Troubling Heaven

[TheCheat1]

The ground below Miranda's and Morpheel's feet collapsed. Vayne reacted instantly, firing two shots into Morpheel's chest as he fell. Vayne fired another two at Miranda, but she was already underground. Gabe turned and screamed at Vayne, "Fool! You killed my bounty!" Vayne seemed to ignore Gabe's comment until Gabe fired two shots at him, both veering mysteriously off-course. Vayne aimed his gun and fired, four shots going into Gabe's abdomen. Gave looked down at his own blood, his throat gurgling. He fell to his knees, then on his stomach, dead. "Threat assessment: maximum." Vayne said, looking at Ethian and Mel. "Um, E?" Mel looked up at Ethian. "Friend of yours?" Ethian shook his head slowly. Vayne aimed his gun at Ethian's chest. "Mel! Shield!" Mel grabbed Ethian's mirror shield and leapt upward, holding onto Ethian's leg by wrapping his around it, and held it in front of Ethian's head, not deflecting but blocking the laser. Um... What do we do now?!"

Vayne aimed again, this time at Mel. Litra gasped in horror. "You have to get out of there!" Not without my friend! "You idiot, you're going to get yourself--" She couldn't finish as Vayne fired two shots at Mel. Mel pulled the shield down to cover him almost entirely, blocking the lasers. Vayne seemed undetered. "E? We're probably not going to make it out of this, so there's something I've got to tell you... I'm the one that ate your second kabob back home." Ethian shot a glare at Mel. "I KNEW it! I couldn't prove it, but I knew it was you!" Mel pointed to the Vayne. "I think we have bigger worries right now, though." Vayne aimed, this time at Ethian's head. Vayne put his finger on the trigger... and fell through the ground, the small device causing the shield that was attached to his body smashing into the stone as he fell and deactivating. The ground covered over the hole, trapping Vayne temporarily. The shield fizzled out.

"Finally." Ethian blasted through the material holding him. "Now! We have to go NOW!" Ethian stretched. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, little girl, I heard you." Ethian zipped over, carrying Mel. "Okay, where're we headed?" In the distance, people could be heard. Litra froze in fear. "The village! Any direction but that one! Oh, my, I almost forgot!" Miranda flew out of the ground, unconcious and covered in dirt. "Where's the second one?" Mel asked. "I don't sense him alive down there anywhere-- the lasers killed him. Grab her and hold on, we need to go!" Mel and Litra grabbed onto Miranda and Ethian held onto them as he dashed off at lightspeed, back to where Anna's ship was.

 

[Brilliand]

The sound wave had little effect on the dragon. Lord Viper grinned eerily at Anna as he circled, firing bolts of dragon breath into her armor. His control of the dragon was above such tricks. Though its eyes were wild, the dragon was constrained to obey Lord Viper at any cost. Lord Viper knew its pain, but he mocked Anna for causing it. It wouldn't stop him.

19...18...17... Lord Viper ticked off the seconds in his head until the six rods would be free of the effects of Test of Time. The artifact would on each piece of equipment separately, forcing it to be revealed to the opponent two minutes before it would be able to do anything amazing. 16...15...14... Lord Viper picked up one of the three rods and dropped it into the dragon's body. It vanished as if taking effect, but Lord Viper knew it would have no actual effect until Test of Time let it. 13...12...11...10...9... Lord Viper dropped a second rod into the dragon. Each rod would double the dragon's power and vulnerability, and by the time Test of Time ran out he would be able to fire a shot capable of taking down most dragons instantly.

 

[TheCheat1]

Armor shielding at 47%. Suggest change of tactics. $#&%! At least that device is almost out of power-- then I'll let this fool have it! Anna's propulsion system kicked in, sending her shooting dozens of feet in the air above Viper. Computer, increase sound wave to maximum. If this doesn't blast that dragon's ears off, nothing will. As she descended, Anna aimed her shield-splitter at the dragon. 8 seconds and you're all done. By the time I'm in range, you're done!

