09/19/06:

                We met for breakfast this morning and Yasai seemed distracted. "Are you okay?" He explained that at some point last night, Rosalinda consulted a bracelet she'd been wearing and announced that she was pregnant. Then she said, "I don't know what you are, but I sure wish there were more of you. Do you have any idea what the gestation period for you kind might be?"

                Yasai told her, "No idea, but let me warn you - if it comes out with a tail - watch out!" Then he told her all he knew about his kind before she decided it was time to go at it again.

                Rodrick joked, "We'll let you get some sleep once we hit the road."

                "No need. About 3:00 or so, she offered me a glass of something. I told her I don't drink but she assured me that it wasn't alcohol, 'Would I do something to harm my baby?' she asked. So I drank it. It was amazing! She told me that it would replace eight hours of sleep."

                Rosalinda showed up then. "I offer you the hospitality of Kingman."

                "In spades!" Yasai muttered. He started to leave them, and he told her, "You realize that I'm going to have to train the kid? Seriously. You're going to need help."

                "I will have help. Here." She gave us some maps with the problem areas marked on them. They were mostly mountainous areas east of Kingman and between there and Flagstaff.

                We hit the road and after awhile we came across a caravan headed towards Kingman. It was made up of four trucks being hauled by camels. There were six people on top of each truck, all heavily armed. They were followed by some backriders on motorcycles, also heavily armed. Olivia used the PA system to ask them if they'd seen any giant scorpions. A couple of the men on top of the trucks gestured up towards the hills.

                Further down the road we ran across another caravan. This time all the vehicles were moving under their own power. There were six semis, four Hummers with TOW missile launchers, a flatbed with some large machinery on it and two Bradleys bringing up the rear. They were flying Luxor's colors. They passed without acknowledging us in any way.

                Rodrick checked out the items on the flatbed, "Looks like they salvaged a machine shop."

                Further down the road we came across the smoking remains of a vehicle off the road with some mangled bodies near it. There were also some people nailed to some crosses. Near them was a man in some sort of uniform, an officer it looked like. He had been impaled on a large wooden stake that went thru his anus and almost thru his chest. And he was still alive! Alfred stopped us and Rodrick threw the door open, "Leo? You got my back?"

                They both rushed out took a look around, signaled to us that it was clear and we joined them. Yasai got the man off the stake, laying him down for me and then he pulled on some Power and flew off to do some reconnaissance. I moved to heal the man but realized he was simply too far gone for me to help him, I yelled for Leo to get the morphine from Scooby; I could at least ease his pain.

                The man opened his eyes and grabbed me, "Ditronics…stopped…monsters." He gasped a few times and died. I laid him back down and stepped away, shaking my head at Leo. We looked around the area. A little further down the road, another flatbed with Luxor's colors had been blown off the road by a claymore. Looking at the wreckage spread out around it, it appeared to lab equipment. There were more bodies in and around the truck and they all wore Luxor's colors, but neither the man who'd been impaled or those crucified did - they all had different types of old military uniforms. Rodrick was checking the ground and pointed out tire tracks from motorcycles and Hummers. I suggested that we might want to question one of the dead men.

                Yasai returned shortly and reported that he'd found a camp about three miles away, where some women were fixing a meal and some children were playing. He'd donned some magical armor and set himself down just outside the camp. "Hi - how ya doing?" he'd asked them.

                The women dove for cover and came up with weapons, "What do you want?" they demanded.

                Yasai had told them what we had found and asked, "Do you know anything about it?"

                The women exchanged some looks, "We don't and you're not needed here, friend. We would appreciate it if you wouldn't attract any attention to us here." They refused to say anymore so Yasai flew away. As soon as he left, he saw them start to break camp - fast.

                Yasai finished his report and took off again to keep an eye on the women. Olivia wrestled her flying bike out of Scooby and took off after him. They saw that the women had motorcycles in a cave and one of them used some magic to reveal a hidden Hummer. They started up and took off - but the children that had been in the camp were nowhere to be seen. Yasai asked Olivia, "Should I slow them down?"

                "If you can do it without hurting them, sure."

                So Yasai closed in and chased the women for a bit, finally firing a fireball warning shot in front of their vehicles. They stopped and one woman leapt out with a shotgun. Yasai and Olivia hovered above her.

                "What do you want?" she demanded. "We have nothing to say to you people."

                Olivia said, "Talk to us and we'll let you go."

                "But we're the one with guns."

                "And we're the ones with a grenade launcher," Olivia countered.

                Yasai said, "We just want to understand what happened out there. Three men were crucified and a fourth impaled, what happened?"

                That got a reaction from the women and Olivia assured them, "We're no friends of Luxor."

                The woman with the shotgun lowered it a bit and said, "So, this incident you're bothering us about, were there any survivors?"

                "We can't know for sure - how many people were involved?" Yasai asked.

                There was a long pause and finally one of the women said, "There were six of them."

                "We've found four, so far," Olivia said.

                Yasai said, "We can bring the bodies here to you."

                The woman in charge shook her head; "We have to go now."

                "Where are the kids?" Olivia asked but the woman turned to her companions, "Time to move out."

                Olivia asked, "Do you know anything about giant scorpions?"

                The woman sighed; "If we tell you something, will you just leave us alone?"

                "Sure. Ditronics - what does that mean?"

