z

Young Writers Society


Crossed Canons



User avatar
53 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 240
Reviews: 53
Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:20 am
cheeb says...



Okay, okay. If I keep trying to overthink this it's never going to happen. Let's just get on with it, shall we?

Not related to the Magic: The Gathering card game. It's based on a previous SB that had a similar name, and apparently there are some parallels regarding multiverses, but it's a separate thing.

Rules and profile templates have been moved to the Discussion Thread.


Lore
Once upon a time, there was a storybook called YWS: The Gathering. It was about a group of authors taking characters from their own literary works and throwing them into a multiversal collision with no idea what was going on. Despite being poorly planned and poorly organised by its creator, the storybook lasted a whopping seven pages and garnered critical acclaim from almost 1 people.

Since then, multiversal relations have ranged from peaceful to nonexistent. However, in an obscure corner of the multiverse, an unknown thief has invaded several worlds and from each one taken an item of power. He plans to use the powers of these Artifacts to conquer the multiverse one world at a time.
What he didn't count on was the multiverse being thrown into instability: removing an item of such power without providing an equivalent power source or an item of equivalent mass made each world unstable. The worlds began to gravitate towards their Artifacts, seeking to reclaim their missing pieces and re-stabilise. However, as the missing Artifacts were all situated together, occupying the same time and reality coordinates, and near enough to the same space coordinates, the unstable worlds converged on that point and collided, forming a single planet comprised of "shards" of the individual universes. In the chaos, the Artifacts were scattered across this new world.
The Pilferer, discovering that inhabitants of the individual worlds now populated "his" planet and some were searching for their Artifacts, sent minions to distract these "heroes" and turn them against one another.

tl;dr: worlds got all smashed together and people have to fix it with magic or science things but they might have to fight each other first because they're highly suggestible

Now you have the opportunity to enter the world of Bellona and join the effort to restore balance to these worlds and to the multiverse. Do you have what it takes? Can you handle the truth? Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?
the user formerly known as chibibo





User avatar
53 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 240
Reviews: 53
Fri Nov 06, 2015 9:46 am
View Likes
cheeb says...



???

From one shadow to the next he darted. This was a crucial moment: if he’d been spotted earlier, he could still have claimed he’d lost his way. But now, with the purloined vial in hand, there was no mistaking his intentions.

He glanced down at the object. The weird liquid inside the vial gave him the jibblies, but he’d seen the results when it was applied to humans. It affected their DNA and could give them all kinds of strange powers. If he used it on himself he’d never have to go stealthy again.

It wouldn’t stop him, though. Stealthing was too enjoyable to give up.

A pair of guards stood ahead in the hallway, their backs to him. Their mumbling indicated that they were expecting a delivery, which explained why the facility’s front doors were now wide open, and - in much more hushed tones - that they weren’t at all satisfied with their salaries. That wasn’t their biggest problem right now, though - he had to stifle a giggle as he held up his hand towards the open door being guarded.

Out of the shadows, a small dark ball made of what seemed to be fluff emerged. Its white eyes pierced the darkness, but for the time being it was out of sight of the guards.

He paused for a moment, debating inwardly about the best way to handle these two.

“Meow,” said the fluffball. The guards glanced at one another and shrugged. Hm.

“Moo,” the fluffball said. The guard on the left looked at his colleague, concerned. The other looked confused as well, but shook his head and made a gesture that clearly said stay where we are. Well, third time was the charm: he concentrated a little harder on the small creature.

“Shut up! Do you want to get caught?” came a voice from the fluffball. That got their attention.
“I’ll go deal with it,” said the guard on the left. “You wait for the delivery.” He ran outside as the other guard nodded. Perfection.

The figure in the shadows waited for a few seconds, to ensure his prey’s buddy was out of earshot, then he struck. He leaped forward, directly behind the guard, and slapped his right palm across the man’s mouth. Before the guard could react, he pressed the index and middle fingers of his left hand into the gap between his victim’s neck and collarbone. After a few seconds, the guard slumped over and fell to the floor.

The figure stepped over the unconscious form and glanced out the door. The other guard was struggling with a black mass that had enveloped his face - after a few seconds of struggling, he too collapsed. The black mass re-formed into its puffball shape with a small squeak.

The figure was ready to go. Except… heh.

He dragged the one guard’s body inside and left him lying across his partner, taking care to position their hands in such a way that it would be terribly awkward when they awoke. He then took a metal umbrella from the umbrella bucket located next to the door, handed it to his puffy companion and pulled the doors closed, leaving himself on the outside. The puffball pushed the umbrella through the inside handles of the doors, then, with a wink at the dark-clad figure, vanished. In the distance, a truck could be heard roaring towards the facility.

