It was one of those days, you know? Toast landed butter-side down, traffic jam from rubber necks caused you to be late, boss was in a cranky mood, customers were being bossy and mean, and when work was out, the car won't start because you left the lights on. Fun. Oh wait! There's more! Some very scared person is headed your way!

The setting? Modern Earth. 2012 and all.

  To make matters worse, the cardboard handle on the box of donut holes he bought for self pity snacking broke.  The five second rule can't save you now Joe.

  "Hmm, not quite there yet.  Events that shall push me into 'want to punch the Universe in the face' territory occurring in ten... nine..."  That's some rather specifically timed cynical views there Joe.

Jake is in the parking lot trying to find where he left his car.  He can't stop thinking about the surprise tax bill he has no idea how he's going to pay and still have enough to make rent and eat.  Never mind utilities and phone.  Etc.  Scared person hardly registers.

The scared man rushes to Joe and tosses some tron-looking disc at him. Pretty cool, really. Thankfully, Joe will have the reflexes to catch it, should he try.

The freaking out man notices Jake and tosses another tron disc at him. Then books it. A large group of men in black turn the corner of the building and seem in hot pursuit of the scared man.

  "Hmm, two seconds ahead of schedule."  Catching is the reasonable part.  Wondering where to cram such a Frisbee is another, pockets only go so far some days... Oh, inner 'shove entire windbreaker into this pocket' pocket.  Another victory for pockets (if a tight fit).

  Joe pulls out his phone, half expecting no bars and no battery.  But 'staring at phone, obviously not paying attention to world around him' ploy has worked sometimes.

"..... what?!" Jake brainfaults at this latest random development.  He just stares speechless.

The tron discs glow a bit and the entire world starts to lose color while slowing down. The men in black slowing as well. One could even see a puddle splash also going in slow motion. The world then all becomes a blur as Joe and Jake can hear a rushing sound. Then... it stops. And the two find themselves in some kind of dingy concrete room with dim lights that hum with electricity. The place is a little chilly. And there is a huge doorway nearby. (Think like the large doors in the Praetoria sewers)

  Joe deals with this with as blank an expression as he can manage.  After a moment though he turns to Jake and says "Hello, I'm Joe.  I'm going to be your jaded world weary companion through whatever the *censored* is going on here."  Provided neither of them die in the next five minutes at least.

"..... what?!" Jake brainfaults at this latest random development.  He just stares speechless.

After snapping out of it he looks over at the person who just introduced himself.

"Uh... Jake.  Hi.  I'm...  I'm as in the dark as you.  Did you happen to see any clues on the person who threw these things at us that would indicate why they weren't poofed to this weird place?"

Doesn't even know what gender the person was.  Speaking of said disk, he makes sure it's still there.

The discs are still there. Though the discs do seem to be no longer glowing.

"Only that yes, it was a guy" Unless the narration was lying.  "Beyond that my specifics are lacking."   Joe considers the lone exit, and wanders on over in case it can actually open.  "I'm currently going off of 'nothing better to do' for my planning, as a heads up for it anything I do seems particularly stupid."

"I can't reasonably argue against such actions at this juncture," Jake nerds, "However if a plausibly more advantageous approach comes to mind I'll be sure to expound upon it."

His vocabulator might be broken.

There is a button next to the door. The pair hear a cute female voice on the other side of the door saying, "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Joe shall check for labels that say 'Murder Room: On/Off' or something.  If unlabeled, pressness is go!  "Hello, I can hear you.  I don't suppose you know where this is beyond 'dull room'?"

Jake idly wonder just how cute this girl is while he focuses on studying the disc for clues into what it is, where it's from, how to operate it, etc.

"Two sombodies that we know of so far," he clarifies.

As the door lifts, the two hear the voice answering Joe, "This is the underground sewer system. You're currently in one of the storage rooms."

But as the door lifts higher, the two can see Emerald (sporting her CoX white with light blue glow TRON look). The non-human looks up at the two. "Omigosh!" and kneels to them. "Forgive me... I... I didn't know what you were until I saw you."

  Yeah, somehow Joe finds someone panicking and kneeling before him more upsetting that everything else today.  It even rates a facial expression!  He offers a hand up "Get up, there is nothing to forgive.  All we are is confused."   This passed, now the 'oh, fox' sinks in a bit.  "Though, for reference.  What did you think we are compared to you?"

Jake looks like he was about to say something, but brain faults.  How many reboots is he going to have to do today?  Yeesh.

