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The Quantum Saviors "I'll fight," the Dark Fiend of the Inferno said. They stood on a street in front of a large, glass and concrete building. Huge, brass letters announced this building as the "New Trioustan Headquarters". Stephanie, Alice, and Robert, who were inside the building, ran to the window the watch. Vince faced the three Mystics, who each stood less than a yard away. Further behind them was Professor Mandragon, who wore a mechanical backpack. A long, thick wire connected his backpack to a small cannon he was holding in both hands. "You want to fight?" Mandragon laughed. "Do you have any idea what this is?" he asked, holding up the cannon. "No," Vince replied, "but I don't care. I've destroyed all your other machines." "This is the first MMH built from Zeromega technology," Mandragon explained. "Zeromega allows me to absorb any magical attack and store the magical energy for my own use. In other words, Inferno Fiend, any attack you make on me will be useless, and in the end, it'll only make me stronger." "Enough chit-chat," the female Mystic said. "If he wants to fight, let's fight." Without waiting for a reply, she pulled three knives from her belt and threw them at Vince. Vince tried to knock them out of the air with fireballs, but Mandragon ran into the fray. The fireballs changed course and flew into his cannon, causing it to glow as they disappeared within it. Vince swore, then dropped to the floor to avoid the knives. On the ground, he rolled to avoid a pair of swords. Motarius had drawn his silver Ophelia, and the other Mystic had drawn his heavy sword. Vince scrambled to his feet, then swiftly dodged a sword. He now stood between Motarius and the other Mystic swordsman. Suddenly, three knives dug into his chestplate, but they didn't cut too deeply into his hide. "Taking on all three at once would be ridiculous," Vince thought. "I ought to focus on only one target. The knife girl, probably, because she's wearing the least armor." The knife girl was now running around the three fighters to retrieve her first three knives. Vince leapt over a pair of swords and charged at her. Suddenly, Mandragon ran in front of him and pointed his cannon at him. All of a sudden, Vince felt as if his energy were being sucked from him. He staggered back. "What?" he asked, confused and surprised. "How did you--" "Your whole body is made of magic," Mandragon explained. "I could absorb it as easily as I could a spell. It takes a lot of magic to make a powerful demon such as yourselves, so that's gold mine of magical energy for me." He pushed forward to be able to better drain Vince's energy. "Leave him alone!" came Stephanie's voice. She, Alice, and Robert stood in the doorway of the automatic door, armed with charged particle blasters. They fired on Mandragon, but to their surprise, the Zeromega machine simply absorbed their shots. "I can also drain magic from magically enhanced items," Mandragon explained. The knife girl threw three knives at Stephanie and the others. With a scream, Steph pushed Robert and Alice back through the door. "Stay back!" Vince shouted. "But Vince--" Stephanie shouted back. "No," Vince insisted. "You're not as skilled nor as well-armed as any of us. If you come out and fight, you'll just distract--argh!" The swordsman had slammed Vince in the back with his sword. His armor had protected him, but he had been hit so hard that he flew through the air--and as he did, the knife girl nailed him with a few more knives--and crash-landed through the window. For a while, there was a commotion at the door. Steph, Robert, and Alice fired on Motarius, Mandragon, and the swordsman as they charged through the door, but as the Zeromega simply absorbed all their shots, they gave up and ran aside. The three Ragnarok men then came after Vince, who now had six knives stuck on his armor. Mandragon was at the front of the attack, so Vince gave him a mighty punch. Although Mandragon took some energy from Vince, the punch sent him sliding across the tiled floor. "Don't get so close to him," Motarius said. "He's not completely absorbable." Motarius and the swordsman moved to opposite sides of Vince and attacked. Vince blocked with his gauntlets, jumped, and kicked the two attackers, pushing them back a bit. As Vince fell back to the floor, three knives sped toward him, aimed at his head. Tilting his head aside in an evasive effort, Vince felt one knife hit his helmet and saw the other two miss. The knife girl was throwing knives from the broken window. Motarius and the swordsman then slammed their swords onto his sides, leaving dents in his armor. Vince ran out from between them and tried to knock them down with a blaze, but Mandragon stood nearby, so his blaze was sucked away by the Zeromega cannon. Then, Vince felt three more knives lodge into the armor plate on his back. "That's twelve," Vince thought, smiling. "I remember, she only had twelve when I first saw her. She's out of ammo now, so she's wide open." He was correct in this assumption. The knife girl ran to the door to retrieve her knives. As she came in, Vince charged at her. All three Mystics then fired Holy Shots at him, but as Vince passed Mandragon, he set himself dangerously on fire, forcing Mandragon to use Zeromega. As he did so, he absorbed not only Vince's flames but also the Holy Shots, thus inadvertently saving Vince. As the Inferno