DVANDOM _____ ______ _____ _______ THE DEATH DUCK SAGA part 3 of 7 [ ]__ [ ] [] [ ]__)) [ ] ` [ ]__ #92 - "The Politics of Dreaming" [ ] [ ] [] [ ] \\ [ ] [ ] copyright 1998 Dave Van Domelen [_] [_]__[] [_] \\ [_]___/ [_]____ -------]==+ <*> +==[------- [cover shows Squidman and Macroman being shot at by a number of armored figures, pained expressions visible even through their masks. A "pop up" bubble in the lower right shows a female figure in elaborate bladed and spiked armor, with the question posed, "Who Is die Stahltraumerin?"] A square meter of drywall suddenly burst outward in a cloud of gypsum dust and fragments of two-by-four, forcing Squidman to duck down as he tried to find some kind of cover in the largely-prefab building. He only caught the occasional glimpse of his power-armored attackers as he ran, mainly by looking through the holes they were making with their heavy weapons. They didn't seem concerned about defending the building, just killing him and Macroman. "Shane? Sidewinder?" he shouted into his comm.thingy. Still no answer. "Macroman, any luck?" The link crackled to life with the voice of the superfast Macroman. "Not much. I didn't bring any anti-armor weapons from the old Robo Warriors gear, so I'm limited to tripping them up and drawing fire away from you. Man, did we spam their puppies or something? They're fighting like fanatics! Scared fanatics," he added. "We can sort out their motives later. Right now, we need to get away from this mess and find out why the others aren't responding," Squidman dove behind a row of filing cabinets, more in hopes of getting away from the shrapnel than any direct shots. "Get ready to switch to sonar, I'm going to ink them." "Gotcha." Squidman pulled a small, rubbery object from his utility.thingy and crushed a small glass ampule inside it with a sharp crack. It turned black and started to swell like a balloon, then he tossed it over the filing cabinets through one of the many holes in the wall. An instant later, it burst open, releasing an inky cloud that absorbed light all the way from radar and radio up to hard ultraviolet. Then he ran for it. As he figured, the goons increased their rate of fire, assuming the ink cloud was prelude to an attack. Firing blind, they might even take out some of their own. But Squidman's main concern was getting away from a potentially pointless fight and finding out what was going on, so he vaulted out a shattered window and saw Macroman way ahead of him on the way back to where the van should have been parked. Just as Macroman got around the corner, Squidman heard a dull thud, and Macroman bounced back into view, dazed and possibly all the way unconscious. Sidewinder followed a moment later, also obviously not under his own steam. Squidman dropped back into a defensive pose, ready for fight or flight. Then Shane stepped around the corner. He showed no sign of having been in a fight, his gleaming steel second skin unmarred and shining in the sunlight. All of Squidman's internal alarms started screaming. "I think I've let you alien impostors go far enough, 'Squidman,'" Shane snarled, grinning cruelly.... * * * * "And I'm going to teach you a lesson or two..." threatened the new arrival. No one moved for a long moment that stretched, in that way dreams have, into an eternity. The shadows and lightnings slowly drifted away, revealing more of the armored figure, the blades and spines of her raiment making her resemble a deadly orchid, or perhaps a fallen star. Fear danced briefly across Anna's features, while Al seemed pensive, as if searching for a memory. VAXX's expression remained unreadable beneath his beige-colored monitor helmet. Kat simply snarled, and broke the moment. "Here's a lesson for you!" she shouted, leaping cat-like at the intruder. As she moved, she blurred and grew, becoming a sleek robotic panther, a form she'd worn longer than any other in her life, and one tied to her fighting reflexes. The great cat landed behind the newcomer and swatted at her with a tail crackling with fusion power. "No...!" Kid Pocky blurted out, still unsure of the stranger's identity, but growing in confidence that attack was not a wise move. With contemptuous ease, the lethal steel flower unfolded and intercepted the tail-strike with her barbed spear, black and howling with night terrors. Reality blinked...the sort of flicker you feel when you're coming out of a dream and slowly losing contact with it. When sensation returned, the giant robotic panther was gone, replaced by a piteously screaming woman, scarred and burned and limbless and horribly disfigured and without the strength to scream louder than a whisper. "My...God..." Anna gasped at the horribly wounded...person before her, hardly recognizable as human, let alone female. "What did you DO to her?" she demanded, whirling on the armored woman, flames seething behind her eyes. "Not I," she demurred. "Someone else did this