Five embattled souls gazed toward the horizon as the darkness of night fell away and the dull red disc of the sun began to rise. The crimson dawn revealed a landscape reminiscent of a modern warzone. Toppled buildings, localized fires, and the occasional staggering body of a walking corpse spoke volumes of the devastation wrought upon the small city.

"This—" began Vita, "All of this because one ridiculous man wanted power."

Chaine grunted then took in a deep breath and slowly released it. "Yeah, that Waldo has a lot in common with pig boy..."

"Even that foul sorcerer wants to actually rule, this just seems like wanton destruction," said Vita. A moment later her eyes widened and her cheeks burned crimson. "I did not just defend that evil creature."

Chaine began to make a snide retort, but he was interrupted by Samantha. "As interesting as whatever you're talking about may be, we need to finish this and find Scott."

"Right," said Vita with a certain nod of her head. "Let's go."

"You're not going," said Chaine with a snort.

"Who do you think you are?" demanded Vita. She crossed her arms over her chest and stomped her foot at him meaningfully.

"It's not about who I am. It's about who you are," said Chaine. "If you leave and get killed, everything that happened here becomes pointless."

Vita's anger intensified and she opened her mouth as if she intended to say something. However, Chaine cut her off. "That obelisk thing over there? It was given to us for the... the, uh, mission. It's a mission we fail if you die. It might not bring you back like it did for Kitty."

"You!" exclaimed the princess, her face turning red in the process. Her outburst echoed through the area briefly, before both her anger and facial features softened. "Fine. Go then..."

Samantha looked at them briefly then glanced over to Saelil. "We should get going. If the moon really was what caused him to change like that, he should at least be calm enough to deal with at the moment."

"Agreed. Who knows what my beloved is doing at the moment," said Saelil.

"I should go with you," said Kitty.

Everyone turned to look at her. It did not take long before she looked down and sighed loudly. Kitty was not going anywhere in her current condition. There was no reason for anyone to speak those words, however, so the remaining trio set off to find their missing companion.

The rubble was of no consequence for Saelil. She flew above it all and directed the others toward locations where it would be easiest to move. Time passed quickly. They soon returned to the place where the battle originally began.

"This place looks like it caught hell," said Samantha. She glanced over toward the smoldering bodies of rotting corpses nearby then silently agreed with her own statement. The walking dead would certainly make any place seem like such a mythical location.

Chaine hopped up onto the top of a large pile of debris then scanned the area. After a brief moment, he grunted loudly. "He could be anywhere."

Saelil reached up and lightly placed a hand to her chest. "I can barely feel his presence."

"You can feel his... presence?" asked Samantha, slowly. Any sentiment in her tone was drowned out by the digitization of her voice. Her words might have held any number of meanings.

"Barely. We are bound together spiritually, but it's like he's gone an incredible distance from me," admitted Saelil. She closed her eyes and sought to clarify the sensation.

"He's not close by then?" asked Chaine.

"I don't know. It's different than when he's simply far away. I can usually feel a general sense of where he is in relation to me," said Saelil. There was a hint of concern in her tone even though her eyes did not open.

Samantha looked up to the floating elf, "Different, how? Can you tell where he is with these feelings of yours?"

"It used to be clear, but now it is vague," said Saelil. "I can only sense he is somewhere in the area, but not any real direction."

Her eyes snapped open not long after she spoke. Quickly, she floated down to a nearby overturned car.

"This might help," she said before she took hold of a side mirror that hung loosely from the wrecked door of the vehicle. With a decisive tug, she pulled it free of its wiring and held it aloft.

"How is that going to help?" asked Chaine. He hopped down from his perch atop the rubble and walked toward the relatively clear area in the center of the street.

"There's a certain spell I know that might work. It'll have to be a modified version, though. I'll need to test it before we can use it to seek out my beloved," replied Saelil.

"Test it how—" began Samantha, only to pause mid-sentence when Saelil pulled a shard of glass from her robes and sliced her wrist.

"You know what, you just do whatever it is you intend to do," said Samantha with a slight shudder in her voice.

Saelil knelt down and held her arm in such a way that the rapidly flowing blood flowed down her hand and extended to her index finger. She quickly crafted a circle drawn from her own life's essence then held the mirror aloft to catch the early morning sun.

Completely focused on the task at hand, Saelil ignored her bleeding wrist and intoned words of arcane mystery while she used the mirror to create a spot of light at the center of the circle.

