11/01/06:

                I know, I know - I haven't written in over a month! But it's been quiet. Olivia and Yasai have been busy with their domains. And Rodrick and I have been busy sunning at the pool. Different pools of course. We don't want to be accused of playing favorites, so we rotate. One day it's the pool at the Aladdin, then the Hard Rock, Excalibur, Bellagio then the Venetian.

                So it's been a tough month of sunning and drinking. Can anything beat a drink, poolside? Mitzi discovered our routine and joins us most days. We keep her happy by throwing Frisbees for her to catch. She likes Rodrick better than I - he throws them higher than I do.

                A few days after Olivia's victory, word got out about the Cathedral - so I've been contacted by several artists, designers and architects with design ideas.

                The odd thing? Most of them have been Dwarves. I've asked them all; "Do you know or care, that this Cathedral is being built to honor Corellon? An Elven God?"

                But they don't care, so I don't care. I took their plans to look at and to get Corellon's opinion.

                We got together a few weeks back to discuss a few things that still need taking care of. Olivia is still interested in tracking down the men who raped that test subject we found out at Ditronics. Rodrick said that he'd be glad to help with that mission (as did the rest of us), and suggested that when we catch them we should bring them back to Vegas and drop them off at one of the gay bars we'd visited - maybe let them get a taste of what they did to that woman.

                I told him that I liked the sound of that - but Olivia vetoed it. She was in favor of just killing them and being done with it, torture was out of the question.

                Maybe the responsibility of the domain was making her think that way?

                Yasai also nixed it. Alfred mentioned that the current punishment for rape in Vegas is crucifixion - but Yasai was equally uncomfortable with that.

                And Favor. What to do about that problem? It had already been weeks that they were continuing its manufacture out at Area 12. And speaking of Area 12 - were they still producing those mutated people?

                Anyway - that was were things stood until today when Yasai asked us all to join him at the Hard Rock.

                Once we were all gathered he said, "I have a little bit of a problem here. And before I proceed to beat the rest of my staff to death and lay waste to all sorts of people, I feel that saner minds may wish to prevail or at least steer my wrath in a useful direction."

                "What's wrong?"

                "To begin with, I've been up for about 36 hours," he was pacing like a maniac. "Let's see, where to begin. You guys remember Rosalinda, the female Drow working for Sakkara in Kingman? The one that I had the little sleepover with? The one who's pregnant with my child?"

                We remembered.

                "Well, in the weeks after we left Kingman I gave that a lot of thought and let's just say that number one, it's a Saiyan thing. And number two, while growing up I saw 'Excalibur' and 'I, Claudius' one too many times. The whole kid being out there that I'm genetically related to but not raising thing became an issue for me. A whole subscription of issues. The kid could potentially be more powerful than me, and someone could raise him or her to be a future rival. In the meantime it's a liability because it has my DNA which should be pretty fucking rare from what I've seen and I have lots and lots of enemies these days and etc, etc…"

                He stopped pacing for a moment, "So I slipped down to Kingman and invited Rosalinda to come take over as Manager here at the Hard Rock. That way we could get to know each other better. If things worked out, great, if they didn't we could at least set up some type of amicable custody thing. She agreed and gave me a big list of stuff she wanted set up for her up here in Vegas. She said she would get her affairs in order, hire a replacement, and then come up here in two weeks. She was supposed to arrive yesterday."

                He got real quiet again, running his hand thru that hair of his, "Once again, to make a long story short. Maxwell - my ex-manager - gave information like her arrival time and traveling plans and the fact that we were hiring a decorator for a nursery, to one of Luxor's ex-generals. The caravan was hit. She isn't among the dead, neither is this General guy. Lots of dead mercenaries (the guys Rosalinda hired for the caravan duty) and Luxor men. I don't know about Sakkara, but Rosalinda's replacement was not involved."

                He began pacing again, "At my end, only Maxwell appears to have been involved. He's dead now...his body is hanging near the pool. Bodyguard is using a professional interrogator from Lord Hilton to ferret out any other potential traitors I have in the ranks. Does anyone remember the code name or any other information about the place they supposedly took all the genetic engineering equipment too? I'm thinking it's a place to start. Any other ideas?"

                Olivia said, "I believe it was Area 12. We all met her. That should give me a good basis to scrying her current location - as long as no one is magically shielding her. We'll find her. I just need to get my gear together and reload my guns. We'll make sure they regret messing with her!"

