>From: flynn@acm.rpi.edu (Kevin Lincoln Flynn)
Subject: On the Streets II (Crystal-Yahan-Night thread)
Date: 6 Sep 91 14:37:24 GMT


Kady ran forever.

Turn after turn after countless turn she blindly followed Lyo's pull through
featureless alleys, stumbling over things in the darkness and not wanting to
know what they were.  Over and over she felt incapable of continuing; over and
over she kept running.

The force on her arm suddenly vanished and she slumped to the ground in
exhaustion, gasping, fiery blood pounding in her skull, her lungs burning for
more air, more air.  A wordless cry of anger and frustration could only have
been Lyo; she felt her hand drop to the ground as she heard him leap away from
her.  It wasn't important.  Neither were the sounds of the fight, though their
closeness, after all her running, should have been frightening.

Mercy was being able to stop.

----

The start of the fight felt like it was splitting Yahan's skull.  Cursing, he
damped the world until he worried that Lucifer's soft footsteps would be
indistinguishable from the background noise.  But the alternative was pain,
and his own pain was not what he was seeking tonight.  He smiled briefly.
Tonight someone else's pain would drive back the noise.

He moved closer to the fight, then around to one side, balancing senses and
position for maximum utility with minimum discomfort.  The spot he finally
settled on was farther away than he would have liked, but so be it.  His
Judas' footfalls were clear, as were those of a woman next to her, and
occasionally he was able to see her.

Yahan settled to wait, confident of not losing her.

Screams and running footsteps marked two desertions, bringing a chuckle from
Yahan.  "Fools."  He turned his attention back to Lucifer, automatically
tracking the two idiots from their sound.  The noise of the fight was still
loud, out here, and it took him a moment to find Lucifer again.

Heavy thuds marked bodies falling from cycles.  Curses and yells marked pain,
and Yahan's lips curled into a grin.  The faintest of whisperings was a
skillfully-wielded chain, quieter than ever he'd heard before, but still
audible, as always.  For a few minutes he simply watched, enjoying the
struggle, wishing he was there...

Then he realized the footsteps of the two fools were closing on him.  He
smiled and stood, fading into the shadows.  Seconds later two slight forms ran
by, their footsteps now pounding thunder, and Yahan's smile widened and gained
an edge.  The boy was nothing.  But the girl.....

He moved to follow them.  It was time for an appetizer.

----

A lonely wind moaned through the alley, chilling Kady to the bone.  For an
instant she got the strange feeling that it carried words, just barely out of
her reach.  Then Lyo cursed again, some distance from her, and the feeling
vanished, leaving Kady shivering violently in an alley strewn with rubble.

She was leaning against a monstrous steel I-beam left on the street by some
old disaster, on her knees, cold and shivering and abruptly frightened.  She
jerked her head up, hitting it on the I-beam, and stifled a sob of pain.  Lyo
was nowhere to be seen.  The noises of the fight were horrifying close.
Hadn't they run for a long time?  Had they gone in circles?

"Lyo."  The word was a bare whisper, all she could do, but he appeared from
around a pile of rock and moved to her.  "Dead end," he said, seemingly
oblivious to her shivering, holding his voice level with an effort.  "That way
or no way."  He pointed back in the direction they'd come.  Back towards the
fight.  Kady's jaw dropped and she tried to say no, no, stay here, don't take
us back through that...

Lyo abruptly yanked her to her feet and thrust her behind him.  She peered
over his shoulder to see a shadow move and turn into a man.

----

"Looks like you're too late to keep one o' 'em alive to begin with.  Huh, but
then he wadn't offed by one o' my wheeled bratpack."

Michael pounded pavement, sprinting flat out while he tried to ignore the
Spirit's words.  Maybe, just once, one of them had lied.  Or maybe he was just
misinterpreting what it had said.  Wouldn't be the first time.

He rounded a corner.  The kids' trail was obvious; they'd blundered along with
no concern for concealment and, apparently, little concern for navigation.

"Looks like you're too late..."

Michael tried to run faster and shook his head, trying to shut out the memory,
praying the Spirit was wrong.

A Spirit on its turf was _never_ wrong.

----

The stranger was bigger than Lyo by quite a bit and his motions didn't seem
very friendly.  Kady bit back a scream, settling for closing her eyes and
pressing her face into Lyo's shoulder, feeling the tension in his muscles.  He
was preparing for a fight, she realized with a frightened shock.