Fiend ran toward the knife girl, she put up a shield of Holy magic. Vince set himself aflame again and ran into her shield, pushing both the shield and the knife girl into the wall. Upon impact, the shield crumbled. Vince punched the Mystic girl few times, forcing screams out of her. Then, he felt threads grab his arms and pull him back. Motarius had summoned another Angelhair Snare. Although bruised and burned, the lady Mystic ferociously pulled the knives from Vince's chest. She aimed one at his face and threw it, but just as she did, Vince let off a powerful shockwave of flame, expanding around him in a hollow sphere. Mandragon, who stood just behind him, absorbed the flaming shockwave with Zeromega, but he also absorbed the Angelhair. This was precisely what Vince needed. Breaking free, he ran to one side and dodged the knife. "It's fully charged," Mandragon said quietly, reading a gauge on the cannon. He turned to the knife girl, and, to everyone's amazement, fired the cannon at her. The female Mystic screamed and fell to the floor, a bleeding hole near her heart. Before anyone could react, Mandragon turned and fired a shot at the male Mystic, then Motarius. The male Mystic was caught off guard. The glowing red-white cannon blast tore through his armor and his torso, sending him flying across the room, smashing a receptionist desk as he landed. Motarius, however, put up a Holy Shield in time to save himself. Mandragon ran over to Vince, saying, "I'm here to protect you. Let's go!" Vince wasn't sure whether to trust Mandragon. However, seeing as he had just slain two of his attackers, he decided to follow him to the truck. As Mandragon climbed into the driver side, Vince climbed into the passenger side. Motarius ran after him, shooting blasts of Holy energy. Mandragon simply stuck the Zeromega cannon out the window and absorbed the Holy Shots. Then, he pressed a few buttons. The truck began to float. The wheels folded away, and rocket engines sprouted from the back. As they began to move, Motarius summoned an Angelhair Snare to tie down the flying truck. However, Mandragon absorbed that as well with Zeromega. Unhindered, the truck, now a hovercraft, flew away. "I supposed you want some answers," William Mandragon said. They were approaching a large, crowded city, packed with tall buildings, leaving little room for alleys. In the center, there was a tall, metal structure, and that was where the hovercraft was headed. "Brian and Stacie will be waiting for us," Mandragon said. "But first, welcome to the city of Gehenna, home of the Quantum Saviors." "Quantum Saviors?" Vince asked, now in his human form. "QS," Mandragon replied. "QS..." Vince said, lost in thought. "Oh, Omicron's client." "That's right," Mandragon said as he landed the hovercraft near the front of the metal structure. "Why else do you think I ran from the battle when I had Arachne?" "Huh? The spider robot?" Vince asked as they climbed out of the hovercraft and entered through the front door. "I've always been working for the Quantum Saviors," Mandragon said as they walked down a hallway, "and Omicron's always been working for us. I didn't want to damage my own hired mercenaries, but I had to attack you anyway, so it wouldn't look suspicious, as if I were ignoring you or anything like that." Vince nodded, understanding. "We don't control just Omicron," Mandragon explained. "We also created the Alpha, the first Mercenary Camp, and Omega, one of the newest and most technologically advanced Mercenary Camps. And not only that, but we even have insiders in Alliatus, in the Shadow, and even in the government. These contacts have proven quite useful." "Wow," Vince said. He still couldn't believe that Mandragon had rescued him. "Wondering why I was working with Ragnarok, aren't you?" Mandragon asked. "Yeah," Vince replied. "It was to do research and development without having using any of the Quantum Saviors resources," Mandragon answered. "We were basically using government money and facilities to research MMH technology and to mass-produce them. Thanks to my work, the Quantum Saviors controls all Ragnarok MMH's, including the Griffins and the mass-produced Trooper Bots. This will really cripple Ragnarok's power." "Whoa!" Vince said, this time sincerely amazed. "Vince! Bill!" another man shouted. This man resembled William Mandragon, only he looked much younger. Standing with him was a confident looking woman. "Ah, Vince, this is my younger brother Brian," William Mandragon said, introducing the man. "That's his girlfriend, Stacie Smith." "Hello," Brian Mandragon said as he shook hands with Vince. "Hi," said Stacie, who also shook Vince's hand. "Nice to meet you." "Vince, it's a pleasure to meet you," said Brian. "We've been in search of powerful magic, and you're just the kind of thing we're looking for. We've also heard about your skills in battle. What would you say to a job offering here at Quantum Saviors? Something in the Elite." "That sounds pretty nice," Vince replied. Brian held Stacie with his left arm and walked down a hall, beckoning Vince to follow him. Vince followed. William Mandragon left them and went down another hall. "One of our current projects is collecting the Veiliij Artifacts," Brian said. "The Veiliij are a series of artifacts that we believe to hold powerful magic. Of course, retrieving them would be far too simple a task for an Elite to do. We've been letting the Mercenary