                "We should talk to the new Luxor, too. There may be something useful in the old Luxor's files. At least we can assume that they're probably all right - if she wasn't valuable, they'd have just killed her outright," Alfred added.

                Yasai said, "I'm not expecting any ransom demands. Visions of genetically altered huge Saiyans come to mind though.... Yeah, let's check with the new Luxor. Was he a crony of the old Luxor before the passing of domains?"

                "Nope," Alfred said, "Luxor and the old Bellagio were buddies. Aladdin (the new Lord Luxor) was in a bitter fight with Bellagio over Bellagio's plans to produce snuff films. Aladdin felt he should get a cut since it involved killing people for entertainment purposes. He lost, and harbored great resentment after that. He also favors both Jim and I, because several of our policies have benefited him, personally."

                "Well that's good news, " Yasai allowed.

                "Let's not forget that Rosalinda was put into that position with Sakkara by the people I believe to be Yakuza - maybe the queen bitch Yakuza who threatened us when we met her didn't take to the idea of her person going to work for someone else," I said.

                Olivia said, "Good point, Jazz. We shouldn't narrow our vision too quickly. There are other players out there. I plan to do a little scrying and see what we can find out."

                "Yakuza?!?" Yasai asked. "Well that does open things up a bit. Possibly better than the genetic possibility. Mainly because real members of the Yakuza will actually know what I am and respect that. Not out of fear of me or anything, but they definitely won't hurt the child. It's too valuable."

                He stopped and glared at us, "Funny no one mentioned this earlier.... Like before I fucked her! Oh yeah, let the new guy sleep with the potential ninja bitch from Hell - it'll be a real hoot."

                He calmed a bit, "So like, why were the guys that attacked the caravan wearing Luxor colors - a feint, they hired the ex-Luxor thugs?"

                Alfred said, "Well, just because she might be a ninja doesn't mean she's a bad person. Honest, I thought it was a Drow, 'biggest, strongest, best' thing, and she just wanted a little action."

                "Had no reason to think you'd care if she was Yakuza. And you knew she was Drow. We didn't know she'd be trying to get pregnant either," Olivia said.

                Yasai held up his hands, "Yeah, yeah, yeah - I forgive you. I want to talk to Luxor though. Find out if they have any personnel records left for people who were apparently really happy to wear Luxor colors but are no longer actually working for the new and supposedly improved Luxor. Also they might have records on Area 12. Maybe they had a uniform shipment stolen or something recently. Maybe somebody ordered a bunch of Luxor uniforms from their supplier. Who knows? We should probably re-search the ambush site again, too."

                "Not a bad idea. Who's up for searching the ambush site?" Alfred asked.

                Olivia said, "Sounds good to me. If we need to talk to the Yakuza people, we know the lady that seems to be who they report to."

                "I wouldn't say we know her, but we did meet her once," I said.

                Yasai said; "I'm up for searching the ambush site. Could someone tell me a little more about this whole Yakuza issue? Could Luxor's ex people be working for them? Am I completely off track?"

                Alfred explained, "The Yakuza look like they got stuck in Kingman and decided that that wanted to take the place over, behind the scenes, of course. We haven't really had any trouble with them before, though. Common enemies rather than friends, mostly."

                "Stuck in Kingman? What do they do there, flop around like fish out of water, or is there something about Kingman I don't understand? How do you get stuck in Kingman and why?" Yasai was getting pretty frustrated, "Are these American Yakuza or misplaced Japanese Yakuza? Did they go through the change? If they did I bet they did some real interesting stuff seeing as how they're operating from the perspective of a different mythology, both ancient and current. And how did one of them end up with a name like Rosalinda, unless of course that isn't her real name, yuk yuk... I was expecting to meet her family and have her brother named Chewy ask me 'Was'up Esse?'"

                Alfred shrugged, "My impression was that they were Japanese."

                "Yeah.... And why are they in Kingman?"

                Olivia said, "I don't think we asked them. As confrontations go, I think this one was pretty lassaiz-fair. Maybe they were establishing a secret training base out in the desert and were under orders not to return until it was ready."

                Rodrick said, "Hey I really don't like it when people just decide to take other peoples potential family member. I'm up for a good ass whoop'n. I can take a look at the ambush site and see what can be seen. Other than that I just need Yasai and Jazz so that the enemy can have some one to shoot."

                Yasai almost smiled, "Damn I'm glad I'm useful!"

