PROLOGUE - WINDWALKER: RAIN AND THUNDER

Droplets splatter across the windowpane...
Gunfire thunders in the pouring rain...

"The problem is conveyance," proclaims a haughty voice, "...but what if security could be bypassed altogether? Living weapons that would set off no alarm or trigger, an assassin that can be provided whatever skillset necessary to accomplish their task. Forget lengthy training schedules that consume time and resources, our models have been hand-picked from the most arduous environments. Mixed Martial Arts Masters from around the globe, enhanced with a patented skillsoft biowire system array. Your model assassin can be uploaded with whatever skill they need, whatever language they need...or dump their memory should they risk being compromised, yet remotely monitored and able to reboot should the opportunity arise to complete their given assignment. Your next corporate...or national takeover, can be as silent and swift as our next presentation. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you from the outskirts of the Orient - Tenzing Kunzang Jones."

The light that blinds brings no comfort...
...spotlights in an auditorium...
...spotlights on a helicopter...
"C'mon Tenzing! Jump! You can make it!" declares a raspy voice.

"What happened to him?" asks a elderly surgeon.
"It's what he did to himself...," replies a haughty voice.
"Amazed he's still in one piece...," murmurs the first voice.
"No, what's amazing is that he damn near flew...," retorts the first then adds with a tsk, "...we haven't installed such an upgrade in that particular model."

Out in the courtyard, a beautiful day, training at the Temple...
...all nerves are frayed...
...the thunderous machines that brought jackbooted men...
...men with guns, men with masks, men with grenades, men with gas...
...those who put up a fight the most were the ones who were spared...
...what did they want?...

"Really not a bad idea when you come to think about it...muscle memory is essentially just a conditioned mental thought, from there it's just a matter of electrostatic musculature stimulation. If you increase the capacity to react and heighten the capacity to strike, you won't have to worry about endurance capacity or durability...if the target is already eliminated...," intones a haughty voice.

"Director, he's not responding!"
"He's not trying to engage the target...he's trying to ESCAPE with the target!"
"C'mon Tenzing! Jump! You can make it!" declares a man in a dark bodysuit reaching out from the side of a helicopter.
"...he's walking on air..." declares a awestruck distant voice.
"Engage the neural spike, send a retrieval unit - I want to know what went wrong!" commands a haughty voice.

...a beautiful day training at the Temple...
...a blinding light that brings no comfort...
...droplets splatter across the windowpane...
...gunfire thunders in the pouring rain.

A flick of the switch, a sense of falling, fade to black...

...then like a flash - back to blinding light.

The throbbing in your head seems in sychronistic beat with the oscillating vision you seem to be experiencing. Bright. Dark. Pain. Numb. Mastery. Liberty. Memory. History...at least for now.

Emergency lighting, that would explain the swirling hazard lights...what happened, and how you knew exactly what was causing the variation in illumination escapes your capacity to recollect...at least for now.

You have awakened with a shock, floating vertically in some sort of transparent capsule that has been partially drained of clear viscous fluid...tubes run up your nose, down your throat and into your veins...LEDs dot the majority of your frame.  A diagnostic message runs past your vision, informing of several key sections that have been damaged and will need maintenance...areas such as remote operations, memory storage and nano-neural interface.

**Current programs/databases still installed/accessible: global criminal database, general applied science/technical applications.
**WARNING: No new skillsoft program or database download possible until the nano-neural interface is repaired.
**WARNING: Remote operations disabled: Link unavailable...

The warning messages scroll on and on, but instinctively you somehow know how to quell the visual disaster until you can make sense of the answers you're seeing. What happened?...

**Last Command Failed/Corrupted Due To Premature Termination of Operations...Most Likely Cause: High Calibre Round Grazing Upper Spinal Column Causing Current Malfunctioning State...

You ignore the 'Maintenance Request'. Who are you?...

"...and who are you?" intones a whimsical old man of oriental heritage whom you would one day call your Master.
"Tenzing Kunzang Jones, Sensei." You hear in the back of your mind like a distant memory.
"Operative Tenzing! Abort!...You can't make that jump!"
"You are one of my most gifted students, Tenzing, but Mastery of the Light Stride takes more than just practical knowledge...it requires a bouyancy of mind, body and spirit."
"...he's walking on the wind..." exclaims an awestruck distant voice.

How did you end up here? You instinctively run a background check on your last mission parameters...

**Checking: Mission Pending Completion - Termination of Target. Designate...Error - Target Designate File Corrupted...

You try to move but every twitch feels like your nerves are aflame...who did this to you?...

