You see men in what appear to be military atire around 1860 dieing around you.  They look as if they're confederate soldiers in the Civil War.  Then, you look up to see what looks to be Abraham Lincoln, a mermaid, and even a genie charging from accross the battlefield with even more assortments of strange creatures.

Then, you wake up.
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You feel something heavy on your feet and you look to your right, to see that your crate is there.

Underneath your head, you feel a hard floor, but not tile.  In your diluded state, you can't think of what kind of material it is.

Then, the heavy thing on your legs starts moving and a grunt comes out of it.

I lean up, looking around me at my surroundings, and grab my crate, then I look down and see what's laying on me...

That dream was definitely weird... if any of the past ones are a clue, I think I know what I'm into this time....

I then, kick off whatever is on my legs, get up into a crouch with my swords and I make sure my armor is all with me.  I make sure that I've got everything I need and I secure the artifact in a pouch beneath my armor.  Making sure its loose enough to not get damaged even if something its my armor, but tight enough to stay secure.

(I've got it in a pouch beneath my shirt on my pants figure.  The garb's back pouch thats beneath my other shirt and secured beneath my armor)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:04, Tue 19 Dec 2006.

You go over to your crate after kicking something off of your legs.  Without looking, you recognize the voice as someone behinds you grunt.  It's Craig's voice.  "Hey, what'd you do that for?"  He asks, looking around the place.  "Where are we?"

You then secure all of your belongings.  With another look around the room, you see that there's three beds in the room with closets as well.  Also, there's two doors leading out of the room.  One has the picture of a toilet on it.

The area around you seems very clean and there are no handles on the doors.  Everything, however, seems crisp and straight (perfect right angles at the doors).

Sorry, usally I wake up in water, not someone sleeping on my feet.

Well I suppose I should explain what has happened.  Remember back on the van how I told you, that I've died a lot and that over my life I've kill a lot of people in wars and such?  Yeah well thats all true.  Despite the fact you all took it as humor.

I'm a verser, when I die, me and my possesions, and anything that is touching me I suppose, since your here... I think people I've formed a bond with also come with me.  We die and go to another world.

In my previous world before I met you, me and a friend, we versed out together and ended up back in ancient greece fighting in the Trojan war, we won, and later on I died, but he stayed I think, or if he didn't he went elsewhere.  I came to your world, you know basically what happens there.

And so we died and we came here.  I've died about 13 times so far, maybe 12...I'd have to check my laptop. I think its 13 though.  Anyway, I've learned a lot of new skills.  For instance I once went to a ninja and samurai world and I learned out to move silently, even over dried leaves.  In this other world I trained at a military base, and I became an expert marksman.  So when I find some of my gear I can use my sniper rifle very efficiently.  I also learned stealth and using a pistol and smg fairly well when I was there.

Lets see, this other world I was at an academy.... I miss it a lot, there were many friends and so much I could've learned there.  Thats where I learned magic, like levitating, here watch this... *levitates random small object*  See, it isn't hard but I learned it there, and when me and my friend Brian versed out, he taught me offensive magic, like creating fire, creating water, I can use wind, and earth type things..  watch this... *creates dirt*  see, nothing to it, just takes a lot of practice and such.

Understand... you die, you go to another world, you learn new stuff, you die, new world, learn sutff, die, new world, learn stuff, etc.  and it goes on for a while.  I've met a few people, like this one person, Krillis, I tried to kill him in a previous encounter,  then again if you knew a dragon would kill you if you didn't try, you would to.  I died, not by him though, by a knight.  I've made a few friends, hopefully I'll be able to return to the academy or meet krillis again.

But I've had a lot of fun and not fun stuff, for lack of better terms.

I'm sure you understand now.  It's a lot to take in, but you'll eventually get it.  So judging by how clean this place it it appears to be a camp... I had one hell of a dream, and this very well might be a military camp... although I hope otherwise... last thing I want to do is face the military when I'm not prepared fully.  Lets see if we can find some more about this place... If you have to use the restroom you might as well go now, you never know when you will need to go again, I'll go when your done..

If he goes I wait for him, then I go, if he doesn't then I go.

After everything is finished I go with craig and look around into other rooms and such.

When you're talking to Craig about versing, he listens intently and seems to believe everything you're saying, even though he's somewhat dazed by it all.  When you try to levitate the object and summon dirt, you find that nothing happens when you even say the command aloud.

Then, Craig freely goes to the bathroom, you right after him.

Then, after you get out, you see that he's holding a handgun in his hand, feeling around the handle until he hears a click and the clip comes out.  After checking it, he puts it back in.

The handgun looks like a diferent model, more clean and efficient than guns you've seen in the past.  Still, from the clip, you assume that it's a projectile like in other worlds.  When Craig sees you, he smiles and says, "I found this in a nightstand over there."  He points next to the bed, where a nightstand is.  "But I couldn't find any others."

Interesting, and it appears magic doesn't work here... so looks like I'm going to be using my swords until we find some more weapons.  Well, you hold on to that for now.  I'll be fine till we get another.

I walk towrads an exit and peer outside to get a good look at the surroundings without opening the door too much so that I know what setting I might be in, but without hinting that I'm here.

You and Craig approach the door on opposite sides and it swooshes upwards.  You two look out the doorway as well as you can.

You gaze into a clean hallway.  The walls are white and the floor is light gray.  You hear footsteps from down the hallway.  They sound like dress shoes of some type.  The footsteps are approaching from your right.

I, upon hearing the footsteps grab my sword, ready to pull it out, and crouch ready to lunge forward.  I pull my sword out of its sheathe about half an inch, to make sure it comes out nice and quick. Then I very slowly move silently over toward the footsteps and get ready to pull the sword out, slamming the hilt of the sword right into someone's gut, if it is human, if it isn't then the sword goes is slashing rather than the hilt thrusting.

I also, if Craig looked over before I moved, motion for him to keep quiet.

Craig stays quiet as you prepare yourself to assault the oncomer.

Soon, the footsteps draw near and you let loose your motion flawlessly at a man's stomache.  He is wearing a uniform of some kind.  It looks to be a light blue shirt with a tie on and a gray jacket and gray pants.  While the man is on the floor gasping for air, you see that he's dropped a clipboard that he was carrying.  By his insignia, you recognize that he has the American rank of a second lieutenant on his shoulder.

I take my sword and point the tip of it about an inch away from his neck, under his chin.

Who are you, and where is this place? And What type of installation is this?

Oh and since you are a second liuetenant, I'm sure you know this already... never leave your guard down, even in friendly territory.  You never know when something might happen.  Had I been a serious enemy, you would have been dead, you got lucky I didn't feel like being hostile, otherwise we both know what your fate would be.

Well, answer my questions...

After he catches his breath, he begins to speak.

"I'm Lieutenant Mesmer."  When you ask about what type of instillation it is, he looks at you strangely.  "Are you crazy or something?  We're in the Marnus for crying out loud!"

As he rolls into a more comfortable position, you see that he has a gun on the right side of his belt as long as a couple extra clips on his belt as well.

There's also some sort of circular device on the left side of his belt.  It looks detachable and it looks like it has some sort of bubble appearance on the oval.

Get up Lieutenant, I've got some questions that need to be answered.  I'm not in the mood to put your blood on the floor either, so lets chill in this room and prehaps you can answer some questions that myself and a friend have got.

I pull my sword back a little, enough room for him to get up, but still keep it leveled at his throat.

Try to grab your gun, or move and you will die, this I can assure you.  I've been in 2 wars, and have been in several different forms of the military.  From a couple recon squads, to a General in another, and I've gotten my share of kills in those wars, and then some... Know that at your current position trying anything is foolish, and we can both walk away fine if all goes well.

As he raises, Craig grabs the lieutenant's gun immediately and the soldier comes with you willingly into the room.

Once in the room, Craig detaches the rest of the man's belt and the door swooshes closed after all of you are inside.

Well, Where are we, what time period are we in? Whats the current date? Where were you going, and where were you coming from, how many people are in this building, and why did you let your guard down in, from what I can tell, friendly territory?

Answer them in any order, but make sure they all get answered.

I still have the sword at the Lt's throat.

The man breathes a little quicker and you can tell that he's getting scared.  Still, he answers your questions.

"We are on The Marnus.  The current date is March 4 2076.  I was just going to get some coffee and then I would go back to my station.  My guard was down, because normally we don't have psychopaths aboard and it's early.  I just woke up a few minutes ago!  Can you please get this thing away from my neck?  You have my gun already."

He does look tired, but after that last statement his fear seems to be lessened by a large amount.

Craig is examining the contents of the belt after putting it on with one of the guns back in the holster.

2076? Wow, thats quite a bit... I'm not a psycopath, I've just been is some crazy situations before and I never let my guard down, and so, I hear footsteps, and you happened to be the unlucky fellow coming down the hallway.  Who is in charge above everyone else here?

The man looks at you like you're a little crazy, but answers anyways.

"The commander of this operation is General Nextel.  How exactly did you get on board again?"

We versed here.  I'm a verser, he got dragged along with me.  I know things that are...well  lets just say, I'm a gifted individual.  And because of the fact that my magic doesn't work here, I'll have to stick to my other skills...

Eh, its times like this when I still wish I was a General....Training my troops at my military fort in the ways of combat, strategy, and tactics... but I guess being versed has its downside.

Oh, and another thing, I woke about about 5 minutes... maybe less than that, before I hit you.  Just because you wake up, its no excuse to be off your guard.

Well, this is irritating, and since we're not in a place that is easy to leave, I can't just kill you and get outa here.. Lead us to the General, me and him have business to take care of.

I pull my sword away from his chin and instantly put it back in its sheathe.

Try anything, and I will kill you on the spot, say anything stupid, and you can enjoy the afterlife... trust me, its not all that great.

He nods at you, but then gestures towards his belt on Craig and the extra gun.  "I can escort the two of you through the hallways if you'd like, but it might look suspicious if I don't have my things on me."

Craig looks at you and at the gun in his hand, but the lieutenant speaks before he can.  "Don't worry.  I won't use it.  You can take the clip out and be sure that I won't."

Craig looks at you and nods at the idea, already starting to take off the belt.

Its already suspicious that me and him are here, and no one knows where we came from or how we got here.  So it doesn't matter how much more suspicious it can get.  We are already at a disadvantage, and I don't wan't to put us at an even more disadvantage.  Yes we could take the clip out, but you could always get another clip.  So to make sure that doesn't happen, he'll remain holding on to the gun.  He'll remove the clip anyways, so that if it gets taken, the clip isn't already in it, but I don't enjoy possible keeping you armed.  It puts me in an even more unfavorable situation.

Walking over to craig, and whispering so only he can hear...

"Put it in the bottm of one of your pockets, and keep the gun in your hands.  Fold your arms across your chest, with the gun burried in your arms to keep it hidden."

Walking back over, never keeping my gaze off of him.

Ok, then, lead on.

The lieutenant frowns slightly, but still leads you out the door after Craig has assembled his things as you command.

The building seems to be a very advanced complex.  It has tiled floors and white walls.  Judging by the distance of the doors to eachother where you versed in, it seems like living quarters.

The man leads you out of the area easily and you run into no one.  You see cameras everywhere in the hallways, but it doesn't seem like anything is happening at the moment.

You turn down a hall and there are two men in the same uniforms walking by.  They smile at the lieutenant and say, "Mornin-."  You see the lieutenant's head nod a little bit towards his back, where you and Craig are.  Right then, you see the two men reach for their weapons and one of them is reaching down to the circular device on his belt.

