posted 05-15-99 10:01 PM ET        

When we last left our hero jsorense, he was being held at gunpoint by our hero the guy in the trench coat. Meanwhile, our hero YYYH was bored out of his mind at the new Starbucks, while our hero the other cashier tried to get the demon�s blood cleaned off the wall. Also, our hero Freerunner was attempting to bail our hero Fjorxc out of jail for driving our hero the Cessna down the street.

Whaddaya mean they can�t all be heroes?!?

Now back to our regularly scheduled story.

-=-=-=-=-

Unorthodox Special Agent jsorense didn�t know what to do about the shotgun pointed at his head. Throwing logic out the window he just climbed through, he did the first thing he thought of. �Who are you,� he asked.

�I think I�m the one in the position to ask the questions around here, don�t you?�

�You�ll never get anything out of me!�

The stranger cocked the hammer.

�Alright, I�ll tell you whatever you want to know, just don�t hurt me,� screamed jsorense.

�Awwww geez, I wasn�t going to hurt you. Just tell my why you�re following me.�

�The better question is why were you snooping around CWAL HQ?�

�I could ask you the same thing.�

�Good point.�

�Well?�

�Well what?

�Aren�t you going to answer?�

�Answer what?�

�Why you were snooping around CWAL HQ!�

�Oh, that. It�s what I do.�

�It�s what you do?!?�

�Yeah, you heard me! It�s what I do!�

�Well, I suppose where CWAL is concerned that is normal. I�ve seen far stranger things.�

�Wha? How do you know so much about CWAL? You couldn�t have been snooping around that long, I would have seen you before!�

�You start messing with the CWAL here, you have no idea what you�re getting yourself into. There are 10 times these many CWALers in Irvine.�

Jsorense�s eyes widened. He completely forgot that he wasn�t the one holding the firearm. �Who are you!�

The stranger lowered the shotgun. �You won�t recognize me, but Fjorxc would. That�s all you need to know right now. Now get out of here, and don�t let me catch you snooping around in CWAL�s garbage again. That�s the fodder�s and newbie�s job.�

Jsorense took the opportunity to make his escape, while the stranger�s guard was down. Well, that�s how he told the story at least. In reality, the stranger just walked away heading back towards the IHOP.

Chrisk charged into the IHOP, screaming his little fodder lungs out. �Someone just tried to kill me!�

�Shaddap Chrisk,� Exile said. �Everyone is trying to kill you.�

With that, Exile calmly swept out one arm and decapitated Chrisk with a warp blade. The fodder rematerialized and ran back over to Exile. �But there really is someone out there!�

�Fine, fine, I�ll check it out if it�ll shut you up.� Exile got up and headed to the door, slicing Chrisk cleanly in two as he passed. Before he reached the door however, the stranger had the audacity to come in himself. �Who are you and why are you trying to kill our fodder,� questioned Exile.

The stranger took off his hat. �That should be rather obvious, on both accounts.�

Just then, Fjorxc walked into the room. �Hey DN, Exile. Oh, Exile, try to not make so much of a mess when you kill Chrisk inside, would you?� Fjorxc was on his way back out of the room before it clicked. �Dark Nexus? What are you doing here? When did you leave Irvine?�

�A few months ago,� Dark Nexus admitted. �I�ve been wandering the continent ever since. Didn�t realize that I was in Hunt Valley until I saw you driving that Cessna down the street again.�

�Stay awhile! We could used someone with your experience around here!�

�I just stopped in to say hello. If you do need my help sometime, I�ll be around. And if anyone comes looking for me, you haven�t seen me.� With that, Dark Nexus, the absent leader of the Circle of the Shadows, put his hat back on and left. Imran got up out of the chair he was in and walked over to where Fjorxc was.

�Is he always like that,� Imran asked.

�Definitely.�

-=-=-=-=-

Dark Nexus *W* *T* *S* : Getting a straight answer out of him sometimes is worse than pulling teeth. Never loses his cool. Due to his cool composure, he is completely immune to all forms of musical torture, with the exception of the Inspector Gadget Theme Song and "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing". If things affect him, they affect him big time, and the results are almost impossible to predict (with the exception of the 2nd song, he'll automatically do ANYTHING to stop the music). He loves to try out experimental weapons [they usually don't work as planned], but has a shotgun for backup. Is the leader of a mysterious organization known as the Circle of the Shadows, but left Irvine after the death of Kebs, a fellow COTS member at the hands of demons.

-=-=-=-=-

Dark Nexus

�Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting.�

posted 05-15-99 11:59 PM ET            

Your faithful YYYH

posted 05-18-99 03:55 PM ET            

"NO!"

D'oh!

posted 05-19-99 04:18 PM ET            

So, back in Algeria...

SnowFire sits in his cell pondering the meaning of life and other such things for days upon days upon end until he's nearly bored to tears. Then he hears something towards the bottom of his cell.

*SCRITCH SCRITCH* *SCRITCH SCRITCH*

SnowFire shakes himself out of the funk he's been in and returns to his normal self. "I wonder what this is?" Snow clears the ground around where the scritching is. Beneath the dust lies some old, old markings on the ground. SnowFire looks at them and instantly recognizes where he is. With horror.

This is the ruins of the old Century Club, the first of all the great clubs of the ancient ages. It begat the CC Club that battled MikeH's Society for Free ProSMAC and the even more powerful CCC club later. And also, it was the direct ancestor of the I Club. But the Century Club had quickly and long ago grown to disuse and decay. When a young SMACer named SnowFire had first gotten his 100 posts, he wanted it to mean something, damn it. So he had led a brief resurrection of the Century Club and eventually transformed it into a house of black magic with a zombified Miriam preaching there. But after several "incidents," the Club was closed once and for all. However, the protection markings were left to insure that the myriad of demons, dark beasts, elementals, and other bad things could not escape.

Unfortunately, it was now apparent that the place Snow had chosen to sleep the last night was exceedingly bad, even despite the poor quality of the bed. The markings were clearly all screwed up and moved around. And the demon crawling up through the sand just drove the point home a whole lot better.

"Hey! Human! Help us out of here, and we'll help you out!"

Taking quick stock of the situation, SnowFire quickly responded "Sure. You get the guards, and I'll open doors."

Soon a veritable horde of little demons was popping out of the hole. Snow did the usual "Ack! I'm sick! I'm sick!" routine, and as soon as the guard opened the door to check, he was rushed by hundreds of the little things. After that, the horde of demons pretty much cleared the prison while Snow looked for his stuff.

After actually making it outside, the first little demon came up to thank Snow. "Well, can you let me thank you back?"

The demon almost got a cute little smile on his face, and said "Sure!"

SnowFire took a rocket launcher he stole from the armory and planted it directly in the demon's face. The resulting splatter and destruction of a perfectly good rocket launcher in the explosion may have been overkill, but I have spares somewhere. No matter.