                "About twenty miles down the road there's a frontage road. Signs read 'Private Property - Do Not Enter'. Beyond those signs is a manufacturing plant. You'll find your answers there. Now, we have to go - we have information to deliver."

                She turned to get back into the Hummer and Yasai said, "But who are you?"

                "We are an autonomous collective, deriving our power to govern by a mandate from the masses, which is the only real basis for supreme executive power. This operation was to defend our sociopolitical idiom." And without another word they left.

                Olivia headed back to where they'd been camped to look for the kids. And Yasai flew off to find the Ditronics building. At the camp all Olivia found was a Frisbee and some jacks. She scooped up all the jacks and tossed them in the frisbee and suddenly ten 'children' appeared. She removed the jacks from the frisbee and they vanished again. She picked the Frisbee up and underneath it was a glowing crystal - an illusion generator. Olivia grabbed it all and went back to flying around on her bike.

                She radioed back and told us that there should be a total of six men. Alfred, Leo and I searched some more and found one more man some distance off. It looked as if he'd been shot in the back while running away. The last man was tied to a tree and his fingers had been removed. So had his tongue and he'd been left to bleed out.

                Back at the crash sight Rodrick discovered some pits that had been covered up and had explosives in them. He removed the explosives and he, Leo, Alfred and I enlarged the pits, turning them into graves for the men.

                Yasai, in the meantime, had found the Ditronics building and circled back to check on the women. They were heading north on a deer track that curved around to head west again so he started to return to the building to do some scouting. Before he did, though, he saw a helicopter move in, land and pick the women up. He headed on to Ditronics.

                Most of the building had collapsed - fairly recently from the looks of things - and there were some earth movers and construction equipment spread about. It looked like someone had tried some excavation. He circled twice and saw no signs of life except for some local wildlife so he rejoined us at Scooby. He arrived just as Olivia was showing us the Frisbee trick. She finished and we got back into Scooby and headed towards Ditronics with Yasai on the roof giving directions.

                We pulled up to the building and found tire tracks and broken lab equipment all over the place. The sign over the main entrance read, "Ditronics Bio Technology Laboratories". We moved towards the entrance with Rodrick on point and Yasai and I bringing up the rear. The first thing we found was a conference room with decaying bodies in it - most looked as if they had died violently.

                Outside the room, in a hallway, someone had spray-painted arrows on the walls, so we followed them - and found a collapsed wall and floor. Thru the opening we could see two levels down, and someone had set up a block and tackle overhead.

                We found a staircase leading down. The door had its hinges removed and the lock had been blow-torched off. It was very dark down below and we could hear something moving around down there. I picked up a piece of rubble, placed a continual light on it, and dropped it down the stairwell. It gave us some light, but not much.

                We moved slowly down the stairs until Rodrick stopped us, "I hear something being dragged - and can anyone else hear that breathing?" We all could - it sounded big! Leo signaled for everyone to have a weapon ready and we moved downwards again and around a landing.

                There was a wild boar sitting there - a boar that was easily five feet tall and eight feet long! It was dragging the corpse of an elf by its ankle. Rodrick opened fire at it, but missed. Olivia fired and hit the thing three times. I was in no position to fire with everyone in the way, so I asked Corellon for assistance and He sent a sword at the boar.

                The boar dropped the body it was moving and spun, biting Rodrick's arm. It didn't break thru the armor but it clamped onto his arm and wouldn't let go. While the boar was busy with Rodrick, Yasai jumped on its back and put his fist thru the thing's skull. It slumped over to the side, dead, but remained clamped on Rodrick's arm, so he put his gun to the thing's head and fired. That did it and it let go of him.

                Olivia broke the resulting silence, "That'll do, pig."

                We took a closer look at the boar - it looked like a regular desert pig (except bigger, much bigger) but it had a gross-looking rat-tail. The elf it had been about to chow down on was wearing Luxor colors. Then we checked out the hole it had been heading for. It was a ventilation shaft and inside was a 'nest' with some miscellaneous body parts from miscellaneous humanoids. Most were old and decomposing, but some were 'fresh'. All were chewed on.

                We continued down the stairs while Yasai poked around inside the shaft. He rejoined us on the next landing and reported that he'd found another body about ten feet down the shaft, next to a still-intact hermetic seal with some blinking lights on it.

                We came upon a door leading to the next level that had an elaborate bomb attached to it. Rodrick inspected it, "Everyone get back." He pulled a pocketknife and began poking at it. Then there was beeping and Rodrick said, "Ummm - Run!" We did.

                When the dust cleared, all but Yasai and Alfred were bleeding from shrapnel wounds. I used my wand to heal Olivia and myself. Rodrick and Leo used their new tattoos to heal themselves. When they were done Leo gave Rodrick an idiot slap to the back of his head.

                Rodrick said, "Wrong wire."

                "Ya think?" Leo asked.

                Yasai said, "If you were just going to set it off - you should have let Alfred or I do it."

                We picked our way thru the wreckage of the door and in the hallway beyond it. It was full of rubble from the explosion and had some downed electrical and computer wiring. There was some light - it was coming from some emergency lights that had been enchanted and were glowing. We found another spray-painted arrow indicating another hallway with a sign, "DNA Purification Lab". We moved down that hallway with Rodrick in the lead again and Yasai and I in the back. Inside the DNA lab there was a lot of lab equipment left - but only the big, heavy, bolted down stuff, everything else had been taken. But whoever had been there must have been in a hurry because there was a lot of broken stuff.