Taking the Shortsword out of its sheathe and instantly having it "appear" (it went pretty fast...faster than most can keep up with, since its a part of the style I use) by the Lieutenant's neck.

Grab anything and the Lieutenant Dies, then you get to have blood all over your uniforms, along with his weight as you also fall to the ground dead.  I have no intention of killing anyone yet, I just want to speak to the General so me and him can work some things out, I've met some circumstances that put me here, and now I need to go about dealing with said circumstances.  So, just stand down and let us be on our way.

You make a fluent motion as your sword comes in front of the lieutenant's neck and you see Craig hold his pistol steadily at the two oncomers.

The man on the left already hit the circular device and shouts in it "Intruder alert!"  Then, you hear a slick firing from Craig's gun, after which the other man has his gun already dropped onto the floor, but is bending over to get it.

As soon as I see the other man get shot and one guy drop his gun, I take my knee, and slam it upwards in between the Lt's legs and pull him back behind me on to the ground, then, I charge forward...

If I get to the guy before he gets his gun, then I kick him in the face and kick the gun out of his reach, then tell Craig to retrieve their weapons.

If he gets his gun as I am charging at him and is already starting to point it at me, then I, as I run towards him, have my sword angled downward, bring it up and slam into his hand that is holding the gun, then take the butt of the sword and slam it across his face, and have Craig retrieve the weapons.

You kick the lieutenant and throw him to the ground and follow up by kicking the other man in the face.  Craig quickly picks up their weapons at your command, shoving one of the new guns in his pockets along with their clips.

He asks you, "So, do you want any of these?"  Something bugs you out of the corner of your eye.  On the man who had been shot, the circular object is flashing red.

You then see the circular objects on both Craig and the man you kicked in the face start vibrating.

The lieutenant struggles to get up, but Craig kicks him back down and turns to you.  "What now?"

Give me a pistol, you keep the other two.  This is not going as I wanted it to...  ahh well, new plan, things are going to get hectic, so we need to retreat.  Lets go back to the room we first showed up in.  We can use beds and other objects as defensible positions, and kill anyone that comes through the door...  Let's go.

Craig and I head back to the room, and move beds together to form defensive stations. We turn them sideways on the ground to give some cover, put two back to back, and have the third against those as well.  We have the mattresses on top of those upwards to provide a barrier from above and give us some extra head room.

However, just before we put the mattreses on the top, I takea shot at very close range against the mattress.  I am off to the left away from both Craig and I.  If the Bullet goes through, then a mattress gets put on our side for further protection and I shoot again.  If same result, I add another, and if same result, I add the last one, and see what the result is.  If at any point the bullet does not go through, the remaining mattresses I put on top.

Craig throws you the gun from his hand and the two of you run down the halls to the room.  You notice that the doors in the hallways are all open, even though some are empty.

Craig loads the empty gun and checks the clip of the other.  Then, the two of you start working togeather on the fortifications.  You get to the point where you test for two matresses and the bullet goes through cleanly.  Then, you hear someone coming.  It sounds like many are coming down the hallway and you see one round the corner.

He is in military combat attire.  The clothes that he wears is a long blue shirt underneath what looks like kevlar and baggy blue pants that look similar to combat pants as well as black boots.  He's also wearing a helmet with a visor at the front and you see his lips move as he says something.  His weapon looks to be a sub machinegun.

Seeing no obvious solution...

Craig...this is pointless, we'll die here if we don't give up... i don't enjoy it, but I've got an idea...

Yelling over out into the hall, rather loudly so pretty much anyone in the area can hear the words..

Hey, soldiers, come on in here, we surrender.  We meant no harm towards anyone, we simply got lost and ended up in foreign territory.  So you up ahead, can lower your sub-machine gun, and come on in.   We won't harm you unless our lives are directly threatened.  So if you are willing to negotiate, I'm sure we can get to understandable terms.

Sorry about the others, we were simply threatened and well, you would do the same in our positions.  What person wouldn't?

You hear more feet run down the hallway, but they stop outside of the door.  A powerful voice comes from what seems to be an intercom.

"This is General Nextel.  We will accept your surrender.  Throw your guns and ammunition into the hallway.  You will be escorted by armed soldiers to the cells.  Go calmly and I will talk this out personally with you."

Craig throws his guns and ammunition out into the hallway.

Well, considering thats all I asked the lieutenant to do in the first place, when I met him, its fine.  But he had to have a couple other soldiers draw their guns on me and my ally, without questioning.  Which might I add is a rather stupid idea, since if a superior officer is being threatened, you should inquire about whats happening to save the lieutenant rather than risk his life by drawing weapons.  They drew weapons, and so the lieutenant, went from not being threatened at all, to having a dagger at his throat.  Then he said intruder alert, and hell broke loose.  Thats something I try to teach my men not to do... But alas, as a General in foreign territory, if you get threatened, neutralize the threat.  So I didn't kill anyone, but the person that was shot by my friend here... well how is he doing? I'm hoping he isn't dead.

Also, General Nextel, if I may, can you and how about 4 guys as armed defense soldiers come in here, and we can negotiate.  I'll throw my guns out there, but here we can talk on relatively equal ground, rather than it all one sided.  So what say you?

"I apologize for the inconvenience, worldwalker, but these terms are non-negotiable."

Just then, one grenade is thrown into the room and emits a huge flash and sound.  You become delierious for a moment, and then notice that they throw two more gas grenades inside.

Incapacitated by the flash grenade, you can't manage and you find yourself blacked out.

Your head aches as you open your eyes to a bright light over you.  You try to move, but you can't move yourself, and your head has minimal mobility.  It is only able to turn left and right.  You feel something metal on your head and see your crate to your left.  To your right, Craig is on a chair in his normal attire with a metal dome strapped to his head with a thick wire leading to where you can't see.  Currently, Craig is not moving, but you see that he is breathing.

Suddenly, you see an aged man with a military haircut.  He's in the same uniform as the officers, but he is a Four Star General and his nametag says 'Nextel'.  He is also highly decorated.  "I see you're awake.  What is your name?"

I'm in no position to make demands, so I won't, but I would like you to atleast hear what I have to say...I am going to only say something blatanly obvious... What the hell was that for?  and yes I walk worlds via versing, so yeah I'm a worldwalker I suppose, what does it matter?  Nextel, does it matter what my name is?  I've been called many names... I was called Achillephon, when I wore the armor of Achilles, back when I fought in the Trojan War.  I had killed Achilles in battle, and took and wore his armor, said to be forged by the god Hephaestus.  Then there is the name my parents gave me, of which is Avahur.

Also, is it really nessecary? Why couldn't we talk back in the other room?  I wasn't going to harm you, I was going to throw my guns towards you, but the nades were not needed.  You could've simply denied me, and then said that you were sending guys into the room, resistance is futile.  If I tried to shoot them I would've been killed, so I would have had to surrender.  It wasn't needed to be like this.  Plus you also wasted ammunition, which could've potentially helped you in a future battle.  Wasting your supplies isn't nessecary when you can get the same effect without them.

As a strategist, a tactition, and as previously in top positions in a few different wars, part of a special ops recon squad, me being their expert marksman, and having to deal with creatures of all sorts.  I've had to deal with postitions like the one you were in..  I'll be quiet now, so you can continue, but...bah whatever, carry on..

"Avahur, I did what I had to do to ensure your survival and that of my men's.  Truth be told, we need you, Avahur.  We keep versers in reserve so that if any large rebel uprising occurs or something of that nature, we have soldiers that can be extremely effective with no risk of life."

He moves over to Craig to examine him.  "We performed tests and it has been determined that the two of you are indeed versers.  These machines attached to you will be used for your assimilation into our society, until you are drafted into our service.  Do you have any questions before it begins?"

A few, what do you mean, assimilation into our society.  I prefer to be as is, please answer that first before I continue.

"Via this device that you are attached to, you will be temporarily mindwiped and restored so that you will assume a new identity even with yourself.  You will no longer be Avahur, the worldwalker."  He looks on a piece of paper on the table next to you.  "You will become Second Lieutenant Gregory Mathews until you are awakened.  What are your further questions?"

When will I return to being myself?  And sir, I find this idea stupid. there are things, that only I know in my current state.  Changing me would be very bad for bot of us.  I have no problem working with the military, but it should be as I am, that way, I can fully utilize all that I know and not worry about being potentially changed and forgetting something.

I can understand using this if worldwalkers are not willing to join you.  Then its obvious to use it.  But since almost everything I've done has been militarily related I've got no problems with working with you.

Listen to my reasoning. I'll work with you, as Second Lieutenant Avahur.  Leaving me as I am is the best course of action because I know a lot of stuff that can prove beneficial to the military, and giving me a new identity risks that being changed.

Also, how long is temporary?

"You will be returned to yourself when you're needed.  You have no worries about losing any of yourself in the process of re-awakening.  We've done thorough tests on other versers.  You will retain your memories and abilities."

He shuffles some and puts his hand to his mouth for a moment in thought.  "About changing you, it is required to attach an attribute into you.  We need you to know details about this ship, mainly piloting knowledge.  Without risking your own mental health, you must be temporarily changed.  Afterwards, you will have a slightly limited natural finess with our technology.  The minimum time for you to be re-awakened is six months.  Do you have any further questions?"

What if I die in that 6 months? then what? 

"That has never happened and I can guarantee that it will not happen this time either.  We keep our versers very safe and don't give them combat missions until they are awakened.  You will be given a risk-free position aboard another ship or maybe even on Earth.  Your life is safe with us."

He goes behind you and brings back in front of you a small disk.  "There is also a program that we initiate inside of your mind.  It will make it so that if you feel your life is in danger as your other identity that you will revert back to Avahur.  This, however, will make the time nine months rather than six."

Has this also been tested? And its 9 months of duty, but less if I feel threatened and revert back, right?

I start to recall all of the moments where I've been threatened and keep them fresh in my mind, and not push any of them back having them stay very close the surface, knowing that if they get pushed back, those memories will be there to bring me back to who I am.

"This has been tested and proven to be successful.  If you are reverted back, you will not be forced to be assimilated again."

He moves behind you, but you still hear his voice.  "Are you prepared?  Your friend here will be debriefed and questioned on his own preferences on this after you have been assimilated yourself."

I'm ready... continue... but know that if something happens, and I am threatened, and my life is in danger, even though you said you'd keep me safe...know that of all my potential targets, you will be at the top.  I don't take kindly to generals betraying their soldiers.

"Nothing will go wrong, I am sure."

Then, you feel yourself fall into a sleep.  A nagging presence pulls at you and you hear foreign thoughts swim in your mind.

I am Greg Mathews...
My birthday is May 7th...
I am 24 years old...

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You feel yourself on the ground and you're grabbing your head hard.  You feel as if you don't understand what's going on and your head hurts like someone's stabbing outwards from the inside.  You feel a skull-splitting pain, and then it's gone as images flash before your eyes.

You see, before the pain leaves, a city from a tall building.  All of the buildings are skyscrapers, but in the midst of all of it, there is still beautiful green grass along walkways.  Your mental image rushes towards a figure now-a pregnant woman.  Just as her view is coming, someone touches your shoulder.  You look up and see that it's General Nextel.

He says, "Avahur, we need to talk.  Come with me."

Its good to be me again, well what happening Nextel? I see I'm fine for now...what's happening?

