The most intelligent and awesome Gamer, during the rampage of the tubby Trekie, fended off Romulans with his Enhanced Manipulator gun. After the two Star Trek threats perished, The Noble and Valiant Gamer, along with Trekie, continued along the road, turning onto another path which was of mere dirt and not the pavement that awesome Gamer was used to being on.

Trekie forged the path ahead, leading Gamer on the path to this meeting. They arrived at the room where the meeting was to be held, but as Gamer approached the door carelessly, Trekie's instincts kicked in and tackled Gamer out of the way. An explosion blasted out the door past them. When the dust had settled, they peered cautiously into the room, and saw the bodies of the gaurds who were meant to gaurd the room. "What manner of fiend would perpitrate such a heinous crime!?" Shouted Trekie angrily.

Whilst the ever incompetent Trekie ranted on about the horrors that lay before him, Gamer proceded to actually see if he could determine what was happening. He examined the remains to see that, though chared, and burned, they had not been killed by the blast. They had in fact each taken a poison knife through the ribs, and were dead before the explosion had gone off. Useing his flawless logic, the wise Gamer cooly calculated that no one could have done so if they had not been in the room, furthermore, the only ones to enter the room were those who were invited to the meeting. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he said, "It was done by one of the other deligates."

As Gamer was going off on one of his pointless tangents about the cause of death and so on, Trekie had thouroughly examined the remains of what was to be the meeting place. There were shreads of paper and burned flesh scattered haphazardly. An unpleasent aroma arose from the remains of other deligates. (And from Gamer. OOH!) Trekie bent and picked up a chared sheet of paper that appeared to be some kind of seating plan. Sadly most of the page was destroyed, but there remained three legable names: Gamer, Bob McPrequel, and The Jester. Trekie's head shot up as he scanned the area where the three were to have sat. His suspisions were Justified, there were no remains where The Jester should have been sitting.

Trekie being the blind fool that he is failed to notice that Bob McPrequel was still alive, though wounded severly. The caring and kind Gamer rushed over to his assistance. He swiftly injected the courageous patient with a drug to ease the pain. Bob McPrequel gasped in relief. After a pause he spoke. "Thank-you oh awesome Gamer. You are one friend who has not bretrayed me this day."

Trekie rushed over saying "Then it was the Jester who caused this horrible tragedy?" "Yes," gasped Bob McPrequel, "And you must stop him or he will get away with it too." Trekie asked "Do you have any idea how he escaped?" Bob McPrequel managed to say "He escaped, ungh window." then he passed out. Trekie swiftly pulled out a medical device and cured the burns which covered his body.

Whilst Trekie healed the most excellent Bob McPrequel, Gamer hurried to the window, and threw it open. He glanced hurriedly in all directions. There was no sign of the Jester, however, Gamer noticed skid marks on the wall above him. The Jester had likely fled this way. "allons-y!" he shouts.

Trekie looked up from the unimportant conversation he was having with Bob McPrequel. "Quoi?"

Gamer looked back at him, marveling at the incompetance that lay before him. "let's go!"

"Ah" said Trekie, and ran after Gamer.

Gamer leaped clear of the window, and slung a web to the top of the building, slingshoting himself up to the top. As he shoots over the roof of the building, combines began fireing at him. He whiped out his manipulater, and blew over the barricade they had set up on the roof.

Trekie flew up behind Gamer and covered his manipulater skill with his costoum gun, killing the sword weilding jerks who attacked him from the side. He then holstered the gun, and turned to Gamer. "They must have been left as a destraction. The Jester knows that such small a group couldn't hold us back."

Gamer rolled his eyes at the irrelevent remark that issued from Trekies mouth, and examined the area for any sign of which way the illudeing Jester might have escaped. He surveyed the area thouroughly, but found no trace, save for a pair of the Jester's trademark juggleing balls which he frequently left to taunt his persuers.

Trekie examined the location of the balls, and calculating with Data's effeciencey, he determined the angle at which they landed, and then the direction from which they came. "This way,let's go!" He headed off in the determined direction, with Gamer following.

Gamer covered Trekie's back skillfully as he very foolishly walked off casually, exposeing his back to incoming sniper fire. Trekie was lucky enough to have recieved no enemy fire this time, but Gamer made a mental note to drive the fact through the thick back of Trekie's skull. He put it aside for the moment however, as they arrived at the edge of the building. "Now what, he could have gone anywhere from here."

Trekie looked around, vainly grappleing for some clue as to which way the Jester escaped. When no solution presented itself, he slumped down, and pulled out a tricorder. "I've boosted it's range, but it still isn't perfect." He began scanning to seek for something out of the ordinary that might tell them where the Jester had gone.

Gamer promptly swiped the device, and tossed it the air. He caught it saying "Slight wind thataway," and pointed off in that direction. "The Jester will likely travel with the wind because several of his devices emit a scent, with the wind behind him, his persuers couldn't track him via that." Gamer leaped from building, while Trekie flew slowly over him. Gamer grabbed a leaf off a nearby tree, and suddenly sprouted a raccoon tail and ears. Gamer began to run, as Trekie increased speed to follow, Gamer leaped into the air, beside Trekie. They flew off at high speed, with the wind.

Trekie caught an air current, and gained altitude, flying somewhat higher than Gamer, he was quicker to see a large building on the horizon, rapidly growing in size. It seemed to be of a dull reddish colour, Trekie did not recognize it. He called Gamer to come up and have a look. After some remarks about exerting effort Gamer complyed, flapping his tail and pulling up beside Trekie.

Gamer examined it carefully "You're right for once, I don't remember any such building, shall we investigate?" Trekie nodded "As it's right in our path we might as well, and there may be a clue to the whereabouts of the Jester." They leveled off about a kilimetre away from the building, and began a decent, landing right infront of the entrance.

A gaurd approached them. Trekie looked up expectantly. "This is the tower of Ragdor, what buisness have you here?" Trekie gave Gamer a look as if to question the stuck up gaurd, but responded in the others fasion. "We are the great council of NAO, we come seeking one who we believe has come this way. He is known as the Jester." The gaurd looked as though he had expected the response. "We do know of the whereabouts of the Jester, but to discover the truth you must climb to the top of the tower of Ragdor, facing different enemies and challenges at each level." The gaurd leveled his blaster. Trekie looked at Gamer and raised an eyebrow. Simultaniously they both flew to the top of the building and broke through a window on the top story.

The council members entered, and there sat in the middle of the room, a table with one of the Jester's juggleing balls upon it, and a note which read "phoney clue" "So, the tower was merely a distraction." muttered the angry Trekie. While he cursed their misfortune, Gamer inspected the remainder of the room. There was a trap door in the floor where they clearly could have entered from, There were pictures on the wall, mostly depicting grand views of the tower from different directions, Finally there was a computer panel on the wall. Gamer went over to investigate. The display held the mission discription of the tower's gaurds. It read "If the council members of NAO arrive you are to ignore any diplomatic signifigance they posses. They must be distracted for the most time possible, in a way which will in the end lead them into this room, preferably alone." Gamer glanced over his shoulder to Trekie after having read it aloud. "What do you make of that?" Trekie thought for a pause, "Possibly he wanted us to follow him, he only wanted us slowed, in which case he likely went the way we have been going." Gamer glanced at him, "Or, he just wanted us to get up here because it's wired with explosives." Trekie glanced around useing Geordi LaForge's special sight. "You're right, there appears to be great amounts of latrium surrounding this room. Perhaps we should... ?" Trekie trailed off, nodding in the direction of the windows. Gamer nodded, "Likely." There was a pause. "After you." said Trekie. Gamer looked up from his thought process, "Oh no, after you." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." A shake in the corridor suggesting that word they were up their had finally traveled this far decided for them. "If you insist." Said Gamer quickly, while Trekie could be heard to utter "Age before ugly." As the both made a break for the window and leapt out, clearing the building's perimeter just as the explosion began.

The council members paused to witness the awesome sight of the explosion. As the fumes trailed off into the sky, and the flames began to die due to a lack of combustable materials. Gamer raised his eyebrows questioningly "Where to now?" Trekie shrugged "Back in to find out where the Jester is?" Gamer nodded sadly "And as we do he will only get farther away." "Well," suggested Trekie "We could return to HQ and scan for any sign of him..." Both council members knew that that wasn't likely to turn up any results, The Jester had clearly been planning this, and would likely have some form of cloaking device, or somthing to prevent them from noticeing him. "Shall we continue with the wind?" Gamer asked after a pause. "He's likely to have changed direction at this tower." Answered Trekie "Speaking of which, where on earth did this come from? It seems a massive waste of resources to simply stall us." Gamer looked thoughtful "It does now that you mention it." "Back in it is then?" asked Trekie. Gamer sighed in response "I suppose so."

