Soul and Pride of a Keeper--a Backstory

[Berrenta]

~~Prologue~~

One day, a young male Opifex with hair gray as wood ash, eyes red as fire, and dark marks on the sides of his face enters the Jobe backyard. He weilds a sword he was given, a warblade with a scalding blade. He progressed with bravery, tackling the Demonic Subjugator that was a total pain to take down.

Now he resides in his Jobe apartment, a bachelor pad with fighting-themed posters on some walls. Forced to take custody for his seven-year-old niece for a couple weeks, he just can't find enough time to fight for the Unredeemed, allies of Omni-Tek.

He is Jacinto Ye, who most call Maledios, now with a Frost Scythe from the Temple of the Three Winds in Greater Tir County. His niece, Chiara, is a martial artist in training.

However, he must take action now, as the fate of his sister, Lila, is at stake. Who knows what he must do...

[Saetos]

I think we're starting to see a budding author here.

Keep it up, sis.

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 1~~

Jacinto is chilling out in his apartment reading a Rubi-Kan tabloid magazine until the doorbell rang. He comes to the door and opens it. It was his older sister, Lila, with her daughter, Chiara, at her side. Lila is a stylish Opi fixer with sleek, dark shoulderlength hair who is a big fan of the Shadowlands. They, unlike Jacinto, are neutral.

"Good afternoon, Lila," he says in a friendly gesture.

"Same to you, Jacki." (Jacki is a shortened version of Jacinto's name.)

He crouches down to hug Chiara, (she's 7, mind you) then, after she hugs him back, he gets back up casually.

"Well," Lila began, "I happen to have a busy schedule, and if I bring Chiara along, she'll be hurt. Do you mind taking care of her until further notice?"

"I have no objections," Jacinto tells Lila, "so long as she doesn't cause too much trouble."

"Very well, then. See ya later, Chiara."

"Goodbye, Mom."

Lila leaves Jacinto and Chiara behind to head for what might put her in severe danger...

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 2~~

((sorry for long delay. Here it is.))

"Hey Chiara. Nice to see you again."

"Same to you, Uncle Jacki." Chiara smiled.

"Come on."

They walk into a spacious room with a desk, a lamp, a cactus, a comfy sofa, a beautiful table, and a ramdom assortment of plants. On one of the walls was Jacinto's prized posession: his first sword

"So, do you want anything from the kitchen, like a muffin or something else?"

"I'm okay right now, thanks. Anyway, what about Mom?"

"Last time I've heard, she is at Adonis fighting hecklers."

~~Scene change to NS, a camp in Adonis~~

"Attack, Fluffy!" yells a female Nanomage meta-physisist, who is in Lila's team.

"I shall kill it for you, master!" says the MP's demon, who is obviously named Fluffy.

A heckler came cruising by, smashing everything (and everyone) in its way. Lila's team consisted of herself, the aforementioned MP, an Atrox enforcer, a male Solitus doctor, a female Opifex agent, and a male Opifex pistolero Advy. When the heckler approached, the enforcer raised his Frost-Bound Reaper and starts doing the nasty work. The rest of the team joined in, taking it down.

"Let's move on," says the agent, who is the team leader. They find another team come by. Lila feels the ground tremble a bit.

"Guys, we got 3 of them. Now how do we do this?"

"Don't panic," the agent tells her. "We'll think of something."

"Better be quick, or all of us will be in reclaim."

"Great......"
~~
What is the agent's plan? Find out next!

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 3~~

"I figured it out," the agent tells the team a short moment later. "Since there are 3 hecklers, let's take them down one at a time." She turns to the MP. "Use your mezzpet if you must, Jillian."

"Will do, Erica," Jillian replies.

"Good. Bob, are you ready?" Erica turns to the enforcer.

"Guess so, miss," came the reply.

"Excellent. Everyone else ready?"

All replied "Yes," but the adventurer replied "Can you hang on for one second? I'm low on nano."

"Fine then, Andy. You can join in when you are ready. William," Erica turns to the doctor, "do your best to heal the tank."

"Can do, madam," William replies.

"Excellent. Have at it, guys."

Bob started at the closest heckler that is running toward the team. Andy finally finishes healing his nanopool and joins William in healing the tank. Lila's Power Bolt finished off Heckler #1. Then the tank started on Heckler #2 when Jillian sends her healpet, Eternity, to heal Bob. Andy starts in on the attack. His Full Auto from his JSPP finished it off. But Heckler #3 had other plans, and homed in on Erica. Lila sensed this and casts her best HoT's on Erica. It was messy, but they eventually got Heckler #3 down after Fluffy, who landed the last hit, almost died. The team was exhausted, and decided to rest a bit.

"While we're at it, I'll just contact my younger brother Jacinto to see how he's doing. He had to take care of my daughter for me while I'm doing this," Lila tells the team, as she pushed a few buttons on her messenger.

~~Scene change to Jacinto's apartment~~

Jacinto has just finished putting Chiara to bed when his messenger beeped. It was Lila.

"Hey Lila."