                I said, "Count me in for search detail - but Rodrick - I am so not talking to you!" Then I handed Yasai my diary, "Read the entry for July 12th."

                While Yasai was reading, Rodrick said, "Please forgive me Jazz. To make it up to you, I'll wear a Zorro outfit."

                "Yeah?????"

                Leo glared at us. Rodrick changed the subject; "By the way I didn't know anything about the Yakuza. So don't blame me. I was in New Ectopia."

                "Alright, I forgive you too, on the account that you don't know anything." Yasai finished reading and returned my diary to me, "Thanks, Jazz, but now I'm not speaking to any of you - except maybe Rodrick, he wasn't there."

                Alfred shrugged again, "OK, your right to do so. Hard to ask for help when you're not talking to us, huh? I'll be in my pool...."

                Olivia protested, "Hey! What did we do? You didn't ask about her pedigree. You're a big, strong Saiyan. You can take care of yourself."

                Rodrick laughed, "Ah the luxury of being a grunt. I think I'll drink my rum and coke and watch the Overlords have a pissing contest, ten bucks on Olivia."

                "All right! Drink and girl comps for Rodrick at the Aladdin!" she said.

                Alfred got us serious again, "Yasai's problem has got me thinking a bit. I talked to Connor a few days ago and his comments kind of confirmed what I've been feeling. I also have a child out there, though I know who and where the mother is. What I don't have is a feeling of paternity. Conner feels the same way about his kids. I'm thinking this might be something biological; an innate inability to get too attached to our offspring. Obviously, Yasai doesn't feel that way. So I've been trying to think about how I would have felt, Before. I asked Leo about it, and his response (in a nutshell) was 'never leave a man behind'. I may not appreciate Yasai's feelings, but he didn't have all the facts and there apparently was some duplicity involved on Rosalinda's part. Tricking someone into parenthood is playing dirty - just as if a guy poked a hole in a condom on purpose, intending to get his partner pregnant and leave her up the creek with him long gone. Yasai at least deserves to know who the mother of his child is, who her allegiances are to, and to have a say in the child's future."

                "No ones saying he doesn't, Alfred," Olivia said, "The question was 'Why didn't we say something ahead of time?' I don't think the rest of us knew she intended to get pregnant. And he wasn't asking for a background check before sleeping with her. That being said - we'll do everything we can to help recover Rosalinda. If he wants to talk to the people that Rosalinda works for, we can arrange that. I can see them making her disappear for their own purposes, but I guess I don't think they'd try to frame Luxor's men for it. And the woman she reported to knows that we have the ability to Scry someone's location because we've used it on her before. And we do know that we haven't done anything about Luxor's group out in the desert. They'd had to be his most loyal people or he wouldn't have had them involved in this project. So Alfred, have you checked on Brenda recently?"

                "Yes, and she's settling in quite nicely. She's determined to be a single mother, but this incident has me more interested than I was in having a part in the child's future. Biology is not fate," Alfred said.

                Rodrick nodded and said, "I believe that the Change has effected all of us in ways we really don't understand. My outside appearance may not have Changed but deep down I have Changed. I can understand Yasai's feelings about family and all. I can also see Alfred's point of view. My point of view differs from both of theirs. However just because my view may be different doesn't mean that I don't support their views. I will be ready to support you in whatever means you need me to. Now saying all of that - I really don't know where to start looking but if you give me a chance at the site where the abduction took place I may be able to find a clue or two."

                Yasai took a deep breath and said, "Thanks for the support guys. I mean that. It means a lot to me. And sorry about all the whining, but I'm really pissed and tired and on edge. This is a really big deal to me. I didn't realize how big when we left Kingman, otherwise I would have stayed. But if I had known then what I know now, I probably would have killed her. I definitely would have found another way to solve the problem other than inviting her up here. I didn't want to be a parent at this stage of my life, but I'm kind of stuck with it now. I want the kid. I'll cross the bridge of appropriate childcare when I get there."

                He finally sat down, "All I ask is that in the future please remember I haven't been with you guys through most of what you've seen - and it's not like Jazz would or should let me read all of her journals. A lot of that is her private business. The fact that she's keeping notes is really lucky for the rest of us - but I don't know if she intended for them to be an open reference manual. So anyway, if it looks like I'm going to do something stupid because I don't know any better, as opposed to just doing something stupid because I'm stupid please let me know. I know there's a real thin line there..."

