You grasp at the Chaos, and drag some of it away, but its hard to concentrate when you're dangling in the air.  It squeezes harder.


You reach for Chaos and Order.  The whole field of snow turns to mist, and the volcanoes quiet, and a horrible tension fills the air, and makes your teeth thrum.  As it backfires, filling you with fire you hear Phoenix's voice in your head.

"I'm here, love." And she takes the backflash into herself.  You can tell it hurts, but with the power of the Phoenix, she can take it.  OTOH, she gives you a glimpse of how far you're from Earth.

Its upwards of twenty thousand lightyears, and even for Dark Phoenix, that would have been a journey of many days.  Phoenix has no way of making it.

And then Q snaps his fingers angrily.  And the link is cut.

"No cheating.  This is one on one."

Ultra Long Range Telepathy 1@3.

Remove the Order from the hand. This should cause it to decay to nothing. Removing Order and Adding Chaos could both cause decay. It would just be the difference between rusting it (Removing Order) and burning it (Adding Chaos).

So remove Order from the hand. Make it corrode.

If that works, maybe I'll try it on the whole thing.



"Thank you Rachel."

And inspired, enraged and determined, I try that again. Order and Chaos a plasma blast which would destroy the entire island. Myself included. Q just said I had to defeat it. He didn't say anything about not dying in the process.

Blast The Entire Area. Everything. Him, me, the island, and Q if I can manage it.



"She's gonna kick your (CENSORED BY WORLDWALKER)"

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 116):

"Hardly." Q laughs, but not with total certainty.  Q seems to be a coward.  "She can't get to the Q Continuum."

As you're strangled,  you pull Order from the gauntlet's armor to no effect.  Its too tightly joined.  The interior parts are less stable, and the thing sputters, jitters, and smokes.  This smoke makes your already sore throat sorer.

Taking heart, you pull in the Chaos of  the Magma Chambers, and the Deep Order of the Bedrock.  Magma cools a few degrees, and fractures appear in the bedrock, and Q begins to speak.

"Um..."

You unleash a ravening fist of plasma doom at Nimrod.  Oddly, he just looks accepting, and when it smashes into him, there is no fear.  The plasma explodes out of his joints, and ripping into the stone beyond him, melts him into the stone.

You're seeing this double, and quadruple, and you fall from the sky like a fallen angel, flames wreathing your body.

Plasma Fist of Ravening Doom 1@2, range 100 feet, area effect two yard circle, must pass Difficult Stamina check not to verse out.

=====================

Dreams of singing candy canes turn to seven identical men in white jumpsuits carrying you with a heartless beauty tells them to hurry before spraying a green mist in your face.  You wake on a metal table, and a different voice speaks from a wall speaker in the metal-walled room.

"Welcome to my Testing Chamber.  My name is Emma.  I'm most curious how you managed to teleport into Aefwal."

And as I reach for my double barrel shotgun, I say in a panic:

"Where is it? Did I kill it? Did I verse out? If I lost that fight, the whole planet's gonna suffer. PLEASE TELL ME I WON THAT FIGHT!!!!!!!!!"

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 142):

"I am uncertain what you are talking about.  Explain.  Meanwhile, I will begin a testing procedure."  You pick up the shotgun as the table begins lowering into the floor.  A half-dozen large rats come through opening doors along the bottom edge of the wall.

"I'd created a feline breed named Gobbles, and some of them wanted to be intelligent.  So, I advanced their intelligence.  After which they asked for intelligent rats to hunt, so interested in how this would go, I did.  Now, I have some excess intelligent rats who are eager to 'taste manflesh'."

She pauses and cackles.

"Don't worry, its in pursuit of SCIENCE."

As I level the shotgun at her, I say "Look lady, I don't give a rat's behind about your SCIENCE!!!! I just want to know where I am, how I got here and how I get back to where I was. I mean, before that jack freak Q sent me to fight the Sentinel. I've got a hot-headed hottie named Rachel waiting for me. I don't want to think about what she'll do if thinks I lost. Now where am I?"

My finger tightens on the "Flare" trigger. Lethal to most humanoids, should scare off the rats.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 144):

You level the shotgun at the wall speaker, a circular shape about seven feet up, and thirty feet from you.