He didn’t bother to stifle his laughter this time as he sprinted away across the sands.

* * *


“Look, wisps!” he called out to the rest of the shuttle. “It’s home sweet home, planet Janus!”

The wisps squealed and bounced around in the air. They weren’t really that excited, particularly since they were simply extensions of the Pilferer himself (for that is who he was, the entire time), but it was nice to think they really shared his sentiment. It was nice… to feel surrounded by people.

The Pilferer shook his head and began his descent towards the empty planet. It didn’t matter. He now had the greatest collection of treasures ever amassed - treasures so rare he had to travel to entirely other worlds to even obtain them! And they could give him great power if he used them right - he would look like such a badass wielding that beautiful gun from the demon institute, or wearing the power armour that had been locked away in the miners’ hideout. Things were finally coming up -

… did the planet just ripple?

He was sure the planet had just rippled.

“Wisps,” he said uncertainly, “did the planet just ripple?” The wisps didn’t respond; they were staring out the window at the ground below. If it hadn’t rippled before, it was certainly rippling now. Cracks appeared in the earth and glowed bright blue. Planets were appearing and disappearing, far away and up close, and the void of space was rapidly shifting colours. A loud BANG rocked the shuttle, everything went white and that was the last thing the Pilferer remembered...
the user formerly known as chibibo





User avatar
39 Reviews



Gender: Other
Points: 4759
Reviews: 39
Wed Nov 11, 2015 1:42 am
View Likes
Bloo says...



The metallic shine of the wall cracked, a panel sliding away to reveal a small nest of flashing, technicolor lights. A small ball emerged from it, a small little cyclops like sensor atop it. It wheeled out of it’s nest, and into a cramped little shared bedroom, four beds in each corner, only one of them still occupied.

The little droid rolled against the best post a dull hum rising from it, before a flash of blue pulsed off it and ran through the bed. The girl under the covers jolted into a sitting position, though her eyes were still shut, and posture limp. The droid hummed again, this time lower, and began to speak in a heavily modulated voice. “Tarra, we’re encroaching on the enemy.”

“When isn’t there an enemy?” Tara moaned to herself, and retaliated with a poorly aimed pillow at the robot. “Five more minutes, Omni.”

Omni hummed once more, and sent another, stronger, pulse through the bed. “Negatory. According to Tatiana’s calculations they will begin fire in five minutes.”

“Then three more minutes!” Tarra threw a lamp this time, and the droid reeled away.

The droid withdrew back into the wall, and a few flashing lights and beeps later the bed was ripped out from under Tarra, crashing into the ground with only a comforter to soften the blow. “Your AI is a real dick, Tati!” Tarra yelled across the RV, rising out of the bedroom.

Tatiana ignored her, bickering with a scrawny dork sitting in shotgun across from her.

Tarra groped the walls as she climbed to the front of the RV, blankets and pillows collecting in a trail behind her. In the lounge a stocky girl buzzed around, doing some form of highspeed, jazzersize yoga. Tarra leaned into the lounge’s little counter, making her best attempt to get bread into the toaster without lifting her arm up off the counter. Toaster on it’s side, Tarra managed to knock a piece of bread into a slot, cramming the rest of the slice in with her elbow. Her other hand, actually lifted, poured out some coffee while she waited.

The buzzing girl popped up with the toast, grabbing the slice out as Tara was still swinging her head to the toaster. The Buzzer examined the crumbled and squashed slice of rye. “This is just sad.”

Tarra ripped it back from her and tore away half of it in a bite, talking as she chewed. “Morning to you too, Jacks.”

Jacks greeted her with a cringe. “That’s a good a que as any,” she added, before falling back onto her hands and into a bounce so quick it left a streak leading out the top window.

Tarra left the rest of her toast failure on the counter, walking into the end of the co-driver’s debate.

“We’ve been doing this for what, a month now?” Mal perked in, gripping her on either shoulder. “Have faith in the Space Invader.” He leaned into peak her on the forehead, instead but his body faded into smoke around her, drifting out the shotgun’s window.

Tarra wafted through the smoke and took her seat, her pair of pink, fuzzy slipper-combat boots taking their natural place on the dashboard. “Did really give that thing a name?”

“Yes,” Tatiana answered, releasing the cover to a large red button on the dashboard.. “He said it was in reference to an old arcade-style video game.”

“Dios.” Tarra muttered with a chuckle. “That kid need a reality check.”

