DVANDOM _____ ______ _____ _______ LOOSE ENDS Part 5 of 5 [ ]__ [ ] [] [ ]__)) [ ] ` [ ]__ #89 - "Hope's End" [ ] [ ] [] [ ] \\ [ ] [ ] copyright 1998 Dave Van Domelen [_] [_]__[] [_] \\ [_]___/ [_]____ -------]==+ <*> +==[------- [cover is solid black, divided vertically by a rough white bar which seems to glow with an inner light (it's a glow in the dark cover gimmick)] "Unit Xer0, Unit 0ne, this is control," Stan's voice spoke through the cockpit radio. "Sensors still show nothing from here...any visual?" "Just trees and big purple rocks," Kat replied from the controls of Unit 0ne, the second Angstvangelion Zwarghoff had hastily assembled. While the mad scientist from 000SUPERGUY had felt that Kat would function better in Unit Xer0, having piloted it before, Kat couldn't make herself get into that machine after what had happened to her last time she piloted it [last issue - Ed]. So Kid Pocky was here at the controls of Unit Xer0, the green paint still missing in places where armor plates had been patched after its battle with Seth, the serpentine agent of the Century Pact. "Ditto," Kid Pocky said. It felt odd to speak into liquid, the anti-shock fluid surrounding him also acting as breathable medium. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be a clone growing in a vat, as opposed to the cleaner GIF-clone method he had once used in his previous lifetimes [Kid Pocky used to be Acton Lord - Ed.]. He had expected it to smell strange...but the fluid had flooded his sinuses and overwhelmed his odor receptors almost instantly, acclimatizing him to whatever aroma it might have. The hardest part was speaking, which required more effort than usual to force the fluid past his vocal cords. At least he didn't have to work his lungs to breathe in the soupy medium. The bulk properties of the liquid let it hold as much oxygen in one lungful as he'd need for an hour or more. The gentle circulation caused by his reflexive attempts at normal breathing was enough to ensure he wouldn't suffocate. "Infrared shows nothing larger than a squirrel in the area," Pocky added. "No masochistic campers out to hike the Noise Age Trail this time of year, and we're far enough out from the main parts of the state park that we shouldn't have to worry about innocent bystanders right away." "Confirmed," Kat added a little guiltily. Sounded like she hadn't even considered looking for bystanders. "Well, keep an eye peeled," Stan warned. "According to the mapping records we downloaded from Doug's wristcomps, you should be almost on top of the Century Pact's base, assuming nothing's wrong with your inertial guidance systems." "Guys, be careful about believing what you see," Anna broke in on the channel. "I think Mr. Zklmcygx [last seen in RACC Presents #3 - Ed] is still around, tormenting the Pact because he thinks they're on my side. You might get caught in the fringes of one of his waking dreams...or if we're really invoking Murphy today, he might figure out he was tricked and start after us in earnest." "Just what we need," sniped Kat. "Look, if it looks like he's going to do that, I'll confront him directly and draw him off. Just be careful in case he does something," Lynk repeated her warning. "Roger on that," Kid Pocky acknowledged. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "A few minutes more..." Joe anxiously watched the monitor screens, two red blips on them moving inexorably towards a flashing green square on the topographic map displayed on the wall. Dirk entered the control room, smoothing a stray hair back into place. "Are they still on a straight-line advance?" he asked, sitting next to Joe and scrutinizing the readouts. "Yep. They definitely know where the main entrance is. That 'ghost' blip we had shortly after Seth was destroyed must have been their speedboy backtracking the Agent. But they don't seem to be aware of the secondary entrance," he pointed at the screen, and a second flashing square lit up. "At this pace, they'll pass it by in two minutes, then we can spring our other Agents on 'em from behind." "Good. So predictable...sometimes I actually find the absurd physical laws of this era advantageous." "Speaking of absurd, have you taken care of our other little problem?" Joe asked. Dirk scowled. "Hopefully. You were right, whatever is affecting our Centurions has to do with dreaming...or, at least, the ability to sleep and dream. Which is why we and a few of the more advanced Centurions were immune. At the moment, the most likely hypothesis is that Mr. Dante, who has been resting in our observation lab since we recovered him from that mental institution, is using his powers unconsciously." "Solution?" "I contemplated killing him, but ended up locking him in a cryofreeze chamber. If these events persist, I will investigate removing him to another location." "Gotcha. In the meantime, I've disabled