RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Hero Revolution #10

"The only problem with being on an island," Phil told himself as he fumbled with his key, "is that there's nowhere to go when something like this comes." He finally unlocked the door to his room and headed in, only to be astounded by what he saw.

The tiny black-and-white TV he had found in a broom closet was gone, replaced by a 40-inch flatscreen set, DVD player, and massive speakers. Phil walked over. There was a note beneath the remote control.

Phil,
Hope you're enjoying your stay. This might help you enjoy it a bit more. But don't forget to get out more often!

A friend

Curious, Phil inspected the entertainment center a little more closely, but couldn't find anything that might hint at its origins. Oh, well. It's the thought that counts.

Phil turned on the TV. Weather Channel. The requisite warnings about Jason. Force 4 storm, blah blah blah. Headed directly for La Perdita, blah blah blah. Phil was a bit surprised at himself for not being a little more concerned, but he had a pretty good idea of the structural integrity of the building he was in, and besides that he was far enough inland that whatever got washed ashore probably wouldn't put too big a dent in his level of the building. He wasn't holding out much hope for anything on the beach, though.

There's gonna be a lot of cleanup when this is all over, Phil thought to himself. I just hope there won't be an awful lot of people caught in this thing.

"We're screwed..."

Grissom Montag sat at a stool, staring at a black-and-white portable television screen that sat on his makeshift workbench, made up of a kitchen table, an endtable, and a nightstand all pushed together and against the wall. The Brit, working in a white wife-beater undershirt and his usual khaki shorts, sat examining a small makeshift barometer that he'd hastily constructed from a test tube, an empty petri dish, and the mercury from a few broken old thermometers that he'd found lying around the apartment building.

And he didn't like what he was seeing.

According to the reading he was getting from his little homemade device, the air pressure around La Perdita was low... very low. And that meant that they were in serious trouble...

Picking up his cell phone, he quickly fumbled in his pocket for the business card that Dr. Quantos had given him when he'd been accepted to join MBL Consulting. Punching in Quantos' digits in quickly, Grissom pressed the receiver to his ear and waited for the doctor to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Doc?" Grissom asked as the doctor's voice echoed on his end. "It's Grissom..."

"Right," Quantos said, as if trying to recall who was calling him. "Mr. Montag... how can I help you?"

"I need some scientific advising up here, Doc," Grissom said quickly into the phone, never taking his eyes from the reading on his barometer. "Bring any help you can..."

Five minutes later, Dr. Henry Quantos, Kristofer Schanz, Kit Piper, and Grissom Montag all sat looking over the homemade barometer.

"Crude..." Schanz said, regarding the device, "but effective."

"Thanks, mate..." Grissom said, shooting Chance a sidelong glare. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"I don't understand..." Quantos said. "I know what this means, but why do you need my advising here? It seems like you have things pretty much figured out here, Mr. Montag..."

"Well, look at this," Montag said, pulling open the top of his laptop, to reveal a radar screen with La Perdita situated in the center. Pressing a few buttons, the screen panned out, revealing a tiny dot in the center - La Perdita - with a massive wall of red approaching from the east.

"Good lord!" Quantos said, looking at Griss' screen. "Is that the storm?"

"Well beyond storm by this point, Doc..." Griss said, taking a swig of the coffee that sat next to his workstation. "We're at full-blown hurricane..."

"Where did you get access to a doppler radar system like this, Montag?" Chance asked, furrowing his brow as he looked at the approaching "wall" that was Hurricane Jason. "I don't see meteorological equipment around here save that archaic barometer..."

"Let's just say that the equipment I don't have, I know how to access if I need it, alright?" Grissom said, not necessarily comfortable with Kristofer's line of questioning. "All that matters is that we're dealing with something here that makes an F5 tornado look like a sneeze. I need some answers, gentlemen..."

"Quit being dramatic, Montag," Chance said, leaning on Griss' workbench. "We should be fine if we just get down to the basement/cellar here."

"Well, all I know is I haven't had the right time to fortify this building yet... and my assistant hasn't arrived yet..." Grissom said.

"Your assistant?" Kit piped up, having been quiet for the entirety of the conversation thus far. "You never said anything about an assistant..."

"Look, no worries, alright?" Grissom sighed, rolling his eyes. "Charley's in my employ. Answers to me and me only... s'only a maintenance man, s'all..."

"Alright..." Kit said begrudgingly, "but only if that's all..."

"At any rate," Grissom said, rolling his eyes, "we need to do something about this rather quickly... or we can pretty much bend over and kiss our heineys bon voyage..."

"Don't worry," Quantos said, eyeing the radar. "I'm sure we'll think of something..."

Dirk woke up. He had slept late. That was so unlike him. The first thing he did was to remove the cast from his leg. It felt fine. As a matter of fact, it felt better than it ever did. Looks like his little "present" worked after all.

As he showered, the howling of the wind outside became louder and stronger. The sky was still black, and rain bomarded the island. He dressed and geared up. A little rain wasn't going to keep the bad guys at home.

As he came downstairs, many of the other team members were watching the TV.

This is John Gonzales with an urgent update. Hurricane Jason has just been upgraded to a Category 3 storm. With more on that story, Mike Curtis.

Thanks, John. This storm has really played havok in the Carribean as of late. It was supposed to miss any land by miles; but within the past few hours, that has drastacially changed. Winds from the south changed the storm's direction, and the warm water built its intensity until it finally became a hurricane. It is still uncertain whether it will actually make landfall, but it will come close enough to La Perdita to cause severe damage. As you can see on the beach behind me, the waves are already cresting at about eight feet. As the hurricane approaches, the waves will grow to anywhere between 15 and 25 feet, winds will exceed 50 miles per hour, and rain will fall by the bucket loads. All harbors and airports have been closed. Residents are asked to seek the nearest shelters and to get inside before the storm hits. Back to you, John.

"Looks like things are going to get messy," Danny said. Grimm just sat silently.

"Are we prepared for this?" Shirley asked.

" I AM ," Mxy said as a rain coat appeared on his body and an umbrella with a white and black cowskin pattern materialized in his hand.

"From what I've seen," Dirk said as he lit his cigar, "this place isn't prepared for jack-shit." As he began to walk back up to his room, he passed Phil, who was coming down to share the news that he had received from his new TV.

As the gunslinger passed, without giving the stranger a second look, Phil's head began to ache. Dirk was already gone when the pain became too much for him. Phil let out a scream as he fell to his knees. Danny jumped over the couch and was the first to him. Grimm was right behind.

"Hey, mate," Danny said. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Phil replied. "It's just...... There was so much...too much. It was all at once. I just couldn't handle it."

"Too much what?" Grimm asked.

"I don't know. It all happened too fast. It's all a jumble. All I remember clearly is that it felt like there was a great weight thrust upon me. And that it was all very tragic."

Grimm stared up the stairs. As if to himself, where no one else could hear, "I've felt the same thing from him."

Danny wandered into the foyer of their building. He came across the future Mrs Harrison, their receptionist Shirley.

"Hey, Shirl... have you seen Sam around this morning?"

"Uh... actually, I was just coming up to tell you guys..."

"Tell us? Tell us what?"

"Sam... Sam left. Really early this morning, before anyone woke up."

"...left? Where'd he go?"

"He said he was going back to study. In Italy. A university there. He said... he was leaving the team."

"Well... bloody hell."

Danny slumped against a wall, leaning there silently.

"Are you okay, Danny?" Shirley finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I think so, just... a bit surprised. This is a strange..."

"Yeah," Shirley nodded, agreeing, "But I guess we couldn't stop him..."

"Right. If he really wanted to go, we should support that."

Shirley reached into her desk, and pulled out the papers that Sam had given her.

"He didi give us the deed to the building," She said, smiling.

"Well..." Danny grinned, "I guess that almost makes up for not saying goodbye.

Edulcore Ciccioto stood on the roof of the building, watching the coming storm. His new avian instincts were wreaking havoc with his human self. He kept feeling the urge to take flight and leave the island for a safer area. But he knew he couldn't. He couldn't abandon his teammates after all he'd been through. . .

------------------

Dirk Bell walked towards his room, passing by several portraits of former team members. Killed in the line of duty. . . he thought to himself. Wouldn't happen if these jerkoffs had any real training. A problem that needs to be fixed. Soon.

------------------

Grimm laid down slowly on his bed, careful not to put too much weight on it at once. It creaked underneath him. He knew he would have to get a new one soon. This one wouldn't hold out much longer. Grimm slowly drifted off to sleep, the events of the last few days, finally taking their toll on his mind.

The dream came to him again. The dark clothed pale woman. The garden. Everything. But something went wrong this time. At the edge of the forest something flickered up. Flames. The garden was burning. Everything was burning. She was burning. The other team members were there now. Also burning. A voice came through the screams. I'm going to take it all away from you. Everything you think you have. It's nothing. You are mine. Now and forever. Grimm jumped awake, startled by the vividness of the nightmare.

-----------------------

There was a large knocking at the front door, a pounding that seemed as if it would shatter the door at any moment.

"I'm coming, Jaysis, hold on. . ." Danny yelled as he ran towards the door.

Right as Danny neared the door, it flung open on its' hinges, slamming loudly into the wall.

"Greeeemmm!! I'm here!! Where do I start?"

"Uh. . ." Danny was a little surprised at the large, purple-skinned man with the pleather mohawk standing in front of him.