He leads you to his office before he speaks.  On the way, you look at yourself and you find that you're now at the rank of Captain and you're in one of their uniforms, which is suprisingly comfortable.

You arrive at his office and he says, "The date is December 4, 2076.  I assume that you remember who you are, correct?  Do you recall everything as a verser and are you ready to fight?"

While he's talking, he seems pale and nerve-wrecked.  He's talking still when he walks over to a safe and enters a combination in, opening it.  You find that your things are inside.

I do believe so... if you give me an empty room to train for an hour or two I can go over all that I know and make sure I'm good.  But as far as I can tell everything is fine.  Its nice to see that I'm a captain, what happened in those 9 months?

He starts biting his nails some when he goes over and sits in his desk, covered with papers.  "We've encountered a new intelligence.  On November 11, near the Mars colonies, an unidentified spacecraft was spotted and opened fire on our freight ship.  Right now, we have building-to-building combat in the Mars colonies on the surface and we fight them with all we have in the skies.  We've woken up every verser we have, but it turns out there are very few left."

"Your friend has been lost in our archives after a rebel attack.  That made us lose record of who half of our versers are.  You're the last one we had to awaken-the fifth one.  I need you to take your things into your room aboard and be sure that you're ready to fight.  We're dropping our versers off in an hour on Mars.  On a happier note, I do hear that your life has been eventful.  It turns out you're married.  Be ready in half an hour to suit up.  You should have natural knowledge of the facility, so you shouldn't get lost.  Hurry up."

Sir, to make things better for me, I'd like to do a little practice right here before I got suit up... and by suit up I do hope I'm getting back into my armor... that I versed here with, along with the clothing I was wearing beneath it, and such...

"Negative, Avahur.  Get to your own room.  It's nearby, and it has preferred battle fatigue and weaponry inside.  You're welcome to wear whatever you want to, but we want you to wear our armor.  Hurry up, Avahur!  In your room, there are orders on where your specified dropship is."

The phone rings and he picks it up, distracted from you now.

I rush back to my room with my gear, don their armor and do a quick but precise run through with my weapons to make sure no effiency was lost, and to see if anything was gained.  I also focus to see if I can sense any other versers on board. I look at my armor and their armor and see what in my opinion provides better protection.

You put on their armor and find that it is light-weight, but it gives you a natural feeling of protection.  There's a torso armor that's thicker than the rest.  Although the pants and arms feel like a very hard material, they feel like they have much mobility as well.

The color of the armor is all blue, except for the black torso.  You feel that their armor is much better.

While running through your movements, you find that you still have the natural ability with your swords, but when you pick up their weapons it feels even more instinctive.

The weapons that they have are what looks like a SMG with a strap, a handgun that can fit in your belt holster on their armor, and what you feel to be a semi-automatic rifle.

What strikes you most is a helmet with the armor.  It is blue and black, rather stylish actually.  There is a visor that covers have of your sight and a miniature microphone where your mouth would go.  It doesn't cover your neck in the front, but it goes down about 3/4 down your neck on the back with what seems to be the same material as the torso armor.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:39, Wed 27 Dec 2006.

I have my new armor on (Their armor), and I look at where my specified dropship is, and me, with all my swords, 2 on each side.  My Shadow Blade and my Ninja-to are on my left side, while the other two are on the right.  I have all the weapons in their holsters, and in a spare pouch I put in my Shurikens, recalling the memory of how well they worked against Achilles.

I then fully armed and ready head to my dropship, checking out who else is around.

You approach the dropship area and you feel vectors all in one direction.  It makes it rather easy to find where the versers are meeting.

When you reach the dropship, there's a man that seems to have been waiting anxiously.  He looks at you and the other three present versers.  Looking around the hangar, he frowns and mumbles something like "where is that kid...?"

You then hear a shout from behind at the entrance to the hangar.  It's a older teen.  He looks to be about 17-19 years old, but still has a smirk on his face.  "Hey, wait up!"  Suddenly, he vanishes and you feel his vector change locations to your left.  You look and he's about a yard in that direction.

The anxious man begins to speak again.  "You will each be dropped in as teams of two.  The most veteran of you will stay here for future use.  You hear that, Warren?  I called you to the dock to brief them on the enemy.  Once you're done, they'll be sent off."  A very small boy in the front of the group looks back at the rest of the versers and you.  In an instant, your mind feels like something is boring into it.

There is no pain, but suddenly you feel like time is standing still and a small voice talks to you mentally.  They are called the Fenari and will not take any prisoners.  Do not show any of them mercy.  The creatures that you will be fighting are coded as 'goons'.  They are very strong.  It is suggested that you do not engage them at close range.  There is no data on the terrain of the colonies, because the cities have completely changed.  You will remain on Mars until you have either versed out or until the Fenari are repelled.  You are assinged with Pollux, the kid to your left at dropship 7.  Good luck.

Suddenly, it feels like time has started back up.  As you look to your left, The teenager looks at you.  Pollux doesn't have any body armor on, except for the pants and military shoes.  Other than that, he's wearing a blue t-shirt and a brown jacket.  You see that he has two guns in holsters around his waist as well as a strap that leads to a gun on his back.  He isn't wearing a helmet.

Dropship 7, you feel, is the first dropship to your right.

OoC: Nice... the guy from Mal's zombie world...

IC:

Looking at Pollux, then over to dropship 7...

We might as well hop in... before we got the message... did you...teleport over...or were you moving fast enough to appear that way... Of all the versers I've met, I haven't seen one do something like that before.  Shall we hop in?

I was a bit amazed at the power someone can learn on one world..

Teleporting, eh? That's a new one. Wish I could go to a world and learn that.  It'd be sweet to master, it'd help me in battle too... hmm maybe he'd showme a thing or two about it.. no sense in not asking, since we are all versers anyway..

If we both head into the dropship and get ready, then I ask,

Do you think you could teach me how you did that teleporting thing?  It seems pretty nifty, and would help alot.  Perhaps in return I could teach you something I've picked up in my travels.

Pollux smirks when you ask about his ability on the way to the dropship and says, "We can talk about a possible trade while we're en route."

Once on the dropship, he says, "I used to give out my skills to other versers for free, but I've found that some of my skills are quite...useful.  What would you be willing to trade for the teleportation?  Do those swords have any unique qualities or are you just good with them?"

On the dropship, there's no one else aboard but the two of you and a pilot.  The pilot shouts back, "Hold on or strap down, because we're going in fast."  You feel the ship start to move and you hear the unclamping of it onto the space station.

Only one of my swords has any magical properties, and it stays with me.  Partly because its an amazing sword and its abilities are even more amzing, and partly as a reminder of by far one of my favorite worlds that I've been to.  Made a good amount of friends there, 2 of which were versers...Brian and Malachai...good people, and good friends.  Perhaps I can teach you some elemental magic, like fire or water.  I doubt elemental stuff will work on this world, since I tried it earlier and it didn't work, but they do work and are handy, or perhaps you'd like to know how to levitate? if you don't already know that is... levitate other items, or yourself.  Perhaps you'd be interested in changing the color of objects, or summoning flowers or opening doors.  Any of these interest you, in exchange for you teaching me how to teleport? Perhaps you'd like to know how to fix pages in a book.  All of which can be done with practice, and I'd be willing to teach you how to do any of them in exchange for you to teach me something helpful yourself...

"You've met Malachai, huh?"  Pollux smirks some, appearing to ponder, but still smiles and says, "Yeah, I met him a couple worlds back.  It wasn't really a nice place to be, but he was one of the lucky final ones to get my teleport ability for free."

Once you mention your magic to him and finish, he frowns some and replies, "Sorry, but I can't risk the magic not working.  Just out of curiosity, what kind of magical potential does that sword have?  And would you be willing to trade any of your other things for that skill?  I do have others, but some of the stronger skills I have don't work in this world well."

If they don't work in this world, why would I want to chance them not working in another?  I have the ability to use magic, but I don't rely on it, I rely on my skill with swords, and weapons of different sorts, Magic is an added bonus to my collection, anyone that solely relies on magic, risks not being able to use it in a world, and when put in situations like this...well they are pretty much dead.

I would be willing to part with this shortsword here, if you have any interest in it.  (Trojan Sword, not Achilles' one.)  It's very well made, I used it when it was given to me, back in the Trojan War.  Fun times, became a General of sorts, led an army, owned an island... it was nice, till of course I died and versed.

My sword's magical properties that I know of, are dealing shadow damage that doesn't heal. I sent a girl to the hospital to be healed, after I hit her in the side with it, during a sparring match.  She was in there for hours.  It was at an academy where I met Malachai. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to fix up, since it was shadow magic that did it, and since they teach at the academy, fire, water, wind, earth, light, and shadow, I figured sure enough they'd be able to heal any damage or counter anything done by any of those elements.  Sure enough she was fine, but it worried most of us.  Cus when we tried to heal her with healing magic,  of which I also know, but haven't needed to try it so I don't know if it works here...  anyway, when we tried to heal her, it wouldn't close and thats when we figured out that the sword does damage that won't get healed.  I assume the medical magic they used was extremely potent to cancel out the shadow effects.

Also, I'm not sure if all my elemental powers work here or not, when I tried to conjure dirt and make a flame it didn't however...

*Concentrates*

*Cups hands*

Water

If Water forms...

Well this worked, creating water, very nifty, I can also use it to attack objects, by propelling streams of it across rooms and other distances.  I know of fire, water, wind, and earth.

If it doesn't work..

Figures, Water doesn't work either... oh well

If they don't work in this world, why would I want to chance them not working in another?  I have the ability to use magic, but I don't rely on it, I rely on my skill with swords, and weapons of different sorts, Magic is an added bonus to my collection, anyone that solely relies on magic, risks not being able to use it in a world, and when put in situations like this...well they are pretty much dead.

I would be willing to part with this shortsword here, if you have any interest in it.  (Trojan Sword, not Achilles' one.)  It's very well made, I used it when it was given to me, back in the Trojan War.  Fun times, became a General of sorts, led an army, owned an island... it was nice, till of course I died and versed.

My sword's magical properties that I know of, are dealing shadow damage that doesn't heal. I sent a girl to the hospital to be healed, after I hit her in the side with it, during a sparring match.  She was in there for hours.  It was at an academy where I met Malachai. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to fix up, since it was shadow magic that did it, and since they teach at the academy, fire, water, wind, earth, light, and shadow, I figured sure enough they'd be able to heal any damage or counter anything done by any of those elements.  Sure enough she was fine, but it worried most of us.  Cus when we tried to heal her with healing magic,  of which I also know, but haven't needed to try it so I don't know if it works here...  anyway, when we tried to heal her, it wouldn't close and thats when we figured out that the sword does damage that won't get healed.  I assume the medical magic they used was extremely potent to cancel out the shadow effects.

Also, I'm not sure if all my elemental powers work here or not, when I tried to conjure dirt and make a flame it didn't however...

*Concentrates*

*Cups hands*

Water

If Water forms...

Well this worked, creating water, very nifty, I can also use it to attack objects, by propelling streams of it across rooms and other distances.  I know of fire, water, wind, and earth.

If it doesn't work..

Figures, Water doesn't work either... oh well

"I simply mean that I would rather be sure that it worked before I exchange for it."

He looks at the Trojan sword in its sheathe on you for a moment.  "This ability of mine is a very powerful thing and I don't want to trade it for your worst weapon.  I'm sure that shortsword is fine, but what is the most you're willing to trade for teleportation?  Do you have anything else back at the station?"