to her, I merely brought back the nightmares she had for decades afterward." "Put. Her. Back," Al said in an even, but deadly tone. For just a moment, the image of his waking self that he wore here in the dream cracked a tiny bit, and the spear-carrier took a step back in caution. "Ooookay," she replied, tapping Kat with her spear again. "But remember, *she* attacked *me* first." Suddenly, Kat was as she looked awake, but curled up in a foetal ball, gasping for breath and clutching herself as if trying to make sure her arms wouldn't go away again. As the terror slowly faded from her eyes, it was replaced by rage. Al looked torn, obviously wanting to rush to her side, but knowing that it might do more harm than good. "Maybe she attacked first, but you threatened to," Anna pointed out, edging between Kat and the other woman. "I HATE dealing with people from Dramatic universes...sigh. Try to be literal and they never interpret it correctly. Young Dreamqueen, I have come to teach you something about this land you've inherited, since it's obvious things are heating up." "You're from the Dream Court?" Al ventured. "More or less," she nodded. "I have many names and titles, but the one I like best is 'die Stahltraumerin'...the Steel Dreamer. I'm a kind of roaming enforcer, keeping trouble in these little podunk dreamlands from growing out of control and interfering with the Court." [Her name is pronounced "dee stall-TROW-mare-in," roughly. It's German. - Herr Ed.] "Thuh Marshal," drawled the VAXX, like a character in an old Western. "Ayup," die Stahltraumerin drawled back. * * * * Squidman was in a VERY bad position. He'd never quite realized just how powerful Shane was, since the team had mainly fought enemies who were an order of magnitude stronger, or who were threats on a non-physical plane. But Shane was inhumanly fast, strong and tough, and didn't seem susceptible to fatigue while he was armored up. He was fast enough to catch Macroman by surprise, at least, having better reflexes than the speedster. Only the most desperate, random dodging was keeping Squidman out of his teammate's grasp. "You're only prolonging the inevitable, alien!" Shane hissed as Squidman's cape came away in his grasp. The cape exploded into a mass of sticky filaments, ensnaring him and giving Squidman a much-needed few seconds of breathing space. "Gah! Dirty trick!" "Shane, I'm not an alien impostor. Would an impostor know that you're a psychic time traveller, displaced from the year 2077 after fighting against DeFacto V?" Squidman countered, gathering a number of explosive projectiles into his hand. "Naturally, since you aliens captured the real Dvandom Force and have them locked in stasis tubes, psychically linked to your shape-shifting agents so all their knowledge belongs to you slime-suckers!" Shane snarled, tearing away the last of the filaments that impeded his motion. Squidman wracked his brain as he peppered Shane and the ground around him with small explosive charges. Could this be some sort of failsafe device implanted in Shane when he got his powers from the Century Pact? No, that didn't make sense...they would have activated it when they were still alive...unless they expected no worse than a standoff in the final battle [Dvandom Force #89 - Ed.] and were conserving him for later. He dodged a roaring charge that left Shane embedded in a concrete pillar up to his shoulders. But alien impostors? Seemed far-fetched for a failsafe. And it didn't really explain the armored goons in there, who seemed to have finally run out of ammo. They might have been able to trigger something left behind in Shane's mind, but why would they be fighting like they expected to be killed? "If we're impostors, why would we be searching for the cause of bad dreams, practically inviting someone to peer into our minds at some point down the line?" Squidman countered as Shane shook himself out of the pillar. "Throw me off the scent, maybe? It won't matter once I paint this loading dock in your purple blood, alien!" Shane shouted, hurling a chunk of concrete like a major league fastball. It missed, but shrapnel from its shattering lanced through Squidman's shoulder. Something...he almost lost it in the intense pain...dreams! Of course! This was another attack by their nocturnal tormentor, who had already proven his ability to inflict waking dreams! Shane must have proved exceptionally susceptible, and was dreaming that his teammates had been replaced by aliens. The goonsquad might be under a similar dream. Squidman rolled out of the way of another attack, more slowly than he was comfortable with, and pulled out a special Squidrang, the one containing his Superconducting Quantum Interference Detector [SQuID - Ed.]