Mature Content Warning: Crude and hateful language and Scott sings a song badly.

Author’s Note:

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Chapter 24: Waiting on a Bus

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A clacking of keys subsided suddenly as Pirouette pulled her fingers back to massage the bridge of her nose. The release of tension caused her eyes to close softly. She had been running the numbers and calculating statistical analysis for days without finding the answer.

"It just doesn't make sense." she admitted with a sigh before opening her eyes and staring blearily at the low-glare screen. Scott's consistent growth and strange quasi-magical powers just did not make sense from a mathematical perspective.

He should have topped out already. Even the strongest of strength enhancing genetic gifts only allowed an ordinary human being to gain between three and four times the standard capacity, and that was with excessive training. True there were exceptions such as transformation abilities that allowed for a change in size and shape. Those abilities vary wildly in power scale but they were ridiculously rare. She had never personally met anyone with that power, not even the ogre Demi-Human that had the ability as a part of its nature.

The original hypothesis was that his latent pure blood human talents had awakened within him due to dimensional instability and an influx of magical energy. However, that particular train of thought did not make sense after all the studies.

For that to be true with his continued growth rate the man would have had to have been some kind of slumbering dynamo. It would have been like a god from her home world pretending to be a mortal man.

What made matters worse was that instead of tapering off, the growth seemed to be increasing. His last blood chemistry screening had begun showing trace elements of minerals not found commonly in anything he could have been eating. That could only mean that he was in fact producing them himself.

"Just what are you Scott?" asked the dark elven hottie as she sighed at the picture of him on her desk. It was one he had taken with his shirt off. He was flashing a bright smile and giving her a 'thumbs up' during one of their extremely rare outings together for training purposes.

The silly bastard had even signed it for her when she was not looking. It said, 'To my biggest fan... luv ya P-chan... Scott.'

"How can you keep growing stronger like this? You don't have Demi-Human genetics, or any kind of possessing spirit... It's unnatural for humans without special training to become this powerful.” she mumbled to herself before chewing her lower lip.

While it was entirely true that he was still a bit weak compared to most combat grade Demi-Human types in the world, he was quite a bit beyond the human norm. For instance a normal fit human male should be able to bench press between one hundred eighty and two hundred ten pounds. Scott's bio-structure registered him at having the technical capacity of max lifting over one metric ton of weight.

That was fairly low-end for a fighting type Demi-Human. In a normal state of conscious decision he would not be able to use more than thirty percent of that strength.

Still, he was superhuman compared to an ordinary creature. She personally could not bench more than two hundred pounds and she was pretty damn fit if she said so herself. Of course, being an elf did not lend toward high end physical strength. Her race was known for intellect, agility, and reflexes after all.

Well, that, and the fact that she would never grow old and thus she was gifted with an ass that you would still be able to bounce a quarter off of long after most of the current civilizations on this planet turned to dust. There was something to be said for elven biology after all.

Pirouette sighed and began another data entry session on her voice blog, "Subject Scott, gender male, species pure blood homosapien...” but she stopped short after she spoke those words. Could she even call him that anymore?

He possessed no truly aberrant protein strands or other DNA signatures, but with the molecular shifts in his bio-chemistry there was some cause to believe that such a thing might not be the case much longer.

Her lab equipment was state of the art, but her field was more generalized than that of her guest professor Bates. Perhaps tomorrow when he showed her his findings on the blood samples she had given him recently he would be able to tell her more.

The man had seemed as giddy as a school girl earlier that day, and if she'd had more time to listen to him she might already know what the man knew. To be honest she had avoided it on purpose. Something told her that what the professor had discovered would be important, but irrevocable, knowledge.

Pirouette glanced at the picture of Scott on her desk once more and sighed.

"What are you...?” she said again softly.

The real question she had wanted to ask was... "Why haven't you called in over a week?"

-----

"I don't know rrrwhy I have to wearrllrr this...” began Reina. She spoke in a way that seemed to combine a whiney tone and a purr. The clothes were a fairly normal tee shirt and skirt combination. They even seemed a bit loose, but she acted like they were going to choke the life out of her. For some reason they seemed far too restrictive and she wanted to be free of them as soon as possible.