"Ahhh, you are being one of Greem's friends from the bar. My name is Vladislav Blackwulf. I am being the team's new trainer. How are you doing?"

Blackwulf gently poked Danny in the stomach with a finger.

"You are being slightly flabby comrade, don't worry, we shall fix. But first, I am needing breakfast! Which way to the kitchen?"

"Um, I'm Danny, the kitchen's this way. . ." Danny lead Blackwulf to the kitchen, still a little flabbergasted by the recent events.

“I have someone that needs to meet him.” Danny said as the large pleather mohawk entered the room first, followed by the purple skinned Blackwulf.

“Comrade, you are not telling me you are having such perfect womens in you're care.”

“She’s taken.”
Danny opened the door to Kit's office and Blackwulf burst through.

“Comrade, you are being Kitt Piper. I am hearing much about you.”
“Danny? Who is this?” Kit said as he pointed at Blackwulf.
“Ahh, allow me to introduce myself, I am Vladaslavve Kerdonavek... also known as Blackwulf The Everchanging, trainer to the meta stars.” Blackwulf said as he clasped Kitts hand.
“And, I have come here to offer you ....” he said as he looked the rather confused Kit over.
”You are really needing my services, Comrade Piper. You are kinda. . . how should I say this. . . portly."
“But have no fear. I have the cure for all that ails you. And more.”
“You are having a basement, yes?” Blackwulf said as he headed for the door.
“Yes, but why have you come here?”Kit asked.
Blackwulf stopped and turned on his heels.

“Because I am knowing you now, and you are needing my help, so the only thing I wish for is a place for my equipment.”
The front of the building.
“Hey Vlad, your order is here, but we only got 7 of the trucks onto the island before the winds got too bad.” A rather small, bald, grease covered man said.
“Sal, you made it. But which trucks are you having brought?”
As he started to move he noticed the truck numbers .

“I was hoping for number 15, as well, but the 7 you brought will have to do. Get 'em unloaded and down to the basement.”
“Now, comrade Piper, your basement is being mine, yes?”

Kit just shook his head.
“Good. Where is Greem, so I can get a schedule worked out with who is needing most training ... other than you two.”

[ 10-18-2002, 01:56 AM: Message edited by: Grimm ]

"It's getting too bad out here! We need to get to shelter!" Vic yelled to Bobby.

"Not 'till we get this unloaded!" the other man yelled back over the howling winds and the crashing waves. "Do you realize how much money this shit is worth? I ain't lettin' no damn storm keep me from fillin' my wallet!"

The fury of Hurricane Jason had yet to reach La Perdita in full, but he was making his presence known. Creeping ever closer to the island nation, winds, rain, and waves began to claim the shores.

The two men were covered in ponchos and moved with careful steps across the deck of their boat. They were loading crates onto a dingy tied off to the side. Peter, who sat nervously in the dingy, also began to have his doubts. "Vic's right, Bobby. This is gettin' way too serious. We should pull into harbor."

"Listen, you two, I ain't about to pull into harbor with this shit onboard. Now, just unload it and stash it where I told you to."

"Fuck!" Vic lost his grip on the box when his right hand left it's edge and moved to the back of his head.

"Watch it, dumbass!" Bobby yelled before a loud THUNK landed beside him. "What the....? Hail!" Another thunk sounded on the deck. The men could hear the water splashing occasionally. The pace of the hail quickened until the men were overtaken by the golf ball sized ice. "INSIDE!"

Bobby and Vic quickly ran to the saftey of the boat's interior. Peter began to climb the side of the larger boat all the while hail pounding against his body. There was no footing, and the waves made holding on difficult. Both boats bobbed up and down ferociously as the man tried to pull himself up. The dingy suddenly disappeared from under the man's feet. He hung from the larger boat. The dingy reappeared, but this time not under Peter. He let out a scream that the falling hail and rushing wind overcame as it moved directly at him. The bow struck him hard in the back. Reflexes made the man let loose his hold. The sea claimed his body and refused to let it go.

Vic and Bobby were too busy trying to get the boat started to notice that Peter was missing. "Where's the key?!"

Vic said, "I took it out."

"Why in the hell would you remove the key on a boat?"

"Habit!" Vic fumbled under his poncho for the key. The waves were getting bigger. The men could feel the boat tip on her side more and more with each one. "Found it!" But it was too late. The last wave was too much for the boat to take. It wasn't made for seas this rough. Vic and Bobby slid across the floor as the boat capsized.

Charts, maps, ors, and everything else that was packed away flew with gravity to the ceiling of the room. Everything now lay on the floor as water rushed in. Both men were disoriented and held the taste of salt water in their mouths. When it's man against nature, nature always wins.

Hurricane Jason had claimed his first victims.

Danny sat slumped in an armchair in the team's living room, flipping through the morning's paper and taking note of the storm warnings. To his left, Grimm and Eurostar sat on the couch, talking.

"...where's the remote?..."

"...I think it's on the top of the TV..."

"...why would it be there?..."

"...I was cleaning up!..."

"...having to walk to the TV defeats the purpose of having a remote control!..."

Eurostar sighed, and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a five cent coin, and flicked it at the TV. It struck the "on" button perfectly, and the TV came to life.

"...this is Mike Curtis, reporting live from the Channel 6 newscopter... we're currently flying over La Perdita bay, where howling winds and crashing waves are the first signs of the impending Hurricane Jason..."

Danny put down his newspaper, and paid attention to the television. There were aeriel pictures of the La Perditan shoreline...shots of beaches, beachfront property, and the island's marina. The area was covered with sheets of rain and hail, and high winds threw around debris as if it were confetti. Emergency services were already on the scene.

"...While the full force of the hurricane may still be a day or so away, the warning signs are upon us and creating havoc here by the shore. Boats are capsizing, and beachside homes are already being subjected to damage. And we have reports of people being trapped down there, amidst the storm and the wreckage..."

Danny stood up.

"We're going," He said, and rushed out of the room. Grimm and Eurostar followed, having come to the same conclusion themselves.

Danny hastily scribbled a note that read "Guys- Gone to the beach", and left it on the fridge. He then ran out the front door, sprouted wings, and headed off.

"Nice weather we're having today, isn't it?" Grimm said as they travelled.

"Yes. Maybe we could even go to the beach," Eurostar replied.

"That'd be nice."

“See you at the beach, then!” I shout to Grimm, while I beat harder my arms, feathers full sprout out.

Taking flight it’s easy, compared to all the previous time that I tried to fly from ground. The wind is strong, and it pushes over the great surface formed by my feathers, bringing me up, straight to the grey and violet clouds. The rain pouring down is cold, and hit my eyes.

I need to add a sort of helmet to my field gear.

But riding the wind is a joy. It’s all in the fingers. The relative position of every finger determines how each rows of feathers is pressed over the other. When they are like a whole surface, the pressure of the air is high, and I gain velocity, at the cost of lesser control over my direction. But if I separates each rows, a lot of air passes between, I slow down, but I gain much more control.

And flying becomes dancing on the wind.

The beach is down there. Danny is just a few metres in front, and below, me. I make my forearms coming closer to my body. The shape of the wigs take the form of a capital M. Their surfaces narrows and the lift lessens. I dive, gently, and in a second am at the side of Danny. He notices me, and points his index finger toward some boats at the mercy of the fierce waves, a few miles from the coast.

I nod.

The look on Danny’s face is serious and determined. He has chanced so much from the time I spent with him, months ago. He seems to have found a reason to be in this time. To have found a purpose. And his control over his changing powers has grown formidably. I still remember the first flight I had with him over the Mandelovia desert. I was in ghost form, floating at the mercy of the wind. He showed a pair of bat wings, and was awkwardly flying, he, too, at the mercy of the air currents.

Now he is in control.

His huge vulture’s wings, much more bigger than my own, so wide to sustain his usual mass (while mine, when I fly, decreases), are managed with the grace of a dragonfly. I have seen few birds flying with the power and at the same time the lightness that Danny’s showing.

We are now over the boats. He turns to me, and ask: “Are you ready?”

"...beachside homes are already being subjected to damage...reports of people being trapped down there, amidst the storm and the wreckage..."

Phil was just now figuring out that he might have underestimated Jason's fury. He turned off the tube and grabbed a jacket. Closing his door behind him, Phil ran down to the living room and found it empty. Finding Danny's note, he read it, then looked out the window at the driving rain and the objects tossed about by the howling wind. This was serious.

Dirk walked in, silent as always. The same icepick was being swung against Phil's temples, but he fought it off as best he could.
Pain pain pain death...loss...suffering...friends dead...mission...duty...survival...PAIN!

Phil gasped as it became too much for him. "Mr. Bell!" Phil managed to croak out.

Dirk glanced at him. "Something wrong, kid?"

Phil steadied himself, grabbing hold of the table. "I'm... I'm... telepathic. You keep emanating things and I can't control the flow of them."

Dirk shrugged. "Didn't know I emanated so well. Guess I'm talented."

Phil shook his head. "How could you possibly have lived through so much pain?"

Dirk gazed deep into nowhere. "You'd be surprised what you can put up with when you got no choice." He started to walk away.

Regaining his strength, Phil followed. "Wait! I have to know something!"

Dirk stopped, not turning to face Phil.

"Will people die?" Phil asked timidly.

Dirk laughed, but it was a hollow, mirthless laugh that chilled Phil's very soul. The gunslinger turned to him. "People die every day, kid. Comes with the whole "life" options package. If," Dirk nodded toward the window, "you are asking whether people will die from this, I can guarantee that will happen. There are only so many people doing something about it, and there's not very much anyone can do anyway." Dirk turned and walked away. "Personally, I'm going to be very surprised if all of us make it through this."