                On the far side of the room was a door with table piled up against it and there were shell casings all over the floor. There were also numerous bullet holes and blood was splattered all around. Looking at the mess it was obvious (even to me) that some bodies had been hauled away.

                Rodrick surveyed the mess and asked, "Hey Leo, you got any grenades?"

                "Yeah - how many you want?"

                "No, I've got some, I just wanted to make sure that you did, too."

                There was some clattering noises from behind the stack of tables, we moved some stuff and got the door partly open to take a look. Something was moving in the darkness - something big.

                "Do we have a plan?" Yasai asked. He looked into the next door and found another conference room and an eight foot scorpion snacking on 'something'. It stopped eating long enough to look at Yasai and click its pinchers at him. Yasai returned to the room we were in. "Found a scorpion." He moved on to another room and reported that it was full of video equipment.

                Olivia was looking into the room behind the barricaded door and cast a continual light inside. The thing that was moving inside was another scorpion. This one was at least twenty feet long and was busily arranging stuff into a nest.

                "Nest?" I asked, "As in eggs?"

                Olivia suddenly squealed.

                "What?" Leo demanded. She pointed to something crawling from under a pile of rubbish - a six-inch long cockroach. She took careful aim and blew it away.

                Rodrick was looking into the room with Mommy Scorpion and saw two more scorpions enter from another doorway, but they were smaller - only five feet or so. We moved back into the hallway to check neighboring rooms. All but two doors in the hallway were open, and as we would shine a light into the rooms we saw lots of damage and more of the huge roaches.

                One of the locked doors was on room #238. Olivia used her wand to open it and we found an armory; rifles, handguns, teargas canisters, grenades, grenade launcher, tranquilizers and darts and guns to use them.

                On the cabinet holding the tranquilizers there was a chart listing the dosage needed for various creatures starting low and building up. The last printed entry on the chart listed the dosage for an elephant - but then someone had handwritten one more. It read, "#437 - 3 times elephant dose".

                Yasai and Olivia each helped themselves to one of the handguns modified to take the tranquilizer darts. I saw that twenty-foot scorpion, so I went for some grenades and a launcher as well as one of the tranquilizer guns.

                Yasai took some more weapons. I was beginning to wonder just how he planned to tote them when he pulled a small metal box from underneath his shirt somewhere. He opened it, which expanded it to the size of a footlocker, put all the extra weapons and ammo into it, closed it and slipped it back under his shirt!

                Leo and I sat down to load some of the darts with tranquilizer. Rodrick came back and asked me to help him by opening another locked door that he'd found.

                "Wrong girl - ask Olivia."

                She used the wand again and found what was behind door number two - some serious hardware; blocks and tackle, some disassembled steel cages, some steel cable lassos for catching wildlife and riot gear. Big time riot gear - impact armor, face guards, shields, helmets and gas masks. There were also some 'Red Man' suits and some odd gloves made of chain and plate. Yasai took a pair but when he discovered that he couldn't use his hands while wearing them, discarded them. He returned to the armory and took some teargas grenades and Rodrick helped himself to a couple of serious looking rifles while Leo and I finished with the darts.

                We heard a sound outside in the hallway and looked up to see an eight-foot scorpion go by the doorway. It stopped, backed up, looked in and moved towards us. Rodrick blasted it with his Stoner. The scorpion took two full bursts, flew backwards and hit the far wall. It got back to its feet and moved towards us again.

                Leo opened up and hit it, but it kept coming. It lashed out at Rodrick - but he was able to dodge both claws and its tail. Alfred stepped in and opened fire with his M-16 and still the bug kept coming! Yasai, coming back from his exploring, had no line of fire, but Olivia leaned around Alfred to launch some magical missiles.

                Once again, the thing flew across the hallway, bouncing off the fall wall. But this time it didn't get up.

                "Rodrick - is there anything else out there?" I asked.

                He looked around the corner, "A few more. Three of 'em - about the same size as that one. They're milling around down the hall." He leaned back into the room and asked, "Do we kill them or leave them?"

                Olivia said, "Maybe they'll stop to eat this one?"

                "We can hope," I said.

                Out the other door there were a lot more of the roaches and looking into the elevator (or what had been the elevator) we saw that the shaft was covered with more of them - some of them were even bigger than six inches!

                Olivia threw a fireball upward into the shaft and then dodged back into the room. The flames filled the shaft and overflowed into the air vents - including the ones that emerged into the room we were in. We all hit the floor and were okay.

                Yasai had ducked out into the hallway to avoid the flames and saw the twenty-foot long scorpion fold itself to get around a corner. "Here comes the big one!" he yelled as he launched a fireball at it. The scorpion walked thru the resulting flames and charged Yasai. He was able to dodge the attack and once he was out of the way, Rodrick and Alfred opened fire, simultaneously. They both hit it - but didn't even slow it at all. I snuck in between the two of them and fired a tranquilizer dart. It hit and pierced the shell but only slowed it a little. Olivia had her Glock out and shot it twice. Slowly its legs finally gave out and it fell to the floor.

                Rodrick and I checked on the three down the hall - they were still just hanging out down there. Yasai and Olivia were trying to determine if the big one was dead or not - they kicked it and it twitched. Was that a reflex of some kind?