Tati nodded and slammed a fist into The Big Red Button. Through the side mirrors she caught the van towed to the back release, Jacks at the wheel, Mal sat on an office chair, hands gripped to some kind of turret attached to the van’s top. It sat dead in the road for a few minutes, feeble roars from the engine as it attempted a start.

The lights flashed on when the first ripple hit. It felt like a punch to Tarra’s gut, the force knocked her back into her seat. The dashboard lights lit of like a rave, Tatiana ripped from the steering wheel in her daze. The second wave shook the RV from the core, the teetering sent Tarra across the vehicle, Tatiana squashed between Tarra and the wall.

“This is why we wear seatbelts!” She said, her voice raising like a toddler swearing.

“Is this really the-” Another wave sent Tarra into a tumble onto the floor.

“Time?” Tatiana said, safely secured to her seat. She continued to talk, keeping a calm tone, oblivious to Tarra’s ricochets around the RV lounge. “There is no bad time to think about your safety, Tarra.”

“Just get this thing to sit still!” Tarra screamed, reeling from a spilt pot of coffee.

The RV halted to a settle, Tarra sent into the air once more as it slammed back into the ground for good. She managed to limp back up to the front, where Tatiana was frantically flipping random buttons. At least random to Tarra. “We lost their signal.” Tatiana said without looking back. “The van went dead.”

Tarra’s expression dropped from frustration to fear, her body already outside the RV by the time she had processed the words. She tore it to the back of the RV, starring out at the empty road behind them. “They weren’t even a mile behind us, how--”

Tatiana appeared behind Tarra, pointing her head to the west. Tarra paused, actually taking the time to take in the surrounding around her. It was still the same abandoned ghost towns they were used to, but the mountains to their west had disappeared. In their place was a sprawling city, near mint condition. Electricity and everything from the looks of it. Tarrar blinked hard, running around the RV, not able to process their new surroundings.

“To use Malcolm’s more relatable vernacular.” Tatiana turned to Tarra. “Honey, I believe the kids are no longer in Kansas.”

Tarra grabbed Tatiana by the chin, pointing her eyes to a large silver disk hanging crooked in the sky. “But the space cases still are.”

Tatiana ripped her head back down, fear in her eyes. “How long did that turbulence last?”

As if willed by the power of dramatic timing, an alarm went off on Tatiana’s watch. Above them the silver disk groaned. Canons peeled out of the metal above them, the light that radiated off them blinded the pair on the ground. Tarra managed to catch her as she charged into the RV, leaving her on the RV’s steps before she dove into the driver's seat.

“Omni, prep the nitro.” Tarra rushed out. She fumbled to get her seatbelt on as her foot slammed onto the gas, the floor nearly cracked from the force. The RV whipped into motion, blasts of plasma hot on their trail.
That User Who Changed Their Name A Dozen Times And So No One Ever Knew Who They Were Half the Time and When They Did Only Used Bolt.

The tragic tale of losing all #Brand for nothing in return.

The Take Away Is You Probably Know Me As Bolt





User avatar
2631 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 6235
Reviews: 2631
Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:43 pm
View Likes
Rydia says...



Isla Guthrie

The water was calm this morning as Isla gazed out over the bridge and thought about home. Not her Iridium city home or even the village home where she'd spent the first (and only) 21 years of her life.

She thought about some future home, a mystical and nonexistent place that might combine the peace and elegance of the river and the expansive green land beyond with the magnificence of the city behind her. But maybe minus all the clogging smoke and thundering noises.

Iridium city was noisy all the time.

Isla had developed a solution for that. She searched inside herself for that familiar ball of energy and used it to make contact with the air around her. Immediately she felt a different energy push back, a bouncing, boundless energy filled with desires to roam and a light amusement for stationary objects like herself.

The small brunette caught the energy in her own and pulled it around her like a cocoon and a blissful silence descended.

The air cocoon almost certainly saved her life. The earth around her started to shake and rupture as the mainland of Iridium city broke away from the bridge. The nearest iridium pillar split down the middle, sending metal shards in every direction, glancing off the shield she had wrapped around herself.

It seemed to take only a moment but when Isla looked out over the water again it ended abruptly in desert. As she cautiously released the air cocoon, the sound of canons ruptured the silence, drowning out even the humming and clanging of the city behind her. At least it was still behind her.

The rest of the world seemed to be gone.
Writing Gooder

~Previously KittyKatSparklesExplosion15~

The light shines brightest in the darkest places.





User avatar
44 Reviews



Gender: Nonbinary
Points: 115
Reviews: 44
Wed Dec 02, 2015 9:35 pm
View Likes
SkyeWalker says...