It had taken over an hour to find something she would wear this morning without tearing it to shreds. The once shy and demure shrine princess seemed to shun the wearing of clothes nowadays.

"Sorry Reina, but for this to work we have to look like a normal couple; just some guy and his 'pet'. Pet owners nearby will usually dress up their pets. So, sorry you have to keep your clothes on.

She purred in annoyance and lowered her lashes at him. Her tail whisked softly back and forth as she stared at the man. It disgusted her that every time he said the word 'pet' she wanted to bite him and curl her tail around him.

Whenever she noticed those feelings Reina struggled inside herself. 'Down girl. Down! No master for you... You're your own woman and no one's making you their personal love slave!' she thought to herself vehemently while her eyes traced his sleek musculature.

Finally, she broke her silence by asking the same question she had asked twice already this morning. "Why bring me? These guys obviously know what I look like."

Scott nodded at her casually while continuing to scan the area as they walked along the dirt path to the road. "Like I said, that is the point."

"It still doesn't make sense! Won't they trrury to hide if they see us coming?" she asked curiously.

"Nah." he informed her casually. What Scott was not telling her was that he suspected the truth about the ones who were running the bus kidnapping ring. If he was right then Reina almost had to be in attendance. It was in genre after all.

Beside that point, if his hunch was right the kidnappers would not care who came along as long as they got some people.

She frowned at him then shook her head. How was this going to work?

Scott was as nervous as a whore in church while he walked along that path. He was forced to leave his armor behind for this. His sword was in attendance, as many young people kept one for decorative purposes currently, but without his armor he felt as naked as Reina wished to be.

He rarely came out of his cerametal shell outside of a building. It was a nice well-constructed home away from home. Even if that home tended to get badly damaged by the constant fighting he was in.

The armor was about a generation more advanced than the fighting systems that were being designed for the army back home. The future war fighter system mark II would be a good name for it.

Unfortunately, power armor was not on the general market in this world. Certainly his had many smart functions, like the heads up display and the ability to self-repair when stored in his pack, but it did not enhance his strength or speed.

Even back home they were developing exo-skeletons like that. Heck Japan had a robotic exo-skeleton that was used in hospitals and nursing homes to help the staff carry and lift patients with ease.

By the year twenty twenty-five there would have been enhanced armor weapons systems with strength and speed enhancement as well as smart weapon capabilities that allowed for auto weapon targeting.

Why this world, with its seemingly advanced technology, did not even have that was beyond his understanding. He guessed that the defensive material was about a decade more advanced than the type IV ballistic plates from back home, but that was about the extent of the upgrade.

The only answer to his question that he could come up with was also a very sad one. People in general had given up on human advancement and warfare in favor of the much more accessible Demi-Humans. In a world where everyone could have been Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, people were relying on what seemed easiest.

It was not an entirely fair assessment of course. The technology to create ballistic armor similar to what the military wore in America had been lost in this world until about twenty years ago.

Only the advent of Demi-Humans that heavily relied on firearms had given the researchers a reason to study the outdated technology at all. The material construction of modern body armor was highly resistant to firearms, but it was easy to crack when shot and tended to only protect you once in the same spot. It would definitely save your life, and help prevent the massive body trauma that wearing only the vest would cause.

Contrary to popular belief, soft armor did stop most common ammunition types. People generally disbelieved that something less than an inch thick could stop a bullet, but it did that very well against most common rounds.

What it did not stop was the brutal force of the strike. The bullet would not penetrate the body armor, but people had still died from the trauma inflicted to internal organs from the force of the blow.

It also would not prevent you from being stabbed to death. A knife would easily puncture non-plated body armor defeating it utterly. That's why many people who did not go in for SAPI plates relied on trauma plates instead.

The insertion of a trauma plate protected against forceful blows and stabs a bit better than Kevlar and its more capable modern cousins, such as graphene sheets, would do alone.

As they walked along, with Scott musing on the frailty of his armor-less mortal form, the duo kept silent. Neither really knew what to say to the other and that was enough to keep them quiet.

I mean what were they gonna say beyond, "Hi... uh... nice weather we're having."

