fireybolt

Illusionist looked up from his work just in time to see Rotten Luck throw himself at the demon bikers. He turned to BrassRobo. I thought you said you were the only life here. "Ill, honey, make me a sandwich." BrassRobo looked at Illusionist and grinned maniacally,"Cause I sure as hell ain't eating my own words." And as BrassRobo screamed these words he pulled back the sleave covering his right gauntlet and rapidly pressed a few buttons on it. With a completely over the top motion he raised his right fist into the air and threw up his horns. After an ackward moment his grin vanished and he slouched in another exagerated gesture. "Where are my stooges?" Illusionist couldn't surpress his laughter. While BrassRobo was posing he had already speed boosted his other allies. If you mean your robots they don't have souls, they can't astral project. BrassRobo scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't you talk about my Fluffy like that. He's got more of a soul then your black heart."

Illusionist noticed that one of the bikers had gone around the zombie road block. He reached towards the vehicle and stole its speed as his own. As it began to slow down BrassRobo unholstered his laser rifle. He twirled it once around his finger and shot the demon off his bike with a blast of blue light. "Why is my gun shooting imitation Kirby dots?"You don't have a gun, you're a phantasm. Thats a phantasm energy torrent. "Well do I at least still have my magic?"

Brassrobo's hands began to glow a strange black red. Almost instantly Illusionist felt as if all the veins in his arms were full of glass. The world seemed to move under his feet and he almost fell down. He heard a strange voice booming in his head. It took him a moment to realize it was only BrassRobo."Ronald Bolton I command you, be the avatar of pain, be my PAINBRINGER." And with these words the strange light flew from BrassRobo's outstretched arms and enveloped Rotten Luck. "He that shall feel no pain, he that shall never tire, he that will vanquish my foes..." BrassRobo was whispering these words to himself as he slowly faded into and out of existence.

As soon as BrassRobo faded into existence for the last time, so too did Illusionist regain is composure. Why him, why not the guy who has to buff everyone else up? Illusionist asked. "Cause I didn't get a speed boost." Answered BrassRobo. Illusionist sighed and increased BrassRobo's speed with one hand as he stopped the incredibly slow moving motorcycle with his foot.

Sorry about the whole telepathy thing. Illusionist is usually wearing a mask and people tend to get spread out during fights so I always figured he would use telepathy since they wouldn't hear him otherwise. (Telepathy is his in chracter version of party chat.) If it would make any more sense for Sage to hear him, it isn't ordinary telepathy. Illusionist is giving off the illusion that he is speaking. Sage can still see everyone's disguises and BrassRobo so it would make sense that if he saw demon Illusionist and he saw demon Illusionist's mouth moving he might be tricked into thinking Illusionist was actually talking. (All of Illusionist's magic ultimately works by misdirection.) But I suppose putting all his lines in italics would make snese.

Illusionist fidgeted ackwardly, which looked a bit disturbing thanks to his current body. "Actually I've been using telepathy this whole time. No one outside our party should be able to hear me." The key word was of course "should" but Illusionist didn't want to think about the sorts of things that could hear his thoughts. BrassRobo laughed. "What, got tired of no one understanding you cause of that stupid mask you wore?" Illusionist it should be noted wasn't currently wearing a mask. He glared at BrassRobo until his eyes shone and BrassRobo ceased to be for a few seconds. "Try harder Ill." Illusionist sighed. Then he noticed the slowly gathering crowd.

"Strange, I didn't think we could attract attention here. Evil is usualy so..apathetic." Said Illusionist. "Well obviously we're the only life in this place." BrassRobo thoguht for a moment."Well I suppose me and the Sage are the only life here. You're less lively then a zombie." He pointed to Illusionist who was attempting to ignore him by looking at where the car was.

Illusionist traced the floating hot rod flames with his monsterous hand. He was getting really good at using it. The magic unwove itself and he wrapped it around his hand. He noticed that something had mixed with his own magic, the strands were stained jet black by some strange force. He would examine all this later. "I hope no one left anything in the car." He said to himself as he tried to remember if he had forgotten anything in the hellish vehicle.

