

Copyright © 2016 Christian Terry

All rights reserved.

Book cover illustration by Kyle Miller:

<http://kylemillerart.wordpress.com/>

<https://vimeo.com/kylemiller>

kyle.na.miller@gmail.com

Edited by The English Island

Formatting by That Formatting Lady

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or transmitted in any printed, electronic, or mechanical medium including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights.

ISBN: 978-0-9974769-0-3

A Note from Christian

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Acknowledgments

What you're holding in your hands is the culmination of a number of ideas that came together as a story from years of me as a young kid playing in my back yard in Atlanta saving the world from evil and spending my tween and adult years saving the world from evil only using a videogame controller from the comfort of my couch. Look, I'm not trying to brag (even though you're clearly impressed). The idea for Ten Lives came together after a very close friend of mine and I had a phone conversation while we were having a gaming session one night years ago. We were playing a first person shooter, and in the middle of a heated match, my friend asked me, "Would you sacrifice yourself to save the world?" Deep, I know, asking questions about life while playing a videogame. I hesitated to answer the question, not because it was necessarily a tough question but because my character died. Then he respawned. For those of you who don't know what "respawned" means: in videogame terms when you respawn, your character is returning to the game after he or she dies on screen. This isn't anything new; respawning has been around since the mid 80s. And thus Ten Lives was born, and my friend still didn't get the answer to his question.

To all the readers out there, I hope you enjoy the ride that awaits you on the next few pages, and if you do happen to be having a good time, be sure to throw me a shout out on social media; I'd be happy to respond! I said respond not respawn. Enjoy the book!

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For Thomas, Desirae, Micah, and all of the daydreamers in the world: this is for you.

Sweating, Louis Scott ran as fast as his legs would carry him, which wasn't all that fast, objectively. His pale cheeks were flushed with exertion and the heat of the afternoon. He had to make the construction site. If he could just make it there, he had a chance.

Lou, who the kids at school had called "Piggy" thanks to the low gut that always pushed down on the waistband of his pants, ventured a look over his left shoulder. Shit, he thought, still there. And they were.

All three men Lou had been running from were still right behind him. The only thing keeping them from gaining on him was the general impracticality of their pants. Two of them ran with their hands firmly on their sagging waistbands. The third, a short, stocky guy with a gold front tooth, was taking wide steps as if trying to straddle a low horse.

Lou pounded down the street, although which street it was he wasn't entirely sure. It was probably one of the ones named after the peach trees Lou had never seen despite living in Georgia his entire life. Of course, he had been living in Atlanta for that whole time, so it was entirely possible, he supposed, that outside of the perimeter was wall-to-wall orchards. But he doubted that.

The low speed chase continued—a chubby, pale twentysomething in jeans and a Battlestar Galactica shirt being chased by three men in baggy pants who were cursing him the whole time.

"When I get a hold of you, I'm gonna mess you up, fat boy!" the stocky one yelled.

Louis, in response, tried to run a little faster. It wasn't happening. He was at top speed and slowing every moment.

He had to make it to Mike. Mike would help. Mike always helped. He probably should have had Mike with him in the first place, but the plan had been to be stealthy. He was just going to check things out. Of course, Mike probably would have objected to poking around a gang's headquarters in the first place, which is why Lou hadn't bothered him.

In Lou's pocket, the emerald locator Ariel had given him bounced against his thigh, reminding him of how he had gotten into this mess in the first place.

Louis had met Ariel in the MARTA station. MARTA was Atlanta's answer to the New York subway system. It was crowded, and Lou, who had never quite gotten the scheduling down, often found himself waiting on his train in the echoing station. The day he met Ariel had been no different. Louis had been on his way to work: a tech support job where he took irate phone calls from people who hadn't yet bothered to see if their modems had come unplugged. Suddenly, as Lou sat on a bench waiting, a gaunt man with salt and pepper hair and a grey goatee approached him.

At first, Lou had tried to ignore the man. After all, there were plenty of people in Atlanta who wanted money and were none too shy about asking for it should one accidentally make eye contact. But Ariel had been different.

First off, he was claiming to have come from another world. He said that there was no one from his world to vouch for him, but that he could prove he was not from Earth. That claim had sparked Lou's curiosity. He had approached Ariel, expecting some sort of sleight of hand or trick that would help pass the time until the next train came along.

After a little convincing, Ariel had gotten Lou to follow him to a secluded corner of the MARTA station. Lou, for his part, was becoming surer and surer the old man was going to expose himself and run away laughing. But that is not what happened at all.

There, in a corner tucked behind an overflowing trash can, Ariel showed Lou what he referred to as the "emerald locator." It was a small ovoid object sitting in Ariel's palm, about the size and shape of a metal avocado. Carved into the silvery exterior were strange hieroglyphics the likes of which Lou had never seen before. Then again, Lou's experience with hieroglyphics was severely lacking, so they might have been very commonplace hieroglyphics for all he knew. Either way, as the old man's fingers slid over the surface of the oversized metal egg, the hieroglyphics lit up. Above the old man's hand, a green three-dimensional map floated in the air. There in the middle of it was a pulsing red dot.

"That's the Earth emerald," Ariel said with the air of a magician who had pulled off a trick he wasn't sure was going to work.

Lou had been convinced. He missed his train while the old man explained how he had traveled from another world to this one using a portal opened by the emerald, how he had been assaulted by a gang (which he referred to as a roving band of highwaymen disguised as clowns), and how said gang had stolen the emerald.

"It was the only thing of obvious value I carried upon my person," Ariel finished.

"That's messed up," Lou agreed.

"I need help obtaining it again. The reward will be quite handsome."

"Why me?" Lou asked. It was the first reasonable thing he had said in quite some time.

"Because you know this world and its customs."

Louis had agreed that he was, in general, familiar with Earthly customs, but he wasn't all that sure how that made him a good thief. The next day, however, he had agreed to meet Ariel back at the train station. There Ariel had given him the emerald locator and told him where to find him when he had the emerald in hand.

"The portal is near a vast underground river that can be accessed through man-sized holes in your thoroughfares," Ariel said with a flourish.

"You're talking about the sewer, aren't you?"

"I don't know this word: sewer."

"Does it stink down by this river?"

"There is the smell of putrescence, yes."

"You live in the sewer."

Lou had made his way to the headquarters of the gang: an abandoned apartment complex. The place had been in the process of being built when the economy collapsed, leaving it finished but empty. There was a tall chain-link security fence around the property that sort of rattled in the breeze as Lou approached. He looked at the floating map above the emerald locator. This was definitely the place.

Lou walked around the property for some time, looking for a break in the fence. The hot August sun beat down on Lou's head. It was brutally hot out. It was the sort of hot that made one long for the dead of winter. Lou found himself thinking about that as he circled back around to where he had started. Damn, he thought, No break in the fence. There's no way around it. With that, Lou decided it was time to climb the fence.

Climbing fences had never been a strong suit of Lou's. When he had been a kid, about twelve years old, Lou had gone with Mike and some of Mike's friends to go pool hopping. Mike lived with Lou, was his adopted brother, and had always been the more adventurous, stronger, and taller of the two despite being a year younger. That night, the two brothers had snuck out late. Or at least it was late to a twelve-year-old boy. In all reality, it couldn't have been much later than midnight. The plan had been to make their way to the public pool a couple of blocks from the house, climb the fence, and enjoy the cool water on a hot summer evening.

Things started off poorly that night. Lou was the only one who brought a towel. He was also the only one wearing a swimsuit and sandals. The other three boys were wearing their suits under jeans and had on their sneakers. That was just the start of it, though. The night had ended in humiliation during the scramble over the chain-link fence surrounding the pool. Lou, who Mike's friends had made a point of calling "Piggy" all night, got stuck on the apex of the fence. He had one short leg on either side and wasn't quite sure how to make the next move. He couldn't seem to go forward or backward. He had been up there when a passing police officer spotlighted him with his heavy flashlight. That was the last time for a while Mike invited Piggy on any of his late night "missions."

Lou was thinking about that night as he began, link by link, to crawl up the tall fence, which bowed outward with his weight. He had been near the top of what must have been a twelve-foot climb, when suddenly he heard barking. Someone had let a dog out, and it was running directly for him. He began to scurry back down the fence. Surely, his cover was blown.

And it was. The dog, a bully mix with a big head and a bluish coat, was at the fence snapping, howling, and otherwise snitching loudly. A tall, lanky kid with dark, blown-out, prison-style tattoos up and down his arms stepped out of a doorway. The wall beside him loudly proclaimed in yellow, green, and orange spray paint that this area belonged to "The Killer Crocodile Family." The kid looked at Lou hanging suspended five feet above the ground and whistled. The Killer Crocodile Family poured out the apartment like hornets clad in oversized green shirts.

Lou didn't feel like there was any way that the fine gentlemen currently filing out of their squat wanted to talk things over, so he started running. Three of the gang members took off after him.

After running for what seemed like an eternity, Louis spotted his salvation: the construction site. Mike had been working in construction and was currently helping to turn some old buildings into condominiums. Lou jumped the low silt fence and raced inside. Mike was standing in the soon-to-be living room of the unit with an industrial nail gun putting up dry wall. The military crafted muscles in his arms rippled under his coffee-colored skin. As always, he wore his lucky black baseball cap, which seldom left his head. In fact, he took it off so rarely that Lou sometimes wondered if he were going prematurely bald under there.

Mike saw Lou and frowned deeply.

"What happened this time?" Mike asked, pausing.

"Killer crocodiles," Lou panted.

"Right. Of course."

"No...behind me..."

At that moment, the three Killer Crocodiles burst into the room. They paused, assessing the situation. Mike stepped forward.

"Can I help you?" he asked in his thick southern drawl.

"This ain't none of your business, man," the short, stocky one replied. At this point, Lou was beginning to think he must have been at least their de facto leader.

"No, you see this is my business, man," Mike replied. "That there is my brother. If you have a problem with him, you have a problem with me."

"Fine. Then we have a problem with you."

At the word "problem," all three gang members started advancing on Mike and Lou. Before Louis could take his first step backward, Mike lifted the nail gun and fired two shots into the wall. The reports echoed in the small room. The three stopped in their tracks. Mike turned the nail gun on them. They looked at each other long and hard.

The stocky gang member broke the silence. "Aight. We out, but we'll be back, fat boy." With that, the three waddled off tugging at their jeans.

"You better not even try it, or next time it'll be your ass!" Lou called from behind Mike. The stocky Killer Crocodile turned. Mike hefted the nail gun in an impressively menacing manner, and the leader of the Crocodiles flushed with anger and stalked away.

Mike turned to Lou, furious. For a moment he didn't say anything. Louis waited for the deluge of anger he had doubtlessly earned.

"At my job, Louie? What in the blue hell are you doing at my job being chased by thugs like that?"

"I had to, Mike. I didn't know what else to do."

"What the hell did you do to piss them off?"

"Nothing. Well not nothing, but...it was important. You see—"

Before Lou could say anything else, Mike's cell phone rang. He looked down at it.

"This isn't over, Louie. We're gonna have this talk."

With that, Mike walked out leaving Louis to double over and try to catch his breath around the stitch in his side.

Fuming, Mike pounded across the construction site. His phone rang again and again. It was his boss, and his boss didn't call him except when he was in trouble. Finally, knowing there was no more avoiding it, Mike answered his phone.

"Hey, Steve. I was just coming to see you."

"Good. We've gotta talk."

Steve hung up the phone without saying anything else—another really bad sign. Mike cursed under his breath. Was it possible that Steve had seen Louie sprinting across the lot? It was possible. In fact, it was likely. Lou would have had to run by the little single-wide trailer that Steve used as his jobsite office. Steve would know that Louie was there to see Mike. And he's probably absolutely pissed, thought Mike. He took his hat off and wiped the sweat off his forehead. This ain't good.

Lou was always getting Mike in trouble like the time when they were kids and he got them caught pool hopping. If Louie had just jumped down instead of freezing, perched at the top of the fence like a giant pigeon, they both could have avoided a whole lot of trouble. He had been grounded for months.

Mike paused outside the trailer. It was a small corrugated-steel building, longer than it was wide. It sat in the dusty corner of the site and had a few small windows, the kind that reminded Mike of a school bus, set into the outer wall. Mike swallowed. This was going to suck.

Mike walked into the small office. The air inside was still and hot, despite the box fan running full blast in the corner. The room was crowded with furniture, which added to the illusion of suffocation. There was a couch along the wall facing the door. Next to that were a water cooler and some sort of houseplant that looked like it had seen better days. Mike had always called it a fichus in his head, but he didn't really know what it was. As far as he could tell, it was just some sort of skinny indoor tree, drooping in the summer heat and florescent light. At the end of the trailer, farthest from the door and the depressing tree, was Steve's desk. It was one of those particleboard numbers that they sell at big-box department stores. Behind it sat Steve.

Steve was a big guy, even when compared to the six-foot-three Mike. Steve looked like a body builder who ate other body builders. He had his hair buzzed short all over his head and a thick, coal-black mustache hanging over his top lip. The haircut and facial hair combined with Steve's veiny, muscled arms sticking out of his polo shirt reminded Mike of a picture of an old-school strong man he had seen once in a book. Steve cracked a couple walnuts in his hand and nodded at Mike.

"Michael," he said as he popped the nutmeat into his mouth. He chewed it heartily and swallowed.

"Steve," Mike replied, not really knowing what to do.

"Are you gonna come over here, or are we gonna shout across the room?"

"Right. Sorry, boss." Mike crossed the trailer. This was not a good start.

"I'm not gonna pussyfoot around with you, Michael. I saw your brother come tearing ass through my construction site a minute ago followed by a couple gangbangers."

Gangbangers? thought Mike. Who the hell says "gangbangers"?

"Do I need to tell you that kind of thing is not cool?"

"No, sir," Mike replied.

Steve grabbed a couple more nuts from a bag in his desk drawer. Mike watched in fascination as the fifty-something-year-old man crushed the shells of the nuts against each other. It was a neat trick. Steve followed Mike's gaze.

"Want one?" Steve asked holding out his meaty paw full of pulverized nuts.

"No. I just...I'm sorry. I'm gonna talk to him. It won't happen again."

Steve nodded again, mouth full of walnut. He swallowed and looked at Mike with his head cocked.

"How long have you worked for me, Mike?"

"A couple years."

"And in that couple of years, have I ever steered you wrong?"

"No, sir."

"Good. Then listen to me. You can't keep working here."

Mike was blown away. He had been working for the company for three years now, and the last thing he expected was to get fired. Yelled at, written up, or even cursed out he could have handled, but being fired was something totally different. It was final. It was devastating. Construction was all he really knew how to do in civilian life.

"What the blue hell?" Mike demanded.

"Hear me out. I like you, Michael. I really do. You're a model employee, a veteran, and a nice guy, but it's not really working out."

"How's that, sir?" Mike was more than a little taken aback.

"First of all, your brother showed up being chased by thugs today."

"Fair enough, but—"

"But what? I can't have that."

"I understand." Mike shook his head. He was going to punch Lou square in the head for this.

"Hey—take this as a positive," Steve called as Mike turned to leave.

"I guess." Mike was now really trying to not to lose his temper.

"Wait," Steve said, "I really like you, Mike. And I mean it about taking this as a positive. You remind me of a son of mine, and I'll give you the same advice I gave him when he graduated high school. You need to get out there and live up to your potential."

"Thanks," Mike said, clenching his jaw.

"I mean it. You're not living here. Go and do something with yourself."

Mike walked out of the little trailer, clenching his jaw and trying to hold it together. Piggy had gotten him in trouble again. It wasn't anything new. Mike had been fighting Lou's battles since he had been adopted by Mom and Dad.

Mike remembered when he and Lou were kids and they had lived downtown. It was a good neighborhood, but there were still tough kids around who would bully and pick on the kids who weren't tough. Lou was certainly not a tough kid, but he had a mouth like he was. He was a smart ass. More than once, Mike had to beat the stuffing out of a kid for punching his brother right in his mouth. Half the time, Mike would find himself agreeing with the kid who had socked Lou, but he couldn't just let it go. He had an obligation.

Louis trotted across the construction site. He was panting a little from the exertion when he made it to Mike.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Lou."

"Did you get in trouble?"

"I got fired—because of you."

"Oh. Shit. I'm sorry, Mikey."

"Don't call me that right now."

Mike and Louis walked in tense silence to where Mike's powder-blue 1987 Cadillac was parked. Although speckled with rust around the fenders, it was Mike's pride and joy, and it sparkled in the bright sunshine. Mike climbed in, and Louis opened the passenger door. Mike shot him a hard look.

"Can I get a ride home?" Louis asked sheepishly.

Mike nodded reluctantly.

The ride back to the apartment that Mike and Lou shared was quiet. Mike was mulling over all the times he had saved Lou's ass. Lou, for his part, didn't seem to be thinking about much of anything. He just stared out at the buildings and storefronts that slid past.

Mike entered the apartment in front of Lou, letting the door swing almost closed behind him. Louis grabbed it and threw it open, following Mike into the dim interior of the third floor apartment. The apartment building was one common to Atlanta in that it used to be something else. In this case, the lofts had all been rooms in a cotton-processing factory that closed sometime in the fifties. The walls were old brick, and it had been Lou's idea to move in there.

"Just think of what chicks will think when they get over here," he had said to Mike as they toured the building.

"That is assuming you ever get a chick over here," Mike had replied. He had been kidding, but it still stung. Louis would have to be the first one to admit that his track record with women was not exactly the most impressive. He had always been a little overweight and, therefore, a little self-conscious. It was something that Mike had never struggled with, of course.

Louis really had always admired Mike. It was a feeling he had a hard time admitting even to himself. It was especially uncomfortable when they were kids because Lou was a year older than Mike. Louis sucked at his teeth. He hated when Mike was mad at him.

"Look, I know you're mad at me, but—" Louis started.

"Don't, man."

"I've got to. I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. If I could have just—"

"It's fine."

Mike crossed the room to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and fished around for a second, coming out with a beer. He tossed it to Louis, who batted it to the floor as he tried to catch it. Mike rolled his eyes and grabbed two more beers. He walked over to Lou and put the beer firmly in his hand.

"I've been needing to move on anyway," Mike said as he flopped down on the couch. He turned on Sports Center and popped open the beer. "Maybe I'll go back to school. What were you doing that pissed those guys off so much?"

"I was...well...I was trying to break into their headquarters," Louis stuttered.

"What in the blue hell were you trying to do that for?"