Phil slumped into a chair. What to do about this? If Phil had ever lived through a hurricane before, it was quite obviously not something he'd be able to recall. But people were dying! It was just too big for him. He couldn't be some kind of big hero and just stroll out and save the day.

You can't just be a hero outright. You can't just instantly have the right plan, move, or catch phrase for every single moment... All you can do in that moment when it's all up to you is decide what you're made of and what you have to do in that moment. Everything else? Well, there's not much you can do about everything else anyway.

Danny had told him that. Danny was probably out there right now, in fact. So why am I still sitting here?

It was that moment.

It was all up to Phil.

And he knew what he had to do.

Phil jumped to his feet and headed out the door, making his way outside into Jason's fury.

He hoped he'd survive.

"Some of us can't fly, you know. . ." Grimm muttered under his breath while walking through the driving sheets of rain.

He continued walking until noticing a large shadow passing over him.

"Greem, you are needing a lift?"

He looked up and noticed a large hovercraft next to him. Blackwulf's head sticking out the doorway.

"Yeah, where the hell did this thing come from?"

As the purple skinned man pulled him inside, he responded, "The one you are calling Chance is passing by in it. He is picking up the rest of the team after seeing Danny's note."

Phil walked up to Grimm with a towel.

"Umm, here, you should dry off. You don't wanna catch your dea-" Phil stopped in mid-sentence, sensing complete and utter darkness. The void. He pulled back sharply, dropping the towel on the floor.

"Uh, sorry." He mumbled.

"It's ok, kid. I"m used to it." Grimm picked up the towel and dried off as best as he could, while finding a place to sit.

Chance steered the hovercraft in the direction of the beach.

The hovercraft came to a stop and the MBL scrambled out. It was too dangerous to come too close to the distressed boat. Dirk Walked across the surface of the craft, the wind ferociously blowing his hair. He had left his fedora back at the complex. Wouldn't do him much good out here. It'd just get blown out into the Carribbean.

"Is good weather for football, no?" Blackwulf yelled over the sound of chaos.

"Hurry up!" Danny yelled at the group. "We've got to get these people to safety!"

Dirk let loose a quick smile. Seems as though Danny was positioning himself as a leader amongst this group. It was about damn time someone got some balls and went for it.

He reached back into the hovercraft and began to pull out bundles of rope that they had brought for any rescue that might occur. He tossed one to Blackwulf. That guy was big enough to act as a weight on one end. Grimm felt one hit his back and turned to stare at Dirk. "Don't give me that look of Death shit," Dirk yelled back to him. "Pick it up and get goin'." Dirk put his arm and head through one of them and carried it on his shoulder as he past out the last few ropes.

Phil stood in the rain. This was an intimidating moment. He really had no idea if he was cut out for this sort of thing. He had the power to do it, yes; but did he have the control over that power? Doubt began to creep into his stomach. He wondered if he was trying to do too much too soon. This was it. It was do or die. A mistake here could cost a life. Was he really prepared for that? Danny's words kept rolling through his mind. It was time Phil made a choice.

"How strong are you, Blackwulf?" Dirk asked as everyone tried to keep their balance on the deck. The wave forcefully pushing the craft.

"I am having much muscles, comrade. Why?"

Dirk nodded at the boat, "I need a lift." A fiendish grin crossed Blackwulf's face to acknowledge comprehension of Dirk's statement. The purple giant tied his rope around his waste and Dirk tied the other end to his.

Blackwulf grabbed Dirk, took a few steps towards the bow of the craft and tossed the gunslinger into the air. Halfway across Dirk guessed how hard he had been thrown and how fast he was going. This might have been a bad idea, but it was too late to go back now.

He tumbled onto the deck. The impact was hard, but not as hard as it could have been if Dirk didn't know how to take a fall. His chest hurt him. He felt with his hands. Nothing was broken. He looked at the boat's "crew." They were a middle aged couple in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts. Tourists. They just don't know when to come in out of a storm. He untied the rope from around his waste and to the hull of the ship. Now, maybe they can tow the ship into harbor or at least get them onto the hovercraft.

"It's going to be a long day."

[ 10-10-2002, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: thedoctor ]

Danny stood on the hovercraft, looking out the hatch that Dirk had just jumped out of. He stared down at the ship they were rescuing, scanning it up and down. Movement at the rear of the boat caught his eye.

"Ah, crap..."

A small child was holding on the railing, being splashed by rough waves and tore at by the wind. He wasn't going to be able to hold on long.

"Someone back me up!" Danny said, and jumped out of the hatch yelling "WINGS!" as he did so.

Hal complied. Large bird's wings sprouted out of his back, and he propelled himself downwards towards the boat.

The storm, however, had other ideas.

A sudden gust of wind threw Danny out of balance, and he reached out to grab hold of something.

He opened his eyes, and realised he had a grip on the rope that stretched between the boat and the hovercraft.

"DANNY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Dirk yelled from the deck of the boat, as he ushered the tourists inside to be towed to shore.

"A KID!" Danny yelled, pointing.

"Ah, shit..." Dirk said. Danny couldn't hear him, of course, what with the distance involved, and the noise of the storm. But he got the idea.

Now, the thing about water is, it can be powerful when it wants to be. This was one of the times when it chose to employ that capacity.

A wave rocked the boat. Not enough to capsize it... but enough to give a hell of a shake on the rope that Danny was hold on to.

Danny closed his eyes as he was thrown off the rope and headed downwards.

He heard a thump. He felt a thump. So he opened his eyes.

He'd fallen onto the deck of the boat.

"Okay, the execution could have used work, but the end goal was the same...you can reverse the wings now."

Danny stood up, and noticed Dirk was yelling at him.

"GET THE KID! I'LL GET THESE GUYS BELOW DECKS!"

Danny nodded at Dirk, and ran towards the site of the child.

"...Jamie! I thought he was still inside!..." Danny heard one of the passengers say as he ran past.

A boat is not the sturdiest place to be running across at the best of times. And especially so in the middle of a storm. Danny was quickly realising this. A couple of times he stumbled, and steadied himself against the railing. But he made it.

Just in time to see the child go sailing over the rail, into the sea, thanks to the force of a huge wave.

"GILLS AND A MONKEY TAIL!" Danny yelled, and dived over the edge. Into the water.

Back on the hovercraft, Grimm stood, watching.

"Can you get us any closer to the boat?!" Grimm asked Chance.

"Probably... but we'd have to stop towing. The rope would be too slack..."

"It'll only take a second. Take us down!"

Chance dropped the hovercraft a little. Grimm took a deep breath, and jumped out. He landed with a 'thud' on the boat, then watched as Chance rose into the air, pulling the rope tight.

Grimm ran to the back of the boat, suffering less problems with his sea legs than Danny had. He reached the railing where Danny dived over, and was almost amused to find a monkey tail gripping on to the rail. The tail trailed off to beneath the surface, where a small child was being held just above the water level by two hands protruding from beneath.

Grimm grabbed onto the tail, and yanked on it as hard as he could.

Grimm pulled Danny and the kid out of the water and back onto the boat.

"You okay?" he asked as Danny's gills began to fade away.

"Y-yeah, I didn't realize this thing would be quite so strong."

"It's only gonna get worse from here. Get below, see if you can find a radio, and tell Chance to bring us into the harbor."

Grimm felt as if he were being watched. He turned and looked behind him. Nothing. Odd, he thought. The boat continued to rock as the hovercraft began gently towing it inland, fighting against the howling winds and crashing waves.

The MBL Roll Call:

Danny Hearn
Mick Harrison/Mxy
Grimm
Dirk Bell
Kristofer "Chance" Schanz
Edulcore "Euro" Cicciotto aka "The Raptor"
Grissom "Sandcrawler" Montag
Blackwulf
Phil Smith
Priest

"Greem, are you ready?" Blackwulf's voice boomed even in the raging winds.

Grimm just nodded.

"Put the rope on Danny and the small one. I'll Hoist them up first."
Grimm put the rope around Jamie and signaled for him to be hoisted.
With one mighty tug the boy was flung into the air only to be caught gracefully by a gentle invisible hand and pulled on board the hovercraft.

"Comrade Phil, is good idea. Just dont get distracted and miss. It could be being very bad." Blackwulf said as he dropped the rope.

"Greem, the rest of the crew is being next, all of them at once. I am not thinking the boat ...." just then a giant wave smashed agenst the hull with a thunderous force. "is going to make it."
the boat teetered and sent a shock wave that would have thrown almost anyone over.

"TALONS" Danny yelled, as he buried his long claws into the small wooden frame.
Grimm reached for the railing only to find it had come loose in his grip.

[ 10-18-2002, 02:02 AM: Message edited by: Grimm ]

In the basement of the apartment building headquarters of MBL Consulting, Grissom Montag worked feverishly, attempting to set up a mock shelter. All the work-out equipment, plus Blackwulf's boxes, have been moved to the corners to make way for boxes of canned goods and bottled water that had been loaded down. The Olympic-sized swimming pool had been covered with a hard cover and now had rows of cots resting on them.

Dr. Henry Quantos busied himself in the corner, sorting through First Aid items like gauze, bandages, splints, and anesceptics.Kit and Shirley worked on trying to load any essential equipment into the basement. Grissom, in the meantime, busied himself with setting up his very own personal weather tracking system.

