The MobilBlade travels past the city limits of the small town of Barter and is well on its way to the capital city of Boneham where they plan to meet a Blade Master named Pixie Dust and her BoltBlade. The Blade Masters talk to each other as the carriage moves on the flat surface of the black paved road. Haiku with her HealthBlade backpack, sits in the driver’s seat with the MobilBlade’s master Malodor Regis. “And this is the camera, it takes pictures of whatever you want,” said Jarody as he was teaching Vivien more about her PDA as Emhril sleeps on a seat that was made for him with his EarthBlade in its own place on a rack just over him. Jarody could hear the thumping sound of whatever kind of primitive engine Selene had made under the carriage.

Jarody could not figure out why there was no pattern to the sound. Selene had climbed up on top of the carriage to sit with Zealot in the rear facing seats. “Go ahead, try and grab that rock with your SabreBlade,” instructed Selene. Zealot gave the sword’s hilt a good squeeze and flicked it to the direction of a rock on the side of the road. The tip of the SabreBlade barely touched the rock as it kicked up some dirt when it hit the ground. Zealot gave the hilt another squeeze causing the SabreBlade to become a normal sword again. “I need more time with it. I’m not going to quit until I can use the SabreBlade without having to think about it,” said Zealot as Selene patted him on the shoulder. Wayne was lying down on his back on the top of the carriage looking at both the sky and his TsunamiBlade. Rook was in the air racing the GullBlade once again. Christina and Salem were down on the walkway that ran between the horses getting a feel for the new harness release system.

Syntax felt lucky to finally be next to Raptor even though she did not acknowledge him or say anything. Syntax did not like having to stay instep with the others, he considered himself a free spirit. Syntax wanted to move around and run at his own pace, being part of a carriage team was not for him at all. It was being next to Raptor that made Syntax feel better. Darkwind and Skyclap have never seen such a display of misplaced love in their lives. They both know that Raptor was a creation of Death and is capable of doing a lot more than simply breaking the heart of a young horse.

A dark figure lurks behind an abandoned building, moving carefully to make sure it is not seen by the approaching carriage. “At last, I will have my revenge for being made a fool of,” said the angry C’Tan as the MobilBlade gets closer. The C’Tan turns and pulls hard on a rope causing a series of ropes to go through pulleys and release a large wall causing it to fall onto the paved road. “Whoa!!” called Mal as he pulled the largest of all the levers on his left side. Haiku holds on tight to her seat to keep from falling off as the others were taken by surprise and fell where they were. Salem and Christina almost fall off their horses with the sudden stop. Wayne slides off the near curved top of the hard top of the carriage and finds himself sitting on the driver’s seat between Mal and Haiku. As soon as the MobilBlade came to a stop, the C’Tan jumps out and raises his staff of light causing the air to become static and an all consuming green light forms and flashes to reveal twelve Necron wraiths all armed with wrist mounted claws and metallic whips floating before them.

“This guy again,” said Christina as Salem pulled her GunBlade from its leathery holster and throws it up to Selene who is now standing on top of the MobilBlade. Selene catches the GunBlade with her WitchBlade and starts to infect it. Zealot, knowing that he has not been seen, jumps down the back of the MobilBlade and shadow steps into the shadow of the carriage. The GullBlade swoops down and lands on Christina’s shoulder as Salem walks down the walkway to get closer to the small army of Necron wraiths. “I been waiting for you,” said the angry C’Tan. “We were busy,” said Salem as she took a good look at the wraiths, “Looks like you have been busy too, you could only get your hands on twelve human souls?” “You noticed,” said the C’Tan, “Your pet’s trick will be useless on them now.” Salem jumps off the walkway in front of Need A Smoke and Brother In-law, “I am very impressed that you actually paid attention to how we beat your army last time,” said Salem, “I must warn you, you are still outmatched.” Vivien was about to exit the MobilBlade when Jarody stopped her, “They can handle it.” Emhril was still sound asleep. Wayne jumped off the driver’s seat and landed on the walkway with his TsunamiBlade ready to strike as Haiku and Mal could not do anything but watch.

