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  “Madame, I loathe the dastardly and will escort you. My anonymity is not as dire as your immediate peril. Those abominable disgusting knights who predicate your personal harm will not prevail. If they dare accost you, they will be slain in a bout of violent fisticuffs.” He walked over to pick her up from the ground.

  Chloe gave him her arm. “Thank you. You are very different from the rest. You respect and not kill women. You’re throwing me off.”

  “Nay, I shall not toss a lass off a bridge or anywhere else.”

  “That wasn’t literal. That was a figure of speech.”

  “The King’s English has no figures. It is direct and rather pedestrian at times.”

  “Yeah, you aren’t from around here.”

  llll

  “Those Red Hook bastards are sendin’ those Hunter-Destroyer robots out there to dwindle every clan, Fischer. Wasn’t Klannis supposed to infiltrate their stronghold to disrupt their intentions?”

  “She’s on a more important mission, Rembrandt. I sent her to get a Red Hook neutralizer.”

  “I thought they outlawed nuclear missiles years ago.”

  “See, that’s why you aren’t a leader of any kill squad. You don’t kill the enemy with a bomb built to destroy everything for a thousand years. You employ an amazing sniper to do your personal wet-work. We want to kill the Crimson Snaggerz, not the rest of our environment. We live here too.”

  “Okay, who is this amazing sniper designed to take-out those Red Hooks?”

  “We don’t know, but I saw what he could do.”

  “You don’t know who this guy is, and you’re hinging your entire strategy for victory on an unknown?” Rembrandt was a little shocked.

  Fischer took out his vidcorder and showed Rembrandt the marvel.

  “He killed Goze. I think he could take out a few of those Red Hooks.”

  “He looks like a clown.”

  “Well, what he did to my entire crew of kill squad leaders definitely wasn’t funny. That’s your proverbial nuclear bomb.”

  “You’re having optimism. You know we abandoned that years ago,” Rembrandt said.

  “You all did, I didn’t. Why do you think you’re still breathing today?” Fischer asked him. “Optimism is your silent big brother beating-up all your bullies. That’s the reason I’m the leader. This will work, so let me take care of it.”

  “If you don’t, we all will be too dead to complain anyway,” Rembrandt said somberly.

  llll

  As Chloe and the stranger walked to headquarters, the stranger saw all the indigent people strewn about the streets, scavenging for food in the smelly squalor. He pointed at them.

  “Are those people with a band?”

  “ Everyone isn’t with a clan,” Chloe said while watching his confusion. “I’m surprised you look so good being a Renegade in this dirty city.”

  ” “Why do you tout me with this renegade label?” he asked. “I am not a bandit.”

  “If you don’t have an established residence or aren’t with a clan, you’re called a Renegade,” she explained. “You rebel against the normal, inadvertently or not.”

  “I feel as if I am a protector, of whom or what, I do not know. If I return to my origin, mayhap my memory will cascade upon me forthwith.”

  “You’re definitely not from this area of the country. You may not even be from this country. My ancestors always said you were probably living ‘across the pond’, You might be from England or somewhere.”

  The stranger’s memory wasn’t completely wiped. Chloe’s speculations triggered a memory. He grabbed her arm.

  “Cheshire England! I was a royal guard of Cumberbach Castle! I must go there immediately!”

  “There haven’t been castles in England for a century. They were leveled and cleared after the climate calamity of 2062.” She knocked his enthusiasm to the ground. “The only reason I know about them is my studies to become a psychologist, and I studied a neurological flaw some had called Nepolean Complex. I had to study the geographic entomology of the words”

  “What witchcraft is this spell to make you this psychologist entity, and where is this fortress to house this imprisoned Nepoleon lad?”

  Chloe came to a realization. This stranger wasn’t from this area… temporally.

  “What year are we in?” she asked him.

  “We are in the year of our Lord, twelve twenty-seven.”

  “Now I get your archaic language. You’re slightly off by about nine-hundred-fifty years and some change,” she said. “That’s why you don’t know who Napoleon was. He lived five-hundred years after you did. This is the year twenty-one seventy-six.”