~ Oh, thou abysmal and malodorous fiend who does hide in the shadows. You who waits to strike at the innocent from the safety of darkness. Night creature, maleficent one who has wronged me egregiously. I name you now in the light of dawn.

Onion!

Let the radiant all-seeing eye of the sun shine the light of justice down upon you, that I might see the true wickedness of your heart. May it now be known to the world! ~

She took a deep breath then passionately cried, "Heart Seeker!"

The little spot of light flared brightly then morphed into a stylized golden eye symbol. The eye rose up into the air then flew forward and imprinted itself in the center of Saelil's forehead. Her own eyes flashed with a bright golden yellow light for a brief instant.

"Quickly, the spell will only remain in effect so long as I actively seek the target," said Saelil.

"What target?" asked Chaine.

Saelil floated back up into the air, still unconcerned for her bleeding wrist. Blood dripped down her arm as she drifted silently toward her destination. Samantha and Chaine soon followed. No more words were spoken during their short journey.

Soon, they rounded a large pile of debris that used to be several high-rise buildings and located what the elf sought. It was the overcooked remains of her pet Onion.

Saelil moved forward swiftly and extended her hand outward. Onion's body began to writhe and wriggle slightly. A moment later its side split open and a softly glittering crystalline structure roughly the size of a cantaloupe fell out of its body. She rushed over and took hold of the darkly shining gemstone. Immediately, he eyes grew concerned as she noted dozens of cracks and deep clefts in the stone.

"The modified usage of the spell seems to be a success," she said after a brief moment of silence. "It should lead us to him."

"So, what was that all about? The crystal that came out of... Onion?" asked Samantha.

"That was Onion's soulstone, his magical core. I can use it to recreate him, though he will be much smaller and quite a bit weaker in the future," she replied. Saelil slipped Onion's core into her robe pocket then sighed loudly.

"Well, that's still something... I guess," said Chaine in an effort to seem at least a little comforting.

"Right," said Saelil. "Anyway, let's try to find my beloved."

Saelil once again cast the Heart Seeker spell. However, she gasped aloud and clutched at her chest after she bore witness to what the all-seeing eye of just discovered.

"What is it?" asked Samantha.

"Beloved... He is not too far away, but..." began Saelil, her voice trembling softly.

"But?" asked Samantha, even the digitization could not hide the emotion in her voice this time. It was deep concern.

"There seems to be no life in him. The spell was able to locate him due to our connection, but it won't be able to lead us there as there is no heart beat to sense," replied Saelil. She took a deep breath then released it. "My own sense of him did increase a little, however. If we move quickly that feeling might not fade entirely before we find him."

"Right. Lead the way," said Samantha.

Saelil rose into the air and drifted toward her vaguely sensed beloved. The others followed as best they could from the ground. Soon they came to a massive crater that slightly barred their passage.

"This is one big hole," said Chaine, his eyes wide.

"Must be where he dropped the nuke that he never bothered to let me see," muttered Samantha in a tone that bespoke annoyed petulance even with the digitization.

"Nuke?" asked Chaine. "What's that?"

"Really big explosion," said Samantha simply.

"Ah," replied the Chaine. He took note of the smoothness of the sides of the crater, like some great scoop had simply removed everything perfectly. "Not a bad angle..."

He laughed a little then unleashed a friendly grin. "I know this is supposed to be a sad thing and all. He's a good guy, and probably dead... for the moment at least. But... race you to the other side?"

Before Samantha could respond to the oddness of the hero's statement, Chaine leapt from the rim of the crater and hopped onto his shield just before he struck the side-bank. He rapidly rode his shield down the side while shouting, "Aw! Yeah!"

Samantha snorted loudly and said, "Can you believe this guy?" to Saelil, only to see that the dark elf had already flown a good distance across the crater.

A digitized snort echoed through the area once more before she said, "Well, why not?"

She morphed into a ball, released a bit of plasma then exploded off the side of the rim. She hit the angled bank of the crater with explosive force and quickly caught up with Chaine.

"Oh no you don't!" he cried excitedly. He whipped out his hook shot and used it to drag himself forward at greater speed. Soon, he was once again ahead of the power armored spaghetti lover. His dominance faded quickly, however, as a serious of plasma explosions rocked the area and sent the rapidly spinning heroine forward like a demented pinball hell bent on getting the high score.