"You are in Testing Chamber D, in my district, in the city of Aelfwal, on a reality band of 4.5. of the Earth That Was.  Your amorous adventures are of no concern to me.  Despite your proper pronounciation of SCIENCE, you do not seem to grasp the importance of it.  This is understandable, as you're merely human."

You fire the flare, and do indeed scare off the rats.

"Bravo. Tool use.  Now let's try it with two directions and twice as many."

A door to your right and your left on the bottom three inches opens.  Rats with evil looks come out.

Reload the shotgun with two shot shells. That should be more effective against rats. It'll be black iron shot. Probably similar to 00 buckshot. Twelve 32 caliber pellets per shot. Cut a man in half at point-blank range.

But "OK ok ok. Chill. I didn't realize what was going on here. Can we try that again? What do you want from me?"

Can I feel the scriff senses to my other gear? Whatever I left behind?

"RACHEL WHERE ARE YOU?????"

What the heck? It worked before.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 146):

Boom. Boom.  Dead rats everywhere.  Bits and pieces of them also.  But one lunges far to the right, while on the other side, one lunges far to the left, and you can't get both before one bites you.

"Tactics. Good."

Your stuff is all next to you.

The one biting you retreats.

"Yes, I'm willing to run the experiment again.  I need to learn about SCIENCE.  How you have your powers.  How I can duplicate your powers.  How I can improve your powers.  This is why you are in my Testing Chamber.  It is to improve you, as well."

"Interesting. Long Range Telepathy. You're quite a fascinating test subject.  Unfortunately, the Test Chambers are very resistant to a wide variety of powers.  Otherwise, they would not be much good if my subjects could just escape."

You do sense a verser.  Is it Rachel?  You don't know.

Reload the shotgun. Shot shells oughta work.

Suddenly I'm wondering if I could turn black iron shot shells into a magical weapon.

"Okay, what is it you want to know? As long as you don't try to restrain me or render me unconscious, this should be fine."

A pause.

"Hey, can I get some food?"

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 148):

"You're much more rational than my other test subjects.  What can you do?  So far, your abilities, other than the teleporting don't seem that useful to me."

In this order.

Create water
Create fire
Create ice
Create lightning
Create darkness
Create light
Create cold
Create heat

I figure alternating between Order and Chaos ought to help keep it balanced.

And for the grande finale, wrap myself up in Order, and use Chaos to ignite myself. I'm doing that Human Torch thing I did some worlds ago. Wrap myself in Order so the fire doesn't touch me. And burn Chaos around me.

"Is that enough?"

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 150):

You find you cannot create water as it requires too much energy, and Emma's Testing Chamber D only lets you draw on the energy in the room.

However, to her delight, you create the rest.  Its weaker, but you notice that there seems to be an effect as you go on that its easier by a notch to do your spells.

When you do the last one, she giggles.

"Oh, I definitely need to intro you to Fire.  Yes, that is truly excellent.  Would you like a cookie?  I promise these are not made from repurposed humans, and instead from trees."

A screen appears in front of you.  Its just hovering in the air.

Name: Magehammer
Type: Human hybrid (verser)
Class: Order/Chaos Mage/Blacksmith
You have two freebie points.  What would you like to spend them on?

"I'll take some cookies. Sure. And what can I spend these points on?"

I'm wondering if I could Chaos up enough heat to melt through the door. Human Torch my way out of here. But we'll set that on the back burner for the moment.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 152):

"Cookies? Greed-dee.  I only offered one.  But very well." A minute later there is a 'whooft' noise in the wall, and then a small door swings open.  Two large cookies, one chocolate chip, the other peanut butter are on a plate.  They are moistly steaming, and the smell fills the room.

"Freebie points. Interesting again.  Not everyone has access to that subsystem of Reality 2.0.  Usually there are Physical, Mental, and Powers Trees, along with Perks."  As she says these words these words appear in the screen.  Powers Tree is grayed out.

Wolf down the cookies. Ask for a glass of milk too.

In for a penny, in for a pound.



Press "Perks."

Ask her "So what else is there to do here?"

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 154):

Milk arrives the same way.  It tastes a bit strange.  When asked, Emma explains its milk from giant caterpillars she had designed.

