07/21/06:

                The whole store was woken this morning by automatic weapons fire coming from downstairs. That was quickly followed by the thumps of a grenade launcher and the building shook as they exploded. There was a mad scramble as people emerged from tents, tried to get armed, take cover and see what was going on, all at the same time.

                Looking down the escalator we saw smoke and flames where Fragrances used to be. There was also a group of Penney's people retreating back to the mall under fire from other camps downstairs.

                Olivia launched a spell at the center of the group. The purple strands of a painweb blossomed around them and there was much screaming and falling. One big guy was still standing and turned to open fire with an M-60 on full auto. He shot Olivia full on several times and sent her flying backwards.

                Fortunately she'd been sleeping in that silksteel armor of hers. But even it was showing the effects of the attack. It was dimpled and even had a few punctures. She was bleeding, but I knew that she could heal herself and was still wearing those beads I had given her, so she'd be okay - as long as we took care of that big guy. I opened fire with my Walther. The first two shots went high but the third was dead on for a headshot, but it stopped. Right in front of the guy and fell to the floor.

                Oh shit.

                Another guy who'd been off to one side and was unaffected by Olivia's first spell opened fire - at me. I hadn't stopped to put on my armor and he shot me, knocking me to the floor.

                The big guy reached behind his back and brought up the grenade launcher.

                Someone yelled, "Take cover!" as the big guy launched a grenade upstairs at us. It hit the ceiling and exploded, sending debris raining down on all of us. I looked to see if Olivia was still okay. Alfred had thrown himself over her, protecting her from the debris. I was pretty sure I saw her heal herself.

                There were more shots from downstairs and some closer. I turned and saw Rodrick firing down at the big guy with guns in both hands. The first shots had the same results as mine; they stopped mere inches from the guy and fell harmlessly to the floor. But then Rodrick's gun misfired and was blasted from his bloody hand.

                By now the big guy had picked up the M-60 again and was firing, randomly. We heard lots of screaming and gunfire from down there, but none of those bullets touched the guy, either. He finally put the gun down and raised his hands to his face. He lowered them slightly and exhaled. As he did, a visible cloud rose from him and people around him, including his own people, started to fall, gasping and choking.

                Soon they were screaming as they began to cough up blood. I pulled on Corellon's power and sent a flame strike at him. When the flames cleared, he seemed slightly taken aback by the whole thing and screamed up at me. But he stopped breathing out the gas!

                A man stepped up beside him, took aim and before I could duck, shot me again.

                As I lay there trying to catch my breath, Leo finally appeared. "About damn time!" I said.

                He ignored me and opened fire at the man who had just shot me.

                "You okay?" he asked.

                "Oh just swell! Hell of a time to be taking your morning constitutional, Olivia was almost killed."

                He looked around for her but couldn't spot her, "Is she okay?"

                Just then she got up from under Alfred with a wand in her hand.

                "Looks like," I said as she let a spell fly at the big guy from the wand. It was that Zapper spell. It hit him, but he kept going and reached for the M-60 that he had dropped when I hit him with the flames. Rodrick saw that and took careful aim at the gun itself. He hit it and disabled it. He fired twice more, at two of the Penney's guys, dropped one and winged the other.

                The big guy pulled a loose grenade and threw it, but it was only a smoke grenade. I saw where he was and before the smoke could obscure his location, I called down another flame strike. This time when the flames cleared - he was dead. The last guy that Rodrick had injured tried to run but was hit by another Zapper spell from Olivia. He stopped and Rodrick and Leo fired simultaneously and finished him off.

                Now that things were quiet I looked around and saw that Alfred was seeing to the wounded; he not only had no armor like Rodrick, Leo and myself, he had no clothes at all. Olivia stood at the top of the escalator and summoned a wind to clear the gas away and when it was clear we went downstairs. At least three quarters of everyone who'd been down there was dead. Including all of the children.

                I don't think I've ever seen Olivia that angry. I was just numb.

                I gathered all of the living into a circle around me, and taking the time, to make sure I did it correctly, I sent out a circle of healing power. Then I went back upstairs.

                Olivia had completely healed herself and Rodrick's hand and Olias was seeing to the wounded so Alfred could get dressed. I asked if he was going to be able to handle it and he assured me he could, so I armed up like the rest. As I did, I used my wand to heal myself.

                Then we headed downstairs and towards Penney's.

                We got close enough to see that they had erected some sandbag barricades in front of the main entrance. Olivia fired off a series of fireballs at them. Judging by the screams, each one had been manned.

                A Waster appeared from the direction of Sears, using a fire extinguisher to put small fires as he came across them. He nodded to us and joined Louise as she was setting up a couple of lawn chairs and a cooler. They both sat down to watch the proceedings and Created an anti-bullet barricade around themselves. Olivia looked at me and I shrugged. "You're not going to interfere?" she asked them.

                "No. They broke their word to Landau. That makes them fair game. Just don't mess the mall up too much, okay?"

                We started towards Penney's but the male Waster stopped us, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. They have more machine gun nests set up down that way."

                "Thank you," I said.

                "Stay here, I'll be right back," Olivia said. She gave her wand of healing to Alfred, turned herself invisible and went to scout the positions.

