Swirling darkness had engulfed me, the harsh images of a face disjointed in the ether kept crying out as my vision waxed. The effort of the incorporeal entity was in vain. I craved the cool oblivion and the sweet serenity of my dark silence, but I should have known better. Then, like a cosmic bulimic, my universe of shadow contorted into white noise until finally retching me out from within.

"Good, it looks like he's coming out of resurrection shock," a faintly familiar voice echoed in the cloying dander of my muffled mind. I sat up and put my hand on my face. My cheek was tingling and my nerves were jagged. It was as if someone had turned on the electricity in a new building and the spark had sent my senses over the edge. I opened my eyes to a vortex of light and color then proceeded to empty my gut into my lap. Since I'd never put anything into this particular stomach, the dry heaving was painfully sobering.

All I could muster up was a pathetic groan, which was met by an almost whimsical chuckle. The ground felt cold, sterile and manufactured. "First time cashing in your insurance policy I bet. God, I remember how sick I felt the first time. I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate your initial cell scanning was done here months ago." The voice said as my vision swam into focus. I looked up with blurry eyes to see an Opifex smiling at me somewhat smugly. Beyond his glowing face, I saw the clear blue skies of Rubi-Ka stretching out above us, the glare of the twin suns brilliant as ever. I stood up gingerly and looked our perch to find a busy throng of people, hustling and bustling in the dry scorched air. "Where... where am I?" I whispered; half-afraid that any more noise would shatter my skull. The Opifex's voice had been like a cymbal against my eardrums, the crowd it's pulsing percussion. Helping me to my feet he spoke in clear, almost refined tones. "Newland City if you must know." "You could have rezzed into Avalon with our luck, thankfully we were able to trace your transcendence to a relatively close location," He chimed. "Hold him still for a minute Roderick," the Opifex commanded. A bearded Solitus came out from beyond my field of vision and gripped me by the arm, his overall demeanor much graver than his lighthearted companion. He looked at me with pearly green eyes and smiled darkly. "Now hold still big guy, this is going to sting," he warned.

The Opifex touched his NCU belt and begun to weave his hands in the air, conducting a silent orchestra of billions. I saw the space around him swirl in crimson twinges of luminescence and felt the cool flush of nanomachines soaking into my pores. The quick efficiency of these micro-doctors was frightening as they rapidly reinforced the fledgling tissue and bone of my new body. When they accelerated the calcification of bone, I felt myself lurch. I had been subject to nanobot repair before, but the intent of this particular program had been for massive cellular regeneration and fortification, not a simple flesh wound. The experience was even more jarring than my awakening. My senses were raw enough, but now it felt like a Rollerrat was gnawing on my spine. Then as quickly as it began, it was over. The Solitus relaxed his grip and stood up. "I think proper introductions are in order, don't you?" he stated matter-of-factly, looking at his drained comrade. "Indeed. I believe you have some information for me Mr. …Houston is it?" He chuckled as politely handed me my token board, then continued in a much more serious tone." But where are my manners," he apologized. " My family name is Augustyn, Devin Augustyn. My associates call me Kojiyama, but my friends call me Koji," he smiled. " Now answer me this: what in the HELL do you think you were doing out there?" " Looking for you!" I spat, getting more than a little irritated. "Me?" he replied, looking more than a little confused. I stepped off the platform and in my haste almost lost my balance. Koji caught me before I fell, and for an Opifex, his strength was remarkable. "By the Omega, what do they FEED you!" he huffed as he pushed me upright (well... maybe not that remarkable).

"I came to find you," I rushed, hardly containing my excitement. "I came because she asked me to."

I was drunk with relief and almost stammered over my words. "Your wife wanted me to... "

Then his expression gave me pause. His eyes had sunken in, his complexion washed out and his mouth twisted and quivered slightly. His frame shook as I saw him grit his teeth as he squeezed his Nadir gloves between long thin fingers. His eyes glazed over as a scowl crawled across his face and stared at me with what could have only been hatred and a significant amount of pain. "You're a poor liar," he spat. "Get out of my sight Atrox, consider yourself fortunate I don't gut you like I did that worm." He looked at his companion and spoke, "Come on, we have business to attend to." Without so much of a passing glance he stormed off into the crowd. The Solitus merely looked at me and sighed. "You've come a long way for a bad joke clansman," he muttered. "Now go home."

