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 continue, may not. (This is NOT a revelation of the roleplays conclusion, btw. It’s just a possibility.)

Beginning of title suggested by Sarah Frost.

Random had never evacuated a dimension before. Not an entire one, anyway. He’d been there to empty several villages back in his original days with the Knights. A whole city, once, when Orphix’s main power station had threatened to erupt, but those had hardly been minor disturbances when you compared them with this.

Because this wasn’t about just getting people away from one particular location before an unruly 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 campsite/village/nest/whatever they called it had been constructed on an active Seam in the Molten Geysers. No. This was about emptying an entire reality. About totally vacating game-turned-world that was still so young it was barely alive.

It really wasn’t an enjoyable procedure.

Still, at least most of the creatures he’s met so far today had been more obliging than the rodents were.

It took an entire eighty-five milicycles to get most of the people out of Rocky Straits Ground Zero and into the hidden pathways en route to Magery. It normally would have only taken about ten milicycles at the 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) wanting to get to that place 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 a jot of training in how to deal with terrain like the Straits (so exactly 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 them just weren’t that bright and you had a rescue mission in potential jeopardy before they’d even got off the ground. Literally, as it happened.

And it certainly didn’t help that some of them refused to listen to humans.

Mark was running out of patience.

‘I’ve tried everything, Random,’ he pointed out after returning from the spot where he had been trying and failing to prevent another Harpix from attacking a passing rodent.‘Everything.And for the most part not one of them has paid any attention.’

‘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 reach out his claw in front of the Pixiel which had wandered around Mark, blatantly ignoring his presence only a few seconds earlier. It didn’t ignore Random, that was for sure. But then giant, metal-claw wielding cyborgs were really pretty hard to disregard. It paused for a second, staring at the claw and opening and closing transparent eye covers in some semblance of blinking, while reaching out a spindly finger to tap at the metal surface, then it looked up at him. ‘Go on,’ Random said, bluntly. ‘Not that 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 to the portal out of the Straits. Mark glanced down at the little creature 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 lives,’ Mark muttered. ‘I don’t get this, I really… I’m trying to help, what good is that if they keep trying to… I mean, half of these guys just don’t know when somebody’s trying to help them.’

‘Oh, they know alright. Just doesn’t mean they’re going to care, though, does it?’

Mark sighed, as if remembering something important he’d forgotten. He looked at least as bad as Random felt. They’d been at this for going on twenty 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 obviously had a few disagreements with the minions (whoops. Random meant citizens, of course) who actually had paid him some attention and really hadn’t liked the looks of him, Lightning Knight Insignia on his shirt or no Lightning Knight insignia.

Eighteen years old. He 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 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.)

‘…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 mortals themselves,’ Random pointed out. ‘They didn’t care. I wonder if maybe it’s that which confuses them,’ he looked in the direction of 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 Random hadn’t got what he meant. It seemed just a little bit foolish, to him, 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 accepted to return to the field, after all. He’d returned to the Lightning Knights, even when 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 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.’

‘Well, yeah, and… all of that out of phase stuff, I can understand. But… “susceptibility”? What am I, a disease?’

‘Well…’ Random sought his already rather overwrought brain for some memory of his lessons on extra dimensional biology. Small talk like this had been going on for hours –it seemed to keep his evil down and gave them something other to think about than the endless stream of person out of person, trailing out with evil forces close behind. ‘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 about the answer to his next question, whatever it was going to be. ‘What’s that in English?’

Random sighed. ‘It means that those people that can’t understand you prefer to ignore you completely. And those that do understand your presence here find it disturbing enough to attack. You’re an anomaly, Mark. You don’t belong in this world, anymore than Chuck, or Heather. And the minority always adapts to the majority world’s rules and problems. Because you’re a minority here, the world shoved you in rather than attempting to shape everything to suit you. Plus being a mortal as well isn’t exactly helping your case any in the first place. 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 nodded 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 from where random was standing, trying to move down the shaky , to where what appeared to be a large rodent mother (who’s half a dozen or so children had mercifully hung around 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.

Of course it ignored him, 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 out mortals. Random remembered them being fairly harsh to him back in his early patrol days.

‘Uh… Rat? Rodent, I mean… whoever you are it’s not safe there… N-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 it certainly didn’t look insane.

Mark obviously wasn’t to notice this.

‘For god’s sakes, are you insane?’ 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 jumped back as the claw grazed his cheek. The rat gave an irritated huff before continuing down the cliff face. Mark however, was not deterred, and looked just about ready to follow her –albeit with a very annoyed look on his face. (Random guessed he’d have gotten half a meter from the edge.) By this point, however the rodent had vanished over the cliff. Random’s breath caught a little.

But, 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 Rodent.

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

Mark shuffled, still clutching his ear. ‘…Oh. I… Okay, we didn’t actually 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 old rodent muttered. It’s actually speaking to him made Mark jump, a little. It shook its head and tucking the squirming child more firmly under it’s paw ‘Thinkin’ this one here is dense. Thinkin’ she’d just waltz right into the tar pits, sure I will, human, finish myself off quicker than th’ damn Forces of the Lord can, eh?’ She shuffled back into the lines, pausing only 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 just bit back a smile and watched as it shuffled onwards, back to it’s place in line, shoving a Serviceable Ox out of the way as it did so, muttering to itself as it went… (‘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 that one could see you well enough.’ 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 his tred limiting all his movement this much, even though he could remember a time when he would have clambered up these cliff faces with ease and speed.

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

‘Yeah. Wonderful. That makes a grand total of six who actually listened 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.’