                There was a sign across the hall. "Morphology Lab" Alfred pointed to it and asked, "There next?" As we moved into the hallway we saw three more scorpions coming from the same direction that the big one had.

                Rodrick tossed a grenade the opposite direction. Alfred said, "But those three weren't doing anything."

                "Yet. We can't fight with them behind us and in front of us."

                The three new ones suddenly charged, attacking Yasai and Rodrick. Rodrick was able to get out of the way but Yasai got knocked around. He avoided legs and pinchers, but the tail whipped him into a wall and then stung him.

                But the sting had no effect and Yasai was able to move out of range. He regrouped for an attack and I sent a beam of searing light at the scorpion. It staggered a bit and before it could attack again, Alfred started firing his M-16 at it. Meanwhile Olivia was firing at the second scorpion and Leo was firing on the three that Rodrick had thrown the grenades at. Rodrick joined Olivia firing on the second one and finished it off.

                The third scorpion attacked Rodrick, clipping him with a claw that then battered Yasai. He shook it off and returned the blow - killing the scorpion. The last one made no attempt to get away and actually moved in closer. I called up another beam of light and that killed it. We took a few moments to catch our breath and then we continued on, checking rooms.

                In room #243 we found the body of another Humanoid. This one was ten and a half feet tall! We couldn't tell much more - it had been almost completely devoured by our big crusty friends.

                The next room was labeled "Cytogenesis" and was chock full of goodies; booby traps, scorpion pieces and another ten-foot tall Humanoid corpse. A claymore burst to the chest had killed this one. There was also a 'normal' corpse. This one had also been mostly eaten and it had a remote in its hand.

                "What's that all about?" Yasai asked Rodrick.

                "That's what set off the claymore."

                We searched the body and found a Ditronics ID badge and 1,200 in Luxor chips; we took it all and the badge as well. Both of the guy's legs had been badly broken and there was a stack of eaten MRE's around the body.

                Rodrick examined the remaining traps and proclaimed them extremely well designed so we moved on. I asked Rodrick to look at the door on room #236; it still had some explosives strapped to it. He discovered dynamite and an anti-disturbance switch with several decoys.

                We skipped that room for the time.

                In a room called "Morphology, Speciation, and Longevity" there was another scorpion's nest with more partially eaten corpses. The room itself was huge and contained a row of glass, cylindrical tanks that were fifteen feet tall and seven feet across. There were ten of them and they were all empty except for some small puddles of fluid and breathing apparatus.

                Yasai found a clipboard with notes and genetic diagrams and lots of mumbo jumbo, but there was one particularly interesting note, it said, "Lot #437, Run 17. Age at inception - 21. Nationality - Hispanic. Previous injuries - appendectomy."

                There was that #437 again.

                Rodrick was determined to get into room #236; "We can do it, right Leo?"

                "They really went to some trouble to keep us out."

                Rodrick thought for a moment and made a decision, "Everyone - take cover."

                "Good luck, man" Leo said.

                All the worry was for naught - Rodrick had no trouble at all disarming that one. But when he was finished, the door was still locked, so Olivia magicked it open. Then it took both Alfred and Yasai to muscle it open!

                It turned out to be a steel vault that used to operate on electromagnets. When they got it open, there was a blast of cold air. Yasai used some magic on himself and slipped inside. He came out and reported that there were biohazard signs and what appeared to be genetic samples.

                "Why is it still cold?" he asked. "Is it that well insulated or is it still receiving power from somewhere?"

                We searched nearby rooms, hoping to find some cold-suits - but with no luck. I did find a pair of something that looked like hockey gloves with a switch on them. I flipped it and they warmed up. Rodrick wanted to go take a look around the room so he put the gloves on and I placed a magic on him so he could withstand the cold and in he went. He came back very quickly and reported that the place was lined with bars of frozen nitrogen -that's what was keeping the room so cold. He'd grabbed a jar from a shelf full of them and brought it out with him.

                On his way thru the door, he brushed against the doorframe and his pants shattered! Oddly enough, he didn't think it was nearly as funny as the rest of us did. He swept all the pieces into a pile and Olivia Mended them for him.

                Looking at the jar he'd brought out we saw a large Humanoid fetus inside and it was labeled, "I.D. Series 437. Postmortem done 09/12/2005." Seven months after the Change and there was #437 again.

                The next room had another corpse in it - a ten-foot tall woman with a gaping hole in her skull lying in the midst of more destroyed lab equipment.

                And the room after that? Another body - but this one was fresh - rigor hadn't even set in yet. It was wearing Luxor colors and was draped across a desk. Yasai went on to check the next room and Olivia the room beyond that while Rodrick and I played around with the computers in the room. Alfred helped me move the body off the computer it was on.

                But we had no luck - there was no power in that room either.

                "Should we take one of these with us?" Rodrick asked.

                "It couldn't hurt." And we ended up pulling the hard drives out of all of them.

                In his room, Yasai found a 're-sequencing room' - it had lab equipment and some notes scribbled on a white-board. There was a graph labeled 'physical ability' that showed a sharp increase. A graph called 'mental capacity', on the other hand, showed a drop off that was just a dramatic. More notes indicated erratic changes in fertility - but that seemed to depend on the run number.

