"Those motherfucks!" I cried. "They took Ben!" "Look at the blood trail!" "I'm going in after him." And I made towards the portal. "Kon-Thaak" tried to stop me. I forget his exact words, but it came down to my yelling "God Damn It Gabe! YOU OWE ME!" which shocked the hell out of the others. The blood was still wet, so he couldn't have been gone for more than 10 minutes or so.

Yes, the others did arrive just shortly after Master Li and myself dispatched our own dark selves. A battle that I owe to the credit of victory to both Master Li and that vampyre Darken.

Yes, I recall the emotional outburst from Mr. Turtle, the soundof righteous fury bring up from his insides like a volcano about to erupt.

I saw in that man's eyes both a fevered dedication and a bold sense of loyalty lost to lesser men. What choice did I have. I cared not for the fate of the vampyre's thrall, but these hunters that stood before me, I knew what I had to do.

" I will go with you hunter. You will need my skill and strengh to confront whatever vile evil took your friend.
I will not rest until both you and he are returned to this mortal coil safe. This I vow to yon my fellow hunter. "

The rest was up to the others now.

I said "I'll go Bert! I wan to help. Where you go Bert I will always follow!" I said it just like that. But maybe it is a bad place other there through the evil door thingee. Well if its to help my Bert then I'll do it. Where are my glowy seeds? And Cleo is coming too. She wants to help. Can she come too?

I was prepared to promise Hit Squirrel bags of Pistachios and jars of peanut butter, and huge canisters of Honey Roasted Peanuts to secure her help. I was a little surprised when she volunteered to go before I even asked. (Coincidentally I can't have payment delivered to a tree, so you'll need to show me where your tree is after i hit the stores next.) And yes, Cleo was more than welcome to join us.

So with Gabe, myself, Azrael, Hit Squirrel and Cleo on board, the question was, what would Shang Li, Michael, and Shadow do. We needed people to guard the portal while we were gone, but by the same token this would be unimaginably dangerous.

Ooooo.....Cleo found a claw here in the corner Bert. I told you she was a good partner. Its very BIG! Look at the size of that! Is that from a monster Bert? It has to be?
Maybe the monster that took your friend. Can you read it Bert? I bet you can. You can do anything. Cleo stop sniffing around that hole thing. A monster could eat you! Silly winged lizard.
Who else is going? I am going. I go with Bert. We're going to rescue his friend and assassinate a unch of monsters and eat peanuts and I can ride his shoulder and I can shoot monsters while he blows them up. Right Bert. I like Bert. He's not a real turtle. But he's really nice anyway.

As much as it pains me to say this, after our battles, we should probably recover our strength. As I steeled myself to walk into this portal, a vision, unlike any I have had outside of the temple flashed. A night, not followed by day, Amaterasu not showing her face for a full cycle. Monsters running through the cities, all the cities. These things, I would risk, the following, I would not - a dark power sitting upon all the thrones of men. Not one of them, all of them.

I know that you may all think me mad, or that something manipulates me to give me such a vision (partially correct), but the vision came with a warmth, a love, that I have yet to see any monstosity withstand the presense of much less use - a warmth long known to me.

If you go in, I go in with you, but again this old man has failed. I fear that the possibility of failure is high, and it's consequenses most dire, not just for us but of all the innocents of the world.

If we are not going in, I will hunt monsters later, my tulpa must be accounted for (I still need to know what parts of me it was made from, for sure). These tasks however pale in comparison to the one I must undertake next.

I must watch the smile fade from a child's face, as I explain to her this old man's shamefull failure, how not even the stongest of us, not even as a group, always suceed at the tasks set before us. I must answer the why's the how's to a child that will be devastated by the news. (I felt him slip away from us.) I must try to make sure she never blames herself, that she grows up balanced, not overcome by hate, sorrow, or self loathing. Belive me, certain death in a place that my goddes has never seen, and never will, would be far easier to face, than one little girl who plays happily with a fox beneath the umbrella of a springtime cherry tree.

Another tea turns to ashes in my cups.

