Unbeknownst to Aztur

[Toxor]

Just one of those curiosities... if this story were a novel at your local bookstore, would ya buy it?

i'd use #bookz

[Anderral]

Just one of those curiosities... if this story were a novel at your local bookstore, would ya buy it?

Maybe if it looked intresting :P but its on internet so ill read it there ^^

[xyboc]

God. Damn. My Eyes.

[Saetos]

God. Damn. My Eyes.

O.o

'tis long? o.O

[Saetos]

Hydrojen raised an eyebrow.

"Noticed?"

"Yeah. Have your bot attack some stupid rollerrat on top of a building and watch the bot go haywire. Should draw the guard's attention."

Xianghua blinked.

"Yeah, I know, pathing sucks..." replied Hydrojen.

"Erm... ... ..." Xianghua muttered.

Saetos froze. Aeorro twitched. Archimedios tightened the grip on his Perrenium.

Hydrojen was quite disturbed. "What the hell's gotten into y'all? What... GET YOUR FINGER OFF THE TR..."

Total silence. Archimedios pulled back on the trigger and a supersonic beam of plasma shot out of the gun, barely missing a guard. The guard froze. "Nice full-auto, son. Hold the gun steady next time." Archimedios was rather surprised at the lack of anger this guard showed. Brushing off a small blob of plasma, the guard spoke: "Looks like we've finally found the criminal, apparently escorted by countless... very loyal... employees. You all will be receiving bravery tokens at the Omni-HQ base. Speaking of which, Mr. Hydrojen..."

"Yea what hmm? O.o?"

"That grid terminal over there. Warp Rokshi to Omni-HQ please."

"S-s-sir yes m... sir... sir!" Ryuahn was about to laugh, but in the current situation thought it rather provocative. Hydrojen disappeared into thin air.

Seconds passed. Dry leaves blew past the assembly in the wind. A little leet was toddling towards Xianghua, who was sitting down to pet it. Rokshi, after a bit, finally disappeared.

"So he's now in Omni-HQ. You all, please grid out and meet me and Mr. Zora there."

Xianghua whispered to the leet, "Wish my life was as simple as yours..."

[Anderral]

hmm now what does mr.zora want

[Saetos]

Sorry I haven't been updating this story I will when I get a chance to, but at the moment, it just isn't on my priority list. Rest assured I will get started ASAP

[Apokalypse]

this is rather interesting hope u finish it, i started reading, and couldn't stop

[shadowslider]

"A marching mob, thirteen hundred feet hit the pavement in perfect unison..."

Is about where i stoped, reading is the devil.

[Saetos]

Yay! ^.^ And so to business.

-~-~-~-~-

Four and a half months had passed since Hydrojen had "turned in" his father. Rokshi had since decided that as Archimedios, Ryuahn, Xianghua, and Nanonexus were rather young for this stage of the adventure, they could hopefully spread the word about Hydrojen's and Rokshi's quest. They had done incredible work - people were showing up at the temple in packs to help erradicate these hell children, but mainly for the increase in rank they could receive, and the loot. The clan faction, of course, didn't want to help at all.

No one really seemed to care about some stupid family bond. Besides, who had time to worry about that, when there were rankings to advance to?

Someone did. Someone who had tasted the ins and outs of the temple, its culture, its surroundings, and had souvenirs from the temple... which was unfortunate, as he didn't have much else; he was rather poor...

... an atrox meta-physicist, given the name by Omni-Tek of Castandsmash.

Castandsmash happened to be Rokshi's cousin. The Omni-Entertainment slums and the cabins within were this atrox's home, slums that could and would never survive the test of 28000 years of technological advances. He wasn't always like this - he was at the temple along with the other Omnis attracted to the loot, and was only into the first hallway when he met a fixer, fast on his heels... trailed by The Reanimator. Unfortunately he had no time to order his commands to his manifestations when a high-pitched ringing sound filled his ears. He dropped to the floor, hands over his face... and noticed the skin on his hands was gone. All that was left was genetically-modified bone, and this metamorphosis was taking place all over his body. Given a few more seconds, this curse would have forced him to spend the rest of his life as one of the horde of undead Legionnaires under Lien's command, but a soldier passing by happened to finish off the health Castandsmash could not manage to bring down. The heroic soldier, however, could not repair the damage the Reanimator had done to the crippled meta, and it was only by a lucky respawn near a Rome Green reclaim terminal that Castandsmash could return to normal.

