Please! C&C really wanted!

			Running Blind [Part 7]
			         The Game

	Moriko paced the length of her small quarters nervously.  Knowing that a
battle was happening and she wasn�t in it was a killer.  To take her mind
off of the subject she sat down at the desk and pulled out a pile of
paperwork.  More stuff on training, extra spells for illusion, how to
disassemble the useless Lorcan, she read through all the files before
realizing something very important.  Why didn�t she think about this
before?  She ran to the bathroom to prepare for what was to come and
locked the door behind her.
	Ryuhi watched the dead trunks of old trees whiz by.  He nimbly dodged
the rocks and fallen rotting logs that were in the way and led the rest
of the force.  He picked up the radio and pressed the button.
	"Keep your eyes open, approaching Marai," he ordered.  Since a recent
promotion as captain of the team, he now had to cope with all the new
responsibilities.  All these people depended on his judgement and
awareness.  It was too much.  "Hey!  Let�s lighten the mood a bit, what
do you say?"
	He set the skimmer on autopilot and pulled out the gum he was chewing
on.  Cries and protests were heard over the short wave radio, but Ryu
assured them it�d be okay.  Then he pressed the gum on the two way talk
button, which let two or more people talk at the same time without
worrying about someone else having the button depressed.  He stuck the
mic next to the small radio he had installed in his skimmer and turned it
on.  
	"Here�s a little selection from that pop group we all love, the Angels!"
Ryu hit the play button and put the vessel back on manual.  Soon a rock
tune began blasting out over the coms.  "Now this is real music!"
	The Angels were a rising music group that used all the old instruments
from that foreign planet.  Earth was a big subject here on Dansus 65 and
all the groups loved scrounging around the dead planet for stuff to play
with.  The Angels were a group of three guys and two girls, all were
accomplished singers.
	"Never give up! Let�s go, go, go! Fight that fight! Live that life! It�s
all up to you, not up to me! You�ll decide whether I am free!  Touch that
sky once so blue! Let me know that you are true! Fight that fight! Let�s
go, go, go!!"  the tune was well known and soon the deathly mood had been
lifted and the team was feeling better.  It was amazing what a little
music could do.
	A faint crackling message came over the coms and Ryu was forced to turn
the music down, "Come again?  Didn�t copy."
	"I said, you playing The Angels� �Fight� without me?  I�m sincerely
hurt, Ryu," the voice came up clearer now and Ryu turned to see Moriko
Yoruhana speeding up on her skimmer.  "Like how I reset this baby?  It
can go three times as fast as your snail."
	"Hey, Riko!" I thought you were confined to quarters and off the team!"
Ryu smiled at her as she leveled off the speed. 
	"Who ever said I was back on?" she smiled back at him and waved to
everyone else. "What�s doing, guys?!"
	They all waved back, laughing.  Moriko turned to the front, "Let�s kick
their butts for Sora and everyone else!"
	Back at the Post, Tsurumi tapped on Moriko�s door.  His only reply was,
"Go away."
	"I have to talk to you, Officer," he punched in the override command and
stepped into the room.  It was dark, but he could still see Moriko
sitting at the desk.  "Don�t you want any light?"
	"Go away," she repeated, furiously scribbling into a notebook.
	Tsurumi stepped up to her and looked down, "Listen, we need you back on
the team.  Will you accept?"
	"Go away!" she repeated and turned to the window.  It was clear Moriko
wasn�t happy with him being in there.  
	"You don�t want to come back?" Tsurumi looked at her in amazement. 
"But, but, I thought you lived for the team!"
	Suddenly Moriko flickered and disappeared, then she reappeared at the
desk again scribbling on the notepad.  Tsurumi yanked the book away from
the ghost and read over the few lines there were.  He tossed the book
away and screamed in rage and frustration.  All the book said was, "Ha, a
little too late, aren�t you?"
	Moriko, the real one, dropped her skimmer back to stealth mode and
slowly they all crept up into the weak area of Marai�s force field.  The
eight members dropped down into the sewers and entered single file.  Ryu
turned off the radio and they continued in silence.  This isn�t going to