"I'm not with the gangs," came the stranger's voice.  The accent was odd,
marked with a slight hiss, and Kady couldn't place it.  She felt Lyo's body
stiffen further, waiting for the stranger's next words.

"And I can show you a way to get away from them."

"GHODS, yes!"  The words were out of Kady's mouth before she realized she'd
spoken.  Lyo turned to give her an angry glare, but she moved away from him
without a thought and spoke eagerly to the stranger.  "Show us --"

Lyo's voice cut her off, hard and angry and still worried as he pointedly
stepped in front of her.  "Why?  What do you want?"

----

Michael came to an intersection and ground to a halt.  The footsteps carried
north, then doubled back, then to the west, then --

He gaped and looked again to be certain.  A smudged track in mud.  Another
foot, stepping in the same spots as Lyo's.

The Angel grumbled a curse in Japanese and tore off to the west.

----

"Why?  What do you want?"

The boy was furious, at Yahan or at his girl or at himself, no telling which.
A half-formed idea crystallized in Yahan's mind as he saw the boy thrust
himself in front of the girl again, covering the delicious sight of the girl's
body.  Her top was nearly blinding, but the curves under it were worth the
pricks of pain.

"My price is small," he said, smiling, and looked over the boy's shoulder at
the girl as he started looking for Lucifer again with his ears.  "He seeks to
protect you, and you've not so much as acknowledged it.  That is a precious
gift.  Step out here, where I can see you, and give him a kiss for his care."

The wind across Yahan's face suddenly dropped at least a degree, and the dust
that suddenly swirled up was a sharp sting.  His ears found Lucifer a split
instant after they found a much much heavier set of thudding feet, running
directly towards him.  Annoyance crossed his face for a brief instant, as the
girl turned to the boy.  He would have no time for the girl after all.  But
even so...

----

A kiss?

Kady looked at Lyo and suddenly realized that the stranger was right.  Lyo's
jaw was dropped in abrupt amazement, and Kady wondered why she'd never thought
to consider all the things he'd done for her before.  She turned to kiss him,
surprised by the tears on her cheeks.

----

Michael rounded a corner and saw the massed jumble of metal and concrete that
marked a fallen building.  Half hidden behind the rubble were three people,
not two.

An abrupt blue-white glare lit up the night with a hair-raising crackle and
he howled in abrupt pain and fury.  "SHIMATTA!!!"

----

/ magnetic crackle / harsh blue-white light / steam and sizzle and noise /

The stench of burnt meat abruptly filled Kady's nostrils as the head she was
about to kiss vanished into a cloud of blood and gore that drenched her head
and half of her torso in what used to be part of Lyo.

The stranger laughed as the blue-white blade vanished into his right hand.
"A way away, as I said, and accepting a gift is an honor to the giver."  He
laughed again, and Kady screamed as she realized what he had just done, and
again and again and the blades on the stranger's hands were welcome...

Then the man was gone and she felt herself falling in time to a series of hard
thuds and Michael was there, lifting her like a child.  He was looking down,
swearing bittely, long and eloquently, and Kady rode his anger and pain into
darkness........

----
Text, Kady Shale, Lyo Whitney and Yahan copyright 1991 by Kevin Lincoln
Flynn.  Use only with permission, tell 'em Dave sent you, and all that stuff.

Michael and Lucifer used with permission of Phyllis L. Rostykus.
Thanks, Liralen.  [ :) ]
----
Kevin Lincoln Flynn    flynn@acm.rpi.edu, userhan0l@mts.rpi.edu
494 Madison Avenue     H (518) 432-0812
Albany, New York, USA  12208
....Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.  -- R. Bach


From: flynn@acm.rpi.edu (Kevin Lincoln Flynn)
Subject: On the Streets III (Crystal-Yahan-Night thread, part 21)
Summary: Remember that gang we left in the Garden of Gethsemane lot?
Date: 3 Oct 91 14:58:57 GMT

Author's Note: This is a bit of a backwards step; my apologies if all of our
parallel action is confusing.

----

Crystal's body was warm and inviting, pressed into Lucifer's in a fierce
embrace.  The Angel let her eyes fall closed as their lips met and clung; she
tightened her arms around her Mistress, trying to hold her even closer, and a
single tear tracked down her cheek.  For a long moment the world was no larger
than the circle of White Crystal's arms.

