Thank you, thank you, Sam I Am

*There was nothing left… /nothing/. Not shard of glass, not sliver of iron, not a scrap of the pre-existing complex that had stood solidly on the grounds Rikky strolls over… it had been, quite simply, /erased/. The young telepath pauses a moment, shaking his head. If he hadn’t been told, shown the pictures, seen the schematics, he would never have known anything once inhabited this land. It was all but wild, open prairie land, a huge rolling glen captured between the fingers of tall pines and smaller hardwoods. Now, there was machinery about, the soil being torn up again, but not in the exact same place, over further… he really didn’t think it was wise to build on the same land, but perhaps the new building would be something else.. or better hidden. To be honest, it was an ideal location. No one could get back into the wilderness this far, not easily, and it was very well hidden from prying eyes, even from above. There had been a structure here… one that had extended half a mile downward if not more, and the Earth, they say, merely opened up and swallowed it whole. Many had died… many were sure the RUNners had caused it somehow… but it wasn’t quite known. No one knew, could recollect, exactly what happened. And no one in the neighboring cities had a clue, either. Rikky starts to walk again, the caterpillars and bulldozers left unattended for now. Holidays and all that… so he continues his searches, finding, of course, nothing*

~*~ She had not often thought about it. She tried not to, but that was hard to do when one didn't control their thoughts very well. Randomly making people explode, dogs ants, and the like thinking it was Aerik. Aerik that arrogant, MURDEROUS Piece... what did Shred /her/ friend.. /her/ buddy who would read her green eggs and ham if she BEGGED ever do to him besides have a little fun.. couldn't people take a JOKE? This pissed her off more than anything. Her eyes narrowed as a small portal opened. She remembered Shred, his last send, or something like that. But his voice failed to call in her head. Worst of all she hadn't heard a bed-time story in months. Needless to say she was EXTREMELY Cranky. She needed her stories, she needed her friend.. /her/ friend. Her fingers wrung in and out of themselves in frustration. She loathed, no more than loathes, hates Aerik.. more than anyone could. And she would rip him apart.. and revel in the bloodshed. She shuddered in pleasure.. Shred would be avenged she'd see him again. She knew it she'd see him and they would talk about killing Aerik.. how she killed Aerik.. kill kill kill kill. She smiled a bit her eyes closed, feeling a tad uncomfortable in the dark. A small gasp from her lips as they parted. The dark, darkness, no light, can't breathe in the darkness, no the darkness... the black. It would eat you much like the monsters in your thoughts if you let it the dark. She flashed open her eyes to more dark around the forest and the OLD Guard HQ.. dark.. She couldn't escape it. But before the fear was realised it vanished, and she simply ignores it. An eerie glow emitting from her as she walked, slowly Uprooting trees in her path and tossing them like toothpicks without a backward glance. She narrowed her eyes coming upon a few GUARD Techies their scanners went off the chart. She indeed was an M Class UNnatural. Picking them off like a small insect an insignificant bug, as their innards were splattered against a tree, over bushes. She'd find him yes.. he'd pay. ~*~

*Swirling thoughts, unshielded, would slam brutally into Rikky’s mind if his own shields, now layered like a pearl, wrap within wrap (he’d spent /hours/ getting them perfect), traps and mazes hidden in each, false leads and fake thoughts, didn’t keep them out. But he can feel a maelstrom brewing, coming closer, chaotic and vicious. He snaps out of his reverie in time to see trees flying, crashing amongst the others, knocking more over… splinters, bark, branches and needles fly into the air, dust clouds rising in the wake of the destruction. Mental cries begin, and are cut off harshly, ended, as bodies splashed themselves across the landscape. Hate… he can feel hate. Loathing, abhorrence… murder. Rik takes a step back, tightens his shields, and watches with eyes even wider than normal, huge saucers of golddark. A glow… through it all, he sees a glow.. of /power/… of rage. Instinctively, he ghosts almost completely to keep from being damaged by the debris. Swallowing hard, trying to keep calm, he musters his energies together.. whatever was heading his way was /huge/…* Um… *he speaks it aloud, unsure what to do, not even with the presence of mind to call for help* Um…