"Hey! That's not fair!" cried Chaine with a laugh.

Soon, Samantha raced up the far side of the crater and spun lazily in the air high above the rim for a brief second before she rapidly shifted back into normal mode. She landed with an exaggerated somersault then continued walking like nothing had happened.

Chaine also caught a lot of air as he rocketed up the side of the crater. He performed an inverted three-sixty, then flipped and landed on his feet. Briefly, he glanced back at the crater then turned away. It was fun, but unfortunately he would probably never get another chance to do it again.

As he left to catch up with Samantha and Saelil, his memory of how much fun that short race proved to be stuck with him. Lightly, he murmured, "Racing adventures with friends, not bad... Need prizes, though."

The fun and frivolity of the moment passed quickly as they trotted along at a steady pace. As they grew nearer to Scott, Saelil began to move more swiftly. She continued on, even when Samantha stopped briefly to finish off the occasional straggling berserker zombie that popped up. Once the land-bound duo was forced to fend off a dozen of the creatures, not that such a fight was even remotely difficult for them.

Eventually they passed through an area where the buildings were in better condition, save for two that were seemingly torn apart from the inside out. Between their twin piles of rubble the team finally caught sight of Scott, or what was left of him.

"Those..." said Samantha, shock evident in her voice despite the digitization. As though a light-switch had been flipped, she cried out "Get away from him!" in digitized rage and rushed forward.

A horde of zombies had descended on the fresh meat that Scott represented. Even now the bloated, overfed, corpses gnawed at whatever part of his remains they could get their rotting hands on. It was an orgy of undead ecstasy awash in a sea of blood and gore. Strangely, a handful of zombies milled around while asking the others to politely stop eating their friend. It wasn't nice to eat your friends, after all.

Ravenous undead, or polite party guest, the zombies died all the same. Shots sped rapidly through the air as berserkers and common zombies alike were torn apart in a hail of plasma fire.

Chaine started forward, his eyes tight, but Saelil floated down in front of him and shook her head. He looked askance at her, but all she did was shake her head once more. It took him a moment to understand. The sight of Samantha barreling headlong into a horde of zombies while she shot, kicked, punched, and blew them up in a wild display of absolute aggression brought him a new understanding of the situation. She needed this right now, and honestly she might actually shoot him without realizing it if he got involved. The armored girl seemed like a thing possessed.

Samantha span to the side then lashed out with a hard straight punch to a zombie that moved past her firing line. Her suit flashed brightly for a brief instant before she lunged forward with incredible ferocity. She barreled through a press of zombies using a full-power shoulder tackle that sent them flying.

The anger that she screamed out initially fell away and turned to ruthless efficiency as she leapt high into the air and rained fire down upon the horde below. Halfway to the ground she morphed into a ball and ran through the closest group while leaving little presents behind for them. Said presents exploded rapidly in succession as she continued her merciless slaughter.

She morphed back into standard mode just in time to deliver a flying spin-kick to a leaping berserker zombie, and continued her rotation by turning and firing at a zombie standing atop one of Scott's well-chewed thighs. She finished her movement by spring-boarding off of a zombie below and then leaping to the top of a nearby pet shop.

Several minutes of rapid fire murderous mayhem followed as she cleared the area of anything that came anywhere near where Scott's gargantuan corpse. When the shots ceased, and the moaning zombies moaned no more, she stood defiantly on that rooftop and almost seemed to dare something to crawl out of the rubble for a chance at a free dinner.

"So, that happened," remarked Chaine dryly to Samantha after the area remained silent for a time.

Samantha snorted loudly then turned away. "What? If there's not enough of him to resurrect I might not get paid."

"Yes, of course," said Saelil, as she joined in on the conversation.

"Whatever..." replied Samantha with a most unladylike grunt, "Let's just find a way to get what's left of this gigantic idiot back to the safe zone..."

"So you can get paid?" asked Saelil, softly.

"Yes," replied Samantha in a curt manner. She said nothing else to clarify the matter further, which in some ways spoke volumes about her motivations.

"Yeah, about that?" asked Chaine. He gestured toward the massive body. "How exactly are we moving all of that?"

"That is a problem," said Saelil quietly.

"Maybe we could push him in a truck or something?" asked Samantha, quickly. Now that the topic of discussion had changed to something proactive, she was eager to finish the task.

