At the Alligator farm, Sara Pezzini and Arwyn were trying to acclimate Princess Ashleigh. They were still shaken by the disappearance of their Asian allies. Although Boon was not technically Asian, he looked Asian and they thought of him as such. They were especially concerned about Kabuki. Her separation from her baby had to be traumatic.

Trying to make the best of it; as they had no idea where to look for their comrades, the two women concentrated on helping Ashleigh get comfortable in strange surroundings.

The two women couldn't get a handle on what went wrong.

Kreeg; who was Arwyn's dog and more intelligent then anyone realized, was wracked with guilt. He'd been out romping when the others disappeared. His attempts to follow their trail failed because his canine senses couldn't combat magic.

And so things went at the alligator farm where Witchblade, Arwyn and Princess Ashleigh had settled in.

Day 5: Alternate Earth, Everglades region, Noon.

Several Stix Brothers woke up on an unpleasant surface. Alarmed at their strange surroundings they leapt to their feet and looked around. Every single one of them were fully dressed in their usual battle attire. The sensation was disorienting.

How did they come to be in this place? Where was this place? They looked around at each other in wonder. A fast count showed there were ten of them. They were in some sort of swamp or marshland. This was definitely not where they'd been when they retired the evening before.

They were all hard, mean, unforgiving men, willing to go to any lengths to achieve their missions. This was not surprising as they were all essentially the same man copied over and over as clones.

Any variations in personality were minor and were the result of their various life experiences each one had since being cloned.

Each one had their own individual first name but other then that, there was very little to differentiate them to the unpracticed eye.

They'd each been given names such as Eli and Aaron but most outsiders would be hard pressed to tell who was who. One had been given the name Percival, which he resented so much that it actually made him even harder and meaner then his "brethren".

Hard and mean as they were, their bizarre circumstances left them confused and perplexed. They existed as field operatives for an organization known as The Search And Destroy Agency, a bounty hunting operation that preferred their targets be brought in dead.

Wherever they were, they were completely cut off from any means of contacting their agency, so questioning their superiors about their circumstances was --- well, out of the question.

The men collected themselves, checked if their weapons were loaded and set out to seek answers.

After listening to Johnny Alpha's story, Dredd brooded. So another Dark Judge had appeared. It was too much to hope that Judge Fire had been destroyed permanently. The Dark Judges always seemed to find their way back.

Judge Death, now Judge Fire. Could the others be far behind? Judge Death had found a way to cross over from that swamp world, doubtless Judge Fire would to. This had to happen while he was undermanned? Where were the Mega City One Judges anyway? At least the civilan trainers were here. He had rookies in training but they wouldn't be ready for several months. At least he had a contingent of Brit Cit Judges in the meantime.

He sent Judge Hershey to give a heads up to those alternate Earthers that had appeared at that alligator farm that was mysteriously connected to Mega City One. That was another problem, He had no choice but to station guards over those portals which drained his manpower even more.
For all he knew, there were other portals that hadn't been identified yet.

Then there was the mystery of the missing alternate reality contingent. It seemed to be all the ones of Asian extraction. Why only them? Now the infant of one of them was in childcare here at Mega City One. He'd barely met the mother, but it seemed very odd that she would abandon her child.

He had no choice but to leave that problem to that Witchblade woman and the others remaining in that group. Apparently they'd picked up some waif swordwoman into their midst. Some lady with a sword wasn't going to be much help against a Dark Judge. That Witchblade ought to be up to it though.

He shook his head and turned to his work.

Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer were reminiscing. The conversation eventually turned to Wulf's last stand against Max Bubba and his gang.

Wulf was certain that he should be in Valhalla right now. Instead he was here, whatever here was. This certainly wasn't any afterlife he'd expected, even if those Danger Girls had heavenly bodies.

The conversation triggered a buried memory in Johnny Alpha. He twisted and turned it in his mind, trying to get a handle on it. It was occurring to him that maybe he had died too! In fact, as he thought about it, it seemed more and more likely.

Alarmed; he jumped up and ran to the Danger Girls, demanding to know if they had memories of dying before they'd been brought here.

The two women looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Of course not! That's impossible. What are you messing with us?"

"Well, it happened to me!" Bellowed Wulf. "I died and then I was here!"

The two women looked at Wulf and then looked at each other. Finally they shrugged. They'd seen enough weird stuff lately to decide it might be possible.

They all sat down to try to help Johnny sort his memories.

Rasputin relished Hecate's absence. Why did he always seem to be a second banana? He was always ending up being servial to someone. He was more powerful now then he had ever been and yet he dared not cross Hecate.