BrassRobo scanned the street. "What you guys didn't notice?" He feigned confusion."Illusionist never introduced that guy." He pointed at the ice demon."I think he's been stalking you for a while." Illusionist facepalmed. "Thats Snaeer, he's with us."

"Oh?" Now BrassRobo feigned shock. "Well in that case we're being followed by some sort of tiny demon." He pointed in Balam's general direction. "Whatever it is, its the only thing paying us any attention and it seems more scared of us then we are of it."He shrugged. "I've felt its fear ever since I got here. I'm surprised no one else did." He glared at Illusionist who blushed under his mask. "I assumed more things would be afraid of us." Illusionist mumbled.

The explosion caught Illusionist by surprise. He quickly looked around expecting a fight but no one else seemed to have noticed. The asorted demons all seemed to be minding their own business. Hell really was other people. "I like this guy." Said the one demon right next to him. "Techy armor, moral ambiguity and he shoots first and never asks questions. I think I might be in love." There was something sinister in the glee in the other man's voice. Hell was definetly other people.

"Ok Sage, let me bring you up to speed. I'm Illusionist."Said the tall clawed demon. "We're incognito, Typhons the giant bunny rabbit. Damsels a succubus, bone wings over there is the Priest and Rottens well, Rotten. "

"Hello Sage, I'm sort of surprised you're here this early." said the demon in the bloodstained armor.

"Oh this is BrassRobo, he was just leaving." Said Illusionist. He raised a hand and BrassRobo's image flickered for a moment. BrassRobo laughed as he patted Illusionist on the head. "Wizardry 101 don't call up anything you can't put down. Which for you meens don't call anything up." He smiled wickedly. "Astral projection is a lovely way to escape the pain of a decrepit body. You're an idiot if you think I'll give this one up." He beat his gauntlet against his chest plate as if to show his point.

Then he addressed the rest of the team. "Now as far as I know the boy you seek is in Elysium, Avalon the first circle. A lovely place if I do say so myself." And then his face contorted into a serious visage. "Of course seeing as how I'm here..." He waved at Sage "...and Sage is here, and we are clearly being followed, I'd say there are powerful forces at work here. Which meens that we could be heading towards any of the circles." He shrugged and he seemed to return to his normal jolly demenor. "Assuming of course Antonio Barzini is still in hell."

Illusionist got out of the car and began to stretch. It was good to be out on the nice, solid ground again. The screams of the city made him smile. Since it was his own magic that was disguising them, it was into him that the demonic energy flowed. Its nature and instincs bleeding into his own. Changing him.

"He's right Typhon, that guy seems friendly enough." He pointed a hand at the giant rabbit and dark, bloody energy shot out. Typhon's fur hardened. Energy shot out from the other hand and now Typhon felt faster."There, assuming that guy can't breath fire or something you should be ok." He looked around at the strange city. "So whose hell is this?" He said more to himself then to anyone. "Would this be Pious's hell, or maybe Rachel's, she was driving the car..." He trailed of into his own thoughts. It didn't really matter he realized, it wasn't his hell, and he had things to take care of.

"Ok guys I have to go check on something." He said telepathically. He unattached his belt buckle and raised it into the air. He was getting used to his new hand. Red lightning struck it on though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A ball of the same lightning appeared before him and began to take the form of a man. Illusionist kicked the form with his hoof sending it to the floor. A very confused man with red skin and white hair looked up. He was wearing steam punk armor so stained with blood that it was hard to see its original copperish color. Glowing white runes adorned it. He also wore a burned and torn whit lab coat and goggles.

