I own (Dramatic Pause) NOTHING!

Okay, back to Chimera and our various resurrected heroes, former outlaw, Problem Solver, Not-Villian, and Rapture's Not-Messiah.

In this chapter is an awesome song, parts of it, by Miracle of Sound. The song is Little Sister and was chosen for Delta for obvious reasons. I claim no ownership of the song but would recommend that you check it and those from the same source because they are quite good.

We Will Begin With Ace and Delta still in L's maze/puzzle box/funhouse thing. L is from the manga/anime Death Note for those not already aware, he's almost never not eating something composed primarily of sugar. Alma Wade is assisting L by forcing Ace to defend herself and Delta from progressively more powerful and complex psychic attacks. This Alma was raised by Alex without going through the events of the F.E.A.R series, as a result she is...off, but not the same kind/level of crazy canon Alma is.

Planet Chimera: L's Test Chamber.

Alma sat on her swing, watching the younger psychic rearrange the battlefield between them. Her own mental field was composed of forests and fields and a small town outside a much larger city. It was mostly intact with only the very edges having been scarred by the full blown war simulation the battle had become.

Ace maintained the stream of psychic energy that was holding back Alma's own sustained psi beam. She doubted that the older girl would kill her, but knew that it wouldn't be good regardless if she let the beam hit her. Her own blast was being pushed back steadily inch by inch as Alma gradually increased the power behind her own attack.

The younger of the two had made her field out of a combination of Las Vegas and Metropolis with random wilderness dotting the combined city, they were the easiest things for her to picture and manifest since she was extremely familiar with them. The city was in ruins and getting worse every second. Her soldiers and tanks were no match for those manifested by Alma and she couldn't track the nightmare creatures that seemed to appear at random to aid Alma's military constructs.

Alma smiled when Ace lashed out at the invaders in her city. Steel spikes erupted from the ground to impale soldiers or impede vehicles. Lightning struck from the sky to knock helicopters and jets out of the air. It was the apparent effort it cost her that was the source of Alma's amusement.

That, and the fact the opposing beams of energy had moved a great deal closer to Ace since she had begun exerting her power on the battlefield so directly.

"You need to focus more. You aren't as strong as me, but you should be doing better than this all the same. I don't think you ever received proper psionic training, did you?" Alma said across the miles of distance between the two.

"You're distracting me! How am I supposed to focus-" said Ace, before cutting herself off when the beams' collision point began sliding toward her more rapidly.

Ace let large areas of her field vanish and threw all the power the action freed up into repelling Alma's psionic beam. She was able to push it back a fair distance before Alma matched her power again and resumed gradually forcing the beams back to Ace's position.

"Like I said: focus." Alma smiled, her hair parting to reveal blood red orbs for eyes and a wicked grin.

Delta mulled it over in his head. Again and again he asked himself the very same quandary the riddle etched onto the raised platform at the center of the room presented.

"What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder?"

Delta was no lummox. His experience in Rapture and through all of the other puzzles in this out of place structure had taught even himself that much.

But damn it did riddles like these go over his head!

No small feat when you consider he's over seven feet tall.

Standing there, frozen like a statue, he said it in his head again. "What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder?"

He closed his eyes.

"What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder?"

Whatever ground Ace had managed to gain back in the beam-o-war she was having with Alma had long since been lost again with the approaching beam getting ever closer.

In acts of desperation, Ace began cannibalizing her mental projections. Portions of buildings, infantryman, Humvees, tanks, helicopters, and planes were sent to the aether, their energy placed back into Ace's beam. At most, this gradual cannibalization bought her seconds before she was trapped in the same predicament once more.

Then, a thought came to her.

As quickly as she could, she cannibalized all of her remaining projections, their energy surging into her beam at once. Like the Tidal wave that break's a dam, the sudden increase seemed to take Alma by surprise, and the older psychic was consumed by it along with her own projections.

In a different sense, so too, was Ace. Collapsing onto the nothingness below her feet, she panted, her face sweating like torrential rain. "I may feel like I just ran a marathon on Jupiter, but at least-"

That was when she saw it. From the nothing, Alma's battlefield reappeared like a mirage. It's creator was not too far behind.

