You are sitting across from this blonde woman named Susie, trying to eat supper, a light snack of worms, and used motor oil, in a cafe' overlooking the edge of the universe, but every time you or her takes a bite, a waitress materializes, and stabs the food with a butcher knife and takes it away...

There are noises of clanking metal, and the howling of the wind when the door opens, and the roar of jets, and you realize those are real.

Overhead, you hear the roar of a jet or some such device.  There's the clanking like windblown of something metal, and wind rushing through canyons and whistling.  You're sweaty and hot, and you feel rocks jabbing into your back as you lay on something.

You feel something tugging lightly on your foot.

"He's gone-gone."
"Teka stuffie, nanonow, slowloader."
"Ye now not betting gain facefill moly-moly, so sure-sure self, ye doit."

There's three different voices.  The first is female.  The second seems in charge.  The third is likely the one doing something.

PT

"No gone-gone!"  I say as I open my eyes to try and observe what's exactly going on around me.  Wait, where am I?  I was just...  That ghost with the knife.  Could it have been a dream?  Ugh...  What's happening?

As I'm opening my eyes, I say, "Please, help me!"

"Help? Ha-ha. Good one."

You see three teenagers in black outfits more suited for a party at night than the early morning light slanting past the extremely tall skyscraper in the back ground.

You'relaying on a pile of jumbled concrete and rusty iron rebar, and some other pale blue bar.

The three look feral and dreadfully slim, and untrustworthy which is confirmed when the bigger guy whips out some sort of knife which hums.

"Give us your pretty-pretty,  or we cut your nose off."

PT

Something raises inside of me.  Emotions, mainly confusion, engulf me as I glare at them.

I gather my energy while focusing on the fire symbol and sending a fireball at the guy with the humming knife.  Finally, at the top of my lungs, I shout, "AMEN!!"

If it works, then I glare at them more and say, "If someone doesn't tell me what's going on in the next five minutes, I'll let loose a bigger one on all three of you."

They jump back, and stare at you in shock.

But no fireball appears.

"Hey-hey, manny, who wannna bring down the creazy-creazy on us?" The guy with the knife says with a worried look.  "We just saw you appear, and bam, you looked deaders, so we take-take."

PT

"You tell me where I am right now or I'll bring more creazy-creazy unto you!"  I shout at them, glaring still.  "And drop that, too."  I point at his knife.

Whether or not he complies or answers any of my questions, I look around to see what my surroundings are like (I look around only where they are still in my sights).

"Just kill ohdee now!" The girl cries, and the one with the knife considers it you can see.

You look about, and see hard-walled buildings, and skyscrapers reaching skyward, and higher, and higher.  The one in the background in front of you must be two hundred stories tall.

On the side is written in giant letters that are not lighted...

"Sony Corporation."

The street behind the would-be thieves is dotted with paper trash, and pockmarks in the solid walls that go up ten stories before a window begins.

And you feel a sense like you are know there is something of yours out to your right.

PT

"Sony...?"  I mumble to myself, half-ignoring the others now.  What's this feeling?  I look to my right to see what's there.

Maybe I was still dreaming when that ghost was about to kill me with that knife.  But no, it wasn't a dream.  I felt it-I felt death.  No matter what I see there, I'll try to widen my perception like I felt the bag to a wider range.  I widen the range as far as I can.

OOC: I honestly wasn't sure what the knife-wielder would do.  But a pretty good GE roll decides it in your favor.

IC: "Lookie-lookie, Carmie. Not freaked. He's bonebad. No play with bonebad, get smacked up real sad. So siang zinous?"
The girl sighs.
"So siang zinous. Bonebad's shoesies did lookie-lookie fine."

They start walking away, looking about for trouble, but casually.

Your perception range doesn't change, and it feels like your bag, but not quite.  Its like it was on a different chord, or the smell difference between apple and pumpkin pie.  Its like there is a wire in the pit of your stomach, and you could follow that wire to whereever.

PT

I go over and pick up my bag, putting it on my back.  If it wasn't a dream, then..  I feel inside of my jacket pocket for the map that I tore from the phonebook on King Street.

Whether I feel the paper or not, I follow this 'pull' that I feel in my gut to wherever the destination is.

This is all I have to go on.  This feeling in my gut is all that I have with me.  If there's any way that I'm going to find out what's going on, my instincts must be the place to start!

You walk through streets lined with graffitti, and where hardly a person is seen, and those few are darting shadows going from cover to cover.  Around you is skyscrapers, some even taller than the first you saw.

A newspaper blows around the corner hits your leg.

You pick it up.

Its a plastic sheet, and the letters on it blink from Kanji script to English to nothing and then back again.

"NeoTokyo Times/ June 14, 2090 AD/ A Product of the Times News Syndicate" is the first line.

The headlines are these:

"Amex Refutes Claims of Using Pschyotropics to Get New Cardholders."
"Assasination Attempt by Renegade Cyber on CEO of Mraktek Combine.  New CEO Pledges Law and Order will be Restored with Corporate Cops Cracking Down Hard."
"Remake of Star Wars: The New Hope Scheduled for Release."
"Walldancing Tourney World Champion on Book Tour. Book: 'Beating Your Way to the Top'"
"Disturbances with Power Reported. Possible Blackout. Also Massive Viral Attack in Progress. Shut Down All Non-Emergency Net Resources-Edict by Corporate Council."

And then you look up.  There is a man in the street about seventy feet away.. He's wearing a green army jacket, and he has a thick beard, and cold eyes.  In his right hand is a sword dripping with blood.

Your 'sense' points right at him.

PT

My eyes are wide as I see the strange looking man.  A sword?  I think to myself, but push aside even that it's dripping with blood.  My gut must be telling me something!  Maybe he is the one who's doing this to me!

I run over to him, newspaper still in my hand.  When I'm within talking distance of him, I say, "Please!  Tell me, what's happening?  I don't know what's going on!  For the past week, i've been inside of a dreamworld and even been attacked by a ghost.  I know that something's going on.  Please, do any of these words mean anything to you: Dreamshaping, King Street, The Red Star?"