"The GWN..." he said to himself, crossing some wires coming from his laptop computer. "The Grissom Weather Network..." Standing to his feet, he flicked a switch on his computer, turning it on. Three televisions he'd smuggled out of the living room, Sam's old room, and Mick and Shirley's place (with her permission, naturally) sat around the monitor. One was hooked up to his laptop to operate as a second monitor. Another set was turned to the Weather Channel, which was feeding constant updates of the storms motion and trajectory. And the third one was tuned to the local news stations for any sort of coverage or breaking news.

"Hey, Kit!" Griss shouted over his shoulder as the large man set his ficus tree down in the corner next to the covered workout equipment. "We got any way that we can keep in constant contact with our boys in the field?"

"Not to my knowledge, Mr. Montag," Kit said, shooting a look over at Dr. Quantos, who pulled out his cellular phone.

"I happen to know that the hovercraft has an installed two-way radio," Quantos said, dialing a number into his phone. "We should be able to keep in constant contact with them as long as they remain inside the craft."

"Excellent," Grissom smiled, a cell phone suddenly materializing in his hand. Quantos looked at his hand in surprise as Grissom held a three-fingered hand up in defense. "I'll explain later, Doc..."

Plugging the phone into a portable jack connected to his laptop and pulling a headset over his ears, lowering the mic to his mouth, Grissom waited until a fuzzy signal came through.

Griss recognized the accent.

Swedish.

"This is the Stormloader on a relief mission for MBL Consulting. Identify yourself..."

"This is Sandcrawler, Chance," Griss said, a smile spreading across his lips. "We're setting up a base and relief shelter in the basement here. All set to take care of any wounded. Over?"

A pause.

"Roger that, Sandcrawler. A few of us making our way back to base to deliver first load while the others continue with relief."

"Good to hear, Chance," Griss said. "Keep this line open, in case of emergencies... we'll wanna get to you in a pinch."

"Understood, Sandcrawler."

Griss smiled and gave Quantos a thumbs-up, which the doctor returned. Well, you've set up one thing, Montag, Griss thought to himself. Now, if you can survive this'n, we'll worry about the next...

Over the ocean and just outside the coastline of La Perdita a small jet shook as the furious winds pounded its side. Inside the cockpit, the pilots attempted to keep everything together and make it through the outskirts of Hurricane Jason.

By an unlucky chance the jet took off before the alerts of Hurricane Jason were made. It was almost like someone controlled the fury of Jason and detoured it towards the island. If only answer was so simple. Nature was unpredictable to say the least.

“We’re flying blind!” Jesse Stevenson, a second year pilot turned to his co-pilot, Mark Franklin.

He was speechless, never before has he been put on such a spot.

Inside the plane, the passengers remained calm. The fear and horror of the situation had already sunk in. Behind the windows, all that could be seen was black with occasional flashes of light. The sound of rain and hail pounded the sides of the jet with a steady rhythm. It would only be time before the craft was ripped apart by its seems.

On the Fifth row, seat 6D, sat Samuel Dawson. He sat and laughed to himself for a moment. This was not what he had expected. While he was younger if you had asked him where he would want to be at 19 and 20 years old, his story would be very different. The drama that has filled his life would be gone. The pain and misery would have never filled his heart and soul as it did. All he could do was laugh.

Next to him, a young woman leaned her head on the window. Her light brown hair fell on the side of her face as she held back tears. Another flash of light struck from out side.

She turned toward Sam, “We are gonna die, aren’t we?”

Sam nodded his head, “Looks that way.”

Finally, her tears began flowing. There was so much she wanted to do and so much of the world that she had yet to see. Sam put his arm around her, “I’m sorry I didn’t…”

“It’s ok. It was a stupid question.”

“I wish I could have given you a better answer…”

“You could have always lied.”

“Yeah, well, I did. We are going to be fine, I promise.”

“Thanks.”

There was a pause between the two, they both held back from the outside world.

“My name is Megan…”

“Sam.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, likewise.”

Sam cracked a half smile before a violent vision struck his head.

Bodies burning, innocents being tortured, people enslaved.

A world almost ripped out of time itself, huge columns and statues.

Gladiators and knights raged in a civil war.

An eye, almost serpent like and a voice, “One true order.”

Sam grinned his teeth as he came too, a rage in his eyes.

“Are you ok?” Megan asked, he turned to her, his face changed. His expression softened.

“We’re gonna wish this storm had taken us!”

Before she could react to his words, lighting struck the jet from all sides. A blue energy engulfed it for a few moments.

Silence followed as the jet disappeared into thin air.

With no trace.

Inside the hovercraft, Chance watched through the windows as the others used their powers to fight the hurricane and save people. He almost felt useless standing inside. He looked at his right and saw Mxy floating with his legs folded, whilsting some Bob Dylan tune.

"Why don't you do something instead of just sitting there, Mxy?" Chance asked, with some hostility in his voice.

"I'm doing something!" Mxy answered, pointing at the window. Chance looked outside and noticed people were being rescued by flying cows dressed like super-heroes.

"Oh," Chance replied. "But that's not all you could do, is it? With those powers of yours, why don't you just stop the hurricane?"

"I can't just do that! That would take too much energy!"

"How much energy?"

"Well, I could stop the Hurricane, but Mick's body would be destroyed..." Mxy explained.

"So it's one life against a thousend," Chance commented. He laid back on his seat, and waited for Mxy to give some excuse like 'I can help more people if I'm alive' or 'I can't make that choice for Mick'...

But Mxy said nothing.

Chance looked at Mxy and noticed he wasn't floating anymore. He had a serious expression on his face, for a change.

"Mxy?" Chance asked.

Mxy didn't reply. He seemed to be thinking about something else.

"Oh, come on... You're not thinking about doing it, are you?" Chance asked. "Think about the people you could help if you remain alive! Y-You can't make that decition for Mick!"

Mxy looked at Chance, and said "I have to think". He then dissapeared.

Chance, with his jaw wide open, remained staring at the place where Mxy used to be for a moment.

Suddenly the door opened and Dirk, with a rope tied to him, walked inside carrying two young kids.

"You know those safe nearby places we were taking the people to? They don't exist anymore, so we are taking the people inside the hovercraft..." Dirk said, "Hey, what happened to Mxy's cow guys? And where's Mxy?"

"Errr..." Chance replied.

[ 10-12-2002, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: I'm Not Mister Mxypltk ]

"Could Mxy stop the hurricane? If we wanted to?" Phil asked Danny as Chance took the hovercraft and the first load of rescuees to the makeshift shelter at their headquarters.

"I think he could. If he really wanted to..." Danny replied, thoughtful.

The boat that the team had just rescued lay on the shore, half in the water and half out. It was sideways... and badly damaged... and smelled funny. But it was stable. And the passengers were safe.

Danny felt like this was the first success on a day that would likely contain many failures.

"...why doesn't he?"

"You can't just go around... changing the weather like that. Stopping a hurricane... making such a drastic change to the atmosphere... there are going to be consequences," Danny theorised.

"...right..."

"Plus, it'd kill Mick," Dirk said, approaching them.

The three were currently huddled inside one of the buildings on shore. Grimm was outside, doing a last minute search for people before they could move their efforts inland. Chance was taking the survivors back to the shelter.

Mxy was currently... missing.

"It would... what?" Danny said, sounding a little stunned.

"Chance filled me in before he left. If Mxy uses up that much energy... Mick dies," Dirk explained.

"Damn. Where's Mxy now?"

"Gone."

"Shit."

A tree branch suddenly crashed through a window above them, throwing glass everywhere. The three dived out of the way as it landed where they were standing a second ago.

"-the hell?!" Danny yelled.

"It's getting serious out there. Dangerous," Dirk said.

"Yeah..."

"Great," Dirk finished, and marched outside.

The waves were definitely picking up now. Not exactly tsunami-strength, the ever-enlarging breakers were still capable of doing some serious damage.
"I'm not sure we should be so close to the water," Phil said to nobody in particular. The building wasn't much more than a maintenance shed on the beach, and its foundation went down maybe six feet. He could already see water seeping in around the perimeter of the floor. "We gotta move."

Danny chuckled. "I doubt anywhere is safe right now."

"No, I mean we gotta move out of here."

As if to accentuate Phil's point, one of the I-beams behind them groaned loudly as the weight of the building shifted subtly.

"I see your point," Danny conceded. "So where do we go?"

"I was hoping you were gonna tell me."

The wind is incredibly strong, now, and there’s no way I can sustain it.

The hovercraft is passing below me right now, and I fly in, to get some shelter.

“Chance, another second and I would have been throw on the continent, I think. Right now, I am pretty useless, here...” I whisper.

There are many people on the craft, recovered from various boats. Chance turns to me: “Tell me! I am going to bring these people to the Complex, they have readied a shelter there. I don’t know for how much I can keep this thing flying, what about your UFO?”

“Oh, I can bring it in, but there is room for only four more person, I don’t thing it would be very useful... Ehy, wasn’t Mxy here? His flying cows have disappeared, they were the best help we had out there!”

Chance looks at me. “He’s gone. We were talking about the possibility of stopping the hurricane, and he said he had to think.”

“Stopping the hurricane? Can he do that?”

“He said so. But that would cost him too much energy. And thinking, that’s obvious, because stopping the hurricane here could cause perturbations that reverberate through all of Earth atmosphere, potentially causing catastrophes in other parts of the world. You know, chaos theory. The wingbeat of a butterfly in Malaysia can produce a tornado in the Caribbean.”