"Ow, where's the mortal danger?" Asked the strange man in a voice overflowing with energy. "Isn't any." Replied the demon. "Why'd you summon your phantasm?" The demon gave him a strange paper which uncrupled itself. "Ah future paper, you gotta love this stuff." Said the man as he played with the self straightening paper. "Can't trust a single word you read on it though. Never know who wrote it." The demon held up a small round mirror with glowing red runes carved into it."How long has this been here?" The man thought for a moment."Depends." "On?" "For you or for me. Its been here since that...classy lady returned it too you. I got to her before she found you, but for me it was like five minutes ago." "What gave you the right?" Asked the demon. The man got to his feet. "I could ask you the same thing." He said with a shrug.

Illusionist rolled down the window and stuck his head out, he needed fresh air. The City of Dis was warm but at this speed it was a pleasent warm. He no longer felt sick, his disguise was warding him from Hell's magic just as well as Snaeer's Ice Sphere had, now he was just bored. That , and not the bizzare landscape of the hellish city was the truly sureal part. Here he was , tall, demonic and muscular, in the sort of car he would have once killed to own, a beautiful succubus at his side, speeding through some exotic foreign city. Problem was the succubus was married, her husband was in the backseat with a gun and he was joined by a demonic rabbit that blamed him for his perdiciment. And Illusionist was too shy to even talk to her. Why was she the only one to remember to bring hands. Its not like the spell had a quick cool down or anything. And as much as he wanted nothing more then to just step out of the damn car and go see the sights he couldn't. Innocent lives hung in the balance, lives which might already be over.

He opened the glovebox with his claws (he could no longer remember why he even wanted them) and began to rummage around. He pulled out a small white envelope with his name written in elegent green cursive on it. He was sure it wasn't there before. He opened it with a metal fingernail and began to read.

Dear Illusionist,
I'm afraid that you are in grave danger. Just as the mighty heroes of your age can move freely upon the three dimensions, so can the heroes of another age move upon four. Just as your own accomplices use their power to mold the world, so do these other heroes. Just as you take orders from MAGI, so do these heroes take orders from their own mysterious contacts. But they are too trusting. Events across time are being manipulated towards some dark goal. I cannot give you specifics for I cannot give you what I do not have, but know this. I know who you are. I know how you got your powers. I know what a true wizard can do with them. I know what one almost did. And I know there is a mark upon the mirror of dreams. Do not tell the others about this. Do NOT summon a phantasm.



Illusionist crumpled the paper up. He looked down at the mirror which was his belt buckle (it was the only part of his appearence that hadn't changed). His eyes sparkled and he saw a name burned into the surface of the talisman in the Alphabet of Magi.I'm gonna kill him." Illusionist muttered.

Wow that is a very good picture of demon Illusionist. Though I am surprised we can all fit in the car. Why couldn't Sage drive a van or something. Oh and demon bunnies are awesome and should be added to the game.

Illusionsist looked around. Typhon and Snaeer were still in their cocoons. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw something move. Probably nothing. He looked at his claws, he always envied claws scrappers. Then a horrible thought dawned on him. The car wasn't actually meant for demons, or at least, the sort of demons he, Rotten and Pious were. He pulled at the magic in one arm with his fingers. The claws made in difficult to hold things. It felt like his arm was encased in hot, sticky rubber. The demonic magic had done more then disguise his own spell, if had empowered it. The illusion didn't want to change and it certainly didn't want to let him go. He managed to pull a blood red string of magic loose. Wrapping it around his claws he extended it towards the car."Sage's car doesn't look very demonic, we should probably disguise it before we enter the city." Weird even his telepathic voice sounded odd, it was lower, growlier. The red strings tried to enter the car but they bounced of its black surface with a zapping sound. The car's unholy motor growled. "Ok so I can't actually make the car bigger. Seriously where did Sage find this thing?" He decided to just wrap his magic around the car. The thread wove into cloth and the cloth became a pair of hot rod flames. A cow's skull with burning eyes and a nose ring appeared on the front of the car and skulls appeared on its rims. "I know this all looks ridiculous but it should help us blend in." He sat down in the shotgun seat. "Can someone with hands please get the wheel?"

Well I imagine you were thinking of a normal bunny you would become a normal bunny that still seemed a bit demonic, and if you were thinking of a flesh eating bunny you would become a flesh eating bunny. But since Illusionist's magic works on people's beliefs, all of his spells do whatever the person believes they do. Still, an ordinary bunny that was kinda creepy sounds hilarious.

