figure we ain't gotta pay if we're dead."

Richter: "Good thinking, Sky. Seems to me we could be doing that often, the way things are going."

Kaze and Belle find an excellent place to hide from overhead detection, but Belle can still see the sky through gaps in the thickly needled  pine boughs. They can also see Voinovich, who is off to the left under an overhang, and both outposts can see the still where everyone else is.

A drone of motors high aloft and a swirling in the high rain clouds herald the arrival of a smallish airship, although its colors cannot be made out yet. The gondola is long, covering almost the entire keel from bow to stern. It is lined with windows on both sides.

Belle notes the brass (and therefore rust-proof) hinges on the lower edge of the gondola. Those are not windows, but downward-hinging doors. The length of both sides can be swung open, but glass is an impractical material for a ramp. Clearly they are intended to disgorge cargo while the airship is at altitude. Perhaps bombs?

Peering through her pocket spyglass, Belle sees human forms moving slightly. The gondola is packed with men.

The motors roar as they shift from forward to reverse, ponderously slowing the great gasbag. It will take them a few miles to come to a halt, which will put them right over the mountain. Our heroes, for reference, are in the valley or hollow beyond the mountain, in the direction the airship is pointing.

There is almost no wind, and light cloud aloft. Good zeppelin weather. Unless Belle prefers it were otherwise.

Setting the Trap

Belle gives a quick, impish grin. "Shouldn't be too difficult. Gasbags are my specialty."

"What he wants is the leg, of course," says Kaze, as she tries to subtly herd them away from the open space. "That and Sah-Ne... and Miss Tane."


"Yes, the leg!" says Richter excitedly. "I'd better keep that close at hand."

"There should be look-outs. I volunteer to be one of them. And if Miss Weather should wish to stay with me, I can ensure she is faded if, after her attack, they are able to ascertain her position."

"Sounds good. Nick, you can stay quiet when you need to. Get on a lookout where you can see both us and Kaze and Belle's position."

Casting around with his hands, Richter leads the Grimnoir to a flat rock overgrown by bushes. But the rock behind the bushes is flat, with a stream behind it, and considerable blackening of the rocks.

"A still site!" he exclaims. "Water for cooling, brush for concealment. And those branches overhead to diffuse the smoke -- probably why they're not in leaf now. The moonshiners won't be out for a month or more, but we can hide in there and see the airship from a distance."

Nick speaks up. "Have we any rifles?"

Everyone brandishes their tommy guns, pistols and knives.

"No, I said rifles," Nick says. He looks philosophically resigned when there are none.

"I see a spot which will do for a lone lookout. I will fire two shots if the enemy spots you, and then cover you as long as I can. If your position were near a slope, I can freeze the slope with ice and make them slip."

Richter: "Fine, fine. Outstanding initiative, Voinovich. The rest of you are in the still site with me, unless you think you can be more use outside. I don't want us to get cut up in detail again -- remember, this gink's a Traveler."

"If you have something you want to add, now's the time," he concludes.

Ambush Aloft

Kaze takes a few steps away from the group, surveying the site for advantages in the upcoming fight. She looks at Nick.
"Would it be possible to use a blast of ice to interfere with his incoming flight?"

Nick: "Yes, I could. I made an aeroplane tumble in the War, by icing his wings."

"But an airship is heavier than an aeroplane, as strange as that sounds. I could make him drop lower with ice buildup; if he comes low near the trees, I could probably make him hit them. But if he stays high, I can't affect him much. The weight of ice I could add doesn't come close to the lifting capacity of an airship."

Kaze: "Of course, he can fly by himself now.... once he gets closer."

Nick: "With bird wings? I can definitely make those harder to use, with a few hundred pounds of icing."

Richter shakes his head.

"The Spellbound lost her Power in January. Did this guy get started then? Or was it earlier, and he's not related to the Spellbound at all?"

Kaze: "January, you say? There has been... an alteration in my powers since January."

Belle, still looking out the window, says casually over her shoulder, "Where would you like this airship blown? North? South? Into a mountain? The Atlantic?"

Richter snaps his fingers excitedly.

"You could, couldn't you? You could bring him down right into that mountain over there," he says.

Richter considers. He lights another cigarette.

"I like it. We don't know if he's a Finder, but I think it's likely. When he was in a room with me, Belle and Sonny, he went for Sonny. Which could mean he already has Finder and Weatherman. But anyway, if he is a Finder, he can Travel right on top of us. So we'd better stay together. Nick, can you freeze the ground around us, so if he appears, he'll slip and fall?"

Nick smiles tightly.

"Been doing it since 1918," he says. "No problem. There's always some moisture within range of the surface."