Chapter VI

I sat there, as I always did, sipping on the warming glass of vodka staring out across the veranda of a small café, just out of reach of the bustling throngs of life below. It had been a week since the adventurer known as Kojiyama and his comrade brought me into Newland City. I rubbed the back of my neck only to feel the slick tufts of hair that were beginning to grow. It was hot as hell out in the desert and as accustomed as I was to being shaved in both maw and crown, I just didn't have the energy or the will to pick up a blade and do a decent job. They say hair grows faster in the heat, but this was ridiculous.

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes as I awaited the inevitable confrontation that would ensue the moment Koji would step out onto the deck. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind, the fair skinned Opifex came through the sliding door sporting his customary Katara shades and that god-awful zebra sport coat he'd grown so fond of. How the hell does he not crisp in this heat? The advent's fairly merry mood slunk as he caught me out of the corner of his eye. I barely blinked as he strode over and firmly planted his fist on my table. "Jesus, you almost spilled my drink!" I responded. "You're lucky I didn't spill you right over the edge onto that guard 'Trox," he barked. "Nice to see you too Koji," I chimed. He was furious.

"Listen Malcolm."

" Call me Hornsbuck."

"Whatever... "

"Why are you still here? You stupid neuters don't seem to get much through your thick skull do you?" He snapped his shades off and glared at me like he always did.

Slow as I was, I had played this game long enough to anticipate his action. I slowly pushed my chair back and crossed my arms. "If that's what will make you happy, then fine, I will leave," I said. He wasn't anticipating my recalcitrance and stood there slack jawed. "What?" he stood up and snapped his shades back into place and tried to regain his composure. He was buying it.

"Really? Thank heavens! You've been a pain in my ass since I met you," he yammered. I stood up and sighed, looking over the terrace. "Well, I hope you've enjoyed your stay. Now get the hell out of my sight," he yelped.

He had dropped his guard.

"That I will, but not before I BEAT SOME SENSE INTO THAT THICK SKULL OF YOURS!" I bellowed, grabbing him by the scruff and pulling him over the table. He was more alert than I had anticipated and reached for the rail. The shift of his weight caught me off balance, sending both of us over the edge and into the crowd. The force of our impact sent up a cloud of dust that almost obscured the entire building. I had felt something beneath me snap as we landed and assumed the worse.

Coughing in the swirling screen of debris, I made out Koji's face, covered in sand, his shades broken. I opened my mouth to apologize, only to receive a right hook, as the Opifex was ready for action. He quickly rolled out from beneath me, delivering a sharp kick to my side before jumping back to draw his pistols. I stood up; bleeding from the split lip that burned from the last vestiges of my drink. The crowd began to gather around us with inquiring eyes. May as well put on a good show. "Oh, so you're gonna shoot me now huh?" I taunted half jokingly. "Shoot you?" he puzzled. " If you were only so fortunate… I'm going to rip you apart with my bare hands," he spat, blood in his voice. He was serious. The look in his eyes was just as cold as the first time I mentioned his wife, Falikos. But this time, his eyes weren't filled with pain; they overflowed with sheer rage. As a growl built up in his throat, I saw the faint sheen of a bio-met nanoprogram spread from his NCU belt to his arms and up across his face. His eyes burned like sulfur as they turned from their soft brown to gleaming gold. The polymorph only took a matter of seconds, but his transmigration from flesh to fur was so characteristic that it seemed a natural evolution. I had no choice. I had to defend myself.

There was no chance my fists would stand a change against his jaw and claws. I had to arm myself, and quickly. I looked around me but found nothing useful. The sabertooth was magnificent in his size and presence, eliciting a collective gasp of awe from our audience. Despite his fanfare, the feline was intent of making short work of me. He reared back on his haunches and lunged at me with the speed of a railgun. By some strange luck, I had managed to outmaneuver Koji's runaway train as he smashed into the side of the building. The impact had caused the structure to crumble like a deck of cards. The pipes and pylons jutted out of the heap like an abstract work of art. I dashed past the dazed feline and pulled a stalk from the blossom of titanium and tile.

