And an entire universe set and ready for evacuation. Just an average day in the Sixth Dimension. Futurefic, AU.

It has no real beginning, it has no real end. It's sort of set in a possible-world-after-the-role-play-finale setting so that part will make sense only to a few select RPpers, but the story should be most readable to those who are not in the role-play. May continuef, may not. (This is NOT a revelation of the roleplays conclusion, btw. It's just a possibility.)

Beginning of title suggested by Sarah Frost.

Of Esyx, Disasters and a Normal Weekend.

Random had never evacuated a dimension before.

Not a whole one, anyway. He'd been there while they emptied several villages, back in his original days with the Knights, and had assisted with the evacuation of a city once, when Orphix's main power station had been threatening to erupt, but those had been minor disturbances compared to this.

Because this wasn't about just getting people away from one particular location and into another before an unruly, sentient power station with a mind of its own decided to ignite its own Control Core (factory-suicide, who would've Zoar-damn figured it). This wasn't about shifting a few dumb rodents who refused to accept the fact that their nest had been constructed on an active Seam in the Molten Geysers. No. This was about emptying an entire reality. About totally vacating a game-turned-real-world that was still so young it was barely alive.

It wasn't turning out to be an enjoyable procedure. Still, at least most of the creatures Random had met today were more obliging than the rodents in Molten Geysers had been.

It took them eighty-five milicycles to get everyone out of the place that, in the old days, had been named Rocky Straits: Ground Zero and into the hidden pathways en route to Magery City. Normally this journey would take about ten milicycles at most, provided that the power was on. Magery City was only two portal stops away from the top of the Rocky Straits Peaks, but due to the fact that there were at least eight-hundred people (more, if Chuck's stats were anything to go by) needing to get there at the same time, the fact that the ground-to-summit-level portal hadn't functioned for cycles, and the fact that most of these people didn't have any idea how to deal with terrain like the Straits (why in the name of Zoar they'd thought it would be a good idea to go there in the first place when their homes had been invaded was completely beyond Random).

Add this to the small detail that a lot of the sixth dimension's inhabitants just weren't that bright and you had a rescue mission in potential jeopardy before they'd even got off the ground.

And it didn't help that some of them point blank refused to listen to humans.

Mark was running out of patience.

'I've tried everything, Random,' he pointed out after he got back from trying (and failing) to prevent another Harpix from attacking a passing rodent. 'Everything. And none of them are paying any attention.'

'Have you tried shooting at them?' Random suggested, only half serious.

'Yeah, actually I have,' Mark muttered. He might have been joking, too, but somehow, Random doubted it. 'Well… in the air. In front of them. Lowest setting, obviously. They just keep right on shuffling past me, as usual. I might as well not be here.'

'To them you aren't,' Random pointed out, pausing to block the path of a Pixiel which had wandered around Mark. It didn't ignore Random, that was for sure. But then giant, metal-claw wielding cyborgs were pretty hard to disregard. The Pixiel paused for a second, staring at the claw and opening and closing it's transparent eye covers in a semblance of blinking, then it looked up at him. 'Go on,' Random said, bluntly. 'Not this way, that way. Shoo.'

The creature squeaked and did as it was told, scurrying backwards away from the claw and rejoining the bedraggled mass of Cowboys and Zombies, Harpix and Humanics, Rodents and the occasional Serviceable Oxen, all clambering steadily up the treacherous pathways leading towards the portal out of the Straits. Mark watched the little creature go irritably. 'Oh, sure, they pay attention to you.'

'Of course they do. How can you ignore this?' Random lifted his claw and gestured.

'Yeah, well, so much for saving their lives,' Mark muttered. 'I don't get this, Random… I'm trying to help, what good is that if they keep ignoring me?'

'Oh, they know alright. But that doesn't mean they're going to care, does it?'