"Then we have a plan, of sorts," says Richter. "I'll try to see if any spirits are fingering us, maybe give us a few minutes' warning. But our main chance is that Belle puts his gasbag into the ground."

It Was Last Winter

Kaze asks "What is a Spellbound?"

Richter looks up, startled. Then he relaxes and lights a cigarette.

"That's right, it was before your time. During the War, there was a fellow who could absorb peoples' Powers. Not just their Powers, but their magic as well, so he got stronger by killing people. He killed a whole lot of people, and nobody noticed because it was a war zone. Well, the Grimnoir finally got him."

"He was called the Spellbound. I think it's because some of the big brains thought he couldn't help killing for Power, like he was compelled to do it. Anyway, someone else became Spellbound the moment he died. This one wasn't evil, but she still absorbed the magic of everyone around her when they died."

"I'm not up on all the details, but apparently the Elders wanted to kill this Spellbound, but Mr. Browning in San Francisco talked them out of it. She got real powerful and killed a space monster that was going to eat the Power -- I mean THE Power, the source of all our magic. Apparently it's alive, and it's alive because of this Grimnoir."

"Well, she got burned out by the effort, and she isn't Spellbound any more. Is there another one? Maybe. Is this tattoo-collector the new Spellbound? I don't know. But we killed one, and if we have to, we'll do it again."

He stubs out his cigarette on his heel.

"This all happened back in January of '34. About the same time the new Powers started appearing, as a matter of fact. Hm. Christine, when'd you get your Power?"

"After Christmas," she says warily. "I guess near the end of January."

"Uh-huh. And Nick, you've had your magic a lot longer."

Nick nods.

The Game's Afoot (He Only Has One Left)

Christine says, "I swear," and seems to mean it.

Richter portions out blankets. For safety, everyone will sleep in one big room, except the ladies, of course, who will be in another. Each room, men's and ladies', has one person awake at all times.

Most of the Grimnoir have not been in the field with the Society before, but this is old hat to the veterans, including Belle.

The night passes peacefully. Everyone awakens with his magic restored near to fully, and after eating the oatmeal and coffee in the house, the Grimnoir hit the trail.

Richter can sense the Tattooed Man's kanji at considerable distance. He appears to be moving fast, westward.

It's a tight fit, but everyone can fit into Richter's car. Shortly after nine o'clock, he has the driver (Sky, probably) pull in to Tulsa so he can buy another Model T van. In back, unseen, the wounded (Sonny and Nick) can stretch out comfortably.

Richter pulls over around lunchtime.

"He's changed course," Richter says. "Now he's heading northeast, back the way he came. Either he switched trains, or he's in an airship."

A sandwich shop in Enid provides lunch. Richter buys double in case they have to last a while.

The two-car convoy turns around and finds a dirt road headed north. Richter turns east after a while, then south, then stops.

"He's made a complete circle," Richter says. "But he's not heading towards us -- he's going back towards Tulsa. We've burned all this rubber for nothing!"

He makes a circle in the dust by the side of the road and concentrates. Everyone feels a spark of magic pass through them, and the dust kicks up into the solid shape of a face.

"I thought his Power was Finding?" Nick says.

"It is," says Christine. "I'm sure of it."

"It seems there are different ways to talk to the spirits," Nick replies.

The face in the dust tells Richter, "We're gathering the Knights of New York and San Francisco to come to your aid. Follow only close enough to stay current on the target's location -- we don't want him to double back and wipe out your company before help arrives."

"With respect, sir, we have new assets," Richer insists. "Not just the two new Actives -- we've got several portable kanji which can grant different Powers. I think we can take him."

"You might be right, Ronald, but we aren't going to ever know for sure, because you aren't coming near him," says the face in the dust. He doesn't smile when he says it. "This could be another Spellbound, or worse yet, something new. The Grimnoir have run up on new things frequently -- we often lose men doing it. Let's not add to that list unless we absolutely have to."

"Understood, sir," says Richter. "We'll play it careful this time."

"That's all I could ask," says the dust. "Keep me posted. Oh, New York's on the line. I'll geas you later."

The dust blows away, as dust will when it's free to do as it pleases.

The track continues east, gaining southing as the afternoon fades. By night, the cars have crossed into Arkansas, and Richter's having trouble maintaining his grip on the kanji.

"They're as strong as ever, but my magic's about tapped," he says, grinding his knuckles in frustration. "Christine, can you keep me going?"

"It's my specialty," she replies, and touches his shoulder.

Richter jerks upright from his slump and a sudden grin splits his face alarmingly.