~*~ Oh and she saw him long before she heard him. Blinking at first, her long silver locks nearly standing on end in utter rage. She smiled, wickedly before licking her lips. Crooning as she heard him.. ~*~HELPLESS NOW? Wanna die? You stole him /my/ friend you stole him away from me.. I am gonna rip your skin and worse ~*~ She neared, energy spiking off her, like lightning from the confused particles in the air. It stuck at the ground, and unconsciously ripped deep holed, nearly piercing the earth's fragile crust. She hardly noticed that or the ground nearly sinking in giant hole, the circumfrance nearly 10 feet with each step. Her hands curled to fists drawing blood from the sheer power. ~*~ I looked for you but I found you I found you .. I really found you.. You're there not like you were before, ~*~ Her eyes widening with insanity, and sheer absolute rage. Before whipping at him. She paused, her power not faltering but frowning in tiny concentric circles. Her eyes fluttered beneath her lashes as she widened them, just that much. Her smile plastered ear to ear. Yes yes remember him just like this, scared... speechless /almost/. She approached then raising one hand in a near delicate trembling motion. ~*~ He was my friend I love my friends... And you will die.. Aerik.. die ~*~ The ground ripped from itself, nearly 500 feet down of dirt straisght up. Whipping snaking towards him. She would enjoy this.. enjoys this immensely. ~*~

*Friend? Aerik.. he was about to die for Aerik’s trespasses. /Lovely/. This adds a link tho, and he wants to know more, indeed, he is -compelled- to learn more. His chin lifts, eyes narrowing, his long black mane sweeping backwards in a breeze, banner-like. He wasn’t worried about the ground sinking, he hovered above the depression, the debris passing through him harmlessly, even with all that power behind it. But she might find the way to incapacitate him, if she was clever enough. In this state, his body was intangible, flesh and blood no longer. Her attack an incorrect one. Which is fine for Rikky… in reaction, he coils his own mental energies, and lashes out, tasting… no shields. No contest. His eyes flash, and he rams into her unprotected mind, digging for information, scoping her abilities, gauging, searching for information on Aerik and for her power centers, to shut her down long enough to learn what he seeks…* Who was this friend? Who did I take from you?

Don't you /dare/ make fun of me you .. whatever you are.. ~*~ Pissed reaching for anything telekinetically where he was, anything at all, ripping it trying to rend it piece by piece.. with all her power, to a strain level. Sparks and flashes ripping though the air. Anything to where his form was, where the voice was. Tearing the voice before it neared her again... Simply bent on destroying.. and /then/ she got scared.. Backing away and increasing her thrashes, as she screamed, literally leveling half the forest in front of her. Panting nearly grasping her hair, ripping out chunks as she craned her neck upwards. Her fingers ripping deeply as she panted. Her hair frazzled now streaked with delicate rivers of red. Her eyes alive with fright and passion of destroying. Changing the rocks to other elements. Some dispersed as helium, other chunks flew of as gold and mercury. Uranium and hydrogen. She simply killed it all. Leaving behind puddles of toxic elements, and rare ones, before finally the storm stopped. She tilted her chin upwards. ~*~ Too scared to play? You don't like games, when you lose.. he was /my/ friend Shred was /mine/.. and I was his friend he said so he really did and we were going to kill you just for fun though now I am /mad/ *Her insanity peaked as she used more than she needed again, literally lifting the ground they were standing, floating on upwards at an alarming rate, the whole area that had Guard HQ, debris floating and slithering to the ground. Trying to escape her wrath. ~*~ I don't care If I die mind boy I don't I can die I can I can. you will die too...... DIE!!! *throwing more at him, without so much as a train and the ground trembled higher. A floating island, part of the forest, and them directly in the center. The earth below GAPED a huge yawn as she laughed half cried. ~*~ DIE!

*/God/, the sheer -power- this woman contained was /staggering/… and finally, Rikky knows who she is, a small, very small file on her… Travesty. -Shred-? His eyes narrow reflexively as she throws so very much at him… destroying the area about them, tearing it up perhaps beyond repair. Razorshred. Aerik had killed /him/? /How/?? The GUARD simply thought there was a power flux, an overload, during the attack that had fried his systems, delicate as they were at the time. But no, he’d been killed… Rik ghosts fully, the attack blowing through him, but the winds generated pushing him back, having no anchor this way, and no means of propulsion. Again, he husbands his strength, not wanting to kill before he has more information, pushed into this act, not wanting to do it, wanting to -get away-. She panics for a moment, and in that time, he slingshots a mental blast at her, barbed and wicked, to catch and rake… the dig for information literally -spooning- into her memories, her psyches, like a wicked spade slammed into the soft earth. He remains where he floats as the ground raises, passing through his aeriform body, watching it rise, blinking his large eyes. Gentle wouldn’t do… she’d figure it out sooner or later* MS*() *more of a mental command, reaching into her nervous system to freeze her* /Enough/. You /will/ tell me what I need to know() *a psionic brick wall… easy to do on an unshielded mind* Stop this /now/()