  “Balderdash! Why have I been thrust into this vile stygian future?”

  “After that inflection you just voiced, I think balderdash means bullshit, and I don’t know why you’re in the dark. I just figured out one piece of your puzzle. My gift is to solve puzzles.”

  What Chloe didn’t realize is she colluded him even farther. His question of who and where still stood. When wasn’t even a factor until she introduced the impossibility.

  “There was no land as this then. I have never quested this terrain before.”

  “That’s because Americo Vespucci from Italy found this place two-hundred-years after you were a royal guard. You’re in North America, buddy. Boston to be exact.”

  He tried to comprehend her anecdotal allegory, but it was very difficult to believe her.

  “There is nay a king alive then, I speculate.”

  “You’re in the land of survival now. No kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, dutches, viziers, ayatollahs, premiers, prime ministers, presidents, shahs, or sultans. We lead ourselves now. When the government failed, we decided not to bring it back, royal hereditarily or otherwise. The government’s monetary corruption left us like this in the first place. They could’ve fixed the food supplies, pharmaceuticals, the climate, and outrageous spending, but they didn’t want to. Now we have this.” She spread out her arms gesturing to this broken land. “Shangrila.”

  “I thought you said the name of this area is called Boston.”

  She had to catch her sarcasm. He was ignorant of her disconcerting humor.

  “Shangrila is a mythical paradise written in the novel, Lost Horizons by James Hilton in 1933. It was a joke.”

  “How do you know such things being a common simple lass and all?”

  “I’m not common or simple, and being female has absolutely nothing to do with your knowledge. What you just asked me was a non-sequitur.”

  “Why has your English become incanted with a delusion spell? What was that odd utterance you just spewed?” he asked bewildered.

  “Okay, I think we really need to talk. English has grown from the twelve-hundreds. A non-sequitur is a statement or question having nothing to do with our main topic. That means my gender doesn’t affect my knowledge at all. I taught History before this happened, and your chauvinistic obtusely-worded question just showed me you are not in the correct time-period. You have to observe and conform if you want to stay invisible out here. I think you called it staying in the shadows. We call it getting with the program to blend in. My friends can help you find out who you are, but only if you can get with the program. Something brought you here. We don’t know what, but we will find it.”

  The man was surprised a woman would or even could speak like that to him. The times must have radically changed for her to have such brazen audacity with such a vast vocabulary.

  “You portray the likings of a valkyrie warrior maiden. You do not have a lord. A manservant seems more appropriate.”

  Chloe smiled.

  “See, you’re getting with the program. Getting you back home will be much easier this way.” She pointed at a warehouse down the street. “We’re almost here. Thanks for the escort. You will be paid back handsomely.”

  “I did not a thing except keep your audience, Madame. You could have fared better with a morningstar more than I. You display
ed your lack of the need for assistance with your terse speech.”

  “I needed you. My morningstar is in that warehouse, and words won’t stop a band of violent Skull Diggers.”

  “I beg to differ. Your pithy barbs could slay dragons.”

  “My language isn’t that hard. You just haven’t ever heard a woman speak with that type of intensity. You’re in the 22nd century now. This world is very different from nine-hundred-fifty years ago. Okay, we’re here. Act normal, so they won’t think you’re an oddball. Like you know that word; aberrant.”

  “I will comply with your request, Damsel. Please open your fortress.” They were at the front door.

  Chloe tapped the code-panel to unlock the security door.

  As they walked in, he saw many people in the clan. They seemed joyous she had returned. Then he looked to the second floor and saw a familiar person on a catwalk. It was the sagacious knight he encountered earlier!

  “Good job, Klannis. Stranger, do I have a deal for you.”

  Chapter Two: An Obsidian This For That

  Chloe spoke, “He’s not a typical Dredge sewer brawler, Fischer. He came from England way back in the twelve hundreds. He’s a castle [KR1]royal guard. That’s why he wasn’t on your radar. He’s been temporally displaced by something.”