First off, it isn't my worst weapon.  Its my most recently aquired weapon. You want something that works?  Before that, I've got a question for you.  When you fight, what skills do you use?

"It depends on what situation that I'm in and if I want to kill or just subdue someone.  Generally, I use my marksmanship ability with my pistols and I can teleport for relocation.  If I'm trying to subdue someone, I will most likely teleport and keep on hitting them.  An especially added bonus to this ability is that I'm yet to find a world where it doesn't work, even though I haven't been to as many worlds as some yet."

How many worlds have you been to so far? I've been to, including this one, 13.

"This is my seventh world."

He thinks some and says, "Well, it is my seventh world, but I've been around for a while.  I think it was about 3 years to perfect the teleportation to my expertise and then I lost track of how many years I was that summoner's apprentice..  But this is my seventh world."

Well, you've definitely been a verser longer than I have.  I've been a verser for about 2 years, maybe a couple months over.  Then again, most of the worlds I've been to, I haven't had a chance to actually train, either by my self or under someone.  The only peaceful world I've been to has been an academy, I met Malachai there, but after about 6 months or so, the academy became under attack, and I was killed by one of my friends.  I'm sure Malachai suffered a similar fate.

I haven't been to really any worlds that taught me anything new other than magic.  I've gotten equipment left and right... actually, if I gave you armor, armor that was said to be forged by a god, would you teach me teleportation?  Its not a weapon, but it can be very helpful, I'll include it all, with the sword that goes with it.  This one here. *Points to Achilles' sword*

What say you?

"The sword now, I'll teach you what I can in a dropship and on this mission, and the rest after we save the world.  What do you say?"

He smiles and offers his hand to shake.  "Do we have a deal?"

We have a deal.  You better make sure you don't die on me, and I won't die either so we can finish this.  Promise?

"Right."  He shakes your hand.

"For teleportation, I want you to know that this is not a magical ability.  I think that's why it works in a lot of places.  What you need to do is focus hard and actually feel yourself in another place.  Don't do it now, though, because I'm not sure if it will work out in this thing.  You could very well teleport outside of the dropship and that wouldn't be good."

The pilot hollars back at you and Pollux.  "We're going in hot in two minutes.  Make sure you're geared up."

Pollux then holds out his hand.  "I don't suppose that I could have that sword now, could I?"

Of course, here it is.

I hand him Achilles' sword.

Right, well lets gear up...it's time to unleash hell...

Pollux straps the sword onto him and checks his pistols once more, as well as the same kind of rifle that you have, which he has strapped onto his back.

"Get ready!"  The pilot shouts at the two of you and the side of the dropship opens.

You hear something in your head say, "Avahur, we need you and Pollux to reinforce a unit secured inside of this building."  An image appears over your left eye.  It is a triangle pointing ahead of you and to the left.  Underneath the triangle, it says '66 ft'.

I think back, Will do.

Let's go.

Pollux and I go to the building carefull checking our rear and our sides and making our way into the building to scure our target.

You make it to 23 ft away from the point when Pollux pulls you into a building as something unfamiliar, but still familiar in a way, flies past.

You remember that it is one of the enemies' rounds.  More of the tiny particles whiz by.  As they fly past so quickly, they appear to be lines of brown in contrast to the gray buildings and pavement of the town.  The shots whiz past, four at a time.

"It must be a squad of goons."  Pollux says, going towards the one window next to the door.  It is a one story building, but the wall behind you has a large hole blown into it.  As Pollux says 'goons', an image flashes into your mind.  It is a very large and dark green creature, very muscular that seems to have arms meant for crushing.  A red half-breastplate covers the chest and a strange gun is held in its hand.  You feel like it's a memory.

Do you think these goons are very large and dark green creatures, very muscular that would have arms meant for crushing?

I just had a memory of something of the sort as soon as you said the woord 'goon'

I was talking rather softly, loud enough to be heard, but soft enough as to not alert any approaching goons

"I was briefed on them right when I got into this world and drafted into this operation.  That's the military's term for them.  We don't know any specific species name for them, so we call them 'goons'.  I hear that they aren't that smart, but they are very strong and good at fighting.  They are theorized to take orders from a class of 'coordinators', which we haven't seen.  We've only seen goons and pilots.  Got any ideas for handling this group?"

Pollux peeks out the window and teleports backwards two feet as more shots whiz by the window.  "I'm all for taking them head on, but what about you?"

Well all I can see is a bunch of dots whiz right by us, I recommend trying to find another way there, or figure out a solid strategy on what to do and how to fight them.

"Your body armor should provide a lot of protection against their shots.  Why don't we try to fight them off right here and now?  You use your rifle to cover me and I'll teleport out there to flank them from behind, okay?"

He holds his two handguns at the ready.  "Whenever you're ready, I can go."

Ok, lets go.

When pollux goes out I shoot em as I see em and give him cover as we planned, with my semi-automatic rifle.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Fri 29 Dec 2006.

You see Pollux vanish as you get right by the doorway and shoot out at the 'goons'.  You see now that there are five of them, four of which are shooting back at you while one is behind them.

You fire into them, and with four shots, you manage to hit one in the neck twice and he is still not down.  You hear another gun go off towards the direction of the goons, but past them.

One of them turns around, but the goon that you shot twice in the neck charges at you.  He runs the distance that humans leap.  You anticipate that he will be in close quarters with you in a matter of seconds.  Also, you see that he dropped his gun before he began charging.

I move back as far as I can, leaving enough room to pull out my sword, firing at the oncoming goon in bursts.  Then when I deem it getting close enough to be a human leap out of out of range, then I drop my gun and put my hand on my Shadowblade and get ready to pull it out into the goon.  Relying on instincts gained from years of training, and when it gets in range I pull it out, taking a step forward as I do so, bring the sword out and into the goon.

The goon proceeds to charge at you.  You fire at the goon, but it is a clear miss as he continues to charge at you.

He almost reaches you and you draw your shadowblade in a lunge.  You see him raise his hand and catch the blade, staring at you menacingly and raising his other hulkish arm to hit you with.

Then, you hollars in pain, releasing the sword and holding his badly cut hand.  He continues squealing in pain, and there are no more shots coming at you due to the goon blocking anything that could hit you.

The goon looks like he's breathing deeply and trying to control himself.

As the goon hollers in pain, I take that oppourtunity to keeping cutting it and slashing it with the shadow blade over and over hitting everywhere that would be a possible vital, neck, head, wherever.  After those I went through the stomach area, and just kept on hacking away at it till it finally died, or it just dropped from the pain....

This better kill it... no human could take this much, and I assume the shadow effects are taking its toll on this thing... well if this works, I know how to kill them in close combat...

With your first draw, you cut through his neck cleanly in the front, half-way deep inside of it.  Then, you bring it down and slash his face.  He hollars in pain again and moves his hangs up to his head.  You then slash his stomache, the part unprotected by his armor, and he brings an arm around and hits you.

You fly back into the stone wall of your previous cover, next to the entrance of the building.  You're dazed for a moment, but then you look and see that the goon is holding his neck for a few moments and attempts to even get up, but he falls over motionless.

You see the goons behind him raise their guns about to open fire on you.

Your rifle is a few yards in front of you, between you and the motionless goon.

I rush behind cover and pull out the SMG, then shoot is controlled bursts at the goons, when they aren't shooting at me.

After you get back into the building, you look out and find that two goons are dead where the group of them are.  There is one goon left and he's holding his gun nervously looking around at the rooftops.

Suddenly, you see Pollux appear behind him in midair with Achilles' sword in hand.  He has it ready to stab into the back of the goon's head, but he barely skims its neck and accidentally runs into its shoulder.

Pollux falls to the ground motionless, but at least he's still there.

I fire in bursts at the goon, aiming for its head, so that stray bullets will avoid hitting pollux...

If it turns around and focuses on Pollux then I charge in and attack with my shadowblade aiming for its hands first, then its neck, then after I do one slice into its head I slice both its upper fore arms, so that moving them for a counter attack with hurt it too much so it probably won't, and then I stab my sword right into its heart area...

If it aims towards me I continue to fire in bursts at it, and then if it iis getting close enough to me, I pull out my shadowblade and attack aiming for its hands first, then its neck, then after I do one slice into its head I slice both its upper fore arms, so that moving them for a counter attack with hurt it too much so it probably won't, and then I stab my sword right into its heart area...

You fire at the goon and it appears to do nothing to falter his attention from Pollux.  He raises his foot, ready to stomp on him and you charge.

You're halfway to him, then Pollux begins to look around some.  Then, the goon's foot comes down towards Pollux, but only hits the pavement.  Pollux stands in front of you with Achilles' sword in his hand, drenched in black blood.

The goon raises his foot and looks under it, unaware of you at the moment.

Cover me..

I charge in with my sword and if its still facing away from me, I stab the sword deep through its head.

If it faces me, I attack aiming for its hands first, then its neck, then after I do one slice into its head I slice both its upper fore arms, so that moving them for a counter attack with hurt it too much so it probably won't, and then I stab my sword right into its heart area...

"Don't worry, I have this.  I just screwed up last time.  This time, I'm sure of it."

He jumps into the position where he has the sword ready to stab in midair, and then vanishes.  You see him reappear behind the goon again, but this time his sword stabs directly into its neck and goes up, into its head.  He holds onto it with his other arm as it goes down slowly and then stops moving.

He wipes the black blood off of his face and the sword.  "You ready to keep on going?"  He spits some of the blood out of his mouth while he waits for your answer.

OK, lets go.

I head back and retrieve my Semi automatic rifle, and also pick up the guns the goons were using giving one to pollux and holding one fore myself.  Then after reloading the guns, we head off towards the building.

Anything else you can teach me outside?

You scavange the area for their weapons and your own.  Pollux gladly accepts two of the goons' guns and shoots a little to test one out.

The tiny round flies to a building and then there's an explosion.  Now, there's a large, exploded hole in the wall.  Pollux smiles, nodding some.

For the rest of your trip to your point, there isn't any trouble until you see the building.  You come up and creep your head around a corner.  What you find it your mission building surrounded at the entrance that you're directed to.

There have to be ten goons in sight, all behind a form of cover.  You hear a few inside of the building to your right and you have visual confirmation of ten in the courtyard behind dressers amongst other things they pulled out of buildings nearby.

Shall we open fire with this stuff, make a bunch of explosions and then seek shelter if they aim towards us backing up and taking them on as we can.  They way I see it, we have the element of surprise, if we fire enough at them they should mostly die. and if we fire two guns at a time most of them most likely will die and it will be a helluva lot easier for us.

"Sure, that building looks like it'd work for cover for when they charge us."

Pollux points towards a building opposite your mission point.  It looks to be about two stories.  It doesn't have a door in it, but it has a window on each side of the door.  the building is stone, and you can see stairs near the back of the entrance room.

Ok then, lets fire on my mark...

As soon as we get into position...

Mark

And we open fire shooting goons and the surrounding area and such. Killing what we can, if they start to charge us we retreat.

You open fire with Pollux, firing four of their guns at once at them.

After a few moments of fire, it strikes you that none of the goons are even reacting to the fire.  A few turn around and see you.  You shoot more and you see the rounds flying off to the side when they approach the goons.

"Great.."  Pollux throws the guns to the ground and pulls out his rifle, taking a knee and aiming.  "I'm not too good a shot with this, but I might get a shot or two into them before we have to retreat."