The weight of the support beam felt good in my hands. A crude weapon indeed, but for a street fight, it was my Excalibur. "Come on you oversized hairball, it's time to clean your clock!" I shouted. The sabertooth snorted and glanced at me with an almost amused look. He was pacing back and forth, sizing me up before his attack, that murderous grin across his face. I was impatient. I charged at the cat only to be knocked across the alley by his massive paw. My entire chest burned like fire. I looked down on my chest, expecting to see the steaming pipes of my innards splayed across the dirt. Nothing. He had retracted his claws before the blow. He was toying with me. Insulted that I was nothing more than sport, I raged. My NCU ran through the cycles of my pre-programmed attack spread and before long I had increased my mass considerably. This particular kitty was about to be housebroken by a very nasty piece of construction debris. As I barely hulked over the massive sabertooth, he didn't seem concerned. As he widened his jaw in mock boredom, I tagged the switch on my Flurry and delivered a series of blows that sounded like an old carpet being beaten by a machinegun. Then there was a sudden blinding flash of white light and what sounded like raw meat being slapped on concrete. As I forced my eyes open, I made out a pair of figures in gleaming red armor. Through the clamor of the crowd, I heard the static of an encoded frequency and orders being barked and then a sharp pain in the back of my skull.

Chapter VII

"Get off of me you big oaf!" Kojiyama cried as I swam into consciousness. My vision slowly drifted into focus, only to meet the face of the fuming Opifex. I gingerly picked myself up off the dirt floor, freeing the leg of my vexed companion. "What happened?" I spat as I rubbed the swollen knot on the back of my head. "Look around and you tell me?" he replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. I stood up only to hit my head on the low ceiling. The pain brought new clarity to my vision as I saw the shimmering aura of a nanobot barrier. "We're in a cell?" I exclaimed. "BINGO!" Koji chimed. "Why?" I asked. "Oh, I dunno, maybe because we were fighting in the middle of the street!" he spat. I looked at him sheepishly and rubbed the new bump on my head. The next thing I knew we were both laughing. Thinking back, I don't know what started it. Maybe it was just the stupidity of it all, or the possibility that we were both screwed and the laughter was a way to ease the tension. Either way, my sides hurt by the time we stopped.

"So why did you stay in Newland?" Koji asked as he tested the feedback of the barrier. "Ow...ouch...OWOWOWOOWOW!" he cried as he pulled back smoldering fingers. As he sat there, Indian-style, blowing on his smoking hand he waited for my response. "I had a promise to keep," I said as I pulled myself up against one of the corners of the cage." Falikos showed up at my bar during the last sandstorm, " I related. " She was pretty worn out having weathered the elements for God knows how long," I continued. Kojiyama said nothing and nodded awkwardly. Why was he listening to me all of a sudden? I shrugged it off and went on. "She told me you were in danger before she lost consciousness." There was that nod again that didn't seem quite right. When he rolled his eyes, I had had enough. " Now here I am, a very long way from home, tossed into prison and bonked on the head. For what? You? " I sighed deeply and reclined onto the floor. "Not that you'd even listen to me anyway, you thickheaded mine runner," I spat. " I did what I thought was right, and that's why I'm still here." He simply grunted. I sat up and looked him dead in the eye. " Listen you jerk, she was afraid for you even though she was in no shape to move." My mouth drew itself up into a scowl. "But it seems that all I've found is a grade A asshole," I fumed. He didn't reply. "What? You don't have anything to say? Isn't that out of character?" I taunted. He closed his eyes and turned his head. "You're impossible," I grumbled.

We sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity, but then he stirred, looking at the ceiling. "She's dead," he whispered.

"What?"

