Past Tense.



Father Jacob Muldowney used to watch her play here at one time. As a child she had always had a thing for rainy days. She would sneak away from her afternoon studies and slip into the brick paved alley, and take off her shoes to walk in the rain barefoot. That is until Father Muldowney would come and catch her. And always there was a good stern lecture to be had.
“Samantha Ann Bliss!! Get your tuckus in here out of that rain young lady before you take a chill!” she would almost defiantly always stop just short of the doorway though mind you. And there would pause to look at the rain fall straight up the sides of the Eighth Avenue Cathedral on the corner of Eighth Avenue and March St, in the Broad Hurst district in the Cann’s Landing corridor. She would smile that beautiful innocent little girl smile at him and she knew that no matter what, all would be forgiven. As the first drops of moisture seep into her pores, the cold sensation of raindrops on bare flesh quickly brings her mind back to the here and now.

As she looks up the sides of the building that once housed her precious Eighth Avenue cathedral , she realizes that the adage “You can’t get there from here” rings true. You can’t return to your past. Its over.. Done with.. She feels the hand on her shoulder and turns to see the familiar face of Ethan John Klinger.
“Sammy?.. You okay?”
She turns to face him.
“Yeah Kling.. Just thinking.. I used to live here once.” She points up towards the rain.
“I used to study as a child.. In a classroom.. Right up there on the second floor.”
A look of sadness slowly crosses her face as she as a more recent memory surfaces.
“Well.. That was along time ago.. Before.. They came.”
He puts his hand on her shoulder.
“C’mon Sammy.. The U.S. Army is locking the place down, the corridor has officially been taken back. We’ve re-occupied it.”
Klinger stops just shy of the opening of the alley to look back at Samantha Bliss who is once again staring up at the rain.
“Sam?”
She looks at Klinger with that innocent little girl smile.
“Sammy… Where are your shoes?”

The Huxley.



It was the first time in almost eleven years that she had roamed the sidewalks of Eighth Avenue without a weapon drawn. They meet up with Priss and make their way east towards the Huxley Hotel. Once inside they enter the freight elevator which takes them eleven stories below the surface where William Strong and other members of a special ops committee will convene to discuss future operations of Threshold. Samantha Bliss and the others enter into the chamber and take their seat as all members of the committee rise.
“Agent Bliss.. Klinger and Priss.. Thank you for joining us.”
The three agents nod.
“In the last week we have seen significant changes in our field operations here at Threshold.. Since the sudden departure of the red army our government-as you may have guessed on your own, has expressed serious concerns involving the reasoning behind this. Considering your field experience, We would welcome your input on this situation .”
Samantha Bliss rises from her seat at the end of the table to address the members of the committee.
“Deputy Director Strong.. I thank you for inviting us here. As I told you when I spoke with you earlier on the phone, the members of team Alpha have been discussing this for the last week and well sir we simply don’t trust the reports.”
William Strong stands.
“Could you elaborate further please Agent Bliss?”
“Well sir we believe that it is nothing more than a well orchestrated ruse.”
He doesn’t answer.
“We believe they have done little more than cut their losses in those areas they have retreated from only to fall back and regroup for attacks later in other areas.”
Another man that she recognizes as the head of Threshold’s internal security, Jason Resnick stands to address her.
“And just how did you come to this conclusion agent?”
She turns to face him fully.
“Have you ever been in the field Mr. Resnick?’
“No of course not.” he answers in a sarcastic tone.
“Team Alpha has been involved in field operations ranging easily into the hundreds. Our experience with the reds over past few years has been that when they know that they have no clear cut advantage they like to fall back and hide until they can regroup and formulate a new plan of attack. We do not believe that this was a total withdraw of troops. They are still some reds here somewhere. Probably underground, waiting to see if we can locate the final piece of the stone.”
He smiles at her.
“And this makes sense.. How exactly?.”
Priss gently prods Samantha’s arm. William Strong nods approvingly as she stands.
“I can answer that..”
“Please do Agent Priss.”
“Because its what Morganna has been trying to tell us all along. It doesn’t matter where the pieces of the stone are or in whose possession they are in when they are reunited. It only matters that the pieces are together. The gate will open no matter where the stone is. We have the three pieces, if we find the forth we will be doing the dirty work for them. Let them come out in the open and find it for themselves.”
William Strong stands and adjourns the meeting.
“We have a lot on the table here people, a lot to consider. Samantha you and the others have a transport waiting for you at the south end of the Broad street bridge. A car is waiting to take you there. We will keep you posted about any decisions that we may reach.. Thank you for coming.. See you back at Langley.”

Same Song.. Different Dance.



They enter the dorm where the other members of team Alpha have assembled. Samantha Bliss can feel something is different about the
Energy in the group than when she, Klinger and Priss left for the Cann’s Landing Corridor. Every member of the squad seems to be wearing the same exact smile, even Sil and especially Thed seem somewhat giddy.
Klinger notices it too.
“Alright who’s hiding the puppy?” he asks.
Sil casts him a confused look.
“Puppy?”
“Well.. You ’re all smiling about SOMETHING.. Figured there was something cute hiding around here somewhere.”
“We’ve just been waiting here for you for the last two hours.” Sil tells him.
“We have a little surprise for you.”
Samantha and Priss both begin to scan the room with their eyes. And when Roxx appears pushing a wheel chair carrying a very awake and alert Cowboy, Samantha can feel the tears well up in her eyes. Klinger shares her reaction as does Priss. The room falls silent until Cowboy himself speaks up.
“Y’all look like yer goin to a funeral, so am I in the right room?.. Is this still the best damn field unit in Threshold or what??!”
The room erupts into laughter and cheers as the whole team gathers around him to welcome him back. William Strong enters the room and motions to Samantha Bliss. She escorts him into the hallway. Still inside the room Klinger can hear part of the exchange. Samantha re-enters the room with William Strong in tow.
“Well gang, it would appear as though our buddies the reds weren’t finished after all.” she tells them shaking her head in a disgusted manner. “Guys.. You ain’t gonna believe THIS shit.”
Klinger puts his arm around Priss’s shoulder and lights another cigar.
It was going to be a short rest.