"Well I met this guy..." Louis started. As he and Mike drank their beers, Lou explained how he had met Ariel and Ariel's predicament. Mike periodically sighed and rubbed his hand across his forehead. Louis could tell that he was losing Mike. Louis knew Mike's skeptical face all too well. It was the same face that Mike often made when Lou was explaining the plot of some sci-fi novel or another. It was even worse than the face he had made when Lou was trying to explain the plot of Asimov's Foundation series. As Louis finished up his story with his mad dash to the construction site, Mike hopped up and walked back to the refrigerator.

"So, let me get this straight: You met some fool at a train station, he convinced you he was from another planet, and you decided to steal from a gang. Is that right?" Mike popped a second beer and hopped over the back of the couch. It was a show of physical finesse that sent a pang of jealousy through Louis' gut.

"I guess that's sort of right, but it was different than that." Lou took a long sip of his beer. It was an IPA. Mike liked IPAs, so that's what they kept in the house. Louis frowned deeply. Then it hit him—the emerald detector. Louis reached into his pocket and pulled out the potato shaped lump of metal. It was heavy, cool, and impressive. This would surely convince Mike.

"What's that?" Mike reached forward, but Louis pulled back a little.

"Ariel gave it to me."

"Okay. What is it?"

"It's an emerald locator. It's from his home world." Louis stroked the outside of the emerald locator. As it had before, a glowing green map came up, projected in the air above the locator. In the middle of the map, there was a pulsing red dot. Mike whistled, and Louis felt a warm surge of pride.

"Okay, that's weird. That's some serious Star Trek shit right there."

"I know, right?" Louis touched the surface of the locator again. The map disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. Louis set the locator on the coffee table. Mike picked it up and turned it over in his hands, examining the hieroglyphics carefully. He looked up at Louis with sincere curiosity.

"So what are you gonna do? You gonna tell this guy you couldn't get the emerald for him?"

Louis furrowed his brow.

"No," Louis said. "I'm not going to give up yet."

Mike fumbled for the remote and muted the television.

"What are you saying, Louie?"

"I'm going to get that emerald."

"No way. You almost got got. You could've been killed. Those guys weren't playing with you."

"I promised him, Mikey."

"So what are you saying?"

Louis finished his beer.

"We need to go back tonight."

"What do you mean, 'we'?"

Lou squirmed a little. He had sort of assumed that since Mike believed him about Ariel, he would be on board with helping him steal back the emerald. Louis finished his beer. He walked to the kitchen. He didn't really want a second beer, but he needed a second to think. He tossed his empty into the trash and grabbed another can out of the fridge. It was the dented one he had dropped. He superstitiously tapped the top of the can three times. It still foamed up when he opened it. Louis sucked at the top to keep it from spilling.

"Well, I...uh...I thought maybe you'd help."

"Absolutely not." Mike motioned with the locator he was still holding. "Look, I'll admit that this thing is crazy, but it's no proof that this guy is an alien. You're too gullible. Hell, even if he is an alien, why you?"

"Because I believed him," Lou said firmly. "Aren't you even curious? We could be heroes."

"Or we could be dead men."

Mike put down the locator. Louis grabbed it defensively.

"Well, I'm going whether you go or not."

Mike pulled his Caddy up to the fence surrounding the abandoned apartment complex. A light summer rain was starting to fall.

This is stupid, Mike repeated in his head for the fourteenth time. He looked over at Louis. There was a hard-set look on his pudgy, dough-like face. Mike sighed. This is going to happen with or without me, and without me, he's a dead man.

Louis hefted himself out of the car. Both of them were dressed in black. Mike had on a plain black tee shirt and dark jeans. On his head, he wore his lucky black hat. Louis was dressed in the darkest things he owned: a Punisher shirt and a pair of black slacks he usually wore to work. He had a black and white stocking cap with earflaps and a puffball on top perched ridiculously on his head. Mike sighed.

Without me, he's a dead man. They had stopped by the home improvement store and gotten a pair of bolt cutters for the fence. Mike walked around the back of the car and retrieved them from the trunk.

"Are we ready?" Louis asked in a hushed voice. There was an edge of anticipation in his tone that grated on Mike's nerves.

It's like he doesn't realize how stupid of an idea this is.

"As we're gonna be," Mike replied out loud.

Mike set to work cutting a hole in the fence. With each pop he tensed, expecting someone to discover them. He didn't know what would be worse: the cops or the crocs. But no one came to investigate. In fact, some music had started playing from inside the complex. Across the distance, all that they could hear were the sounds of the bass notes farting away. That was a good break. The Killer Crocodile Family was distracted.

Mike finished with the fence and went to put the bolt cutters back in the car.

"Are we ready?" Lou asked again. This time, the anticipatory tone had taken a turn toward the pleading. Mike could tell that Louie was getting really excited. It was odd. He wasn't nearly as scared as Mike thought he would be.

By way of answer, Mike slipped through the man-sized hole he had made in the chain link. Lou followed, having to turn side to side to slide his prodigious gut through. They snuck along the edge of the fence until they were directly across from where the emerald was supposed to be, according to the locator resting in Louis' sweaty palms. The little dot on the map grew brighter and bigger as they got closer.

Mike was watching the apartment complex for any sign of an enemy combatant, like a good soldier, when he stepped on the back of Lou's Reeboks he had had since he had been in the eighth grade.

"What are you doing?" Mike hissed.

Louis made a hand gesture pointing to his eyes with two fingers and then pointing at the locator's map. The music was louder than ever, and from where they were standing—Lou slightly hunched in what Mike assumed was an attempt at stealth—they were right across from the emerald. It must have been in the ground-floor apartment immediately in front of them. Unfortunately, it was also the apartment under where the music seemed to be coming from.

Mike sighed.

Slowly, the two of them crept forward. They made their way up to the back sliding glass door of the apartment and peered inside. There wasn't much inside. Sitting in the corner of the nearly empty room was the kind of floor safe one would find at a motel. That had to be were the emerald was. Mike felt a little wave of excitement run down his spine, despite his aversion to the entire scheme.

Lou tried the sliding glass door, and it slid open easily.

"Not big on security, huh?" Mike chuckled.

Mike and Louis walked into the abandoned apartment. The apartment appeared to be a two bedroom. Unlike some of the apartments around the front of the building, it had been finished with carpet and painted. There was a low counter separating a galley style kitchen from the rest of the apartment. There were a few empty beer cans lining the bar, and the whole place had a stale, moldy smell.

Louis crossed the room to the safe.

"Just grab the whole thing," Mike said impatiently. He didn't want to get discovered.

"Just give me a second," Louis snapped back impatiently. The safe door opened with a click. "Just like I thought: one, two, three, four. These idiots never changed the factory setting."

Mike chuckled. Maybe this would be easy after all.

Inside the safe were a couple hefty sandwich bags of white powder, a little cash, and a green, iridescent stone about the size of a fist. Suddenly the emerald locator began beeping loudly.

"Oh shit!" Louis and Mike said in unison. The music from the other apartment cut off. There were muffled sounds of confusion from above. Louis threw the emerald in his pocket. The locator was still sounding an alarm. Louis fumbled with the emerald locator.

"Turn it off," Mike said in a loud whisper.

"I'm trying. I'm trying."

Louis managed to shut down the locator, but it was too late. Mike and Lou could hear footsteps pounding down the stairs.

"Run?" Lou asked.

"Run!" Mike shouted.

Mike and Lou took off. The two of them had a healthy head start, so they were almost back to the fence when they saw the first killer crocodile come out of the apartment behind them. As Mike squeezed through the fence, two shots rang out. Instinctively, Mike dropped low and ran in a crouch to the cover of the car. Lou was having trouble with the fence, though. Mike ran back to him and pulled him through in one solid jerk. They both made it back to the car but not before another shot landed solidly in the passenger-side door.

"Dammit, Lou!" Mike shouted. "They're going to kill us!"

Lou dove into the passenger seat of the car. Mike jumped in behind the wheel. The car squealed and kicked up gravel as Mike slammed it into reverse.

Even though they were far away from the abandoned apartment complex housing the Killer Crocodile Family, Mike kept the Caddy a good fifteen miles over the speed limit. He wasn't taking any chances. In his head, he replayed the sound of the bullet striking the passenger door and cursed Lou. If he had listened to Steve, he wouldn't be in this mess.

Louis directed Mike down some side streets. They pulled up to a dead end that stopped in front of a wall of trees strangled by kudzu. Lou crossed confidently to a raised manhole cover and began to pry it up with a conveniently place crowbar that was laying in an adjacent pile of leaves.

"Now you want to play Ninja Turtles, I'm guessing," Mike said.

Lou looked at Mike seriously and nodded. Mike shook his head and came to Louis' aid. After a few moments of struggling, the manhole cover came up and went crashing into the ground. A horrible, dead-animal smell came wafting out of the hole.

"It smells like someone died, ate old cheese, then farted," Louis said, trying to lighten the mood. Mike simply looked at him.

Mike hesitated before proceeding into the dark, smelly hole.

"Well, are you going?" Louis asked. Mike again didn't say anything. He raised the collar of his tee shirt over his nose and began climbing down. Inside the sewer, there was a faint light that bounced off the walls that helped illuminate the path for them. It also showed that the actual path was made of what Mike hoped was muddy water that led around the corner to where the light had originated.

Mike and Louis followed the way while trying to avoid debris and what were very likely human feces. When they reached the next corridor, there was a man tinkering with what looked to Mike like an old arched stone wall with a chromed outer rim that went from its top to its bottom and covered the outer sides. The chrome seemed to hold the arched stones in place.

It was too weird to be a regular stone wall, and it looked to Mike like something out of one of Louis' dumbass books or television shows. Except, it wasn't like that. This was real, and even Mike could tell that.

There was a large work light pointed at the center of the wall. There were candles illuminating the rest of the space, and extension cords extended off the right to god knows where. Mike was surprised at how roomy and spacious the room was. The whole scene looked like a museum display with an odor problem.

"Ariel, I'm here," Louis said. He was trying very ardently to seem official. The man who had been messing about with the stone wall immediately stopped whatever it was he had been doing then turned to face the both of them.

"You've returned. Did you bring back the emerald?" the man asked.

He wore a chainmail shirt that covered his arms, and his formerly white pants were stained and tattered. His brown leather boots were by far the cleanest thing he had on.

He must not be from around here, Mike thought as he looked down at his own ruined sneakers. Recently opened cans of food littered one corner, and there were empty sports drink bottles in another, underneath a hammock that was tied on both ends between two large pipes. The man had been squatting here for some time. He also seemed to be oblivious to the stench that was running wild. No place like home, even if it did smell like farts, Mike figured.

Louis presented the man with the emerald. The man snatched the emerald greedily. He held it up and watched it glint in the low light.

"Fine work. How did you manage to get it back? Was it your big friend over there?"

"S'up?" Mike replied in the stead of a greeting.

"He helped a little; I did the hard part," Louis said.

"Michael James Wesley, I presume?" the man said, extending his weathered hand. Mike decided not to give his.

Dammit, Piggy, Mike thought. Why would some stranger at the MARTA station need to know my whole name?

Ariel dropped his hand and smiled a queer little half smile.

"Not very friendly, are we? Well you have my thank you."

"What's that you're working on?" Mike finally asked, pointing at the arched stone wall.

"I'm Ariel, by the way."

"I figured that much," Mike said. There was something off here. "What is it?"

"It's a doorway." Ariel smiled again. This time the smile's queerness seemed just misplaced. It was like he didn't really know how to do it. Louis, for his part, stood a few feet away from the two watching them talk and wringing his hands.

"A doorway to where?" Mike asked, humoring the guy.

"A doorway to another world," Ariel said with a sweeping gesture.

"Oh...okay." It was just like he expected—a crazy hobo had tricked Louis. Mike turned to leave.

"Come on, Mike," Louis pleaded. "What about the emerald locator? You can't fake that."

"We can leave now using the emerald key you brought." Ariel then pointed to the stone wall.

"Excuse us," Mike said before grabbing his friend by the arm escorting him out of the room.

"You're hurting me!" Louis whined.

Mike escorted Lou around the corner.

"We gotta go," Mike said in a lowered voice. "This is crazy."

"What?"

"That guy is insane, and even if he's not, are you just going to follow him?"

"I have to go. This is a once in a lifetime chance."

"So basically you're going to leave the planet by walking into a rock?"

Louis turned on his heel. He charged back toward Ariel and his hovel.

Mike sighed. He turned to leave. This was too much. Just as Mike had nearly made his exit, Ariel stood in front of the tall stone arched wall with the gem in his hand. The emerald began to pulsate. A low hum filled the room, along with a breeze that moved all of the clutter that was on the floor. The work light that had been trained on the stone wall exploded, leaving the room barely lit with only the light of the gem and a few burning candles.

In front of Ariel, the arched stone wall began to shift toward him like two large doors swinging open. As it opened, the low hum got louder, and in the now-revealed doorway a rapidly swirling electric-blue vortex appeared.

"Great day in the morning," Mike said.

The vortex spun and spun until it disappeared and was replaced with an image of a cave entrance.

"Where is that?" Louis asked, excitedly.

"Our destination: Kelenia," Ariel answered, relishing Mike and Louis' curiosity.

Mike, still mesmerized by what he was seeing, happened to steal a glance at Ariel. He was smiling his queer little smile.

"Hold up, flag on the play," Mike shouted. "You just think we're gonna walk through this thing? C'mon Lou, let's get the hell out of here."

"What I offer is this: If you help us, there would be no need to work ever again...because you would live like a king," Ariel said, smiling.

As much as Mike didn't agree with the man's personality, his curiosity was piqued.

"What's the job?" Mike asked, begrudgingly.

Ariel then showed Mike the emerald again; it was glowing faintly.

"The hell is that?"

"The job, Mr. Wesley."

"I don't understand."

"In my world, there are several stones just like this, hidden. You help me find the remaining ones, and I will give you treasures of your wildest dreams."

"What's the catch?"

"There is no catch."

Ariel walked up to Mike and began examining him by running the glowing green stone around him like a metal detector.

"What are you doing?" Mike asked as he swatted Ariel's hand.

"Just testing it."

When Ariel held the gem close to Mike, the stone grew brighter.

"Interesting," Ariel continued.

"What's happening" Louis asked excitedly.

"He must have Kelenian blood in his veins."

Mike backed away a few steps. Ariel noticed.

"I know you don't understand what's happening, but I promise that all will be explained soon." That didn't stop Mike. He turned and continued for the corridor until a hand clasped his shoulder.

Mike turned. Louis stood in front of Mike with a very disappointed look on his face.

Even though Louis wasn't entirely sure what he was seeing, it must've been ten times harder for Mike to get behind this idea.

"Look, Mike, I know this is crazy—"

"Glowing rocks, Kelenian blood, walls turning into..." Mike shook his head. "Hell, I don't know what the hell that is. Not my cup of Kool-Aid. It's too weird."

"Weird? So is everything that's worthwhile. All we have to do is go through this doorway, find the rest of the stones, and live like kings for the rest of our lives. I know you're tired of that cramped apartment. I'm sure you'd rather live in a Buckhead mansion than a Bankhead roach-filled apartment. Embrace the weird, Mike."

It sounded good, Mike admitted to himself—too good actually.

"We just go in, find the stones, then come home rich, right?" Mike asked.

"That's what I heard," Louis replied.

"I don't know..." Mike was still wavering.

"Look," Louis said, letting go of Mike's muscular shoulder, "I'm going. There's not much for me here."

Mike shook his head.

"Let's do this before I change my mind," Mike said reluctantly. Louis and Ariel stepped to the side as Mike walked toward the portal. It shimmered with an electric blue tint, showing the inside of a dimly lit cave. Mike kneeled in front of the portal, pressing the orange pumps that put air into his sneakers before pulling his cap down tightly on his head. Louis zipped his pea green vest and placed his glasses on his face before picking up an empty can of beans and throwing it into the portal. The can froze in midair before disintegrating piece by piece until it disappeared then reappeared inside the cave, dropping as its echo filled the cave.

Mike and Lou looked at one another.

"What are you going to do with your share of the loot?" Lou asked Mike.

Mike remained focused on the portal, not answering his question.

"Alright fellas," Mike announced, "let's get it."

And with that, Mike took a deep breath then stepped into the open doorway and into the unknown.

Mike awoke face down on the hard stone ground with his body aching all over in the cold darkness. He tried in vain to remember what had happened after walking through the portal, fleeting memories of coldness and stars. Had he imagined it? Scrambling to his feet, Mike fought to gain his balance against dizziness. He leaned on the nearby wall, clutching his left forearm as it throbbed in pain; it felt as if he had burned it.

He examined it, but there was no bruise or swelling of any kind. Instead, there was a blue glowing mark in the shape of an "X," filling the cave with its unnatural glow.

"The hell..." His voice bounced off the cave walls as the glowing "X" on his forearm disappeared, leaving the cave without any illumination. He searched the inky floor by randomly reaching out but couldn't see in the darkness. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a faint light in the distance and decided to follow it.

He dodged the sharp stalagmites that he barely saw as he made his way to the cave's exit. When he stepped outside, the sunlight nearly blinded him. As his sight adjusted, Mike examined the area.

The landscape was weird; trees in the distant woodland area were all twisted from the base of the trunk up. But that wasn't the weirdest thing about the trees. At the top of them, the leaves were a mixture of colors, from purple to blue, giving the leaves an odd, colorful shimmer as they swayed in the windy breeze. The dirt that he stood on was similar to Georgia red clay.

Mike noticed two separate sets of footprints that disappeared into the weird tree jungle. Lou and Ariel had been through here, he guessed, as he walked into the colorful jungle.

In the forest, Mike lost the footprints. Luckily there was a faint, beaten path. A cacophony of bizarre sounds played as Mike walked. It sounded like birds, but not any birds that Mike had ever heard.

After a while, Mike found himself in a clearing. The path led up a steep hill, and he followed it. He didn't know what else to do.

Why would they leave him in the cave unconscious if they were right behind him before he walked into the "doorway"? When Mike got to the top of the hill, he could see over the trees. He looked at the sky, and what he saw made him blurt out, "Great day in the morning."

There was a humongous blue sphere in the sky on the opposite side of where the sun was shining. Mike hadn't seen it at first, but now, it was all he could see—a planet! The multicolored trees at the bottom of the hill and the blue sphere hovering in the sky made for one of the most insanely awesome sights Mike had ever experienced.

He took his cap off to soak in the image. After a moment of taking in the breathtaking vista, he felt as if the contents of his stomach wanted out, but that would have to wait as rustling sounds in the nearby foliage made Mike dart behind a nearby tree as silently as he could.

Two men wearing armor and holding metallic staffs emerged from the forest in the middle of a deep conversation.