                He continued, "I have my doubts that fox lady and company took her. They're business people, getting her into the Hard Rock with access to the records there would have been very useful to them. I would like to go speak to fox lady after searching the site, because I think she may be looking for Rosalinda too. The only reason I can come up with for them arranging the kidnapping is because they wanted to keep the child away from me and Rosalinda away from you guys because you knew what she was. But then why not just have her disappear? Why stage the entire ambush?"

                Alfred said, "So tell us what was found at the initial search of the site."

                Yasai referred to a written report; "All of the dead attackers have been verified as Luxor troops. One of the mercs had a Tec-9 loaded with Black Talon rounds. Three of the Luxor troops were killed by Black Talon rounds. All three were hit in the chest - center mass, from straight on. The merc with the Tec-9 stayed in one place - the shell casings are in one elliptical area, perpendicular to the line the body fell in. And from the merc's position, the three dead guys are at 9:00, 1:00, and 3:00."

                Olivia said, "Okay. Someone translate this for the tactically impaired. Did anyone check to see if there was any residual magic in the area?"

"I don't believe so."

                Olivia sat down to Scry for Rosalinda's location - but came up with absolutely nothing.               

                So Olivia went to Kingman to ask around. She came back and reported that she had spoken to the Madam of the brothel who told her what happened. Rosalinda's caravan had been attacked by some of Luxor's men. But there had been a Mage with the caravan who had killed them all. And now Rosalinda was safely back in Kingman.

                We were at Yasai's pool, after Maxwell's body had been removed, and one of his people came out, "Sir" A messenger for you. He says he has word about Rosalinda. Should I bring him out?"

                "Yes thank you."

                An older man in a three-piece suit walked in (he looked really familiar) and bowed, "You are Lord Yasai of the Hard Rock?"

                "I am."

                "And the father of Rosalinda's child?"

                "I am."

                "I am Kenichi. I was a friend of Rosalinda's, Before. I was the facilitator that her group hired and we have been together ever since. I look on her, almost as a granddaughter. You heard that her caravan had been attacked?"

                "Yes," Yasai said, "And we're going to do something about that."

                Kenichi handed Yasai three I.D. badges from Luxor, "A certain person informed these three men of Rosalinda's plans."

                Yasai said, "Yes, one of my own. He has been taken care of."

                "But there was another," Kanichi said.

                "Who?"

                "One who claims no name."

                I said, "Josie?"

                Kenichi nodded, "Some call him that. These men of Luxor's - they attacked the caravan. Luckily a Mage of ours was there. But now, Rosalinda is afraid to travel and we are afraid to move her, Magically. She wants to stay home - in Kingman. So I am here to discuss visitation."

                Olivia looked like she'd swallowed a bug or something. She jumped up and left. "I need a drink!"

                Yasai said to Kanichi. "Good. I was trying to do the same, basically, by bringing her up here."

                Kenichi looked at Yasai; "You are so young. Do you have any experience with children?"

                "No. So what? People with no experience have been raising children for millions of years."

                Kenichi dismissed that, "Rosalinda's grandmother and I have a small farm outside of Kingman - that's where she is right now."

                "Is it safe?"

                "Very."

                "And it will be as long as no one knows, right?"

                Kenichi nodded. "Correct. Unless you want to make a weakness known. Let us keep her safe - her grandmother is a mage of some small ability."

                Olivia had just come back and almost spit her drink out, "Excuse me," she said as she left again.

                Kanichi glared at her but said to Yasai, "Go - take care of your enemies. Come back and we will discuss this further."

                "Tell me where she is," Yasai said. "I won't tell anyone."

                "I will leave the information with Sakkara's people - think about it - and if you decide you want to know - they will tell you."

                "That's fine, thank you. May I know her grandmother's name?"

                "Oya Yamabushi. Now if I may ask you, since this was an accidental event, we understand that you may not have feelings towards Rosalinda."

                "That is correct. But I do have them for my child," Yasai said.

                Kenichi said, "Rosalinda understands as well and frees you from any responsibility to her. Do you have a message for her?"

                "Only that I think she is safer where she is. I'll visit when it's time for the birth."

                Then Olivia asked about baby showers.

                "We'll be careful getting the gifts to Rosalinda," Yasai said. "I've taken care of one security leak and I'm going to take care of the other one."

                Kenichi said that he would make sure that any gifts would make it to Rosalinda and he excused himself.

                Conversation turned to which problem to handle next. Echo Bay or Josie?

