Circuit looked around the room. He knew the other guy must be here. This was where they were ment to meet. Unless it was a trap. But why do a setup? After all, wern't they all on the same side? He knew well why the place was chosen, agreed by both of them. An old derilict flat, which would probably be demolished soon. It was the least likley place to be caught. He took a bold step forward, this had helped with a few of the others he has spoken and got to know well. After all, it could be taken as many things, a bold move, a sign of honesty. This time he was proved yet again that this was a wise thing to do.
	"I can see you. You sure nobody came with you?" A voice said, from somewhere nearby. 
	Looking around, all Circuit saw was darkness. "Who the hell would I talk to? I've nobodty I can talk to anymore!" Then he relised what was ment. "No, nobody folowed me. I made sure."
	From somewhere just outside the room came soft thudding. A shadow came from one of the doors, and joined the hacker. Entering the lighted part of the room, he was holding a chair and a collapsable table. Putting down the chair and table, he sat down. He didn't seem to be too large, indeed Circuit was taller then him, but he was built. Though the old rotting floors probably had more to do with the noise then anything else.
	He spoke. "You know, I much prefur solid earth, but I guess it was sensable to choose this place. I hear you have a list of individuals. May I have a copy?" He asked plainly.
	Circiut didn't hold anything back. This was, after all, what the guy probably wanted. He got his notebook out and a floppy disk. Looking up, he saw the Dalmatian set up the table. Odd, he thought, the light made him seem slightly pale, as if he was a specture. He looked at his own hands. They too looked different. Looking at the window, he saw it was tinted darker. That was the reason, he mused.
	The Dog had finished setting the table. He put the seat next to it, and gestured for Circuit to sit, as if the Dog was a butler. Circuit took the seat, and set up. After copying the disk, he handed it over.
	"Much appreciated. Now, I'm thinking your not doing this for no real reason. After all, what do you get out of this?" He asked.
	What indeed. "I don't, really. I'm as wanted as you. That list hasn't got my name on it, I'm under the 'potential compramise' lists I guess. Didn't know what it was untill too late. I'm more wanted then you. Heh, we are like brothers in that sence, and I don't want to go out withought doing damage." This was true. He had hacked the wrong place, and was a wanted guy. In fact, if he hadn't run the second he noticed this, he would probably already be dead.
	The Dog looked puzzled. "You know how much they want me? Did you go looking through my files?" He asked.
	"No." Came the reply. "You should know what these guys are like, if I'm a compramise, I guess I'm one of a very few. After all, how much could you have been involved in them?" He retorted. Ths guy was different to many that he had dealt with before. Other ones were generally mad, hounded, or just nasty. Once Circuit had to use all his talking skills to avoid being strung up. But this guy was different. He was talking, and seeming to be going somewhere. But where? What else could this guy be after? He knws what they want him for, he now knows others like himk. What else could there be?
	The Dog looked thoughtful for a second. Looking up, he responded absently. "I wish I knew what I did. I need to know. So far I know precious little, like my name. You, my frend are going to help. Do you have a copy of my profile by any chance?" He waited for the shake of the head and the 'why the hell should I' look, before continuing. "Thats a pity. Your going to get it for me, now arn't you?" He said simply.
	"Y... You can't be serious?!? They will track me down immediatly! Besides, there is no connection here, is ther..." He stopped short when the dog pointed to a phone port. He relised it now. He was set up. No way out. Nobody else had asked him this, but by the look in the eyes of the dog, he had little choice. Well, he thought, at least I've done what I wanted. The lists are distributed. It was gonna happen some time anyway. Might as be now. Panic subsiding, he spoke through lips that were slow to respond. "Ok, I'll do it. But not alone."
	The dog sniffed in almost comtempt. "Where the hell am I going?!? I need the bio, and there is nothing that is gonna stop me getting it, you hear? They expect a Hacker alone to do this, they, more exact, expect you. You don't look physically up to that much of a fight," Which was true of the slender build of Circiut, "so they won't really send that many. I'll deal with them." With that, he went back out the door, with a slight thud as he put each paw down. Then the thudding stopped.
	Cirucit was alone now.
	Breathing deeply, he plugged the notepad to the phone plug, and worked his digital magic...

	Half an hour later, he checked his own bio. Looking at the summary, it said "cleanup squad sent". They had him, he thought. Well, he might as well tell his hidden frend, providing he hadn't left him in the lurch. "Hey, Ash, they are coming." Silence met his warning. He went back to the bio lists, and selected the Dalmatians. Looking over it, he checked the most recent date. it was only three days ago. All was stated was 'sighted'. He copied the whole thing to the second spare floppy disk, and for asdded measure, as well as later amusement, he copied it to the notebook. Feeling slightly more composed now that he hadn't heard anything for a while, he copied his own, and as many as he thought nessasary. He started on them all.

	Three Quarters of an hour, at 1 am, he heared a car approach the quiet building. He ignored it. By now, he mused, its over anyway. He took out the disk, and put it on the floor, under the table. Gald that he only really bothered with black disks, he was sutably pleased with the way it blended with the darkness. 
	He heared the door poen at the first floor. Circuit was at the third, so it would take a while to reach him. "Might as well save some administration." He muttered, and got back to his own bio, and added 'terminated' to the summary.
	The door opened briskly. Three men, dressed in black, with white shirts, entered. They all wore sunglasses that only suited one of them. Odly enough, there wasn't that much hight difference between them, only about 2 inches at most. they were of average hight. The middle one looked around quickly, before resting his head, and persumably his eyes, on Circuit. "We have been looking for you, Mr. Nesmith. You have been quite an individual. But I must admit the likes of you are a back mark on this planet." 
	Circuit came back almost immediatly. "Funny, really, I'm wareing normal cloths. Your the ones wareing black." He almost spat at them.
	The eyebrow raised above the level of the glasses of the middle man. He was probably the leader, Circuit mused. "It looks as if our Mr. Nesmith is a Joker. I hate Jokers. Please, Agent Board, terminate this scum."
	The Agent on Circuits right put his hand in his coat, and it came out with a gun, of a slightly odd design, unlike what Circuit had seen before. He held it up, pointing to Circuits general direction, and he aimed. Pulling back the safty catch, there was a loudly audiable click from the weapon.
	From somwhere distant came a subdued, almost unnoticable click, sounding like metal tapping wood. At first nobody did anything, but a fraction of a second later, seeming like an erternity to the presumed doomed Circuit, the Agent with the gun gave a gasp of pain, as something passed through his midsection, and contiued to to fly, embedding itself in the wall.
	It was a crossbow Bolt.
	The agent immeditaly dropped his gun, and clutched his midsection, now starting the process of being coated with blood, before collapsing to the floor at the knees with a thud that could be felt through the seemibly fragile floor. A pool of what looked black, but was probably crimsion liquid grew around him in the dark reaches that was the floor.
	The other two preformed actions that were probably drilled into them, turning while pulling their guns at almost the same pace, before firing, and jumping, one left, one right.getting up as they hit the deck, the leader having to jump over their non-moving comrade, they were greeted with nothing. Or what was at first thought as nothing. On the floor was the source of the bolt, a modified Crossbow. 
	The leader went up to it, covered by the second one. "Repeater Crossbow. Not many use that, and those that do are good. Keep a lookout." He muttered to the second Agent, before looking back to Circuit.
	Circuit was rooted to where he sat, compleatly immobile with shock. He hadn't expected this to happen, as far as he was concerned, he had been abandoned. Now it looked like this wasn't the situation. In any case, he couldn't move a muscle.
	The leading Agent decided that there were more pressing matters then an unarmed hacker. Crouching down to pick up the crossbow, he leaned against the flimsy wall. This building is a death trap in more ways then one, he thought, as he avoided falling through the wall, which was as thin as paper now. He checked for fingerprints. He got them. From what he could tell, they wern't human, so that eliminated half of the suspects. Only five to choose, this was getting more dangerous. Moving was the key to success. He modioned the other Agent to fan out. He took one wall, the Agent took the wall behind him.
	Agent Board moaned sofly with pain. It was the only sound in the building, apart from Circuits stressed breathing.
	Looking down the passageway from the door, the Leader saw nothing. Nobody there, and only one door open. He motioned the other Agent to follow him to the door, before focusing his attention to the one way out.
	The Second agent took a careful step, only making a slight noise as his foot touched the floor.
	It was the last sound he heard that was quiet. Two arms smashed through the thin walls, and grabbed him, one on the head, on at the base of the neck, He Grabbed at the one on the neck, as he was pulled into the wall, which put up little resistance.
	The leading Agent spun around, as the second Agent was dragged out of sight into the newly forming holl in the wall. He saw the agent grab at the arm holding the neck. He saw the agent drop his gun in the process, and he knew he couldn't fire, unless he hit his own team. As the second agents legs were dissapearing through the hole, he started to sprint the twelve feet to his comrade.
	He didn't make in time. There was a sickening crack that almost stoped the Leading Agent in his tracks. He knew what the loud crack was before he got to the hole. There, slumped in the corridor beyond the hole, was the lifeless body of the second Agent.
	Circuit felt like he was going to be sick. He still didn't have any control of himself, this was way beyond what he thought would happen. He knew he would have nightmares of this immediatly, but he wouldn't stop watching.
	Agent Board made another pitious moan, barly audiable. He even managed to move a bit, before stopping.
	The leading agent knew he was in a tricky position. So far the assaliant had discarded his firearms, or rather, a firearm, so could be possibably consiered unarmed. That theory was backed up by his second kill. He had an idea.
	"Your going to stay hidden? Come out and fight like a man fights!" He said loudly, to the walls. 
	At first there was silence. Then a figure appeared, walking slowly, with a definate thud of each step. He stopped at the door, holding what appeared to be a small yellow object. He stood there, looking straight at the Agent.
	"Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing here?" The agent spat out, holding his gun aim squarly at the Dogs head.
	"You don't know?" Came back the dog. "Well, I'll be damned, thats a first! Oh, riiiight, your after him." He observed, jutting a thumb at Circuit.
	The Agent didn't look anywhere except at the dog. He didn't aim anywhere except at the dog. To him, only the dog mattered. "I said, who the hell are you?" He repeated. "I order you to tell me!"
	The dog raised his eyebrows. "You order me? Fine, if thats what you think you can do. I'm Ash." He waited for a rection that never came. Either the Agent didn't know any more, or else he was not listening. "As for what I'm doing. Lets see. There is that guy over there" Agent Board was no longer moving, but he was still breathing. "... And him in the wall. My guess would be I'm killing you. Why do you ask stupid question?" He twiddeled with the yellow object.
	"Stop what your doing with that thing" The Leading agent ordered. "tell me what the hell that is or your biting my PK Defenders spit." He moved hias gun ever so slightly, emphasisting the gun.
	Ash looked at the object, then the Agent. "Oh, this? Its Sulphur. A simple crystal. Pure element. Did you know that there are those who call it the brine stone? Stone of fire. It apparantly has elemental properties. But you know that, don't you?" He sounded almost bitter for a second, but it was gone.
	"Magic." The Agent muttered. "Put it on the floor. Now!" He shouted, almost yelling.
	Ash bent down slightly, moving his paw which held the stone towards the floor. As he was about to put it down, he raised his paw.
	What happened then both stunned and shocked Circuit. He couldn';t beleave his eyes. There was a considerable difference in seeing other people beleve, in one way or another, this stuff is possibal, and actually seeing it happen. From Ash's Paw came a small ball of flaming air, which shot towards the Agent. The Agent, out of pure reflex, emptied his gun into the fire ball, before dodging it, leavin g it to hit the wall, and singe the said wall.
	Ash wsn't done. As soon as he had cast the fireball, he had started running towards the agent, each pawfall creating a loud thud on the old wooden floor as the ghostly white dog sprinted. The agent looked back too late. He hit the floor with a crushed windpipe. Struggeling to breath for a few seconds, he controted and threw himself around, before coming weaker, finally stopping after a few feeble twiches, still clasping at his own neck.
	Agent Board groaned again. By now there was a considerable amount of blood on the floor around him, which was slowly, but surely, approaching the table and chair where circuit sat.
	Ash went up to the hacker, and looked at him, still fighting to come out of shock. "You'll get use to it." He muttered, before looking at the notebook. "Well?" He asked. "Did you get the download done?"
	Circuit tore his eyes from what had just happened. "Y...y... yes... yeah, I got it. Hid it on the..." Looking down, he picked up the disk as the pool of blood crept closer, now only five inches away from where the disk was. "...Hid it there. Here, enjoy the read." He handed the diak over. "You relise that they are gonna think I did this, don't you?" He took a passing look at the three victems, two dead, one badly injured, and grimiced.
	Ash went closer. "You, know, I could frame your 'death'. There is another reason I chose here. This place was origenally called the 'lakeside hotel'. There is a lake, a deep one, outside the window. You getting what I mean? I'll put your notebook in your car outside. Trust me, it is safe."
	Circuit looked at Ash blankly. "What?" He asked, not knowing where this was going.
	Allow me to show." Ash said, as he approached the window, closly followed by Circuit. "See down there?" He asked loudly so that Agent Board could hear clearly through his pain. 
	"Yeah..."  Circuit came back slowly, wondering where this was going.
	"Well, thats three floors down." Ash said, still taking loudly. "See for yourself...." Ash Then proceeded to grab Circuit by the legs, and as Circuit screamed, he threw him out the window. There was a short near blood curdeling (In Agent Boards case literally) scream, then a subdued spash noise as Circuit saflely hit the water. Ash went over to Agent Board, and whispered into his ear. "Might as well let you get away, eh? I guess your backup will be coming shortly. Gald I got rid of that hacker myself." He put the Agent into a recovery position, left him to get the notebook, and left the building.

	Circuit was pissed. The only thing that made him feel better was the fact that he was officially 'dead'. Even the cold water couldn't take that away as he swam towards the shore where his care was, which now had a notebook on the bonnet.