"Talking... fox... humanoid... speaks English..."

Pure genius, I know.

Emerald glances up. Then slowly stands. Still only half the size of the two men before her, so still forced to look up. "I... thought you were humans? ...My name is Emerald. I'm a fox." she looks around. Then back up at Joe. "Why are you two here?"

  Joe blinks, mostly to give the animators something to do.  "Okay, yes, we're human.  Though up until five minutes ago that has not been something noteworthy."   Mostly just 'Duuur, Humans suck!' rants made by fellow Humans. "We are here because no freaking idea lady.  Last we left off was a parking lot."

Jake is blushing because this is soo weird.  Being revered for being human?!  What's that all about.  He begins to wonder if maybe this is the distant future where animals have gained sentience, and humans have gained... super sentience??  No idea.

"I'm Jake.  He's Joe."

Well at least it's better than last time.

Emerald ohs. "...a parking lot? Which one? Maybe I could take you there?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:44, Fri 24 Feb 2012.

  "I somehow think, unless we've been missing something obvious for a while, that it's not a parking lot anywhere near here.  Nearest geographical description of where we are beyond the tallest Sewers I've ever heard of would be?"

Worth a shot.

"Parking lot of the Save-A-Lot in Allentown, Maryland, USA," Jake replies, "...planet Earth.  Sol system.  Milky Way Galaxy.  Year 2012."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:52, Fri 24 Feb 2012.

Emerald ohs... "..I'm sorry, but.. well you ARE in Earth. Let's get you someplace more comfortable than here. Follow me." she turns to lead the way, looking over her shoulder at the two expectantly.

Jake of course follows.

"Thanks...  If we're on Earth, then why the big deal about us being Human?"

  Joe follows after, looking to Jake "Well, at least you were less vague than I was." sometimes being specific is hard for a Darkthorne.  Though it shouldn't be very hard to get someplace more comfortable than a sewer (ninja lair arrangements aside).

  He wonders if CanOMace Brand Can Of Mace will be enough to deal with whatever insanity is to come.

Emerald says, "Humans are in charge around here... revered almost like gods. In some cases, exactly like gods. I'm starting to get the feeling you're not from *this* Earth..."

Jake ahs.  "Possibly.  What about your history and the dating system.  Are there 6 continents?  2 polar ice caps?  Has space travel been achieved?"

  "More day jobs for most of us and no other known sentience species.  In charge of eachother by default but not a whole lot of reverence."  Which of course, doesn't stop some people form being highly offended for not getting that sort of attention.

  That coupon is expired, we don't care if your cousin died in a freak bingo accident.

Emerald gives Jake a sad smile. "Uh... heh... um... no. Earth is composed of several thousand "shards" that float freely. Continents are a thing of the past. I'll let you see for yourself in a bit..."

She leads the two to a spiral staircase and starts climbing steps.

".... what?"

Jake's brain has blue-screened.  He just follows, trying to brace himself for what he's about to see.

  <understatement>"...That sounds like it kinda sucks."</understatement>

  He decides to stick a little bit closer to Jake, in case he needs to catch them so they don't fall off the edge of the world or something.  "What would you say are the three most important fact to know to keep from getting killed like an idiot around here?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:42, Fri 24 Feb 2012.

Emerald says, "Rule #1: If you see a human, don't speak unless spoken to. Some humans are more important than other humans. But since all humans are considered more important than any non-human, you're free to speak your mind around non-humans like myself. Rule #2: Don't go outside without a "out suit". Some people can survive the outdoors without a suit, but... I don't know if you can or not. Rule #3: Stay with me... you lucked out and I actually care about someone in need, even if it's an opportunity to manipulate a human and thus put me in a powerful position. Someone else might not be fully honest with you."

"That's... helpful to know.   Thank you."

Jake may very well need to be caught by Joe very soon.  Repeated reboots puts strain on the hardware.  And depending on the OS, may cause irreparable damage to the software too.

  "Ah man, we're assholes... More than usual."  This depresses Joe more than the whole shattered world situation.  That's just geographical inconvenience and clearly hasn't stopped anyone.

  "I can understand the appeal of having an at a glance important person not going all Kneel Before Zod! on you.  Though for all of our sakes I hope nobody looks too close and realizes we matter the least of all if Humans have their own internal rankings."

