Do You Hear the People Sing?
By Aris Merquoni

--=_=--

	o/~ Will you give all you can give so that our banner
	may advance? / Some will fall and some will live, will
	you stand up and take your chance? / The blood of the
	martyrs will water the meadows of France... o/~
		-- Do You Hear the People Sing, Les Mis
--=_=--

	Nexx's team and the team I was in separated fairly 
quickly. They tried one way, I led Theseus and Phoenix around the 
side to find a place to scale the main wall.
	Finally, we made it to a decent spot. I looked around, 
and didn't see any of the Nagenta-and-green guards. Good.
	"Okay," I whispered. "Do either of you have a way to get 
over the wall that I don't know about?"
	Phoenix shook his head. Theseus thought for a second, and 
then gave me a negative. I sighed.
	"All right. I have some climbing rope, but I'm not sure 
how well it'll work." I fetched the grappling hook out of my 
backpack, then cast it at the top of the wall.
	I tugged on the rope to see if it would hold. It didn't.
I barely managed to catch the hook before it impaled Phoenix's 
skull. Sighing, I tried again, with similar results.
	I glanced at the pair. "Either of you have a bright 
idea?"
	Nothing. I sighed. "Thes, you're a mage of some sort. Can 
you do *anything* to get us on the other side of this wall?"
	Theseus frowned. "Well, I... I can try, I suppose."
	"Good." I handed the grappling hook and line to him and
stood back.
	Theseus started swinging the hook around his head, faster 
and faster. After a moment, it started to glow an eerie blue 
color. I shaded my eyes as he released it.
	He missed; the hook flew straight into the wall. I winced 
in anticipation-
	There was an explosion.
	When the dust settled, there was a hole six foot high by 
four foot wide in the wall, my grappling hook was gone, and 
surprised guards were staring at us from the other side. "Oops?" 
Theseus said.
	The guards yelled something and pulled out swords. I 
pulled out my own, Phoe pulled out a gun, and Thes was-
	"Down!" I said, pushing him down as I said it. I flipped 
the sword around to expose the machine gun and hoped that Tee was 
right about the matter transference ammo. I squinted against the 
torches that backlit the guards. Did we have to kill them? I 
didn't want to be the murderer of thinking beings...
	"Death to the defoulers of Lord Sid and B'harnii!" One 
of them yelled, and they surged forward.
	That answers *that* question...
	"JIHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" I yelled, opening fire. The gun 
kicked, more than I expected, and I made a nice pattern of holes 
in the wall. The spongies slowed, however, unused to anything but 
good old swords-and-sorcery. Phoe used the surprise wisely, and 
managed to knock out two of the squad of five.
	I got back under control and shot down two more. The last 
turned and ran, squealing the alarm.
	I sighed and turned back to Thes, who was shaking off 
what looked like shock or something. "You all right?" I asked.
	"I think so," he said, struggling to his feet. Without 
waiting for him to regain his feet, I grabbed his arm and dragged 
him inside. Phoenix followed us into the hallway.
	Finally, Thes got his feet under him, so we started down 
the hall. It was one of those 'pick a direction and go with it' 
cases, and we managed to make our way along the corridor a while 
before reaching a branch in the corridor, and a staircase.
	I glanced back. "Ideas, gentlemen?"
	Phoe frowned. "Well, if we keep going straight, we'll 
eventually get to the front of the castle. I don't know if that's 
a good thing or not."
	"Well, we're not going upstairs, that's for sure," I 
agreed. "Thes?"
	"I think," Theseus started, before the guards charged
around the corner behind us.
	We spun around. Thes and Phoe dropped down as if they'd 
been drilled to let me fire over their heads. Probably a good 
idea, actually; though at the time I was concentrating on not 
decoration the ceiling with bulletholes. The fight only lasted a 
few seconds; after it was over, one of the guards was still 
moving.
	I rushed over; he'd been clipped in the leg and had 
fallen. "Where's the prisoner?" I yelled.
	"The... the prisoner?" he asked, unsteadily. "Where's my 
Hellthy snacks?"
	I rolled my eyes. Spoungin don't feel pain, it seems. 
"I'll give you some nice Hellthy snacks if you tell me where they 
took Katze," I growled.
	"Oh!" It brightened. "To the main hall. Everyone knows 
*that*."
	"And where, pray tell, is the main hall?" Theseus asked.
	"Straight ahead. You can't miss the doors. Where's my 
Hellthy snack?" A one track mind. I took out my dagger.
	"Right here," I said as I clubbed it across the back of 
the skull. Out like a light. I had learned *some* useful things 
in the Kzinti Academy.
	We started down the hallway again, cautiously. As we 
rounded a corner, we heard sounds of assault ahead. Putting on a 
burst of speed, we came to find the other groups doing their 
damnedest to break down a huge set of double-doors.
	"Don't just stand there, help!" Someone called. I took 
that as an invitation and sunk my sword into the wood to weaken 
it. I lost track of the others, then, in the frenzied bashing, 
but suffice to say we all put our backs into it.
	Nothing gave, until-
	Suddenly, the doors exploded outward, and we tumbled into 
the room. Frightened Marrakethians shied away from us. Over the 
heads of our company, I could see Katze, standing in front of a 
man on a high throne. He looked over us, and grinned. "I've 
won," he yelled, loud enough to carry. "I'll convert you, and 
then all your friends. You'd all make excellent servants for the 
Master."
	It was about then that I noticed what music was playing. 
Noticed it, and tuned it out. A Wyrm Minion, and a dangerous one 
at that, was threatening MY Commanding Officer and MY friend.
	"I will NEVER let you mess with my friends, or my name 
would not be Tjarlin Katze!" Kat yelled at the Wyrm Minion. And 
then, in front of our eyes, she gave him a right hook to the jaw.
	I grinned, and was about to go help, but Nexx held me 
back. I glanced down at her. "She must fight her own battle," the 
Councillor said. I looked up. There didn't seem to be much 
fighting.
	I frowned, then extended my senses into otherplanar. I 
could see, faintly, auras around kat and the Wyrm Minion, and 
could follow their battle, but it was a strain to keep up. I was 
about to let it go, when there was a huge explosion of 'light.'
	I think this is where I blacked out.
	When I woke up, everything looked a little different. Kat 
was talking with Ari, who had gotten to her side. She was caked 
in blood, from what I could see. I looked up at the throne, and 
saw something there that I didn't want to think about. *So much 
blood...*
	Two Marrakethians burst in, swords drawn, but they 
weren't dressed in guard nagenta and kat recognized them, so we 
let them go unharmed. I sighed, and rested on my sword. I didn't 
even swipe at the person saying, "Can we go home, now?" At the 
moment, it sounded like a very good idea.
--=_END_=--