Chances are, whoever lived in the tower wouldn't mind some company, anyway, out here in the middle of nowhere. And if they did, well, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. This in mind, I made good time along the road. The clouds continued to gather, and it started raining a bit just when I reached the tower. A quick knock produced no result, so I looked at the door, which turned out to not even be locked. A crash of thunder overwhelmed any noise that the hinges might have made.

Inside, the tower was empty. Well, no, not really. It was full of stuff. Lots and lots and lots of stuff. But no people. Or persons. That I could see, anyways. With all the stuff in there, I could have been practically invisible even in better light than the one sputtering lamp. So somebody could be hiding. Lightning flashed outside, lighting the whole place briefly through the window and door. Then the rain started coming down. Glad I'd made it inside.

The lightning had revealed the room to match what I could see from the lamp. This looked, frankly, like a cross between a glassblower's, a library, a blacksmith's, and a comfortable study. In other words, probably some wizard's room. There was a set of stairs leading curving up toward the top of the tower. Which, for some reason, seems to be where the actual lab is most of the time. I'm not sure why, hauling all that stuff up the stairs can't be fun. Since the lamp was still lit, somebody must be staying here, they were probably up there. So I decided to head up there, see what they were doing, introduce myself, etc. Just common courtesy.

Whoever was up there must have been so wrapped up in what they were doing, they didn't notice the storm. Which had gotten a lot worse by this point. At the top of the steps, there was, surprise surprise, a large door. With all sorts of metal runey things on it and stuff. But this one wasn't even shut tight. So, a quick check, then I pulled it open, to see what was beyond it.

Beyond said doors turned out to be, as I'd suspected, another, "real" lab. Real lab as in one where the owner had things set up so they didn't lose anything particularly valuable when something exploded or turned half the room to bubbling gunk. You'd really think somebody would have worked out better safety measures by now, but some people are traditionalists. At least the windows were open for ventilation, although that was probably more absent-mindedness than anything else. The wind, rain, and thunder outside more than covered any noise the door had made, heck, it would cover the sounds of fireworks. Unfortunately, I'd used all mine up already.

I moped about this missed opportunity for a moment, then remembered why I was here. Right, find the guy who owned this place, and introduce myself. Which would have been easy, had there not been a bunch of racks of various things all over the place. That and the tables had solid bottoms I couldn't see through. So, I grabbed a stool, and hopped up onto a clear counter space to look for the resident. The (quite heavy, really) shutters on the windows blew shut from an errant gust of wind just as I did so. The sudden silence made it quite easy to spot the tower's resident, who was just now holding some kind of black disk over his head with both hands and shouting, "It's complete! It works! YES!"

Something about him seemed kind of familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. "Congratulations! Mind if I spend the night out of the rain?" I asked

The tower's owner looked over at me. I looked back and waved happily to him, then we both recognized each other. "YOU!?"

It was the kook I'd run into before, a couple cities ago. Who'd been trying to summon some kind of demon to make him live forever as a woman or something like that. Not the brightest in the world, he hadn't even bothered to read the fine print on the rules he had for summoning the demon. Okay, so I did write some of it in at the last moment, but even so, that's no excuse for sloppy preparation. Come to think of it, he wasn't very good at locking doors then either. "So, what, you wished for stealth dinnerware this time?" I asked him.

He growled at me and slammed his hands down on the table in front of him. The disc hovered about an inch over the top when he let it go. "You again! The interfering busybody who broke into my home and destroyed all of my equipment before!"

"Well, actually, that was your own fault, the part where it said all your stuff would explo..."

He cut me off. "And now you're here, now. When I have just completed the instrument of my revenge. It would seem that fate likes me," he said (It wouldn't surprise me, vindictive prick that Fate can be. What, it's MY fault I ruined her little plan for Julia? Well, yes, okay, it WAS my fault, but I mean, so? Sheesh, some anthromor...anamorti...whatevers.)

"And no, this is not 'stealth dinnerware' as you call it," he went on, "This is something much more fun. This is a specially modified Disc of Destruction, which destroys whatever it touches. And I shall use to begin my revenge, on YOU!"

So saying, he picked the disc up in his silver-gloved hands, and flung it at me. It bounced off the front of the counter I had been standing on, since he'd given me plenty of time to duck behind it. The counter went "plink" and disappeared. The miscellaneous books and tools and things on it all fell to the ground where it had been with a satisfying crash. "You know," I commented, "You're as bad at this as you were at demonology. Telling me all about your Frisbee of Doom before trying to hit me with it? Come on now. I could have just caught it and hit you with it."

