Fires burned in demolished buildings all around Boomtown as Jesseca made her way through the area. The extent of the destruction was massive, an entire city brought down to no more than a smoldering mess. Jesseca’s mind flashed with the memory of the alternate future Atlas Park that Azuria had shown her and she felt a sense of dread and new resolve take hold as she neared a large rock formation nestled snugly in the center of the city.

“This must be the place.” Jesseca said as she felt a tingling sensation wash over her body from the energy emanating from the formation. “Now, how to get in.” she thought as she began to walk around the structure.

Around the other side of the rocks Jesseca heard some men talking and crept closer to see what was going on. Two cloaked figures were standing outside a large stone door, guarding it from intruders.

“Bingo!” Jesseca thought as she readied herself for a fight by encasing her feet in stone and willing the Hands of Destruction to charge up up with a bright white light. Jesseca leapt out from behind the rocks and blasted at one of the cloaked men, the blast hit him square in the chest and sent him flying backward and smashing into a burnt out building some distance away.

“Wow! These things are awesome!” Jesseca thought as she relished the power now at her disposal. Her thoughts were cut short however as a strong blast of freezing wind hit her and pushed her back slightly. Ice began to form on her jumpsuit as the cold wind continued to blow at her. With chattering teeth Jessica fired another white energy blast at her second foe, the man leapt aside allowing the blast to pass by him harmlessly, but causing his attack to falter for a moment, giving Jesseca enough time to unsheathe the Sword of Banishment and slice the man’s head clean of his body.

Jesseca’s body shook uncontrollably as she looked at the decapitated corpse of her opponent, her face lost all color and she felt herself begin to vomit as the realization of what she’d just done set in. “This is for real.” she thought as she wiped her mouth and regained her composure. Taking a deep breath Jesseca blasted at the large stone door leaving the entrance to the structure open for her entry. Jesseca heard a low guttural roar moving rapidly toward her as she entered the dark of the structure, she didn’t even realize she’d been hit until she crashed into a building several blocks away.

“Can’t you fly any faster?” Sue shouted behind herself to Severe and Arson as they flew behind with Ataris and Knight in a psychic bubble of Severe’s design floating alongside.

“Can’t you be less of a bitch?” Arson shouted back.

“Sue, we all want to help Jesseca, but we’re going as fast as we can.” Severe said telepathically to Sue.

Sue sighed and thought an apology to Severe explaining that she was only trying to get to Jesseca before anything happened to her.

“I understand your concern Sue, but I’m sure Jesseca can handle anything that she comes up against as long as she has the items Azuria gave you.” Severe thought to her as the group neared the entrance to Boomtown.

“I hope you’re right.” Sue thought back.

Jesseca rose to her feet slowly, her sword had slipped from her hand when she slammed into the building, and something was flying toward her to try and finish her off as she searched for the divine blade.

“Out of time.” she thought as she dove out of the way of a large fireball that left a large crater in it’s wake behind her. Getting up off the ground again, Jesseca got her first look at her attacker, a large winged demon, complete with cloven hooves and large transparent wings.

“All right ugly, let’s dance!” she shouted as she blasted at the demon with her holy gauntlets. The blast struck the demon in the face and caused it to stagger back a few feet before shaking off the attack and roaring angrily at her. “That’s not good.” Jesseca thought with a gulp as another fireball was hurtled at her.

Jesseca braced for burning and pain, but felt nothing, she slowly let her arms fall from in front of her face and opened her eyes to see the large demon laying dead on the ground, a large axe buried in the top of it’s head.

“He wasn’t so tough.” Ataris said as he pulled his axe from the demon with a scoff at the fallen foe.

Jesseca saw that she was encased in a blue bubble of energy, she saw that Severe was focusing on her and figured she had the telepath to thank for the last minute rescue.

“Thank Atlas we got to you before you got to Hannah!” Sue said as she ran over to Jesseca and hugged the girl tightly after Severe let the bubble dissappear.

“Thank you all, but I have to do this alone.” Jesseca said, quickly breaking the embrace of her friend and walking over to her landing point to find her sword.

“Like hell Jess, like it or not we’re in this together.” Knight said sternly talking to Jesseca as if she were an errant child.

Jesseca picked up her sword from a pile of debris and sheathed it. “Thanks dad, but I don’t need you slowing me down.” she said and started to trek back to the structure.

Sue growled and flew in front of Jesseca and landed in her path. With lightning quickness Sue slapped Jesseca across the face surprising the young woman more than hurting her.

“What the-” Jesseca began before she was cut short by Sue.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear one more word from that mouth unless it’s an apology to all of us for putting up with your attitude.” Sue shouted angrily.