“You mean he should take total control of the atmosphere to stop this?”

“Well, maybe more. He should take control of the oceans, and maybe of Earth rotation, and why not the sun’s magnetic wind, and...”

“Fuck!” I jump outside the hovercraft, and manage to resist among the brute power of the wind, shouting with all my breath: “MXY, MXY, come back! WE need YOU now!”

Inside my brain the tempest is as furious as is around me. There is a part of me, my eagle mind, I believe, that is telling me to just go away. To fly away from the stream, toward the blue skies and the hot sun, to soar above the still waters and the open deserts.

But I just can’t.

I have to fight both my mind and the wind, but I keep flying toward the heart of the hurricane.

“MXY, MXY, we need the cows. THE COWS!”

I furiously beat my wings, but it’s like I am standing still.

“Mxy, remember what we said in the cabin on lake Michigan? Remember what we promised each other, then? Me, you, Tobias, Danny and Nae?”

I have lost control. My feathers are all ruffled up, they are not able anymore to push on the air.

“MXY, we said that we would have been TOGETHER trough all what we would have endured! TOGETHER! You can’t save this situation ALONE! That’s not what we do! PLEASE, PLEASE come back!”

The wind has got me. I am thrown away, the push of the air is stronger than the ones I have experienced on dives from great altitudes. My feathers have been stripped away, and around me all is dark, black and violet.

It’s all so cold.

Oh God, why it’s so cold?

Danny and Phil rushed out of their temporary shelter, as the roof caved in behind them. While the walls still stood, the ceiling was laying in a pile of debris on the floor.

"PHIL! WE DO A LAST MINUTE SWEEP OF THE BEACH, THEN HEAD INLAND!" Danny yelled over the roaring wind.

Phil just nodded.

"AND SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THE OTHERS WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!"

Phil shook his head and pointed at his ear.

"THE OTHERS!" Danny yelled, leaning in closer.

Phil nodded and gave the thumbs up. Danny pointed at himself and then pointed behind them, southward down the beach. He pointed at Phil and then in the opposite direction.

"MEET BACK HERE IN TEN!" Danny then yelled. They then separated, sweeping the beach to see if anyone else needed a hand. And to hopefully reunite with their team... Grimm and Dirk were still out on the beach somewhere.

A moment later, Danny was standing at the foot of a huge tree. The area around it looked clear, until a women struggled through the wind to walk towards him.

"YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!" Danny yelled at her. She yelled something back, but Danny couldn't hear.

"WHAT?" He replied. She pointed upwards, into the three. Following her finger, Danny looked up, until he noticed the object of her concern. A cat. In the tree. About fifteen feet up, clinging to a branch amidst the roaring wind.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Danny said.

Further up the beach, Phil walked slowly and carefully through the wind. However, whereas other people could be thrown off balance by the wind, and have to struggle to remain upright... Phil remained firmly rooted to the ground.

He came across a car, and figured it had been abandoned here when the storm moved in. A slightly closer inspection, though, revealed the movement of a figure inside the car. He peered into the window, and noticed a teenager huddled in the back seat, looking scared. Phil tapped on the window.

"You okay?" He mouthed.

The teenager cracked open the window slightly, and yelled out "I CAN'T DRIVE THIS THING!"

"GET OUT, I'LL HELP YOU TO SAFETY!"

The guy, a little tentatively, climbed out of the car and held on to Phil. Phil tried to walk back towards the nearest buildings, where they could wait until Chance returned with the hovercraft.

The teenager, however, was panicking, and his grip on Phil threw them both to the ground. Phil had been concentrating too much on what to do to keep them firmly planted upright... he didn't have all that much control, after all.

Phil looked up, as a log the size of a car hurtled towards them, broken off from one of the trees that lined the beach.

Meanwhile, Danny was climbing up a tree towards a kitten, using koala claws to keep a grip on the wood. He sat at the base of the branch that held the kitten, calling out to it.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty..."

It looked at him. But didn't move.

"Damn it," Danny said under his breath.

<You know, this would be funny if it wasn't so life threatening...> Hal said.

"Shut. Up. Hal."

Danny slowly made his way across the branch, keeping his claws firmly stuck so the wind didn't throw him. He was gradually making his way closer to the cat, until he was close enough to reach out and grab it. He retracted the claws on his hands, and did so. The cat purred softly against his chest.

"Awww..."

The wind suddenly grabbed him, and threw him out of the tree. Danny fell, and landed hard on the sand beneath him.

"Ow..."

<We'll be feeling that in the morning. If you're alive.>

The woman rushed to Danny's side.

"MISTER WHISKERS! WHERE IS MISTER WHISKERS?!"

Danny opened his arms, and revealed Mister Whiskers, perfectly safe.

"MISTER WHISKERS! YOU'RE OKAY!" She yelled.

"I'm fine, thanks. And you're welcome," Danny said, standing up.

"Pardon?" The woman said, turning to face him.

"COME WITH ME! I'LL GET YOU TO SAFETY!" Danny yelled. She nodded, and followed him. Danny made his way back to the meeting point he'd specified with Phil, but found that none of his teammates had made it back there.

"Eagle eyes," Danny said, and looked further up the beach. Off in the distance, he saw Phil pull a guy from a car, then fall to the ground. He then saw a tree branch being thrown to the ground towards them.

"PHIL!" Danny yelled.

Phil took one glance upwards, and was scared out of his wits.

The log fell hard. It rocketed towards Phil, where it would no doubt crush him and his rescuee.

But... the log stopped. In mid-fall. Mere inches above Phil.

And it stayed there. Hovering.

Phil and his companion rolled out of it's way, then the log finally completed it's fall, hitting the ground.

Danny let out a sigh of relief, watching from further up the beach.

"DANNY! THE BEACH IS CLEAR NOW! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Danny heard a voice from behind him yell. He turned, to find Grimm approaching him.

A tired Dirk made a sweep across the beach looking for morons who couldn't get to shelter. His body was exausted. He was running on all cylinders to save the civilians of La Perdita. He spotted someone further down the shore.

As he got closer, the gunslinger noticed a man in his early twenties, long unkempt and tangled hair, and baggy pants. Dirk yelled for him to get to safety. The guy just stood there. Upon closer inspection he could tell the man's eyes were glazed over. "Man!" the guy finally cries out. "Did you see that cow?! It was so trippy! It just swooshed around in the sky, man! It had a cape and everything! It was the badest mother fucking superhero ever, dude!" He would have continued, but the mushrooms growing out of his fingers distracted him.

"You know what?" Dirk responded. "I'm realling going to enjoy this." And he did. The gunslinger's right fist impacted with the guy's face and cold cocked him. As he shuffled across the beach with the unconcious hippie across his shoulders, a smile spread across his face.

Back in the basement, Grissom Montag and Dr Henry Quantos examined the information they were getting on Grissom's weather tracking system, trying to predict the course of the hurricane to suggest the rest of the team an adequate course of action, while Kit and Shirley were busy trying to plug in the TV set.

"There we go!" Kit said, satisfied, when he finally managed to do it.

"Good job, mister Piper," Shirley said, "Now lets see how are things up there..."

Shirley turned on the TV and tuned the local news station.

"...a miracle! Dozens of lives have been saved by them so far! These truly are heroes!" a female reporter in a raincoat yelled, with the ferocious wind behind her.

"You think... they're talking about them?!" Shirley asked.

"I hope so! You can't buy this kind of publicty! Who else could they be talking about?" Kit replied. "Oh, wait... Those PSI-Unit kids..."

"Oh... Yeah, it's probably them," Shirley said.

"This group of brave men is the best thing that has happened to La Perdita since the PSI-Unit!" the reporter in the screen yelled.

Kit and Shirley gasped.

"For those of you just joining in, a group of mysterious metahumans has been rescuing people from the fury of Hurricane jason!"

"Please have some footage of the team..." Kit begged.

"We have some footage of this team, taken earlier by our cameraman..."

The image on the screen switched to some shaky footage of a boat in the sea, in deep trouble. A passanger on the boat falls violently because of the strong wind, but before he can reach the water, he is saved by and unclear figure, due to the movement of the camera and the wind. As the passenger is taken to safety, other figures appear near the boat. The camera zooms in on one of them, and for the first time a member of the team is clearly seen...
A cow in a green suit with a "C" on its chest.

The camera moves, and focuses on another member of the team. A cow with a big black cape and a fedora covering its eyes. Then, the wind takes another passenger... who is rescued by a cow in a green spandex suit.

"Yes, people of La Perdita," the voice of the reporter says as the images switches from cow to cow, "We are being rescued by a mysterious group of super-cows. Who are these cows? Where do they come from? Why are they here? We'll be sure to ask them all these questions... when they are not busy saving our lives!"

Kit smacked his hand against his forehead.

"I told you Mxy's fixation with cows would cost us eventually..." Kit mumbled.

"Well," Shirley replied, "at least it's not a zoophilia scandal like you predicted..."

Phil was not enjoying himself very much.

After rescuing that kid from the trapped car, he had gotten separated from Danny and Grimm, and he was now standing on the beach, with the kid crouched on the ground a few yards behind him.

"Hey mister!" the kid yelled. "What's going on?"

Phil ignored him. He was looking out to sea, and what he saw was not encouraging at all.

"What do we do?" the kid persisted.