Almost nothing was left of this meta's inner hatred that fueled him. It was replaced by pure fear. Knowing the failure of his mission, and the fact that he would rather the reclaim terminal malfunction than to bring him back gradually eroded any feeling of hope in him, much like the Reanimator did to him physically, although this kind of degration couldn't be fixed by technology. With no energy in him to summon his manifestations, and no cash to find an apartment to rest in, he was forced to bank his only relic - the Guardian's tank armor - and move to the slums, where he would live off of whatever Omni-Tek decided to provide to the citizens of the Omni-Ent slums... when they didn't decide to make propagandist remarks against the "unloyal, slacking, exploitative rats living alongside us".

One Saturday, he was roaming around the streets of Borealis, still attempting to recuperate, when he saw a massive protest going on. Borealis was packed with meta-physicists, complaining to the ICC corporation about the outdated equipment they were allowed to have. The words were like little pieces of his heart flowing into Cast's ears, and felt the reassuring boiling of anger inside him - the injustice of ICC against his occupation, the lack of knowledge of what could be done, what they were forced to do to get the word out. Looking at the crystals of his manifesations before him, he took the strands of notum from the crystals, and strung and twisted them with a heightened sense of purpose. For the first time in ages - being Atrox, telling time was unfortunately not his strong point - he was able to summon his friends, his symbols of strength. The band of metas were moving onward towards other cities, and knowing that this perhaps wasn't the time to walk for miles, as he was still recovering, set out to contact his cousin.

-+-

It was 1:00 AM in Stret West Bank. Rokshi and Hydrojen were in Hydrojen's house, Rokshi on the couch asleep, watching - or rather, facing - the TV, Hydrojen in the dining room making a small model of the Kyr'Ozch Sword, when his watch beeped.

"Did they finally score?" grumbled Rokshi. A clunk, and Hydrojen turned to find his dad's head back on the couch armrest, definately asleep.

"Um..." mumbled a voice. "Rokshi there?"

Hydrojen could do nothing but raise an eyebrow. "Not to be prudent or anything but... who the hell are you?"

A trace of confusion marked the voice, an atrox's. "Wha? Hmm, must be one of them mages, huh... heh, prudent... long word, no time to get dictio... dictan... word book. You know... a word book. I'm cousin of Rokshi, he there?"

"My dad has a cousin?"

"Yeh. Remember your grandparents, old solituses? Yo grandad had opifex brother, met with a opi female, all that fun stuff, you know... fun stuff. Heh. Parents wanted meta-fichisi... fiscistisc... bah... meta, to help mah cousin's son with engy-ing, you know... makin' stuff. Yeh. Not that you not smart already..." His next words sounded like he was hiding a friendly chuckle; "but... anyway, heh, Rokshi there? Need to talk about quest. I want help you guys..."

"Whoa whoa, wait. Meta, meta, meta... m...!! Dad!!!"

"Aw, c'mon, Hydro, this game's gettin' good," whined Rokshi. "What is it?"

"Castandsmash's on the phone."

"How in the name of the Lord did he acquire that kind of NCU technology to be able to call us? Well... no matter, get my cousin on the..."

"He wants to help us out."

Rokshi was floored. His cousin, who had trouble with his mother tongue, wished to defy the thoughts of countless others, and fulfill the Cifuentes clan's destiny? Popping up Cast's face on Rokshi's NCU watch, he and Cast were passing questions and answers back and forth. Saying his goodbyes, Rokshi clicked a button on his watch, making the hologram disappear.

"Grab your keys, son... we have to go to Omni-Entertainment, the slums."

"The... the slums? No wa... I..."

Rokshi glared at him for a moment. "Don't" was all he said to Hydrojen. The two walked silently to Hydrojen's Yalmaha, which had been recharged from the last trip. A second later, and they were gone.