So Far

Return of the Basketball from Hell

Rad reports "I found the thing that took off with the Moebius, it's engaged in some sort of ceremony.  It's alone except for the Walking Tank.  Now would be the time to go after it."

Max agrees, "Yeah we'll do it before we split apart again.  We know the thing can summon a storm and it is a powerful psychic.  This time we have it outclassed I hope.  Rick and Joe will sneak up on it and attack it mentally.  Rad and Darrien will attack the thing from a distance and when it drops the Moebius then R.C. will get in there, grab it, and get out again and head back here.  Sam, Archer and I will attack the Walking Tank with assistance from Chris."

They broke apart into their assigned teams and moved to the co-ordinates Rad provided.  The Walking Tank was prowling around keeping an eye or more open for someone to intrude upon the Basketball's ceremony.  Max waited until it was furthest away before giving the signal to mount the simultaneous attacks.  The Glitter Boy's boomgun cracked again and again.  Missiles pounded into the hard plates of the creature.  From the sky G'lishi dropped fusion bombs taken from a downed C.S. Warbird.  The blasts rocked the creature but didn't slow it.  It ran with lightning quick speed right at Max in his ground unit.  He fired off the last of his missiles and backed away.  G'lishi came to his aid plowing into the slightly larger creature.  They thrashed about and wrestled.

Archer stood his ground pulling the trigger over and over.  The G.B. shuddered ever so slightly as the thrusters flared again and again compensating for the tremendous kick of the boomgun.  Sunlight streamed off of the armour of the Glitter Boy making it a brilliant glittering target.  The creature seemed to be faring too well against the dragon even with his own interference.  G'lishi broke away from it finally.  Archer pulled the trigger again and the shot missed entirely.  As G'lishi flapped up into the air the Walking Tank leapt straight up and landed on the dragon's back.  They crashed to the ground causing a huge explosion of snow.

When it cleared the Walking Tank was on top of G'lishi trying to find a tender un-horned place to bite.  Sam and Max had backed off and were trying to dislodge the monster with their own railguns.  It wouldn't be long before the thing found a way to hurt the baby dragon.  G'lishi metamorphosed into a weasel-like creature disappearing from underneath of the Walking Tank.  He dashed away through the snow as the assault renewed once more.  Archer began pounding on the thing's head.  G'lishi went away to find a quiet place to regenerate.

Back at the Basketball's ritual Joe and Rick got in close to the long limbed demon and just as they were about to make their move it caught a sense of something.  It raised it's storm staff.  As the first sounds of missile fire reached them a laser sizzled through the air followed by another until the staff went flying with a piece of tiny hand still holding onto it.  Joe struck the thing with his evil eye and it spasmed dropping the Moebius.  Rick knock it back with a mental shove.  R.C. dropped in almost on top of the thing grabbed the Moebius and jetted back out again before the Basketball could respond.

R.C. made a beeline for the ley line they had arranged their battle plan at.  Bronson, the Ley Line Walker, was waiting there.  Bronson stood on the ley line with his eyes closed.  He held one hand out palm open to the sky. R.C. slipped the Moebius into a case and slipped the handle over the tall black man's hand.  His head nodded once and then he began to turn blue.  Bronson faded until he looked to be a part of the ley line and then he vanished, taking the Moebius with him.  He would make three quick transfers and be in Tolkeen within minutes.

Rad and Darrien fired another volley of shots on the thing with almost no effect.  Then a huge sliver of light appeared from nowhere and raked across an invisible barrier making it flare visibly.  They sighted down their weapons again and mindful of Rick's position renewed their assault.  Within a matter of seconds the forcefield shattered dropping to the ground in irregular shaped shards.  The psi-sword flickered in scoring a hit on the Basketball's underside and then retreated.  They fired one last flurry and the Basketball fell over.

The Walking Tank finally succumbed to having most of its front quarter turned into a dripping mess.  Carefully Archer approached it, boomgun at the ready.  It didn't move so he began to circle it.  When he reached the rear of it the tail lashed out suddenly scraping across the chest of the Glitter Boy.  Archer fired almost before the tail stopped moving.  The tail flew off severed entirely from the rear of beast.  He took several steps back until he was out of reach of anything else on the thing and fired another six rounds into it and it looked entirely incapable of being picked up in even a dozen pieces.

G'lishi returned after a short while.  He sniffed at the carcass and gingerly took a bite out of it and immediately spit it out.  He shook his head and spit on the ground and then flew away.  He landed again at the spot where the Basketball met its end and took a taste of it.  The taste was agreeable and he offered the others a taste of it.  R.C. gave him a strange look and no one else even bothered to look in his direction or acknowledge him.  He finished the rest of it himself in two bites slurping in the limbs.

He then moved over and looked at the staff that the Basketball had wielded, the one that turned R.C. into an ice cube.  G'lishi sniffed at it and it began to wail again.  He looked around and Chris was approaching. "Back away from that please G'lishi." he said.

G'lishi moved away and then took to the sky to look for something less disturbing to investigate.  Chris picked up the staff and brushed snow off of the end of it.  It had a transparent cylinder on the end and through the haze of cold on its surface he could see movement.  He brushed it with his glove and saw what was inside, what made the wailing.

Inside of the cylinder was a pair of blue-white faeries with only the ragged stumps of their iridescent wings.  They were naked and chained together around a post.  The chains went through their little arms and legs at the elbows and the knees.  Chris dropped the staff and shuddered uncontrollably.  Max approached.

Chris pointed out the end of the staff and Max looked at it for a brief moment.  He pulled a rifle off of his shoulder and looked at Chris.  Chris nodded and Max emptied the clip into the cylinder until it was molten slag.  Then for good measure he slipped a new clip in and emptied it as well burning away more than half of the rest of the staff.  Then without a word Max turned and left.  Chris stared at the remaining end of the staff for a long time.