"Is there anything big enough to haul him in, though?" asked Chaine. "I don't know much about you, but none of these things seem like they could carry something the size of him."

"It would have been nice if he had simply returned to normal size after the sun came up," admitted Saelil. Quietly, she continued, "Seems he must have... died, before the full transformation could take place."

"That doesn't change anything. We have to get him back to the safe zone," replied Samantha. "Maybe we can cable together a bunch of smaller vehicles?"

"The streets are blocked, though. There might be easier passage further this way, but not for the entire fleet of vehicles it would take to get this guy through," said Chaine.

Saelil shook her head. "No. There's a much simpler way to do this... But it will take several trips."

"What do you mean?" asked Samantha, her digitized voice managing to sound suspicious in the process.

Saelil took a deep breath then said, "Well, if this was my world he would have simply resurrected at the obelisk. Kitty proved that the corpse needed to be retrieved here, not unlike a common mortal's resurrection in my home world."

"You said he would resurrect automatically, and then say he wouldn't? Which is it?" asked Samantha.

"He follows a different standard. He's a champion, a higher level than even a child of Heros from my world. Children of Heros will automatically return to life at an obelisk, but must pay exorbitant fees in essence to remove their desiccated status," explained Saelil.

She took a breath then continued, "Scott was similar, but had a few more perks. Mortals, however, must be resurrected by a priest and that usually required bringing at least some of the body back to an obelisk. Even then it might not work if enough of the body can't be retrieved or they have angered the gods."

"So, by multiple trips you mean...?" asked Samantha, slowly.

Saelil turned to Chaine. "I know it is a lot to ask, but can you put that sword of yours to work once more?"

"What do you want me to do?" asked Chaine. However, he eyed Scott's massive corpse as he said it. He already had a good idea of what she would ask.

"He's too big to move all at once, and there's no way to know how much of his body we will actually need to bring back..." said Saelil.

"You want me to... That's just..." said Chaine. The idea of hacking up the body of a dead companion did not sit right with him in the slightest.

Samantha walked over to a lengthy piece of sharp metal that she saw sticking up out of the rubble. "I'll help."

Chaine saw the other members of the team were resolute. He nodded his head. Saelil rose high into the air and acted as a lookout while they went about the grisly business of dismembering Scott's body.

Once they finished, Saelil led them to the site of a likely transport vehicle. Samantha took one look at it and immediately pointed her plasma cannon toward the floating elf. "Do you think that's funny?"

"What do you mean?" asked Saelil.

Chaine looked at the big vehicle for a moment then slowly asked, "I don't know that much about these kinds of things. I only saw them at some of the cross-world hubs when traveling... but isn't that a garbage truck?"

"Garbage truck?" asked Saelil. On the side of the vehicle words such as municipal waste disposal were emblazoned in bright letters.

"Yes, a garbage truck. You want us to haul his body back in a garbage truck," said Samantha. Though digitized in nature, the worlds still managed to drip with a venomous intent.

"Unfortunately, I don't see any other options," said Saelil. "That garbage truck, as you call it, is the only vehicle I can see that might be able to take his entire body at once now that it is no longer in one piece."

"There's probably still garbage in it," said Samantha with a dangerous edge in her digitized voice.

Saelil floated over to the truck then looked into the back. "I do see quite a bit of refuse inside, but there is more than enough room."

Samantha growled softly then seemed to relax her posture slightly, though it was hard to tell due to her suit. She waved her hand from side-to-side and said, "Whatever. Let's get this done."

Chaine immediately thought of, and nearly said, the words, "This whole situation is garbage, so it sort of fits." However, a more responsible part of his mind kept those words from escaping his lips. Perhaps it was a sense of his own mortality. Samantha's explosive outlash earlier was still fresh in his mind. Humor was a good thing, and quite an efficient stress reliever, but at the moment it might also get him shot.

Thankfully, the truck's wheels were in good working order. Unfortunately, the vehicle would not start on its own. The team was forced to rig up a method to pull it back to the obelisk.

They loaded Scott's various bits and pieces into the back then Samantha gripped the pull bar they had rigged in the front. Various cables snapped tautly into the air as she dragged the vehicle forward several feet.

"Hey? Why aren't the wheels moving?" asked Chaine.

"What?" asked Samantha.

"Yeah, the wheels aren't moving at all," he replied.