They reached the main road and continued on toward the clearing that Cerene had claimed to see the day before. Scott's consideration of the difference between his old army life and this life brought back a bit of memory to him, so as they wandered along he began to hum a song from his days at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Reina grimaced at the catchy tune and shook her head. It was not long, though, before she started picking up the cadence and hummed along with him at uncertain intervals. Finally she had to ask, "What are you humming anyway?"

"Dog Faced Soldier...” he replied softly.

Reina blinked at him and shook her head. What kind of name was that for a song?

"How's it go?" she asked curiously. She had never heard the name of that song before and wondered if he was making that up. Sounded like something the Balvulf Makina would love, though.

Scott sighed softly and said, "Man... I haven't sung that retarded ass song since...” before shaking his head sadly.

”I don't even know if I have the right to sing it anymore... after what I did."

Reina actually started back slightly as a single set of twin tears trickled down his cheeks.

"Huh... what you did?" she finally asked.

Scott shrugged. "Ancient history...and worlds away... Reina... worlds away...”

She nodded like she understood even if she clearly did not.

She wasn't going to drop this though and asked again as nicely as she could while her ears perked up...”C'mon... please? Now you've got me all currlrious!"

The man sighed softly and nodded. "Fine... It probably existed here once... and even if I have no right to sing it, the least I can do is remember it for all the ones who fell protecting their world. It's kinda corny though..."

"It's about corrlrn?" she asked seriously.

Scott laughed at her gently and shook his head. "Silly kitty... No... It’s about honor and integrity... even if it's kinda lame...”

She nodded. Then said, "So... Sing it then..."

He took a deep breath and stopped walking. He came sharply to a position of attention and released his breath slowly before taking in another one.

Reina blinked at his change of demeanor, but her eyes widened comically at the words that came loudly with crystalline clarity from his lips.

Oh... I wouldn't give a bean to be a fancy pants marine...

I’d rather be a dog faced soldier like... I... am!

I wouldn't trade my old O.D.'S for all the navy's dungarees,

for I’m the walking pride of Uncle Sam!

The poster on the wall says be all that you caaan...

So, they're tearin' me down to build me over again!

Just a dog faced soldier... With a rifle on my shoulder...

I eat raw meat for breakfast every daa-a-aay!

So feed me ammunition... Keep me third division!

Dog faced soldier's A... O-K!

Reina blinked stupidly at him for a moment as a nervous tick developed over her left eye brow. Finally she could not stop the flood of emotion anymore and she howled out a laugh louder than she had in years.

Tears came to her eyes as her face turned red in shock at the sheer oddness of what he'd just sang. "What the hell kinda song was that!"

Scott's eyes clouded over and he turned away softly before he spoke with a hurt tone creeping into his voice. "One that I have no real right to sing ever again."

Reina slowly got ahold of her mirth as she noticed just what her laughter was doing to him. There was definitely a story here that she would have to ask about later.

What she asked instead was, "What's a soldierrlr anyway? You mean like those prrlre-warlr fighterrlrs? The ones in the movies?" She'd heard the term in school, but it was not something people said every day. There had been that movie she had seen once too, with humans in weird looking uniforms fighting with high-tech weapons and doing physical feats of strength that were blatantly impossible for any non-Demi-Human.

For the people of this Demi-Human world, someone claiming to be a 'soldier' was synonymous with someone on Scott's home world claiming to be a ninja master. It was considered cute but not exactly possible. Of course, the adventurer’s guild kept the title for basic fighters, but it was not the same.

Scott shrugged. "There are two ways to explain a soldier, the technical way and my way..."

"And those arrlre..?" she asked him curiously.

"Technically, a soldier is a trained fighter that performs military service for their country of origin without questioning lawful orders. They are professionals that take on the task of defending their homeland as a trade." he informed her.

"Ok and what's your definition of a soldierrlr?"

Scott smiled nostalgically for a moment. A touch of his former youthful idealism and a hint of patriotism arose. "A soldier is someone that stands in harm’s way on behalf of those they love. They are defenders of those who wish to live their lives in peace. They are the guardians of freedom and the rights of those they protect. A soldier is all I had ever wanted to be back home..."

"Well, that sounds like you frrurm what I’ve hearrlrd..." she said as a half apology for upsetting him earlier.

