​     Adam fired both weapons as he advanced. One bullet caught the huge guy full in the chest. The armor the guy wore deflected the bullet, but it stunned him, sent him stumbling back.

​     The other bullet caught the cricket thing in the throat, killing it instantly.

     And then Adam felt tired.

     Exhausted.

​     Just like that, he felt like he wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and take a nice, long nap.

​     Okay, this is obviously some sort of telepathic attack, Adam figured. Where's it coming from? 

​     The second he thought that he had the answer.

     It was that huge, brain-looking thing with the thousands of eyes that was doing it.

     Adam started towards it...

     ...even though he really was so very, very tired.

     He felt so tired that, even as the ladies fired their weapons at him, he thought, oh hell, let 'em shoot. I'm too tired to do anything about it, anyway.

     His core, however, wanted nothing more than to defend itself.

​     Adam raised his two swords even as the ladies fired.

​     He used the swords as shields. 

​     The shining swords deflected the rays, although the force of the blast was enough to knock Adam back.

​     One of the deflected rays put a hole through the center of the multi-eyed thing. It recoiled, and its hundreds of eyes spun wildly.

​     Adam's exhaustion disappeared immediately. 

​     The man with the monocle stepped out of Adam's way. This was a man who clearly did not relish physical contact.

​     The wraith-like figure that stood behind everyone else shuddered but made no offensive move.

​     One of the women went to fire off a second blast, but Adam was on her before she could. He spun her around and twisted her like a play toy. She had some sort of force field thing going, and Adam didn't think he was going to be able to get around that. He could keep her from firing off that damned blaster, though.

​     Finally, he just grabbed her and pitched her as far away as he could.

​     Then dodged just in time to keep from getting zizzed by a ray blast from the other warrior.

     Mr. Muscle swung his chain at Adam's head, and Adam dodged it easily. As he dodged, though, Adam dove at Monocle Man to use as a shield against yet another ray blast.

     The blaster disintegrated the middle of the guy. His monocle fell from his eye as he dropped dead to the ground. Adam spun around behind Mr. Muscle. He used one of his swords to slice into the hand that held the chain.

     "Aaaaarrrgh!"

     Adam went to grab for it, but the woman warrior got to the chain first.

​     Damn! The giant used the fist that wasn't sliced open to smack Adam in the head. Adam's legs wobbled, and the inside of his skull shuddered like a can of shaken pop.

     He spun to get away from his attackers, but the giant got Adam in a bear hug and wouldn't let him go. Adam brought his skull back hard enough to break two of the guy's teeth, and then Adam hopped up to bring his heels down hard on the giant's feet.

     The giant released his grip.

     Adam twisted out of his grasp just in time. The ray from the woman warrior's blaster missed Adam by a micro inch to put a hole through the giant's chest.  

​     Adam leaped up to kick the woman warrior in the face. He didn't really hurt her, she still had her force field going, but it jarred her enough to make her stumble. Adam dropped to the ground to do a scythe sweep with his legs, knocking the woman completely off her feet and into Adam's arms. 

     Adam rose to full height.

​     He drop kicked her twenty yards.​  

     He had one last adversary left to face.

     "You're a phaze," Adam said. 

     The hooded figure nodded.

     "Where's your cat?"

     The hooded figure turned away from Adam, then phased out of existence.  

​     Anyone else I need to fight before I can continue? Adam asked himself.

​     He turned to look. 

     There were plenty.

​     Now, not only was the path filled with entities not willing to let him go any further, but so was the landscape on either side as far as Adam could see and as far ahead as his destination.

​     His destination.

     It was a person.

​     It was a standing person.

​     Adam was headed towards a standing person.

​     But, before he could reach that person, he had to battle his way past hundreds and hundreds of beings with rifles and ray blasters and grenades and poison darts and riding in land rovers and tanks and copters and hovering warships.

​     "You know," Adam said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you all don't want me here."

     No reply. Just a lot of grimaces.

​     Adam started towards them.

​     "Too bad," he said. "I'm coming in, anyway."

​END OF CHAPTER NINE

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