Putting the guns away, and pulling out my own smg, I also open fire.

The remaining goons turn around when you begin opening fire on them.  You fill the nearest goon with lead and he falls to the ground while charging at you.  The others are charging now, too, and more are coming out of the building to your right.

Before you can tell how many, you have to turn and run to the building.  The building has no door and two windows on the first floor.  There are stairs in the back of the small, empty entranceroom, an you saw no window facing the enemy on the second floor from the outside.  What do you do?

"We are in over our heads lets head upstairs..."

I run upstairs with Pollux..


"then tell me all you can about teleporting, we will both do it, trying to get to a far distance away from here... Worse comes to worse I mess up and end up extremely far away from you.. but since we are both versers, and I can sense where other versers are, I'll find you.  That is our only option out of this...  Do you think we could teleport across so great a distance that we are back at the base? I dont think its possible but we need to get away from here... now"

The upstairs is just another simple room, like the downstairs, but it has furniture in it.  Pollux ignores you for a moment and pushes a dresser down the stairs.  "It doesn't work like that, Avahur.  You can't learn how to flash teleport long distances without a lot of practice.  I can't even do too far of a distance with precision.  We need to barricade the stairs and hold them off."

He takes a piece of black chalk out of his pocket.  "Our only shot is if we can take them out with the weapons we have.  Summoning is too risky.  It might not work in this verse."  He throws a couple chairs down and you hear the goons approaching from the floor below.

"Does summoning leave you too drained to do much else?"

I help throw furniture and stuff down the stairs.

"I can summon, but it will leave you alone to fend them off and it might not even work in this verse.  It's better if we just fight them off, right?"  He looks around and finds nothing else to throw.  Then, he takes the rifle and looks downstairs.  It seems that the goons have stopped for at least a moment downstairs.  You hear them talking, but you know that it isn't a language that you could know.

"What do you propose we do then? Their weapons don't work against them, and fighting them in close combat isn't a good idea since there is too many of them.. And why would summoning leave me alone to fend them off?"

"It takes me a while to draw the spell.  They're intricate patterns for the most part and I only know three of them, one of which is useless.  If you like the idea of having to fight them alone with the chance that it won't even work, by all means tell me and I'll try."  He has the rifle at the ready, pointing at the bottom of the stairs.  "Because soon enough they'll grow brains and realize we went upstairs."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 03:46, Sat 30 Dec 2006.

"Well it looks like we need a plan to kill them... bullets work but you need a decent ammont, and we'll run out of ammo before we can even finish em off. So what do you think we should do?"

Pollux looks around for a moment, and then raises his head some.  "I have an idea.  Hold this for me, I'll be right back."  He tosses you the rifle and creeps down the stairs some.  Once he has sight of the lower stairs, he vanishes and reappears next to you again, with one of their weapons.

You hear a large commotion downstairs and one of them looks up the stairs straight at you.  "Time to go."  Pollux says, pointing their gun at a wall while taking his rifle back from you.

He fires, blowing a hole in the wall.  On the other side, there's a roof that you can barely climb up to.

I head up to the roof and look around... if I can safely make the jump down I do so and head away from the building.. if I can't  I try to see if there is a way down safely..

Atop the roof, you find that there are no safe ways down.  The drop doesn't seem like it would kill you, but it would definately hurt.  You hear the goons running up the stairs now.

Pollux takes their gun towards the hole and fires.  You hear an explosion and a goon hollar out.  Pollux looks back at you and says, "What now, Avahur?  I've blown out the floor, so they shouldn't be able to get up here easily."

"Is there a way for me to safely teleport down to the ground?"

"Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to start practicing.  Take it really, really slowly now.  You have to focus hard on the place that you want to be and you have to visualize yourself being there.  You have to focus on every particle of your body and how it would feel to actually be exsisting in that place.  You should try it out up here first.  Try teleporting over here."

He moves about three yards away from you, but still in front of you.  "Try teleporting over here near me."

I concentrate and visualize myself appearing over by him, feeling what it would look like to be there, how the surroundings would be different, and what it would be in comparison to where I am now.  I concentrate and visualize me there...

You visualize yourself there, but nothing happens.

After ten minutes, you still have no results at all with teleportation.  Pollux speaks up, "You know, it takes even versers a while to get this.  It took me three years to completely master some of the least complicated stuff to do."

I revert back to my training in battoujutsu...

*Flashback*

Sensei: Avahur, you are not concentrating, you may close your eyes and think about useless garbage but unless you conctrate on what your goal is and on who your target is, all you will meet is failure.  Now try again, this time, swifter, track my movements and concentrate.  I may be faster than you, but you are young, you've got the endurance and ability to concentrate quickly and predict my movements, now on you guard..

Avahur: Aye, sensei, I will..

*End Flashback*

Well, just like sensei said...concentrate... and not useless garbage..

I concentrate again...really trying to get it, reverting it back to the way I learned how to concentrate.  If there was something I was a pro at, it was concentrating and predicting movement and beating my enemies..

*Reflects on past lessons..*

*Concentrates*

*Visualizes*

You focus once more, but you feel like your mind isn't sharp enough again.

Still, you push your focus harder and the air suddenly feels different in front of your face, but your focus breaks and you trip up, falling face first into the brick building's roof.  Pollux is still in the same place and you haven't moved.

I back up and put my hands up in a combat gesture..

"I've got an idea... just stand back.."

I start fighting an invisible opponent, a version of myself, visualize where he would be and how he would conter my attacks, I go at it, even if I can't see myself, I think and concentrate countering my own moves and working on counters for them.  Concentrating on how to beat my opponent.  Increasing my concentration, and when I beat my Opponent I visualize  another, except we switched places and I am infront of pollux, and my other is where I was, and we fight again...

Pollux cocks an eye, but you continue to try and focus on the imaginary opponent and sharpening your focus.

Finally, when you reach the point to teleport, you find that you aren't teleporting and you're still just standing there.

Out of the blue, you hear gunfire coming from the building where you were supposed to be heading.  You look over and see that there are soldiers and they've taken positions on the opposing side of the barricade.  They're firing at the base of the house you ran into.

You hear pained shouts from the floor below, but also warrior cries.

"Well it looks like we should shoot at them from up here... down through the floor...  teleporting...well if we can't do much good from up here I'll try again... I was trying to visualize me fighting my self, then switching places, via teleporting... that didn't work... so, yeah.."

"I'm going to head over to the other roof and shoot them as they come out."

He runs and jumps onto the roof of the other building and takes a knee to steady his aim.  Then, he starts opening fire as the goons come out of the building.

As Pollux goes up to shoot at them as they come out, I start shooting through the building at them.

You fire your smg down at the goons inside the building still.  Though there were only two left, they look up at you and then run outside blindly.

As those two run outside, you hear another open of fire and then the shooting stops.  Shouts of joy can be heard in the direction of the other building and Pollux calls over to you, "Hey, what's next on our priorities?  Are we still supposed to secure this place?"

Your helmet still shows you your objective as defending the location.  You hear another voice, but it sounds like a com-link on your helmet instead of inside of your mind.  "Avahur, there's a large band of enemy goons inclosing on your position.  We need that building secure and to stay in our possession until a dropship arrives to collect a package and our men.  Hold the fort, we're on our way."

A new location is shown.  A red indicator points where you see is behind you.  The indicator says that the enemy group is 309 ft off and incoming.

"Well Pollux, it looks like we've got more goons on the way 309ft and incoming, we've got support coming our way also.  So reload and get ready, this place is gonna be hot again.  If you can, can you teleport down and grab a few guns for myself and you? Perhaps we can shoot them as they get close and create holes that will delay them long enough for support to arrive.

Also, since now we have time, if you can try to summon something that can help us, even a little.  Now's the time to do it.  You don't need to of course, but anything we can do to aid us right now would be much needed."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:59, Sat 30 Dec 2006.

He gathers the supplies and you soon have six of their guns up top.  The others, the soldiers have collected for their supplies.

"Avahur, while I do this, don't you think it would be a good idea to hollar down to them about the incoming goons?"  You check it again and they're now 259 feet away and closing.

Pollux takes out his black piece of chalk and gets to work.  He seems to be drawing some type of circle.

"Hey guys, we've got goons incoming 259 feet and closing quickly, get ready, its gonna be a helluva time trying to keep this place secured.  Are you ready? They are, so do what you can and when you hear firing..well, its gonna get hectic."

I take a goon gun, and aim it, I start firing firing towards the direction they are coming in at, trying to make holes and other obstacles to slow them down.  If there are trees, or boulders or something of the sort I shoot them when they get near 'em.  When I run out of ammo I go on to the next gun, only using up two guns max...

The soldiers take position with what barricades they have at the entrance to the courtyard and station some men there.  The rest of them are in other positions throughout the courtyard.  Few went back into the building.

On the rooftop, you start firing at walls and other buildings along the path, trying to cause any barricades possible to stall the goons.  You fill the way with some rubble and debri, but you feel as if it won't stall them very long.

The goons are just begining to come into sight down the street.  You can't count how many there are, but probably north of 20, you judge.

Pollux utters, "Done.  Now to see if it works."  You see that he has three circles connected with strange designs in each one.  There also seems to be letters that aren't in the alphebet on it.  He says something in a language that you don't understand, moving his arms in a pattern.

After he's through, he looks at you when nothing happens.  "Well, I guess we'll hold them off the old fashioned way."  You look at the goons and your helmet says that they are now 80 feet away and closing.  They're about to run through your minor debri.

"80 FEET AND CLOSING, I'M SEEING JUST OVER 20 OF THEM, GET READY!"

I pick up another goon gun and aim in front of them and let loose the ammunition causing all the explosions to be in one spot.

When it is out of ammunition, I grab my SMG and I fire in bursts at the goons.

Everyone holds their fire when you start shooting in front of the goons, causing dust to rise quickly.  The goons are stunned for a moment at the suprised explosions, but they look up and seem to see you.  One points and then they open fire on you.

Pollux has his rifle unslinged and returns fire, but soon explosions start to happen and the building you're on begins to shake.  You see the goons still moving.  Pollux looks to you, "We have to get off of this building.  It's gonna fall!"

You judge over the edge that it isn't that far of a drop, but you'll be at least stunned on the landing.

In a rush, I jump of the bulding landing into a roll to lessen the damage and prevent a bunch of unwanted side effects.

"THE BUILDING IS GOING TO FALL, RETREAT!!!"

I run away from the goons and away from the building, assuming pollux will be along shortly.

You fall to the ground and prepare for a roll, but you midjudge the distance and fall, your upper back taking most of the damage, but your legs still aching from it.

When you try to get up, you feel a sharp pain coming from all over your back and from your left leg.  From the pain, you fall back to the ground.  Your head falls in the direction of the goons and your headset reads that they're 20 feet away and should be on you in a matter of moments.

I turn over, face down in the dirt, and pretend to be dead.

OoC: I botched or failed miserably didn't I?

ooc: Yes, you botched.

You hear the goons approaching and then stop a few yards away from you.  Suddenly, you hear gunfire coming from the building's direction and returned fire from the goons.

Pollux calls from the building's direction, but fairly close.  "Avahur!"

I remain still hoping Pollux picks up on the idea I'm not really dead...

You hear a hint of anger in Pollux's voice now, and you feel the heavy footsteps of the goons coming closer.

"Avahur!  You're a verser, but I can't finish your training if you're trampled by them and verse out!  We need your help to hold this position!"