Emerald says, "I'm sure not everyone lords their position, Joe... take heart. Besides, even among the worst us are still patriots of Earth since our enemy gives us little choice." arrival to the upstairs area and there is a maintenance looking room. She exits it and a relatively normal hallway is there. With brighter light fixtures in the ceiling.

Jake groans.  "Your enemy?  Meaning non-earthings, I'm guessing.  Extra Terrestrials.  Ugh."

  "Well, that would be better than time travelers or something.  That would be so much more of a headache."  He looks back to the Foxy,  "On fact 2, I don't suppose spare suits in convenient sizes are in ready supply?"

OOC Style: I've never played any of the command and conquer games.  But a detail that amused me I heard about them is how the Aliens are all WTF over the various warring earth factions basically considering their world ending intentions a mere distraction to their trying to kill eachother.
  Sometimes, the Humans Are Bastards cliche can be oddly comforting.

Emerald answers Joe, "Well... yes, actually. Non-humans come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, so I'm sure we could find something to fit you.." she then nods to Jake. "Yep. Non-Earthlings."

Worth a shot...

"They speak English too?  The Extra Terrestrials?"

Space suits for Joe and Jake!  Some good news!  Yaaay!  Well...  besides the good news of helpful fox lady instead of murderous alien.

  "Despite the apparently bad situation we've been thrown into compared to usual-"  After all, it's the normal everyday situation for Emerald.  "Things have been good so far.  So I keep expecting sudden sniper fire or something to take offense to that."

Emerald says, "They only bother to speak our language when they want to intimidate us. The aliens made it clear long ago they have one single desire; the eradication of all Earthlings. They didn't even care if our resources were destroyed in the process, as the shattered Earth proves. But we Earthlings are quite tenacious and have made this escapade of theirs cost them. A LOT. This war has been going on for a couple hundred years now and still no clear advantage on either side."

It's then she gets the two to a room where there is a window. They can see outside. It looks like a pretty outlook. Blue sky, clouds, etc... except for the fact one can see a floating land mass in the distance and this outlook has no floor at the base of its cliff. The sky has various holes that look like the aurora borealis. Suddenly a beam of radiant light seems to shoot from the current landmass to the one in the distance. Emerald doesn't seem alarmed by this. The beam of light then fades.

"So... we shattered their planet too?..  woah."

Jake stands staring at this latest overwhelming sight.

"Whatwasthat?!" he gasps at the sudden beam of light.

  "I was assuming more along the lines of taking out more of them than any civilization working off of the shattered remains of a planet has any expected right to.  Though I guess the aliens are still going purely out of spite by this point, a reason I can see some of the appeal of at least."

  Okay, lightshow.  Incidental, teleportation effects, or robot unicorns?

Emerald says, "Oh... that was a tractor beam." it looked like a bright, yellow ion beam. "When a land mass starts drifting too far or too close, it activates the tractor beam to reposition it. As for what we did to make the aliens pay for shattering Earth? ...well they didn't have a planet when they came here, but they used to be unified. We set them up against each other. The level of in-fighting legends tell of us Earthlings having once had? Now the aliens have. We found this race has zero forgiveness and are very aggressive. So despite the fact they hate Earth, they are quite capable of hating each other just as much. We've reverse-engineered a lot of their technology, so that also helps us stay in the fight."

"Wow...  It just so happens I'm an inventor...  Once I'm up to speed on what's been figured out so far I might actually be of some use...  Unless you had something else in mind?  Oh.  And I guess it bears mentioning...  Take a look at this thing."

Jake shows her the weird disc.

"I'm guessing this is what brought us to this place."

 Joe looks over to Jake from the lightshow, and asks "What have you invented so far?" he figures this is always a good question for any Inventor... Unless the list is really long then hindsight thinks it is bad.

Emerald curiously examines the disc, nose wiggling as she sniffs at it. After waiting for Jake to answer Joe, she asks, "And how did you get a hold of this disc?"

"Lots of stuff," Jake answers, "I hold over three dozen patents and have loads more pending.  But...  Well...  Apparently my ideas tend not to impress Corperate America in their money-making potential.  One of my favorites is a device that replaces those platic rings that hold 6-packs together that always end up strangling wildlife with something way more eco friendly.  But apparently the 'inconvenience cost to the consumer' was considered too high."

He looks to Emerald and fills her in on the story thus far.

  Joe shrugs,  "Some guy threw them at us like the toy these things resemble while getting chased out of sight by fashionable yet generic men."  He glances over to Jake, asking  "What, you wanted to ship them with magnets holding them together or something?  They'd never make it past the fridge door that way."

