Blood and Profit: Chapter 37

Mew’s bandage was sloppy but it was holding the syrupy flow of blood back. Even still it flailed and was speaking nonsense. “Must Run! Stay in the light!” It tried to stand and fell back as the bandage around its midsection soaked through.

She glanced back at the hole in the wall where the leaf ship breached the station and was surprised to see nothing. Not the hall, not the wall, not the hole. Just infinitely darkness, a black so black that it ceased to feel empty and became predatory.

Mew felt the icy grip of fear crawl down her back. “Screw that noise.” She said to herself, lifting the tree person by what felt like his shoulders. The tree person got to his feet and they made their way to the shuttle dock, slower than she felt comfortable with largely because she could feel the darkness, stalking them. By the time they reached the shuttle airlock, the tree person had passed out becoming almost entirely dead weight. She held up her hand to open the airlock door and stopped short. It suddenly occurring to her that the darkness was letting them live. That it needed them to escape so it could get to the planet below. Her hand hesitated over the button. She could keep it here, seal her and this already wounded alien’s fate and keep this dark predator from ever reaching her home below.

“It would find a way to reach the planet even if we die here.” The Alien explained.

It was all the convincing she needed, pressed the button, opened the door, and carried the tree person into the escape shuttle. As she strapped herself into the pilots chair it dawned on her that she had not spoken her worries about the darkness. The tree person had read her mind. She flipped a switch and the airlock hatches closed and the magnalocks released the escape shuttle. She moved away from the station and spun the shuttle around so she could see the station. The Darkness had done an incredible job of hiding the damage the leaf ship impact had done. It had crashed into a section divider and the station was slowly tearing itself in half. She thought she had hated the station she had spent most of her adult life, but watching as it fell apart and be swallowed up by the darkness filled her with an odd sense of remorse.

“I fear that before this is over.” The plant person was doubled over holding the end of its appendages against its wound. “The station will be the least of your losses.” She looked back at the tree person realizing that it had again read her mind. She saw its mouth flicker, double, then completely disappear with the rest of its facial features. The entire body shape of the tree person lost cohesion and became just a huge pile of vines. She shook off the questions she had and focused on steering the escape shuttle safely through atmospheric re-entry.

The back of the ship was layered with the heat shielding to make it through re-entry, which meant she couldn’t see through the front windshield and until she was through to the lower atmosphere the ships cameras were guarded behind solid heat shielding. So it wasn’t until the ships parachutes had deployed to slow her decent and the heat from the shielding had dissipated before she could engage the cameras. What she saw as they descended shouldn’t have shocked her but it did.

As each leaf ship made it through atmospheric entry and impacted with the ground a new tree grew tall and proud. The forest that had already emerged below her was getting bigger by the second, and she assumed it was very likely each one of those trees had at least one of the creatures like her new friend inside it. She looked back to check on the pile of vines and saw that the sap had hardened in the last few minutes and was no longer dripping everywhere. She didn’t know if that meant the tree person was doing better or worse.

She also couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a third passenger on the shuttle, one that could be hiding in any and every shadow she saw.

Lidarion: Chapter 9

Trent had forgotten how talkative Lisa could be. By the afternoon of their first day on the road she had told him the life story of nearly every nun from the hospital. This didn’t bother him much and he assumed that the gossip helped her keep her mind off the pain in her heart, and because of that he was willing to listen to the life story of every person in Saintcitia if that was what she felt like talking about.

“So what happened in Lidarion?” She asked, throwing him for a loop.

He collected himself for a minute and tried to avoid the subject. “What makes you think something 

happened there?” He asked.

She glared at him. “If there is a bar or an inn with a half way decent wench in this kingdom, you’ve been there. Lidarion is the seat of royal power, there are uncountable bars, and a beautiful girl in every single one of them.” She accused.

He shook his head. “I grew up there. It’s my home town.”

Lisa’s jaw dropped. “How is it in the ten years we’ve been friends I never knew that?” She asked in shock.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Because there isn’t much to tell really.”

She shook her head. “If you don’t like being there, there must be some reason.”

Trent sighed heavily and gave up on avoiding the conversation. “I made some mistakes when I was younger.” He admitted.

“What did you do?” She asked,

“Nothing worth worrying about now.” He assured.

Lisa gave him a sideways glance. “The consequences of a wild youth resulting in you actively trying to avoid the greatest city on the planet is ‘nothing worth worrying about?” She pried.

He sighed. “What are the chances of you dropping this subject at all over the next week?” He asked.

“Slim to none.” She smiled.

He grunted and rolled his eyes. “Figures. Ugh, fine, I may not be the king’s favorite person.”

Lisa was shocked again. “How the hell do you know the king? She almost shouted.

“Um, I don’t really, at least, not as well as I know his sister.” He blushed.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh great.”

He held up a hand to stop her train of thought. “It’s not what you think it is.”

Lisa shot him a look of disbelief. “So you didn’t meet her, charm her, bed her, then get caught trying to sneak out her window after your realized you had seduced the princess of Lidarion?” She counted the steps off on her fingers.

“It’s almost like you were there.’ Trent said with exasperation.

Lisa shook her head with a smile on her face. “You’re a one trick pony Trent. A man whore with a heart of gold.

Trent appears to be offended, stops to consider the last decade of adventures and then shrugs his shoulders accepting her judgement.