"If the fool delivers, the queen will grant him whatever he wants," one said as both the men used their staffs to climb up hill. "But that goes for anyone who finds them first."

They had strange symbols emblazoned on their chest plates, one in particular looked like a lizard's head to Mike. The one who was talking was wearing a long, red cape.

"If it were that easy, though, he would have found all of the stones already," the man in the cape continued. "Say, why don't you give it a go?"

"Me?" the other armored man asked. "I'm happy with my life as is, thank you kindly. Besides you would have to be the queen's personal lackey."

"The scary thing is I think he may like that." The two men chuckled then continued onward to wherever they were headed, oblivious to Mike.

Stones, Mike thought. Mike ventured out from behind the tree he was hiding in.

"Hey!"

Mike turned to see the two men running back toward him.

Shit. Mike readied himself. His military training had prepared him for hand-to-hand combat, but he hadn't been in a real fistfight since he was in grade school.

The man with the cape reached Mike first. He swung his staff high over his head. Mike side kicked the man with the cape in the gut. He doubled over, dropping his staff. Mike snatched up the metal pole and brought it down hard on the man's head. There was a dull thud, and the man dropped to the ground with a groan. The second man saw this and turned tail.

Mike laughed triumphantly. He bent down and took the cape off the man on the ground.

"I don't know who you are, asshole, but I think you'll remember me."

As Mike was gloating, he heard another sound from behind him. There was someone coming through the underbrush. Mike turned to see a cloaked figure walking through the forest behind him.

Mike charged, tackling the figure to the ground, landing on top. As he balled his fist to strike, he looked down at his would be assailant and stopped.

It...it was a woman. He watched the woman as she squirmed underneath him, kicking and cursing in a language he'd never heard. Mike felt the guilt of tackling a defenseless woman sweep through his mind. He would never strike a woman. It wasn't his style. He might, however, hold one down until she told him what was going on.

"Get your hands off of me, you valley swine!" the woman said, trying her best to free her arms from Mike's grip.

"That isn't how this works. First you give me information, and depending on if it's something that I want to hear, I'll let you go. How does that sound?"

The woman stopped squirming.

Good, Mike thought, she's going to talk. A second later, the woman sent her heel between his legs, forcing him to release her.

The woman quickly turned after grabbing two daggers from her belt, holding one upwards in one hand and one downwards in the other. She bobbed back and forth.

Mike was still stunned from her kick. She then looked at him, noticing his hat and clothing while sizing him up.

"Who are you, boy?" she demanded.

Mike found it a little comical that she would call him "boy" when he was almost two times her size. The woman wore a brown cloak with little tears all over it. Her hair went past her neck and had deep purple streaks in it. The front of it swooped down and covered her right eye. Her almost sharp, pointy ears protruded out from her long, thick hair.

"I won't ask again," she said.

"Easy. Just calm down. I'm just here looking for my brother. If you know where he is, that's fine; if you don't, that's cool too."

The woman then gave him a quizzical stare.

"Is your brother the short, pale, round one?"

"A guy about yea high—" Mike put his hand to his chest to show her Louis' height before continuing. "He wears glasses and smells like biscuits. Have you seen him?"

The woman's eyes lit up as she nodded her head quickly.

"Yes, he is in our village. Are you the one he and brother Ariel were searching for these past moons?"

Mike didn't understand what she had meant by past moons. He took it as a term of exaggeration for hours. They had all just arrived here...hadn't they? Mike put the question to the side as he observed the woman fold her daggers and place them back on her belt.

"Mike, I presume?" She asked, extending her hand to him. He took it.

"And you are?"

"Adarha," she said with a smile.

"Your brother didn't mention what you looked like. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised."

"What did he mention about me?"

"How you were short and plump. And that you were missing a majority of your teeth, which I now see is also not true."

Mike couldn't do anything but chuckle. Louis would always do things like that to him when there were pretty women involved.

"That sounds like him. Where is this village?"

Adarha looked at the man lying on the ground behind Mike. Adarha's eye's lit up.

"Did you defeat that queen's guard by yourself?"

Mike smiled. Adarha looked genuinely impressed.

"We must move quickly. These woods will be full of the queen's guards soon." Adarha pulled her cloak over her head. She charged off into the forest.

The two marched past what may have been hundreds of the oddly shaped trees with Adarha occasionally glancing back at Mike to make sure he was still behind her. She was sure footed and moved easily through the underbrush.

Before long, they stopped in front of a peculiar tree—at least more peculiar than the others. This tree was in a secluded clearing and had markings etched into its bark. They were obviously in the same language as the hieroglyphics on the emerald locator.

"Stand back," Adarha said. Mike then watched as she ran her hand across the carvings on the tree. "It is a message from Father Brackar. It says that they have placed fire seed around the village to keep the queen's men and valley beasts from entering. We should use caution. The village is just a little further down that direction."

"You got all that information from a few squiggly lines?" Mike asked.

"It is old Kelenian; it is passed down by the ones who went beyond."

After another hour of trekking through the trees, Mike saw smoke billowing from somewhere nearby. As they got closer, Mike could see a small circle of straw huts in the middle of the woodland area with a campfire on which roasted a creature with an abnormally long tongue that almost raked the ground as it rotated above the fire on a spit. A bony older man with a long and scraggly grey beard knelt down, tending the flames.

There was another woman who came from one of the straw houses. She had shorter hair than Mike and was almost as petite as Adarha. She wore a snug tank top that exposed her tattoo of what looked like a peacock mixed with a bird of prey that ran down from the side of her neck to the left side of her body. She was walking toward Mike and Adarha.

Behind the woman, Mike could see Lou and Ariel. Mike started toward them, but Adarha stopped him by tugging his arm.

"The fire seed," she reminded him, even though he did not know what the hell it was. Cautiously the two moved toward the small village until Mike felt a very cold chill go throughout his body and his left forearm began to throb again. The "X" was back. Adarha gasped.

"You...you have the mark!" Adarha cried out. Mike stared at it for a moment. Lou closed the short distance between them and clapped his adopted brother on the shoulder.

"Took you long enough to get here," Louis chuckled. "I see you've met the lovely Adarha and...what happened to your arm?"

"He has the mark of the champion," Ariel interjected.

"The what, now?" Mike asked.

"The ancient mark of the hero that will deliver us from this world to the next," Adarha said excitedly.

"That," Mike said, "was a whole bunch of crazy that just flew out of your mouth."

The old man and young woman with the tattoo also gathered around Mike, making him feel more uncomfortable than he already was. The old man looked at Mike seriously.

"Follow me," he said and turned, walking past the grotesque creature on the fire.

"Father Brackar will explain everything," Louis said, trotting after the old man. "Come on."

Father? Mike thought.

Mike sat in the hut surrounded by Adarha, Ariel, Louis, the young tattooed woman whose name he had learned was Mercury, and "Father" Brackar. Mercury was Ariel's daughter, and apparently Ariel had spent a long time on Earth. Despite being promised answers, Mike had heard nothing about this "Mark of the Champion." Instead, Louis had talked and talked.

Lou and Ariel had been looking for Mike for two days. When Mike and Lou had tried to figure out why it had taken him so long to show up, Brackar had muttered something about the Architects taking their time.

"Look, man, I need some answers," Mike said to Brackar. Brackar looked at the glowing "X" on Mike's arm.

"This is not the sort of thing one talks about on an empty stomach."

A short time later, the weird bloated monster roasting on the fire was brought in and laid out in the middle of a long table. The guests all gathered around and seated themselves. There were long knives and a two-pronged fork at each place setting. All the people gathered around began to carve off huge chunks of greasy meat. Mike didn't move.

Louis looked at Mike quizzically, chewing.

"Eat it now," Louis advised. "It gets kinda...bitter if you let it sit."

Mike reluctantly cut a small piece of the meat, which the others were calling "valley beast." The texture was slick and pork-like.

"I might go vegetarian," Mike muttered.

Brackar finished eating. From where Mike was sitting, he seemed to be relishing it. As he set down his knife and fork, he turned to look at Mike.

"So, young one, what is it you would wish to know?" Brackar said.

"For starters, where are we?" Mike asked, excited to get some answers.

"You are on Kelenia."

"And that big blue ball in the sky?"

"Our moon, Aquila."

"Moon? It looked like a planet to me."

"How many moons have you seen from other worlds?"

"I...fair enough," Mike conceded.

"As I was telling your friend days ago, our ancestors were brought the same way that you two were."

Mike stood silently running his hand over his stubble, trying to make sense of what was said.

"I now have a question for you," Brackar said. "Why did you come?"

"I came for the cash prizes I was promised."

"That can't be the only reason," Brackar said, furrowing his brow.

"It is the only reason."

"Not because of the sense of adventure? Or to help save our people from the evil queen?"

"Nope. I don't really care about this sci-fi bullshit or what y'all have going on the side; I just want what was promised to me."

"Bit of a mercenary, isn't he?" Lou said, trying to break the tension.

"You have the Mark of the Champion," Brackar said. "It is the mark of the one with ten lives."

"Ten lives?"

"Yes. The Architects, the creators of this world, have gifted you with the gift of regeneration. You can die, but you won't die."

Mike shook his head. This was a bit much.

"The champion comes when we really need him," Brackar continued. "You will help us find the fire emerald."

"I'm not doing any such thing," Mike replied. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"

Adarha leaped up.

"Here," Adarha said excitedly. She indicated a few straw mats.

"Awesome," Mike said sarcastically. "Maybe I'll take a walk."

"I'll go with you," Lou said, standing up from the table.

"No," Brackar said, holding a hand out. "Give him space."

Mike walked out into the evening air. He looked up into the strange sky. The stars were coming out—tons of them. Time passed, and the night crept in.

Mike paced around the edges of camp. How had he gotten himself in this mess? A rustling from the bushes caught his attention. Something was moving behind and especially big and leafy blue-grey plant. Mike crouched down, curious but cautious. Out walked what looked like a big house cat.

Mike laughed out loud. He had, unconsciously of course, been bracing himself to run from some sort of otherworldly beast, but instead he was greeted with a sort of mangy, fat cat with pudgy cheeks and large pleading eyes. Mike reached out to the cat.

"I'm not gonna hurt ya, little guy," he crooned.

"I wouldn't do that—he's poisonous you know." Brackar's rich baritone came from just behind Mike's left shoulder. At that, the cat snarled, exposing rows of needle-like teeth. Mike snatched his hat back.

"Bitch-ass cat," Mike grunted.

Brackar held out his forearm. There was a glowing letter "I" on it.

"Life ten for me. I touched one of those and was paralyzed by the venom. It was..." Brackar searched for a second. "...horrible. It was horrible."

"So you have the mark, too?" Mike was intrigued.

"I do," Brackar replied.

"And you're down to—"

"My last one." Brackar nodded gravely. "That's why we need you. Come; let me explain."

Mike shrugged. He might as well go along and hear the rest of the story. He followed Brackar as the old man hobbled back to his hut.

Mike found himself in Brackar's hut. It was dim and lit only by candlelight. Ariel and Lou were already sitting up against the walls of the hut on the dirt floor. Brackar seated himself on a low stool and indicated a place next to him on the floor. Mike was still settling in when Brackar launched into his story.

"A very long time ago, the ones who came before created this world and others like it. They were known as the Architects. They possessed infinite knowledge and wisdom and were masters of space and time. They created the many doorways that are scattered across this world and many other worlds like it."

"By 'doorways,' he means 'portals,'" Louis interjected. Brackar gave Lou a stern look and continued.

"Yes. Using these doorways, the Architects visited countless worlds to bring life here to Kelenia. Many different races from across the galaxy were put here and lived together in perfect harmony. For millennia, there was peace...until the Great Skirmish."

"Great Skirmish?" Mike asked.

Brackar gave Mike the same look he had given Louis. Mike swallowed. It was an angry teacher look—something Mike had plenty of experience with. Mike decided to keep quiet.

"Not much is known about this incident. What is known for certain is that the peace was lost, and it caused the Architects to flee from this world and ascend into paradise.

"After the Architects left and in the midst of the conflict, an army rose to power, slaughtering the innocent and burning the lands that the Architects had built. They wanted nothing but chaos and death. They were called the Destructors. But there was one who stood against them—one with the courage to fight.

"The people prayed to the Architects after years and years of suffering. The Architects answered their people's prayers by sending the first hero with the mark of the champion.

"She came here the same way you did. She was known as Adarha the Salvager, and she was one of the fiercest warriors to ever live. We honor her with the naming of our firstborn daughters to this day. She fought the vicious army of the Destructors. They battled many times, but Adarha was always on the losing side. After losing several lives, her situation became dire, and she prayed to the Architects for help one final time.

"The Architects answered her prayers and blessed her with the most powerful weapon ever known: a sword called Abolisher, which could topple mountains. It cut through the Destructors with ease as she laid waste to an army of one hundred thousand, ending their three-century reign of terror.

"After eradicating the Destructors, Adarha led Kelenia to another peaceful time. She spread the word of the Architects, teaching their ways and philosophies. Many years later, on her final lifetime, she set out on a journey that would rejoin us with the Architects.

"She searched far and wide to find any clue to the whereabouts of the Architects. After years of searching she found one: the Gate—the largest doorway ever discovered. The Architects left it for us to follow them into paradise."

Mike shook his head. To him, the old man sounded like some sort of crazy cult leader. It reminded him of the preachers in the fancy suits on television. However, he bit his tongue for a little longer and let Brackar finish his story.

"On this giant doorway were four indentations etched into the stone. They represented the four elements that are prevalent on just about any world: earth, water, fire, and air. Adarha set out to find the keys but, alas, she disappeared, never to be heard from again."

Mike waited a second, but the story didn't continue. He raised an eyebrow. Was that it?

"So what does this have to do with me?" Mike asked.

"Everything," Ariel interjected. Mike had almost forgotten he was there. "Before she disappeared, Adarha brought back the earth emerald. It is how I opened a portal to your world."

"And?"

"And you are going to help us find the other emeralds, before the queen."

"Queen?"

"Queen Beesh," Louis threw in. "She's the reason they're in hiding."

"Quite right," Ariel said, smiling his uncomfortable little smile. "If she beats us to the emeralds, we are all doomed to be her slaves. We are thankfully free now."

Mike shook his head again.

"Remember what I promised you, Michael," Ariel continued.

"Right," Mike said. In all the weirdness, he had forgotten. "I'm in, I guess."

"Get some sleep everyone," Brackar said and rose stiffly from his stool. Mike shot Louis a hard look. Louis smiled and struggled his way up from where he had been sitting cross legged.

Mike and Louis crossed the short distance between Adarha and Brackar's cabin. They walked in to find Adarha and Mercury seated at the table.

"Come and sit," Adarha said to them. Adarha walked to the far end of the room, grabbing a light colored cloak and brought it back to the table, where she placed it around Mike's shoulders.

"Thanks, I was a little chilly," Mike said.

Mercury rolled her eyes in disgust and stormed out of the hut.

"What's her problem?" Piggy asked, and when Adarha did not answer, he continued.

"Guess she had enough excitement for one day; I may have too. I'm sure we're going to leave bright and early, so I might catch some shuteye while I can. You two should do the same."

Piggy stretched then yawned. Mike yawned as well, but before either man could leave the table, Adarha stopped them.

"Before you leave, let us share a drink."

As if from nowhere, she brought out two drinking glasses, one plain and one that was oddly decorated with shiny jewelry. She poured a thick brown liquid from a leather canteen into the cups. First, she handed Piggy the plain cup, which he took a big swig from. He shuddered.

Then Adarha took the decorated cup, whispered something to herself in her native tongue, and swallowed down the drink before handing the cup over to Mike. He thanked her before downing it in one big gulp. Mike was not entirely sure, but he thought he heard her whisper something as he drank.

"Father Brackar asked that Mercury and I stay here just in case you all never return," Adarha said. "So we drink to celebrate life and our freedom. And take this...for luck."

She then reached into her pocket and brought out a shiny silver necklace with a pendant shaped like an X, which she slipped over Mike's head.

"Um okay, you're mighty generous. Thanks for the souvenirs. I'll make sure the old man gets back here in one piece."

"What about brother Ariel?"

"No promises," Mike said wryly. Adarha led the two into two straw beds then left them there to sleep.

Light streaming through chinks in the walls of the hut woke Mike early the next morning. For a moment, he was disoriented. The air smelled strange even before he had opened his eyes. Then it all came flooding back to him: running from the gang, the emerald, the portal, the stories...all of it.

He groaned.

Lou was already up. He was drinking some sort of steaming beverage out of an earthenware cup.

"Morning, Mikey!" Lou piped over the rim of his cup.

"Morning, Lou," Mike groaned.

"You want a cup of this? It's a lot like sour tea."

"I think I'll pass." Mike sat up and stretched. It was going to be a long day.

After gathering himself, Mike followed Louis to Brackar's hut. The old man and Ariel were gathered around a table that had not been there the night before.

"So what's the plan?" Mike said as he entered.

Without speaking, the old man reached out to the nearby table grabbing a small silver disc that resembled a platinum hockey puck. He began rubbing his palm on the center, and after a few seconds, an image of a stone statue of a person with a hood covering his face appeared, floating in the air above the puck.

That kind of technology and they're still using candles?

"So what am I looking at?" Mike asked.

"We've sent our last men to this place," Brackar said gravely. "They have yet to return, and I do not think they will. See this engraving on the side?" Brackar manipulated the puck and zoomed in to the bottom left side of the stone bust, highlighting a symbol. Mike knew instantly what it meant: fire.

"As you can see, Michael, we are very close to finding the fire emerald, with your help of course."

"Sure," Mike said with his arms folded. "As long as I get everything that was promised to me."

"You will receive everything and then some," Ariel said. "You have my word."

"Mike, you gotta see what they've got for us," Louis said excitedly. There was a brown canvas roll on the table, and Lou unrolled it with sacramental care. "Since no one knows what we're going to run into out there, they've put together a care package of sorts."

On the table in front of Mike, there was an assortment of things—each one stranger than the last. None of them looked like weapons to Mike. What he wouldn't have given for his service revolver or at least an entrenching tool. Louis picked up a black metal tube.

"The Kelenians used this to move heavy objects from one point to another," Lou said presenting the tube to Mike. "I'm sure you'll find a few more uses for it."

Lou slid the tube over Mike's right open palm; it covered most of his knuckles and went up his forearm and stopped at his elbow like a black metallic sleeve. Mike made a fist with the metallic cast and felt a static charge build up. He squeezed his fist tighter, making a long electric blue rope of light shoot from the back of the metallic sleeve, attaching itself to the hut's sturdy wall. Mike yanked his arm back, causing the blue light tether to retract back into the sleeve, bringing a part of the wall with it. As the men dodged the wall, they all began to laugh—everyone except Brackar.