He reached down and snagged the Frisbee, before it hit the floor. "HA! Fool, that would merely result in your destruction, as the Disc sucks in anything it touches, unless it is specially protected, such as my gloves!" he said, gesturing to the silvery elbow length gloves he wore.

I shook my head sadly. "You really ARE rotten at this, aren't you? And let me guess, of COURSE you have a spare pair of the gloves lying somewhere conveniently nearby?"

Enraged, he threw the Frisbee at me again I scooted. It tried to curve and follow me, but ran into one of the racks of instruments and bounced off. The assorted stuff that was held rained down, I barely dodged an avalanche of flasks. "Of course not, what sort of idiot do I look like? The gloves are safely suspended over here on the wall, clearly above where a midget such as yourself could reach!" he shouted, catching the Frisbee on the rebound.

"Tell me, when you were in school, did it take you three tries to read Dick and Jane, by any chance?" I asked him, running toward the rack of gloves he'd so helpfully pointed out.

"I just did it again, didn't I?" he asked nobody in particular, then went to smack himself in the forehead, realizing just in time he was holding the Frisbee of Doom. The kook looked up and saw me running, so threw the Frisbee at me again.

I leapt from a pile of books, ricocheted off a cart full of stuff, and landed on the long counter along the wall that lead near the extra gloves. The windows blew back open, since they hadn't latched, and wind gusted through the room, flipping the Frisbee so it managed to follow me. It hovered along about waist height behind me above the counter. I dodged around a pile of equipment, which it happily ran into and "plinked" and continued going. Guess the pile wasn't big enough to make it bounce, but it did slow it down. I pulled down a wire rack covered with bubbling stuff in glass flasks, that seemed to do it, the Frisbee bounced off and headed back in the general direction of the kook, who dove to catch it before it hit his counter. Guess he had stuff there he didn't want broken.

He stood up, almost brushed himself off, before remembering the Frisbee, took careful aim, and threw it at me. I jumped from the edge of the counter toward the rack, which was literally covered with spare gloves. I wouldn't be surprised if he lost lots of them. I grabbed a pair, but they were clipped on tightly, and wouldn't come off. The Frisbee was headed right toward me, as I hung there. I pulled harder on the gloves, and only pulled myself up. They wouldn't budge. The Frisbee was still coming, so I pulled, and swung my furry little butt up out of its path. Instead, it hit the rack, which went 'plink' and then the rack was gone, along with what had been holding up the gloves that were holding me up. The gloves and I realized this at the same time, and started falling toward the ground. The Frisbee didn't, and bounced back toward the kook, who ran to catch it again.

"HAH! Take that, scurrilous rogue! See what happens to those who break into other's houses!" the kook shouted, as I hit the ground and was buried in the pile of gloves.

"Die buried under the last thing you tried to steal, puny thief!"

I stood up, wearing the gloves, another pair over my ears and one off my nose. "Take me to your earthling, leader."

He gaped at me, and I shook my head, sending the extras flying. "They're gloves. Not five ton blocks. I fell five feet. That's not going to kill me, what am I, made of glass?"

"Maybe that didn't kill you, but this will!" he shouted, throwing the Frisbee at me.

Which I easily caught one-handed. I waved the other hand at him, the oversized glove flapping with another rain-filled gust of wind. He pulled at his hair and screamed. "WHY do you torment me so! Everything I try to do!"

"Well, last time, you were going to try and kill that girl. And this time, if you'll recall, the instant I showed up you tried to hit me with this thing, when all I wanted was out of the rain."

I turned and started to head toward the door. "Hey! Where are you going!" the kook yelled at me.

"Downstairs, where the windows are actually closed? And somehow I don't think you should have this thing, you'll probably hurt yourself."

"The Disc is mine! I built it, give it back to me!"

"Oh, well, if you insist," I said, and threw it at him.

I'm generally a good shot with thrown things, but he went and ducked. It got his hat though, which went 'plink' and vanished. The Frisbee kept going, until it hit a chain hanging from the ceiling and bounced off. Part of the chain went 'plink' and the light it was holding up crashed to the ground. It was a magic light, so it stayed on, and didn't set fire to anything. The room's light was all weird now, since the only other hanging lamp was being blown around by the wind and the light flickered madly around the whole room.