"No, I’m... I’m not a soldier anymore. I don't... I just don't have the right to call myself that." he managed to croak out as his eyes threatened to tear up again. He had been dealing with his inner sense of guilt and shame over the choice he had made for over two years now. It always hurt him to know that he had betrayed his oath to the army, even if it was for the sake of his sick mother and the horrible situation she had been in.

He stopped for a few seconds before he seemed like he would add something, but the sound of an engine firing up nearby would have to take precedence over relating background information and characterization subplots for the moment.

"Let's hitch a ride!" said Scott with faked enthusiasm. He would have to focus and get his head back in the game soon. If he allowed himself the time, he would have kicked himself for losing focus while on mission.

"Rrright!" chimed in Reina, hoping to add something useful to the moment. She didn't really, of course, but it was nice that she tried.

The pair jogged up to the clearing and saw a rather normal looking bus, in league standard red and white, idling near a sign and a bench. As the pair walked into the clearing the bus' door swung open with a hydraulic hiss, but nothing else happened.

The sign read: Hickey-Wa Shrine Express Bus.

That tidbit of information caused Reina to hiss menacingly, but Scott's hand on her shoulder calmed her down a little.

The pair walked toward the bus and were greeted to the site of a rather non-descript character sitting calmly in the driver's seat. It was a creepy scenario really, as the driver never turned toward them or made them aware that he even acknowledged their presence until Scott spoke.

"So... where does this bus go?"

The driver curtly responded in a semi-robotic monotone, "Oldtowne." It was like a living voice mail auto-responder.

He tried asking several other questions but only got responses to bus related issues. The driver would not answer anything unless it involved the bus, its schedule, or the route it would take.

"The bus will leave in two minutes." informed the creepy but professionally attired driver.

"What kind of bus is this? This is frurreaky!" Reina managed to both exclaim and whisper.

"It is the Hickey-Wa shrine bus to Oldtowne." informed the driver as though she had asked him.

"How much to ride?" asked Scott.

"You will be required to make payment at the end of the line." informed the driver.

"Yeah, but how much?" he asked again, with a sense of uncertainty. He did not like the wording of the driver's answer.

"Payment will be paid once you have arrived at your destination." replied the driver.

"That still doesn't tell me how much I’ll owe you." asked Scott suspiciously.

The driver did not answer.

"So, what now?" Reina asked Scott.

"I guess we get on and see where we go." he said before stepping forward onto the bus. As soon as Reina followed him the doors closed and the driver said, "Now departing."

----

"Sky One, Alpha Zero: Can you see them? Over." asked Nina on her headset. They used these frequently on their field-ops, as Scott called them. They were used to keep in contact when their unit, another thing Scott called them, was scattered around.

With Cerene two miles up in the air above the shrine, she was quite a bit out of normal talking range. The angel girl answered, "Alpha Zero, Sky One: Yeah... Red Duck has stopped and is standing really still. He is facing Skanky Cat. I think he's saying something, but I can't hear him. Over."

"Sky One, Alpha Zero: Ok. Just let us know if anything weird happens, we're enroute to our positions. Acknowledge." responded Nina. It seemed kind of weird to talk like this, but Scott insisted on it. He had complained once that they needed more discipline. According to him, this method was not exactly the proper protocol, but it was close enough for his needs.

"Alpha Zero, Sky One: Acknowledged. Wilco, Over." came Cerene's half giggled voice. She was getting into this communications stuff. It was just like the movies with those soldiers in it.

"Sky One, Alpha Zero: Understood, Out." announced Nina over her head set before turning back to the other two girls with her. "We ready?"

Yoko and Makina nodded. They were going to run along a forest trail as fast as they could to follow along the road way. The road takes a long winding course around the forest a mountain, and with enough speed on their part they could be at the base before the vehicle.

Their route was straighter and the top heavy vehicle would only be able to move at a slow speed without rolling over the edge of a cliff side. They would be there already, but they needed to stay in the area in case Scott and Reina needed immediate aid.

Ashe, Aaron, and the less useful but still present cats, were already at the mountain base where the ambush was set up anyway. Nina's group was the go between tactical team. They were meant to trouble shoot the original setup and be prepared to act as a reactionary force if they had to.

