Chapter 12: Devil's Dues

-Denise "Nitro" Lee

About three in the afternoon of Friday, March 3rd, David Yun was deep in meditation, sitting quietly upon a dragon-decorated rug amid his extensive collection of wyrm-related art and artifacts. Strangely, most of his home qualified as a medicine lodge due to the concentration of totem-related keepsakes, not a few of which had been in the presence of a great dragon for some period of time; all of these he treasured, over time having accidentally invested with enough emotional energy to create the lodge bond with. Vaguely he was aware of the soft purring of Xiao, who was placidly stretched over one of his legs and carefully kneading like a cat. With the little dragonette nearby, the shaman had discovered his meditations to be all the more effective, raising again the question in his mind: was Xiao a true Draco orientalis, just of diminutive size? Despite all his searchings through modern and ancient texts on the subject of life appearing where none had been before, nothing had he turned up that explained the little serpent's nature. This question was the subject of this afternoon's meditation, Yun slowly turning it over and over in his mind like a stone being polished.

Well. .there are some theories regarding dragons that suggest they originally just. .manifested when the mana levels got high enough, David considered; then counterpoint swiftly followed point: But Feng said that they reproduce just like every other vertebrate creature on the face of the Earth. He furrowed his brow slightly, frustrated at the elusiveness of the answer, distractedly stroking Xiao's silver-maned back; the sounds of the serpent's purring and the "Sylvan Ambience" nature sounds CD that he had playing soothing the shaman's baffled ire. I guess it's still possible, though. Feng said he didn't know where dragons came from originally, and that every once in a while, a new one just seems to. .appear. Not just awaken from dragon sleep, their hibernation during the dry spells of magic, but come from nowhere. Yun's gaze drooped down to idly rest upon the jade dracling, who merely returned the look with one of sleepy bliss.

David's relaxed expression contracted suddenly with the intensification of a low-grade headache that had been bothering him for the past hour, despite having taken aspirin. Ouch! Dammit, why won't that go away? he wondered in pained exasperation, his concentration upon remaining in a trance state wavering. Why have I been having those a lot lately? And aches for no reason that I can think of? While I'm at it, why have I been so tired some days after having a good night's sleep? A week ago he'd been to the doctor in search of answers, but a thorough checkup by the medical professional had revealed no problems, leaving David with puzzlement and his physician with a sneaking suspicion that his patient was a hypochondriac. As Yun struggled to regain his placid trance, a state that he found to often help most headaches, he had a seeping feeling that he was being watched with disapproval. "What?" the shaman reflexively murmured aloud, blinking, leaning forward towards the sensation.

In the fraction of a second when his eyes were shut, two faint orbs of burning red stared back, caught in sight as briefly as a reflection in a mirror passed by.

An almost inaudible pat of something warm and wet splashing upon the back of David's hand drew his attention from his vision-startled thoughts. He glanced down to see a drop of blood glistening on his skin-and felt another trickle onto his lip. "Shit!" Yun swore as he brought up his other hand and cupped it under his nose, springing to his feet and sending Xiao airborne with a shocked, irritated hiss. "Sorry!" he apologized awkwardly as he dashed to the bathroom to grab a tissue.

"Where in the hell did this come from??" the plagued Dragon shaman demanded of no one in particular as he waited for the nosebleed to end, standing before the sink. He peered at his rather frayed reflection a bit more intently than he had that morning, noting the dark circles ringing his slanted green eyes, which gazed back at him dully, holding worried confusion. He wondered whether his current worn-down appearance and feeling really stemmed from his stressful previous night as he, and everyone he'd encountered earlier, had assumed. Now he was not so sure, stalked by a nebulous sensation that something was very, very wrong indeed. "Xiao, we're going to go visit Feng just as soon as my nose stops bleeding," David called to his scaly companion.

"Poor paramedics-they've been so overloaded lately," David murmured as the cold March wind lashed his cheeks during the drive to The Dragon's Lair; the radio news bore tidings of a gang war between the O'Toole Family of the Mafia and the White Crane Triad, which was raging on the northern border of Chinatown. "This whole city is going to Hell in the proverbial handbasket," he observed with a sigh as he bore down upon his desolate destination.

The Dragon's Lair was virtually abandoned, only the cars of the two door guards remaining in the lot before the sizeable club/restaurant. Not even the vehicles of the media vultures were clustered 'round the structure. The sinuously-lettered neon sign's sapphire glow was dulled in the daylight, azure luminescence, gleaming along the barrels of the two Sentryguns mounted over the doors, drowned out by the solar rays. The pair of guards, one a Chinese female troll, the other a black human male, stood their posts but were cloaked with the peace-denying shroud of unease. "It's closed, sir," said the horned woman as David drew near with a quick, purposeful stride. "You wouldn't want to go in there right now even if it were open," she advised in a low voice.

Yun nodded, replying, "I understand. I know Feng can be. .intimidating when he's in a foul mood, but he's never threatened me when I come to calm him."

"I don't know," said the black man uncertainly, glancing at his powerfully-built partner. "Earlier the news crews were out here harassing him. One of them, some guy from Channel 16, asked him for the fiftieth time whether or not rumors were true that his sword was taken and destroyed by Renraku and if the gossip was true about DDS declaring insolvency." The observant fellow shook his head ruefully, remembering what had followed. "Feng lost his temper and snapped, and breathed a lightning bolt at the poor idiot."

There was a soft hiss with David's sharp intake of breath at the ill news. "He has got to get control of himself, or he's going to destroy his reputation," the shaman muttered.

The troll woman nodded in agreement. "Yeah. The rest of them fled after that and Feng told us not to let anyone in. We don't know how they found out that he'd retreated here from the Aurora office. Damn leeches," she grumbled.

"I'd understand entirely if you refused to let me in to see Feng, but I might be able to help soothe him, and I have something I really need to discuss with him," said David candidly, nonconfrontationally-urgently, his emerald eyes shining with mortal worry.

The dark-skinned man hesitated a moment, weighing possibly his career against the request of a designated favorite of the dragon that ran contrary to his orders. He sighed. "Go on in, but please be careful-I don't want to get fired over this," he said as he swiped his card key through the reader that controlled the maglock sealing the steel doors.

"I will, and thank you," said Yun sincerely as he entered the Lair, Xiao perched atop one shoulder like a reptilian parrot, ruby eyes wide and fixed upon the mighty wyrm coiled upon the ivory-hued marble dais dominating the room's center like a great throne.

The elegant interior was chaos. Tables and chairs were scattered about as if a tornado had struck, some twisted and broken beneath the dragon's spent fury. One iron table was marred by a black scorch mark, created by the eldritch electricity spat by the black serpent. The lights were out, bathing the place with shadow, pierced only by the shafts of luminescence lancing down like God's fingers through the massive skylights and the smaller windows high along the walls. In the sharply-defined rectangles of illumination was the tightly-coiled, powerfully-muscled form of Feng, his back to the door, silver mane shimmering and quivering like living mercury with each breath the wyrm took.

Slowly David walked towards the corporate war-torn Draco orientalis, his footsteps upon the black carpet leading up to the dais muffled, barely piercing the near-total silence, blending with the quiet burbling of the eight dracoform fountains and the low rush of Feng's breathing. The deep voice speaking in flawless Mandarin Chinese, heavy with the joyless influence of brooding, stopped the magic-wielding interloper in his tracks. "Why have you come here, David?" The Eastern wyrm did not turn to look at the shaman, did not move an onyx-scaled muscle.

"I have a very big problem, honored friend," Yun said respectfully in a small voice that succinctly conveyed the gravity of his situation. "And I am sorry for what you've suffered recently," he added honestly.

A rumbling sigh escaped the majestic dragon. "Your sympathies are appreciated, David, but I do not think they will be enough to counter my difficulties," he said, bitterness creeping into his words.

"I know. But my friends and I are doing what we can to help. I'll try my best. I promise," David said with conviction.

"Again, my thanks. I pray you succeed," replied Feng, the hopelessness in his voice terrible to hear.

"So do I, for your sake." The sight of such a mighty, kingly creature brought down to the depths of despair, on the edge of defeat, hurt the shaman deeply. It was out of order, a disturbance in his world that seemed the fraying of the very fabric of all that he based his beliefs upon.

"Uncle Feng, please help my daddy," pleaded Xiao mournfully, tiny voice piercing the pall in a pure treble note, trembling with fear for his chosen "father".

The obsidian coils halted in mid-breath, caught by what had been heard. A scratching rustling of scales hissed out after the tapping of talons on stone as Feng propped himself up upon one paw like a reclining human to look over his shoulder at the pair of supplicants. His captivating sapphire gaze appraised David keenly, searching for any physical signs of distress. The cobalt fire within his crystalline orbs flickered like the faint dancing of candleflames as he noted the shaman's rather worn appearance. "What is wrong?" he asked as he resituated himself upon his snow-colored stone throne to face the duo fully.

"Well, I was meditating this afternoon, trying to find an answer about Xiao's origins and waiting for a stubborn headache to go away, when it suddenly got much worse, and at the same time I saw a familiar pair of eyes staring at me," explained David. "I've seen them once before in my mind-they're Lung's."

Feng nodded, countenance growing more seriously concerned, silver whiskers darting in the air with the motion. "Then what?"

"For no apparent reason my nose started to bleed," Yun answered. "The thing is, incidents like these have been happening a lot within the past month or so. Migraines, nosebleeds, aches in my bones, fatigue. I've only seen the eyes twice, though," he added. "But both times were right before a flare-up."

"I would like to look you over Astrally again. Perhaps I missed something the last time I did so, as I was not trying to discern the details of what traces of magic I detected in your aura. Especially if the power is masked," Feng said consideringly, beard shimmering as he distractedly stroked it. "May I?"

David nodded fervently. "Go right ahead!" As the reptilian Sphinx before him prepared to fully shift his formidable senses to the Astral plane, he added, "I had Diaz look at it a few weeks ago, and he said he saw some strange things in it. I've been meaning to come to you sooner, but as nothing really serious had happened, I kept putting it off."

"Diaz. .he was the mage who captured the Triad mole within Lone Star," half-asked Feng, thoughts speeding through his elephantine memory in a flash to settle upon the particular spellcaster in question.

"That's him."

"What grade initiate is he?" queried Feng, seeking to ascertain the degree of precision with which Arias' Astral analysis had been carried out with.

"Beta, I think," answered Yun. "He said he saw what seemed to be almost old 'aural scars' as he put it. Just like the kind you would see physically after having plastic surgery. According to him they have a pattern to them, that they're strategically placed. He also said that my aura was too powerful for someone who wasn't initiated and seemed to be 'tailor-made' for spellcasting." David paused, then admitted, "A few days after that I looked at my aura in a mirror and I couldn't find any sign of what he was talking about."

Feng's expression of worry intensified with this new influx of information. "You're not initiated?" he asked, thunderstruck.

"No. . .why?" David asked with a fast-ambushing sinking feeling, the sensation akin to a bullet elevator in his stomach suddenly going into free-fall.

"Then something is very wrong here indeed," replied Feng too quickly, rapidly switching to Astral sight with a speed and natural level of comfort that a human could only envy, never fully match. His eyes glowed more brightly than before as he silently scanned the apprehensive Dragon shaman standing in his shadow, a look of intensity settling upon his wise, whiskered face. "I thought you were an Omega."

The minutes ticked by, leaving David worrying while he awaited the wyrm's diagnosis and feeling a strange sensation of deja vu linking now and when Diaz checked his aura out. What does he see, and why can't I seem to see it? What does he know that's bothering him so? He wondered with a sense of dread battling the desire to know, What is he going to say?

"There are many, many masked spells of tremendous power woven into your aura, David," said Feng slowly, awed-and disturbed to the very center of his soul. "All of them are far beyond what I am capable of casting without suffering dire consequences," he said, adding amazedly, "And I can cast spells at the twelfth degree of Force."

David gasped, draconic eyes widening to jade saucers. "What??"

"I would place these within a range of the thirteenth for the lowest, most at fifteenth, and some perhaps greater than that. . ." Feng said with a nod, gaze still attuned to the magical plane of existence in aghast fascination. Yun was speechless with shock, unable to even comprehend power of such a magnitude when anything past the sixth level of Force would eat away at his life energies as it overloaded his ability to control. Even the most fearsome of human and metahuman spellcasters, initiates of the Omega grade, were incapable of safely handling anything beyond ninth. "My God, I am going to have to take this before the Council. . ." he murmured, horrified. "I can't believe he did this. ."

"Did. .what?" Yun asked, voice faltering, frightened by the thought of what could possibly disturb a dragon to this degree.

Feng's blue-star eyes focused back upon the physical realm, upon the confused shaman helplessly awaiting his answer. He hesitated, clearly choosing his words with care, seeking to find the gentlest way to break the news to his mortal friend. "David. .I don't know how to tell you this. .but. . ." he began slowly, struggling for phrasing. "Not all of your spirit is your own," the inky wyrm said, words like the tolling of an apocalyptic bell.

"Wh-what?" repeated David, faintly, not believing.

Feng gazed down at him, eyes illuminated with infinite sympathy and pity. "Your aura was indeed 'tailor-made' for spellcasting. Part of it, a large part of it, is dragon."

"Lung. . ." whispered Yun.

"Took some of his own essence and replaced yours with it," finished Feng softly. "That is why you can cast draconic magic in its pure form, something no ordinary human can do, not even the most blessed of Dragon shamen," the serpent explained gently. "There is enough energy within you to equal any Omega initiate in the world, perhaps exceed. Lung bound enough power to your soul to push the limits of what a human can stand without dying from excess. That is why you are mistaken for an initiated shaman."

"Oh my God. . ." said David numbly, all the unanswered questions being swept from the field. The words of the draconic juggernaught that had dominated his childhood echoed in his reeling mind like distant thunder. "Then I shall grant you the greatest honor any mortal may earn from a dragon. . ." whispered the all-shadowing ghost of his past. This is the "honor" that he was talking about? Tearing out part of my soul and replacing it with his? How could he do that?! I was only six. .I trusted him! He swallowed hard, looking up at Feng, asking hesitantly, dreading what he might hear, "How much of me is. .not me?"

"I would estimate about sixty percent of your aura is Lung's, child," answered Feng like a tragic oracle.

"Then I'm not even mostly me," David said in a subdued, pitiful voice. Xiao sadly licked his cheek in an attempt to comfort his stricken guardian, placing his scaled cheek against Yun's.

"You'll be okay, Daddy," Xiao said, treble notes of his words quavering. He looked up at Feng with wide ruby eyes, tiny tears glistening like liquid crystals. "Won't he?"

Feng sighed deeply, ozone-tinged breath playing lightly with the former professor's loose black hair. "I will see to it that he gets the best care that I can arrange. The main spells binding the spirits' pieces are beyond my power to undo-and I will be honest, David, I don't know if they can be dispelled without the effects proving lethal to you," the glistening black dragon said. "But I think I may have figured out why you're having the problems you are now."

"Why?" asked David, clinging to the lone ray of hope.

"There seems to be a magical 'trap' of sorts woven into your aura, a link between you and Lung that he can exploit. Likely he first placed it there to cement his control over you-you never did say 'no' to him, did you?" questioned Feng.

David shook his head. "I never did. I'd come to the conclusion that he was influencing me somehow a little while ago when I was thinking about those things."

The relatively-small but magically gifted dragon nodded, keeping his sympathetic gaze trained upon the poor figure who had just had his world violently torn apart. "Apparently due to the distance involved and the amount of time you had gone without being in his presence to renew the energy caused it to fade, since he cannot directly command you any more." He paused, then asked, "When you were talking to him via vidphone, did you find it increasingly hard to refuse his demands?"

Yun nodded. "It wasn't easy. Even after I had been told the truth about his ties to the Triads, his connection to the same one that had my parents killed, I still kind of. .wanted to go back to him."

This seemed only to confirm Feng's hunch. "But you didn't. That left Lung angry-and with the remains of that link still there for him to use to abuse you with relatively-weak ritual-type spells. Hence the phantom ailments you've been suffering." The metallic-tufted tip of the dragon's tail twitched rhythmically as David nodded assent, one more mystery having been solved. "The good news is, I think I may be able to dispel that bond, now that time and space have done much of the work for me," Feng said with one index finger extended, light gleaming upon the tip of the sickle talon.

"That's some of the best news I've heard all day," said David fervently. "Can you fix that now? I don't know when Lung will try to hurt me again."

Feng nodded, skylight's luminescence glittering upon his rack of horns like a silver halo. "Of course. It shouldn't take too long-it would if I was planning on attempting to unweave it rather than simply cut it. With how faded and overcomplicated it appeared, plus the differences in qiu between myself and Lung, this would be a Gordian knot not intended for me."

"Good luck," wished David as the black dragon playing white knight switched back to Astral perception with reflexive ease and a nod of thanks.

"Now just let me know if something feels dangerously wrong when I begin, all right? I don't want to harm you somehow," said Feng.

"Can do." As David waited, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, rather eager to be free of the fear of further retributive strikes on the part of his former master via artificial gateways to his soul. He could feel the familiar, and to him, soothing, sensation of friendly draconic magic building around him, enfolding him like an eldritch quilt. Xiao was purring loudly, swishing his silver-tufted tail with glee at all the energy, as he was still perched upon Yun's shoulder.

And then David could feel the intensity of the energy spike sharply, painfully, hear a startled draconic curse from Feng. The air shimmered ruby red for a second with the raw power, then the maelstrom of magic suddenly ceased as swiftly as it had started. Yun was left with nerves singing like powerlines in the aftermath-and a noticeable weight upon his shoulder that belched loudly in his ear.

"What happened?" asked David as Feng shook himself out of his trance much like a cat, silver mane flashing and whiskers mercury streaks in the air. His green eyes widened at the sight of Xiao now stretching six inches and scrabbling to resettle himself upon Yun's shoulder. "You got big!"

"That's right! Much tasty magic!" chirped the jade dragonette, satiated, licking his lips.

"Your aura was booby-trapped!" exclaimed Feng, blue eyes wide and blazing with displeasure. "When I pulled on the link, I saw two spells fire-one attempted to destroy me, while the other should have killed you where you stand. I managed to shield myself from much of it, but the rest of the power should have been sufficient to hurt me and murder you."

David looked to Xiao with a black slash of an eyebrow quirked. "You ate all of it??" he asked of the dracling in tones of incredulity.

Xiao nodded proudly. "Yup! It was goood. I didn't let even a scrap get away."

Yun shook his head disbelievingly. "I hope you don't get indigestion from all that!" He returned his attention to Feng, asking uncertainly, "Now what?"

The black serpent leaned forward a bit in his sphinx-like posture, his breath ozone as he said, "You be careful. Between Xiao's interference with Lung's own traps and my work I'm mostly certain that the bond that the corrupt wyrm was exploiting has been broken."

"Thank God," breathed David, relieved at being freed from the oppressive threat of magical annihilation from afar. "And thank you both," the shaman said gratefully to the pair of dragons. Xiao purred with pride at helping to save his "daddy". Feng dipped his great maned head in thanks.

"Now I will have to gather the other dragons via mindspeak, and tell them what Lung has done," Feng said, unenthused with the prospect of blowing the whistle on the eldest of the great serpents. He eyed Yun consideringly, scratching his metallic beard. "You are not a dragon. .but this concerns you greatly. .and they must see if they are to believe. . ." he murmured. "I would like to invite you to attend this meeting of the Consul Draconum to tell of the crime committed against you," Feng said to the shaman. "Are you up to it?"

David nodded, overjoyed at the prospects of getting to meet all the dragons, in a way. "Definitely!"

"Very well then, I shall begin the unenviable task of tracing the magic circle soon," said the inky wyrm with a nod. "In the meantime I recommend trying to get some rest, as these mass mindlinks can be rather taxing even for dragons. I will be expecting you back here in about three hours."

"All right, see you then," replied Yun, bowing carefully as not to dislodge Xiao, who was now wrapped contentedly about his neck like a scaly scarf. He turned to leave The Dragon's Lair, mind a tumbled limbo of intense curiosity and fading sadness at the discovery of his strange spiritual state, comforted by the knowledge that something was going to be done about it by powerful allies.