                I voted for Josie. "We've ignored the Area 12/Echo Bay situation for weeks now, a little longer won't hurt."

                Olivia said, "Let's go grab Josie."

                But where to take him? Olivia volunteered her basement and called Karyn to get a room ready. For what? "Interrogation."

                Olivia scryed and found Josie, sitting in a private room at Mandalay Bay with two safe deposit boxes sitting on a table on front of him along with a beat up strong box. From the mercenaries?

                Rodrick volunteered to go with Olivia and we would all meet up at the Aladdin in the 'room' Karyn was setting up.

                Olivia teleported she and Rodrick into the room, right behind Josie. Rodrick put his gun to Josie's head; "Don't move or I'll blow your brains out."

                Olivia took over, using a Hold spell so Rodrick could grab the boxes, then she took all three of them to the Aladdin. Karyn had a dentist's chair that she was bolting to the floor. When she was done, she and Rodrick put Josie into it and secured him. Rodrick opened the strong box and found cash and pay records for the 'Eaglewind Mercenary Company'. Yasai confirmed that they were the ones hired to escort Rosalinda.

                Olivia dispersed the Magic holding Josie and he immediately said, "You will regret this."

                Rodrick ignored him and opened the first safe deposit box and found some blueprints. Blueprints for the Aladdin - the theatre to be exact.

                "Why do you have blueprints for my place?" Olivia demanded.

                Josie wouldn't answer so Olivia rubbed a bunch of fur backwards - he still wouldn't answer. Karyn shook her head and punched him in the chest, leaving him gasping for air. Then she asked, "Does she have your attention now?" Just to make sure, she showed him a pair of garden shears. "She's going to ask you questions. Answer wrong and you lose a toe."

                "What do you want?" Josie asked.

                "Why did you attack the caravan that Rosalinda was in?" Olivia asked.

                "I was paid to."

                "By whom?" Yasai asked.

                "I don't know," Olivia nodded - he was telling the truth and continued, "They came to see me and offered me money for one of my projects."

                Yasai asked, "Demolishing the Aladdin?"

                He didn't answer - but he reacted!

                "So you were going to mess with my Hotel?" Olivia asked him.

                "I am on a mission from God." Once again - that was the truth!

                "The Prophet?" I asked.

                "Tell me about it," Olivia prompted.

                "Since I'm sure you're going to kill me - why should I? I embrace my martyrdom and will keep my silence," he said.

                "Why does your God want you to do this?" Yasai asked.

                "Because we do not know Their names. It is only reasonable that They would not want any other God before Them."

                "Why this Temple?" I asked him. "There are others in town."

                "This one would be a center of learning for a heathen God. It had to go and then Theirs will be built in Their own time."

                "So who hired you?" Yasai asked again.

                "I don't know - he said his name was Mr. Johnson. He gave me the info. about the caravan."

                "Describe him." All we got was a human male in a trench coat and a hat.

                "He agreed to pay me enough money to buy a hundred pounds of C-4 to destroy the Temple."

                Rodrick laughed, "You moron! That's not even close to being enough."

                Yasai asked, "Have you been paid yet?"

                "Only half. I was to meet Mr. Johnson tonite to get the rest."

                "Where?"

                "On Fremont Street, at 6:00."

                But that was a lie and with a signal from Olivia, Karyn punched him in the chest again. While he was gasping, she popped a toe off.

                "What time?" Olivia asked.

                "Midnite," he gasped out. That was the truth.

                "And where on Fremont Street?"

                "He'll just meet me there - I was supposed to walk around."

                "How did he give you the first half of the money?" Rodrick asked.

                "The mercenary's cash box."

                Rodrick was looking at it again, this time he noticed white grains of something in the bottom. Looking even closer, he saw that the box had been rigged to release them when the box was opened. "What is this stuff?" he asked.

                "My bet would be anthrax," I said.

                Karyn punched Josie again, for infecting her.

                Rodrick explained, very carefully to Josie that the box had been booby - trapped. A trap meant for him.

                "You mean I was played for a fool?" Josie said.

                Duh!

                Rodrick said, "Jazz…I opened the box - could you?"

                But Olivia did that thing she did when she was treating the traders that had found the smallpox, and Cleaned the room and everyone in it.

                "Thank you," Rodrick said.

                Olivia turned back to Josie; "You are just plain trouble. Are you going to continue to create troubles for us?" Then she asked me, "It was your Cathedral he wanted to blow up, do you want him for the cornerstone?"