Since Illusionist's magic now effects the other characters I should probably explain how I think it works. Basically he's fooled the world into thinking the other heroes are what they imagine demons to be like. Sort of a costume/character change. Since he now looks taller his point of view has been raised. Since he looks like he has a tail and claws he can use them as weapons. The claws won't work on anyone who believes he doesn't have claws. And since he wrapped his own magic around Hellish magic, everyone should give off a slight demonic aura like I imagine real demons would. Also everyone looks like whatever they we're thinking off when he cast the spell.

Illusionist shook the strange controller. It made a rattling sound, as though some of the old, and entirely vestigial components had come loose through wear and tear. "Didn't tell em to land." He muttered, almost incomprehensible beneath his mask. Truth be told he hadn't really told the policebots anything, which really wouldn't be a problem so long as no one realized that.Snaerr opened up the frozen orb and stepped out. Immediately the heat hit Illusionist. It was like walking out of a freezer into the middle of summer, and with the heat came the overbearing aura of evil. I can handle this he told himself, its only Hell.

As soon as he stepped out of the Sphere it, and the car began to float gently into the air as some semblance of physics began to reassert itself. It couldn't have begun to rise earlier, that would have been inconvenient. He reached a hand out to restore the demon's car's density. "I'm going to just leave the Ice sphere, it’ll melt on its own." He wondered how long his magic would last without him, whether a giant floating ball of ice would appear to reveal his presence to the city, or whether the demons would bathe in invisible rain.

"We should travel inside the demon thief's car to avoid arousing suspicion. Illusionist. Disguises... can you do that? Make us appear like demons?"

"Well most of you look like demons to me already, but here, go nuts." Illusionist raised his hands and a rainbow of bright, colorful string shot out of them. They mixed and melded with the magic in the air until they became dull and brown and muddied with ambient demonic evil. Then the bloody strings enveloped the party in their bizarre cocoons. Illusionist emerged as a tall muscular man with crimson skin. Fire burned in his eyes and he wore a crown of dull bone horns. His hands were long, his fingers claws, adorned with metal edges. He wore no shirt but his tattoos showed horrific stories of foes he had (supposedly) vanquished. His leather pants had a hole in them for his forked tail and his feet were cloven hooves. He looked around to see what sort of beasts his friends had turned themselves into.

"Well, the sphere was really just meant to be protective, though. I could probably make small crenelations, for the purpose of attack. Might make the sphere less solid, though."

Illusionist thought for a moment. The invisible ice sphere was really their only defense against attacks. Neither he nor Snaeer were what you would call durable.More importantly it was the only thing standing between him and the rather painful magic of the Netherworld.

"Small crenelations are a good idea. If you can take the ghost thing out of the fight quickly the damage to our shield shouldn't matter. If you can't I should at least be able to slow it down a bit." Unless of course they ran into something that was resistent to their magic. He laughed nervously. "Maybe we'll run into something friendly. Must be plenty of heroes who hang around these parts."

Illusionist reached into the pocket of his coat."Well I think we're supposed to be heading in that direction." He preteneded to pull out what looked like an old Nintendo 64 controller,spray painted gold with the cord ripped out."Now the way I figure it, these police drones have to have some sort of backup controls, right?In case they need to be turned off or something, maybe they run into something AIs can't handle. " Good, this was good, he had to convince the others or this wouldn't work.Magic really is just misdirection. "I'm sure the nice MAGI people won't mind if we commandeer a pair of drones." He pushed an analog stick forward on the controller which was slowly becoming more real, everything would fall apart if someone realized he was lying. To his relief two police drones responed to his control. One flew into the ice sphere and pushed it forward, engulfed in the strange trick of light which made him and Snaerr invisible. The other pushed the Lamborghini towards their destination.