~*~ She blinked, simply blinked. No one was allowed in her head, no one. Not a soul Razor said so he did he said no one and that definitely meant him. But her powers ceased instantly causing the earth to crumble and freeze. the near atomic storm she had mustered simply halted. Gold turned half to rock, as she hovered there for a moment and near plummeted. Her mind was blank, what to do.. where to go. Her mind desperately reached for Shred, like hands falling and reaching upwards in the vastness of space. She then felt herself fall. Not physically but mentally. She still hovered Any information he could muster from her was a convoluted and conspiracy theory plot derived by herself. No one had told her Aerik did anything. But he was the only one she could think of. The only one she knew that she could fathom who could even TOUCH Shred. It had to be him.. and she hated him for it. Her mind was his play ground. As she hovered there blinking. Muttering ~*~ Get outta my head, get outta my head I need to kill you for killing him I need to .. I said I would because you killed him.. ~*~ She had no telepathy to communicate back, trying to move the smallest of rocks but her mind reduced to respond. Her powers had always been her friends.. now it stopped. And that broke what sanity she had left, to a pile of floating power.. rambling. If he were to picnic though her mind, though the rended scattered and dissected pieces of her life, and even tried to piece older memories together.. it would have been near hopeless. Her thoughts were scattered, ripped to thin strips due to her power.. just the simple power. IT was amazing that her bodily functions remained functioning in this state.. ~*~

*Poison gases swirl in the ruined air, the earth torn and desecrated by the telekinetic.. so much damage, so much death, all in such a short time. The chunk of ground hovers overhead, mercury and lead, helium and uranium. All dangerous, even to him, should he become solid again with this about himself… he learns… next to nothing from his probes, save perhaps that she was shattered beyond hope. Too much power… more than a mortal coil was ever designed to contain… or a mortal mind. It had ruined her, cracked her totally. He can’t begin to imagine what, then, Razorshred had been like, so much mental power in his control. He reaches, tapping the unprotected places of her mind, controlling, directing* MS*() Change it all back… reset it all.. fix it…() *in her mind, he works, since she is so broken in thought, he guides.. /forces/.. her to put the ground down, to return all as it was… or as much as could be. The men were dead, the trees smashed beyond hope… but the elemental changes could be reversed. Her mind, tho… it was hopeless. She was a waste. He frowns slightly and watches her carefully*

~*~ She simply does his bidding without protest, for how could she protest? She glared at him, finally voicing a word one word. More than likely her last. From a ignoratnly blissful insanity, to a cherished moment.. I am sam. Sam I am.. That sam I am That sam I am I do not like that Sam I am.. Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not.... Perhaps shred knew of her insanity, her near child like mind. Perhaps she confabulated it all, in her mind where it was scattered so beyond repair, fantasy, and reality.. were never seperated.. ..like green eggs and ham. WOuld you like them here or there? The ground lowered itself back to place. Trees were upturned standing at attention. Ignoring no detail every blade of grass that could be salvaged was. Every bit of air was what something.. an arm, a peice of a tree, mud, was back where it belonged. Swiftly, painlessly. Her still hovered above the scarless landscape.. I would not like them here or there I would not like them anywhere, I do not like green eggs and ham. A smile spread. One of accepting fate. As she tried to lash out. Making her powers lick and drain out of her, tear him apart, nothing responded. I do not like them Sam I am.. She closed her eyes. Flashes of her life mihgt have passed by, though she was too enveloped, in whatever insanities her mind brought. Floating as music? The pretty black flames... Hey.. I must say, I do so like green eggs and ham... thank ou thank you Sam I am... She muttered that word. The first word that came to her mind. The ast to part from her upturned lips. In the last moment of insane bliss, in the last moment of harmotic chaos.. ~*~ Die.. ~*~ Whether she was speaking for herself or him would never be known. For she could not distinguish the two any more. She simply could not, where her skin started and the air stopped. Where the fears lurked and were coiled to strike. They did once in a while, even though this. Her whisper brought across though space. As she hovered there. A murderous tint to her eye.. Thank you... /Thank you/ ..sam I am.. ~*~