I had gone ahead of Bert and Hit Squirrel because I can move faster on my own, and because Bert had told me that he was hooking up with KT to head into the underground together.
So I Shifted to my Astral Form and headed off, I had forgotten that Bert had not seen me do this before, so it is open to debate whose Eyes were wider Berts or Hit Squirrels? Not to mention H.S. comments about " He's a Ghost? How does he do that? Can you do that Bert? I wanna be able to do that."
I was gone before Bert had a chance to respond to any of the questions. As I made my way to find Holister and the others, I saw many of the Shadow Creatures but they were not able to touch me, but I was able to to touch and hurt them. I pop in and dealt with a few of the critters then poped back out. It was easy to easy in fact so it was no real surprise when I found myself face to face with Me, or rather a copy?
He said " So you call yourself a Shadow huh? Lets see how you do against a real Shadow? Bastard was able to attack me in my Astral Form, not good. But then I could hit him as well. This lead to a long fight and a lethal game of tag. I was forced back towards the surface, My shadow version thought he was winning beating me back? He crowed and taunted me, but he didn't know I knew exactly where I was going." I see you retreat before me you are a cowerd, you say you are powerful but you are weak. I will destroy you!" He said. But I had already lead him to where I wanted.
" Cowerd you say? Weak You say? You are wrong on both, and I have spent enough time on you and I will not use my power on you when I can deal with you easier with other sources." At that point I charged him and took him upward to see the light as it were. I had lead him to a spot where he could not escape the Light near the Washington Monument. I had him pinned like a bug on a piece of cardboard, he started to disolve quickly after I dispatched him I returned to my efforts to find Holister.
All I found were the others and where Holister had been dragged into the portal.
I to am willing to go in and find Holister.

I responded to Shang Li's statement with less tact than I would usually use. "Listen here Li! We don't have the time to wait. Now we need people here to stop more things from coming through, so if you want to stay behind you'll still be helping us. But I'm going in and I'm not coming out without Ben or his body."

I said in my statement that if any are going in I will be in the front wave. I have not feared death for a long time, and this is easier than facing one little girl and explaining things to her. (anyone care to volunteer for that one? I prefer a certain death, but it needs done.)

I would offer to bring the light of Amaterasu with us, but I seem to have lost my mirror, and Her presence has not ever been known there.

Sake, never succeeded in drowning sorrow, I cannot give in to rage (oddly enough I have not felt enough anger to rouse my "guest" this entire time), but perhaps a good death will alow me to stand tall amidst my ancestors as I prepare for my next life (I hope I will be a better person next time around).

I said, in a quiet tone, "Master Li, take this as the compliment it is intended, but you would be hard pressed to come back a better person than you are now."

We all entered the portal at the same time and all arrived at the same time. I immediately sent Hit Squirrel flying up to see if she could locate Ben while we searched the ground for any signs. Spent shotgun shells indicated that Ben had not been suitably disarmed and had been dragged in while he still had some fight left in him. That was a good sign. Another pool of blood, another broken weapon, and another blood trail were bad signs, but it gave us a direction. A huge three-toed footprint was in the blood-wetted dirt in this hellish place.

A featureless plain stretched out before us, existing in a quasi-twilight that came from nowhere. It was just, a dim light with no source and our faint shadows cast circular pools at our feet, as if the mild light was being projected from directly above each of our heads. Barely enough to see by and not enough to read by.

HS returned, reporting that she could see nothing, but we had a direction and we set out with great haste across the plane.

It is hard to believe that for the number of days that we spent there, in that foul place, that only a few hours passed in our world.

I am just thankful that we managed to return, with as few casualties as possbile. I do feel for the people of that place though. Perhaps what we started there will echo through the ages and things will start to change there for the better.

Afterall, you did show them the finer points of explosives Mr. Turtle.

I am still in possession of Mr. Holister's bag. Perhaps I will return it to him, it seemed to be of some importance to the man.

Just bring that by when you can Az, and don't open it!

Ow...this sucks.

I hate these places. Damn hospitals. Can someone just call Sarah and Molly and let them know Im ok. Thanks....

And thanks guys, I hear I owe it to ya'll for coming after me. Damn crazy thing ya'll did, but I appreciate it. Im in some hospital somewhere in D.C., so if anyone wants to pay me a visit, I'll be very grateful.