At four-thirty PM, David's thoughts were moving in a turbulent manner as he dialed Wei's number, wondering if the Triad boss would rescind his offer of a truce in a fit of pique. The corporate secretary that appeared on the screen of his vidphone gave him a dirty look and bounced him to Terrence without a word. "How rude!" he muttered in the brief interim.

Wei eyed him with a cool green gaze, saying with cold civility, "Hello, David. I see you got my message." Somehow the Dragonhead managed to make the melody of Cantonese diabolous.

Yun nodded, replying, "I did. I take it you and Lung have parted company?"

"I weighed the benefits and drawbacks to maintaining ties with the dragon," began the criminal CEO. "He has provided little support for a time now, and has been very meddlesome, as well as costing me valuable resources in the pursuit of pointless problems," Wei said pointedly. "So, yes, I informed him of my decision to put an end to our partnership."

David bit his tongue at the insults, bearing the Triad ruler's arrows in hope of resolution of a thorny issue. "Glad to hear it," he said shortly Is it too much to ask that he be pleasant for once? he wondered, irritated.

Wei's middle-aged visage remained untouched by any kind of a smile. "This leaves me with only one little matter to finish-you. You've not really done more than annoy me, and not enough so to warrant bothering with. Do not interfere with my plans and operations or harass my men, and I will order them to leave you be. Have we a deal?" he proposed, voice business-brusque.

"Sounds good to me," replied David warily. "Deal."

"Agreed, then," said Wei, tone expressing chill relief at getting an obnoxious nuisance out of the way.

"By the way," added David casually as Terrence was already reaching to terminate the call, his voice stopping the Dragonhead. "A friend of mine recorded one of your men saying some very interesting things about you, Jaeger, and Wraithraven. . ." a slight, sly smile was sketched on his face as he palmed the chip that held the interrogation session with Lucifer that Blake had recorded and given at the last second before he left the station.

"Oh really?" fenced Wei, suspicious and smelling either a bluff or an outright con. "And what things might they have been?"

"See for yourself," rejoined David with a smile, popping in the chip and hitting "Send".

Seconds later when the data had finished being transferred to Terrence's telecom, the Triad boss muttered impatiently, "This had better be worth my time to look at. . ." He began to play the file.

"Oh, don't you worry-it is," grinned Yun. This'll serve Lucifer right. . .he thought, his miniscule nasty molecule having been provoked into action by the ceaseless needling and threats of the devil in the black suit.

Silence prevailed on the Hong Kong end of the line, the Dragonhead's expression darkening dramatically like a rapidly-building stormcloud as he watched and listened to Lucifer's transgression of several of his sworn oaths. His eyes blazed with green hellfire and in a deadly-tight voice spat, "Excuse me, David, I have to call Jaeger now."

"No-"

"-problem," finished Yun, abruptly cut off. Xiao was chuckling like a little jade hyena nearby as the shaman turned to him with a broad smile, saying, "I think the devil's going to get his dues."

David returned to the massive club at five o'clock that afternoon, the grey March sky streaked with the ruddy hues of a just-sinking sun. The lot before the Lair was utterly deserted still, just as Feng had desired it to be. The window shades were drawn, though the occasional flicker of blue light could be vaguely seen flashing within. The guards posted outside nervously maintained their vigil, unsettled by the proximity of such powerful spells.

Xiao, on the other hand, seemed to be quite pleased, purring and stretching towards the energetic vibrations he detected. "More magic!" he squealed excitedly as David set foot upon the concrete of the sidewalk.

"That's right, and lots of it," Yun said, picking up the power clearly with his preternaturally-keen senses.

"No shit," muttered one of the guards as he waved the shaman and his serpentine companion on in. Neither of the two security personnel wanted anything to do with these frightening spells or those involved.

Inside, David's eyes slowly adjusted to the shade within, darkness shot through by harmless blue bolts of magical electricity that licked the floor, the ceiling, and all life within. The cavernous space was opened up to its maximum, the tables and chairs having been pushed aside and neatly stacked along the club's perimeter. The tiles and even carpeting were absolutely covered with one gigantic magical wheel, layered hundreds of times back upon itself as it swirled closer to the jet black form perched atop the white dais.

"Wow," Yun breathed in awe as he peered down curiously at the painted lines curving only inches from his toes, lines appearing to have been drawn with skillful talons and possessing a colorized sumi ink appearance. To his astonishment, the shaman discovered that what appeared at first glance to be a simple single stroke was actually made of thousands of tiny dragons intertwined, the whole circle a chain of tails and scales and wings. "Oh my God!" he whispered, gazing in unabashed wonder at the gently-glowing creation.

"I am almost done, David," came the deep, deep in concentration basso voice of Feng into his musings. Azure sparks trailed from one argent talon as he traced in the small gaps remaining in the perimeter of the central ring. "Come to the middle, but be careful not to smudge any of it."

"How in God's name have you managed to create this so quickly??" asked David as he gingerly stepped over one chain of serpents and began picking his way to Feng.

"With quite a bit of spiritual help. It's amazing what several water shen can do when they try," said the obsidian wyrm with a glittering smile as he finished his massive project. "There we go!" he rumbled pleasedly, sitting back on his muscled haunches to survey the completed circle in all its artistic glory. He bent back down to add a last stroke to the wing of one dragon figure, then nodded to himself, contented. "I have one drawn for all of those who will be present," Feng said, gesturing to the closer dragons. The outer two were composed of the lesser wyrms of every type, while the inner was made of linked, easily recognizable images of the greats.

David grinned a bit when he noticed that a familiar red, gold, and black Eastern serpent was scratched out. "I see Lung's not invited."

Feng shook his head. "Of course not. He might seek to intimidate some of those present to avoid the consequences of his actions. He will get to tell his side of the story in a separate council meeting with just the great dragons."

He settled his great weight in a loose coil atop the innermost circle, which was a sketch that signified himself. With the contact of the sorcerously-powerful dragon, the diagram began to glow with greater intensity, blue lightning playing over both the objects and people in the room. "Stand upon your picture, David, and the same for you, Xiao," said Feng, pointing to the respective paintings.

"Xiao's coming with?" Yun asked curiously as he carefully took his place, surrounded by the onyx coil of the corporate wyrm. With a concerned paternal eye he watched the little dracling gleefully undulate down to land where he belonged.

"Well, judging by his rapid growth from consuming magic, a trait shared with regular dragon hatchlings," Feng explained, "-and the rest of us, though for us the growth is far slower and less, I would say that indeed he is a true dragon. Even we do not always know where some of us come from." Xiao purred excitedly at the good news, the sound blending with the humming of magical energy in the area. Feng laid his tail upon that of his sketch, closing the inner circle. The effect was immediate and electric, like the closing of an eldritch circuit. All three beings within were sheathed in the licking, strobing tongues of lightning that crackled harmlessly. "Are you able to withstand the power level?" asked Feng, ever cautious.

"I'm all right," said David, understanding what a battery must feel like, black hair standing slightly on end in the static. "I feel kind of tense, but otherwise there's no problem."

"Good," sighed Feng. "I've never included a human in this ritual before, so you'll have to excuse my apprehension. Now," he said, fixing his hypnotic sapphire eyes upon the shaman, "Just focus upon me and brace yourself."

"Can do," replied David, entranced, staring into the bottomless blazing blue of the dragon's eyes. The thunderous bass of Feng's chanting, mystic words in Chinese-accented Draconic, rolled around the shaman like a thrumming tide. He could feel the tension build as the power present increased geometrically with each incantation, see reality warping around him like clear water from its magnitude. As Yun felt he could almost no longer stand it, tight as a violin string near the breaking point, he fell into Feng's eyes. Or so it seemed.

The world formed anew from out of the endless blue, an illusory repetition of the Second Day of Creation. All was silent, but for the soft echoes of breathing whispering through the confines of the incorporeal imperial chamber, lit by an otherworldly light like a miniature sun in the ceiling. David looked away from Feng and stared in pure awe about him, the majesty of the whole of dragonkind on display.

The walls were shining white marble, dripping with ornate tapestries depicting scenes of dragon history stretching back tens of thousands of years. Pure golden lattices partitioned shadowed smaller side chambers, woven of wyrms in flight. The floor was black marble and inlaid with an even grander version of the magic circle Feng had inscribed, the center a serpent's wise eye. A multitiered dais wrapped around the room's edge, smothered with the finest, most divinely-comfortable carpets and cushions in the multiverse. But it was the inhabitants of the glorious chamber that caught David's attention and held it captive.

Situated about the hall were dragons of every shape and size and geographic division. The sinuous coils of the wyrms of the East, Chinese, Japanese, Korean-distinguishable by their varying numbers of toes-were draped luxuriously around the eastern part of the chamber. Tien, the actress of the wyrm world, languorously fanned her silver and white-scaled self with a dainty fan held in the curl of her tail. A stately female of Chinese origin the color of antique gold watched David, wise brown eyes curious. "Who has Feng brought, Minh?" softly asked of her a male Japanese serpent named Amaterase, his scales like topaz and eyes of opal.

Opposite the assembled Draco orientalis were those dragons of the West, tremendous forms built with the strength and power of the Leviathan of legend. One gargantuan fellow called Firebrand had scales the scarlet of fire, striped with purest black, and a broad band of gleaming copper down each side, partially obscured by wide, almost butterfly-shaped leathery wings. He was as muscular as a tyrannosaur, stretching nearly the length of one old enough to be Great from the tip of his massive muzzle to lion-tufted tail, and telling in a booming voice war stories to Pyrite. Pyrite was gracefully built for a male of his kind, and the color of platinum, bathed in a gentle celestial radiance, eyes like two topaz stars. A grass-snake green female called Delilah, tiny and obviously barely an adult wyrm, watched the proceedings with a curiosity feline in its intensity, matching her luminous silt-pupil eyes. Neba, a brass-scaled female from Egypt and draped in ancient jewelry the likes of which was no longer seen among humankind, her flower-pink eyes rimmed with black kohl, lazily fanned herself with a crescent of peacock feathers.

In the south were the feathered serpents, progeny of legendary Quetzalcoatl, brilliant as living rainbows. They chattered among themselves in their own strange dialect of Draconic, feathers shifting hues in according to their mercurial moods.

And in the north was the seat of rulership, the chosen place for the elders of wyrms-the Great Dragons, those wise and fortunate enough to reach ages advanced enough to reach their full power. Dunkelzahn, gleaming argent and azure, cloaked in an air of intelligence and compassion, gazed out over the crowd to study Feng and David. Lofwyr, mighty German wyrm of blackest scales, with horns, talons, and eyes of rich gold, spared his American brother barely an arrogant glance. Hualpa, plumes beautiful enough to bring tears to one's eyes, waited distractedly for the meeting to begin, mind far away in the Yucatan, planning freedom for the rebels. Ahexotl, a male feathered serpent, reclined with the regal grace of an Aztec king. Ryumyo, the harbinger of the dragon race, Japanese defender of metahuman rights, nodded politely to Feng; her metallic scales were the hue of new leaves down her back, her belly, horns, fur, and talons rosy gold, and her eyes two living sunsets. Only Lung, the most ancient of all, was absent.

"I see the last of us has arrived, along with our guests," noted Dunkelzahn calmly, deep voice causing a respectful hush to fall over the wyrms assembled in this consensual hallucination. "Welcome, Feng, blessed with financial acumen beyond your years," he said with a polite nod. "And to you, Xiao the appropriately-named," he added with a smile. "It's always a pleasure to see a new dragon grace the Earth." Xiao purred with the greatest intensity Yun had ever heard, the vibrations almost shaking him from his perch upon the shaman.

Feng dipped his head in a graceful motion. "Thank you. It's good to see you again, Dunkelzahn the Great." He straightened his inky length and gestured to David, "I introduce to you David Yun, the cause for this meeting of the Consul Draconum."

All eyes shifted to fix upon the small and now very self-conscious Eastern Dragon shaman.

"By the beard of Bahamut-! This is an abomination!" muttered Lofwyr under his considerable breath, golden eyes widening like gigantic doubloons.

Over Yun hovered the ghostly image of Lung, blood-red with tiger-like black stripes and golden belly. It seemed to move with a life of its own, coiling and uncoiling about the soul-damaged human, its writhing suggesting a vain desire to escape that whom it was bonded to. Though it moved in a parody of life, it had no mind and no voice.

"Excuse me, Lofwyr the Great," said David politely in impeccable High Draconic, the common tongue of

the wyrms that transcended dialects, "but I can understand your speech and would appreciate not being spoken of in such a way for a crime I did not commit."

Lofwyr blinked his gleaming eyes in surprise at hearing perfect dragon words coming out of a human mouth, and even the proper titles and forms of address to boot! In a rare moment of magnanimity, brought about by startlement, the coal wyrm nodded, saying, "Very well then."

"Would you please tell us how this happened to you?" asked Ryumyo, bell-like voice bearing a note of horror and wonderment. Long had she and Lung been rivals, opposites in nature-she was a creature of compassion and thoughtful wisdom, elements Wood and Water. Lung was ancient and brilliant, but impassive and imperialistic, grand but harsh, his qiu Metal and Fire.

David nodded, bowing slightly. "I was very young when I met Lung-only six years old. I had seen him flying when I was walking home from the arcade-they'd gotten in a new game involving a dragon-" he said. "-and I was fascinated. I had to go talk to him-I thought Dragon had given me my chance."

"So your magic awakened in you at a truly early age," commented Minh. "Interesting."

"That's correct. There seemed to be something of a mana spike in Kowloon at the time, as three of my classmates also expressed their being full Eastern Dragon shamen at about the same time," said Yun. There were murmurs of surprise among the bescaled lords at such a high incidence of one of the rarest totems in tandem with the quality of being full spellcasters. "One of them disappeared two years later, while another went mad, and the last died," sighed David. None of the dragons appeared happy at this new bit of information, prompting more murmurs and rustling of scales as they exchanged glances.

"I'm sorry," said Dunkelzahn kindly.

"Thank you."

"What happened next?" asked Neba, ceasing her fanning as she leaned forward, intensely curious.

"I found Lung's lair in the area-now that I think of it, the way he was moving, he wanted me to find him," said Yun, trailing off in thought for a moment. Snapping out of it, he continued soberly, "I promised to serve him. In return, he said that he would 'grant me the greatest honor that any mortal may receive from a dragon'." All the wyrms, even Lofwyr, were hooked.

At different points along the perimeter, east, west, and south, three sets of young dragon eyes peeped through the golden lattices. "Honor? What did Lung give him?" whispered a small Chinese serpent at the eastern side, his scales purple and peacock-colored. The eyes of Kai were filled with wonder and a touch of apprehension. [Author's Note: Thanks go to DeckerM for letting Kai and Minh out to play!]

"Why does his aura look so strange?" mused an adolescent American dragon, small, smooth scales golden and gaze a beautiful violet. Gethelwain crept a tiny bit farther from behind cover at the western end, wishing he could get somewhere where he could see better. [Author's Note: Thanks go to Rat for letting Gethelwain have a cameo. . .]

"Why would Lung waste his attention on a human?" muttered his elder brother from the southern end, contempt in his tone and green eyes burning with disdain. Sildarath swished his blue-green scaled tail irritably as he murmured, "I thought he was above that!" He noticed a gleam of gold where there shouldn't have been any, jade gaze darting to fix upon his sibling. Sildarath hissed hatefully. Gethelwain remained blissfully unaware for the moment. [Author's Note: . . .and again to Rat for Sildarath, too!]

David sighed deeply, gesturing at the ghostly image of Lung coiled about his telepathic form. "I didn't know he was going to splice part of his soul into my aura, erasing sixty percent of myself. If I had you can be certain that I would have had a different answer for him." Feng reassuringly patted him on the shoulder as chaos erupted in the great hall.

Minh's jaw hung open in horror, the mirror image of her son Kai; Neba dropped her peacock plume fan, kohl-rimmed eyes huge. "What on Earth possessed Lung of the idea to do such a thing?!" exclaimed Tien, never for a loss for words. Firebrand coughed a draconic obscenity in shock, nearly choking on his flame while Pyrite

shook his head sadly.

"This violates every law of our kind!" gasped Dunkelzahn, sense of morality deeply wounded.

"See! See what he's capable of! I warned all of you!" bellowed Ryumyo.

"How dare Lung degrade himself so!" snapped Lofwyr angrily, disbelievingly.

Feng sighed. "I was afraid this would happen," he muttered sotto voce so only David could hear.

David nodded rather unhappily. "What is Lofwyr's problem?"

"He's a bit. .arrogant. He's rich, he's powerful-physically and politically, and I'm afraid it's all gone to his head. He's definitely a dragon-supremacist," Feng said almost apologetically. "Lofwyr never learned that it's better to try to get along with the other races than to alienate them."

"I see," said Yun, somewhat disappointed with the mighty CEO of Saeder-Krupp. He'd been expecting the big black Western wyrm to be more noble, more like his brother Dunkelzahn.

"Now, before you completely judge Lofwyr, let me tell you that he does have some redeeming traits-he may not think humans are worth much, but at least he leaves them in peace. And he's one of the most reliable defenders of this world against spirit threats from the metaplanes," said Feng.

"Order! Order!!" called Ahexotl in nearly a roar. Slowly the cavernous chamber fell silent but for the growlings and scratchings of great voices and scales, respectively. "You all know what this means, correct?" he said ominously, plumes shading to darker hues to match his mood and bright orange eyes dulling to embers. The other dragons quieted completely, sobriety a smothering blanket. "As the Keeper of Time for the Consul Draconum, it is my duty to transcribe the Great Sins each of us has committed, as well as the penitence performed to erase them." The feathered serpent nodded to a point in space before him, and a formidable book in the shape of a black Western dragon, cover the outstretched wings, a yin-yang orb of gold and silver clutched in its jaws, appeared, hovering in the air.

"The Book of Lives. The records of what notable things every wyrm has done, good or evil," murmured Feng to David.

"What is a Great Sin?" asked Yun as he watched Ahexotl telekinetically flip through the ivory-white pages of the Book, seeking the subsection for the acts of Lung, the eldest dragon remaining on the mortal coil.

"A Great Sin is a moral crime that breaks the very laws of Nature itself or is treason against dragonkind. One of these warrants commensurate punishment, while seven of them is grounds for excommunication from the Council-from dragon society," Feng said gravely as David's green eyes widened. "Those wyrms cast out are called 'Korakhazulh'-pariahs. Other dragons are forbidden to associate with them in any beneficial way, and they are considered upon their death to be doomed to eternal torment at the talons of Tiamat, Queen of the Damned and ruler of Ulrikkh-our equivalent to Hell."

"But with how long dragons' lifespans are, wouldn't most eventually accumulate enough sins to be thrown out of the Council?" David ventured worriedly, listening distractedly to Ahexotl reading off what filled the balance of Lung's life.

"Well, it is not for certain that what you speak of would occur-we have our saints just like you have yours," replied Feng consideringly. "But someone who has sinned may have his crime considered forgiven and no longer counted in the tally if he is punished and performs a Great Penitence to undo the wrong."

"What about someone who's become Korakhazulh?"

"They may still clear themselves of their misdeeds, but this isn't easy, as they've already proven themselves to be susceptible to evil. Generally they must atone for several crimes and then petition the Council for forgiveness and reinstatement," explained the little black serpent obligingly. "If the Praetores-judges-consider what he's done to be worth giving him a second chance, he is permitted to have limited contact with society for a probationary period of 777 years. After that, if he has remained pure and preferably continued to make amends, he is fully accepted back into the fold." David nodded, eagerly lapping up this peek into draconic society, despite the grim reason and subject.

". . .That brings to six the tally of Great Sins that Lung has not atoned for still hanging in the balance," Ahexotl said gravely, deep voice like that of an archangel sitting in judgement. "With the addition of the violation of the soul of one of Eastern Dragon's human children, Lung will be Korakhazulh."