Mark sighed abruptly, as if remembering something important that he'd forgotten. He looked at least as bad as Random felt. They'd been at this for forty human hours without a break, and that was tough, even on a cyborg. It wasn't like they could just stop for lunch, after all. Mark had already had a number of disagreements with the few minions (whoops, Random meant citizens, of course) who actually paid him attention and really hadn't liked the looks of him, Lightning Knight Insignia on his shirt or no Lightning Knight insignia.

Eighteen years old. Random rounded that off to about thirty-six Kryillian cycles. When Random had been Mark's age, he'd been in barely his second year at the academy. Birth-Mortals usually required more time, anyway. (What was it that his classmate, Herika, used to call them? "Born in skin, not in tin"? …Yes, poetry had never been her strong point) and Random had been mortal-born himself, once. (He supposed that made him "Born from skin, turned to tin" instead. Or it would, if he cared for bad poetry as much as Herika had.) 'In their defence, Mark, most of them can't help it. For them, just looking at you feels werid.'

'…Right. This is that Reality-Field thing again, isn't it?' Mark mumbled. 'It wasn't this bad back in Siclia Falls…'

'The people in Siclia Falls were human,' Random said. 'They didn't care. I wonder if maybe it's that which confuses them,' he pointed at the amulet piece strung around Mark's neck. Truth be told, he had no idea why they'd allowed the kid to keep it. Ace had muttered something about it "having a place there" but it still seemed just a little bit foolish, to Random, to leave even a fraction of one of the world's most powerful magical artefacts in the hands of a teenage boy.

Still, who was he to talk about foolish? He'd agreed to return to the field, after all. He'd come back to the Lightning Knights, even after the academy had been raised to the ground, and he knew there was a risk that any moment he would turn on them and…

Random reminded himself not to think about it. Thinking about his evil side sometimes tended to aggravate it. 'Everyone around here has issues with humans, Mark, for one reason or another. And with you not just being human, but also coming from another world, it reduces your susceptibility to this reality's general populace. Their extra-worldly vision is seriously impaired around you due to the Reality field around your body not being identical to theirs.'

'We've explained it before.' Mark nodded. 'Yeah, and I guess I can understand, but… "susceptibility"? What am I, a disease?'

'Well…' Random sought his already rather overwrought brain for memory of the extra dimensional biology lessons he was sure he'd had once. Small talk like this had been going on for hours –it seemed to keep his evil side placated and gave them something to think about other than the endless stream of people trailing past them. 'Sort of. Or rather, you're an incongruity to the natural scheme of things. This world's idea of "Natural" anyway.'

Mark blinked slowly, looking too tired to really care. 'What's that in English?'

Random sighed. 'It means that when people can't understand you they prefer to ignore you. And those that do understand your presence here find it disturbing enough to warrant an attack. You're an anomaly, Mark. You don't belong in this world, anymore than Chuck, or Kat. And the minority always adapts to the majority world's rules and problems. Because you're an abnormality here, the world just... shoved you into it's reality flow rather than attempting to shape everything to suit you. Plus, your also being a mortal isn't helping your case. I figure they'd ignore you anyway.'

'I've been wondering about that.' Mark added, looking back at the steadily moving procession. 'There's not many of them… Humans, I mean. Or humanoids, for that matter.

'There used to be more of them. Many more, but then, "mortal" and "human" aren't necessarily the same thing. A lot of the creatures here are mortal. Which means that yes- they will still die if you allow them to walk off a cliff.'

He pointed suggestively in a direction somewhere behind Mark's shoulder as he said that, and Mark turned around quickly. He noticed what was happening in the nick of time and bolted away, to where a large rodent mother (who's half a dozen or so children had mercifully stayed back, well away from the edge) had detached herself from the moving procession of evacuees and was currently staggering in the direction of the cliff face.

'Hey!'

It ignored him and kept waddling towards the cliff with its shoulders set. The rodents were particularly irritating when it came to acknowledging mortals. It seemed that they could smell them a mile away. Random remembered them being fairly harsh to him back in his early patrol days.

