...For Science!

There was a time that I meant it, every shining-eyed word. The future was so bight that we'd all need triple-reinforced smoked-glass goggles (with attached breathing apparatus C-37). My head was full of gears and levers and steam valves, without room for fears or worries. How could I have foreseen the endless, pointless struggle? Every generation needs re-enlightenment, it seems.

I tug on my leather gloves. I heave my rocket-pack into place. I flip down my goggles.

"Did you think it would be easy?" Experiment 715Q asks from its aquarium.

I ignore it. "Today is a glorious day," I mutter...

The Last Desperate Stand

Se-Rok-La, the Blade That Thirsts, lay shattered on the ground. The hand that had wielded it rested nearby. The rest of the hero was not in evidence, at least in the immediate area. Crimson splashes on the ground suggested, to the inquisitive mind, the disposition of the other remains.

The princess and the wizard huddled in the base of a shattered tower. The princess was sobbing loudly.

"Impossible," growled the wizard. "I refuse to accept this. There has to be another way!"

A shadow fell over their hiding place, horned and terrible. "No," said the Demon King, "there really doesn't."