. If this was purely psychic and not something originating in Shane's cyborg parts, he could be shut down. But Squidman had to let Shane catch him, and hope he survived the next few seconds...a big reason he hadn't already tried this. He dodged a little too slowly, just enough to be caught without looking like he wanted to be caught. Shane squeezed, and red spots swam in front of Squidman's eyes as his ribs ground together, but Shane had let him keep his arms free...no doubt thinking that nothing in the Deepsea Detective's arsenal could penetrate his steel skin. The SQuID didn't have to. Squidman slammed it down onto Shane's chest, and it immediately started searching for the frequency that his cybernetic power source operated on. Shane let go and started reaching for the device, but suddenly he doubled over in pain as a forced transformation overcame him. Metal turned liquid and began to seep back into his pores, unevenly and painfully. In a moment, Shane was fully human again, and gasping with pain. A swift boot to the head dropped him into unconsciousness, and a popped ampule of knockout gas in his face ensured he'd stay there for a while. * * * * "So, 'Dee,' if you're the law around here, why didn't you do anything about the monster that my father became?" Anna snarled, her tone mocking. "Watch it, honey...I've had this job longer than your homeworld's had agriculture. You may be royal, but I can still kick your backside around this island without breaking a sweat. You want me on your side." Al put a restraining hand on Anna's shoulder. "Calm down...we've got one confirmed enemy here, possibly two. We don't need a third." He turned to die Stahltraumerin. "She has a point, however. Mr. Gain was definitely spreading his spam beyond this realm, why didn't you shut him down?" The enforcer shook her head. "It's not my job to stop him from attacking the waking world. He was merely using this dreamscape as a base of operations...the actual attack was from a Spham-based reality into your waking world. I don't regulate extracurricular stuff. And yes, you might be able to argue that his plan would eventually have impacted the Dream Court, but he *did* move with exceptional speed. The Court is still adapting to the Information Age...Mr. Gain was able to move far more quickly than he would have twenty years ago. We 'Marshals' are spread pretty thin, his entire plot blossomed between the visits I paid to this particular backwater on my normal circuit." "But you have time to come back now," Kat glared at die Stahltraumerin. "I *made* time," came the retort. "Any realm with a new ruler gets moved up to more frequent visits, in case the newbie has visions of conquest and expansion...not to mention in case any neighbors have similar visions. And it's good for you I did, this place has been a practical revolving door for troublemakers." "Like Zklmcgyx, and whoever attacked me a little while back," Anna nodded. "You missed one." "Dante," Al said. "Give that reincarnate a cigar," the enforcer grinned. "I've seen plenty of sorcerors muscle their way into a dreamscape, but that's the first time I've seen it done technologically. He was a real bastard, so I decided to deal with him before he figured out how to expand his power into other dreamlands." "So...he's not the one who attacked me?" Anna asked. "I think that was kinda implied. But, no, he won't be bothering anyone, ever again." "You killed him?" Al frowned. "Never-ending nightmare. Even nastier. And before you get all sanctimonious on me...as if any of you is in a position to grab the moral high ground...keep in mind that once he started messing with dreams on a large scale, he came under my jurisdiction. His transgression was one of the bigger ones on the books...he was all set to start gobbling up dreamlands wholesale, and we don't allow that. I put him down. So...your first lesson is, stick to your own realm. Or else. Even if you had the power and experience to beat me...which you don't...you could never handle the guy they'd send to avenge me." There was another moment of silence. "Who sent the attack dreams, then?" Kat asked, now finally on her feet again. "Not my problem. My problem is getting the Dream Princess here up to speed on a few things so that she can deal with the problem herself. The attacker isn't breaking any of the rules...he's free to bother you all he wants the way he's going at it now. If he crosses the line, I'll step on him. But he hasn't," die Stahltraumerin shrugged. "And I think it's about time you started putting your own messes right anyway." "Ah hates ducks," the VAXX drawled. "Wabbit Season," die Stahltraumerin countered. "Who *is* this guy, anyway? I can't get a bead on him." "A victim of his own success," Anna sighed. "Don't worry, he's harmless, by his own preference." The armored woman peered into the computer screen the VAXX wore like a second face. "He's a Crossover, isn't he?" "No, we're not crossing over with anything right now," Al replied. "And VAXX doesn't have his own title." "Nonono...not that kind. He crossed over from the waking world to the dreamlands on his own, without