'Uh… Miss Rat? Rodent, I mean… whoever you are, it's not safe the! No, seriously don't go that way! That's a straight drop down!'

The rat seemed utterly uninterested in him. Its eyes were fixed resolutely on the cliff edge. It wasn't a straight drop, as Mark said, but it certainly wasn't a big slope before you ended up falling into oblivion. Random wondered for a moment if a Siren song had gotten to it (damn he'd thought they'd radio-ed away that frequency of siren call) but the radio limiters seemed to be holding, and the Rat certainly didn't look insane.

'For god's sakes, are you crazy?' Mark yelled, obviously not caring whether the creature heard him or not. 'That's a cliff! A cliff, you damned—' Thwap. '—Ow!'

It hadn't actually been that hard a thump, by rodent estimates. But then, Mark was hardly superhuman and he flinched back as the claw grazed his neck. The rat gave an irritated huff before continuing down the cliff face. Mark was not deterred, and looked about ready to follow her –albeit with a very annoyed look on his face, but by then the rodent had vanished over the cliff. Random's breath caught a little.

A few seconds later, the creature re-emerged, utterly unharmed and with something squirming under her arm, looking far more like a human rat than any kind of Sixth Dimensional one.

A baby, Random realised. It must've crawled away from it's pack and over the edge when they hadn't been looking.

Mark shuffled, still clutching his ear. '…Oh. I… Okay, I didn't see that, I… I thought…' The creature gave him a long, hard stare. Mark almost managed not to flinch. 'Uh… sorry?'

'Zoar freakin' humans,' the rodent muttered. It's actually speaking to him made Mark jump, a little. The other infants squirmed with laughter. The mother shook its head, tucking it's wriggling child more firmly under it's paw 'Thinkin' this one here is dense. Thinkin' she'd just waltz right into the End of the World, sure I will, human, finish myself off quicker than th' damn Forces of the Lord can, eh?' She shuffled back into line, pausing to give Random a prod in the stomach with one long, protruding claw. 'Keep yer mortals under control there, 'Borg. Harmless, for the most part. But more trouble than they's is worth, the lot of em.' Random bit back a smile as the Rodent shuffled onwards, back to it's place in line, shoving a Serviceable Ox out of the way and muttering to itself… ('Damn mortals, give em a badge an' pretty piece a jewellery an' they think the run the highways, they do.')

Mark slapped a hand against his face, both of them watching as the rodent hobbled back to her brood and dumped the baby unceremoniously on the ground with its brothers. 'Brilliant…' he muttered.

'Well at least she paid attention.' Random hadn't meant to sound quite as amused by Mark's predicament as he did. Still it could have been worse. At least nothing had died, this time. There had been no question of Random getting there in time, not with the tred limiting his movement.

Mark did have a point, though. He probably would have been more useful if people would listen when he was trying to warn them.

'Yeah. Wonderful. That makes a grand total of six who've responded when I spoke to them, five out of which took the time to insult me. I'm starting to understand what the Screaming Roaches feel like whenever they look at me.'

'I sincerely hope you don't, I don't need you having a panic fit.' Random glanced at the rodent mother giving her disobedient children gentle thumps around the back of the head with her claw as they followed the procession. 'Maybe you're trying too hard, don't forget these people aren't used to listening to anyone. Much less a "Zoar-freaking Human".

'You know Heather would probably call that speciesist.'

'Is that a real word?'

'No, but it should be.'

'Uhuh… yeah. You know, this is why we tried to get you stationed at the bottom of the Straits, Mark. You're no good to us up on the precipice if nobody's going to listen to you. At least down there, there are no cliffs for people to walk off.'

'You know that wouldn't work.'

'Yes, I do. You know, rule thirteen section twelve in the guidebook: "dying for the cause", had small print underneath it saying it only applies to serious situations.'

'…The Code has small print?'