Then, I remember back to a word that was used in Camelot my first visit there.  "Verser?"

At your fear-struck look, he relaxes, and the cold look vanishes to be replaced by a soft smile, and a look of genuine concern.

"Ease up there, pal. Dreamshaping means a number of things to me. There is a spell to shape dreams, and I've met one spirit guide who used dreams to resolve interior conflicts, and of course, way back there was this world where they had this Collective Unconscious you could shape by will and wile."

He pauses to see if this means anything to you.  Meanwhile, he flicks his short, straight sword, and the blood splatters onto the asphalt.  His blade clean; its suddenly in his sheathe. You saw him move, but it was like watching a rattlesnake move.

"Red Star..well that could mean almost anything.  Are you talking about an interstellar object, or political affiliation with the Communists, or the Da'Zhe'Chroin emblem of battle?"  He waves you on with an easy hand. "I don't like standing in the middle of a street. Never know who might be lining up a sniper rifle on you." He chuckles. "And doesn't that sting when that happens."

"King Street, seems I remember a few of them, but nothing special about them. Verser, now that I know. I'm one, you're one. Worldwalker, gatesman, invariant transform for multiple continuua, as one of my smarter friends put it..."

By now you're facing a sliding door that is closed.

"Building is empty I think, so I hope they don't mind if I break in. I hope they have coffee inside, because I'm tired, and could use a nice hot cup."

He takes a dagger out from his sleeve, and starts to slide it between the doors.

"Just need enough space for my fingers, and this blade is not going to break. Unless you have some special door-opening skill? I'm afraid I don't know all that much about being a burglar, just the basics."

I smile as he starts explaining the Unconscious to me.  "So you have been to the Heart, then.."  I just mutter it and I listen to him as he goes on.

I can't help but stop for a moment, my insides laughing at his comment about being sniped 'stinging'.

Then, I hear him talk about versers and that I am one.  I keep myself silent while he heads over to the door to open it.  I say, "No, all I know is some elemental stuff that's barely ever worked before out of the Heart.  Oh, and I know some healing.  But for this door, you could always just break it I suppose.  The people around here seem to be poor and destitute."

Then, I continue with the verser topic.  "You said that I was a verser, worldwalker, whatever.  What exactly is a verser?"  At his statement of being tired, I try to fucus my healing powers and channel them from my hands into him.  Maybe this will restore some of his vitality?

He begins to work on the door as you try your magic.  It seems to do nothing.

"Any culture that can build two hundred story skyscrapers shouldn't have too desperately poor unless things are seriously messed up.  But I wonder where everyone is.  There should be hundreds or thousands of people around here."

He fits his fingers in between the crack of the door, and you see the metal bending slightly as he strains to push the doors apart.

"Verser, well, you get scriff-infected, usually electrocuted at the same time. Bam! You're dead or very close to it. You've also arrived in a different dimension. Not Heaven or Hell or Valhalla, but just different. Each universe has different rules too. Some with magic, esper powers, and so on, some not so much, and so forth. Any thing you've ever heard of in a storybook is out there somewhere.  This versing stuff keeps on going on, and the best proof I have for you is to toss a coin as far as you can, and try to track it down. We're a weird form of quasi-immortal now.  I'm somewhere north of four hundred now, and I've been 'killed' or 'versed out' more times than I care to count.  From everything too. Drowning, electrocution, bullets, and even one time...salmonella. Embarrassing that, but you'll find immortality gives you plenty of time to make an idiot of yourself, or plenty of time to be a hero.  Now I'm a servant of the Most High, which....um, can you help me with this door...a thousand pound push, and its still not enough...too bad there's not enough magic here to do the Samson thing..."

"Oh yeah, sure!"  I go over to help the old man push the door open.  I am still in shock about what's happening and I can't think of what to say at the moment.

If we succeed, or if it takes too long to open, I say, "By the way, my name's Krillis.  What's yours, or do you even still remember?"

The guy might be old, but he looks to be in his late twenties.

"Even Di Vars remembers his name after three thousand plus years, and so does the Alchemist.  Heh, that guy I met...well no need to blow your mind.  Yeah, I'm T...."

You and he rip the door open, and a hand lunges out of the dark, and grabs you about the neck and yanks you inward.

You fall.

Dazed, you come back to yourself.  You're laying on a dozen thick floor pads, a small hill of softness.

There is a huge hole in the ceiling thirty feet above you.  The door is wide open, and you see several people try to grab the other guy...but his sword is out, and soon heads, and other body parts are raining down out of the sky around you.

"You okay?" The guy yells down to you.

And then from all around you, you see shuffling figures come out from hallways, and doorways.  Each one is dressed in black pleather, or leather. Some have weapons in their holsters.  A number are obviously cybernetically enhanced.

They moan.

"Wrong."
"Brains."
"Brains."
"Run."

PT

"I need a little help here!"  I shout up to him.  Then, I drop my backpack and look around for one who's seperated slightly from the others and hopefully not cybernetically enhanced.  Also, I look for him or her to have a weapon.

If I find one that meets these specifications, I charge at that specific person and knock him or her to the ground.  Then, I grap their weapon, opening the hoster if I must, and survey the situation again.

I've already seen that my magic isn't working here, so it looks like I have to fight these guys fair and square.  I think to myself while doing the actions.

You charge one of them, knocking him down, but your foot slides on a pebble, and the 'guy?' grabs you about the neck,and drags you down with him.  Your hand finds his gun.

Its a cool metal that hums in your hand.  You pull it out, and its quite light.

Your target closes his hands about your neck more firmly.

There is sounds of shuffling coming closer to you.

Suddenly a yell draws the attention of the others.

And a thump on the pile of mats.

And then you hear chopping noises, and quick light steps, and clumps as bodies fall to the floor.

"Welcome to the Neverending Party." You hear followed by "Um, you think you could get over here. Guard my back..."

PT

(If he already killed the guy that was grabbing my neck.)  I kick the corpse off of me and run towards the sound of who I assume to be the old man with the sword to point the gun as steadily as I can towards the direction that he isn't facing.