 

[Brilliand]

Aron moved along the ground, opening up more rifts. Lava sprayed into the air, and the screech of a gryphon cut throguh the roar of the lava as Lord Dis Bloodgryphon was consumed by the might of a volcano. Escalus fared no better - he was lucky enough to dodge the blast that killed Dis, but the spray wounded him, and he died without a sound, burned by the spray and broken by falling stones. Aden wasn't Aron's direct target, so he was outside of the ring of fire and succeeded in protecting himself with bolts of water.

Querrot finished his spell and cast it, hurling an electomagnetic wave over the land. Aron was hurled backwards and drifted further away, crippled but not quite killed. Querrot lost sight of him, but Aden pursued, circling around Aron's volcano.

--------------------------------------------

Lord Viper plunged the final Curse Tool into the dragon one second before the Test of Tiem ran out, then fired a mighty blast into Anna's armor. She can't last long under that. Just then Anna answered with a combination of the shield-splitter and the sound generator, openign the dragon up to attack and hitting it hard. Although Lord Viper was able to keep the dragon from going crazy, its mind was seriously damaged, and he suddenly realized that he was in danger of getting his pet killed. He forced the dragon to fly backwards and headed back toward the ship, hurling more blasts back at Anna to make pursuit dangerous.

 

[TheCheat1]

Anna's armor was getting far too low shield-wise. Fire seeker missiles at primal form, follow-up with a retreat. Two missiles shot out of each of her arms, then she flew backwards as her propolsion-system initiated. Back to the ship. Those missiles are almost half as armored as my suit-- that dragon is toast, unless he suddenly gets very lucky.

******************************************

Vayne dug himself out of the ground, his ship coming to a landing near him. "Wasting my time here." He said to himself as he climbed aboard; the ship closed up and climbed into the atmosphere, then took off into the far reaches of space.

 

[Brilliand]

Lord Viper saw the missiles coming from a long way off - nearly a mile, by the time Anna launched them. He immediately changed tactics, making his dragon raise a shield. Multiplied by the curse tool, the dragon's shield was now powerful enough to disregard blasts that would kill larger dragons instantly. But it would not be enough - those were space-faring missiles, meant to blow to pieces ships ten times the size of a dragon.

As the missiles approached, Lord Viper picked up two of the three remaining rods and held them like darts, then threw one into each of the two missiles. The blessing tools, the direct opposite of the curse tools, would halve the destructive power of the missiles.

The Viper Dragon managed to get one more eightfold shield up before the missiles struck. One got ahead of the other and its fireball blocked Lord Viper's vision and came dangerously close to the dragon, but the shielding was sufficient and the dragon wasn't even touched, which was good since Lord Viper didn't think it could survive a kid with a rubber hammer right now - especially since the three curse tools would allow a dumb kid to deal enough damage to kill a human quite quickly.

The second missile arrived and exploded, and Lord Viper didn't even have a chance to catch a glimpse of the sky before the first missile, protected from itself by the blessing tool, exploded again. The second missile followed it, and the dragon bumped against the ground, pushed there by the four explosions. It sat there for a full minute before Lord Viper was sure enough of its health to start it flying back toward the ship. On the way, he drew an artifact out of his pocket and ran it along the dragon's back causing the curse tools to pop out. He pocketed them and the last blessing tool, bemoaning the loss of Test of Time and the other two blessing tools.

As he approached the Hollowstar ship, Lord Viper saw a small figure blocking the path to the entrance. He brought the dragon down behind Ilian and jumped off its back, sending it to its "cave" in the side of the ship. He approached Ilian cautiously and asked, "Who are you?"

 

[TheCheat1]

Anna landed back at her ship, and her suit told her the last thing she wanted to hear. Bioentity Ethian Eltii not detected. What?! Where is he?! Sensors indicate subject travel to user's left, approx. 40 miles. 40 miles?! I'll never get there in this suit, not in this condition. Better get back to the ship.

Anna walked up the ramp and multiple robotic hands and wires met and began repairing her suit. The back of her suit opened, allowing her to step out. "Feels good to stretch once in awhile." Anna, the real Anna, was now visible, though no one was around. While she was in that suit, technology allowed her to appear as a human woman, but in reality, she was a Tetnik rebel. She had three eyes, two in human places and one on the forehead, along with only three fingers on each hand. Lastly, she had dull gray skin. "I need to get that suit up and running before I can get the Eltii back here." She said to herself, closing the ship up and bringing it into orbit around the planet. Estimated repair time: 6.313 hours.

