From: phyllis@amc.com (Phyllis Rostykus)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: STORY : Much Ado About Nothing (Part 2 of 6)
Date: 5 May 91 01:06:36 GMT
Reply-To: phyllis@eld.amc.com (Phyllis Rostykus)
Organization: Applied Microsystems, Redmond, WA


    The sound of two gunshots and then the repetition of the sickening 
crunch of an accident pulled all of them in the direction of the park.
Catskill was the fastest of them all, but Sara was on her heels. 

    A handsome Japanese man was looking with detached interest at a
headless body lying in a pool of its own blood.  He had a long, bloody
knife with a Japanese grip in his hand and blood flowered brightly on his
plain clothing.  From the clothing on the body, Sara recognized the man
that Catskill and Renowyn had dealt with at the bagel shop.

    The Japanese looked up as they entered the clearing and then at a man
that ran in from the opposite direction.  Sara felt the hairs on the back
of her neck prickle in recognition.  It was Kilroy, another man that they
had met at the bar when Ben had introduced himself.  After a sweeping look
around the clearing through neon red glasses, Kilroy made directly for
them.  There was a balance to his movements, he was graceful with a power
that reminded Sara of Catskill's movements.  Light brown hair, cut as
short as short could be and wry eyes shaded by the glasses were in a face
carved from having seen too much.  His longcoat was a deep, rich maroon
and his pants were the color of night.  The tailored shirt was the soft
grey of Mt. St. Helenes' ash.  A large, red doctor's bag was slung on 
his shoulders.

    He went directly to the Japanese and demanded, "Did you do this?"

    "No.  Two others did."  A small sheaf of delicate, white paper bloomed 
>from a pocket with the flick of two fingers.  The Japanese used the paper
to clean his blade in one smooth motion. "They attacked me.  I believe
that they did so because of that."  He nodded in the direction of a park
bench.  Sara wrinkled her nose in puzzlement and then saw the bulk of the
box underneath the bench.  The man checked the blade carefully and with a
deft, curving movement sheathed it.  The papers fluttered away into the
dappled shadows of the woods like red and white butterflies.

    "Where are they?"

    The man gestured in the direction of the woods, "I believe you will
find them in that direction."  The next words were said deadpan, "I do not
believe they will be going anywhere soon."  Sara saw amusement glint from
his dark eyes. 

    Kilroy sped off in that direction.  Sara hesitated and followed, seeing
that Catskill stayed in the clearing to talk with the Japanese.  There
were two bikes smashed into trees, with mangled riders nearby.  Kilroy
hunkered over the further one and threw open the huge, red Doctor's bag.
A tangle of chain lay near the biker next to Sara and she looked closer at
it to find that each link had an antique razor blade spot welded to it.  A
few links on one end of the chain were left unmodified, possibly for a
handle.  There was blood, bits of skin, bone, flesh and hair caught in the
links.  Sara moved well clear of the razorchain, her eyes watering as she
suppressed her gagging reflex.

    Sara bent over the biker, avoiding the blood where she could.  He was
far too hot, his breathing too fast, and his pulse was even faster.  She
quietly sang to the local healing spirits.  She gathered them and told
them where to go, but she found the way solidly blocked.  Stymied, she sat
back on her heels and frowned at the man.

    Ben walked into the area and looked over the carnage.  He said, "Lady,
there is magic on them.  Something that seems to be binding them..."

    Sara carefully sat down against a nearby tree, finding a soft hollow 
wasn't too wet or lumpy and reached up and out into the True World.  It
was like remembering how to breath again, a relief, a marvel to see things
as they really were.  To walk again in the form that was most natural for
her.  On four legs and with all her strength rippling through muscles only
evident on this plane of living, all moving under fur the color of
deception.  The earth under her feet sparkled with all the thousands of
tiny lives that busily went their way with utter disregard for her.  She
looked around and saw Ben in the form of a powerful man with an
alligator's head.

    She curiously looked at the others that had gathered.  She smiled at 
Catskill's familiar smooth furred darkness, a blend of cat and woman that
was one with the shadows, strong and lithe, bright in its definition.
Renowyn's was faded, as tattered and patched as an old, overabused coat.
She sighed softly to see it.  Sara was intrigued by the brightness of
Kilroy's aura.  The Japanese man's... she frowned.  He was very bright and
as sharp as the steel blade he carried with him.  He had a centering that
a mage would be envious of, but it almost looked as if the long knife held
a piece of his soul.