"Thanks Rotten, but I'm fine, just not used to doing magic here, is all." went the telepathic message. Illusionist put his hand on the floor of the ice sphere and it began to rise slowly into the air."I should be fine as long as I stay in the Ice."

"Guys, we got a problem. Some kinda spirit-ghost thing up ahead, coming right to us. Not sure if its passive or aggressive."

Illusionist began to bend the light around the ice sphere. The frozen orb, now floating above the trapped dragons a seemed to vanish.He put one hand on his forehead. "Ok, me and Snaerr will stay cloaked.I'm not sure what that thing is, but If its hostile Snaerr can snipe it."He looked at Snaerr. "You can snipe from inside here, right?" he said.

"Thanks Snaerr,I owe you one." said Illusionist. Encased in a sphere of ice, Illusionist was more or less cut off from the Netherworld. His mind was clearing, feeling was returning to his body, he felt cold. He sat up."My head's been a bit off since we got here, my magic doesn't like this place."

He put a gloved hand on the ice wall and a thin hand print began to melt into it. Strength flowed from one of the dragons into his phantoms. One phantom plunged its ice sword into the dragon's mouth and wounded its insides. Whatever Typhon was doing would finish the beast off. The phantoms turned to Illusionists and faded out of existence. He'd miss them, strange mummy things that they were.

"If we're retreating we should take the car with us. Sage might want it back." Illusionist looked at the black Lamborghini and it slowly began to float upwards, its density now somewhere between hot air and helium.
"Can someone please give the car a good push?" came the telepathic request. "Car's pretty light now, should be like pushing a shopping cart."

Illusionist tried to get up but found that he couldn't. His whole body felt like it was asleep and trying to move sent pins and needles throughout it. The dragon that had charged at him was preocuppied with his phantom army, even if the phantoms were now a bit on the weird side. The world around him began to change, the Netherworld was a place shaped by powerful thoughts. Apparently this Typhon fellow had enough power to shape this level of it.

"everyone should probably duck cuz its about to get realy hot in there", came the warning. "Way ahead of you." went the weak , telepathic reply. Illusionist rolled over onto his stomach so he could look away from the dragon. He still felt unready to get up. He saw Rotten fighting a downed dragon, he hadn't even noticed that one of the dragons fell. However something seemed wrong with the mummy, like he wasn't fully there.

Illusionist reached into the phantoms, he realized that they wouldn't last long enought to destroy the dragon. He pulled at a strand of energy in one of the fake Rottens, it binked out of existence for a second but was otherwise unharmed. Bending light around himself he made himself more inconspicious, if one of the dragons came at him it would all be over. Then he reached towards the dragon the real Rotten was fighting and pulled at its life and strength. He took the energy strand from the phantom, the same one he had taken from Rotten Luck when they first met and copyed it onto the strength he stole from the dragon. Then he sent a bolt of negative energy straight towards Rotten.

Illusionist looked around. He could see at least a dozen dragons, he'd never fought a dragon before but they seemed tough. He wondered if something had sent the dragons at them, or if the dragons lived here and Sage's portal sent them into the middle of the dragon's nest. He wondered if Sage set them up. He was also very gratefull that a combination o adrenaline and magic had slowed down time for him.

"Boost me" he heard Damsel yell."I'm counting about a dozen bogies, target them one at a time people. Seven of us on one is better than seven on twelve. Illusionist, reduce inertia so the non-flyers can leap up. Look sharp people, this sh*t is on!"

Ok, those were orders, he could follow orders, people wouldn't get mad at him if he listened to them. He raised one hand and sped Damsel up. Who else? He tried to remember the list Azuria gave him, he'd had no idea where he put it. Pious could fly, so could Typhon, he boosted them. Snaerr was boosted, he made Snaerr lighter. Sage had vanished, his own magic wouldn't efect him, and he cast both spells on Rotten.

Illusionist's head hurt. Something was wrong with this place. His magic felt wrong. Hand were cold. Like something was feeding into him. Dragon was swooping down at him. Both hands outstretched. Giant flash of light. Dragon must have closed its eyes. Different spell.