Kai's young face registered horror, a shocked gasp escaping from between gleaming teeth. "That's terrible!" he squeaked, a bit too loudly. Minh, hearing a familiar voice, glanced over her golden shoulder to see the source of the sound. "Oops!" Kai gulped, caught by his mother. He darted out of her sight before he could be scolded.

"Is there anything else that either of you would like to add before we adjourn to decide Lung's fate?" Dunkelzahn asked of David and Feng.

"Just that Lung wanted me to help assist him with his plans-to stand as an advisor as he tries to unify China," said Yun, almost as an afterthought, unsure of the relevance of the great dragon's scheme to the current issue on the table.

"Why am I not surprised," sighed Ryumyo. "Do you know if he's seeking a phoenix?"

David shook his head. "Not that he's told me. But then again, he never told me much. Why?"

"There has been a prophecy around for some time, based upon the symbolism of the dragon as the emperor of China and the phoenix as the empress. Some take this literally," explained the shimmering green she-wyrm. "I was wondering if perhaps Lung was."

"Ah," replied Yun, finding the concept strange, but intriguing.

"If he is," interjected Lofwyr, "we're going to need to keep the corrupt imperialist from managing. I, for one, am not pleased with the possibility of a Korakhazulh ruling an empire."

"He's not Korakhazulh yet, my peers," said Dunkelzahn, mindful of protocol. "We must vote first and determine whether Lung shall have a chance to redeem himself before being cast out."

Lofwyr snorted derisively, two jets of flame flaring from his nostrils. "Ever set on doing things exactly by the book. I see some things never change," muttered the great black wyrm.

Dunkelzahn ignored his estranged brother's snide remark as Ahexotl, Primus Praetorum ("First of the Judges"), called out, "Then the hearing of the crime has finished. Debates and voting will commence in one week."

Feng looked to David and Xiao, saying, "It looks like it's time for us to depart, then."

"What will they do before the next meeting?" asked Yun as Gethelwain crept closer, violet eyes alight with the unquenchable flame of curiosity. Sildarath slunk nearer as well, though his attention was focused upon his golden brother.

"Likely talk to Lung, getting his side of the story, and formally tell him of the proceedings that've been begun against him," Feng said, gaze straying to Ryumyo.

"He's not going to be a very happy dragon," said the shaman thoughtfully.

Just as Gethelwain was about to politely introduce himself to Yun, Sildarath pounced like a blue-green tiger, wings fanned and claws outstretched. As his shadow fell upon Gethelwain, the golden dragon looked up in shock, then vanishing in a swirl of like-hued sparkles as he broke contact with the communal hallucination.

Sildarath landed awkwardly with a hiss, scales on end. He, too, ceased to be in the ethereal chamber, his consciousness returning to the real world, intent on finding his sibling to finish what he started here.

Yun blinked, wondering what in the hell all that was about as he listened to Feng, who'd missed it.

"No he's not. I'm glad I'm not going to be the messenger," confessed Feng. "David, you'll have to excuse me, but I need to talk to Ryumyo about getting your spiritual problems straightened out. I will release you from the mindlink and catch you up on what we decide later, all right?"

"Okay, I'm looking forward to hearing it," replied Yun, bracing for the shock of breaking contact.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

It seemed to David that he was now falling out of the telepathic illusion, Feng and the other majestic serpents receding from his sight swiftly. For a second he was suspended in limbo, surrounded by black void and weightless. Then gravity returned, dropping the shaman rudely to the floor as the world snapped back into focus with gut-wrenching suddenness.

"Oh. .my," David gasped, dazed and beset by vertigo as he gazed uncomprehendingly at his surroundings, the sleek and gleaming coils of Feng, the soft blue luminescence, the magic circle.

"Wow," said Xiao in a tiny, awed voice that summed up it all.

"My thoughts exactly," agreed Yun, shakily getting back to his feet, body shot through by an electric sensation of weakness in the wake of the raw power of the black dragon surrounding him. "That was amazing. I've never been a part of something like that," he murmured as he gently scooped up Xiao, who curled limply about his forearm. A sort of contentment despite the fatigue, born of close contact with his totem creatures and the vibrance of their life and magic, filled David's senses as he carefully picked his way out of the twining circles, leaving behind the warmth of the wyrm's darkened lair, throbbing with energy.

About twenty minutes later, David was happily having it their way at Burger Drac's, devouring Great Burgers and admiring his Beany-Baby Ryumyo. "That will go well with my Beany-Baby Lofwyr and Dunkelzahn!" he commented cheerfully, determined to collect the entire "Great Dragons of the World" line. I wonder if I should maybe skip Lung. . .hmm. . .

Hey! That's Yellowjacket! So that's where he lives now. I guess he must move around a lot to avoid the police and other problems, mused David as he waited at a stoplight in the southern part of Cicero, not too far from Hawthorne Racetrack. He had caught a glimpse of a familiar thin, long-fanged Chinese face with ember eyes peering cautiously out of a grimy ground floor apartment window on the shady side of the building. Quickly this vanished, the cracked and dirty blinds swaying as they fell back into place. I wonder what it would be like to have to avoid the sun? idly thought Yun as he continued on his way to Von Solberg Memorial Hospital.

In the vague twilight of the early evening, about 6:45 PM, the bleak, weary outline of the crumbling Von Solberg Memorial Hospital came into view, encircled by the urban decay endemic to the area. As David's emerald-toned Rapier purred into the cracked and crowded lot, a bullet-scarred ambulance screamed by in response to a call, red and white lights flaring and fading. Yun watched those in need of medical assistance pass through the center's flung-wide doors with sympathetic sadness as he parked at the rusted bike rack. Different from the rest of the stream of battered humanity in the fact that he was unharmed, he entered.

Inside, the lobby was just as David remembered it, yellowed with age and ill-maintenance, packed with humanity, and the phones juggled by a frazzled secretary who had had the misfortune to inherit the position of the prior one. Even the wilted fern was still tired and thirsty-looking. He scanned the mob quickly, seeking Dr. Burbank amidst the chaos, trying to silence the screams and cries of the still-living casualties of the never-ending war waged on the streets of Chicago.

Spotting the salt-and-pepper-haired hospital manager-cum-doctor, David slipped through those milling about to arrive at Burbank's side beside a stretcher bearing a deathly-pale Hispanic youth, who feebly held a scarlet-soaked rag to the side of his neck. "What happened?" asked Yun with concern, already knowing but impossibly hoping that it wasn't true.

"He was bitten by a vampire," Morton said grimly as he continued to try to stanch the bleeding, not really noticing who he was talking to. He attempted to reassure the boy's heartbroken parents in fragmented Spanish, not really believing his own words, knowing what was likely in store for the child should he survive.

"Maybe I can help?" asked David, already beginning to draw healing energies near.

"I don't know-" Morton stopped, recognizing the shaman. "David! What are you doing here? And maybe you can-feel free to try."

"I've got something to give you," Yun said as he switched to Astral perception to prepare to cast and to also check for telltale signs of infection with HMHVV. "Oh, God, no," he murmured, feeling ill, as he sighted the unmistakable diseased black already creeping around the edges of the youth's Heart chakra. Dragon, please grant me the magic I need to save this child. . .he begged as he lightly grasped the boy's hand in his own. David didn't hear the parents' surprised comments as he was bathed in a soft green glow, incandescent dragon barbules adorning his face as he cast. Managing to weather the Drain relatively unscathed, he apprehensively examined the boy's aura again.

The black of infection was still present, though its creeping corruption was slowed and the bleeding wound inflicted by fangs was sealed.

David sighed, defeated, as nurses carried the young man off to a just-vacated room. "It's still there, but I managed to slow it," he said dully to Burbank.

The exhausted doctor's basset-hound eyes were sad and a matching sigh escaped his lips. "Poor kid. . and he was an Advanced Placement English star. . .what a waste," he said mournfully. "I'm seeing vampire and banshee attacks more and more now, and there's not much I can do for them. If they survive but are infected, they're still dead-you'll notice there are no exceptions to the official city policy of destroying them on sight," confided Dr. Burbank.

David nodded assent, wincing at the news of the extinguishing of such a bright light of the scholastic world, someone who had been beating the odds of his wretched environment. "Have you heard anything about anyone managing to find a cure yet?"

"There are a few groups looking, including Johns-Hopkins' researchers, an independent association in New Los Angeles, and I think a government-sponsored project in Aztlan, off the top of my head," Burbank offered. "No one's managed yet-HMHVV's a very unstable virus, already tough enough to beat because of its mutagenic nature, and it's only made worse by the magical component," Morton said.

"I hope they figure out how to beat it soon, despite all that," sighed David.

"So do I," agreed Morton. After a pause, he said, "I know this isn't your part of town-what was it you said that brought you by?"

A smile graced Yun's face, curving between the twin cascades of his mustache. "Just keeping a promise," he said mysteriously as he drew a cred-laden card from one pocket and handed it to his harried doctor friend.

Morton took it wonderingly, looking at the balance upon it, and his brown eyes widened in amazed surprise. "¥20,000?! David, I can't possibly thank you enough! This is just what we needed to pay for the renovations to the roof and take care of some back salaries for the surgeons!"

Yun grinned broadly, beaming beatifically. "I thought you'd be happy to get that," he said. "Too bad I can't stick around for long, though-I've got to get back home and get ready to help out Lone Star try to track down some jerks."

"Well, you be careful out there," Burbank admonished, attention snapping back to the door as a fresh influx of unfortunates entered. He sighed, looking back to the Dragon shaman. Apologetically, he began, "David, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go help with them, the other doctors are tied up with the rest right now. . ."

Yun shook his head, waving a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, Morton, I understand. I'll be back some other time to see how things are going, all right?"

"I'll be looking forward to it! And while our doors are always open, I pray I never have to see you come in here on a stretcher," Morton said with a wry, crinkly smile. As one of the nurses shrieked for his help in stabilizing a patient and the secretary screamed as she knocked over her coffee into her lap as all of the phones rang at once, the doctor hurried off.

"Poor Morton," David said ruefully as he watched his medical friend enter the breach once more.

"Yup," chirped Xiao as he landed on the shaman's shoulder bearing a purloined donut.

"That better have been for anyone to take," Yun admonished as he headed back out into the evening chill.

"It was," replied Xiao innocently, taking a hearty bite from the semi-stale pastry.

As David climbed onto his Rapier and was putting his helmet on, he could swear that he heard a loud, irate troll bellow about his missing snack. . ."Hmm . .Time to go." Yun gunned the bike's engine and fled the parking lot, scolding the dragonette all the way.

Close to nine that night, David was driving slowly through the asphalt plain known as the parking lot of the Renraku Arcology, marveling at the crowd of people who were out on this Friday evening, then remembering that this event would be a normal thing. "I wonder where Blake and Dan are parked?" he mused to himself as he cruised the rows of cars in the shadow of the gleaming pyramid, looking for an open spot in the morass of immobile vehicles. "Well, there's Blake's. . ." he said, spotting a familiar dark blue Gemini as Yun made a beeline for the bike rack. The shaman parked, ignoring the odd looks given to him by passing Arcology patrons, his attention focused upon Xiao. "Don't you think you should maybe try to be discreet?" he prodded gently.

Xiao flicked out his silver slash of a tongue saucily, replying pertly, "Fine then! I can do that!" He promptly slithered down the collar of David's goosedown jacket-much to his surprise, and coiled warmly against his stomach. "Ahhh, comfy," the little dragon purred, voice muffled-only slightly.

"That works I suppose," Yun replied with a bit of a grin, unable to help but feel like a kangaroo as he passed between the doors to enter the lowest floor of the massive steel and glass pyramid, the golden Renraku emblem overhead shining in the light that was artfully mounted behind it.

Immediately David was engulfed by the wandering tide of humanity flowing across the floor, lost amid the multicolored sea and chattering voices. "How ever am I going to find them in all this?" he wondered despairingly as he made his way to cover inside an eddy of calm near a mirrored pillar supporting the edge of the next-highest floor, the holographic ferns beside reflecting in the quicksilver panes. He let his green-eyed gaze roam the blue-tiled floor, searching for either the Gothic detective or the spectrally-elusive assassin.

While he found neither within five minutes, the Dragon shaman did discern a man who he was quite certain to be a vampire. The person in question was rather tall and slimly-built, Caucasian face having rather handsome, if perhaps a bit sharp, features, crowned with rich mahogany hair cut short. His matching gaze was fixed upon the excessively tightly-clothed vixen at his side, with blond tresses. Oh, God, it's Trixie! David thought with disgust, recognizing the brazen hussy who'd attempted to pick him up at the San Lung months ago. He watched as the smartly-dressed predator paused, looking up distractedly from his buxom, ten-yen prize, gaze searching through the crowd as Trixie continued to coo his praises. Out of curiosity, David followed the vampire's visual path.

Oh my God, he's still wearing the cape! In public! Blake Coburn was a black brushstroke in the sea of living color as he headed with plain intent towards the pop machine not far from David. The quirky young detective was still garbed in solid black, and the velvet cape yet clung to his slim shoulders like a cloth shadow.

"I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me," said the vampire to his "date", smoothly apologetic. "But I just remembered I have to meet a friend on some important business-alone."

Trixie's face fell, as she was clearly in this not just for business but pleasure. "Aww, Alan," she said, pouting, "I thought you were going to spend time with me!" Her wide eyes belied the fact that she didn't know that her arm was hooked through that of a vampire.

Alan withdrew his arm, demeanor cooling slightly, saying more insistently, "Another night, my dear. I wouldn't cancel, but it's very important business." He took a step back, unnaturally-keen brown eyes fixed quite firmly upon the black-clad form of Blake, who was leaning against the front window of a candle store, drinking greedily his Mountain Dew. "I bid you adieu." Alan began to slip through the crowd of shoppers and socializers, moving like a befanged barracuda past a group of skater teens towards the Homicide detective.

Trixie sighed in a lovelorn fashion, heartbroken-at least until a random roaming redneck picked her up. "I've got twenty bucks if you've got ten minutes," he grunted. Trixie giggled, swept off her feet by his charm. A credstick was exchanged and off they went together.

David followed discreetly, curious to see how Blake would deal with this sudden flare-up of his infamous "vampire magnet" quality, and ready to provide assistance should something go wrong.

"Nice night, isn't it?" asked Alan conversationally as he seemed to almost materialize out of the mob near Blake, a grey-clad figure pale of skin and bright of eye.

Coburn glanced up sharply, his attention having been elsewhere, a sudden spark flickering in his lion-brown gaze that said Oh, shit, not again! "Um, yeah, it is, for March," he replied reluctantly, pointedly half-ignoring him in favor of his highly-caffeinated drink, obviously wishing he'd just go away.

Somehow, Alan seemed not to notice the slight, remaining standing nearby, saying, "Most definitely." Trying to keep the nocturnal cop talking, he added casually, "There certainly are a lot of interesting people out tonight, aren't there?"

"You could say that," responded Blake somewhat uncomfortably, attempting to read his unwanted visitor's intentions. "A lot of unpleasant people, too," he said in a veiled shot.

"Also true. But that's why birds of a feather should flock together," the vampire said with a tight-lipped smile that easily concealed any trace of his retracted fangs. "Dr. Alan Falwell, psychologist," he said amiably, extending one pale hand to Coburn.

Persistent little bloodsucker, thought Blake. "Detective Blake Coburn of Lone Star's Homicide division," he responded, shaking the proffered hand quickly and with minimal contact, disconcerted by the strength of the grip. Ok, I've established the fact that I'm a cop. I know you're a vampire, and you know I know. So what don't you understand??

"A pleasure to meet you, Blake," said Alan, a little too friendly for having just met. "So what brings out on a fine night like this?"

"Business. I've got an important case to be investigating," Coburn said, trying to make it even more plain that he wanted nothing to do with Falwell. "I'm just waiting for a couple of my friends before I get started."

"How fascinating," said Alan. "Maybe you would like to meet some of my friends? Perhaps we could be of some assistance. . ?"

From cover behind a freestanding store sale sign, David smirked a bit, rather amused at the vampire's persistence and Coburn's behavior. He wasn't too worried yet, sensing no signs of impending violence plus the fact that attempting to bite somebody in the middle of the mob would be rather. .attention-getting in a negative fashion, to say the least.

Dammit! How much clearer do I have to make it?! thought Blake frustratedly as Alan expectantly awaited his answer. "Ah, that's okay, between me and my backup I think we'll do all right. Thanks for the offer," he parried, checking his watch impatiently.

"Oh, looks like it doesn't matter-they're here anyway!" cheerfully said Alan as two more vampires arrived, one a bubblegum-chewing blond with a punky style of dress that effectively communicated her attitude as well as her black-clad Latino boyfriend. "Becky and Fernando, meet Blake Coburn!" Both eyed the detective speculatively as they exchanged greetings, sly smiles forming on their faces. Becky cracked a large pink bubble as she appraised Blake in a manner that elicited a jealous glare from her significant other.

"Why don't you come hang out with us? We know some great clubs in this city," said the fanged female hopefully.

"Yeah, I bet you'd fit right in! And I bet the others who are on their way would like to meet you, too," added Fernando with a broad grin, not caring that he exposed his retracted, but still notably-pointy canines.

Blake's gaze darted fractionally among the trio, a faint worried glint in it, beginning to feel rather hemmed-in by his undesired companions. "Uh, nah, really, I have work to be getting to. I wish my partners would hurry up and get here already, they're late," he said emphatically, looking around concernedly.

All right, time to intervene, thought David as he spotted two more inbound bloodsuckers. This Alan guy seems to be pretty popular. I wonder if he infected all of these? He crossed the short distance from his hiding place to where Coburn and the fangy flock was gathered, announcing himself with a pleasant call of, "Hey, Blake! There you are! I've been looking for you!" None of the vampires looked happy with this development, Alan in particular appearing to be irritated. The detective, however, expressed just the opposite.

"Heya David! Glad you finally found me-I was beginning to wonder if something'd happened to you. What took you so long-I thought I told you to meet me outside of the After Dark occult shop?" said Coburn, referring to the talismonger's that was thronged with vampire-posers nearby.

"You did?" David responded, feigning perplexed surprise. He thought. "Maybe you did-I guess I just forgot. So who are your new friends?" he asked casually, appraising each of the vampires in turn and hoping that Dan was sliding through the crowd somewhere, preferably very nearby, not liking the thought of six-the other duo had arrived at the same moment as Yun-on two odds. The HMHVV victims cut in to introduce themselves to the meddling shaman before Coburn could say anything, the prevailing mood thinly-veiled hostility towards the shamanic interloper.

"I guess they sort of took care of that themselves," said Blake wryly, finishing off his 'Dew. "So is everybody else still coming?" he asked casually, looking right into David's eyes with a cunning gleam.

"You mean Bobby the overly-cybered troll? Yeah, he's on his way," answered Yun, playing along.

"Is he still in a pissy mood? He sure seemed ready to tear someone's head off when we were all leaving," Coburn elaborated.

"Yeah, I think he is. He sure didn't seem like he was ready to calm down yet when I last saw him. I wonder what that was all about?" Yun said. He paused for a second, furrowing his brow in a slightly exaggerated fashion, then asked, "Wait. .has he gotten on the SWAT team yet?"

Blake shook his head, brushing back stray feathery bangs with one hand with reflexive ease. "Nope, not quite this time. I'll bet he'll make it next time, though-he said he was going to lift even more weights." He snuck a glance at the vampires all around, looking to see if they were even fazed by the "news". Nada.

"More?? Wow! But he was already huge, even for a troll!" exclaimed David in seeming disbelief, catching in his gaze Coburn's desire to ramp up the level of threats.

"Yeah, well, the requirements to get onto the anti-vampire response team are amazingly steep. He's determined, though-I've never seen anyone who hates the bloodsuckers as much as he does," said David pointedly and with a shake of his head.

"Yeah neither have I," agreed Coburn.