    She finally turned to look at the two bikers.  Gold chains bound the
two weakly flickering souls, chains that were themselves bound to a
slender golden line that faded away with distance.

    "O.K.  What do we do?"

    Ben looked at her, amused, "Well, probably try and break the chains."

    "Why not trace 'em to where they came from?"

    "It'd be dangerous to go that far.  Best we take care of this quickly,
and then return."

    "But it's Wonderful here!" she said, peering at the sparkle of the sap
that ran up one of the maples.

    His smile was warm, "You haven't been up here much, have you?"

    "Well... yeah... you're right.  The littermaster kept saying how I 
shouldn't strain myself too much.  He said that while my spirit's strong,
my flesh isn't strong enough to stand my absence for too long.  I've never 
had to break anything, before, though.  What should I use?"

    "Walll..." he drawled, "You kin just hit it with whatever mana
weapons you have, or..." he reached over to the chains of the man nearest
him and using both hands broke it.  The chain snapped with a bright spark
of light.  He chuckled, "You kin get your hands dirty."

    Sara circled hers a couple of times. She called up a small dart of
magic and sent it against the golden bonds.  When it hit they crackled and
made wonderful shattering noises, tiny cracks appeared all over the surfaces
of the chains.  She studied the beauty of the affect for a moment, but then
Ben reached over and yanked it apart.  She wrinkled her nose in disgust at
his crassness and was about to yell at him, when the auras of the men that
the chains had bound flared, flickered and then blew out.

    Sara wanted to ask Ben if they had killed them by cutting the binding,
but she was a little afraid of the answer.  She shivered and felt her body
pulling at her, hooking its claws back into her, like a cat whose 
mistress has been away too long and wanting attention. 

    She sighed felt her stiff and painful body and shivered.  For a second
it felt as if her flesh had cooled in the brief time that she had left
it.  She opened her eyes to see Kilroy frantically working over the body
of one of the bikers. He finally sat back and swore a blue streak as he
finally gave up.  For a long moment, he just bent over the dead body, 
then looked at Ben and her with resignation.

    "All right, what happened?" Kilroy asked, as he started to put things
back into his doctor's bag.

    Saraquael remained silent, to let Ben explain, while she carefully 
wiped the blood off her hands onto the grass.

------

    When Catskill was told about everything, she borrowed Renowyn's 
phone to call Sabre.  "If anyone knows what to do with this thing, she
will." 

     Catskill setup the meeting with Sabre and Helix for the Watering
Hole.  She told both Kilroy and Hachiman, the Japanese, about it as well,
as there seemed to be enough interest in the box to bring down some heavy
artillary.  Hachiman agreed, politely, that it would be best if they dealt
with the box as a group.  Both Kilroy and Hachiman agreed that all would
evenly split the proceeds of the box, whatever they might be.  Sara wasn't
quite sure if Hachiman was hiring the rest of them to help or if they were
hiring him, but the end result was basically the same.

    During the walk back to the car Catskill touched Sara on the shoulder.
Sara slowed to look at her friend and then stopped when Catskill gave her
the high sign.  "Here," Catskill said quietly, "This is for you, for the
house job."  She handed Sara two certified cred'sticks for 5000 nuyen. 

    "Wow." Sara said, her eyes bright, "Thanks." Then shyly, showing her
sixteen years, Sara said, "And lots of thanks for doing the negotiating.
I... I still don't know what to charge folks for these things."  Sara
skipped back to Renowyn's car, leaving a quietly smiling Catskill to walk
back with the rest of the people.

-----

    Sabre was dressed in silver gauze over a basic black bodysuit. The
silver sword that dangled from her ear flashing in the lights from the
dance floor.  Her waist long black hair flowed behind her in a wave of
darkness.  As before, she did bits of business as she wandered over to
their table.  Helix was a slightly bouncing shadow behind her.  Saraquael
was fascinated with the sparkling light that crawled along the helix that
dangled from Helix's ear amid the long, curly brown hair.

    Sabre sat down at their table and nodded to Helix, who came forward.  
Hachiman pulled out the carry-all and set the box, still wrapped in the
slightly charred silk, on the table.  Helix carefully undid the wrappings,
looked at it for a long moment. She studied it from the front, each of the
sides and the back without touching it, carefully holding her long hair
back with one hand.  She finally faced the front of it, hesitated for a
moment and then threw back the lid.

    Several of them jumped.  Sabre looked at Helix with one raised eyebrow.
Helix grinned and shrugged, and then looked in the box with great interest.

    Sara couldn't resist and popped up to take a look as well.