**Checking: Inconclusive. Most Probable Cause - Subject Known As 'The Director', A Suspected International Black Market Arms Dealer presumed to have ties with The Malta Group...Current Whereabouts: Unknown...

You are alone in a what looks to be some sort of emergency medical facility...and by what you can tell, whatever was controlling you has been severed. If not for your training, the agony of realization would have smitten a lesser person long before now. You have been altered...physically, augmented yet violated, and mentally...knowledge not of your own desire fused into your mind...but it is your spirit that suffers most...

...you note over a score documented successful missions...over a dozen successful terminations...
...you were apparently The Director's prime model...your first operation was to terminate his rival competition...
...you succeeded...with ease...there was no hurdle you could not clear...
"...when you Master the Light Stride, no obstacle can impede you...," you remember your Master saying.

"I want a full download and complete diagnostics report - I want to know what went wrong..." you recall a haughty voice demanding.
"Here you are, Director...shall we begin prepping the operative for the next assignment?"
"What use have I for a faulty product?" sneers a white haired man dressed in a black suit disdainfully as he draws a high calibre pistol...
You think to yourself, "If I move just a little...the round should..."

*BANG!*

"...Finish your analysis and dump the body..."
"...Director, we have incoming..."
"...what about him?..."
"...You heard The Director - Leave him. You don't want to be here when..."

SCENE: UNDISCLOSED PARAMILITARY MEDICAL FACILITY
Distinctions: Emergency Lockdown
              Secure Complex
              Maze of Hallways



Windwalker starts this Scene with 1 PP. You are awake and surprisingly uninjured, restored perhaps by the capsule that contains you. It's last apparent function after being breached...seemingly by a high calibre round. Enough fluid has drained to grant the capacity to breath. You don't think the capsule can contain you if you try to physically force your way out as the casing had already been penetrated, but it does impede you for the time being.

Doom Pool: 2D6 (1D6 will be spent in order to emulate the capsule containing Windwalker (D6 Physical Complication - Medical Capsule) and 1D6 will be spent in order to set up D6 Timer Complication representing an impending, if not inevitable, change of scene...).

What does Windwalker do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:47, Wed 11 Oct 2017.

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Book Wisdom Volume I. When you find nothing make sense, then your taken the first steps towards the path of learning.

---

(Pupil): Why do I have to punch the fish in this water?   
(The Temple Master): So we may eat tonight.

---

My name is Tenzing Kunzang Jones.
I am at peace with myself. I will be free.

Nothing made sense to Tenzing.  Memories and information flooded into his brain.
Flashback from different time in his life and information about what happening now.

Centering himself.  Remembering how attack things in liquid Tenzing tries to break free.

OOC:
With slow deliberate power Windwalker pushes out to escape the capsule.

OOC:
D8  Affiliations:
D8  Profession: The Ways of the Monk.
D8  Strength. (Techno chip).
D10 Master Unarmed Combat.

18:22, Today: Windwalker rolled 9,16 using 1d10,3d8 with rolls of 9,7,[4],5.  escape the capsule.

Results: 16  Effect: d8 Opp:-
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Tue 10 Oct 2017.

Despite what seems to be some sort of emergency lockdown, and the general restraints regarding the capsule he  finds himself contained...it is nowhere near enough to prevent Tenzing from delivering a practiced strike blasting open the front of the capsule sending plasteen shards and viscous fluid in a vast arc.

You take a moment to remove the wires and LEDs, resisting the urge to gag as you remove the oral tubing. The first step outside the capsule is the most tenacious being careful not to slip on the capsule's disgorged contents. If there were any nearby, they would certainly know you were awake...

...thus far, however, hazard lighting is your only companion.

The room Tenzing finds himself in looks to have been some sort of medical clean room, though looks to have been vacated in haste. A secure looking door with a passkey interface appears to be the most obvious exit out of this seemingly secure complex.

Intent: Resist escape attempt
Complication - Containment Capsule: D6
Distinction - Secure Complex: D8

Mender Phantasm rolled 5,3 using d6,d8.  Resist escape attempt.

Total: 8
Effect: Default (D6)
Opps: 0

Against 16, you scored an exceptional success, stepping up your effect die from a D8 to a D10. Against a D6 Containment Capsule, the complication is eliminated.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:37, Tue 10 Oct 2017.

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Book Wisdom Volume II. The fast you run in circle the quicker you return to point you stated.  But what have you gained?

---

(Pupil): Why am I watching the wall I just painted dry?
(The Temple Master): So when someone says this is like watching paint dry you understand what they mean.

---

Take your time.  Learn, understand.  Then act.  This is way of Monk of the walk of Yasuragi.