(If he hasn't killed the guy that was grabbing my neck.)  While being strangled, I move the gun up towards his jaw and let off two rounds.  If he starts to fall over, then I kick him off of me and head towards who I presume is the old man with the sword.  I point the gun in the direction that he isn't facing.

After I catch my breath, I say, "Do versers always have to go through this?"

There is a flash of light that dazzles you, and the smell of scorched meat, but the hands still hold on. There is no recoil. You press again, and again, and then the hands fall off your neck.

You run up to him as the crowd gathers in.

There is a pause as they take in the new formation, and then they begin again.

"Nice plasma pistol. You're quick on your feet, thats good."  He pauses to chop off a hand, and then reverses to gut the attacker.  "Well, it depends.  Sometimes you just land in the soup, and sometimes, if you're like me, you go looking for soup.  I do think God sends us to places where we are needed, at least some of the time.  Then again, I have met a guy who spent a thousand years tending a garden, and yah, he forgot his name. Everyone just called him the Gardener.  Amazing tomatoes, and his pumpkin pie would make you think you'd gone to Heaven."

Right now, with more 'people' coming out of the halls, and the number of attackers swelling, its not looking good for you two.

PT

With the plasma pistol in hand, I continue to shoot at the oncoming enemies.  I keep a careful eye out for when they die, if they have a weapon.

"So if we 'verse out' by dieing, will we 'verse out' to different places if we die here?  The soup is fun and all, but it sure would be nice to have a way out of here.  Any ideas?"

I wonder why they aren't using their guns against us?

I continue firing.  If one of the enemies dies near me and not as many are around, I will run up to get his weapon and continue firing with both.

You fire, hit, and the target keeps on coming.  It takes you four shots to put one down.  Next time, you aim for a head, and it takes three.

And then your gun is empty.

No one nearby has a free gun.

"Yah, you'll be in another universe."  He pauses, and then says. "Quick, climb on my shoulders, and stand. Its the only way.  By the way, you have to balance with your knees stiff. It will get us out of here."

PT

"Alright!"  I look at my backpack and try to pick it up as I climb on the man's shoulders.

If I can balance with the backpack, then I'll do that, but if I can't, then I throw the backpack at the nearest hostile in the area.

What is this feeling?  This rush, this enthusiasm.  It must be the beginning of something new.  I'm walking through life without fear.  But still, I'm not sure that I can trust this guy yet.  I'll have to determine it with time.

You scamper up with the grace and finesse that a total lack of fear brings, and brace yourself with your backpack as directed.

Suddenly you feel iron-strong hands clasp the bottom of your feet, and ....you're flying.  Nearly straight up, toward the door....you look down, and the other verser is still down below.

A quick jerk of your attention back to the open door, and you catch the lower ledge with your stomach. It shouldn't be hard to pull yourself in, but there's still one of these 'people at the other end of a narrow six-inch wide ledge about five feet to your right.

"See you around, friend." You hear below you, and see the other verser drop his defenses.  A 'person' slams their hand into his neck.

Snap.

The body sags.

And then suddenly there is nothing there, but perhaps a small bit of dust drifting in the light.

PT

Then it must be true.  He must have versed.

I think to myself as I look down, but then I pull myself to the task at hand.  While I look to the right at the 'person' (and seeing if he/she/it has a weapon), I pull myself up as quickly as possible to exit the building.

If I make it out of the building, I try to get into the light and public sight.  Then, I catch my breath while taking a closer look at everyone around me.

The 'person' has a plasma pistol, a smaller one than you had, in a cross-chest holster that rests under his right arm.  He's working his way slowly toward you, and you scramble back up to your knees, and then outside.

You turn around, and see the 'person' standing but five feet away.  However, he is in shade, and he seems to refuse to go out into the light.

You're in a downtown area.  A great flat concrete area of several acres substitutes for a park.  Around it eight skyscrapers, three badly damaged, pierce the sky.

You see a 'person' looking out at you from the water runoff entrance across the street, just short of the concrete park.

Beyond the park area, you see two more rows of skyscrapers that form a core, some with skywalks between them.  There is also an elevated train two blocks away.

And there's plenty of trash on the road.

PT

I look around and contemplate the situation for a moment.  This is a very, very strange place indeed.  Okay, I want that gun...  but how to get it?

At that, I think of a plan and take action.  I approach the man into the shade as slowly as possible.  When/If he starts coming at me, I will try my best to pull him out into the light (hopefully with the help of his momentum).

He very cautiously reaches out for you, keeping himself in the shade, and you can see his movements seem even more jerky and uncoordinated than usual.

And then you grab him and sling him to the ground.

Suddenly he begins to go into an epileptic like fit.

It stops, and you see smoke drifting up from the back of his head.

His eyes, blinking in the light, try to focus on you.

"Thank you."

His head flops to the side. He's dead.

PT

I quickly look around on all sides.  I can think about what he was saying after I figure out a little more of what's going on.  My main objective right now, though, is to find a haven for when it becomes night, because it'll be chaos if these things come out.

I search his entire body and take everything that I can from it, while keeping an eye on my other things.  With his plasma pistol, if it is in a holster, then I put it on.

After I get everything off of him, I move his body towards where I dropped my things and in the shade.  While over with me and my things, I put the extra things I found on him into my bag (if it isn't too much for the capacity) and I take a first, focused look at what exactly is different about him than normal people.

You reach into his pocket, and pull out a handful off odds and ends.  And one of them is a pen-shaped object made of ceramic, and suddenly it buzzes.  You feel a sharp jolt of pain, and you see blood trickling down the back of your right hand.

You drop it.  On the ground, it sits, humming, like the 'knife' the prior thug had threatened you with.  At one end, you see a shimmer of faint light that extends out four inches.

In your palm is a rapidly welling blood dot.

On the ground: 'knife', four black 'poker chips', one white cube inch square, one plastic card labelled "door" in Magic Marker, one half-eaten "Magix Snickers PowerBoost" candy bar, a small red box plastic with a human icon on the outside, a two foot long metal wire with tiny ceramic boxes attached to it.

PT

I stash the red box and the other parts to it in my pack.  It looks like it might be a medical pack, but I'll check it out after I find some shelter.