~Scratch ABT. Copyright © 2007

Frailty.



He has seen many a soldier fall, tracked man and beast with his hounds across shear plates of rock. He’s seen it all, monster’s called men, as heartless cold and brutal as any red soldier acting under Ambala’s command. Still though, he has never seen the likes of the black haired demon woman with the razor sharp sai’s, cutting through his hell hounds with surgical precision. He had never in his wildest dreams expected his maker to bear her face, so when her large friend Ajax appeared out of nowhere, Tholos was caught unaware and totally unprepared for what would transpire next.
“Give me shelter from this cold life.. I cannot not breathe in so brilliant a light.”
He looks forward and finds himself in much the same dilemma as had Morganna when she stood to face off against Sil. His adversary on one side and the exit from the cave ending in a vertical 150 foot drop strait down the side of the mountain, on the other side of him.
He studies the massive form of Ajax for a moment before he addresses the situation.
“For all of time, for eternity, we have moved in and out of shadows, to avoid physical contact with your kind.. I never fully understood why until now. I have no magic in this physical body, it is weak and frail, in these we are no match for man, if I do not return with the stone.. With this necklace. . Our cause here is lost.”
Unmoved by his words, Ajax moves forward, his eyes fully focused on the necklace around Tholos’s neck. And for the first time Tholos feels fear.
“ You don’t understand.. If I am to fail.. Here and now.. I may very well be the last of my kind!!”
Further down the caves corridor, Sil is finishing off the last of the devil Dogs. And as she cuts through the last piece of flesh of the final hound, she can hear Tholos’s screams echoing through the walls of the cave. Still though, Sil worries about the well being of her comrade Ajax and hurries along the caves corridor to see what has transpired with he and the demon tracker Tholos. When she arrives, she is almost surprised by what she sees. Ajax standing at the edge of the cave, on the edge of the cliff face. In his bloody
fist he holds the necklace with the third piece of the stone. At the bottom she could see the body of Tholos. Strange she thought.. How could the angel Morganna survive such a fall and not one of Ambala’s minions?
“I punched him a couple of times and he fell.. Landed on his back I think..”
Ajax tells her.
She smiles up at him.
“We make quite the team don’t we AJ?” she asked him with a sly smile.
He looks down at his little friend.
“Did you kill all of the bad doggies Miss Sil?”
Again she smiles up at him.
“Yeah.. They’re Alpo now.”
They share a laugh and then a hug before returning to meet up with Samantha Bliss and Priss.

Arise..



The members of team Alpha reunite at the site of the mountain village where they had found several bodies of men, women and children earlier. Samantha Bliss finds that the other members of the team led by Klinger have given the mountain people proper burials. The hillside lined with crosses in the wet mountain soil. All the while though, Samantha Bliss had been mentally chewing on Ajax and Sil’s story. She sits quietly thinking while staring into the campfire made by Klinger and the others. In her mind Samantha Bliss goes over every word that Ajax told her. Morganna arrives at her side, she too seems puzzled.
“What do you think he meant by that?” she asks Morganna.
The Angel silently shakes her head.
“Why would he say that he was the last of his kind?” she pauses to study Morganna’s reaction, and it tells her that she too is as puzzled as anyone by Tholos’s last words. And when Lifeguards voice begins to crackle to life in her earpiece her confusion grows. Morganna leans forward in complete interest. It seems as though all eyes present are now on Samantha Bliss, as Lifeguard completes his transmission to her. She rises to her feet slowly with a stunned looked across her face.
“Team Alpha.. Assemble.. Threshold is sending a transport to pick us up at the bottom of the mountain. We move out in five minutes”
Everyone assembles knowing full well that something unexpected has occurred, and yet Samantha Bliss continues to keep her thoughts to herself as they make their way back down the mountain to rendezvous with the waiting transport. The Members of team Alpha, and even Morganna herself. all walk in silence and make it to the extraction point unchallenged by any hostiles. Once safely aboard the transport and on their way back to Langley she finally addresses the team.
“I received word from Lifeguard, Threshold is reporting that field operatives in Cann’s Landing.. Capers Island.. Southerland.. Mordes Keep.. And key areas all along the Jericho straits, have reported to headquarters that the red army in those areas as of four and one half hours ago went into a simultaneous retreat of those areas.”
Klinger leans forward.
“Retreat??.. As in… Elvis has left the building??”
Samantha Bliss’s eyes do not blink.
“As in retreat Klinger… they left their weapons.. Personal belongings.. Everything behind.. Just dropped everything and left.”
Even Morganna is stunned by this latest revelation.
And as the members of team Alpha silently watch as the sun begins to set
Each is left to ponder if this is the end of a terrible struggle with an enemy as old as time itself.. Or simply a new beginning.

~Scratch.. ABT.. Copyright © 2007.

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