Then Crystal pulled her lips away, leaving Lucifer no choice but to open her
eyes again.  Another tear fell unbidden as the contact between their bodies
was broken; the weight of responsibility and fear was heavy on her shoulders
as she met Crystal's blank gaze, begging with her eyes for some other way.

Lucifer didn't notice the gangers at the mouth of the alley until they started
moving; her eyes went wide as they swept towards Crystal's back.  The sudden
hard SHOVE from Crystal would have been a shock if Lucifer hadn't felt it so
many times before; Angel and Mistress flew apart, Crystal spinning into rapid
violence before Lucifer caught her balance.

Bare seconds passed while the gangers went down; seconds more while Crystal
made sure they'd stay out for awhile.  By the time Michael tottered to his
feet, the heavy weight was on Lucifer's heart instead of her shoulders.

But there, at least, she knew how to deal with it.  Michael folded back to the
ground at his Mistress' order and Lucifer snatched up Crystal's hand, pulling
her into a run as quickly as she was able.

Before her courage failed her.

----

Glittering white blurred off icy silver and five of the Crowd went down.  Boy
Crash cursed softly and opened his Scorpion's throttle, collecting two more
mounted Dissassemblers abeam on his way to the alley.  No slabs there; he was
sure of that.  But Crowd was Crowd, not to be left in the cold... Crash shook
his head.  Come morning he and D. would be back at each other's throats;
tonight, together, they just might be enough to keep Crowd in one piece.

Crowd kept Other busy enough not to bother the three trolls; Crash's
beamriders pulled ahead and swept sideways, blocking the alley mouth, before
he got there.  Good.  Knew their stuff.  The Scorpion glided to a halt as the
other two trolls dismounted.

Both of the beam men turned back, suprised, when they heard the Scorpion's
engine wind down.  Crash grinned at them and unslung an ancient Damascus-steel
falchion as he dropped to the ground.  "Fun nall *yours*, neh?"  They grinned
back and nodded as Crash drew the old scarred blade and started around their
bikes to join them.

----

Lucifer slowed and stopped, feeling Crystal's resistance to her tugging hand.
The Angel turned to find her Mistress facing back, staring at the three cycles
blocking the mouth of the alley with an odd sort of worry on her face.  Two of
the cyclists had already dismounted, standing with their backs to their bikes
while waiting on the third.  It took a second for Lucifer to realize what was
worrying Crystal.

They were too big.  Lucifer felt her stomach go cold.  They were trolls, all
of them, all at least close to Michael's size and apparently much smarter and
better organized than the first batch.  These gangers were not what they'd
been trying to lure.

The weight settled heavier and deeper and Lucifer silently cried out to her
friend.

"Michael..."  Crystal's voice was soft and strained, and Lucifer heard what
her Mistress didn't say before wheeling and pulling Lucifer down the alley for
a change.

Be careful.

----

The rumble of cycles helped clear his head; a single dart wasn't enough to
keep Michael out for long.  One engine died, then a second, and he slitted his
eyes open to watch, carefully gathering his muscles and senses.  Crystal's
command to rest had been well given, he realized.

The third bike, a Scorpion bigger even than Michael's own, wound down, and the
two trolls in front turned around as if surprised.  The Angel almost laughed.
Another instant, let the third rider turn to walk around the bike...

Michael let out a blood-curdling yell and jumped, forcing himself out of his
crouch with everything his legs could give him, whipping the lance he still
held into position crosswise at neck level.  Land, plant and drive forward;
the two trolls didn't have a chance.  The lance shattered on their necks
before they unfroze, knocking them backwards onto one of the bikes,
unconscious.

Two down, one to go.  Michael threw the pieces of the lance away and turned to
face the last ganger.

----

Boy Crash grinned.

His shout of warning had come too late for his fellows.  Other was troll,
bigger than Crash himself and strong enough to break a Dissassembler lance.
Not easy, that.  Other smart enough to know when to hide and wait, too.

And Other had steel and some balls of his own;  Boy Crash watched the flat of
the emerald green blade slap into the palm of the Other's hand, almost
unconsciously mirroring the motion with his falchion.  No slabs, here; but one
has to know...

