Rifts Ch. 03

Rifts -- Strange Land

Previously ... Donna and Zha-Ying agreed to a partnership and Donna's name changed to match her new personna. Meanwhile, Wind Runner, Grond and Pink meet a former adversary, Strider, a Wolfen Cyber Knight.

New Lazlo

It had been several days since he had heard from Dagger. The team he had organized to take down his former boss. Richter was concerned. For the millionth time he wondered, "Had they been successful at taking out the Lizard Mage or hadn't they."

By nature, he was twitchy and nervous. Try as he might and even with chemicals coursing through his body to enhance his physical and mental abilities, his natural tendencies continued to manifest themselves.

He was tall and thin, with greasy black receding hair. His skin was pale as he hated sunlight. Some people -- to their regret -- had joked that he was a vampire. He was extremely self-conscious and had a short temper. A very lethal combination in his line of work.

Until a few days ago, he had been a captain in the Lizard Mage Zha-Ying's criminal organization. Zha had placed him in-charge of operations in the north. The Lizard as he called him behind his back, had been impressed with how he had run things in Burg and had promoted him in the organization, setting him up in New Lazlo, one of the open and free city states in the north. It was close to the Coalition States, but strong enough that they wouldn't overly fuck with it. They may be fascists, but those CS black suits, weren't stupid. Smiling to himself, he like to think of them as competition.

This position provided a steady influx of credits, as he was responsible for collecting protection money and managing several projects for the boss, in the area. Community service-oriented, he even volunteered his forces from time-to-time to gather intelligence on the CS and other hostiles forces in the area, like the bugs. Of course, that information came at a premium price. This income allowed him access to his chemical cocktails and all the women he would ever want. He liked being the boss.

Several months ago, he was contacted anonymously and was presented an offer he simply couldn't refuse. If he helped usher Zha-Ying into the great unknown, he could run all the Lizard Mage's operation as part of a hostile takeover.

As the planning proceeded, he was contacted by a beautiful and alluring borg -- a cyborg -- Half-human, half-robot, named Cybil. Her employer would provide the weapons and equipment and all he was to provide was the manpower. He had tried to ask her several times who she worked for, to no avail. After a mind-blowing all-night juice and sex session, she finally confided her employer's name was Archie.

He had preferred the best, stuff from Triax, which was the best that credits could buy, but Cybil told him her boss was reluctant to do so. He had some business interests with the arms and armor manufacturer. The fewer connections, to him the less likely he would be detected the center of the web of deceit. Soon afterwards, he was contacted that a shipment of Coalition Mk1 Sky Cycles had been specially outfitted for him and were ready for pick-up outside of Cleve, just north of the Federation of Magic's territory.

During another all-nighter, Cybil shared with him that Archie had offered Zha a partnership deal, but the Lizard had turned him down. No one ever crossed or turned-down Archie, so he wanted him out of the way. A killer blowjob and a scan card filled with five million credits was all it took to seal the deal.

He finally decided, since he hadn't heard from Dagger and Zha hadn't teleported in and fried his ass to a crisp, he now assumed he must be dead. Likely, they were taken out in the process. So much the better, as that meant more profits for him. He tapped a communicator on his wrist. A sultry female voice said, "Yes, Richter."

In a voice that sounded like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, Richter said, "The Lizard's dead."

*****

Belladonna had lost track of how long she had been in this place. A day ... a week ... a month, she didn't know. In the span of time she had been here, she had learned a tremendous number of incantations and how to properly cast spells. Zha-Ying had tutored her on ley line dynamics and instructed her how to draw from these ribbons of magic energy. She had discovered that she was a powerful latent psychic as well. The Lizard Mage said that it was very rare for mystics to wield both arcane and psionic power. She had enjoyed practicing her 'Jedi mind tricks,' as she called them. She had to explain to Zha-Ying about the references to the Star Wars movies.

He taught her about reaching a meditative state, so that she could center and focus her power. He told her this was her cosplay come to life. She would be encountering a menagerie of new creatures. Doing this would help to reduce her sense of culture shock, he told her. He also shared many of the details of his history, to prepare her for her new life. She was shock that he was asking her to step into the set of shoes worn by a cross-dimensional crime lord. Once she had always prided herself on her moral judgement, but secretly she had to admit, it might be fun to be bad for a little bit. Bad in a right way, a she called it.