                I thought to myself, "That's a damn good idea." So I handed my wand of healing to Leo and explained how to use it. "Now four of the five of us can heal someone who gets into trouble. Don't worry Rodrick, we'll take care of you."

                Leo stashed the wand in a safe place and picked up the grenade launcher that had been left behind, he checked it to confirm that it was loaded and ready. Olivia returned and reported what she'd seen.

                Leo said, "We're going about this the wrong way, They're expecting us to attack. And from what you've said, this 'Landau' doesn't want his mall messed up."

                "Maybe one of us could stay here and keep them busy while the rest sneak around and attack from behind," Rodrick suggested.

                Leo turned to Olivia and I; "Do you want the planners of this?"

                "Yes!"

                "Okay. Jazz - can you Whoosh us in there?"

                "Sure."

                "Olivia - can you make all of us invisible?"

                "Yep."

                So Olivia cast her invisibility spell and I called up the wind. It took us right over the machine gun nests and saw the .30 caliber guns that Olivia had reported. Leo and Rodrick also saw some detonators leading to explosives in the mall. We whooshed right thru the gates and into the store.

                It was almost completely empty! The civilians were all gone. All we saw were some heavily armored emplacements that were manned by some heavily armed people. We took some time and looked around the whole store to verify that the people were indeed gone. When we were finished Rodrick told us that he recognized the man who was in charge. "Dragonstar Company. They're a New Ectopian mercenary group. Very elite, very expensive. They do a lot of work with Mages."

                "But where is everyone else?"

                "What if they're sneaking up on Macy's? Or the garage?"

                Rodrick volunteered to whoosh back to check on Macy's. Olivia, Alfred and I would go check on Sears and Leo said he'd stay to keep an eye on the guys in Penney's. As we were on our way to Sears, Olivia found the people from Penney's. They were all hiding by the river about a mile south of the mall.

                Suddenly, Rodrick was there with us - he had seen something in the residential area on the opposite side of the mall, "Military missile launchers - two of them! About a mile and a half away, aimed at the mall."

                Olivia said, "Alfred, go tell the people in Macy's to get out!" He nodded and zoomed off.

                "I'll go back to Penney's and let Leo know and have him tell the smaller stores, then I'll go let Sears know," I said.

                Olive nodded, "I'll go get Scooby out of the garage, Walter was sleeping there last night."

                Rodrick said, "And I'll go get those missiles."

                We all whooshed off in different directions.

                Olivia got to the garage and found the doors locked. She shouted at Landau's people to wake them. "Move it! Open those doors!" Once inside, she banged on Scooby's door, "Walter! Wake up!"

                He stumbled out, "Huh?"

                "Get Scooby out of here! We're under attack and there are missiles pointed this way!"

                Walter said, "Well this thing's not going anywhere. We pulled the transmission last night. It's laying over there on the floor."

                "Shit!" and she created a wall of ice around it, just in case.

                Alfred got to Macy's and with Olias' help started to clear people out of the building.

                I got back to Penney's and found Leo. I told him what Rodrick had seen and told him he needed to alert the mall.

                "Where are these missiles?" he demanded. I told him and he took off that way. Damn him!

                So I headed up the mall towards Sears, yelling all the way. Telling people to get out.

                Meanwhile, Rodrick was doing some sniping at the people manning the launchers, moving randomly from house to house, making it seem as if there was more than just one person. He killed one of the men and the rest took cover and began firing back. But he'd already moved on.

                As he was changing locations he heard a loud 'kathump' and looked in time to see one of the launch assemblies rocked by an explosion that caused it to jump sideways and into the second one. He also saw - and could do nothing to prevent - the lone survivor of Leo's grenade attack fall forward onto the controls of that second launcher, sending all 16 of the missiles flying.

                In desperation, Rodrick fired at one of the missiles, hoping to hit it and cause an explosion. Maybe that explosion would ignite the others before they could reach their destination. But he missed.

                Olivia was outside trying to get the garage doors closed again when she saw the missiles headed her direction. But to her surprise (and relief) they flew right over the mall toward a smaller group of stores and exploded in midair. Each scattered a bunch of smaller bombs, setting whole blocks of buildings on fire.

                In the mall as I approached Sears, I began to yell, "Landau!" He met me and said, "Slow down! What's going on?" I explained. "Show me!" he demanded.

                "I can't."

                "Why not?"

                "Maybe you didn't understand me. They're outside."

                "Uh huh."

                "In the sunshine."

                "So?"

                "You're a vampire!!"

                "And you just assume that I have an allergy to sunlight?" he asked.

                "Silly me," I mumbled and took him by the hand. I let the wind take us to where Rodrick had reported seeing the missiles. On the way, we saw the missiles flying over the mall. Several of them landed near the river, killing probably three-quarters of the Penney's people.

                Rodrick and Leo met up as they were both approaching the launchers. The lone survivor saw them and said, "Oh shit," as Rodrick hit him high and Leo hit him low. That's when Landau and I joined them. Rodrick pointed out that when Leo's grenade exploded it knocked the other launcher off its mark - that's why the missiles overshot the mall. The launcher was out of ammo, but still usable.