At least the Tsar's of Russia could be manipulated. As he wandered through the castle Hecate had headquartered them in, He walked into a room that contained several peculiar scientific devices.

He had no idea of their purpose but was certain they had not been there the day before.

How incongruous they seemed to be. All who dwelt here seemed to be creatures of magic, even those irritating hitmen. What could possibly be the reason for these infernal devices and was Hecate aware of them?

It wouldn't be long before he found out. Hecate appeared in the main room in a puff of smoke with an outlandish looking fool in tow.

"Rasputin! This is Torquemada! He is our new recruit but not who I was seeking. Help him get comfortable here. He will be third after you in command here and I want you to acclimate him."

Before Rasputin could tell her about the bizarre equipment that had appeared, she disappeared again.

"Torquemada? The Torquemada?"

"I have been many, including the Torquemada you are referring to. My mission is the purity of the human race, untainted by the disgusting lower, subhuman and nonhuman races."

"Yes; well, a noble mission I'm sure," Rasputin said dryly, rolling his eyes. "Well, your mission now is to make sure Mistress Hecate is happy. Come with me"

Torquemada followed Rasputin into the room with all the science equipment in it. "Can you discern the purpose of this peculiar equipment?"

Torquemada examined the equipment and finally pronounced their purpose.

"Cloning" He sniffed. "Perfect if you need to build an army in short notice. Here, let me show you." With that, Torquemada pressed a few buttons and flicked a few switches. The machinery began to hum and Torquemada looked at Rasputin. "We should monitor this regularly. I have no idea how long this will take, but there should be results within a few weeks."

Rasputin had heard about cloning but had no idea that anyone had gotten around to cloning anything but sheep. Delighted, he led Torquemada to his quarters. Hecate should be pleased about this.

Lobster Johnson consistantly tried to free the prisoners enslaved by the Githyanki but was constantly rebuffed. His power was not as great in the ethereal plane and he barely escaped capture many times. He became like a guerilla, constantly harrassing the Githyanki but failing to effectively free their slaves.

Occasionally, he found ways to lure some Githyanki to the material plane. when that happened they were no match for him. Unfortunately, he was not as powerful on the etheral plane as he was on the material plane.

On the ethereal plane, he only had the power he had when he was living. It was inexplicable.

He made do as best he could though.

Ukiko was distraught. What had come over her? Thanks to this creature's manipulations, he had caused her to do something she had never thought she would ever be capable of, She had abandoned her child.

This "magic" had forced her to do something that was anathema to her! She'd abandoned her child!

After all she'd been through; after she'd finally found happiness with her lovely child, this creature, this Ogre Magi ripped it all away!

She studied her companions. Her fellow assassins seemed to be comfortable with the situation. She looked At Ana Ishakawa and Boon.

She couldn't read anything from their faces. Ana had become her best friend lately. She was frustrated. Her world didn't have magic. Not this kind anyway. What was she going to do? This "monster" had separated from her baby and whisked her a world away.

Kabuki plotted to escape.

The Stix Brothers were relentless. Anything that impeded them; flora or fauna, were eliminated. An alligator couldn't even safely bask in the sun lest it meet it's doom.

They marched through the swamp, ready to deal unmercifully with any creature that crossed their path.

When they finally crossed paths with a scouting party of lizardmen, the lizardmen were eliminated in a hail of bullets. Unfortunately, this meant that they soon ran low on ammo.

Once that was realized the brothers grew more cautious.

Never the less, they plodded on.

well done on the characters here,can see youve done your homework on them,especially the STYX guys,great

Sara Pezzini was worried. Arwyn was a highly skilled archer; and her dog Kreeg was amazing as dogs go, and Princess Ashleigh had proven she was no slouch with a sword, but neither of them were any real match against the menaces that they'd encountered earlier. Only her Witchblade was. Before; with Shi, Boon and Kabuki, they had an advantage of numbers, but those three had mysteriously disappeared.

She felt like she couldn't safely leave the two alone with threats like those Dark Judges or that mysterious snake woman. Not to mention Ashleigh's violent twisted brother and his demonic companion they'd encountered.

She also had reason to believe that Jackie Estacado and Ian Nottingham were out there. Both men were as far away from being Boy Scouts as the Earth was from Pluto.

Still; she had an affinity for both men and believed if she could just get to them first, she could get them to put aside their penscient for evil and help her side out. She would have to keep an eye on them though.

She wondered where they were.

As the Stix Brothers wove their way through the swamp, things were becoming more difficult. The Stix Brothers were becoming angrier and with their anger rising, so did their vicious streak.