the base's self-destruct mechanisms, just in case one of them dreams that the self-destruct is a video game or something," Joe noted, drawing a puzzled expression from Dirk. "We have a self-destruct? WHY?" Joe shrugged. "Blame the whacky laws of nature. It just sort of appeared once the base was completed. I think it's a rule that all net.villain bases have to have easily-located self-destruct devices. I can usually keep 'em turned off for a few days at a time, so don't worry." "Please tell me it's not a big red button that says 'Do Not Push Unless You Really Mean It.'" "Nope," Joe grinned. "It's a big green button that says 'Push For Refund,'" he paused. "Kidding! It's more like one of those Trek consoles." The red blips passed the second flashing green square. "Unleash the Agents," Dirk said flatly, his grim countenance looking almost bored compared to the excited grin on Joe's face. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Still nothing. Maybe they abandoned this one too?" Kid Pocky asked. "I doubt it...I can still feel ripples in the dreamscape," Anna replied over the comlink. "That dream-imp wouldn't still be there if it were abandoned." "He might stick around to torment any token force left to delay us, though," Kat suggested. "Either way, don't let your guards down," Stan advised. "Even a token force could be danger...ENERGY SPIKE! Behind you!" Both of the Angstvangelion units whirled to see a hillside open up and disgorge a pair of bizarre figures obviously cut from the same metallic cloth as the one which attacked the Dvandom Force HQ two days ago. One seemed to be roughly humanoid, but made up of highly reflective metal spheres and oblate spheroids, with a faintly pink haze connecting these pieces together. The other was simply a huge Keith-Giffen-style free-floating mouth, perhaps thirty meters across with withered lips and jagged teeth. Reflexively, Al brought Unit Xer0's G*nd*m Beam Rifle up and fired into the mouth...to no effect. It seemed to swallow the energized plasma, and then grinned at him. Kat took aim at the humanoid, and even before she fired Al had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that it wouldn't work. He started diving aside just in time, as Kat's shot entered the haze and bounced off several of the huge metal surfaces before lancing back out at where Unit Xer0 had been standing merely a second before. "Direct fire won't work, use alternate tactics," Stan suggested superfluously. Unit Xer0 leapt into the air, pirouetting like a scarecrow ballerina in an attempt to get behind the grinning mouth...but Al noted with horror that the mouth seemed to remain facing him no matter how quickly he moved. "Kat, is the mouth still pointed at you?" he called out. "Yes," was her terse reply as she aimed her rifle at the ground under her opponent's feet, churning up a dust cloud in hopes of dirtying its reflective surfaces. Kid Pocky stowed his rifle. The mouth was just a projection of some sort, perhaps even psionic. The creature was really just a free-floating hole in space, a hungry maw with no front or back. And he noted with a twinge of fear that the dust cloud had failed to adhere to the "metal" giant, possibly because it wasn't really metal, but a composition of force fields. If neither of these opponents had a physical form, they were really in trouble. Kat fired with wide dispersion on her foe, in hopes of minimizing any reflected return fire, but found herself dodging a refocused reflection which nearly seared Unit 0ne's leg. For his part, Al commanded Unit Xer0 to pick up one of the huge blocks of quartzite that littered the landscape. So far, the controls were responding well enough without having to wallow in angst, which was good. But he doubted he'd need to fake despair if things didn't get better. Unit Xer0 hurled the boulder at the mouth, which vanished under its bulk for a moment, the boulder imbedding itself in the tree-lined hill. Maybe it was possible to choke the thing? Or maybe not. A moment later, it was as if the boulder were swirling down a drain, and the mouth was back in the air, floating towards Unit Xer0 with a malefic grin. Meanwhile, Kat had entered direct hand to hand combat, her rifle destroyed when another beam was channeled directly back into it. This seemed to be marginally more successful, but the component parts of her foe could easily separate and then reintegrate when Unit 0ne's fist or leg had passed through. She switched tactics and started targeting specific parts, trying to knock them far enough out of the haze that they couldn't rejoin, and this seemed to be slowly working. However, her opponent wasn't limited to purely defensive powers, and it was inflicting a terrible beating on Unit 0ne with its spherical "fists." Unit Xer0 danced back and dodged around, trying to keep the all- devouring mouth at bay while Al wracked