                Rodrick told us, "I found where the mercs had been camping. There's lots of gear and vehicles." He went back to do a quick search and came back with something even better - paperwork!

                Olivia had seen me take off with Landau and joined us just as Rodrick returned. We looked at the papers and they were a contract. The mercenaries had been hired by the Sacramento Police to eradicate the mall after the 'normal' people had been evacuated.

                "Normal? Penney's?" I asked.

                Rod continued, "They were also hired to make certain that anyone who was sellable to Ka was removed alive. The most likely candidates being the people in the specialty shops. And there's a warning here - the only people who'd be able to fight (once Penney's had been removed) were Macy's and Sears, and Sears will stay out of it until it's too late." He showed us where the contract had been signed by the Chief of Police!

                Landau took it all in and asked, "Do we have a plan?"

                "Will they come here to see how their plan worked?" I asked.

                "Probably," Rodrick and Leo agreed.

                That's when we noticed the screaming coming from the river. "The Wasters," Landau explained.

                Rodrick told Leo, "City Hall is due west of here."

                Olivia went up to do a little aerial reconnaissance and came back to report that she saw two C-130 transports at the airport.

                "That's where we'll find Ka," Leo said.

                "Maybe we can go 'get' them and use them to transport whoever wants to go to Vegas," she said.

                "And how much money do you think we could get from Vegas for even one of them?" I asked.

                Olivia volunteered to go to the airport to see how close they might be to taking off. "Oh, and I also saw a bunch of cop cars headed this way."

                Leo checked the grenade launcher; "I've got five of these left."

                "Feel like setting some boobytraps?" Rodrick inquired. And the two of them took off to blow up some cops.

                I said, "I'm going back to the mall, someone's got to tell Alfred to get all the people back inside." Landau agreed and off we went.

                Leo and Rodrick spotted the caravan Olivia had warned of. It was pretty easy, I guess, three stretch limos and cop cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring. How subtle. They whooshed along with the cars for a while and then dropped down to deposit some grenades in the limos.

                Two of the limos blew up but the third braked and spun (taking out two motorcycle cops). The doors flew open and two lingerie clad bimbos scrambled out and ran screaming down the street. Two men in suits, one Human and one Ka followed them. They took off down an alleyway but Rodrick followed them and tossed a grenade their way. Sploosh!

                Leo got his attention and showed him that the squad cars were full of tactical gear. But one of them had several bomblets in it. Nerve gas bomblets! Leo suggested blowing a few of them and then when the gas cleared go back and take it all. Rodrick agreed and they landed, set off the gas and fled.

                Excuse me! Leo is reading over my shoulder and insists that they 'fell back to a strategically safe distance'. They did not 'flee'.

                At the airport; Olivia saw the planes were painted with Ka colors and there were some Orcs setting up holding pens. There were 40 or 50 of the 'worker' type Orcs and six executives who were standing off by themselves talking.

                Olivia took cover inside one of the planes and launched fireballs at them, killing them all and scattering the workers. Inside the plane, the crew of the plane ran past Olivia towards the cockpit. There were four of them, all humans, in Ka colors. Olivia followed them and heard the crew of the other plane report, "Repeat - they're all fried. Crispy critters."

                The pilot said, "Whatever happened - we weren't involved. We're not doing anything; we're not going anywhere. We didn't see anything, we know nothing."

                Someone on the other plane said, "No! Let's get the Hell out of here."

                "And go where?"

                Olivia got her gun and stun wand ready and said, "Gentlemen, drop your weapons."

                The pilot asked her, "Why? We outnumber you."

                "So? I killed all those Orcs; I'll kill you, too. Now, do you want to leave Ka's employment or not?"

                "Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

                Olivia questioned them all, using her truth ring and determined that they were all truthful about wanting to get out. "Okay," she said, "I've got some people to get out of here. You take them to Vegas and I'll see that you get citizenship there."

                "So we can die at the hands of the Cats?" someone asked.

                The pilot said, "You have got to stop reading the Ka newspapers."

                The crew of the other plane reported that there were some police arriving, as they radioed, Olivia could see them - it was the jerks on the roller blades.

                "They're all in on this," Olivia said. "I've got to know right now, are all of you with me?"

                They all agreed and Olivia went back down to deal with the cops, as soon as they were in range, she took them out with a fireball. Then she headed back to the mall.

                Back at the mall, we gathered everyone inside and I was explaining what had happened when two of the Wasters floated in. They were pissed off! "All of you stay here or we won't be held responsible."

                I said, "That's our plan, right Landau?"

                "It works for me," he said.

                One of the Wasters said, "Sorry Landau, we didn't know you were here," and they floated out.

                Landau looked around and asked, "What did they use in here?"

                I said, "Well, they had a Mage with them (and I pointed to his charred corpse) who used some kind of gas. And a big ass gun, and a grenade launcher. But tell me, why would the police want everyone out of this mall so badly, they'd go out and hire expensive mercenaries?"

                "It's just prejudice - they hate the undead." He walked over to the mage's corpse, pulled up a powerful magic and Raised him. Kind of, anyway. Maybe 'animated' is a better word.

