Chapter 12: Town Of The Hentai

By  Jonny


Kim, Jason, Atma, Slipgate, Linda, and Cherubae all stood around in the
darkness outside their tents.

"I can't believe it." Kim said, still overcome by the shock. "I'm the
Spearbearer? I thought Kain had already fufilled the legend."

"As I said, it can and has been interpreted many different ways over time,
but this, this is the big one." Slipgate was still in his Draconian form
as he spoke.

"No way," Atma said, giving Kim a strange look. "Kim? Someone that hasn't
even used magic in her life."

"She will learn."

"I don't know if I can do it, Slipgate."

"Have faith in yourself Kim, for you are the Spearbearer and you have to
remember that, no matter what happens."

"Kain was the Spearbearer, not me."

"You are, and the legend confirms it."

"Is there any way of stopping the Armageddon?" asked Jason.

"Yes, with the powers of the Dark and Light weapons combined, we should
be able to stop it, but it isn't definite..."

"And if we can't?" Cher interrupted.

A grim tone entered Slipgate's voice, "All of Usenet will be destroyed," he replied finally.
"We must go on to AGFF Hentai and track down X's organization. Once
we have located X's son we may be able to retrieve the Sword of
Darkness and Demon Lance. I assume that as X was the last person to
have the sword, we will find it there and whoever has the sword is
likely to know the location of the Demon Lance, if they don't have it
themselves."

======

The bar was dark and full of smoke and noise. Two figures sat in the back
corner talking quietly to each other.

"Here's the latest information I could get on the cloning operation." said
one of them, handing a disk to the other. The other person took the disk,
and put it into the side of his data pad. Scrolling down it, he said, "Is
this all we have?" sounding surprised.

"Yeah, every time we get near to foiling it, they move somewhere else.
One of our Agents from AGFFH mysteriously disappeared and I was sent to
investigate and discovered that T.H.E.M has been supplying clones to
various businesses in this area."

"I know, I've seen the preliminary reports."

"Anyway, I'm glad you've arrived... now I can get out of this place."

"I know how you feel. It's not exactly Costa del Sol, is it?"

"Look!" he said nodding toward the door. Kim, Jason, Atma, Cher,
Linda and Slipgate (now in his human form) had entered the bar.

"Damn, they weren't supposed to get here until tomorrow! I'm not supposed
to make contact yet."

"Just stay back here in the shadows and we won't be spotted."

The group looked around the place before they approached the bar. On
their way over, Linda bumped into a bloke holding a pint, which came
tumbling down on the front of his clothes.

"Sorry!" Linda exclaimed, apologetically.

"What do ya' think you're doing, slut?!?" the guy snarls at Linda.

"I said I was sorry."

"Well that's not good enough bitch!"

"Hey, don't you go calling her that!" Atma said, with his enraged
eyes fixed on the guy.

"Are you talking to me, fatboy?!"

"Yeah, I'm talking to you." Atma replied, smirking.

"Atma, leave it." insisted Kim.

"Come on then, you troll face." the guy said, looking madder than
ever.

"Look who's talking, Newbie."

"Hey guys, we've got some cocky git here." the big guy shouted to
his mates.

Several guys, all resembling big thugs, came and joined the guy.

"This troll thinks he can take on Danny the Jackal." the big guy
said to the other guys. They just laughed. One said, "You think
you're so hard, don't you, pansy?"

"I can kick your ass anytime." Atma said, still not shifting his
gaze.

"Oh yeah?" the guy replies. He shoved Atma, sending him flying into
some tables. "Now I've got beer down my front. I'll have to go take
a shower."

The guy then noticed Cher. "Hey sweetcakes, how do you feel like
joining me?" he said, grabbing Cher's ass.

"Alright, that's it!" exclaimed Cher, suddenly leg-sweeping the big
guy. Atma scrambled up from the table, and said, "I'm with you." A
few seconds later, everyone was fighting, with more of the guy's
friends coming at them from all angles. Cher used her boomerang and
brought one of the hanging lights down on the head of one of them,
while Kim kicked another in the stomach. Atma had picked up a chair
and was swinging it round his head, getting as many of the rioters as
possible. Jason's sword had been knocked out of his hand, so he was
assisting Slipgate (who had to fight in his human form as the room was
too small for him to transform in). Linda cut down fighter after fighter,
but whatever they did they just kept coming. The odd thing was, Linda
was sure the people she had already killed just kept coming back.

"This is all we needed, a bar fight." said one of the figures in the
corner.

"Stuff the contact time, they need help or there might not be anybody
to contact." the other said, getting up.

"HEY DOPE HEADS, TRY TAKING US ON AS WELL!" one of them shouted over
the noise. Looking up in mid punch Kim saw them. "Griff? Jonny?" she
said, eyes wide.

"Thought you might need some help." Griff said, drawing the elemental
sword Crystalis from its sheath.

