Chapter 12

Loki stood, one hand slowly stroking his chin as he examined her.
"Well now. It seems you are quite a capable fighter."

He grinned, in a thoroughly unpleasant manner, then waved one hand in
an almost expansive, friendly gesture. With a shimmering, twinkling
glow, uncannily reminiscent of a Star Trek transporter beam effect, a
column of light formed near to him, outlining a huge, bulky humanoid
figure as it materialised inside it.

I wondered if part of Loki's punishment had been to watch TV while
he'd been chained underground?

As the sparkling abruptly faded, the figure took shape and
distinctness. I gulped. It was huge, he (well, I assumed it was male)
was almost 12 feet tall, and built like a bear. Coarse black hair,
almost as thick as fur, with a curious reddish tinge to it, covered
most of his exposed skin, but most of him was covered in thick, ornate
armour. In one hand he easily carried a huge double-bitted axe that I
doubted I could have gotten off the ground.

Loki gestured, and the figure grinned, revealing a set of blackened,
sharp fangs that would have had the average lion drooling in envy, as
it slowly moved forward.

"And, just to make things a little more interesting..."

He made a sharp, complex movement with one hand, uttering a short
burst of deep, gutteral speech, and made a tossing motion at the
giant. A reddish cloud of shimmering motes scattered across the huge
figure, outlining it for a second as they settled onto it, leaving the
armour and axe glowing a dull, sullen red.

Iczer-2 stared at the figure, eyes narrowing as her feet shifted,
taking a balanced combat stance, sword held outstretched in one hand.
Not taking her eyes of the advancing figure, she slowly moved closer,
avoiding the rubble strewn across the ground, waiting to see what he
would do.

The giant moved onwards, advancing with deceptive speed, covering the
ground in long strides as he took his axe in both hands, suddenly
striking out with it at her, looking to cut her in two and end the
fight almost before it begun. Despite the size of his weapon, it cut a
whistling arc through the air as it blurred towards her.

To no effect whatsoever, as with a dancers easy grace she ducked under
it, moving closer and around him.

He growled, a deep snarling noise, and struck again and again,
handling his weapon with deceptive skill; I guess Loki wouldn't have
used him if he hadn't been good. It didn't help him, Iczer-2's speed
and agility meant he was hardly even coming close, as she closed to
attack him.

Suddenly, surprising us all, she screamed and leapt, her sword
flashing forward, a blur I only saw by the afterimage it left,
striking home directly against the trolls armour. There was a strange
grinding crash as the energy-sword met the dull-glowing metal, leaving
a small gash in it, but not seriously upsetting the giant. Iczer-2
looked surprised for a fraction of a second; I suppose she wasn't used
to finding things that could stand up to her sword, then I realised
she knew nothing about Loki or his magic.

That fraction of a second was enough for the giant. Although she was
inside the arc of his axe, he slammed the haft against her, his
monstrous strength sending her flying back through the air, until she
rammed into a wall, smashing it, splinters and debris flying as she
hit it with a loud *crunch*. I winced, and Skuld drew her breath in
sharply. I'd almost forgotten she was standing there in the
distraction of following the combat.

The giant grinned, and walked slowly forward to where she had 
disappeared. The grin died abruptly as her figure leapt up from the
cloud of dust thrown up by her impact to land gracefully as she took
up a stance facing him again, obviously unused to opponents getting up
again after he'd done that to them. She looked a little battered, the
impact hadn't done her costume any good, her dust-covered hair tossing
in the strengthening wind as she glared at the giant, but the main
effect seemed to be to make her seriously annoyed.

The combat begun again, with fairly inconclusive results. Iczer-2 was
fast enough to evade the giants axeplay without any apparent effort,
but this time she was careful not to close with him. I knew she was
tough, but wouldn't have liked to have bet on her if he'd managed to
get his hands on her. The giant wasn't that stupid either, he
carefully refused to give her any clear shots except against his
armour, and his reach made it difficult for her to get clear openings,
even with her superior speed and skill.

After a little while of this, both opponents stopped for a moment,
glowering at each other as they took stock. Then Iczer-2 grinned,
giving a low chuckle as she tossed her blade in her hand... "Now..."

She twisted her arm back, and surprised us all by throwing her sword
at the giant! It twisted, flickering as it swung through the air - and
then, to a collective gasp of disappointment from us, missed him,
continuing up into the air behind him. 

The giant laughed...
"Now, pretty-pretty, I'm going to have fun with you..."

Iczer-2 merely looked at him, eyes narrowed, never leaving him as she
crouched lower in what I recognised as some sort of unarmed-combat
stance, her hands moving slowly in front of her. I gulped; she was
tough, but there was no way she could take this monster hand-to-hand,
surely?