                "Why are you here?" Landau asked.

                "Fulfilling our contract."

                "What are the long term plans of those that hired you?"

                "Personal reward. Five million, Ka for each of them plus a mansion in Beverly Hills for turning Sacramento over to Ka for expansion."

                Landau looked at me and said to the corpse, "Do something for me. I want you to go to LA and kill as many Ka as you can."

                "Um, excuse me," I said, "but not all of them." I gave him Slash's Ka identity, "Please don't kill her - she's a friend, an ally."

                Landau looked at the corpse and barked, "So why are you just standing there? Go!"

                "I will. I will kill them all," it said.

                "Good boy."

                It bent to pick up a weapon and some ammo and shambled out of the building.

                I said, "That was impressive. I worked so hard to kill him, and you Raised him, just like that."

                "Oh it was nothing! He's just a Renfield now, totally mindless. But he will go to LA and he will kill Orcs until they kill him. Again."

                Rodrick and Leo waited until the nerve gas cleared out and moved in to gather all of the gear they could fit into two squad cars. They were challenged at the mall by some of Landau's people.

                "What?" Leo asked them, "Is there a problem?"

                Rodrick said, "You've never seen anyone steal police vehicles before?"

                As they crossed the parking lot they saw that someone (the Wasters?) had moved the launcher with the remaining missiles into the parking lot.

                We all met up in the lot outside Macy's and Olivia reported what had gone on at the airport.

                We looked at each other and said at the same time, "We should move Brenda's group, too."

                "Maybe we can take Scooby in one of the planes to New Ectopia and then they can take the people to Vegas. Then we can finish the repairs while Walter does his thing," I suggested.

                Rodrick said, "You have no papers for New Ectopia."

                "Oh, right."

                Alfred said, "What if we get our papers then you can Windwalk us up there. Can you do it?"

                "I can, but what about Scooby?" I asked.

                Landau said, "We'll guard it for you, no charge - we owe you."

                "But all our gear."

                Rodrick asked me, "How much of it do you really need?"

                "I don't know. All of it? I just hate the thought of being without something come time we need it. But it would be really nice to know we could get out of there anytime we want."

                Landau asked, "What work needs to be done on it?"

                "Well it still has a big hole in the side, the grenade launcher blew up, the tire's gone, the axle is screwed and Leo says we need some fuel thingie from a plane."

                Leo rolled his eyes at me and said, "We need a fuel injector from a Boeing. We've got replacement parts for the body damage, the launcher and the targeting system - they just need to be installed. What we need are some parts from a late model Kenworth that's where the original components came from. And a tire - we need a monster truck tire."

                Hello! Didn't I just say all of that?

                Landau said, "I bet you could find those at the convention center downtown. I'd be happy to help you." He asked the Waster, Louise, "Can you drive a semi?"

                "No!"

                So he asked the other Waster. "I can't even drive a car," he said.

                Landau was getting annoyed with them; "Can anyone here drive a truck?"

                "Yeah - we can" I told him. "Let's go."

                Landau gestured to the two Wasters, "Louise, you and Mr. I-Can't-Drive, take these people down and get them a truck. And bring them back alive!" Then he asked Olivia and I, "Why did all the whiney slackers end up as Wasters?"

                We had no answer for that.

                Olivia said, "Before Jazz's magic wears off, I need to check on something." She whooshed up and over the mall, Sears in particular. On the roof there she saw sand, a pool, a volleyball net and a bar - but no power source.

                She came back, frustrated, and said to Landau, "Tell us please! Where do you get your electricity?"

                Landau grinned and said, "There was a vehicle at a local truck stop that got stranded here when things went to Hell. It was carrying a nuclear reactor and was headed for San Diego where a submarine was waiting for it."

                I said, "Landau, I've got to know, what were you, Before?"

                "A physics professor."

                "No shit. You know, if you don't want to stay here, we've got some nice land near Durango Colorado. It's very pretty country. Or Vegas - there's lots of room around Vegas."

                He shook his head, "I don't know. It took a lot of work to adapt that reactor here."

                "Well, think about it," I told him.

                We were still all gathered in the parking lot when Walter showed up with a stack of hot MRE's for us - bless him! Olivia thanked him and excused herself to the 'Little Adventurers' room. As we ate, Rodrick provided us with a local map and showed us where he'd seen the mercenaries' camp. We were looking at it and making plans when Rodrick said, "Who owns a parrot?"

                "What?" we replied, showing a wonderful ability to respond to changing circumstances. He pointed to a bright green parrot circling overhead. Leo said, "Is it just me or does it look like it's flying 'casual'?"

                Rodrick's answer was to draw and open fire at it. He missed it twice and hit it once. It was injured, but kept flying. Olivia opened fire with the same results and the thing kept flying.

                I summoned a hawk, which appeared on my arm. I launched it upwards like I'd seen the hawkers at the SCA events do. It took off towards the parrot just as Rodrick holstered his side arm and went for the machinegun. He let it rip and there were feathers and parrot bits everywhere!

                The hawk circled a time or two and screeched at me in annoyance. As we were watching it we saw a trail of blue flame from where the merc camp was. The flames hit the hawk and it exploded into a mist.

