NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 5107092" data-attributes="member: 3285">The Jaded Temple: Part 2 – Dead WeightThe ancient thing that led the White Shadows took another step forward.  Archive held up the Elder Sign before it.  "By the power of the Elder Gods, I repel you!'The mummified White Shadow shifted into a combat stance…and then turned and fled.Everything happened at once. The other White Shadows struck, shuriken hissing through the air.  Jim-Bean held up one hand and they bounced a few inches from his face."Remember!" shouted Hammer, taking aim with his hand crossbow.  "No guns!'Then the White Shadows were upon them.  Caprice ducked a sword swipe, unslung his rifle, and clubbed one of the Shadows across the head with it.  The attack knocked Caprice off balance long enough for another strike from a different Shadow.  Caprice barely blocked the blow in time with his rifle butt.Guppy patted himself down.  He hadn't planned on engaging anyone in combat and was pretty sure he shouldn't be in a "high tension environment" according to his Majestic-appointed psychologist.  "Easy," he thought to himself.  "This is just like a videogame. You're just fighting ninjas on an elevator.  It's just a game…" Then he found his taser.A sword swipe just missed Guppy's chest.  Guppy lunged in retaliation, shoving the taser in the guts of his foe and pressing the button.The White Shadow jerked and twitched, stumbling backwards. He fell flat on his back."No guns means NO SPARKS!" snarled Hammer.  He fired his crossbow and one of the Shadows went down, a bolt protruding from his head.Caprice blocked another blow from a blade.  He caught a flash of greenish fluid on the blade in the dim light.  "They're using poison!""You do NOT want to be poisoned!" shouted Archive. "I lost a pinky that way!""How?" asked Caprice.Archive dodged a sword swipe. "I ate it." The fear of being poisoned energized Caprice.  He swung his rifle around and smacked the White Shadow in the back of the head, felling him.  Then, tearing a strip of cloth from the black-clad form, he tied the blade to his rifle: A makeshift bayonet. Jim-Bean sighed.  "Man I am really getting tired of this."  He extended both arms and the weights in the room lifted into the air.  "I suggest you all get down," he said quietly.The other agents hit the ground.The dumbbells spun around Jim-Bean faster and faster.  One Shadow tried to duck through it and paid the price, blood spewing from his crushed jaw.  The weights orbited Jim-Bean in two concentric patterns, the wind shrieking louder as the dumbbells blurred into dark circles.  Then, opening his palms, the dumbbells fired outward.White Shadows went flying in all directions, striking the walls of the elevator hard enough that the sickening crunch of bone was clearly audible. None of them got back up.A few dumbbells remained, hovering steadily over the heads of the prone men that weren't finished off."Jim-Bean what are you…" asked Hammer."Finishing what we started," said Jim-Bean.  He lowered his arms and the dumbbells smashed heads like melons all around them."Jesus!" gasped Guppy.  Some kind of white fluid leaked from the mask of one of the White Shadows, the one he had tasered.  Guppy stumbled as the world spun. "You just…you just murdered them all in cold blood."Jim-Bean dusted himself off.  "Oh please.  They were trying to kill us.  And if we didn't stop them, they would have warned the others.""I think they're already warned," said Caprice, but Jim-Bean ignored him."I'm just staying on mission.  Isn't that right, Hammer?"The elevator stopped at a garage. It contained a complete workshop and sets of tools as well as plenty of parking space. On the western side of the garage was a dolly and several metal canisters.  The sickeningly sweet smell was strong here – the canisters most assuredly contained Fumo Loco.Hammer wiped the blood spatter off of his face.  "Let's go."The other agents dutifully filed out behind Hammer.  Caprice tugged on Guppy's arm."He's…he's crazy," said Guppy, eyes glazed.  "I used to think Hammer was a cold bastard.  But Jim-Bean…he's not…human anymore."Caprice patted Guppy on the back.  "That's not our problem.  C'mon, let's go."Guppy gave one backward glance at the spattered heads, the crushed bodies.  Then he followed the others.</blockquote>

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