grist for the mill

I'm trying desperately to escape the Vortex and Erebus. I'll save you the epic and give you the rundown. The other Koen was actually Uncle Marcus...the magic sword Grandpa Jeremiah (Am I really saying this?) whacked him with disintegrated his human DNA and left only the dormant Bloodtail DNA, which made him regenerate.

I told Vortex I don't CARE if he merges Marcus with the rest of his Nine Lives instead of me so he'll be strong enough to slay the Hydra once and for all *coughfatchancecough* and rule Erebus with an Iron Paw.

These Ereb'ai demons glorify Honor and Duty and Well-Done Treachery in the same damn breath. It's like Washington City got subbed out by the Aztecs. So they think I'm batshit crazy because I DON'T WANT TO BE KING. I left Marcus and Vortex arguing so they can work out. But the natives are waving shredded banners and chasing me through the streets and howling. I just want ONE NORMAL LIFE.

So now I'm at hiding out at a hangout that used to be big with the tourists. (Yes, Hell has tourists.) Since the place is almost empty I gave them all my inherited jewelry and they're not only keeping their traps shut, they're giving me VIP treatment.

This place is called the Rumor Mill. Down here metaphors are sometimes taken way too literally. You probably knew people ate souls as food down here. Well the "foodies" down here use parts of souls as ingredients for fancier fare. This here Rumor Mill that grinds people's deepest secrets into the best bread in Erebus. I was stooped over circling this huge freakin' grindstone for hours talking into it like it's one of Doc Mason's tiwttergraph machines. People used to crowd around this thing confessing their secrets into it, hoping for some bread in return. Some poor bastards got shoved too hard and squished into it. That makes for courser bread, of course.

Business has been piss-poor for the Mill since the Founder blew up the Capital Sector, so I don't have to fight anyone for a bit of bread in return. This is no ordinary bread, mind you. It's made from thousands of secrets ground to a powder, risen with Lethe-water and baked in hellfire. After I eat this, I will lose my memory and have it replaced with one that's totally reconstituted. That way the Imperial Guard can't track my soul down by scent again. And I'll get one more chance at something resembling a normal life.

I'm using that amulet I stole on the way to open a Siege Perilous to New Babbage. I won't be the same person coming out as I was going in. That's they're easy to steal.

Yep. This is Babbage alright. Damn, it's cold. Anything's colder than Hell, except for the icecaps of course. I asked the baker for bread from Steamlands secrets so I'll fit back in. Hmmm. Tastes a bit sooty, though. Oh! It's Babbage Pumpernickel! No wonder it tastes familiar...

...familiar?

I know where am, but...

Who am I?

the final task

The Bloodtail stared back at up at the crimson neko perched on the shredded throne. The ruler of the remnants of Erebus, in turn, gazed back down at the feline, who balanced the massive blade over his shoulders.

Prince Vortex leaped quietly down to the ash strewn clay of the crater floor. "I am gratefully relieved at your return, Koen."

"I'm not happy about it. But I know what has to be done." He glanced behind the throne at the glistening red wall of scales.

"Joining us will be its reward. We shall be One. We shall be the undisputed King of Erebus!"

The black cat twirld the blade absently in his red paws. "You were looking for this too? This antique?"

Vortex halted, and stood motionless just out of swinging range of the sword. "The Sword of the Blood Wing Knight was forged when the gods were young to slay their eternal foes, the Titans. The Hydra shall not regenerate from its steel. It shall perish forever. And we shall rebuild this citadel to...

"BULLSHIT!" The word echoed through round walls of the crater, and the scales rippled like a see of grinding blades. The two turned and peered at the Bloodtail crouched at the edge of the crater.

"That's not me, you idiot! I'm the real Koen!"

"LIAR!" Screamed the other Bloodtail, who turned away from the prince, charging towards the cliff with sword raised with both arms overhead.

A scowl carved into the face of the Prince. His hands burst into dark flame, and immediately both the challenger and the offended were frozen in place. "Two Bloodtails?" roared Vortex. "Explain!"

taking a stand

"No, Koen. I refuse to go along with this plan. A convoy robbery is one thing, but now that there's full civil..."

An artillery shell went off outside the Consulate so I couldn't hear the rest of the sentence, even if it he was piping it straight into my head from his soul chip.

"But what if..."

"Koen, this is a war. There is nothing more dangerous. If whomever wants my matrix wants to wade through a battle to get it, that makes the mission easier for me as he draws fire."

We've been to New Erebus. I've been to Fusang. We both knew the risks.

"You're making sense. As usual."

Ama looked back at us from the balcony as she reloaded her rifle.

"I swore to protect the Emperor and the Baron. I must act."

I sighed. I looked at the Staff and the refugees who barricaded themselves in the corner with his furniture. Screaming kids. Pregnant women. Ash's aspic-looking pet with the giant mouth was shivering like a leaf.

"Alright. Where do I plug you in?"