                Then in the parking lot, right in front of us, there was a blue haze. A man in an army uniform stepped out of the haze and glared at us all, "You just incapacitated a good friend of mine."

                "Boo-fucking-hoo," Olivia told him."

                He shook his head and said, "Fuck the bonus." And he vanished!

                "Hmmmmmmmm," Rod said.

                So we armed back up and Olivia, Rodrick and I turned back into our mist form. Moving as swiftly as we could, Rodrick led us to where he'd seen the camp. As we flew over it we spotted another missile launcher - and it was being raised into firing position! Olivia removed a bead from her fireball necklace and I told Rodrick what she about to do. We both took cover and returned to solid form in case we needed to take action.

                A large fireball exploded, and the missile launcher went with it. The shockwave sent Rodrick and I flying. We came down at least 300 yards away. My concentration failed at the very end, so we started to rematerialize just before we hit. We must have bounced along the pavement for at least 50 yards as we became more and more solid. Road rash - ouch! If we hadn't been in mist form, though, we both would have looked like bugs on a windshield. The explosion sent Olivia flying, too. Straight up. She figured she must have been close to 2,000 feet high by the time she was able to get oriented. Fortunately, she was able to keep herself in mist form - Rodrick's not a mage, so I had been controlling his spell as well as my own.

                Rodrick and I cleaned ourselves up and looked at the remains of the camp. "So much for looting," I said. Olivia finally worked her way to the ground, took sold form and joined us. Looking around, we saw that there was massive damage everywhere. Lots of vehicles thrown around, some big ones, but not what we needed for Scooby parts. Rodrick and I started looking around for survivors. We spotted a woman, wearing the tattered remains of a nurse's uniform, picking her way thru the brick wall she'd been thrown thru. She looked at us and said, "Medic?" as she collapsed. Rod caught her and threw her over his shoulder. I took a closer look at her and was amazed. She didn't have a scratch on her. I checked her over real quick for Magic items and found none - but she herself glowed lightly. As we were getting ready to leave the area I saw a flash of something and went to investigate. Snagged on a loose brick in the wall there was a silver necklace that glowed with Magic. I picked it up and found it warm to the touch. I gave it a quick look and saw that it looked vaguely Chinese. Rodrick was leaving the area so I stuffed it in a pocket to examine more closely later.

                The nurse came to enough to ask, "What the Hell was that?"

                "Your missiles exploding," Rodrick told her.

                He carried her towards the center of the camp, looking for a 'clean' place to put her down.

                In the meantime, Olivia had run across a doctor in a similar condition. When he saw her, he removed what was left of his white tunic and waved it in surrender.

                Olivia asked him, "Were you with those folk from New Ectopia?"

                "Yeah. What happened?"

                "I blew up your missile launcher." She checked him for Magic items and, just like the nurse, he had none, but had a Magical glow about him.

                He slumped to the ground and Olivia told him, "Come on! I can't carry you." She slapped him to full consciousness and asked, "So why aren't you dead?"

                "The Lady of Mercy watches over me."

                "Oh. Okay." She spotted Rodrick, the nurse, and myself headed in her direction.

                The doctor jumped up. "Ruth Ann! Let me see her!"

                Rodrick laid her down gently. "She's fine, relax."

                Things were quiet and we heard a knocking from a pile of debris. We checked it out and heard a woman's voice coming from a collapsed house, "Help me! I'm trapped!"

                Olivia radioed back to Leo and asked him what to do. But while they were squabbling (family!), Rodrick went to work, moving some of the smaller pieces and using other, larger pieces to shore up the beginning of an entrance. (Engineering degree - how handy is that?) He asked Olivia to tell Leo to bring us a hydraulic jack.

                Not too much later, Leo appeared with one, but they couldn't figure out how to use it without crushing the woman with debris. So, Olivia changed herself into a mouse and scrambled thru the opening Rodrick had made. She found the woman wedged into the relative safety of a fireplace. She too, was in a nurse's uniform.

                Because she was in the fireplace, Olivia judged she could safely change the woman into a mouse without causing debris to crush her, so she did. But before the woman (er - mouse) would leave, she had to free a silver chain with a medallion on it. She was having problems, so Olivia helped her free it, then they both crawled out of the rubble.

                Once outside, Olivia changed herself back and then the woman. She was ecstatic to be free but slightly less ecstatic when it dawned on her that her clothes were back in the house. She snatched up her necklace and tried to cover herself. The doctor and the other nurse had found blankets to wrap themselves in, but we couldn't find another, so Leo gave her his shirt. She thanked him and joined the other two.

                "Do you surrender to us?" Olivia asked.

                The doctor said, "We will not oppose you."

                "Okay, let's go."

                That's when we heard the sound of engines coming towards us, a couple small ones and at least one big one. We scrambled to find cover. Rodrick said to Olivia and I, "You two get out of here. Take them back to the mall, Leo and I can handle this."

                Olivia said, "No, we'll stay."

                I spotted a wall - intact, with a door in it. We ran towards it and opened the door to find a house was still attached to it. We hid inside it and peeked out to see what was coming. First there were four Mad Max dune buggies, then a low slung, black pickup truck with missiles protruding from the shell, and then the big, black, armored semi from Sears.