A few minutes later Cerene's voice echoed clearly through the headset, apparently modern technology eliminated a lot of static in transmission, "Sky One, Alpha Zero: Red Duck and Skanky Cat are entering Target One. I say again, Red Duck and Skanky Cat are entering Target One. Over."

"Alpha Zero, Sky One: Acknowledged, continue mission, over."

"Sky One, Alpha Zero: Wilco, Out."

-----

Scott and Reina had been riding the bus for a while before he noticed that they were not as alone on the ride as they had thought. In the back seat, curled in a fetal ball sleeping, was a blue haired girl in a pair of slacks and a simple tee-shirt.

The man blinked stupidly as a possible scenario entered his mind and he dismissed it. Even with the possibility of the Time Guardian involving herself, the path his mind had just entered into was beyond probable. How in all-the-world, could the person he was thinking of be here on this bus, right this moment?

The girl shifted in her sleep and whimpered softly before taking a few shaky breaths and lifting her head. She was waking up.

"Wha..? Is the bus finally moving..? Feels like I’ve been waiting here for days..?" She asked exhaustedly.

A skittering dread filtered down Scott's spine as he considered her half-conscious words. What exactly happened to the people on this bus? For that matter, why did Reina's eyelids seem to be drooping a little?

He felt perfectly fine, if a little bored, but he knew enough to consider the implications.

"Miss? What day is it?" he asked her as she became slightly more coherent.

"It's November the second." she said sleepily.

Reina blinked tiredly as Scott began to frown. It was the fifth. The girl had been on this bus three days, without knowing it. How was that possible?

He got a good look at her and was struck again with the similarity between her and someone he had been looking for recently. "What's your name? Where are you from?"

"Name? My name... Amand...zun... ohh...” began the girl before slumping over again. She was too drained to speak anymore.

Scott hissed lightly at that. It definitely sounded like she was who he suspected and that meant problems. If it came to a fight they would have to not only keep from being drained dry themselves, but try to keep the unconscious girl alive as well.

His plan did not seem so intelligently executed now that the realization that he was armor-less and had an unconscious person to tend to. Sometimes, it just did not pay to get out of bed in the morning. The pair of would be heroes did not have time to muse further about this situation as the bus suddenly picked up speed and threw them toward the back door.

Reina shouted, "What the hell!" as an open expanse appeared in front of them. The bus seemed to be driving straight off the side of a cliff!

"Shit, hold on!" screamed Scott as he wrapped his arms around the freaked out Catgirl. He needed the comfort of her almost as much as she needed him at the moment as they felt the front of the bus push forward into a hard dive.

Suddenly the air around them flared with black-purple light that cast sinister shadows. A jarring sensation followed as they stopped suddenly and the bus driver stood up from his seat.

The man turned toward them and dark smoke erupted around him for a second to reform as a creature a foot taller with horns and boobs. A fiend had appeared.

"What kind of Demi-Human is that!" exclaimed Reina in shock as she got a good look at the thing. She really hoped it was not some kind of dragon type.

"Last stop... time to pay up...” informed the overly masculine female Fiend.

"Sorry, all outta Credits..." said Scott with a great deal more calm than he felt. This thing did not feel quite as strong as the super Fiend they had faced, but there was strangeness about it anyway. There was some kind of uncanny intelligence shining from its baleful eyes. The creature practically overflowed with a sense of menace.

"Feh, Give me your energy!" snapped the creature before raising a clawed hand toward the vulnerable seeming man.

As normal Scott felt nothing, not even so much as a mild bit of discomfort from the draining assault. Reina on the other hand slumped forward slowly as her eyes started to droop. Whatever facility that kept Scott immune to these assaults did not extend itself to the stricken Catgirl.

Knowing that he could not stop it otherwise, Scott slid his sword carefully from his sheath. He could not rip it out like some heroic madman with the bus seats in the way, so that was the next best scenario.

The driver snickered at him and shook its horned head before saying, "Bah. Stingy! I want your energy!"

"You want it! Come take it!" snapped the man as he ran forward, down the aisle in an attempt to get at the creature before its draining attack proved fatal on Amanda, and possibly Reina.