Zhia awoke to an intense rumbling that shook her to her very core and nearly jarred her out of her tree.

To be fair, earthquakes weren’t all that common in Asia (or anywhere else in the world now. So it was appropriate that she was caught off-guard and very nearly fell eight meters to the jungle floor.

I’m awake, She thought, with a trace of humor. Back at the Z.A.C, one of the early risers would ring the giant bell in the center of camp and wake everyone as soon as the sun touched the horizon. It had taken Zhia a long time to get used to it, as she was used to sleeping in a tree, much like as she was now, until either her little sister woke her… or she felt like it. Usually when she felt like it.

Zhia’s tree was a nice one, with wide, thick branches and a thick canopy. The lowest branches were three meters above the earth, so only she could reach them with a wind-enhanced jump. From there, the branches were easily climbable, and the branch where she slept was hollowed out like a bowl so that Zhia wouldn’t fall. However, the bowl-mechanism hadn’t worked this time.

Someone remind me to fix that, Zhia thought crossly, eyebrows furrowed.

Zhia rose to her haunches, quietly remembering her brief time with other people. And shook her head. It was no use thinking about that, she had to stay here and protect the key for the rest of what could only be a short life. When the earth is crawling with zombies, you can’t really help dying early. If you’re alone, you’d do more good killing yourself. Living forever as an undead creature was way worse than just letting go. But Zhia couldn’t do that. She had to stay and protect the key. Zhia patted her belt, hands searching for the dagger-key.

Wait. Where is it? Where is it!? No! It’s- Zhia looked around frantically. It had to be here somewhere! So Zhia crawled around her hollowed out branch, searching for the key. She would have gotten many splinters if her hands weren’t already calloused enough from years of hard work.

And sat down with a dull, blank thump. The dagger was gone. Something that could unlock one of the deadliest weapons in all of human history, a serum that could speed up the apocalypse tenfold and create an undead hell throughout the world. Zhia put her head in her hands.

This is possibly the worst mistake anyone could make, She thought, looking up.

Another giant tremor ran through the ground, but this time, Zhia was prepared. She grabbed an overhanging branch and held on as tightly as she could, and when she could, attempted to lock her arms around said branch. However, this plan failed, and Zhia tumbled to the ground, landing on her arm. A sharp snap accompanied by a muffled scream was heard.

This… isn’t working. I need to get out of here before I get myself killed! Agh- Zhia’s train of thought was interrupted with a flood of pain radiating outward from her freshly broken arm. She bit her lip, yet again holding back an involuntary scream. Shut your face. Someone could hear you. Get a move on, set your arm, and get out! God, remember, you can fly! Well, only a bit, but still. Use that energy! Oh, SH-


Zhia stood at the previously-not-there edge of the forest and stared, gaping at the city which stood proudly before her.

“God Dammit. This wasn't part of the plan.”
My pronouns are they/them.

Formerly Zhia and Reneia





User avatar
53 Reviews



Gender: Male
Points: 240
Reviews: 53
Mon Dec 28, 2015 4:09 am
cheeb says...



Blake

Blake held his fist up into the air. He was feeling more foolish by the second. Why is it taking so long this time?

The robots that surrounded him stared blankly, as if waiting for something to happen. That wasn't normal either. Most robots didn't have the capacity for things like anticipation: they should already be swarming him right now.

Blake lowered his fist ever so slightly. They didn't react.

He dropped it to his side. Nothing.

He waved his hand in front of the nearest bot's visual receptors. He jabbed his fingers at its head. The robot fell backwards with a crash.

"Okay," Blake said out loud. "Okay. Either INT's screwing with me or there is some weird bull-honky going on."

As if on cue, a blazing blue crack shot across the ground in front of him, separating him from the robot army.

"Oh, it's the latter."

The glow from the crack intensified until he had to shut his eyes to block it out -

* * *


And then Blake woke up. He rubbed his eyes and began to take in his surroundings: a thoroughly unfamiliar plain with the odd tree scattered here and there. He barely had time to wonder where he was when his wrist began beeping.

He looked down at his wrist groggily, shrugged and stared at the scenery again. A split-second later he glanced at his wrist again with wide eyes, yelped and jumped to the right. A bright beam of light shot down from the sky and hit the portion of the ground Blake had been occupying. It expanded into a ball of light that promptly faded, revealing a sight for Blake's sore eyes: his beloved mech Roll.

"It's about time you showed up," Blake said after a few seconds of shock.

