Haplo

   Haplo walked in front of the three girls, listening to the giggles and
getting fairly disgusted woth the whole bunch.  "Damn mensch, " he muttered to
himself as he thought about it.  The whole incident with Marit had raised
certain feelings in him, remembered predjudices from the old world, he was,
after all, over 600 hundred years old in mensch terms, he was almost 25 in
Patryn years.  The more he kept thinking about Marit, the more confused he
became about what he wanted....did he want Lia, or did he want Marit, he
didn't know.  Maybe the link he had with Marit had affected him somehow, he
didn't want to make any decision about his love life until he figured that one
out.  Deciding o put the matter aside for a minute, he thought about what they
needed to get together, what kind of supplies were needed.  As he thought
about it, he shoved his hands into his pockets..."Wait a minute, what the hell
is that," he thought as he pulled something out of his left pocket, it was a
receiver of sorts.  He looked at it for a minute, still wondering about modern
technology, then spoke into it, "Allright, who the hell is this...I want ta
know now, dammit."  He heard someone respond on the other end, he thought it
was Eddie, and he put the device a little closer to his ear....


Eddie

   As they were stalking their way through the woods, Eddie heard an incessant
buzzing in his ear.  He signaled Li and Sredny to stop, and switched the
commmm louder.  "All right, who the hell is this...I want ta know now,
dammit." he heard Haplo in his ear.
   "Ah, Hap, I see you found it.  This is Eddie.  I slipped it into your
pocket so I could keep in touch with you."  Eddie answered.
   "Well, I'll be damned.  What do ya want, kid?"  Hap answered back.
   "Well, I've got a plan.  I know that you would have preferred coming with
us, but I knew you would be able to get everyone else moving, so you should be
there.  Okay, we know that you heard that Kelly and Nyna were in Tear, so I
need you to get everyone moving in that direction.  Can you do that?  When we
get finished here, we'll meet you along the way.  Okay?"
   There was silence for a few minutes.  Then, "All right, kid.  Can't say I
like it, not bein' there and all, but there's nothin' I can do now.  So, I'll
get these women movin' if I have to goose a few of them.  We'll meet you.
We'll have to set a place after you're finished doin' your thing."
   "Good.  Hap.  Keep this on then, and I'll be in touch."
   "All right, Eddie.  See ya-"
   There was a high pitched squeal and Eddie ripped the com out of his ear.
After a few seconds he put it back in, and said softly, "Hap?  You there?Hello?"
   "This is Dav, Eddie.  Look, now that I've delivered everyone back nice and
safe, I'm coming back to join you.  Tell me your location."  
   "I don't know Dav.  You sure you're up to-"  Eddie answered.
   "Yes, dammit.  No tell me.  I'm not done kicking ass."
   "But this isn't a kicking ass job.  This is a sneaky job."
   "Look, I can do that too.  Don't lecture me, just give me your locale."
Dav snapped.
   Sighing, Eddie acquiesced.  "All right.  We're at North 52, East 87."  (Now
for all you people, no I don't know longitudinal navigation, so it's not
right.)  Eddie switched off the com, and answered the questioning looks of
Sredny and Li.  "Dav's coming."  Succinct, but Eddie needed time to think.  It
wouldn't take him long to get here, so he didn't have long.
   When the gateway slashed through the night, Eddie, Li and Sredny were
waiting.  As soon as it closed, Eddie started briefing Dav on the situation,
and they were moving again soon.
   As they moved through the woods, Eddie played point and Dav pulled in the
rear.  They made it about two miles before they met their next patrol.  This
one was a lot smaller than the previous one, and they managed to take them out
in no time.  "We need to move quicker, Eddie."  Li said.  "Eventually they're
going to try and communicate with the patrols we've taken out, and figure out
they aren't there anymore."  She stopped and looked around. "Eddie...there's
something..."
   "Very good, Darkfriend.  Unfortunately for you, you should have thought of
that before."  The voice rang out of nowhere, and suddenly light flooded the
clearing.  
   Eddie spun his swords out, saw Sredny cock his guns, and Dav's fire wrought
sword appear in his hands.  He could feel Li gathering the Power too.  Eddie
looked around, saw with dismay that they were completely surrounded.
   "You didn't think we would let you get this close again in one night, did
you?  You Darkfriends certainly are bold."  The voice continued to boom out
across the clearing, clearly Power enhanced.  "We were waiting for you the
whole time.  Our only regret is that you managed to kill so many before your
filthy presence was detected.  But now, put down your weapons and come
quietly.  There is nothing else you can do.  We can do this the hard way, or
we can do this with you dead.  Which is it?"
   They exchanged glances.  Eddie would have no problem selling his life as
dearly as possible, but Li was here, and he wouldn't do that with her around.
He saw Sredny ready to fight no matter what, and there was a certain crazy
look in Dav's eyes that Eddie didn't like.  Knowing they weren't going
quietly, Eddie caught Li's eyes and tried to apologize.
   He had barely opened her mouth when she shook her head and smiled.  Smiling
back, he felt better about dying.
   Turning back to the voice, Eddie smiled.  "Well, we've made our decision."
On the last word, Eddie dove out of the light in the clearing, and charged
into the woods.  He heard Dav yell and saw Sredny vanish in a puddle.  Li was
on his heels, and they were making their way out of the clearing as quickly as