Waves. Massive breakers were rolling in. Phil could see the water pulling back a bit, a sure sign that some monster surf was coming.

"You get off the beach, and quick," Phil replied at last. He wrenched a life preserver and its rope off an abandoned lifeguard chair lying on the ground. Phil hurled the lifering, Frisbee-style, toward a concrete post in the parking lot nearby. Phil nudged the flying ring a bit with his mind and was rewarded with a distant thunk as it landed perfectly on the post, leaving a decent length of rope behind. Phil picked up the rope and handed one end to the kid. "Pull yourself along with this," he instructed him. "Get to the parking lot, then run to the hospital."

"But what about you?" the kid shouted over the storm.

"I'm all right," Phil reassured him. "Get going."

The kid scrambled off, holding the rope for support. Phil looked up and down the beach. Seeing no one, his attention returned to the incoming waves. Without question these babies would be severe.

No telling what they might carry with them. Driftwood, burning oil, pieces of ships, anything - well, anything except a date for tonight.

There must be enough power in those waves to wipe out a decent-sized chunk of the island. A lot of folks could die from this. I guess somebody better try to do something about these waves.

But if they did, there'd be almost no way to save themselves.

It's friggin' Mission Impossible!

Sounds like fun.

The basement to the MBL HQ was beginning to get crowded. Several of the team members had brought in many of the locals who had no idea what to do in this situation. "You'd think people on a Carribean island would have a little more experience with hurricanes," Dirk said as he dropped the hippie down on the floor.

Grimm had also brought in some people also, tough Dirk doubted that he had to punch them in order to get unconcious. The beach hippie began to rouse from his fist induced slumber. One look at Grimm made him start screaming at the top of his lungs and clawing his way across the floor away from the skull-headed punker. "Oh my god! It's a demon! He's comin' for me! Man, this was some bad shit I gotta hold of. It ain't supposed to be doin' this." He began to sob as a puddle formed on the floor.

"Sure as hell beats cable," Dirk said a he began to walk upstairs.

"Where are you going?" Dr. Quantos asked.

"To my room. There's something that I've got to get."

"It's not safe up there."

"I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself. You worry about Trippy Longstockings there." The gunslinger left the basement and climbed the stairs to his room.

[ 10-18-2002, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: thedoctor ]

"Man, those roots the natives sold me really fucked me up..." the hippy lamented.

Tayden hovered above the turbulant waters. This fierce force of nature had the potencial of doing incredible amounts of damage. There were alot of scared people down there on their knees praying for help. God hears them and Tayden was given orders to help anyway he could.

The thought that proded his mind was "how did I get this assignment." This is a serious disater, and responsibility. The truth is Tayden has never really been considered brave or bright for that matter. Not exactly warrior angel material. When Gabrial destroyed Sodom, Tayden was planting trees in what would later be called Mississippi. The last time he went to earth was to help some guy named Jason Douglas find his car keys. Don't get the wrong Idea Tayden liked his work, its just after a few million years of small stuff one can't help but wonder why the change. Still he did not hesitate to accept, he knows where his faith is.

Over the horizen a boat tosses on the waves. With ears that ignore the defening storm, he hears the faint prayer of a man who just lost his footing "God help me!". As if there was no wind or resistence Tayden was there and pushed the man back as he was about to fall. "Jesus Ralph! you almost bought it, everything is secure lets get below!" said a fellow hand. "Yeah, oh thank you God!" Ralph barely got the words out he was shking so bad. Tayden smiled. As he took a higher post in the air.

"Ya know.....I can do this" Tayden barely got out the words when all of the sudden he was falling. He looked behind him at empty air where his wings once were. For the first time he could feel wind and rain on his face! Then SPLASH!

Not since since The Great War has Tayden been afraid. He felt blood in his viens that moments ago were not there.

"Oh my God!" He screamed "I'm flesh and I'm drowning!"

[ 10-19-2002, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: Sonhaven ]

As Tayden began to slip under the waters, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist lift him up. He looked over and saw a human boy breathing through gills next to him.

As soon as Danny had a decent grip on the man, he began to tug on the rope tied tightly around his waist. Suddenly, the two were being jerked forward quickly. As they were pulled closer to the ever receding shoreline, their heads pulled above the water. Danny saw Grimm and Blackwulf pulling them in as quickly as they could.

As soon as they were on shore, Danny unfastened the rope and began to help Tayden up. "You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so. . ."

"Not exactly the best time to go swimming, was it?" Dirk yelled out.

"Just help him into the ship, Dirk." Danny said coldly.

"Danny, over here!" came Phil's voice.

"What is it?" Danny came running to Phil's side.

"I think it's Ed." as the others came running up, they saw Edulcore's body lying motionless on the beach.

"So... what are we gonna do?" Grimm asked.

"I'm not really sure," Danny replied. "But maybe we can see if..." He looked up.

Phil was running off down the beach at full tilt.

"Weird kid," Dirk said. "Figured he'd snap before too long."

"No, something's wrong," Danny insisted. "Phil doesn't just run off in the middle of something like this."

"Of course we can be sure of this considering we've known him for - what - not even a week yet," Grimm added.

"This is not time to argue," Blackwulf said. "We must help Comrade Ed."

"Shouldn't someone at least follow him?" Grimm asked. "What if he really has snapped?"

"Hardly something we can deal with right now," Dirk said. "Let's take a look here."

Danny looked again. Phil was far enough down the beach now that in a few more steps he disappeared into the uniform swirling grey of the storm.

Danny hoped Phil knew what he was doing...

[ 10-20-2002, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: Captain Sammitch ]

Miami International Airport

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but nobody is going to be flying anywhere near La Perdita until the hurricane blows over and the airport there is repaired," the TWA clerk replied with the characteristic feigned sympathy, peering at Leslie over his wire-rimmed glasses.

Leslie sighed. "I understand, sir. But can they give me any kind of estimate on when flights to La Perdita will resume?"

The clerk shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

Leslie leaned over the counter slightly and looked him in the eyes. "I would really appreciate it if you could look into it for me," she purred as the clerk got an attention-getting glimpse of the generous cleavage revealed by Leslie's low-cut top.

It was like flipping a switch. The clerk finally managed to return his gaze to eye level and smiled. "Come back at nine tomorrow morning and I'll let you know what we find out," he said.

Leslie flashed a smile at him. "Thanks so much. Have a wonderful day." She turned and walked away, pretty sure that the clerk was watching her departure intently but not really caring. She had what she wanted.

It was funny, really. She had no idea what it was, but somehow Leslie could just turn on the charm and everyone played her game by her rules. Mom had always called it "natural charisma", but she could have called it the philosopher's stone for all Leslie cared. It worked, and that was all that mattered. Leslie's charm was as predictable as a Swiss train schedule.

Hailing a cab, Leslie caught a ride to the hotel. Mysteriously enough, the cabby didn't even charge Leslie a fare, and for some odd reason he babbled on and on about the plural-marriage practices of his home country just about constantly. Ignoring the driver's advances and the odor of hummus and pita bread wafting from the front seat, Leslie hopped out at the Marriott and walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me, I need a room for tonight," she said to the receptionist. The concierge was sipping a latte as he sat behind the counter near the receptionist, and just about spewed his drink all over the room when Leslie turned around and bent down at the waist to pick up her travel bag.

"I'll handle this," the concierge said to the receptionist as he stepped up to the counter. "We have some lovely suites available for you if you like, madam." He pointed to a diagram on the counter. "A penthouse executive suite, in fact. There's also a rooftop swimming pool for your convenience... assuming you'll want to do some swimming while you're here."

I'm sure seeing me in a bikini on your little hidden cameras would brighten your day, Leslie was about to reply, but thought better of it. "Oh, really?" she inquired, beaming at the concierge.

The receptionist cleared her throat. "The penthouse suite is running at $844 a night right now, and..."

Leslie gasped aloud. "I'm only going to be here until tomorrow. They keep delaying my flight, and I don't know how I'll ever be able to get back to Baltimore." Leslie put on a pouting expression, trying hard not to die laughing at what she knew was coming.

The concierge held up his hand, motioning for the receptionist to stop tinkering with the register. "It's such an unfortunate turn of events that she's been delayed, Claire. Let's not compound her worries." He grinned at Leslie. "The penthouse suite can be considered complimentary accommodations until you leave," he offered.

Leslie let her jaw drop. "Gosh, sir, that's really nice of you. I really appreciate it." She smiled, then beamed at a nearby busboy who gawked at her until the cart he was pushing crashed into the wall. Maybe it is easy to be me, Leslie thought to herself as she headed for the elevator.

She would take care of things in La Perdita later.

South Shore Beach, La Perdita

It was nearly nightfall, but in the clouds and blinding rain, midnight and noon would be indistinguishable. Phil kept running down the beach, looking for people in trouble and dodging the thunderous breakers that were inching higher and higher up the beach, driven by the rising tide and the fury of Hurricane Jason. Here was a surfer out to catch some monster waves who was very seriously in over his head. There was a father out looking for a lost daughter. Junk collectors who tried to slip out to the beach to pick over the flotsam that washed ashore for valuables were beaten into submission by the inexorable winds and needlelike driving rain.

The South Shore was quite simply being erased from existence. Hundreds of tons of sand and soil were being washed away by the furious waves. All three breakwaters had been demolished. Soon, the southernmost point of La Perdita would be nothing but a slight drop-off into the water. If that much was left standing.