As they entered the building, the council members could hear alarms blareing. Clearly the tower wasn't meant to merely crumble, burn, or melt after the explosion. Several paniced persons ran by, and Trekie grabbed the largest of the three by the colar and flung him against the wall. Gamer gave the other two such a look that any thought they had of running disappeared instantly from their minds. "Where's the Jester?!" Trekie shouted in the man's face, getting straight to the point. It seemed that the man tried to spit in Trekie's face, but not a drop of saliva passed his lips, because he was thrown to his stomach on the floor. Trekie whipped out a needle comtaining some of the truth syrum that was used on Morpheous in the Matrix, and drove it into the man's neck. Trekie knew full well that the man could be forced to tell the truth much more easily by Gamer's mind tricks, or even by Trekie's own telepathy, but this was much more threatening a method, and would encourage obediance from the other two if they should need to question them. "Now, What were you saying?" Asked Trekie calmly. Quietly and respectfully the man responded, "I do not know." Trekie rolled his eyes frustratedly. "Who in this building would?" The man was respectful and honest again "No one here would know. The Jester doesn't tell the likes of us his plans." Trekie let the man up, and followed by the other two he ran off wherever he had been going. Gamer looked to Trekie, "Now what?" Trekie sighed "Okay, let's think this through. Where would the Jester go now? What's his purpose in blowing up the meeting? What does he gain from it?" Gamer looked up sharply "That's true, we hadn't thought of that at all. The Jester might be in it only for profit, but he isn't evil for the sake of evil." The council members pondered for a moment, but neither of them could see any way that this could benefit the Jester at all. "Perhaps," thought Gamer aloud "He hoped that we would follow him, and the true target is NAO." Trekie seemed worried for a pause then looked up "No, that can't be it, it's the same question: what's in it for him?" Gamer looked somewhat reassured, the defeat of NAO would gain him little and cost him much. "Maybe," Gamer theorized "It was in fact not the Jester, but some one trying to set him up." "Now that," Trekie said turning to him "Has some plausability to it. But who do we know that hates the Jester?"

The council members puzzled for a few moments, but could think of no one who would want the Jester blamed for such an action. "Alright," Gamer thought out loud, "So let's say then that they didn't particularly dislike the Jester, they just wanted to commit the crime, and pin the blame on anyone else." Trekie nodded, thinking. suddenly he pulled out the page from the seating plan at the meeting. "Ha! The Jester was seated in the middle of meeting, with the window behind him." Gamer looked up "We should try to get in contact with the Jester. He may have no idea what's going on." Trekie tapped his communicator. "This is Trekie NAO headquarters please respond." Bookworm's voice came through clear "This is HQ. What have you got for me?" "Bookworm, get us in contact with the Jester's centre of Ops right now." With a sarcastic remark about doing everything around there Bookworm made the connection. "You're up." An effecient female voice came over the radio. "You've got the Jester's place can I help you?" Trekie responded slowly and clearly "Yes, we need the Jester imeadiatly." The voice responded quickly "I'm sorry, the Jester is preoccurpied with a very important matter at the moment, my I connect you to some one else?" Trekie was about to respond, but Gamer made a motion for him not to. He then spoke up in a fake tough and deep voice. "Listen to me. I need to talk to the Jester this instant, and no half-salary secretary is going to stop me!" The voice was somewhat taken aback, but began to reply "Sir I've been given or..." But she got no further than that, Gamer cut in sounding angry "Don't you 'sir' me miss! I've had a very rough day and I am not about to banter with a low level servant of that stuffed up sack of piss!! Now get me the Jester before I have you fired!!!" The voice was very unsure at this point, saying subdued "Listen, I take orders fr..." Gamer was now shouting "DON'T YOU TALK TO ME ABOUT ORDERS!!! I WANT YOU TO LISTEN AND TO LISTEN WELL!!!! I'M GOING TO SPEAK TO THE JESTER RIGHT NOW!!!! HAVE YOU GOT THAT!?!!!!" The voice was completely cowed now "Yes sir." In a Potter-like style Gamer responded "GOOD!" After a short pause the Jester's voice came through, "Yello?" Gamer glanced at Trekie, "Is this the Jester?" The voice responded cheerfully "That it is. Is that Gamer?" "Yes, Trekie is here too." The Jester laughed cheerfully "Wow, this must be important, the entire council calling me! What can I do you for?" Trekie spoke up this time, asking "Have you not heard about the meeting?" The Jester sounded genuinely confused "Meeting? Oh geez did I miss another one?" Gamer and Trekie exchanged glances "Then you weren't invited?" "Not as far as I know, one moment." Then there was a muffled shout of "Carol!!" and some conversation clearly not said directly into the communcator, after a few moments of this the Jester came back on the communcator "No, I've had no notice of a meeting." Trekie turned the communicator to silent, and said "It appears that we were right, and someone was setting up the Jester." Gamer replied "We should make sure before we go off on any other leads." Trekie nodded and turned the communicator back on "Listen Jester, do you mind if we beam directly there? We would like to see if we can trace the message and see how it was deleted." The Jester replied imeadiately "By all means!" Trekie got back to HQ, and gave them the transport coordinates. Faster than the speeding atom, (actually at the same speed) The council members were flung to the Jester's centre of Ops.

Trekie and Gamer materialized beside the Jester, he was standing by the communicator, there was a woman standing behind him with a computer watch which she had been eyeing thouroughly. When the council members appeared, they both looked up. The Jester opened his arms in welcome. "Evening Gentlemen." he said, gestureing to the com panel before him. "If you would like to search for the lost invitation imeadiately..." "Thank-you!" said Gamer, moving in to apply his expertise with the computer, searching for the lost file, meanwhile Trekie began to make a brief tour of the area. Trekie inspected the technology, and also the two people in the room (subtlely) looking for any hint that might lead him to believe that the Jester was in fact guilty. After giving Trekie a reasonable amount of time, Gamer called him over to confer 'about the lost file'. When Trekie bent over the screen, in hushed voices they had a quick conference. "What do you think?" hissed Gamer "I can't see anything to support his guilt. Should we let him in on what happened? He might have some idea who framed him." Trekie muttered back "I'm not sure" Gamer said louder, then added quietly "If he did do it then he will know we're onto him." Trekie spoke in a louder tone "Yes, but it could have been blocked on its own!" and then lowered his voice to say "If he did do it, just the fact that we're here will tip him off. Especially since we already asked him whether he had been to the meeting." Gamer thought for a second. "This is true." he said loud enough that the other two could hear him. The council members nodded to eachother, then turned to the Jester, with an almost gestapo air to their actions. Gamer was the first to speak. "I must admit, mr. Knight, that we haven't been wholely frank with you." There was a pause while the they allowed the Jester to try and interpret what they meant, but just when he was about to say somthing, Gamer started again "Forgive us for our deception, but we had to be sure." Gamer stood directly in front of the Jester while Trekie strolled around his side. The Jester awkwardly glanced at Trekie, but then looked back to Gamer. He licked his lips, and then asked the question "Sure of what?" Gamer glanced to Trekie. Trekie was stareing not at the Jester, but at his secretary. "Can she be trusted?" He asked, his tone implying more than his words said. The Jester glanced back, having completelyt forgotten about her "She's fine" he said. "That's good" replied Trekie, "for what we are about to tell you is of great importance. There must be no leaks." at this point he cast a pierceing glance at the girl. She met his stare head on, and showed no emotion. Gamer meanwhile, was eyeing the Jester suspiciously, he tapped his foot gently on the floor, in no recognizable patteren, but Trekie noticed the morse code, spelling "c-a-n-t-h-e-g-i-r-l-b-e-t-r-u-s-t-e-d" Trekie, without taking his gaze from the girl tapped a response "s-h-e-w-a-n-t-s-t-o-k-n-o-w-v-e-r-y-b-a-d-l-y-i-m-n-o-t-s-u-r-e" Gamer glanced to the sercretary, and then back to the Jester "In fact, I think we'd prefer it if we were more alone, if you know what I mean." The Jester was so deep in what this situation might be, that he dismissed the girl without a second thought.

The girl glanced angrily at the Jester, but left without complaint. After she left, Trekie insured that the door was closed behind her, and listened to the sound of her walking through the next room. Trekie then turned back to Gamer, and nodded wordlessly, pacing behind the Jester, clearly making him distinctly nervous. Gamer began again, "What we are about to say to you, must not leave this room." The Jester nodded, glanceing awkwardly back at Trekie, and then returning to look at Gamer. "The meeting of which we spoke," comtinued Gamer "It was attacked." The Jester was astonished. "One of our meetings?! Attacked?!" Gamer continued without showing emotions. "Yes, brutally bombed, while klingons and romulans attacked those of us that weren't even there yet. Trekie myself and Bob McPrequel were the only survivers."

The Jester seemed unsure of what to do for a moment, then his expression hardened. "Alright, I did it!! And you'll never catch me!!!" He suddenly disappeared, and the door sealed itself.

"Personal Transporter." muttered Gamer angrily.

"Gas!" shouted Trekie in warning.

"Are you serious? Now?!" said Gamer. "That's it, DOORKNOB!" He made to punch Trekie.

"No, not me! It's coming from that vent!" explained Trekie hurridely.

Gamer looked relieved for a moment, then realized that this gas would likely be more dangerous. Well, almost as dangerous. He inhaled deeply, and then pulled a helmet on over his HEV suit. Trekie filled his lungs and began looking about swiftly for a way of escape. Gamer shrugged, he couldn't see any path out. Trekie's face began to turn red, then he pointed towards the grate from which the gas was issueing. Gamer nodded, seeing this was likely their only passage out. Trekie flew as fast as he could, breaking the cover of the vent, Gamer slung himself up with a well placed web. Trekie blasted down the shaft at top speed. Gamer, unable to fly in such a cramped space made do with grappleing the wall agead of him and pulling himself forward. After Gamer had started two new grapples because of corners, he burst out into what appeared to be a tank of gas, the source of what had been meant to kill them no doubt. Gamer saw a gaping hole in the side of the tank where Trekie had clearly broken through. Gamer leaped through the hole, as gas poored out around him. He saw Trekie leaning on his knees, breatheing heavily, but knew that this air would soon be just as full of gas as the room they had come from. He seized Trekie and rushed out of the room, the door closing automatically behind him.