"I had to fight off an entire platoon of robots without you," he continued, climbing into the cockpit and pulling the windshield down. "See this scar?" he added, pointing to an entirely unblemished spot on his arm. "That's gonna be a permanent reminder of the time you let me down. Got anything to say for yourself?"

He turned the starter switch and Roll's engine roared to life. Blake smirked.

"Oh, you know I can't stay mad at you. You always know exactly what to say. Okay. GPS."

He flicked on a small screen to his right. Immediately, a textbox appeared with the words
UNKNOWN LOCATION
displayed in bright red text. Blake narrowed his eyes.

"So I'm nowhere on Earth. That's so helpful I think I could scream."

He looked back at his windshield and almost followed through on that suggestion, with adequate reason: there was a bizarre black thing sitting on the glass staring at him. It was like an anemone with big eyes, but made of thick black smoke.

It squeaked at Blake. Blake winced and recoiled slightly.
It bounced down onto the ground and looked back up at him. It started to bark exactly like a dog. Blake was now thoroughly confused.

The thing paused for a moment, then formed itself into a different shape. It looked like some sort of robot armour, built to fit over a humanoid body. There was something intensely familiar about it, too...

"Wait, is that Project Omni? But Fran and I have that in - Fran!"
Blake smacked the side of his helmet, activating his communicator. "Fran, can you hear me? Where are you?"
Silence.
"Francesca Darwin, this is Blake Marrick, trying to make contact. I'm in an unknown location, with a... thing, that looks like something out of Miyazaki but acts like Lassie. If you can hear me, please respond."
Silence. Blake paused.
"Yo, Frankie baby, whaddaya say I take you to Ronnie's pizza, and then I take you home... and then I take you to Heaven, you know what I mean?" If that didn't provoke a response, then nothing would.

... Apparently nothing would. Must be a bug in the network - maybe the same one that delayed Roll's deployment. Blake turned his attention back to the puff.
"Why Project Omni, though? It's safe in a secure location... isn't it? We took it there ourselves..."
The puff bounced up and down on the ground and began moving away, towards a sandy area in the distance. Blake made up his mind: it wasn't worth the risk to assume that this was a bluff. The potential for disaster if Project Omni landed in the wrong hands was too great. He pushed the accelerator lever forward, and Roll began stomping in the same direction as the black puff, which was moving further into the distance.

* * *


It was after nearly two hours of travelling that Blake spotted something on the horizon. As they drew closer it grew larger until it was a city - or, as Blake could see more clearly the closer he got, something that had generally been a city until quite recently. There was a fairly thick coat of steam over most of the buildings, there were several pillars that seemed to have been torn in two, and the nearest evident entrance to the city was a bridge - or rather, half a bridge.

Most shocking to Blake, though, was the inhabitants of the city. It wasn't their behaviour, the fact that many of them were panicking at the state of their city - given the circumstances, this seemed quite natural. No, it was what they were - human. Or at least they looked human. Mostly.

For a moment Blake forgot about Project Omni - he'd discovered an unknown human settlement, at a time when he and Francesca thought there weren't any others! She'd be well impressed.

They must have been fighting INT-9999's forces for a long time, he thought, 'cause they've converted everything in the city to run on steam so he can't take control of it. With that in mind, he decided to approach the city on foot, in case the civilians mistook Roll for an enemy. He was just climbing out of the mech when his puffy companion squeaked loudly and bounced towards one of the humans, one who was nearer to them and further from the city.

It was a brown-haired girl who looked like she worked in a repair shop: she was clad in basic working clothes along with leather gloves, boots and a pair of goggles. And to Blake's utter dismay, she also appeared to be wearing a sharp, spiky, black-and-green set of robotic armour.

Unbeknownst to Blake, his puffball guide had had several associates that had been following the two of them, just out of sight. As they had approached the city, the other puffballs had formed the shapes of the Project Omni pieces and assembled themselves upon this girl. She was now trying, quite understandably, to shake them off.

Blake pulled the windshield back down. "Don't move!" he called out. "It'll activate and then you -"
The girl had seen him. "Take these off me!" she shouted angrily. "What are you, one of the Metal Man's buddies?"
Is that what they call INT-9999 here? "No, I'm -"
Before he could explain, Roll was hit by what could only be described as a solid block of air. Blake yelped as Roll was forced backwards.

"Okay," Blake muttered to himself, "too late. The armour's taken control of her. And apparently been given some weird upgrades. Gonna have to remove it by force."
the user formerly known as chibibo





User avatar
31 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 212
Reviews: 31
Mon Jan 04, 2016 10:14 pm
View Likes
FallWolf says...