There she was! A little girl was cowering behind a big rock, frightened out of her wits and clutching a handmade rag doll for dear life. Phil hurried over and scooped up the frightened child.

"Who are you?" the girl cried over the storm.

Phil simply smiled at her, attempting to impart whatever calming effect he could manage. "My name's Phil. What's yours?"

The effect was slight but almost immediate. "I'm... my name's Sabrina." She held up the doll. "And this is Alyssa."

"Hello, Sabrina," Phil answered. "And hello, Alyssa." He looked back behind him. "Your daddy is looking for you. And he's very scared. So let's go find him, okay?"

Sabrina wrinkled her nose and looked at him curiously. "You're all dry!"

Phil chuckled. "That I am. And soon you'll be dry too." He pushed with his mind and transferred the shielding effect from himself to Sabrina. He was rewarded by the myriad stings of thousands of raindrops flying into his face horizontally. But at least none of that was hitting the little girl.

Sabrina's eyes widened. "How did you do that?"

Phil thought a moment. "Actually, I don't know."

He strode back the way he had come and finally found Sabrina's father clinging to a rock as waves crashed down no more than fifty feet from him. It was only a matter of time before the man would be washed out to sea. Phil left Sabrina where she was and hurried out to where Sabrina's father was. He pried the man's hands off the rock, picked the larger man up bodily and carried him back to where his daughter was waiting.

Sabrina threw her arms around her father, who finally managed to stagger to his feet. The two of them stepped back and yelled something to Phil, but he couldn't make it out over the waves crashing down behind him. He was now almost waist-deep in the ocean. "Get to the grocery store as fast as you can!" Phil shouted to them. "There's a temporary shelter set up there!"

They shouted something back.

"What?"

The father shouted it again, louder.

"I can't hear you!"

The man pointed and started to run.

Never a good sign.

Phil turned just in time to see a huge breaker wash over him. He slammed against the rock and was sure he'd cracked some ribs, but didn't have much time to think about it as he felt himself being pulled out to sea.

Crap.

[ 10-20-2002, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: Captain Sammitch ]

Grim was running like a madman. He was returning to the MBL HQ to get Dr. Quantos. Edulcore had collapsed on the beach, and the Doc would be the best person to figure out why.

Danny had decided a few minutes after Grimm left that the best thing to do would be to put Ed in the hovercraft. It was a tough decision. He didn't know if it was safe to move him, but it sure as hell wasn't safe right here on the beach. Chance was given the order to do it. His luck might just be the thing to keep this from going sour.

The self appointed leader of the MBL also handed the "swimmer" they had fished out of the sea a towel to wrap around his naked body. Quite odd to go skinny-dipping during a hurricane. The stranger kept asking, as if to someone who was there but wasn't, why this had happened. It didn't seem to Danny as thought he was inquiring about the storm, though.

Dirk and Blackwulf made another quick sweep of the beach with their eyes. The hovercraft began to inch it's way back up the beach to the interior of the island. The water that surrounded Blackwulf's and Dirk's ankles rushed back out to sea. "That's not good," Dirk said.

The roar of speeding water came to their ears. "Is not being sound good to hear," Blackwulf replied as both men began to run from the beach. Wet sand encumbered their feet, trapping them to feel the wrath of the wave. Chance forced the hovercraft to go as fast as it could, but it had not had enough time to build up momentum.

As the cloud of darkness began to overtake the MBLers, Dirk uttered a phrase that has been passed down in the Bell family from generation to generation as a motto when everything seemed to be at its darkest. "Fuck."

The force of angered water pushed up against them. Blackwulf and Dirk were tossed within the wave. The force of impact of the waves and the ground below tried to force the air from Dirk's lungs, but he fought the pain and held his breath. The giant Russian attempted to grab hold of anything that might anchor him. As the wave changed directions and began to pull back to the ocean, he used his mighty hands to force his fingers into the solid earth below the sand. Dirk's body was thrown against a wall of dirt. He pulled out his knife and forced it into the soil of the hill that bordered the beach.

The hovercraft was hammered by the wave. Everyone inside felt it shift and turn up on its back. Chance fell away from the controls as it fell to upside down, then to the port side. Tayden was snapped from his almost philisophical questions as he landed on the ceiling. Danny commanded Hal to give him octopus tentecales as he used one to grab onto something and the other keep Ed from flying about unconscious. The vehicle spun almost like a top. The seconds of the event passed like hours. Every detail and emotion at that moment was clear to all those who experienced it, though later the whole thing would seem like a blur. When it was all over, the hovercraft lay upside down and bent across a centuries old wall of stone that lined the southern coastline of La Perdita.

Dirk painfully lowered himself to the beach. Blackwulf emerged from underneath a mound of sand with his arms still buried deep. Chance pulled Tayden from the craft as Danny had Ed in tow. Dirk had thought up a good smart-ass remark, but was too out of breath to use it.

By the time Phil's head broke the surface of the churning sea, he was already a hundred yards from the shore.

Giving all his essential body parts a quick reality check, Phil decided he was in pretty much one piece, although quite frankly everything hurt like hell. His ribcage was still on fire from being rammed into that big rock, there was a gash on his forehead from who knew what, and all his limbs were going numb from the chilly water and from being tossed around by the surf. Time to call it a day, he thought to himself.

And that was when he saw it out of the corner of his eye. A wispy plume of black, oily smoke rising slowly from the shore. He heard familiar echoes in his head. Some of his friends were in trouble.

The waves were more ferocious than ever, and Phil could tell that everything that was getting washed out to sea was getting thrown back before too long. He guessed that his turn wasn't too far off.

I could sure use some help right about now.

Interlude

The secret headquarter of the “Capes”, somewhere in France.

Deep in the network of caverns that lies below ground level, under the manor, a small spring of crystal water is used by the magic brotherhood as a source of images. Sometimes it shows the future, sometimes it shows things from far away. Every time, it makes you wonder.

Now bending over it is an old man, garbed in the traditional wardrobe of the order: seventeen century wardrobe, and an ample purple coat.

Another man enters.

“Magister Aurochs, still at the pool?”

“Dominus!”

“You have been away for months, much more time than the usual length of your usual. Where your travel has brought you, this time? I am still waiting for your report.”

“So… sorry, Dominus. I still have to truly understand what I experienced. I am searching my own mind. I will report soon”.

“It better will. Else, the mindscanners are ready to take care of you, Aurochs. I hope I will not have to awake them from their dreams.”

“Don’t worry, Dominus. I will be ready in days, if not in hours.”

The other man exits the room. Then pauses just outside the massive oak door, turns back, and looks at Aurochs with burning eyes. “It better will, Magister, it better will.

When the man finally leaves, the discipline Aurochs is imposing over himself evaporates like snow under the sun. He turns red, and begins sweating hard.

What can I do, now, he thinks. This situation was exactly what he tried, and managed, to avoid for all this years. Never one of his superiors arrived near the truth. Never one of them suspected that Aurochs was hiding something, that he was living another life, that he was using the magic for something different than the mission. But now they are only inches from the truth.

If he keeps stay silent, they will use the mindscanners, the sleeping magi able to trespass the mental barrier that every Capes was tough to create to shield his own mind. And everything would then be known to his superiors. The gambling, the money, the women and the young men.

They would know that he was obsessed with the lust for immortality.

That he worked for a tycoon that promised him a way to reach immortality.

That he found himself slave of an immense evil, trapped in the Castle of the Crossed Destinies to fight a bunch of weirdoes for who knows what purpose.

And that he experienced the most traumatic future. A future where the Hoods had won, and the designated heir to the Hoods Empire, the Serpent, was alive and well.

Although in the vision he had, he, Aurochs, won, fighting along a MBL of the most incredible members, he knows that could have been only a crossed destiny, a twisted version of what would really happens. The Serpent winning, and Aurochs banned to Hell.

For days, since his return, he has stayed at the pool, trying to see that same future, from the perspective of this reality. But nothing good came out. And, also, it was indeed a strange moment for future sighting, because a few months before, a strange thing happened, and the pool was not giving any vision from the future, and the oracles stayed mute.

It was like the future went blank. But it lasted only for a few days, and then it began to grows again, diverting at each turn, at each key event, branching out like a giant trees. But of THAT future, the one to avoid, the one where the Hoods had the lasting victory, no trace.

Yet, he saw it. He experienced it. He lived in it.

It is too big. Too much to sustain by himself. A secret too enormous to bear.

He must reveal it.

He will not give any about his secret life, nothing about his first battle with the MBL, but what went up in the Castle must be revealed.

Because the Serpent is alive. And goes under the name of Edulcore Cicciotto.

[ 10-23-2002, 09:07 AM: Message edited by: The Eurostar ]

"Shit! The bloody hovercraft is totalled!" Danny yelled.

"We can probably fix it..." Chance began. Danny indicated that he couldn't hear him over the roaring wind and rain.

"WE CAN PROBABLY FIX IT! BUT NOT RIGHT NOW!" Chance yelled. Danny nodded.

"WHERE TO NOW?!" Dirk asked.

Dirk, Danny, Chance, Blackwulf, Grimm, Edulcore and Tayden were gathered on the beach. Or, what was left of the beach. The sandy surface had been torn up and flodded until those unlucky enough to still be sanding there were knee-deep in mush. The trees that lined the top of the hill, where the beach led to the town, were under attack from the forces of the storm, and shedding branches in a dangerous fashion. Half of the buildings were seriously damaged... the lifeguard tower was now little more than a pile of firewood.