"I have to say: taking advantage of my confidence and complacency and overwhelming me with a sudden, unexpected move like that was impressive. You're really improving." Alma stopped swinging on her swing and put a finger to her chin. "However, you're still just performing the mental equivalent of hitting something with a hammer until it breaks or is the shape you want. As I've been told by Alex, it was your lack of familiarity with all of the subtleties involved in being psionic that gave you the express pass to Chimera...and me."

Out of her mind's eye, Ace thought she heard something growl behind her. Turning though, she found nothing but more black. More nothingness.

"It's also why you're going to lose our lovely little...game."

Delta's eyes flashed open when he felt a familiar stabbing sensation in his brain that he had felt too many times in the past few minutes and heard Ace's cries of agony.

"Delta! Hurry!" she said.

Now, Delta could no longer keep still. Instead, he found himself pacing around the platform, muttering the riddle to himself like a madman, hoping that such repetition would reveal the answer.

"What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder? What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder? What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder!?"

Whatever the answer was to this stupid, confounded, convoluted riddle, trying to find it was giving Delta more rage than wonder.

She had brought up her psi shields in the nick of time. That didn't stop Alma's nightmare creatures from straining them to the best of their abilities with gnarled teeth, claws, acid, spines, and tails.

After what seemed like hours of gritting her teeth and yelling out, Ace decided that she had enough, and lashed out with an assault of her own. It took the form of a psionic wave of force that annihilated them and her shields at the same time.

Spent, she didn't have time to rest before she noticed a shadow descend upon her (which was impressive, considering how black this mindscape already was). She looked up to see Alma, now the size of a skyscraper, standing with her index finger pointed right at her.

"Like I said: you lose."

A beam of mental energy poured out from said finger.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Delta stopped, sounding not unlike a car when the brakes were slammed. "Ace!"

He ran over towards the girl, who now lay unconscious on the ground,and held her limp body in his arms. His eyes, for the first time since his 'death,' flared a bright and menacing red.

"Hm? Alright," the voice over the intercom, still nameless, said as if to someone else. "Delta, GLaDOS suggested you may like this song, specifically, about halfway through. I think she may be enjoying the return of her radio privileges a bit too much though."

Music began playing, drowning out anything else the man had to say.

I walk through the water with my only friend

We search for dead angels, on each other depend

I'll follow her lead now wherever she'll go

Little sister, you're all that I know

Little sister, you're all that I know

Delta stood, still holding Ace, and snarled at the room itself. He knew perfectly well that the song was specifically directed at him. Lightning began arcing from his arms, joined almost instantly by fire. Neither Plasmid harmed Ace.

And I dream of the sea

Broken machinery

And I dream of the sea

There's no rapture for me

(walk through the water with my only friend

search for dead angels on each other depend)

The haunting music continued as Delta roared, a sound not suited to a human but perfectly natural for a Big Daddy. Without releasing his hold on Ace he lashed out in all directions, lightning and fire blasted at the walls. The pure force of telekinesis battered the platform where the thrice damned riddle was inscribed. Ice spread around his feet and angry hornets swarmed out of his body to buzz madly around the room searching for something they could sting, something for Delta to hurt.

And I dream of the sea

Broken machinery

And I dream of the sea

There's no rapture for me

(walk through the water with my only friend

search for dead angels on each other depend)

Though he still hated the city, at least things had been simpler in Rapture.

"I could fight there, kill there. Any threat was simple in Rapture! I can't hurt a bloody riddle!"

Delta continued to turn randomly, searching for anything he could damage or destroy. Even after his Eve was exhausted and his powers ceased their assault on the room itself, he continued to roar and rage at the world around him.

It was then, that the stabbing sensation in his brain returned tenfold as greatly as it had ever been, bringing him down to all fours.

"Now now Delta. I know it's hard for someone so used to solving their problems by "killing it with fire", as the kids say these days, but I'm afraid that the only way you and Ace get to make it out of this situation alive is if you properly apply your mind to solving Mr. Nigma's riddle before Ms. Wade turns you both into vegetables," the still unnamed voice said. "I don't like vegetables. Just ask anyone here. So, my advice to you would be to let go of that pre-programmed anger you have boiling inside, and focus at the task at hand. Otherwise, to be frank, I'll have to clean up the mess."

Delta didn't know who the voice on the other end was or where he was, but he swore at that moment, that if he ever saw him, he'd deck him with all his might. Not just because of how annoying he was, but because of how...right he was.