"My home! What have you done?" Brackar asked, staring at the distant jungle trees through his newly made window. But no one seemed to hear him.

"It's made of hard light, and it could help us if we're in a jam," Lou said. "We should use it sparingly because its power source drains easily. Also, watch the recoil on that thing, it could rip your arm out of its socket."

"Noted. What's that?" Mike pointed at the next object on the table as Lou collected the sleeve. Mike picked up a small vial that was shaped like an hourglass and was very cold to the touch.

"That is an ice bomb." Lou smiled. "Just break that bad boy open and it'll freeze anything you throw it at instantly. There aren't too many of these floating around so make sure when you use it, it's worth it." Mike placed the vial in his front pants pocket. Lou smiled.

He's really in his element, Mike thought.

"What's this, a cloaking device? A hologram projector? A fusion grenade?" Mike pointed to a flat, rock-like item.

"It's a rock," Lou said as he grabbed it and placed it in his pocket. "Don't know how that got in there."

"My wall," Brackar lamented.

Still no one paid him any mind. Piggy then went to the final item on the table. It was a pile of a few seeds that looked a lot like the sunflower seeds Mike used to chew when he was in little league.

"Fire seed," Louis said. "These things do damage. Press their tops once to arm it, press twice to stop it like this." Louis pressed the top of the pellet once. It began to flash red. He then pressed the top twice, but instead of the fire seed stopping it's flashing, the flashing sped up. "Uh oh. I think I may have armed it and I can't turn it off." Mike's mind ran through the possibility of Lou getting out of the hut in time to throw the explosive away. There was no way.

Mike snatched the fire seed from Louis' grasp and tossed it through the hole in Brackar's wall. It exploded with a deafening bang somewhere around the tree line. Mike turned and stared at Lou who gave him a sheepish shrug.

They left without making any goodbyes. There were few people milling around the village, and Adarha and Mercury were nowhere in sight. Hours passed without much conversation. They were all carrying heavy packs except for Brackar, who picked his way along with a walking stick. They were sweating although the day was temperate.

A few hours after midday, Mike and the rest of the gang had emptied their leather water pouches. They came to a stream, and Mike knelt to refill his water pouch. As he bent, the pendant that Adarha had given him came swinging out from his shirt collar.

"Congratulations, my boy," Ariel said, clapping Mike on the back.

"For what?"

Ariel simply chuckled and began filling his water pouch. Mike shook his head. The people of Kelenia were weird.

Mike went and leaned up against a tree and took a long drink from his water pouch. As he was drinking, he heard a twig snap.

Cat, Mike thought. He looked around for something to defend himself. He found a long fallen branch and picked it up. It had a good heft to it.

Mike crept toward the sound of movement in the underbrush. He picked up a small rock and whipped it at the bushes. To everyone but Mike's surprise, there was a yelp, followed by movement from the bushes. Everyone turned toward the sound. Adarha appeared, holding her forehead. Mercury followed, holding nothing but a scowl.

"Your wife really missed you," Ariel said with a laugh.

"My wife?"

Brackar laughed heartily.

"Did she place this pendant on you, young one?" Brackar walked toward Mike.

Mike was afraid to admit it, so he gave one of the slightest nods.

"That pendant represents our faith and what we believe in," Brackar said. "Did you drink from the sacred cup?"

Again, Mike nodded. He cut a look at Adarha. She was smiling sheepishly.

"There is one more ritual that is customary in Kelenian weddings: You must both have at least one witness present."

Damn it, Piggy, Mike thought to himself.

"I guess congratulations are in order, then." Brackar, Louis, and Ariel all laughed. Mike threw his stick into the river.

"What in the blue hell is wrong with this place?" Mike exploded.

"Are you not happy?" Adarha asked, stepping to Mike's side. Her face looked like he had slapped her or called her a name.

"I mean, I could...I could do worse, but...I just..." Mike stammered. He regained his mental footing. "I thought that you two were staying back. It's dangerous out here; there are all types of things lurking out here that can kill you."

Ariel went to the women's defense.

"The wives always accompany their husbands in journey or in battle. Mercury's mother and I would do so on many occasions." Ariel patted Mercury protectively on the back.

"Y'all are ass backwards on this planet, I swear," Mike said. Adarha's face was still red with embarrassment. "Now what? We're too far out to take them somewhere safe before night. What will they do if we come across one of those cats or one of the queen B's soldiers?"

"That is exactly why you're here, Mr. Wesley." Ariel smirked.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Mike had a bad feeling in the back of his mind. He suddenly had the image of one of those crash test dummies from the old commercials except with a large "X" on its arm.

"Perhaps we make camp for the night," Brackar said, interjecting before a fight could start.

Night fell, and the six built a fire. They ate some bread that Adarha had made before they left. The young champion and his wife sat across from each other, facing one another but not speaking. The stars came out, and the Milky Way hung across the sky like a banner. It was a perfect Kelenian night. Brackar dug ancient Kelenian hieroglyphics into the dirt with the tip of his walking stick and thought about when he had been a young champion.

They had not had the map then. They knew nothing about the whereabouts of the fire emerald. He had lost most of his lives freeing the few he could from the queen. Had he been a great leader? No, he supposed not. But he had done what he could with the lives that he had.

"It is time we all get some rest," Brackar said over the dying fire.

"I'll agree to that," the portly one said, "but where do Adahra and Mercury sleep?"

"They can have my tent," the champion replied. "I'll sleep under the stars."

He does not know yet that the Architects do not choose lightly. He will know soon.

After everyone had gone to sleep, Brackar found himself awake and thinking. He got out of his tent listening to his old joints pop and crack. The young champion was up too, pacing in the moonlight.

"What bothers you, my son?" Brackar asked.

"Nothing. Just antsy."

The two sat silently for several moments before speaking, staring up at the stars. Then Brackar decided to break the silence.

"Beautiful is it not? How we all came from there, out of that blackness. Funny how all life originates there but cannot survive out in that black coldness." He stopped, stroked his beard, and glanced at Michael's face in the dying firelight.

"All life, huh?"

"When I first arrived here many lifetimes ago, I was as young as you are. I probably thought, well, what you're thinking now."

"Oh yeah, old man, what's that?"

"Why did I agree to come here?"

They both laughed.

"You weren't born here?" the young man asked.

"Heavens, no. I'm an Earthling like you. When I left, few of my tribe believed in the work of the Architects. That all changed once I arrived and was branded with the mark of the hero. I went through several lifetimes freeing people, and I would gladly give a hundred more to be with my beloved."

"I didn't know you were married, old man."

"Yes, many moons ago."

"Where is she?"

"She died."

"I'm sorry." Michael clasped Brackar's back. It was a warm gesture the old man appreciated.

"She was one of the first victims of the Queen's assassins. She was out in the fields picking our favorite fruits when they arrived. She tried to escape them by hiding in the jungle, and that's where I found her body. They...they slaughtered her, using her as a warning to the rest of our people about challenging the queen's rule. My wife loved life; she taught me that all life is sacred."

"That's horrible," Michael said. He cast his eyes down. "If there's one thing that I hate, its bullies."

"Bullies?" Brackar cocked his head.

"That's the word we use when someone uses power against those who have none."

"Bully. Well, alright," Brackar said, filing it away in his mind. "The thought of that 'bully' sometimes sends a chill through my body when I think of what she did to my wife; even the mark glows, reminding me that I have one lifetime left, or maybe it's telling me I'm close to my final death."

"The mark can tell you when you're about to die?" the young champion asked.

Brackar stamped his cane into the ground. "Is there not thunder before a storm? Is there not a tremor before an earthquake? Your mark will warn you of sudden danger; it should serve you as well as mine has served me"

"So do you agree?" Michael asked, after a short, tense silence.

"Agree with what?"

"That all life is sacred; do you believe that?"

Brackar hesitated. "You want the honest truth? I'll give you my answer when our business here is concluded. Well then, enough with this chatter. Better get some rest before daylight. We have a long way to go tomorrow."

Brackar watched the young champion walk back to where his pallet was spread out under the black canopy. He must know, Brackar thought. He must know there will be no going back.

The morning was hot and bright. The six started marching as soon as they had packed their camp. It wasn't long before the group had come across the three-fingered statue. The image they had seen on the map earlier did not do it justice.

It stood majestically over them. At over ten feet tall, it loomed with clinging jungle vines draped around it. The group took a moment to gawk at the sight then, shortly afterwards, became aware of their surroundings. The missing men that had been sent this way before them, there were no signs of them having been this far. No footprints or any type of trails were left behind, leaving the six of them baffled.

Suddenly something caught Mike's eye: what the stone statue was pointing at. Hidden behind large hedges and vines in the distance was a gravelly road, and beyond it was a long stretch of silver, half the width of a football field but just as long. Large trees were lined up on both sides with outstretched limbs hovering over the shiny strip of land.

"What is that?" Mike asked as he delicately set his backpack near the base of the statue before he tiptoed toward the chrome ground. Mike crossed the grass and stood at the edge of the metal strip, staring down at his own reflection. He tentatively stepped out. Whatever metal this was, it didn't make a sound as Mike's size sixteen shoes walked across it.

A small obelisk stood just on the outer right side of the silver strip. It was shaped like a pyramid with a small red jewel on its apex. It couldn't be the fire emerald could it? Mike decided that it would probably be a good idea to leave it alone for the time being.

No one leaves things as valuable as that out in the open, he thought to himself. After ignoring the obvious bait, he walked the entire length of the silver walkway. That's when the trouble started. As he neared the end of the walkway, a chill ran through his body, and he could see his breath escape his mouth. He looked down at his arm. The "X" was glowing.

Death? He looked around furiously for what could possibly kill him. What he saw was the rest of the group. As the group marched toward him, he noticed Louis fidgeting with the stone obelisk, struggling to take the jewel off of its top.

"Lou!" Mike barked, but before Louis could react, the obelisk shifted backward, and the ground began to tremble. The shaking left them all fighting for footing. There was a loud screech. The silver strip was disappearing underneath them! It resembled a mouth as it opened, swallowing Ariel, Piggy, Brackar, and Mercury into its murky abyss. Adarha ran toward Mike as the ground beneath her feet yawned open. She jumped toward him, clutching what little of the path was left.

"Help, please!" she cried. Full of determination, Mike ran toward her and slid, barely grabbing her arm before she let go.

"Gotcha!" Mike shouted. He was hanging over the edge, but the ground kept retracting. He scrambled backward, but not fast enough. He fell.

Moans woke Mike on the cold, moist ground. He quickly did a head count and after everyone was accounted for and unscathed, minus a few bumps and bruises. He dusted himself off then looked above to see how far that they had fallen. It was a good twenty feet to the top, he estimated by judging the distance to the tree branches hanging overhead. It was hard to see in the hole despite the bright sun streaming in. Mike checked his forearm. There was still an "X". He hadn't died, but the "X" was glowing brighter than ever.

Mike covered his nose. Something stunk. It reminded him of one summer day when he and Lou had been kids, and they had poked a dead possum on the side of the road. It had farted out this stench. It was the same stench he was smelling in this hole: decomposition.

Mike's eyes were still adjusting to the dimness when Adarha's sharp scream followed by crying had brought them all running to her. There was a body covered in small holes lying in the middle of the floor.

"It's Rowan," Adarha sobbed. "We last talked two moons ago. May he yet find peace."

Mike took his cap off as a sign of respect, but as his eyes grew accustomed to the low light, he noticed the skeletal remains of humans and not so humans littered across the ground. The skulls were missing from several of the skeletal bodies.

"What happened here?" Lou asked.

"The ones that came before," Ariel answered. "We need to get out of here before we're laying with them."

"Any ideas, Mike?" Louis asked with a panicked breath.

"Well it's too high up to climb up, unless...unless we use the grapple beam thingy! Louie hand me the grapple beam thingy!"

"I kind of put my bag on the three fingered statue next to yours."

"Why in the blue hell would..." before he could complete his statement a chill crept through his body. "Something's wrong."

Metallic screeches filled the gigantic hole that they now occupied. The mark on Mike's forearm began to glow brighter.

"What is that?" Louis screamed.

"Probably whatever killed the others," Mercury said calmly. They felt the ground shaking. Mike quickly glanced at the skeletons lying around them. If he didn't do something soon, they would all be there beside them. The screeching grew louder and got closer until Mike finally saw what was charging at them from both sides: two, twenty foot tall spiked walls that were approaching. Different sized skulls hung from the spikes.

"So that's where their heads are," Mike said, making Louis spew valley beast on the not so recently decapitated. Mike had to think of something; the closing spikes would be there to meet them in mere moments. He looked up once again. If only he could reach Piggy's bag. He then looked around the increasingly small crevice for something that could aid them in escaping. Skeletons won't work, neither would rocks or a very small puddle of water.

"We're running out of time here, young one; any ideas?" Brackar asked pleasantly. Mike continued to glare at the puddle. It had to be less than two inches deep.

"If I die, where do I come back?" Mike asked the old man frantically. Brackar simply smiled and nodded.

"Drown me," Mike shouted, not believing what came out of his own mouth.

"Don't go crazy now; we need you, Mike," Lou pleaded frantically.

"No time to argue," Mike said. "Drown me so I can restart up there and get the grapple thingy."

"Brilliant! But I can't drown you," Lou said. "Imagine how I'd feel if I had to drown my own brother."

"Who wants to drown me?" Mike asked, and almost before he finished his question, Mercury ran toward him, her face a beam of sunshine. Since Mike had been there, that was the happiest he'd ever seen her. She was sick. Mike got on his knees in front of the puddle then tossed his lucky cap to Adarha.

"Here we go," he muttered then placed his face near the puddle. This is crazy. He closed his eyes as Mercury grabbed the back of his head then pushed down with all of her weight. There was barely enough water in the puddle to cover Mike's face. All he could hear was the sound of his air escaping him and a distant noise that almost sounded like...

Is she laughing while she kills me, Mike thought before everything went black.

Mike awoke coughing and wheezing as he struggled to take in the warm jungle air. He quickly scrambled to his feet in search of Lou's pack. He hoped there was still time. God only knew how long he had been gone. It could have been a second; it could have been a day.

Mike moved swiftly toward the statue. After finding the bag, he rummaged through it, dumping out all of its contents until he found the grappling sleeve.

"How'd this thing work again?" he asked himself, placing the sleeve over his right arm. He then made a fist, mimicking what he had done in the hut the day before. Aiming his fist at the statue, Mike gave a tight squeeze and blue light shot out of the sleeve attaching itself to the statue's hand. A tug the sleeve pulled him rapidly toward the stone statue. He dragged his feet, fighting the momentum to keep from slamming him into it.

Mike ran to the edge of the pit he had so recently escaped from. He looked over the edge, and the five trapped inside cheered. It had only been a moment.

He focused on a large, low-hanging tree limb. He aimed with his hand, lining his arm up for the grapple's shot. Clenching his fist, the sleeve hummed. He felt it vibrate as the blue-light tether sailed through the air, attaching itself to the branch.

"I can't believe I'm doing this Indiana Jones bullshit," he said under his breath, just as he yanked the sleeve back, catapulting him through the air.

The jungle landscape was a blur to him as he hurtled across the crevice with blinding speed. He was moving so fast that his momentum was about to make him crash headfirst into the tree limb. He put his sleeved arm up to brace for the ensuing collision, and when he collided with it, the force of the collision and his momentum caused him to do a backward flip before plummeting to the bottom of the crevice.

Rising quickly, he handed the grapple to Brackar.

"We're gonna use that tree branch above to escape," Mike said as he slipped the sleeve off. "You and Adarha first, then Ariel and Mercury, and Louie and me last."

Mike handed the grapple to Adarha. After placing the sleeve on her arm, she raised her arm, aiming it at the tree branch. The tether stuck to the limb. Adarha then grabbed Brackar by the waist and tugged down with the grapple. They both shot out of the crevice.

Seconds passed, and the spiked walls inched closer.

"Catch!" Adarha shouted as the grapple came down from overhead.

"Alright, you two next," Mike said to Ariel as Ariel motioned for Mercury to join him. He then did what Adarha had done previously.

Ariel tossed the sleeve back down to Mike. He looked at Lou hard.

Saving your ass again, big bro, Mike thought to himself. The walls were close now. In fact, as Mike pulled himself and Lou to safety, one of the spikes dug into his leg, leaving a long gash.

As Mike and Lou lay panting on the grass with the others, they could hear a sharp metal sound as the spikes were driven home.

"From now on, Lou, don't touch anything," Mike said through gritted teeth. He looked down at his forearm—a blue "IX" had replaced the "X."

One down, he thought.

The six of them made camp in the shadow of the statue of the Architect. Their fire burned bright, sending shadows dancing wildly through the jungle. After a dinner of bread and dried meat, the gang settled in.

As Mike and Louis sat quietly and listened, Ariel, Brackar, and Adarha all took turns regaling the rest of the group with tales of the first Adarha battling the army of the Destructors, stories from the time of the Architects, and fables from the peaceful time before Queen Beesh.

As the night moved on, Adarha made her way over, a little bit at a time, until she was sitting next to Mike. As Brackar talked, she slipped her hand into Mike's palm. Mike was startled. He looked down at the slim, slight hand in his big, strong one. He liked the image. He decided not to move.

The night was especially dark, and by the time Brackar announced that it was time for them to go to bed, clouds were gathering, blotting out the stars. As usual, Mike planned to sleep out in the open air, but big, fat raindrops began falling.

"You will stay with us," Adarha announced, as the rain began to pick up.

"I don't know if Mercury would like that," Mike said, catching the horrible, sour face Mercury was making at him.

"It is fine," Adarha said, cutting a look at Mercury.

With that, it was decided. Mike slipped in to the small tent with Adarha in the middle and Mercury on the far side. Despite her obvious objections, Mercury was snoring in a few moments. Adarha giggled.

"Some nights, when it is cold out, she snores like a man," Adarha said and laughed. Mike laughed too.

"Why does she hate me?" Mike asked.

"It's complicated," Adarha said and bit her lip. "There is a history."

Mike suddenly understood.

"I got ya."

Adarha was quiet for a moment. Both her and Mike listened to the sound of the rain, which had slowly but surely become steady, on the outside of the tent. Adarha rolled toward Mike. She was so close that Mike could feel her breath against his cheek and neck.

All at once chaos erupted.

Three queen's guards were walking through the forest. It was raining, and Commander Stale was pissed. His two privates, Freeman and Adar, were complete idiots. They were using their electric staffs as walking sticks in the slick jungle undergrowth. Disgraceful.