Then, I store everything else except the candy bar and the 'knife' in my pockets.  I first take the candy bar and tear the bitten piece off and take a bite to test it out.

If I'm still moving around after the bite, I put it in my pocket as well and examine the knife.

I try to barely touch it and see if there's a button on it of some kind.  But also, I touch the parts of the pen that the light isn't coming out of to see if I get hurt by it.

If there's a button, I press it and see the results.

The candy bar tastes really good, and somewhat odd at the same time.  The tastes are slightly off from what you would expect.

You tap a red spot on the 'pen'.  Suddenly it stops humming, and its just a 'pen', although at the last second before it changed, you saw a thin vibrating wire extruded from one end that retracts into the 'pen'.

You touch the red button, and nothing. Its only when you grasp it, with your fingers touching the green and the red button on both sides of it, that it springs to dangerous life with an instant whine.

PT

I once again deactivate the 'pen' and put it into my pocket as well.

Well, I should really figure out how things run around here.

I think as I put on my backpack and head towards the nearest people that look normal that I can find.

If I find anyone nearby, I go up to them as peacefully as possible and say, "I am not one of those things.  I am new to this place.  Can you tell me where it is safe?"

It takes you two hours of walking, during which your pierced hand pains you, but not too much so, and then you spot a guy studying you from behind a dumpster which is painted bright green, and has a bio-hazzard symbol on the exterior of it.

He is in on the sunward side of a large skraper, and when he sees that you see him, he stands up slowly.  He's armed with a pair of plasma pistols, and a long metal rod.

"Jon si ve-me, so siang zous?"

PT

This language is so strange.  Let's see..what did the others say.  Something about creazy-creazy and freaked.

"Me not freaked, no creazy-creazy."  I slowly walk into the light as well to show him.  "I need help.  Where is a safe place to stay during the night?"

"kaydo. How much you got? You want super-special econ, or ultra noise uber neato version? I gotta me two hidey-dots. You pay, I take you to one. So siang vous?"

He walks toward you with his hand held out for you to pay him.

PT

Okay...so 'kaydo' means 'okay'.  'Hidey-dots' must be 'hideouts'..  Then all I need to figure out is that 'siang vous' phrase.  They've been using it a lot.

I take out one of my four black 'poker chips'.  "Is this the currency around here?  Also, what does 'siang vous' mean exactly?"

"Do." He snatches it from your hand after he walks up to you. "Um, so siang vous, I see your view. You, know, like um... you know, so siang vous."

PT

Clearly these people understand me more than I understand them, but I do have plenty of time to learn their language later, I hope.

"So, where is this hideout of yours?"  I ask him.

If he starts leading me to another place, then I proceed to ask on the way there, "I have questions about the creazy-creazies.  How did they come to exsist and why do they die in sunlight?"

"Man-man, you talkie so peecee like the door comps. 'If the gentleman would please step back from the door.'"  He mimics a formal, melodius and polite voice.  "Not even the hyuks in the towers talkie like you-you."

His charge seems a little unfair.

You and he walk past two skrapers, and up to a thirty foot tall metal sculpture of curving lines and rust jutting into the sky.  He raps on it four times in a sequence.

And then a knotted rope drops over the edge.

"Flatters topsy, so siang vous? Backwathchers too.  Needem bad-bad in the creazy-creazy.  Lookie-lookie, two weeks gone, things bad-bad, but koday.  Then all jacks and jills creazy-creazy in hour. No-no why."

PT

Before I climb any rope, I look at him and say in my normal speech, "I want to go to see the hyuks.  How much will it take for you to take me there?"

I store the sequence that he taps on the wall in memory and then I question him further.  "What are 'flatters' and 'backwathchers'?  Also, how do you go about using these?"  I get out one of my other black 'poker chips'.

During this, I look at the sky to see how dark it's getting.

"Hyuks left, or died.  Be hard to get to another metro.  Flatters is..like...flatters."  He motions with his hands describing what could be a table.

"The other is your pards, flankers." He points at the poker chip. "Its ka-ching, man-man, don't you know anything?  Wave it at whatever you want to buy.  Its your..." His speech slows down.  "Monthly Minimum Dole for Non-Integrated Personell. You're only supposed to have one, but hey, guy's gotta make a living, eh?"

Its slightly past noon.  And the light has become very bright indeed as the skrapers don't provide any protection now.

"No zone time, man-man, you stay out here, you're crispy."

Already, you can see a faint red tinge to your skin from the UV rays, and then it clicks. Ozone hole, no ozone or very little, means serious sunburns in very quick time.

PT

"Right, man-man, of course."  I try to mimic what little I know of their alternate speech.

Then, I climb up the rope as quickly as I can without dropping anything.  While climbing, I call to him.  "Why do the creazy-creazy die in the light?"

Upon reaching the top of the rope where my destination is, I scan the area to see what it is like inside.

You clamber up top.

There is a flat space, perhaps five yards square on top of the mass of metal.  Over it is rigged a tarp.

Several dozen liters of water wait to the side, as does a cardboard box of what smells like jerky.

There's more blankets and a stack of guns.

There's also two people.  One is a redheaded guy with Asian skin.  He grins at you.

"Well up! A new pal-pal for the Clubhouse."  He pulls out a deck of cards.  "You play?"

The girl is pure Japanese.  She gives you a colder than ice glance.

"I am Mariko, and before you try stunt. I walldancing tourney winner, and cyber."

The other guy from behind you pants a bit as he comes up.

"No-no. We no-no. The creazy's are the creazys."

PT

Okay, so apparently these people can be enhanced cybernetically.  But walldancing is a new phrase to me.  Still, they don't seem to trust me very much.

I then struggle with what little of their language I know, and some improvised 'dumb english', "No stunts.  Takey-takey, foods.  Gift for you all."

I look into my bag and I take out the carrots and give a one to each of them, keeping one for myself and putting the rest of the bag down in the center of the group.

"I am Krillis."  I then turn to Mariko.  "What is walldancing tourney and how you cyber?"

After his answer, I also turn to the redhead.  "How to play?  I can teach some games."