"Same to you, Jacki. Is Chiara doing okay?"

"She's in bed now. Was doing fine, anyways. How's hecklers?"

"We just took 3 down and we are just chilling out right now."

"Yikes. Well, have fun with the hecklers."

"Okay. Good night to you, Jacki."

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 4~~

"I guess we have enough hecklers for now," Erica tells the team. "Y'all can go home."

So everyone parted, and Jillian tells her pets to terminate. Lila heads for the Garden of Dalja statue, yet suddenly the ground is shaking. Something is going wrong. A flash bursted from the ground, swallowing Lila before she can use her key.

Lila wakes up to find herself in Penumbra, trapped in a Redeemed temple. She is unable to get out as silvery tentacles tie her to the ground.

~~Scene change to Jacinto's dream, set in Elysium~~

Jacinto finds himself near Nero, an Unredeemed temple. He later hears a strange voice:

"Maledios..."

He turns his head to the source of the voice, and goes nearer.

"Save me, Maledios..."

He later realized he's going closer to a portal he hadn't seen before.

"Help me..."

"WTH??????" Jacinto screamed.

"Please save me, Maled--" The voice was cut off. He could hear rafters.

"This is not good." He steps into a portal, only to see a spirit of his late girlfriend, Giselle.

"Giselle? Is that you?" he finally tells her.

"Yes! Why do I have to be like this! I wi... ACKK!!!!!!!!!" A rafter closes in.

He swings his mighty scythe, and nearly died from the rafter, but he took it down. He later hears a different voice uttering, "Jacki, help!"

He recognized the voice.

It was his sister, Lila.

~~Scene change to Jacinto's bedroom~~

"What a nightmare..." Jacinto mutters as he slowly rises from his bed.

"Please help me!" It was Lila again. He realizes that he forgot to shut off his messenger before he fell asleep.

"What is it?" Jacinto later speaks into the messenger.

"I'm trapped in a bad spot. I can't meep out of this place."

"Where are you?"

"I guess I am in a temple. It's freezing here! I didn't expect this!"

[Stillian]

Go go go!

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 5~~

"Looks like we got another abduction, Mr. Zora," a male Nanomage tells Tarkhan Zora.

"You got the name?" Zora replies.

"Her name's Lila Anderson, nee Ye, female Opifex Fixer. She is last seen in Adonis with a heckler team."

"Anyone witnessed her disappearance?"

"Only one: Andy Osbourne, male Opifex Adventurer. He was in her team when this happened. He noticed a beam of light coming from the ground, sending his teammate somewhere, and it's not a garden."

"Did Andy tell you who was also in the team?"

"Never told me. Wouldn't be important, anyways."

"I'll try to contact Lila. If you have any more info, say so now, or forever hold your peace."

After the nanomage leaves, Zora tries to ring up Lila. However, he gets this message:

Signal not found

"****."

~~Scene change to Roch's Keep in Schoel~~

"The Redeemed got another traveller," the Prophet tells a Dach-Len. "Something has to be done."

"Whatever you say, sire," the Dach-Len replies. He sighs and walks off, muttering under his breath, "Those foul creatures..."

~~Scene change to Jacinto's apartment~~

"Has anything gone wrong, Uncle Jacki?" Chiara asks after she steps into the kitchen.

"Your mom's captured. She's probably in Penumbra now," Jacinto replies gravely. He could later see the look of fright in Chiara's face. "Sorry about that, Chiara."

"Oh!"

The doorbell rings...

[Perron]

I must say... well written! Can't wait to see more of this! ^^

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 6~~

The icy-cold tentacles loosened around Lila, allowing her to rise to her feet after a few hours worth of the worst restrainment ever. Finally she's free...

"Excuse me," a Kuir-Moor said to her, "but we might need to chat a little." Okay, never mind what was said about freedom...

"Whatever you say. sir." Lila had to obey or suffer gueling consequences.

~~Scene change to Jacinto's apartment~~

Jacinto leaps out of his chair and dashes for the door. He opens it, and in front of him stood an average-sized, dark Unredeemed figure. "Greetings, did I disrupt anything?" the figure finally said.

"Not at all," Jacinto replied.

"Excellent. We need to talk a bit about your sister's sudden disappearence."

"Okay, fine. Come in, make yourself at home."

They situated themselves in the common room of the apartment, the one with a poster for a Jackie Chan movie among other things. The walls were painted a terra cotta color, and there was a tan sofa and two other chairs in the room.

After they both took their seats, the Dach-Len, the same one from earlier in the story, starts off. "Did she send any messages to you concerning her surrent situation?"

"I remember that she did. Thing is, I accidentally left the messenger on last night, and through what she was telling me, I guess she was relocated to some Penumbra temple."

The Dach-Len cocked his head. "I see... Seeing that you are too low to survive the harsh, cold Penumbral weather, I'll go tell the Prophet to see if there is any way possible of making sure she returns safely. Any questions before we begin?"

"Actually I have one: Who is going to take care of my niece, as her father is training for the air raids and doesn't feel like being disturbed?"