After a few deep breathes, Trekie looked up at Gamer and half-said half-weezed "He didn't do it."

Gamer looked up shraply "What do you mean? He admitted it, and he tried to kill us!"

"Yeah," said Trekie "But did you see him hesitate? He was genuinely confused right then, then something else took over in his mind and made him do that. He's being controled."

"By what?!" Asked Gamer excited that Trekie had proved handy for once.

"I can't tell, something powerful and dark. A strong mind."

"Gee, couldn't have guessed that. You're about as useful as Troi." Gamer voice was laden with displeasure.

"Hey!" said Trekie, offended.

"He is hiding something..." Said Gamer mockingly.

Trekie was fixing to give Gamer a knuckle sandwich, but then alarm bells started going off. "Warning: NAO council members loose in the building. Now sealing all exits against Code 3 clearance or lower."

"That's rarely a good thing..." said Trekie as green shields falshed in front of all the doors. Gamer glanced around looking for another vent to connect them to a system in which they could sneak around, but there were none in the room.

"I've got a plan." Said Trekie "Start cutting through that wall." he guestured the way they had come. "Don't cut all the way through yet though."

Gamer quickly calculated the thickness of the wall based on his observance as they had leaped through the door. He then drew a lightsabre and began to cut through to one cm short of the edge. The metal was powerful, not quite lightsabre resistant, but it took a great deal to make Gamer's hole. "We can't move around like this, it'll take far too long"

"We won't need to." Said Trekie who was fiddleing with his communicator.

"What are you doing?" Said Gamer having completed the hole to no small effort.

"Personal Sheilding." Trekie replied "you're going to need it too."

Gamer nodded. "Will my UT2004 be strong enough? Or should I Halo 2 overshield as well?"

Trekie shuddered, recalling how many times overshields had been his downfall, "UT2004 will be fine." He seemed to have finished with his device. "Right," he said, pulling out a pack of matches "When I say 'now' activate shileding and cut through the rest of the wall."

Gamer nodded. Trekie said "Now!" There was the sound of two shields turning on. The lighsbabre burst through, and gas began to spray into the room. Trekie struck a match and threw it into the next room. Both Council members dived for cover as the explosion blew the entire wall away.

When the dust settled, they stood up. Trekie's shield dropped, but Gamer left his on as a precaution and because it took no extra power. The lasers that had activate the shield had been destroyed with the rest of the wall, and so the council memebers could walk back freely. As they did, Trekie explained "The gas in the vent wasn't concentrated enough to cause such an explosion, but it was still flammable. the flame will have passed through the vent, into the room we first entered, where an explosion will likely leave us with a route out."

Gamer added "Not to mention it just pwned the Jester's centre of ops."

"This is true." said Trekie "But no doubt he changed control from there as soon as he left. Besides, like I said this thing goes further than the Jester, there's more to this."

In silence the council members followed the route that Trekie had described, and sure enough after a few well placed phaser shots, there was a way out of the former centre of ops. They passed onward, into a room lined with books. The only two exits from the room had the glowing security shields on them. Trekie slumped dejectedly in a chair, fresh out of ideas. "Don't worry," said Gamer "one of these books will open a secret passage, that's the only reason people have rooms like this."

"Good luck figureing out which one." Said Trekie, his eyes focasing instead on the mechanism which activated the security shields.

Gamer skimmed across the book shelf, looking for anything that caught his eye. "War and Peace"? We all know the Jester would never actually read that. Gamer pulled the book out, and as he did so, the bookcase swung open revealing a path.

"He got lucky, that's all." muttered Trekie enviously. As he trudged after Gamer. They found themselves in a passage which led both forward, and back the way they had come from. "Onward and upward?" said Gamer rhetorically. (Except he could spell it.) But Trekie was glanceing from the room they had just come from to down the tunnel. A look of concentration crossed his face, as he seemed to be calculateing something.

"She went in here." He said all of a sudden.

"Say what now?" Said Gamer who was somewhat lost.

"That girl," replied Trekie "his secretary, she came into this room, and then entered this passage." he glanced down the passage back the way they had come. "She could have gone back and heard everything we said. I knew there was something different about her mind. I'll bet you she's the one who's controling the Jester!"

"Possibly, we'll keep our eyes pealed for her." said Gamer nodding. "Are we good to get moving now?"

"Hmmm?" Trekie looked up from whatever thought process he had become lost in. "Oh yes, let's go."

They continued down the dank dark passage. A fist of flame appeared in the palm of Gamer's hand. He held it aloft, lighting their path down the passage. Trekie drew his tricorder, and scanned as he walked. "This Rock is ancient." he commented "This passage was probably here since before the Jester's op or even NAO was begun." He continued scanning the area without comment, until they reached a part where a side passage split off from the main route. "There are about thrity intelligent lifeforms. up this route, it seems this path leads back into the Jester's turf. Humaniods. They're genetically alterted, it appears they are part human part cat. What do you think? Get back into the open?"

Gamer glanced down the main passage. "Well I figure this path just connects the whole place, so one can sneak around. We might as well stick our heads and see what's going on."

"We could split up." Trekie suggested very unsure of the idea.

Gamer squashed the idea completely "No we don't know what we're dealing with, we may need all the power we can get, we're better off sticking together."

Trekie agreed happily. And so they made there way up the side passage, Gamer leading the way with his shield wtill up, and his advanced manipulator out. Trekie slightly back and to Gamer's right, his costum gun held out, with a falshlight in the other hand, held out so that they crossed. The light illuminated a doorway before them, it seemed to swing on an axis. Trekie glanced to Gamer, neither said a word, but the exchange went somewhat like this: "What do think Trekie? Sneak in or with style?"

"Think about who you just asked that to. Now guess."

"Gotcha. Alright, lets do this."

With a nod, The council leaped. Gamer came running in and kicked his side of the door, his manipulator held aloft. Trekie preferred to flying check the oppisite side. The pressure on either side causedthe door to split at the axis. The flying shards blasted through crushing two men standing near it. As the council members burst into the gaurd room, sixty cat-like eyes looked up in shock, Sixty furry hands reached for weapons, and thirty tails twitched in unison. Still in the air from his jumping kick, Gamer picked up the two slabs of door with his manipulator, and fired them at a crowd of the cats before their weaponry could be drawn. Trekie continued to blast across the room backwards, unloading on the unsuspecting cats as he flew. His flashlight he hurled at a large panther-like one. As he touched down with his back to the wall behind him, he drew out a romulan disruptor and opened fire with that as well.

The council soon learned why it was the Jester employed these creatures. Two were crushed by the door halves as they entered the room, but it was mere seconds before the rest had pulled on wristbands each with a blade and a blaster mounted on them. All of them leaped out of the way of Gamer's attack, save one who actually pounced on top of the flying door fragment, and then leaped off it with his paw up as if to punch with the blade, whilst the blaster fired at Gamer. As for Trekie's bullets, with cat-like instincts, they dodged the bullets even as they reached them. The flashlight was caught. When trekie fired disrupters at a small agile looking tigeress, she reflected them off her blade, which it seems was not normal metal. She sent several flying back at Trekie, who droped to the ground barely avoiding them, the rest she sent flying into the lights above, plungeing the room into darkness.

Gamer successfully avoided most of the blaster shots, but some of them struck his shiled. The cat who had fired them was illuminated by the lasers as he pounced at Gamer lashing out with his blade. Gamer took advantage of the light to blast the cat flying into a wall with his manipulator. Then during the brief pause he had, he pulled on Sam Fisher's goggles, and was back in action. The cat he had blasted back, stood slowly and winceing cried, "This one can see! And he's got shields!"

The Tigress who had taken out the lights, and was clearly the leader of the group responded. "Concentrate power on him, I'll deal with the other."

In response to this order, the cats launched themselves at Gamer. He avaded some of the fire, but his shield was greatly weakened. He layed waste, tossing them from side to side with his manipulator, killing four before one got close enough to knock the device from his hands. Gamer knocked the Cat in question out with a hook, and then drew a +6 Baulder's Gate blade, and a lightsabre.

As the Cats had fired at Gamer, Trekie took advantage of the moment to activate the Geordi LaForge style sight on his glasses. The tigeress, thinking that he was still blind, padded silently to his right flank. Trekie played along, fireing blindly forward, as if to try and see his opponent. She pounced, but as she did, Trekie dropped and tomanagied her across the room and into the other wall. Then he stood and began unloading on her with his costom gun and disruptor.

Gamer meanwhile was lashing around himself dangerously with both blades. As he brought down another of his feline foes they gave him a bigger berth, darting in and out waiting for him to leave an opening. Gamer, decideing not to give them the chance to get in, slung his sword at one who barely avoided it, he then pulled himself to the roof with a web, leaveing a bomb in his place. One cat swiftly flung himself on the bomb, taking the full blast upon himself, and saving all the others. Gamer cast several spells at the creatures, but they seemed to have no effect. "They're immune to magic!" He cried to Trekie.