-Wink

I was fixing a leaking part of my shack when Jayson came by. This was also two hours before my world got upended for the second time in my short life, but that's for later in my story, so just sit still and listen. The sun was up high in the blue summer sky, and though only a bit of it's warmth penetrated the forest around me, the clearing in which Jayson and I had built my temporary "house" was almost glowing in vivid greens as the golden light played among the stems of long grass. It had just rained, hence me working on my leaky roof, and my sensitive nose could still smell the rain-clouds gathering near the mountains and the wet earth all around. I stopped working for a second, leaning against the warm mix of bark shingles and tin, then bounded over the crest of the roof to work on a particularly annoying leak right above my bed. I rummaged in my rucksack for a piece of tin or wood, some nails held between my teeth and a hammer slung in my belt, and was so immersed in my work that I didn't hear Jayson come through the forest.

"Wink!" He called up at me, shading his blue eyes with a hand.

I yelped as my foot slipped on a piece of tin. "Jayson, don't do that!" I yelled back, scrabbling for a hold, "This roof is hardly fall-proof, and I'd really not like to twist an ankle again."

He just laughed and sat down in the grass by my previously flung coat. Summer was not the time to be lugging around my winter-grade Starbeastian clothes, as I had found out. I sighed and gave up on trying to get a secure hold on the higgeldy-piggeldy roof, sliding down to land cat-like on my feet beside Jayson and previously mentioned article of clothing. "What are you doing here?" I asked him. The boy, not the coat. Jayson rolled his eyes at me and waved an arm in the direction of the mountains.

"You said you wanted to go hiking, so I came."

I blinked, remembering that conversation. "Oh, great. Well, did you bring Wheely?"

"Would you stop calling my project Wheely?" Jayson groaned, getting up. I grabbed my coat and slung it over my rucksack. "I mean, it can't even do wheelies."

"I was not aware that Wheely is actually an action. I am simply pointing out that your vehicle has wheels." I managed to keep a straight face, totally serious alien newcomer to earth thing, but inside I giggled impishly, sitting back to gleefully watch Jayson's reaction. I was not disappointed. First he stopped and shot me an incredulous look, then opened his mouth as if to explain to me what wheelies were, even though he had before, and then closed his mouth and shook his head at me.

"I'm not talking to you anymore." he said. I laughed.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it! Your face... and then... did you actually think I didn't remember what a wheelie is?"

He shook his head at me again, but he was smiling.

Actually, Wheely was quite the vehicle, though the hovercraft used on Blue Stella were way better. Jayson had started building a quad, but seemed to have got caught up and accidentally made it look more like a dune buggy. It had a roll cage like a buggy, but the seat was clearly quadlike, and it had the handle-steer too instead of a driving-wheel. The wheels themselves were spaced farther apart than a normal quad, and looked like they were made for wide-open plains, not the forests that surround Jasper. I won't even talk about the paint job. It was atrocious, to say the least. However, it was fast, and Jayson let me drive it. I hopped on and turned the key, then pressed my thumb into the accelerator. The engine revved, but Wheely stayed put. I turned to Jayson, confused. He sighed and pointed down at my foot.

"Get it out of neutral first, then you can go forward."

Oh, right. I flipped it into first gear and chugged off, changing to higher or sometimes lower gears as Jayson told me.

...


Jayson slung his backpack, filled with eatables, drinkables, rope, and other things, onto his shoulders. I hadn't moved my haversack, which was still full of some bark and tin bits, a couple dozen nails, a hammer, and a small jar of tar. Now I shrugged it off to leave with Wheely, along with my coat. My Salbira, a mix between a human spear and quarterstaff, got stuck for a second, but I wrestled it free. I never went anywhere without my Salbira.

"Come-on!" Jayson said, jumping from foot to foot, "we're losing daylight."

"Um, you do realize that in the summer the earths sun stays in the sky until, and sometimes after, six o'clock? And it's only... one thirty right now. Give or take a couple minutes." I remembered the first weeks of being stranded on earth, how the sun seemed to whirl around and never keep track of itself. Now, months later, I could successfully tell what time it was by looking at the infernal thing. Jayson ignored me and started hiking up a winding trail.

"Let's see if we can get to that clearing... I think there's a bit of a cliff there that we can try to climb."

"Coming!" I yelled, bounding up the path.

...


There was a nice little piece of rock-climbing in the clearing. On further inspection, Jayson had allowed me to go first, trailing rope down the mini-cliff so that he had something more than bare rock to hold onto. I grinned down at him and waved cheerily, wind trailing playfully through my ponytail. Just for kicks, I pretended to lose my grip on the grey stone in from of me, leaning out a bit over Jayson and windmilling my outstretched arm. I was awarded by seeing his face pale and his mouth open, but before he could shout a warning he heard my laugh and closed his mouth with a snap.