OOC: We never specified the number of carrots.  Should we say that it's a medium sized bag of carrots or does it constitute a roll?

They stare in surprise, and then latch greedily onto their carrots.  After they taste them, their expressions resemble a toddler who has had his first bite of chocolate--bliss, concentration, and a little disbelief.

To you, it just tastes like a carrot.

You plunk down the medium sized bag in the middle and ask your questions.

"Games? Poker, Gin, 21, Castle High, Slip, and Roads End are the ones I know." The guy says.

With a tentative, shy smile, the girl speaks.

 "Mariko Leikou Li.  I no no why you no no know walldancing, here  demo."

She jumps down twenty feet to the concrete, runs at a very fast sprint to a wall, and starts to demonstrate a martial arts technique which involves running up the wall, doing flips, and cartwheels, and aerial kicks before coming down to the concrete square again.  And then another climb, and more acrobatics.

She stops, and walks back.

"I win city block tourney, fight many...before creazy-creazy."  She climbs up the rope.

"Fast, strong, and ..."  She points her fingertips at your face, and four inch talons pop out the end to come within a couple inches of your nose.  She's got a shy smile on her face.

PT

"Carrots work wonders."  I say, while thinking to myself.  These people must be only eating that jerky and maybe candybars like that guy had in his pocket.  Wait, she just talked about 'before creazy-creazy'.

I look Mariko in the eye, "You say 'before creazy-creazy'?  What you mean?"

After an answer, I look to the redhead.  "I don't know Roads End, could you guys teach me?"

I glance over at the pile of guns and try to be normal about it.  In the glance, I try to see if they look like the average gun that I know about or if they look to be plasma weapons.

She counts on her fingers, and then says. "Thirteen nights. Back then, things normal, now creazy-creazy time.  All the jacks and jills went..I was fixing to be a jill, but I hadn't save enough money for it."

There looks to be about half plasma pistols, four "LaseTek 2100" pistols.  One thing that looks like a mini-rocket launcher, and an AK-47.

The game is simple.  Its about gathering a succession of cards of the same number, and trying to create a run from 2-10 before the other guy can.  It also involves stealing the other guys cards more than creating your own 'road'.

After about an hour of play, you feel like you've absorbed all the wrinkles in the game.  And then the redhead smiles, and asks if youy want to bet.

pt

I nod at him.  "What do we bet?"

I get into my bag and take out a granola bar.  "How about health bar?"

I will accept any bet against the granola bar, as long as he's being serious.  Then, I take out the various objects that I pulled off of the man earlier and I look around to all of them, pointing to them one at a time and asking.  "What is this?"

The objects include the 'knife', white cube, red box-thing, and the card that has "door" written on it.

Mariko says as you lay the items down: "Vibrowire, Happy dust, cheap medkit, some guy's partment key."

He bets a LaseTek pistol with two charges, and you win.  Then another, and you win again, but this time its a half-full plasma pistol.  And then he suggests upping the bet, making it more interesting.

"Say you toss in that bag of carrots, and I'll bet a nearly full LaseTek?"

They do seem with effort to be able to talk like you do, but even still, its obvious that this group isn't that well-educated, although Mariko is clearly the most educated.

PT

"Thanks,"  I tell Mariko and then I turn to the redhead.

I can't believe this.  Is he actually trying to hustle me?  I think to myself and a small smile with a laugh is let out under by breath.

"No, I no-risk carrots."  Then, I smile more and say, "I will give you five carrots for something.  What you willing to trade?"

If the deal is serious and even if it's unfair to me, I trade with him.

Then, I give a carrot to each of them once more.  With the remaining carrots in the bag, I hold them out to Mariko.  "I'll trade these if you teach me to walldance like you do."

He thinks about it a bit, offers a gun, but the other two thinks its not enough.  Then he smiles, and pulls out a pleather motorcycle jacket from his pile of stuff.

"Its got foldable kevlar woven into its outer shell, and the inner shell is solid foldable kevlar."

The jacket is a bit large on you, and its quite heavy, but the "Innkeeper" demonstrates that Hustler's former jacket can withstand a 'vibrowire' for a second without damage.

"Walldancing is something for cybers. You no cyber."

PT

Without thinking, I stand up straight with a look of ambition.  No cyber, huh?  I think to myself.

Then, I put my newly aquired items with my bag and point at Mariko.  I glance outside and if nothing is searing or scorching in flame, I say, "I am no less!"  Then I jump down and run over to the same wall that she ran up.

With the run's momentum, I try to run up the wall and kick off.  In midair, if I make it this far, I kick an invisible opponent and try to land on both feet.

Everything is brilliantly bright as you run out onto the concrete square, and you can feel that 'sunburn coming' sensation on your arms.

You sprint full-out at the wall, and charge up it, and spin about, and do a decent kick.

Mariko runs up next to you, and touches the wall on her tippie-toes.

"Your foot."

Then she turns about and runs.

She soars up twenty feet and does several strikes, and you could tell she could do more.

PT
OOC: I'm going to give you Walldancing 1@1 (so now you can do like the heroine in Resident Evil when she ran up a wall, flipped about, and kicked in the head of a zombie dog.)

I smile in simple amazement.  "Alright, alright.  I'll admit it.  You're better than me."  For now..  I finish the statement in my mind.

I head back over to climb up the rope and enter their haven from the sun.

Once I'm back up top, I look through my things to make sure there's nothing missing and I say, "Do you guys have any pens or paper?"  Then, a thought strikes me.  Can they read and write..?

After I find out whether or not they have writing materials, I say, "How long until we can go out safely?  And how long can I stay after giving you that money-money?"

"I have cyber, you no-no. Maybe you can get some."

They don't have pen or paper.  They can read enough to know a few words like "Home" and "Food", but thats it.

The Innkeeper thought the chip was your buying a share there.  Maybe later you can contribute more, when they start to run short on food.  If they do.  You get the feeling they don't think much about the future.

Its safe after three o'clock until its nearly nightfall, and then the creazy-creazy start coming out.

PT

Cyber, huh?  I wonder if that sets up a limit to my potential, though.  Even if I could be fast and strong..