  The stranger looked at Chloe in surprise.

  “This was a dastardly ruse to bring me here?! You were not in any danger! You reside here, and have knackered me in a ploy!”

  “It wasn’t all flimflam, it was a fetch-quest to retrieve you,” she said. “Some of my family have truly been murdered in the city by a ruthless clan, and they do want to kill me. I just lied about the Skull Diggers. They’re our allies protecting us from the real threat; The Crimson Snaggerz. I saw you fight and we do need your help.”

  “What did you see, Klannis?” Fischer asked.

  He ghost-blanked a Gorgon Guard by brain-frying him with a shock-club to the eye. The guard smacked him across the street into a junkpile. He retaliated with no hesitation or fear, and you know how big Gorgons are, and wouldn’t allow any close-ranged attacks. “He’s devastating. I can see why Gore bought it.”

  “Cease your ramblings!” The stranger became very upset at the collusion. “You asked for an escort for protection! Yet, you drew me here amongst a larger band of scallywags! Our business has finished, Good day, Madame!” He bowed and began to leave.

  “Where are you going to go?” she asked. “Fighting everyone randomly won’t get your quest for your identity completed. I wasn’t lying about our clan helping you. You sound like a rational man. There are no other allies out there for you. I know your situation, and we can assist.”

  “I’m getting tired of calling you Stranger,” Fischer said. “We’ll call you Collin The Butcher. It’s a little more English and menacing than Stranger. What do you think?”

  “It will make not a difference, Knight. You will serve no aid in my identity quest. You cannot return me to England not even to venture an attempt at my time-period return. Your valkyrie maiden voiced as much before we entered your fortress. You cannot assist.”

  “Old Man Krucks might be able to,” Fischer said. “That delusional skitzo’s been yellin’ he’s a time lord for years now. It’s a shot in the dark, but you never know what you could hit.”

  The stranger’s memory was triggered once more.

  “This man; is he called Krucks Sagen?”

  “Krucks is called the lunatic to avoid. I never caught his last name.”

  Krucks Sagen felt important to him. This could be the one to complete his confusing puzzle.

  “I’ll send you to him if you do this one thing,” Fischer began. “The Crimsom Snaggerz, not the Skull Diggers are trying to usurp and control every clan to bend to their will and worship their power. We don’t want to follow totalitarians. The only way to defeat that type of power is with an equal counter. I’ve seen your power, and it’s formidable. Help us stop those ruthless slayers and I’ll get you to Old Man Krucks.”

  The stranger looked at Chloe and then the others. He made a decision.

  “In my essence, I have labeled myself a guardian. I have an unfinished duty I have been bequeathed to perform. Your battle to halt a deleterious royal ruling is not my quest. You have a complement of enforcers with a valkyrie warrior maiden as a supreme war director. I have witnessed her skills and if her fighting is as unbound as her knowledge, your band will be cradled in heavenly arms. I oblige you for showing me where to quest next, but I cannot help your crusade. Please have your valkyrie return me to the area from whence I came.”

  Fischer was devastated. The new warrior killed all of his generals, and now he’s about to leave him high and dry.

  “I’ll take him back to Feline’s Fetish,” Chloe spoke up. You know me, Fischer. I'll take him back ‘BoltLayer style’.”

  Fischer was wise of her persuasion skills and knew he’d be part of the clan by noon. He allowed her to execute her spycraft.

  “I’m sorry you couldn’t help us. Good luck with finding out your name and assignment. Go by Collin The Butcher so I can hear about your legend. Boston is large, but word gets around quickly out here.”

  The stranger understood.

  “Godspeed in your crusade, Good Sir Knight.” He bowed. “May victory shine down upon you. I must finish my own personal journey. We must slay our own individual dragons. I bid you adieu.”

  As Chloe and the stranger left out the door, Rembrandt walked to Fischer.

  “And you hinged our victory on an unknown. Too bad for us, your hinge was too rusty to open that door wide enough.”