There was another, dimmer, flash of light and Illusionist was knocked several feat backwards. A strand of negative magic he had carelessly twirled around his finger was powered up by the Netherworld and bled into his spell. 3 Rotten Lucks brandishing fire swords lept towards the dragon and began hitting it. Illusionist lifted his head up to see what happened, his body felt strangely numb."Ok, that was unintentional."

Illusionist pulled him self out of the car, he wasn't really sitting in it , he just put his torso inside to rummage around. "Whats going...", he saw the dragon attack Pious and for a moment he froze up."..on?"He saw Snaerr run towards the beast, propelled by Illusionist's own magic. Too slow,I'm too slow he realized. Pocketing the strange box with a MAGI sticker on it that he found in the car, Illusionist pointed his other hand towards the dragon. A thick whisp of energy flowed from the dragon into his arm. The monster seemed to move in slow motion. It turned its confused head towards him. Taking his other hand out of his pocket, Illusionist used it to pull red strands of strength from the dragon, he redirected them back to Snaerr and the singed Pious."Freeze him solid Snaerr." He said in a soft voice that Snaerr heard telepathically.

Illusionist grinned. Some times he thought about getting rid of his face mask, maybe wearing a domino mask instead. He usually didn't like people being able to tell what he was thinking but he realized sometimes this had drawbacks."Azuria didn't say anything about you Snaerr, but now that you mention it, that suit looks an awful lot like ordinary spandex."Illusionist pinched the fabric around Snaerr's chest with his free hand. Spandex was stretchy stuff, most superheroes could tell it from other, similar fabrics by touch. Illusionist wasn't one of them but he could pretend, and Snaerr's reaction would tell him wether he was lying or not. "I don't think we're gonna see Sage for a while, and he didn't leave the keys in the ignition, so I don't think that car's going anywhere. Besides, its no good to us if we have to go up a mountain." Illusionist's hands glowed a blue light which flowed into Snaerr, Snaerr felt lighter, quicker, more powerful."This should help you cast magic down here. I'm gonna check Sage's car to see if he left anything good in it. He didn't seem like the sort of guy who would come here unprepared. If anything pops up and attacks me while I'm looking, I want you to hit it." Illusionist opened the driver's door and began rummaging around.

I hope the Internet thing works out for you Devious, you were really funny to play with. I'd miss you if you we're gone for 6 months. On the plus side when you reappear to save us when we all get in trouble, you could always say you teleported from the car to where we are, and time just flowed weirdly.

Also Illusionist is in fact an Illusions/Kinetics controller.

Illusionist checked his magic pocket watch to see if going through the portal had made him travel through time to fast. If they had skipped through time to far then the motorcade might already be lost. Satisifed that the watch told him there was at most a few minute distortion he put it away. "So tell me Sage, where did you get...",looking up he realized Sage was gone."...This car." he finished after a moment's pause. The car stopped dead in its tracks, as though to tell him it would carry him no further.Illusionist's eyes glowed as he examined the empty driver's seat, some sort of magic was clearly at work here, though he didn't know whether Sage had truly vanished or if he was only invisible. Either way he decided not to press the issue, most mages werent was powerful as they made themselves appear(himself inlcluded). If he tried to pick appart Sage's trick, the Vrakht might get upset. Instead he stole a strand of ambient magic, floating in the driver's seat. Whatever Sage had done he could examine more closely later.

"Hey, wasn't there a, um... something... behind the wheel when we got here?", asked a surprised Snaeer."Yeah that would be Sage", replied Illusionist as he stepped out of the Lambourghini."He seems a nice enough guy, but hes as mad as a hatter."Illusionist raised his hand over his head and the image of a green top hat appeared in it."I'm Illusionist by the way, nice to meet you." He put the hat on his hood and looked around, then he noticed the Priest."Well...that probably isn't good."

