They're back! NPCs are once again flowing through the floodgates. Come-on everyone cheer! Anyways here's a purely Nightspawn NPC for those of you who like that sort of thing. (I do too actually but don't tell anyone.) What can I say? Well this is the first NPC of the Week that's female, just for you Jen. I'm kidding. The girls can play just as big of a role in saving the world as us guys, it was about time I made one. Anyways I've got a rather lengthy fanfic for an introduction so bear with it. I hope it entertains and gives you the insight into her character that I wanted to convey. This is life after Dark Day in my world. Welcome to hell on earth...

Please consider this NPC and fanfic "rough". I've put a lot of work into it but I haven't had time to proofread it all and I really don't feel like doing so right now. I'm just glad to have it done at last. You should also take a look at this and my other NPCs of the Week on Galahad's page in HTML, they look much better and have had several corrections made to them.

Suggestions, requests or comments? Feel free to ask. E-mail: taylorn@cadvision.com
View the stats for this NPC here.

    Sofia lifted the glasses from the ridge of her nose and pinched her brown, bloodshot eyes shut. She placed the glasses gently on the table and looked up to the clock on the wall running her hands though her black hair. The soft flickering incandescent light perched on her desk dimly illuminated the dark corners of the room and served to exasperate her growing headache. She watched the slow, constant hands on the clock as they drifted around its center. Four hours she had spent going over expense figures, budgets and resource requests. Ever since the Preserver party had come into power, funding for the museum's research had steadily declined. After the so called Dark Day it had been even worse. The government said the money was needed elsewhere, to subdue civil unrest. Sofia hadn't seen much effect. In any case it kept the museum on a shoestring budget and kept her from doing her work as an archaeologist, instead cooping her up in her office after midnight budgeting. Why not let the suits play with the numbers and let us do our jobs? she thought.
    Sofia opened the desk drawer and fumbled through the contents for an aspirin. Finding an empty jar only frustrated her more. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the tiled ceiling. She was beginning to fall asleep when several loud bangs jolted her awake. Looking out the window from her office into the loading bay and storage area Sofia saw a large truck being unloaded by several figures. They carried out several wooden crates of varying sizes and shapes and were piling them up in a corner of the storage area under one of the still lit overhead lights.
    Sofia dashed down the stairs, her feet clanging on the metal steps into the bay.
    "What the blazes are you people doing?! Don't you realize how late it is!"
    The men, clothed in dark blue coveralls continued their work moving crates marked "Fragile" and "Delicate" into the storage area. One taller man carrying a clipboard and a large envelope walked up to Sofia and smiled.
    "What's going on here? Who are you guys? What's in these crates?"
    "Are you Doctor Sofia Mendell?" he asked politely.
    "What? Yes I am. Why? What's this all about?" asked Sofia flustered and somewhat annoyed at all the activity this late at night.
    "I've got a message for you. Here." he said passing her the envelope.
    "This had better be good." she said tearing open the seal and pulling out several papers.
 