I ask Mariko, "How could I become cyber?  And can cybers still get stronger and faster?"  How would my body change if I did become cyber?"

After she answers the question, I store my carrots in my bag, counting how many are left.

Then, I wait until it's 3:00.  I then look out of the hideout and survey the area for any creazy-creazys.  If I don't see any, I jump down and look around from that view.

"I went to a shop. Got doc to cut me open.  Put in new parts. Practise makes me better. So does getting upgrades. Better parts."

Three more carrots.

There's no creazy-creazy you can see from the top or the bottom of the metal statue thing.


PT

I store all of the jewelry in my bag and leave the body armor behind for now as well.  That stuff is just too heavy.  The only things that I take with me are the vibrowire, my holstered plasma pistol, the apartment keycard, and two granola bars.

Then, I look into the open buildings until I find someone inside that looks like a creazy-creazy.  These guys seem extremely resilient when they are in the dark.  I wonder why sunlight kills them, or even if there's a power supply in them that I can cut off from the start to kill them quickly.

If I find one, I try to lure him to the edge of the darkness and throw him or her into the light like I did earlier.

After twenty minutes of walking and looking, you spot one in a fifteen foot tall culvert.  You clamber down into the dry waterway, and tempt him.  He stays out of the light, and then lunges for you.

For a second, he almost drags you into the dark, and you can hear shuffling down further into the culvert in the dim light that is coming your way.

And then you clumsily drag him out.

He falls. Epileptic fit.  Smoke from the back of his head, from the metal circle with an input plug showing.  He is dead.

He has a plasma pistol. One black poker chip.  A small black box.  Another black box with "Lifteze" printed in white letters on the outside.

PT

I pocket the new plasma pistol and I take out the vibrowire.  Now let's just see how you guys tick..  The man before said 'Thank you' right before he died.  He was alive for a moment without whatever this is controlling him.  Maybe these people don't have to be killed.

With the activated vibrowire, I cut around his entire chest, trying to keep some distance from him, so that I get as little blood on me as possible.  After I cut around his entire chest deep enough, I try to pull that layer of skin off to see if anything inside seems metallic or computerized.

To avoid vomiting, I try to keep the thought in my mind, This is for a better cause, and he isn't human anymore.  It's a machine, and that's it.

OOC: No skill with disection or even human anatomy other than disecting a frog and a cow's heart in school.  So my character and I both have no experience with this.

He's got wires running along his ribs, but the ribs look like they are made of bone.  The shining white of it next to the red.....and suddenly you're staggering away vomiting uncontrollably.

Wiping your mouth, you grimly return back to your task.

You dig deeper into his chest, and find nothing mechanical.

In one of his arms you find his arm bones have been replaced by metal, and touching one hinge of metal, and suddenly there's a loud boom.  The end of his index finger blows off, and a flash of light rips a black line of destruction into the concrete.

PT

I then move up to his head, trying to not look at what I've already investigated.

Again, I try to keep myself under control involving my vomiting.  I need to see if there's something on the top of their spine.  Maybe there's an inhibitor to pain, which could be why that one didn't die after a single shot to the head.

I open up the man's head with extreme care around the plug inside of his head.  The rest of it, I am less careful, but I try to keep a good head on my shoulders through the entire process.  I am once more extremely careful when investigating the back of his neck.

There is a mass of melted metal around the jack in the back of his head, and a cord of it leads up to a small nodule in the base of his brain.  But it too is melted.

And the area around it in his brain and neck is ....cooked.

PT

"Interesting."  I can't help to say it outloud as I gather his things and begin my way back to the hideout.  "It has to be the light that destroys the connection between the machinery and their minds.  But their head should be thick enough so that the sun doesn't melt them.  Perhaps there's some sort of programing that their pupils can't change sizes without a meltdown.  Or maybe they react to UV light."

I stop pondering when I arrive at the hideout.  I'm specifically looking for Mariko when I arrive.

If she's there, or I see her on the way, I approach her.  "How much it cost to become cyber?  Do you know a doc that can make me cyber?"

Maybe he could theorize with me about why these things die in the light, or maybe a possible program that could fix them.

"Much money. Different parts cost different.  Claws cheap.  Fast reflexes very-very-very. Strong legs so you can walldance very-very.  I have 8512, not enough. Close though.  Wanted jack so I could be jill. Now not so sure."  She pauses.  "All the docs fled, but I hear of some on other side of NeoTokyo."

PT

"How much is this worth?"  I take out one of the black poker chips.

After she answers, I take out the two black boxes that I have.  "What are these?"

I wonder why she wanted to be a jill.  And why would she need a jack for that?

NeoTokyo...  Are we in NeoTokyo right now?

I think back and remember the SONY building.  Right, right.  We probably are in NeoTokyo right now.  I wonder how far-spread this creazy-creazy is.

"Mebbe five hundred. Its illegal, but no biggie."

She opens one, and grins.  "Breakin tools." The other, she unhooks a tab, and throws it with its attached cable high against the wall of a skyscraper.  Then she hangs on as it hosts her up into the air.  Then she makes it lower her back to you, and touches another control.  The wire retracts itself.

"Guy was an opener and taker."

PT

At the hideout, I check if no one else is around.

If no one is around, I point at the armored jacket, happy dust, LaseTeks, plasma pistols, AK-47, medkit, and the takin' tools.  "How much is this?"  I ask for each individual one, so that I can know how much each one is worth.

"What is legal money-money?"

"Ten, one, seven, four, not sure--three to six--an AK is rare, two, nine with all times ten."  Mariko says.  A bit more discussion reveals that she's not quite innumerate to add to illiterate, but close.

She pulls out a gold poker chip.

"Its got IC inside it. Valuable data the bank says, but I don't believe it. This is almost ten by ten."

PT

"Worldwide jacks and jills go creazy-creazy, or is it just here?"  I ask her.

If her answer is that it is isolated here, I ask, "Why don't you leave and go to better city?"

After my questions, I put my things back in my bag except for my holstered plasma pistol, an extra plasma pistol, and my vibrowire.  Also, I keep on my the lifting device.