As he neared the creature something unfortunate occurred. A wall of force erupted out of the floor that sent him hurtling back several rows to land hard on the floor. His sword slid swiftly down to cut a small tear in his pants and started a trickle of blood along his thigh.

The Fiend laughed darkly at his misfortune as it raised its other hand and clenched them to double the draining effect. It was like it literally wanted to squeeze the life out of all of them.

"Fuck!" snapped the man. He could not get past the energy barrier, and he damned sure did not want to try sending a black metal wave against it. He had never been hit with his own attack and he did not want to risk learning how that felt now.

With no other alternatives the man got to his feet and promptly retreated to the back of the bus. He could not fight that thing inside these confines, and unless they got out of here the girls would die.

That in mind, he pushed past Reina as she sat down heavily in a seat. The emergency exit was their only hope. Unfortunately, it seemed to be welded shut by some unknown force. The handle turned readily enough, he could even see the lock bar move inside it since the front panel was missing for some reason. However, the thing simply did not open. No amount of him kicking or attacking the windows weakened it in any capacity.

"Dammit!" he snapped as he saw Reina start to go under. Her eyes were closing and she was no longer answering him when he asked her simple questions to keep her awake.

He was alone, his friends were dying, and he had no way to help them.

Scott was not one to give up when the chips were down, but for once he had no idea what to do. It was like they were inside some kind of force bubble that he was not able to break through. Worse yet, time was running out for all of them. The girls had but a few minutes at most.

Of course, it did occur to him that if the force bubble was airtight then he would not live too much longer than them, as he would suffocate long before he starved to death. The Fiend did not look even remotely interested in coming in to finish him off.

"Satisfied with yourself?" called Scott heatedly from the other side of the bus. He only had one ploy and somehow he knew it would not work.

"Entirely." stated the Fiend with a cunning most of its type did not know. This thing was too smart. Most could only demand energy or say their names and demand energy. The only time in his stories where they seemed more intelligent was when they pretended to be someone else. Once the facade faded away they reverted to idiotic and goofy looking monsters with one liner catch phrases on the average.

"Can't handle a real fight, Huh? Afraid you aren't able to cut it against me without such cheap tricks?" asked Scott snidely.

"Hey... Ya caught me. You must be right. I'm entirely too cowardly to fight you. I guess I’ll just have to settle for watching you die a slow pathetic death while you asphyxiate on your own exhaled gasses." stated the creature without a hint of anger or concern.

A minute passed and Scott struggled to find some way, anyway, out of this.

Finally, with nothing left to lose he asked, “What are you, Jaedu's favorite idiot?"

The creature blinked curiously for a moment then its mouth curled into a slow smirk. "So, one of you shaved monkeys knows my name? How interesting..."

"Your name...?" asked Scott slowly. Dread began to knot in the pit of his stomach. Pieces of this puzzle were rapidly falling into place. The trap, the execution of such a simple but effective plan, the unusually intelligent Fiend...

"Of course, human... If you know who I am, then I should think you would actually understand how I operate. Just what are you seeing...?" informed the creature in an entirely different voice than it had been speaking earlier.

Scott frowned. The Fiend was simply a vessel, a sort of avatar for Jaedu to work through. He was not here, but this disposable puppet was. That’s why this trap would work. Without a mind of its own the puppet Fiend would simply carry out the last order given until its destruction.

"What I wonder... is how you know of me. I've never told my true name to a human of this era..." stated the Fiend with the Dark Empire general's voice.

Scott decided that his only chance was to anger the general enough that he tried to come in and kill him. He was raised better than to speak in such a fashion, and he certainly had no issue with people of that sexual proclivity... but he had been reduced to this last hope. The sword wielding man shrugged then said. "I just asked around looking for the gayest fanny bandit kidnapper in the world who sucks dick on the side. The only name I ever got was yours. You’re quite popular among pedophiles, by the way."

"Cute. Enjoy your slow pointless death, human." stated the voice with a hint of anger before the cruel intelligence in the Fiend's eyes faded to a far duller sheen.

Scott experimentally tried to bait the Fiend now, but it completely ignored him.

Bereft of even the chance to annoy his captors there was nothing to do, but sit and wait to die. He could sense no other option save one and he felt strongly that it would not work.

Still... he had to try, despite the stupidity.