                Olivia's room was a ransacked office with another body in Luxor's colors. She searched it and found a Monopoly Get Out Of Jail Free card, and on the back was some sort of seal and the signature of Lord Las Vegas Hilton. She pocketed that and asked me if I would question the guy.

                So I sat down, pulled on the Powers and began:

                "What are you doing here?"

                "A sweep and clear of the site. Removing everything we could. Looking for samples."

                "Samples of what?"

                "Nothing in particular, any and all samples we could locate."

                "Who sent you?"

                "Julio told us to come."

                "Were you sweeping for something special?"

                "Anything that the Boss might like."

                "And who is the Boss?"

                "Lord Luxor."

                "Where are you taking things after you've found them?"

                "Area 12."

                "Where is that?"

                But there was no answer and the magic faded away

                "So, are these mutants the big ugly people Caesar spoke of?" I asked the room in general.

                Yasai had moved on to another room and found more rubble and a lot of CD-RW's; they were dated 07/01 - 07/15, 2006. He grabbed them all up and stashed them in his carry box.

                There was also a poster - "Buffy the Waster Slayer", autographed by the star herself; "To Crystal, Thanks for the great night, let's do it again." He took that, too and moved on to more rooms, but they just had stacks of empty barrels in them. Rodrick and I were poking around in the room where I'd questioned Luxor's man, but all I found was a building pass card. I took it - just in case, you know. Olivia had also moved on to another room, but she backed out, quickly. "Jazz, Rodrick, Leo! Come here!"

                The room had lots of exercise equipment in it and there was another ten-foot tall woman in the room. She was naked, chained over a pommel horse and she was dead. There was a ball-gag in her mouth and she'd been raped - repeatedly - before being shot in the head. She had the most curious look on her face - I swear she had NO concept of what had been done to her.

                I was surprised to see that Olivia had brought her crystal ball, and, using that and a sample of still wet semen, she set about scrying for the rapist. The crystal showed her several men in the back of a Hummer, all wearing Luxor's colors. The particular man she was shown was sound asleep and out the back of the vehicle we saw was sand and dust.

                "I'm going to kill that man," she proclaimed. Then she tried to unchain the woman, but the chains were huge! To calm her so we could keep moving, Rodrick asked for my help. I set some more magic on him and he went back to the freezer and returned with some of the frozen nitrogen, which he applied to the chains. They shattered and he laid the woman out on the floor. When he was done we noticed she had a tattoo on her left breast - a cute little skunk inside a heart, and both her toenails and fingernails had sparkly, purple polish on them.

                Yasai had checked out three more rooms. A conference room, a telecom room and one that had a pile of partially burned files - but the sprinkler system still worked - so under the first layer there was a lot of untouched information.

                Olivia and I sifted thru the pile and found some interesting things. Olivia found a binder labeled "Program Synopsis". The first page was a mission statement. They had been trying to create a bacterium that was capable of consuming toxic wastes and transforming them into a safe waste product. I found some notebooks containing trials for some sort of plastic elasticity enzymes. They started testing with rats but the notes said that they began developing mutations in the living subjects.

                Everything we found was dated 2003 thru 2004. We took the stuff and continued on. Yasai had moved on to another room filled with computer workstations. Nothing there. Moving further down the hall, there were quite a few empty rooms and a couple that had been pressed into use as barracks.

                We came to the next stairway and found the door was locked and booby-trapped. While Rodrick was checking out the explosives, Olivia poked around in one of the barracks, but all she found was a roll of tokens from Luxor's brothel. I found a room labeled, "HazMat". It was magically lit and had cleansing showers and biohazard suits spread out all over.

                Rodrick announced that he was ready to work on the door and told us all to take cover. At the end of the hallway and around the corner there was a door that was chained and padlocked. The sign on it said, "Reading Room".

                Why would a reading room be padlocked? We got closer and could hear voices from inside. Olivia used the wand to open the padlock and we entered the room. It had been made up to resemble the inside of a tent and there were several nearly nude human and elven women inside. They were nearly frantic.

                "Are you here to do something else to us?"

                "Who are you?"

                "Do you work for Luxor, too?"

                "You're not going to hurt us, are you?"

                We finally got them quieted down and asked them how they came to be there. A Human named Jane told us that she had been promised work and then taken there to service Luxor's men. Another human named Brittany babbled at us for awhile before spitting out that she'd been drugged in a bar and woke up there. A Moon Elf introduced herself as Caroline and said that she'd been abducted right off the streets of Vegas.

                A Sylvan elf who refused to give her name ("You do not deserve to know," she said) told us, "They took me alive, to my eternal shame. And then they kept me here and prevented me from doing anything to harm myself."

                "You could have chewed thru your own tongue," Olivia suggested and the woman threw a dildo gag at her. Olivia insisted that the woman tell us her name and she stubbornly refused to do so.

                "Do you want out of here?" Olivia asked.

                "Jerri," she spit out (obviously not her name) and then she demanded a weapon so she could revenge herself.

                "Maybe later, okay?" I said. Then we asked if any of them knew a girl with a skunk/heart tattoo.

                "I remember her," Jane said. "But I can't think of her name - she wasn't here long. Just a few days after they brought her here she kicked a guard in the balls. They took her away and we never saw her again. That was probably two months ago. Lots of girls have come and gone. There's a rumor that the men were making snuff films"

                "Do you happen to know anything about giant scorpions?" I asked her.