As for the Frisbee, it wobbled and started falling back toward the kook, who grabbed it just before it hit him. He looked over my way, and I ducked behind a chair. Of course, given that the chair didn't have a solid back, he saw me anyway, and chucked the Frisbee at me, trying to get it to go under the chair. Of course, he didn't have my mad skills, so it bounced off two of the legs, making the chair go 'plink.' I grabbed the Frisbee, and sent it back in a wide curve at him, as he tried to hide behind a rack of stuff.

The kook barely swung himself out of the way, then dove back and caught the Frisbee before it hit the ground, landing flat on his stomach. I got up on the counter around the outside of the room and looked to see if there was anything useful there. He stood up and zinged the Frisbee at me as fast as he could, I barely had time to get out of the way. The Frisbee hit the wall, in the middle of a big block, which went 'plink.' Wind and rain blew in the new hole, knocking the Frisbee off the course it'd had, so I had to drop flat to avoid it, when I was trying to catch it. The wind caught it underneath, launching it flipping over me. I heard a 'plink' behind me as the Frisbee hit the counter, then the whole stretch of counter was gone, and I fell to the floor, while around me the legs and things that had been holding the counter up clattered to the ground.

Falling tends to be one of the things I have to worry about in my profession, so I was ready, and rolled and hopped to my feet, grabbing the Frisbee before the wind could take it again. I zinged it back at the kook, who jumped, the Frisbee barely missing his feet. He tried to dive after it, once he landed, but missed it by a good amount. The Frisbee hit between some of the blocks on the tower. A loud 'plink' echoed around us, from all the walls, then the entire room seemed to fall a quarter of an inch.

The kook grabbed the Frisbee, then whirled at me. "You IDIOT! You hit the mortar! Nothing's holding this tower together now!"

"What, aside from the fact the whole thing's made of big heavy rocks?" I asked, as the rocks groaned and the room wobbled, a block from near the ceiling falling out and smashing through the wooden floor.

"All my stuff!" the kook yelled, and threw the Frisbee at me, then ran to one of the corners, pulling some stuff aside to reveal a safe.

I caught the Frisbee easily, and threw it back toward him, aiming for the safe. Easier than opening it, really. The kook snatched the Frisbee just before it hit. "There's another one in there! Do you know what would happen if the two hit each other?!?"

"No," I said simply, just before the whole room was lit through the walls by a strike of lightning right nearby. The thunder hit us at the same time, the sound literally knocking blocks out of the walls. One nearly hit the kook, who had been waving his hands around at me, but it hit the Frisbee first, when he had it over his head. His arm sagged, and he looked up, at the air lacking in rock, and the wall lacking in rock that had almost fallen on me. I think he tried to shout something, but I certainly couldn't hear it, the thunder was still bouncing around in my skull.

The wind gusted, and a large section of the fancy conical wooden roof broke off, falling outside. The other half tilted and half-fell, half sealing the room off from the rain again. The hanging lamp swung even wilder, shadows and lights fighting across the walls like cats. Even in the dark, though, the Frisbee showed up as a spot of even more darkness, which let me spot it in time to catch it before it hit me. The kook had the safe open and was wildly pulling papers and stuff out of a drawer. The whole tower wobbled, once, then the other way, and back again. A bunch of blocks fell out of the sides, both in and out of the tower, the floor here was more hole than floor now. Time to get out.

I yelled "If you want this, it's yours! FETCH!" and threw the Frisbee toward the kook, though I doubt he heard me. I doubt I heard me. Then I threw a rope to the lamp, barely catching it before it swung away, and jumped out one of the numerous holes in the wall, holding on to my rope. The tower kept leaning, and leaning, until it was at a really steep angle. Then it just fell apart, right underneath me.

Trying to climb a wall, while the wall falls apart, is an interesting experience. And one I'd rather not repeat, if I had any choice about it. However, I did well enough to avoid being buried under the kook's workshop as it fell apart. And the whole tower didn't really fall apart, I think the lower part must have had different mortar or something, since it ended up mostly standing. I didn't know that immediately, of course. First, I had to wake up. When the workshop fell apart, a lot of stuff went flying, and something hit me on the head. At least I didn't land with my mouth open, I would have drowned, what with all the rain.