There had also been quite a bit of sex. The foreplay usually involved some form of magical practice. Most often he or she would shape shift and they would do a little roleplaying foreplay. As a sci-fi nerd, she loved cosplay. This would then lead to engaging in various forms of carnal pleasure.

She was surprised, when he finally told her it was her time to go out and explore her new home. He walked her over to a door that she had never noticed before. It was a large and heavy, wooden door with intricate cast iron fittings. He waved his hands and it opened. Behind it lay a dark tunnel.

"Just walk along this tunnel," he motioned and smiled saying, "You'll arrive at your destination shortly."

"I'm going naked," she asked.

"There is clothing right on the other side waiting for you. It's time for you to go now," he said motioning her through the door.

As she passed, he patted her ass. "If I know you, I think you're going to have loads of fun!"

As Belladonna stepped into the tunnel, she began to hear rumbling like thunder, in the distance. As it grew darker she started becoming a little nervous.

*****

The Freezone

They had travelled for three-nights. Moving as slowly and as silently as they could, they had been able to move about twelve-klicks a day. There had been little talking, as even Grond knew that detection was their worst enemy at this point. Besides he was happy. After the first-day of carrying the woman, Strider had convinced Wind Runner he would be of better use scouting. The ogre gently carried her wrapped in the night wing, smiling all the while. Pink flitted about guarding their flanks and telepathically communicating with the Emirin.

It was around midnight of their fourth night of movement, when Wind Runner sensed something was wrong. Usually, he could detect a small degree of telepathic background noise. He suddenly realized that he hadn't been able to detect anything for about the last hour. It must have been the fatigue finally catching up with him.

Suddenly, he saw ahead of him Strider was backing toward them. He tried to send a telepathic message but couldn't. He focused as hard as he could to ping Pink, but still nothing happened. Grond saw the Wolfen and set the female down and unslung his plasma rifle, he too sensing something was not right. At that moment, night suddenly became day as trees all around them began exploding with the impact of mini-missiles.

Over the din of the explosion, Strider yelled, "Coalition trap!"

Out of nowhere seemed to come armed and armored shapes from the surrounding woods, many of them with armed with energy weapons that punctuated the night with a hail of deadly pulses of light.

Grond, standing over the human female began firing the heavy rifle on full automatic, while Strider leapt into combat hand-to-hand. He had drawn a glowing yellow short sword from his belt and he swung it about, parring shots directed at him and slicing opponents into with a single stroke. This was a vibro-short sword. An extremely sharp composite blade that vibrated at a hypersonic speed, heating it to the point it glowed.

The instant the attack began, Wind Runner knew what had happened. This was a Coalition hunter-killer unit and among them were one or more psi nullifiers. Psionic human black holes, who absorbed or negated the psychic abilities of others. For him to be effective in this fight, he knew he had to find and eliminate them.

For her part, Pink couldn't offer much in this fight. She was too small to hold a weapon. She too hadn't realized something was amiss until it was too late. She flitted from tree to tree, dodging explosions and energy bolts. When she made it back to the group, she crouched on Grond's shoulder helping to direct his field of fire. In doing so, Pink spotted the Sky Cycle that was providing their attackers with air support. Over all the noise she screamed into Grond's ear. He turned in that direction and took several steps and brought the rifle to his shoulder and fired.

The hail of fire lanced the sky and intersected with the cycle, hitting the open missile bay where the internal armor was lighter. The cycle erupted in a massive fireball.

Just then an armored figure pounced on Grond, knocking Pink off balance. She took to the air to see the ogre fighting a half canine, half-human armored warrior. Known as dog boys, the soldiers were grown in a lab and trained to fight for the Coalition. The s dog soldier slashed at Grond with a vibro-dagger and the weapon grazed Grond's upper arm and he howled in pain. He grabbed the soldier and flung it against a tree. The body struck the tree trunk and he picked the energy rifle up and shot the dog boy before it could react.

"Bad dog," Grond shouted and then whirled to continue the fight.