                She nodded, "I've never seen one but the men talk about them all the time. They started being a problem six months ago when they started coming up from the lower levels."

                Olivia asked, "So why did they bail out now?"

                "I don't know, but one guy said something about 'the Rangers' getting too close and an announcement was made that they were pulling out. A guard said, 'Those fucking rangers are incoming - how did they find us?'"

                Olivia Sent a message to Lucifer, "Tighten security regarding Luxor - now. Where is Area 12? We're at Ditronics. Genetic testing - super-humans. Rangers coming?" Then she got the crystal ball out again to scry his reaction.

                He was in a frenzy and replied to her, "Get out! Now! Immediately!" Then he was yelling at his men, "Get over there! Tell McCarron I want a track on that! Where did they come from?!?"

                We grabbed the girls and ran back into the hallway.

                I yelled, "Rodrick! Forget that! We have to get out of here, right now!"

                We hauled ass back up to ground level and piled into Scooby. Alfred was only half in the door when Olivia floored it. Rodrick switched on the radar and it showed three planes closing in. Two swung back and up to provide cover for the third, which was coming in low and slow, banking around to the left above us.

                Then we could see them. There was a C-130 gunship with a lot of weaponry sticking out the left side. It had the Hopi symbol for the sun painted on the tail and it circled the building repeatedly, pounding it again and again. The two support planes were F-22's that took turns doing fly-overs.

                Suddenly one of the F-22's exploded and Scooby was thrown sideways by a blast concussion. I don't know why it didn't tip over. Olivia got it back under control and we saw the second F-22 and the C-130 both explode - but there was nothing to be seen that could have done it.

                Olivia, Rodrick, Leo and I all said, "Azrael!" Olivia braked us to a sudden stop and killed the engine. Leo and I turned off everything and anything electronic while Olivia cast an illusion over Scooby to make it blend into the desert.

                There was a disturbance in the sand some ways off and the Azrael became visible as it set down. The door opened and a crewmember emerged and took a look around. But before we could make out whose colors he wore he got back in and it took off.

                I sent a question to Lucifer; "Did you send the planes or the Azrael?"

                "The Azrael."

                "Thank you."

                "You're welcome - did the planes destroy the facility?"

                "They did - we'll report in full, later."

                Leo got out to check Scooby for damage and Yasai flew back to the building. He reported that roaches and scorpions were crawling out of the rubble and off into the desert. "Hey Olivia, what was your deal with that bitch?"

                "To kill scorpions."

                Alfred said, "We can tell her that the nest was destroyed and that we killed scorpions."

                Yasai had also seen where the wreckage of the C-130 was, so we started Scooby up and headed for it. Looking at the sun painted on it - wasn't that the same symbol Yasai said he saw on the helicopter that had picked up the women earlier? We did some digging and found the cockpit. The body of the copilot was pretty much intact and he had shoulder patches on his uniform with the same sun symbol and the letters "N.A.R."

                Yasai asked, "Jazz, can you talk to him?"

                "Let's take him back and let Lucifer do it."

                We were stowing the body in Scooby and Jane said that she recognized the patch, but didn't know who they were - she'd seen a man with that patch being interrogated by General Marquez.

                As we were just about to leave we noticed that the Sylvan Elf - 'Jerri' had vanished. So had an M-16 and a box of MRE's. I wish her luck out there.

                After all that excitement, the drive to Kingman was uneventful, but rather amusing. Both Olivia and Yasai were hitting on Jane and I got the feeling that Rodrick was also interested, but he didn't make a pitch. Too bad for him - I saw Jane giving him the eye.

                Back in Kingman we were met by Rosalinda, "We saw quite a bit of smoke - has everything been taken care of?"

                "Yes! Why, yes it has, "Olivia told her.

                Rosalinda handed her the papers for the Glitter Gulch and took Olivia's money, "Remember, this does not make you an Overlord." Then she asked if we were staying the night or moving on.

                "Moving on!" we all said in unison.

                Rosalinda pouted a bit but said, "Well Lady Sakkara thanks you for your assistance." Then she said to Yasai, "And I thank you for your contribution."

                The Moon Elf, Caroline, announced that she wanted to stay in Kingman, so Olivia made Rosalinda promise to keep her safe, "We may need her for a witness." Rosalinda agreed and offered Caroline some assistance.

                "I don't accept charity," she said in a huff.

                Rosalinda gave her a good, Drow glare, "It isn't charity and it is rude to not accept the hospitality of an Overlord." Caroline reluctantly agreed and went along with Rosalinda. Jane and Brittany both wanted to go back to Vegas with us. And Brittany simply would not shut up! So she was banished to the back of Scooby, "Don't touch anything!" I warned her.

                Then I asked Olivia, "She looks tired doesn't she? Like some sleep would do her good."

                But Olivia, busy hitting on Jane, missed my hints. I wondered, in the Battle of Jane, would the loser get Brittany? Finally it became apparent that Yasai was going to win - Jane just wasn't interested in playing for the Pink Team. I was amused; it's not often Olivia strikes out when pitching woo.

                We finally made it back to Vegas well after midnight and were met by Allison's people, who took care of everything so we could go straight to bed.