He focused all the spiritual power he could muster and then in a strong clear voice he sang out,

Darkness is calling...

The soul cries out...

The spirit's willing...

It's ready to shooout!

BLACK METAL

The effect was both immediate and devastating. The world slowed to a crawl. Black lightning swirled upward and formed into a massive ball of roiling energy. The sphere of black lightning and gravitational energy flared outward, sending him flying up into the air from the force of the recoil. He never even hit the ground before the attack rebounded against the far wall of the force bubble and reflected back at him with a furious vengeance.

Scott was not even able to scream as the air was ripped from his lungs and he was thrown back into the rear of the bus to slam into the emergency door with crushing force. The light faded from his eyes swiftly afterward. His ears rang with the sudden cruel laughter of his captor. He had amused Jaedu utterly.

----

"What do you mean you have not found the wreckage?!" snapped Nina over the comm-unit in a righteous frenzy. They'd given up on the supposed protocol after Cerene called down to them that she had seen the bus go over the cliff.

The others were currently running full tilt toward the scene of the fall while Cerene continued to do a search and rescue over-look.

"I said I don't see the bus!" snapped Cerene in anger and fear. Where the hell was it!

"Are there trees blocking it?" asked Aaron as he kept pace with the supposedly stronger girls. Whatever exercise regime he kept to in all those years of life definitely seemed to work wonders for the elder man.

"No, there are no trees, it's a flat grassy area." she replied dumbfounded. Normally that would not be too difficult a state for her to find herself in, but this would have stretched the mental faculties of anyone.

"Dammit! Keep looking!" snapped the blond alpha as the group raced to the scene of the non-existent wreck. This was just too freaky.

-----

Scott awoke in darkness. It was an inky thing of night and despair that seemed to claw at him in an attempt to enter him in any way possible.

"Wha... What’s going on?" he asked aloud. His voice echoed strangely as though two separate resonances were emanating from his at once.

As he spoke a strange thing occurred. The words seemed to cause a ripple in the fabric of the night-time shroud. His words caused swirls of color in the air before him as they carried on out and away.

He was quiet for a moment as he sensed a stirring of something around him. Soon though, it faded and with nothing else to do he cried out again. "WHERE AM I?"

His words echoed outward in that strong dissonance sending sound and light outward and away from him with lightning speed.

A voice answered him from the darkness with only a whisper, "Be quiet..." but the light and sonic fury that followed in its wake hit him with gale force flinging him away like a leaf caught in a tornado.

When the sonic assault ended he had a sense of lying down in the darkness once again. His body trembled with aftershocks after that simple exchange.

Scott was not sure what to do, or where he was. All he did know was that he was not alone in the darkness. Whatever was out there, it was powerful beyond words.

His strongest scream had barely lit up the world. The quiet whisper that answered him had utterly outclassed his shout in every way.

Wherever he was, the local citizenry liked it silent as the grave.

It was not long, though, before his trembling subsided and he grew bored. In his fear and restlessness he started to do something he used to do out of long habit. He began to hum softly.

The pleasant little melody carried in the midnight air leaving trails of beautiful light, unlike the harsh vibrancy his shouts had caused. He could feel the stirring around him again, but this time it did not seem quite so agitated.

Scott felt strangely like he was being watched. It was like a thousand eyes were on him and each was curious beyond words.

A spider web of doubt skittered along his spine, but he decided that if this thing was going to do anything, the least he could do was go out singing.

"Hush little baby... Don’t say a word... Never mind the voice that you heard..." he began to sing with a stronger voice.

The dark stirring grew tight at the loudness of his song, but did not attack or say anything, it seemed almost anxious as though waiting for something.

"It's just the beast under your bed... In the closet... in your heeeead... exiit light! Into niy-iiight taaaake my haaaand... off to neva nevah laaand!" sang out Scott in his best Metallica inspired vocalization.

The light that swayed and flooded around him seemed to take on the appearance of a laser rock show.

He closed his eyes in sudden pain as a thousand images unfolded within his mind. He could see things with crystalline clarity that never before had existed to his eyes. He witnessed alien worlds, alien races, and differing cultures.