his brains for a tactic which would work on an enemy with apparently no solid parts. Then one of the metal sphere Kat had punched loose bounced off the back of the mouth, deflecting slightly before crashing into the trees beyond the range of the fight. Of course! The mouth *did* have a physical form and a back of sorts, but it projected the illusion of always facing any given foe so that they'd *think* it was pointless to attack! Still, it could probably turn faster than Unit Xer0 could circle it, and Kat was too busy fighting a losing battle to help him tag-team his fight. He'd have to do this alone, and fast, or he'd be the one getting ganged up on. Concentrating, Kid Pocky sent his power down along the arm of Unit Xer0, filling a specially-designed magazine with the substance which was his signature. Then Unit Xer0 raised its arm and fired a stream of wheat cracker and chocolate-like substance at the floating mouth. Normally, the Pocky would explode on impact at those velocities, ripping apart its target like a cluster bomb, but the mouth simply ate the projectiles as it would anything else. Then the mouth's evil grin turned into a blissful, satisfied smile. Al took advantage of his foe's momentary pause to once again leap into the air, landing behind it. It still looked like the monster was facing him, but Kid Pocky was betting on that being mere illusion. Aiming the beam rifle he'd unslung during the leap, he fired full power at the mouth. The mouth blew apart into a thousand fragments in one agonized scream. The scream flattened trees for dozens of meters in all directions, and caused the other creature to pause for a moment, letting go of Unit 0ne. "Kat, you know where to stick it!" Al shouted over the comlink as he had Unit Xer0 sling its beam rifle to Unit 0ne. "Right," Kat replied grimly as Unit 0ne caught the rifle and jammed it in between the spheres of the monster's body, thumbing the power supply to overload setting. The two Angstvangelions sprinted for the hill the monsters had emerged from, diving behind it as the rifle exploded. The energy seemed to fill the creature up like water in a balloon. For a moment, the blast was channeled into a single lance of plasma which lashed out towards the meager cover of the hilltop, slicing into it. Then the unleashed power finally overwhelmed the Agent's abilities, and it exploded into a shrapnel of spheroids, shattering trees not already felled by its partner's scream. "How did you distract yours long enough to kill it?" Kat asked while the dust settled. "Easy. I gave it Pocky, the Super Snack. Works even better than those fruit pie things." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Back when they were still merely human, Joe and Dirk (then known as Cobra) had piloted transformable Robovector jets called Steelwind and Darkheart. For truly devastating power they could combine the two jets into one flying fortress known as Steelheart, which used technology raided from future times and alternate dimensions to be impossibly fast, maneuverable and powerful. In piloting the Steelheart, the duo smoothly divided the labor, with Dirk piloting and determining tactics while Joe did the actual shooting. Those who saw them in action would swear that they were two men who acted with one will. Now they were no longer merely human. The two cyborgs didn't enter the immense, multi-headed Hydrablaster Robo through a hatch like normal pilots might...they simply merged with the metal of its skin, flowing into the empty spaces where control systems might exist were the Hydrablaster an autonomous RoboMAC. The same division of labor took place, but now the two men truly were one, mechanical bodies intertwined, mental processes merged yet separate, combining the best aspects of both a single will and a double mind. They were the steel heart of the mighty beast, a metallic creature which would have given the Hydra of myth pause. This hydra was far more powerful than Hercules...at least, more powerful than the old Hercules Robo once piloted by the cyborgs before their master fell to the forces that they would this day dispatch. They were the Hydrablaster, and they were death. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Look out, we have another energy spike coming up from near the main entrance. Gods, it makes the others look like nothing! Heads up people, this is the main event," Stan warned. Both Angstvangelions assumed defensive postures, ready to spring away at the first hint of attack. Kid Pocky was worried about Kat...Unit 0ne no longer had a ranged attack, now that both rifles had been destroyed. Maybe this opponent would be even more resistant to beam rifles than the warm-up squad had been...but maybe those two had been sent out to exhaust such weapons, so that the "Boss" wouldn't have to worry about them. Unit 0ne drew its vibroknife, a puny-looking weapon on the scale of the towering Angstvangelions, but still large enough to slice a jumbo jet up like pepperoni. Then the huge metallic hydra burst from the ground in front of them, making its own exit from the underground passageways, plasma flames issuing in gouts from its many heads. Unit Xer0 avoided the initial salvo and replied with a stream of explosive Pocky which churned up the flanks of the hydra and blasted one of its necks in two, dropping a head to the ground. Unit 0ne was not so lucky, being a fraction of a second too slow due to damage sustained in the opening round, and its left leg was melted off by a focused plasma burst. Kat slashed out with the vibroknife, severing the head which had disabled her. Two down, seven to go. Suddenly, to Kat's and Kid Pocky's horror, the behemoth simply moved forward and absorbed the severed heads into its body. In seconds, the heads reappeared, and the damage Unit Xer0's attack had done was gone. "Nanos," Kat hissed as she tried to force her balking Angstvangelion to a kneeling position. Another burst of plasma severed Unit 0ne's left arm, sending the Robo crashing to the ground. All nine heads smiled, then spoke with one voice. "This will be ever so satisfying," the voices purred, harmonizing in an oddly discordant way which sent shivers up Kid Pocky's spine. "Cut off a head, and another shall grow to take its place. But we can't say the same about your amateurish Robos, can we?" Then a combined blast from three heads vaporized Unit 0ne's head. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- As if he had been teleported in, Shane Boxer appeared out of nowhere in one of the corridors near the main entrance. He paused for a moment, slightly disoriented, then tapped the spot on his chest over the specialized organ which had replaced his body's original heart. There was a flash of light as metal seeped out of his skin and flowed over his body, forming a flexible shell of steel-like hardness. When the light faded, Squidman was standing next to him, apparently recovering from the disorientation effect too quickly for it to even be noticed in him. Finally, Sidewinder appeared, with Macroman next to him, explaining the sudden appearances. Macroman had run the three others in, one at a time, so fast that the sensors on the entrance hadn't been able to see them, using his "popping" ability to bypass the closed door. "Macroman, search pattern. Find me a control room," Squidman ordered. Macroman nodded and tapped a few keys on his wristcomp, initiating a search algorithm to help him run the length of all the corridors as quickly as possible. He vanished in a burst of wind, leaving the other three to wait nervously. "Sidewinder, you'll be with me, you can stall anyone who finds us long enough for Doug to get us out. Shane, find something important-looking and give us two minutes, then start smashing." The two nodded assent, just as Macroman reappeared. "Any luck?" "Yep. Door's heavily locked, but it's at the end of a hallway, so I can build up enough speed to pop through it and get it open for you." "Okay. Netlurker said this virus," Squidman held up a disk, "could rip out any information in the system, transmit it to our computers, then destroy the local computers. It's partly magic, so it should be able to bypass any 2077-era defenses that might be on the system here. Let's go!" [Netlurker is a shadowy mercenary who has worked with Dvandom Force in the past, notably in the Crysys of Ynfynyte Tyms, Dvandom Force #42 - Ed.] -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Unit Xer0 dodged a few desultory blasts from the multiple heads of the hydra. Judging from what Shane had said about the leaders of the Century Pact, Kid Pocky figured that Joe must be indulging in his sadistic streak, toying with him. "Our Hydrablaster is an amazing creation, isn't it? Almost as powerful as the Necrosaur, and possibly harder to destroy," the voices of the non- firing heads gloated. "Had our Lord DeFacto V possessed this refinement of the technology he imparted to us, he might have survived whatever it was you did to him." A claw extruded from the Hydrablaster's body and picked up the limbless torso of Unit 0ne. "Which of you is piloting this fallen Robo?" it asked. "I know you're piloting that one, Kid Pocky...well, we're reasonably sure, unless you equipped both units with Pocky-blasters." The voice shifted, became slightly more like Joe's voice than Dirk's. "I bet it's that bitch, Kopikat. She's the one with the most experience with Robos, since she used to be one," the Hydrablaster leered. "She must cause you guys all SORTS of trouble, what with her past. Tell ya what... before we kill the rest of you, we'll give you the satisfaction of seeing her sent off to Hell(TM) first, okay?" The Claw crushed the outer armor and started to pull the sealed cockpit out of