Making sure he clear and safe of capsule Windwalker take the time look around and see if he can spot anything of use.  To see if more than one way out or something that may help him with the keypad.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:23, Tue 10 Oct 2017.

Windwalker's gaze pans meticulously about the room gleaning for items of use. Scapel...tongs...a bit of wiring...smock, for drying and warmth - not so much for modesty.

In moments, Tenzing removes the cover of the door's interface and bridges an arc that shorts out the door's mag seal as if performing such activities were second nature to him. He had only one nagging thought...

...bypassing a secure complex's door during some sort of emergency lockdown with improvised tools was never part of his nature...

"It matters not the tool, be it bow or staff, but the heart of the one who wields it." Tenzing recalls his Master saying when asked which was best.

With a subtle spark, the door hisses open leading into a literal maze of hallways in a similar condition of hasty evacuation. Certainly, amid the swirling hazard lights, there were answers to be found...but Windwalker cannot shake the feeling more has yet to transpire...



OOC: To represent the sense of urgency, the Timer (D6) steps up to a D8. Bypassing the door doesn't require a roll as your skill in tech provides you with a bizarre sense of familiarity regarding how it works.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:02, Wed 11 Oct 2017.

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Book Wisdom Volume I. There is time for everything on the earth.  A time to wait, a time to act.  A time to hate, A time to love.  A time to think, a time to react.  Wisdom is to find the right action for the right time.

---

(Pupil): Why... are... we... running...  Should... we... not... stand...  and... fight?
(The Temple Master): There are.. 30 well..  armed and.. trained warriors..  There is..  only two.. of us.  I would be.. a poor.. Master if.. I lost.. you in.. that fight..  (Smile) I also.. never give..  myself if..  I lost..  you that.. way also.

Time to get out of here.

Using all his Monk trained skills Windwalk moves as fast and saftly as can to get out of the building.

OOC:
Move as quickly as possible to get out of place.
Using his monk skills and knowledge of Science to work out best route out (as it science building).

OOC:
D8  Affiliations:
D8  Profession: The Ways of the Monk.
D8  Reflexes. . (Techno chip).
D8  Expert .

16:00, Today: Windwalker rolled 16 using 4d8 with rolls of 5,2,[3],6.  Escape route.

Results: 11  Effect: d8 Opp:-
This message was last edited by the player at 21:19, Sat 21 Oct 2017.

Windwalker dashes through the maze of hallways of the complex, haunted by a sickening sense of deja vu. He is certain he has been here before, but like his profound understanding of the technological and science labyrinth he finds himself dashing through - what memories he has are as elusive as his understanding of the signs he notes in passing...

Research and Development...
Genetics Lab...
Exit...

None of them were written in the language he was raised knowing, they were all in english...so were the monitors he passed flashing the same message over and over as if keeping time with the hazard lights...

**Warning: Self Destruct Eminent - Time To Reach Minimum Safe Distance: 5 Minutes...4 Minutes 59 Seconds...**

"He's really going to bury this entire facility?" Windwalker recalls a voice he overheard prior to his escape from the medical capsule.

"If there's anything that can be said about The Director... he's thorough. Kind of hard to accuse someone of illegal human experimentation when there's no evidence..."

"Yeah, but I didn't think he'd be willing to take such a loss just because a little heat blows his way..."

"Heh, you think this is a setback? You must be new to the operation. Come on and hurry up with those crates. The Director waits for no one...and I do mean no one..."

Redoubling his efforts, Windwalker reaches a cargo elevator as if by instinct that apparently leads to the surface, but due to the emergency lockdown - it has been disabled. Looking up, the elevator shaft stretches up into darkness for an indiscernible distance periodically illuminated by the baleful swirling hazard lights...

A distant memory surfaces, the recollection of tumbling down a preposterously steep cliff crashing to a halt at his Master's feet. Spitting out dirt and rubbing a sore shoulder, Tenzing remembers asking how he is expected to make such a climb...

...he recalls his Master only smiling whimsically while stroking his white beard, "By learning from your mistakes...and trying again."

OOC: Again, as there is nothing really opposing or preventing Windwalker's actions, I'll consider your action an automatic success and apply your effect die as a D8 Scenic Distinction/Asset (Elevator Shaft). The objective is relatively clear to Tenzing, going up is the upmost expedient way out...you get to decide how he accomplishes this task. The objective: increase the existing asset (Elevator Shaft) to D12+ in order to successfully escape. The Timer Die will be used in opposition, and at the moment...it steps up to a D10.


This message was last edited by the GM at 02:59, Sat 14 Oct 2017.