"Are they immune to getting pwned!!!" shouted Trekie gleefully, pumping lead and disrupter fire into the form across the room. He resisted the temptation to laugh manically. A good thing too, cause he would have looked pretty foolish a moment later when his glasses were punched from his face. The tigress had pulled a dead body infront of her as she fell, and Trekie had been shooting it while she ambushed him. Now he was blind again.

Gamer saw his parteners misfortune, but had no chance to help as the cats opened fire on him from below. He activated his overshield, and then leaped across to a wall, fireing redemer missiles at the group behind him. As the cats leaped for cover from the explosions, Gamer picked off one with a bowcaster. This was slow work. He hoped Trekie was doing significantly better.

Trekie was not doing significantly better. Having lost his glasses, and fighting blind, he wasn't having a good time of it. especially since lasers kept going off and flashing his eyes, not enough to fight by, but enough to stop him from adjusting to the darkness. After the intial ambush, he had protected himself fairly well, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the tigeress ended it with her blaster. Hearing another blow coming, he dropped, and swept her legs. She leaped expertly over the kick, and blasted at Trekie. Trekie managed to bail to one side, so that the blaster fire only clipped him in his right ribs. Continueing his swinging motion, Trekie stood behind the tigress and seized her arms behind her back with one arm, whilst applying one of them crazy but healer thingies from TNG to his side.

With as slash of his lightsabre, Gamer made his tenth kill, but it cost him the last of his overshiled. Spinning quickly, he returned five blaster bolts at the leopard who had shot him in the back. With lightning reflexes, she redirected them with her blade, sending them into the wall where they burned smoking holes. Twin Panthers pounced at Gamer as exposed his back to them. Gamer dropped to the floor, and unloaded on them with an SMG. In mid-air, the cats were unable to dodge. One was killed, and the other took three shots to the leg. With a slice of his lightsabre, Gamer finished the job.

In a sudden burst of retaliation, the tigress stomped hard on Trekie's foot, rammed her elbow into his groin, and jerked her head upwards into his chin. With a cry of pain Trekie let go. Before the tigress could get any distance away, he seized her wristband with one hand, and tore it from her arm. He recieved a kick to the chest which knocked him into the wall for it, but it was worth the extra pain, as he crushed the device into worthless junk.

Gamer angrily retreated to the ceiling again with his webs. The Cats gave him no respite, and opened fire once again. Gamer deflected the lasers away with a lightsabre. He angirly wished for an easy end to this fight. not seeing one, he returned fire with a pair of heat-seeking missles courtesy of Mario bros. They each struck and killed a target, but as he removed one hand from his lightsabre to do this, several lasers got passed his blocking, one of which struck him in the leg.

Trekie fired a phaser at the wall across from him, it came no where near his opponent, but it did illuminate her for a moment before she cresent kicked the device from his hand. Knowing that she would easily best him in a fight in which he could not see, Trekie abandoned logic and tackeled her. She fell to the ground with him on top of her. He pressed his superior weight down as both grappled for control of the others hands. Trekie caught her wrists and dropping one to her side drove his knuckles into her ribs. She hissed, as only a part-cat could, and extended her retractable claws, digging them into his arms. Trekie grunted with pain, and She cackled sadistically. Trekie did not loose his grip though he could feel the claws digging deeper into his flesh. He slammed his forehead down hard into her face, shattering the bones in her nose. With a glare unmatched by any humaniod to Trekie's knoweldge, The tigeress countered. Trekie kept her arms pinned down, though she continued to dig her claws in. Flexible legs propelled her claws into the side of Trekie's legs, and a whip-like tail lashed him across the back. Still maintaining wrist control, Trekie shifted his weight back, pinning her legs. But even as he moved, she lunged forward, and sunk her fangs deep into his shoulder. Trekie howled in agony, looseing his grip on her hands to strike her repeatedly across the face. miraculously she held her grip, and the second she had control of her wrists, she wrapped her arms around him in a bear-hug, digging her claws into his sides.

Gamer used his metal gear solid ability to cure his leg in the middle of the fight without getting hit at all. He then unpaused and began to fire about himself with a UT snot rifle (bio rifle). The Cats leaped for cover, as the acid begins to melt a hole through two of the less fortunate ones. Those two hurl themselves at Gamer, and slice at him with there blades, whilst at the same time blasting at him. Gamer drops the snot rifle in favour of a lightsabre, and deflects the majourity of the lasers, though a few make it through and destroy his body armour, leaveing Gamer now completely unprotected. He Then cuts their blades apart, and swings to finish them off. Before being killed however, one manages to ram the shards of his broken blade into Gamer's leg. Gamer grunts out "Oooh, gonna feel that one in the morning."

Trekie sprang off the floor, flying straight for the oppisite wall, with the shoulder his opponents teeth were lodged in aimed straight ahead. Unfotunately, as he was disoriented from the shot to the groin he had taken earilier, and hadn't had the proper light to orient himself since, Trekie's aim was slightly off. The tigeress did take the wall to the back of the skull, causeing her to at last release her bite to screech in pain, but Trekie also caught his own head on the stone wall, and stars burst in front of his eyes as well. Trekie shakes off the blow first, and drives his hands up, between his opponent and hiself, createing space, and essentially freeing his arms. He then slams his hands against the tigeress' throat, slamming her agaisnt the wall, and begining to choke her.

As the Cats began fireing at Gamer again, he dropped to the ground, avoiding all shots, and quaffing a glowing purple potion on the way down. As he landed, he droped behind an overturned stone bench, and the hefting it up, he rushed the cats useing it as a shiled, and fireing with a plasma rifle from behind it. One unfortunate Ocelot was downed by the weapon, but the rest managed to spring clear. Gamer then hurled the bench at them. All leapt over the bench, and came chargeing in a Gamer, blades held aloft, and blasters fireing.

Trekie panted, his eyes locked with those of the Tigress, there faces inches apart. He kept his grip as tight as he could under the circumstances. He managed to wheeze out "You're dead, pussy." The Tigeress lacked the breath to respond, but her glare spoke volumes. She clawed at his hands, but Trekie's grip was relentless. Just as she began to go limp however, she mustered her strength, and drove her knee up into Trekie's groin.

Leaping forward, Gamer dived beneath the blaster fire, and rolled, bowling over two of his remaining twelve opponents. Each took several bullets to the head before they reached the ground. As Gamer stood and turned, his uzis remained faceing the cats, his arms crossing as he turned. He continued to unload on them, but they avoided his shots and dove for cover behind bodies, debris, fallen tables etc. From safety they return fire at Gamer, who is forced to drop the uzis in favour of a lightsabre, in order to save his skin.

"What is it with you and the crotch?" Moaned Trekie as he doubles over. One hand clutched his swollen groin, while the other directed pressure to his shoulder, in an attempt to slow the bleeding. As he let go, the Tigeress gasped in air, not able to think of anything else for a few moments. In his weakened condition, Trekie guessed that this may be his last chance to act before she finished him off. Mustering what remaining strength he had, Trekie drove himself straight forward, ramming his head into her chest, hoping to wind her before she really got her breath back. She was rammed back into the wall, but able to take in another breath, and when she did, she caught Trekie by the head, and powered her knee into his face. When she let go, Trekie stumbled back, bent over, but still standing. With a fierce kick she sent him across the room.

Skillfully, Gamer parried all the shots fired at him, but he knew he couldn't keep it up indefinately. He knew there were only ten cats left, but Gamer was getting drained. They had proved much tougher opponents then he and Trekie had guessed. He assumed Trekie agreed with him by the dramatic way he flipped over and crashed face-first into the ground. Gamer flipped his sabre behind him, blocking a series of shots as he searched for an easy way to end this. Gamer paused, and began going through his inventory, looking for a better weapon. He came upon a Toonookie suit, and pulled it on, whilst getting inside a goomba boot. As he unpaused the game, he performed a giant leap towards one of his opponents, and booted the table she was behind over. She leaped clear of the wreakage, and Gamer quickly became a statue, as the rest gathered their wits and shot him. "It'll be a long fight afterall." He thought.

Blood splattered on the floor as Trekie coughed. It was all he could do to stay conscious. "My body is totalled, and my spirit can do nothing against such a malicious creature, but I still have the power of my mind." Mustering what energy he could, he set forth on a direct domination attempt of the tigeress' mind. Her mind, though feral and strange to Trekie, was not unstoppable. Trekie struggled for dominance. She fought back, every inch, Trekie knew at this rate he would black out before he controled her, blood was still pooring from his shoulder and sides, his head hurt like... "No," Trekie told himself, "this is a mind game now, block out the distraction of the body, they are an illusion." He poored himself further into the tigeress mind, becomeing part of her, and leaveing some of himself inside. Just as he was moments from complete control, his mind was rudely pulled away by his body which had just had several ribs broken.

Gamer suddenly unfroze, and sprung into the air. The blaster shots followed him, inches behind. Gamer suddenly dropped the boot, hurling downward and blocking there fire. As he flew, Gamer drew a pair of fire flowers, and began torching the cats below. Two burst into flame as they were struck by rageing fireballs. The rest dived for cover, and returned fire where possible. Gamer blew up tables and benches as he wrecked havoc with his putt-power. Unfortunately, unwilling to drop the flowers which seemed to have given him the upper hand, Gamer was forced to try and avoid the blaster shots by merely flying, and two had already caught him in the leg.