Before I leave, I check the contents of the toolbox.

If I don't know what certain things do, I ask Mariko.

"Here. I'm not a hyuk, and the transport trains and the hyperplane got shut down."

She doesn't know what most of the small tools do, but she can identify a diamond-blade glass cutter, and a small container of StickForever.

PT

I take the glass cutter, lifting device, my vibrowire, and my holstered plasma pistol and leave everything else at the clubhouse.

As I leave, I tell Mariko, "Don't worry.  Soon enough I'll find a way out of this place-for the four of us, and I will come back for more until everyone is safe.."

Then, I jump down from the clubhouse, shoot the device up at a building and lift myself with it.  I look in the windows of the building until I find a window that doesn't seem to have any hostiles inside and seems like it might have things to loot.

Once I find such a room, I use the cutting device and try to cut a large circle into the window, then pushing it inwards.  While I cut the glass, I keep my hand on the button to go back down to the ground, just in case.

It takes you two hours of searching, and you fall ten feet to the concrete in a jarring bash one time when you don't set the lifter properly.  But as the sun dips you look in, and find an office area that looks undamaged, and more importantly uninfested.

A quick cut, and as you take the glass out, you realize you did it too small.  The glass pops out, and unable to hold it, it slips from your fingers and plunges for fifty stories before shattering on the concrete.

Another larger cut, expanding what you have, and a sudden gust of wind, and you bang up against the window.  You see rapidly spreading cracks in the fifteen by twenty foot wide chunk of glass that keep on moving...it may have achieved a self-sustaining fracture thats going to do the whole window you're in front of.

Whattya' do?

PT

OOC: Did I get wounded from this any more than bumps and bruises?

Okay, cmon.  All I have to do is get through this window and then I can figure something out afterwards.  Heck, I might even be safe to stay the night in here if I can't figure anything out.

I push myself off the window in front of me as lightly as possible, then I try to bash my way through with my shoulder on the return swing at the window.

If the window breaks and I don't end up inside the room, I do my best to grab onto the ledge and pull myself into the room.

If I eventually make it into the room, I pull out my plasma pistol just in case and start looking through drawers, bookshelves, computers, anything that I can find.

(I'd like to know anything that 'jumps out' at me as useful or strange in the room, from even books to a laptop computer.)

OOC: I guess I'll either be fine or it'll be a post ludum.

You bumped the glass once, not hurting yourself, but the glass was fragile enough that this added injury to insult, and set it off.

So you swing forward another time, this time harder, and fling yourself through the panel of glass.  It cascades down around you, although most of it is behind you and waterfalls into the street in a shimmering river of glittering shards.

Feeling some pain in your left arm, and glass dust and bits on your face you ....

PT
OOC: Yes, diving through windows can kill you (the ones on TV that people fly through are made of sugar.), but you didn't have a whole lot of options here.

I try to wipe my face off as well as I can before I open my eyes to wipe off the rest of my body.

Slowly, I stand, and I check if any wounds are on me.

Unless my wounds prohibit me from doing so, I look around the room for anything that jumps out at me as being valuable or just odd even.  Important normal objects would be notable as well, like all the books that I recognize or seem to be interesting.

There are no books, and there is one magazine.  It has perhaps ten words on each page with most of them one syllable words, but it has 3-D holographic pics of what must be celebrities acting in ways that redefine stupid.

There is a number of desks, all locked.  Also chairs, and they have metal wires connecting them to the desks.

You find one purse-backpack.

It has 1) Home card 2) four gold chips 3)water bottle 4)brush-comb-mirror-toothbrush all-in-one 5)ID card for Mary Longeur, Techcom Specialist Class Two of Illusionex Product Promotion. 6)A roll of breath mints 7)"Instant Vomit Self-Defense Spray" in a small can. 8)Subway Passcard.  9)Pics of her daughter and her boyfriend.

PT

Interesting..  Maybe this is where the 'hyuks' used to live or something.  I wonder if the little girl got out alright.  Then, I snap myself out of it.  Focus, focus.

First, I put everything I just found in a neat pile on the floor.

Then, I take out my vibrowire and head over to the desk drawers.  With the vibrowire, I cut out the front part of each drawer and look inside.  I wonder if these people write much at all anymore, or if written language has all but died and it's only spoken now.

How about you give me a list of the twenty things you expect to find, and I'll GE roll for it, and maybe add a bit? Said the lazy GM.

PT

20 things...let's see...

1. Keycard for the building doors.
2. Money.
3. Precious metals, or gems.
4. Mobile communication device.
5. Invisible-maker prototype.
6. Holographic message diary (potentially rewritable).
7. Some sort of small computer.
8. Disk with some of the company's private project files.
9. Model of one of the business's projects.
10. Some book on advanced quantum physics (depending on if this company is about that or not probably).
11. Video games.
12. Portable energy containers.
13. Gun.
14. Flashlight.
15. Basic Medkit.
16. Translation device.
17. Car keys.
18. Flashlight.

That's all that I can think of, lol.  I'm kinda tired, and couldn't think of any more.  A lot of it depends on what exactly this company does, but there's my list of what could possibly be there.

You find a keycard for the building, and overall ten gold chips, and a commemorative set of coins from the year 2020 that remember the Landing on Mars.  You see a hand-sized computer screen.  You find a small fireproof box that resists your vibrowire.

You do find a holographic poster that is folded up,a nd it outlines the business plan and product for this company--basically lie to the public for fun and profit.  Its an ad agency, and it seems to have a marked lack of moral scruples.

One of the project design protocols on this holoposter is "If potential for being fined for misrepresenting a product exists, include insurance coverage against this as part of fee for client. Never work without a safety net.  Thats the Illusionex WAY!!"

You find a dozen batteries that look different than what you're used to, tape, a carpet slicer, and a tiny music box in one of the drawers.

There are two basic medkits, and one flashlight that works, and one that doesn't.

PT

I put the card in my jacket pocket, and the gold chips and coins in my jeans.

Then, I leave the medkit and carry both of the medkits, strap one flashlight inside of my belt, and leave the other flashlight.

With the fireproof box, I carry it along with the other medkits.