first bring brought over by someone else. Mr. Gain was a Crossover, and so are the ancestors of all the 'natives' of the dreamlands. Normally a Crossover creates his own dreamscape on arrival, that's how the dreamlands expand...there were no dreamlands until someone was strong enough to cross between the waking and dreaming worlds. So...where's his dreamscape?" "You're standing in it," Anna replied, as if she just made the connection herself. "My father's magic drew power from this realm, as did mine until I gave up that form of spellcasting. It came into being when the VAXX crossed over, but apparently stretched back in time as well due to the odd circumstances surrounding the VAXX's origin. When Umlaut forced my father bodily into Harnegu...this dreamscape...my father was corrupted into Mr. Gain and his magicks twisted the realm to his bidding." "Nonsense. I may not visit this place often, but I would have known if it were taken over while its original ruler was alive," die Stahltraumerin insisted. "You're not accounting for the perverse way time works in the Looniverse," Al countered. "Trust me on this, I've lived several lifetimes in the space of three decades, time folding inside out around me at times. Mr. Gain came into power *before* the realm was created, but the realm was created backwards in time to a point early enough for Gain to arrive. So he had first claim, and the VAXX never contested it." Die Stahltraumerin shook her head to clear it. "VAXX, do you claim rulership of this dreamland?" He simply said, "Lynk's the dreamqueen. I'm the protector." A few blades clanked as she shrugged and sighed. "I suppose I can allow it. You'll need to fill out some paperwork when we get to the Dream Court, though. An unfortunate side-effect of *someone's* meddling with the Multiversal Bureaucracy," she shot a slidelong look at Al [referring to the events of "Bad Forms" in Constellation #14-16 - Ed.]. "When do we leave?" Al shot back. "*You* don't." The enforcer gestured to take in herself, Anna and the VAXX. "*We* leave for the Dream Court immediately." * * * * The dust was settling, and the unnatural inky black fog had long since dissipated. The morning sun shone in through multiple holes in the walls and ceiling, which had collapsed in several places under the barrage of large- caliber automatic fire. "I'm dry," one of several powerarmored figures said, ejecting an empty cartridge from the rotary cannon housed in his armor's left shoulder mount. "Anyone else still have ammo?" A quick chorus of negatives followed. "Let's go back down and reload," another suggested. "Negative," the first replied, shaking his head as much as the bulky armor would allow. "That's exactly what THEY want us to do...as soon as we head back into the bunker, they'll just blow the entrance and bury us alive. Just like in the dream." There were murmurs of uncertain assent. Vague worries nagged at them, years of combat training trying to assert themselves, but the vivid dreams they'd been suffering overrode any logic. "We probably got the speedster," the leader noted, "or he'd already be in here dismantling us. Guess he couldn't dodge ALL the bullets. That traitor, 'Boxer,' might still be out there, though. We don't know if the metal skin Hunter's people gave him [a somewhat biased view of Dvandom Force #81 - Ed.] can stop armor-piercers. The other two are probably dead if they were anywhere near this place when the shooting started. Here's the plan: we stay together and search for Boxer. Together we can probably overwhelm him, but if we split up he'll just pick us off one by one. Warm up the vibrablades and let's move out." A grim sort of silence ensued, broken by the crunch of metal boots on shredded wood, the low hum of the energized daggers built into the armor, and the occasional clatter of falling drywall or breaking glass. Then the sound of a van engine being started up cut into the Sko.key morning air. "Jojo, you got the sensor suite, what's it say?" the leader asked. "Just a sec...hooking into the park's security cameras...it's them, sir! They turned tail and ran!" Jojo hissed. "They'll be back with more firepower, we gotta take 'em down now!" the leader bellowed. "Let's go!" The slow, cautious pace was abandoned as the squad burst out through the few remaining walls of the building and ran into the parking lot. The van was getting near the exit, and the security gate wasn't going to stop a determined driver. "Grenades, ev...!" "DEACTIVATE YOUR WEAPONS AND GET READY TO SHOW YOUR REGISTRATIONS FOR THOSE ARMORS!" boomed a voice from overhead. Everyone looked up to see a flattened, rounded cylinder painted black with white letters that read SWAC floating overhead. "THIS IS THE SIG.AGO SPECIAL WEAPONS AND CHEEEZ UNIT, AND WE REPEAT, DEACTIVATE YOUR WEAPONS OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO OPEN FIRE!" "Damn," the leader sighed, motioning for his men to