Dammit, Dan, I wish I knew where the hell you are. . .I don't like winging it on these kinds of things, thought David disconcertedly. He noted how it seemed that the vampires had almost entrenched themselves in their respective spots, idly chatting and attempting to draw in Blake to the conversation while ignoring the shaman. Guess they didn't buy all that shit. Not that I really blame them though-I wouldn't have either. Oh well, I guess it's time to play dirty. . .Yun began to toy with the magic surrounding him, shaping it into a glowing orb held in the palm of one hand, tossing and catching it. With a slim smile sneaking within the glossy black frame of his mustache as he noted the vamps' irritated glances at the light, the shaman began to slowly increase the intensity of the ultraviolet candescence of the sphere. How long can you guys stand the heat?

"What in the hell are you doing?" snapped one of the newcomers, a skinny punk who looked like he'd just slunk out from the tunnels beneath Wacker Drive that were home to a good portion of the city's vampires due to the homeless population unfortunate enough to share that space with the soul drinkers.

"I'm just practicing my Light spell, why?" asked David innocently, squirming a tiny bit inside as he wondered if Renraku security would be a big enough deterrent to keep this young predator from attempting to latch onto his throat in a fit of pique.

"I don't like it," he retorted. "Why don't you play with some other damn spell?"

Yun shrugged, "In a minute, in a minute. I want to practice changing the colors of the rays." He turned the orb light green while dramatically upping the intensity of the ultraviolet luminescence falling upon the pack of vampires.

"Uhh, never mind. I just remembered I gotta be somewhere else," said the mouthy punk, turning and darting off into the crowd to escape the painful light. One after the others began to follow suit, peeling off of the squad of vampires as they magically acquired reasons to suddenly leave, some shooting angry glances back at the innocently-watching Dragon shaman.

"Well, I truly am sorry you've got other business to attend to this fine night," said Alan at last in a strained tone, sweat beginning to bead at his temples under the agonizing touch of the light, "so I suppose I will leave you two to your work. And say hello to Bobby for me, all right?"

"Sure thing," said Blake magnanimously as Falwell parted company with them, casting one final look back at the cheerful Goth detective that seemed to say, "We will meet again." Once the grey-suited vampire was safely out of earshot, Coburn heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks, David. I was beginning to worry there-I didn't think that ass was going to go away without me having to take a shot at him."

Yun shook his head in disbelief. "You really weren't kidding when you said you had a problem with being a vampire magnet, were you?"

"Unfortunately, no," replied Blake glumly. "I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but I just seem to cause instant 'ooh, shiny' reactions in them. I wish I knew what it was I'm doing so I could maybe stop doing it," he sighed.

"Yeah, that has to get old," agreed David. "I wonder why they're so fascinated by you?" he mused.

Blake shrugged, sighing, "I don't really know. It's always been that way, and it's almost like it runs in the family or something. Raphael, my dad, was murdered by one when he was in London for a classical music performance of one of the songs he'd written. Mom died the same way when she left Chicago a few years ago to look for death."

"I'm sorry," said David sympathetically, amazed that Coburn managed to maintain such a cheerful attitude in general in the face of that kind of tragedy. "And that's very strange," he added, puzzled. "I've never heard of this kind of a problem running in the family before."

Coburn nodded, saying, "I've always been nocturnal-heck, even when I was a little kid I'd go for walks at night dressed like this." He grinned slightly, explaining, "My sense of fashion's never changed." Continuing, he said, "And even then I think some of the people that would come and talk to me were vampires-I remember their eyes glowing red."

"Hmm. . ." pondered Yun, glossy black eyebrows knit in thought. He'd go for walks at night here when he was a little boy?? I'm not going to ponder the sanity of that. . ."This is probably a shot in the dark, but," he said, not noticing his pun, "have you ever traced your genealogy very far back to see if this problem has been in your family for a long time?"

Coburn shook his head, feathery bangs swaying slightly with the motion. "I've been tracing it kind of off and on for a few years now, but I haven't been looking into causes of death. What are you driving at?" he asked curiously, brow quirked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but maybe someone back there ticked off a magical vampire with an attitude problem or something like that," David began theorizing aloud, "and he or she decided to put a curse on your bloodline." He shrugged. "Or I could be completely wrong and they just like you. .because."

Blake remained quiet for a moment or two, pensive. "Who knows. .either of those are logical enough, considering. . .I'll look into it sometime."

David nodded. Glancing around after checking his watch, he asked aloud, "Where is Dan? He's usually not this late. . ."

"Right here, and I've actually been present for a while now-following a dwarf," said a smooth, dark voice from about five feet distant. Dan stood coolly nearby, slate-grey suit impeccable, shirt that matched his jet hair visible beneath his open blazer and leather overcoat. His bottomless brown eyes drifted easily to and from surveying his two companions to the surrounding crowd, watching for trouble preparing to pounce.

Blake blinked, saying perplexedly, "How in the hell did you manage to get over there without me seeing you? I was looking right your way!"

Lee smiled thinly. "A stroke of luck," he replied self-depreciatingly.

Drat, I was hoping he was going to tell the whole truth there, thought David with an inward sigh. I wonder if it would kill him to say that he uses magic? Oh well, a problem for a later day. . ."Glad to see you apparently managed to find a new ride," he said.

Dan nodded, replying with a slim smile, "As am I. Luckily for me Eddie knew someone who could get me quite a deal on a '53 Gaz-Niki Lone Wolf in white on short notice."

"Wow, nice bike," said Blake with a touch of envy. "How's she handle?"

"Heavier and not as tight as my old Assassin, but much better in the ice and slush," answered Lee amiably. Typically strictly business, he asked of the detective, "Did you get stills from the footage of Luna that I mentioned to you?"

Coburn nodded, fishing a trio of holopix from his pockets and passing them out. "Yeah, no problem. She shouldn't be too hard to spot with that crescent moon tattoo at the corner of her eye," he commented as David eyed the photo.

"What an odd taste in self-decoration," remarked Yun.

As they began to head for one of the less than distant elevators, Blake asked cautiously, "I'm just curious, but why didn't I see you anywhere in the video footage?"

"You did," replied Dan, voice taking on a tiny hint of ice as a nerve was neared.

"Did I?" asked Coburn, genuinely puzzled. "I could have sworn I-"

"The blur was me. The higher grade of Face Anonymous produces a concealing shimmer that can be picked up only by cameras and the like, so I still remain hidden from identification," explicated the assassin coolly, words a bit more curt than was perhaps necessary. He stopped nearby as the other two waited for an elevator to reach the ground floor. "I'm taking a different elevator up to avoid suspicion," Lee said, jerking a thumb towards one of the other cars. Beginning to turn away, he stopped long enough to add, "And by the way, the dwarf I was following is built like a tank, Chinese, dressed in a short grey duster that's obviously armored-and packing an MP-5 TX beneath it. I just thought I'd let you know in case he proves to be a problem." Dan slipped away back into the somewhat-thinning crowd of late evening shoppers.

"Someone's in a pissy mood," came Xiao's chirp from within his nest in David's coat.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," replied David good-humoredly.

"A. That's bad news, and B. what was that all about??" asked the fangy Homicide detective of Dan's behavior as he stepped into the elevator car and tapped the button for the twenty-second floor-one of two devoted to the Magnum Casino.

David sighed. He tugged distractedly on one half of his well-kept black mustache in his usual nervous or stressed habit, saying unhappily, "He's got some. .issues regarding his use of magic. In some ways it's caused him some serious problems in the past-it's why the Triads wanted him." As the elevator lanced upward to the desired destination, he psychologized, "So now he tries to pretend it doesn't exist in order to cope with his feelings-and gets distant and cold whenever somebody mentions it." The shaman sighed again, shaking his head, still not fully comprehending his friend's refusal to accept his gift. "At least that's as far as I can guess-not like he's told me. He's too sensitive to the matter and too quick to freeze up. I don't know what I'm going to do. . ."

Blake nodded in understanding. "You'll think of something." He glanced at the floor indicator. "But you might want to think of a Mask quick-I doubt you'd like being recognized by any Triads that might be involved."

Yun glanced at the digits, blinked his slanted green eyes, then said, "Crap! You're right!" Hurriedly he cast an Improved Mask spell to hide him from biological and technological identification, appearing as a dark-haired human mage, Chinese in descent but features much more ordinary than his own eye-catching ones. "There we go, problem solved," he said as the elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal the bright-lit gilded Vegas-style "splendor" of the Magnum Casino.

Blake squinted in the blazing light, groaning, "Oh, God that hurts! Whose bright idea was it to put these damn halogen lamps right by the elevators??"

"Probably that of someone who actually goes outside during the day," rejoined David jocularly as he stepped out and surveyed the seething mob of people seeking to get something for nothing. He carefully stepped out of the way in the nick of time, avoiding a drunk being "escorted" from the premises by a guard. He sighed under his breath, "How can someplace be this chintzy?"

Blake calmly ignored the occasional odd glance his peculiar attire was attracting, quite used to it by now. "I don't see San, do you?" he asked, craning his neck to look over and beyond the assembled mob of bearers of loose credsticks frittering away their nuyen on pointless pursuits. Somewhere a bell began to ring as someone actually managed to win a round of holographic slots.

Yun looked and shook his head. "No. We probably won't either-he always seems to prefer to find us," he said.

Coburn nodded. "I know the type." He checked the recording function of his wrist computer, adjusting some of the settings to better handle the crowd noise as he said, "I'm going to sweep this floor, see if any of the gamblers remember seeing Luna or the Magic Bullet squad-are you okay with sitting on Club Lux by yourself?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. San will probably be there in a few minutes anyway. And beside," said Yun, patting the dragon-bearing roll of his jacket, "I've got company."

Xiao purred, then said plaintively, "I'm huuuungry. . ."

David sighed. "I'll slip you some pretzels, okay?"

"Okay," Xiao grudgingly agreed, squirming within his coat-nest to become more comfortable.

"Well, you two have fun and be careful," Blake chuckled as he moved off into the crowd, a black-cloaked form blending not at all but undisturbed by this fact.

David moved with some uncertainty among the pushing, shoving, cheering or weeping-depending on whether they were winning or losing-mob that were gathered 'round various devices designed to relieve one of one's life savings in as efficient and pleasing a manner as possible. Thank God-I don't see that unsavory-looking dwarf anywhere, thought Yun as he approached the front of Club Lux at last. Well, this place certainly is appropriately named! he mentally exclaimed as he noted the cascade-of-bulbs sign spelling out the place's name in golden luminescence.

The bouncer eyed him idly, the same fellow that Dan had run across a few nights ago, looking very disgruntled with the fact that he'd missed the upset in the boxing ring then and been hearing it from his friends ever since. "Have you got a casino pass or are you gonna pay the ¥20 cover charge?"

Yun discreetly flashed his temporary Lone Star badge, the same one he'd been assigned the past several times-it seemed that David's so frequent as to push temporary possession of the item had become something of an inside joke with the official cops, with whom it had become an unwritten rule that 7978 was the shaman's badge number.

"Oh, an on-duty cop. Never mind then," replied the bouncer, leaning against the arched entryway and out of the way of customers, but close enough to be a deterrent to those who would skip out on the cover charge. "Go on in."

"Call it curiosity, but I was wondering if you might remember seeing this woman here the 28th of February?" asked David on the rationale that the guard must have seen Luna enter, showing him the holopix of the mysterious Mrs. Johnson.

The avid boxing fan glanced at it warily, that manner usual for civilians not keen on the idea of getting involved. He thought a moment, then replied, "Well, I vaguely remember seeing her come in-the tattoo reminded me-but that's it."

"She didn't have any friends with her?"

The bouncer shook his head. "Nope. If she did, they stayed outside and I never saw them," he posited uselessly.

Yun nodded. "Oh well, thanks anyway," he said as he entered the slanty-walled lair of casino gaudiness. Ouch! My good taste! the Dragon shaman winced as his green eyes focused upon the omnipresent gilded tackiness. Gritting his teeth, he scanned the trapezoidal interior for any signs of Dan, Luna, or any random patrons he recognized from the club security feed from the 28th.

Almost lost in the crazy shadows cast by the ferns and palms was a basset-hound-sad appearing dwarven man, slight of stature and nursing his fifth beer for the night, judging by the empty bottles on the corner-booth table at which he sat. On either side of the gleaming comma-shaped table pretty close to the center of the room and stuck squarely in the center of a cluster of rabid sports fans watching and betting on the Urban Brawl game on the trid, was a Hispanic couple arguing bitterly over whose fault it was to have lost so much money that night. Out of place in the wild crowd of drunken gambling addicts either drowning their sorrows or celebrating their good fortune, a relatively-slender, well-groomed and actually handsome troll sat quietly at a table near the door. He was watching the club patrons more than anything, really, blue eyes, set in a clean-shaven Caucasian face, roving the rowdy mass, glancing back occasionally to make sure no one looked like they were about to spill anything on his smartly-cut white coat slung over the back of his chair.

Wow, what an odd troll, thought David, gaze roving to the bar, where at last he spotted the elusive assassin sipping a sapphire martini and attempting to ease information out of the nearest barfly, without much success due to the woman's current high BAC. There he is! How does he always seem to get somewhere before I do? wondered Yun as he walked closer, wishing someone would conveniently move to open up a nearby seat.

As luck would have it, the inebriated woman finally had one shot of vodka too many and put her reticular formation into "sleep" mode, falling off the barstool to plop unconscious upon the floor. Another patron, likely an enterprising pickpocket, pulled her away from the bar, ostensibly to prevent trampling, propping her up in a booth.

"Looks like tonight is my lucky night!" said David with a smile as he took the now-free seat beside Lee.

"Thank God she finally passed out," sighed the assassin in stage-exaggerated tones of relief.

"Have you already been asking around?" queried Yun as Xiao poked his snout out above the zipper of his coat, sniffing at the bowl of pretzels not far distant.

"One or two. No one's known anything remotely interesting yet, but I know exactly who to go to should I ever have the need for a genuine imitation Zolex watch," Dan said drolly in a rare good humor, bearing no trace of the cold tension prompted by Blake's earlier faux pa.

"Well, now that's a find!" joked David.

"Oh, quite," came Lee's dry-as-dust response, accompanied by a roll of his eyes. "So where is Coburn?"

"Out checking the gambling crowd," answered the Eastern Dragon shaman, finally relenting and sneaking a few pretzels from the bowl to the hungry jaws of the dragonette nestled in his jacket.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. . .Then a contented, "Mmmm. . ." announced the consumption of the salty snacks.

"You know, most people feed their mouths, not their coats," said Dan with a slight smirk, sense of humor making a sudden, strange appearance in reaction to Xiao's method of acquiring edibles.

"But most people don't have mouths in their coats," retorted Yun with a grin, patting the small bulge coiled against his stomach.

"Touche," conceded Lee, gaze straying to a newcomer to the bar. "Ah, that fellow was here at the right time. I'm going to see if he didn't succeed in drowning the memory of Luna's presence," he said, lighting up a cigarette.

David nodded, managing to swallow his admonishment about smoking-Not like it would matter here-the atmosphere's so thick with smoke I doubt you could summon an air elemental in this place. "I'll go check out the strays, then," he said quietly, standing. Dan gave him a parting nod as he started in on his snake-oil smooth spiel with the new arrival at the bar; Yun purchased a beer, which he had no intention of drinking, and walked over to the liquor-laden dwarf.

"Jolly good evening!" cheerfully said David in a not-too-badly faked British accent, picked up from listening to Phantom over the years, and a decent ruse as a fair number of people from Hong Kong and Kowloon, considering the colonial past, still spoke English in this manner.

The dwarf slowly dragged his gaze up from his glass to glare at him with the expression of one whose path has just been crossed by a singularly obnoxious brother to Mephistophilis. "Whatever."

"Lady Luck been unkind to you?" Yun asked in feigned dismay.

"Take a flying guess," growled the dwarf morosely. "Few days ago every fragging machine I touched hemorrhaged yen. Today? Today they're sucking dry my bank account better n' my sponge girlfriend."

David winced sympathetically. "Ouch! I'm sorry-Fortuna's a fickle femme fatale!"

"Yup," grunted the glum fellow, gulping down more booze in the apparent hopes of perhaps making this irritating figment of his imagination shut up.

The Dragon shaman hesitated a moment. I guess I'm not going to get any better of an opportunity. . . "So's this woman. . ." he said slowly, sliding the picture of Luna across the gleaming surface of the table.

The drunken dwarf glanced down at the holopix and shook his head. "Don' remember her."

"Oh, well, thanks anyway. I hope the rest of your night goes better than it has been so far," said David, a bit crestfallen, but unsurprised. He drifted over towards the Hispanic couple slowly, waiting for a slow moment in their conversation into which he could hop just as the crowd surged to their feet to cheer the victory of horse number eight, Atalanta.

Elsewhere, about three feet from the cyber-poker table where three deckers were jacked in and virtually-bluffing to their hearts' content, Blake was having a bit of trouble. "Uh, no, Alan, I'm going to be working late tonight. Really late. I might even be busy until the sun rises. . ."

Alan smiled falsely, his bright hazel eyes cold. "I sure you won't be working that late-especially if perhaps we help you with this case?" he gestured to the seven other vampires clustered around-pretty much every single fanged menace in the Arcology tonight.

Coburn tried to weasel a tad more distance between himself and the vampires, not achieving any measurable degree of success. "No, really, that's okay. I've got it covered here just fine-" he pressed a few steps closer to a blackjack table by which stood a tremendous troll guard, his back turned to them.

"Blake, I don't think you're understanding our offer," said Alan in a clinically-cold tone like a psychologist from Hell. "We want to help you-more than anyone has ever helped you before," he said in a low tone laden with a potent combination of compassion and malevolence, the others watching with predatory intensity. He smiled in emphasis, extending his gleaming ivory fangs meaningfully. At the worst possible time.

A trollish bellow of blind fury erupted to everyone's shock, a verbal Vesuvius. "GODDAMN FUCKING VAMPIRES!!!!!" Blake and the eight HMHVV-infectees turned and stared in wide-eyed shock at the raging metahuman mountain of muscle bearing down on them.

"Run!" yelled the skinny punk vampire, a veritable explosion of bloodsuckers breaking out as they scattered to the wind.

"Thank God, they were-" began Blake gratefully.

The troll glared at him with bared tusks, in his berserk state thinking he saw a vampire so impudent as to not flee! "You goddamn little bloodsucking bastard!!" he roared, reaching with oversized hands the size of the detective's head for his throat.

"-Shit!!!" Coburn yelped, turning tail and sprinting with impressive quickness into the crowd, cape fluttering, as the maddened troll barreled after him like a living juggernaught, name tag bouncing wildly-which read "Hello, my name is Bobby."

"What was that?" said Dan to David as the shaman drifted back over after a fruitless attempt to get any kind of useful information out of the arguing couple. The assassin leaned back, glancing out of the club entrance in mild curiosity about the source of the pandemonium, spotting a few people running in panicked flight.

"Whatever it is, I have a feeling that Blake is right in the middle of it," sighed David. He'd better call one of us if that's more serious than some crazy misunderstanding or something.

"I would place a bet on it," replied Lee glibly, sipping from his martini.

Yun made a sour face. "That was horrible," he said, referring to Dan's choice of phrasing, considering the location.

Lee smiled smugly. "So are you going to get the troll, or am I?" he asked conversationally in Cantonese as the shaman dropped more pretzels down his jacket to Xiao.

"Well. . .How many more here do you have to deal with?" returned David thoughtfully.

"A couple. No one's been terribly useful so far-I found one, a Turner Public Ventures employee, who said Luna seemed to be familiar to him from somewhere, though he couldn't remember precisely where," said Dan.

Yun nodded, saying, "He probably set up an ad campaign for her before." TPV was one of the more sizeable advertising outfits in town, and a big rival of The Spin Doctors, a dirty corp in the same field.

"Quite possible."

"If this doesn't pan out, I'm going to go wander around some of the rest of this floor," said David as he stood once more, turning to walk towards the blond troll's table as Dan nodded and chose his next target. I hate the whole "walk up to someone you don't know and try to get them to talk to you" thing. What if I say the totally wrong thing and get punched in the face? he worried his way over to the table; once there, he hesitated, clearing his throat as he thought of how to break the ice.

