Alrighty all, I’m back for round three… you’ve all seen by now the first few characters about which my storyline revolves, but you’ve yet to meet the “bad guys”. I’ll be introducing more of them this chapter, and make it clearer… what exactly this is winding up for.

—
With a snort of laughter, Cross darted out of the badly stirred and angry night club, pursued by shouted instructions and the hammering of feet. He became ethereal once again as a mob poured out of the Fusion Bar Jazz and made off in different directions up and down the street. –Looking for him. He figured that after the ruckus he’d caused inside, the XDarkStriders would be on his tail awhile, he’d just have to lay low until things settled down. A beast as big as that guild was capable of deeds to any extent of viciosity, but he was just as sure that it had the same short attention span as the hulking creatures it so easily attuned to. Turning down an alley as the shadows refused to tolerate his intervention any longer, he slipped out of sight again behind the buildings as he became visible and properly substantial again. Scrambling up a fire escape, and hopping across to an open window three stories up, CrossSlash rolled and came to an easy stop before the nightstand in his own room.

“Heh, same old same old, trainin’, clubbin’, and trouble makin’, but the bar fight was good. And that one chick was cute, shame I didn’t get the chance to become more effectively acquainted.” he said, as he scooped up a toothbrush, and some pharmacy issue deodorant from the bedside table. Entering the bathroom, he busied himself about brushing and flossing and all types dentificial things to be done before one goes to sleep. With a contented sigh, he tossed his knapsack on the bedside table, and flopped on the bed –fully dressed- with his communicator. Punching a few buttons, he dropped it back on the table as it began to read off his missed messages in a measured mechanical voice;
“You have two missed messages! Message one; Larger implement in two weeks! Respond now and reciev-” the messenger was cut off as Cross lazily reached over and punched the delete button, grumbling about spam, “Message two; CrossSlash, you’ll not get away with crashing my party so easily.” Cross frowned at the messenger, sitting up on the bed. “I’ve already dispatched some… friends… to meet you. Have a good time now.” Cross was already cramming the messenger back in his knapsack and collecting a choice few items to bring with him. He shut the windows and locked them, then made for the door, talking to himself.

“I don’t see how they tracked me.. I never gave them a full name.. I’m not taking any chances though. I can chill with Faymus tonight.” By now Cross had reached the door, but stopping with his hand near the knob, drew back to look through the peep-hole instead. He had just long enough to see a tall dark shape, carrying a knife, draw back a leg and kick the door in. Cross slipped behind the shadows just in time for the splintered wood to pass through him. Two more shapes crashed through the windows behind, and crouched at ready.
“Crooooooss Slaaaash, buddy. C’mon out man, we just want to say hello to you.” One said, standing up. Cross glanced quickly at their weapons. Two assassins and a bandit by the look of it, all at least twenty levels above him as their armor and equips ranked them. He moved directly in front of one of the two, and with a poof appeared out of thin air to shove the man back through the window through which he entered, shouting all the way to the pavement. The other assassin, not far away, drew stars, and Cross rushed in before he could throw, stabbing the man in one eye with his own claw, then turned to stop the bandit before the man could plunge a short yellow hilted knife into his back. The bazlud struck sparks against Cross’ garnier, and he was thrown back into the assassin, moaning and nursing his eye on the floor nearby. Cross pushed off, kicking the sin in the ribs, and rolled past the bandit’s legs, bracing himself against the opposite wall to pounce.

Meanwhile, the assassin who Cross had knocked out the window came storming back through the door nearby, not looking at all happy for having fallen three stories. The bandit gestured to Cross and the assassin turned to slash him, but was met with another puff of smoke. CrossSlash scrambled across the room to snatch up his knapsack, and slung it across his shoulder –after extracting an item to stash in his back pocket. The three attackers, dressed in all dark clothes, now looking around the room for him, stood ready for his imminent reappearance. Cross stepped in the middle of the room, and was there again, throwing a star at each in a flash of cloth and metal. All at once, the three man disappeared, and Cross backed up against the open window to look frantically around the room. Suddenly, in subsequent flashes of smoke the three men appeared, and the young rouge found a dagger and two claws against his throat. Holding up a hand frantically, Cross asked;
“Hey, hang on, do I get my last words?” The bandit frowned, and didn’t move, but responded in a deep and raspy voice,
“Yes, I suppose. Make it quick.” Cross took the moment to glance at their tags, Achoss, Cerusk, and Shard, all of the XDarkStriders. Mulling it over, Cross came up with the stupidest, happiest dumb grin he could muster, and spoke his “last words”;

“Good bye.” He said, and let himself fall backwards out the window, pulling open the Perion scroll in his back pocket. It flared red, and in a flash of light, the page was incinerated and the rouge gone. The three would be killers dropped silently to the ground, and the bandit, Shard, caught the charred parchment on his way down. With an angry grunt, he read over the scroll, and handed it to the others.
“Perion.”