"I saw her swallowed up by the storm... I heard her cry out," he confessed, tears welling up in his eyes. "Dear God! I heard her scream before the gunfire drowned her out, dragging her into the whirlwind," he sobbed. He stared at his hands that hung in his lap. As he rose his gaze to meet mine, his eyes were sunken and dark. "What am I supposed to believe?" he pleaded. " How should I feel when a total stranger strolls out of the desert with a message from my dead wife?" I sat there for a while, slack-jawed. "What? You don't have anything to say?" he mocked. I was still having trouble wrapping my brain around what he had said. The only words that I could muster was a pathetic, "I'm sorry." His face hardened in an instant. "Damn right you should be!" he scowled." Now tell me this. Whom should I trust?" he spat. "My own eyes or some dumb Atrox who can't keep himself out of trouble?" he barked. For the first time in my relatively short life I felt ashamed. My face hung and he softened. "Listen, I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to help but how can I believe you?" he said with a shrug.

"Because he's telling you the truth my love," a voice from beyond the shimmering field replied.

The lime green glimmer of the field flickered then faded, replaced with a sudden rush of warm air. A lithe Nanomage stepped across the threshold, pulling off her cloak, sending long streams of onyx hair falling across her shoulders. Her eyes were luminous in the darkness of the cubicle, as elegant implants adjusted her visual spectrum. To the Solitus she must be a great beauty, but her majesty left me dumbstruck. She turned to me, smiled and said, "Thank you for your good faith." I mustered a nod and all eyes fell on Koji. They sat there, gazing at each other in silence. I felt the warmth of her smile thaw his frozen disbelief and he reached out to her. She held his shaking hand and pressed it to her face and smiled. " Yes... I am real," she said as tears began to fall. I turned to look at Koji only to see his quivering lips bathed in his own tears.

Chapter VIII

I've never been very adept at the relations between the sexes, but I felt that I was intruding in on what must have been a poignant moment between the two. With a sheepish smile, I made my way past the embracing couple and ran smack dab into the acrid smelling breastplate of an armored guard. I had always been proud of my height, but even compared to me, this sentry was huge. Unaffected by the touching display in the now-open cell, the guard sneered at me beneath his visor and thrust my belongings, half crushed into a plastic crate, into my arms. "Get the hell out of here and don't go causing anymore trouble!" he spat as he released the safety on his plasma rifle. "Thanks for your hospitality...SIR!" I replied, making sure to deliver a sizeable amount of my elbow into his midsection as I squeezed through the corridor.

"Well, after all this, I guess I can go home now," I said to myself, sighing wistfully. I guess I felt a little relieved that the young Nanomage had recovered and that Kojiyama had survived his apparent dilemma. Yet something lingered in the back of my mind: a vague and vaporous equation that just didn't seem to add up. As I stepped out of Newland City Prison, my feeling of apprehension grew more intense. Then as I stepped out into the road I got a mouthful of dust as some yahoo decided to launch his Yalmaha skyward without following the sky lane.

"The storm that marches…"

"What the…" I stammered, but the words were drowned out as the earth shook with unbridled ferocity. The prison building expanded as plasteel fought semtex in a losing battle. The structure buckled and like a desert rose, blossomed into an eruption of reds and yellows. "Dear God!" I screamed and I ran towards the burgeoning inferno. I made two steps and was blown backwards by a secondary explosion of even more ferocity than the first. The guard's munitions dump in the adjoining barracks must have been targeted as the blast had ripped the building from the rock face and sent smoking shards of ceramic and stone hurtling into the street. Fazed but alert, I sat up and took in the view with abject horror. The sky was a crimson kaleidoscope, as inert gases became volatile and mingled with the chemical residue of the blasts. Then there was the sand.

"I hate sand."

I ran towards the towering inferno only to hear the screams of people, a great deal of them, coming from the west gate of the city. Suddenly, there was a stench unlike anything I'd ever encountered. The air was thick with it in an instant and the oppressive odor suddenly became cloyingly sweet. I felt it run like liquid down the back of my throat. I'd spent most of my life in the mines of Rubi-Ka and have nosed more than my fair share of natural gases and fumes of the manufactured variety, but this was different. Whatever the incendiary contained, it wasn't just a combustible. "Nerve gas!" I screamed as I ran into the dilapidated husk of the prison while strapping my desert respirator to my face. Setting the filter to .5 microns wasn't very safe with the humidity in the air, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I tore through the flaming hulk of the structure until I found what I was looking for. The stairway to the cellblock was intact. Praying that most of the roof hadn't caved in on them, I groped into the darkness.