Commander Stale was not using his staff as a walking stick. He was carrying it over his caped shoulder, the way he should. Consequently, he was slipping all over the damned place.

They were approaching a small clearing in the forest. Stale hated that clearing. It had this big freaky statue from some ancient religion. It was a booby trap. At least that was the rumor. Supposedly, there were booby traps throughout the jungle. Even though nothing had ever come down officially about that, Stale believed it. There were plenty of patrols sent out to places near some of the old ruins that never came back. Stale, for his part, never touched or even got close to the old ruins.

As they neared the clearing, Stale held up his fist. The two privates stopped immediately. There were tents. They were to bring anyone found in the forest in as a prisoner of the queen. The peasants were only allowed to work and live on land allotted to them. If they were in the forest, they knew the consequences.

Suddenly, there was screaming and shouting. A staff came whizzing through the air and crushed the tent, barely missing Mike's head. Mike struggled out from under the cloth as fast as he could.

We should have set a watch, Mike thought. We should have set a damn watch.

Mike found himself standing in the rain with Mercury and Adarha to his left. Adarha had her daggers out, and Mercury was brandishing a long-bladed knife. Mike found himself glad that they had tagged along.

There were three guards as far as Mike could tell. Hopefully, he had one, and the girls could take out one each.

"Mercury, take this guy," Mike said, indicating the guard who had just destroyed their tent.

"With pleasure," Mercury said, springing forward. Her knife clashed against the staff that the guard was able to bring up just in time. She had a big smile on her face.

"Try not to kill him," Mike said, laughing.

Mike turned. There was another guard just on the other side of the fire. Mike charged him, smashing his fist into the guard's face from his blind side. The guard dropped his staff as he went crashing to the ground. Mike grabbed the staff the guard had dropped and turned.

As suddenly as it had all started, it was over. One of the guards was yelling for retreat. The guards disappeared into the jungle. Mike found himself in the middle of the camp.

Is everyone okay?" Mike shouted.

Mike looked around the camp. All their tents were crushed. Brackar and Louis stood outside of their tents. Mercury had chased the guards as far as the edge of the forest. Adarha was standing beside Mike. Ariel, however, was nowhere to be seen.

He had been taken.

Ariel marched ahead of the three queen's guards. They were beaten, bruised, and cut from their scrape with Mike and Mercury. The guard directly behind Ariel was missing his staff. The one to Ariel's right had a long gash on his right cheek. The two of them were both grumbling to themselves.

All at once, Ariel stopped in his tracks. This was far enough, he figured. He turned to face the three guards.

"Do you three idiots realize what you have done?" Ariel demanded.

"Sir, it's not—" Commander Stale began.

"I don't want to hear it," Ariel snapped. "The queen gave specific orders that my compatriots and I were not to be harassed until we have retrieved the fire emerald. After that, I will call for you. Now I came with you for a reason."

"What was that, sir?" Stale asked through clenched teeth.

"I need you to send a message to the queen. Tell her we are close. Let her know that I will be returning with the fire emerald and prisoners soon."

At camp, Mike and Mercury were in a heated argument.

"We have to go now," Mercury insisted. "The Architects only know what will happen to my father."

"We can't take off into the night without knowing what we are coming up against."

"We took care of them easily," Mercury reminded him.

"That's true, but..."

"No man left behind," Louis interjected.

"No man..." Mercury began confused. "Yes, no man left behind!"

Mike sighed. There was no winning this argument without coming across as cold blooded. He was stuck. There was no way of knowing if those guards had met up with more troops, found a better position to attack from, or what. This was a bad mission.

Just then, Ariel came staggering into camp. Mercury and Brackar were the first to reach him.

"Father, what happened?" Mercury asked.

"I escaped," Ariel panted. "But just barely."

"Thank the Architects!" Mercury exclaimed.

The rest of the group gathered around Ariel, but Mike didn't move. He narrowed his eyes.

How does that guy escape three armed guards? He shook off the thought. It was weird, but Ariel must have escaped.

He had to, right?

By sunrise, the rain had stopped, but it was still overcast and wet out. They broke down their camp and followed the way the statue was pointing. After an hour of walking and occasionally hiding behind trees with the paranoia of being found by the queen's guards, they finally came across a spring that was a dead end.

The site was serene, as the lush blue jungle leaves gently swayed around a streaming pool of water. The water cascaded down from atop a large rock wall, rippling down several smaller stones that led from the bottom of the pool toward the stone wall. The water came to ankle height as the group walked into the center of the pool.

In the pool's center, the water rippled where they stood, and clear as day, a large symbol for fire lay beneath their feet. Mike was the first to notice; then he pointed it out to the rest of the group.

"Y'all stay still and don't touch anything, and that especially means you," Mike said as he pointed to Louis, who agreed completely after his last mistake, which had almost cost them all their lives.

Mike investigated the area. There was nothing of note that he could see—nothing out of place. He then gazed at the waterfall.

Hidden behind the water curtain, carved on the stone wall was an even bigger picture of the fire emblem.

Mike slowly walked toward the stones that led up to the waterfall, and as he stepped on the stones, they glowed a bright blue.

The sight made the others nervous.

"What kind of a death trap could this be, I wonder," Ariel said.

Mike didn't say anything. He waved the group back. They gladly obliged. Nearing the waterfall with as much caution as a bomb squad, Mike slowly reached out, debating whether he should reach through the waterfall to touch the wall behind it. The others watched from a distance. Louis winced at the tension.

After a moment of inner debate, Mike reached through the waterfall and touched the wall behind it. Nothing happened at first. Then there was a loud mechanical click. There was another one and another.

The clicking sped up. Mike stepped back.

Maybe, he thought, I shouldn't have done that.

The clicks turned to clanks and continued to speed up. All at once, there was a thunderous creaking that was followed by the wall opening, stopping the water from dropping overhead. Mike stood back, expecting to be blown up.

The wall opening seemed inviting, and he checked his forearm to be certain that there was no danger. The mark was not glowing. Things were probably all right.

"The coast is clear...I think," he announced. The others slowly stepped forward. They gathered at the open wall. Sensing that the end of this nightmare was just through the opening, Mike crossed the threshold into the darkness.

Inside, the stale air mixed with the cobwebs stretching across the narrow corridor reminded Mike of a documentary he had once seen on the pyramids. After a few feet, they reached a stone wall.

Lou ran his hand across the wall, and he felt small grooves in the lower center. His fingers felt the small indentations and what the indentations actually were: carvings from a time long passed. There were numerous symbols that spread over the whole wall, but there was only one that he and his friends recognized: an "X."

When Louis touched it, nothing happened. He pressed it, but still nothing happed. Mike then moved Louis aside and gently touched the X. He felt a slight tingle throughout his body. The wall hummed, then shifted.

Mike made a gesture with his hand, warning the others to stay back. The rising wall stopped, revealing another room with another apparent dead end. This time, the room had hieroglyphics all over its walls. On the floor in the center of the room was a circular pedestal that came to Mike's knee. It had one indentation in its center: the Roman numeral for ten.

"Do your job." Lou nodded to Mike as they entered the room. The group spread to the corners of the room. Mike knelt down and placed his palm in the center of the pedestal. It was rough and cool to the touch.

The mark on Mike's arm began to glow. The pedestal started glowing as well. Then, like a fountain that one would see in a park, the light from the pedestal flowed downward, pouring onto the ground and crawling up the walls, illuminating all of the carvings with a pale blue light. The drawings on the walls were now visible, showing that all of the illustrations were telling one story, the same story Brackar had told him about the first hero.

The first panel depicted an army setting fire to homes and slaying the people. The second showed the people kneeling to pray, while a woman stood above them with light surrounding her. That had to be Adarha, Mike guessed. In the next panel was a picture of her, confirming his suspicion as a similar drawing of the woman held a sword with lightning striking it over her head, swinging at a cowering foe. The sight was arresting.

If Mike hadn't seen stranger things just days and hours before, he probably would have appreciated it more. The room suddenly shifted as the walls seemed to stretch upward, rising higher and higher. The floor that they stood on was descending. They went faster as the floor began to gain momentum.

As they continued to go lower, the temperature rose. It had gotten hot. It was so hot that the whole group was beginning to sweat.

"Where the hell are we going, Hell?" Louie asked, just as the platform came to a halt. Mike looked up and noticed how far down the platform had taken them and also caught passing glimpses of circular holes with sunlight streaming through them, lining the upper walls. They were easily thirty stories down, Mike hypothesized.

The cavern they had descended into was lit with a deep reddish orange haze and smelled of fire. Mike was the first to step off of the elevator to get a better look at their surroundings and saw the stone bridge that connected where they all stood to a cave wall. Under the bridge stirred a sea of orange that popped, fizzed, and hissed. It was lava.

"Magma," Louis said, as if correcting Mike's inaudible thought.

Louis' comment earlier about them being in hell rang through Mike's mind. If they weren't in hell now, they were damn near close to it. Mike removed his hat to wipe the downpour of sweat from his face. Some of the tiny beads of sweat dropped from his chin and sizzled as they hit the ground.

"We go this way," Mike said as he led them over the river of lava. Mike noticed how large the area that they had descended into was. He also observed, out of the corner of his eye, Ariel grinning his queer grin as he followed behind the rest of the group, unaware of Mike's gaze. That was a red flag.

Once they had crossed the bridge, they came to another corridor that was lined with torches. They followed the trail of torches until they entered an empty room that had symbols that Mike had seen before. It was ancient Kelenian. Mercury began to read aloud what was carved into the wall.

"'Beyond here lies the fire emerald,'" Mercury read. "'To attain it, you must pass the two trials. The first will test your physical limits. The second test will tax your mind in ways that you cannot imagine. You have made it this far traveler, and the prize is almost in reach, may the mark of the hero protect you.' And that is all that is written. And there is that..." She said and pointed at the large arrow that pointed down another corridor. Mike appreciated the straightforwardness of the drawing, no riddles or meaninglessness.

"Alright y'all, there is no telling what's through there, so I think it'll be best if I go at it alone," Mike said. "I'll go in, get the fire emerald, and come back out, no problem."

Everyone was silent. Mike swallowed hard.

"Hand me the grapple beam thingy," Mike said to Lou. Louis handed the grapple to him. After a few seconds of adjusting the sleeve, Mike pulled Louie away from the rest of the group and lowered his voice.

"I need you to keep your eyes open for me. See that guy there?" Mike nodded at Ariel, who stood in the corner of the room.

"Ariel?" Lou asked.

"I just need you to watch him," Mike said. "If there were anyone in this group that looked like they'd double cross us..." Mike pointed to the unaware Ariel once more. "I've got to know you're on top of this, bro. I have to know you have my back if something goes down. By the way, I don't think I need this." Mike handed Piggy his backpack.

"Are you sure you won't need this stuff to get the gem?" Louis asked.

"No. In fact, I don't think I'll even need my lucky cap."

Mike removed the cap and called Adarha over.

"Here," Mike said. "Don't let anything happen to this; it's lucky, and I'll be back to get it soon."

The woman nodded, grabbing the cap and placing it on her head. Mike then looked at Lou, pointed at his right eye, then pointed at Ariel.

"I've got your back, and I'll make you proud," Louis said.

"Good," Mike said with a nod. With that understanding, Mike followed the massive arrow to the room's exit.

When Mike emerged from the other side of the corridor, he saw a long stone walkway that would lead him to a tall stone staircase. At the top of the long staircase a lonely light shined down onto a wide podium. That had to be where the fire emerald was, and that's where he needed to be. The path toward the staircase was clear and simple.

That alarmed him; it shouldn't be easy. If he had to hide a powerful ancient relic inside a volcano, he would definitely make sure that it wouldn't be so easy to snatch and run away with it. Mike inched slowly toward the grey stone bridge. As he neared the bridge, he felt a chill creep down his back. His forearm glowed. He walked until he got close to the grey stone bridge, just before the bridge itself began crumbling then shaking itself to pieces. But the bridge did not crumble and fall into the river of lava that it stood above. Instead the bridge broke into several parts that did not plummet individually to the bottom but levitated in midair and swung from side to side.

"What in the blue hell is this?" Mike growled disapprovingly. The bridge was now many individual floating, shifting platforms...and also the only way to the stone staircase. He surveyed the area to see if there was something that he could use the grapple to latch onto, but there wasn't. He would have to jump on each of the platforms to make it across. He would have to time his jumps perfectly if he wanted to avoid death.

Mike stood there waiting patiently to see if there was any pattern in the movement of the platforms. The rectangular pieces of the bridge swung like pendulums over the volcanic pit as Mike stretched in preparation to jump and land on the one closest to him. He shifted back and forth, attempting to match the rhythm of the swinging remnants of the bridge so that he would be able to jump directly onto the center of the first platform. Finally, he bent his knees then leapt, and as soon as he left the ground for the platform, he instantly regretted jumping.

The cavern was deafly quiet with the exception of whispers shared by Louis and Brackar as they sat cross legged on the warm ground, talking about Kelenia's history. The rest of the group stood in awkward silence as Ariel paced back and forth like a soon-to-be father in a hospital waiting room. Mercury stood with her arms folded, leaning against the ancient cave walls with less of a frown than Louis was accustomed to. Her face still looked as if she ate a grapefruit, just one that was a little riper. Adarha stared off into space. There was a shout.

Seconds went by before they all heard heavy thuds echoing from where they once had entered. They were frightened. The sounds continued growing louder as they grew closer.

Everyone stood on pins and needles until Mike appeared from the corridor, storming toward them with smoke billowing off of his back.

He marched directly toward Adarha who stood in the exact position she was when she heard the yell.

Mike paused, looked at her, and then said sternly, "Give me my damn hat back." She stared him down then tossed the cap. He grabbed it out of midair, placed it on his head then headed back to the doorway with the gigantic arrow pointing to it. He looked back at the group and noticed all of their slack jawed expressions as they looked on at him quietly. "The hell is wrong with y'all?" he asked them before disappearing through the corridor, leaving them more confused than they were before he had returned.

Mike spent the better part of five minutes studying the first swinging platform, viewing the scene of this recently activated obstacle course with his ticket home on the other side of it. He also thought about who in their right mind designed this elaborate setup.

"That guy must've been the smartest dumbass ever," Mike said to himself out loud. "Someone was probably like, 'Let's hide this emerald inside a temple full of booby traps.' And the other guy was all like 'What are you crazy? We need to build a big ass place inside a volcano to hide it...ancient assholes."

The remnants of the bridge continued to swing, but the platforms were all moving too erratically for him to learn a pattern. His timing was key if he wanted to get across. Mike stared down at the platforms as they swayed back and forth, reminding him of his previous failure. The fall from his last attempt ate at him because of how reckless he had acted. He was faster than these platforms, wasn't he?

The question spurred him on. Mike took several steps back before he knelt down to press the pumps that were on the tongues of his shoes. He twisted his cap backward then got into a sprinter's stance, placing both hands on the ground and both feet as if they were on invisible pedestals. He matched the swinging platforms with his eyes, keeping up with their rhythm as they swayed. He shot out of his stance like a cheetah after a gazelle. Swiftly, he ran toward the first platform, jumping where it was not. From another person's perspective, it would seem that Mike had jumped to his death...again.

This time, as he sailed through the air to his certain rendezvous with a magma bath, the platform met him. Before he could celebrate, he leapt again, aiming for the empty space where the next platform would be eventually. Sure enough, he landed on it and quickly leapt to the next one. After that he went to the next one and then the next. He continued until he reached the last three platforms. Once he landed on the third to last platform, a shimmering apparition hovered in front of the staircase that he was heading to, effectively breaking his concentration and causing him to pause briefly.

That split second he paused threw off the timing of his next jump, causing him to land awkwardly on his back foot on the next platform. The platform swayed while Mike fought for his balance, nearly falling off. His arms flailed in the air as he dangled on the backside of this moving piece of bridge with just one foot planted firmly down. Realizing that he would soon fall, he used the ball of his left foot and leapt blindly to the final platform. This jump attempt was weaker than the previous ones. He was going to die.

As he fell, the platform swung into his midsection with a loud thump, knocking the wind out of him but also allowing him to grab it. He clung to it, his grip fastened to the stone. Hanging while he darted back and forth from side to side and out of breath, he began to pick himself up. He fought with the heat, gravity, and his sweaty palms, then managed to swing his legs on top of it.

Once he made it on top of the floating, broken, swinging bridge, he laid on his back to catch his breath. He looked upward for the ceiling of this cavern and could not find one. Suddenly, a chill crept through his body. Was it death again? No, he thought as he raised his hands toward the top of his head, checking to see if his hat had come off during his platform jumping. It was still there. He let out a huge sigh of relief.

After a moment, he carefully got back to his feet on the ever-moving platform, glancing toward the staircase and wondering if he would see what he saw before he fell, but there was nothing there. Was the heat playing tricks on his mind? He put that question on hold for the time being and set his sights on getting across. He figured he could make the jump from there to the base of the staircase with very little effort.

He positioned himself then waited patiently to choose the opportune time to leap.

He rocked from side to side, but the constant moving did not faze him in the slightest. The platform did not wait for him to decide when he should depart. His tired legs mustered up just enough strength to catapult him onto the edge of the stone staircase where his fingers grasped, leaving him dangling for dear lives, twisting his torso to gain leverage, his feet searching for any kind of groove that would help him climb up. After what felt like an eternity struggling to climb, he managed to swing his body up in the same manner that he had done just a few moments before.

He crawled until he stopped in front of the first step. Slowly, he picked himself up off of the ground and knocked the ancient dirt that had collected on him off of his clothes then took the stairway up.

When he made it up the staircase, he half expected to see the fire emerald placed in front of him on a table, but deep down, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. Instead of a table, there was a shiny, black marble podium with three deep indentations with three etchings above each of the indentations. He then remembered the warning that was on the wall from this area's entrance. He had just passed the physical trial; now it was time for the mental part.

Don't be math, he thought. Mike approached the glistening black counter with the reverence of a man approaching something that could easily kill him. As he got closer, he studied each of the three indentations and their individual markings. Engraved above the first indentation was the letter I, which Mike took for being the number one. Beneath the etching, inside the indentation there was a crystal the size of a pebble. In between the first and second indentation, there was a plus sign. This made Mike extremely nervous; no one told him that math would be involved.

These "Architects" may have made this test just as hard as they had made it for him crossing the bridge. These beings created interdimensional travel, so who knew what kind of crazy theoretical equation he would have to solve?

He looked at his left forearm and saw that he had eight lives remaining.