                We went out to meet them and Landau climbed out of the pickup, "We were worried about you. I'm delighted to see that you are unharmed." He turned to one of his people. "Put the prisoners in the truck." Then he said to the prisoners, "You will not be harmed, but you will be interrogated."

                As he got closer to them we could see that their proximity was very disturbing to him. So much so, that he actually averted his eyes and stepped back to let them pass. Once they were out of the way he asked us, "Can we give you a lift back?"

                "No, thank you, we're going to stay and loot for awhile," Olivia said.

                Landau looked around at the mess and said, "Good luck with that."

                I gave both Rodrick and Leo a faerie-fire bead and explained how to use them then we spread out.

                Rodrick found a hand with a glowing bracelet on it. It was a medicalert bracelet with a small silver charm on it - crossed logs with a stylized fire. He also found a small, ordinary looking first aid kit that had a glowing Magical symbol on it.

                Olivia found a man's body, and the clothing was glowing - a large jacket pocket in particular. She emptied it and found some bird seed, tropical fruit, some bird shit and a gold and silver sphere. The sphere glowed quite brightly. She also found a first aid kit like Rodrick's

                I found a gun. A big, glowing gun. A .44 automag (or so Rodrick and Leo told me later). I took it and all the ammo that was with it. It didn't glow, but I took it anyway. I also found the body of a woman. Really just her arm, the rest was buried. On it there was a glowing bracelet. It was a bright silver band with carving on it. There was something in a language that I did not recognize and a very familiar symbol. A hammer and anvil - the symbol of Crom. I put it in my pocket to show Olivia - later.

                Leo found a piece of parchment with a quill hovering over it. It looked as if it had been sketching what the parrot had seen on its last flight.

                About 2:00, Rodrick yelled for us all to come see something. He was in the rubble of a house with four bodies and a large steel chest that was untouched by the carnage. I did a small Magic and found it was booby-trapped. Olivia had us all stand back and used a wand to cast a spell on it.

                There was a small explosion that released a cloud of acid. We waited and it dissipated after about 15 minutes. When it was gone the bodies around it were reduced to mush, but the chest was intact. Rodrick opened it and inside was money. Lots of money, stacks and stacks of utils along with the paymaster's ledger, which indicated there were 110,000 utils in there. There was also another copy of the contract between Dragon Star and the Chief of Police. It included a bonus if the Mall was structurally intact (especially the Sears store). There was also a logbook containing all the comings and going at the mall for the last week or so.

                Then Olivia spotted the hand. It was just a hand but it was moving! There was a ring on one finger that glowed with a very strong Magic. She tried to remove the ring, but it wouldn't budge.

                "Allow me," Rodrick said. He pulled out his K-Bar and removed the whole finger. He handed it to Olivia but she still couldn't get the ring off. And we watched in horror as the severed bone started to grow, right before our eyes!

                Olivia threw a Magic to disrupt whatever it was doing. But it had no effect so she tried a stronger Magic and the ring stopped glowing, the bone stopped growing and the ring slipped off the finger. She resisted the urge to put it on and put it in her pocket, instead, until she could investigate it further.

                Rodrick asked her about the bracelet he'd found, but Olivia couldn't figure it out. So we decided to take everything back to the mall to examine later. We started to head back and discovered that it was almost 5:00 by now and Landau was still waiting for us.

                He told us about the three 'prisoners'. "They're all Healers, just as they appeared to be. They've all taken an oath to harm no one. And in return for their oath of non-violence, the Goddess Kwan Yin protects them. That's how they survived the explosion."

                He continued, "They are completely apolitical and will heal anyone who asks for their assistance. Because of their bond with Kwan Yin I can't touch them. Anyway, I've taken them in and promised them that they'll be able to continue their work, in the Mall, under my protection as well."

                I thought to myself, "Kwan Yin, that makes sense." I pulled the necklace from my pocket and returned it to the nurse who'd lost it.

                "Oh thank you! I was afraid I'd never see it again."

                On the drive back, Olivia asked them if they knew anything about the Magic items we'd found. They said they would tell us what they could. Starting off, they said that the sphere Olivia found is a familiar home. "A PokeBall?" she asked.

                "May the Gods protect us," I said.

                One of the nurses said, "To the uninitiated, yes, a PokeBall. But most call them familiar condos." Olivia showed it to Otsune, who hopped right in and liked it just fine. Oh, God, it even worked just like a PokeBall….

                "The medicalert bracelet?" Rodrick showed it to them.

                "Remove the campfire charm and throw it to the ground. It will create an instant campsite. Touch the charm to the bracelet and the site vanishes. But make sure to stock the site before you put it away."

                The first aid kits are especially handy - they're filled with regenerative bandages that'll do everything from suturing a wound closed to re-growing broken bones.

                "What about this ring?" Olivia asked.

                "Dispose of it! It will prolong life but at a horrible cost. Your body will regenerate cells at a highly accelerated speed while you wear it, but the regeneration gets out of control and causes cancer. While you wear it, it can not be removed if you are injured in anyway."

