Chapter One - Descension

Darkness....

The wolf and the panther strode through the jungle side by side, as they always have. Yet, they noticed that there were no birds in the trees. Strange, they thought. Suddenly, the panther stiffened, scenting something amiss in the air. The wolf scanned their flank, becoming aware of something moving through the jungle. He barked a warning to the panther, whose hackles raised as if in challenge to this unknown.

The challenge was answered with a reptilian hiss and a roar that was like a shriek from the darkest pit of Hell. There was a sound like thunder as the unknown beast strode through the thick brush, and the foliage snapped beneath its predatory stride. It walked on its hind legs, with a lithe gait that was death in liquid motion and the wolf and the panther beheld its cold countenance.

It shrieked again, showing a double mouthful of dagger-like teeth. The wolf whined as it backed away from this horror, and the panther arched itself in preparation to give as best as it could against this nightmare made flesh. The wolf knew it was a hopeless cause, but the panther refused to accept it.

The beast's eyes narrowed as it seemed to appraise the two that stood in its path, and then it snarled. It was a snarl that seemed to relay that this abomination had decided that there would be another, more advantageous time, and that it could afford to spare these two for now... A message that seemed to say, as the beast turned and strode back into the jungle...

"You're welcome... See you SOON..."

Blair Sandburg sat bolt upright, unaware that he was screaming. Ten seconds later his door came crashing open and his roommate, Detective Jim Ellison, came through the door with his pistol drawn. Blair yelped in surprise, and dove out of the bed and onto the floor shouting, "Don't SHOOT!"

Jim scowled as he lowered his pistol, obviously annoyed at the false alarm - yet still wary. "You okay, Chief? I heard you caterwauling and thought maybe something got past me."

"No... No... Sorry, Jim, it was some kind of nightmare," stammered Blair sheepishly.

"Oh... Well, then, I'll just go and try to get back to sleep. Only four hours until we go face the big, bad world. You should get back to sleep yourself... Partner."

"Jim? I've been wondering..."

"Wonder tomorrow, Chief. Sleep tonight..."

"But -"

"Sleep! TONIGHT!"

"Alright, alright! Cut down on the red meat someday, would you?"

"Grrr..."

"Just a suggestion! Sheesh!"

"ENOUGH! Christ, you get a case of the babbles and there's no shutting you up!"

"So..."

Jim raised his hands in surrender to forces beyond his control, "I give up. What were you wondering? BRIEFLY."

"Do you think that maybe there are others out there like you? But NOT like you?"

"Other Sentinels? Anything's possible, Chief. But until NOW I never lost any sleep over it. Why?"

Blair shook his head as he clarified his question. "No, not just other Sentinels. We've contended with that with Alex, remember?"

Jim winced at the mention of her name. "Cut me a break, Chief, it's two in the morning," he protested.

"No, I mean a Sentinel that was MORE than you..."

Jim pondered the question before he asked, "In what way?"

"I'm not sure," Blair confessed. "Just MORE."

"Well, much as I'd like to discuss my shortcomings in comparison to a rhetorical example, it's LATE. I need rest... I'd rather wait until normal business hours to trot down the Primrose Path, okay?"

"Okay... Sorry, Jim. Good night, okay?"

"Just more, he says," spat Jim as he closed the door. But it was a long time before Blair got back to sleep.

-----

We've been wandering for a long while... Seven days by our estimation... By now the officials will have noticed that the warden and his guards never made it back from their 'symposium', and will eventually find what we left of them in that empty warehouse in San Dimas. However, it will still be a while before they think to check on the monster that's supposed to be in the catacombs... We're almost sad that the warden met justice before his superiors could find out about his innovations in overcrowding control... Ah, well... We see a sign ahead, keeping watch for travelers such as ourselves... We read it in the wan moonlight at its distant post... 'Welcome to Cascade', eh? Thank you... Thank you, kindly... It's been a long time since we were welcome anywhere... A long time, indeed...