    It was a perfectly normal wooden box, except for the bottom.  The
bottom was nothing.  The nothingness of a night sky empty of stars.  It
was simply not.  Sara tried to pull her eyes away from it but felt
something tug on her, something within that box wanting a part of her...

    She abruptly sat down and shivered while Helix confirmed that the
contents of the box was whatever it was people were looking for.  Sabre
talked with Hachiman and Catskill about the business arrangments.  Helix
looked like she wanted to keep the box of Emptyness for herself, and Sara
shivered.  Finally, they decided that Sabre would keep it for them until
they figured out what they were going to do with it, and as a final
option, they could have her sell it for them.  In either case, she would
recieve a commission of 10,000 nuyen.  Sara couldn't help but hope that it
would be in Sabre's hands for a long, long time.

     After Helix and Sabre left with the box, the group sat for a long, 
quiet moment amid the noise and life of the bar. 
   
     Sara sighed and Catskill looked at her. "Did you see?" Sara asked 
softly and when her friend shook her head Sara went on, "There was Nothing
in the bottom of that box.  A Nothingness as big as the universe down in
the bottom, there, and it scared me, Cat, it scared me."

     "Well, what are we going to do with it?" asked Renowyn. 

     "Why don't we put it up for sale, like Sabre suggested?" said Kilroy.

     "Shall we sell it to the highest bidder, perhaps?" Hachiman looked 
troubled even as he said it. 

     Catskill gazed steadily at Saraquael huddled in the chair.  "I'm
not sure I'm comfortable with selling that to just anyone.  It seems to be
a really powerful magical item, and there are a lot of people out to get
it.  But the bidding system would be a good way to find out who is
interested in it, yes?"

     Relieved to have someone else reflect her fear and acknowledge it,
Sara nodded quickly.

     "Hai." said Hachiman, his features lightening as well.

     The others agreed.  And Hachiman offered to set up the voice mail 
drops.  Sara watched, fascinated by the quickness with which he did the 
delicate work of setting the system up through his wristphone.  Each 
movement was utterly precise.  She smiled at him when he looked up to
see her watching him, and he gave her a quick smile back.

     As they talked, a woman entered the bar.  A woman in nut brown,
ragged leathers.  She was barefoot and sported a head of flame colored
hair all golds, reds, and all the auburns there were.  The bright colors
were all tangled together in hair that looked as if it hadn't been combed
for months.  Deep, shadow filled green eyes looked about her curiously,
wondering at all the sights there were to see.  Sara noticed her startled
reaction as her hand passed through a holographic sign on the wall

     The woman looked around the bar, searching for someone.  Then,
spotting Renowyn, her whole face lightened, and she came over to them.

     She stood over Renowyn's chair and said, "You *must* help me, sir."

     Saraquael started laughing at the look on Renowyn's face.  Ben turned
to look at her and she quieted, but she couldn't get rid of the grin on her
face at Renowyn's look of bewilderment.

     "Uhm... help you with what?"

     "An Evil.  A terrible Evil.  You must stop it." she said, her hands
plucking at Renowyn's sleeve.  Sara stopped grinning when she saw those
hands helplessly moving.  "You have to stop the evil men from doing it
again."

     "Doing what, lady?" asked Catskill, her tone cool.

     "A Great Evil!  Something of great destruction which must be stopped." 
the woman said, as if that explained everything.

     Sara frowned, perhaps it did.  The others started talking about
whether or not they should help.  The woman stomped her foot, got up, and
said only to Renowyn, "I'll take you there, and after you see what they
did, you'll *have* to stop them."

     Renowyn shrugged, "Why not?  All we have to do is wait for the bids, 
this might be fun."  Then to the woman, "What's your name?"

     "My name?" for a moment, her eyes roamed around the walls, "Miller,"
she said, "Miller Douglas."

     "And where will you be taking us?"  Hachiman asked.

     "To my home," she said, softly.  "It's out in the woods a little ways."

     Kilroy laughed as everyone got up, "Looks like we're gonna do a
Jojo."  Hachiman, Catskill, and Renowyn chuckled as well.  Ben and Sara
looked at each other in puzzlement.

     Catskill laughed.  "A Jojo is helping someone else out gratis.  Hmmm..."
she said, growing more thoughful, "Thing is that Jojos usually turn out to
be a bit more dangerous than anyone thought..."

     Renowyn grinned, "What could be dangerous about taking a girl to
her home?"

-----
Phyllis Rostykus     | "Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are 
..!sumax!polari!li   |  the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real."
phyllis@eld.amc.com  |  - "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel