Editing Toyhammer (section)

=Chapter 27=

"So what have we learned today?" I grinned triumphantly, looking at the four cones of densely packed snow in front of me. With a belly full of laughter, I started scraping the top off one, revealing the head of Chastity Walker. "Hmm?"

I backed away quickly at the grin that she was giving me. Some things were scary, but Chastity Walker's 'Chas Grin #2 variant A' was just downright creepy. With teeth showing and the corners of her mouth spread as far wide as possible, her eyes were all but shut from the shifting muscles on her face.

A colder, calculating part of me informed me that it was probably something to get a reaction from me.

Well, she got one, since I backed off quickly.

One pile of snow – the one to the right - spoke up. "Never mess with Zara." It mumbled.

Stopping short, I eyeballed the conical formation of snow, which had exactly one kid inside by the name of Fred. Walking over to it, I brushed the top of the cone away, to reveal his mop of ginger-red hair. Zara had done a good job, with the kids trapped quite firmly in their cones of snow, unable to move without at the very least earning divine retribution in the form of Emma's bucket of snow if they tried to make a run for it.

Anyway, back to rebuilding my dignity. "Or me." I admonished.

This time, another voice entered the conversation; this time, behind me. "Nah. Just me." Chuckled the

"Ha ha ha." I invoked 'deadpan laughter' as I turned around to face the owner of the voice. "Very funny, Zara."

She grinned, and looked at the four children, snowball in hand.

"Hey, you guys gotta admit: I was pretty cool, huh?"

Four heads eagerly nodded as the ribbing continued; "And Michael looked pretty stupid, falling for such a simple trap, didn't he?"

More nods. I growled in mock anger, and scooped up some snow, before hiffing it at Zara. It caught her in the chest, and she laughed as she hurled some more back. It connected with my face as I was trying to chuck a second, better made snowball at Zara, so instead of flying in a graceful arc it was more a 'slap into Emma's face' kind of snowball attack. She squealed, half in amusement and the other half in shock at the sudden cold, and retaliated.

Which was when Zheng and the others burst out of their cones, and started hurling the snow that before had been their prison, splashing the chunky powder over our faces and chest.

Chaos ensued.

Leaving Emma to play with the Fearsome Four, Zara and I clambered up the two steps that separated the driveway to the front door of my house. Setting down, I did a quick pick-through the bags of shopping; the first was filled with Emma's new clothes, while the second had Zara's. I reddened slightly at the thought of her wearing some of the more... memorable ones that I glimpsed. The rest was a combination of food and cleaning supplies, and other things that we had picked up during the day. Placing the bags of clothes at the bottom of the stairs, we set them there for packing away later while we went back to the kitchen to focus on the food.

I grabbed a bag full of the freezer-bound stuff, and packed the tub of ice cream, the frozen packets of fries and other ice-cold boxed foodstuffs into the freezer. The work was best described as mind-numbing, and I found my mind wandering as I slipped the packets of food into the fridge. Thoughts drifting, I slowly – almost lazily – continued about this chore, picking up food and planting them for later use.

"Hey, Michael." Murmured Zara as she approached. "You alright?"

Ring. Ring?

"Yeah... yeah, just fine..." I muttered. "Just fine..."

Turning back to my work, I shelved the butter. However, before I could pick up the next brick of butter, I was stopped by Zara, who turned me around with a gentle push to my shoulder. She had lines of worry across her face, her features twisted into a frown of concern.

"Mickey, you've been staring at that same packet of butter for the last four minutes."
I frowned a little as I realized what had been happening. "I... I see... I'm alright, Zara, I'm alright."

"Got all depressed you got your ass chilled by a bunch of ten year old kids?" She grinned as she inched a little closer. I couldn't help but smile myself as I looked outside. Across the street, Emma dashed across the road and tumbled into the front lawn. She was chased closely by the four terrors.

"... yeah. Sure."

A snowball splashed off the window with a wet crunch, followed by laughter as Fred mocked Valentine's throwing ability. There was a second crunch, followed by a groan of pain as Chastity reminded the boys why she was the girls baseball team's pitcher.

I grimaced in sympathetic pain. That was a low blow, Chastity.

Distracting me from the events outside were Zara's arms wrapping around my neck.

"So... how can I cheer you up?" Zara teased, pressing herself close. I felt the heat of her body pressed against mine, the tightness of her muscles as she pulled my head towards her, to the point where I could feel her heartbeat as she whispered into my ear. "Wanna go somewhere, maybe?"

"Nah... I'm just fine."

Standing up, I checked to see if all the foodstuffs were done and packed away.

A chill pricked my spine, and I jumped slightly as the snow sandwiched between my clothes and my skin prickled my nerves.

"I'm going to get changed." I declared, stomping to shake the snow back down to somewhere where it could melt more comfortably. Zara joined me, her face curious.

"So, someone give you a hard time?" She asked me.

"No. Nobody was calling me anything..." I called out, as I walked through to the living room. Opening up the DVD cupboard, I picked through a half dozen disks. Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Chris Nolan, Spielberg...

They were all there. I put them back, still thinking.

"Didn't find something you wanted?" Zara chirped, hovering at my shoulder.

"Surprisingly, no." I answered. "I found everything I needed."

Bookshelf. All of my aunt's bits and bobs. Little vases, a plastic bonsai, china dolls...

"Got something stuck in your foot? You gonna go all Godzilla on us?"

"Godzilla didn't have anything stuck in his foot, though."

My computer room... I trawled through the disks. Soulstorm, Dawn of War II. Still there.

"... you sure?" Zara queried, still following me around the house. She was worried for me.

I frowned. "I'm sure."

We climbed the stairs in silence as I pushed the door open, revealing my room. It was like always, unchanged from last night. I changed out of my jacket and shirt, picking out a long sleeved shirt and a woolen sweater to go on top. Zara peered at me, cocking her head to the side.

"Hey, Michael? Can you tell me your problem?"

"Yeah." I agreed, rolling slightly to get Zara off my lap. She looked at me intently, her eyes focused on my lips. Then my nose, and then my ears. I followed her gaze, and then sighed.

"You aren't Zara, are you?"

Zara smiled, and slowly shook her head as she blinked. It was despair in her voice as she looked at me, and that same despair marred her voice as she spoke.

"No. I'm not."

I sighed, and grabbed the alarm clock beside my bed. The person in front of me frowned as she followed my hand.

"This was shot up a week ago. Railgun nailed it in that battle we had."

The Rose nodded, smiling a little. "Sharp. So that was your first clue?"

"Actually, the first clue was that someone was sleeping with me." I deadpanned. "As active as my libido is, I have my dreams under control now with that recent daemon thing, so yeah. First clue."

"Second?"

"My DVDs. They were burned, especially my Jackie Chan stuff."

"A pity that happened." She murmured, looking a little sad and disappointed as she worked her way through the shelf; my memories were faithfully replicated, and I could see that her fingers were tracing over the titles that I had in there. "I don't suppose that you could pretend to not have noticed this dreamworld? Perhaps at least until we've watched one of these 'Jackie Chan' movies? They seemed... interesting. Unique, even."

I laughed, bitter and somehow also amused at what she was offering me. What the hell was she thinking? "Tempting, but no."

Ah. Of course. Always searching for new sensations, new forms of entertainment. An action-comedy flick would have been a novel experience for a Slaaneshi cultist.

"But you stayed. We are still talking... you desire this place, don't you? A perfect world, where your family and friends are all happy, safe and content. A mate, a good home... what more is there to desire?"

"I know, huh?" I laughed. "You really had me going there. I could say that I was truly tempted to stay. But no. These aren't my friends. You aren't Zara, pretender. Neither is Emma just a little girl."

"I would have thought you would not have cared. This is Paradise, Michael. And we can still live on in paradise, so long as you wish to stay in this place." The young woman in front of me shuffled forward, rejoining me on the bed as I looked up at her. There had been changes now. Her hair was tinged a little more purple, and her eyes were starting to darken to red. This thing reached out, and touched my head in her hands. I slapped that hand away, and started shuffling backwards.

"You know, if this were the internet, I would be calling you a trollfag bitch, Rose. This isn't paradise. This is an illusion. Pretty good one, admittedly, but... not quite there. Zara is still out there, Vincent and Batel and Alice and Miles an' Vasili and Tomas and everyone else is waiting for me."

"How do you know that, may I ask?" She purred. "How do you know that they're not satisfied with the worlds that I have given them, and just released themselves to the bliss of perfection?"

"Cheesy as it sounds..." I thumped my fist against my chest, where my heart was. "I can feel it."

A small, bitter laugh escaped the Rose's lips. She sighed, and nodded her head. "For a psyker, that isn't cheesy. Your powers truly are scary when in the mindscape, Michael."

"I'm sorry." Murmured the Rose, her voice a soft purr. "I really am. We could have had so much fun, you and I. Done so many things, tasted so many pleasures..." She smiled sadly, and let out a soft sigh that echoed around the room. Things... changed. The shadow cast by the barren trees outside stilled.

The alarm clock stopped. Everything looked as if someone had just taken their foot off the time pedal.

Her power was gathering, the air heating up and filling with the scent of roses. I felt myself starting to feel irritated, my allergies were starting to itch at my nose. Jumping backwards, I rolled off the bed and went for the window. The room was getting hotter and hotter, the musk of sweat and roses was starting to grow strong in my nose. I put a hand on the windowsill, working at the clasp behind my back as I faced the Rose.

"You know, you really know how to annoy people, don't you?" I sighed. Touching the wall behind me, I sent a surge of power through it; a spike burst out, shooting across the room as the wall groaned. The hollow needle of brick-red material plunged into the wall opposite. Even as that was happening, I threw open the window, and hurled myself out.

- The Back Yard, Belmont Street -

The landing was far from soft; it was like falling onto a bed, then having the bed hit you back with a wet crunch. My neck snapped back, and I felt a jolt of pain as I bounced up from the impact. I rolled to the side immediately, which allowed the Rose – still in Zara's shape - to hit the ground knees-first into compacted snow. With a hiss, I stumbled back. Time to see if Zara's training was any good. I clapped my hands together, feeling power surge and cycle through the connection there, and then slammed them into the ground.

"Spikes!"

Words were powerful things; recently taught to me was the idea that, when integrated into my abilities and with my will solidifying around each syllable, the intensity of each command would increase exponentially. Unlike the wordless commands that I normally used, these ones were more generic, but much more powerful.

Also, their effects were painfully obvious.

Spikes appeared as I spoke my incantation, bursting from beneath the snow; brick red and needle-sharp, the pointed cones resembled the ends of the pencils I sketched with, and so were familiar shapes.

They gave me a brief respite as the Rose halted her headlong assault. She was, quite frankly, far too good for me to beat with such simple attacks. Using those damned rose-petals of hers, she sliced through them like a chainsaw through tree branches. I backed away, doing my best to run backwards as I called up more spikes to appear from any surface that I could touch, cutting off any pursuit as I burst out into the driveway. Again, I clapped my hands and slapped the wall of my house, just on the other side of the fireplace inside.

"Mash!"

A maw appeared, two flat blocks that formed above and below the Rose as she sliced her way through the spikes, and then snapped together in an impact that broke the two plates. Still, it wasn't very effective; the Rose stood up from the rubble of Masher's components, and smiled. I turned away and started running again.

"Creative. Very creative. I must say, you really made a big mistake there. You shouldn't call your att-"

"Bricks!"

Rectangular building things dropped down from the sky, cratering the ground as I kept on creating the torrent of bricks in the air above us. A small and very crude pyramid was starting to form even as I turned tail and ran away, still thinking up more and more six-sided two pound bricks of varying dimensions.

They were – like the spikes – simple shapes, another thing that twisted my ability to construct things and simply wave my hand to create them out of thin air, and skewed it in my favor. I could make complicated things without needing the knowledge of their inner workings to do so, just their function, so logically simple things I could make at a much faster rate. Well, kind of. Since logic didn't quite work around here, I shouldn't really be bothering to explain all this to you.

And the Rose was laughing as her own artificial natural phenomenon – a hurricane of rose-petals – sliced through the bricks, turning them to dust as they collided with the barrier of whirling slivers of red.

"Tetris!" I cried out, and the hail of bricks grew more intense as the shapes of the bricks changed, with some shards actually making it through the shielding twister of rose petals now; it was satisfying to see the Rose actually having to struggle to keep the torrent of bricks from simply overwhelming her.

"Spikes!"

The Rose reacted immediately, jumping up and floating on a buffer of roses, her petals forming a shield to protect her from below... which was why she was swatted out of the sky because the torrent of bricks from above had never stopped. There was a startled squeal as brick upon brick pummeled her from above, burying her under an ever growing pile of rubble.

"Clever, Michael. Very clever indeed. You are fortunate that I don't want to hurt you!" Her voice rang out, even though she was getting buried under a pile of very noisy bricks. Huh, must have been a psyker thing.

Executing a quick and hurried about turn, I marched away, and snapped my fingers.

"House!"

I raised a house ahead of me. A literal one; it was four sided, with a four sided pyramid roof and a door out front; it simply burst up from the ground, a giant house made of bricks, right in the middle of the snowy street that I was standing on. I dashed up the two steps that lead to its only entrance, and opened the door as the Rose burst out of the pile of bricks that I had spawned on top of her.

Anyway, the house wasn't there for me to simply hide in. There was a second trick to it; that it was essentially a giant hand grenade.

All the brickwork exploded outwards as the two-dozen barrels of explosives that had been constructed inside of the house were detonated, turning walls into shrapnel the size of my foot.

Needless to say, the Rose probably survived that one. But the thing was that when the dust cleared and all the bricks had finally settled, I wasn't there.

- ? part 1 -

I scratched the back of my head, wondering where this new place was. White, smooth walls all around me. Curved, no sharp corners... hmm.

Familiar.

It was quiet, very quiet.

But not too quiet.

If it had been too quiet, I would have been worried.

The hum and bustle of a city was coming into my ears from a distant source, muted by the many obstacles between them and myself. Was I inside something? The hallway that I was in was huge. Easily a four-lane highway in width, and tall enough to accommodate a telephone pole and more.

The walls themselves were covered in etchings, flowing patterns dotted by oval jewels, all a variety of colors that took my breath way. No eagles, no skulls, no gothic-church-themes and definitely no automated turrets. Obviously not Imperial, then. I went over the known aliens to me. Tau architecture wasn't this fluid. They were rounded, sure, but they weren't this decorative or quite so dynamic. Everything about the Fire-Caste Tau's architecture was all about being functional, as far as I knew, and none of it had jewelery like this. This was all decorative, from what I could tell.

One last thing to confirm, then. I reached out, touching the smooth walls. I whistled, ever so slightly, infusing the sound with a little of my power. It was a simple enough thing to do, and hopefully it would w-

Whoa.

The pale wall became liquid, and I sunk my hand into it. Cold. Very cold, and yet comfortable. I briefly wished to linger in the curiously tender blend of coldness and pressure, but I knew that I had no time for that. I shook my head, and hissed as I forced myself to counteract the suction. Pulling my arm out, I found my hand coated in the rapidly growing liquid. Focusing it as I continued to whistle to , I soon had an elegant, curved knife in my hands.

Yeah. Definitely Eldar.

I pushed the knife back into the wraithbone, and the two constructs joined together, back into a flat, smooth wall.

Closing my eyes, I began to wonder. What could I do... what could I do?

Something to find people with, obviously. Shouting out would only attract the wrong kind of attention that I wasn't really looking forward to getting. Needed something a little more subtle. Auspex? I knew of them, but I hadn't seen on before, nor in action, so that was a bust.

Room by room, then.

I walked up to the first 'door', an ornate portal that was wide enough for me to fit my car through. I touched the central jewel, the stone lighting up as a line shot up and to either side. The door opened, splitting into three segments that slid silently away from each other. I stepped through, cautious as I checked the room before me.

- ? part 2 -

It was a medical facility. It had the look of one, with white being the dominant color, while red served to decorate and inform, with wedge shapes and text in the Eldar tongue pointing off in different directions. Many clean beds were arranged into two rows on either side of the room. Monitors and machinery rigged all around each bed, I saw that they were all empty. Moving into the clean space, I sniffed the air. It had the sterile smell of disinfectants and things that were very good at killing things down to the bacterial level, and the faint scent of soap and water.

The Eldar had their own ways of healing. Too many things were wrong in here, once I started thinking of the scene before me.

Too many things were human.