Samantha stood in place and stared at him for a moment. "Why wouldn't they be—?" she began to ask, only to cut herself off mid-sentence. "Wait, does anyone know how these antiques work?"

Chaine shrugged. Saelil shook her head. Samantha grunted loudly.

Samantha moved back to the driver's seat and began to look at the various levers and knobs. "I remember how he started the other one, but am I missing something?"

Eventually she noticed the numbers and letters in the driver's console. "The little orange line is on the letter 'P'..."

"P? Does it look like the sideways face of a happy man?" asked Saelil.

"Happy man? No, a P is a little line with a half-circle at the top," said Samantha slowly.

"Ah! The tongue out sideways!" exclaimed Saelil. "You need it to be on the happy face. I recall the tongue becoming a happy face when my beloved made the other cart move."

"Happy face... Do you mean the 'D'?" asked Samantha.

"Yes? Perhaps that is what it is called? It's sort of like half of a circle," explained Saelil.

"Ah, probably the D," agreed Samantha.

"Yes, instead of the 'P', you need the 'D' in order to perform at your highest level," agreed Saelil.

"I need the D, huh. Alright, now how do I make that happen?" asked Samantha, lightly. She thoughtfully manipulated all manner of levers and knobs until she managed to manipulate the right one in the appropriate manner.

She smiled as she finally got what she worked so hard to acquire. Samantha returned to her original position then pressed forward. Her incredible technologically enhanced strength drew the garbage truck forward with great ease as the wheels began to move. "Oh. This so much easier with the D."

Saelil nodded lightly to her. "Maybe that's why the D looks like a happy sideways man? It makes things work better?"

"Maybe," said Samantha before she grew silent and focused on her task.

A slight smirk crossed Saelil's lips after she turned away. It had been a fun little exchange. Fun was in short supply at the moment, all things considered.

As they moved out of the area, Samantha pulled the garbage truck like a technological super horse, while Saelil directed her movements. Chaine would occasionally rush ahead and remove debris from the road before the truck arrived, or kill off a few small groups of zombies that popped up during transit.

Hours passed as they worked their way slowly back to the safe zone. It was late afternoon before they arrived. After a brief round of questions from Vita and Kitty, Samantha dragged the garbage truck into the safe zone.

The obelisk lit up the moment they entered the area and several pieces of semi-translucent giant-sized Scott appeared nearby. Everyone was stunned by the emergence of the bloodless creature, none were more stunned than Scott himself. His bodiless head spoke up, "The hell?"

"This? What in the—" began Chaine. He had no further words for what he now saw.

Kitty walked over and patted at one of his dismembered ghost feet. "Hey look, it twitches if you touch it."

Everyone, except Scott for obvious reasons, turned to watch. Kitty batted at Scott's foot and the toes twitched a little.

"That is just disturbing," said Vita.

"I have---" began Scott while he tried his best to eyeball Kitty since he could not move his head. "Certain questions..."

"Meow, meow," said Kitty happily while she batted at his foot with her paw.

"Hey that tickles, you know," said Scott.

A brief smattering of laughter ensued, but it died quickly. The situation was simply too weird, and there were problems to be sorted out.

"Now what?" asked Samantha. "Aren't you supposed to come back to life or something?"

"Maybe I have to touch the obelisk?" asked Scott. "Try dragging my hand over to it, or something."

The team members eyed each other for a moment. Scott spoke up, "It's a simple job, just a hand. You probably did worse getting me here since I'm literally all over the place right now."

Samantha grabbed his closest hand, hefted it upward and dragged it toward the obelisk. Soon she completed the simple hand job, and the obelisk lit up. Scott received a system message.

[Message]

Greetings dismembered champion!

You and one of your teammates seem to be no longer among the living. Would you like to engage a full-party respawn? Respawn costs will be removed from your final reward for the current mission due to the fact that all mission requirements will have been met. Once you respawn, you and all involved parties within the safe zone will automatically be transported back to your home point.

If you have left anything behind, now is the time to get it.

Respawn now?

[Yes | No]

[--]

Scott spoke up, "Is there anything here that any of you need to get? We can respawn now, but if we do so we will automatically return to my home point."

None of the others needed anything, so Scott opted to respawn. The moment he selected yes, a bright light flashed from the obelisk. The world went white briefly, and then the group disappeared. Soon, the obelisk followed. The emergency mission to rescue princess Vita had finally come to an end.