Several men chased a frightened woman down the dark street. She cried hysterically as she vainly sought escape, and the men laughed harshly at her plight. She wheeled on them, "I gave you my purse!" she cried. "I gave you my purse! It's all I have!"

"No, it isn't, sweetheart," one of them snarled. "You have something else for us."

"Yes, for ALL of us," chimed in another. "You can't keep something THAT nice all to yourself. You have to SHARE."

"Yeah," added a third. "It feels GOOD to share... You'll feel good... WE'LL feel good."

"No," she sobbed. "No. Please..."

"Aw, she doesn't WANT to share with us, fellas," scowled the fourth. "She's GREEDY."

"Now THAT'S a bad thing," sighed the first. "Greedy people get HURT."

"Please leave me alone! I'll scream!"

"Go ahead, Greedy. No one will hear you," mocked the second one. "WAAAAAA!" he screamed in demonstration. "See?"

"Yeah, you can scream," laughed the fourth one. "I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream."

"Yeah, Ice Cream..," nodded the third one. "I like to lick Ice Cream. Can I lick YOUR Ice Cream, Greedy?"

"Please... No... Don't... I gave you my purse...," she sobbed.

"But we TOLD you, Greedy. We want MORE," scolded the first one.

"Then more you shall HAVE," said a voice from the shadows. "Enough for ALL... AND to SPARE..."

"What the hell? Someone else down here? Back off, you! We saw her first. The FOUR of us."

"But four's a crowd - And NOT ALLOWED," admonished the shadows.

"Man, FUCK YOU," challenged the first one. "You think you some kinda hero? We KILL heroes, bitch!"

"Hero? No, we're not a hero... You will learn what we are... You ALL will."

-----

"What do we have here, Simon?" asked Ellison as he scanned about to assess the situation.

"Four dead men, one live woman - obviously in shock...," scowled Simon as he chomped on his cigar. "She was about to be the evening's entertainment for the four guys, but from what she says an Angel saved her."

"W-waitasec," stammered Blair in disbelief. "An angel? You sure she didn't say a Samaritan?"

"No, Sandburg, she said ANGEL," replied Simon flatly. "And as far as I can tell this 'Angel' made those four miserable bastards look like they fell from a plane. Look over there, gentlemen, the coroner is SPONGING whatever this 'Angel' has left of these guys off of sixty square yards of alley wall." He spat angrily. "We WANT whoever this 'Angel' is, boys. BAD. We're keeping a lid on the particulars media-wise, but this kinda crap has got to be reined in before it inspires a whole PILE of closet crazies and we have a SERIOUS problem."

"Understood," Jim nodded curtly. "But I don't see anything around here that could have been used to inflict the sort of damage you're talking about these guys being put through. No knives, no blunt instruments, no pistols, nothing."

"You won't find any either, except the ones that were on the four victims," grimaced Simon. "Whoever this 'Angel' was, he went at them with his bare hands."

"You've got to be kidding me, Simon," protested Blair. "One guy took on four armed men?"

"No, Sandburg," sighed Simon. "One guy took OUT four armed men. BIG difference."

"That's just unbelievable," argued Blair. "Not even JIM has THAT much training..."

"Can we talk to the woman in question?" asked Jim, growing annoyed. "Maybe get something we can use to track this psycho?"

"Sure, but take it easy," cautioned Simon. "She was pretty shook up BEFORE the incident, and it didn't help her much..."

"Check," nodded Jim. "Let's go, Chief." The two walked over to the woman, who was clutching something in her hands like it meant the world to her, and the world wanted to take it away. "Ma'am?" asked Jim. "Can you tell me what happened here?"

"An Angel saved me," she said in shell-shocked monotone. "Bad men came after me... They wanted to hurt me... I gave them my purse, and they still wanted to hurt me... I tried to scream for help, but nobody heard me... All I could do was ask God to make it stop, and He did..."

"God did?" asked Blair incredulously. "I was under the impression that he was more hands-free than that."