be easy, he thought.  They had to make sure that they made the right
turns or they�d pop up in the middle of town, a clear target.  Ryu led
them through the complex waterways with barely enough room for a full
grown man to lie down in.  The ceiling was extremely low and the personal
force fields were brushing the top, thankfully noiselessly.
	Hikaru turned to Yurei and the figure standing next to him, "Are you
sure it was wise to do this?"
	"Yes, Sire, very wise," Yurei bowed to him and introduced the newest
addition to Marai�s fitting squad.  "I�m sure he will come in handy, but
only until you need him."
	"Yes, I suppose.  Yurei, must you keep in contact with the Child?  I
know it is draining you mentally," Hikaru touched his shoulder gently. 
"I want this Child�s power, it�s raw fluid power.  I like having you by
my side, but I fear that your black heart has changed a bit.  If you
insist on helping her, I�m afraid you may be of no use to me."
	"Sire, I see her because I needed to.  Well, not me really, but this
host," Yurei pointed to his head.  "My host isn�t as willing as yours was
to the darkness and sometimes I lose control of him."
	"See that it does not happen again, or you�ll find yourself at the end
of my sword," Hikaru turned away from him and looked out at the barren
plains.  "I want this power so badly�we monsters could become very
powerful once we harvest it from the Child�s useless human soul.  Then
perhaps you�d like a younger body?"
	Yurei looked up and involuntarily jerked slightly, "No thank you, Sire. 
This one suits me well."
	"Then leave me, I await the coming of Destiny and will wait to attack
until they are within my playing field.  Pass my orders to the other
two," Hikaru waved him off.  "Go."
	Yurei and the other man bowed and left the Demon King to think.  He sat
down on his throne and wondered.  If everything went the way it was
supposed to�did he really want it to go the way it was supposed to?  He
smiled secretly, he guessed that it was to be.  The end of Jukaih was
near and the Child would bring it with her�
	Moriko popped up silently into the main courtyard of Marai�s palace. 
The others came and they hid their skimmers in the thick brush.  Marai
was a place of darkness.  Hikaru didn�t care whether or not there was
light.  He just had to breathe and he was fine.  The buildings were tall
and covered in dirt and grime, they were an eerie black from the decades
of neglect.  The plants had overgrown themselves and were choked with
thick weeds and brown with lack of water.  Everything here spoke of death
and Moriko couldn�t help but shudder at the thought of it all.  
	Ryu nodded to the rest of a team and motioned them forwards.  Although
the others didn�t want to, he had made them leave the Lorcans behind.  He
couldn�t tell them that they were useless, it�d be going against Sora and
a promise was a promise.  The castle loomed up in front of them, darker
than the rest of the city.  No torches or lights or windows.  Marai was
still ancient on the outside, but they knew that inside were computers
and monsters galore.  Moriko wondered if they were heading to their
deaths and felt the foreboding feeling of bad things nudging against her
normal before battle jitteriness.  They all snuck up quietly and slipped
inside one at a time.  Soon nothing was left of them ever being outside. 

	They moved into the large reception room.  This had once been a
beautiful room, but had since gone to ruins.  The chandelier was hanging
off the ceiling at an odd angle with most of its fine crystals missing,
possibly shattered on the floor.  The tapestries were torn, dirty, and
becoming unraveled.  The once grand mosaic on the floor had been replaced
by bare wood floor, the mosaic destroyed over time.  Everything was in
ruin.  Nothing remained of Jukaih�s old sister city.  
	"Well, I welcome you to my grand playing field.  I also welcome you to
your deaths," Hikaru stepped out onto the balcony of the double staircase
descending down the opposite side of the room.  The door beneath it flew
open and revealed not two but ten monsters.  "It�s amazing what cloning
can do, isn�t it?  Well, shall we play?"

___________________

Please tell me what you think!! I want to know anything or if people are
even reading this!!  Okay, now that the begging is over...Everyone have
fun today! Until next time, farewell my fellow writers.

	MurasakiKaze
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