"Stop playing around already." He yelled, a little too loudly.

"I'm not deaf, you know." I called back good-naturedly. Then I felt a sight tremor through the rocks. I looked back at the rough surface in a puzzled way. As if to answer my unspoken question, the rocks jiggled again, this time a bit harder. My palms started sweating.

"Jayson," I called down. "Is there earthquakes here?"

I didn't wait for an answer, because just then the rocks gave off another tremor that threatened to leave my hanging in the air by my fingertips and toes. I hardly dared breathe as I scrambled down the rock, hoping that another, stronger tremor wouldn't hit.

The universe must have read my mind.

I was still at least twenty-five feet up- at least five times my height- when another tremor rattled me. I gripped the rock desperately, hugging close to the rough surface. I heard Jayson shout below me and then I was spinning in the air, blue light crackling and flickering around me. I don;t think anyone would think me a wimp to know that I did scream at this point, a very loud, girlish scream that didn't end until my shoulder and head cracked into something hard.

At first I thought, Home. the hum of an engine was somewhere behind me, the dials and metal of a starship surrounding me. Along with the dark, fuzzy shadows, there was one other person on the ship with me. I looked dizzily up at him, his shape blurring in and out. He looked like a plum, all dressed in purple. I almost giggled, but I didn't have the air. Air... where was the air? My lungs burned unnaturally. I shook my head foggily. I could survive with no air for more than five hours, so why did I feel like my head was exploding, blood pounding in my ears? I tried to get up, tried to look beyond the purple plum guy and the fuzzy shadows. I managed to get a look out the cockpit, and was astounded by what I saw. Floating in the light blackness of space was the most peculiar planet. Slowly, unthinkingly, I watched snow fall on a sunken mountain, parts of the white crystals blowing off, only to melt in the blaring heat of the desert beside the strange mountain or fall into the large river that wound around the other side. I city leaned crookedly, a jungle on one side and a rocky landscape on the other.

"What have you done?" hissed a voice. Foggily I looked to see the plum mans face a couple inches from mine, his shockingly yellow eyes staring into mine. "What did you do to my Janus?!" I blinked, not understanding, then the world faded out into a lazy blue.

"Wink? Wink! Wink!" I woke up, head pounding, to Jayson shaking me. I groaned in response, wishing he would leave me to die in piece. Or maybe it was pieces; my arm didn't feel attached anymore.

"Leavemealone." I mumbled, trying to roll over. My face ran into the sandpaper bark of a tree. "Wuf..." I stumbled dizzily to my feet, Jayson holding my arm. "What was that?"

Right beside me, where a cliff used to climb up, now stood a clear dropoff. I stared at it, looking over to see a jungle-like forest and a city sharing the stretch of land below. I gulped and swayed, not completely over my fall. Maybe because of that, or maybe just because I'm crazy, my mouth decided at that time to quote a line out of a book that Jayson had given me.

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."





User avatar
2631 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 6235
Reviews: 2631
Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:45 pm
View Likes
Rydia says...



Isla

As Isla tried to understand how or why the river was now sloshing against the desert sand, something black and green and probably not friendly zipped toward her. The first impression she had was of two furry animals but before she could put up a barrier or create noise to scare them away, they latched on to her arm and chest and turned into some strange kind of armour.

They felt like metal. They had to be a new prototype and maybe they'd been designed to defend the wearer but Isla felt like she was under attack. She wriggled around, trying in vain to free herself.

"Don't move!" A white haired boy called out. His eye and ear were both augmented and Isla guessed the hair must be a result of the same accident. "It'll activate and then you"

"Take these off me!" Isla shouted angrily. "What are you, one of the Metal Man's buddies?"

"No, I'm -"

Isla didn't care about his excuses. He'd brought some kind of metal enforcer with him and since she couldn't fight the armour, she'd fight them instead. The air particles were still zipping around and it didn't take much effort to gather them into a solid force and knock the metal man into the sand. She gathered the force again, ready to hit the boy this time, but she hesitated. She'd never used her magic against someone so human before.

The boy stuck out his wrist and called out a battle cry: "Come on Roll, let's take her!"

Apparently Roll was his metal friend because the suit jumped up and then somehow the boy got inside it. Isla didn't understand. She'd thought the metal suit was already someone who'd had their body transformed but it seemed to be some kind of vehicle instead? And yet it had been moving on its own a few minutes ago!