the chest. "NO!" Al shouted, firing a barrage of crunchy-style Pocky at the base of the arm, spattering it to gobbets of liquified metal. As if on reflex, all of the heads blasted his position, and Unit Xer0 narrowly dodged. The ground where he had been standing became a pool of molten glass, dirtied by organic impurities which had once been trees. The voice shifted back towards Dirk's. "Oho...it seems there's more than team camaraderie here. Could it be that our snack-flinging net.hero has feelings for this traitorous wench?" Joe-Hydrablaster muttered from one head, "I can't believe you used the phrase 'traitorous wench,' Dirk." "I wonder what you'll do if I start to crush Kopikat beneath the bulk of the Hydrablaster?" Dirk-Hydrablaster mused. "Perhaps throw yourself into a suicide attack to try and cleave through our body and rescue the fair damsel?" All nine heads chuckled evilly as the Hydrablaster slowly moved forwards. Kid Pocky fired burst after burst of hypervelocity Pocky through the launchers in Unit Xer0's arms, but to no avail. The heads had started firing at the incoming snacks, detonating them harmlessly before they could impact. "Lynk, that thing we discussed!" he shouted into the comlink. "Are you sure? It could be a cure worse than..." she started to reply. "NOW!" he shouted. There was a soft sigh, then the hole opened in the air in front of Unit Xer0's chest. Through it, Al could faintly see the interior of an office. He imagined the thick layer of dust which must be covering everything, even though the image was too wavery to be sure. "What's this?" the Hydrablaster asked, pausing in its advance. Without another word, Al commanded his Angstvangelion to reach through the hole, the reminder of his past misdeeds hanging in the air before him, mocking him. He was trying to solve the problem of today by undoing the solution of yesterday...and if it didn't work, he could have just left things far worse off than if he did nothing. He could feel Unit Xer0's hand close around something small, the biofeedback systems engaged to help with fine motor control. Thus, when the flames rippled up the Angstvangelion's arm, he felt his own flesh seem to burn. He screamed as the fire spread to cover all of Unit Xer0. "So...hoping to save Kopikat by entertaining us with a novel means of killing yourself?" Hydrablaster asked smugly. "Or was it not supposed to do that?" Al felt his hand being torn apart, as if he were trying to hold an angry scorpion with the strength of a thousand scorpions. He had hoped this wouldn't happen...prayed he would be worthy. After all, another "he" had been worthy once...and hadn't he been through Purgatory itself to prove his reform? [Dvandom Force #77-78 - Ed.] No. He shook his head, hardly hearing his own screams ringing strangely in the anti-shock fluid. That was merely the dream of Purgatory. All it meant was that he had defeated his inner demons, and felt he was good enough to enter paradise. Obviously, the angry force in his Angstvangelion's hand held a different opinion. Perhaps it wasn't possible for him to ever be worthy. Considering who he once was, maybe he was the one person in all the Looniverse who could never be worthy. Which meant he'd just killed himself. He'd just doomed the world, possibly in more than one way. He'd just killed Kat. Because he wasn't good enough, could never be good enough, could never be truly forgiven for the life he had once lived, could never...never.... Sometimes despair breaks...like a fever. The delirium is replaced by a cold and empty clarity, a horrible sense of purpose and drive, the worries of the self totally submerged in the certain knowledge that no matter the cost, no matter the pain, what must be done...must be done. The flames vanished, leaving a faint glow. The pain subsided, leaving a dull ache. The face of Unit Xer0, which seemed so sorrowful before, now seemed to have taken on a cast of determination, despite not physically changing at all. The arm of Unit Xer0 withdrew from the shimmering hole in space, clenched into a fist, its prize dwarfed by its mammoth fingers. Hydrablaster said nothing, edging back warily, focusing on the fist, trying to see what it held. It held a small sliver of metal, barely a meter long, poking out of the fist like a splinter. The heads laughed. "You're going to fight us with that puny sword?" Kid Pocky activated the external speakers. "No. With THIS sword." The flames returned, lashing out from Unit Xer0's fist like a hungry serpent. When they subsided, the sword of flame had been replaced by a sword of steel. A sword of light. A Sword of .Sig. Kid Pocky had only seen it twice with his own eyes, and one of those times had felt it slide between his ribs, ending the life of a GIF-clone body he had been inhabiting [in the final part of The Electrocutioner's Song - Ed.]