Starting Fires

The whole world was gray: gray skies, gray clouds, gray dust, gray buildings. The sheer monotony of the place was suffocating. We wandered around the outpost of deserted concrete buildings. Beyond the base was... well, nothing. The wasteland stretched on for kilometers, enveloped in a menacing fog.

"What happened to this place?" Harrison wondered aloud, looking at the empty horizon.

"The Ancients and the Evils disagreed on how their power should be used, so they fought," Romanov replied stepping beside my brother. "The Ancients were careful in using their mind as a weapon, so they used it strategically, as a tool in their arsenal. The Evils let that part of their mind consume them, giving them abilities far beyond those of their enemies while taking away their intelligence and replacing it with an insatiable bloodlust. Every single one of them was, plain and simple, a weapon in the flesh and no more. They easily trounced the Ancients but not without many casualties. The last remaining Ancient, the Wise One, the Headsman, gir Solaris, whatever you may call him, wrote two books about the grisly tragedy and hid them in two castles. He made his last stand in the third castle but not before binding the Evils to protect the secrets of the three castles and putting all of the power he held into an orb. Then he leaped into the fray, taking down as many of the bastards as he could before they tore him to shreds and devoured the remains.

"That orb held enough energy to power the entire Milky Way galaxy for a century uninterrupted, let alone just one city for an eternity. When we tried to fetch it, General Bullock and-- and an operative had a disagreement that the General refuses to speak of, which somehow resulted in the orb being empty."

The whole team gazed out into the swallowing depths of the landscape as the story was recounted. When it was finished, we all turned back to the base to pick up our equipment, silenced by the disturbing tale the good doctor had just relayed. Titan and a few nameless orderlies carted in several racks of various items and outfits before stepping in front of his team to explain their presence.

"These are the official field uniforms for the Novices of each Elemental Guild," the Commander stated. "You know who you are, just pick a size and let's be off. I want to get this bollocks done and dusted."

I stepped forward, following Eon to the Solarmancer cart. Actually, it was more an Assassin cart, as Haven and Lucky also were there for a uniform. It consisted of a short, bright red robe, the hem of which fell to just above my knees and was parted in the middle up to my waist, where it was to be secured with a red sash. It had no sleeves and a plain hood that shadowed my eyes well enough. The rest of the uniform was form-fitting leather armor, thick enough to take a blow but light enough to be comfortable and flexible. I secured my two leather bracers on my wrists, holding up my left arm so I could see my Tactical Gauntlet embedded in the material. Touching the screen made the wristblade pop out into the ready position, causing me to jump in surprise as it smoothly unsheathed itself and nearly severed the fabric at my shoulder.

"Oh, Mage, godammit," Titan rumbled behind me, "try not to break anything. Everything you are currently wearing is much more expensive than you are."

I grew red stepping back from him with a quick "Yessir" and accidentally bumping into Haven, who was securing her bootstraps at the time. She nearly fell to the floor but regained her balance, standing up to look me in the eye. For a second I thought she would give me a look of hatred one gives to an outsider offending her and her people, but instead she smiled and let out a playful laugh.

"One day you will see that love is nothing but a painful illusion." The voice of that mysterious figure rumbled in my mind as the patterns blazed before me. Of all the emotions I am currently draining from you, your pathetic view of love is untouchable. Perhaps I can make you suffer into submission.

"Something wrong?" Haven asked, noticing my eyes suddenly clouding and a pained look strike my face.

I snapped out of it, looking directly into her shocking green eyes, losing myself for a moment before replying in a subdued tone, "Everything's just fine."

She smiled and kissed me on the cheek before darting off to talk to the rest of the girls on the team about their new uniforms.

Suffer into submission? Hell, I think she likes me back! Take that Mr. Sentinel! I was satisfied, but I just couldn't find happiness in it. Okay, so it wasn't a complete victory, but I could live without being happy... I suppose. The important part was the satisfaction and I would be able to hold on to that with more focus than if I were happy. Hm, this just keeps sounding more and more depressing.

Harrison interrupted my thoughts by giving me a grand slap on the back. I jumped and yelped in surprise, turning to face him with muttered curses. He was dressed in leather armor that had been dyed green. The design was fairly plain, and the material was thinner than mine, perhaps made more for movement and stealth than defense. I raised my hood to look more intimidating and enigmatic and walked away, muttering a few more curses, leaving my brother with a look of confusion and disappointment.

Blackjack was talking to Stun while Brody stood somewhat off to the side and behind his fellow Pyromancer, pretending to mind his own business. The two of them wore heavy-looking plate armor that looked like it could definitely take a beating. It was bulky and looked like it would slow anyone down, but Jack wore it with an air of pride and nonchalance. It looked just plain comical on Brody's wiry frame.

Stun and her fellow Aquamancers wore lacy, translucent tunics that were secured at the waist with a sash, pulling the fabric tight over their torsos, with the hem of the shirt falling to mid-thigh, leaving the rest of their legs exposed. They were wearing undergarments of course, but that wasn't anyone's business, you nosy pervert. And, as I learned, the whole no pants business was inspired by wading. Have you ever waded with your pants on? It's very inconvenient. Best to quit while you're ahead, I suppose.

The Geomancers were all wearing plain clothes, like one would see on the street. Jeans, khakis, and whatnot. One thing I did notice is that they were all wearing t-shirts bearing the logos of classic rock bands: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who, et cetera. This was a fairly recent revision of Geomancer tradition of nudism, and pandered to the age-old "rock" pun. I guess it was funnier in the '60s.