"If you're going to ask me to buy you a drink, the answer's no," said the amazingly wiry troll who was only about six-foot-three inches tall, including his glossy black horns.

Yun blinked. "How did you know I was coming? You weren't even looking in my direction!" He hurriedly added, "And no I'm not going to beg for a beer."

The creamy-skinned troll smiled, showing impeccably well-kept tusks. "This is how," he flipped open his wallet, revealing a badge in the shape of a golden five-pointed star with a halo encircling the topmost ray-the insignia of the New Los Angeles Vigils, the federal police force of the young city-state. "Our training's not half-bad," he said with a trace of pride.

Yun nodded, understanding. "That's what I've heard!" He grinned a little, saying, "Then I guess you'll understand what I'm up to," he said, revealing his temporary Lone Star badge.

A tusky grin was his reply. The well-mannered troll cop said affably, "How can I help?" as he gestured to the seat across from him. "By the way, I'm Officer Kyle Wright," he belatedly introduced himself, reaching out to shake David's had as the shaman sat.

"I'm David Yun-just a temporary detective. Though a repeated temporary detective," he said with a grin. "And I'm looking for a Ms. Johnson who everyone knows as Luna-she hired the Magic Bullet hit squad recently to assault the Draconis Datasystems office here in town," explained David.

Kyle thought for a few seconds, brow knit, thinking back. At last he shook his head in defeat, saying, "The name doesn't ring a bell, but that doesn't mean I haven't dealt with her before. What's she look like?"

Yun slid the holopix to him in response to his query. "This is a still from Renraku security cam footage," he commented.

Wright picked up and examined the photo, tilting it slightly to inspect different details better. Spotting the crescent moon tattoo, he blinked and said, "Oh, yeah! I have run into her before! I don't remember her name, but I think it had something to do with a traffic violation." He waved the picture slightly as he spoke, asking, "Can I have a copy of this? I can scan it and send it to my bosses back home so they can run it through the database, then pass along a copy of the report to you guys."

"Sure! I can have Lone Star send the footage over the Matrix to them right away," replied David brightly, ecstatic over finally catching what appeared to be a break in this troublesome case.

Kyle nodded, saying, "Hold on just a second then-I'll let them know there's something coming in a minute that needs to be checked out pretty quick."

"Okay, that works," said David, flicking open his wristphone and putting through a call to Blake's shift commander to send the files to the NLA Vigils.

"Gene shouldn't mind getting something to do," murmured Kyle to himself as he put through a call to the hotshot decker they had on staff who was always remarking as to how bored he was.

Moments later, each finished their respective communiques. "Gene's all set to go on this. He's got some other stuff that has priority right now, but you should have it by tomorrow morning," said Wright.

Yun nodded. "It'll be sent out in a few hours or so, so I suppose that works out for the best." He paused, now having company but no topic. What the hell, I don't think I'm going to find any more useful conversations in this club. "Random curiosity, but what are you doing here all the way from New Los Angeles?"

"Blowing some vacation days. I haven't done that in a while, so I thought I'd take a week off and come to Chicago to visit my cousin and go sightseeing and all that tourist crap," smiled Kyle.

"Makes sense to me," said David. He was about to ask how his trip had gone so far when a figure in the doorway caught his attention.

A tall and strongly-built Chinese man with easily-guessable cybereyes the luminous amber of a lion's irises wearing a suit as black as the roots of his golden-bleached hair, and a shirt matching the rest. The long black duster he wore rustled about his knees as he entered. His face had an alert predatory expression, couched in a regally-calm air. And his attention was roving about the room in a hunting fashion as he walked with an easy tread into the crowded club confines.

"Okay, I'm placing a bet that he's bad news," said David to Kyle, voice low, pointing discreetly to the mysterious new arrival.

Wright glanced subtly at the indicated Chinese and nodded. "Yeah, I know the look-he's after someone. Plus he's got a gun under that coat-bigger than a pistol, but a bit on the small side for even a SMG," he said calculatingly.

David watched as Dan looked up, spotted the smartly-attired man, his eyes flickering with a degree of recognition. He promptly began to pay an extraordinary amount of attention to his martini, keeping his face averted.

"That settles it, this guy is not someone I want to meet," muttered David.

Of course the leonine fellow had just the opposite in mind. Over to the table at which Yun and Kyle sat he strode; in a cool voice that brooked no sass, he asked, "I'm a Renraku agent who needs to discuss a problem that we're cooperating on with Lone Star with some people. A Dragon shaman named David Yun and a Star detective called Blake Coburn. I was informed that they might be here tonight-have either of you seen them?"

"Nope, sorry," said Yun, thinking, Dang it, how in the hell does he know? And how in the hell did he not find Blake? He's the only guy in the whole Arcology wearing a black cape. .I hope.

"Me neither. I'm just here on vacation from out of town," said Kyle, attempting to make himself as worthless as possible in the man's opinion.

"Ah. Well then, if you happen to see either of them, be sure to let me know. And tell them that Mr. Gai needs to speak with them about the case," said the jet-coated fellow imperatively.

"Can do," said David, while Wright nodded.

Mr. Gai thanked them and stepped back, proceeding to repeat his spiel to other club patrons, apparently without much success. At one point he shot a hard look at Dan, a perplexed expression flickering upon his leonine visage as some key discovery evaded him permanently. Still, suspicion remained, etched in paranoid lines. Some twenty minutes later, he left at last, face a rather pinched mask of frustration.

"Thank God," sighed David. "Well, I hope you have a good night and rest of vacation, and I've got to go back to work."

"I understand, and thanks. You be careful out there," replied Wright, the handsome, articulate, slimly-built anti-troll.

"Thanks," Yun said, getting up and walking over to Dan. "What was that all about?"

Lee looked up to meet the shaman's dragon-green eyes. "That man was no Renraku agent. He was a 7-Seven Sze Kau known as 'Leo'."

"Why am I not surprised?" grumbled David unhappily. "Why are they never who they say they area?" he lamented futilely.

"Because that would make life immeasurably better," retorted Dan with razor cynicism. He puffed on his cigarette, asking, "Has Blake called you?"

"Not yet," answered Yun with a shake of his head. "But I'm going to call him. He's been gone too long," he said concernedly. He opened his wristphone and dialed the errant detective's number.

Coburn's tense-expressioned face appeared a moment latter on the tiny screen of the portable phone. "What is it?" he whispered.

"What's going on? Where'd you go?" asked David confusedly.

"The pandemonium that burst out a while ago was a troll security guard named Bobby very nearly killing me, Alan, and seven of his friends," said Blake nervously, his bright brown gaze darting about to sights unseen to the shaman from his limited vantage point.

David blinked. "There really is a Bobby?"

"Yeah, I know. I couldn't believe it either. Must've been karma or something," said Coburn with an "it figures" sigh.

"So where in the heck are you right now?" Yun asked.

"Hiding from Alan and trying to do my job at the same time," said the harried Gothic cop.

"Damn, I'm sorry," sympathized the Dragon shaman. "Do you want us to come help?"

"Yeah, I think I could use some backup if you guys are through for the night," said Blake after a moment of hesitation, not wanting to compromise either his assignment or his friends' safety.

"I think we are-I managed to find a Vigil officer who ticketed Luna once and promised to get us a copy of the report to us by tomorrow morning. Otherwise no one knows a thing, and there's a Triad looking for us."

"Definitely sounds like a good time for everyone to leave," agreed Blake hurriedly-the detective was not known for his aggression, but neither was he a coward. He simply knew when the odds were stacked against him and had no qualms about admitting it and making a prudent exit.

"Where are you?" asked Yun.

"I'm currently taking cover in the men's room by the Notable Music Emporium on the third floor." Suddenly he went silent, the view swirling to show only the blank partition of a bathroom stall as Blake pulled his Glock and aimed it before him. Footsteps rapped against the floor tiling as someone entered slowly, pacing across the room. Back across they went, the door squeaking softly as it was opened, then swung shut with Alan's departure. "Thank God," whispered Coburn, reappearing in the video display. "He's gone. It's uncanny-it's almost like he knows what general area I'm in. That's the third time he's almost had me," he shivered.

"We'll be there soon. Watch out for a Chinese man dressed mostly in black with a matching duster and tie, a gold shirt, and cybereyes that look like lion's eyes. That's a Triad prick named Leo," warned David.

"All right, I'll be careful. I think I'm going to try to work my way to the elevator and get down to the ground floor-thought I'd let you know in case you don't see me," Blake said.

"Okay. I'll call again if I can't find you in a few minutes," said Yun. Coburn nodded, hanging up. The shaman looked to Dan, saying, "I'm going to go cover Blake while he tries to get out of here-Alan is determined to catch him."

Lee nodded, paying his bar tab and standing. "I'll try to keep Leo and company busy," he said darkly, straightening his black overcoat and stormcloud-grey blazer.

"Be careful," admonished David worriedly as he was walking away, both in concern for his aloof friend's well-being and with regards to the methods he tended to use to "keep people busy".

As Dan slipped into the crowd, he mentally reviewed what exactly they were up against. One definite Triad by name of Leo, a SMG-toting Chinese dwarf who seems vaguely familiar, a persistent vampire and maybe his cronies. . .wait a minute. Lee's mahogany obsidian eyes narrowed in thought. Chinese man who knows too much about what's going on, a Chinese dwarf seeming to patrol the ground floor. . .Are they two of the three with Wraithraven when they stole Feng's katana? The assassin glided through the somewhat-thinning crowd of the casino, the casual gamers beginning to call it a night as it was bearing down on 10:30 PM now and they still had to contend with Chicago traffic-a Hell bitch at practically any time during the day or night. Maybe, maybe not. No proof, but. . .Lee's shadow, strobed by the flashing lights of the holo-roulette display, slipped along the wall in silence as he stood before the mirrored elevator doors, waiting for a car to arrive, watching his surroundings in reflection as he reflected. . . .I don't like the coincidences. Or the possible ramifications. . .he thought grimly, the possibility of Wraithraven being present to finish what was started at Sacred Heart a night ago rising unbidden to his mind. He disappeared within the confines of the elevator as the doors slid shut, restoring the soulless images of the gamblers to their unbroken state.

A skinny teenage boy with stringy blond hair down to his shoulders and crowned with a street-style knit cap, baggy striped T-shirt and jeans large enough to hide small children inside, stepped out of the men's room on the third floor of the Arcology. Keanu Howell peered at his surroundings with a vacant, stereotypical skater stare, as if he had emitted one colossal brainfart as to where he had intended to go.

In reality, Keanu knew perfectly where he was going, and was actually a twenty-nine year-old Dragon shaman of the Eastern persuasion.

And that would be Leo again. . .shit, he looks intent. He must know for sure we're here. .thought David uncomfortably, peeking out through the wispy foliage of a ficus tree beside a pillar toward the black-clad Triad soldier. Leo was watching his surroundings-especially the elevators and escalators-with far too much interest to be casual. Every once in a while, David noticed that he seemed to mutter to himself as if in a single-sided conversation. Micro radio or an implanted one? wondered Yun, having heard about such things from his Lone Star friends but not knowing how to discern between them just from observing someone. I wonder who he's talking to? Yun slowly began to saunter out from his hiding place in a proper streetwise roll, scanning hurriedly for Blake, not spotting him. Either he's still curled up, has already left the area, or has spontaneously gained the ability to go invisible, he thought-seriously doubting the latter possibility, however.

Leo's amber gaze fell squarely upon the shaman as a small clot of late-night shoppers wandered by and no longer blocked his line of sight.

Crap! mentally yelped David, his heart seeming to stop its beating as he prayed fervently for his Mask spell to hold-and we all know his track record with Masks. . .

Leo shook his head hard, blinking rapidly. He grumbled to himself in confused annoyance as he tapped his apparently-malfunctioning cybereyes, exercising the traditional engineer's philosophy on fixing things: "Hit it in that 'special' way."

David ducked into the Notable Music Emporium, taking advantage of Leo's technical difficulties and thanking God for His mercy in letting him escape detection. Swiftly he checked the store's interior for signs of Blake and spotted none. Drat. Whoop, time to be inconspicuous, he thought, catching sight of an inbound Alan. He grabbed the nearest CD off the rack and began to examine the cover as if entranced-and being a remastered version of The Crystal Method's "Vegas" (TM and all that crap) album, it rather was.

While Yun discreetly watched through the storefront window, the grey-suited vampire roamed the immediate area with a hunting gaze. He halted briefly before the music shop, head cocked almost as if he was listening to something. Perking up a bit, he turned to move towards the nearest escalator, walking with a brisk, purposeful pace.

"Need any help?" came a distracted, marijuana-muddled query at David's elbow.

"Huh?" replied Yun vaguely, staying in-character for his Mask. "Nah, I'm jus' lookin'. . ." he trailed off, glazing over as he stared at the psychedelic CD cover.

The clerk, perfumed with weed smoke, glanced at the insert, nodding, and became totally entranced as well. "Yeah," he managed to chuckle. "I know what you mean." He drifted off across the shop, spying a really good reflection on a band poster-cover.

Oh, man, that was demeaning. . .thought David with an inward wince. He hurriedly exited the vendor's before any more of his intelligence was leeched away by the stupidity singularity that apparently resided there.

As the Dragon shaman headed back onto the walk, he felt his wristphone vibrate in announcement of an incoming call. He answered, saying, "Hello?"

Blake's rather worried visage appeared on the mini-screen. "Sorry I couldn't meet you, but I had to get out of that area." He halted, blinking in confusion. "Uhh, David?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, it's me-sorry about the Mask spell, but Leo's right here, and Alan's running around and he looks like he knows where he's going," answered Yun, trailing a good distance behind Falwell and watching the vampire carefully.

Coburn nodded. "I was just about to warn you about Leo being right in that area. He didn't see you, did he?"

David shook his head. "Nope. I think his cybereyes glitched or something," he said with a bit of a grin. Serves him right-that should show everyone that just because it's high technology it's not infallible, he thought with the slight smugness of one with anachronistic tendencies.

Blake chuckled somewhat nervously, scanning his surroundings again and trying to decide what his next move should be. "I saw the dwarf that San was talking about, by the way. He's patrolling down here on the second floor at the moment-I don't see anyone working with him, though."

"All right, I'll relay that to San when I get a chance. Riding the escalator down, he asked worriedly, "Uh, Blake, where are you right now?" His eyes were fixed on Alan, who was beginning to systematically check shops that were still open on the west side of the second level.

"I'm in Big & Wide, why?" responded Blake questioningly.

Oh, damn. Alan's grey-suited form was just exiting a store about four doors down from the extra-fat troll clothing boutique-and working his way towards it. "Because he's heading your way!"

"Shit!" snapped Coburn, his visage falling into deep shadow as he took cover, the backdrop becoming curiously khaki-colored. "Do I have a chance in Hell of managing to slip away?"

"Not really," grimaced David as he set foot upon tile and began to meander quickly towards the B & W, wishing Alan would get distracted or something. "There's not enough people right around here now. Everyone's either up for entertainment or is snacking in the food court," he said, uncomfortably noting the current lack of population in the immediate vicinity. He saw Falwell emerge from his latest location of search and disappear into the next shop; David slipped into the Big & Wide, looking around quickly for his unpleasantly-popular friend, snapping shut his wristphone.

Racks and racks of amazingly-large pants and shirts lined the walls, and the floor was devoured by carousels bearing similar wares, all advertised to be able to comfortably clothe "the most robust trolls the Sixth World has ever seen". One bored trollish clerk was on duty right now, checking his watch repeatedly as to ensure he didn't miss the end of his shift by so much as a nanosecond. No customers were present.

Although there was a corner of black velvet sticking out between two gigantic pairs of khakis from a carousel towards the back.

I'm sure this is going to come back to bite me in the ass. .David thought as he sauntered over, aware of the laughter in the eyes of the shopkeeper at seeing a scrawny norm kid here. He tugged lightly upon the cape corner, keeping a wary eye upon the entrance to make sure Alan's form wasn't darkening it.

A frightened yelp flew out from the oversized pants and the velvet disappeared with a jerk.

Yun chuckled and he said, "Blake. .it's me. You weren't doing a very good job of hiding, you know?"

"Well now I do," snapped Coburn from his hiding place, lengthy temper beginning to fray. "Would it be too much to ask for you to be helpful? As in buying me enough time to get out of here?!"

"I'm planning on it. I just wanted to make sure you were hidden well enough-I don't know if this is going to work or not," Yun said in warning tones as he turned away. "Just stay put until I come back to tell you if the coast is clear."

"I can do that," responded the detective's disembodied voice from within the voluminous folds of khaki.

Back out on the second-level promenade, David was trying to discreetly watch for Alan, hastily sketching out a chancy plan in his mind. There he is-here it goes. . ."Keanu" stared in fascination at a holographic ficus tree arranged near a live one, waving his hand through the false one.

Falwell paused in the middle of the floor, glaring around in a rather irritated fashion. "Now where could he be. . ?" he snarled to himself, his previously-eternal patience beginning to wear thin with the amazingly-elusive cop.

"Keanu" tried to wave his hand through the live tree, blinking in confusion when his knuckles rapped against the stem of the plant.

Expensive-shoed footsteps approached slowly, accompanied by a sotto voce sigh of irritated resignation. "Excuse me, kid," came the vampire's haughty hailing from a few paces behind him. "Keanu" turned to face his accoster curiously. "I was wondering if perhaps you might have seen a man all in black around here recently?"

David's vacant-gazed Mask's expression completely blanked as he pretended to try to recall anyone fitting such a sketchy description. "I think so. . ."

Alan's hazel eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Excellent! Where did he go?"

"Uhh. . ." He hesitated, trying to make the turning of rubbery wheels inside an empty skull as visible as possible. "Umm. . ."

Falwell sighed, hopes dashed. "Well, would you help me to look for him? He's a friend of mine and I was supposed to meet him here a while ago; unfortunately we seem to have missed each other," he lied.

"Oh, okay," said Keanu with blank docility.

"Good. Now come with me," Alan said, an imperious quality edging his voice, certain he'd located the single biggest fool in the entire Arcology, but not caring, as a patsy was all he needed at the moment.

David, in his skater guise, tagged along gamely after the smartly-dressed vampire, walking back into the Big & Wide that he'd recently vacated. Time to make sure he stays away from his real target, thought the Dragon shaman as he made a weaving path toward the circular rack in which Blake hid, watching as Falwell began to cruise much like a hunting shark among them-not checking actually among the pants, however.

"Not in here," David said in his most moronic of tones as he looked inside one huge pocket that he could have easily fit his head inside.

Alan glanced back at him as his patrol took him by. "Lovely," he said with dry sarcasm. A few minutes later, having inspected the interior of the store to no avail, he sighed and said, "Come on, I can see that he's not in here." As they stepped back outside, he asked again, "Are you sure you didn't see him? You couldn't possibly forget him if you saw him-he's dressed all in black, wearing a cape, and almost has fangs." A "that problem will be rectified" inflection crept into his words at "almost" that sent a shiver down the shaman's spine.

David began to stammer again, letting his eyes wander, not liking the unnatural intensity of the hunting vampire's gaze. He spotted Leo's black-clad form in the distance, leaning against the railing idly, and a delightful thought came into his mind. Oh. . .Alan, you asked for this one. . .A dim bulb could almost be seen briefly flickering over "Keanu's" head as he said, "Hey! Now I remember! I know right where he is!"

I thought so-how could anyone around here not have? There's not heavy enough crowds for someone as distinctive-looking as him to use for cover right here, visibly thought the vampire with smug certainty. "Wonderful! Could you fetch him for me?" That way he won't see me coming. . .he'll have no chance to get away!

"Okay," David said with mindless amiability, turning away to retrieve his target. He couldn't help but smile slyly as he walked off, leaving behind Alan, who had primly parked himself upon a bench to wait. This should be amusing. I'll just have to get out of here before either of them get the bright idea to pick on the kid. Yun strolled back up to the third floor and made a beeline for the unsuspecting Leo. Noting how the Triad tracker seemed to remain totally oblivious of the blond-haired skater kid approaching him, Yun sidled up to him and tugged on his sleeve. "Hey, mister. . ."