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Book Wisdom Volume IV. What goes up must come down.  Just make sure it lands where you want it to and how you want it to.  This includes yourself.

---

(Pupil):When will I be able to fly like you?
(The Temple Master): I do not fly.  I just run to quickly for gravity to hold me down.  Only a few monks can do this.  The last 5 Temple masters could not.  You may not either.  You could always load you not catapolte and make you fly that way if you like?

---

Time to get out of here.

Still using all his Monk trained skills Windwalker take few steps and
moves start running up the elevator shaft.

OOC:
D8  Affiliations: (Solo)
D8  Profession: The Ways of the Monk.
D8  Reflexes. (Techno chip).
D8  Expert Tech.

21:03, Today: Windwalker rolled 16 using 4d8 ((7,5,2,[2])).


Results: 13  Effect: d8 Opp:-

Sorry for some reason it did not record the dice properly but copied and past my result if you happy with them...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:43, Thu 26 Oct 2017.

"How am I supposed to do this?" Tenzing recalls asking his Master as he looks up the elevator shaft disappearing in strobe-lit darkness above.

"Float...," his Master's replied.

"I know how to float, how am I supposed to float wearing these?" Tenzing inquired as he lifted a pair of baskets filled with rocks out of the pond he stood waist deep in.

"How does water rise into the air?" his Master responded with a wry grin.

It starts with a state of mind, and an unyielding drive...even in the face of what seems impossible. Taking a slow, deep breath Tensing leaps upward... ascending as if he weighed next to nothing, as if his lungs were filled with helium.

Despite the security measures built into the facility, it wasn't built to prevent Tensing from his ascension. Whether he employs an exposed hex nut to use as leverage to propel himself upwards...with just a toehold, or use his speed to literally rebound upward from wall-to-wall...Tenzing, the Windwalker, accomplishes the impossible - scaling a near sheer surface for what seems to be a hundred yards as easily as one would take a downhill jog.

It truly is not long before Tenzing reaches the top and encounters perhaps his final obstacle. Certainly, the elevator was not blocking his way, having returned to it's default position down below due to the emergency lockdown...but it also meant the freight elevator's doors were also sealed.

Perching from a seemingly impossible position, Tenzing knew he would have to breach those reinforced freight elevator doors before the impending explosion breached them...with him along for the ride.

...and somewhere down below, a message continues to flash: **Warning - Self Destruct Eminent. Time Until Detonation: 1 Minute...59 Seconds...**

Distinction: Secure Complex D8
Complication: Timer D10

Today: Mender Phantasm rolled 9,4 using d10,d8.  Prevent ascension.

Total: 13
Effect: D4
Opps: 0

OOC: A tie so your action succeeds. The Elevator Shaft Asset steps up by one to D10. The Timer Complication also steps up by one to D12. You have about one more action to perform in order to escape if you can step up the Elevator Shaft Asset by two steps to D12+. Remember that you can use the Elevator Asset D10 in your Dice Pool. This next action you take will certainly be a defining moment in your character's history.


This message was last edited by the GM at 21:21, Sun 22 Oct 2017.

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Book Wisdom Volume IV. We think we have one circle in time.  Some claim we have more.  The truth is we can never know which is true or if both are.

---

(Pupil): Why are you leaving me?  Will I see you again?
(The Temple Master): Your training is done.  Your fully fledged Monk.  Your training is in your own hands.  As for will we meet again.  That out of my hands now.  But I hope yes fellow Monk.

---

Time to get out of here.

The Pupil needs the Master.  The Master needs the Pupil.  The Master had been wrong to leave.
This was Windwalker focus.  To live.  So the Master and Pupil could be back together again.

Using both brains and mussel Windwalker hits the lift at what he hopes it the right point.
For almost anybody else this would been stiup idea but for focused monk with understanding of lifts it was not.  It seems he can tap not only into his past as monk but also his past as unwilling pawn.
To dislodge the lock just little.  Just enough to weaken it for his next action.
Then with all his monk focus and the power of the chip in his spine he physically opens the doors.  Pushing them apart enough to slip through and out the other side.  Free??

OOC:
D8  Affiliations: (Solo)
D8  Profession: The Ways of the Monk.
D8  Strength. (Techno chip).
D8  Expert Tech.
D10 Elevator Shaft.
Use 1 PP ~~ Add an extra die from your roll to your total.

22:44, Today: Windwalker rolled 26,2 using 4d8,1d10 with rolls of 4,8,7,7,[2].  No pressure:- GM said defining moment in your character's history.

Results: 22  Effect: d10 Opp:-
This message was last edited by the player at 22:06, Sun 22 Oct 2017.