"We'll see about that."

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 7~~

"George Anderson!"

"Yes, sir!"

"We need you now. Opposing attack is imminent."

"****! What's going on!?!?"

George, a sophisticated black-haired male Opifex Soldier, is working on the technical work for lasers to counter-strike opposing forces. The leader of his squadron, an atrox named Colonel Don Marone, is standing near him. After George hears the Colonel's order, he stops work and rises to his feet and dons his Kyr'Ozch Carbine - Type 12, ready to defend agent enemy fire.

"Ready whenever you are, sir!"

"Excellent, George. I love your can-do attitude. Now let's get moving!"

"Affirmitive!"

~~Scene change to a Redeemed Temple somewhere in Penumbra~~

"Can you tell me why I'm here?" Lila asked the Kuir-Moor in front of her. "Just curious, that's all."

"We are after your brother," he replied. "However, we have to send you here to get you out of the way. If we fail to do so, you might thwart our objective."

"And when are you releasing me?"

"It would make matters worse for us if we--"

A loud "N0000000000BZ" interrupted the Kuir. Lila looked around and saw a little leet next to her. She later found out it was Erica, in leet form. The big question remains: did she ask an adventurer to be morphed or did she use False Profession? Lila used a strange device on the leet to find out. Yep, she was under False Profession all right.

"Why would you cut me off?" he scolded at Erica.

"L3t h3r g0, n00b!"

"You rascal!"

The leet stood wide-eyed at the Kuir and stepped back little by little. It's going to be a long day, Lila thought.

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 8~~

"I guess you can bring your niece with you. Hope she doesn't mind unredeemed around her."

"Hopefully she doesn't mind. Besides, she's neutral, like her mom."

"That's all right, as we tolerate neutrals, unless if one attacks us. Just watch out for her so she doesn't draw monsters' attention and gets herself pwned."

Obviously, to Chiara, "pwned" is a word she hadn't heard of before. She would ask, but didn't, thinking it would be a waste of time to do such a thing anyways.

Jacinto, with Chiara by her side, and the Dach-Len head for Nero, one of the dark temples in Elysium. Then the ground shook a bit. Jacinto thought to himself, "what is going on?"

But then he realized what caused it. An atrox almost 1.75 times Jacinto's size stormed a bit and stopped. "So what we have here?"

"Who are you?"

"Bob Reiner, one of dose fence-sittin' enforcers. How bout you?"

"Jacinto Ye. Why?"

"So you er Lila's lil brother, eh?"

"How'd you... Oh wait, Lila said you were in her heckler team."

"I was, a few days ago. Heard she been missin', right?"

"I'd rather not say what happened to her with my niece around, you know. But I tell you she is MIA."

"So that why she ain't respondin. Bummer."

~~Scene change to a battlestation suspended in Rubi-Ka's orbit~~

"Omni scum incomming! Prepare for counterstrike!"

Don Marone shouted this when his wrist sensor beeped after it sensed the opposing side coming their way. A sabretooth came cruising down towards them, along with a few of its comrades, one of them also a sabretooth. One Clan soldier held a device towards the lead sabretooth and gets this:

Name: Andrew "Andy" Osbourne
Opifex Male Adventurer
Side: Neutral

Clans started to open fire. Andy realized this and used every ounce of his strength. After a grueling bettle, he was still standing with barely any health left. But then a clan nanotechnician casted a devastating nuke and defeated Andy before he finished casting his heal.

Clans eventually won the battle by a hair.

[Berrenta]

~~Chapter 9~~

"Sir!" one Len-Locquid exclaims to get the Kuir-Moor's attentnion.

"What is it, comrade?"

"Just realized something. Even with the person we have here is protecting our target, we need a new target, for our current one is too easy."

"I'll let her know." Then he walked to Lila, telling her, "We have to release you. He is too simple for us."

"Thank you for telling me." Lila nods.

She feels more rumbling of the floors of the temple as she reaches for her messanger.

~~Scene change to Unicorn Base in Andromeda~~

Jillian and William, both loyal clansmen, celebrated their victory with the others, including George.

"Just wanted to congratulate you all," somebody who was fighting for Omnis told a few of them. Jillian recognized that voice: it was Andy's voice.

"Oh hi. Just wondering why you didn't join us, that's all."

"To tell you the truth, I was a bit lost and got there at the last second. However, seeing that there's like 5 Omnis and since there has to be at least 6 from each side... you get the point."

"At least you are honest," William responded. Suddenly, Jillian's messenger buzzed. It was from Lila, who also sent it to Jacinto and George, and it read:

Hey, just wanted to tell you that I'm all right and will return, if I can.

~~Scene change to Nero~~

Upon receiving the message, Jacinto breathed a sigh of relief. Bob was curious, so Jacinto showed him teh message.

"At least she safe, I tell ya dat," Bob replied.

"True." Jacinto had an Atrox trainer who taught him Keeper basics, so he understands what Bob said, thankfully.
~~
Will Lila return safely? Find out next!