09/20/06:

                At breakfast Alfred said that he'd spoken to Phillips and we were all to attend a Security Council meeting at the Stratosphere.

                "Who will be there?" Yasai asked. "What will happen? Will there be food?"

                "We will brief the major Overlords and no food, sorry."

                Olivia asked, "Will Luxor be there?"

                "He will. Lucifer and I have a small wager as to what his response will be. We need to be there in an hour."

                Rodrick was worried that wouldn't leave enough time to go thru the computer hard drives from Ditronics.

                "Is there someone here who knows computers and can do that for us?" Yasai asked.

                "Allison will know," I said.

                "Yes, ma'am." And she left the room. She returned just minutes later with a computer geek who got to work on them. It turned out that only three of them had anything useful on them.

                The first one yielded up spreadsheets and charts filled with data showing growth in different test series. One interesting notation read, "Series 17, baseline Human, complete metamorphosis in two weeks." The second hard drive held digital images of the 'experiments'; before, during and after. The girl with the skunk tattoo was included. Files that went with the photos explained how the subjects had been taken from refugee camps, off the streets or traveling the highways. Looking at the 'before' photos - all of the subjects, both male and female - had all been quite attractive.

                Jane had accompanied Yasai to breakfast and she recognized eight or nine of the women as having been in the 'harem' out at the plant. "Would that have been me next?" she asked.

                Further notes revealed that approximately one third of the test subjects had lethal mutations that were detailed in post mortem reports. The third hard drive had records from the original company. The last entry on it was dated February 21, 2005. It was a note to someone's wife, "Everyone here has gone nuts, and interoffice rivalries are being settled with shotguns." He went on to confess to a four-year affair with a co-worker and ended with, "I'm sorry you'll never see this, believe me when I say that all those women never meant a thing to me." Rodrick thanked Allison for her assistance and told her how lovely she looked, so early in the morning. Oh my!

                So with our evidence and our witness, we made our way to the Stratosphere where we were met by Phillips, just like before. I gave him a hug and a kiss, "Phillips! I'm so glad to see you, I missed you."

                He smiled, "There, there, now, Miss Hughes. I'm glad to see you as well."

                We were shown to the conference room and at the sight of the Cats, Jane became quite frightened and turned, clinging to Yasai. As we were getting settled, Caesar entered and called the meeting to order. Lucifer stood and read an opening statement saying that radar at McCarron and Nellis had detected unauthorized flights into Vegas airspace and Vegas forces had intercepted the offending aircraft, believed to belong to a group known as 'The Rangers'.

                Luxor interrupted, "Not before they completely demolished one of my research facilities. Why was my property not properly defended? I should bill you for the damages as a penalty."

                Olivia leaned forward and said, "Speaking of penalties, Lord Luxor, what do you suppose the penalty for rape might be?"

                "I beg your pardon?" he sneered.

                "I have evidence that men wearing your colors raped at least one woman."

                "And held several more against their will, forcing them to 'service' your men," I added.

                "What is the penalty for conducting genetic testing on living, sentient creatures?" Yasai asked.

                Olivia asked. "And just what does that genetic testing have to do with your domain, which I believe is narcotics?"

                Luxor leaned back in his chair and smiled. "I have to do testing. Favor didn't just 'happen' you know."

                "And the Super-Soldiers?" Yasai asked.

                "Super-Laborers, you mean," Luxor smiled even more smugly. "The people involved with those tests were all indebted to me in some way."

                "And that gives you the right to change them into horrific monsters?" I was outraged.

                "Tell me Lord Luxor, "Olivia said, "what is your relationship with Lord Las Vegas Hilton?"

                "What? Adversarial, why do you ask?"

                "Then why did one of your men have a Get Out Of Jail Free card, signed by Lord Las Vegas Hilton, himself?" She held up the card in question.

                Hilton started in his seat and said, "May I see that, please?"

                Olivia handed it over to Caesar. He examined it and looked up at Hilton. "It is your signature, what have you to say?"

                I swear Hilton blushed! The inside of his ears did, anyway. "Umm, never try to draw to an inside straight? The card was a wager."

                "You wagered this?"

                He blushed darker red, "After several bottles of vodka…"

                Caesar was irate, "Destroy this thing."

                "But I gave the man my word."

                I laughed, "And now he's dead! He's not getting out of that, free or otherwise."

                Olivia got in Hilton's face. "Do you know how dangerous and irresponsible this is? Even drunk, how could you wager something like this?"

                Hilton got defensive. "Right or wrong, I gave my word. I'll back that card up, no matter what. I'll not have it said that I reneged on something I gave my word on." He handed it to Olivia. "You now own it by right of combat, and I will honor my word."

                Olivia looked at it for a moment and then she pulled out her Glock. Before anyone could react - BANG! BANG! BANG! - she put three rounds into Luxor's chest. He was blown backwards out of his chair and hit the floor hard. For a moment, he looked like he was going to laugh; then he died. Olivia holstered her gun and handed the card to Hilton.

                He took it, looked at Caesar and said, "Lord Caesar, I resign my position."

                Caesar said, "You are not getting out of this that easy! Go home - find a way - any way - make this legal. Clean up your mess. We will let it be known that Lord Luxor committed suicide. His domain will be open to claim. Later. Now tear that damn card up!" He paused, took a deep breath and said to the rest of the gathering, "Shall we adjourn so my people can clean this up?"

