Chapter 12 - A Visitor

I must have been insane to trust Walter as much as I did. He had me, who had never flown or even seen someone fly before, do the first flight test in the airship by myself. I can still hear his words in my ears. “It's supposed to be able to be flown by even a two year old, as long as you know the password. If you crash and die, I'll know I did it all wrong.” Ah, what fond memories I have of him. I did the test flight perfectly fine however, and driving the thing was like second nature. I asked him what the difference was between this one and the others at the organization. He said the others had propellers that could easily be demolished. Whereas this one had none and flew even smoother. I remember he was so proud of it.

~*~AK~*~

Blake stopped dead in his tracks. The spell-caster looked up at him. “Ah, finally, the guests have arrived. I was starting to get lonely at this party all by myself. You see, I had a feeling you would betray our organization and try to warn this young girl here, so I decided to wait and confront you here. Now I can dispose of you both at once. Ally Kat's sure to come out of her little hiding spot. And when she does, I'll be ready.”

“You seem to forget that I have magic abilities too,” the girl spell-caster reminded.

“But you're not strong enough to hold me off and fight me. You were barely able to hold me off when I killed that foolish cowboy the other day.”

The girl just scowled.

“Now, the two of you go stand over by the window where you can be easily seen. We wouldn't want to kill you and not have Ally Kat know, now would we? Oh, and you can leave your gun right there, Mr. Blake. Not that it would matter, I just wouldn't want Ally Kat to think you had even a slight chance.”

Blake slipped his gun out of his pocket and fired it at the dwarf who easily blocked it with his magic. “Thank you. That will let Ally Kat know even better that you two are in trouble. Now go on and drop it.” Blake obeyed this time and let his gun fall to the ground. Then he and the girl walked over to the window. “Open it.” Blake did so. “Now, who wants to go first?”

“How about me?” The voice came from below and when they all looked, they saw Ally Kat, all stretched out underneath the table. She yawned and crawled out, rubbing her eyes. Shaking herself she said, “Ooh, I'll get you for waking me from my cat nap. I guess it's only fair that I go first.”

“Ah, Ally Kat! I knew you would show up. Now, shall we duel and see who wins?”

“As long as there aren't any rules.”

“Of course not.”

“Then I'm ready when-” But instead of finishing the sentence, Ally Kat pulled out her gun and began firing, catching the dwarf completely off guard.

“Mindy! Protect Blake!” Ally Kat shouted, throwing herself behind the couch for a sheild.

The girl called Mindy nodded and formed a force field around herself and Blake.

The two of them watched as Ally Kat fought against Paul. It was amazing really. Ally Kat was able to dodge each of the dwarf's attacks as well as fire back at him with her gun. However, he easily blocked her attacks, so it was mostly just a waste of bullets, or so Blake thought. But the more he watched her, the more he realized that she was using offense as her defense. She was keeping him busy enough so that he wouldn't be able to attack her.

“Blake!” Ally Kat called to him suddenly. “Catch!” She threw his gun to him and it slipped through the force field where Blake caught it and began shooting at the spell-caster himself. While he kept the dwarf busy, Ally Kat pulled out a small vial from a hidden pocket somewhere. “Sorry, Blake. Looks like I'm gonna have to blow up your apartment after all. Don't worry, I had the people evacuate before the dwarf even showed up.” With this, she pulled out the cork with her teeth and threw the vial which burst in a ball of flames. Unfortunately, the dwarf had managed to put up a shield before it hit him and avoided the damage. However, Ally Kat didn't seem too worried about this. Immediately after throwing the vial, she brought out what looked like a pea shooter and shot something at him. Whatever it was, blew up as well and knocked down his force field. Blake then took his chance and shot at the spell-caster, but just as he tried, he realized he had run out of bullets. Ally Kat's was still full, however, and her shot hit right where she wanted it to: his staff. The staff shattered to pieces and the spell-caster, for the first time, took a step back and hunched over. Mindy and Blake, thinking it was over, both relaxed and Mindy let down her force field. “Mindy! No!” Ally Kat shouted. After this, all Blake saw was a whirling of lights and steel and the sound of bells, constantly ringing in his ears. Next moment, Blake saw Ally Kat with a small dagger in her hand, breathing heavily and Paul, heavily wounded, clutching at his broken staff. He hobbled over to the window, then looked back. “You're good, Ally Kat. Next time, however, you wont be so lucky.” With this, he jumped out, using magic to keep from hurting himself when he landed.

“Oh, good.... He's gone.” Mindy muttered, then fell unconscious. Blake caught her before she hit the ground and eased her down.

“Blake,” Ally Kat spoke. Blake looked up at her. “I just have one request of you.... In exchange for saving your life.”

“What is it?”

“Don't take off my mask.... Until I'm either dead... or until I've had my revenge.” She was breathing rather more heavily than it seemed she ought to be. But Blake just said, “Alright. I promise.”

Ally Kat smiled. “Thank you.” Then she too fell to the floor and Blake found himself in a half demolished room with two unconscious criminal women and blood and empty cartridges all over the floor.

~*~

“Blake?... Blake are you okay?”

Blake opened his eyes to see Alameda bending over him. “Alameda?”

“Blake, what happened? Why is there blood all over the place?”

“Ugh. My head hurts.”

“Did somebody hit you there?” Alameda checked him over for any bumps and bruises.

“I don't really remember. The last thing I remember is... Al-” Suddenly it all came back to him and he looked all around the room. “Ally Kat, Mindy! They were just here!”

“Eh? Ally Kat and Mindy were here! What did they do to you?”

“No, no, they didn't do anything, but Paul....”

“Paul?”

“That dwarf spell-caster who killed your friend.”

“What did he do?”

Blake told Alameda the whole story while Alameda tended to a few scrapes he had gotten and helped him to relax. When he was done, Alameda kindly cooked him breakfast and they enjoyed a rather luxurious meal.

“I wonder what happened to Ally Kat and Mindy,” Blake wondered, biting into his pancakes.

“I'm sure one of them woke up before you did and carried the other out to a safer place is all,” Alameda reasoned.

“I sure hope they're okay,” Blake sighed.

“What's this now? I thought you were after those two girls. What happened to your duty at your job?”

“I don't know if I want to work for that place anymore. Not with people like Paul around. Why would they hire a guy like that?”

“Beats me! But something tells me all will be revealed today.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Oh, nothing. Just a slight hunch.”

After all was said and done, Blake glanced at the clock and let out a yell. “I'm late for work! My boss is gonna kill me!” Blake grabbed his suitcase which he had never unpacked from yesterday, quickly showered and ran out to the car, apologizing to Alameda for not being able to take her home.

When he arrived at work, everything seemed to be in a big uproar. Blake assumed that word had gotten out about what happened last night and hurried to his office. There he was met with a big surprise. The first thing he saw was Ally Kat, balancing on top of the back of a chair while trying to keep a cup of coffee on her nose without spilling a drop. The next thing he saw was Jack having his hand shaken and back patted by Linton and Sydney. “Ah! Blake! Did you hear the news? Jack caught Ally Kat!”