There was very little in common with them save for one defining item. They all sang. Each of those races on those worlds sang. The songs sounded different in his mind, some grand and inspiring, some incredibly grating and annoying. However, always someone sang.

What was this? Why was he seeing these things in his mind?

A soft voice unfurled itself within the boundaries of his mind, a few simple words spoken in a quiet almost lovingly masculine voice. The voice of a father to a child when they are having nightmares and he wishes to calm them... "Go forth my son... and rock..."

Before Scott could say anything aloud and fuck up the moment, a bright spear of light erupted from a point high in the air above him. It shone down brightly upon him like a spotlight.

The brilliance of it was too much for his vision and tears began to stream from his eyes. Soon, however, he felt a pulling sensation and he was being lifted upward toward the origin of that peaceful yet powerful luminescence.

The darkness and the light faded away and he found himself lying flat on his back inside the bus once again. It took him a brief moment to orient himself before the pain hit him.

His chest felt like it had caved in, and he was incredibly weak. The after effects of the black metal spell were obvious to him.

It was all he could do to whisper out, "I'm sorry..." before the tears came to his eyes and trickled down his cheeks. There was nothing else he could do for them.

He was having trouble even attempting to sit up, much less able to find the strength to get out of this situation.

The weird place his mind had taken him came back into his thoughts for a moment. The song he had sung taking a forefront in his memory. There was something about that. Why on earth had he chosen, "Enter the Sandman" by Metallica as a song to sing when alone in the dark with no idea what to do?

"Kinda like now..." he whispered painfully, a hint of blood coming to his lips. He was certainly lost and alone with no idea what to do now.

It took him a few precious seconds, but the thought did finally occur to him. It was desperate and stupid, but he could sense the possibility. Since awakening something inside him had fundamentally shifted. He could tell that he had changed in some fashion, but was not of a mood to determine what that was just yet.

He allowed himself to entertain a passing fancy. That fancy turned into the words from the song mentioned previously running through his mind.

As he thought of them, he felt them begin to resonate with him, in a way similar to when he used his two spells. The words... they had some kind of power now!

It would be a truly desperate gamble, even more so than with his Black Metal spell. What other options did they have?

He let the words of the song resonate with his inner voice, building the power within him to a peak point and then following some unknowable reason he sang out,

Exit... light... in the night.

Immediately he knew he had to sing the next part if it was to include the girls. The man could actually feel himself reaching out with his spirit to encompass the two girls while he continued on.

Take... my hand...

A flare of light erupted around him as the sound of an electric guitar screamed in the air about him. The power he was calling upon had taken on a decidedly overt tone, reminiscent of a rock concert.

A wild array of red, black, and blue strobes shot out in a kaleidoscope of colors as he finished his spell casting.

Off to Nevah Nevah Land...

He could briefly hear an incomprehensible scream of disbelief from the Fiend that occurred at the very same moment all the strobing lights turned into one brilliant cone of luminescence that disrupted the force bubble just long enough to whisk the three injured and drained people off to some distant locale.

Had Scott been more coherent and knowledgeable he could have chosen the location. Unfortunately, he was not and the trio wound up appearing three feet up in the air, above a thick patch of briars just outside the neighboring provincial town of Randy Oaks.

They were each too drained and weak to do much except lie there for the hour and a half that it took for a wandering Officer to come along and find them. Scott felt her hands on his chest like a hammer blow and snapped his eyes open painfully.

She moved her head back in shock at his intense, but childlike, gaze and asked him, "Sir... What happened here?"

He was having a hard time formulating an answer at first, but as she started to pull away to check his injuries again, his hand snaked out to grasp her wrist with surprising force. He earnestly pleaded with silent eyes for her to believe the words he was about to say. "The metal... It spoke to me..."

The police Demi-Human tried to remove her arm but the grip was too tight. She did not want to hurt the man, but found his intensely pleading eyes to be quite unnerving.

The noon day sun rose steadily into the sky as its light shined brightly down upon that bramble cluttered clearing. It shined without concern on the frightened Demi-Human and the man with the wild pleading eyes.

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AN: I had originally intended to change the Metallica song to keep with the 'it's not the song, it's the power' thing, but I decided to leave this one alone for now. I will no doubt change it in the future if I actually do go through with fixing this up and making it more legal to publish. :)