                "No, thank you. Bad karma."

                "So tell us again, Josie, who told you to blow up the Cathedral?" Olivia asked.

                "The Unknown Ones."

                "You mean The Prophet told you?" I asked.

                "No. The Unknown Ones spoke to me and commanded it." Olivia nodded, he was being truthful.

                "Oh great - a Holy War," I mumbled.

                Olivia asked him, "If we kill you - do you get to meet the Unknown Ones?"

                "Theoretically," he said, but didn't sound so sure.

                Yasai asked him about Mr. Johnson, but Josie refused to answer. Olivia grabbed the tin shears from Karyn and started threatening him.

                "Okay!" he said. "He's human and he didn't smell right."

                "What?"

                "He had a smell - like someone cooking peppers, spicy foods. And gas - he smelled like gasoline - but worse."

                Okay - we're in the southwest - spicy cooking - go figure!

                Somehow we got our hands on several different types of gas and Josie singled out the jet fuel, "That's it - he smelled like that and spices."

                Yasai asked Bodyguard if he had ever smelled anything like that.

                He had. "Workers at the refinery and the people fueling planes. The refinery workers tend to hit town on payday. They prefer to find their 'entertainment' on Fremont Street."

                So we came up with a plan, we would go to Fremont Street and Olivia would make someone look like Josie and we would wait to see who approached him. But who should she put the illusion on?

                Yasai said, "Olivia - she's got the best armor."

                So she did the Magic and we went to Fremont Street. We all spread out, trying to keep 'Josie' in sight. There were quite a few smelly people spending some serious money, and all of them seemed to have a high-chili diet.

                Midnight came and went and no one approached 'Josie', but Rodrick noticed that there was one person who was watching Josie just as closely as we were. It was a human woman, ordinary clothing and she was carrying some baskets with some produce in them.

                Rodrick moved in closer, to 'hit' on her, but Olivia had also seen her and moved in to confront her. When she got closer, she recognized the woman she and Yasai had spoken to out in the desert, the one who'd been with the N.A.R.

                Olivia grabbed her arm, "What are you doing here?"

                "Que?"

                "Don't fuck with me, lady," Olivia warned.

                The woman thought that she was talking to Josie and said, "I would never do that. Would you like to buy some chilies?" And she shoved a handful into Olivia's face, causing her to sneeze repeatedly.

                "That's an assault on an Overlord!" Olivia yelled.

                The woman countered with; "This one is trying to rob me!"

                The ruckus they were causing got the attention of a Street Judge who started heading their way. Olivia saw that, grabbed both the woman and Rodrick and vanished. Yasai, Alfred, Leo and myself got together. "The Aladdin?" I asked.

                Alfred nodded, "Has to be." So we made our way back there.

                Once they had gotten back, Olivia dropped the illusion and the woman was able to recognize her. "You?!?"

                "Why were you watching Josie?" Rodrick asked.

                "Me? Why did you kidnap an Overlord?" She saw the blood and the homeless toe, "Torturing an Overlord?"

                Olivia said, "I am an Overlord - I thought the club had certain privileges."

                "So now you know," Rodrick said. "Answer my question."

                She did, "Some of our operatives have gone missing. We tried to infiltrate Luxor's organization in an attempt to locate Area 12. We hear that Josie was somehow involved."

                "We know where Area 12 is," Rodrick told her.

                She nodded, "We need to talk about that later. We thought that Josie might know what happened to our people."

                "Where were they last seen?" Rodrick asked.

                "They had managed to get jobs out at the refinery."

                Olivia asked, "Did you Scry for them?"

                "I do not have that ability. I was sent to watch Josie and to see if there was any indication that Vegas is readying an air-war against us."

                Yasai, Alfred, Leo and I joined them at the point when Karyn was asking Josie if he knew anything about that.

                "No. Nothing." (It was the truth.) "All I wanted was some money to buy explosives to blow up that damned Cathedral." (Almost all of that was the truth.)

                "You're leaving something out," Olivia said. "What? Are you sore that you lost the challenge for the domain? Or are you upset that you lost to a nice, little Elf?"

                Leo and I laughed at that - 'nice, little Elf', indeed!

                Josie shook his head; "I lost, fair and square."

                "So why attack the Aladdin?" Rodrick asked.

                "I was only going to blow up the Cathedral. The Unknown Ones want it."

                Alfred was looking thru the other safe deposit box - it was empty except for a diary. It had notes on Josie's schemes for greatness.