"God sent the Angel to save me," continued the woman. "The bad men tried to hurt the Angel, but he was part of the shadows... They couldn't stop him... One by one they fell, as God's Angel punished their wickedness... There was a lot of blood and screaming... Then some strange crunching sounds as the Angel took them away... Are they dead?"

Blair and Jim recoiled at the question. "You don't know?" asked Jim. "Four men were torn to pieces in front of you, and you don't know whether they're DEAD?"

"Jim, hold on...," cautioned Blair. "Maybe her subconscious is blocking that memory."

"Listen, Chief," growled Jim. "Four men are DEAD, and if we're gonna be able to put this guy away for it, we need a little more than that suppressed memory pop-psych mumbo-jumbo."

"Jim, come on. She's been through hell..."

"I don't know if they're dead because I don't KNOW if they're dead," insisted the woman. "The Angel said he needed to use them, to send a message... Dead men can't do that, can they?"

"Depends on the message," grimaced Jim as he jerked a thumb to the wall of the alley that coroner was carefully gathering samples from.

"I should feel bad that they've died," droned the woman. "But they were bad, and I can't... Does that make ME bad?"

"Nobody's THAT bad, lady," retorted Jim. "Those four men died in a world of pain. We may NEVER even IDENTIFY them!"

"Jim, Jim, Jim," broke in Blair. "The perp SPOKE to her..."

"Right. So, aside from saying he was gonna use them to send a message, ma'am, did the 'Angel' say or do anything else?"

"Yes," she said flatly. "He gave me back my purse and said, 'We heard you, little one. You're welcome. See you soon.'"

Blair fainted dead away.

He found himself in the jungle, and looked around worriedly. "Jim?" he asked shakily. There was no answer. He looked around again, and to the east he saw the Temple of the Sentinels and shivered. "This is NEVER good," he whined. A wolf came out of the underbrush, and stared at Blair. "What's going on?" Blair asked his Spirit Guide.

"There is another that moves," replied the wolf.

"Another what?" asked Blair.

"You have seen it, have you not?" replied the wolf. "The lizard that walks as a man?"

"That was a dream!" protested Blair.

"Like this?"

"Point taken," sighed Blair. "Are you saying that this monster I saw is another Sentinel? Like Jim?"

"This creature is NOT like Jim; he is MORE. The lizard that walks as a man does so alone..."

"What? Is that possible?" gasped Blair. "I thought all Sentinels had Guides."

"Not all. This one has no need."

"How? What about the 'Zone-Out Factor'?"

"Somehow, the lizard that walks as a man has learned to adapt. Your Sentinel must oppose him, but I fear how it may end."

"You don't know?"

"The things to come are not for such as I to see; only the things that ARE. To think of the future takes away focus from the present, and your Blessed Protector will need all the help you can offer if he is to survive this threat."

"So this big lizard IS a threat. But to Jim, or to me?"

"To ALL. The lizard who walks as a man is an enemy to all... But be warned, lizards have great guile, and this one moreso than any. In the jungle, those that hunt do so for a purpose. This beast is different in that his purpose IS to hunt. No other beast is like it in this Age..."

"Wait, you're saying that this Enemy is a throwback to a time in the past?"

"You know... Seek out the knowledge... It's your only chance... And his..."

"His? His who? Hey! WHO?"

"Hey! He's coming around! Give him room," barked Ellison. "Chief! What the hell happened? You okay?"

"We're in BIG trouble..." muttered Blair groggily. "Jim, do you... Sense... Anyone?"

"Rest easy, Chief," cautioned Ellison, "you hit your head on the curb when you fainted, so you're a little rattled... Maybe a concussion... Get those EMT's over here! You'll be fine, Chief. These guys'll take care of you, okay?"