{just smuggle me in a beer and a cheesesteak ok}.

Yeah, we were only in there for 20 minutes Earth-time I think.

And alright Ben, I have a bottle of Black Rabbit and a big slice of Philadelphia Cheesecake with Cherry and Strawberry topping for ya. (I had to go out and buy a new springform pan to make it so you'd better eat it )

I take it then my distraction worked, sorry I didn't share my plan before I took off. I ran for what felt like days, drawing on the Yin of the place, ever faster, focusing the energy into my legs. I don't remember how long we had been there when the tiger challenged me (It was an honor to even meet the creature I thought the white yin tiger was but a myth, not a species) The game, it's favorite - cat and mouse. I wish I hadn't been the mouse. As if it won, I would have stayed there till the end of my days, (I shudder at spending such an extended time there) those that hound and drive me pushed me onward. I do not know how many of the dark shapes that flitted by as we ran turned to persue. I do know that when I finally collapsed, exhausted and spent, the great beast tackled me, pinned me to the ground with a single paw and chuckled. "You passed the end of the game some time ago, human, but the persuit was too much fun to give up." I was too exhausted to feel much of anything as it picked me up and carried me off, my armor tattered and in dire need of repair from glancing blows from mighty paws. (I know that he was not from there, he was too noble, but he belonged there somehow)

I am not sure where I was dropped, or who did this monk the favor of carrying me out as I slept, but you have my eternal gratitude.




Mr. Holister, I am glad to see you alive - I am not a strong enough to shoulder the responsibility that I feared you had left to us. (just the thought of telling her how we left her "daddy" behind was almost more than I could bear) We will discuss this later, after I have given my thanks to the friends that helped in the best way I can.

Ya'll did a great job. I thank you all.

Master Li, I'ld like to thank you specially, I was told it was you who sat by my bedside and purged all that negative Chi stuff out of my system.
I don't know what that is, but I sure feel alot better. So thanks again. Maybe when I get out you can pay me a visit.

Bert, and you you crazy SOB, I hear it was you wholead that rescure op. What the Hell were you thinking! Leading all those fellas through some damn dark portal into some evil dimension where you guys only encountered God knows what.
Im glad ya did it, but ya still a crazy SOB Bert.

I never claimed to be sane! And I was going to go by myself, but then everyone tagged along!

How'ld you rescue me anyway?
I thought once I realized that B'Lial was a fallen angel, and not some shadow demon, that my ass was toast.

Well, we caught up to ya in some big Arena where you were being tortured, surrounded by shadow creatures. Then there was a bright light and when my vision returned just the Big Evil was left. My vision was pretty poor, I was seeing spots for hours, so I'm not sure how it went down exactly. I do know I put at least a full clip of .45 on target though.

That would have been my UV grenade when it went off. Makes for a nice miniature sun don't ya think?

Yeah, I'm still seeing spots.

Bert_the_Turtle wrote:I never claimed to be sane! And I was going to go by myself, but then everyone tagged along! :D

Bullshit. You called in your debt on me, or I wouldn't've come along, or let you go in the first place, and you admitted to being ready to bribe the squirrel into coming along...

And no, I'm not telling you where I vanished to after we parted ways.

Ok, ok, yes I did. Actually I was only going to get you to hold off everyone else while I went through the portal but events took a more fortunate turn for me. And since I wasn't going alone anymore I was determined to secure Hit Squirrel's help.

For those who maybe wondering Hit Squirrel is not ignoreing you, rather She has taken a couple of days to recover herself from the ordeal she and the others experianced when they went after Holister. She is a remarkable and caring being, thou the light of carefree happiness That lit her eyes before going to that place is dulled somewhat by a great saddness, from seeing things that cannot be unseen. She will rejion the fight soon thou.
From what little I saw of the place and what the others related to me about that place it is full of evil and sarrow but very little hope. Perhaps that will change?

I'm all for sending a force through and liberating the good people there and destroying the wicked. But our plate is kinda full right now.

Sorry Bert I was not impling that we go back soon, but rather what you and the others did may brought a new dose of hope to that place.

I hope so. I don't think we could've made things any worse.