A look of Triumph spread across her features, as the tigeress moved to where Trekie was. He picked up a blaster from the ground and fired several blind shots before she stomped cruelly on his arm, grinding her full weight down, crushing the bone as she did so. By the eriee illumination of Gamer's fire, Trekie was able to see, as she licked triumphantly the blood that streamed from her nose. He struggled to sit up, but she pushed him back down with a foot. Cruelly she leaned her full weight down on his chest, his already ragged breathing was silenced. Trekie knew he had to resist. He suddenly exhaled all the air from his body. It was unexpected, and gave him the tiniest bit of space. He used it to roll, and send her off balance. His one good arm shot up and locked around her leg. With his legs he pushed her to the floor, and held her down, as he snapped her ankle, and moved up to the knee.

Gamer exploded another table two cats had taken refuge behind, as they leaped for cover, he caught one of them square on with a fireball, and it was instantly incenerated. Even as Gamer mentally congratulated himself, he took three blaster shots to the back. The laser ate instantly through his suit, and Gamer began to fall. Angrily he hurled the flowers aside, and slung himself into a corner, where he perched, and began seaking for a new weapon. In glee he realised his victory was not far away, as from wherever he kept his inventory, he drew forth the Chaos Emeralds.

The tigeress screached. Partially in pain, but mostly in frustration at her inability to save her leg. She clawed at Trekie's legs, but he held her down ruthlessly, and she was unable to reach any vital point which she could attack. Trekie snapped her knee out of place, and she threw back her head, howling in agony. Trekie then moved up the leg again, and was about to pop her leg from her hip socket, but in moving, he had allowed her to turn slightly, and so a thick furry tail came up and lashed into Trekie's broken arm. Trekie screamed as the bone was driven through the skin. For an instant his grip was loosened, and in that instant, She used her good leg to pull herself out and up. Trekie rolled backward over his good shoulder, and stood shakeily, his one good hand held up in what he fervantly hoped was the direction of his enemy.

In glee, Gamer activated the power of Chaos, and instantly he began to glow vibrant yellow. He leaped from his perch on the wall, all laser fire ricocheting off him now. The cats leaped away from him, but none could move fast enough anymore. Gamer seized one, and crushed its body agaisnt his. Then sent himself shooting at another, whom he checked through the wall. The five remaining had grouped themselves in a corner, With a mighty leap Gamer hurled himself at them, finally ready to end the fight.

Trekie had seen perfectly for an instant in the flash of Gamer's transformation, then his vision had been blurred as the light became too bright. Knowing the Cat's eyes would have to adjust after that also, Trekie attacked while neither could see. He leaped to one side of the cat, and then drove a kick straight into her injured leg. She crumpled to the floor instantly. Trekie anticipated the kick, and redirected it. He then dropped on her, where he could know exactly what she was doing. They wrestled around on the ground for several moments, both covered in wounds, but manageing to fight through them, because this was for there lives. Trekie was pushed from her, onto his back. With both hands, she quickly gain the dominant position, and began strikeing Trekie as hard as she could about the face. For one instant, Trekie was willing to believe he was finished, giveing up, he dropped his hand helplessly at his side. And then his hope returned as his hand settled on the barrel of his custom gun.

Gamer crashed into the crowd of cats, killing two even in landing. Two of the remaining leaped for saftey, as the third drove his blade as hard as he could into Gamer's back. The blade melted after a moment, but the wound was enough to kill Gamer's rush from the emeralds, and he returned to his normal state. Angrily, he grabbed the guilty cat by the head and snapped its neck. He spun around, drawing his lightsabre at the same time, and deflecting the blaster fire the two survivors had initiated. He continued to block one handed, as faster then the eye could follow he unholstered the half-life pistol and caught each of the cats between the eyes.

Trekie whiped out the gun, fired several bullets into each of his opponents arms, then flipped over, so he was on top, and slammed all three barrels against his enemys head. Both lay panting, their eyes locked. "Finish it!" shouted Gamer from across the room as he downed another potion and helpfully illuminated the scene. Trekie glared at the feline form beneath him. "Do it." she said angrily and spat blood in Trekie's face. But a strange look came into Trekie's eyes, and for a moment his determination swayed. Then he steeled his features and asked calmly "Why do you and your race work for the Jester?" The tigresses face moved to one of surprise. So caught off gaurd was she at this sudden display of calmness in the midst of all the anger, that she answered. "We have no choice. We are all naturally malicious killers, and we must kill for the Jester." A look of sudden pain crossed Trekie's features, and he nodded sadly. It might have been that she was weakening, but the tigeress expression seemed to soften towards Trekie. He seemed to be struggleing with himself, suddenly he looked up sharply. "Do you have Code 3 clearance?" He said, hopefully. The tigeress nodded wordlessly. "There you go!" said Trekie happily to Gamer "She can get us through the security shields!" Gamer smiled pleasently. "An excellent idea, Trekie can I talk to you for a moment."

Trekie suddenly realized that he was needlessly straddleing the feline form. With more awkwardness then seemed appropriate for his wounds he stood and made his way over to Gamer, though his eyes and gun never left the Tigeress. Gamer smiled conversationally as he said "One question Trekie: WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?!"

Trekie looked up confused "Getting us past the security shields. What are you doing?"

Gamer looked possesed in his anger "Not getting us killed!!! How do you, for an instant, think we can trust her not to turn on us?"

Trekie gestured over to her with his gun, and Gamer followed the motion to see her slowly bringing herself to her feet, or rather onto one foot. "Does she look like she's in a state to turn on anybody?"

Gamer sigh frustratedly "And thanks to her you don't look much better! Just how many times has she tried to kill you in the past few minutes?"

Trekie rolled his eyes "Oh come on. You think she can take me in that state! Besides, how else are we supposed to get past the security shields?!"

"We'll go through the tunnel!" said Gamer gestureing angrily behind him.

Trekie seemed to frustratedly know that Gamer was right, but he argued anyway. "We don't want to go back in there!" he realized this argument seemed lame, and continued. "Besides, you saw her fight. Talent like that shouldn't just be destroyed!"

"If it's controled by the Jester?!?"

Trekie had no reply to this, but instead crossed his arms. "She's coming with us, plain and simple." he said, sticking out his jaw.

Gamer rolled his eyes, there was no argueing with Trekie once he got like this. "Fine, but I'm going to be behind her with a gun to her head. If she even walks funny there's gonna be no debate."

Trekie nodded in understanding, still seeming frustrated. He drew out a federation-style med kit, and sat, beginning to fix up whis wounds. While he did so, Gamer strutted angrily over to the tigeress, and out of Trekie's hearing. "I don't know what you've done to my companion, but you don't fool me for a second. I'd gut you where you stand if I didn't know it would start a fight amoungst the council. So just you make my day, give me any reason and you're history."

The tigeress did not reply, but merely glared at him. after a moment of silence Trekie came over and began to work on her wounds. She gave no thanks, but excepted the healing. Gamer stood, half in disbelief as Trekie kindly fixed everything that he had done to her just minutes ago. Gamer half-expected him to apoligise as well, but the three stood in silence instead.

When Trekie had finished, he stood and scanned the room. There were two doors other than the one through which they had come. "Where do each of these lead?" Trekie asked the tigeress.

Gamer rolled his eyes as if you say "Like she'll tell the truth."

She glared at him for a moment and then turned to Trekie "The one on the left leads to another gaurd room, the other leads towards the elevator." Trekie made for the door on the right.

"Wait a minute," said Gamer in disbelief "You're going to believe her just like that? She could lead us into a trap?"

"Why would she?" said Trekie "She knows theres a trigger-happy council member with a gun to her head. If she leads us into a trap she'll die."

"All the good her death'll do us if we're surrounded by the Jester's men. Or worse yet more of those cats."

"Well if we don't listen to her then we're just blundering around. We might as well go with what she says." With that Trekie spun on his heel, and headed for the door on the right, pauseing on the way to pick up his glasses. The Tigeress gave Gamer a smug look, and then scampered up beside Trekie, and began explaining to him how the code clearance worked. Trekie chatted back amiably, and soon they had worked out a way to get all three through doors on only her clearance. Gamer grumbled as Trekie recklessly strolled through the door, but kept his gaze fixed on the tigeress, waiting for her to do anything suspicious.

The door led into a hallway, which Trekie walked down, still talking with the cat who padded gracefully at his side. Gamer couldn't quite here what they were saying, but it sounded as though Trekie was asking her for her name. Gamer couldn't believe how careless Trekie was acting. Trekie was usually a risk-taker, but not foolishly so, and this was completely out of character for him. Gamer sighed and continued to cover the tigeress with his gun. "The mind works in mysterious ways." he reflected.

"So this is the elevator is it, Liella?" said Trekie, taking his time about saying her name. She smiled and nodded. Trekie approached the door they had reached. It was a believeable enough elevator, with a button outside and everything.

Trekie reached out to push it, but Gamer said "Stop!" and then turned to Liella "You do it!" he ordered. She glared at him, but then Trekie caught on.

"Oooh, right. fingerprints. good call Gamer." he turned to Liella. "Do you mind?"