Illusionist rolled back the window and stuck his head out."Don't worry Azuria, I'll be extra careful.", he said with the grin on his face hidden by his mask. The sound of her voice had snapped him out of the haze he was in. Something about the idea of Rotten Luck being torn between two realities made the whole affair seem less serious then it actually was. A part of his brain told that things were getting sillier, and that meant bad things couldn't happen. Besides his brain told him, Azuria would never send him anywhere he could get hurt. And then there was the card.

Illusionist put one hand in his pocket and played with the card. It was a Pocket D VIP pass, he had won it at a special promotion event. On its own the card probably couldn't get him out of the Netherworld. Unconsiously he began tearing at its magic. If he boost its power, and he knew that he could, the card would take him back to Pocket D. It would take him back to civilization, to a room full of amazing people who could probably kill anything that followed him, and who could bring him back from the dead 10 different ways.

"You guys have great imaginations.Specially you. I like you." said Sage. Illusionist hadn't even noticed that Sage slid into the care."I like you too Sage." replied Illusionist. As the car speed of into the portal, Illusionist really hoped he wouldn't have to use the card.

Illusionist stared at the car. He could steal speed and endurance from his foes and run forever. He could make himslelf as light as a feather and leap tall buildings in a single bound. He had a photo ID card which could tear a hole in space. He had a watch that could tear a hole in time. He still found the pitch black sportscar that stood in front of him very impressive, and more then a little intimidating. It was the lizard man that had brought him to this meeting. He had seen him dragged in chains by an armed gaurd and had followed him out of curiosity. He had assumed the lizard was simply a prisoner, a small time conjurer. With growing horror he realized he was wrong. Whomever this man was, he was powerful.

Illusionist tried to move towards the vehicle. He realized he had forgotten to let go of the zombie's hand and promptly did so. Looking at the paper he was holding in his other hand he noticed it had magically changed to reflect the current party. His own name was on there, as was what little MAGI knew of him and his history. The lizard man was Sage, he was a Vrakht. He had also stolen from the MAGI vault, an impressive feat for any being.

Illusionist walked to the car and put his hand on the backseat doorhandle. The Lamborghini glowed for a second. Its motor now sounded a bit different, it's roar had a slightly higher pitch."This should make it go faster", he murmered. This day was quickly taking on a certain dream like quality."Lot of tar traps in the Netherworld,if you get caught in one you might drown." He got into the car and fastened his seat belt.Windowseat, in the back, side opposite the driver. For a moment, Illusionsit wondered what he was getting himself into.

Illusionist pulled his eyes away from the unholy gate and shuddered. He had traced its contour with his eyes but his mind rejected what he saw. It was taller then the room it stood in, yet it did not reach the ceiling. When he had looked at it, the walls around him had seemed to stretch. It had been as if he was a tiny thing, looking at the gate from below it. No matter from what angle he examined it, the gate showed him that same trick of perspective, and that made his head hurt. Students of the mystic arts are often told that the more powerful of their magics hint at the true strangeness of the world around them. One cannot truly appreciate this fact until one has seen a gate stretching into some strange 5th dimension and tried to interpret it as a thing of only 4 dimensions.

It was as these thoughts whirled around in his head that Illusionist saw the zombie."Nice to meet you.", he said as he grabbed the zombie's hand and shook it,"I'm Illusionist,agent of MAGI.As you can see we've got a portal into the Netherworld here."He waved his paper holding hand in the general direction of the ornate gate as his zombie holding hand absorbed a small amount of negative energy."The short of it is that some people got themselves trapped in this hellish other dimension and we're going to go rescue them. You in?"

Illusionist shook the MAGI official's hand."I'm the Illusionist", he said."I hope you'l understand if I don't reveal my true name,such things have power and you never know who might be listening."He raised his documentation holding hand and waved it over his head. The papers seemed to vanish into thin air."I major in illusions and I minor in reality warping."He paused for a moment and looked at Azuria."My files should be in the MAGI database."He held out his hand and the papers suddenly became visible. "I'm sure they have records on all present here somewhere.You'l find them misleading I'm sure.",he said as he entered the room,"Where we'r going the line between illusions and reality is quite blurred."