******************************************

Mel's eyes drooped. He was tired, more tired than he'd been in a long time. He roasted some feezle meat over a small fire, but even the smell of food couldn't rouse him. Ethian walked over and sat next to him. "Her name's Miranda, according to Litra, and she's a priestess. That guy back there, his name was Morpheel. And from the looks of her memories, she's going to be mighty upset when she finds out the old man's dead." Mel barely acknowledged the sentence and handed Ethian some feezle meat. "Well done, just the way I like it. Thanks buddy."

******************************************

Miranda blinked, and lifted her head. "Oh, good, you're up." Litra smiled and continued stirring a pot of some kind of liquid. "Where am I?" Miranda rubbed her eyes and looked around. "You're still on Poinesta, but that's not what you mean, is it?" Miranda looked at the small girl. "Who-- what are you?" Litra giggled. "I'm a Forseer, silly. And my name is Litra." Miranda sat up. "Alright, but that still doesn't answer my question of where I am." Litra looked at the liquid in the pot and continued stirring. "We don't know that, exactly." She said it with a small grin on her face. "Right now you're in an earth-hut, and the boys are out back making their meal. You may want to go wash up in the creek outside. Oh, I can get most of the dirt off of you."

The dry mud and dirt that had caked itself to Miranda fell to the ground, then collected in a pile and finally flattened. "Go on now, wash up." Miranda nodded and went outside to bend down in the creek. I have to find Master Morpheel. She sprinted forward, running into the thickets. Litra heard and ran outside. "She's running, Eltii!" Ethian was up in a flash, easily picking up Miranda's energy-field when he was looking for it. Stopping in front of Miranda, he grabbed her wrist and sighed. "Please, can we not do this? It's late." Miranda responded by round-house kicking at his face, but she was far too slow to hit him. "Let go of me!" She tried desperately, but her body was exhausted and she was still out of chi.

"Why? So you can go get yourself killed? I don't think so." Ethian bent her arm backward, causing Miranda's knees to buckle and her to fall to the ground. "I have to find my master..." Ethian sighed again. "Don't bother." She looked up at him, he still held her wrist and was holding her down now. "He's dead." Miranda stopped breathing for a second, the shock of his statement sinking in. Litra and Mel came running into the forest, finding Ethian and Miranda after only a few minutes of searching. "She won't stop struggling." Ethian yawned, and Miranda kept trying to break his hold on her. "Sorry, girl. I didn't want to have to do this to you." Litra said sorrowfully as she encased Miranda in rock. "I'll get her back to the hut..." Ethian picked up the girl and zipped off towards the campsite.

******************************************

"Alright Vangel, I understand." Joshua smiled as his friend nodded to him and turned off communication. Vangel was now in another ship, headed for Genesehres. "Enuch, hurry back... I fear what may happen while you're gone." He observed on another monitor as Ethian carried Miranda back to their campsite. "After all, its only a matter of time..." His thoughts were interrupted by a crackling on the monitor. Princess Terra, the monarch of Alek, a territory on Aragithia, came on and waved hello. "Princess! To what do I owe this honor?" Terra smiled. "You know I hate the formalities, just like my father." Joshua nodded. "Yes, so what would be troubling you?" Terra sighed. "The heavens are troubling me, Joshua, as usual."

Joshua put his hand on his chin. "Really? How so?" Terra was silent for a moment, then sighed deeply. "You know of the visions I have, correct?" Joshua only nodded in response. "The visions I have been having lately are of destruction, the entire galaxy in turmoil, and..." Joshua leaned forward. "And?" Terra looked away from the screen. "Death." Joshua sat back and sighed. "Yes, well, naturally, princess." Terra shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. "Not just any death." She struggled to say the words. "Of yours, and Ethian's, and my people..." Joshua's eyes grew wide as a siren went off in the ship. Communication was cut off, and Terra's face disappeared from the monitor. Threat detected. Joshua had barely enough time to react before he felt the impact of a meteorite. His ship rocked violently, and began to fall apart. "Open pods!" He yelled, dashing for an escape pod, but he quickly stopped. "The device! I can't leave it behind!" Joshua ran back to the control deck and grabbed a small device on the dashboard.