                Someone suggested that we check Josie's place - to see if there was anything useful there. We left Karyn with the N.A.R. woman and Josie and the rest of us went to Josie's apartment off Fremont Street. The place was a mess! Our little Josie isn't much of a housekeeper. We found more journals and diaries, all filed with plots and plans. There was also a stack of pamphlets titled, "Want To Know Who You Are? So Do We".

                Rodrick checked out the air ducts to see if someone could have set up microphones or speakers inside of them, but he didn't find anything. Olivia and I checked out the altar and found traces of Magic. Olivia identified them as some clairaudience, clairvoyance and more than a little influence. We agreed - the whole altar was going with us.

                Yasai was flipping thru the most current of Josie's journals and found some notes about 'Mr. Johnson'. He also found notes that Josie began hearing the voices of the Unknown Ones right after The Seeker had Blessed the altar. One entry told how the voices had told him to go to a certain spot and to dig. He found some money and the voices told him to take it to the debt slave market and buy people. Then he was to free them and let them know that the kindness of the Unknown Ones was responsible for their freedom.

                That didn't make sense to me, "Why would they do that if they're so gung-ho about the Overlords being naturally superior? Why bother with what others think?"

                Alfred suggested that Olivia should try a scrying to find the mysterious Mr. Johnson.

                We gathered up all the journals as well as the altar and returned to the Aladdin.

                Olivia got her crystal and set about scrying. She found a man - a refinery worker - with a group of co-workers, getting a table dance at New Babylon.

                "He's at my place? Dammit!"

                We got to New Babylon about 2:30 a.m. and Olivia once again set an illusion on herself to make her look like Josie. She went around the back with Rodrick to watch the back door, while the rest of us went in thru the front.

                'Josie' approached the table and confronted Mr. Johnson, "Weren't you supposed to meet me at midnight?"

                "I have no idea what you are talking about." The man said, quite truthfully.

                Olivia tried again, "You were supposed to meet me at midnight on Freemont Street."

                Mr. Johnson was getting annoyed, "Do you have a problem, Gato?"

                Olivia left the table and walked to the bathroom where she dropped the illusion before joining us.

                "That is Mr. Johnson," she told us, "but he's never seen Josie before."

                Yasai said, "I think we need to go out to that refinery."

                Olivia got some Go-Juice for everyone but before we left, she called and woke up Phillips. She asked him if Caesar has an altar to the Unknown Ones.

                Phillips said, "No he doesn't. What's this all about? Wait. Never mind - give me a full report, ASAP."

                An hour's ride later, we were at the refinery where a small night crew was working.

                We were met at the security gate by the refinery manager - and he positively glowed with magic. "It's late. Come back tomorrow," he said.

                Olivia said, "No, we won't. What's your name?"

                "Mr. Harris, now leave."

                He was lying.

                Rodrick said, "Do you know a Mr. Johnson?"

                "I have no information for you. Now leave," he said.

                Olivia replied, "Make us."

                I pulled on some Power and flung it at him to disrupt whatever magic had been set on him. He began to scream and as he did, his skin fell away revealing a short, gnarled old Indian man.

                "You'll pay for this!" he screamed at me.

                "Skinwalker!" Olivia yelled. Rodrick opened fire with his Stoner and hit it with three solid hits. Alfred stepped up and punched it several times. When he was clear, Leo opened fire and hit it twice. Olivia pulled her Stimulus wand, switched it to the pain setting and swung at the thing, but it dodged the blow.

                Yasai tripped it by kicking its legs out from under it and punched it as it hit the floor. I pulled on all the Power that I could and sent a wave of Destruction at it. When the Power cleared, the thing was dust and all the people we had seen working had vanished - they were all nothing but illusions.

                We went to search the man's office and found the receptionist still at her desk. She was collapsed over her desk - dead for who knows how long; she was totally dried out. In the inner office there was a coat rack with four human skins on it and three more in a closet. Looking thru the desk, there were two sets of Ranger I.D.'s and they matched two of the skins we found. We took them to give to the N.A.R. officer.

                There was also a white skin (buffalo, according to Alfred) with blood on it. It glowed with magic and Olivia rolled it up and took it. Then there was the videotape. It was in a file drawer and was labeled "Confession #14". It was dated four weeks ago. We found a tape player and popped it in.

                It showed General Marquez (or so they kept calling him) and some of Luxor's people interrogating the two N.A.R. prisoners (when they still had their skins). They had holes drilled into their heads with wires fed into them.