Allowing my pupils time to adjust to the darkness (discus-sized that they were... thank you Omni-Tek) I was able to discern most of the blacked-out floor without much difficulty. The roof was holding, but I could sense the building vibrate as the sheer weight of rock and debris strained at the support beams. Hearing the creak and crack of plasteel and ceramic, I knew the inevitable collapse was nigh. I had twenty minutes max. Where were the guards? As I ran down the corridor, I looked and saw no signs of life. To be exact, they were all dead. The cell barriers had fallen and the inhabitants had been slain, but not by a collapsing building. Lined up in their cells facing the walls, each victim lay slumped to the side or propped against the wall by the steaming stump that once supported their brains. I stopped and emptied my stomach without much debate. "Oh God...Oh God...what the FUCK? Koji. Falikos!" I stammered, almost slipping in my own emesis. Grabbing onto one of the corridor's guardrails I slid into my puddle. Then my ears perked and I shot up, ramrod straight. A sound! I looked in the direction of the impulse.

Thwip... thwip... thwip... POP!

I stood up. Then again...

Thwip... thwip... thud.

"Oh god, no!" I cried and ran towards the darkness. Then I saw it. I saw one of them.

The figure stood there, like an apparition garbed in brown and hunched over like a desert beggar. But this was no nomad; his armor was dull and flecked with abrasions like desert granite. His helmet was hooded over, but I could still see the minute luminescence of an active HUD as the visor flickered with activity. He carried a sniper's rifle that appeared muted in the darkness. At a glance the vile weapon looked like a simple walking stick, but the elaborate scope drew the illusion into focus. With causal precision he gestured towards the cell and his pet. The spiritual manifestation hung in the air like the cloying fumes above. At his command, the urchin roped semi-solid tentacles around an unconscious prisoner and slapped him against the wall like a rag doll. In frightful routine, the figure raised the silenced rifle and fired once… twice… I almost screamed when I saw the man's skull erupt against the stark gray wall, his body lurching forward into the scarlet plume. 'What is this madness!' I screamed in my head and looked frantically down the hall of still-corporeal inmates.

The guard! I bellowed in my heart as I saw him laying motionless further down the hall. As the executioner merrily continued his grisly exercise, I groaned as he came upon the unconscious sentry and paused in thought. My heart stopped as he picked up his rifle and turned it on its end. Swinging his weapon like an old-Earth croquet, he smashed the barrel into the man's head, tearing off his helmet and most of his scalp. I lunged to the side to avoid the stained helm as it bounced in my direction. He didn't seem to take notice as his attention was rapt. Reaching down, the figure gripped the guard by the throat and brought him to his face. The pain of the injury as well as what must have been a less-than-adequate dose of neurotoxin caused him to stir.

"Still kicking are we?" the executioner inquired. His voice was as calm as the meadows of Tir. Despite the ruckus above, I heard him clear as day. Apparently their subterfuge had neglected to include voice distortors. Who was he? There was a slight static to his soft baritone, but it couldn't have been his helmet. If he were speaking through a communicator, it would have sounded muffled, not... digitized? I looked closer and saw he had flipped up his visor. A Nanomage! I smiled and realized I had the edge. I began my slow approach as I heard him slowly crush the trachea of the paralyzed, but conscious guard. I could only close my eyes as I heard the gurgle of his windpipe flooding with blood and with my teeth clenched I struck. The assassin's legs buckled and he went crashing to the floor. He was sloppy.

As big as I was, was he so pre-occupied with his exercise that he never paid attention to the halls, only the cells?

How could he have not felt the presence of a newly executed NCU battle algorithm? My parka had kept the luminescent nanoprogram muted in the darkness, but I had always thought their kind were hypersensitive to nanobot activity. For an instant I was amused. "Amateur," I spat as I kicked the sniper in the side only to reel in pain. The armor was solidly built and had almost broken my foot on impact. "Wait a minute," I yelped and before I could finish my sentence, he had swept my legs out from under me.