******************************************

From Poinesta, a small explosion could be seen in the night sky...

 

[Mewtwo]

"A 'native', some people would say. My name is Ilian, and I've just ran off a figurehead of a Piracy organization." Ilian searched Viper up and down. He was very tall.

 

[Brilliand]

Lord Viper grimaced. "You fight off a primitive pirate and you dare approach a ship belonging to the greatest military in the universe. Well, native, this world is now the property of Hollowstar. You'll be rounded up soon enough, but for now, go away." Lord Viper crossed his arms over his pale white shirt. His entire body was pale, his clothes a very light shade of grey that made people look twice to be sure it wasn't true white. The only exception was his belt, made up of threads of black and a pale red, too shadowy to be called pink. Together, the strands made his belt an ugly purple. The belt had no buckle, but was tied around his waist.

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Aron was not thinking properly. The electromagnetic wave had practically destroyed his electromagnetic component, and while he tried to regenerate that a nasty mage cut apart his magical component. Deciding he needed to fight back and hide at the same time, he dropped into the planet and caused and earthquake, coupled with a volcano, a tornado and a storm of flying needles. Aden flew away, escaping the disaster with sheer speed.

Aron failed to disassociate himself from the planet and effectively died, turning from a thinking combination of force fields to a rather odd-shaped portion of the planet's magnetic, gravitational and magical fields. No mortal would ever be sure what had become of him.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Aden scanned the area, but could find no trace of the strange creature that he had considered a gigantic wraith. Mystified, and hoping that it was gone for good (but knowing that he could not have killed it), he returned to Querrot.

"Did you kill it?"

"It escaped. Let's get to that field that the attack was centered in." Aden picked up Querrot and headed for the Field of Emren.

 

[Mewtwo]

"Sir......I don't believe you have that right."
Ilian lokk at Viper's feet; nervous as he was, he was going to stand up tall((as he could!)).

 

[Brilliand]

"It doesn't matter." Lord Viper approached Ilian menacingly, looming over him, then spun at a noise in the sky. He watched silently as Aden landed forty feet away and set Querrot down.

"Lord Viper. I remember you. Why are you here?"

"I know you as well, Aden. And I know why you are here. Onan, come out." The ship door opened and Onan floated out, shimmering energy fields pointing straight down out of his wrists and ankles.

Aden responded, "I see you are the enemy. Living Torch Summon." A fireball dropped out of his staff and hung suspended over the ground.

"Slow down, Aden. You'll find you cannot match Onan's speed. You may as well not try."

Querrot spoke up. "You know each other? Where from?"

"Terwilandra." Aden gazed at Lord Viper warily.

"I came there to help you," Lrod Viepr answered.

"You came there to sell me demons."

"You bought my services, after a time."

"I bought the use of your dragon. You did your job; it was worth the price. But who pays your wages now?"

"Hollowstar. The Black King."

 

[TheCheat1]

Miranda's lower half, along with her arms, were encased in rock. Ethian had placed her upright against a tree near Mel's fire and Litra had gotten the dirt off of her face so she could breathe. She struggled for the first few minutes, but finally calmed down and let out a long sigh. "Where is my master?" Ethian looked over to Litra, who in turn looked over to Mel. "What?!" Mel looked horrified. "I'm not going to do it!" Litra glared at Mel, and he finally sighed. "Your master died, end of story." Litra leapt over the fire and slapped Mel across the face, leaving a red hand mark.

"Idiot!" She walked over to Miranda and looked up at her. "I couldn't save him in time... I'm sorry." Miranda looked away, allowing the tears to flow freely. As she quietly sobbed, Ethian sighed and walked into his dirt-hut, followed by Mel. Litra still looked up at the girl. "It's going to be okay, don't worry. This will all be over soon." Miranda didn't acknowledge the girl, and she continued to weep.