He had wasted enough time thinking about how much simpler Rapture was and taking his aggression out on nothing.

So, he sat on the ground, one of his legs crossed over the other, and focussed on the riddle. Only on the riddle.

"What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder? What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder? "What tells a-"

He felt the stabbing sensation again, now leaning on both his elbows.

"What tells a story, but has no logic, happens fast, yet remains with you, and creates only wonder? What-"

He felt the stabbing sensation again, and was now sprawled against the floor.

"What tells a story-"

He felt it again.

"Has no logic-"

And again.

"Happens fast-"

And again.

"Remains with you-"

And again.

"-and creates only wonder?"

His eyes had long since stopped tearing up, and were now leaking blood.

It was then though, when his eyes were literally seeing red, that it came to him. He could feel the presence in his mind stop her next onslaught mid-way as his mind echoed with a single thought. "A riddle."

With the speed of a turtle, he got to his feet, and said both words aloud, as a whisper. "A riddle."

"Uh, say that-"

"A riddle! A riddle! A bloody god damned and sent to bloody perdition riddle you sick, twisted, son of a bitch!" Delta yelled out to the voice. He fell back onto his back a moment later, unable to remain standing any longer.

For a while, there was silence. Delta wasn't sure if anything was happening in the room. The last attack before he came to his answer had popped the capillaries in his eyes and rendered him blind.

It was then, out of nowhere, that he felt something lightly brush his skin just below his still bleeding right eye. A quick inspection, limited to only touch, convinced him it was a small scrap of paper. He could feel more of them landing on him now and wasn't sure what to think of the oddity. The sound of trumpets suddenly filling the room with a triumphant blast of music was almost enough to shock him to his feet. His muscles didn't seem to be working correctly though, so he just sort of twitched like a fish out of water.

"Congratulations Delta. You have passed the test of the-the, ummm...Alma what-" The voice got quiet, not clearly audible over the intercom, but continued speaking.

"I don't know-Me to help you-"

"I hadn't really-Perhaps the-

"No, that's-something more-"

"That doesn't really capture the-"

"I'd have brought a list if you'd- Maybe mix up the three and-"

"-No, that's too convoluted-Would they even understand the reference?"

"Whatever you are going to call it, I would suggest you figure it out quickly and repair the damage you did. I don't want to have to clone them both again so soon, so do try to keep them alive," GLaDOS chimed in suddenly, sounding mildly annoyed.

"Alright, fine!" said the still unnamed voice. He made a sound that was like coughing into his hand and said, "Ms. Wade and I have reached an agreement, and have decided that you have officially passed the test of the "The Awesometackular Tesseract of Erakus with love from Canterlot."

Delta stretched the muscles on his face to convey how utterly baffled and livid he was.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that! That last part was Alma's idea, not mine! She's watching way too many ponies on t.v. as of late. Speaking of -"

"What?" The psychic questioned, conveying quite well what expression she was directing at her equally unseen compatriot. "Oh, right. Fix them."

The last word was spoken from inside the room, only several feet from Delta's head. He didn't bother to try and see Alma, being blind and all, but he didn't need to see her to point a lightning charged hand at her, as long as he didn't fire he could maintain the threat without draining what little Eve he had regenerated in the last few minutes.

"Calm down. The test is over so I'm going to fix you two." As she spoke Delta could tell she was moving to stand between him and the still unconscious Ace. "This might tingle a little. Try to ignore any strange impulses you may feel. That's just your brain rewiring itself since I knocked a few things loose before. Sorry by the way."

An odd sensation crept over Delta, and he assumed Ace would be feeling the same if she were aware of her surroundings. It was similar to the sensation he had experienced when using a "Med Hypo" from a first aid kit to heal himself in Rapture. Less than a minute later he could see again and was able to push himself to his feet, though it still hurt to move.

"You'll be fine in a few minutes as long as you don't overwork yourself," a young woman in a red dress told him. Clearly, it was Alma. "Oh, Ace is awake."

"What happen-ARGH!" Ace practically roared and hurled a blast of pure force at Alma the moment she saw her. The wave of power parted around the more experienced psychic and she just grinned back.

"Still recovering I see. You should wait a while before trying to fight me again," Alma told Ace cheerily.