                "And this gun?"

                The doctor said, "It causes its ammunition to pierce armor and be more destructive."

                I asked them about the Lady of Mercy and how she felt about all this.

                "It is Her will that we stay here with Landau."

                Olivia asked, "Do you know Ellen Silverwolf?"

                "Or the group that's called Silverwolf?" I asked.

                Two of them didn't but the third - one of the nurses- looked like she wanted to say something. Olivia asked them again and again she stayed silent.

                "Why won't you tell us what you know?" Olivia asked her. There was no answer.

                I said, "Look, we just want to talk to her, we intend no harm to her or her people."

                "And we've come a long way to find her, "Olivia said. "From Durango, Colorado thru Las Vegas to here."

                The other nurse sat up like she'd been goosed. "Las Vegas?" she asked.

                "Yeah, Las Vegas. Nevada," Olivia said.

                The nurse turned to the other two and said, "I must go to Vegas."

                "Are you sure?" the doctor asked."

                "Yes. It's The Call."

                I had an idea what was going on, "Okay - we can get you to Vegas. We're helping another group, and you can go with them."

                Olivia added, "And we'll get you some paperwork to help you with citizenship."

                "May the Lady look kindly upon you for this," she intoned.

                The other nurse finally decided to talk to us. "You'll find Clan Silverwolf in the Crater Lake area. But they don't like outsiders. They been hunted for their pelts in the past, so don't try to be sneaky when you go looking for them. They really hate that."

                I laughed, "Oh don't, worry. If there's one thing we're not - it's sneaky."

                Leo rolled his eyes at that.

                Olivia assured the woman, "Really, all he want to do is talk to this person. We want her to leave with us, but we have no intention of forcing her to go anywhere."

                We were back at the garage then and saw a Kenworth waiting for us! It was already being dismantled and Alfred was overseeing the work.

                Olivia told Alfred that she needed citizenship papers for one person.

                "And a preaching license, too," I said.

                Alfred nodded, "I'll send a note to Allison."

                We found clothes for the three Healers and they immediately set to seeing to the wounded. They used an interesting variety of the mundane (gathered for them by Landau's people) and clerical healing. I went to help them but Leo stopped me. "Here, this belongs to you." It was my healing wand. I had forgotten that I'd given it to him.

                Olivia said she was going to go back to the church to see Brenda about flying her people to Vegas in the transport planes. I caught her and said, "Take some of those real utils and ask her about buying those backpacks of hers." She agreed and flew off on her motorcycle.

                At the church, Brenda asked if we had anything to do with all the activity at the mall and Olivia admitted we had and that's why she was there - to talk business. Brenda agreed to move her group by plane and would pay Olivia 350,000 of the 400,000 chips we'd given her for the phony utils. She'd tell her people that we were charging the full amount and keep 50,000 utils for herself. But she was reluctant to part with the backpacks. Olivia had to remind her of the favor we were doing her, with the planes and all and offered her Vegas citizenship. Brenda was still reluctant. "I let you play with Alfred." Olivia reminded her.

                "Yes. You did do that and that reminds me. When I get to Vegas, I'm going to need certain things; luxury, position, wealth and I'll need to work for one of the major players, if not the head cat himself. Oh - and I'll need medical care, also."

                "What's wrong? Can I help" Olivia asked her.

                "Oh I don't need it now, but I will eventually." After beating around the bush a little more she finally admitted to being pregnant. Olivia told her that the Overlord of the Excalibur could find her work.

                "Excalibur? How tacky." Olivia didn't bother to tell her who the Overlord was.

                "Or Lord Bellagio?"

                "Oh, that's better," Brenda said.

                "What about Venetian?"

                "Yes! The Venetian. I love it!"

                So Olivia agreed to give her a glowing letter of recommendation along with the rest in return for one of the backpacks. Then she invited Brenda back for dinner so she could tell Alfred the good news.

                Back at the mall, the only real casualties we had to treat were the Macy's people and the Penney's people who'd surrendered. We had finished with the wounded and I took a look around and noticed what else was going on. Some of the girls from Victoria's Secret were there with some cash and were negotiating to purchase some of the Penney's people that had surrendered or been taken prisoner by Macy's.

                I was shocked. "What? You're selling prisoners as slaves?"

                It was explained to me that all the prisoners had been given the chance to make an appeal to be taken in by a group. Anyone not taken in was being sold off.

                Apparently all the single women had appealed to Victoria's Secret (about twenty in all) but only five had been taken in; the rest were currently being scrutinized by the Macy's single men.

                I whistled and yelled out, "Can I please have everyone's attention? There is going to be a plane leaving here in a day or so. It's going to Las Vegas, and anyone who wants to be on that plane can go." Several families from Penney's and all the remaining single women said they wanted to go.

                Some man from Macy's (I didn't know him or what camp he was from) said, "If you want them, you're going to have to pay for them."

                "Fine!"

                "And there'll be an extra fee - for handling," he said.

                "Stop right there," I told him. "In case you've forgotten already - my friends and I saved all of you. Do you have any idea what happened here today? If any of you had survived the missile attack they had planned, you were going to be sold as slave labor to Ka. We saved you and now you're trying to gouge me? I think not."