Leo slowly looked down and over at the person daring to touch his attire in such a rude fashion. "What?" he growled, voice Arctic.

"There's someone who wants to talk to you," said David, pointing off in a direction that was vaguely towards where Alan was.

"And who is that?" Leo asked, clearly annoyed and wishing that this dumb kid would just drop dead.

"He says he's one of your friends and needs to talk to you 'bout somethin'. He's kinda tall, dressed in a grey suit, and he looks kinda mean and important," said David in dweeb-drag, purposefully describing Falwell in a broad enough manner to maybe be interpreted by Leo as Jaeger.

This gave Leo pause. "Well. . ." he trailed off into silent thought, weighing the choices between meeting with someone who was possibly his long-distance Hung Kwan and abandoning his vigil, or standing his ground and maybe blowing off Jaeger. . ."All right, show me where he is," the lion-eyed 49 said in tried, resigning tones, deciding not to bet his life on the report of a wandering idiot.

Yes! He fell for it! He fell for it! "Okay," said "Keanu" who started to shuffle back in the general direction of Alan as Leo began to mutter in Chiu-Chao into a micro radio to an unknown companion.

Dan's ears pricked up, his unconsciously-acting magic allowing him to pick the sounds of Chiu-Chao being spoken from the general chatter of the still-occupied sixth floor, the Club Quarter of the Arcology. Hello, who have we here? thought he, turning his attention to a blade-keen woman not far from him and walking towards the elevator with a businesslike tread. She was on the short side, with platinum blond hair cut in a sort of Cleopatra-bob and with eyes the color of a blue neon sign; she was dressed in sleekly-fitting azure pants and a silver shirt, with a definitely-armored tan leather bomber jacket on over it. "Some damn kid told you to meet him? That sure doesn't sound like the Jaeger I know," she said sneeringly into her radio. "You're not actually going to go with him, are you, Gai?"

Dan slipped along after her, a grey, flitting phantom beyond her perception, vanishing into the doorway of a club when she glanced over her shoulder. And what an interesting choice of conversational partners, madam, the assassin thought, in his eyes the woman's death warrant now signed.

"Alicia, you can never be too careful when you're dealing with Jaeger-he doesn't tolerate any disrespect. If you live long enough in this organization you'll learn that," came Leo's voice, faint and wavery over the tiny speaker. "Get your ass down to watch the third level for a few minutes, and don’t worry-whatever happens I’ve got it covered. You just do your job. Speaking of which, have you sighted any of our targets in your area?"

"Negative," said Alicia, Dan’s reflection in the mirrored surfaces of the elevator doors a grim grey flash gone with their opening. "And I’ve cleared the upper floors I was assigned, by the way. I think it’s safe to say that they’re all below the sixth story," the female syndicate soldier said with misplaced confidence as the doors slid shut before her, leaving her with a split-second glimpse of cold, dark eyes burning lucidly in the half-drunk crowd.

"The third floor it is, then, Alicia," said Lee in tones Stygian in meaning as he punched the button for the bullet elevator beside that which the comrade of Leo had taken.

"Here he is!" said "Keanu", idiotically cheerful; he gestured dreamily back towards a baffled and annoyed Leo as Alan looked up, his gloating elation plummeting to an expression much like the Sze Kau’s.

"Who the hell is this?" each said simultaneously, eyeing each other warily, trying to appraise their opposites.

Unnoticed, David slipped off into a broken-cross Echelon formation of roving teen mall rats, chuckling happily to himself at his bit of mischief. The shaman retreated to the door of a safely-distant shop to watch the chaos he’d created in his rare, fortuitous moment of bravery. "That was kind of fun," he said with a self-surprising smile.

A high-pitched giggling emanated from within the downy depths of his coat. "You bet! I just wish I coulda helped. . ." chirped Xiao.

"Oh, God," Yun said at the horrifying thought of the trouble-magnet dragonette attempting to assist in such a delicate scheme.

"Hey! What was that supposed to mean?!" indignantly squeaked the tiny serpent, poking his head out from the collar of David’s coat to look him reproachfully in the eye, flickering silver tongue brushing the tip of his nose.

"Nothing, nothing at all," said David innocently as he dialed up Blake on his wristphone to inform him of transpired events. "Good news-I’ve managed to thoroughly distract both Falwell and Leo," he said as Coburn’s image popped up on the miniature tridscreen.

"Great-have they left yet?" asked the detective tentatively.

"Well. . .not exactly," said David, keeping his eyes glued on the two bickering figures in black and grey, perplexed and pissed-off at neither getting the person they expected. "But I think they’ll both be wandering off in a few minutes-they don’t look very happy with getting the runaround by a brainfried skater," the Dragon shaman said, watching the two exchange final, heated words and stalk off in opposite directions. "Or they could both leave right now," he amended, not unhappily.

"Thank you, Jesus!" exclaimed Blake, relieved. "I am out of here as soon as you give me the all-clear!"

"A damn vampire?" asked Alicia incredulously as she stalked down the walks of the third floor, an azure and argent slash amidst the mix of colors of the wandering Arcology socialites and random shoppers. "That’s who you were taken to meet??"

Dan, hearing this, began to smile thinly, vastly amused. Bravo, David. Annoy two pests with one trick. Not bad, not bad at all. You’re slowly getting the hang of this. He slipped silently after Alicia, causing nary a ripple in the living sea about him, winning only a few uneasy glances from those familiar with the intent, frosty look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. Stupid punk kid," grumbled Gai’s voice over the tiny radio speaker. "Oh well, at least nothing happened-if Jaeger had shown up, you know it wouldn’t have been for any positive reason. Same thing for Wraithraven," said Leo consideringly, seeing the bright side of things. "Have things been quiet at my post?"

"Yeah, I haven’t seen jack," said Alicia in annoyed tones, bored to tears with the traveling stakeout. "Are you sure you spotted any of them earlier?"

"Look, I know I caught sight of Coburn-the guy’s wearing a fragging cape for fuck’s sake," said Leo defensively. "Not exactly easy to mistake for someone else. I haven’t seen that Yun guy at all, but I’m sure he’s here," he continued with surety. "Especially since I think I might’ve noticed his psycho friend-I think San’s his handle, according to what Jaeger managed to dig up on the lunatic about a week ago." Leo sighed. "You think the guy was a goddamn ghost for all anybody’s been able to find on him."

"Why does that streetname sound familiar?" asked Alicia thoughtfully.

"Because there was one of ours back in Hong Kong who used it, up until he was killed by a car bomb right around last Christmas," explained Leo, through his seniority having a much better grasp of events and persons within the ranks of the Lung-Ge Jai itself.

Dan’s slim smile deepened at the mention of the cruel joke that only he of the three was privy to the punchline of. Wrong on both counts, sei-jai. I was never "one of yours" as you put it-that almost implies loyalty. Plus, as you will soon find out, I'm still quite alive. . .

"Oh, all right. We’ve got a copycat then," said Alicia, instantly writing off the threat.

"Well, he’s a copycat that knows what the hell he’s doing. The HK San was one of our deadliest assassins-and I don’t think just against the targets we told him to ice." Leo’s voice dropped as he continued, "A few of us thought he was killing off some of us. Almost every time if Wei sent a partner with him, he’d come back fine-and alone. Murdering his own sworn brothers-now that’s just plain wrong. He was the Hong Kong Cain, you could say."

Vanishing behind a pillar in time to hide himself from Alicia’s paranoid blue eyes, Lee couldn’t help but chuckle wryly at that appellation. Ah, I still can’t get over how appalled they always are whenever they discuss their "theory" on what was happening to the bastards Wei sent with me. They were just getting precisely what they asked for-they wanted me to kill, after all. . .

"Creepy," said Alicia, disturbed even in the grip of her world-weary cynicism as she leaned against the railing, looking down at the square of floor visible upon the ground floor, idly watching the people riding the escalators to and fro, keeping watch for her three targets. "Think it was Wei who orchestrated the car bomb then, to get even for him breaking those oaths?"

"I don’t know. Maybe-I hadn’t thought of that possibility," said Gai consideringly. "Though if he did, you think he would’ve come out and said it just so no one else in the brotherhood would think for a second that they could get away with what San did. Plus, Hung Shen was here checking that out. I’m sure he would’ve known if it had been an internal hit."

"Yeah, true. So much for that theory. Oh well, like it matters anyway. He’s dead and that’s all that counts. . .Hey, what the hell’s going on down on the ground floor?" Alicia said, peering more intently down the three stories at a scuffle that was breaking out.

Alan’s luck had run out. An astute security guard who had been sneaking along after the vampire for a good ten minutes now, unnoticed due to Falwell’s fixation on finding Blake, had confirmed his suspicion of the fellow’s nature. Currently the drinker of blood was staring down the barrel of a Glock. He did not like such views at all. "Get away from me and don’t you dare call for backup if you want her to continue living," he hissed, fangs fully extended and bared, uncomfortably close to the jugular of an unfortunate elven woman struggling in his unnaturally-strong grasp.

"Back away from her and don’t make any sudden move, jackass!" yelled the uniformed guard with all the command that he could muster in the face of a vampire with unknown power and a hostage. He kept his pistol trained upon the threat’s face, but he wasn’t sure enough of his aim to risk the elf’s life. "God, I hate my job. . ." he muttered to no one in particular as he stood his ground, trying to figure out a way he could get help without his opponent knowing.

Falwell continued to back towards the doors of the Renraku Arcology, keeping a firm grip upon his thrashing, screaming captive. "One bite is all it might take to damn her to the night forever, don’t forget that!" Alan snarled at the pesky guard, his too-smooth civility twisted into well-dressed bestiality with gleaming fangs and faintly-glowing eyes.

From his second-floor perch, David watched in shocked horror. "Shit! Someone has to do something!" he exclaimed, scanning despairingly for any magically-active guards rushing to the aid of their brave mundane compatriot and seeing none. He realized that he seemed to be the only spellcaster in the vicinity with a will and a way. "Oh, damn," he sighed as what had to be done dawned on him. "I hope this works," he murmured worriedly as he called on Dragon’s ancient wisdom to craft a Manabolt capable of putting a vampire out. As he was quite capable of doing, Yun wove the spell discreetly, no more than an emerald glimmer in his eyes and sotto voce mutterings in Eastern Draconic hinting at his actions. He flicked a finger to point unnoticeably at Alan as the stunning bolt of energy flashed through Astral space towards its target.

The grey-suited vampire reeled, yelping in shock, as the Manabolt delivered a wicked jolt to his system through his sixth and seventh chakras. Alan’s hold on the elven woman slipped just enough for her to wrench herself loose and dash away as he tried to make the world stop spinning. "Where the hell did that come from?" he snarled angrily to himself as he saw the guards were hesitating to fire at him for a moment more, wondering if it was worth creating a biohazard in such a public place by killing him. Falwell spat a curse and fled while he could, vanishing into the Chicago night, beyond the jurisdiction of Renraku security.

As the defensive forces of the Arcology were attempting to restore order among the shoppers and others present, someone else’s luck ran out.

"There he is! Coburn’s down on the ground floor, trying to escape!" called Alicia into her radio. "He’s sneaking along the eastern wall, right in front of the Wick-ed Things candle shop!"

Sure enough, Blake’s black-cloaked form could be seen slinking along the perimeter of the ground floor, opposite the side Alicia was on-unfortunately at the right angle to be visible to her prying eyes.

"We’re going to have to follow him-there’s no way we can pull off the hit in here now, not after that goddamn vampire spoiled this night for us," Leo growled. "Wait. . .why the hell are those guards heading my way with looks like that. . ?" the 49 said slowly, flatly.

On the second story, two Renraku guards were approaching Gai, moving with a no-nonsense tread and expressions likewise grim, hands by pistols. "Excuse me, sir, would you show me some form of identification?"

"Why?" he asked warily, own hand straying beneath the black leather folds of his trenchcoat.

"Because you fit the description of a Triad who we’ve been told by the police to be here with the intent to murder three of their officers," said the same fellow, while his partner was staring at Gai in puzzled recognition.

"Matt? What the hell is this all about?" the second asked of Gai, concerned confusion in his words.

"Huh? You know him?" asked the first, confused now.

"Well, yeah! He worked here just up until a few days ago!" Of Leo he asked, "You’re not really a Triad, are you?" By his tone it was clear he was hoping that he would receive a negatory answer.

Matthew Gai swept his hooded cybernetic gaze over the two, asking coldly, "And what proof do you have to warrant stopping me? Cranks impersonate Lone Star officers all the time."

The guard who hadn’t been covering the Arcology while Leo still worked with Renraku said with equal steel in his voice, "Evidence held by Lone Star plus your intercepted radio conversations with your two partners."

Leo blinked his feline eyes quickly, his "Oh, shit" expression in the face of this armed "gotcha!" caught for posterity on one of the Arcology's many security cameras. "I see. Well, in that case-" the 49 whipped the MP5-TX from beneath his duster and opened fire, moving with the alien swiftness granted by the moderate grade of Wired Reflexes that he'd just activated via DNI.

The look of shocked horror frozen in the glassy eyes of the one guard whom had just been murdered by his friend pricked a moment of regret from Matthew. Dammit, Robert you idiot! Why the hell did you have to go and make me do that?! I didn't want to have to choose between killing you and pissing off the Triad. .Sorry, Rob. People screamed and scattered as he began to sprint for Blake, grimly ready to finish his job. "Younghouse, Tu, get your asses in gear so we can get this over with!"

"I read you, Leo. I'm on my way," Alicia replied fiercely, pushing back from where she'd been leaning against the railing. "Finally, some action! I've been dying for this stakeout to end!" she said to herself, turning swiftly to bolt for the elevator. She didn't see the black-suited figure dart out from behind the pillar not far away, she missed the twin flashes of chrome as her action unwittingly placed her into the direct line of fire. Alicia Younghouse never knew what hit her.

"You finally said something correct," remarked Dan coldly as he holstered his smoking Predators and slipped out of sight of the panicking shoppers and roaming socializers for a second. He re-emerged a moment later in unnoticed anonymity, his magic giving the terrified witnesses no face to place with the crime.

David's attention was jerked up by the screams to the scattering mass of metahumanity, distance and ambient noise serving to obscure the silenced reports of the assassin's Predators. That must be Dan taking down one of them-I see Leo-so where's the dwarf? With his gaze he followed Gai running for the escalator, struggling to draw a magical bead on the inhumanly-fast form hurtling by. "Dammit, how am I supposed to Manabolt you if you won't slow down?" Yun hopelessly asked.

Gai dove behind a plascrete trash can as one brave young guard valiantly attempted to end the Sze Kau's flight with a hail of shots, taking advantage of the abandonment of the Arcology patrons of the area to fire with no fear of hitting an innocent. "Why couldn't things work out for the easiest for once in my life?" Matthew muttered irascibly as he listened to the shriek and shatter of ricocheting rounds, grip tightening tensely upon his submachine gun. Seconds later, he leaned out from behind his cover, swiftly squeezing off a well-aimed burst at his attacker. Screaming as the bullets cut her down before the Reaper's scythe should have fallen, she collapsed to the floor in a pitiful, lifeless heap.

Blake skidded to a halt as a short, heavily-built dwarf cloaked in a grey duster emerged from a Victoria's Secret boutique and cautiously peered about. Each spotted the other at the same time, realizing they were looking at trouble. "Oh, shit!" Coburn said, hastily yanking his Glock from its holster and moving to aim.

Jacob Tu had already read the writing on the wall, however, seeing Gai under fire, spying no sign of Alicia, and knowing there was likely three seconds left before a contingent of Red Samurai was bearing down on them. His intention was to prove that a half-pint tank of a dwarf could indeed make it from Victoria's Secret to the parking lot in less than that time. "Oh, shit on this!" he shot, turning and sprinting surprisingly quickly in the opposite direction, letting the Homicide detective see the SMG he carried as a warning.

Blake retreated behind a vending machine, having no burning desire to tackle a professional killer with an automatic weapon at point-blank range with only a pistol. He started to phone for backup.

Ding came the perky chime of the bullet elevator directly behind Matthew Gai, announcing an arrival.

Leo turned to see three men dressed in heavy, angular red security armor staring at him with nasty grins and Colt M-20 carbines at the ready. "Aw, shit." All was gunfire, then blackness.

Several minutes later, when the trio had managed to regroup down on the first floor near the main entrance, they were watching both Lone Star and CPD officers passing by, working on securing the scene and procuring cooperation from Renraku officials. "Well, I think it's safe to say that we can label tonight as 'sucky'," said Blake tiredly as he surveyed the area, periodically directing a fellow cop to where he belonged.

"Me too," agreed David, back to appearing normal, the Mask spell of Keanu Howell no more. I'm going to have to remember that particular disguise-I've never had one work that well before. Go figure.

"Me three," added Dan dryly, sipping from a cup of coffee he'd bought at Mt. Bean, the single most popular java shop in the entire Arcology. Lee was by far the calmest, behaving much as if nothing particularly strange or stressful had transpired that evening. Beneath his cool mask, the assassin sympathized with the frazzled pair, regretting that, by chance, happenstance, and a stroke of bad luck that seemed to be immortal, those two had been drawn into the same hellish morass that he was caught in. Poor Coburn. Perhaps he'll manage to avoid doing anything to seriously anger Wei-bastard," Dan couldn't help but interjecting at his nemesis' name, "-and will be able to avoid his blacklist. David, on the other hand. . .I don't know. I'll just continue praying for the best, I suppose. He had yet to hear the good news regarding the truce.

Coburn looked around, nodded to himself, then said, "Seems like everyone else has this covered well enough. I'm going to call it a night and get some sleep. I'm sure my sergeant's going to call me and bitch to make sure I come in early tomorrow to discuss all this crap."

"All right, be careful and good night," replied David concernedly.

"Watch out for things that go 'bump' in the night, Coburn," joked Dan wryly as Blake was turning to leave, attempting to cheer the fangy detective up a bit.
Blake blinked, surprised by this unexpected display of humor from the generally withdrawn assassin. "No problem," he answered, heading off and out to his car.

David looked to Dan and said, "Well, this has been a very strange day, that's for sure, what between this, the dragon council, and actually getting some good news from Wei."

"Say what?" asked Lee, doing the verbal equivalent to a double-take.

Yun realized his delinquency in keeping his rather distant friend updated and rectified the situation. "Isn't that great? That means I can get back to teaching soon!" beamed the Dragon shaman, elated. Xiao, draped across his shoulders at the moment, purred, immensely pleased by all the jubilant energies filling his human taxi's aura.

"Wonderful! I'm happy for you," responded Dan, feeling just a twinge of envy. How nice it would be if my life would get to return to normal. It won't happen, though, not until Wei's dead.

David smiled. "I hope the new professor hasn't messed things up too much-I don't want my students to be too far behind. . ." he worried thoughtfully, honestly concerned for their academic futures.

Dan smiled, albeit rather thinly, stretched tight by warring jealousy and genuine joy for Yun. "I'm sure even if he or she is incompetent, you'll be able to straighten out the matter in no time whatsoever." He checked his watch, then excused himself, "But I need to be going-I've got a few things that need doing before I quit for the night. Joi-gin."

"Joi-gin," replied David as Lee left, gliding tread carrying him with an easy grace from the steel and glass pyramid.

"Come on, Xiao, it's time to go home. It's past your bedtime, after all," said David in paternal tones.

"Aww. . ." whined the little dragon as David, too, departed.

The morning of the next day, Sunday, March 5th, the phone rang when David was right in the middle of devouring the last English muffin of his breakfast. "Oh, bother, who is that? To Xiao, he called, "Would you mind getting that?"

"No problem!" chirped the little dragon as he undulated over to the telecom and opened a comm window on top of the cartoons he was watching. "Hello, Yun residence, how may I help you?" he inquired in a perfect parody of the secretaries he'd overheard before. The shaman could hear the indistinct sound of the voice on the other end of the line relaying something to the dragonette, then a sentence that he would rather have missed: "David, you better come over here-it's Lone Star and something bad's happened."