disarm. "Well, at least we'll be safe from those 'heroes' in custody. I hope." He'd seen what the SWAC's non-lethal Cheeez-based weaponry could do, and it wasn't pleasant. * * * * "They're coming with me," Anna insisted, gesturing at Kid Pocky and Kat. Die Stahltraumerin shook her head. "They're just dreamers. Dreamers don't get to enter the Dream Court...no dreamer has entered the central realm in ages." "But, they're..." Anna hesitated, searching for some justification. Al stepped up. "Under the Dream Court Code of Personnel Management, a Dream Ruler is allowed to bring a cabinet of his, her or its choosing when on official business at the Court. This cabinet may include a Nightmare, a Vizier, a Captain of the Guard, a Minister of Protocol, a..." The Steel Dreamer interrupted, "Yes, yes, I know the rules. But those presume the posts to be filled by those born in the dreamlands, or at the very least Crossovers." "Presumption is a tricky thing," Al countered. "If I recall correctly, nowhere in the Code does it explicitly state that the posts cannot be filled by dreamers. Once there, we can petition for recognition of our official status, but regardless of the outcome, it's not your problem. Just let us come along." "Fine. I *presume* you claim the post of Minister of Protocol, since you're so fond of citing rules and regulations?" "Well, Vizier is a more general position, more appropriate to a minimal cabinet. And Kat will be Lynk's Nightmare." This got skeptical looks from everyone present except the VAXX, who was building a sand castle and populating it with small beetles in medieval garb. "You've seen it yourself, she certainly contains enough nightmares to qualify," Al explained. Die Stahltraumerin shrugged. "I suppose. Let's get going," she gestured, and a ship appeared on the shore nearby. * * * * As much as he disliked running from the scene, Squidman knew he couldn't handle those armors on his own. Especially since it would mean leaving his unconscious teammates out where they might be found and killed. Fortunately, all the shooting earlier had alerted the police, who had sent a team capable of dealing with powerarmors, to judge from the chatter on the police band. Driving like a madman out of the light industrial park, Squidman saw the armored goons burst out of the building and start to give chase...then stop abruptly. He heard the faint sound of bullhorns over the roar of the van's engine, and knew things were in hand. He'd file a report later. Now...now he had to get the team back to base and see if Lynk could do anything about Shane. "Whu...what happened?" Macroman groaned as the bouncing of the van rudely roused him. "Just a bad dream, Doug," Squidman sighed. * * * * "...you see, the Dream Court is less a court in the royal sense, and more a court in the legal sense. It's a place where disputes between the powers that be can be resolved before they erupt into all-out war," the Dream Court's enforcer explained. "The dreamscape it exists in is one of the oldest ever created by the dreams of living beings, and the oldest in this 'world.' As I said before, no dreamers go there anymore, the only residents are those who actually live in the dreamlands full time, or who can physically enter them." "Wait, this 'world?'" Kat asked, taking her eyes off the sea foam that seemed to whip by at supersonic speeds despite the gentleness of the breeze filling the sails. "There's an infinite number of universes...an infinity of infinities, actually," Al pointed out. "You can't expect all dreamers everywhere to enter a single finite plane? Of course not. This dreamworld is a cluster of individual dreamlands that have, for whatever reason, sprung up in close contact with each other. But the Court at its center only has to deal with this finite number, although it may be a very large number by now." "Correct," die Stahltraumerin nodded. "There's no guarantee of a logical mapping of dreamlands or dreamworlds onto waking ones...Miss Tanner's own realm gets visitors from both your 'Looniverse' and several non-fictional universes. Sometimes there is order...the dreamlands of the Superguy Altiverses are more nicely ordered, remaining within the Altiversal scheme. But ours is a somewhat more chaotic dreamworld, which means much more business for the Dream Court, and more need for a large hierarchy of powers." Kat cocked her head. "How do you know about Superguy? Do your patrols take you there as well?" "A few of your recent population exchanges resulted in misplaced dreamers for a while, we had to contact their Dreamqueen's people and get things sorted out. A more solid alliance was proposed, but she claimed that this was up to the Authors, some sort of cosmic powers with the brains of toast." She shrugged. "If there weren't problems, I'd be out of a job, so I guess I can't complain too much." "Mmmm, toast," the VAXX mused. They were starting to see islands more and more on the