                The General asked, "Are we up and running? Good." Then he said to the prisoners, "I want to know about the vehicles you were working on." The prisoners refused to answer and the General turned a dial on a console. The prisoners began to scream and convulse, but still refused to answer. The General turned the power up, higher and higher until one of them broke down.

                "F-22's - the DragonRaptor!" he yelled. Then he went on with details - the planes were magically augmented and had invisibility screens. The bodies were coated with a frictionless substance so they were capable of supersonic flight but produced no sonic boom. They were also capable of levitational takeoffs and landings and they carry their weapons in 'trans-dimensional space' so there are no weight considerations.

                The General asked why they were in Vegas and again they refused to answer. Again, the General zapped them until they talked. They said that they were trying to gather information on Luxor's manufacturing facilities so they could send the planes to destroy it.

                There was a break in the tape and it came back to the General talking to a different woman, he asked her, "When does your Scrying say we will have a target of opportunity?"

                "The end of the month, at this spot, here," she pointed to something on a map. "I don't know what, yet - but something that meets your parameters. This is the chance to make a hit."

                We took the tape and returned to the Aladdin where Olivia had copies of the tape made and gave one plus the I.D.'s and the location of Area 12 to our friend from the N.A.R. She thanked us and left.

                That left us wondering what to do with Josie. Couldn't just let him go, now could we? Killing him was out of the question - we needed him to testify about the voices he'd heard and what they'd told him to do. Ask Lucifer and see if he'd put the whammy on him to make him forget how he lost the toe?

                I said, "Lucifer has problems putting the whammy on humans - can he put one on another Cat?"

                "Take him to New Ectopia and find someone there who could do it?"

                Alfred asked, "How long did it take to get there last time? Do you want to spend that much time in Scooby with a Cat being held hostage?"

                "What about teleporting up there?" Olivia asked.

                "What would it cost to pay a New Ectopian Mage to do something like that?"

                "And how long would we pay?" I asked. "We'd be opening ourselves up to blackmail."

                So it was decided that we would call Phillips. We had to find out who else might have altars that had been tampered with.

                "If Josie has a problem with me - he can take it to Thunderdome," Olivia decided. Alfred offered to take her place if it came to that. Can he do that?

                So Olivia called Phillips, "How's your morning?"

                "About to go downhill."

                "Let me preface this by saying, 'If Josie has a problem - I'll meet him in Thunderdome'."

                "Oh, I'm going to hate this," Phillips said.

                She explained about Josie's altar telling him to blow up Corellon's Cathedral. "And so we 'persuaded' him to tell us about it."

                Yasai said, "Then there's the Skinwalker we found out at the refinery and there's a connection to Area 12, as well."

                "But we really need to make sure that no one else has one of those altars," I said.

                "Very well," Phillips said. "Bring Josie to the Stratosphere. Bring all of him."

                When we got there, L.V. Hilton was already there. He and Caesar were silent as we presented all our evidence, then Josie was interrogated. When he was offered an opportunity to take Olivia to Thunderdome, he declined saying that he would prefer some healing.

                "My people will see to that," Caesar said. "Then, when they are done, you will be taken to your residence and given ten minutes to pack, and then you will be taken to the city gates. Then you will start walking. East. I don't care where you stop, but it best not be before you have walked for at least two days. And you will never come back west."

                After Josie was gone, Caesar said to us, "We will investigate this. Please understand that it's best that we do it."

                "I understand - it just wouldn't look right." I said.

                Yasai said, "It's difficult that not all of the Overlords are Cats, but we do want things to go smoothly."

                Caesar nodded to him, "We are all on a learning curve here, but now this! We've never had to deal with a fake religion and a phony prophet."

                "Oh! I feel your pain," I told him.

                "I beg your pardon?"

                "Go on, tell him," Olivia said.

                So I explained about Morning Mist and the damage that she had caused. "But keep in mind - The Seeker could very well be legitimate. Someone could be using him. Don't forget that Luxor was a big supporter and we all know what he was like. So don't give up hope - The Seeker and the Unknown Ones could be the real thing."

                "But the one person I would go to for advice, I suspect of being a false prophet!" Caesar said.

                "Yeah, that's a stumper, alright," I said.

                "Well the situation with Josie has been resolved, please don't discuss this with anyone," he said.

                We promised to stay quiet and returned to our respective homes to get some rest.

Continued...