                As we moved upstairs Mandalay Bay said, "Well that was different."

                "Not your ordinary, boring staff meeting, huh?" Olivia asked.

                Caesar went to the bar to fix himself a drink and Olivia said, "I'll have a rum and coke, please."

                "Perhaps we should reconvene tomorrow," Caesar suggested.

                Olivia asked, "Where's Area 12?"

                "What? Between Areas 11 and 13?" Caesar said.

                While Olivia was keeping everyone's attention - I slipped back downstairs. Luxor's body was still where it fell, I took a deep breath, pulled on the Power and started asking it questions.

                "Where is Area 12?"

                He listed off some GPS coordinates that I scribbled down.

                "Where is Favor made?"

                He listed off some locations, including one at Area 12 and one in Vegas proper.

                "Who knows the formula?"

                "Myself, the researchers and Myron - he developed it."

                "The Seeker - is he for real?"

                "He is a prophet, sent by the Unknown Ones, sent to guide us to our proper place and destiny," (Blah, blah, blah)

                I cut him off, "Were you working with the Japanese controlling Kingman?"

                "Who?"

                "What other Overlords do you have allegiances with?"

                "I purchase electricity from Sparky and…" and he went on to list everyone he did business with - not what I was hoping for and then I could get nothing more from him. I turned to go back upstairs, but there was a Cat blocking the doorway - a white tiger wearing plain gray robes and carrying a staff. All in all, very Obi Wan Kenobi; the Tatooine years.

                He asked, "Did you get the answers you wanted?"

                "Yes, thank you. You must be The Seeker. How are you? Good to meet you. You're not going to hurt me are you?" I swear I could hear Olivia say, "Pull yourself together, Jazz." And Yasai say, "You're a Priestess of Corellon - come on!" So I pulled the tattered remnants of my dignity together, "Of course you won't hurt me, you're The Prophet."

                He ignored My blithering; "Do you plan to disturb his soul anymore?"

                "No, I'm all done. How long have you been there?"

                "Long enough." He moved to stand over the body. "He has begun a journey that we will all eventually take. Do you have further business with him?"

                "Nope, I'm good."

                "The Unknown Ones do not speak often, but I am certain that They will make Their plans for you known." He smiled a creepy little smile, "Sleep well, child."

                Well - I know when I've been dismissed, but as I turned from him to leave I noticed the gold medallion he wore. It had a tiger head imposed over a pair of crossed swords. Pretty damn close to Hadass' lions and spears! I got back upstairs just in time to hear Mandalay Bay saying, "Perhaps the contingent from the Outlands should be sent to negotiate with these 'Rangers'."

                "Excuse me?" I said, "we're not your ambassadors."

                Caesar said to him, "Correct, they are not. But negotiations are a very good idea. Pack your bags."

                As Mandalay was complaining about that, Caesar said to Olivia, very quietly, "Good shooting, please enjoy my hospitality for the rest of the day."

                He noticed Jane, "Is this the witness you spoke of?"

                "Yes, sir," she managed to squeak out.

                "Good. We will speak later." Then he approached Yasai, "Are you an albino Drow?"

                "No, I'm a Saiyan."

                We introduced them, properly and when we were done Caesar asked, "Is there anything else I should know?"

                I told him, "We have the body of a Ranger."

                "Phillips! Get the body - have it interrogated."

                A man in a suit with a notebook approached, introducing himself as a writer for 'The Palace' and asked us what had happened.

                I said, "Olivia, you were closer to the tragic event - perhaps you should describe it."

                "Lord Luxor was overcome by guilt and shame and did himself in."

                Yasai nodded, "Shame and guilt brought on by the genetic testing he ordered."

                "Genetic testing?" the writer said.

                "In an attempt to create super warriors," Rodrick said.

                "Super warriors?"

                "Twelve feet tall," Alfred said.

                "With purple fangs," Olivia added.

                "And receding, yet bushy hairlines," Yasai volunteered.

                "And the claws!" I said, "HUGE claws."

                Rodrick said, "And fast! Faster then cheetahs."

                "Did you find any bodies?" the writer asked.

                "No," I said sadly, "they self distruct if taken too far from their center of operations."

                "And then they turn to dust," said Olivia.

                The writer was all excited, "If I bring in a sketch artist, can you describe them?"

                "Oh, sure!" Boy did we give him a description!

                Then this afternoon, Olivia was trying to go thru the books for the Glitter Gulch - which she has decided to rename New Babylon - when she was interrupted by a steady stream of Cats and others wanting to discuss business with her. Luxor business. "Look!" she kept telling them, "I am not the new Overlord of the Luxor! I'm not even sure if I want to be!" She finally just stopped seeing people.

                Things got exciting again when it came time for the 5:00 newscast. Jim (Lord Bellagio) himself went on the air to tell how Lord Luxor had been executed by Olivia Mitchell, Ambassador from the Outlands, who had in her possession a carte blanche from Lord Las Vegas Hilton, excusing any action committed by the bearer. The meaning and authenticity of the carte blanche had been confirmed and the Ambassador shot Lord Luxor during a meeting called by Lord Caesar. Caesar had attempted to gloss over the true facts to spare Lord Luxor's family any pain - but news reports need to remain independent so I must report the truth."

                "Wow, that is really gonna piss Caesar off," I whistled.

Continued...