"Oh, crap," Yun muttered under his breath as he abandoned the last few bites of his muffin and hurried into the den, a whole list of possible unpleasantries flashing through his mind. Upon his arrival, he saw a rather worried-looking Xiao hovering before the telecom and Blake's rather miserable-looking visage displayed on it. "What's wrong?" asked the Dragon shaman worriedly, knowing that for the nocturnal detective to call at the ungodly hour of 9:00 AM, something very bad indeed must have occurred.

"You didn't watch the news this morning, did you?" Coburn asked.

"No. . ."

"Some of our Triad friends tried to kill Officer Wright last night," said Blake grimly. "Some Chinese guy with a monowire garrote and a stocky dwarf, same ethnicity. I think it's Saint and Jake Tu, if the radio communications of the dwarf we intercepted last night were right."

David nodded unhappily, tugging distractedly on part of his luxuriant mustache. "The human definitely sounds like Saint-I've never heard of any other Triad assassin who likes to use something weird and nasty like that. Usually the point of a garrote is not to make a mess." He paused, then asked anxiously, "Is Kyle okay?"

"Well, he's as okay as can be for somebody who took a burst from a SMG," replied the pale cop. The Dragon shaman winced. "He's down at Lakeview and in stable condition-one of the paramedics happened to have a one-shot Treat spell anchor just for emergencies like that."

"Thank God," said David, relieved. "Have any other magicians tended to him?"

Coburn shook his head, feathery ash-blond bangs swaying. "Nope, not yet. He hasn't really opted for it since the fees are so steep."

"Then in that case I'm going to be right over there to change that-he deserves to at least get to enjoy the rest of his vacation," said David matter-of-factly.

Blake grinned a bit, exposing the tips of his not-quite-fangs. "All right, I can't say I disagree with you. Oh yeah, and by the way, you know the files he said he'd have sent on Luna?"

"Uh-huh," Yun said as Xiao thoughtfully brought him a stray healing fetish that had fallen between the couch cushions.

"Well, we got those all right, and they were just what we needed. Tell him thanks for us when you get a chance, okay? He gave Luna a ticket for pulling a Hollywood stop in Beverly Hills." Coburn smirked. "I love irony." David chuckled assent. "And her real name's Destyni Yuet, she works for The Spin Doctors as some sort of a consultant or something, and," he put on an air of exaggerated menace, "I know where she lives."

"Great! Are you going to go get her?" asked David.

"Hell no! We're sending a LRT for that!" exclaimed Blake. "God only knows what kind of security-Triad or otherwise-she's got. I'm a snoop, not a sniper," he said sensibly.

"True, true. When do you think they'll be back with her?" Yun queried.

The Homicide detective with foul luck glanced at his watch, then answered, "I don't know exactly. They're going to leave in about half an hour and she's a bit away. . .depending on what kind of difficulties they run into, I'd say anywhere from an hour to two. Why, do you want a crack at talking to her?"

"Yeah, actually, I think I would. I'd like to see if I can spot anything peculiar in her aura," replied the shaman, natural curiosity nibbling insistently at him.

"All right, that's not such a bad idea. I'll be waiting for you. And depending on what time you get here, you might see Lucifer getting transferred out of here," commented Coburn.

David chuckled, rather amused by the thought of getting a chance to annoy Luke one last time. "Getting to say goodbye to the devil? That could be kind of fun. Hopefully my timing will be good for once."

"Maybe! I gotta go do bitwork now, so I'll see ya later," said Blake.

"Bye." Hanging up, David looked to Xiao and said, "Do you want to come with me?"

The jade serpent gazed directly at the shaman with bright sparks for eyes. "Dumb question."

Half an hour later, David was pulling into a space in the parking lot of Lakeview Hospital, squinting in the piercingly-bright sunlight, a rarity in a March day in Chicago. "Wow, there's not even that much smog, really!" the shaman commented as he climbed off of his gleaming emerald bike and began to pick his way through the dirty grey slush towards the front entrance of the quiet medical center.

"Wheee!" squealed Xiao, perched upon his shoulder, as an especially fierce gust of wind buffeted them, causing his silvery trim of fur to flutter and David's mustache to blow dangerously close to the impish wyrmling's jaws.

"Having fun?" Yun asked bemusedly as he straightened out his glossy black whiskers and stepped through the sliding glass doors into the lobby, marveling at the absence of the sick and injured.

"Yes," replied Xiao primly, settling back down upon the shaman's shoulders.

David got a visitor's pass plus knowledge of the room in which Kyle Wright was located from the receptionist, who happened to be that same polite troll the former professor had run into before. He roamed the sterile, sunny halls, listening to snatches of conversation among the different doctors and nurses who were all thankful for this unexpected respite from the usual hurry and worry. An elevator trip later, the shaman was knocking on the door of room 211.

"It's open!" came the California-accented voice from within.

David pushed the door open and walked in, saying, "Hey, Kyle! Are they treating you all right?"

The anti-troll grinned, showing well-kept tusks, replying, "Not too bad, though I can't say I enjoy the food or anything. Did you know that there's absolutely nothing good on the trid on Sunday mornings?"

"Yeah, although Xiao here seems to disagree with me," David said, scratching the miniature jade dragon's chin. The tiny serpent began to purr loudly, about to launch into his feline kneading routine. The shaman approached Wright, trying to gauge exactly how powerful of a healing spell he needed.

"The little guy's cute," commented the star-crossed cop. "Is he a hatchling?"

"Well, kind of-he sort of manifested in a way, you could say," answered Yun. "To tell the truth, neither Feng nor I have really figured that one out for sure," he replied candidly. To Xiao, he said, "Now don't eat this spell-I need to heal Kyle, all right?"

"Okay," said Xiao amiably, having no intention whatsoever of interfering with David helping the nice troll who complimented him.

Yun drew on Dragon's vibrant powers of life to heal the polite Vigil officer, expertly guiding the rejuvenating energies to work, erasing all traces of his wounds. "There you go! All better now," David said, satisfied, brushing the dust of the crumbled healing fetish from his palm.

Kyle sat up a bit straighter in bed, experimentally touching the places on his stomach where he had been injured. He sighed in relief at the lack of pain, looking to the shaman and saying gratefully, "Thanks, I owe you one for that."

David shook his head, saying, "Oh, no you don't. Consider it paying you back for that file on Luna-Lone Star's ecstatic over that and sends their thanks, by the way."

Wright grinned, appearing rather pleased with his work. "No problemo. I didn't like that bitch anyway. Best of luck to you guys on catching her."

"Thanks," replied David. "And by the way, I think we might know who it was who attacked you."

"Oh?"

Yun nodded, saying, "One of them was a dwarf who was after Blake, myself, and another friend, and who the current theory says has been involved in this particular mess at the outset. The other one sounds like Saint, a Triad assassin from Shanghai if I remember right, whose been causing trouble here since February."

"They sound like such cheery people-they remind me of one of the reasons I'm glad I live in New Los Angeles. We hardly have any syndicate presence there. It's amazing what a little almost-literal warfare against them can do," said Kyle with a tusked smile.

David chuckled, saying wryly, "I hate to say it, but I kind of wish they would do that here."

Right then, the nurse wandered in, bearing a plate of what could only be dubbed "food" after the consumption of much alcohol, calling, "Brunch time!"

"Oh, God," grimaced Wright. He looked to the Dragon shaman and said with a sigh, "Well, I've got to choke down one last meal before I go persuade the men in white coats to let me go. Good luck to you, David, and it was a pleasure to meet you, Xiao."

They both waved, dragon and shaman alike, and headed off down the sterile, gleaming-white halls for the lobby and lot.

11 AM rolled around to find David approaching the fortress-like Lone Star Central Chicago precinct station. Traffic flowed lazily about the bike-riding shaman, the strident song of horns periodically breaking out as someone's temper ran out. "Oh, looks like I haven't missed the fun after all!" chuckled Yun as he flexed his hand to squeeze the throttle of his Rapier, peering through the opened gates at the prison van towards which two officers were escorting a pissed-off Lucifer. The shaman could hear the heavily-restrained Sei cursing and spitting, vituperating in impotent fury.

And then his stream of profanities was dammed by a decent-caliber sniper rifle round striking home in the middle of his forehead. Luke's body jerked as the life flickered out of his poison-green eyes, going limp in the cops' grip. "Sniper!!" yelled one of them, yanking his pistol from its holster, and wishing that the unseen attacker hadn't had the intelligence to use a heavily silenced weapon.

"Oh, shit," gulped Yun as he realized who the hidden gunman likely was in light of Wei's prior parting comments. He choked the throttle with a white-knuckled grip, sending the Yamaha Rapier roaring through the open gates as bullets began to scream by him, whining into the pavement almost deadly-playfully close by. Xiao shrieked in terror as one slug tore through the air precisely two inches above the little serpent's maned head, aimed with expertise to toy with the duo in a most cruel fashion. The gates slammed shut behind the shaman as he hastily parked his bike and raced inside the lobby, head ducked low and green eyes wide in fear.

"What in the name of God's going on out there??" asked Blake, crouched behind one of the benches and aiming his Glock out the window as station security kicked into high gear.

"Jaeger letting Lucifer know that he was fired," said David grimly, taking cover behind one of the secretaries' desks. "It's okay Xiao, you're safe in here. ." the shaman said in soothing tones, stroking the smooth scales of the tiny dragonette. "Would you please not hold on quite so tight. . ." he pleaded, wincing, as the jade wyrmling was clutching his ride's shoulder with silver talons in a death-grip of terror.

"Sorry," squeaked Xiao in a subdued fashion, creeping around to hide as much of himself behind David's neck as he could manage, using his shoulder-length black hair for cover.

"How'd he know that we were moving Sei right then?" questioned Blake, tensely waiting for any more shots that might streak across the parking lot.

"God only knows," sighed Yun, peering over the desk at the black-clad cop. "When I called Wei to see about that truce he mentioned, I happened to pass along all the wonderful things Lucifer said about him. I was pretty sure Sei would get what he deserved. .I just didn't expect it to happen here," he said half-sheepishly. I guess maybe I should have remembered that old adage about playing with fire. . .

"Ah, makes a bit more sense now. I'll have to ask one of the guys who keeps an eye on system security if he saw anyone breaking into the prisoner transfer schedules," said Coburn, theorizing aloud as to how the Hunter may have gotten a hold of the requisite information for staging such a precise ambush. "You're damn lucky he missed you."

"Knowing him, I'm sure it was on purpose-I think that was his sick way of saying 'hi'," said David, finding the thought to be more disturbing than that of Jaeger having been seriously gunning for him, if anything. Gazing out the floor-length windows into the lot, watching the heavy security teams systematically clear divisions of the area and scan rooftops for the sniping Hung Kwan, he said with certainty, "He's gone already. He got who he was supposed to and's not dumb enough to hang around."

"That's what I'm guessing since there haven't been any more shots," said Blake, standing and holstering his Glock. He wandered over to the Mr. Coffee to extract his fourth cup of liquid caffeine, which he began to greedily guzzle. Checking his watch, Coburn commented after gulping java, "Hmm, that LRT should be reporting back in soon-preferably in one piece and with Luna."

"Hopefully," agreed the ex-professor, settling down to wait on a bench as slowly things began to return to normal within the station, the secretaries emerging from hiding and the usual traffic returning from its hiatus with gusto.

Some twenty minutes later, one of the LRT members straggled in as the rest handled passing Luna along to some of the other officers to be stuck in a holding cell. Her single-starred helmet was tucked under one arm; she was pushing back sweaty brunette bangs from her forehead. "Hey, William, we got her," Betty tiredly called Coburn by his nickname.

"Good work! How'd it go?" asked Blake, coffee-enhanced enthusiasm decaffeinated by her somber countenance.

"Not as well as it could have," she replied. "Tu was there, acting as a bodyguard for her; we had to ice him. We knew most of what cyber he had since his file from Renraku managed to get to us ten minutes before we left-I wish it would have mentioned the fact that his Wires were level two, not one. It would've just been kind of nice to have known about the one-shot Enhance Aim spell anchor he had up his sleeve. . ." she said regretfully. "I've never seen someone snipe with a chopped SMG before," she finished with a sigh and a shake of her head.

"Ouch, I'm sorry. I was hoping that maybe Paco just hadn't come in yet," said the pallid Homicide detective with a grimace that exposed the pointed tip of one not-quite-fang.

"He's in the emergency room at Lakeview right now-he should pull through though," replied Betty.

As the two cops chatted for a little bit about how the strike had gone, David was lost in thought, simultaneously disturbed and intrigued by the intrigue between Renraku, DDS, and Triads' latest twist. Okay, let me get this straight. . .Renraku and DDS hate each other. .Wei hates practically everyone else. . Renraku apparently cuts a deal with Wei to grab Feng's sword-but most of the muscle turns out to be their own men. .who are also Triad members, apparently without Renraku's knowledge or consent. .and then the sword turns up in an insanely-sensitive part of the Arcology without their say-so. .What in the hell is going on here?? the shaman thought, baffled. He unconsciously yanked on his mustache in frustration as the answer continued to elude him, leaving behind only the certainty that something was severely wrong.

"What?" asked Blake of David after Betty left, noticing his preoccupied expression.

"I'm just trying to figure out what exactly is happening in this mess-I'm looking at all the pieces, but it doesn't make any sense!" Yun admitted in exasperation, his keen academic, magical mind hopelessly stalemated by the conspiratorial cipher.

"The puzzle looks the same from this side of the table," replied Blake with a sigh.

"If it makes either of you feel any better, I haven't been able to divine the solution, not even with a good deal of. .unofficial conversation participation," came Dan's voice from the door, euphemizing eavesdropping.

"Huh??" asked David, startled, turning, Xiao doing the same and thus managing to still look the wrong way for his troubles.

Lee stood only a few paces distant, wearing a blue-grey Fhun-sik suit and a Cheshire-cat grin. "I tagged along with the LRT crew to deal with Luna."

"Oh. I'm not surprised," said David, his surprise evident on his elegant features.

"I was just hanging around out front finishing a cigarette," Dan said with an offhanded gesture. "Didn't you see me?"

"No. . ."

Dan's grin grew more sly. "Perfect," was all he said, tone cryptic. Of Blake he asked, "When will Luna be interrogated?"

"Right now sounds good to me," answered Coburn, gesturing for them to follow.

Moments later, the trio was standing before the door to the particular interrogation room within which Luna was held. Dan peered coldly in through the security-glass window at the captive Ms. Johnson, giving a slight, curt nod. "Definitely the same woman I saw dealing with Magic Bullet," he stated shortly, accusingly.

"She matches the picture all right," agreed Blake, sitting down at the desk with the cyberterminal interface linked to the camera and microphone. "David, are you going to want to go in there with her or do you just want to scan her through the window?"

"The window will be fine," Yun said, resting his fingertips against the edge of the pane of glass and gazing beyond it at the form of the sullen Chinese woman sitting at the bolted-down table inside. With an almost natural ease, the shaman switched from physical to Astral sight, intent upon examining the aura of Destyni "Luna" Yuet.

The veritable rainbow of hues that composed her energetic self bled into view, as agitated as unquiet seas. Sensitive blue mingled with aggressive grey, the sunny yellow of intelligence was ruffled with intense thought. I bet she's thinking about how to talk her way out of this. Ambition's intense orange was prominently visible, shot through by strands of glistening silver-the mark of one skilled in the art of persuasion. The healer's green, spiritualist's purple, or agape-follower's gold were noticeably absent. A burning, angry red flickered and flared as her indignant irritation at being detained waxed and waned. And then David found what it was he was looking for: an iron-like band of color seeming to bind her aura like a chain. That must be the spells to keep her loyal-and silent. Drat, and I was hoping that wasn't in there. This is going to be harder than everyone thought. . .

"She's got some restraining magicks in her aura," said David aloud as he returned to seeing the world in the way of the mundane, glancing back at the two men behind him.

"Damn," sighed Blake simply, frowning in such a fashion that the tip of a canine peeked out over his lower lip a tiny bit.

"She most assuredly knows something important, then, if she has a spell like on her," said Dan darkly, hands folded behind his back and staring hard at the Dragon shaman with slightly cocked head.

Yun blinked. "But Lucifer said all Triads had that put on them when they swore their oaths to join."

Lee shook his head. "No. With how many members there are in any given Triad, that would be impossible. They're reserved for those considered dangerous, crucial, and holding sensitive posts and offices. Fear, conditioning, and psychosomatic self-restraint hold the rest to such loyalty," he explained chilly, the topic distasteful. A certain warmthless light lit his eyes, indicating how personal the subject was to him.

"Oh, now I see," replied David; Coburn nodded.

"I'm going to get started now," said Blake. "If anyone's got anything to add while I'm questioning her, go right ahead and jump in. You two have got more experience with dealing with Triads than I do."

"Unfortunately," muttered Dan sotto voce with an almost Cerberus-like growl to his words as David quietly cast an Analyze Truth spell to help out with the interrogation.

"Ms. Yuet, you've been caught on Renraku security camera associating with and hiring the criminal ring known as the Magic Bullet. We know what they were ordered to do, but the question is, who told you to act as a Johnson?" the detective inquired.

Luna looked up from where she was eyeing the screen of the stripped-down cyberterminal that displayed her rights on the table before her. "I'm not at liberty to say," she answered icily.

"Well, someone had you do it-with the amount of money the adepts had on their credsticks that would have been an up-front payment, there's no way your salary would cover an expense like that," prodded Coburn, using logic as his weapon.

Yuet sat in stony silence, giving the Gothic cop a glare that would have combusted a glacier.

"Come on, Destyni, you know if you tell us who gave you the order to hire them it'll cut down on your sentence. What with all the damage the gang did at your command, you're looking at a pretty ugly amount of jail time," Blake said ominously, offering her The Out. "Was it one of your bosses in The Spin Doctors?"

"No," was all Luna responded with.

"She doesn't seem to be lying," offered David, as his spell was not detecting any stretching of the truth.

"Ask her about the 7-Seven and Lung-Ge Jai Triads," said Dan, suggesting a viper-like verbal strike.

"All right," said Coburn, hand over the mike. Of Destyni he asked, "Are you a member of either the 7-Seven or Lung-Ge Jai Triad organizations?"

"No," replied Yuet firmly, accompanying the words with a withering glance directed at Lee, whom she guessed was the originator of the posited question. The assassin merely glared back with an unnervingly calm lethality that stated simply and unequivocally, "I will kill you if you go free".

David frowned, knitting his brow as he interpreted the reaction he got from the analytical spell. "Um, I have to call bull on that one," he said. "She's lying like a rug."

"Why am I not surprised," sighed Blake. "Are you sure about that, Luna? Why else would Jacob Tu have been working as a bodyguard for you? He wasn't a Spin Doctors employee, but he was a confirmed 7-Seven member," he said, attempting to box her in.

Destyni remained silent for a moment, staring at him through the glass. "I want my lawyer," she demanded in no uncertain terms.

"Damn," muttered Coburn, hearing the last thing any police interrogator wanted to. "Fine," he said reluctantly, the attempt to elicit a confession from the unrepentant Ms. Johnson a failure. He switched off the microphone and camera, looking to the two nearby. "Well, that was a bust. Why couldn't this star throw down her spear?" he rhetorically questioned, slipping in a quote from William Blake's "The Tyger" and making a play upon her celestial-body name at the same time.

"Drat," added David, crestfallen. "I guess now we'll never know the truth behind this mess unless either her conscience gets the better of her or we catch whoever's responsible," he said unhappily, finding the defeat a bitter pill to swallow.

"It's one of the parts of police work I don't like," said Coburn, crossing the room and retrieving Luna, beginning to escort her from the room. Her facade of frigid indifference slipped for a moment when she saw the look of utter hatred and deadly intent present in Dan's dark eyes. Yuet shivered.

"She had better pray her lawyer is not that good," said Lee softly once she was gone.