I licked my lips and moved in, dipping my hands into and then scooping up a freshly formed wraithbone sword off the floor. Searching the room, I found what I was looking for: Off in a side room was the sole inhabitant of this place. She was Zara the Healer, if I remembered right, draped in a soft white robe with red triangles decorating the edges of her clothes. Just like back in the Mind War, her blond hair was cropped short, as opposed to the long, dark-haired Zara the Farseer. This particular Zara was folding bandages, rolling the strips of white cloth with practiced ease as she sung softly to herself.

And only herself.

She was alone in this place, and if I understood the mindset of Zara-the-Healer, then I guessed that it would stay that way. In her perfect world, there would be no need for her. Nobody would be sick, nobody was injured nor wounded. Everyone was healthy, alive and happy. She was... content... with that.

A perfect world...

Goddamn, how I hated that concept right now.

Her singing drifted through the hallways now as I opened the door to the little room. Zara the Healer's voice was light and airy, lofty in the high ideals of optimism as she sang out her aria, her hands blindly but deftly rolling the white cloth into a tightly wound cylinder.

All that stopped as the door swung in and hit the table.

I don't think I've ever felt so guilty about snapping someone out of a false-world before...

"Hi." I squeaked.

"Hello." She returned, her expression as surprised as my own.

Zara the Healer stood, her gaze fixated to my face. She continued on as she approached. "Uhm... are you hurt?"

"N-no, I'm okay... I'm fine, really!" Somewhere in my mind, I realized that I was blabbering as I backed away from her, the concerned expression on her face was something that made me feel as if this wasn't the Zara that I knew. This one was more maternal, much more caring... huh. Why did I know that? How was another question... I supposed this was the maternal aspect of the Farseer of Ulthwe, but there wasn't really anything... oh boy.

Undeterred by my dismissal of her concern, and maybe perhaps even encouraged by it, Zara the Healer advanced upon me as I fell back. Her hands seized my wrist, and turned them palm up.

"You've been fighting." She stated. The woman didn't ask, but simply told me that fact. Which was, you know, true, but... "But you're not a warrior, are you? A psyker?"

I nodded. "Y-yeah..."

"Scratches on your palm, wrists and arms. Coarse materials. Just where did you come from? Nothing here is coarse... organic materials?"

"Primitive." I sighed. "Relatively speaking."

"Clarify."

"Bricks."

"Bricks?"

I let go of the sword. Nodding, I demonstrated; in my palm I created a brick, which she picked up, felt and caressed. She placed it down on the table, then continued her inspection. Her eyes went up to my face, before slowly scanning down. "Neck strained. Fallen off something? Sudden impact. Jarring, perhaps?"

"Are you going to catalog every injury I've had?" I asked her.

"No, just make sure that you know what you're doing to yourself." She pulled my shirt aside, exposing my left shoulder. "Thought so. Favoring of left arm. Collarbone seems fine... ah, there. Knife wound." Healer Zara concluded. "Old, no concerns. Might make for a good bedtime story one day."

Ah, right. Batel's knife wound... wait, that was here? What was that doing on my shoulder? I shook my head, still confused. Need to get Vasili or someone to explain this later. That hadn't been there a while ago...

That daemon knife hurt. I could still hear it screaming...

Shying away from the woman in front of me, I grit my teeth as the flashing of the silvery blade cut across my vision. Nightmares danced across and around my ethereal self as I backed up into the door.

"Trauma." She observed, cutting through my secondary dreams. "Psychological. Daemons?"

I nodded, closing my eyes as the screaming faces returned. They were there again, at the edge of my consciousness. Clawing, screeching. Daemons circled around me, reaching out. Grabbing me, they were closing in, around my neck. Hands, fingers, nails. Barbed, serrated. Closing in. Closing in...

A shake of my shoulder. My right, so that didn't hurt as much as it should have.

Zara the Healer looked up at me sadly.

"It will heal with time. Hopefully. Find distractions, purpose yourself towards something."

"I... I see."

The healer nodded, quietly to herself. "Now you must leave?"

I nodded.

"Yeah."

"I'll be fine here..." Zara smiled. She stepped back, and picked up the bandage again. "I will wait. You know where to find me."

"No." I shook my head, picking up the sword from where it had fallen. "You're coming with me. We're finding the rest of you."

"... understood."

A rush, a void of darkness.

Oh. Joy. Here we go again.