Ragged grin on Other's face matched his own; Crowd rumbled and Crash stepped
forward, thinking Other would be good Crowd and then thinking nothing but
_doing_.

----

They'd slowed to a walk, Crystal leading Lucifer through looking for a
different way back to the lot.

A chill wind moaned in Crystal's ears and she stopped dead in her tracks,
Lucifer stumbling after her, and whipped around to see something made of
steel and glass and broken dreams.  Crystal's blank eyes went wide and she
grinned.  "Sara, love..."

The far-off sound of freeway traffic keened high and lost, far away, and the
thing shivered once.  White Crystal tugged on Lucifer's hand.  "C'mon, Luci,
they may need us."

Lucifer didn't move.  "No, Mistress."  Her voice was soft and hurting and she
didn't meet the white eyes that turned sharply towards her.  "I'm sorry,
Mistress."

Tears left silver streaks on Lucifer's face, and Crystal's anger faded.  She
gathered Lucifer into her arms and waited to hear what the fallen Angel had to
say.

----
Hmmmm.  _EVERY_ character in this post (Lucifer, Boy Crash, Michael, White
Crystal, and D. Piste) appears courtesy of Liralen Li!

Thanks, Liralen, hope I got 'em right.  [ :) ]
----
Kevin Lincoln Flynn    flynn@acm.rpi.edu, userhan0@mts.rpi.edu
494 Madison Avenue     H (518) 432-0812
Albany, New York, USA  12208
....Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.  -- R. Bach


From: flynn@acm.rpi.edu (Kevin Lincoln Flynn)
Subject: On the Streets IV (Crystal-Yahan-Night thread, part 22)
Date: 3 Oct 91 15:10:39 GMT

Author's Note: This will get us back to the ...present?; my apologies if all
of our parallel action is confusing.

----

The wind howled softly before the two blades crossed, a chill wind that
slapped Boy Crash in the face and left a sound like ten-ton fabric ripping in
its wake.  The street buckled and tore and what moon there was disappeared as
a voice like wind pushed steel cried, "Hey, Lady, watcha fuckin' WANT at THIS
time o' night?"

Crystal clear little-girl's laugh rang in Crash's ears as he took a single
look at the thing blotting out the moonlight and vaulted the bike in between
him and his Crowd, snatching up his falchion's sheath and pounding ground
back, Other matching him stride for stride.

----

"God damn mother fucking DREK!"

What used to be a little shit acting brave in an alley was now a hot, sticky
mess, crackling loudly as it dried enough to flake off of Yahan's arm and
chest.  The stench was burning his nose.  The heat leaking into the base of his
wrist from the plasma magnetics was painful.  The crackling was costing him
time finding Lucifer.

And the itch of the stuff that had splattered on his face...

...the itch was living hell, wringing sobs and curses from him at the feeling
of his skin being pricked by thousands of spiders.  Going after the shit with
his fingernails succeeded only in smearing it across more of his face; a
bright streak of fresh red blood leapt to mark a slip of control, a claw
tearing just a touch too deep, and Yahan screamed and jerked his hand away,
staring at the bright red bead that fell from the tip of his claw.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to be quiet, to _listen_ in spite of
the itch.  To one side he thought he heard a silver bitch crying.

His face contorted into what might have been a smile, and he staggered ahead,
wild-eyed and cursing, towards the opening off to the side of the alley.

----

Warmth, again, warmth and softness and strength and tears spinning out over a
moment caught out of time.  Always an end, though...  one last tear slipped
from under Lucifer's eyelid and she hugged Crystal tightly one last time
before raising her head to try to speak.

The touch of her Mistress' lips to the tip of the Angel's nose nearly brought
back the tears.  Lucifer squeezed her eyes closed for several seconds, forcing
back a sob, oblivious to her fingers digging into White Crystal's arms.

When she opened her eyes again she screamed.

----

Little bike shrieked and cherry red charged through streetside djinn; took an
effort for Crash to step forward as It swirled and turned to face D., cherry
red shiver on her tiny machine.

"What if she paid you off, brat?"  Hollow moan, City at night.  "Gave you the
creds to take your toys and go home?  Couldn't be gettin' more'n 120k for a
dozen whitelife, so say she pay you that and you go home?"  "If she alone pay
us that, then we'll make a hell of a lot more.  Thank for the data, bro."
Saucy and light, lonely anger of rushing traffic a reply that Crash barely
heard.