There was a loud whoosh of air and a hiss and then fire shot out of the jets on the metal machine as it jumped onto the bridge. It lumbered toward her and Isla took an involuntary step back.

"Stay away from me!" Isla screamed as she swung the solid air at the metal contraption again. This time it skidded back a foot or so but bent one shoulder toward the force and powered on. Isla felt the will of the air weakening and the particles quickly scattered in a mutual complaint. Her master could have compelled them to stay but Isla didn't have any such power over them.

"Hold still, I'm just going to remove the armour!"

"How do I know I can trust you? What's it supposed to do anyway, you don't look like an inventor!"

Isla scooted back again and almost tripped over a piece of the broken Iridium pillar. She picked it up quickly and brandished it before her, the pointier end aimed at the metal man's chest.
Writing Gooder

~Previously KittyKatSparklesExplosion15~

The light shines brightest in the darkest places.





User avatar
745 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Male
Points: 1626
Reviews: 745
Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:25 pm
View Likes
Lumi says...



Kite Collins

Kite Collins was a man about town. Not a night spent alone. No sir! In this vein, he awoke with a large yawn, vermouth heavy on his breath and arms stretched so far that his shoulder blades nearly touched. He rolled out of bed and donned whatever things resembling pants his hand groped at first, then crossed the cold wooden floors of his Chicago apartment to the bathroom, the door to which sat beside his faithful radiator.

It wasn't faithful because it worked most of the time. In fact, it wasn't working then. Kite gave the sucker a bare-footed kick to the sixth tower and groggily fumbled into the bathroom. The mirror was cracked and had shaving cream splashes here and there.

He blinked and licked his lips, popped the drool bubbles from the side of his mouth, did that unnamed little plat plat plat sound that you make when you're sleepy and part your lips around your tongue. You know the one. Yeah. That one.

The woman in his bed rolled over and snored. He didn't like snoring.

Did he snore? If he did, he didn't like himself. Toothbrush in mouth, he dropped his pants and sat on the toilet to do exactly what you'd think a man would do on the toilet with a toothbrush in his mouth.

That is to say that he took out a dingy crossword book from the toilet's side and flipped to the back page where his month's conquests were listed with check marks beside each one.

Monica
Erica
Rita
Tina
Sandra
Mary

He felt as though he could, in some way, write these names into a song, though he wasn't sure how; that is to say that he knew nothing about music other than the word Mambo. Eh, he could improvise.

Jessica

There. Had any of them been blonde?

He flushed the toilet with a scrunch of his nose. He really wanted one of them to be blonde.

"Jessicaaaaaaa," he called. The response was a rather gruntled (not disgruntled!) yawn from the bedroom--well, from the room, which is to say that there was only his bedroom and the bathroom in his apartment. "Are you blonde, Jessica?"

"Dirty blonde," she confirmed. Though with the liquor drag on her voice, she could have said "Farty Bronze" and he wouldn't know. All the same, scratching his belly, he decided she was blonde enough for him.

The day proceeded quite well after then, and around noonish, Kite found himself in a bagel shop waiting for smoked salmon and cream cheese. It was New York's best thing, and now it was in Chicago, which made it better. Just as the barista reached out to hand Kite his delicious Chicago bagel, a gunshot pierced the window of the bagel shop, sending people scurrying to the floor. Kite looked to the windowed wall and took a bite of his bagel.

They'd added an herb to the cream cheese. He hated herbs.

"Wharrya doin'?" asked Kite, mouth full of herby salmon cheese bread.

"You are an agent of the 3-0-7-3. Kite Collins, Agent 770. Owner of the notorious Spirit Gun."

"Ya," he replied, wiping his mouth with a gratuitous amount of napkins from the bar. He pulled his gun from his belt and spun it on his finger the way you see in movies. He was a really cool guy.

"Shoot me," demanded the stranger. He was a really uncool guy.

"My contract prohibits the use of force against enemies who don't require it." A shrug. "Their words, not mine."

The stranger poised a strange-looking staff in front of him with a grin. It was then that Kite noticed his lack of face. Or rather, he thought he had a face--but he suddenly found it incredibly hard to remember details. Were there eyes? Did he brush his teeth? Did he have teeth?

More and more details escaped Kite's grip. Was it a man at all? And what was going on, where was his gun, and why was he suddenly so dizz
I am a forest fire and an ocean, and I will burn you just as much
as I will drown everything you have inside.
-Shinji Moon


I am the property of Rydia, please return me to her ship.








Perfection is lots of little things done well.
— Marco Pierre White