Eight attempts to get this correct. Mike twisted his cap forward then glanced at the second etching over the second indentation. This time, the marking above had two "I"s, which was the number two, and inside the indentation were two crystals similar to the one he had found in the first one. Mike began to sweat profusely as if he were about to disarm a nuclear bomb.

How was he going to get through this? His eyes then shifted from this second indentation to the third, and as he examined, he saw that the last indentation was empty and that the last etching above it was very familiar. It was two lines lying parallel or what Mike knew as the equal symbol.

For a moment, he stood confused, running his hand across the thick stubble on his cheek. The first indentation had one crystal inside of it, then the addition symbol, then the next indentation had two crystals, followed by the equal sign...this couldn't be...

That's too easy, he thought. But then again...

Mike grabbed the first crystal with a shaking hand, dropping it into the third indentation. He then reached into the second, grabbing the last two crystals then placed them inside of the last indentation, holding his breath as he did so. Mike jumped back as the entire podium shook and the floor rumbled beneath him. The marble table then slowly started sinking into the ground.

Behind where the podium had been, a glass coffin with one of the most astonishing sights he had ever seen arose. It was the fire emerald. When the commotion ended and the table with indentations disappeared, Mike was left dumbfounded about what had just transpired.

"One plus two? What kind of GED question was that?"

The fire emerald gleamed as it stood like a trophy on an awards podium. At first, he had thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but upon further inspection, the emerald was pulsating, changing its color from a bright fiery red to a deep blood maroon. It reminded Mike of a beating heart, the way it changed its color in rhythm. When he approached the jewel, the glass casket opened, and the jewel began to rise as if it wanted to be taken. The fire emerald was the size of a fist, and at the emerald's base, there was a chrome stand with lights trickling up and down it like they were ants coming to and from their colony.

Cautiously he reached out to touch the stone; he felt a jolt when he put his fingers around it, the hairs on his arm stood on end when he finally grabbed it, pulling the glowing gem toward him.

The lights on the chrome began blinking wildly, and a whir erupted from the stand. He felt the surge of power go from his fingertips throughout the rest of his body. This lasted for only a few seconds as a chime signaled the stop and Mike looked at his left forearm. His left arm tingled and lit up with the number VIII as he held the fire emerald. So he hadn't been electrocuted, he figured. The site of the gem up close was spectacular.

This thing would fetch a pretty penny back home...home, he wouldn't be able to get there without this he thought. He then gently cradled it like a newborn. There was a loud bang.

Mike turned around abruptly to see where the sound came from. There were a few more bangs. He then saw that it was the swinging platforms that were once a bridge forming the bridge once again.

As the last platform settled, a booming voice echoing through the enormous cavern and made him slightly fumble the emerald.

"You fool!" the voice said as Mike turned to find where it had originated. When he spun around, he saw a close up of what he had seen from a distance. A ghostly figure hovered over him wearing a cloak. His face was oval shaped with dark eyes; the cloak covered the rest of the head. The figure resembled the statue they had camped beside.

"Ex...excuse me?" Mike replied, unsure of what was going on.

The hovering transparent entity continued giving Mike a scowl of disapproval.

"By taking what clearly does not belong to you," the apparition boomed, "you have doomed this entire planet. No living creature shall be spared, and it is all of your doing. They all will die because of the greed of one selfish human. What have you to say for yourself?" Confused, Mike took one more glance at the emerald in his hand before answering.

"I think I'll head home; there I've got enough problems to deal with, chief." With that, Mike turned then began to walk down the staircase without the slightest hesitation. This annoyed the specter.

"Your arrogance will be your downfall. We shall meet again, and when we do, it may not be under pleasant circumstances. In fourteen of your world's rotations, this world shall end. For we are the builders, and we have seen it...Michael James Wesley."

When the being said his name, Mike froze then looked behind him to find that it had disappeared.

How did he know my name? he wondered briefly before putting that question aside. He was on the cusp of leaving this crazy-ass planet. Mike left the staircase and made his way toward the newly made bridge; when his foot touched the bridge, the gem began to hum in his hand, and the ground began to vibrate. Rocks rained down from overhead, narrowly missing him as he scrambled across the bridge.

Dodging the falling debris across the long bridge, Mike lowered his head, cradled the emerald like a running back would hold a football, and ran into the end zone, or in this case, sprinted over the bridge, which was now collapsing as boulders from overhead smashed through the stone structures, crumbling into the magma below. Everything in front of him was a blur as the room behind him continued to destroy itself.

When he made it out of the emerald room, he was surprised that no one was there to greet him. Maybe they all heard the commotion and decided to meet me near the elevator, he thought briefly before making his way in that direction.

"Oh, goddamn it!" a very disappointed Mike cried out as he neared the elevator. To everyone's surprise except his, Mercury, Adarha, Louis, and Brackar had their hands in the air and their backs to the elevator. Mike knew what was happening: they were being double crossed.

Ariel wore a wide grin as he welcomed Mike.

"Thank you Mr. Wesley," Ariel said, with the words oozing from his tongue. "Without all of your help, we wouldn't have been able to make as much progress as we have. And you brought the fire emerald. I knew from the beginning when your friend told me about you that you would be the one."

Mike clenched his fist, started to make a beeline toward Ariel, and then stopped himself when he realized what Ariel was doing. He was holding Lou by his shirt collar over the edge of the grey stone walkway.

Louis dangled over the edge with nothing stopping him from taking a dip in a molten bath except his vest.

"C'mon man, don't do this," Mike said, changing tactics. "This place is about to come down around you, and you want to kill Louie, for what, this?" Mike held up the gem.

"It's...it's beautiful," Ariel said with lust in his voice.

"Let him go..." Mike said. He held the gem over the edge of the bridge. "I'll drop it; I'm not bullshitting."

Ariel cackled.

"You won't do that, you can't."

"You sure about that?" Mike asked defiantly.

"You won't because this fool's death would be on your conscience. Besides you would be stuck on this world, forever."

He was right on all points, bringing Mike back to his senses as he mulled over this predicament. He was absolutely right, but no one should have to die.

"No one needs to get hurt here; just let him go, and I'll give you the emerald," Mike pleaded.

"I think you have it backwards," Ariel said, shaking Louis. "You will give me the gem first, or you will have one less relative."

"Don't worry, Mike, I got this!" Lou declared as he reached deep into his pocket bringing out the flat stone he had taken from Brackar's home. Lou squeezed the stone then threw it to the ground, flinching. Seconds went by and nothing happened.

"Everyone watch out!" Lou screamed, plugging his ears.

Everyone including, Ariel who kept him from falling to his death and Mike who shook his head, all had looks of disbelief. That is when Brackar spoke.

"Um, young one, it is just a rock, nothing more. I told you before."

"I was hoping that you were only joking," Lou said. "Well, that is very unfortunate." Lou's face reddened. Everyone felt embarrassed for him, including Ariel, who now looked almost guilty about doing what he was about to do. Almost. After an awkward moment, Ariel and Mike continued as if nothing happened.

"So where were we?" Ariel asked.

"Something about me dropping the gem and you dropping him."

"Oh right..." Ariel mused. "Hand over the gem or this fool will swim in this river of fire."

Mike once again looked at the gem in his clenched fist with thoughts of his brother's death and his ticket home running through his mind. He finally conceded as he walked slowly to Ariel then begrudgingly handed him the fire emerald. The emerald's blood red glow bounced off of Ariel's face as he held it close to his eye for inspection.

"Now, your part of the deal," Mike reminded him with a growl.

"It is beautiful, the queen will reward me handsomely for this."

"Don't be a fool, Ariel," Brackar interrupted. "There is nothing to gain by spying for her. She imprisoned our brothers and sisters. She only wants the emerald, nothing else. She doesn't care about you, or me, or even your daughter's life. Have you forgotten about Mercury?"

"I've had just about enough of your constant blathering, old man. You know nothing; besides, you're no better than her. Have you told your champion how he will never see his home planet again? Or that his only use was to find this stone? You are no angel, Brackar; you are just as wicked" Ariel then paused. Mike was inching forward, but Ariel's speech had stopped him in his tracks. As Ariel turned his head, Mike met Lou's eyes as they glanced at the grapple beam on his right arm. Mike slowly placed his left hand on the grapple turning it on ready for whatever was about to go down.

"So you're a spy for this queen I've been hearing about this whole time, huh?" Mike asked as Ariel remained silent with one hand tightly grasping the fire emerald and the other hand holding Louis' vest collar with even less effort than before. "Well, you know what they say about informants back where I'm from?" Mike continued, without coaxing a response out of him. Both men glared into each other's eyes, waiting to see who would make the first move. Mike then decided that he would squeeze the trigger first.

"They say, 'snitches get stitches.'"

With that, Ariel had let loose his grasp on Lou, sending him plummeting to the now rising lava lake.

"Mike!" Adarha shrieked as Mike swan dived over the edge of the bridge.

As he fell, a blast of heat hit him in the face. As he threw up his right arm, the grapple beam shot out, attaching itself to the outside edge of the bridge. Sweat and ash blurred Mike's vision as he fought the hot air in search of Lou. After what felt like an eternity, Mike finally saw him as they both neared the burning bright orange bottom. When Mike was close enough, he reached out with his free hand to grab his brother's arm. Once he had him, he brought him in closer then tugged stiffly down on the grapple, and the two men shot up almost as fast as they had descended. The grapple hurtled them over the edge of the bridge, with Mike taking the brunt of the landing. Raining ash and embers cluttered the air with the smell of smoke nearly choking the both of them.

A swirling orange, red, and black screen distorted Mike's view of the walkway. The only thing that was visible were the lights that glowed on the base of the circular elevator that had brought them down from the jungle. It was going up—without them!

"May you both find that the cleansing fires give you the peace in death you could not find in life," Ariel shouted down to them with false empathy. Mike began to respond, but as he did so, the bottom of the walkway erupted, sending a big orange gob of lava in front of the two, dissolving the way in front of them.

Mike didn't waste any time thinking about what they should do next, he grabbed Louis' arm, and they both leapt over the gap. Lou nearly missed the landing. The elevator continued to rise as Mike searched for an alternate exit, but he quickly realized that the lava beneath them had risen up to almost the same level as the walkway they were standing on.

The feel of ice ran through out Mike's body, leaving him shivering even in the extreme heat. Lou saw this, and it alarmed him.

"Are we about to die?" Lou demanded. "Inquiring minds would like to know."

His mind then clicked as he put his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out the ice vial that was shaped like a miniature hour glass. He looked at it in his palm then handed it to Louis.

"Do what I say, when I say it, or we'll both be extra crispy with a side of potato wedges."

Louis nodded.

"I swear, every five minutes, I'm doing some death defying shit," Mike lamented.

Mike then lifted his right arm, aiming the grapple beam at the bottom of the elevator, squeezing it as it released the long beam of light. But as the beam almost made contact with the elevator, the light from the beam began to fade until it disappeared completely. He cursed loud enough for Louis to hear him over all the chaos that surrounded them. Mike shook the grapple, but nothing happened. He banged on it with his free hand—nothing. He then inspected the grapple once more before giving it a hard slap, making the beam shoot out of the glove.

He threw his arm up, causing the rising beam to latch onto the bottom of the elevator, then he nodded to Lou. The lava was almost at their feet now, rolling over the remnants of the bridge. If the grapple goes out again...Mike thought for a second.

"Let's go," he said as he grabbed his brother and tugged down on the grapple. They shot up as lava engulfed where they had stood.

"Don't look down, Lou," Mike warned, but when he glanced at him, he saw Louie was already staring at the pool of lava that had replaced where they previously stood. "We'll be alright if we keep going up." Mike tried to reassure him. As soon as he uttered the words, however, the elevator slowed then eventually halted, leaving the duo hanging. Not good.

"What now?" Louis asked, nervously holding on to Mike as tightly as possible.

"You see those holes with the light coming out of them? Get that ice bomb ready to throw."

"Wait, what? We don't know what's on the other side of this wall, Mike."

"Aim between the holes right there."

Louis nodded as Mike began to swing his body with the grapple occupying one hand, and Lou in the other. He used all the strength in his body he could muster, rocking back and forth like a yoyo on a string until he was able to touch the wall with his feet. Piggy had a death grip on the icy vial, careful not to drop it.

"Now!" Mike barked, after building enough momentum. Louis threw the vial at the wall between two of the holes. The vial shattered.

A split second later, the section on the wall exploded with an arctic breeze briefly blowing at them and covering the wall in solid ice; all the while, the lava silently and steadily rose beneath. Mike fought his swing so he could kick the frozen wall. With his first kick, there was no movement. The second time, he swung in using both of his feet, almost drop kicking the iced wall. To both of their surprises, the ice cracked, leaving a line that ran up the wall between the two sunlit holes.

One more strong kick should do it.

The two braced themselves for the next swing, and when they met the wall again, the iced wall shattered into millions of tiny pieces, plummeting to the rising lava below, revealing a large enough gap in the wall for the duo to squeeze out of individually.

"Get ready, I'm letting go of this thing...now!" Mike announced rocking them both while straining to hold Lou because of his weight.

When he was comfortable about his momentum, Mike lowered Louis from holding his waist to grabbing his arm, using it to toss his friend through the hole like he was playing a game of horse shoes. Now it was his turn. He found that it was a lot easier to move now that there wasn't excess weight holding him down. Once more, he began to swing, and this time the hum from the grapple began to sputter, causing the beam of light connected to the elevator to blink then disappear with Mike in mid swing. Mike glided toward the hole in the wall with arms flailing, attempting to position his body to be able to get through it.

He cannon balled through the hole, tucking his head down so he wouldn't hit it on the hard rock wall. On the other side of the hole, Mike landed back first on a steep dirt hill. He tumbled down the hill, only stopping when he crashed to a halt. The thing he crashed into let out a yell as it crumbled on top of him.

"Ouch! Watch where you're falling," Louis said after dusting himself off.

The clanking of armor filled the forest with noise and made Mike and Louis duck behind a large rock nearby. The soldiers marched in disciplined cadence with silver staffs in hand. Men and other creatures filled the ranks, all with armor with unique etchings on each of their chest plates. Mike counted twenty-five of them before he heard the yelling.

"Get your hands off of me, you mindless drone! Ariel, you traitor; you will get what you deserve soon." Mike didn't have to look to know that it was Brackar's voice. He saw Brackar in the back of the parade, his arms in chains next to a weeping Adarha and Mercury, who were also in chains. Ariel walked closely behind them, not bothered by the old man's threats in the slightest.

Fire emerald in hand, Ariel continued to march with the warriors beside him into the distance until they could not be seen. When Mike felt the coast was clear, he and Lou emerged from their hiding place. Lou immediately made to run after the soldiers, but Mike put a hand on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Louis asked. "We have to go after them." Lou wrestled away from Mike's hand.

"And do what exactly?" Mike demanded. "End up in chains like the old man? It's just the two of us; there are almost thirty of them, and we won't win that fight. It's probably better than what he deserves."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He played us...Both of them did. They used you, Louie, they used you to get to me then used me to get the fire emerald. Now we're stuck on this damn planet with no way back home."

"We still have to go after them; we have to save the world, and you have to save them."

This isn't what I signed up for, Mike thought bitterly. This conversation was about to blow up into something ugly, and the fuse was being lit.

"Are you going after them?" Louis demanded.

Mike clenched his fist and turned away. Lou got in Mike's face then slowed his words.

"Are you going after them? Say something!"

"I don't have to say a damn thing," Mike finally spat. "I'm in this mess because of you."

"Because of me! How is this my fault? What did I do?"

"What didn't you do? You're always putting someone at risk for your own gain. Never thinking of the consequences, just leaving another mess to be cleaned up by someone else. This whole thing is your fault."

"My fault?" Louis stepped back. "So it's all my fault, huh?"

"It's always your fault," Mike said. "Your ass gets into trouble, and ninety nine point nine percent of the time, it's me saving you." Mike paused then added, "Look, at the end of the day, a man is responsible for himself, and he doesn't pass off his problems to anyone else."

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen, but you have to understand, I wouldn't have involved you unless I thought you could handle it. You're Michael James Wesley, a living legend. You get shit done; that's what you do. The things I've seen you do...just wow! If the rumors about you when you were in the SEALS are part true, like when you went to—"

"That's classified," Mike cut him off.

"Fair enough, Mike. Look if I'm that much of a burden to you, I will leave you by your lonesome, but right now, we have to go after Adarha and Mercury. Adarha loves you, man; she even married you."

"And Mercury?"

"Mercury...um, Mercury...Adarha loves you man." The duo then shared a chuckle, which was broken up abruptly when soldiers surrounded them both.

A towering man with deep scars that ran from his forehead to his chin and a bent nose cackled, while brandishing a mace as big as Lou.

"Which one of you little Earthers grabbed the fire emerald?" the man snorted.

Neither Louis nor Mike said a word.

"Speak, or I shall bash in your heads with this." The man introduced his large mace to the duo properly by swinging it lightly in front of them.

"Wait, Rail; you'll ruin that lovely hat on this one. It'd be a shame if you got brains all over it," a soldier interjected, his tongue licking his lips. The soldier had black paint covering the top half of his face and a portion of his bald head. The soldier then broke away from his comrades and walked up to Mike. He sniffed Mike from his stomach to his shoulders before grabbing his cap then placing it on the mace wielder's head. Mike instantly felt the urge to lay the soldier out, but before he could, Lou restrained him.

The soldier saw this and began to size him up. Mike flashed a defiant smile.

"This isn't what you want," Mike said pointing to himself. "It's trouble right here." The soldier raised his fist to retaliate, but Rail's voice stopped him.

"Not yet. Let us find the one who found the fire emerald; then you can have your fun. Once more, which one of you found the fire emerald?" Rail brandished his mace. As Mike was about to speak, Lou spoke up first.

"It...it was me. I did it, I'm the one responsible." Mike wanted to correct him but thought better of it. Maybe they didn't know about the mark of the hero. If they did, they would have asked to see it already. No need to tell them that. A fish with a closed mouth doesn't get caught after all.

"You were the one?" a suspicious Rail asked.

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Louis retorted. Rail glared at Louis then glanced at his men. He smiled, revealing his top broken teeth before adding.

"Take him, and kill the other," Rail pointed at Lou and Mike, respectively. Four of his men grabbed Lou, while Rail and the soldier wearing Mike's cap approached him. Mike attempted to fight off his brother's captors, pulling them off Louis one by one. He managed to land several punches, momentarily freeing Lou.