"Wait... Jim.... We've got to... It's about... Another... Like you... A...," Blair whispered as he faded in and out of consciousness. The EMTs swarmed, and Blair was quickly loaded onto a gurney and gingerly placed in the back of an ambulance... Jim looked on intently as the ambulance sped away. He spat on the ground in irritation, and something caught his eye... He strode over to a space some sixty paces from the crime scene, and picked up what looked like a chewing gum wrapper... It WAS a chewing gum wrapper. But it had WRITING on the paper side of the near-foil. He examined the note warily. The writing was so small that it seemed a single scrawled line, but he could make it out...

'Hello, my intended.
'There are worse things in the jungle than you, little brother.'

"What the fuck?" breathed Jim. "What the fuck?"

-----

Ah. Now he knows we're here... This pleases me... We have much to teach each other... Strange that he didn't sense our presence, as we did his, but perhaps he's not as finely tuned? We shall bide our time, for now... There is much to be done here... The Darkness hungers...

-----

Blair fidgeted in the hospital bed, holding the ice-pack against the back of his head as the nurse had instructed. All he had to do, he told himself, was wait until Jim showed up to see how he was, and he could talk him into getting him out of here. A fine plan, indeed.

"Hey, Chief!" said Jim as he walked in, startling Blair out of his train of thought.

"YOW!" blurted Blair in surprise. "Jeeze, Jim, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Well, at least you're in the right place for it...," shrugged Ellison.

"Ha. That is SO funny."

"I thought so, too. Well, Chief, the doc says you got a slight concussion so he wants you to stay here for observation..."

"No. Jim, you gotta get me outta here."

"What? You're around doctors all the time at school, aren't you?"

"As a COLLEAGUE, not a SUBJECT. _BIG_ difference."

"Well, Chief, I know you're planning to sing me some song about how I _HAVE_ to get you out of here..."

"You DO! Listen, Jim, there's something out there that you're going to need some serious help with..."

Ellison raised his hand abruptly, "But I've gotta tell ya that no matter WHAT you say, you ARE staying. Bad enough you fainted on me ONCE with no reason..."

"No, Jim, listen, I HAD a reason... That lady-"

"STOP. That lady was out of her gourd. Whatever she saw go down messed her up for life, so we got her a rubber bungalow in the Psych Ward. But since you fainted ONCE, AND hit your head, AND got a CONCUSSION which COULD mean you'd faint AGAIN. You STAY. If the doc says you check out okay, then fine. But if you got some wires tangled, Chief, I can't risk you being out there. That faint you did might mean some kind of neurological thing..."

"It's not! I was just shocked by the-"

"OR it might be nothing. BUT, since the only guy that can TELL is the DOC, you STAY. PERIOD."

"Jim, listen," stammered Blair.

"Listen to WHAT?"

"Has it contacted you?"

"W-what?" blanched Jim. "What do you mean?"

"The other. The one I asked you about last night... It HAS, hasn't it?"

"This is getting spooky," fretted Jim. "I _HATE_ that. How did you know 'it' contacted me? How do you even know there IS an IT?"

"I know that there's an IT because I dreamed of us in the jungle - WITH it. IT is major league bad stuff, Big Guy. Alex times TEN on the threat-scale MINIMUM... Also, I know IT knows about US, so all that stuff about staying where IT can pop in for a chat is OUT. So we can have the doctor fax us or something because WE are hitting the bricks at just under the sound barrier..."

"Not so fast!" cut in Jim. "How do you know it contacted me? More importantly, how do you know it BEFORE me? When Alex was around, I saw her spirit animal as an invader... What does THIS one look like, since you've seen it?"

"Dammit, Jim... I'm an anthropologist, not an archeologist!"

"Cut the comedy, would you?"

"Sorry, Big Guy, but if I let myself get caught in the actual gravity of our current dilemma I'm gonna assume the fetal position..."

"Best guess, so it's not a surprise when _I_ see it?"

"Hmmm... I'm out of my depth with that... My Spirit Guide called it the Lizard that Walks Like a Man; which doesn't narrow it down much. But I can call a few friends on campus and see what we can come up with..."