—
The sun rises earliest in Perion, because although technically it passes over Ellinia first, their view is obscured by trees, and with the high mountainous views of Perion, the warriors are first to see the great glowing orb rise over the eastern peaks. The shadow can be seen visibly driven back westward and into the oceans off Lith and Kerning. As the searing morning sunlight rolled over the tents, buildings, and morning early birds, one adventurer groaned and rubbed his eyes at the morning sunlight. Slumped against the hard stone wall, BlastMage sat up and shook his head, as if to loose the pounding headache lodged there –it must’ve nestled in during the night. First ensuring his starlight was.. erm… entirely on him still, he stood up, shaking himself, and glanced around for his wand, it turned up tucked in a side pocket of his robe. He rustled through his knapsack, nothing stolen… and took out his communicator. He punched a few buttons, and it popped on to inform him he had one new message.

“Hey, fun last night. I like it better when they run.” BlastMage frowned, but continued reading. “I’ll be around here and there, training mainly, I’ve added myself to your buddy list… so I can keep track of you. See you again sometime, and good luck -keep doing that mage thing. Signed Riella.” Blast growled, and punched up his buddylist, to see she was indeed there, up in the East Rockies. His hand hovered over the delete button for a moment, but decided to leave her. It wouldn’t be bad keeping an eye on her as well, so she couldn’t sneak up on him again, if nothing else. Adjusting his red starlight again, Blast grumbled, at least nothing like THAT had happened, the last thing he needed was an angry warrior chick coming after him because she missed a cycle. (Younger readers, you need not ask.)

Stretching back and fourth, Blast gathered his belongings and nursed a sore back. That would be the LAST time he attended a party popper announce’d party. Which reminded him, he had better get off to the Free Market and sell those kumbis. His wallet needed refilling! BlastMage climbed back up Perion, grouchily staying away from cliffs, and stumbled through the warp door to the free market. Suddenly finding himself in the crowded place of sale and exchange, he frowned, he was in no mood for this. And, to make matters worse, he couldn’t stop thinking of the girl who’d chased him down last night. There was no way he’d concentrate under these circumstances, and he was still far to messed up from the last night events to even think about doing business with anyone of even marginal sanity. So, he did the only other thing that made sense, and made off to go track down the psyco fighter he’d met the night before.

Blast growled again as he pocketed the kumbis and made off for the east side of Perion. He was doing a lot of growling lately, women did that to him sometimes. Jumping rock to rock, he ascended the East Rockies, slicing up stumps and checking his locator. He teleported to avoid cliffs, and jumped over monsters when he grew bored with the endless firewood shucking. He climbed up another ridge to find he’d reached his destination, and was now on a ridge slightly above the copper drake’s breeding grounds, where Riella was training below. The monsters weren’t easy kills for him, and he didn’t train on them or even fight with them unless they got in his way. Seeing her slice through them so easily, he was glad he’d jumped off the cliff last night –as opposed to trying to fight her the old fashioned way. Being a warrior, the monsters managed to hit her on occasion, but for the most part she dodged easily, flowing from one to another, stabbing them through with a yellow bladed short sword.

Then, things happened quickly, and Riella was knocked against a wall by a stray horn thrust, she seemed to be tiring out and more of the creatures were gathering around. The fighter fumbled through her knapsack for a potion –by the looks of it, and finding nothing, gritted her teeth and continued to batt the giant lizards away.
“Uh.. oh,” Blast thought to himself, “it seems she spent a little to much time chasing me last night, and no time restocking on potions.” He drew his wizard’s wand and waited, he’d just watch for now, but worst come to worst, he knew he had to do SOMETHING. Worst came to worst sooner than he’d thought, another drake charged and got under Riella’s arm as she was hacking down a different lizard, and she was pinned against the wall –helpless. The warrior squirmed and sliced, but there was nothing to be done, and more lizards were closing in around her. Not stopping long to contemplate the irony of seeing Riella pinned against a wall by something bigger and stronger than herself, Blast sighed. With a flick of his wand he magic guarded, and diving off the ridge, grumbled
“Well, I suppose you only live once.”