    "My god." uttered Sofia as she finished reading the letter. She slipped it and the accompanying information sheets back into the envelope.
    "You mind signing this please Mrs. Mendell?" asked the man extending the clipboard to her. "They make you sign for everything these days."
    "Sorry? Oh yes of course. Are there any more crates other than these?" asked Sofia as she took the clipboard and absent-mindedly signed the forms, not bothering to read them. The man glanced back at the truck and turned back to Sofia.
    "Nope. That's all of 'em. I'll have the boys move 'em wherever you want 'em."
    'Thank you. Over here by the entrance to the lab would be great." she said pointing to the double doors to the lab under her office window. "Make sure they're careful." she added.
    'They're always careful." he said smiling. He tipped his hat to her and wandered back to the men as they carried the last crate out of the truck.
    Sofia stood back but watched intently as the crates were carried past her to the entrance to her lab. She imagined what kinds of artifacts could be hidden inside those wooden cocoons, just waiting to be opened. She was lost in thought when the voice surprised her.
    "Sofia..." came the deep echoing voice, as though it were being said through a pipe.
    "Excuse me?" Sofia asked the man walking by directly in front of her. Her turned his head and gave her a puzzled look.
    "What?"
    "You said my name. What do you want?" she asked sternly, already beginning to lose her patience.
    "I didn't say nuthin." he responded starting back towards the truck.
    "Hey!" exclaimed Sofia grabbing the back of the man's overalls. "Don't get smart with me mister!"
    "Is there a problem Mrs. Mendell?" asked the tell man she had talked to before as he approached the two.
    "This guy said asked me something and now he's denying it!" she exclaimed releasing the man's clothes from her grasp. The man looked bemusedly at the taller man and shrugged his shoulders.
    "Sofia..." came the voice again.
    "There he goes again in that silly voice! Stop it!" yelled Sofia pointing a trembling finger at the man again.
    "Listen Mrs. Mendell. Its late, you're obviously very tired. Why don't you go get some rest. We can pile crates just fine without your supervision." said the tall man calmly and diplomatically.
    "But..." stammered Sofia. "...ugh. Fine, you're right. I've been up for hours. I'm sorry." She sighed and walked across the floor to the stairs and climbed up to her office door. Dammit I'm going nuts. I gotta go get a drink...
    Sofia kicked the machine again but it still refused to relent. Not again! she thought as she jabbed the change return a few more times in hopes of at least getting her money back. Stupid machine. Why can't they fix it? The MegaCola machine was installed only a few months ago and it never seemed to work. They'd claimed to have fixed it dozens of times but it had always broken down within a week of getting it fixed. The maintenance guys insisted they thought someone was tampering with it. She thought they were just too lazy to keep it running properly. Oh well, it's not good for me anyways. She thought moving to the next machine in the line and getting a bottle of orange juice.
    "Sofia... I need you." echoed the voice again. Sofia spun around ready to smash the bottle over someone's head but found nobody there in the museum's dark hallways.
    "Go away!" she yelled into the empty halls.
    "Go away!" echoed back from the darkness.
    Time to go home. Get some sleep. she thought shaking her head. She returned to her office, stuffed the budgeting figures into the filing cabinet, turned off the lights and locked the door. Screw the budget. Screw the artifacts. They can wait 'till morning. Its definitely not worth going insane over. She walked out across the deserted parking lot to her car, the only car there. She heard the truck pull out and drive away from the other side of the building in the stillness of the night. Fumbling for her keys at the car door she couldn't help but feel she was being watched. She wasn't afraid, but couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't alone. The door chime and the interior light of the car jerked her back to reality as she opened the door, 3:46 shone forth from the car radio. Definitely time for bed. She thought again as she turned the ignition and started her trip home.
 

    "Would you abandon your normal life, forsaking all, to join a desperate war against a terrible foe?"
    Sofia couldn't believe it. She was talking to a sword in her pajamas.
    "What the hell kind of a question is that?" she asked the gleaming blade, hovering in midair before her in her room. From outside her window she could hear inhuman screams from deep in the darkness. She turned from the sword and wandered to the window. Looking out instead of seeing the familiar small backyard and alley before the neighbor's yard she saw nothing but errie red desert stretching out to a pitch black horizon.
    "What's this supposed to be? Hell?" she asked mockingly trying to sound as unimpressed as possible. If she was going to go insane she wouldn't give the universe the pleasure of letting it get to her.
    "It is the land of our foe." the sword replied now hovering outside her window.
    "Hold-on a minute. 'Our' foe? I think you've got me mixed up for some amazon queen off of late night T.V." she said turning her back on the window. The sword reappeared in the room in front of her.
    "It lives here, but it covets your world. It wishes for nothing but your extermination. It infiltrates your government, your industry, your idols. It corrodes your world from the inside so that it may be conquered from without with ease. Look..."
    Sofia scoffed at the sword and grinned. This was utterly ridiculous, might as well humor it so it would go away. She turned around and looked out the window. She nearly screamed at what she saw. Throngs of black, horned skeletons stood outside her home, surrounding it, spears and pole arms jutted from their masses like grass from the ground. Other black winged creatures with vicious beaks and spears circled in the sky slowly and silently like vultures. From the center of the mass rose a gigantic figure clad in black flowing robes with a crown of horns about his pale bald head. The figure, eye to eye with the second story window smiled and laughed and demonic laugh. Sofia spun around and fell to the floor, her back against the wall her arms wrapped around her knees.
    "No, no. They're not real. They're just imagined. They aren't real. None of it is!" she screamed tucking herself into a ball for protection...
 