She smiled pleasently at him and pushed the button. deliberately agrivateing Gamer. After a moment the door opened, and they were faced with three reflections of themselves. Liella strolled into the elevator. Trekie followed, with Gamer behind, starting to wonder if his gun was pointed at the wrong head. Gamer settled back in a corner, with his gun still pointing at Liella's head. She turned pleasently to Trekie "What floor do we want?"

Trekie looked to Gamer. "Where are we headed to now?"

Gamer turned to him in surprise, he hadn't even considered where they were going to go next. "Ummm..." he said thoughtfully "up?"

Trekie looked at him quizzically, then turned to Liella "How deep are you in the Jester's security?"

"My responsibilities ended in that room. I was in charge of the cat-warriors, and making sure they responded to alarms." Was the smooth reply.

"Ah... then you wouldn't know where he's likely to have headed to." Said Trekie somewhat disappointed.

Gamer sighed and rolled his eyes frustratedly. It didn't seem to occur to Trekie that Liella would lie. It wasn't the type of thing Trekie would do. It suddenly occured to Gamer that it might not be Trekie doing it, a shiver ran down his spine as he turned to Liella, sizeing her up all over again. These cats had shown powers that had caught Gamer off gaurd completely, was mental domination one of them? He fingered a Magneto style helmet in his inventory, maybe he should try this on Trekie at some point... it was worth a try....

"Hello? Gaaaaamer? Simple question, up or down?" Trekie's voice snapped Gamer from his thought process.

"Hmmm? Oh. right. Ummm let's go up."

Trekie gave Gamer a look as if to tell him to stay awake, and then turned to Liella "Let's just go straight to the top floor."

She smiled girlishly, and happily pushed the button. She then skipped over to stand beside Trekie. She looked up at him. "Of course the elevator won't take us to the very top floor."

Trekie turned to face her and grinned down "Oh no? We have to walk up do we?"

"That's right," she nodded "Of course a powerful fighter like yourself won't mind a short..." At this point Gamer tuned out. He turned away in disgust. If it wasn't mind control then he was going to have a good talk to Trekie when this was through. But if it was... how was Gamer supposed to get the helmet on Trekie if he was resisting? They couldn't fight, they needed to be both in top shape to face these enemys if the cat-warriors had been anything to go by.

Gamer was awakened from his reverie by Trekie's laughter. It was loud, and cheerful, and 'completely insencere' thought Gamer. He looked up to see that the elevator was almost to the top floor it reached. "How many floors from the top will this put us at?" he said roughly to Liella.

She turned away from Trekie and to Gamer, her look changeing from a smug grin to a 'take no crap' attitude. Trekie glared at Gamer over his shades. 'He's actually mad that I interrupted them.' thought Gamer in disbelief. "We'll be four levels down." Liella told him bitterly, "Ground level, two above ground, and the rooftop lobby."

Gamer grunted his acknowledgement, and then turned to Trekie.  "The Jester's operation appears to be merely a hotel from the outside.  If we start trouble up there its likely there'll be civilians around."

Trekie looked up from Liella's hair which he had been examining until Gamer spoke.  "Hmm?  Oh, yeah."  He paused for a moment, then said "On the other hand, The Jester doesn't want to show his full power in front of ordinary people.  Alot of his security features are far more sufisticated then anything these people know about.  And that's beside the fact that few of his troops are human.  It could be an advantage to us."

"Speaking of revealing non-humans in public,"  replied Gamer, a grin slowly spreading across his face  "how do you plan to bring our feline friend out into the open?"  He looked to Liella, her tail twitching behind her, "She won't exactly blend in."

Trekie bit his lip, thinking hurriedly, then he looked up pleased with himself "I've got it.  Active-camo."  He grinned as if he'd just imparted a brilliant idea.

Gamer couldn't bring himself to respond for a moment for disbelief, finally he managed it.  "What?!  You think for one instant I'm going to let her out of my sight?  Active-camo!  We might as well give her the knife to slit our throats with as well."  He glared at her, she returned his stare, a faint snarling noise coming from the back of her throat.

Trekie responded, annoyed at Gamer for produceing problems where there were none. "Oh come on, she can't turn on us in a crouded place."  Gamer's look told him this arguement had done nothing, so Trekie used another point,  "Besides, we'll be able to sense her."

Gamer didn't want to speak of his suspisions as to Liella's mental powers, so he instead said "No, we could easily lose track of her in a crowd.  She isn't getting active-camo and that's final."  He knew that if he pushed Trekie into a corner, he would soon find out whether Trekie was merely being irrational, or he was in fact being controled.  While Trekie began to think again, Gamer reached out tentatively to probe his mind.  But as he had expected, Trekie's mind was sealed tight against any alien powers.  When he wanted to, Trekie could have a mind that no one could break into.  At least no one Gamer knew of, he glanced to Liella, wondering what kind of powers she might have.

He was brought from his thought process by Trekie snapping his fingers.  "Got it!" he said happily.  "Personal holo-program."  said Trekie pleased.  He drew from within his... ummm... wherever he keeps his stuff, one of them nifty things the doctor had on voyager which allows holograms to exist outside of the holodeck.  He fiddled with the mobile emitter for a bit, and then passed it to Liella.  She attached it (where's it go again? back of the neck?  Whatever, not important.) and activated it, suddenly where she had been standing, there was a fairly non-descript human woman.  Trekie grinned, and glanced to Gamer "Not bad eh?"  Gamer was unhappy to find that he could see nothing wrong with this plan.  So instead of responding he glanced up to see how far they had left to go.  The elevator began to slow as they reached within one hundred floors of their destination.  Gamer watched the numbers above the door flash on until they were two floors away from ground level, and traveling the speed of a normal elevator.  Suddenly the elevator stopped. 

"WTF mates?"  said Trekie in a fake Austrailian accent.  He was soon aswered by a voice coming over the com system.

"Warning:  NAO council members still not apprehended, all elevators bellow ground level stopped.  Security is being upgraded, do not attempt to leave the room you are in if you have less than code 8 clearance."

Gamer frustratedly threw his arms up.  "Great!  Fricken perfect!  I said we should have used the tunnel, but nooooooooo.  We had to use the obivous paths, we had to fight our way through, we had to trust the freaking enemy!"  As he said the last phrase he seemed to recall Liella's presence, and he spun on her pointing his gun at her again. "At least there's a plus side to this, you don't have any more excuses not to finish her off." 

He cocked the gun and was about to fire, when Trekie shouted "NO!" and dived knocking the gun slightly to one side, Liella flicked her head the oppisite way, and avoided the shot.  She leaped at Gamer, who reloaded and fired several times, but Trekie stopped the bullets.  Liella was about to reach Gamer when Trekie tackled her across the elevator, deactivateing her holo-program, pinning her down, but also blocking her from Gamer.

"Move Trekie!  This ends now!"  Said Gamer, pulling out a blaster and pointing it at them.  "You can't justify keeping her alive anymore, she tried to kill me."

"Because you shot her!" shouted Trekie back.  Remaining spread over her.

Something clicked in Gamer's active brain, he realized that Trekie essentially could not move now.  He moved to an angle where Trekie could only see one side of him, and with the hidden hand he carefully drew out the Magneto helmet.  He headed toward Trekie, as if trying to get a clear shot, so Trekie hugged Liella beneath him tightly, making hitting her impossible, but also exposing his head.  Gamer suddenly pulled the helmet over Trekie's head, then jumped back, raiseing his blaster again.

"What the hell are you doing?"  said Trekie sounding almost interested.

Gamer waited a moment before asking anxiously "Feel any different?"

"What?  You mean apart from the dorky looking headgear?  No, I'm good.  What was the plan there?  Embaress me into letting go?"  Trekie sounded completely normal.

"Never mind."  Said Gamer wearily pulling the helmet off Trekie's head,  "Alright you can let her up now, my gun's down." And so it was.

Trekie slowly released his grip and stood.  Liella stood after him, and ran a paw back through her hair.  She glared at Gamer, but made no attempt to attack again, for Gamer still carried the gun in his hand, whether it was to the side or not.

"Alright," said Trekie, throwing Gamer his helmet back, "now let's get out of here."  He looked to the roof, and drew his katana, hovering into the air, to investigate.  Gamer turned to look at Liella.  She was looking at Trekie, she noticed Gamer's stare, bared her fangs, and then turned back to Trekie.  He slashed the sword in an arc, and then, with another slice, opened a hole that they could fit through.  Trekie rotated in the air, putting away his katana as he did so, and reached down for Liella's paw.  He gripped her wrist and slowly floated backwards up the hole.  Gamer slung a web up, and flung himself onto the top of the elevator.

"If we go to the top then we can get out of here, but that's not really what we want to do."  Said Gamer thoughtfully,  "We need to find the Jester and stop him."

"Or whatever's controling him."  Trekie added.  Suddenly a thought occured to him.  "Do you know the Jester's secretary?" he asked Liella.

"Carol?"  She replied, "Everyone knows Carol.  Wherever the Jester goes she's there too.  Sometimes she comes alone, I doubt if that woman ever sleeps."

Trekie looked significantly at Gamer.  Gamer ignored him.  "The point," he said as if neither of them had talked "Is where to now?"

Trekie looked thoughtful "Our first problem," he said, "is finding the Jester.  Then we'll worry about how to get there.  If only we knew where there was a securtiy room, somewhere we could check around to see where he was.  Because the sooner we find him, the sooner we can get to the bottom of what's behind him."

Gamer nodded.  Liella spoke up.  "There's a room on the ground floor with security camera's of the whole building."