'You bet it does, kid. What? You think it stopped at "Do Right and Fear Not"? That's just the abbreviation for quick usage. I was there in the days when they changed the dam thing every two years trying to keep with the current political climate. At one point it was "Do Right and Fear No Taxation". Don't look at me like that it's true.' Random shook his head. He was fairly sure it had been real, anyway. It may have just been a joking misprint in the Academy Gazette. 'Morals are a funny thing, kid… or rather, laws are funny. Justice actually is always the same. Laws change depending on who's making… what is it?'

He recognized that unfocussed flicker in Hollander's eyes. He'd seen it before and it never boded well. 'Mark? You alright?'

'Ngh. Yeah,' Mark blinked a few times, looking up from what had apparently been a momentary space-out. The glimmer in his eyes was gone. 'It's not me.'

Random hesitated, suddenly feeling more nervous. 'Ace, then? What happened? Is he okay?'

'He's fine, I think…' Mark patted his own shoulder. 'He just took a bit of damage here. That's s the worst of it. Just never saw the Harpix. Looks like I'm not the only one being ignored.' Mark smiled a little, then his face turned more serious. 'Apparently we're running out of time. Chuck's been in contact with him. We've only got another forty-eight hours, human time.'

Nearly one hundred cycles. Random did some quick mathmatics. '...That's not enough.'

'Well it's what we've got. And that's with Chuck pushing all the boundaries. He's even got Mel working from the sidelines.'

'And Kellamy?'

'Ace is too far away from him to be sure, but he didn't sound too confident in Kellamy's… well… moral orientation.' Mark looked at Random, blinking. 'Sorry, I think that's all the info we're gonna get. What about your communicator?'

'Still not working. It's all these damn power fluxes...' Random clenched his one good fist tighter than the claw could ever clutch at anything. 'Damn it. You're sure you don't know where Kellamy is?'

'If Ace doesn't know then I don't. And the last I checked –he didn' looked worried. 'Maybe Kellamy's pay check ran out and he abandoned us.'

'I doubt it. Can you check again?'

Mark bit down on his lower lip. 'Random, I can't. It's not like ordering a pizza, you know.'

'Not like ordering a…' Random blinked.

'Pizza. Yeah. Chuck's comparison, not mine. I think it means thatI can't just ring up the Tele-connection and have what I ask for be there in thirty minutes or less. I've just got to… take it when it comes, that's all. If I hear from him you'll be the first to know.' Mark took another quick glance around. The crowd was still moving at a steady pace which Random was really starting to realise wasn't nearly fast enough. 'He'll be fine. He's Ace.'

Random nodded. Or tried to nod.

And that was when he heard it: a familiar, whirring, buzzing sound that made the crowds scurry and mutter as it swept close enough over their heads to ruffle fur. Mark grinned as a shape shifted into view overhead, and Random felt the soft scorch of nearby engines.

'So boys, havin' fun saving the world without me?'

It was… strange, seeing Sparx without a uniform, but the Lightning Flash was ever constant. Ace hadn't had the heart to tell her that technically, as it was Lightning Knight property, she should've handed it back to the Repo debt. upon her formal debriefing, but since when had Sparx cared about that?

Besides, they no longer had a Repo Department. Or an academy, for that matter. It had vanished when the world was remade, and now the thought of it all dying again so soon…

Random didn't want to think about it. Even his evil side wasn't particularly fond of the idea of his entire junkyard evaporating into non-existence. Of course, this was mostly a very large precaution (better to evacuate a world into a temporary DataStream hold up now than wait until it was too late) but still… the risks of all of time just ending were getting far too common in a world so young.

Chuck seemed to think that this was all perfectly natural. That there was bound to be some glitches. This was, after all, the early childhood of a world but…

Random pushed those thoughts away and looked back at Sparx, now watching the procession wandering on below her.

'…Or escaping it, looks more like,' Sparx muttered, leaning over her handlebars. I got the message at home, like everyone else. It's kinda annoying, you know, not being the first person to find out about this stuff…'

'Sparx!' Mark finally managed to say.