"Biz," he growled.  "This be Biz, D."  Cherry girl turned as he skirted It,
slowly so no shiverknees; she met his eyes and stopped her shakes, touch of a
nod to let him know.  Biz.  "Setup?!" screamed D. at Its glassy eyes, and
Crash answered before It did.  "Sa.  Up it.  No slabs.  Emotional Trauma.
More cred."

Steel and blood and long-dead dreams, City's voice making them both tremble,
look at It so no need to admit the weakness to the other.  "Let's talk," It
said, and Crash laughed like stones crumbling.  Crowd might yet make it
through the night...

Crash sat down, cherry girl lithe off her bike to his side, and It swirled
down to join them.

----

The noise was deafening, silver bitch staring over the white one - White
Crystal's - shoulder and wailing her head off.

"DAMN YOU!!!"  Yahan leapt as the world swirled dark, last sight the back of
the white one's neck, feeling reflexes get the target idea even as they
started bringing up the light to where he could see without going deaf.  Shut
that drek UP first.  Time to play later.  He realized that he was already
almost upon them and felt his leg snap around, using his momentum in a kick.

Everything blurred.

An instant later he was leaning against the opposite wall, staring wide-eyed
at White Crystal, facing him in an unknown martial stance, and Lucifer behind
her.

She'd blocked it, he realized, and counterattacked.  Yahan's jaw dropped, the
itching and heat forgotten.  She was wired.  There was no other way.  He
grinned, a predatory, toothy grin, and moved forward again, claws snapping
from hands and feet -- then sliding back in, responding to a silent demand.

White Crystal turned, yanked Lucifer to her feet and shoved her brutally away,
and Yahan shouted in delight as the world flashed up hard and sharp and bright
and he gave himself over to the Edge.

Hours passed, hours of motion-blurred brightness that would have hurt at any
other time, cut time and again by a hard, sharp stillframe view looking out
from the eyes of the body he'd given away, images that faded the barest second
after he saw them.  Hours of feeling the body that used to be his, striking
and parrying and dodging, feeling the shocks of contact between it and
something else, feeling something that might have been far-off pain.  Hours of
wondering when it would end, if it would end, realizing that for once he
didn't know who would win this fight.

Delight and fear mixed and became something else, the only thing that
mattered...

The end was abrupt.  The Edge leapt sideways and left him, dropping him hard
into an aching, tired, pain-wracked body as the blur rushed in to slap him.
He fell against a wall and watched blearily as his opponent slowly folded to
the ground.  The triumphant smile that appeared on his lips faded as the last
still that had cut the blur swam up to his eyes again -- White Crystal's eyes
turning up in their sockets as she started to fall in the middle of one of her
own attacks.

Yahan staggered forward into the wildy fluctuating darkness left by a tired
mind and a tired body, choking back anger.  He grabbed the front of the white
leather dress and yanked the limp woman up to bring her face close to his own,
biting his tongue on the pain of muscles full of fatigue poisons as he leaned
to smell her breath, pushing the night away.  The effort drew blood at his own
teeth, but the night left him.  Yahan closed his eyes against the glare of the
moon; the dust on the wind scraped and tore through the new holes in his
clothes, and the taste of blood in his mouth was like biting metal.

Underneath the stench of the city was another smell.  Yahan dropped Crystal,
not hearing the dull thud of her body against the pavement, gasping as the
night crashed down around him again.  "Contact soporific."  He looked around
him.  Lucifer was gone.  Anger at losing half his prey and at never knowing
what would have happened buoyed his faded body and balanced his anticipation
as he gave the white-clad woman lying before him a long, slow look.

He laughed and pulled himself to his feet, twisting a hand around white
leather, and dragged White Crystal towards a street away from the fight.  He
needed transport, and someone around would have a cycle waiting for him.
Sauron's was too far to walk, and nothing less would do for what he had
planned for his companion.

----
Aha!  I have a character in this one!!  Everybody else (Boy Crash, Lucifer,
White Crystal, D. Piste and the Street Spirit) appears courtesy of Liralen
Li.  Thanks.  [ :) ]
----
Kevin Lincoln Flynn    flynn@acm.rpi.edu, userhan0@mts.rpi.edu
494 Madison Avenue     H (518) 432-0812
Albany, New York, USA  12208
....Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.  -- R. Bach