You hear more gunfire from Pollux's direction and the goons move back away from you.

I remain lying on the ground trying to remember how to use the headset.

You try to remember the qualities of the headset considering communication.  A class flashes before you for a moment, and you remember that there is a knob on the left side of the headset that changes the frequency for the com link on your headset.

The frequency, you remember, should be in front of your eye as it changes in your visor, and you remember the frequency that military forces normally use in combat.

After your memory, you have a stinging headache, but you can still function.

I slowly reach up and use the knob to turn it to the military combat station and I inform the soldiers of my current status, and I have them tell Pollux.

You hear Pollux's vioce in your headset.  "Avahur, I'm going to try something that I haven't ever tried before.  I know it's possible, but I need you to remain very still and hold your breath for this.  It would help if you tried to slow your heartrate as well.  You have five seconds, then I'm coming for you."

You hear something drop on the other end of the com and you hear gunfire start up again towards the goons.

I do as he says, concentrate, try to slow my breathing, and hold my breath, while remaining extremely still..

You see Pollux's foot in front of your face all of a sudden and you feel a hand grab onto your right wrist.

Then, you see your surroundings change.  From all of your back, leg, and head pain, you feel disoriented, but you hear Pollux breathing deeply next to you, and he scoots away from you.  He begins to shout some.  "Gah!  Get this thing off of me!"

I remain still trying to figure out what's going on... when i do figure out, I turn my head slightly to see what's happening to Pollux.

You stay still for a moment, and you observe your environment from on the ground.  There's stone and it's not as bright.  You feel a solid floor beneath you, and find that you're indoors.

You still hear gunfire outside, including both human guns and the alien weaponry.

You look over at Pollux and he's looking in terror down at his right hand.  You look at his right hand as well, and you find that there's something jutting through it.  Another right hand and wrist is molded with his, but he's still moving his hand some.

Just then, you feel your right arm brush up against the ground and you feel a numbing sensation from the tip.

I look towards my hand and back towards pollux's hand and try to figure out what's happening.

You look down at your right hand and find that it is missing.  The top of your right arm, where your wrist would begin, is covered in flesh.  You look over to Pollux's arm, and you see that the hand jutting through his is a right hand with your skin tone.

A shooting pain in your leg and back make you fall back down, face up.

You see a shadow pass overhead and the sound of something mechanic.  The sound brings you back from the pain for a moment, and you realize that it's a dropship.

Gathering some of my energy, I quickly say to him...

"Pollux what the hell happned to my hand..."

After gasping a few times...

"Where are we?"

"We're in a building right next to where we were."  Pollux seems to have gained a little bit of his composure back, and he stands, offering you his left hand to help you stand.  "You look pretty beat up.  That leg really doesn't look good."

He looks over to where the dropship is landing.  "But whether or not they expect us back yet, we're getting on that dropship.  Agreed?"

"I agree, I need to get back to my crate, I've got something in there that can heal me... It's not magic so I'm sure it'll work.  I suppose its properties are sort of like your teleportation."

You limp with Pollux out the door.  There's still gunfire towards the goons' direction, and there's a uniformed officer getting on the dropship with two stone-faced soldiers in combat fatigue.

I Limp with Pollux over to the uniformed Soldier.

"I am Captain Greg Mathews, my friend and I need transport back immediately."

I hope this works...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:25, Wed 03 Jan 2007.

The uniformed officer stares back at you and at Pollux.

He looks fairly young, but has a face of steel.  With a strong voice, he calls over to the remaining soldiers fighting the goons off.  "Get over here!  This position is through!"

He looks at you as the men file into the dropship quickly and nods.

After he walks onto the dropship, you and Pollux limp aboard.

Soon, you have a seat.  One of the soldiers, with a medical insignia on his helmet, comes over to you and examines your leg.  "This looks pretty bad.  It's badly broken, could take months to heal.  Lucky, you getting to go home for so long."

"If all goes well, when I get back to the base, I can heal up by the end of the day... I just need to do something about my hand... I'm hoping that also get's healed with my plan..."

"Dang, I've never seen anything like that before."  He looks at your hand.

You see Pollux take his jacket off and put it over his right hand.  "I sure hope you can fix it up, Avahur."

You feel the dropship slowing down and the medic takes his seat once more.  The pilot calls back.  "We'll be in the hangar of The Marnus in two minutes."

"I hope I can also..."

When we get back to The Marnus, I have Pollux help me to my room.  I go over to my crate with him.

"Ok, hold my hand still..."

I have him help me with my crate and bring it on the bed.

I place my right arm into place with my hand, so it's as it would be if they were attached, and they are touching eachother.  Then I grab my Healing artifact, and once making sure its in place I activate it, and see what the results are.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Wed 03 Jan 2007.

You set everything up and press the button.

All of a sudden, your wounds are healed, all but your hand.  However, now it is out of Pollux's arm and on the bed.

He looks at your healing device with awe.  "Now THAT is something useful to a verser.  What'll it take to get you to trade that with me?"

"I wouldn't get rid of it for anything.  It is very useful, healed me back to full... except for my hand of course, but atleast its free of you now.  From what I can tell, it heals pretty much everything, broken limbs, etc.  A god created on this world I went to, I picked it up off of a dead medic.  A huge war was going on, and the people their came from everywhere, realms that I hadn't thought existed.   Pretty strange, but a very nice device.  Down side, it can only be used once a day.  Tomorrow, I shall try again and see if it can put my hand back to my body, but atleast the pain is gone from the rest of my body.

I'm going to rest for now, I know I need it, perhaps you should do the same, and we can meet up tomorrow, for more training perhaps? Or other stuff, that can be decided tomorrow, but I am sure we can both use the rest."

"Yeah, sure.  I'm in a room two doors down from here.  We should have at least a day of rest before they give us orders to be sent back into action."

He holds his wrist thankfully and says, "I guess I'll see you later.  Bye."

When Pollux leaves I put my hand aside and get some rest.

When I wake up the next day I put my hand together with my other hand so it is back how it would be if it was healed and I activate the Artifact again. Then I wait and see the results.

You awake to a knock on your door.

It's a uniformed officer, the rank of a lieutenant.  He has papers in his hand and presents them to you.  "I was commanded to give you these forms for your medical leave.  Also, there is a mission if you choose to accept it with a reward."

He puts them on the foot of your bed quickly and briskly walks out of the room.

You reach over to grab your disembodied hand and you find that it is cold, and stiff.

I walk over to my hand and quickly try to warm it up by wrapping it in the sheets I had just slept it.  Then I went through the papers while my hand was warming up, after a minute or two, I felt my hand again.  At which point I would grab my upper arm with my left hand and try to cut some of the blood off to the rest of my hand, so it would lose heat and also get colder, then when it too was relatively cold, I would realease and go over to the artifact, pick it up, bring it over to my hand, place my right arm into my hand so they line up, then I would activate the Artifact.

The paper is an application form to get medical leave from injuries in battle.  You recognize it and know that you have a check-up after you turn it in to check for your honesty.

The orders, however, talk about a return to Mars with the same verser team of you and Pollux to help a standoff at an enemy outpost.  The dropship will be ready in a week.

When you try to warm up your hand, you find that it does no good.  But you suffer through cooling your own arm and when you attempt to reattach them, you find that your hand heats up again at normal bodily temperature.  Still, it isn't attached.

After your attempt, you hear a knock on your door and then the door slides upwards.  Pollux is at your room door and walks inside yawning.  He's holding the same papers as you are.  "It looks like we have orders to fight after a week of rest, and I'm not injured."

"But I am, and I can't fight unless my hand is reattached, or I get an artificial hand or something.  My right hand is the hand I use for EVERYTHING.  If it was my left hand, it wouldn't be soo bad, but my right hand is used primarily for fighting.  Sure I'm ambidexterous, but I learned with my right hand and its more important to me, I really need to get it fixed...somehow."

He comes over to you and looks at your hand and your arm.

Then, his face lights up for a moment.  "Have you tried wounding the spots that are supposed to join?  I wouldn't imagine that a healing device would mend them unless there was an actual wound.  It might be painful, but maybe you should slice the skin off of both sides next time you try."

"Anyways, you ready for training?"

You remember that near the barracks area, where you're stationed, that there is a firing range and two combat training rooms, with 6 smaller sparring rooms ajoined to each of the larger ones.

I go over and put my hand in with my gear, and I go over to Pollux.

"Lets go, I'm ready."

You and Pollux walk to one of the smaller sparring rooms.  It has a seperate room to get weights attached to it, but it isn't part of the sparring room.

He looks you in the eye and says, "To teleport, you have to be somewhere else, and that's a hard thing to grasp at times.  It is easiest for a verser to learn it, because of what we've seen.  Right now, we're in a room with relatively no wind, and a generally same environment in every part of it, so it'll be easier than it was on Mars."

"I want you to focus on your teleportation to another place in this room.  Focus on what your new surroundings would be an then feel yourself there."

"Ok."

I look at the exact opposite side of the room from where I am standing, and focus on being there, and how everything would work in contrast to how it was...  Then I feel myself being there....

You continue your attempts at teleportation and you find that eventually two hours pass with no progress at all.

Finally, you attempt it again with stillness around you.  You feel yourself fall flat on your face.  You attempt to catch yourself, but your right arm doesn't assist and you still fall down onto the matted floor.

You look over and see Pollux writing something in a leather-bound book.  He looks up at you and says, "Congratulations.  You teleported."  You look around and it seems like you're in the same place you were when you tried to teleport.

"It looks like I teleported into the ground if anything.  I don't look any different than when I started."

"You teleported forward slightly and you also rotated your body so that you were facing down some in your thought process before the teleportation.  That's when you lost your balance and fell.  Of course, you didn't teleport very far at all forward, just about an inch or two."

"Ah, well it's a start atleast."

I get back up and continue to try for a few more hours...
This message was last edited by the player at 01:29, Fri 05 Jan 2007.

After two hours, you still find that you can't teleport at all.  You can't even teleport slightly like you had before.

Then, finally something clicks in your mind.  You change your focus and you notice a tiny detail that you weren't taking into account, that your insides may feel different as well.  You then focus on your interior and exterior during your teleportation, and you close your eyes in focus to open them again, from the other side of the room.

Pollux nods at you some.  "You catch on pretty quick with this teleporting business.  So, you ready to spar?  If you'd rather keep practicing, i'll probably head to the gun range."

"I would like to practice a bit more, if you are going off to the gun range, perhaps we can spar in several hours.  I may have gotten it once, but I want to make sure it wasn't just a fluke.  So I'll probably train my teleportation for a while, and then work on fighting with my left hand a bit.  So I'll see you in several hours perhaps?  Feel free to stop in and check on my progress..."

I continue to work on teleportation.  I start with simple teleportation across the room, if that goes well then I work on making two teleports in quick succession, almost like a double teleport.

You begin to teleport more frequently, but even when you do, it takes you at least three minutes of concentration to do so.

After the three minutes, though, you sometimes still cannot teleport.

I take a couple minute break, then continue to train, tryin to decrease the concentration time.

You continue your training and try to focus your concentration sharper to speed up the teleportation process.

Before you make any successful attempts, you get a heavy and piercing headache from the strain of your focus.  You still seize the opportunity and teleport in under a minute of concentration.  But when you're teleported, you feel disoriented and throw up on the ground in front of you.

You still have the headache.

Eh is that a good thing or a bad thing?  Eh oh well, its progress.