'Hey there, squirt.' Sparx gave him a grin. 'Still haven't mastered the fine art of that uniform, huh?'

'Oh, very funny,' Mark muttered. Once, Sparx, –just once– I'd like to meet up with you without uniforms, or my lack of height coming into question, you know?'

'Yeah and on the day that happens the world'll end. Speaking of which…' she leaned back in her seat and looked uneasily into the crowd. Even through her usual cocky attitude, Random could sense the trepidation rolling off of her in waves.

'…Man, I've been watching you two, and what do you do? Drop the freakin' innocent lives off a cliff. I'm telling ya, you boys are useless without me. Like this whole Zoar damned world. Wonder how long the hissy fit will go on this time. I figure you've never had to evacuate before, have you, Mark?'

'Not like this,' Mark agreed uneasily. 'And we don't know if it's permanent.'

'Man you're such a downer, Kid. Of course it's not permanent. This is just a glitch that's all. It'll be dealt with before Chuck dude can say "It's dealt with".'

Random wished he could feel so sure. 'Sparx, why are you here?'

'Well you're evacuating the world, duh,' Sparx rolled her eyes. 'Why shouldn't I be here? After all, I'm a civilian now. Still, I'd sooner be down there with you.'

'Is that an offer?' Random asked. He hadn't meant to let his annoyance show in his voice, but he couldn't help it. Sparx had obviously powered up recently and he hadn't. He lacked the energy for banter, and Sparx…

Her appearance always sparked memories. No pun intended.

Four cycles ago, Mark had come to the Sixth Dimension. Chuck, the girl, Kat… so many others had come and overstayed their welcome, trying to help them rebuild this world after Kilobyte nearly destroyed it, and somehow they jhad ended up in the Uniforms of a team of heroes that no longer existed in formal writing… and Random, for some Zoar forsaken reason, had come back with them. He didn't know why...

No. Wait. He did know why… Because Mark had asked him to.

Damned mortal.

But Sparx hadn't been amongst them anymore. Had actually asked for a formal debriefing. Things had been… different since then. Never quite the same. But Random had been growing used to changes.

'Might be. Actually I was just passing through that messy whirlpool thing in the Deadly Desert. Figures you guys would screw up somewhere.'

'The Deadly Desert?' Mark frowned, clearly working something out in his head. 'But… we never went there.'

'No, you didn't. That's the problem, apparently,' Sparx shrugged, hanging recklessly in the. A few of the procession stopped to look up at her but, for the most part, they kept on moving. Random thought he heard a grumpy old voice from somewhere higher up in the crowds muttering "Damn low flyin' mortals, I can smell the things everywhere."

'Wait, Sparx, look… not that I'm not pleased to see you, but how, exactly, did we screw up? There's nobody in Deadly. It's a desert.

Sparx shook her head. 'Nope. There's people there allright. I'd say you missed… oh, maybe a couple'a million.'

Random momentarily entertained the thought that Sparx had suffered from a massive graphics-mirage. 'A… million?'

'Don't sweat it Random, they're easy to miss,' Sparx clinked her fingers (she was wearing thin gloves, he noticed. Not night regulation and not designed for flying, either) in the air.

And then all of a sudden she was surrounded.

Thousands of them. Millions, maybe, just like she'd said, and each one like a tiny speck of light. They clung to her hair and tickled her face, allowing themselves to be sucked casually in and out of the exhaust system on the back of the Flash. Each of them glistening in a thousand colours and barely visible as individuals through the glare of their own light. But they were individual –Every last sparkle, hanging around in one massive throng and singing like Dylithia-engines.

Mark, who had obviously never seen the Esyx up close, made do with just starting at them. 'Oh, wow, Sparx what the…'

'The little guys here said something about hanging around just under the surface, between the sand and the underwater caverns,' Sparx shrugged, signalling to a small red speck of light, slightly bolder than the others as it hovered on the palm of her hand. 'Didn't you guys think to check the undergrounds?'