Looking about the room, I realized that I had no one to talk to. Eon was off chatting up a Geomancer in a Kansas shirt, Titan was finalizing the attack plan with Bullock and Romanov while securing his golden robe over his leather cuirass, and Harrison was off to get his armor adjusted by his Thief mentor.

My eyes set upon the other Assassin I had met. Lucky, the quiet Asiatic girl who was sitting against the wall, smoothing out her robe. I walked over to her and slid down the wall to sit next to her.

"You're Mage," she stated, brushing off her left kneepad.

"And you're... Lucky, right?" I asked. She nodded. "How's it going?"

"Oh, you know..." she muttered looking away from me.

"Not really," I replied, my brow furrowing. "Is something bothering you? You nervous about the mission?"

"Yeah, I guess," she mumbled.

"Come on, talk to me," I encouraged her. Lucky remained silent, so I tried a different angle. "My initiation robes were white and much longer. These are red. Is there any reason for that."

"Well, this tradition dates back to the reformation of the Order by al-Nasr," she responded. "The thought was that red was easy to see so initiates that wandered off could be found easily. That property also lead to intense training in stealth. If your mentor could see you easily, so can your enemy, so learn how to hide."

"So she does talk," I chuckled gazing back at the fabric in my lap. "But the whole easy to see thing seems more like a curse than a gift, wouldn't you say."

"It's like this--" she started before rethinking her analogy. After a moment of deliberate thought she finally came to a reasonable explanation: "Have you ever seen Star Trek?"

I gulped nervously giving her the answer she needed, letting out a quiet chuckle. We were interrupted by Titan standing in front of us again, directing us outside the building and to the helicopter pads. I kept with the people I knew as we all boarded UH-1N Twin Hueys that took off as quickly as they could.

"Hello, this is Plisskin, I will be your pilot today," a voice buzzed over the cabin radio. "The ride there is not so bad, but it's gonna get real shitty when we land. Just remember, watch your six and try not to die."

I looked at the person sitting next to me which just so happened to be that Boomer fellow we met back before coming to this dimension. He gazed at me, unimpressed, as I flashed a nervous smile of greeting towards him. He looked away a scowl plastered on his face. Considering he had been to this Castle before, I decided to respect his privacy. Silence overtook the helicopter as we zoomed through the air towards God knows what. Sergeant Mullins whispered something into Private Williams's ear as the Castle came into view and they both shuddered.

It must have been impressive back in its day, a grand fortress reaching for the sun, the stone walls rising high to keep out any intruder and the towers rising to just barely brush the clouds. When the birds came up over the walls, we saw that the courtyards had all fallen into the abyss on which the Castle had been built.

"Shit," Plisskin muttered, remembering his hairy escape the last time he was here. "We're gonna have to drop you guys off on top of one of the tower or something." To himself he added, "I hope that fucking dragon doesn't come back too soon."

We were deposited on a bridge leading to the central tower. Boomer looked at the remains of the destroyed bridge just to their right, remembering the horrifying fall and the painful save. His hands were still scarred from gripping the wall, then climbing down it. He lead the rest of the team to the central tower, the entrance of which was blocked off by a huge stone slab. Boomer, true to his codename, removed a pack of C4, entered the arming code on the detonation device, and stood back with a clacker in his hand.

We took cover as fragments of rock flew in all directions from Boomer's "entrance-making" as he called it. The explosion did, in fact, leave a hole large enough for all of us to crouch through and enter a large room devoted to a staircase dipping down and then climbing back up to an altar, the top of which was obscured from view. A huge crack, more of a canyon, shot across the floor on our side of the tower, one that split the threshold from the stairs down.

"Beecher!" Boomer called out. The sniper ran to the front of the group. "Did we bring something to get across that?"

A Geomancer in a Stones shirt stepped forward and began to cast a bridge of stone that sprouted from either side of the canyon and met in the middle.

"That'll do it," Beecher muttered.

The bridge was big enough to walk two abreast and carried all of us safely across. When that was done, the Geomancer stepped out again to dissolve the bridge.

Bullock took charge at that moment. "Titan, Mage, Romanov, and I are going to the top of that altar to investigate. The rest of you, set up a perimeter here. Williams and Mullins, go out and check bodies for Lloyd."

We all went our separate ways. I reached the top of the altar first and looked around at the grisly sight; there were the remains of a man lying near the edge of the top of the stairs, his torso split open, his arms lying about a foot away from him on either side, and his head was nowhere to be seen. On the other side of the altar was a large dried bloodstain, but no body.

"What the fuck?" the General muttered to himself, kneeling down to examine the bloodstain. "Etrius. He's gone. Impossible."

"Is something missing?" Titan asked, sarcastically.

"Commander," Bullock replied, "what we are missing is the body of the man who absorbed what was in the artifact. I shot him. In the head. I watched him die. Now he's gone."

***

"He's not here," Mullins growled, throwing the butt of his third cigarette on the ground.

"So many fucking bodies," Williams groaned, standing up. "We might have missed him."

"Impossible," Mullins scoffed. "We checked every one."

"What if he fell into the crevice?" Williams asked.

"I doubt he would have considered that an honorable death," Mullins continued to harumph. "Might as well check all of them again. Just to be sure."

Ray Williams looked around at the room that was littered with dozens upon dozens of the bodies of those infernal zombies, his shoulders sinking as he realized he had to go through this long, frustrating, menial, meticulous wild goose chase again.

"What the fuck," he muttered angrily as he set off back to work.