Danny pointed upwards, to the road that led from the beach to the town. The team quickly made their way up, Blackwulf carefully carrying Ed.

Grimm moved close to Danny.

"The storm is closing in on the town," Grimm said.

"I know," Danny replied.

"What we did on the beach is going to be nothing compared to that. You know how many more people are up there than down there?" Grimm pointed forwards, to the populated area of the vcty a few kilometres in the distance.

The storm had already made it's way there, faster than the team could chase it. And it was growing in intensity by the minute.

"We have to get there. Now," Danny said. Grimm nodded.

"Blackwulf! Can you get Ed back to headquarters?" Danny asked. Blackwulf nodded.

"Good! You- go with him," Danny added, pointing to Tayden.

Danny looked at the remaining team- Himself, Dirk, Grimm, and Chance.

"The buildings need to be evacuated, starting here, closer to the beach... moving inwards..." Danny said, thinking out loud.

"I'd say the local authorities already have that well in hand," Chance said.

"Eagle eyes," Danny said softly. He looked into the distance, and noticed the island's police and emergency services doing a sweep of all the houses. No doubt taking the citizens to safehouses further inland.

"Right... I'd still like to have some of us there, keeping an eye on things... in case they need a hand... what do you guys think?"

"Right. The local keystones need someone to make sure they don't fuck up," Dirk said.

"Can you and Chance handle that? At least until the rest of us can get there?" Danny asked. Dirk and Chance both nodded.

Danny continued. "Grimm, I think you should-"

"...find Phil," Grimm said, cutting him off.

"Right."

"And what are you going to do?" Chance asked Danny.

"I have to find Mxy."

This was frustrating. No matter how hard Phil swam in toward the shore, the surf and the waves kept him from getting any closer to land. Phil knew that the only way he was getting to shore would be as a passenger on the next monster wave. That one might scour the beach right off the island. It might hit the town, killing untold numbers of people. Or it just might be the one that sent La Perdita on a one-way ticket to Davy Jones' locker. What the hell kind of expression was that anyway?

In any case, Phil was pretty much powerless to do anything about it from where he was. He knew the others were nearby, but there was no way they could hear him call to them.

Unless...

Phil concentrated as hard as he could. He formulated a single message and pushed it toward the shore, toward anyone who might be listening.

Help!

"Blast!" Grissom Montag yelled, tossing his headset off of his head and slamming his fist onto the table.

"What's wrong, Montag?" Kit asked, walking up alongside MBL Consulting's new security advisor.

"Bloody headset cut out!" Montag said, turning to his new employer.

"The one you were using to keep track of our boys?" Piper asked, leaning against Griss' makeshift weather station.

Grissom nodded gravely. "Which means one of two things: (A.) that the storm's finally taken down enough cell towers to cut all of our communication with the team, or (B.) something's happened to either the hovercraft or the team themselves..."

"I'm hoping for that first option, Montag..." Kit said, suddenly solemn. "If anything's happened to those guys, then this business is done for..."

"Not just the business, but the rest of the island is pretty much doomed to be flattened into oblivion..." Grissom said. "How are the survivors holding up?"

"Well, most of them have only minor injuries, fortunately," Kit answered, pulling a small box of supplies over to sit on. "Doc's been doing pretty well getting them all patched up. Shirley's been prepping some of the canned goods we brought down from the pantry on those hotplates we managed to find in some of the upstairs rooms."

"Is the TV setup alright for you?" Griss asked, looking askance at the weather layout on his monitor.

"I'll say..." Kit said. "I must say that downloading news simulcasts from other parts of the world is really an ingenious idea, Montag. You're proving to be a valuable asset to this team already... and it's only your second day on the job..."

"Well, what can I tellya, Kit?" Montag said, a huge grin spreading across his face. "I aim to please..." Suddenly, Griss caught sight of a large dark man standing in the corner, looking intently at the generator. "What's with Giggles?" Montag asked, jutting a thumb toward the man.

"He's the newest member of this outfit," Kit said. "Calls himself Priest."

"What do you know about him?" Griss asked, eyeing the man suspiciously.

"Not much," Kit said, shrugging. "He's a useful soldier, though, and will be a tremendous asset to our group dynamic..."

"Oh, yeah..." Griss said, rolling his eyes. "Hiring the guy who tore apart half of the first floor is a great way to add to team morale..."

"Go talk to him, if you want," Kit said, winking. "He's not much of a conversationalist, but I think you can talk enough for the both of you..."

Grissom rolled his eyes towards Kit, then, slowly, he pulled himself out of his chair and swaggered steadily over to where the large man stood.

"Hey, mate," Griss said, standing alongside Priest, who did not take his attention away from the generator. "Anything good on?"

Priest shot an unamused look at Grissom, then returned his gaze to it's previous object of focus. Grissom cleared his throat and tried again. Extending his hand toward the large man, he said: "The name's Grissom. Grissom Montag. Security advisor for MBL Consulting and head of Sandcrawler Security. And you might be...?"

"Were you not in the room when Piper introduced me to the rest of the team?" Priest asked emotionlessly, never breaking his attention.

"No..." Griss said, scratching the scruff of his neck. "I was... uh... I was kinda... taking a lady friend home after... we... uh..."

"I understand," the man said, finally turning his bulky body toward Grissom and extending his large hand to the noticably slighter man. "I'm Priest," he said, gripping Griss' hand firmly. "Now, if we're through with the pleasantries..."

Upon saying this, he turned back to the generator as it hummed and whirred with power. Puzzled, Grissom turned back to the bald man and cleared his throat again. "Uh... excuse me for asking, uh, Priest, but I was wondering what your fascination might be with that... generator, there..."

Priest turned, slightly annoyed by Griss' line of questioning, and faced the Englishman. "If you must know, I'm attempting to store some of its energy within me so that when it fails, I will be able to power it myself..."

"'Store'?" Grissom asked, cocking his head to the side.

"It's my gift," Priest said stoically. "My curse. I can absorb energy through my skin and redirect it through other outlets..."

"Fascinating," Grissom said, scratching his five o'clock shadow. "Wait... you said 'when' the generator fails... what do you know that I don't?"

"Gauging the amount of energy this machine is putting out, it will not be much longer until the whole thing just shuts down," Priest said. "After that, I should be able to give you an extra half an hour of sporadic power at best. I've only been siphoning off energy from this thing for the last three hours, after all."

"Crap..." Montag muttered. "I'm gonna have to come up with some modifications..."

"I've already thought of some," Priest said, pulling a small piece of folded paper from his posket and handing it to Grissom. As the Brit unfolded the paper, his eyes widened as he saw the complex, detailed sketches. Why, this was amazing! Not even Grissom had ever seen designs like this before.

"Priest... this... this is unbelievable!" Grissom said, trying to come up with the right words. "I've never seen anything like this before! How did you do this?"

"All it takes is an ingenuitive mind..." Preist said. "Unfortunately, I lack any sort of tools and certain essential materials to make necessary modifications..."

"I've got the better part of my workbench stacked over by my weather equipment," Grissom offered. "Anything you don't have, I'm sure we could construct some sort of substitute for..."

Priest eyed Montag carefully, considering his offer. After about fifteen seconds of deliberation, the man spoke. "What'd you say your name was again?"

"Grissom Montag," came a cockneyed accent in response. "But my friends call me Griss."

"Well, Griss, I suggest we get started..." Priest said, smirking in the way only one who rarely smiles can.

"Y'know, Priest," Grissom said before making his way over to his workbench, "I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship..."

There’s three sun in the sky.

No, that’s not possible. This is Mars, there should be only one sun. How come...

“Edulcore, patatone, why are you standing there?" It's young woman talking to me. "Microtrends is looking for us. We must find a place to hide!”

All become fuzzy...

A bearded man with a long hook on his right arm is standing in front of me. He is handling me a medallion. “It’s the sundial amulet, Euro. It’s yours. It should have been since much time ago. " My hand moves to reach the medallion, and I see that I am wearing a long black coat.

All becomes dark, black as the coat.

I am sitting on the top of a dome, there is a trumpet in my hand, it’s cold and it’s night. A star filled sky barely light a desert, around me. A voice, from behind. “Strikeforce 5 ready for the mission, sir”. I turn...

...and there is only mist.

I put my lipstick on. I just made love with that man, because I was ordered to get a sample of his semen. Sometimes I just hate this line of work...

Wait... lipstick?

What the hell...

HELP!

The mental scream hits my mind as a wall of bricks falling over me.

I awake immediately,.

I am on the shoulder of the giant Russian... whatshisname... Lone wolf? Werewolf?

“Put me down! There’s someone in water!” I shout.

“Comrade, you were KO. We have saved everyone...”

“No Timber Wolf, there still one...” I say, running back to the shore. UFO!

“It’s Black...” the voice of the Russian is long behind me, while the flying saucer, appeared from nowhere, beams me up inside.

I sit on the floor, relieved. I feel pain all over my body. I have almost no feathers on my arms, all taken away by the fierce power of the wind. But the UFO flies fast and steady among the hurricane, protected by a bubble of null gravity, whatever it means (and however the notion was planted in my mind).

The man in the Ocean is there. It’s the newcomer, the young one.

Phil.

He’s fighting with the waves, but the battle should have been long and depleting, because now he disappeared below the surface.

Beam him up, Ufo.

On the floor, in front of me, cold and wet, Phil Smith smiles.

[ 10-26-2002, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: The Eurostar ]