It all happened so fast that Mike didn't hear Rail come from behind, strike him with the handle of his mace, and stun him. Rail quickly followed up with a sucker punch to Mike's left temple, knocking him to his knees. Rail let out a high-pitched laugh as he swiped a metallic staff from a nearby soldier. Lifting the staff above his head, he swung down hard, the other end of the staff connecting with Mike's lower back. The impact of the staff would have been enough to temporarily stun anyone; however, when the staff struck his back, it let out a sizzle, making his body convulse uncontrollably.

"Mike!" Louis called out as the soldiers once again seized him.

Rail laughed at every strike he landed on Mike. The pain was sharp and went through Mike's body, worse than when he fell in magma. After several more strikes, Mike blacked out. Rail stood over his unconscious body, delivering one final blow to his unresponsive adversary then spit a gob of saliva on him.

"Thanks for this, yeah?" Rail giggled pointing at his new baseball cap as if Mike were able to hear or see him. The rest of his men all howled with laughter, and in the midst of the laughter, a horrified Louis looked on. Mike hadn't respawned, Louis noticed. That meant that he hadn't died—yet. The soldiers charged off, leaving Mike where he lied.

The first thing Mike saw when he woke was a burning tree, its embers falling as a fiery flurry. After a moment of disorientation, Mike attempted to pick himself off the ground but failed to get to his feet.

The pain in his body throbbed from head to toe. He yelled as he fought to stand on his feet, cursing aloud. Once he stood, he caught a glimpse of a fiery backdrop. The jungle trees were ablaze high above him.

After a while, Mike saw what caused it: the magma had rolled out of the hole in the cavern down the hill from where he fell. He clutched his side and limped along the path. Thoughts of vengeance clouded his thoughts as clouds of smoke clouded the air. Ariel and the one who took his hat, Rail, and his men. He was going to make them pay, each and every one of them. He didn't know how he would do it, but they were going to.

He made it thirty feet before he heard a high pitch mewing. From the burning bushes jumped a fuzzy cat creature similar to the one he had seen before. Mike wasn't in the mood for this thing this time. The cat creature pranced close to him, sniffing his leg then circled him before showing its sharp teeth. The creature then launched itself in front of Mike. Seriously fed up with this world, Mike summoned all his strength to kick the cat creature. Mike connected with it in midair sending the cat-like animal sailing like a soccer ball back through the fiery bushes where it came from. Mike let out a roar.

"I'm not food for you!" he yelled. Seconds went by before the creature returned, leering at Mike like he had slapped its mother.

"No, I am not your food." He stopped as a wicked idea crept into his mind, "But if you're hungry, let's go get ya a snack."

The soldiers unceremoniously dumped Lou into a cell. Already inside were Adarha, Brackar, and Mercury. It was obvious that they were all happy to see him, but concerned not to see Mike. Louis didn't blame them. He had taken a huge chance. Hopefully he had bought Mike enough time.

"Young one! It is good to see you alive. Where is the champion?" Brackar said from the back of the cell.

"Yes, where is my husband?" Adarha chimed in.

"Be quiet," Louis exclaimed. "They think I'm the champion."

"We do?" Ariel's voice came from outside the cell.

"Shit," said Lou.

"Rail!" Ariel screamed. He was standing just beyond the bars of the cell. Rail came trotting up to him. "Just exactly who is this?"

"The champion," Rail said thickly.

"Does he have the mark?" Ariel asked, his voice barely contained.

"The mark?"

"The mark of the hero, you lumbering idiot! Does he have it?"

Rail gritted his teeth. Louis could imagine what was going through his head. Ariel was lucky not to meet the business side of the mace.

"I, uh, I didn't look."

"This is not the hero. The queen is going to be furious...with you, of course." With that, Ariel spun on his heel and left.

"You lying little..." Rail started, but a whistle from Ariel interrupted him. Rail smiled a sickening smile. "See you in the ring, little pig man."

Rail turned and left. Louis swallowed hard. Ring?

"What do you think he meant by that?"

Night had fallen, and the only source of light coming from the sky above was from Kelenia's ghostly blue moon. Whenever Mike glanced up at it, his stomach did summersaults. He had named his new friend BA for short. With the exception of a few attempts at biting at his ankles, the creature was surprisingly well behaved. They had exited the jungle, which would all be ash soon, thanks to the ever-flowing magma.

Well that figures, he thought. He could now add "caused a volcanic eruption" to his ever-growing resume. After miles and miles of tirelessly walking, following the trail left by Rail and his men, the sight of a large drawbridge over a moat stopped him in his tracks. What caught his attention was not the bridge but what stood behind it: a colossal greyish-purple castle. The castle reminded Mike of the abandoned apartment complex he went through before going through the portal, with its cracked walls and large blue vines growing up the windows. The west wing of it looked as if it had crumbled in on itself. Or someone hated these jerks enough to destroy this place, which he found was a more likely scenario.

"Who do they have in there? King Arthur?" Mike said to BA, who continued purring.

In front of the drawbridge, a large, muscular soldier stood guard with metallic staff in hand. He and Mike were the same build, which gave Mike an idea.

"That's our way in right there..." He pointed the guard out to BA. "I'll knock him out, take his armor, and sneak us both in. We'll wait until he drops his guard then we'll...BA?" At that moment, he noticed he was only talking to himself. To his surprise, the fuzzy little catlike creature made its way to the drawbridge. The guard in front of the drawbridge stood unaware of any movement. Silently, BA managed to creep up on the unsuspecting soldier. BA didn't allow itself to be heard until it wanted to.

When it finally cooed at the guard, the guard immediately jumped, dropping his staff. BA pranced around in a circle before it started to whimper loudly. The guard attempted to grab his staff, but at that moment BA pressed itself up against him, rubbing its toxic fur on the man. The guard seized up and fell backward.

This was what Mike had planned, and he was surprised that his plan actually worked. He sauntered over to the fallen soldier's side. The toxins from BA's fur were doing their job. Mike clapped his hands with complete satisfaction, ready to disrobe the unconscious man for his armor. Finally something was going right for a change...wasn't it?

As Mike reached for the guard's chest plate, he got his answer. BA growled as Mike's hand hovered near the chest plate, making him instantly pull it back. He reached for the armor again, and the cat creature growled louder, this time accompanied by a menacing glare.

"I don't want to eat him; I just want the damn armor," Mike growled back at BA. BA retorted with a hiss. BA then grabbed the large guard's foot with its mouth and dragged the guard that was at least ten times larger than it into the jungle, leaving Mike dumbfounded. "That is one bitch-ass cat," Mike grumbled, shaking his head as he watched his plan disappear into the woods right in front of him.

Checking for the silver lining, at least the guard was now one less thing to worry about. On to Plan B, which would be him sneaking inside the fortress unseen, without the help of a disguise. Mike scurried inside of the fortress wall, avoiding any unseen eyes that could be keeping watch. Once he entered, the torches that were lit on the drawbridge's interior walls showed a path directly to the inside of the castle. Hesitant that this was either another trap or carelessness on the other soldier's part, Mike decided to stay in the shadows. As he approached the castle's half open gigantic arched doorway, the sound of glasses clanking and guffawing stopped him cold in his tracks. Mike peeked in through the cracked doorway like a Rottweiler eying a neighbor's cat through a window.

Inside he saw the soldiers celebrating as if it were New Year's Eve. Some of them were lying on the floor, and others were on their way to the floor. He watched as the remaining conscious ones swayed and stumbled over each other. Rail and his cronies were nowhere to be found in this drunken mess. Mike hadn't even entered the castle yet, and there were all these idiots lying about, which meant that security had to be light. When the last guard left, Mike melted into the shadows on the wall, avoiding torchlight as if it was poison ivy. He had thought he did well until a voice that sounded like it inhaled helium stopped him before he could make it to the grand staircase.

"Excuse me," the voice said, making the hairs on Mike's neck rise. "Excuse me," the voice said again in the same tone as before, forcing Mike to acknowledge he had been caught. When he did turn, he wasn't prepared for what he saw: a small blue dwarf with antennae on the top of his head, holding a bottle in his hand.

"Who are you?" the blue dwarf asked as Mike struggled to process what he was seeing. It took a long few seconds before Mike kneeled down to the dwarf's level and responded.

"You're blue as hell."

"You are the second Earther to comment on my tone. You are better than the first one because the first one gave me a name: Sky." Mike instantly recognized Lou's fingerprints on the joke. Naming someone after the color of the sky had to be his doing.

"So Mr. Sky, you've seen another like me; was he wearing a vest and round thick glasses?" Mike asked, curling his fingers into the shape of glasses, just in case Sky didn't understand him.

"Why, yes; he was brought here with the two girls and old Brackar, who will be competing in the Gauntlet tomorrow." Gauntlet. The word triggered an alarm in Mike's mind.

"That's where the queen makes you fight to the death, correct?" he asked.

"Yes, precisely. However, it was not Queen Beesh's decision, rather Master Ariel's."

Master Ariel? He was a Master now; how long have I been knocked out, he thought to himself. Surprised at how simple it was to gather information from this small blue person, Mike decided to push his luck further.

"Do you know where Ariel...ahem...I meant Master Ariel is? It is very urgent that I speak with him," he said, cracking the knuckles on both hands. Sky looked at Mike with concern.

"Are you alright, Earther? Do you need to see our officer of medicine for those hands of yours? It sounded like me when I chew root stalk. No? Very well, this way." With no other soul in sight, save the drunken ones using the floor as beds, Sky took Mike on a guided tour of the castle, pointing toward all of the places of interest.

First up was the history of the castle itself.

"This palace was built in tribute to the first hero, our savior, Adarha. Each stone from the base to the tip of the tower was used and blessed by the priest of the Architects in remembrance of our hero and her many sacrifices."

"So what happened to the west wing of the castle?" Mike whispered as the two ascended the spiral staircase.

"That is when our people went to war with the Queen and lost," He said with a note of sadness in his voice. "In the beginning, we thought we would be able to win, but her men were just too many.

"She made examples out of each and every one of us and made us all her slaves. Those who opposed were given a choice: either a quick death or win your life and freedom in the Gauntlet. No one has ever won or will win, I fear. If given the opportunity, I would choose a quick death every chance. Have a look at the stage for tomorrow." Pointing with his small blue puffy fingers, Sky showed an empty stone amphitheater to Mike. The distant glow of the moon helped illuminate the outside stadium, showing its many stains and blemishes. Mike saw one of these blemishes that stood out in particular.

"What's that brownish purple spot on the ground?" he asked.

"The last to oppose the queen. As I said before, Earther, no one wins the Gauntlet."

Finally, Sky led Mike to the master quarters of the castle, where Ariel was allegedly spending the night. They stopped in front of a large wooden door that was half closed.

"This is it, the master's bed chambers. You may now have your word with Master Ariel...or several." Sky bowed then decided to depart, but before he could, Mike had to ask.

"Why are you helping me? You do know I'm not really going to talk to him, right? well maybe I will with some up close sign language." Sky took a step back and sighed.

"Oh, I know. I knew who you were before you spoke a word. The mark of the hero is not something that our people take lightly. Enjoy." The blue dwarf gave a devilish grin before disappearing down the staircase. With that vote of confidence, Mike grabbed the door handle and flung it open. Inside, Ariel sat in the midst of a heated conversation with a woman on a monitor. He was holding the fire and the earth emeralds. The woman was very attractive, so much so that her beauty didn't match the fury of her words.

"You failed me again. There are more capable soldiers here, some with more ability in their little finger than you possess in your entire little body. Give me one reason why I shouldn't have my men gut you where you sit."

"This, I think, should be reason enough," Ariel quickly replied, holding the emerald to the monitor to make sure she saw it.

"Is that the fire emerald?" she asked him, and he answered with a nod and grin. "Well done, Master Ariel; you've done just enough to keep your life." The woman's face noticeably changed as Mike neared.

"Who is this?" she asked. Ariel turned. The color drained from his face.

"That my queen, is the one who helped fetch this exquisite stone."

"You mean he's the one who has the ten lifetimes?" the queen asked with rising excitement in her voice.

"Well its eight now, actually," Mike cut in.

"How dare you address the queen? You speak when you are spoken to! Another word from you, and I'll..." Ariel then went mute in midsentence as Mike raised his hand, extending his index finger.

"You ain't going to do a damn thing. The one thing I've noticed about you, Ariel, is that you have a pit bull's mouth and a Chihuahua's ass. So stop with the threats unless you want your queen to see your head touch every wall in this place. I feel that I need to reintroduce myself. I'm Michael James Wesley, and I'm from a small town called kick a lying, backstabbing, piece of trash from another planet's ass." Mike stopped before making sure that he had Ariel's undivided attention by staring into his eyes. "And right now, Ariel, you're making me homesick."

He finished, and Ariel's face looked as if he had seen Bigfoot's ghost. Even the queen lit up with delight.

"I think I've just found your replacement, Ariel," she said, laughing over the crackling monitor, causing Ariel to shut it off. Frustrated, he jumped up from his chair and screamed for the guards. It had all happened quickly. Mike grabbed Ariel's neck and squeezed like it were putty in a child's hands. The heavy footsteps of Rail and his fellow soldiers followed by a heavy strike to the back of Mike's head made him let go of the man's neck. Afterward, Rail and his guards picked Mike up off the ground, holding him. After Ariel caught his breath, he got in Mike's face.

"You have embarrassed me for the last time, and now I know what to do with you. I was going to let your friends have the honor of fighting in the Gauntlet tomorrow, but since you're here, you can join them. I would like nothing more than to watch you die over and over and over. And on your last life, I will personally end it. Prepare the arena. After first sunlight, he and his friends die. You will regret your words, boy. Take him away." Ariel waved his hands, and his guards threw sharp elbows into Mike's temples then dragged him from the bedroom.

The stars were all Mike could see. Wherever the guards had taken him, there were numerous people: men, women, and children, all glaring at him. All of them looked on in silence until one man started shouting.

"He has the mark! He has the mark!"

This sent the people into frenzy, all of them singing a song in unison that Mike could not decipher. The guards panicked and demanded the crowd calm down, using their electric staffs, and even hitting a few of them. They stopped in front of a cage that instead of bars had lasers in its place. Inside Brackar and Piggy sat cross legged.

Rail used a panel on the laser cage, and after a few beeps, a portion of the cage opened. Rail then tossed Mike to the cold, hard ground inside.

"Ariel and I got it wrong when we chose that little friend of yours instead of you. The queen nearly chewed our heads off for that. Master Ariel gave me a chance to be the honorary guest in the Gauntlet, so after I'm finished with old beard here, it will just be you and me." Rail then let out a hyena-like laugh, tugged down on his new baseball cap, then laughed again. Mike quickly scrambled from the ground to attack, but Rail expected this and met him with a solid kick to the face, making him stumble to his knees.

Before the lasers closed, imprisoning Mike and the others, Rail huffed and coughed, spitting onto Mike's chest.

"See you soon." Rail snorted; then he and his guards left.

"Y'all okay?" Mike asked his fellow prisoners, still reeling from the kick he took. Louis and Brackar looked at one another, and Brackar nodded.

"We're fine; are you okay?" a concerned Piggy asked.

"I'm good. I actually came to rescue you guys...after I got rid of Ariel." Mike said, cleaning Rail's saliva from his shirt. A perplexed Brackar cocked his head.

"So your plan was to get caught then escape?"

"Seems legit to me," Louis said. Brackar turned his confused gaze on Lou. Lou puffed himself up and replied. "Hey we're from Earth; what we lack in strategy, we make up for in action."

After cleaning himself, Mike stood mere inches from their laser bars, peering out at the people who had now gathered around them.

"Who are they?" He asked Brackar.

"They are my people," Brackar answered.

"Your people? All of these are your people, including the little blue guy inside the castle?"

"This is not Earth. We are all Kelenians. I was their leader until the queen ripped our homes from us and used them as a valley beast to slaughter. I was their leader, and this may be my last battle."

"What did you mean by 'using them as a valley beast to slaughter'?" Mike asked.

"What he meant was the queen has been using these people as test dummies to find these emeralds." Mercury answed.

"Precisely. After tomorrow, they may need someone else to rally behind." Brackar's old withered face looked at Mike. "Oh no," He declared, "No, no, no, I am not leadership material. Tell me, why should I be? You tricked me; y'all tricked both of us. We won't ever see home again because of that, and that almost makes you as bad as Ariel."

Brackar took several seconds before he spoke again.

"You are right, and I am truly sorry for that," Brackar said, "but you must understand that if there was another way for us to get these emeralds, I would have done so. But I am simply out of time, and honestly, I don't think I could have found a much better heir." This admission caught Mike by surprise. His heir? Mike let the man finish. "Since the beginning, I've known," Brackar continued. "I've heard your friend's countless stories about when you swam—"

"That's classified."

"Or when you supposedly rescued—"

"That's also classified."

"The point I'm attempting to make is that you are a very brave man. In fact, you're one of the most courageous men I've had the honor of knowing. You risked your life and even gave it a few times for a group of people you hardly knew; that showed me who you really are, by your actions." This made Mike reflect on what his former boss had said to him.

"You fought...fought for our lives, and I am forever grateful. I know it is a bit unfair of me to ask of you whether you will lead our people or not, but I need you to promise me something. That no matter what happens tomorrow, you will look after the girls." Mike didn't hesitate; he nodded silently, and as he did, the old man stood and embraced him.

After the embrace, Brackar placed his hand over his chest. "Here on Kelenia, when you make a promise, you should hold your heart." Mike returned the gesture.

"Even if we do survive tomorrow, the world is going to end soon." Mike said, as Brackar backed away nervously.

"Where did you hear this?"

"From the ghost inside the cavern, right as I grabbed the fire emerald. He said that by grabbing the emerald, I have doomed this planet and every living thing here. He sort of looked like the statue we passed on the way there."

Brackar took a seat to gather his thoughts.

"Did he give you some kind of timetable of when the end of the world would happen?" Louis asked.

"He said fourteen of our earth rotations before he said my name."

"Fourteen earth rotations, that's...that's only two weeks."

"I don't think that was just any apparition, it may have been the ghost of the Architects, warning you of the danger that is to come," said Brackar. "Architects be praised, young one; you are special."

"You sound mighty happy that the world is coming to an end," Mike said, confused.

"No, you just made it clear that we must collect all of the stones, young one."

Mike cocked his eyebrow, lost at the statement. "What I think he is trying to say," Lou started, attempting to clarify, "is that when we get all of the emeralds, we'll all be able to leave through the Gateway, leaving this planet behind." Mike then remembered the story of the large portal where the Architects had fled to during the war a long time ago. It wasn't an impossible task, Mike, thought. They just needed to gather the remaining emeralds, but first, they would need to escape this plight.