"Time to kick ass! Activate Materia Saber." Jonny commanded. The metal
cylinder in Jonny's hand beeped before a short concentrated shaft of
green light with a tint of purple around the outside shot out of its
end. He had made the weapon by modifying a lightsaber he had gotten
while in alt.starwars and using some materia as a focusing crystal.
Now the fighters were being attacked from both sides, giving the
AGFFers a greater advantage. Some of the fighters that were near the
door had legged it, so only the ones trapped between the two groups
of AGFFers were left fighting. Jonny and Griff slashed and thrust at
the fighters with their swords, while Jason (who had finally found his
sword) joined Linda on the other side. After a minute, the fighters
had been defeated.

"That's the last time they'll mess with us." Atma said, kicking one of
the guys on the floor.

"What are you doing here?" asked Kim, turning toward Jonny and Griff.

"We're on business." Griff replied.

"And what business would that be, in AGFF Hentai?" Atma laughed to
himself.

Ignoring Atma, Jonny continued on. "We've been delivering messages
for people to other NG's so we stopped here overnight."

"Yeah, that's what all the people who come here say." sniggered Atma.

"Look, they've got green blood!" Cher exclaimed.

"Yeah I noticed that as well. What does it mean?" asked Griff.

"Clones!" Jason replied with a look of digust. "That must be why a lot of
them seemed to look the same."

"Are those rumors true about you defeating this X guy who's been Cloning
regs?"

"Yes, but we mustn't talk here... people are re-entering the bar and
X's organization will know that we're here."

======

They all sat around a table in a bar on the other side of town. "Are
bars the only places in this god-forsaken dump that we can talk in?"
asked Griff.

"Until we find somewhere to stay, yes." Kim said. She sat across the
table from him, holding a glass of vodka that she hadn't touched since
they had gotten there. "Either that or a strip joint, this is AGFFH you
know." she added.

"I logged onto the AGFFSDIAIA network from somebody's discarded terminal
and got some info on T.H.E.M.'s operations in this area. I found out that
one of our agents has been investigating it fairly recently." Kim said.
Griff gave Jonny a worried look, but to their relief, Kim continued. /I'm
glad Daugherty is thorough with his cover-ups\ Jonny thought. "Apparently
he tracked one of their trucks going between, suprisingly enough, G-Fox's
Club, and the old warehouses downtown. After some further surveillance he
determined that the delivery had been of Relm Clones."

"I thought Greg was on our side?" said Cher.

"I don't know... either he's turned, which I don't think is very likely,
or he doesn't know who's really supplying the Clones, or it may have been
his partner who ordered the clones while Greg has been with us. If possible
we should see if he can give us any information." Kim said.

"So let's get going!" Jason interupted.

"No, Greg knows us, well... all of us except Jonny. But Jonny and Griff
have decided to help us with our quest, so he will have to get in there
and see if he can find the account records." Kim mused.

"Sure."

"The rest of us will go to the warehouse and have a look around inside."

"We'll need to find somewhere safe to meet up first." Slipgate said. He
seemed to be staring at the wall, thinking things through. "I saw a 'hotel'
on the way here but it didn't exactly look 5 star." said Linda. "That'll
have to do." said Kim. She stood up, leaving her vodka untouched.

Everyone started toward the door but Jonny stopped Griff. "I know this
isn't what you agreed to, but you'll have to join the mission." Jonny said
in hushed tones.

"I'm not spying on my own friends, Jonny." Griff replied,
in similarly hushed tones.

"And I'm not asking you to, you just have to
make sure we keep our cover and help find the Lance and Sword."

"I had an agreement with Daugherty himself that I didn't have to get
involved with the rest of the mission. This cover up is wrong and
you know it!"

"You don't have to like it... just don't blow my first mission."

"Okay, but I'm not helping you either."

======



G-Fox's club was small and smokey. There was a bar, several casino
tables and a stage at the front, where a couple of girls were doing
their nightly show. /I'll be glad when we leave AGFFH, that's for
sure. Just a load of perverts.\ thought Jonny as he sat
down at the bar.

"What'll it be?" the bartender asked Jonny. "Huh?" he said, turning around.
"What do ya want?" the bartender replied, sounding frustrated. "I'm fine,
thanks, just here for the show."

The bartender pulled out a gun, and pointed it at Jonny. "No one and I
mean no one comes in here without having anything to drink. Mr. Fox is
very insistent on these kinda things ya know."

"I'll have whatever you've got. We don't want any trouble, do we?" Jonny
responded. The bartender emptied a bottle into a glass and handed it to
him. Jonny took a sip and nearly spit it out again. "Ummm, thanks." he
said, examining the cloudy liquid in the glass.

After about five minutes, one of the Relm clones approached Jonny at the
bar and wrapped herself around him in her pre-programmed way. She had
probably done this hundreds of times before. /Whoa, these AGFFH clones are even
hotter IRL than on the surviellance photos. They didn't teach us how to
handle this at the training center! Okay, time to improvise.\ Jonny
smiled at the clone and ran his hand down her leg.

"Like the merchandise? 300g an hour."

"That's a lot of gil," Jonny said, looking the clone up and down.

"Let me tell you, it's worth it."