“Necron wraiths attack!” ordered the C’Tan. The Necron wraiths jumped forward to attack Salem but she started to jump and dodge each of their attacks. Christina yelled, “GullBlade, Angel!” The GullBlade’s main body opens up to reveal the 5 point metallic harness. It attaches to Christina as the GullBlade’s head folds into its body while the expanding straps cross her body until they were all secure. The straps then expand to cover her chest becoming a full silver and gold breast plate. The wings then transform and expand until they were at their full size making Christina look like a silver metallic winged angel with gold feathers. A section on each of Christina’s wings detaches revealing a hilt on each. Christina grabs the hilts and pulls out matching swords from each wing. Christina throws one of her two swords in the air as Salem jumps and dodges a few more attacks from the Necron wraiths and grabs the hilt of the sword to quickly block a few lashes of a metallic whip. “You need to work on shortening your transformation time Christina!” said Selene who was still standing on top of the MobilBlade. Wayne jumps over Syntax and blindly swipes his sword in a random direction sending an energy wave and destroying the nearby building the C’Tan was hiding in. “Great shot Wayne! That building will no longer be a threat to us!” said Salem as she continued to block a few claw attacks from two Necron wraiths. “Time to pull the red lever, Regis,” said Selene as she continues to infect the GunBlade.

Mal pulls the lever painted red and the sound of gears and sliding metal can be heard. “I did not know you could shorten the transformation time!” yelled Christina as she took to the air barely escaping the whips of 4 Necron wraiths. The harnesses of the four horses’ auto release and the horses scatter into offensive positions as the carriage moves forward reeling in the walkway up to where it comes just behind Need A Smoke and Brother In-law. Part of the roof and the front of the MobilBlade opened up as the driver’s seat where Mal and Haiku were sitting moved inside. Metal shielding came over Need A Smoke and Brother In-law as they picked up their legs to make way for platforms that slid underneath them. The horses were closed in and protected in a metal shell as all the wheels including the wheel that was between Need A Smoke and Brother In-law retracted setting down the MobilBlade on the ground. The MobilBlade started to lift back up again as caterpillar tracks from under it came out. And the spot where Haiku and Mal were sitting was replaced by a cannon as more metal shielding covered over all the windows and doors. Inside, Emhril was awakened from his sleep as his seat turned and the driver’s seat moved into the compartment. Mal let go of the reins as they fall on hooks where they would be easy to grab onto later as two levers moved in front of Mal. Mirrors folded down in front of both Mal and Haiku that were reflecting the outside in a way where they had the same view they had when they were on top of the MobilBlade. Emhril found himself next to the loading end of the cannon with his EarthBlade in a position to be loaded inside and a slot for him to put his arm to let the chain extend through.

“Emhril,” yelled Selene from over them, “attach the EarthBlade to your wrist and put it in the cannon then place a powder bag in before you close the door!” Two long tube like things with handles and buttons were placed in front of Jarody and Vivien. Jarody looked through his tube as a rack of archaic looking rockets slid out of the left side of the MobilBlade. Jarody could see the outside and there were crosshairs in his view. As Jarody turned to move the tube, the rockets moved. Vivien looked through her tube and a large gun slid out the left side and moved as Vivien looked around. Three mortar tubes raised behind Selene. “Zealot, you have the rear guns and mortar shells,” said Selene as she turned to the back seat where more armor plating had covered all but the top. “Where did he go?” asked Selene as she jumped off the fully transformed MobilBlade and onto the ground to look at the caterpillar tracks. “How did you come up with this?” asked Jarody from inside. “Got the idea from watching your image frame in your apartment!” answered Selene, “Looks like the SwitchBlade has not finished the tracks yet. Mal, the MobilBlade can not move yet” The C’Tan was just amazed at all that had just happened to the carriage. Selene throws the GunBlade to Salem as Salem throws Christina’s sword in the air. Christina catches her sword and Salem catches her infected GunBlade. “You are supposed to be out here, Jarody. You are one of our stronger fighters.” yelled Salem. “Let Wayne get in a fight,” yelled Jarody from inside. The C’Tan fires off several particle shots from the staff of light to the transformed MobilBlade. Vivien sees the shots coming and starts to fire the gun knocking each shot out of the air and Jarody launches a few rockets to the C’Tan who jumps and dodges to avoid this new attack.