    "Good morning Doctor."
    "Good morning Garry." replied Sofia to the maintenance man behind the door of the MegaCola machine as she walked by. He popped his head around the door and tipped his baseball cap to her a grin on his unshaven face.
    "Have a good night's sleep?" he asked curiously. Sofia turned around to face him again.
    "Oh fine. Had a bad dream. No big deal." she replied suspiciously. "Why?"
    Garry smiled. "Laura from security told me you were here late last night, and you're usually in before ten thirty tuesdays. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
    "Yeah fine. I've just got a lot of work to do and not enough time to do it in." she said turning around and heading back towards her office.
    "Isn't that the way it is for all of us!" Garry said raising his voice so she could hear him as she walked away. "all right you stupid machine. What gives?" he mumbled pulling a bright red and black MegaCola can out of the machine's exposed racks.
    Sofia slumped into her desk chair and stared out the window into the loading bay. A couple of maintenance guys were holding a ladder for a third changing some of the burnt out lights in the ceiling. She watched them in muted silence through the glass for a few moments before wheeling herself over to her filing cabinet to get to work. Initially she slid the drawer open to B for budgets but couldn't help but see the divider for H and Hokkian. After a few moments of contemplation she reached back and grabbed the folder Greg had sent from the dig. The budget can wait an hour or so. she thought, knowing full well she was deceiving herself.
    Wheeling several of the crates into her lab on the ground floor of the loading bay Sofia searched frantically for a crowbar to pry open the wooden containers. At last finding one behind the blue double doors she approached the first long narrow box lying at the top of the pile and heaved the lid off of the crate. Carefully pulling back layers of packaging material to protect the artifact from the rigors of international travel. As layer by layer came off Sofia's hands began to tremble with anticipation. When the final sheets came off Sofia's heart skipped a beat. Turning on the overhead light there was no doubt. Sitting before her in the crate was the sword she had seen in the dream, gleaming like newly polished silver in the bright light.
    Sofia stepped back, stunned. She shuffled through the notes, charts and diagrams Doctor Sladder had sent her and found the information corresponding to the sword. Checking the serial number stamped on the crate confirmed it, this sword was from the Hokkian dig. According to the sheets it had been found at the 8000 BCE level just as Doctor Sladden had said in his letter. She pulled the magnifying glass over top of the sword on its flexible arm and inspected the weapon more closely. She scrutinized the blade for a long time before lifting her head and trying to come up with a reasonable answer to her many questions. Despite its apparent age this weapon was all but untouched, seemingly impervious to the effects of time. The quality and detail of the workmanship was also incredible, a feat even today with modern forging and moulding technologies. Amazing.
    Her interest peaked, Sofia proceeded to open and cross check the remainder of the crates. Each had a story to tell, and each's story couldn't be more fantastic. All of them, including a glass globe inlayed with silver and gold were in miraculously good condition, as though they were fresh from the workshop or forge. All of them were of exquisite construction and design with immaculate detail. Sofia found herself doubting that these were truly from an ancient archaeological dig and not a modern craftsman's workshop. She had the photographs, charts, notes and diagrams however to prove their apparent age and origins. She began to understand just why Gregory had sounded so excited in his letter. And still the image of the sword hovered in her thoughts.
    After finishing with the last of the other artifacts she returned to the sword once again. How could I have a dream about a sword I'd never seen before? she thought looking the blade over once again. She noticed some dirt still lodged in a groove of the blade and reached down with a cloth to clear it out. The instant she touched the blade's surface she felt a tingling sensation creep up from her fingers, up her arm, into her shoulder and to the back of her head. She stood petrified.
    "You are the one Sofia." a voice echoed in her head.
    "Uhhhh!" Sofia exclaimed, retracting her hand from the sword and holding her wrist with the other hand. "I've got a budget to take care of." she said turning her back on the open crate. She removed her surgical mask and cap and placed them on the counter beside the Hokkian file. She walked to the doors and looked back the the crate for a moment before turning off the lights and closing the door. Somehow, the sword seemed to glow for another instant after darkness fell in the lab.
 