possible.
   Behind him, he heard fireballs exploding where they had just been.  He put
it out of his mind, concentrated on where Li was, and where his immediate
enemies were.  Two Warders charged out of the night, and Eddie quickly cut
them down, one to a sword.  He could still hear Dav screaming back in the
clearing, and could see the telltale flashes that denoted balefire.  
   Luckily, there was no moon tonight, so Eddie managed to keep them in the
shadows most of the time.  He whipped off his color-shifting cloak and whirled
it around Li's shoulders.  They made their way out of the hell hole behind
them.  
   Eddie was just crossing a clearing, Li in tow, when an Aes Sedai stepped
into it on the opposite side.  Too far to reach her with his swords, Eddie
started to charge.  He was stopped short by a bolt of Fire that flashed over
his shoulder.  He looked over his shoulder into Li's smiling face.  Sighing,
he returned the smile and turned to go.  He felt her hand on his shoulder, so
he stopped and turned back to her.  
   "What about Dav and Sredny?  Shouldn't we go back for them?"  she wasanxious.
   "We can't worry about anyone except ourselves right now.  We have to trust
that they can get out by themselves.  And if they don't, well then we're in
trouble.  For now, we need to get back to the bikes, and that won't be easy.
So, let's go."
   They made their way through the woods, and met surprisingly little
resistance.  Eddie didn't like it.  As they neared the place where they had
left the bikes, Eddie's skin started prickling.  Something was wrong.  He
didn't know what, but something.  He touched Li's shoulder, and motioned her
to slow down.  She nodded, and Eddie crept forward into the clearing around
the bikes.  One was missing.  He knew it was Sredny's and hopped the gholam
had been the one to take it.  His and Li's was still there, and they didn't
look as though they had been tampered with.
   Gesturing back to Li to come on, Eddie went to the bikes.  Checking them,
he waited until Li was next to him, and then put her on his.  They started the
bikes, and everything was cool.  Eddie knew the noise would attract anyone who
wasn't completely deaf, so they needed to hurry.  They spun the around and
started to leave.  Eddie finally breathed a sigh of relief, when a voice
blared in his head. "Get off!  Jump!"  Barely conscious of his actions, Eddie
leaped clear of the bike just before it exploded into fiery pieces.  Rolling
away from the conflagration, Eddie felt burning pieces singing into his
clothes.  He felt shock come through his Bond, and was glad that Li appeared
unhurt.
   Picking himself up, his head ringing, Eddie wondered where that voice had
come from.  Probing his mind, he couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary.
Shaking it off, Eddie decided to leave it for later.  Already he could hear
voices coming through the woods to figure out what that explosion had been.
Racing back to Li, Eddie found her on her bike, looking anxiously for him.
"It's okay.  I'm all right.  A little extra crispy, but all right.  Now, you
need to get out of here.  Don't give me that stubborn look, Liagala!  Dammit,
I'm not in the mood.  I know you think I'm doing this because of some ego
trip, but I'm not.  I can't leave Dav behind, no matter what I said, and that
bike wasn't designed for two people."  Pulling the comm unit out of his
pocket, Eddie gave it to Li.  "Please, Li.  I need you to do this.  Okay?  I
can't leave Dav, and I need to know you're all right.  With this, you can talk
to Hap and find out where he is.  You can rendezvous with them."
   Li looked at him until Eddie thought she wasn't going to answer.  Hearing
the noises coming closer, Eddie started to open his mouth, but stopped as Li
began talking.  "All right, Eddie.  I don't like it one bit, but I can see the
sense in it.  You've been trained for this type of thing, and I haven't.
Much.  but I'm going to get Lia to step up my training so next time you won't
be able to get rid of me."  She smiled and pulled off his cloak.  "The amount
of noise this thing makes, it won't do me any good.  Be careful.  I'll wait
for you and Dav and Sredny."  Turning away quickly, she kicked the bike back
to life and sped away.
   Eddie stayed there as long as he dared, watching her ride away, then spun
around and headed into the woods.  He had to find Dav and Sredny.  Avoiding
the commotion of the approaching group of people, Eddie melted into the
darkness of the woods.  He made his way back to where he had last seen Dav and
Sredny.  It wasn't hard avoiding the few people he found.  They were amateurs,
barely deserving of the title Warder.  
   When he finally made it back to where he had last seen them, he certainly
saw evidence of them.  There were bodies everywhere, thankfully none of them
Dav;s or Sredny's.  There were a few trees that were sliced in half marking
Dav's balefire.  Cursing, Eddie went off on trail he thought was Dav's.  He
had barely started on the trail when he heard people coming through the woods.
With contempt, thinking he shouldn't even have to hide, Eddie blended into the
background.
   A group of ten or so made their way by him, and Eddie started to step out
of his hiding place, intending to continue after Dav when he felt a gun barrel
press into his back.  Freezing, Eddie heard a voice over his shoulder.  "While
most of these guys don't deserve the title, never assume you're better than
ALL of the people out here, kid.  Now I apologize for this, as I don't think
you're evil, but it's my job."
   "What-?" Eddie started, then felt an explosion on the back of head.  The
last thing he heard before he lost it was, "Fool.  You should have been
quicker."  Then he was swallowed by eternity.  