"Why didn't you say so before?" said Trekie.

Liella smiled slyly at him.  "You didn't ask."

Trekie paused meeting her look.  Gamer said "Hold on a sec, they've got camera's in every room in the building?  So they've known where we were the whole time?"

Liella paused for a moment.  "Well, when the control changes location, the whole system has to go down and start under a new password.  After that it takes some time for the viewings up there to work because they have to use sub-standard technology in the hotel areas of the building."

"Then when would it have come on again?"  Asked Trekie.

"About half-way through our fight."  She answered, with a strange look at Trekie.

"Well then..." Said Gamer "They don't know about the passage, but they do know where we are.  Why aren't we being attacked again?"

"You weren't expected to defeat us so easily."  was Liella's reply.

Trekie gave her the 'you call that easy' look, but said nothing. Gamer spoke instead. "When'll they get here then?"

"About thirty seconds."  said Liella calmly.

Trekie looked astonished "Why didn't you say?!"

Liella grinned.  "I didn't know until I heard them just now."

Suddenly Gamer and Trekie caught on to what Liella's cat-like ears had known for sometime, footsteps in the passage beneath.  Trekie and Gamer moved to oppisite sides of the hole.  Gamer drew his BFG, and Trekie his costom gun.  They pointed them at the hole knowing the short path below was an easy route to defend.  A moment before gaurds began to enter that room, bombs of the Jester's design dropped from the ground level above them.

Without pausing a second, Gamer siezed a pile and threw them into the elvator below.  Trekie grabbed the remaining few and dropped them beside the cords supporting the elevator.  While he set these up, Gamer slung a web into the shaft above him, and swung himself up, gaining the momentum for easy flight.  Trekie quickly pulled Liella to his side, and took off after Gamer.  He left the ground with moments to spare, as the bombs went off, killing those inside the elevator, and sending the mass of exploding metal tummbleing down the shaft.

Gamer, having put away his gun already, threw a pair of flash grenades up to the level where the bombs had dropped from.    Trekie quickly caught up with him, and as the grenades went off they hurled themselves through the forced-open elevator door. 

No one could see, but Trekie and Gamer reached out with their minds.  Gamer sensed the bodies of three dead gaurds, as well as many more, diving for cover.  Trekie followed the panicing minds as they reacted instinctively, diving to draw weaponry.

It was almost too easy.  Trekie threw himself to the middle of the floor, and landed on his back spinning, his costom gun spraying bullets at the gaurds all around, and his phaser burning holes through their protective garments.  Gamer leaped into the air, and rained down a spray of blaster fire and plasma discharge on the unfortunates.  Barely a second had past before they were all on the ground.

Gamer landed heavily, while Trekie expertly kip-uped, turning to see how Liella had taken the landing.  She smiled at him, in a challangeing sort of way, as if to say the display was impressive, but she thought that she could be more so.

Gamer fired one last blaster shot into the head of a gaurd who had barely survived, and turned to Liella.  "Okay, after your lot, he can't expect this crowd to do any good, where's the real force?"

Liella's eyes did not leave Trekie's, but she answered Gamer's question.  "Aah, but you forget that when this group was dispatched, you hadn't left the elevator.  The real fighters were the lot down there, this group simply had to throw bombs and stand back."

Gamer glanced at the rable on the floor. "Looks like they just about managed it too."  He said.  "Right, where to this security room?" He said, absent-mindedly picking off a few objects he suspected might be cameras."

Liella nodded down a hall that led away from the shaft.  Gamer began to walk down it, Trekie and Liella following.  'I must be a fool,' he thought 'taking directions from her just like that.  I'm not even watching, she could be planning her escape right now.'  But, when he reached back to sense her, she was simply walking at Trekie's side.  Even the walk was natural,  it had the sort of elegance and refinement that she emenated in everything.  A cat-like qualtity, and one of the reasons Gamer still distrusted her despite her honesty to date.

"Just ahead on your right."  her clear voice declaired, bringing Gamer's mind back to buisness. 

"What kind of gaurding should we expect?"  Asked Gamer, coming to a hault about twenty feet back from the door.

"Like I said, the technology on this level has to be kept low, but there's now reason he couldn't have amazing fighters there."  Responded Liella.

Gamer pulled out a sack of turtle shells, and drew in his other hand a pong ball.  Trekie grinned.  They moved cautiously up to the door, Gamer expecting Liella to shout at any moment, giving them away, but she padded as silently as them.  When they reached the entrance, Gamer nodded, Trekie checked the door in, and all of Gamer's items were released. 

That was the perfect way everything worked out in Gamer's mind. in reality, when Trekie moved in, a fist burst through the door and knocked him flying back into a wall.  Gamer barely sidesteped another blow, and quickly kicked the door open.  He released the shells and ball into the room where they began to wreak havoc.  Then a quick fist came around the door and knocked Gamer back also.

At that moment, something happened that no one expected.  Liella hurled herself into the room, claws out, fangs bared, a hiss forming at the back of her throat.  Trekie blasted off the wall catching up with her before she reached the door.  He flew into the room, slightly ahead of her.  Gamer, who was still behind them both having been hit last, took a brief pause to pull out Link's sword and shield, and then dived into the fray.

As Trekie entered, he was met by machine gun fire, but he reached up a hand and stopped it before it came close to him.  He punched across his raised arm and struck a nearby gaurd squarely on the chin, bringing the elbow back across to block an attack from the other side.  Liella, meanwhile, had hurled herself over the machine gun fire, even before it stopped, and now she came down on the shooters, landing with four claws out.  One of the shooters was dead before the others had dropped their guns and pulled combat weapons out.  Gamer burst into the room, and fired a bleam of energy from the tip of his sword into one of the unsuspecting gaurds.  Trekie knocked out the man he had punched before he could draw weapons, but the remaining twelve in the room quickly pulled out an assortment of weaponry. 

Trekie faced four.  One held a pair of nunchuku, another a mace, one a whip chain and the last twin sabres.  Gamer was up against three swordsmen, one with a katana, one a long sword, and one a scimitar.  Gamer's other opponent held a bo.  The four faceing Liella had a pair of spiked knuckles, a pudao, bladed tonfa, and a long bamboo spear.

Trekie galnced at the fierce weaponry.  Then he lazily pulled out a phaser and fired to kill them then and there.

"Dampening fields!" Shouted Gamer as he leaped over a passing Turtle shell.

"You can curse you know, they don't care."  Said Trekie about to fire.

"No," explained Gamer, directing an eratic pong ball at his opponents "there's actually a dampening field, we can't fire lasers of any kind in here."

"Dampening fields!"  shouted Trekie angrily as his opponents moved to attack.

Liella pounced at the fighter with the spear, cuffing it out of the way and going for the throat.  As she did so, the pudao split the air in front of her, and she was forced to abandon said attack, and instead clamp her paws on the blade of the pudao, landing, as she did so with one foot holding the spear down.  Then three attacks came at the same time, Tonfa hurled in at her back, the kunckles were driven by a punch towards her side, and the man with the spear let go and punched at her face.  She reacted by blocking the spearman's punch with the pudao, severly damageing his hand.  she reverse cresent kicked the tonfa aside, leaping as she did so to kick hard off the spiked-knuckle weilder's face, sending him backward, and her spinning toward the man with the pudao, which was now bent by her pressure.

Gamer fired a shot at the katana wielder from his sword, but the blade blocked the attack.  While he was engaged in protecting himself, the longswordsman, guy with the bo, and the scimitar-type rushed Gamer.  The londswordsman sliced at his right, the scimitar guy at his left, and the bo came lungeing through the middle.  Gamer blocked one sword attack with his shiled, then kicked up a turtle shell, which had been about to hit him, into the other two attacks.  The weapons on the weilders were knocked back.  Gamer then sent another blast flying at the now chargeing katana wielder.

Trekie dropped his phaser as his opponents charged.  He suddenly flipped in the air, and a turtle shell came screaching beneath him at his enemies.  The man with the mace brought it crashing down on the turtle shell, but to his amazment it had no effect.  He quickly jumped out of the way.  Meanwhile the two with nunchuku and sabres jumped in the air, coming to clash with Trekie.  The one with the whipchain also leaped to one side, but sent his weapon spinning out toward Trekie.  Trekie suddenly used his flight abilities to reverse his jump, avoiding the whipchain, and sending the two fighters in the air into an off-balance landing.  As they came down, Trekie swung a kick at each of them.  They barely avoided them, Trekie spun backwards, and landed facing them again.

As Liella came lashing at the man with the pudao, he flipped up the pole end, slamming it into her face.  With lightning-quick head motion, she caught the attack in her jaws.  As she did so, twin tonfa came spinning in at her back.  With a quick flick of her tail, she shifted her motion, and came spinning around the pudao, landing a double-footed kick to its bearer's face and avoiding the tonfa at once.  She dropped, driving her knee hard into the man's face.  The man with the spear and the other with the tonfa moved in, she spun to face them, giving the pudao bearer a sharp kick to the head as she did so.

The katana wielder dived under Gamer's blast, and rolled up, to slice at his stumach.  Gamer shielded against the attack, and then countered with a sword stroke.  The katana wielder nimbly rolled out of the way, revealing Gamer's three other opponents chargeing at him.  Gamer leaped backwards, fireing off his sword as he did so.  As his enemies defended, Gamer backed into a corner, where only two could come at him at once with any manovering room.