"Do you accept credit card?" said Jonny passing one across the table
with a sly grin on his face.

"Upstairs." said the bartender, as the clone slipped off Jonny's stool,
grabbed him by the hand and led him through a door near the back and up
the stairs. They came to a corridor lined with grubby soundproof doors,
complete with room numbers. They gave away the building's original
function as a hotel, but the rooms had probably been used for the same
sick reasons back then. Further up the corridor, the clone opened one
of the doors and took him inside. The room was dull, with a large
mattress as the only furniture in it. Jonny wrapped his arms around the
clone. /I cannot believe I'm doing this!\ he thought as he felt for the
strap on the clone's back. As the clone pushed Jonny down onto the
mattress and started undoing his trousers, he reached into his back
pocket for something.

======

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Linda asked, looking at the
warehouse. "That's what the map Kim gave us says and this is the
only one with a decent lock on." Jason replied. "Where is Kim anyway?"
said Griff. "Slipgate said he needed to talk to her about the legend,
something about the Armageddon... so she stayed back at the hotel."

"So how do we get in then?" Cher said, looking at the lock thoughtfully.
"I thought you would have learned that by now." Jason said, before
slicing the lock off and kicking the door in. "There, easy, huh?"

They looked around the darkened warehouse and saw row after row of
sealed crates. "There's enough clones in here for a whole army!"
said Atma.

"That's what we should worry about." Jason said gravely.

======

"Thanks for the info." Jonny said, looking at the tied-up clone before
straightening his clothes out and putting his Mevak dagger back. "And
cover yourself up before you freeze to death."

Jonny exited the room, shut the door carefully, and crept down the
corridor until he came to the last room. Jonny put in the code on the
security lock that the clone had given him and the door unlocked. Now
Jonny could see why the rest of the place was a dump! Fox had spent all
his cash on himself. The office had a desk and computer terminal, a small
bar, jacuzzi and of course a water bed for his 'clients.' He walked over
to the terminal and started accessing all the data and downloading it to
his data pad. As the pad downloaded it he scanned the info. /This is
unbelievable, AGFF Telco. is the company who's distributing the Clones?\
Jonny scrolled down and saw something that was even more shocking. /It's
impossible, how could they have created a Clone of him unless...\ His train
of thought was interrupted as he felt a gun barrel against his head. "Don't
move!" Greg said, with his finger hovering near the trigger.

"Oh smeg, I thought you were back at the injured camp! What are you doing
here?" Jonny said.

"That's not for you to worry about, alright? Now stand
up slowly and don't make any sudden movements." Jonny did as told. Greg
continued, "So, you've discovered my operation. No matter! You won't live
to tell anybody about it."

Jonny replied, "I don't care about your petty
operation. All I want is the whereabouts of T.H.E.M. HQ."

"Well, I'm sorry, I can't let you do that. Me and my business partners
have an agreement that their identity should be kept secret." Greg leveled
the gun off and started to pull the trigger, but Jonny kicked the gun out
of his hand and lunged at him, hitting him in the nose. As they grappled
Jonny noticed that green blood was trickling out of Greg's nose. Another
clone? He was starting to worry about the amount of clones he had seen
recently. Could they have spread so far so quickly? With a final shove
Jonny threw Greg's clone through the window and collapsed against the
table. Struggling up, he grabbed his data pad and went toward the door.
/Wait till everyone hears this\, he thought.

======

Griff was examining one of the crates in the warehouse. "Hey guys, come
and look at this." The others came and joined him standing around the
crate. "What's up?" Atma asked.

"The crates at this side of the warehouse seem to have a different prefix
on their reg. numbers. See this label? KAHX-22." Griff said. "Let's have
a look inside then." said Jason. "Help me get the lid off, you guys." They
all tried tearing the lid off but it wouldn't budge. "We need some kind of
crowbar. What about using my sword?" Jason said. He stuck it through the
gap at the side. "Atma, give me some help." he said. Suddenly, the lid
wrenched off and crashed to the floor.

"Oh my Bob..." said Cher, looking into the crate. Inside the crate was just
another one of the clone tanks, but the face of the clone inside is what
everyone was looking at, the face of Kain. "We've got to warn the others!"

======

Slipgate had left Kim for a while to think things through. She was looking
through the spell book that Slipgate had given her. A few days ago, it all
had still seemed like a load of mumbo jumbo crap, but she had witnessed some
amazing things since then. Slipgate had told her more about the Legend and
the Spearbearer and how she had to save everything from Armageddon. She had
been changed by all of this... the magic she had witnessed, the death of Relm
and the death of Kain. She sat there, trying not to cry. After all,
Slipgate had said he hadn't sensed him die, but she still couldn't help
thinking hypothetically. What if he were dead, how would she be able to
carry on? How can she possibly fulfill this prophecy, without the strength
she got from knowing Kain was there for her? She heard a door creak and
footsteps coming toward her room. "Slipgate? Did you manage to find some
more cure potions?" she called.

"It's not Slipgate, Kim." said a familiar voice.

"Kain?!"