The Griffin just sat there, perched high above in a nook of the Black Tower that hid the huge creature perfectly and watched the angry God below. The sleek creature made no move to confront the God, just to watch, like a cat would impassively watch future prey right before it decided to even attempt to hunt it. Now is not the time to strike, a faint thought whispered in her mind, but the Griffin only seemed to shake it's right ear-tuff like the thought was a mosquito buzzing about. For the moment the Griffin agreed with the idea, she could not confront the demon down there now, somehow the Griffin knew it would be a battle soon lost. However when the right moment would present itself...

-Jai'eesh...- Another faint whisper in the Griffin's mind got the same response as the stray thought did, a wiggling of her right ear-tuff.

-Jai'eesh... Jai'eesh... My love... Jai'eesh!- The voice kept getting louder and louder as the Griffin became agitated and looked around for something to swat at to make the voice stop.

The Griffin left her shadowy crag as she first checked below to make sure the God was gone, and he was - probably to hunt her, but the Griffin could care less right now. With silver retractable talons, and powerful hind claws she made her way up to large enough window that she could fit into and went inside the Tower. Normally her sleek black body would blend perfectly in with the shadows, but if someone happened upon the scene, she would be all too visible since a creature the size if a large horse would be a tad hard to miss. The Griffin's thoughts suddenly turned to going back outside, because there was no way to fight in a room as small as this, as she couldn't even open her huge wings very far! As soon as she turned back to the window she stopped.

-Jai'eesh you can't go back outside, we need something from in here first!- There, a silvery-gray cat sat in the windowsill blocking the Griffin's egress.

The Griffin growled and swatted at the cat, but the cat nimbly avoided the clumsy gesture with a back flip and landed in the same place it had been, -Jai'eesh,- The mind-voice got louder again, -You need to wake up from this blood rage, before we get caught!-

This time the Griffin answered in a low growl, ``No!''

Now something felt like it grabbed the Griffin's head, no her brain, as the cat's mind-voice resonated with all it's strength in her mind, -JAI'EESH! WAKE UP!-

There was a sound of a loud SNAP, not physically audible, but in the Griffin's mind it was deafening. The Griffin felt hazy for a moment, as conscious thought was once again regaining its hold on the Griffin's mind.

-My God, what happened? No wait, I remember...- She mind spoke as the Griffin's body suddenly trembled from weariness and lied down.

-Blood rage. Damn near impossible for me to wake you up sometimes, Maude is so much better than I at doing that,- S answered back after leaping down from the window and rubbing up against Jai'eesh hulking mass purring.

-It's a good thing you could do it, I was just about to go back outside and kill some more. Or eat. Yech, and those things don't look like good eating.-

-Half the crap you eat isn't considered good eating.- the Nightmare-cat retorted.

The Griffin just grunted, getting back up on all fours again, making the cat leaning on her fall down abruptly in the process. As soon as she got back up again her body began to quiver a second time, but this time it wasn't from fatigue. A moment later a young woman with long red-brown hair, dressed in black leather and a gray jean jacket stood back up. She stretched out lazily and started to rub a couple spots in the small of her back while she looked back down at the gray cat.

``Ya know, aging sucks. Especially when you're a Wyre,'' She muttered arching an eyebrow.

-Try being dead sometime.- S just arched an eyebrow right back at her, -So what now?-

``Good question,'' Jai'eesh whispered. ``I think it's time to consult the ball.''

The undead cat groaned at the bad joke as Jai rummaged around in her pack for Narnia, pulled the microcomputer out, and threw it in the air. The small silvery ball stopped dead and just hovered there, silvery skin rippling as it processed its new surroundings.

``Narnia, do you think you can help me find a piece of red crystal?''

The ball rotated for a second before it answered, ``No, unless the object in question emits a detectable energy field. We can scan for that.''

Jai nodded, ``Do so. You may go outside and scan the entire Tower. A map of this place would be nice, and as I probably don't need to remind you, do not be seen.''

With the orders in place, the ball disappeared as S spoke up, -Hey Jai, those undead things we fought before? They're still here. I can feel them, but they seem to be preoccupied with something else to notice me. They're all over the damn place, them and some other things I can't identify. We'd better get out of view.-

Jai nodded as she picked up the cat, went over to the first shadow cast by a nearby torch and walked straight into it. There, Jai'eesh and Mr. S were both literally inside the wall able to see outside, but not visible to someone who stood on the other side of the shadowed wall. This technique of shadow walking had given her group, the Shadows of Gaia, their name long, long ago. As long as there was a shadow cast by a light source, she and her people could manipulate it into doing nearly anything they wanted, including standing inside a solid wall. There were other shadow techniques, some for fighting, some for transportation, and others that were just not talked about.

However, over the years some of the lesser techniques had leaked out of the group and learned by humans, one of which ended up on the silver screen thanks to some twit named Johnny Cage. When his movies originally came out, the members of the Shadows were of course shocked and outraged, and it had taken everything in Jai's power to keep a lid on some hotheaded Wyre from killing the stupid Human. Gaia only knows how worse the situation would have gotten from a resulting investigation into his murder. As luck would have it, Humans themselves fixed the situation by not even believing the technique was real! Half the ones she had talked to then believed it was nothing more than special effects, which of course the Shadows secretly added hype to enhance the belief via the media.