Unfortunately, things were becoming more difficult. They were trying to preserve their ammunition so they were forced to resort to knives. This was less effective and when a contingent of lizard men rallied for a second foray against them, they manage to kill two of the brothers.

The lizard men were driven away but the damage was done. The Stix Brothers were feeling vulnerable and their veneer of ruthless aggression was wavering. They had no idea where they were or what might be waiting for them out there. They also were feeling paranoid because they each had made many enemies over the years because of their ruthlessness.

Were they on Earth? Was it the cursed Earth? Were their attackers mutants?

The remaining Stix Brothers began looking over their shoulders warily.

One of them actually made a connection to their predicament and a story called "The Most Dangerous Game". (This was a feat in and of itself since none of them ever, ever read anything. He'd probably seen a movie.

Was that their situation? They were to be hunted?

Hecate returned to the swamp. She still could not find a trace of the dark judge she sought but she quickly sensed the delicious flavor of malice coming unexpectedly from a different quarter. Intrigued, she moved to investigate.

Eventually, she stumbled across the scene of a battle. Several lizardmen were strewn about with fatal wounds. What caught her eye were two identical bodies of what appeared to be the defenders.

As she studied them, she could not see any single way to differentiate either corpse. It was as if the same person had died twice. The only difference she could see was in the position of their fallen bodies.

Hecate was faced with a mystery. She smiled at the thought of that. A mystery ---- for Hecate? An elder god? There was very little that one such as she hadn't seen before. She giggled like a giddy schoolgirl at the thought of getting to the bottom of this.

She recognised the trail of others of the same ilk as the two mysterious fallen and set out to intercept them.

Judge Fire drifted through Mega City One, searching for a replacement body. Something seemed different. There seemed to be a lack of order in the city. Where were the Judges?

A little part of Judge Fire was perturbed by that. He had been an actual Judge once, when he was alive that is. His name was Judge Fuego but even before he'd become a Dark Judge people called him Judge Fire. He had arsonist tendencies even while living. He'd burned down a school for defying noise regulations.

Judge Death was his ticket to fulfilling his destiny. What a catharsis to see something burn! As Judge Fire, he would see everything burn!

Aaahh! A freshly murdered corpse! Perfect. Judge Fire took charge of the cadaver and reignited himself. He was just about to begin a flaming rampage when a lone Judge on patrol spotted him and shouted.

Alarmed, Fire retreated back to the other reality of the swamp world for fear that this judge might be armed with weapons similar to the one that a judge had used on him previously.

Natalia Kassle was biding her time. Since these "Judges" had incarcerated her on this strange world, she'd been behaving as a model prisoner and she'd managed to charm several of her guards.

The guards were all female to prevent her possible seduction of any vulnerable males but it turned out that many of her female guards were somewhat vulnerable too. Apparently their psych profile didn't catch that.

Natalia had convinced them to treat her as a trustee, even though she hadn't been a prisoner long enough to qualify. Finally, the guard who she knew instinctively was the most vulnerable had broken a few rules and Natalia was accompanying her into sections of the prison that were not as secure as the prisoner's wards.

Natalia flirted with her would be paramour with just enough panache to lull her into a false sense of security. Eventually, their duties led them to a secluded room where the guard hoped to engage in some illicit activity on government time.

As the two closed to embrace, the hapless guard learned the hard way what she should have known from the beginning. You can't trust anybody in a prison uniform.

Natalia grasped her admirer's head in what seemed to be an act of love only to twist the poor woman's neck 180 degrees.

After gently lowering the recently deceased guard's body to the floor, Natalia contemplated her next step.

Unfortunately for Natalia, her former admirer's uniform did not fit her; except (oddly) her shoes.

Natalia had the shoes, she needed another guard to come by who might have the rest of the uniform. She was confident one would. Meanwhile Natalia busied herself hiding the evidence of her most recent crime.

Abby Chase, thought about her situation. Stuck in the middle of a nowhere swamp with one good friend, a lovestruck spaceman and a horny lug of a viking lost in time.

Sydney Savage was having fun sparring with the hulking viking but little would likely come of it. Johnny Alpha on the other hand ----.

Sure he was homely, but there was something in his character that connected with her. She loved to watch him get flustered when she gave him the tiny little come ons that may or may not mean she'd like to connect with him. When it came to her, he was like a clumsy infatuated schoolboy, but when he needed to step up and deal with issues, he had what it takes.

The fact was, they were bonding, and loathe as she was to admit it; if another woman began to show interest in him, she might see green.

She couldn't stop thinking about him, and she suspected he felt the same way. Why else would he not spend time in the more familiar world of his peers? He wanted to protect her and he was coercing his clumsy viking buddy to be his wing man whether he knew it or not.