"Great. A big lizard that walks like a man... With my luck it's 'Barney'."

"No, definitely NOT." pronounced Blair. "Barney's friendly. Our new pal ISN'T. _VERY_ ISN'T. Can we go now?"

"Right. Just bring me up to speed on the way back to the apartment."

"Deal. Now help me get my things..."

-----

Dr. Kelso sat in the dim light of his office poring over the Conspiracy newsgroups... He was vaguely aware of the door to his office opening, and assumed it was one of his assistants. "It's getting late, and I'm going to be at this for a while yet," he said without looking up. "You may as well go on back to the dorms, and we'll get back to work tomorrow, okay?"

The visitor spoke in a voice like a breeze through a graveyard. "Hello, my intended," it said.

Kelso froze in terror. "Oh God... No," he whispered. "You're supposed to be dead..."

"We were never THAT obedient, were we? Mind you, it WAS a long time ago," the visitor stated wryly.

"H-how did you find me?"

"I was TRAINED to find people that wanted NOT to be found," shrugged the visitor. "With this in mind, how do you - a famous, best-selling author - presume to think I cannot-"

"What do you want, you hellspawn!?" demanded Kelso hysterically.

"You know, we would have thought your interpersonal skills would have improved after all this time... With an attitude like THAT, no WONDER you're alone in front of a computer... Heh." His laugh was a single snide cough, and it chilled Kelso to the marrow...

"Are you here to finish what you started?" he asked fretfully. "Are you here to finally kill me?"

"We're insulted, Kelso," scolded the visitor. "You will recall we promised NOT to kill you many years ago... That would make you the safest man in this town, by our estimation..."

"HANG your twisted ethics," spat the doctor. "I'm in this damned chair because of YOU."

"You did SHOOT us... TWICE. In the BACK," retorted the visitor. "You foolishly believed our promise would allow you to assassinate us without our defending ourselves... Why DID you shoot us, Kelso? We were your SUCCESS... Of ALL the members of the squad, only we are left..."

"That squad was created to RID the world of creatures like you!" shouted Kelso. "Only a fifteen per cent survival rate from the TRAINING, and those that lived were sent on SUICIDE missions..."

"Hmmm... You never told any of us that they were suicide missions," mused the visitor. "Of course, if you DID, scant few of us would have gone on them, would we? And of course, not too many of us came BACK from those missions..."

"Except for YOU, _NONE_ of them did. Don't you SEE? You weren't a SUCCESS, you were a FAILURE. SIXTY missions, and you KEPT coming BACK. I still don't know HOW you did it, and I don't WANT to..." He fitfully crumpled some papers from his desk, trying to calm himself. "You have to be destroyed, don't you understand? We pulled you from the bottom... Society's SCUM. The program was an elaborate form of EXECUTION for you evil bastards! That's all it EVER was! When you continued to SURVIVE, we knew that the program would fail again sooner or later, so we shut it down... You're all that remains of that dark time, and the sooner you're in Hell, the BETTER."

"FOOL!" roared the visitor. "This world is Hell enough for ANY! You surround yourselves with illusions and distractions, but it's all just SMOKE. When you caught a GLIMPSE of the REALITY, you panicked. You SHOT us because our EXISTENCE was a snag in your comfy, little world-view... Tell us, Kelso... Did they take CARE of you for being a good, obedient soldier?"

Kelso seethed in silence.

"Answer enough for us," continued the visitor. "But we're not here to argue semantics... We need something of you, old friend."

"What do you want?" whispered Kelso.

"There is great evil throughout this area..."

"I know... But I assume you mean BESIDES you?"

"Ah, the dry wit... We remember that... We remember so many things about those carefree days..."

"Stop," interrupted Kelso. "I'd rather avoid what passes for pleasantries with you... I have enough nightmares now..."

"Fine. Brass tacks then," acceded the visitor. "Tell us about the man called Sandburg..."

Chapter 2