Litra sighed and walked into her dirt-hut. "It'll all be better in the morning..." Miranda floated into Litra's dirt-hut, carried by the dirt and still encased in stone. Litra laid her down next to her cot (so carefully crafted from dirt) and laid down. "Goodnight, Miranda." Miranda stopped crying after a few minutes. "Who are you?" Litra turned over and looked at her. "Litra." Miranda gave a small smile. "You're a mindspeaker." Litra nodded and replied, "I control earth, too. It's more of a hobby than a skill, really." Miranda sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "The sky? You want to look at the sky? I can do that." Litra said as the dirt above Miranda pulled away, forming a small hole for her to see the sky out of. "That better?" Miranda nodded slowly and kept looking at the sky. Litra sighed and fell asleep. After a little while, Miranda felt her eyelids begin to droop, and then consciousness left her for the night.

 

[Mewtwo]

Ilian waited for them to finish their business before he spoke. "Are you people from this.....Hollowstar organization? Or is it an organization? And if it's bad I'm armed!"

 

[Brilliand]

Lord Viper looked down at Ilian, a superior smile on his face. He put both his hands down to his belt. "I am the leader of a conquest expedition organized by Hollowstar, which is well on its way to taking over the universe. Nothing can match its seamless integration of science and magic. Aden here doesn't like people taking over the world, but there's nothing he can do about it."

Querrot focused on his left hand and began covering it with chemicals, unnoticed by the others. Aden stood ahead of Querrot, to the left of his living torch.

 

[Mewtwo]

"Well......I can be a valuable partner at times. What do you say, chief?" Ilian approached friendly but calmly; if he was too friendly others might think a little wierdness coursed through his veins.

 

[Brilliand]

Lord Viper wasn't interested at all. Fed up with the conversation, he ripped some strands off his belt and tossed them at Ilian. They transformed instantly into large snakes, some a smoky black and others the same pale gray as Lord Viper. Most of the snakes dropped to the side, eerie lights flashing, while others snapped at Ilian.

Lord Viper turned away, trustign the snakes to do their job. "Ona-" he bagan, but his words were cut short by a cloud of green gas that billowed out of Querrot's hand. Onan leapt into action, but Aden and Querrot each stepped sideways, and seeing anything through the fog was hopeless. Breathing was easy enough, but sound, movement and even psychic sense could not penetrate the fog. He flew about at random for a split second before giving up and returning to guard the doorway of the ship.

Aden blew his way to his living torch and cut a small clearing in the fog, then in the split second that the clearing lasted he summoned another living torch. The first living torch began summoning more living torches, but the second living torch could not learn the summon through the fog.

Realizing that Onan couldn't fight in this stuff, Lord Viper ripped more snakes off his belt, tossing them on the ground where they began to build in power. The black snakes built shields around themselves, while the white snakes fed off each other, growing in size symbiotically.

((Don't let Ilian get bitten by a black snake. A white snake's bite will hurt pretty badly, but they aren't poisonous. Once he gets a few feet away from the snakes, they won't be able to follow him through the fog.))

 

[TheCheat1]

((Eh... I can't get Ethian over there reasonably until some massive energy spike catches his attention... I can, however, set up some references to Iban's entrance.))

Mel woke up screaming. Another vision had plagued his sleep. In an instant, Ethian was on top of him, covering his mouth with his hand. "What are you doing, trying to get us caught?!" Mel shook his head and Ethian removed his hand. "Then what's going on?" Mel's eyes were huge. "E, we have to leave, now!" He tried to get up, but Ethian was sitting on him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, bud. Calm down. What's going on?" Mel stopped struggling and looked Ethian in the eyes. "Poinesta's going to be destroyed!" Ethian sighed and rolled his eyes. "So let me take a wild guess... you had another one of those visions, and this one showed Poinesta blowing up?" Mel shook his head. "Not blowing up, E. It was deflating like a balloon!" Ethian stood up and grabbed his sword and shield. Mel got up. "E? We leaving?" Ethian shook his head. "Did you see a man in that vision?" Mel closed his eyes, thinking back. "Yeah, I did... why?" Ethian turned back to him and put his sword in its sheath. "Did he have anything to do with Poinesta being destroyed?"