Trekie was charged by the mace-weilder, closely followed by his three companions.  Trekie suddenly spun, picking up the fallen gaurds knight stick, and swatted the pong ball at his opponents.  It struck the mace-wielder square between the eyes, and he fell quickly, getting up slowly afterwards.  As he did, the others jumped over him, and continued their charge.  The whipchain suddenly flew at Trekie.  With a quick twist of the wrist, Trekie got the end wrapped around the knight stick, and pulled hard on it, sending the man at the other end off balance.  As he began to fall, Trekie dropped the stick, and leaped past the one with the nunchuku, dealing him a sharp kick to the head, and knocking him into the man with sabres, who clipped the already off balance whipchain wielder, and sent all three of them over.  Trekie landed, spinning, and drawing his gun to finish them off, but his arm was suddenly stuck with a 150 lb mace, and that's enough to make anyone stop an pay attention.

As Liella's three standing opponents charged, she jumped back, coming against the wall.  Then with a mighty leap, she pounced clear over them.  As she did, the spearman stabbed upward, at her stumach.  With a well placed paw she pushed it to one side, and slid down the length of the spear, landing claws extended amoungst her antagonists, slashing, kicking, and biting at anything nearby.

As the scimitar wielder and longswordsman stepped up to Gamer, there weapons held up defenceivly, The one with the bo stood between and just behind them, his weapon coming between the two.  Gamer stood with his sword and shield up defencively waiting for them to make the first move.  Suddenly, without warning, all three weapons lunged forward, and the katana weilder came suddenly flipping over the top, his blade coming down in a powerful sliceing motion.  Gamer lashed out in front of him with his sword, knocking the weponry aside.  He raised his shield as if to block against the katana wielder, but instead suddenly pulled it tight to his body and rammed forward, breaking their wall.

Trekie's gun went crashing into a corner of the room, and his arm went limp at his side.  As the man who had struck him so hard swung the mace around for another blow, Trekie shifted to the side, dealing him a quick punch to the face with his good arm.  He proceded to kick the man hard in the side, knocking him off balance, which is a serious matter with a weapon like that in your hands.

Liella's larger, heavier opponents endevoured to bring her down, but she fought with ferousity and speed.  It seemed impossible for them to hold onto her.  Her claws flashed, and her jaws snapped.  The man with the spear dropped it, for it was useless at this close range.  The knuckles prooved more helpful.  As a sudden opening appeared while Liella clamped her jaws tight around the tonfa wielders shoulder, the knuckles were driven hard into her side.  She howled in pain as they were twisted before being removed.  With a look that was hard as nails, she angrily pounced on the man with the knuckles, clawing at his face, driving her knee into his groin, and sinking her teeth into his neck.

As Gamer burst through their defence, pushing his opponents to either direction, he spun without warning, and blasted the katana wielder in the back.  The man caught it right in the centre of his spine, and he crashed to the floor, sliced and burnt.  Gamer plunged his sword downward, finishing the job, before spinning to face his other enemies.

As the mace wielder tumbled to the floor, Trekie's other opponents stood and attacked.  Trekie dropped down and to one side as the whipchain came flying in at him.  From there, he spun on his hands toward the man with sabres.  As he swung them down at Trekie's leg, The leg seemed to jump of it's own accord, driving straight up into the man's face, and knocking him off balance.  Trekie spun, ducking a blow from the nunchuku as he did so, and twisted a sabre from the man's grip.  He then flipped over the mace man who was just standing up, and landed on the other side of him, holding the sabre so the hilt was above his head and the blade drew a line down his face.  His bad arm he held up beneath it, but it was limp from the elbow down.

The man with the spear picked it up and moved to scewer Liella.  As he plunged it down however, she rolled, so that the blow stabbed into the spine of the man on top of her.  As the spear was withdrawn, she kicked off hard, sending the body crashing into the spearman.  The one with tonfa turned to fight, but Liella was quicker off the mark.  Seemingly effortlessly, she catapulted herself straight from the ground toward him.

The man with the bo spun it skillfully before him, advanceing slowly toward Gamer, his two allys standing just behind him on either side.  Ganer paused, looking for the exact right moment, then he threw himself down and forward, sliding between the man's legs, with his shield deflecting the bo strike.  The two swordsmen sprung, but too late, and they missed Gamer by inches.  As his legs crossed between those of his opponents, Gamer slammed them outward, knocking the man off balance.  With a spin, he stabbed the man through the back as he fell, useing the turing motion to stand.

Trekie's four opponents assembled before him, seeming unsure whether to attack or not.  Trekie saw the one with nunchuku, and the one with the whipchain begin to move around him on either side.  At that point he gave them no more time to decide.  With a leap, Trekie came flying in at the man with the whip chain, kicking off a turtle shell as he did so, redirecting it toward the nunchuku wielder.  The whipchain sprang out, like a snake uncoiling, but Trekie's sabre flicked the tip sideways.  As the blade slid along the chain, Trekie lunged it forward, and drove it into the man's chest.  The man fell back, but with a flick of his wrist sent the whipchain spiralling in towards Trekie's back.

Liella came in claws flailing, fangs bare, and eyes burning.  The man with Tonfa was taken aback for an instant.  It was one instant too many.  Liella batted the Tonfa to the side with a paw.  The other came down full force onto the man's head, it's claws slashing down his face.  He drove his knee upward desperately trying to get space.  Liella was momentarily off-balance, which was when the spearman decided to strike.  The tip of his spear came through her back and out her stumach.  She made no scream, but was strangely silent.

Trekie saw the spearman twist cruelly, before ripping the spear back out.  He made to stab it in again.  Trekie screamed a fierce and wordless cry, the sabre flew from his hand, and sliced through the spearman, seeming to meet no resistance.  it then imbeded itself into the wall behind him up to the hilt.  It seemed to Gamer, who was watching out of the corner of his eye, that the blade in fact reached the man the instant before Trekie himself did, but he wasn't quite sure.  When Trekie did reach the man, even to Gamer, who's eyes were adapted to seeing movement approaching the speed of sound, it was impossible to tell what exactly happened, but there was little left to base any guess upon.  In his rage, Trekie soummoned his powers as the one, smashing the remaining gaurds to their death against the walls.  It was at that point Gamer realized that he had been fighting opponents who this time were not immune to magic.  He decided not to mention the point, in the hopes that Trekie would also ignore it.  He put it to use now, making the shells and pong ball disappear

Trekie was on the ground bent over Liella, he was fumbleing with a federation medical kit.  Gamer walked slowly over, and saw him struggleing to repair the damaged tissue with one hand.  Gamer bent over.

"You'd do better to heal yourself first."  Trekie showed in no way that he had even heard the comment.

Gamer sighed.  "Move over, that's embarressing."  With some complicated hand gestures, Gamer began to heal the wound.  As he finished, Trekie leaned over Liella, and shook her gently with one hand.  She grunted, and sat up.

"Are you okay?" said Trekie.

Liella made no reply, but pushed his hand away with a paw.  She rolled onto her stumach, and performed the traditional cat stretch before standing.  She nodded her thanks to Gamer, who responded in kind.  There was a short pause, then Gamer, not knowing what else to do, wandered over to the control panel, and began investigating the various displays.

"I thought this room showed the entire building."  he said turning to Liella.

She strolled easily over, and examined the panel.  "Shift through them here."  She said indicateing an orb set into the panel.  When gamer pushed it sideways, the display showed a different room, it read in the top corner 'floor 64, room D.'

"Oh great."  said Gamer,  "The hell are we supposed to find him like this, one room at a time....  he could be anywhere."

"You're sure you have no idea where he might go?"  said Trekie leaning over Liella's shoulder to see the screen.  She shrugged.

Gamer rolled listlessly and aimlessly, glanceing around the lower levels.  Mostly everyone was staying put in the room they were in, because of lack of clearance.  There were also many troops of varying species and nature patroling the halls.  Suddenly Trekie shouted "Stop!"

Gamer let the orb go limp.  "What is it?"

"Go back, go back."

Gamer flicked the sphere the way it had just come.

"There!"  said Trekie, his hand shooting out and pointing.  Gamer followed his finger, and on the screen he saw the secretary they had met in the Jester's centre of ops earlier.  She was walking purposefully down the hall in 'Floor 154, room q-t.'

"Keep watching her to see if she goes to the Jester.  I'm going to follow her."

Gamer tossed Trekie a headset, which he caught on his way to the door.  "So you know where she moves."  Said Gamer.  Trekie clikced his tounge twice and winked.  Then he turned and left.

Gamer turned back to the screen, and slowly flicked the orb in the appropriate direction, keeping the woman on the screen.  She appeared to be wandering with no pattern, but she stepped purposefully.  Gamer fiddled with a few buttons and switches, then he held down a button and said "Trekie?"
There was some interfearance, but the response came through none the less.  "Aaah Cr-kkkkkk-ese things are ar-kk-aic.  Oh well, should w-kkkk  through the Jester's damp-kkkkkkkkkk-ields."

Gamer chuckled.  A shame the NAO communicators would never function in the Jester's building.  He leaned back, controlling the orb with one hand and relaxing, suddenly he bumbed against Liella standing behind him.  he turned mumbleing something that was probably similar to a 'sorry' before it had been mugged.