******
Ch. 1
******

I am floating in a void, colourless, soundless, endless.  I have no 
eyes, I can not see.  I have no ears, I can not hear. I have no skin, 
I can not feel.

"Your time has not yet come. Why do you come here now?"

I don't know.  I don't care.  There is no pain here..I like it.

"The pain is what you were there for.  You were to live with it, 
learn from it."

There is such a thing as too much pain.  I had too much, so I stopped 
it.

"You will try again.  And you will keep your memories, short as they 
are."

No...not again.  No!

"You have no choice.  Back you go."

No!!!!!!!!!

*****

"Sir? Sir?"  someone is shaking me.  I hurt all over. Joy.  "Get up 
sir!  Get up before it comes back!" it? what it?

"What happened?" the words sound different for some reason. I open my 
eyes to see a woman...a sales clerk, it looks like.  She is still in 
her uniform, although it is a bit dirty.  I sniff.  what's that 
smell? oh...fire.  I struggle to get up, but it is as if my entire 
body is defective somehow.  nothing is moving quite right.  My 
control..my control is gone.  Damn.

"The boomer, it just went berserk! Sir get up please, it's coming 
back!"  Something flashes through my mind.  memories of pain...pain 
from before...mixed with pain from now.  Too much. Again.

"Get out of here," I mutter.  Finally, I manage to stand...and I can 
feel my 'old' control slipping back into place.  It will take me a 
while to get it completely back.  Then, I think.  'Why would I want 
to?'  the pain is worse than before...apparently, I was injured being 
sent here.  And...and memories of _that_ are hurting even more...they 
seem more...fresh somehow.  I look at the clerk...and I can feel the 
pain welling up, "Get out of here, save yourself." It's almost a 
fight in itself to get the words out. She seems familiar...so 
familiar.

She looks like an exact duplicate of Her.  The one who hurt me 
before.

Crashing sounds...gunfire.  A wall is blown out by what looks like a 
focussed beam of light.

She falls back, falls..turns, and runs away.  I stand, and face it 
like a man.  I look down.  Yes, that pain surges back too.  I hate 
this.

"Come and get it you fucking bastard!" the words rip out of my mouth. 
 I run towards the broken wall...feeling deep inside for that 
wellspring that is always nearby.  It's a reach..a long one.  
Finally, I grasp it...pulling it up with years of experience.  Maybe, 
maybe this time, I can use enough.

Fire flickers in my hand as I scramble through the shattered wall.  
It flows up my arm as I stand again.  flowing all around...back down 
to my palm...coalescing, condensing into a single ball of pure flame. 
 'Baseball' the thought flickers through my head, leaving a small 
sense of regret.  No, not enough this time, except maybe enough to 
get the other job done.

I see the 'boomer' as that clerk called it.  A towering hulk of 
plastic and metal, shimmering blue in the firelight.  I raise my 
hand, screaming, "Fireball!"  I pull everything I can from the well, 
focus it into the ball in my hands...and then throw it.

Metal melts...plastic burns.  But not enough to kill it.

So be it.

The creature roars, turns.  It opens its mouth, and I see a light 
similar to the one I threw gathering in the center there.

It is the last thing I see.

***

"What the hell happened Daley!?" Leon calls out.

"I don't know, it appears as though a store manager went berserk...he 
threw some kind of napalm at the boomer.  Didn't do more than get its 
attention.  What a mess." Daley grimaced at the remains of the man.

"Berserk, huh? I don't get it." Leon climbs into his car, waits for 
Daley to slide in as well, then drives off into the night.




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