Chapter 18 (Hell 1): Wherein a Bat Flies Out of It
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        'Xyo? Dead?' Garland thought, momentarily stunned.  He hadn't
known her very well, and she wasn't ever particularly nice to him, but...
        Garland's thoughts were interupted by a loud crash, which brought
him straight back into the reality at hand.  The ferocious BMB124 had set
itself, or rather, Mason set it, to viciously ram the airship's flanks in
an attempt to smash it completely.  As another blow was struck to the
ship's side, he realized the urgency of the situation.  "Fiends!" he
shouted over the roar of battle.  "Come with me!"
        Merine looked to see what the mysterious man was doing.  After a
breif word with his companions, Garland gave a long, loud whistle.  From
behind the Airship's right side, the fearsome shadow of Doom Gaze emerged.
'What's he...?" Merine began to wonder.
        "I'll handle this situation!" Garland shouted to her and the
others.  "Mason is most interested in me!"  With those words, he and the
fiends leaped off the edge of the ship, onto the back of their robotic
chariot of death.
        "Aha!" Mason shouted from atop his steely titan.  "Now I have
you!" He wheeled in the air, and circled around behind Doom Gaze,
preparing for the blow that could satisfy his vendetta once and for all. 
As the great beast's metallic fist came crashing down, DoomGaze sprang
into flight.  "WHAT?!"  Mason screamed, cursing his own stupidity.  
        "Heh heh..." Kraken chuckled.  He was thouroughly battered from
head to toe, having barely beaten back the metallic menace on the Doman
ground.  Kary had taken quite a beating as well.  Risking another round
between fiends and Rokeg Kromm's genius was, at this point, a nightmarish
joke.  Even Lich, with his great Powers of the Earth, had been brutally
punished.  Kraken continued, "Now what?"
        "To Jidoor!" Garland said, without looking back.  "With Returner
backup and perhaps some help from the Figarans, that thing doesn't stand a
chance!" he finished.  '...and that means Mason's history...'  Secure in
the knowledge that his vertically challenged enemy would soon be no more,
Garland perked up a bit.  Maybe things would start going HIS way for
once...
        "If, that is," Tiamat started, watching the rapidly approaching
BMB124, "he doesn't finish us first!"  She ducked as a searing blue beam
of energy shot past her head.  "This is gonna be one rough ride..."
        Lich didn't speak.  Thought the situation was dire, his mind was
elsewhere, far, far away.  Fifteen thousand years in the past,
approximately.  He remembered the one he was, but he couldn't remember
why.  He had such strange ideas then, of love, of hate, of sorrow. 
Feelings of ambition, instead of the constant cynical apathy he felt now. 
How strange life had been...
        "Here comes another!" Kary shouted, as the Bionic Behemoth fired
another round of blue death.  Luckily for the fiends and Garland, Doom
Gaze was agile enough to avoid the shot again. "Where are we, anyway?"
she asked.
        "I'm not sure!" Garland shouted back. The Ravenesque flying
machine had been darting in and out of cloud cover, and he had lost track
of the unfamiliar terrain.  "To Jidoor, Doom G-"  Garland was interrupted
by another blast from the eyes of the BMB124, cutting into his left
shoulder.  He clutched the burning wound and winced.  "Scratch that,
Doom..." he began grimly. He then whispered something into the hearing
canal of his ride.
        DoomGaze wheeled sharply, and Garland stood, sword drawn, ready
for an attack.  They now headed straight for the face of their pursuer,
and the two were on a collision course.
        "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"  Tiamat exclaimed, holding on for dear
life, but answer there came none.  Just a steely look of grim
determination.  The fiends braced themselves...
        The steely adversary let forth another volley of laser, this one
connecting with DoomGaze's right wing.  DoomGaze veered left slightly,
from the impact, and Garland made the longest leap of his entire life. 
Taking Mason completely off guard, he landed not six inches from him, on
the broad back of the bio-metallic chariot.  As the short man was about to
speak, he felt two quick sword slashes across the face.
        From the fiend's point of view, what happened after that was not
exactly clear.  They saw the two grapple, but then lost sight of them as
Doom Gaze dipped below the clouds and made a bee-line for Jidoor. 
"Doom Gaze!" Kraken shouted above the wind.  "We've got to help our
master!"
        "Negative, sir Kraken," DoomGaze replied robotically.  "He has
ordered me to take you four directly to Jidoor to consult with Lord
Banon..."
        "Lord who...?" Lich inquired, not having heard anyone referred to
as such in a long time.  "Oh, yes... Banon, of course..."
                               *  -  *  -  *
        "I swear," Garland began, "I'll KILL you!" He held Mason's arms
tightly, as the small man gritted his teeth through the blood pouring down
his face.
        "Not if I kill you FIRST!"  Mason said, tripping Garland with a
sudden sweep kick. He brought his fist down hard upon his enemy's head,
ignoring the pain that resulted from hitting the obsidian helm.  As
Garland recovered, nearly falling off the metallic beast, Mason shouted,
"Take us to Sector-P!"  The BMB made a sudden downward sweep.
        Garland rose again, sword in hand, ready for the first and final
strike.  Mason simply stood, waiting patiently for an attack.  Noticing
the lack of initiative, Garland took a moment to look down at the ground
below. He noticed Mount Zozo looming in the distance. when he looked back,
however, to the crisis at hand, Mason held a saber in hand as well. The
two began a deadly sky duel on a platform of no more than six square feet.
	Swords clashed, and skills matched.  When one swung, the other
blocked.  When one thrusted, the other dodged.  The stalemate continued
for what seemed to be hours, though it truly lasted no more than thirty
seconds.
        Mason had thought well, for he had pinned Garland's light sword
with his own short cutlass.  However, Garland released the sword, and
punched Mason straight in the face, knocking his Imperial helmet clear off
his face.  Mason screamed as his wounded face felt like fire, his hands
stained with blood as he grasped his torn countenance. Then, with the
strength of a dragon king, the short Imperial delivered a blow straight to
Garland's unprotected stomach.
        'It's a strange feeling,' Garland thought, as he plummeted
Earthward.  'I suppose death won't be too bad.  At least I made it to
Jidoor...' He let his body go limp as he rapidly approached the welcoming
rooftop below...