horizon, shooting past like birds darting after prey. "There's a sort of population reversal as we move towards the Court," die Stahltraumerin explained, gesturing at the islands. "The way this dreamworld is laid out, the dreamers tend to be scattered out at the edges, while the natives cluster at the center. Pretty soon we'll hit the continent, and you won't see hardly any dreamers. Expect to get some pointed stares, you two," she glanced over at Kat and Al. "Some of the continentals tend to think of dreamers as cattle, or sheep. A resource to be herded, not a voice to be listened to. Learn to put up with it, since they can kick you out with a thought if you get uppity." "Baaaa," snarked Kat. ============================================================================ Next Issue: The Dream Court revealed! Can Shane be saved? And if this is called the Death Duck Saga, where the heck is Death Duck? ============================================================================ Author's Notes: When I initially wrote the scene with Mark Dante getting his comeuppance in #79, I left things kinda vague. I was hoping to possibly set up some kind of cameo from The Mason Kramer's Superguy series, since he dealt extensively with dreaming and the like. While he did express interest, things never quite came together, so I decided not to give the character any direct links to Superguy. My goal in establishing all this Dream Court stuff is to create a rich background that other writers can use if they want (but ask first, I may have unpublished details you can use), but at the same time set it up so that others didn't HAVE to use my version of things. If you think dreamscapes should work differently, then you need only have yours exist on a different "world" from mine, possibly so isolated that none of the same rules are in effect (some dreamscapes have no world to link to and exist totally independently, without any sort of Dream Court, for instance). The effects of the Bad Forms crossover have yet to fade in my dreamworld because of the way so many people rationalized their experiences (see Pliable Lad's Bad Forms episodes, for instance) as dreams. The memories became persistent nightmares, which helped shape the nature of the dreamlands. Glossary: Cross Over - To enter the dreaming world either physically or with an overwhelming psychic presence, thus generating a new dreamscape. Crossover - One who has crossed over, usually the ruler of a dreamscape. Dream Court - A place where disputes between rulers of dreamscapes are resolved. Sometimes run by an absolute ruler who hands down decisions, sometimes acts as a parliament or even a place for individual dealmaking. Dreamer - A mind projected into a dreamscape. Not really there, cannot be physically harmed but might be psychologically damaged. Will vanish upon waking. Bisz are one form that weaker dreamers take when in Harnegu. Dreaming World - Any reality which can theoretically be observed or entered by the dreaming mind of a sleeping being. Usually refers to the specific dreamworld of the speaker. Dream Princess/Prince - Derogatory term for a neophyte Dreamqueen or Dreamking, implying lack of experience and power. Dreamqueen, Dreamking, etc - The ruler of a dreamland. Does not connote relative power in the dreamworld, and only the permanent residents of the Dream Court usually bother with other titles. Dreamscape, Dreamland - An individual domain created and/or ruled by a powerful presence who has either broken through from the waking world, or is descended from one who did. Dreamscapes attract Dreamers, especially those with some contact with the dreamscape's creator. Dreamworld - An agglomeration of anywhere from one to infinite dreamscapes, where it is possible for different dreamscapes to interact or even absorb each other. Specific rules vary. Harnegu - AKA Net.Zealand. The dreamscape generated by the VAXX when he crossed over, but ruled initially by Mr. Gain and now ruled by Lynk. A very new and isolated dreamscape, but eclectic in the dreamers it attracts. Nightmare - When used as a title, it refers to a being that can inflict bad dreams on dreamers. Most are natives, born into the dreamworld without a realm of their own to rule, and they absorb negative imagery from dreamers to use on other dreamers later on. The exact nature of Nightmares is as varied as the dreamworlds they inhabit, but people can have bad dreams without the intercession of a Nightmare. Stahltraumer(in), die - The Steel Dreamer. Roaming bearer of the authority of the Dream Court in the dreamworld that includes Harnegu. Charged with the business of locating possible conflicts in the outer realms that have not yet established ties with the Court directly, or choose to remain isolated from the politics there. Waking World - Everything that isn't the Dreaming World, but generally referring to the realities that supply dreamers to a particular dreamworld.