Mel nodded and opened his eyes. "He was flying away from it as it deflated..." Ethian snapped his fingers. "Iban." Mel scratched his side. "Iban?" Ethian put his shield on its strap on his back and started gathering up Mel's things. "Iban. He destroyed Aragthia once, and I killed him and... brought Aragithia back. But if he's not dead..." He looked at Mel. "Has every vision you've ever had come true?" Mel nodded. "Then we need to find Iban now, or it'll be too late when we do."

******************************************

Anna's suit was repaired now, and her ship was back in space. Her shuttle docked on the main ship that had been waiting in orbit around Poinesta, and now she was working on a new technology... "Time travel." She said it to no one in particular. "How this will cut down on my travel time, but more importantly..." A dark smile came on her face. "...how it will allow me to return to the past and steal the Atom-Generator." She flipped a few switches and hit a series of buttons, and a large ring-shaped device in the middle of the room began to glow. "Now I'll return to the day before I betrayed that wretched Joshua, and I will finally have my way in the universe! I'll be unstoppable!" Suddenly, the ring sparked, and emitted a high-pitched squealing sound. "What?! It's auto-setting a time! I have to stop it before it expands like a black-hole and plunges this entire sector into--" A series of flashes blinded Anna, and she felt herself slam into the wall behind her. "What in the cosmos--"

 

[Brilliand]

Flames licked the walls, and a pool of molten metal drained through a large hole in the floor. Iban hovered over the crater where the time machine had once stood, glowing with the energy that he used to fly. "Fool. Once opened, a door to the the Worlds' Gate will never close. Your ship is finished. I offer you one chance of survival: Defeat me in clean combat."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Aden shot a blast of wind across his living torches, and about twenty of them learned the summon spell. The blast of wind also uncovered a black snake, which struck at Aden.

"Earth's Fury." A golem jumped out of the ground and took the hit for Aden. The snake ignored the golem and circled around, going after Aden.

Aden bashed it with his staff. The blow had no effect. Desperate, he jumped back, calling "Atmosphere Thickening!" With a thunderclap, the fog vanished, allowing a hundred more living torches to learn the summon. Aden shot a small fireball at the black snake and leaped aside, avoiding his living torches. The entire army hurled identical fireballs, creating a red cloud that blocked Aden's view of the ship and created a red-hot crater. But the viper was unscathed.

Aden staggered backwards as his living torches multiplied. "Atmosphere Thickening! Atmosphere Thickening!"

Lord Viper ripped more snakes from his belt and moved toward the ship, ignoring Ilian in the certainty that he wouldn't be able to get past the snakes. "Garret, get me Kindred Unity!" he called through the ship's door.

Querrot backed away, unable to see any more clearly through the cloud of flames than through the cloud of fog. Onan launched toward Aden, but the living torches turned their fire on him, forcing him to dodge and keep his distance.

 

[TheCheat1]

Anna's suit floated to her and wrapped around her body, the helmet's visor coming over her face. "I don't know who you are or why you want to fight me, but if its a battle you want, then you've got it." Search all data drives. Find me something on this guy! Searching. Anna's laser blaster came out of her arm and into her hand. "You have a deathwish?" Anna fired four consecutive shots at Iban, and giggled a little.

((Anna's gonna' diiiiiiiiiie... ))

 

[WPZanar07]

(Hey, I know! I'll start with my character captured!!! He'll have to use every bit of technology to escape!!!)
Tek woke up, finding himself encased in...something. He wasn't sure, but it sparkled and shimmered with energy. He tried to pull free, but the more he fought, the harder the struggle became. He slowly relaxed, and felt it give a little.
"What...what the heck is this?!?" he said, panicked, not seeing any sort of console, or....even any advanced technology. He at least knew what planet he was on -- Poinesta -- but he had no idea what had happened.
"Alright, Tek," he said, pulling himself together, "first things first. One, get out of this...whatever it is, two, find your bearings, and three, find the Stargazer. I just hope everyone is alright..."
Tek began to test every point of his trap.