"Yeah. . ." David said hesitantly, not approving of the assassin's obvious plan of action should she wind up back on the streets, but uncertain of what to say to discourage him from pursuing such a bloody course of action. He wanted to say what he thought: Dan, you've got to stop thinking like that! It's going to get you killed or put in jail! Besides, isn't killing just what Wei wanted you to do? Instead, the good-hearted shaman stayed quiet, avoiding provoking Lee's ire. "Well, I'm going to go home now and get everything straightened up-Diaz should be arriving in town tonight," he excused himself.

"Oh?" asked Dan, arching an eyebrow. Xiao, bored, imitated his expression in silver and jade.

David nodded. "Yeah, he's going to be staying there for a few days until he can find an apartment."

The assassin nodded. With the ghost of a sly smile upon his face, Dan said as he walked past, "Why am I thinking that you're going to regret doing that?"

"Why am I thinking you're probably right," Yun retorted with a sigh, following him out.

Several minutes later, as they were out in the parking lot heading for their respective bikes, Dan commented, "I need to do a little grocery shopping anyway, and there's a store not far from Newberry, so I'll keep an eye on you as you head home, all right?"

"Sure, thanks. With Jaeger on the loose, a little backup's never a bad thing," Yun said, slipping on his helmet. He eyed Lee as he settled on his Lone Wolf and started its engine. "Are you still not wearing a helmet??" David asked incredulously, an expression of shocked dismay on his face. Xiao clucked his tongue at the errant assassin.

Dan smiled thinly at the duo. "No," and throttled up, guiding the sleek white bike away.

Eight to noon, at a stoplight, Dan spotted a familiar black Honda Cobra in their wake. Hello, looks like a little afternoon company has arrived. I don't mind-I was rather hoping to finish what I started back in O'Hare, Saint. He signaled to the Dragon shaman in the lane beside him to look back at the indicated car. Yun obliged and his green eyes opened wide.

With a nervous speed, the former professor jerked his attention back to the renegade assassin nearby, calling "Oh shit! What's he doing following us? I thought Wei said there was a truce!"

"This likely isn't about you, but me. Remember, that bastard called no cease-fire with me," answered Dan logically. He shot a burning glare at Saint's silhouette within the Cobra, revving the powerful engine of the 'Wolf to make it howl in challenge. The light turned green, and he raced across the intersection.

Saint cursed with vigorous vitriol, cautiously pursuing his quarry, keeping several cars between them to discourage the assassin from opening fire. He had no intent whatsoever of winding up the same way Kuei did. Over his wristphone, he reported, "Jaeger, I've been seen. Now what?"

"Excellent job there, Saint," replied the Hung Kwan with biting sarcasm, his tiny image over the phone's vidscreen annoyed. "I want this 'John' Lee dead. Tail him as far as you must and eliminate him-he's cost us enough men to warrant any degree of force or collateral damage it takes," he growled. "Though try to avoid innocents-it lessens the likelihood Lone Star will intervene before you've done your job," he suggested in an offhand manner like a brilliant professor tutoring an ignorant pupil.

"Yes, Jaeger," answered Saint coolly, not really enjoying being talked to in such a way but not having much choice in the matter. He hung up and sighed, tightening his grip upon the steering wheel; giving his head a shake he said through grit teeth, "All right you bastard, Lee-it's payback time for O'Hare." He floored it.

Dan darted through the heavy traffic of the noon lunch rush, provoking an infuriated chorus of horn blasts as he cut across three lanes in a row. He eyed the black car still lurking stubbornly in his rearview mirror, thinking, There's far too many bystanders here. . .let's go somewhere where there won't be. I am not running away from this fight-I'm sick of you, Saint.

The Gaz-Niki Lone Wolf burst from the vehicular swamp a few moments later, racing down the straight stretch of asphalt towards the Newberry Apartment complex. As the black Cobra followed, gaining ground with just-gained freedom from the gridlock, Lee cracked off a few rounds at it and the driver, the bullets tearing through the light hood of the car and cracking the windshield.

Saint steered his Cobra hard in the opposite direction from the assassin as they entered the parking lot, seeking to avoid pressing his luck any more than he already had. "Good-you're going under. Hopefully you'll try to hide-which will give me the perfect opportunity to ambush you. . ." He followed, steering his black, bullet-scarred car down the ramp to the lone parking sublevel of the complex, tires squealing.

Hidden between a pair of vans, Dan sprang from his 'Wolf, both Predators at the ready, landing in a half-crouch. His keen hearing easily picked up the high-pitched whine of rubber on asphalt that heralded Saint's high-speed arrival in the vicinity. "Right on time," Lee murmured as he stalked the sodium-lit space.

Up topside, David parked as well, though he had no intention whatsoever of following the two physads down below. "There's no way in Hell I'm going to try to out-hunt him-I don't very much want to die today," the shaman said to himself as he looked about for a suitable SUV to use as a perch. "But I can watch the ways up for the jerk if he changes his mind about trying to fight Dan. A little high cover never hurts," said Yun wisely as he levitated himself up to crouch atop a Chrysler-Nissan Rhino. With Xiao scanning one direction and himself another, they watched and waited, ready to strike or heal as needed, depending upon who emerged.

Saint pressed his white-suited back against a plascrete pillar, monowire garrote drawn tight between his hands. His breathing was light and measured as he listened for any sound of his quarry. Only the growl of a car's engine starting could he hear, which he cursed for perhaps hiding stealthy footsteps. He slunk away from there, moving farther in towards the center, cautiously on the lookout for signs of Lee.

Dan heard the faint scuff of a shoe's sole upon the ground, magically-enhanced audition a critical edge at this time. He crouched in the shadow of an Americar, eyes glimmering a feral orange in the lowered light, lying in wait. Come on, Saint, come this way. . .

The Triad murderer suppressed a faint but persistent sensation of apprehension, frequently pausing as he drew nearer to the center. He must not be moving, only hiding. Otherwise I should have sensed some sign of him by now; after all, he is only human, not a ghost. Saint continued forward slowly, the intensely-colored yellow light shimmering wickedly along the deadly gossamer strand of the monowire. He'd better not be behind me, he thought suddenly, glancing over his shoulder.

Watching underneath the car, Dan saw Saint's shadow slide along the concrete, heard the accompanying careful, deliberate tread. The pool of darkness halted. Do or die. Lee rapidly stood, light flashing off of the twin, dragon-etched Predators as he whipped them around to aim

The hair stood up on the back of Saint's neck as he realized he'd made a grave miscalculation in his strategy, turning to look just past the Americar to his left. "Bai!" he hissed, wide-eyed gaze locking with Dan's abyssal stare. Muzzle flashes flared, then permanent darkness dropped like a curtain upon the final act of his life.

Lee lowered his Predators as the double report echoed throughout the car-filled space. "Now you'll learn the answer to the burning question, Saint: will you fly with the angels or burn with the Beast?"

"Did you get him?" David asked as Dan pulled up on his motorcycle near the SUV on which the shaman still sat.

Lee nodded. "Saint won't be helping Wei enslave any more families now," he said with unassuming triumph.

"Good. I'll have to tell Arthur about this," Yun replied. "Thanks for covering me-I don't like the thought of Saint having maybe tried to ambush me as I was heading inside."

"Mou-mun-tai," dismissed Dan. He pricked an ear at the sound of approaching sirens, then said, "But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be doing my shopping before I have to answer any bothersome questions from the police. Joi-gin."

"Joi-gin," said David and Xiao as the assassin made good his getaway. Yun floated down from his lofty perch and headed inside.

Close to midnight that night, David was standing in the middle of the den floor, scanning the orderly interior of his dragon-decorated apartment. "I suppose that's all the cleaning I can do to prepare," said he with a shrug. The shaman plopped down on the couch with a good book to wait the last hour until Diaz's arrival, according to the mage's emailed statement of which flight from New York he was taking and a quick Matrix check on his expected ETA in O'Hare.

"Hunh?" murmured David groggily, blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear the unexpected sleep from his eyes. "What time is it??" he muttered, checking his watch as he answered his telecom. "3:13 AM? Where the heck is Diaz?" He tapped the "Receive" button on the telecom and answered, "Hello?"

The woman at the front desk's weary image appeared on the screen. "Mr. Yun, there's a Mr. Camargo to see you in the lobby. Should I send him up?"

Yun struggled to remember the familiar name. Wait. .his alias. ."Yes, please, tell him to come up to apartment 439."

"All right then, he'll be right up," said the receptionist before hanging up.

Several minutes later, there was a heavy knocking on his apartment's door. David opened it and looked out into the hall.

Sure enough, Arias' heavyset form stood before, cloaked in a new leather trenchcoat the same color as the old, though minus the weather stains, bullet-holed hat pulled low over his face, and a weighty-looking, beat-up dufflebag slung over one shoulder, a matching knapsack over the other. "Hey," came the gruff, terse greeting.

"Hi, Diaz, long time no see," replied David with a somewhat-drowsy smile.

"Hi!" chirped Xiao, undulating through the air to hover nearby.

"Hey yourself, squirt," said the mage to the miniature dragon. He turned his bright black gaze to David and arched an eyebrow, asking with typical bluntness, "You gonna let me in or am I gonna hafta just friggin' stand here in the damn hall all night?"

"Of course not-come on in. Mi casa, su casa," said the shaman graciously, stepping aside. He closed the door behind Arias as he entered, gait weary. "How was the flight over?"

"Hell," Diaz grunted, peering about the gently-lit apartment, his gaze tracing over the shelves of dragon paraphernalia, the kitchenette entrance, and the nice, comfy, couch that was calling to him. "Damn pricks hadda go an' pull a stop in Indianapolis outta their asses halfway through the flight cuz some moron in management didn't have a contingency covering a string of bad luck that left 'em without anywhere near enough planes to handle all the passengers there," the bellicose blood mage growled as he made a beeline for the couch. He dropped the timeworn tan bags on the floor beside the sofa, which hit the carpet with a clatter and thump, then, after shrugging out of his armored duster and tossing it over the arm, plopped himself upon the cushions, landing with equal heaviness. Diaz sighed, relieved, as he kicked off his shoes, murmuring, "Thank God, my feet are killing me." He looked to David as he sat down on the opposite end from him, explaining, "You wouldn't believe the freaking crowds, an' then I had to stand there and wait a fucking year to get my bag."

"Oh, trust me, I would believe it. I've been in O'Hare for some of the holiday rushes, unfortunately," replied Yun, watching as Xiao landed on the carpet near Arias' feet.

Diaz plucked off his broad-brimmed hat and playfully pitched it like a Frisbee to land on Xiao, a lopsided grin appearing on his tanned face. As the wee serpent hissed and slithered out from beneath it, he commented idly, "Nice place ya got here-though do ya have enough dragon shit?? Jeeze!"

"Thanks, and no, I don't," responded David, smirking. "And speaking of stuff, what's in those bags, an assault rifle?" he asked facetiously.

Diaz looked at the shaman with a quirked brow as he slid a Black Death cigarette from its pack with a thumb. "Yeah, actually," he said through grit teeth as he lit the jet-wrapped vice clenched between them.

David blinked. "You're not kidding, are you?"

Arias shook his head. "Nope. I've had it for a while now. Ya never know when you're gonna need the firepower," he said in all seriousness.

"Did you need it while you were gone?" David ventured carefully.

"Ayup," he said with a nod, exhaling a cloud of dirty smoke with a relaxed sigh. "Things got kinda hairy when I was down in Peru. One of the teams of jack-offs they sent for me managed to catch up to me all at once. Wasn't nobody handy at the moment to provide a little help with a Hellblast," he said, referring to the act of knifing a poor "donor" with an unsettling degree of nonchalance, "so I thought, 'Fuck my cover here, I was leaving anyways'. So I mowed 'em down." The mage grinned wolfishly, saying with pride, "I'm still a good shot after all these years."

Yun nodded. "Where all did you go while you were gone?"

Arias snorted a jet of smoke. "More like where didn't I go." He took another drag off his cigarette, then demanded imperiously, "Get me a cold beer and I'll tell ya."

"Diaz. .you know I don't drink beer."

The blood mage winced. "Ah, Jesus. Wine then, or whatever the hell else ya got that's got some friggin' alcohol in it." David sighed and went and got him the requested drink, and sat back down. "Much better," he said, sipping the wine. "But like I said, I was practically all over this freaking hemisphere. I hit Miami after I left here, then Toronto, then bounced down to Amazonia for a bit." He gulped the wine, then continued, "But I hate Amazonia, and the people there hate me when they recognize me. So I hopped on a flight to Peru after that." The renegade Azzie leaned forward a bit, eyes glittering in his rough-featured face. "And that's where things got really interesting," he said with a grin, cigarette clenched tightly in his teeth.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," said David, wondering what his uncouth friend would count as "really interesting".

Diaz's grin only broadened. "I initiated."

David's jaw dropped. "But that would make you an Omega!!"

"Damn straight, kid!" he said proudly, pointing. "It was a bitch and a half, but I finally managed." He leaned back in his seat, blowing smoke. "And lemme tell ya, it was worth every bit of the hassle."

"Wow. .I'm not even an Alpha yet," Yun said.

"You ain't?" Arias said in surprise. "I woulda figgered by now you woulda done it. What's takin' ya so long?"

"I've been pretty busy lately, but I've just about gotten it figured out. I'm mostly just waiting for Feng to have time to help with the ritual. That, and what's wrong with my aura is sort of in the way," said David by way of explanation.

"So you found out what was fucked up?" asked Arias with a curiosity that belied the keen intellect carefully hidden behind cultivated cynicism and abrasiveness.

David nodded. "It's pretty. ." he hesitated, searching for the right way to phrase it. How exactly do you tell a friend you're not really. .you? Not wholly human even? ". .Pretty bad." He met Diaz's obsidian gaze, saying, "You were more right with your comment that there were almost 'surgical scars' in my aura."

"Are you sayin'-" the mage began, rough-edged voice starting to rise as he sat up straighter.

"Lung took a part of his own soul and replaced over half of mine with it," Yun said, his usual buoyant demeanor becoming a bit subdued under that topic's oppressive shadow.

"Jesus Christ!!" Diaz exploded, sitting up the rest of the way rapidly. "You're shittin' me!"

David shook his head. "I wish."

"Lemme see that," Arias said, setting the wine glass on the carpet and peering intently at the Dragon shaman, switching swiftly to Astral sight.

"You're probably not going to be able to see anything, Diaz. Feng missed it the first time he looked, and he's a dragon," cautioned David.

"I don't give a crat's ass," grunted the blood mage determinedly, five o'clock-shadowed jaw set in determination. [Author's Note: a "crat" is a cat/rat combination. At first glance it appears to be a cat-sized rat, but it has a furry tail, claws, and catlike eyes. Plus it emits a blend of a meow and a squeak.]

Several moment's passed as the fearsomely-powerful mage glared at David's aura, willing the Masking hiding the Astral truth to burn away under his incendiary gaze. Yun was about to advise him to give up when Diaz's eyes widened dramatically. "Holy. . .shit. . ." said he in hushed tones, staring. "That is the most fucked-up thing I have ever seen." Arias quickly returned to normal sight, even the battle-hardened rogue visibly shaken. "What the hell are you gonna do about it?"

"Well, Feng and I took the matter before the Consul Draconum to see what they thought-"

"Whoa, whoa, what the hell is that?"

"The council of the dragons," explained David. "It's their big governing body-kind of a UN-like thing. They decide all the major issues that come up, and this qualified-it was a violation of one of their laws. And Lung's committed enough crimes to get him basically excommunicated from society."

Diaz whistled. "Damn, kid, you're wading in some heavy shit."

David chuckled wryly. "Now there's understatement. At least Ryumyo's agreed to try to help Feng and I figure out how to undo what Lung did." He said half-to himself, "I sure hope we find out how fast-I don't like the thought of living with Lung holding a sword of Damocles over my head any longer than I absolutely have to."

"I don't blame you, kid. I'm thinkin' it sounded like I missed a lot while I was gone," Diaz sighed. He gulped down the last of his wine and stubbed out his cigarette in the glass. "I think you need to catch me up on what all's gone down since I've been away," he said wearily, lazily untying his greasy black ponytail and idly playing cat's cradle with the thong with which he'd restrained his hair.

David obliged without complaint, watching Xiao playfully attack Diaz's toes and get prodded with them for his troubles as he told his tale.

Roughly twenty minutes later, Diaz yawned voraciously and said, "Damn, I guess it's really been monsoon-season for shitstorms, eh?"

"Yeah, you could put it that way."

Arias exhaled a cloud of smoke drawn from yet another cigarette. "Whoopee shit. Just what I wanted to deal with right off the bat." He took a long pull from the cancer stick, then sighed, "Oh well, not like things woulda stayed quiet with me back in town anyways. Not with how fast that bitch Rommel keeps finding me." He rubbed his stubble idly, expression faintly rueful.

"Did they catch up to you in New York?" asked Yun sleepily, a half-drained cup of coffee cradled in his hands.

Arias nodded slowly, ember glow from the tip of his cigarette reflecting harshly upon his careworn face. "Yeah, they did. Right when I was in JFK, actually. I hadda pull a hit and run-I Powerbolted Nemesis, their damn mage and ran for the plane," he narrated. "She's a blood-user too, by the way," he added tiredly.

"Oh, wonderful," said David unenthusiastically.

"Yeah, that's what I said when I got a look at her." He eyed David, then said, "Ya wanna know how ya spot a blood mage in the Astral?"

"How?" asked Yun, figuring that this might be a useful skill.

"I know ya know about all the secondary tints to the mercury to tell the basics about a magic-user, right? The rosy gold for shamen; iridescent blue for hermetics like Phantom, the little bastard; prismatic for chaos mages, ad-freakin'-nauseam?" asked Diaz.

"Uh, I know the theory, and I can see it if I try, but it's not easy. Remember, I don't have the extra skill in assensing that you do as an initiate," said David.

Arias nodded. "Well, if ya ever go looking, if you see a kinda nasty-looking rusty red, sorta like old blood, you've got a blood mage like me," he said, jabbing his chest with his thumb.

David nodded. "Thanks for the warning."

"No prob," replied Diaz. He yawned again, swore, then asked, "How's Dan been?"

"Still kind of touch and go, as far as his moods go. He seems to be a bit better than he was a month ago, though," Yun conceded.

"That's good," said Arias with a nod. "I guess he's finally called his wife and kid?"

Now it was David's turn to nod. "He hasn't really told me what they talked about, but he does seem quite a bit happier now when he's relaxed. It's just keeping him relaxed that's hard." He sighed. "Half of the time he curls up back in his shell and I don't even know what it was I said. He's so touchy. I've gotten him to talk to me a little, but I'm sure I still don't know even a quarter of what's going on in his head."

Arias looked straight at him and pointed with his cigarette. "You keep tryin', kid. He's gotta deal with those problems of his or he'll drown in them," he said grimly. "And you seem to be the only one who can get within a mile of him without getting frozen out. You're his best shot."

"It's just so hard. I think I know a lot of what's wrong, at least the major issues, but he won't listen. Dan just doesn't want to talk about it. A couple of times when I've tried to help him, he just walks off." Yun shook his head hopelessly. "I will keep trying, but I don't know if I'll really be able to help unless something happens and he finally decides to let me."

"Well, I hope he comes outta this mess all right. I know what it's like to live on the run all by yerself. It sucks. I'd rather not see someone else put up with that shit," Diaz said gruffly. He finished off his cigarette, then gave a jaw-splitting yawn. "God damn, but I gotta get some sleep now."

"I'll get you a blanket and pillow," said David, standing and walking off as the weary mestizo sprawled out on the couch, grabbing his hat and pulling it low over his eyes, their fires winking out.

By the time the good-hearted Dragon shaman returned with the pillow and blanket tucked under his arm, Arias Diaz was fast asleep and snoring loudly, Xiao curled up on the small of his back.

"Shhh," whispered the little dragon, placing one silver talon over his bewhiskered muzzle.

David grinned. Silently he tossed the blanket over the tempest-tossed mage and set the pillow on the floor within easy reach. "Welcome back, Diaz," he muttered, then retired to his own bedroom, turning out the light upon the cozy apartment.