'I… guess we didn't,' Random muttered, watching as several of the braver creatures detached themselves from Sparx in other to play with his mechanical tread, trying to find a way into his circuitry.

'Sheesh. Like I said. You guy's would be totally lost without me. Anyway I figured you might need some help.' Sparx brushed casually at the creatures clinging to her arms. If he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn she was flirting, with them. 'Mind if I come outta retirement for a while?'

'I'm sure we have a spare uniform somewhere…'

'Oh, ha ha, pipsqueak,' but Sparx did grin a little bit, blowing at the Esyx on her palm and dispersing them. Many of them seemed to act on some unspoken order and quickly joined the long possession heading up the Rocky cliffs. 'You know I could always take that offer back, not like you Knights need me or anything.'

'Uh… no,' Mark said, perhaps a little too quickly. Then he smiled a bit to cover up the obvious embarrassment. 'I mean… thanks, Sparx. To tell you the truth, we could do with someone around who these guys will actually pay attention to.'

'That's why you got me, kid. Always was.' Sparx leapt from the flash to the ground, bringing a few hundred Esyx with her as she fell, they coated her like a blanket and shuddered when she hit the ground. 'Gah! Hey, hey, okay, you guys! We had a deal, remember? No kissing! I'm glad to be here, now… get back with your pals already. Go on, Scat.'

And the Esyx did.

Random watched them go, though they paused to inspect the two knights as they passed. The surprise came when they came to Mark. Flighty little creatures that they were, Random had never imagined they'd touch on an utterly-out-of-joint mortal and yet they did. They buzzed around the amulet thoughtfully for a few seconds, much to Mark's utter confusion. Particularly when they lifted, and made his face sparkle. Mark sneezed. Random figured he would've been amused, except a few of them were messing about with him too and his mechanics really didn't react well to sparks of errant energy. He lurched back a little and the Esyx almost seemed to laugh as one before rushing away to join the throng, Sparx brushing a few strays out of her coat.

Mark blinked. 'Uh, Sparx, what was that?'

'Oh, yeah. That was them kissing you. It's how they say hello. And goodbye. And how they ask how you are. And how they ask your name. And… well, actually kissing seems to form most of their conversational techniques. They're like those people in your world… what did you call em? The ones who eat Staffhead-like things.'

'…I think you mean the French, Sparx.'

'Yeah. French. They're very emotional creatures,' she said, nodding as if she understood. 'They like you, kid.'

Mark's face twitched into another smile. 'You think so?'

'They say so. And they also say your haircut sucks.'

Random couldn't tell if Sparx was joking or not but it seemed to them it hardly mattered. He watched Mark and Sparx just look at each other for a few moments. Even with all the things that had happened since the world reshaped, Random didn't think he would ever get used to those two being in the same room together. Or in this case, on the same ragged cliff side. There was an apology in their expressions, somewhere. And a "so you should be, damned kid," somewhere else. Followed by an "I'm glad you're okay," and the occasion "jerk, cut it out" and "I'm not going to forget, you know," but Random's ability to translate those two kind of ended there.

'Well, we need someone to track down Ace on the Peaks,' Mark said eventually, seemingly ignoring Sparx's recent barb. 'He and Kellamy just went off my radar over there. I think he's okay but there's no sign of Kellamy.'

'Oh, great, you actually employed lefty?'

'He… offered his serviced,' Random shrugged, uncaringly. 'We needed the help.'

'Yeah, he offered 'em for a price. I'll bet.'

'Yes, but not nearly as high as what you charge for your body-guarding services,' Random said.

'That's business, Random. This is saving the world. Now do you guys need some free of charge help in kicking the butts of some renegades, or what?'