I clean myself up and take a break to find something to clean up the mess, once that is cleaned up I go find Pollux, to see what he is up to.

You use a nearby towel to clean yourself and the floor up.

Then, you go to the practice range and find him shooting an assault rifle, which are on the wall, at a target.  The target is an image created by lazer lights and sensors.

You see that he has barely moderate aim with the rifle.  He goes through five rounds with the weapon and hits the chest of the target three times, no other hits.

I see him busy practicing, and figre he needs the practice, then I go back to a training room and start practicing with my my swords, after about 3 hours of solid training, I go and get something to drink, then I head to the shooting range and practice with pistols, since its probably the onlything I can do well with one hand.

When I work with my swords I work on fluidity with my off hand so that it can match my main hand.

You start off with your sword practice with dropping the sword on occasion when it is an advanced move that you can do with your right.  However, as you progress, you find that you barely ever drop it.  Still, you don't feel at the end of your practice that your attack is as high, nor your speed.

Pollux greets you when you enter the shooting range.  He still has the rifle out, and seems to be doing better with it.

At first, you can't aim with the pistol in your left hand and miss consistently.  Then, you manage to hit about 4/5 shots.  The shots, however, are not dead on.

Going over to Pollux...

"Next time you try that, grab my leftt hand, my right hand is used for all my fighting... well most of it."

I continue to train with the pistol.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:01, Sun 07 Jan 2007.

"Yeah, well I won't do it unless I absolutely have to.  I only did it because it would be a little unfair to let you die when you didn't get to teleport at least once."

Pollux proceeds to practice with his rifle, and you in the next booth with your pistol.

You find that firing and aiming with your pistol is very hard, because it is reversed from normal and with the other hand.  You can only get a dead on shot with a lot of focus on the target and time spent aiming.

I stop, look at the target, see where each part has been hit, and turn around.  I then close my eyes and concentrate, visualizing the room around me, where the target is in comparison to where I am, looking at our two positions from a third person's view, then I, while they are still closed, turn around, extend my left arm and fire 2 shots.  Then I open my eyes and see where it hit.

If it was completely bad, then I stop and go off to train with my swords some more, if it was decent then I go and try it again, check the results, then go train with my swords for a few hours.

Your attempt at shooting by memory is a complete failure, so you return to your swordsmanship.

After a few hours, you get hungry.  Pollux teleports into your training room in a corner of it after a few minutes and says, "Hey, let's go to the messhall and get something to eat."

"Yeah, lets go."

I go with pollux to the messhall and get something to eat.

When you arrive at the messhall, they've converted half of the tables to makeshift beds for wounded soldiers.

The other tables, there are barely any people, only those with officer ranks.  The food tastes recently made.  The smell of blood fills the air, and you see everyone in the place eating slowly with an occasional gag.

"It could be worse..."

When we finish eating I tell him that I'm going to go work out my leg muscles and meditate simultaneously, and explain that meditating is very good for you, and very good for sharpening your skills, and your senses.  I also explain what a wallsit is and how good its effects can be, and how well your leg muscles get built off, and move into a short flashback explaining my days teaching at the Academy.

"Wow, teaching at a magic academy, huh?  That must've been nice."  Then, he looks around.  "I'm going to go check something out, and might join you later.  Good luck with that focusing thing-you need it for teleporting."

Suddenly, Pollux isn't in front of you anymore.

You go off and do wallsits while meditating, and you soon finish an hour worth.  Your legs are kind of stiff, but they aren't too tired to continue.

I relax for about 5 minutes, then continue to train my teleportation for an hour or two.  If I get could at it, I try to do it while walking.

You proceed with failure after your short rest.

For the first hour, you have absolutely no luck with teleportation and manage to teleport only twice.  In the second hour, though, you manage to teleport more frequently.  You still have to take time to focus, and you usually still fail anyways.

I head back to my room and decide to fall asleep and regain a lot of energy, hoping with luck I'll wake up the next day.

You wake up in your room the next day.

You go over to feel your departed hand and find that it's ice cold and harder than normal.

I go over to my hand and pick it up, put it in my pocket and then head over to my healing device.  I put that in a different pocket, and head off to find a microwave, or something similar.

You head for the mess hall and into its kitchen.  Inside, there are numerous heating units.

You see one that resembles an oven, and another that looks just like it, but smaller.

Your hand is very cold.

I go over to one of the smaller units, and put my cold hand in for about 5 seconds, then take it out and feel it. If it is not even close to my present body temp. then I put it back in for 10 seconds.  If it is somewhat close, then I put it back in for 5 seconds.  If it is too hot, then I just let it cool for a bit, touching it at intervals to see when its back to normalish.  If it is about my own, then I take it out.

Whenever it eventually reaches my own temperature...

I put it down on a nearby counter and pull out a throwing knife.  I put my hand into place with my arm, and slowly make cuts into them, so that the device has a place to heal up.  I make sure they are small cuts all around my hand and my arm.  When that is done and I throughly have enough cuts on both sides, then I reach into my pocket and activate the device, hoping that it should heal my hand and bring it back to my body.

You eventually warm up your hand to equal your own temperature.  Even though it feels dry, you eventually get it to your body temperature.

Then, you activate the device after opening some wounds.

In an instant, you feel your hand on your arm again and you ball it into a fist and out.  It feels strange to use it for a few moments, but you get the hang of it.

I let the blood return to my hand after a day or two from being seperated.  I stretch it out and return the healing device back into my pocket.  After that I head back to my room and place the Device with my stuff.  When all that is done, I decide to head back to a training room and train with both my swords and make sure my hand is in working order.  Doing some easy stuff first, then working into the more complicated maneuvers.

After I train a bit with my swords, I put them back intot the apropriate sheathe and start practicing some unarmed combat, switching between the styles that I know.

When my training finishes.  I go off to find pollux to challenge him to some unarmed combat.  Provided all goes well training with my hand.

At first in your training, your sword feels uncomfortable in your hand, but you feel your mobility returning, at least mostly.

After an hour of movement, your hand feels like it 'remembers' how to move properly with your instructions and you try to go find Pollux.

He's in the mess hall eating a breakfast when you approach him with your proposition.  With a smile, he gets up.  You look at him and find that he's armed at the time with sword and both of his handguns.

He agrees and the two of you go to a sparring room.

"Alright Pollux, this'll be interesting."

Ok, since he can teleport, if he disappears from my sight, I should duck, and send a kick backward and upward behind me, since he will probably appear  there.  However, if I do back up against a wall and fight as such disappearing, will probably put him above me, in which case I should roll forward.  I can use my peripheral vision to know he won'tbe on either side, so a roll, or atleast crouching, and looking up with my hands above me ready to block would ebe good.  He is definitely skilled, so I should be ready for anything he tries to pull.  Staying against a wall seems to be best, unless I'm right up in his face fighting with him.  Then if he does disappear and we are in the middle, simply darting forward should be fine, and I should reserve the kick action for when I am standing still and he disappears.... hmm  I shouldn't try the same tactic twice, as he'll learn from his mistakes, and I should use a variety of punches and kicks in counter attacks.  I should probably start off offensive and switch to defensive when against a wall.  Yeah this should be good...

I enter an offensive stance.

"What do you say we put our things down first?"  He takes his guns off as well as his sword.  You don't see any other weapons on him.

After complying, he doesn't enter any stance, but stands still in front of you as you charge.  Then, you see him jump and disappear.  You kick upwards behind you quickly.

When you turn, you see that he stepped backwards just in time, but there's a small cut on his chin from your kick.  He smiles, and his eyes flare.  "Alright, so the simple stuff won't work."

He vanishes again and you see him to your left.  You're barely able to raise your arm to block an approaching kick.

Right when your arm touches his leg, he vanishes again.  You look around and you don't see him.  Then, on the top of your head, you feel a force come down, and you fall from the strike.  Pollux is standing at your head now.

"Well nice job, I intended on rolling forward when I couldn't see you,b ut it looks like I didn't react fast enough to get outa the way. Oh well.

Shall we try another round?"

If he complies, then I don't fall for feints and I stay out int he open always moving around and when he disappears, move in any way except backwards.  That'll be good and if I go defensive then I should be doing well.

If he complies then I enter a defensive stance when ready.

You enter your stance once more and this time he charges at you.

While he's running towards you, he vanishes and appears right in front of you.  There, he quickly tries to punch your chest; however, you grab his arm and flip him to the ground behind you.  After that, you pull his arm behind his back and put pressure on him.

You can tell that you're causing him some pain.

I continue as I am...

"Do you submit?"

If he does then I let go, otherwise I keep the pressure applied.

OoC: I'm getting extreme Deja vu right now, as I type this and I am pretty sure I know whats going to happen.

At first, he says, "Never."

Then, after a little more pressure on him, you see that he's wiggling a little from the pain and he finally says, "Fine, fine!  I give."

He gets up after you release him and rubs his shoulder, although there seems to be no heavy injury to him.

OoC: Ok, not quite as expected...

"Well, that was fun... one more time? There is one last fighting style I'd like to try out.  I know of 3, you've seen 2, the last one... its unique, something I learned several worlds ago... Zombie world... strange place though. If you shall accept we can end after this.

Also, I've been able to teleport after roughly 3 minutes of solid concentration... even then its not every time..  Any ideas? Or is there something more you can tell me that will help me with it?"

Pollux smirks some.  "I was in that Zombie World too.  I got some personal training in a style there by a girl I met.  Let's fight.  If you win this round, I'll tell you more about teleporting."

He enters a stance that you recognize slightly from the Zombie world, but it seems more relaxed and spread out.

"Which girl was it that you met?"

I enter a similar stance that I've accustomed to own way of fighting, that I learned on the zombie world... freeform, and what fun it was to duel them...

When we are both ready, I attack swiftly.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:58, Sun 28 Jan 2007.

He says before you attack, "Her name was Rachel.  She was going through some training to be some elite anti-zombie force."

He stays in his familiar, but relaxed position.  Then, he vanishes and you instantly feel something hard come accross your face.  You fall to the floor and see his feet in front of you.  Then, they vanish and you feel a knee go into your back.

He simply says, "Do you yield?"

"Nice, I yield..

Even though I didn't win, could you instruct me on the next part to teleporting?"

When he gets off of me, I get up and retrieve my gear.

Pollux releases you and helps you up.

"Sure, I guess that's alright.  It's not like you can kill me, even with it."  He approaches you and gets behind you, then pokes you in the back of your head once and rather hard.  "Now that you know what to focus on for a successful teleportation, try to focus on that part of your head as well.  It should cut a large part of the concentration time off for teleporting."

I accept the hit as its for training, and I focus and do as he says concentrating on that part of my head, and making sure my insides come with me aswell...

While focusing on that spot and your teleportation, you manage to teleport in about one minute of focus to the other side of the room.

He smiles and says, "See?  I told you so.  What you should practice is pinpointing that spot of your mind and using that for the teleportation."

"Interesting.... and it took you 3 years to get as good as you are now?"

I continue to teleport as he gives an answer, using the advice he gives me.

Your teleportation time remains at one minute.

He looks down for a moment, and then at you.  "So, are you going to come back on the battlefield or not?  This universe doesn't really have anything of value other than technology and maybe weapons training.  You could probably get medical leave and go back to Earth if you wanted to, if you put a bunch of bandages over your hand."