‘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 before continuing to follow 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 this 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. Starting to think we’d found a way though. try not to get pushed over yourself, okay. You know You know rule thirteen section twelve “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.’

‘You remember that?’

‘Remember it? Of course I remember it. 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 should I say that laws are funny. Justice actually is always the same. Laws change depending on who… what is it?’

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

‘Ng. Yeah,’ Mark blinked a few times looking up from what had apparently been a momentary space-out. And when Random got another good look, 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. ‘A bit of damage here. That’s s the worst of it. Otherwise he’s doing alright 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, though. Chuck’s been in contact with him. We’ve only got another forty eight hours, human time.’

Nearly one hundred cycles. ‘...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… current moral orientation but then he’s always worried about that.’ 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 those damn power fluxes.’ He 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 I don’t. And the last I checked – he didn’t. Maybe his pay check’s ran out.’

‘I doubt it. So look 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 I can’t just ring up 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 into the crowd – still shifting and moving at a steady pace which random was really starting to realise wasn’t nearly fast enough. ‘He’ll be fine. He’s Ace. Ace always comes out of it.’

Random nodded. Or tried to nod.

And that was when he heard it: a familiar whirring buzz that made the moving, sifting crowds scurry and mutter as it swept close enough over their heads to ruffle fur and detach weak Insectoid limbs.

When he looked up Mark was already grinning as a shape shifted quickly into view overhead and random felt the soft scorch of nearby engines.

‘So boys, havin’ fun there 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 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 dept. Or an academy, for that matter. It had all vanished when the world was remade, and now the thought of it all dying again…

Random didn’t want to think about it. Even his evil 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 it was all perfectly natural that there would be some massive glitches. It 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, glancing around and leaning over her handlebars. ‘Course I got the message at home, just like everyone else. Kinda annoying, you know, not being the first with the info on hand…’

‘Sparx!’ Mark finally managed to say,

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

‘Oh, very funny,’ Mark muttered. ‘Just 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 glanced uneasily down into the crowd. Even from below and through her usual cocky attitude, Random could sense the trepidation rolling off of her in waves.

‘…Man, I’ve been watching you two from way over there. Drops the freakin’ innocent lives off a cliff, I’m telling ya, those boys are useless without me. Like this whole Zoar damned world. Wonder how long the hissy fit will go on this time before we can start bringing people back in. I figure you’ve never had to evacuate before, have you?’

‘Not like this,’ Random agreed uneasily. ‘It’s… we don’t know if it’s permanent.’

‘Man you’re such a downer, Randy. 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 it’s kinda boring detail, I’d far sooner be down there with you.’

‘Is that an offer?’ Random asked. He hadn’t meant to let the annoyance slip out of his voice there, but he couldn’t help it. Sparx was obviously recently powered u he wasn’t. He lacked the energy for banter and Sparx…

Her appearance always sparked memories. No pun intended.

Four cycles ago, Mark had come here to the Sixth Dimension. Chuck, the girl, Kat… so many others had come and overstayed their welcome, trying to help them rebuild this new world, and somehow they ended up in Uniforms of a team of heroes that no longer existed in any formal writings… and Random, for some Zoar forsaken reason, had come back with them and for the life of him, he didn’t no why.

No. Wait. He knew 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 going on in the Deadly Desert around about now, right? Figures you guys would screw up somewhere.’

‘Desert?’ Mark frowned, clearly working something out in his head. ‘But… we left the sand untouched.’

‘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? We emptied the desert I checked all the buildings’

‘Yeah well, you didn’t. Not completely. 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… whoa, 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, 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 stopped at Mark. Flighty little creatures that they were, he’d never imagined they’d touch on an utterly-out-of-joint mortal and yet they did. Mostly the amulet – they buzzed around it thoughtfully for a few seconds, much to Mark’s utter confusion. Particularly when they made his cheeks spark. Random figured he would’ve been amused, except a couple 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…?’

‘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.

Mark’s face twitched into another smile. ‘If you say so.’

‘Actually 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 them look at each other, with what he supposed was a familiar exchange of expressions for the two of them, noticeable to anyone who wasn’t him and hadn’t spent years hiding from them. In all the things that had happened since the world reshaped and he had made his own choices, Random didn’t think he would ever get used to Mark and Sparx being in the same room together. Or in this case, on the same ragged cliff side. There was an apology in those looks, somewhere. And a “so you should be, damned kid,” somewhere else. Followed by a “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 then and 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 you charge for 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… 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? Anyone been screwin’ with Random??

‘…Uh. No one?’

‘No one. Huh, yeah, right.’

‘Come on, Mark, you’re a mortal already and those rats can totally smell it on ya. Bet they’ve been giving you a hard time about this.’

‘Sparx, really, we’re not dealing with it 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 scatter slightly up the hillside, 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 Random and a few select others, back when it had been all that was left of the old world, before this one came. 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.

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

To think they’d left the poor things in a dying desert. 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 being one that’s difficult.” That was probably also just a misconception from the old Academy Gazette, Random realised, but he liked it anyway.

He’d always liked that part the best. Better than “Do Right and Fear No Taxation”, at any rate. He watched Sparx shifting up the row with her sword, shoving some panicked Pixiels back into line and Mark uneasily avoiding a nearby rat, with a few Esyx still clinging curiously to the back of his neck where he couldn’t see them. A dark sensation stirred for a second, but never quite rose up past his 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.

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.

The “Esyx” were inspired by creatures called “Ess, from “The Doomspell Trilogy” by Cliff McNish. The Ess are small creatures – tiny and spell-like, and all individuals existing as a group. I also think they vary in size. While the Esyx are a collective consciousness containing various levels of individuality and vary only in colour.