Directives and Dictates

Vortex had calmed down from the incident with the insubordinate. He landed quietly from the top of the twisted throne and padded softly to the replacement captain, circling him as he interrogated.

"What do you mean Jeremiah escaped? This is the Underworld. People do not escape."

"My Prince," the new captain replied in a calm, measured tone, "he had help from the spirits of his ancestors. Together they built an escape craft from wreckage gleaned from the remains of the city."

Vortex growled. "An aethership? Surely one of our surviving fleet would have caught and destroyed an improvised piece of Spark junk!"

"Not an aethership, Sir. A boat."

"A boat? The Styx is on the border of the kingdom! Th Masons were confined to the lowest level!"

"Sir, they took the River Lethe. That emptied into the Styx."

The red neko blinked incredulously. "And how did they manage to ditch the troops on the shores?"

The captain looked straight ahead, at full attention Vortex paced around him. "They built water cannons, Sir..."

The neko chuckled. "...drawn from the Lethe itself. Infinite ammunition and turns your targets into drooling idiots. Brilliant, I'll hand it to them."

"We did manage to inflict damage on the boat, Sir. Most of the crew were discorporated or knocked overboard to drown. The pilot, however, was shielded."

"Jeremiah, of course."

"Yes, Sir. The only survivor we saw on the vessel."

"And what happened when he reached the Styx? Did the Boatmen deal with him?"

The Captain shifted uncomfortably as he pressed his gauntlets together ina sign of submission. "The Boatmen did not interfere with him Sir. But they blocked our skiffs from pursuing him past the delta."

The Prince hissed as his claws drew deep scratches over the captain's armor. "Bloodwing was a Boatman once, in a lost future I believe. They must have a familial clause. That means...he's reincarnated by now!"

Vortex pointed to the troops watching over the crater. "Send some agents to the Surface World and find him! Start with the Steamlands!"

The demon cat wrapped his crimson claws around the Captain's throat. "And for LETTING HIM ESCAPE, my dear captain, I will..."

Just then the enormous carcass of the Hydra trembled. Expanses of ebony scales stories high shimmered from the reflection of the burning sky. The troops at the edge of the crater took a collective half-step back and whispered to each other nervously. The neko stared worriedly of his shoulder.

"Oh, by the burning Styx..." He pressed his face against the captain's visor.

"You have a chance to redeem yourself. We have a change of priorities. I need the Void magic to obliterate that monster once and for all before it regenerates! And I left that in the life Darien Mason ripped from me!"

He released the captain from his grip, who collapsed to the ground gasping for air. Vortex spread his crimson wings and soared upwards.

At a sufficient altitiude he rotated as he hovered to stare down at the Hyrdra again. He noted cauterized gashes of the mountain-sized serpent were smaller than they were the day before. "It's regenerating again. Our military's a fragment of what it was. And I've run out of favors." He scratched his chin. "If I call Mother for help again I will have to cede land to Horus. And we become a territory of Heliopolis..." He looked over the shoulder at the battalion, formed from the surviving regiments of the Imperial Guard from the Wormwood disaster and the Hydra's escape. "...I'll have a full scale revolt."

He spun back to address the troops.

"All of you! Go to the surface and find my missing life! The survival of Erebus is at stake! BRING KOEN BACK ALIVE!!!"

An Heir to the Throne

Crimson paws traced along the hypnotic curves of shredded metal. Its pur black sheen dimly reflected the burning sky above him.

"This was the Throne of Hades, you say?"

Vortex lowered his wings to stare behind him at the soldier, clad in the armor of the Imperial Guard, damaged yet still recognizable.

"Aye, my Prince. This was the largest object left in the epicenter of the crater."

Such was the condition of the throne that sitting upon it would prove impossible, if not fatal. Instead, he leaped in a flutter of wings to the top of it, and perched upon it with his claws balancing upon the fragments least likely to draw ichor.

The captain's eyes widened in horror. His brow furrowed as he instinctively reached for his sword. However, he had forgotten that his arm had already been ripped away by the Hydra below the elbow. He slowly raised his stoic gaze at Vortex, who arched his back and hissed.

"Fool!" bellowed the captain. "Dare you to think that...?"

Vortex pounced upon the soldier faster in a blur. Armor and flesh tore like paper under the demigod's claws. The captain was dead in an instant.

Vortex roared as he stared up at the edge of the crater. The neko spat a fragment of bone aside and pinted an ichor-stained digit at the regiment lined at the precipice.

"I am the closest thing you have to a rightful ruler and you know it! Does that..." He pointed at the wall of ebony scales behind him. "...count for nothing?"

His ear perked to an orchestra of metal tapping against metal rock as one soldier after another fell to one knee and bowed his head in supplication.

"Now...search what is left of Erebus for the soul who brought about all this chaos in the first place! He must face punishment! FIND JEREMIAH MASON AND BRING HIM TO ME!!"

stepping out of the shadows

Hi folks. I've been keeping quiet for a while. If you're interested, I'll start talking.