Jai made a face at the thought, Sad we had to kill such a wonderful martial artist's career, but we don't want anyone trying to trace where the moron learned the technique back to us. And if I ever found out who taught him that in the first place, or who taught the teacher, I'm gonna-

-Jai, Narnia's back.- S stated matter of factly, he could hear her thoughts, but wasn't inclined on interrupting at the moment. He knew better.

Jai stuck her head out of the shadow just for a second and grabbed the small silver ball as it hovered next to the wall, already knowing where Jai'eesh was. Jai released it again as it started to report.

``There are many sources of energy output in the Tower,'' Narnia stated as it projected and entire 3-D model of the Black Tower showing floors and rooms within like a detailed X-ray.

``Some high level energy sources interfered with our scan, as we could not get a complete scan of this structure.''

Jai'eesh dropped effortlessly into sitting Indian-style on the floor as Narnia projected the holographic image before her. A computer-generated wire-frame structure hovered before her with a couple of missing sections here and there, as if some monster had gone through and taken bites out of it. But even though it might give someone who wasn't used to working with only wire-frames a headache, it showed Jai a very detailed interior view of all the passageways and rooms within the Tower. Jai studied the basic plan of the place for a bit, and after deciding that who ever built this place didn't have a basic plan to start with she looked back up to Narnia.

``So yeah. This place is a mess. Okay, now show me any radiation you found that could be possibly emanating from a red light source.''

Five blots appeared in various areas within the Tower. Jai scanned them casually and poked a finger at one nearer the top of the Tower. As she did so, numbers and words appeared next to her finger giving her a read out on the radiation source. Jai arched an eyebrow at the huge numbers Narnia produced on the readout.

``Too big...'' Jai absent-mindedly muttered.

-How do you know that?- S inquired.

Jai shrugged, ``It just is. When Gaia speaks to me, she doesn't always communicate with words. I get images too, and from what I can recall,'' Jai sighed irritably at her hap-hazard memory, ``Its hand sized. So I'm thinking that this,'' she pointed to the rather large radiation source again, ``Is our dear God friend we met earlier.''

Unsatisfied with his bonded's answer, he pressed further, -And how do we know this hand sized piece of red crystal can't generate tons of energy?-

Jai cast an odd look at her Nightmare cat, but knew what he was driving at. She couldn't bullshit him that was for sure. He didn't want her risking her neck and subsequently his over a hunch that could be wrong. He wanted her to look at all the facts, even the ones she didn't think of before making decision on which one might be the crystal.

``From what I can remember, it's not something that just radiates massive amounts of energy,'' She narrowed her eyes trying to pick out more surfacing information in her mind, ``I think it needs to be activated by someone. I keep getting this feeling that it's been overlooked, as if who ever has it doesn't really know what it is.''

-`You think'. `You feel'. No offence my love, but this information that we're going on isn't exactly concrete.-

``Don't you think I know that? But what else do we have to go on? I can only make educated guesses here out of this crap stuffed in my freakin' head!'' Even though she knew her bonded meant well, he was bugging the crap out of her and when she got annoyed she could swear up a storm like the true, purebred New Yorker she was.

S visibly winced from the waves of irritation pouring through the bond he shared with Jai'eesh, -Sorry love. I'm just worried, that's all. This isn't exactly a romp through the park here. We don't know what we're up against, or even what we're supposed to do after we find this stupid crystal. I hate being in the dark, you do too, and don't deny it!-

``Yeah well, what else can we do?'' Jai grumbled as she crossed her arms and looked at the map again pointing to another spot lower down the tower and reading the info listed there, ``Okay, here's my suggestion. It looks like the lowest radiation reading we have here is at the bottom of the tower...''

``Actually it is located within basement levels of the structure.'' Narnia corrected automatically, which didn't improve Jai's mood by much - she hated being interrupted.

``Basement, whatever. Anyway, I say we check each of these null areas,'' she said as she pointed to one of the missing areas on the holographic map, ``Since they're practically on the way down to the basement area. That way if the crystal just happens to be inside of one of those areas we hit the jackpot early and get out of here. If not, at least we don't have to backtrack all over this Gaia-forsaken dump and we'll have eliminated the unknowns. What do you think?''

The gray cat just tilted his head while staring at the map as well, -Sounds good to me. Might as well do some sightseeing on the way. Never know, we might find something more useful that this damned crystal on the way.-

Jai had grabbed Narnia and put it in her pack as S mind-spoke to her, but the last thing he said made shivers run down her back for some reason. Another one of Gaia's resurfacing memories? No, this is more foreboding than that, Jai mused, but then it could be just the atmosphere of this place getting to me. Shrugging it off, Jai and the Nightmare cat slipped back out into the hallway and then promptly disappeared again in another set of shadows.

Author : Computer Center

Creation date: 2002-4-29-16-50

Modification date: 2002-9-23-12-18