Analyzing the sealed freight elevator doors, Tenzing quickly determines how to disable the locking mechanism...

**Warning - Time To Self-Destruct: 30 Seconds...29 Seconds...**

With the locking mechanism disabled, no easy feat while perched on the edge of the freight elevator working the locking mechanism from the opposite direction from which it was installed was time consuming...time Tenzing knew he didn't have.

With a mechanical grind, the freight elevator doors crack open... slightly. Just enough for a finger hold - space enough as Tenzing works his fingers into the crack, allowing him a glimpse into the dark carvernous warehouse that lies beyond. With what Tenzing can muster, he grips the freight elevator doors...

**Warning - Time To Self-Destruct: 10 Seconds...9 Seconds...**

The freight elevator doors slam open and Tenzing leaps out. He can see from the sparse illumination that shines in from the warehouse windows that he must be in an urban setting.

A peal of thunder brings forth a revelation as dispairing as the rain he can hear droning upon the warehouse roof above...

...when the explosives go off...the entire warehouse is going to drop at the very least an entire story...

**...5 Seconds...4 Seconds...**

... there was no telling how much property, or lives, were going to be destroyed...

**...2 Seconds...1 Second...**

Tenzing hits the exit to the warehouse into the pouring rain at the exact same moment as the inevitable occurs...

**BOOM!**

Distinction: Secure Facility D8
Complication: Timer D12

Today: Mender Phantasm rolled 8,4 using d8,d12.  Prevent escape.

Total: 12
Effect: D4
Opps: 0

OOC: Good thing you added another die to your total, you were exactly 10 over. That steps up the Elevator Shaft Asset by 2 steps from D10 to D12+. Tenzing successfully escapes! The Timer also steps up to D12+ which converts to 2D12 - effectively ending the scene...

...in a profoundly explosive fashion.

Since you succeeded, you can close out the scene with a final summary regarding how this ordeal effected Tenzing - what did he lose, what did he gain, and how time has passed between then and how Windwalker is now.

For reference, the incident occurred in a location in Paragon City called Kings Row. A section of the warehouse district was collapsed into a crater...since it happened at night, injuries were at a minimum but property damage was extensive. Overtime, the area is eventually restored...but there are some who refuse to forget.

How Tenzing deals with the fallout and how he ends up adjusting to his new surroundings (including what encouraged him to set up a martial arts gym in Paragon City) I leave to you to describe. Feel free to elaborate as much as you'd like... your next post will finalize the Prologue. Well done. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:41, Thu 26 Oct 2017.

(This is subject to you happy with this).

Windwalker walks slowly to one of the tallest building in the area and climbs to the top.
He stands looking out over the city.  Trying to take everything in.
A neon sign with old English bond film You Only Live Twice flashes up.

No reflected Tenzing Kunzang Jones not twice, but twice, twice, twice and some more.
He still had to peace a lot of his past together but key facts now fell into place.
Paragon City was not his home.  This was not his world.  This was was not even his time.

Tanzing was born in china in 1563 the same years as his Emperor.
It was the same Emperor that send a full detachment to execute Tanzing.
But Tanzing knew what was coming and using the research of old book.
One that few could understand and even few could use.
He ran the winds in canyon in mountains.  Wind that rushed over 100 miles an hour.
To run these wind was to opening a gate to another world.
To disappear in thin air in front of soldiers would leave other monks in peace.
The gateway opened to Paragon city and with nowhere else to go he joined local Shaolin Temple.
That temple however was target of Assassin Project and so Tanzing was captured.
Such was the luck of the Monk.

Tanzing knew he could not return to Temple and be simple monk any more.
He knew to much of what the criminals where up to.  What they planed.
Also if they worked out he still alive then they come looking for him.
The other monks could not be put into such danger.
He had done so much damage as the assassin.  How Tanzing has his free will back.
Tanzing choose not to hate himself but to use his time left heal what he done against his own will.

No now he must start a new life.
Tanzing thoughts turned to good man who had die at his own hands.
Owner of one man martial arts gym.
He been given by accident something of value, a box of the criminal gang.
Tanzing had retrieved it.  The man had stood up to Tenzan, that was a mistake.
However the gang had only know his name Mr T Jones.
He not known about gmy or what man did.  Mr T Jones could be anybody.
So Tanzing would start repairing the damage he done by being Mr T Jones.

Tanzing turned and headed towards the gym.
It was going to be in bad way.  Left empty for over 6 months.
Also Tanzing was going to have to remember a lot.
He was sure he learned the art of healing remembered this skill would be his first task.

----

Mr T Jones martial arts gym now open for business.  One month hard work...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:17, Tue 24 Oct 2017.