The door on the other side of the room opened, revealing a forest that was clearly not on Mars, or the imitation of Mars they had entered the maze from.

"Time to get moving. You can pick up your prizes on the way out. I've got other things to do, so L will have to finish up here. Bye!" Alma smiled at them and flickered, disappearing completely without warning.

The two remained there for a moment before, in stereo, they sighed with relief and walked towards the forest. As soon as they stepped out of the Tesseract, however, a person appeared, sitting on an old wooden chest. The person was a young looking Japanese man. He had black hair that was simultaneously shaggy and spiky. He also flashed them a smile that was rather creepy to Ace and Delta.

"As I've said before, congratulations Ace and Delta, for managing to complete my little obstacle course. My name is L."

By god. It was him. Delta recognized this "L" as the same unnamed voice from the Tesseract.

"And, right in the chest beneath me, are your prizes, as a token of friendship." He stepped off of the chest and walked over to Delta, extending his hand. "No hard feelings, right big-"

Sadly, L never got to finish that sentence on account of Delta's fist slamming into his face so hard that he crashed into a nearby tree and splintered it in half. "L huh? I'll remember that name," said Delta. He walked over towards the chest and lifted it up onto his shoulder. "Oh, and by the way: thanks for the advice."

"No problemo!" L said, putting up his thumb as he lay atop the stump his body had made of the tree before promptly passing out.

Ten Minutes Into The Forest

"Shouldn't we open that?" Ace finally asked, gesturing at the chest Delta was still carrying over his shoulder just opposite where she perched on the other side.

Delta stopped short and blinked before setting both the chest and the small psychic down. "Didn't think about it."

The two took a moment to reason that, if L or Alma had wanted them seriously hurt or killed, they would have just let them die back in the Tesseract. Once it was agreed that it wasn't likely to have any particularly negative consequences, they took cover behind a fallen tree and Ace opened the chest telekinetically.

After nothing had happened for a full minute after the chest was opened, they cautiously approached it and peered inside. One side was marked with an Ace of Spades and the other with an odd, stylized SD. Ace lifted out the first item from her side and found it to be something like a circlet with a bright blue gem set in it.

Delta didn't need anything to tell him what was in his side. It was hard to mistake Plasmids for anything else. He quickly extracted the large hypodermic needles and examined them. The first was labeled: Incinerate Lvl4, the second: Electro Bolt Lvl4, and so on, one for each of his Plasmids.

Meanwhile, Ace cautiously set the circlet aside and pulled out a metal arm band that was something like a half gauntlet. Under the gauntlet was a note written in absurdly loopy script that read: I choose these for you. Signed: Alma Wade.

The circlet was based off "Protoss High Templar" equipment. It boosted psionic power overall by about fifteen percent. The 'gauntlet' was a shortcut for "Psi Blades". She knew all of this from the telepathic message the circlet was broadcasting.

Ace carefully placed the circlet on her head, positioning the gem in the center of her forehead, and slipped the gauntlet onto her right arm. A careful pulse of energy caused the armband to emit a brief flare of pale blue energy in the shape of a blade roughly three feet long.

Delta appeared less interested in using the Plasmids and more intent on intimidating them, Ace noted after carefully inspecting her new acquisitions.

"You're not expecting them to use themselves, are you?" she asked, drawing Delta's attention away from the innocent looking needles.

"No. I guess not," he said, smiling. "Well, might as well get it over with and see if these are filled with poison right away." With that, he began injecting himself with them and, after feeling no ill effects and putting his new plasmids to the test, the two continued down the curious road they were on. Curious because, now they noticed that the bricks that made it were solid gold.

Planet Chimera: Earth Plains Sector

For the third time in a row, Cole found himself with the lovely taste of dirt in his mouth. Though tracking Jensen had become easier after he had absorbed the Ionic Storm, eventually, the cyborg caught on to how Cole was able to hold his own with him and had discharged that same energy that made him light up like Empire City at nighttime. Not only that, but he had decided to increase his speed as well, turning the tables on Cole once again.

"Aw come on McGrath. Is that all you got? Don't tell me that blast core didn't give you anymore tricks. Knowing Alex, I'd be surprised if he wasn't generous with the cereal box prizes he likes to lend out."