"HEL-lo, Nurse!" he says. "That's the old pepper! I put him ... hmm ... two hundred miles away, and moving about a hundred an hour. He's definitely airborne. But we're a long way from the only way to overtake him, which would be an aeroplane ... but as long as I've got this charge of juice in me, we can track him all the way to the ocean!"

His face clears of its joviality as suddenly as it brightened.

"But we won't have to," he says. "He's getting closer, and fast. In fact, I'd say he's heading right for us!"

The cars are parked on a slight upgrade on a gravel road through the Ozarks. There's a big red mountain behind and a dark mountain ahead, rimmed with the setting sun. There are no buildings or even houses, but there are a few pine trees and a whole lot of brush.

"We've got about two hours," Richter concludes. "Then he's going to be smack on top of us. If only there were some way to adjust his speed and direction, we could arrange to meet him at a place of our choosing."

Sworn To Secrecy

Richter: "Sky, you're in charge in case I don't make it. There's a communication pattern in the next room to allow you to contact San Francisco for additional orders. Clear?"

Sky Masterson, who had been leaning back on two legs of his chair, boots crossed on the windowsill, and sharpening one of his two switchblades with a whetstone, while staring out the window, is so startled at this pronouncement that he drops the cigarette butt from his mouth into his lap.

When Richter meets Janet's eyes, she gives him a small nod.

Kaze nods.

Belle is too freaked out by the concept of having one's power switched to nod, but she doesn't object either.

When Richter glances at Sky for confirmation, Sky draws his lucky gold double-eagle dollar out of his pocket, flips it, catches it, slaps it down onto the back wrist of his right hand. It is heads; he nods.

Michael, a bit unsettled by what just happened, says "...I think I will go set up that monitoring system you wanted Richter." and wanders off to see what he can find to work with.

If he can find a radio, or other electronics, in the house he can pretty easily make some contact microphones to put on the windows. Otherwise he can probably rig something from what equipment they have with them, and household items, that will let him know if there's a noise outside a window, but may not be clear enough to understand what's being said/going on.

Sonny-boy says "Ah jist wanna go ta bed. Ah'm tard."

Richter: "Right, of course. You have to be careful, with what you've been through. There's a bed through that door, and a couple of cots in the room on the right. Belle, can you see that Sonny gets to bed all right?"

He turns to Nick Voinovich and Christine Tane.

"We're with the Grimnoir Society," he says to them. "It's an old fraternity of Actives, worldwide. There's more, but you have to swear that none of this leaves this room, except to another Grimnoir knight."

"Anybody could say he's a Grimnoir knight," says Nick.

"But they won't have one of these," says Richter, displaying his black and gold ring.

"Nick, just swear. Why would we want to spill their secrets? They saved us!" says Christine.

"Miss Tane, hush. It has to be his decision," Richter cautions.

Michael returns, having rigged all the windows for sound. He trails a wire leading to an earphone covering one ear, so he can listen to the conversation while still monitoring the outside.

Nick Voinovich rubs the back of his head, stopping when he touches Kaze's firmly pressing fingers.

"Excuse me," he says to Kaze. To the room, he says,

"I didn't look for this fight, but I'm in it now. Can't beat an army with a single soldier, or even," he says, smiling at Christine tightly, "two of 'em. I'm in. I'll keep your secrets. And before you ask, I'll obey your orders. Just tell me the command structure and I'll do my part."

He winces.

"Hm. My magic's still strong. If you need something frozen, I've got it covered. And in the War, I found out I can draw on more magic than I thought. When you feel tapped out, empty, like you can't go on -- turns out you can. You have to MAKE the Power obey you. So I think I will pull my weight in your outfit."

"It's true," Christine puts in. "When Nick's Power is gleaming low, he can just fire it back up again, like throwing gas on a fire! I can see it."

"You ever run out?" Richter wants to know. "Could be another first-time Power."

"I ran out," says Nick. "In the War. Every day of Second Somme. Too many targets and not enough doughboys. But I gave 'em frozen hell before my Power finally quit. You know how thick ice has to be before it stops a Mauser bullet? Well, I do."

Richter waits till Nick is done.

"Raise your left hands, both of you," he says. "The left is closer to the heart, they tell me. Now, it doesn't matter what you did before this moment. Do you swear upon your honor and your life, from this day forward, to use your magic for the good of humanity, and against those who would use it for evil, to your last breath and with all the magic at your command?"

Nick: "I do so swear."

Christine: "Wait, what? Are we joining the army?"

Richter: "Miss Tane, that is exactly what you are doing. We don't share our secrets with those who don't share our goals."

Christine looks helplessly around at Sky, Janet and Michael, the only ones she's really met.