[Flashback, several months ago, a Hotel on Courvoisier in the main city.]

 Natalie Vergana silently opened the drawers in the hotel room, being careful not to disturb the two people who were in the next room. She rummaged through the clothes. They clothes looked like they were from late 18th Century Earth. No value there. She saw nestled in the one corner an object that looked like something that she could use. She wasn't sure what the object was, but when she pressed the tiny button, a small wide-band beam shot out and loosened a screw. The object was placed in her pocket, hoping she could use it to open doors, instead of those old fashioned lockpicks that took off seconds from her time. In the next drawer were other things that were of use, a pearl necklace and a ring.

 "But I tell you I hear something." A woman's voice whispered out over the rustling of sheets.

 "Jo--." The gruff, yet soft sounding voice whispered just barely above the woman's voice.

 "I'm going to take just a quick peek, that's all." The woman's voice came closer to the door. The door opened, and the girl popped her head out the door. She had an egg-shaped face with large lips. She had shoulder- length red hair with bangs that nearly covered her eyed. She was in her mid twenties. No clothes covered her body, she opened her mouth. "HEY--!"

 "Huh?" Natalie pocketed the objects and ran. She ran for the fire escape and up. Just to be safe, she ran all the way up to the penthouse suite. She pulled out her lockpick kit, and fumbled, it went crashing downwards, all the way to the first floor. At least she had this weird screwdriver thingy. She pressed the button and pointed the beam at the lock, after a few seconds the door swung open.

 She then heard the countdown start for the alarm system. She looked, and saw that she only had 15 seconds.

 "I hope this works!" She pointed the strange screwdriver at the code-box, but to no avail. She had two choices, both were a gamble. Her first choice was to ransack the room and grab what she can get before the police arrived. Her second, and probably wiser choice was to get the hell out of there.

 "Hell with it," Natalie said to herself. "If I am going to get caught, it might as well be with something worthwhile!"

 She hit the lightswitch, and saw Ming vases from Earth, idols from every planet, from a crucifix from the Christian Era on Earth, to a Terratactillian Chant-Ring, it was all there. This was the place she was REALLY sent here for, all the rest were extras. In fact, the one who hired her didn't even want to KNOW about anything else she stole, she was sent here for one idol in particular, which was supposed to have been displayed here. Everything that she could stuff into her little sack she did. Everything in this little penthouse museum was hockable.

 "Now," she turned to the Golden Buddha, "you're what I'm here for!"

 "SHE'S UP HERE," the lone police officer yelled into a com-link. "In the Penthouse Museum!"

 "SHIT!" Natalie picked up one of the Ming Vases and threw it at the cop. It shattered, cutting, but not killing him. She looked over his belongings for something she could grab. She immediately saw an anti-gravity belt.

 "SHIT!" She cried in glee, she grabbed the fully charged belt and put it on.

 "Here she is!" Two more cops crashed into the room.

 "Hey," She turned to the cops after throwing the Buddha through the window, and discreetly aiming the screwdriver at each of the two other belts. "I'm going to have to leave some items here, could you guys keep an eye on them for me?"

 "HUH?" The two looked at each other in confusion.

 "Thanks!" She pointed herself towards the window and leaped out.

 "STOP!"

 "Up, up and AWAY!" Natalie turned the belt on, swooped down and grabbed the Buddha and flew away into the sunrise.

 Bernice grabbed Miles and leaped out of the skimmer just a millisecond before the fiery crash, but unlike in those ancient serials that she saw, they weren't safely rolling along the roadside, instead they were freefalling, and at an incredible rate.

 It was true that they were over a thousand feet up, but at the rate they were falling, they would be a giant splatmark on the ground in less than a minute. They had no parachutes, no jetpacks that they could simply switch on, and no flying gods to save them.

 To make matters even worse, the force of the explosion sent them tumbling every which way, but at least if she could get control of their fall, she could possibly *possibly* guide them over to a body of water she saw just a short distance ahead.

 The only thing that was to her advantage, was the lighter gravity, if she could only make it WORK to her advantage--

 The last she saw of the Totem was, in the midst of its fear, it detached itself from her arm and in turn was making its own way down. "Good thing I remembered this!" She thought out loud, as she reached down and switched on the anti-gravity belt she always wore since she stole it from that cop. She wanted to use it only in desperate emergencies, and this counted as one.

 She was now hovering in mid-air, and was able to control her descent and ascent at will.

 Not wanting to feel responsible for anybody's death, even in a freak accident, she maneuvered herself towards the other two figures who were falling.

 "GRAB MY HANDS!" Natalie cried.

 Instinctively, Bernice and Miles held out their hand and grabbed on. They both felt a rush of energy flow through them, as they began to float down to the ground as gently as a feather.

 They landed in a back alley (of sorts) and Natalie reached down and turned off the anti-gravity belt.

 "Thank you." Bernice stood there gasping for air, when she had enough air in her lungs, and her head stopped spinning, she punched Miles in the jaw. "That was a STUPID stunt you pulled up there!"

 "Sorry," Miles shrugged. "I--"

 "You could have gotten us all killed!"

 "It's over with!" Natalie cut in, breaking up the argument between the two people.

 "Those burns look pretty serious," Bernice pointed out, "we better get you to a hospital."

 "NO!" Natalie almost cried out. "I--. I just can't go to the hospital."

 "You can't just leave them like that."

 "I have a medikit at home." Natalie turned to walk away. "Listen there's something that fell out of my reach that I have to get to, before--"

 There was a moment of silence before Bernice jumped in. "Before what?'

 "There's this . . . idol that I had that if it fell into the wrong hands it could be used for evil."

 "Not a Totem?" Miles asked.

 "How'd you--"

 "We've been sent here to track down the Totem," Bernice said.

 "And get it back to the rightful owners?" Natalie asked. "That's a laugh."

 "There does seem to be a question in my mind of who the rightful owners ARE, anymore."

 "I certainly don't want anything to do with that thing any more!" Natalie felt the scars that were on her arms. "You may hold your friend responsible for the crash, but if you were to notice, my vehicle was just as out of control as yours."

 "My god!" Miles exclaimed. "That thing has taken a living form, hasn't it?"

 "Yes."

 "Bernie, we've got to find that thing, as well as the counterpart, and fast!" Miles said.

 "Why?"

 "There's something that I just remembered, when those two things are together, they balance each other out."

 "How?"

 "The concept is simple, good balances out evil, right?" Natalie asked.

 "Right."

 "So we have an evil, angry Totem running around this planet wreaking his vengeance on the innocents."

 "Listen," Bernice said. "I don't care who hired you to steal that thing, I'm going to forget about that for now. I'm going to forget about who hired me to retrieve it from you."

 "And?"

 "And we'll put our three heads together and find BOTH of those Totems and put them back together. We can worry about who gets them later. DEAL?" Bernice held out her hand.

 "Deal." Natalie slapped her hand on top of Bernice's.

 "We can't do it without you." Bernice motioned towards Miles, who was quite hesitant about the deal.

 Miles thought about it, then sighed, as he slapped his hand on top of the other two. "Oh, alright!"

 "HEHEHEHEHE!" An elfish voice cried out. "Here I am!"

 "That's it!" Natalie backed away.

 "DIE!" The Totem began to throw out fireballs at the three, and with each toss, one of the fireballs came closer and closer to one of the three, as they began to back away.

 "DUCK!" Bernice cried out, realizing that it was too late for her to take her own advice. Three huge fireballs were coming straight towards her, and she was now backed into a corner . . ..

 TO BE CONTINUED . . . .

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