  “It’s not over yet,” Fischer told him. “We’ll still get him. Chloe’s got an angle.”

  llll

  “Do you know the location of Lord Sagen the Wizard?” The Stranger asked Chloe.

  “Are you talking about Old Man Krucks? He’s a nomad. You don’t find him, he finds you. It’s a strange quirk of his. Make a name for yourself and he’ll come.”

  “Why is my memory dashing about my mind like a cantankerous lad playing hide and seek? It shows itself randomly only to hide once again.”

  “I studied this in my psych class. What you have is called psychogenic dissociative amnesia. You don’t remember certain things about yourself, but you know who you encompass. Your background and duty aren’t as relative to you as your identity is. Sadly, you can’t pick and choose what to remember. Your brain is bitchy that way. I’ll take you back to the alley. Just ask for Old Man Krucks after you kick a little ass. He’ll find you… eventually.”

  “If Lord Sagen is a journeyman, how could the knight locate him? You also voiced constant fighting wouldn't help my quest.”

  “As I told you earlier, my family can help you. Fischer knows Krucks’s general areas. Krucks asked him of his origin, said some weird Latin, Fischer didn’t understand, so Krucks left. The old nut only roves in a few areas. Fischer put a tracker in his ratty robes to keep an eye on him. You also have to fight with a status. Krucks won’t find you if he doesn’t know you exist. Too bad you won’t help us. After you take out those Red Hook nutters, you’ll gain status, and Fischer’ll take you directly to Krucks. But as you just said, our fight isn’t your concern.”

  “I will confront Lord Sagen forthwith. Your compliment has a band of war knights and you. I have seen your potential. You are a Valkyrie warrior maiden.”

  “You keep calling me that. Valkyries are female warrior deities who served Odin in Norse mythology. I’m more like Freyia. I receive our dead more than fight on the battlefield.”

  “The reason I called you a warrior maiden is your knowledge. You will not attack from pure vengeance. You will calculate your victory. Most wars are won with your brain, not your battleax.”

  “Here’s a new word for you. You’re touting my phronesis. I can see all angles of the battle, and know ways of defeating each calamity.”

  “We call that siege savvy amongst the royal guard,” he said.


  “Since you respect my ‘siege savvy’, why won’t you help my success?” she asked while executing her clincher. “You’ve slain all our kill squad leaders and left us at a severe disadvantage. Why are you leaving us to die when you could help? I hated Goze, but at least he was more useful than you’re being right now. Fighting with us could bring Krucks to you quickly because your seek would be fruitless even when you find him in about two years. Our word gets around Boston much faster.”

  She made him think.

  “Was Goze one of the blokes who attacked me?”

  “He was the first one to attack you. Fischer showed me your deadly skirmish,” she confirmed.

  “That knave deserved his comeuppance. You nay attack an opponent without knowing of their attributes or strengths. Many knights were slain by desperate beggars through their pure arrogance to harass and disregard them.”

  “Why are you agreeing with me and still won’t help?” she asked.

  “I really am a damsel in distress. Aren’t you obligated to protect me?”

  Chloe had almost turned him by using his own words against him. Her spycraft was her supreme weapon.

  “You are not a Valkyrie, you are a dastardly scoundrel,” he told her. “This is why you volunteered to escort me. You knew your silver tongue would wrap around me like a python until I agreed. Your knowledge can render any warrior helpless. We fight, you think.”

  As they walked to their destination, he began to feel insects crawling about his person.

  “Blast this city. I have been covered by fleas and beetles!”

  As he began to swipe them, Chloe knew what they were.

  “Stop swiping them! Run into that building You’re about to be shocked and incapacitated!”

  She began to run to the dilapidated building, but the stranger was confused. Just then, she stopped in her tracks and was electrocuted!

  “VALKYRIE!” he yelled and ran to her. It made no difference for he was electrocuted to unconsciousness as well!

  llll

  Borlund walked over to the unconscious couple.