He moved on her, steadily, axe raised high, as he prepared to crush
the slender girl in front of him with one blow.

I don't think he ever realised his mistake, as with a crackling whir
Iczer-2's energy sword swung BACK from its arc behind him, twisting as
it pinwheeled and grew into a flaming circle of lightning, speeding up
and slashing straight into the giants back, cutting him in two, the
magically-protected armour hardly slowing it as it cut through it like
a buzzsaw through wood. He stood for a second, blood spurting along
the line of its cut, before toppling to the courtyard in a spray of
crimson gore, followed a second later by the two cleanly-cut halves of
the axe clattering after. The sword finished by slamming back into her
hand, where she held it, looking calmly at the remains of her opponent
as she stood in an easy, ready stance, then at Loki, raising one
delicate sanguine eyebrow in a gesture I would have sworn was deeply
sarcastic.

"Is that the best opponent you can offer me?"

While I assumed she was deliberately trying to provoke Loki into doing
something stupid, I wished she'd be more careful about it; Loki's
sanity wasn't exactly the greatest before this started, and I worried
what he would do if she kept working at him.

**********************************************************************
**

Loki snarled, his orange-red hair almost bristling as he glared at
Iczer-2. Then he looked at his captives, and over at Skuld and myself,
and his visage writhed in new anger.

"So... you continue to defy me, Loki, Master of the Universe!!!"

He smiled again, his face undergoing a crazed, mercurial
transformation as he smiled sweetly... "Then I'd better let you meet
my son, hadn't I?"

He looked at Iczer-2 again, and his smile widened, as his eyes almost
glowed with madness. "I'm sure you'll enjoy playing with my eldest
son, he's such a playful lad..."

I shivered, and beside me Skuld *eeepd* in a high strangled voice!
"David - his son, it's..."

I nodded to her.
"I know the legends... it's Fenris, isn't it?"

She nodded, unwilling even to mention the name.
"He can't be stopped. Even Odin is fated to fall before him! How can
Iczer-2 have any chance against him?"

I wished I had the answer to her question right then. Fenris was one
of the deadliest creatures in Norse mythology, the son of Loki who
would kill Odin in the final battle. The biggest wolf ever born...
Trolls and other minions were one thing, this was quite another. Loki
was obviously playing seriously. It may have been a sort of honour
that we had managed to make him raise the stakes this high, but
personally it was one I would very much rather have done without.

Loki raised both hands high above him, throwing his head back as he
started to chant, harsh words that seemed to make the air itself
shiver with fear, grating on my ears and skin like a file. Beside me,
I heard a low moan of terror from Skuld, as we watched his summoning.

Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds. Then the air high above us
grew - misty, a curdling twisting space as something huge and
ill-formed started to take shape. As it solidified, it grew large,
moving to one side as it settled to the ground outside the temple, the
earth shuddering as it impacted, not so much at its weight but with
fear of its presence.

I looked up. And up. At a 200 foot tall wolf, its mad glowing eyes
staring down at us as its tongue lolled, grinning at us before raising
its head and howling, a terror-filled noise that blanked my thoughts
as I pressed my hands to my ears, shattering buildings and glass for
miles around.

Fenris was here.

Iczer-2 looked up at the enormous lupine face leering above her, her
eyes narrowed. Then she turned, looking straight at me. Once again,
our eyes met, and I found my feelings and thoughts almost mingling
with hers. It wasn't telepathy - at least, it wasn't what I'd always
imagined telepathy to be - I didn't hear any voices in my head, it was
just that I knew how she felt, what her emotions were so well that it
was as if she'd spoken to me. I'd forgotten how strong empaths the
Iczers were..

* I need you now, partner, if we are to stop this thing *

I nodded, not needing to speak, the partial merging as my emotions and
thoughts started to swirl about hers already confirming my suspicion
of what she was going to do.

Part of the back of my mind did wonder idly if I was going to get to
keep my shorts, though...

She turned, looking away from the wolf, towards an open area. Once,
before the devastation, it had been a park. Now, it more resembled the
results of a not-so-minor war. Raising one hand, she made a slow,
beckoning gesture, which ended in her suddenly clenching her fist, her
face set in concentration.

"SIGMA !!!"

For a few, timeless moments, nothing seemed to happen.
They, down from a point in the air above the ruined park, a hairfine
beam of actinic light speared down to impale the ground. Iczer-2
looked up at the light, a small smile spreading across her lips. About
her I could see a pale blue flickering, a sort of a cross between blue
flames and a glow. Distracted for a moment by an even brighter light,
I looked, and realised a similar, fainter effect was surrounding me,
my fingers dripping an opalescent blue fire! I suppose I should have
started panicking, the normal reaction to this effect, but so much had
happened so fast, compared to that a little blue fire from my
fingertips didn't really seem worth worrying about.