Sredny

  Sredny waited patiently as Eddie began to talk to Hap. He idly began to play
with one of his guns, spinning it around his fingers and doing all sorts of
fancy twirls. He glanced up at the high pitched noise coming from the
communicator, and raised an eyebrow. Eddie answered him by saying Dav was.
Which he did, moments later.
      They were soon on their way again, and Sredny thought on the agreement
he had made. He sure as hell didn't want to be burdened by someone barely
capable of holding their own. Still, a promise was promise, and while he had
broken promises and oaths before, the consequences genrally weren't fun. He
sighed, and later heard the sounds of an approaching patrol. He put a hand up
signaling for a stop, and slid on ahead. Slipping back he reported. "Nothing
much there. three would-be warders, two tower guards, and a partiridge in a .
err, one actual warder."
     He grinned, and they all slipped forward. Blam-Blam fell the two guards,
slish-slash from eddie went the warder, fwoosh from fire from Dav went two
trainees and a knife in the throat caught the final one. Sredny grinned,
grabbed the dagger, and handed it back to Liagala. Suddenly the voice boomed
out. Sredny instantly frowned, and like magic the guns appeared in his hands
instantly roving the trees. forces came out en mass.
      Shit. He listened as the voice thundered around. This was not good. Come
quietly and peacfully? Blood and Ashes just how stupid were these people? It
was a good thing the tower refused to hire anyone with intellect or they might
actually be in trouble. He smiled and as Eddie yelled, and went liquid. He
reappeared behind two warders. Blam-Blam. The second hadn't even started to
turn. By the creator these people were bad. Two more shots, liquid, reappear.
It truly took an effort to carry guns and a trenchcoat while near-liquid. He
filled them out again, and ridded the gene pool of two more incompentents. He
continued untill the first two clips were gone, then paused to look. Eddie and
Liagala were gone, and Dav was getting a wee bit loose on sanity, Sredny
expected he going to have to start dodging balefire soon. Sighing, he reloaded
and continued. Suddenly a rat-a-tat-tat filled the air and various bits of
nature began flying up where he had been. A machine gun? What the Ghul?
Warders aren't supposed to use machine guns! Yet there he was and the rat-a-
tat's were following, pausing only when other warders would have been hurt. So
he deserved special treatment did he? He slid the guns into place, and jjumped
into the trees. Leaping through the branches and occasionally dodging burts of
gun fire, he got to position over the warder. 
      He grabbed the branch with his legs, swung down and removed the warder
of his throat. My it had been. . .days since he had done that. It felt good.
He remained perched on the branch and let his coat flow out behind and around
him. He took out several more, but the forces just kept coming. A flash of
suddenly cut off balefire followed by an insane screech told him Dav had just
been shielded. Sredny muttered and saw Dav's unconsious and blood soaked body
being carried away. 
      "Move out! Find the two that purple renegade and her sorry excuse for a
warder, and by the creator would somebody please kill that bastard gholam!"
       Sredny grinned, and quickly reached into a pocket and brought out two
golden slicencers, Quickly attatching them he removed the captain's knee-caps,
then his elbows. Smiling he went through the tree tops, then descended on his
bike. It started without sound. Perhaps he should have gotten special bikes
for the others as well. Ah well too late now. He slid off into the darkness,
trenchcoat billowing out behind him. Time to get the heck out of dodge.
Suddenly the promise slammed back into his head. Oh shit. this was supposed to
be routine. Blast it all to Shayol Ghul and back again.. Snarling he started
to go back, when an explosion in the distance caught his eye. He rode off
towards the source of the explosion. Several minutes later anoter, smaller
explosion off to ide caught his ear. It almost sounded like a gun shot. He
swerved the bike to a stop and began to run through the trees. Suddenly he saw
a gleam. Running towards it, he saw it was Eddie's sword. Sighing he picked it
up and searched the ground. No transmitter. Blast it. He slid the sword into
the back of his trenchcoat, where it slid into a hidden sheath. He didn't use
swords that much, but on occasion they were usefull, or a job had to be done
with one so someone would think someone else had done it. Sighing he returned
to the motorcycle and continued on. He came to a thick wooded area before a
small clearing. Parking the cycle, he drew both guns and began to head through
the woods. He came upon the clearing, and Liagala, hidden in the shadows. He
smiled and opened his mouth and was suddenly cold, and fire sprung up in front
of him. Cursing he danced away only to be caught with a dagger in the thigh.
Turning he saw her flicking her arm back for the other one.
        Reflex took over. He shielded her, snapper her knife out of the air,
and rolled forward. He grabbed her by the throat, snarled and began to pull.
Suddenly reality slipped back and he managed to reverse his thrust sending her
flying into the ground, knocking her unconscious. Shit. He wondered what the
hell was wrong with her when suddenly it hit him. The sword, the guns, maybe
even the smile. She had thought he killed Eddie and was in all likelyhood
returning for her. Shit. This was not what was supposed to have happened. He
removed the dagger from his thigh and slid it into a sheath. Sighing he
grabbed her and carried her back to the bike. Liagal wasn't doing well, he had
near killed her. Despite his promise. He was going to need healing, and she
was too, more than his own limited skills in that direction could provide. He
opened a gateway to the old school, and brought out a device from a pocket.
The ferrarri appeared, and slid through the gateway. He put her in the back
seat, and slid intp the drivers seat. He glanced back at the bike, and with a
grimance blew it up. No sense letting the Tower get hold of that technology.
The black ferrarri became invisible again, and began to roll away. Shit he
thought as they started down the road. Shit. He slid into sleep, but the car
had its orders and kept on going, heading at top speeds for Tear.