"Okay then, let's see," Cole muttered, focusing on his powers and trying to find anything that felt different. It didn't take long to notice a pattern that hadn't been in his energy before. Suddenly, in a flash of light, Cole was surrounded by ten duplicates of himself composed entirely of energy. "Kessler-" He frowned slightly at gaining one of his future self's powers, but decided to ignore it for now and just use the ability.

The moment Cole thought of continuing the fight, the Doppelgangers charged forward, forming gigawatt blades of their own.

"See! If I had a credit for every time Alex went overboard with the presents-" Jensen said as he blocked three of the doppelganger gigawatt blades and kicked them away via the face. "-I'd have enough money to buy all the land in Lordaeron. Though, it's probably too soon to mention that place yet."

Cole ordered the duplicates to surround Jensen and run at him. For his part, the cyborg merely stood there, eyebrow raised. "Really Cole? Don't tell me you don't know how this is going to end."

Seeing the duplicates fire magnum bolts at him, Jensen sighed and jumped into the air, all ten of the bolts impacting upon each other and creating a cloud of dust beneath him. "What did I tell-"

It was then, as he descended toward the cloud, that he noticed the ten duplicates gathered beneath him, gigawatt blades pointed upwards to spear him like a flying fish. "Oh, so that's what we're playing. Alright."

Adam stopped in midair, an orange energy globe surrounding him before he plummeted back to the ground at high speed. The energy field of his flight system only just managed to repel the electrical blades aimed at him before he crashed to the ground in the center of the clustered energy constructs. At the moment of impact, Adam fired the Typhoon System, discharging a hail of explosives eight meters around in all directions and obscuring the area in a nearly solid dome of fire when the bombs detonated.

Cole felt the constructs disperse, he was somewhat disappointed that he didn't regain any of the energy he'd used to create them but decided it wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The Conduit smirked at the cloud of smoke and continued focusing energy into both his hands. If Kessler could push an Overload Burst so far, then there was no reason he couldn't do the same.

Just as the smoke began clearing and Jensen called out to him from the small crater he was now standing in, Cole released the built up electricity and let the blast roar across the space between them. Adam blinked behind his lenses a split second before the blast hit him.

The massive surge of energy crashed into the canyon wall and actually detonated on impact. Cole estimated it to have been roughly ten times as powerful as an Alpha Rocket explosion just from how it felt in the air.

"Now I'm actually mildly impressed," Adam called to him as he walked out of the settling cloud of dust and debris. "Nearly a fully focused energy beam: borderline Kamehameha territory. I'm not setup to deal with that, just direct electrical attacks. Guess I can't afford to underestimate you even a bit now."

Cole barely had time to blink before Jensen was right in front of him. It was like fighting Kessler again all over again like that. He only just managed to block the whirling blades on Jensen's arms. To his own surprise however, it wasn't with his own gigawatt blades or the AMP. "So I got that back, huh? Cool."

Adam just shook his head and flipped back away from Cole and the shield that had sprung up to save him at the last second. "Instinctive defense won't save you every time. Better try to keep up."

Just as his opponent vanished again in a blur of speed, Cole felt a surge of anger from elsewhere. He'd never paid much attention to that aspect of his power except when it alerted him to an enemy he couldn't see or who was in disguise, but now, he couldn't ignore the pure malice in the strange energy field of the man Jensen had appeared with. "What's going on up-"

"Focus or die again, except as a pincushion instead of a martyr this time, MacGrath. Your choice," Adam announced himself just in time for Cole to partially avoid being impaled by one of his blades, though it still left a large cut in his side. He almost failed to roll backwards to avoid the second blade as it swept towards his face.

Cole flipped to his feet and used a blast to throw himself backward to put more distance between himself and the cyborg. Distance though, seemed to matter little to the man who had just vanished again.

"Bolts don't work. Rockets aren't much better. Freeze wouldn't catch him and he'll just absorb another storm. Gigawatt blade isn't any good here and Overload Burst isn't-what did he say. Only direct electrical damage?" Cole thought through his options while trying futilely to maintain some space between himself and Adam. "I'm gonna lose an arm."

Adam slowed again to make a slash at Cole's neck. To his surprise, the conduit didn't attempt to flee to a safe distance again. Instead he ducked and lunged forward. A fist connected with the cyborg's face and briefly stunned him. Before he could recover, Cole struck him again. Fists flying as fast as he could move his arms, Cole pummeled Adam relentlessly with pure physical damage.