    Sofia shot upright in her bed, clutching the corners of the mattress in her hands like a vice. Sweat dripped down her face and her heart was racing out of control in her chest. A few deep breaths later she calmed herself enough to look around her room quickly with the light from the street flooding through her window. Just another dream. she thought to herself still trembling from her apparent death at the hands of some sort of monster. She reached to her bed side table and clutched a glass of water drinking it in two long gulps. This was the third dream in as many nights, ever since those crates had arrived from Hokkian. I must be getting to worked up about those artifacts from the dig. I'm under far too much stress for my own good. Sofia thought, for the first time doubting her own thoughts.
    She walked into the bathroom and took a bottle of sleeping pills from the medicine cabinet. She fumbled with the lid in her trembling hands and poured two of the pills into her other hand. She poured another glass of water and threw back the two pills. I hate using these damn things. she thought on her way back to her bed. If I can just get a good night's sleep for once...
 

    Sofia shook her head and flipped her pencil around so the eraser was facing the page. That will not work! she fumed to herself rubbing off her latest attempt to give the displays enough funding to be kept up to date while paying for new modern lab equipment as well. The numbers simply wouldn't mesh. Take something away from one thing and she'd have to increase a dozen other things just to keep everything from falling apart. There wasn't enough money, and it was useless asking the government for any. They'd rather spend it on their mini-Vietnams over in the Congo then on a museum back in the good old U.S. of A. Sofia turned her eyes back to her calculator and began punching in the new figures with a reduced budget for the staff cafeteria. There was a knock at the door. Thank-you.
    "Who is it?" she asked loudly so whoever outside the door could hear.
    "There's someone from Washington to see you Doctor." came Mark's muffled voice, Sofia's grad student.
    Great. Suits. she thought getting up and opening the door. She was prepared to launch into her usual 'We're just as valuable part of this nation as any other.' speech when she was struck with the particularly stern and cold face of the man before her. She was at a loss for words and instead stared dumbly at the man's expressionless brow and dark sunglasses. He extended his right hand to her but his expression remained unchanged.
    "Doctor Mendell I presume." he said coldly in a flat, almost robotic voice. Sofia reluctantly shook his hand. It felt strange, somehow too smooth, almost like plastic.
    "Yes. How may I help you mister..." she glanced down at the governmental name tag on his jacket, "... Nuncio."
    The man pushed past her and made his way into her office.
    "I need to speak with you Doctor." he said in the same errie monotone voice. Sofia exchanged glances with Mark who gave her a tentative shrug, she closed the door and took a seat at her desk. She looked up at the man, Mr. Nuncio, still wearing his sunglasses, he placed his briefcase on the desk but remained standing.
    "Yes? What did you need to talk to me about, I'm a busy woman you know." Sofia said nervous at the newcomer's cold exterior but deciding not to let him see her fear. He opened the briefcase, reached in and pulled out a folder which he dropped on the desk in front of Sofia.
    "These are the requisition forms for the transfer of the artifacts from the Hokkian dig to the Smithsonian Museum of History. If you'll please sign them and have the artifacts prepared for shipment." he said sternly as Sofia opened the folder and flipped through the forms angrily. She looked up her eyes burning with rage barely able to contain her anger.
    "Where did you find out about this? These artifacts have only just arrived in my lab three days ago, I haven't had enough time to complete my initial examinations let alone perform more detailed tests. You can't just take them away from here." she said as calmly as she could though the tremor in her voice gave away her inner anger. The man simply looked down through his tinted glasses and answered;
    "As you will notice the transfer has been authorized by the federal department of culture. They will be transferred to the Smithsonian immediately."

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