Anyway, when I woke up, I was on top of the rubble, rather than underneath. And it was still storming, although more gently. I went over to the first floor, to see if I could find somewhere out of the rain, since it was still standing. Of course, it turned out to be still standing, and full of blocks and bits of wood and other things. Literally full of them, as in right up to the door. Around the side most of the top had fallen to, the side of the first floor had been torn down too, showing the huge pile of junk where there used to be a warm room. Well, at least enough of the fallen wall was in one piece for me to get under out of the rain.

And underneath, I found a nice big pillow. The bottom was all wet and muddy, but the top was dry. Until I sat on it, anyway. I thought about going to sleep, but I wasn't really tired any more, and the kook could still be around somewhere and being his antisocial self. So, I just sat. It didn't take too long for the rain to stop, actually. Big blustery things like the storm seem to run out fairly quickly. It was just drizzle, then nothing, and the moon came out. The moonlight looked real pretty on the wet trees, and also gave me light to look around by.

I left my little cubbyhole and climbed up the pile to see what I could see. I saw lots of wrecked stuff, but nothing particularly interesting, until I heard rocks sliding and found a spot where the pile seemed to be shrinking. As I watched, the pile kept shrinking, making a dip. As my hearing came back more, I could even make out the 'plink' sounds from underneath. So, I waited.

Eventually, the pile stopped moving, with a nice clear hole for me to climb down. At the bottom was, as I'd guessed, the Frisbee. It was hovering a bit above the ground, underneath were a couple of silver gloves. I hadn't thought I'd thrown it at the pile, but I hadn't really been paying attention. Better than the whole world going 'plink' at any rate. I still had my gloves on, though they had several tears in them, but my hands were smaller than they'd been made for, so I was fine. I picked up the Frisbee, and tried to figure out what to do with it. Even if he were in any shape to use it, certainly couldn't let the kook have it back. Then I spotted something else glinting in the moonlight, not water.

It was the safe. The door was wrenched off one of the hinges, but lying crookedly across the front. I tapped it with the Frisbee, and the door went 'plink.' Inside, I only could see darkness. Then I looked closer and realized it was another Frisbee and there was a grid of little silver things around it. Only this Frisbee was shaped like a ball. Must have been the kook's backup one. Hmm...actually, what had he said, about the two of them touching? If the Frisbee made almost anything it touched go 'plink,' what WOULD happen when the two hit each other? Well, one way to find out.

I brushed some of the grid of silver thingies off the round Frisbee, so I could get at it. Then I had a thought, and climbed up the side of the hole. From the edge, I threw the Frisbee down at the other one. Then I dove over the edge and slid down the side of the pile.

Behind me, I heard a deafeningly soft 'plink,' then there was a FOOM! and this huge jet of stuff flew up out of the hole. The chair, the counter, the kook's hat, the racks, a bunch of blocks, mortar that held the shape of the old second floor for a moment before breaking apart, everything the Frisbee had eaten. All the stuff hung in the air for a second, then started falling.

I'd already guessed they would do that, things thrown up in the air tend to fall back, so I was running for the intact section of fallen wall. I dove underneath, on top of my pillow, as a couple blocks smacked down into the mud around me. From my pillow, I watched this second rainstorm, until all of the big blocks and furnishings and whatnot had hit the ground. Then I picked up my pillow and ventured out.

A number of papers were fluttering down, looking like small crippled bats in the moonlight. As I was staring up at that, my foot hit something that clinked. I looked down, and eventually made out a brown bag in the brown mud. The top was squished underneath one of the blocks, so I just cut it off. A number of coins spilled out. Along with an odd-looking crystal. Luckily, my little widget had survived the crash, so I could check, and yes, the crystal was magic. And not the exploding death kind, either. I'd have to mess with it, or ask a wizard, when I got the chance. "Well, hey, at least this wasn't a total waste," I said to myself.

I scooped the coins and crystal up, and stuck the coins in one of my pouches. The crystal I kept out, so I could play with it. I thought I heard something, like a groan, but it didn't repeat. probably just the stones settling. I considered checking the hole, to make sure the Frisbees were gone, but the hole wasn't there any more, all the returning junk had filled it up. I listened, and didn't hear any 'plink'ing, and the pile wasn't moving, so I figured they were gone.

That settled, I set out for the road again. That'd woken me up, and the storm was over. So, back to walking. Until I got to the next city, but I wasn't in a rush. People would still be there when I got there.