Wayne jumped past a few Necron wraiths and waved his sword again launching a wave of energy. The C’Tan avoided the wave by jumping high up in the air and met with Christina. The C’Tan pulled out a serrated sword and blocks each strike Christina fires to him with her swords. Salem pulls the trigger and throws her infected GunBlade turning it into it’s Death Disk mode. The firefly that travels down the barrel shoots fire out the holes cut into the top pushing the GunBlade through the air, however, Salem threw it nowhere near where the C’Tan was landing. “Ha! A foolish mistake! There are no rocks or trees for it to bounce off to return!” said the C’Tan as he took a look at the silvery disk to make sure its path did not change. He turned back when he was sure he was right and Christina handed Salem one of her swords again. Zealot planned to step out from the shadow being made by the building but discovered it was gone. He had to find a small hole to step out at. Then he saw the Death Disk heading to him and he reacted by reflecting the disk back to where it had came from then chase after it. Selene was now infecting one Necron wraith after another to release the human soul that was held inside each of them. The Necron wraiths kept fighting even after the souls were released. The angry C’Tan fires off several more particle shots from his staff of light to Salem. Knowing that she could not simply block the shots with the sword, Salem call for Pawn, “Necron wraith!” she ordered pointing to the shots. Pawn quickly opened his ThievesBlade’s void and a Necron wraith, from the first fight, comes flying out to get hit by the particle shots.

The C’Tan had successfully pinned down the Blade Masters and it was hard to get to him. “We just need to stop the C’Tan and the Necron wraiths will leave,” called Selene to Salem who got Pawn to open his ThievesBlade’s void to suck up the three Necron wraiths Selene had removed the souls from. “Only three?” asked Salem. “They got wise to what I was doing,” answered Selene. “Nine to go!” yelled Christina as she tried to dive to attack the C’Tan but is stopped by another volley of particle shots. Wayne wanted to use another wave attack but could not see how to keep it from hitting the twins or Christina. The C’Tan saw he had them at a standstill and was enjoying his accomplishment. A blur of fur and teeth came at the C’Tan before he could react and knocked him off his feet. The Necron wraiths began to fall like tin soldiers as the remaining souls were released. “See, I told you all we had to do was take the C’Tan out,” said Selene as Salem flapped her hand like a mouth, mocking Selene. Christina landed and got her battle wing ready to continue to attack the C’Tan. The large wolf like animal was on top of the C’Tan, mauling him. The C’Tan retaliated with a slash of his power claw knocking the creature back and getting back his footing only to get knocked back by the airborne GullBlade battle wing. The C’Tan rolls on the ground then jumps and lands on his feet to fire another series of particle shots as the now soulless Necron wraiths get back up as well. The GunBlade finds the spot it had entered once before and sliced through the C’Tan leaving the WitchBlade infection as before. “Not AGAIN!” yelled the C’Tan as he burst into green flames and vanished, once again leaving a WitchBlade infection statue in the C’Tan’s form.

Salem runs and ducks as she twists her body to match the spin of the GunBlade to grab the hilt and bring the GunBlade to a rest at her side. The remaining Necron wraiths fall apart like broken statues and turn into dust around them. The wolf like creature turns its attention on the twins and postures to size them up for an attack. The GullBlade battle wing returns and Christina runs to catch it. The creature sees this as an attack and makes a break to attack Christina. Salem aims her GunBlade still loaded with five more firefly shots to the creature as it opened its tooth filled mouth. Salem is about to fire when Zealot called, “Stop!” causing both Salem and the creature to stop cold. “Sturmer!” yelled Zealot as the creature went from feral to tame and ran to Zealot. Zealot gave Sturmer a big hug and a scratch behind the ears. “This is yours?” asked Salem. “Yeah, this is Sturmer.” replied Zealot. “Zealot, why did you not tell us about him? What if you had died in the Tagi Challenge? He would have been out here alone,” said Selene. “He’s only friendly with me, so he wouldn’t have gone with you, anyway, he would have known and left on his own, Better that he be free than a pet,” said Zealot. The MobilBlade starts to turn back into its normal mode and the walkway extends back to normal as the horses return and click them selves back into place. The platform retracts allowing Need A Smoke and Brother In-law to put their legs down again. Jarody, Vivien, and Emhril exit the carriage. “I am sorry, Selene. I didn’t know when to fire the cannon,” said Emhril. “It is OK, we were allover the ground fighting off the Necron wraiths, you would have hit one of us,” said Selene.

