The Bat Amplifier

Suddenly, Marvin's head whipped to one side, as if something had slapped him upside the head. He spun around with the force of the slap and barely managed to stay upright.

"Holy cow!"

Marvin's head began to glow a faint purplish blue. Blake hadn't noticed this happening with Terry because when Terry received the Demon System, it was broad daylight.

Inside the dark jar, the effect was visible.

"Ooooh man!" He started cackling. "I should've joined this Demon System a long time ago! This is super cool."

His eyes glazed over as he began to concentrate on all the menus that were displaying before his eyes.

"Hang on, Boss. Let me play with the controls a bit." Marvin muttered to himself as he began tweaking his controls and looking at all the various menus he had.

"You can do a lot since you have plenty of energy stored up." Blake said with a smile.

"Yeah. I've been a ghoul for awhile now and have a pretty big stash of green energy. I didn't know how much I had because I had no way of keeping track, but this system is an awesome tracker! It's super sweet!" Marvin giggled to himself like a little girl.

Blake nodded. Luis had told him that Marvin got fifty green energy points a day. With that much energy, Marvin could hit the ground running. He would outstrip Blake very quickly if he worked hard at the system.

Even as Marvin was drawing into his own little System world, a notice had popped up inside Blake's field of vision.

«Congratulations. You have a new recruit: Marvin Locke. For each point he earns, you will receive 1% of his energy intake.»

Blake rolled his eyes. What the heck was he going to do with 1% of anything?

And what the hell was a recruit anyway? Was this some sort of Demon System pyramid scheme whereby the more recruits he could obtain, the more 'stuff' he got?

As Marvin checked out his new system, Blake laid back and began listening to a bit of Metallica and a bit of AC/DC.

Marvin took so long that Blake was starting to fall asleep to the sound of Megadeth when the bat finally announced that he was done setting up his system.

"Hey, Boss. Wake up." Marvin prodded at Blake.

"Why are you suddenly calling me Boss?" Blake mumbled, barely awake.

"'Cause you're my Boss!" Marvin sighed.

"Man, I killed you but instead of destroying me, you saved me! So now, you're the boss and I'm your lackey. Just use me till you use me up and I'll be super happy."

"Marvin, I just want you to figure this Demon System out and get us the hell out of here. We can't stay stuck here forever. We have to move on."

"Is that an order from you?"

Blake thought about it for a moment and slowly nodded.

"Yeah. I want you to figure out how to use this system and then I want us to escape this hell hole."

Marvin was silent for a minute, but then he nodded.

"What the hell. Without you saving my ass, I wouldn't even be here right now." He nodded as he mumbled to himself.

"Okay Boss. I'll figure out a way for both of us to leave this place for good. Even if the next place that we go to kills me, I'll still do this for you."

"I'll be working my system too, Marvin. Between the two of us, I think we can figure this out."

"Yeah Boss. I think I got my system in check. We really have to get out of this jar, man. I'm starting to get claustrophobic."

Blake laughed.

"You and me both."

"Play me some more of that bass guitar of yours and let me see if I can amp it up a bit."

"You got an amplifier?"

Marvin hooted with laughter.

"I'm a bat. I'm the amplifier!"

He flapped his wings and landed on the Ovation.

"Play something and let me try out my magic."

Blake shrugged. What did he have to lose?

Blake began to thump his bass again, playing a basic riff.

THUMM THUMM THUMM THUMM

Marvin clambered onto the crook of his Ovation and wedged himself between the neck and the body.

Within seconds, the sounds Blake was playing began to increase in volume.

At first, it was barely noticeable, as Marvin adjusted his amp abilities to suit that of the Ovation. Once he got used to how the guitar worked, he began to slowly pump up the vibrations.

"Holy shit. You're really amping up the sound!"

"I told you so." Marvin squeaked above the noise of the bass guitar.

As Blake continued to play, he concentrated on the A and E notes with their matching harmonic frequencies at the 3rd, 4th, 6th. He played them in combinations and varying speeds until he found the most pleasing sounds that also caused the strongest vibrations.

THUMM THUMM THUMM THUMM

"Keep that frequency!" Marvin called out.

"This one?" Blake plucked the double strings.

"Yeah." Marvin began to concentrate.

Blake began playing with everything he had, keeping the notes pure and unadulterated, building up the wavelength until his head was vibrating from the sound.

THUMM THUMM THUMM THUMM

"Little more. Little more. Hold that note. Hold that note!" Marvin intoned.

CRACK!!!

"And done!" Marvin yelled.

"Quick!" He pointed to the crack on the pot. "Break it apart at that crack before someone finds out we cracked it and seal us back up!"

Blake reached into his weapons cache and pulled out his Vietnam Trench Tomahawk. Pulling back with all the strength of his powerful right arm, he swung the ax and aimed it at the crack that was immediately in front of him.

WHOOSH!!!

As the ax left his hand, it flew end over end until it hit the crack at the split.

CRASH!!!

The side of the jar with the crack burst on impact, letting in blinding daylight where it once was pitch black.

"Let's go!" Marvin yelled and the two of them streamed towards the hole that the ax made.

As they rushed past the ax, Blake reached down and retrieved his weapon. It was in his hand as they burst from the jar and out into the hot dripping jungles of Vietnam.

The world was green and brown and gray, with a touch of desperation. The earth and air was waterlogged and oppressive. The smell of decaying leaves and earth and muck was everywhere.

"Where the fuck are we?" Marvin gasped.

"Hush! Keep your voice down." Blake whispered.

The jar that they had broken out of was inside a duffle bag that had been tied to a pack pony following a group of travelers.

They had gotten super lucky!

The fat drops of a monsoon deluge splashing on the fat tailed leaves of the bodhi forest made so much noise that the sound of the blue cobalt ginger jar breaking did not even register with the group that was slowly making their way through the dense woods.

Blake counted six men wearing black, surrounding a water buffalo that was slowly ambulating through the muck and mire of a wet jungle rain.

They were alert and aware, but they were no warlocks. Their senses were open wide and alert for jungle beasts, not enraged ghouls.

Riding on the water buffalo was the Overlord Anh Hai, hanging onto a barely conscious Jasmine Love.

He was so busy trying to keep Jasmine from falling off the buffalo that he was completely unaware that Blake and Marvin were up above, hovering on the tree tops looking down at the group as they continued on through the pouring jungle.

Blake's blood began to boil.

On the one hand, he was grateful that the Overlord had taken him along for the ride so at least he was close to Jasmine.

On the other hand, he was pissed that she had been subjected to such abuses that she was barely hanging onto consciousness. He could only hope she had not been attacked viciously by these thugs, and most especially by the Overlord Anh Hai.

"Oh man, look at that girl. She's the one that Anh Hai had an oil painting made for."

Blake shook his head.

"It was her face, painted over the body of another woman."

Marvin grimaced.

"I figured that. I don't know who she is or why he's kidnapped her, but my biggest question is this. Why the hell is Anh Hai taking this woman through the jungles on a buffalo man?"

"Well, I can answer the first two questions." Blake sighed.

"Her name is Jasmine Love. She's the singer in our band. To get to her, that Overlord had you and Maysie kill off all of us."

"Hey, I'm sorry about that man." Marvin muttered.

"It's alright. You had no more choice doing what you did than she is right now, sitting on that buffalo."

Blake's amber eyes flared with anger as he turned back to the man and the girl on the water buffalo.

"As for why he's dragging her around the jungles, I have no freaking clue, but I'm going to find out and I'm going to make him sorry he ever laid eyes on Jasmine."

Marvin took a breath. He let it out again.

"You're in love with her, aren't you, Boss?"