You probably read the Doc's diary of the Fusang adventure. Well, right after I teleported him beck to the boat where that other neko boy servant he had was waiting, I took a trip back to Sumatra. I had some investigating to do.

From there, I turned on the TARDIS Emergency Beacon that Purdie gave me. I hoped if he survived that gunshot and regenerated he'd pick me up. Well, I got a ride from a Time Lord, but not Purdie. A giant stone tiki popped up and a guy named Professor Badass showed up. That guy is One Cool Dude. Look him up. (Gem? He says he met you?)

Anyway, he dropped me off in Belhaven and told me I had to destroy the Marcus's bloodfruit tree before Marcus drank the juice from it and turned into a new Bloodwing. I found the tree in the underground tunnels and torched it. But he must have had a bottle of bloodwyne squirrelled away. It looks like Jeremiah handled things from there.

I talked to Doc Mason when I got back to Steelhead. I explained to him that when he reanimated me, he ripped one of Vortex's nine lives from him. Now he wants it back. Problem is, I'm not interested in ruling a huge crater that used to be an underworld kingdom. Especially if there's a Hydra chained in the bottom of it with the magic equivalent spit and bailing wire trying to break free.

Of all the looney Spark-inspired things he's done, stitching Marcus's wings on his back has to be the looniest. Okay, becoming his own father in a time loop was Epic Looney, but we fixed that. He needs the power to fight Jeremiah, he says. Maybe he does.

But he's already started changing. Not just that red glow in his eyes. He's starting to think like a demon. Brooding. Arrogant. Easily enraged.

Dad! Listen to me! You almost incinerated a JAGER! Do you want the Consulate hunting you down? Do you want to get banished from Steelhead just like You-Know-Who? Keep it up. You'll be perching on top of a tower in Belhaven groaning about how everything went wrong.

There was another Qlippothic Steel Unit spotted in Steeltopia, at the Europan Consulate. It tried to take out Ash, but that big-mouth blob he has for a pet raised the alarm. (Yech! That thing gives me the creeps! Brush its teeth, will ya Bro?)

Ash said he snuck up on it with some Ninja moves and lit into it with some heavy barrel action before it teleported out. Now Emperor Squid's got a tank parked outside the Consulate. This is the same blue bot who put Jobias on his payroll? Guy needs a tune-up!

I asked Ash where he learned ninjitsu. He said from the Emperor's sister. He seemed really sad when he told me she got banned from Steeltopia. He seemed...heartbroken?

Gem isn't taking any chances. She's got a cannon for an arm now. She's hosting for Squid at Steam Sky City on Monday Nights, but she's bummed that nobody shows up. I said "Private Dancer?" and she shook her cannon at me. Yeeeesh!

I bumped into Genie's new farmhand, Jeremy. He was busy rebuilding the shed on her farm and setting up a blacksmith forge. He told me Genie still doesn't have her powers back, but her ankle's getting better. Dad's mithril bracelet didn't do squat.

Jeremy seems like a nice guy. He's brighter than he's letting on, but something smells...odd about him. Like...two or three steps from familiar.

Last but not least, I'm hooking up with Kira again to help her play music at her teahouse in Caledon on Fridays! She said I could use the tips to buy a new outfit. Hmph.

Steelhead Adventures: Journey to Fusang Part Twelve Thirteen

Heh. My lucky number!

The Dungeon of Fusang Castle

"WAIT" the first guard called out, stopping the second from punching Purdie "We shall try a different measure."

A door opened and two more guards walked in, dragging Koen behind. They threw Koen up against a wall. The first guard turned to Purdie and smiled.

"Now," he said "tell us what we want to know.....or we torture him."

"No" Purdie whispered as the guards moved closer to Koen.

Oh no you don't.

The guards looked to each other in bewilderment as the neko vanished from their grip like smoke. His shackles clattered to the ground.

I should have killed them all, but Time Lords are squeamish about that sort of thing and I'd need the ride home.

Koen landed on the shoulders of the two henchmen, his red paws balancing himself effortlessly and flexing, digging in claws just enough of a grip to slam their heads together.

I've been tortured and killed enough times. I'm not falling to these goons. Not to anyone.

As the men fell, he released his grip and sprung towards the guards that held Purdie with a roar. One of them turned to face him, reaching for the sword in his belt.

I may not be the Vortex any more. But I still know magic. And in this life? I have these.

Curved claws extended from his fingertips. One hand gripped the swordsman's wrist, sinking deep into the flesh. He howled in pain as Koen threw him across the room onto the other two guards.

Hotspur risked his life to save me. Of course I'll return the favor. After what Father did to me? That's another story.

Koen growled long and deep before flashing his fangs at the trembling guard, who now held Purdie in front of him as a shield.

"You have a choice," Koen said as he advanced slowly. "You can give me the keys, or you can give me your heart..."