"Oh, you met a rachel? If it was in the same world as me, she most likely died and became a zombie a long time ago.  I was in the Recon division, at Sallos, the local safe place for the non zombie people.  Sarah, Sam, Jason, the Captain and myself.  we were doing pretty good, I also learned a freeform type style of fighting from Sarah there... eh, she and the rest of my division died, and I died not that long after.  Them to zombies, and me to myself...  I didn't feel like experiencing the death of a zombie, so I shot myself in the head.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted there.

I'm not going to leave ya Pollux, I'm sure you can take care of yourself just fine, but we are teammates here, and I'm not ready to leave ya yet.  Sure we will both die eventually, and probably head to 2 different worlds, and probably never see eachother again.. well we might in like 50 or so worlds from now, but eh whatever.  After 12, this being my 13th world, things are being enjoyable...  so I'll stick around for a while.  Besides, I'm good at fighting, so its what I do best, and no matter where I go, theres violence around, so I train, and train, until I can be the best there is, and then some.  So I'll return to the battle.  Will you be there along side me?"

Thinking a moment...

"Whats the next step in teleportation? If we die before you tell me all the steps, I'm going to be severly annoyed, you might as well tell me now, so I can move to the next step on my own when I feel I've gotten a good grasp at it.  I'm sure theres more, and since there is no wind, its not as it would be outside.."

Pollux listens to you throughout your remenescence of the zombie world.

Then, he gets a relaxed composture when you change the subject to teleporting.  He holds up his hand.  "With normal teleportation, a person moves forward, backward, or side to side like this."  He keeps his hand in the same position as he shows you.  "To ascend to the next level, you have to be able to go up and down with teleportation.  And to get to where I am, you have to master the essentials of this."  He moves his hand and turns it.

"Don't be mistaken, there are levels beyond mine.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  The technique is rapid teleportation, the users are called 'hurricanes', because of the constant movements and attacks."

"Hmm... I'm going to try something..."

I walked over to the wall and did a wallsit, for a couple minutes I just continued with the wallsit, then I concentrated and tried to teleport acroos the room into the position of a wallsit on the other side opposite me.

Pollux gets against the wall and stays against it.  "I wouldn't advice experimenting with teleportation.  You could really get hurt if you try to change positions, but go for it.  You'll only get bumps and bruises in that position."

You do a wallsit and focus.  Then, you teleport to the other side of the room.  You open your eyes after the teleportation and just then, you fall and see the wall in front of you.  Pollux is laughing against the wall.  "It's hard to change positions.  Doing a 180 isn't as easy as it looks at first, huh?"

"Eh, new plan..."

I get against the wall in a wallsit, then turn around and try to teleport into a wallsit on the other side, this way its just teleportation, behind me without the 180 turn...

When you attempt it this time, your focus works, but you're not prepared for the end of your teleportation.

You fall backwards and feel a heavy pain on the back of your head.  Then, your vision blurs and you lose consciousness.

You wake up with a headache.  Pollux is above you slapping you.  "I told you that you shouldn't experiment with this stuff.  Don't try that unless you're at that level."

"Eh, couldn't resist, besides, I need to see how far I can go, that way I can tell what level I'm at and what I need to work on before I should try the next level.  You can tell me that I'm not ready, but until I see myself fail and such I won't know...

Anyway.."

I get up and when I feel back to normal I try to concentrate and teleport across the room...

You find that you can't teleport for a short while.  You feel like you're always overlooking some minute detail.  Then, you focus hard.

You feel like your entire mind is going into this, and you feel a piercing pain in the back of your head, in the spot that Pollux said to focus on.  You black out.

When you wake, you're back in your room with a cold rag on your head.  Pollux is in the corner of the room writing some things down in a small, brown velvet book.  He doesn't seem to notice that you've woken up.  You still have a splitting headache in that region, but you can function, and you don't feel like you're sensitive to light or sound.

"So what happened?"

I don't get up from my position..

"I assumed I concentrated too hard and something went wrong, I probably could've died, and you thought I wouldn't wake up..  Or perhaps you knew I was unconscious and figured I'd wake up in due time.  Perhaps I put too much stress on myself and was about to do something my body couldn't handle...  Any of those correct?"

He finishes up writing for a moment longer and then looks up at you, while closing the book.

"It was simply messing up.  A lot of detail has to go into teleportation.  There are those who teleport too freely and those who teleport too constricted.  The free ones progress more, but the tight ones have more control.  You'd be one of that second type, the tight ones.  Generally, 'free' teleporters end up teleporting upside down sometimes or to different spots or positions than they anticipated.  Constricted teleporters black out sometimes.  With enough practice, those things will stop, though."

"Reminds me of a time when I almost versed... Basically, I tried to do something my body couldn't handle.  Most likely would've killed me... I survived but it took a week or so for me to recover.  I didn't have my artifact at the time.  It got seperated from me, when I was thrown through the air over water... I was flying for about ten minutes till I finally landed.  One hell of an arm, that Ares has... ahh well, blacking out isn't that bad..

Right, well what shall we do now?"

"Heh, I can't imagine what that might've been li-"

An alarm starts sounding off in the complex, and red lights begin to flash.  "Fighters and Pikes on approach!  Fighters to the hanger!  All capable combatants suit up and prepare for combat!

"Interesting... well off to battle, partner..  Next time I act dead, don't come to save me, I was biding my time... You know I won't die until I verse anyway..."

I go and put on my gear and make sure I have all my weapons ready.  I also put all my belongings in a container of some sort, so that if I die and verse they will all be together..

"Hey Pollux, one quick question, when you verse, if you get seperated from your equipment, can you sense where it is, or atleast what direction it is in?"

He goes to his seperate room to prepare for the fighting while you gear up as well.

OOC: It would be nice to know what you are wearing at the moment and what you're taking with you.

You find a bag inside of a closet in your room.  It has some special elasticity, so that it expands with extra stuff and contracts with less items.  You can fit most of your stuff inside.

When Pollux returns, he's in his jacket with his guns in their holsters.  He also has Achilles' sword on him.  The only difference this time is that he's wearing one of the space station's tactical helmets as well.  He responds, "I'm suprised you haven't noticed yet.  If you focus on it, you can easily sense it.  You can sense other versers too, if you try."

"Yeah, I've been able to sense other versers for a while now..."

I don my armor, the one that I was given here, then I put on my helmet, and grab my 3 swords.

I place my shadow blade on my left, my ninja-to on my right, and my trojan sword on my back.

"Also, would you like the armor that goes with the sword I gave you now? Sure you said after we save the world, but eh, we aren't on the world and we are under attack.  I'm sure some of the armor would be useful now, perhaps the shield? The shield has a place to store the sword, and its nifty to block an attack or two if needed.  I'm just suggesting that it might be useful to atleast put it on and see how it feels.. But whatever..."

If he refuses then we go, if he puts it on, I wait for him, then we go.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Sun 04 Feb 2007.

After putting on your armor and swords, Pollux talks to you about the situation.

"Hey, the lights are starting to flash differently."  He points around the two of you, the red lights no longer just blinking but blinking towards a direction.

A voice comes over your headset.  "Combat teams move to the mess hall on the third sector.  Breech incoming, expected in five minutes."

Pollux looks to you, "Lead the way, Avahur."

You remember that the floors of the space station are seperated into sectors and that the third sector, where the messhall is, is on the floor that you're on.  You remember that it is next to the hull of the ship.

"Ok, lets go."

I lead pollux down toward the mess hall with greate haste.

OOC: j00 get online Rrrrrrrright now!  lol.

On your way to the messhall, half way there, you feel the entire ship shake.  Pollux and you both fall over, but catch yourselves.  He looks at you while rolling his eyes.  "Five minutes, huh?"

The two of you continue to hurry to the mess hall to hear orders being shouted.  You're shocked by the sight of a large spike having been stabbed through the wall of the mess hall.  There seem to be five squads of soldiers with tables turned over for cover.  Everyone has their weapons pointed at the spike.

"I suppose we should watch their backs... if everyone is aiming at one target, and another comes from elswhere, they are definitely going to die.  BUt if it all looks fine we should follow suit."

I start looking around, if I see no where else that can be breached I nod to pollux and aim at the spike..

It doesn't appear that any others are coming, but you don't have much time as you and Pollux both dive behind the nearest table when you see the spike open and latch onto the wall around it.

The exit of the spike into the room is filled with a goon exiting with a barrage of fire.

You see half most of a combat team to your left run when part of their table explodes.  The two remaining are crouching while firing at the goon.  They're trying to make it over to your cover.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:55, Sun 04 Feb 2007.

"Pollux, we should confuse it, by firing on multiple sides, not giving it a singular target, you've mastered teleporting to an extent, is it possible for you to teleport across the room and continue firing, drawing its attention, and then I will start firing, if its being hit on different sides, its natural to be confused which way to turn, as you never want to turn your back on an enemy..  What say you?"

Your plan seems to be working.

Pollux teleports and starts firing at the goon.  Then, you commence firing.  You see more goons behind the first heading out.  You manage to hit the first in the neck.  With his free hand, he grabs his neck as he falls.

On his descent to the floor, his gun raises and you see rounds go over towards Pollux, who is currently looking back at one of the soldiers.  You see him fall with a jerk from being hit.

"Pollux!!"

Seeing the only ally I had fall and die, versing out to another world, leaving me alone...

This is really annoying, first I get forced to be some stupid pawn for some stupid military leader, then the only person that was my friend and ally on this world verses.... This... pisses... me... off!!

I let out a battle cry, put my smg away and pull out my swords.  I enter a furious rage and start to attack the nearest military personell...

REVENGE!!!!!

You see Pollux vanish and you're consumed with rage.

You feel as if your legs are almost moving on their own towards the nearest group of soldiers.  You draw both of your swords in an attack on them.  The squad of seven doesn't see it coming and you slash the first three to shreds before anyone notices you.

You proceed to kill the other four as they attempt to move their guns around towards you.  You dispatch three and the fourth raises his gun to block your normal katana.  Then, you bring the other one around and into his side.  He quickly goes limp.

You run after some retreating men down a hallway before you gain control of yourself again.

I continue running to kill them knowing there is no turning back now.. and it will be a nice training exercise to see how well my skills have developed. I continue chasing the men and killing any soldiers in my way aiming to eventually reach the admiral and kill him.

I am no one's pawn, the admiral dies today.

I continue off to go kill the admiral.

There is no rage in you when you engage the two men running from the battle, but you dispatch them easily with a draw of your blades.

Then, you continue running to the admiral's office.  With your swords still drawn, you encounter a squad of armed soldiers in front of the door to the man's office.

When you're still down the hall from them, the head of the ten men say, "Stop.  Mathews, what's up with you?  Why is there blood on...  STOP!"  You're about ten yards away form them, and they raise their weapons.

"Retreat, the goons are heading this way, Pollux died, and so did the others, we had to retreat from our positions. More have been coming than expected.  I came to make sure the admiral is alright.."

This should work..

"The blood, is partially from a soldier I was helping to get to safety, but their weapons, they fire and make explosions, he died and I lay him off to the side then came back this way.  Stand down. It's a direct order from a captain, stand down men."

He shakes his head.  "You've changed.  You're not Greg."  He pulls up his gun and starts firing at you.

The rest of them follow him likewise.  You dive to the side, but in the hallway, there is nowhere for you to hide.  You're pelted by their rounds and fall to the ground.  Soon, the world around you bends and your world is dark.

OOC:  Bad roll on the lie.  You're dead, by the way.