"Clever, clever... You must be thinking you're quite resourceful," he mused. " I'm afraid I've seen you since you stepped into the building," he chuckled, tapping on his helm with a grin. Monitoring microbes! The explosion must have also spread out a host of surveillance nanobots. He's had the entire building under surveillance the entire time. Damn!

"So what shall I do with you Atrox, hmm?" he mused as he walked around me gracefully. His accent was frightfully familiar. Damnation, where was he from? "I'm afraid you were never a part of this equation," he said. He stooped down and looked at me with eyes of liquid mercury. "Ah, but you really are a rare one aren't you." " Trying to sneak up on me in the dark," he mocked. That dialect, where have I head it before? "Such deception is unbefitting a true warrior. I thought your breed preferred more head-on skirmishes, no?" he jested. I spat back at him and he laughed. "Oh? Are you challenging me then?" he slyly replied as he stood up and stretched. "I'm ahead of schedule, so why not? I'm always looking for a good fight. But first..." he gestured to his floating bag of flesh. The creature closed its eye and dissolved into ether. "Allow me to flex my muscles."

Putting down his rifle, he threw back his cloak and I saw his armor in full view. "Jesus Christ, those markings!" I leered only to be blown back by his summons. The air in the area grew warm and then swirled around his frame, shimmering with bots. The force and heat of his metaphysical casting awesome. It was if hell itself had opened its jaws and breathed fury into the hall.

"NOT FAR OFF MY FRIEND! LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO MY CACODEMON!"

Carried on the searing wind was the sweet sound of a woman's voice ...half mocking: "I don't think so."

Thwip.

In an instant, the air stopped churning and the metaphysicist dropped like a stone. Falikos stood over him, eyes blazing with his rifle at the ready. "Get up Hornsbuck, and for god's sake ...RUN!" she cried. I didn't ask, but ran towards our old holding cell. My filter was starting to wear out due to the fumes and my sweat, but I prayed that I had enough time to find Koji.

I ran for what seemed like an eternity. Just how extensive was this holding facility anyway? I had about given up hope when there he was, half-conscious and stammering into the hall. In a tackle, I ran into him as I threw his sagging body over my shoulders and sped down the passage. The building wasn't going to last much longer and we had used up all of our time. As I picked up the pace, I took a deep breath and cleared my NCU. This was going to be close, and it was going to hurt.

As I moved my fingers across the panel, I thought out the augmentation logic: Essence, Layer, Shield, Mongo, Challenger and Rage.

As my mass quadrupled I ran with my heart bursting through my chest. I felt the nanomachines burn through my flesh as their corrosive emanations warped the plasteel in the passage. There it was, the end of the line. There was no turning back.

I activated Flurry of Blows for good measure and rammed into the wall. The hall buckled as the barrier tore away into sweet desert air. My hyper-accelerated metabolism was eating into my organs as the impulse of the impact traveled up my spinal column. As the cumulative effect of the combustible nanoprogram and the rending pain hit me, I screamed as I hit the sand and plummeted into darkness once again.

Epilogue

"Azure sky..." I whispered wistfully through dry, cracked lips. The desert certainly had a lot of bumps. As the buggy crested another dune, my head came down on the plank of the floorboard with jarring results. It was our fifth day in the desert. After the Dust Brigade had attacked Newland City, we had somehow managed to escape the massacre. I rolled onto my side and rubbed the healing scar on my right shoulder. I was lucky I hadn't torn the ligaments, but the subcutaneous bleeding and lack of flexibility were a solid indication that I had torn the muscle in several places. Did it hurt?

Only when I moved.

I stiffly sat up on the carriage bench and stretched. The flexion caused me to let out a yelp. Koji looked back over his shoulder and smiled. " Sleep well?" he said with a genuine expression of concern. "I've had worse," I muttered. He chuckled and turned his attention back to the rolling expanse of sand that extended ad infinitum. I began to rub the arm from the shoulder to the elbow, feeling the skin taut and puffy beneath blistered fingers. The arm would heal but what I had witnessed that night was only a prelude to an even more monstrous nightmare.