Liagala

   Liagala watched, helpless, as Eddie was knocked out and dragged off.  She
gripped a dagger in shaking hands, but no more than that.  If she threw it,
one of the Warders would notice her and probably capture her too.  A fat load
of good that would do.  If she embraced saidar, she would probably be able to
tie the pair up without trouble, except for the little matter of 2 Aes Sedai
standing a few feet away.  She could probably shield them *and* tie the
Warders up without much trouble, but that would be lighting a beacon fire for
any other channelers in the area, and she was stupid enough to do that.  Also,
one of the people dragging her husband away had looked suspiciously like a
Gholam.  Grimly, she watched as he was taken away, and a single tear rolled
down her face before she checked it.  She would rescue him.  Soon.   
   Within moments, silence descended upon the woods, and she knew she was alone.
She had heard Dav's unholy shriek as he was shielded, so he was out of the
action.  The gholam had deserted, so that meant she was alone.  Well, if I'm
alone, I'm alone.  That didn't bother me before I came to the Tower, and it
won't kill me to be alone again now.  She began taking stock of her options;
she preferred knowing what was going on to charging blindly into battle,
unlike the men.  (sorry, just had to get that in there.)  Suddenly, Sredny
appeared, grinning like the traitor he was. (I'm just going along with the
gholam's RP here, I know he's not *really* a traitor)  Without thought, she
embraced the source, and sent an oven his way.  The heat in that should have
fried Shayol Ghul itself.  Realizing too late that her channeling would have
no effect, she drew one of her daggers and sent it flying, barely taking time
to aim.  Letting the weave of fire go, she glanced to see where her dagger had
landed, and just barely cut of a scream of outrage as a shield slid in place
between her and saidar.  She reached for another knife, but the light-forsaken
creature lunged forward and grabbed her throat.  Her last thought before she
slid into darkness was  If I survive this, the gholam will pay.  And if Eddie
is dead, he too will die.  By the Light and my Hope of Salvation and Rebirth,
I swear it.  Unconsciousness claimed her, and she knew no more. 
   When she awoke, she was in some sort of high-tech vehicle, and the gholam was
asleep and bleeding beside her.  Where under the light are we going?  Roughly,
she shook Sredny to wake him up, then channeled a large amount of water over
his head.  The desired effect was produced, and he awoke spluttering.  She
gave him no time to speak.  "Alright, Gholam.  Where am I, where are we going,
and what did you do with my Warder?"  She stared at him, daring him to try
anything.  She may not be able to affect *him* with the Power, but she had
more than one nasty weave prepared that would do just as much damage.