—
Riella squirmed and kicked against the giant lizard that had a horn through the rivets in her jangoon top. Now was no time for modesty, but she could by no means slip out of her caught armor with her arm trapped. More of the creatures cackled inhumanely, and stood out of the way as a large male lowered his horn to charge. Just before the creature hit, she closed her eyes and thought of a friend, one she’d probably never see again now…
“Kytin…” almost a whisper, she let the name escape her, but no impaling impact came, instead, she heard a slash, and the charging creature grunted as was knocked back. Opening her eyes, she saw none other than the mage she’d “met” the night before. He held his wand forward, blasting away left and right. The monsters were disgruntled at best, but that was good enough.
“Hey!” she shouted, “free me already will you!?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” he said, blasting the monster holding her. Swinging her sword, she cleaved it in half on her way to the ground. Backing up against him, still slashing back the monsters with magic,
“Hey thanks, what did you say your name was anyway.” Riella inquired, as she stabbed an advancing drake.
“I’m BlastMage, thanks for being so prompt in asking.” he said curtly, and pushed them both back to dodge a incoming pointy drake horn.
“Listen, you’re weakened and I can’t take this many for very long, we’re outta here!”
“No way, I can take them!” Riella protested.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t darling, I said I’m not going to let you try.” he responded, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling open a scroll. There was a blinding flash, and the two landed with a crash in east Perion, near Ayan. The warrior shifted uneasily from foot to foot and frowned at them.
“It was stumps wasn’t it! I KNEW they’d plot against us one of these days, I-” she was silenced as both Blast and Riella told her to “Shove it, wimp.” in stereo.
“Phew, now that… was a close one.” Blast said, as they made their way to a bench nearby. He laid a hand on Riella’s shoulder, and a green light shone around him, healing them both in a flash.
“Hey, now why didn’t you do that back there!” Riella said, angrily.
“Because my oh-so-intelligent darling warrior, I was running out of magic back there.” he ticked his points off on his fingers as he spoke. “No magic, I can’t attack, I can’t heal, I can’t take hits. Comprende?” Riella frowned at him, but her complaints died down as they plopped down on a bench near the taxi stop. He smiled and looked at her a little more closely.
“Whatever possessed you to chase me around Perion last night anyway?”
She smiled devilishly and pushed her bangs back out of her eyes.
“It’s not always training you know. Can’t I have fun once in awhile?” Blast frowned at her response, if THAT was fun, he didn’t want to know what she did when she was angry.
“So, do you jump off cliffs often in your spare time?”

—
Cross stumbled back into Perion more or less conscious and coughed heartily into his workglove. The old man was right, the mountain air was clear, certainly, but man was it hot. In addition, he had to make a mental note that charred stumps with axes through their heads were STRONGER than the normal ones without, not the other way around… He stumbled in the general direction of the Perion taxi, and flopped down on a bench. He’d have to thank the old man for the scroll though, it quite possibly saved his sorry a-
“CrossSlash! Nice escape back there but this is the end of the line!” a voice cut into his train of thought. It was Shard, back already to finish the job!
“Now that’s not fair! A spiffy getaway like that should’ve been worth at least a day to myself! Can you come back in twelve hours?” the rouge complained, as the assassins stepped forward behind the bandit. Shard hasted and had Cross at knifepoint in a moment, stepping casually forward as Cross was forced back.
“I’ve had enough of your games, little thief. It’s past time I squashed you –maggot.” On that last word, the bandit jabbed his knife forward, and Cross stumbled back onto another bench, right into the lap of a startled cleric (who’d been eyeing a nearby warrior affectionately just a moment before).
“HEY!” the mage protested, “trying to flirt here! Get off my la-” and was interrupted
“There he is! That’s the magician who has my kumbis!” Blast looked up to see a flustered looking bowman pointing to him from across the path. With him was two other magicians, around his level by the looks of it, a guy and his apparent girlfriend, by the way they stood together –and apart from the gawky bowman. They all had guild tags.
“Do simmer down Devin, we’ll handle him and his little friends for you.” said one guy.
“Oh great!” said Cross, “MORE DarkStriders! Just what I needed!” The thief was knocked to the ground as Blast stood abruptly, fumbling a handful of blue pills from a pocket on his waist cord.
“Thief boy. You know these people?” he asked, hurriedly.
“The name’s CrossSlash, ya’ grouch and I don’t know THEM, but their guild is out to get me!” he said in a fluster.
“Good enough for me,” said Blast, helping him up and healing him, “Lets take these guys down then!” Riella was standing now as well, and the three put their backs together for a tough fight.
“Hah, three on six? We can take you guys! I’m bluepot happy and have heal, nobody dies until YOU run outta hp!” Blast said, gauding the ring of hostiles now circling around them. The female mage flicked back the sleeves of her starlight and with a wave of a fairy wand cast heal on her own team.
“I’m a cleric as well. Get over your big head.” she said, seemingly enjoying some unknown joke. “What do you make of this lot, Erik?”
“Well Imlye, I see dead people.” he said, laughing, as the circle closed in.