                "Fine, fine, twenty utils per person," he said.

                "Deal."

                "Not 'til I see your money," he insisted.

                So I stormed off to get the money (from the box of counterfeit, of course!). I threw his money at him and started to 'round up' all the people I had just paid for. One man objected, "But I haven't even had a chance to fuck this one, yet."

                That was the last straw! I whirled on him and summoned up a Spiritual Weapon. But to my surprise my sword flew out of its scabbard at my hip, zipped at him and skewered him - right thru the mouth. I tried to act as if that was what I'd intended to do and turned to the crowd, "Anyone else have objections?"

                In the silence that followed I retrieved my sword, cleaned it on the dead man's clothes and re-sheathed it with a prayer of thanks to Corellon.

                A Waster appeared then and said to me, "You and your friends may stay at Sears." Then to the people, "There will be no attacks, no assaults, no rapes. Landau has decreed it so and he is the law and the law will be obeyed. If it is not, there will be a price to pay."

                I said, "Alfred, Walter, Olias - let's get our stuff moved. Anyone coming with us?" All the Penney's people along with the Macy's Shoe department started gathering their belongings, as well as some of the Victoria's Secret girls.

                Lisa said, "I wish we could leave for Vegas right now. I don't feel safe anymore, there were some men doing some raping earlier."

                That stopped me in my tracks! "What?!?! Who?" She pointed them out; there were three of them. But before I could do anything the Waster who'd been waiting for us had floated towards them and the crowd cleared out of his way. When he was done with them he gestured towards their dried out husks and told the crowd, "Nail them to the wall as a warning to all." Then he escorted us all down to Sears.

                Olivia returned with Brenda not too long after we'd left and was told where we'd gone. She took a look at the bodies on the wall and laughed.

                They found us on the second floor of Sears. The lights were on and there was music playing as we were setting up temporary quarters. Olivia yelled for Alfred, "Come here, Brenda needs to talk to you."

                They went off to a quiet area and Olivia came to ask me what all she'd missed, "And start with the three guys nailed to the wall back in Macy's." So I filled her in on everything and she did the same. She told me about her arrangement with Brenda in return for the pack. "I promised her a letter of recommendation to Lucifer."

                "I 'spoke' to him last night and told him about her, he's already interested."

                Then she told me about Brenda being pregnant. "No shit!" I said. "I'm going to be an Aunt?"

                "Yep."

                "At least we know his little swimmers work," I said.

                Olivia nodded, "I guess it's just not our time."

                "Yet…" I added.

                Then I pulled her off to a secluded area, "Um, Olivia sit down, I have something to tell you," and I handed her the bracelet with Crom's symbol. "I found this back at the camp."

                "Oh shit," she said. Then she asked Crom if He was angry with her.

                His answer was, "She is in Valhalla with me now. That is reward enough for her service." That made Olivia feel better and we rejoined the rest of the group in time to see Alfred and Brenda return as well.

                Alfred was strutting more than just a little and had a big grin as he told us the news. There were congratulations all around and Alfred said that he was happy to know that Brenda was going to Vegas and would be working with Lord Venetian, "Even though Caesar needs her more; he is not cunning."

                I said, "Maybe Lord Venetian will share her services with Caesar." I stopped. "Wow! That sounded really bad, I'm sorry." But Brenda thought it was funny and laughed.

                One of Landau's Goth Gang walked over and asked, "Are your people going to need food?"

                "No, we'll make our own, thanks for asking," Olivia told him.

                Alfred told Olivia that he was going to spend the night with Brenda, "If that's okay."

                "Sure," Olivia said - she was checking out some of the Victoria's Secret girls. She liked one in particular, a tall willowy Drow who came over and introduced herself as Ebony. She finally admitted her real name was Jane, "But I always hated that!" She asked Olivia if it was possible to get a letter of recommendation to someone in Vegas.

                "We'll see, we'll see," Olivia told her.

                When everything was set up, Olivia and I created food for dinner. As we were eating, Leo appeared from the garage - he'd been checking on Scooby's repairs. He sat down beside me and awkwardly put his arm around me. I shot a look over to Olivia that said, "Your brother!"

                "Are you okay?" he asked.

                "Tired."

                "Long day."

                "Yeah. I'm going to be an Aunt." I said. He looked over at Olivia. "No. Brenda's pregnant with Alfred's baby."

                He looked at me like I was crazy. "Elves just 'know' as soon as they're pregnant. Apparently" I said.

                He started to say something, stopped, and tried it again, "But why isn't Olivia? Or……… you?"

                "We don't know. But we have a theory. 'People' are looking out for us."

                There was a silence and Leo gestured to where Olias and Osvanna were sitting together, "They seem to have hit it off well."

                "Yep."

                "Someone told me that there's a hot tub on the roof."

                "Let's go." I said.

                "And there are some hot showers back there."

                Since things had gotten so serious, I just had to bait him a little. "Are you saying I smell?"

                "No! Not at all, I just like, you know, showering with you."

                He is so easy.

                When we returned from the roof, someone had set up our tent and we crashed!

Continued...