"That's a great idea, but I think we're getting to ahead of ourselves." Mike lifted his arms, reminding them about their current situation. "Let's survive tomorrow first before anything else." On that, they all agreed.

"Speaking of tomorrow, I think it's time we all turned in, I have a feeling we're going to need every ounce of our energy," Lou said.

The sound of the laser gate opening awoke Mike to a scene of a stadium filled with an assorted crowd of men, women, and children cheering excitedly. They must have been moved as they slept. He didn't see Adarha or Mercury. He didn't have the opportunity to dwell on it for too long as soldiers stormed the inside of the cell, scooping up Lou and Brackar and yanking them out. Mike started to fight them off by attacking one, but that quickly ended as Rail popped his head in. This time, Rail did not throw a punch, but he did throw an armored chest plate that was colored jet black into Mike's arms.

"Put that on; your wife got on her knees and begged me to deliver this to you."

Mike glanced at the armor in his hand and on the front right found a small sketch of a frowny face with X's for eyes and a cap on the top of his head.

"Is this supposed to be me?" Mike asked.

"It will be real soon," Rail said.

Rail laughed and spit at Mike. Mike dodged. The guards escorted Brackar and Louis to the center of the arena. Brackar fought the guard for more time to talk with Mike.

"Remember what you promised," he cried out as he was dragged away into the center of the arena, clutching his chest.

Ariel had arrived now. Heavily armored guards escorted Ariel to a chair that was larger than him and the surrounding chairs. He was front and center.

"My good people, today I have the honor of bringing before you our guests from lands far and away: three of our beloved queen's most hated enemies. Today they fight for their lives in the Gauntlet!" There were boos emanating from the crowd, while Ariel's guardsmen whooped and screamed in delight. Mike noticed Adarha and Mercury being led in. They sat down beside Ariel's throne.

Adarha gave Mike a troubled nod that said more than any conversation could.

"First," Ariel continued, "we have the oldest traitor to this kingdom. The old fool, may he die a traitor's death. And we have the one called Louis, who shall join me as the festivities get under way so he may watch both of his friends die. And I shall save the last surprise for later. May the Gauntlet begin!" Ariel plopped into his chair.

Two guards began to make their way toward the old man as Brackar looked back at Mike in the cell. Both men silently acknowledged the gravity of the situation. The other guards had dragged Lou out of sight.

"You can't expect the old man to take on all of them!" Mike shouted up at Ariel. "Trade him for me, and put me in his place!"

"Do be patient, your time is coming." The two men approached Brackar, pressing him until the old man was backed into the wall. One soldier swung wildly at Brackar's head, but Brackar ducked out of the way of the soldier's staff. The soldier continued until he and the old man's arms were locked.

They danced in a circle for a moment; then Brackar gained the strength to deliver a head butt, forcing the man to release his grasp. Brackar then followed up with a well-placed kick to the man's nether region, causing the man to fall to his knees. Brackar then finished the confrontation by grabbing the disabled man's staff and cracking his partner across his face. Although there were a few hisses in some places, the crowd roared. Mercury, Piggy, Adarha, and Mike erupted in delight.

"That geezer is one tough bastard," Mike applauded. Ariel looked on in utter disgust then motioned for Rail to get off the sidelines and join in.

Rail walked by Mike's cell.

"Be sure to watch," he said with a smirk that Mike wanted to rip from his face.

"What are you trying to prove?" Lou pleaded. "He's just an old man; let him go." Ariel seemed rather pleased by the scene on the arena floor. Four men, including Rail, now encircled Brackar.

Four on one, that bastard, Mike thought, reaching at his cage and being jolted.

"Stop this, father!" Mike heard Mercury scream.

This scene reminded Mike a lot of how he and his brother had ended up here: gangs. That's all they were—a bunch of bullies. And if there was anything that Mike hated more than dying and bitch-ass cat creatures, it was gangs—especially gangs that jumped old men.

Brackar swung at his assailants but hit open air. The fact of it was they were all simply too fast for the elderly man. All of them. Brackar backed away from the soldiers until his back touched the arena's stone wall again. Knowing he was outmatched and outnumbered, Brackar took the time to address his attackers.

"Cowards! You're all cowards!" he huffed. "If I were younger, I'd have all of your heads, including your puppet master's."

This seemed to strike a chord with Ariel.

"Enough!" Ariel yelled over the rumbling crowd. Ariel then made a gesture, running his thumb under his neck slowly from side to side. "Finish him!" Mike kicked the laser cage in vain. Even if he had managed to get free, it wouldn't have mattered. Brackar got one punch off, hitting a guard square in the nose. One guard retaliated by punching the old man in the solar plexus as another gave him a straight jab to his face. Brackar struggled to stay on his feet and he did—until Rail stepped in, delivering the knockout blow to the man's head, sending him careening into the wall, bouncing off of it and onto the ground.

Rail chuckled at the sight of it.

"No!" Adarha screamed with tears streaming from her eyes. The four soldiers huddled around Brackar and began stomping him. The old man gasped for air as they kicked him repeatedly, assuredly breaking his brittle bones. Desperately, the elderly man attempted to protect himself but to no avail. Seeing Brackar in that much pain, Adarha reached out her hand, wanting to comfort him. Even during the beating, the old man saw the woman's gesture, and through the pain, he managed to get on his knees. With blood pouring out of his mouth, coloring his grey beard, the elderly man raised his hand to Adarha the same way she had done.

That second lasted an eternity, as Mike watched, unable to do a thing. Finally Rail lifted his boot, delivering a stiff kick to Brackar's head, ending the skirmish. All four men celebrated, dancing around the lifeless body, using the crowds boos as a sound track. This continued until a blast of light engulfed the old man's corpse, blinding the entire arena. When the light died, the old man's body was no longer on the ground; it had vanished. The hushed crowd gawked in utter silence. A word wasn't uttered until one of the queen's slaves began to chant.

"Brackar! Brackar! Brackar!" He was alone at first, but it did not take any time for the rest of the audience to join in.

Mike strapped on the chest plate armor then knelt down to press the orange pumps on the tongues of his shoes. Ariel saw this.

"Being beaten into oblivion, I did not foresee that," Ariel announced with a touch of disappointment in his voice. "Well, at least you have that to look forward to when it is your time." He then waved his hand, and the guards opened Mike's laser cell, dragging him out into the center of the arena. The number of people in attendance mystified Mike. It seemed to be more of the queen's slaves than her soldiers. He put the thought to the back of his mind and started walking to the wall where Ariel sat.

"You sure you want to do this because, when this is all over, I'll be up there giving you hell, so why waste time?" Mike's words noticeably ruffled Ariel's feathers as he squirmed in his seat.

"Since this will be the last time you'll ever get this close to me, I can finally tell you that your arrogance is the reason you are in this arena," Ariel said.

"Is it the same reason you just killed Brackar, a defenseless old man? If you think I'm going down like that, you've got another think coming. Besides, I have eight lives left, so even if you manage to kill me once, I'll have seven more tries to beat that ass, bitch!"

This then whipped the crowd into a frenzy as a chorus of voices chanted "bitch, bitch, bitch!"

The children joined in. Ariel had had enough.

"Rail, kill him. After they kill you over and over, it's your friend's turn. Goodbye Mr. Wesley; send my regards to Brackar." The guards encircled Mike just as they had the old man, all flashing smiles. Rail had the biggest grin, his eyes hiding beneath the brim of Mike's black baseball cap. Before the Gauntlet could commence, Ariel pointed out a display that hovered in front of him. The display flickered and buzzed until the image of the queen's face came into focus.

"I dedicate this battle to you, my righteous queen," Ariel proclaimed.

"I fail to see how five men attacking one is a battle," the queen answered.

"He isn't just any man; he has the mark of the hero, with eight lifetimes to succeed." The queen took this into consideration.

"Interesting. You may proceed Ariel, but if you fail me this time, you may want to jump in there and join him."

"Begin." Ariel said as he sat nervously at the edge of his seat. During the queen's interlude, Mike had sized up his competition. He stood on guard, anticipating who would run up first; it didn't take long for him to get his answer. Rail motioned to the other three soldiers to step aside so he could end Mike personally. Mike took the time to talk to him directly.

"I owe you for what you did in the jungle, in that cell, and the old man you killed. I'll kill you and then take my hat back before your body even touches the ground." All of the guards chuckled except for the one the comment was intended for.

"I was going to give you an honorable death, but now I'll enjoy picking your bones apart piece by piece, you little—"

Rail had gotten so angry that he didn't finish his statement and charged at Mike at full speed. When Rail was close enough to Mike, he swung the metallic staff he had used on him the day before, aiming at his head but only whiffing air. When Rail looked, Mike had seemingly vanished. He did not see or hear it when it happened, but he felt a sharp pain in his lower left back, followed by another sudden pain under his rib cage. He saw what had caused it this time, however: Mike had thrown an elbow into his side. Rail was stunned, dropping the staff he held to the ground then bending over to clutch his side. Mike casually sauntered to the bent over Rail, gently placing his hand on the man's head. Mike lightly used his hand to tilt Rail's head, exposing his neck to him. Mike then balled his hand, lifted his fist, and brought it down with extreme force. A loud crack filled the arena, as if someone snapped a two by four, as Mike made contact with the guard's neck. He quickly snatched his cap from Rail's head, dusted it off then placed it snuggly on his own head before the guard collapsed onto the hard arena ground, legs twitching. Rail was dead.

"Now, who's next?" Mike asked, adjusting his cap. The three other soldiers glanced at one another in complete fear. It brought gasps from the audience, guards included.

"Yeah, he does that," Louis said to a slack-jawed, dumbstruck Ariel. "Hope that wasn't the best you've got." The remaining three guards inched in nervously. Mike, who had no worries, stood with his arms folded, anticipating the guards' next move. The cowardly men chose then to pounce, but as they did so, Mike hurled himself at one, taking him down with a shoulder charge, quickly rising to his feet to slam the other two soldiers' skulls into one another.

Ariel waved his hand. Soon afterward, there were six more men on the arena ground eyeing Mike.

"Think that's enough?" Louis sheepishly asked.

"Bring out one more—" Ariel began. Lou shook his head while Ariel spoke. "Two more?" Ariel asked, and Lou shook his head again. "Bring out three more." Louis nodded in approval, and he felt the sting of being slapped in the back of his head by Adarha as a polite way of telling him to shut up. On the arena floor, nine guards now stood over the four that Mike had put on the ground, each brandishing metallic staffs.

Mike had seen his share of battles with his time in both the Special Activities Division and the streets of Atlanta, but he couldn't recall getting into something this hairy. The odds were usually never in his favor to begin with, but this was overkill. Mike stepped forward. Suddenly, all the guards launched themselves at him at once. They connected with their staffs all at once. Mike felt a moment of agony.

Mike was suddenly back in his cell. He looked down at his arm. There was a glowing "VII" there. There had to be a better way.

Mike charged back into the arena. The guards were still standing around, looking at where Mike's body had disappeared. He grabbed the first guard he came to and suplexed him, breaking his neck. He grabbed the next guard, hooking him under the arm. He threw him to the ground and stomped his neck. Suddenly, there was a sharp electric pain in Mike's side. One of the seven remaining guards had connected with his staff.

Mike staggered forward and turned on his heel. He connected a spinning back fist. The guard in front of him fell forward, dropping his staff. Blood gushed out of his ruined nose, splattering the dirt. Mike picked up the dropped staff.

"Now I'm armed, bitches," Mike shouted.

The audience erupted into deafening cheers at the spectacle. Mike then looked in the stands, particularly where his friends were. He saw Louis, Adarha, and Mercury all smiling down on him. Mike charged the remaining guards. They panicked and scattered. A booming voice stopped everyone in their tracks.

"Enough," shouted the queen. Her hologram floated in front of Ariel. "You've made a mockery of me for the last time, and for that I will use your skull to eat broth with." That message made Ariel's face turn pale as ivory. The queen's image dispersed, leaving the soon to be doomed man shaking in his seat. To make matters worse for him, he glanced down to see Mike pointing up at him.

"You're next, pretty boy; I've got a promise to keep, remember?" Mike announced, to the crowd's delight and to Ariel's dismay. Mike charged, and using the staff as a pole-vaulter's pole, launched himself up into the stands.

He grabbed the top edge of the arena's wall. The crowd rushed to help him climb up, pulling him over the wall onto his feet. Two nearby guards who were patrolling the lively crowd rushed to attack Mike unsuccessfully, ending with them both flying over the railing to the ground below.

Ariel thought that this was the perfect time to leave, and he quickly collected his things and made a dash for the castle. He was in such a hurry to make it inside that he didn't see Adarha's leg kicked out to trip him. He went crashing to the ground. When he collected himself, he stood to see Mike several feet away.

"Stop him! Stop him!" Ariel screamed at his remaining guards. Without hesitation, the guards created a barrier between them and Ariel, allowing him to slip inside the castle.

Mike threw a jab, rattling one of the guards before raining a flurry of uppercuts and haymakers.

The guards broke formation and ran, leaving nothing standing between Mike and the castle doors, but before Mike could leave, Louis grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You kicked so much ass, man," Lou gushed.

"You sound surprised."

"I never doubted that you could. Look, I'm sorry for getting us into this."

"Stop, you don't need to apologize to me. We get by with a little help from our friends, right?"

"True that, true that, so what are you up to next?"

"Um, I was about to kick Ariel's punk ass before you started to get sentimental."

Lou's cheeks flushed, but before he could think of something witty, a worried Mercury joined into the conversation.

"You can't just kill my father; I won't let you," she said, blocking his path then giving him a tight slap across the face.

"Look, your father is not a good person, and if it ever comes down to him or me, believe me when I tell you this because I don't want you to misinterpret me: It's always gonna be me," Mike said as he gently pushed her out of his way.

As Mike began to make his way inside the castle, Adarha stopped him, and without thinking twice, he grabbed her by the waist and pressed his lips against hers briefly before letting her go, leaving her speechless.

"So what do you want all of us to do while you're gone?" Lou asked, scratching his head.

"Figure it out," Mike answered, without ever turning around.

Once inside the castle, Mike had no need to search for Ariel because a familiar blue dwarf greeted him at the door. With no words exchanged, Sky led Mike to the tower where he found Ariel...sitting. Not fighting or packing his things, just sitting. Mike had wanted to kill him for all the things he had done, but the look on Ariel's face looked as if he were already dead.

"Here are the stones." Ariel dropped the emeralds on the floor, kicking them across the room.

"That's not why I'm here. You killed me, killed Brackar, used me as a guinea pig, imprisoned us, and enslaved your people, all while working as an informant for your queen. If you were on Earth, you'd be hanged." Mike stepped across the room. Ariel walked to the large window where the cries of the crowd could be heard.

"Is that why you are here, to kill me? I did what needed to be done when no one else would do it. Look at what I've accomplished. I've found the fire emerald. If you're going to kill me, be about it, boy."

As much as Mike would like to, Brackar's voice kept replaying in his mind. "All life is sacred." The voice was right; to kill Ariel now would mean that everything he fought for up to this point meant nothing. "All life." It echoed in his thoughts.

"I'm not gonna kill you; if I kill you, I'm no better than you."

"No better than me? You can do worse than me, and worse will be here for those soon." Ariel nodded at the two emeralds on the floor. "If you aren't going to kill me, there is no more to say."

With that, Ariel climbed unto the window and jumped out of it. Mike clambered to the window, only able to catch Ariel's hand, leaving him dangling a hundred feet over the damaged west wing of the castle.

"She is coming, and you won't be able to stop her when she does. Her army...it is suicide."

"Give me your other hand...you're slipping," Mike grunted. In this moment, the sound of heavy footsteps thundered across the room. Lou and the others had arrived.

"You fools! She'll kill us all, and I won't give her the satisfaction." Those would be Ariel's final words as he pried his hand loose from Mike's grip. In that split second, Ariel seemed to be at peace as he plummeted, crashing onto the stone rubble below.

"What just happened, and where's Ariel?" Louis asked. Mike shot him a solemn stare.

"He...he took the easy way out." Not seeing Mercury standing in the doorway, Mike immediately regretted his poor choice of words as the young woman stormed out of eyesight.

"I see...we did help free the slaves out there," Piggy said, attempting to change the subject.

"Yeah I meant to ask you about that, so y'all freed those slaves mighty fast; all it takes is ten minutes to start and end a revolution?"

"Just about."

Before the duo could go on, a crackling sound from the corner followed by a flash filled the room. It was the queen.

"Greetings," she said with a dishonest smirk. "I've witnessed what has transpired here, and I'm truly saddened by the loss of one of my best spies." Mike just stood with his arms folded, not giving the slightest clue of what he may be thinking.

"I know we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, so we should introduce ourselves to make way for a fruitful relationship in the future."

"Go on," Mike growled.

"Well now that I need a new right hand that will help me get the last emeralds, I was hoping that you would see this as an opportunity. What do you say? Join me, and together we may rule all. Cooperation with your queen will be vital in keeping all of your friends alive. Now what is your answer?"

"Shut up, Beesh; you talk too much." The queen looked on in disbelief before a flash removed her image from the wall.

"I hope you know what you're doing; this could get really messy," Lou said as Mike gathered the two emeralds from the ground. He glared into the horizon from the tower's window. Today was a victory, the first of many, he had hoped. But he thought about the queen, and if what Brackar said before about her two hundred thousand plus army was true, he knew they couldn't stay here to celebrate. Maybe they wouldn't need to if they could find the other emeralds before the queen and her men; then they would be able to celebrate on the other side of the Gate. Mike handed Piggy the two shiny emeralds.

"What's this for?" Lou asked

Mike took his cap off to wipe the sweat away from his forehead then placed it back on his head.

"Work, Louie; we're 'bout to do some overtime."

Seven lives left, Mike thought.

I'd like to take the time to thank God; my mother, for allowing me to spend countless hours in videogames; my dad, for teaching me about the final image of a product—it helped me tremendously during this whole process. I would like to thank the Hunter and Terry families; there are too many to name here, but all of you guys are crazy. I love you all! I want to thank my grandmother Mary Alice and grandfather James for feeding me great stories when I was a child and teaching me the value of hard work.

To Billy Satterwhite and Blake Ray, thanks for helping me get this story to where it needed to be, I'm forever grateful! Thanks to Kyle Miller for his amazing work on the cover. Thanks to my friends Sreela, Jamar, Jermaine, Omari, Ryan and Canadian Ryan, for your kind words of wisdom and your positive outlooks on all things. I'm very appreciative and honored to call you all friends. To John and Mary Terry, Adreon Jones, Michael and Weseley Morse, Brunette and Randolph Hunter may you all rest in paradise.