Cole finally jumped a short way back before dashing forward again, using a blast fired behind him to speed him toward his target and another blast to accelerate his last punch just before it connected with the seemingly dazed cyborg's face.

The orange lenses covering Adam's eyes completely shattered and he tumbled back across the ground several meters before stopping. He was motionless for only a few seconds before climbing back to his feet.

"Okay then, I can admit that was a very impressive turnaround." Adam coughed, wiping fragments of his lenses off his face and popping his neck. "If Alex hadn't improved all my augments, I'd be in pieces right now. You could have torn an armored car up with that easy. Let's just call this a draw and say you passed the test, agreed?"

Cole sent out a pulse. It came back marking Jensen as neutral. He hadn't really been hostile before according to the signals Cole had sent out earlier, but at least now, it didn't appear he was going to attack him any time soon. He nodded, still ready to continue his assault if need be.

Meanwhile, Above the canyon.

"UUUUHHHH!" John Marston cried out.

Smith glared down at the man while he recovered from the mental backlash of believing himself to have just been virtually incinerated while still alive.

The agent sneered as Marston began to regain his bearings and understand that he was in fact not dead...again. "How? How could you get through all of them without knowing...it's not possible for someone like you. You know as well as I do that you're no better than your former accomplices. You're every bit as depraved and savage as they were: just a rabid animal pretending to be a man."

Smith kicked him square in the jaw, sending him onto his back. "You and every pathetic pile of meat and bones and sweat that Alex decided to bring back from death's embrace."

He began to stomp down on Marston's stomach, each kick coming down harder and more swiftly than the last. "You disgust me so much that I'm going to have to burn my boots after I'm done turning your intestinal tract into-"

"Smith!" Adam shouted at his co-worker as he and Cole returned to the top of the canyon. "If he passed your test then it's over! We're not supposed to try to kill them!"

"Stay out of this, Jensen. The only reason I even tolerate you is that you're mostly machine, but don't think that exempts you from-"

Adam sighed in relief when Smith was blown away from Marston. Normally, having far higher clearance would mean he was easily able to deal with the Agent, but right now he was far more limited than usual. "Glad you could make it, Shamshir."

"Perhaps I should have arrived sooner," the dark skinned warrior remarked, nodding to Adam. "Smith, none of us were instructed to kill those we were to test. Explain yourself."

Smith, already back on his feet, snarled at the woman. "I don't have to explain myself to you, human."

"No, you do not. But you do answer to Alex the same as the rest of us. His instructions were clear. You have willfully disobeyed your orders." Shamshir shifted her stance, just slightly, only Adam and Cole noticed.

"He made a mistake bringing more trash here, organic life-"

"Alex himself began as a fully organic being, or so he says. Do you consider him trash as well?" Shamshir's eyes flashed dangerously as she interrupted the data entity.

A gun appeared in Smith's hand, aiming for Marston. He never got the chance to pull the trigger. In a blur of motion Cole thought may have exceeded Jensen's dashes during their fight, Shamshir was behind Smith and he was disintegrating, a thin white line marking where the woman's sword had passed through him.

Shamshir sheathed her sword and walked over to John. "I apologize for Smith's actions. Truly, I do not understand why Alex chooses to keep him. Hold still."

John, even if he hadn't been choking on blood, wasn't planning on arguing with her. A pale green light emanated from her palms as she passed them over his torso and then his face.

After his wounds were healed she passed him a bottle of water obtained from thin air. Cole, keeping his eyes on both Shamshir and Adam, knelt down next to his companion and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You going to be alright cowboy?"

"I'll live."

"I am glad to hear it," said Shamshir before politely bowing towards John and Cole. "Adam: once you are done bestowing your reward upon them, report back to Alex. He has an assignment for you in Universe-616."

Jensen nodded and, with that, Shamshir disappeared. Turning towards John and Cole, he said, "Right. You heard the lady. I gotta go," Jensen said, a simple metal lockbox appearing at his feet. "For being able to hold up to me and Smith, here's what you get. I hope you two think what you get now was worth it and I hope to see you around sometime. Who knows?"

He disappeared, a voice in both of their heads saying, "We might just save a planet or two together."

"Well, that happened," Cole said, glancing at John. "Think it's safe to open that thing?"