. When he was Acton Lord, it was the Excalibur to his Modred. Now he had claimed it to slay a dragon. He swung the sword in a mighty arc. Some heads flinched back, uncertain whether the blade was a real threat...after all, the Hydrablaster could regenerate any losses. And the heads which were severed were grinning with confidence as they fell to the ground. And crumbled to dust. A claw lashed out to pick up the remains of Unit 0ne. "I don't know what kind of magic you have there, net.hero...but put it away or she dies NOW." Kid Pocky ignored it for the hollow threat he knew it to be. Once he had been the villain of the piece, and he knew that the Hydrablaster would kill them all anyway, if given the chance. He dove into the mass of heads, their plasma blasts searing the armor off Unit Xer0. The Sword of .Sig found its mark, the dark heart of the Hydrablaster. The nanomachines vainly tried to absorb the sword or repair the damage or remove vital parts from the path of the blade...to no avail. The Angstvangelion emerged on the other side of the Hydrablaster, sword in one hand and torso of Unit 0ne cradled in the other. Behind it, the Hydrablaster crumbled to dust as the nanomachines which held it together vanished, absorbed into the ever-changing Sword of .Sig. Then the hills started to erupt with flame as the ground shook from the power of underground explosions. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "What's happening? All the monitors just went blank!" Zwarghoff shouted, hitting keys at random. Then the shockwave reached the mobile command station, rattling it as if a minor earthquake had hit. Everyone looked out the window and saw the mushroom cloud rising from the massive explosion which had just taken place. "Unit 0ne! Unit Xer0! Squidman! Respond! Anyone?" Stan shouted into his microphone. "Squidman here...someone triggered a self-destruct, we barely got out in time. The Angstvangelions must have been right in the middle...I hope they're tough enough to stand up to that." "Well?" Stan turned to Dr. Zwarghoff. "Undamaged, easily. But I doubt they were in pristine condition at the time of the explosion." "Macroman here...I'm scouting as close to the edge as I can...wait, yes, I see one of them walking out of the fire! It's got something big on one hand...and a sword in the other!" Lynk sighed. "It worked. He managed to draw the sword from the terminal." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- The Sun was starting to set. Kat was being tended to at the small hospital set up on the shore of the Noise Age lake. Normally, it dealt with the results of rock-climbing mishaps, so it was well-equipped to handle the battering Kat had taken. The rest were dealing with mop-up, securing the devastated region, talking to the authorities. But Kid Pocky had another authority to deal with, and he stood on the shore of the clear, cold lake waiting for its arrival. "you have my sword," spoke a calm, quiet voice behind Kid Pocky. He turned to see Sig.ma, the new cosmic force of balance in the Looniverse [Last seen in Dvandom Force #72 - Ed.]. "What will happen to the Looniversal Office with the Sword of .Sig removed from it?" he asked. "there will be balance, that is what i do. with the sword i become whole, absorbing both the .sig power invested in the blade and the nanomachines absorbed from your foe. you need not worry about the looniversal office exceeding its role again." Kid Pocky held out the Sword of .Sig, hilt first. "Then take it back. I may be worthy to use it, but it really isn't mine to keep." Sig.ma reached out and touched the hilt, and the sword flowed like water into its body. "farewell," Sig.ma whispered, then left. Kid Pocky smirked. "Still has to get the last word...." ============================================================================= NEXT ISSUE: The Death Duck Saga begins! ============================================================================= Author's Notes: FINALLY! Parts of this story have been sitting around in my head for half a year or more now, I just had to get down to brass tacks and write the thing. While this doesn't tie up all my loose ends (in fact, this arc introduced a few loose ends of its own), it does resolve a number of ongoing plots in what I hope is a satisfying way. A note on one of the imbedded gags. In Evangelion, the first two Evas are called Unit 00 and Unit 01. I merged that with two characters from Christopher Priest's comic Xer0 to get Unit Xer0 and Unit 0ne. Eva fans may note that I put the male pilot into the "wrong" one, but that's because Kid Pocky has more in common with Rei than he has with Shinji. To further explain that bond here would be a spoiler on Evangelion, so I'll stay mum. The real life location of this battle is Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin, mostly in the Ice Age Trail area. Netlurker was created by Mark Friedman.