Mark was using his "some thing's never change expression as he spoke to Sparx. 'Okay, fine, but forget about the renegades, I need a hand here, first. People keep trying to walk off cliffs, and none of them will listen when I tell them to stop, so… Think you can do that, without scaring the people we're trying to rescue off the cliffs in the first place, Sparx?' Mark glanced downwards into the slopes. 'The lines are running out now, anyway I think we're almost all there.'

'Okay, great!' Sparx grinned, tactfully ignoring the rumble that shuddered beneath them even as Mark spoke. The dimension always quaked like that these days. It was difficult to tell if a disaster were coming or not. 'Let's get this party started.'

'It started three kilohours ago, Sparx,' Random added. 'Without you, I might add. You're late.'

'Yeah, yeah, c'mon kid, slow me where the crazies are. Who do I need to zip into shape for you guys? Who's been screwin' with Random??'

'…Uh. No one?'

'No one. Huh, yeah, right. Anyway, come on, Mark, you're a mortal and those rats can totally smell it on ya. I bet they've been giving you a hard time about this.'

'Sparx, really, we're not doing that bad.'

'Then where'd you get that mark on your ear?'

'…Accident.'

'Yeah, sure. Right. Accident. Just point em out, you hear? And while we're talkin get me a line to Ace already, I need to talk to him like now.'

'Sparx, it's not like ordering a pizza, you know.'

'Pizza?'

Random could've sworn he heard the familiar sound of Mark's hand slapping against his own forehead in annoyance, but it was muffled by Sparx's voice. He watched them shifting crowds of evacuees together. Beneath him, the sixth dimension seemed to spasm slightly.

A zombie shuffled past and paused to stare at him, seeming, as many were, unruffled by all the fuss. And why should it panic? This was just another apocalypse, and they happened on an average of once per week…

Random remembered things from the world before that no longer existed anymore. Zombies, however, seemed pretty much impossibly to get rid of. After all, how could you kill something that was already dead in the first place? And then there was the fact that many of them had been in the Haunted House along with a few select others, back when it had been all that was left of the old world, before this one came into being. They had left a lot behind.

'Darn tootin' Esyx there, pard'ner,' the Zombie muttered, pointing up at Random's right ear – or where his right ear was half cast in metal anyway. Random glanced sideward's and noticed the Esyx, clinging gently to his face and murmuring, almost as if it had fallen asleep there.

'Thanks, I know.'

With a mutter and huff, the zombie shuffled on back to the rows, and left Random standing there, amidst the rows of refugees, the Esyx clinging to his face plate and whispering.

To think they'd left the poor things in a dying desert. Random sent them a mental apology. Technically they were lucky Sparx had been around. Just as they were lucky now.

It was good to have Sparx back, even if only for a little while.

What was that old part of the code, that had always seemed to stick? Through each and every political climate? "Anyone can be a hero if they put their mind to it. It's stopping that's difficult." That was probably also just a misconception from the old Academy Gazette, Random realised, but he liked the sound of it anyway. or at least, this half of him did.

It was better than "Do Right and Fear No Taxation", at any rate. He watched Sparx shifting up the cliff with her sword, shoving some panicked Pixiels back into line and Mark uneasily avoiding a nearby rat. There were a few Esyx still clinging curiously to the back of his neck where the boy couldn't see them. A strange, airlike speecies, which didn't mind Mark and cared nothing for his own, rather mutilated state; Random could grow to like the Esyx.

A dark sensation stirred for a second, but never quite rose up past Random's spine. These days, it rarely ever did.

And for just a very brief, uneasy moment, peace reigned over the restless evacuees of the ever shuddering Sixth Dimension.

Fin.

References and Homages.

The "Deadly Desert"

is a reference to the film "Return to Oz", based on the book "The Wizard of Oz" by Frank Miller. In that fiction the deadly desert turns anyone who touches it to sand (that part of the movie completely creeped me out). In mine, it's a death trap more because of the Underground Buzzbeast and Sand beasts than anything else.