As Wind Runner crept through the woods, he spotted a motionless figure dressed in black Coalition States armor, with a hand at its temple. The psionic deadness seemed to increase as he approached. He knew this had to be one of the nullifiers. He crept forward and leapt, catching it fully by surprise. He landed on its back causing it to topple forward under his 130-kilos of weight. He sunk his barred fangs into the nullifier's neck, catching the trooper under his skull like helmet. The nullifier spasmed in death several times and suddenly it was like a switch was flipped and he could again sense everything around him again, with razor sharp clarity.

Wind Runner shouted telepathically, "The nullifier is down!"

Almost immediately and sensing the change himself, Strider dropped the vibro-sword and clenched his right fist. A glowing blue sword appeared. This psionic sword was the calling card of the cyber knight and he wielded it with a vengeance. The coalition forces immediately recognized it. Several turned to retreat and two were cut down in a single swing of the powerful 1.5-meter blade of psionic energy.

Pink had just made it back to Grond's uninjured shoulder as he moved to shift firing position. She didn't see the Coalition trooper until it was almost too late.

*****

As Belladonna walked through the darkness the sound of explosions, energy weapons firing and shouting grew louder. Suddenly in her mind she heard, "The nullifier is down," and she was immediately awake.

She wondered wide-eyed where the hell she was. Completely disoriented, she sat up realizing several things: It was night, she was in the woods somewhere, she was naked except for being wrapped in a black cloth and there was a man in frightening armor standing over her, pointing a gun at her.

"Die, you fucking D-Bee scum," came it's mechanical voice.

To her left she heard a tiny voice scream, "No!"

Then suddenly a tiny flying figure streaked in front of her, just as her assailant fired his weapon. The shot caught the little figure and it screamed in pain, as it dropped into her lap. She saw that it was Tinkerbell, although this version had pink hair and wore a white toga-like covering instead of green leaves.

She then heard a scream of rage from her left and saw a huge green-gray creature lumber forward. She could tell he was angry in the extreme. "No on hurts Grond's friend," it shouted.

Before the trooper could fire a second time, he turned and all the mechanical voice could say was, "Shit."

He raised the pistol to fire, but Grond was on top of him. Belladonna saw that he moved with amazing speed for something that large. Clutching the little winged figure to her breasts she grabbed the covering and tried to scrable out of the way.

Screaming in rage, Grond grabbed the trooper with one hand and pounded him with the other. He then dropped him and with one massive foot stomped on him, screaming, "You pay for hurting Grond's friend," over and over.

Coalition body armor can stand up against many things -- extreme heat and cold or even the concussive force of high explosives. The composite layering can even withstand the power of directed energy weapons. One thing the armor didn't have was an inertial damping system that could withstand the beating the wearer was receiving. He died of numerous broken bones and concussive blows, under the ogre's enraged assault.

The battle quickly died down, but Grond's rage continued. He stomped the now lifeless trooper. He swung him by his legs into trees and screamed in anger.

Belladonna quaking in fear, hiding behind the smoking stump of a tree heard a tiny voice say, "Help ... him. He likes you. Calm ... him... down."

She looked down at the little winged figure in her hands and she saw that she was barely conscious.

She set the tiny thing in the depression at the base of the tree to shield her, took a deep breath of courage and then stepped out. She tried to remember what the hulking figure's name was and then she heard a female's voice in her head say, "His name is Grond. Tell him I'm okay."

She wrapped the covering around her and said, "Grond," to catch the big creature's attention.

As she stepped forward, she saw from her right approaching an enormous bipedal wolf with a glowing blue sword. She stifled a scream as she heard in her mind, "It's okay. That's Strider. Focus on Grond."

Swallowing, she stepped forward and called his name again, this time she was louder. He turned and bore his teeth in a fierce growl. "No one hurts Grond's friend. No one," as he stepped toward her menacingly, his breath heaving from the exertion.

She heard Zha-Ying's voice in her mind, "You know the incantation. Speak it softly and then say, 'Cessabit.' This will calm him."

As she softly spoke the incantation and waved her free arm, the covering slipped off her shoulder, exposing most of her upper body. She pointed her outstretched palm at Grond and said, "Cessabit."

