1. Macabre Marmalade (COMPLETED; EDITING)

XVIII (8.1)

Old Renault screeched to a halt in front of a large shape. Todor strained his eyes but even with the help of his new high tech glasses, he failed to recognize what stopped them. The engine died down in next few last sounds and cars interior got embraced by silence. Gadgets night vision adjusted and Todor gasped at what he saw. There, in the middle of the street was a bronze statue. It was quite an ugly statue, proportions of the body were wrong and there was no detail you usually see on the works of art. The uncalled bronze monster made a step towards them, giant foot cracking the asphalt as it landed.

"That is a mothercracking golem!" Cassandra yelped her face a wild grimace of surprise and excitement.

"Seriously?" Todor exclaimed pushing the gear shift into reverse and starting the engine again. The old car turned on smoothly so Todor snapped his foot on the gas pedal. They lurched in reverse backing off from the magical construct.

"Yeah, and not just any golem. That is a war golem. Only Elder Shamans of my people could actually make those," she explained casually bending forward to see the thing better.

"I don't have any beef with Morgs," Todor said tightening the grip on the steering wheel and looking at the mirror. The street was empty so they continued backing off at an unsafe speed.

"Well, Anadori High Ethiarchs can master enough mana to create such a thing as well, I suppose. But you didn't piss off any High Ethiarchs, did you?"

"Not that I know of," Todor said gloomily as the golem made another step and another. Soon it was running towards them and gaining upon them.

"The date turned into a strange direction. This wasn't the kind of excitement I was expecting," Cassandra said with a wild smile.

"You can say that again. Look, we can't outrun this thing. Any ideas?" Todor asked as he put more pressure on the accelerator but the old car gave all it had. I have to turn around to gain more speed but if I try that golem will be upon us before I could finish ...

"Not unless you have some bigger firepower than that gun on your belt," she answered with a shake of her head.

"And if I did where would golems weak spot be?" he asked remembering the railgun under Cassandra's seat.

"That depends who made this thing. You need to crack its power core, fire pearl or dragons eye cores are most common, but its location can be anywhere in its body," Cassandra explained calmly. Her wild grin was still on her face, but her voice sounded under control.

"Alright, under your seat there is a weapon that could do the trick," Todor said pointing. "Maybe ... hopefully."

He was too focused on Cassandra as she was reaching for the weapon when he felt like he was hit with a sledgehammer. The Renault stopped with a crash as the tires screeched, spinning in place. For a second he forgot where he was or what was happening. He shook his head and it cleared. Then he snapped his head back looking at what they hit and his heart sank. Another golem, all though quite a bit smaller than the one that was chasing them, was holding the car hostage from behind.

"You alright?" he asked Cassandra, she shook her head as well and reached for the railgun.

"What is this thing?" she asked giving the weapon to him.

"Successful failure," he said grabbing the railgun and turning it on. The weapon let out a subdued whine as its capacitors charged. As soon as he did that the glasses asked to link up with it and help with aim. He blinked YES right away.

"You mean like you humans? An experiment that overshadowed its intent," she said with a smirk.

"Something like that," Todor replied coldly.