Zealot continues to pet Sturmer when he finds blood. Haiku jumps off the MobilBlade as her HealthBlade jumped off her back and started to examine the injured animal. “It is not good. The injury is deep,” said Haiku as she stood next to Selene. “How deep is it?” asked Selene. “I am still looking,” said Haiku. Sturmer falls into Zealot’s arms. “Sturmer’s cardiac chamber was punctured. His beating heart is simply draining his blood with every beat. I also see a poison that is preventing him from using his reform ability. I can only guess that was meant for Zealot” said Haiku. “Sturmer!” yelled Zealot. The SwitchBlade came flying from the MobilBlade to Sturmer. With a bright light, the SwitchBlade chose Sturmer for its master and attached to him like armor. The HealthBlade gave the SwitchBlade some nano spiders and the SwitchBlade upgraded them and sent them in to start to patch Sturmer’s heart and replace the blood and fight the poison with refined Necron venom. There were parts of Sturmer internal organs that had already been damaged beyond repair, so the spiders started to replace them. “How could he have gotten through Sturmer’s skin?” asked Zealot who was now crying. “It was that power claw. It looked to be almost as powerful as a Blade. A bit more skill, and he could become a real threat,” said Selene. The sound the Switchblade was making became silent and the switchblade itself went from armor to a back harness and collar with the name “Sturmer” on the small coin like tag that hung on it. Sturmer himself began to wakeup and move around again. “The SwitchBlade had fixed him and replaced most of him with mechanical parts. I believe that this has made Sturmer two times stronger,” said Haiku.

Sturmer took a look at the statue of the C’Tan that was left behind and the SwitchBlade armor returned and two long sword like fangs formed as Sturmer took off and ran up to the statue. Sturmer stopped just in front of the statue and began to change into his war form. His legs became long and humanoid like and covered with exoskeleton armor, his head tilted down and a visor formed over his eyes helping Sturmer analyze his target as his forelegs also became long and covered with exoskeleton armor. On Sturmer’s left hand, a long rod formed and a large ax topped it off. Then with a very animated turn of the head, Sturmer looked at Salem’s GunBlade and analyzed it. The large ax in his hand then turned into a perfect copy of the GunBlade. Sturmer raised the GunBlade high in the air. “There is no way the GunBlade can go through the WitchBlade infection,” said Selene. Sturmer fired his version of the GunBlade with more power then Salem had seen her own GunBlade explode with as Sturmer brought it down and decimated the statue. Shocked, Selene yelled, “He not only copies the GunBlade but improved the design!” Zealot could not help but give a, “Fuck yeah!” as soon as Selene said this.

“Looks like Sturmer is the master of the SwitchBlade now and it looks like he has the power to copy any Blade he wants,” said Salem. “We cannot assume that. By what I have seen so far, he can only copy the Tech Blades,” said Selene as Sturmer returned back into his beast form. “His body looks to be a hybrid of both wolf and cat,” said Haiku. “That’s right,” said Zealot, “A Hibernate.” “Other cultures call them chimeras,” said Selene. “That is why I could not bring him into town. Most humans see them as a sin against Gin,” said Zealot. “Well that should not be a problem now. He is a Blade Master and all Blade Masters, no matter what they are, are always seen as a defender chosen by Gin,” said Salem. “I liked things better before all of this religion shit,” said Jarody as he turned to get back to the MobilBlade, “So are we going to be on our way or are we going to stand here all day and wait for that C’Tan to comeback and try and kill someone else?” The Blade Masters all got back on the MobilBlade with Sturmer leading the way on the ground wanting to try out his new power. “Funny,” said Salem. “What is?” asked Selene. “That C’Tan still has yet to tell us his name,” said Salem. “Not like it matters,” said Selene. Mal made sure everyone was onboard and then grabbed the reins to pull on them to get the horses on the move. They went around the wall as Zealot got his SabreBlade and used it to grab the wall and flung it off the road so other travelers would not be caught by surprise. Zealot was happy once again with the results, knowing that he was getting better at using the SabreBlade.