Now to find a way out of this place..  With the medkits and fireproof box wherever they are comfortable without interfering with my plasma pistol in my hand, I head out of the office and look around for any other potential office doors.

Its easy enough to find the first office door. You hear scratching and thudding noises. You look out the reinforced glass window that is a foot square, and see several at least, 'people' trying feebly to get inside.

The second door is a fire door with an alarm.

PT

I look into the office and think, Wow, THAT is not going to be my problem.

I then walk back to the window and put the lifting/lowering device just below the opening that I had made with breaking it throguh.

I then carefully get down out of the building and lower myself down with the device.

Once down on the ground, you release the catch, and gather back up the device.  Seeing that the Sun is heading toward its rest, you make your way back to the iron sculpture, and the company of the other three.

As night falls, they come too, and then you hear shuffling.  Soon, your sculpture is surrounded by 'people' who are moaning out words.  But they seem to be too clumsy to climb up the sculpture thing.

PT

I happily greet everyone as they come back to the haven.  Good, it looks like everyone at least made it through today.

I take out the fireproof box and ask Mariko, "What is this and how do I get inside?  Vibrowire won't pierce it."

After she replies, I address all of them at once.  "Guys, I found this in the building outside."  I take out the Illusionex Keycard to show them.  "If any of you want to come with me tomorrow to check the place out, you're welcome."

When I'm done saying that and hearing their responses, I wait until they fall asleep then follow their example.  Before going to sleep, I put my 14 gold chips into my bag and I lay my head on top of the bag.

"Its a safebox, and probably rigged to blow.  Usually you have to take things like it to crackers which we don't have here. Mebbe elsewhere in the City."

The redheaded Asian who tried to hustle you snickers.  "Try-try talkie hyuk, once dirt, always dirt, Mariko-san."

They are willing to check out the building, but they make clear they don't want to have anything to do with the creazy-creazy.

The night passes, and sunshine in your eyes wakes you.

PT

I look around and nudge everyone around me awake, if they aren't already.

I wonder why those things attack us anyways?  Maybe it's some sort of program error-or maybe it's intentional.  Either way, this building can get us the money to maybe get out of here...

I only keep my black chips in my pocket as well as the keycard.  I carry on me my plasma pistol with one plasma pistol in my packet and a LaseTek pistol with the most ammo in it.

In my pockets, I have the glass cutter and vibrowire.  And on the inside of my jacket, I carry one of the basic medkits.

Once everyone is ready to go, I say, "Let's head for the building now."  If they follow me, I jump down and head for the front entrance.

At the front door, I raise the keycard and slide it through the cardreader.  I sure hope that this thing works...  But more so, I wonder why these guys are so afraid of the creazy-creazy.  In reality, they aren't that dangerous if handled alone.

They follow you with a bit of bickering, and you arrive at the front door of skyscraper.  You swipe the card, and the door staggers open.

"Juice most gone." One guy mutters.  Inside, its dim, and you spread out, looking for danger.  Nothing appears.  Perhaps the creazy-creazy are not in this building, or at least on this floor.

Mariko vaults over the desk, and uses her talons to rip open the cashier's box.  Inside is nineteen gold chips.

"Woohoo!" The Innkeeper shouts.  "Richie-richie. You're laserbright, Krill."

PT

"We're splitting that, right?"  I ask Mariko.

I smile at the Innkeeper's comment.  "Thanks.  What kind of stuff do you think they sell here?  And where might there be more money?"

I look around specifically to see what exits from the room are around us.

Maybe there are some offices around here that we can get into to get more money..

After/If the golden coins get divied up and I see a nearby door, I nod towards it and say, "Let's go check it out."  Once we're at the door, I open it with my plasma pistol pointing at the door.

They get divvied up, and the Innkeeper stares at you like he doesn't understand your question.  And then he forces his mind to process it.

"Look...its...whirlie-whirlie, spin-spin, like three-card monte...hyuks play games...do they do anything? I nevah see a hyuk sweat."

You open fire as soon as the door opens for the room is packed full with 'people'.  They boil out of that room, and the adjoining rooms, seeking to flank you, and the ones in front go straight at you.

The elevator comes down wheezing, and you can see 'people' inside forcing the door open since the power is dribbling out of the last batteries.

PT
OOC: Very bad GE roll for the room, 27.

Right as I see them inside the room and start firing, I shout, "Run!" and back up quickly while I shoot at the ones closest to me.

After I shoot three more times, I run for the entrance to get to the light.

As I'm going, I make sure that no one is getting left behind.  All we have to do is get to the daylight and everything will be okay..  I keep that thought and rush on for the entrance, unless I see one of my companions get taken by one of the cyborgs.

You hit one in the leg, one in the chest,a nd the last in the head, and he goes down.  The others set to work with a will, and retreat firing as well.  Mariko is the deadliest as she uses her talons and her walldancing.  Whoever gets within range of her dies.

And then Mariko is out the door, and the Innkeeper is at the door, and the Asian Redhead slips in some blood, and his gun skitters out of his hand.  He's about eight feet to your right, and you're practically surrounded by the group coming from the elevator.

"Leave me, run." He orders.

PT

What do I do?  I double-take and then throw him a plasma pistol.  I have to help him, at least as much as I can!

I pull out my other plasma pistol and lasetek pistol as I head backwards for the door.  I aim with my guns towards the nearest threats to both me and him.  Still, if they get too close to me, I start shooting for my own safety rather than his.  I shout, "Hurry up!"  If I get to the door, and I continue to fire into the killerbots even if they force me to back all the way up into the sunlight.

He reaches for the gun, and it hits his fingertips, and skitters across the floor out of reach, and under the feet of the cyborgs.

You pull out the LaseTek, and it explodes in your hand when you pull the trigger.  For a long second, you just stare at where your right hand used to be, and then you slump, passing out.

PT
OOC: One near-botch on catching it, and one botch on your shooting, and the dice really didn't like you today. Have you been mean to your dice lately? Oh well. (:  I was hoping you'd be able to fix this world, but then this does let another have a try at it.

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

Let me think a bit for a next world.

PT