"Couldn't say. This place hasn't seemed all that safe so far. Those two at least didn't seem really hostile though, least not like that Smith character. Benefit of the doubt?"

"Alright, but let's stick back here. It could still explode and I'm not testing Polarity Wall that far just yet," Cole said, flicking his right hand toward the box. A partially charged bolt broke the lock and a kinetic pulse lifted the lid. Nothing happened for a moment and Cole grunted. "No boom. that's a good sign. Usually..."

John nodded and let the Conduit help him to his feet. "Unless of course you're aiming to blow something up, anyway."

The pair carefully approached the box and examined its contents. Their attention was completely diverted from the Tomahawk and the slip of paper beneath it over to a large glowing chunk of stone.

"What the devil's that? Looks like that, whatchya-ma-call-it, Blast Core?" John glanced to Cole who nodded. "Yeah, like that Blast Core thing, but it's…"

"Not a Blast Core. Too small, wrong shape, would never fit in a Ray Sphere. Energy's different too. It feels like...a Blast Shard? But, it can't be. Theres WAY too much power in one place..." Cole muttered, looking suspiciously at the irradiated stone in the box.

"Well, not much else I can do," Cole said, groaning. "If this kills me, I'd advise leaving the box alone."

The superhuman cautiously reached down and lifted the stone out of the box. The faint, fluctuating light surrounding the rock flared to near blinding for a split second before the stone itself crumbled away and the energy surged into Cole's body, knocking him off his feet.

Cole lay on the ground for several seconds, twitching and gasping as his body adjusted to the surge of power. When the instability subsided he sat up slowly, a hand going to his face. "I've got to stop touching glowing shit."

John was already kneeling beside him, mirroring Cole's position from not even five minutes prior. "You gonna live, MacGrath?"

"Probably."

Getting back to their feet, Cole dusting himself off, the two stood away from each other.

"So, that mean you've got some new…power from that thing?" John asked, tilting his head and ready to hit the dirt if necessary.

"Don't know," Cole answered, focusing on his energy again to see if something had changed. He wasn't sure if he was disappointed to find no new patterns in his power. "Nope, don't know-Oh, wow."

"What?" John asked, tired of the suspense.

"No new powers but, I got another old one back. I think a few other things are back too," Cole commented, grinning slightly at the effect that 'Super' Blast Shard had had. "Also, got back a lot of power I lost once, back when I first fought The Beast, energy to use more advanced powers, and I've got a lot more juice to work with now."

"Juice?" John raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Never mind," Cole waved off the question for the moment.

Getting up, John took a few tentative steps towards the lockbox to investigate the Tomahawk and the slip of paper. Getting a feel for the weight of the Indian war axe, he then picked up the paper with his right hand and scratched his head through his hat with the Tomahawk. "What the hell's this here gibberish? Can't make heads or tales of this."

"Heads or tails of what?" Cole asked, walking up behind him.

"See fer yourself."

John handed Cole the paper and decided to see how the Tomahawk felt in his left hand. Before too long, Cole was twisting it around in all sorts of angles trying to make sense of it before he too scratched his head with his own melee weapon.

"Welp, I've got nothing except that these symbol thingies look Scandinavian, probably Norse, and that if it was in that box, we probably shouldn't throw it away."

Cole looked up from the paper, though, when he heard John decide to up and throw the Tomahawk towards a nearby tree. It slammed into it's trunk...and the trunk after that and the trunk after that and the trunk after that until, finally, at about the sixth tree, it finally came to a stop.

"Well I'll be damned! Well...more than I suppose I already am," said John.

Cole whistled and said, "Ditto on that cowboy! Something like that's gonna come in REAL handy."

"Ditto?"

"Never mind," Cole said, stuffing the piece of Norse paper into one of his pockets. "Now, let's go get that Tomahawk of yours and keep moving. We don't need any other weirdos coming along to try and "test us" for loitering."

End of Episode.

Next Time: Nathan Hale and Rachel the Fiend Hunter Vs Dinosaurs.

Alec Mason meets Rubi Malone and Faith Connors.

Other Things!

Technically this isn't finished. I really planned on more to happen and I was actually expecting to finish the next Project Crusade chapter before uploading this but I lost the motivation to work on that temporarily. Neither thing is abandoned but I'd be lying if I said I would be updating anything regularly.