Emerald huhs... "Well I guess we'll need to find out what these things do then, won't we? As for how useful an inventor might be, I guess we'll see what the boss has to say on that." She leads the two to a computer room of sorts and contacts someone.

An image of some wolf appears on the screen. His eyes go wide. "...humans?"

Emerald says, "Well... yes. But not from our world. They are lost and need to find their way home. Was hoping you could help them."

The wolf nods. "Right. Bring them to me."

Emerald leads the two. As she does, she says, "That's Fenris. He's this area's top dog."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Tue 28 Feb 2012.

Jake hopes Fenris is nothing like the Winter Queen's captain of the guard from the Narnia Chronicles.

"Here's hoping he's as helpful as you," Jake mutters.

He headshakes to Joe.

"Aluminum cans are non magnetic.  It was pretty much just the same concept but with a motor to retract the loops whenever a can is taken out."

  Joe thinks he might be able to take a wolf, they have to bring their neck closer to you if they want to bite you after all.  Wolf with a gun on the other hand, less certain.  You don't get much practice against gun toting wildlife when left in the woods with a spork and towel.  He wanted a RC car for his 7th birthday darn it.

  Joe blinks "...So, you wanted to replace a small, cheap, plastic fish hazard... With a MOTORIZED device, which are so much better for the environment.  Price may be the real reason they said no, but PETA probably wouldn't be crying over that decision."

  Back to the Foxy, he comments "They took that well.  Beyond the aliens you get a lot of off reality visitors, or are they jaded a practical amount?"

Emerald says, "Fenris is jaded, but you must have missed that your appearance did shock him. He probably doesn't believe you're from another world. Much more likely you're delusional and *think* you're from another world."

"Yes.  Motorized.  And being as it could be returned for a discount of equal value on the next 6 pack, the long term cost would be less than the current method.  But as mentioned, doing so was considered too inconvenient."

He nods to Emerald as he follows along.

"Just so long as we're not considered the kind of delusional that needs to be locked up, I'm fine with folks taking that as a first impression."

  Ah how nice,  Jake thought the average consumer wouldn't be too lazy to just toss robo can toppers instead of returning them...  On the other hand, some people can get rather obsessive over bottle returns (whether or not the bottles were completely empty)...  So they may be on to something.

  "I'd figure that sort of thing would be more popular in the bulk storage at least?"   Back to Foxy,  "But now my expectations of you are crushed, you're not your own boss, the shock.  Hopefully either him or you are a good influence on the other though."

Emerald chuckles. "Hopefully, your expectations being crushed was a good thing." She looks up at Jake. "Around here, survival is what's important. If you invent a new way to survive, I'm sure people will at least try it."

She soon gets to a door and leads the two in a room where the wolf they saw is waiting. He's in some kind of exo-suit with shoulder-mounted guns, lots of armor, and an enclosed helmet with a visor transparent enough for the two to know it's him in the first place. Think like a Terran Marine in appearance. In the suit, he stands 6' 6" tall. He looks at Joe and Jake. "Pardon the guns... I keep them with me at all times."

"... hadn't considered bulk storage."

When led to the boss man, Jake tries his best to not look intimidated.  But he does side-step so those shoulder guns aren't pointed in his direction.

"Uh... sure.  Name's Jake.  This is Joe."

  "It would kind off defeat the point of shoulder mounted guns if they didn't go with you, yeah."  He makes a mental comparison of the average door size they have passed, against size of shoulders before discarding the thought.

  If he wanted to run away, those things would just shoot any door too narrow bigger.

  "I'm really really hoping it's nice to meet you."

Fenris has Emerald fill him in on everything, letting Joe and Jake fill in any blanks. When he's filled in, he says, "...don't get your hopes up. I don't want to give you any false hope that you may some day leave here. But while you are here, I hope to make you as stress-free as I can given the circumstance. Walk with me."

He begins leading the bunch into what seems to be a high-clearance area..

"Stress free.  A lofty goal.  But appreciated none the less, sir."

Jake follows along.

  "I was gonna settle for trying not to die horribly, seems a popular hope.  But I like your idea too."  Of course, if/when Joe died he somehow doubted it would involve a calm and peaceful deathbed.  "I try not to poke things not meant to be poked, but some advanced noticed on things that it would be particularly bad to mess with in here would be good."