The giant figures feature immediately changed and he shook his head. His breathing relaxed. He saw her and smiled and said, "Pretty lady is awake!"

Then almost immediately his demeanor changed and he moaned, "Where is Pink?"

Belladonna clutching at her covering said, "It's okay, big boy. She's right here."

She reached down to the ground and lifted Pink, so that Grond could see her.

Belladonna never thought she would ever see something as huge and ferocious as Grond become a quivering mass of emotion over something so tiny. He reached out his hands and she gave him Pink. Having now overcome her fear of him, she easily remembered the healing magic Zha had taught her.

"Grond," she instructed, "It'll be alright. I can help her," and seeing he was bleeding green blood from his shoulder wound, "And you."

"You can," he asked, his face tear-streaked. "You'll be Grond's new friend if you can make Pink better."

She smiled at the sweet sincerity of his remark and holding a hand to Pink, softly muttered the healing magic and said, "Salutem."

A soft blue aura appeared around the tiny figure and her eyes fluttered open. She stood to her feet. Her unsteadiness evident, by her wobble. She fluttered her wings and winced in pain.

Grond's sadness turned to joy. "Pink," he shouted, "You're better!"

"Grond," Belladonna said, getting his attention, "Give her a few minutes and she'll be as good as new. You're a very brave friend."

She then repeated the incantation on Grond. He was so focused on the little farie, he didn't notice.

Pink hugged his huge thumb and turned to look at her and mentally said, "Thank you, so much!"

Just then another thought voice intruded, sarcastically, "So you're not so useless after all. What's your name"

Belladonna turned and saw the largest mountain lion she had ever seen and she took a step back in fright and said, "Holy shit!"

It's fur was matted with dirt and mud and blood splattered it's face. It took a step closer to her and hissed. At the same time, she heard the voice again in her mind, "That's right. I said that. I'm Wind Runner, an Emirin. So, you're a spell caster. Good, we can use one. I also sense you're a pretty potent psionic. Strange combination."

"Enough, Wind Runner," said the massive wolf, "We need to get some distance between us and this patrol. HK units usually have back-ups and we could find ourselves in another fight, just as bad."

"I have to agree," said the Emirin.

Pink turned to Strider and said, "At least let her put some clothes on. We have all the lizard's shit. Let her wear it."

Belladonna was taken aback, with the thought that this little Tinkerbell knew how to swear and wondered what Walt Disney would think.

"Fine," said the wolf obviously annoyed for being challenged, "Do it quickly! We need to leave."

Grond put Pink down on the ground and got out all the other items and dropped them at her feet.

Belladonna looked around aghast and said, "What here? Can't I have at least a little privacy?"

Pink weakly took to the air and scolded, "Turn around you guys. Give her some privacy."

Strider turned and Grond grudgingly followed suit. Wind Runner communicated, "Me too? What do I care if I see a human naked. You see one, you've seen 'em all. What the hell is the problem?"

"It's a problem, because she wants some privacy, so give it to her," Pink shared, fluttering down to the Emirin's face level and then snapped, yelling, "NOW!"

Wind Runner, unaccustomed to Pink's current behavior and taken completely aback back-peddled with ears folded back and eyes wide, did as commanded. He turned around and flopped onto the ground.

Pink, struggling buzzed over to Belladonna and said, "I'll watch them, while you get dressed," and she turned to guard the new arrival's privacy.

She looked through the stack of items. The armor was extremely light. She let the covering drop and held it up to her. It looked small for her shapely frame, but as she worked to get into it and found that it appropriately stretched to fit her. As she was pulling it up over her hips, she heard Pink behind her scream, "Grond. Turn around and put your hands over your eyes," and a disappointed groan from the giant at being caught peeking.

Belladonna slipped her arms into the sleeves and pulled the armor up over her shoulders. It was like a second skin, hugging her body and accentuating her cleavage, with a low-cut collar. She ran a hand along her opposing arm. For armor, it was extremely light and it felt silky smooth. She slipped on the boots, found a belt and snapped it on, letting it ride on her hips and then donned the gloves. She tussled her hair and then turned around, saying, "Okay everyone. I'm ready."

Pink, with strain showing on her tiny face buzzed over to her while the others turned around. "I think you're forgetting something," she pointed out.