Camps take care of those, and they've been performing quite well." Vince nodded. He remembered his first mission at Omicron, when he had to guard a trade between Omicron and the Quantum Saviors. He recalled that Omicron was giving the Quantum Saviors an artifact. That must have been a Veiliij. "What we want you to do is seek out and recruit sorcerers for us," Brian explained. "A powerful sorcerer would be a useful ally to us as magic, especially non-aligned magic, has amazing potential in and out of combat. Ah, here's the Sorcerers' Lounge. Would you like to meet some of them?" Vince nodded politely. Brian opened a door and the three of them went in. Inside, the room was full of sorcerers and sorceresses. Some were playing games. Others were reading or sleeping. Still others were showing off with magic tricks. Brian showed Vince to a woman dressed in red who sat on a couch, looking bored. "Vince, this is Clara," Brian introduced her. "I thought you'd might be interested because you both use the same element. She's our resident Fire Elementalist." As Vince said "Hello" to her, she gave him a bored-looking wave. "She was also the first mage to join us," Brian explained. He led Vince and Stacie to another sorceress. This one was quite small and sat on a wooden chair, busily reading a novel. "This is Teresa," Brian said. "She specializes in mostly defensive magic, such as shields, protection, and healing." "Hello, Teresa," Vince said. "Oh, hi," Teresa replied, looking up from her book only for a brief moment. Brian then showed them to a sorcerer who was apparently demonstrating his skills. He took a clock and made it run so fast that the hour hand was spinning around and around. Then, he waved his hand, and the clock began running backwards. "This is Tempo," Brian said. "He loves to show off. He specializes in Time Magic. Hmm... I think we shouldn't bother him in his magic trick." He led Vince and Stacie back to the hall. "In any case, I think we've done enough visiting," Brian said as they walked down the hall. "We should show you to your room." Brian opened another door for Vince. Inside was a large, newly made bed with clean, white sheets. Near the bed was a wooden bookshelf, filled with books. Opposite the bookshelf was an enormous computer connected to various gadgets. "This will be your room as well as your workplace," Brian Mandragon explained. "Those books will help you in your research to detect and pinpoint possible sorcerers. The computer over there allows you to interface with our array of MMH scanners. It's a complicated task, but I'm sure you'll be able figure it out. People with the gift of magic seem to have a special talent for finding other magicks." Vince nodded. He remembered his intuition had helped him find things before, although he was never able to control this ability. Still, maybe those scanners might help. "After you find a sorcerer, you'll have to go find them and recruit them," Brian said. "This part may be extremely difficult or ridiculously easy, but you'll find it fun." "Don't feel too pressured," Stacie cut in. "You'll share half the work with Mindy." "Mindy?" Vince asked. "Who's Mindy?" "Never mind Mindy," Stacie replied. "Come on, Brian, let's leave Mr. Zeng alone, give him some time to move in and figure stuff out, you know?" Brian nodded, and the two of them left the room. Vince looked around. He was still a bit tired. He hadn't rested properly from the fight. "I think I'll take a nap first," Vince said, as he lay down on the bed. While researching magic and performing scans, Vince kept in touch with his friends through e-mail. However, Steph never responded to hers. A couple of days later, Alice sent him an e-mail, telling him to stop sending e-mails to Stephanie. Apparently, Steph didn't check her e-mail anymore because she was always in her room studying. A few days later, Vince asked Brian if he could be in charge of communications with the Omicron Mercenary Camp. At first, Brian thought the job was too far below him, but Vince insisted on it, as it would give him a chance to see Stephanie and his other friends more often. Finally, after asking Stacie's opinion, Brian gave in to Vince's request and made him in charge of communications with Omicron. However, the Quantum Saviors preferred to stay invisible. In addition, they often spread the jobs among the various Mercenary Camps under their control. As a result, Vince rarely needed to go see Omicron for anything. Finally, nearly a week after he joined the Quantum Saviors, he received word that Omicron had recovered another Veiliij Artifact, so he quickly arranged a meeting. He arranged it so that they would meet on the Omicron campsite. This way, he might be able to see Stephanie and the others. The next day, he flew to Kiera on his own personal hovercraft. However, not once during the entire transaction (he gave them crates full of weapons, and they handed him the Veiliij Artifact) did he see Stephanie. After the meeting, he went to Stephanie's tent. She was studying inside, focused solely on her books. Apparently, she had made an exception that one day when she went to visit Vince at the hospital in Trioustan. "I told her you were coming," Alice said, "but I don't think she heard me. She was way too absorbed in her books and her studying." "It's all right," Vince replied. "I have work to do." He and Stephanie were growing distant, and he knew it was because of Tina. |