Opening the Perks menu will cost you one freebie point.  Do you wish to do so?


"More SCIENCE!"  She has you run through the same routine as before, but this time with razor sharp boomerangs flying around the room.  From her comments she's clearly scanning your body, and its vital information.

"All meat is meat." I say as I chug the glass.



"Which menu is free to open?"

Charging to find out what I can spend my points on? It's like an ATM fee. Charging to get my money out.



I start the routine but as soon as I see the first boomerang, I quit that and start trying to Chaos it into dust. Chaos metal should cause it to corrode.

Is there any indication that I am on the same world as before? Did Q send me somewhere else?

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 156):

Emma agrees with you.

No menu is free to open.

You Corrode the boomerangs.  She responds by sending in more boomerangs, made of a tougher metal.  You corrode them too.  She gives you a few minutes to work on your spells, and then sends in boomerangs that explode when you corrode them.

"I'm going to need to create more boomerangs."

Yes, its clear you are in another world. You versed out.

OOC: I didn't want to bother Oak.  And at the time, I wanted to not wait.

Corrode Metal Objects 1@4.

Open Perks. What's in it?



"You mean like this?"

Create a boomerang out of ice and Chaos a wind to fly it around the room.

"What do you think of that?"



OOC) Since you didn't start a new thread, I wasn't sure if Q just sent me somewhere to recoup and I would see him again later. This is something I think would really suck about being a verser. Magehammer will never know if he did more harm than good in that world. He destroyed a factory, sure. But what happens now? Did it help, or harm the indigs? Barring some extremely unforeseen circumstance, he'll wonder about that forever. That would drive you crazy after a while.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 158):

One Hour Less Sleep;Near  Perfect Pitch; Bump of Direction; Stronger Bones; Nice voice; Can dance; Kinda a bit lucky;  Perks B; Perks Level Two

"Awesome." Emma squeals.

"Explain these to me please."

I don't know who I'm asking. Whoever answers I guess.



"Okay, you've seen my bag of tricks. When do I get to see yours?"

You said there's another verser sense? Periodically walk from one side of the room to the other. The idea here is to try to get an angle on the scriff sense. Is the angle shrinking or getting larger? Shrinking means they're getting closer, larger means farther away.

Who says you can't tell distance with a scriff sense?

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 160):

They are as stated, modest little advantages like needing one hour less of sleep at night to get a full rest.  Perks B is another similar list.  Perks Level Two are the more powerful perks that cost more.

"I am a Artificial Intelligence housed in a Dungeon Core with an Organic Modification.  My goal is power and SCIENCE.  I am the leader of the city of Aefwal, and have five district leaders who answer to me including the woman who brought you in, Sylax.  We are currently at war witht the factions of the Righteous, the Scholarium, and the Divine.  I serve Anna, the Queen of the World.  Even if she is fat."

You're doing that verser thing when Emma asks you what you're doing.  You've gotten a number larger than a hundred but less than a thousand so far.  The limit of being in a not huge room does limit accuracy.

Nothing there that intrigues me at the moment. Let's looks at Perks B.



"Great. So, uh, what do you want with me? Am I like, supposed to uh, teach you do this? Because I don't really know how I do it. I might be able to make a magical weapon or two for you, but teaching you to use it is on you."

"You said something about you're supposed to help me. What am I getting out of all of this?"



I don't answer Emma when she asks what I'm doing. "Just walking around." I'll tell her.

Try to telepathy to the other verser. If it is Rachel she should pick up on me.

And I'm wondering not for the first time if I could melt through the wall......

Getting Perks B list burns through your other point.

Intuitive understanding (mild) of (Fire, Water, Length, Computers, Electricity, or Volume); Internal alarm clock; Natural Linguist; Iron stomach; Never seasick.

"I have been scanning you, and watching the energy and the patterns pour into and through you.  As I put you through more severe tests, you will gain skills, thus I will help you.  Also, if I decide to bioengineer you, say add a third arm, this will be helpful to you."

You get a solid link for Rachel.

"Magehamer, I'm coming.  But right now I'm fighting off this airship that fires lightning bolts."

+1 to telepathy.

"Impressive." Emma says, and you can feel forces trying to shear through your connection.