The hand left his mouth and he turned around to see Phaedra. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “What do you mean? We’re here to help. That’s what I just said.” She moved to embrace him in a compassionate embrace, but Max pushed her away. “We got your message. Leaving the scroll that was addressed to me.”

  “So, are you planning on grabbing me now and trying to sell me to these people now? I don’t think they’ll be interested, there are enough cultists here that they have the upper hand.” He looked upon her and had not realized before the betrayal he and heart break that the message gave him.

  “Do you think I knew that is what my employers wanted from me?” She pleaded with her eyes more than her words.

  “Whether that is the case or not, I cannot know.” After saying that Max remembered that he should try to concentrate more on her emotions. As he tried to do so, he realized just how strong his own emotions were and how they totally clouded his ability to read anyone else.

  “Look, I let you go once before to gain your trust, right? Why don’t I just do that again? I, I can’t bear to see that look in your eyes as you stare at me. It’s, it’s just...” she looked away and then Max could tell that she also looked up at the edge of the foliage nearest this ridge.

  “Then that is just what you will have to do to regain my trust. It is no guarantee. First Pater, then you, and now Pelos. Enchoron must be next right? And he is probably with you. I am taking my own route. I am not going to follow anybody and be their pawn.” With one final long, intense glare, Max let go of Phaedra and turned back towards the facility.

  Max came out of the obscuring view of the rocks open palmed and without any need for concealment. The guard was standing there, at the exit he took to get out here, looking just dumbfounded until finally his eyes came upon Max. As Max walked by him and headed back into the facility he spoke to the guard, “I don’t much like being followed. How about you just ask to come along next time? Don’t treat me like a child.”

  The guard looked embarrassed and turned at least a couple shades of red as they walked back into the ancient building together. Just before the door slid closed automatically behind them, Max took a final glance over his shoulder up towards the foliage line.

  As they walked into the control room after taking the moving room again, or as it was referred to by others, the elevator, the ground started to tremble. At first it was just a slight rumble, maybe just someone pushing something heavy nearby. Then, a flash of light burst through the sky. Several pieces of rock and foliage flew at high speed about the room and some even impacted the roof, making loud clanging noises.

  With that a shockwave of intense power hit their location. Everyone standing that was fast enough on the reflexes immediately dived for cover. Those that were not so ready to prepare for the worst were knocked to their butts by the massive shaking that followed the immediate shockwave. Loose items jostled around and fell to the ground, some shattering, others bouncing around uncontrollably. Curses from the no longer stunned men and women were hurled about the room. Max was unprepared for this event. He was one of the folks who had taken a rapid tumble out of his control. Someone’s cup shattered nearby and peppered Max with its remains.

  When the shaking finally stopped, several of the people in the know got to their feet quickly. Others stayed hunched over and concealed for fear of more such incidents. Still a couple of others raced for the doors to exit the building, claustrophobia instantly setting in. Max gathered the courage to step up and followed the gaze of the others that previously stood

  In the far distance, where the vortex... had been! The debris no longer flowed to that distant point. The swirling was still evident, but only as an afterthought. The pattern dissipated over the next few seconds. Max stood there in disbelief, this could not be a coincidence. The things that the Daefindel Cult was doing were bringing about extreme change. It was hard to wrap his head around.

  Max used the train of thought that he could make his own decisions. That he was a man. That was the biggest determinant into why he now chose not to believe in destiny. All this time, he was learning to grow up. He was learning to know what it meant to make choices and to deal with the consequences himself. The idea destiny and following it removed all that. It really did turn someone back into a pawn, just a pawn of no individual being or group. Someone became a pawn of the wills of reality itself.

  Max started to focus on the energies of those around him. He started with a couple of the cultists that still concealed themselves under tables and consoles. He pushed himself in to their energies. He worked hard to change his own state of mind. Even if he did not feel fear right now, he pushed what little fear he did have out of himself and into those energies.