*He can hear it… from where he is in her mind… he can hear her thoughts, know them, almost drowns in the whirlpool of them, sucking him down into her insanity. Quickly, he catches himself, pulls himself apart from them, keeps his own mind to his own mind, watching as if from a distance, listening. /Don’t care/, they instructed him. /Feel nothing/. Very well… he shuts his emotions down, stops that odd stab of compassion that tightens his chest as he /learns/ her mind, hears her sing-song chaos. Fantasy, reality, these things melt into one for her, he can view the blurred edges, the unknowing. Sam I am. Green eggs and ham. His eyes narrow. He’s seen GUARD files on Shred, knows what he looks like.. and now, his action decided and his feelings cold, dead for the moment, he implements them. Shutting down her sight, he works the fantastic into its place, feeds her a vision… Razorshred there, with her. He says nothing, just smiles. And about them in this dream-like illusion he forced her to view, to /believe/, the dead, torn-apart corpse of himself.. of Aerik Winters, not really recognizable, but she knows. She knows because she killed him. She and Razorshred, for fun. Shred is chuckling, he had a good time. Its the last thing she’ll see, the last thing she’ll know…. Rikky reaches in, snips her life supports, severs them cleanly and quickly. Like floating, this is what she should feel… floating off into slumber, a welcome dream, or reality, soundless, sightless… a gentle feather’s fall. He watches with gold eyes, all that power, fading… all that horrible insanity, drifting away… and powerless, her body falling to the hard ground below…*

~*~ She blinks as her vision is cast to darkness. For a sane moment, or not even a breath of that, she sees him. Her blinded eyes see him. He was still her friend. The rhymes stop as she sees the other him. Tortured and broken. Her eyes flash upwards near tears of joy well, physically. -I did.. good- the third grader's grasp on phonics the only thing her mind stumbled out. The only thing besides an overwhelming peace. She outstretched her arms seeing those in the vision too. Her fingers reaching towards the vision, though never quite reaching it. Instead, she simply fell, but she was content enough in her own way. She had a happy ending. She had done /good/. Joy that faded from her tip-mosts of her fingers to the stems of her brain. That simply shut down, stop working. She floated for a moment, suspended in the wake of her power. For a painful moment it appeared she would have floated for all eternity. And her mind floated away, her hands still outstretched as she reached. Her friend, it was nothing more than that. He had protected her for whatever his causes. Her body hovered wind curled up and brushed her hair, as she descended. Her arms still seeming to reach upwards. Her face was relaxed, and near serene. She was dead before her limp form touched the ground. Her consciousness, her spirit, whatever you would believe flitting. As a whole elsewhere, if spirits even did that. But she was content. /Forever/ content. She did not feel her body fall 500 feet, or break as it shattered on the ground. She didn't feel the smile that faded from her lips even form. A contorted mess, a limp rag. And nothing more than that. Silenced, she was -good-. She had slain Aerik, she had made Shred.. happy. He never was always that happy. A wind tousled her broken form. Still streaked where she had relieved her scalp of hair. Indented into the soft soil she had just repaired. Not aware Aerik had learned anything if he indeed learned a thing at all. And so sad she might have thought if she were sane. She might have thought if she were whole. His innocence lost on a mad-man. ~*~

*And who would ever know why Dane protected those he chose to protect? Madmen, all of them, but tight, forming a bond, the staggering power of the god-like telepath tethering them however tenuously to something even /they/ needed. Maybe, in the end, Rikky understood this, or maybe he learned a lesson Aerik tried to explain to Nicky once, tho the clone wouldn’t know of it. It didn’t matter, really, if true was true and false was false, as long as the mind believed it, it /was/, simple as that. And psionics as powerful as Rikky and Aerik had no problem persuading the mind of such things. A personal ThoughtScape moment… it happened. To one, it happened. It was real, it was all… nothing was neglected. Rikky allows his emotions to come back on, feel again even as he solidifies and walks towards that broken, bloody, pulpy body. He’d heard her last thoughts, knew what was in her mind. She’d done good. For her friend, her last vision of his happiness, she’d done good. She believed it and nothing else mattered. Rikky has learned, maybe not what he wanted to learn, but nonetheless… he will not leave this untouched, unmarked. He crouches, slowly, next to the mess of a woman. Silent now, her demons fled, her body an empty, useless vessel. Were he Aerik, he could link and burn the body, but he isn’t, so after a time of silence, either of respect or reflection, the young man straightens again, eyes fixed on the body… then, with a last glance about the area, he connects with HQ, gives the command, and is gone*