- ? part 3 -

Steam enveloped the room as I stepped out onto the wet rock floor. I coughed as the chilly corridors suddenly turned into a piping hot, humid environment that reminded me of a hot spring.

Wait.

Bamboo-esque fences. Open night sky. Oriental vegetation. Steaming pools of water.

It was a hot spring.

I had seen onsen before. Traditional for the Japanese out to the west, it seemed more replicated than anything original, keeping most of the same features; the pools were ringed with rocks, worn smooth from the erosion of water, but still rough enough to grip without fear of slipping. With the Japanese aesthetic here, I was again reminded of the humanity of the supposedly alien place, but I began to spot the differences, finding the Eldar influence in this place; the bamboo was replaced by wraithbone slats, while the plants were purple in color as they wavered in the artificial breeze. The traditional rendition of Mount Fuji was replaced by an Eldar spire of some sort.

Something odd for me, but probably natural for whichever Zara was sitting around in here.

Padding through the steamy air, I found my winter clothes too hot to wear, and stripped down to my undershirt as Zara the Healer ruffled her robes.

Wrapping the sweater around my neck, I searched the room and tried to see through the billowing steam.

"Come on. Stay quiet, though."

There was a sizzling sound, like something hot entering something cold. I was reminded of a burning log of wood being thrown into a pool or something. A sigh of content? Did I hear that right?

Hmm...

I stepped through the steam, and facepalmed at what I saw.

With a floating tray of drink, Zara the Avatar of Khaine dipped herself lower down into the waters, creating more sizzling as she enjoyed the steaming-hot pool. Her skin, apparently, was hotter than the waters themselves.

"Zara?"

Two voices answered to the affirmative, and I shook my head as I pointed at the relevant one.

"The Avatar Zara."

"YES?"

"What are you doing?"

"WAITING FOR YOU, MON-KEIGH."

"Me? Me specifically?"

"NO. JUST SOMEONE. ANYONE. I WAS GETTING BORED IN HERE BY MYSELF."Her booming voice declared, followed by an amused rumbling which I supposed was laughter. She picked up a white ceramic vessel, and poured herself a saucer of liquid – I figured that it was a wine or some other drink, because she sipped it carefully.

"COME JOIN ME." The Avatar of Zara chuckled, something which reminded me of a volcano about to explode. "THE WATER IS GREAT. NICE AND COLD."

"Uh... cold?"

The water was steaming. I crouched down at the edge of the pool, before dipping the tip of my finger into the waters. Yeah. Hot. I wondered how long it would take for me to boil an egg or something in the waters. Half an hour? Possible. Moving closer to inspect the murky waters.

"HEALER. KICK HIM IN."

Uh oh.

I wheeled around, and jumped back as Zara the Healer tried to sneak up on me. "No, wait a second!"

Zara the Avatar, all red rocky skin and yellow-hot lines in between, stood up. "WHAT IS IT?"

"We're here to get you out of the water, not get kicked into it!" My voice was tighter, squeaking now as I backed away from the edge of the pool.

"Oh?" Chuckled the Healer.

I nodded.

"You're in a dreamworld, right?"

A nod from the Avatar. "I HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN DREAMS, MON-KEIGH MICHAEL. WE ALWAYS HAVE, ONCE WE STARTED DOWN THE PATH OF THE FAR-SEER."

Holding up a hand, I stopped the woman. "Who made it?"

Zara the Avatar frowned, and thought about it for a moment.

The ceramic vessel shattered, and rage flowed out of the Avatar like volcano spewing out magma.

"WE."

She rose, the skin cooling into the familiar lines of the raiment of Khaine's will.

"ARE."

A sword of billowing fire appeared in her hands, the wrath of Khaine incarnate.

"LEAVING."

Standing up and out of the water, the Avatar of Khaine pulled back her fist, and then punched the wall. It shattered, revealing an inky void, filled with stars. She stepped forwards, and then indicated that I come along as well.

"NOW MOVE."

I followed, and jumped through, into the void.

Somehow, just somehow, I felt like this had been done before.

"What. The. Fuck." - Michael, just now.

==External Links==

* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5474237/1/40k_ToyHammer The fic itself.]
* [http://www.facebook.com/groups/168992756491353/341704295886864/?notif_t=group_activity The Facebook Fan Page.]



[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Stories]]