  Each of the people under the tables now started to react. Most of them got up and ran out of the room in a panic. That panic started to feed into some of the people that stood now who were not afraid before. They felt confusion, and they felt that there was some hidden terror that they could not see at the moment. Nervousness started to set in. The reaction of the others in the initial group he manipulated stood up in an aggressive fashion. Some of them drew daggers or grabbed nearby solid objects.

  These aggressors looked to some of the leaders of the cult. With their eyes filled with terror, several of them started to shout demands. Some of them called the master, Daefindel a liar, some of them started to threaten him and his guards.

  The reaction was nonsensical to a man filled with calm and logic, but these people had been driven mad with fear and it turned into rage and panic.

  With the distraction of this commotion, Max made his way over to all of the display consoles where Sirodin sat. He barely moved from his chair through all of the shockwave. He was a determined man, but he needed to be dealt with. If anyone was watching the screens, the inevitable entry of Max’s friends would be noticed.

  He drew his ray gun while moving swiftly across the room, trying to keep it out of sight at his side facing the wall. He continued to listen to the arguments of the crazed cultists and Daefindel, as he tried to calm them.

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  Another Plane wide rumbling started to occur just in time to rile up the panicking cultists. This time momentum followed and the rumbling was constant. The sky on the side of the facility opposite of the old vortex lit up. The ancient device must now be functional.

  Max adjusted a few of the controls on his ray gun and now stood at Sirodin’s back. At first, the man looked up over his shoulder with relief. He shook his head in disgust at the cultists that could not hold it together in the moment of their greatest triumph. The smile on his face was telling as to how steel his reserve was and how strongly he felt to see this mission to completion.

  All of that changed when the ray gun was jabbed into his arm pit. The man’s confidence instantly disappeared and Max observed his emotional state flip. This man was one of those people that used an air of confidence to make people think they were superior. As soon as you showed them that they were not superior, their mask of falsehood slipped.

  Sirodin looked up at Max with wide eyes of shock and surprise from betrayal. Max spoke up quietly, “don’t touch a thing unless I tell you to. Bring up a view of the far ridge line on one of these small screens.”

  The man nodded, he had already given in. There was no look about him or emotional charge that said he was going to risk his life to help the cult. The view screen down on the console showed the rocks.

  Max continued his commands just as he heard vocal commotion change into physical commotion, “I want to you send some sort of signal that is visible from those rocks.”

  “What kind of signal... sir?” It sounded like both parts of that statement were a question. He wanted to be sure not to piss Max off.

  Max just couldn’t believe what a push over this guy actually was. “Can you send a vocal message through writing?”

  The man simply nodded and slid open a segment of the console that was equipped with a keyboard. Max instructed each letter he wanted sent. The physical commotion behind them was quickly resolving. There were several dead and wounded back there.

  Max commanded with no hesitation, “Send it. And unlock and open all the doors in that area.”

  Daefindel’s voice dominated the air, “now that the silly uprising of the fools is over. Time to get back to business. Max, let us watch together as we fulfill our goals and realize our potential.” His tone changed to confusion, “Max?”

  One of the guards that was involved in the scuffle against the panicked cultists was approaching Max and Sirodin. Max tensed as he was probably in for trouble now. He reached over and changed the settings on his ray gun subtly.

  “Max? Don’t tell me you have foolishly fallen to the panic that these others did. They were weak willed and unable to carry out our momentous task.” Daefindel also started to approach the consoles. Max noticed as several figures moved out from the rocks and headed towards the nearest door to the facility.

  “I know what I am doing. Unfortunately for you, I’ve known for some time,” at the end of that statement, without any hesitation, Max spun around with the ray gun at waist level. The guard paused for a moment and gave Max just the opening he needed for his plan. He leaped in the air with great force towards the guard. She was thin and built differently from the burly guards he mostly had encountered. His leap became a kick that knocked her back and started to knock her down. He used her as a spring board to leap over into a clumsy roll that Phaedra would have carried out easily.