The light brightened, and started to widen, and that's when the noise
and vibration hit us. I don't know why I expected a dimensional portal
to open quietly, I suppose it was a subconscious reaction to all those
I'd seen on TV shows, but this one was anything other than subtle..

With a crackling roar, the splinter of light widened, spreading out as
it changed into a rectangular plane of energy hanging in the air, its
surface a hellish blue-white glare of shimmering energy, the air about
it lit with the flickering of twisting, writhing lightning as the air
frantically tried to discharge stray energy into the ground,
destroying still more of the area, the sound of the thunderclaps
almost irrelevant against the howling, tortured noise of space being
rent asunder in such a manner.

Then Sigma appeared, a gigantic foot stepping through the opening, the
ground heaving and shuddering as it reluctantly took the weight of the
enormous device, as the portal gave a final brilliant flash and
suddenly vanished, leaving us deafened and half-blinded. Leaving us
gaping at 500 foot of gleaming blue-black mecha. Seriously dangerous
looking mecha.

Beside me, Skuld's mouth dropped open, her face a curious mixture of
terror at our current situation, and sheer unbridled lust at the sight
of it. A tiny part of my mind grinned, and wished I had a camera to
record the expression!

Iczer-2 looked up at the towering mecha, her face for a moment with an
expression I could have sworn was fondness on her face, then she leapt
upward, her graceful jump turning into full upward flight, her glowing
form swooping upward towards the mecha's faceplate, as with a final
roll in the air she vanished through it.

I blinked. Through it!? It must be the distance, I could have sworn
that she had sort of melted through the face of the mecha, rather than
it having opened for her entry.

My thoughts were interrupted suddenly by a pale beam of light that
flickered down from Sigma's chest, illuminating me. Just as I realised
that this was making me a really good target for somebody, I was
distracted a LOT more by the sudden movement as I rose up into the
air. 

I made a muffled moan, my inner ear objecting to this arbitrary 
violation of gravity, as I finally remembered how an Iczer's partner
was inserted into one of these robots. As I rushed towards its chest
area, the protecting metal armour moved aside, a strangely organic
flowing of thick plates, leaving a transparent membrane enclosing a
medium glowing with a soft golden light. I hoped I wouldn't get
airsick before I arrived.

My speed didn't seem to be slowing, as I moved straight at it...then
abruptly felt a warm, wet sensation all over my body as I suddenly
found myself immersed in a thick liquid medium. For a second, I looked
down, and sighed. Nope, I didn't get to keep my shorts...

At the moment, though, I had far more important things to worry about.
Like the writhing mass of tenticular-like cables reaching for me,
attaching them to me in a rather embarrassing fashion, and the rather
more major one of how was I going to breath?

Eventually, of course, the latter solved itself. After a minute, my
vision was starting to blur. Iczer-2 couldn't have brought me here
just to drown me, right? I hoped, anyway... With a shudder, I breathed
in.  For a couple of seconds, I panicked, my throat gagging and
locking against the unfamiliar wet weight, then I HAD to breath, and
did. It felt weird...something like breathing normally with someone
sitting on your chest, but despite the fact I wasn't having problems
getting enough oxygen, I still didn't like it!!

While I had been experimenting as to exactly how long I could hold my
breath, the cables had been busy attaching themselves. It was the
strangest feeling, almost making the breathing of a liquid seem
normal. One part of me was here, slowly turning in a thick amniotic
medium as my body slowly assumed a fetal position. The rest of me was
seeing with Sigma's, or Iczer-2's, vision. I couldn't tell if there
was any difference between them, they seemed so merged. And I could...
feel... her emotions; not as though they were mine, but...as though
they were overlaid next to mine. Words are so clumsy, I can't really
describe the way it felt using them. It was just the way it was, after
a moment it seemed so normal, I couldn't understand what I'd been so
worried about.

Our/her/my/Sigma... oh hell, _our_ eyes looked at the wolf. It had
been eyeing us steadily, with a frighteningly cunning intelligence,
panting slowly, its saliva smoking and burning as it dripped onto the
ravaged ground beneath it. Fenris didn't seem awfully worried, but I
hoped that was because he thought Sigma was just an ordinary robot. At
least from my new vantage he looked a lot smaller, only about as big
as a two-foot- at-the-shoulder wolf would normally have looked to me.
Only. Right.

Pity we couldn't have painted a JSDF or ADPolice insignia on, just to
really make him really overconfident, I had a nasty feeling we were
going to need any advantage we could lay our hands on.

To be continued