  Max slammed his side into a thick chair that then hit a console with some force. He got to his feet with about as much grace, but hopefully with enough speed. “Pelos, hold up your chains.” Max screamed as he lunged towards the secret Scion that controlled the gravity device.

  The man listened and held up his arms. The guard that was watching over Pelos was not prepared to be part of the engagement. Max pushed the ray gun right up against the chains and blasted them apart instantly.

  He immediately took cover behind the next nearest console as one of the thinner guards fired at him with a ray gun of their own.

  Daefindel screamed, “no ranged weapons! If you hit that console, we are lost! We must control the descent.”

  Pelos got to his feet after giving a barely useful elbow to the side of his guard. He made a break for the other side of the console that Max took cover behind. Thanks to Daefindel’s commands, he made it without harassment.

  Max quickly worked to adjust the settings on his ray gun. Half a dozen guards were starting to descend on their position.

  Pelos spoke, “If only I had my clothes and my other belongings, this would certainly be easier. It’s just too bad I was stripped of all that I owned. Just too bad.” He glared over at Max.

  Pelos just laughed at that statement. That is, until he saw what came next. The ray gun did not just shoot a concentrated beam like when it so recently blew apart the chains. As Max’s finger depressed on the trigger, a bright beam of energy fired out covering an entire ninety degree arc, encompassing all half a dozen of the guards that approached them. He held the trigger down for a good two to three seconds. When the light faded, all the guards were on the ground, groaning in pain. They were red with burns.

  “Let’s go!” Max grabbed Pelos and rushed for the exit. Daefindel did nothing to stop them as he looked on in stunned silence.

  Once out in the hallway and around a couple of corners, the two stopped to get a breath. Pelos was staring at Max. Max looked back at him and gave him a wink.

  Pelos just shook his head, “You are one I cannot predict, Max.”

  “We can talk about that later. Right now is the important part. They must have shut down the other vortex. How can we reverse the damage that they have done?” Max insisted on keeping to the task.

  “We are still in a semi-regular descent. I slowed it to a crawl just before standing up, but it is still headed for impact with the Old World,” Pelos was revealing obvious waves of regret that he could not have done more.

  “Right now, it is best that we meet up with our friends and then we can formulate a plan of action, maybe even take back the control room,” Max said and Pelos nodded in agreement.

  They started done the hallway and found a set of stairs in short order. Their journey did not take them very far when they came across an unavoidable figure standing in the bright light of the hall between them and the next set of doors and escape routes.

  The garish woman, Garinda, stood there. Her dominating size and sneering face were all that Max could think about. He was almost frozen with nervous fear.

  She spoke and knocked him out of his stupor, “I can’t just let you be runnin’ off. I’ve been having my eye on you, something fishy I says. Now here you are runnin’ off with the one you brought us to reunite this place with itself.” Garinda cracked the knuckles on her substantial fists against each other. She started walking with slow and heavy footsteps.

  Max looked towards his friend, Pelos, and looked around the hallway to try to eke out any sort of advantage that he could from the terrain. Nothing came to mind.

  Pelos took a step back and looked towards Max. “Without my suit, I’m not of much use in this. She’d break me in half.”

  Max pulled out his ray gun from the holster. It was heavy in his hand as it came up, like the gravity locally to it was increasing tenfold. It was more the pressure to perform than anything else. He was looking down at it as he brought it up to prepare for adjusting the settings to the current fight.

  Pelos shrieked and dipped backward. Max looked up at just the last moment to see...

  “Never let your eyes take leave of your opponent!” Garinda slammed into him. She made the distant in no time, probably accelerating once she saw the ray gun coming into action. The ray gun flew across the room beyond Garinda and Max was now puddled on the floor against the doors that led back to the stairs they just finished descending. The bowling ball of a woman did not keep her footing from the head long charge. She did not seem to mind her position on the ground near Max.