The XP: Chapter 9

With the new year behind them the player base of Drainiverse looked forward to the fifteenth anniversary of the game. Every active player had received an email letting them know that the celebration would begin at six PM eastern standard time and would consist of an entire week’s worth of events. It was unlike any even the game had ever run. Which is why the login queue had over two thousand players waiting to sign in and see what the celebration was going to be like. Trart and the others were all waiting in the queue and chatting on their guild voice chat server. Trart was sitting at him computer keeping a lazy eye on the login queue while playing a game on the ancient console he had bought used. He was laughing at the playful banter the others were engaged in to pass the time. Suddenly the bell went off to signify a fifth players entering the chat.

“Are you all seriously waiting for the sever to calm down so you can play?” Torcano’s voice came through clearly.

“It’s the fifthteenth anniversary celebration event, who isn’t sitting by their computer waiting to play?” Stygian asked.

“Point taken.” Torcano admitted.

“Bragging because you are a GM and can skip the queue?” Bob asked.

“Nope, I’m offering to boot enough people to get you guys in, now.”

“Seriously?” Blackout asked.

“Why not?” Torcano replied.

“I thought you were like, our nemesis, or something?” Trart asked.

“If you guys would rather wait in line –“ Torcano started.

Bob sat up fast enough that Trart could hear her chair rebound over the chat channel. “No! Please do! It’s a very nice gesture.” She said excitedly.

Trart was the last one to fade into the game world. The population on the sever was as max capacity. Everyone was crowding around something not far from where the group materialized in. Torcano appeared next to Trart. Trart pointed at the massive gathering of people. “What’s that all about?” he asked Torcano.

Torcano smiles. “I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.” He said, making his way toward the group of players. The others followed him as he waded through the mob.

In the center of the massive group of players there was a sign that simply said Clan Wars: Champions of the Drainiverse! Next to the Sign sat an old woman, working on a knitting project.

Bob looked at the sign. ‘Clans? We already have guilds what’s the difference?” He asked to no one in particular.

Bob looked at the old woman. “Please tell me you are all here to slowly read this very simple sign and not because you are trying to get the matriarch to join your clan roster.” She yelled at the group of players. The player crowed loosened its density as many players shamefully left.

“She’s the Matriarch?” Trart pointed at the old woman. “You’ve got to be kidding me! She’s and old Lady, who would loose to her?” He asked.

Stygian is in shock. He clamps his hand over Trart’s mouth and pulls him away from the group. Uttering a simple “Sorry” as they leave.

She looked up from her project with a huge smile. “Bob! They added knitting to the game!”

Bob waved to what was left of the crowd. “How long have you been dealing with this?” She asked.

The matriarch answers without looking up from her project. “About an hour now. Soon as the announcement went up I was flooded with messages so I figured I would sit here and spam a polite “No, but thank you for asking” and get some crafting done.” She held up her sad looking knitted square of green and purple yarns. A huge smile on her face.

Blackout turns away from the sign. “So there’s more on the sign if you click on it. It’s a series of Player versus Player and Players versus Environment challenges. So it makes sense that the player base would be clamoring to get the Matriarch on their team. Let’s go get the others and decide if this is worth doing.” Blackout said, oddly taking charge.

Bob and the Matriarch said their goodbyes as Bob and Blackout left to join Stygian, Trart, and Torcano.

“Good news and bad news.” Bob started. “The good news is that the player base is gonna be wrapped up in this event for a while, the bad news is that the prize is the characters that win the tournament become NPC’s in the next expansion of the game, which sounds pretty awesome to me.” She explained

"Why is that bad news?" Trart asked in confusion.

"Because if we're trying to win the Clan War then we can't use the lack of GM attention on the rest of the world to our benefit." Blackout explained in a whisper. Trart nodded.

Clans are made up of five players, no more, no less.” Bob continued.

“So we’re one member short.” Stygian Interrupted.

Trart looked back at the group of people around the Matriarch. “Well we could –“

Bob shook her head. “No. She’s been harassed enough already. Let her enjoy her knitting.”

“I could use one of my non GM characters and be your fifth.” Torcano offered.

Bob shook her head again. “You’re already straddling the fence of violating the Terms Of Service as it is.”

“As long as I don’t play on your team during company time I can’t imagine it would be that big of a deal.” Torcano explained.

Blackout stepped in. “So that’s five then, what’s next?” He asked.

Bob smiled. “We need a kick ass name.” She said.

The group stood in silence, each of them waiting for one of the others to be struck by inspiration. After a moment it becomes clear that inspiration is going to take a while.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 9

The sun had set and the evening was beginning to cool off. Clay and Faith were walking home slowly, hand in hand. Faith was laughing at her own joke, Clay shook his head, a smile on his face.

“It’s probably a good thing we left, I didn’t realize you were such a light weight.” He commented.

She looked shocked. “Light weight? We had like seven of those muppit things, This is your fault.” She poked him in the ribs playfully.

“They’re called moppits and you kept beating me so technically this,” He waved his finger around her face. “Is your fault.” He finished.

Faith thought it over and then nodded. “Fine, it’s a draw. We are both at fault.” She decided. They walked together in silence for a while. “It was really nice of you to walk me home.”

His smile got wider. “My pleasure, Besides, we live in the same dorm.”

She nodded. “yeah I know, I’m just kind of surprised that a Rhosig would walk a girl home.”

“Why’s that?” He asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Before tonight the only thing I knew about Rho Sigma Gamma was that you were Really Stupid Gangsters.” She felt stupid repeating the nickname for the fraternity.

Clay nodded as it was a very common nickname. “Heard that before.”

“So…is that why you asked me out?” She asked nervously.

“Is what why I asked you out?” He asked.

“Well I’m in Nu Tau Delta.” She clarified.

“You worried I was hoping you Never Turn Down a guy?”

Faith nodded slowly.

Clay shook his head. “I asked you out because we were having fun in the Library. I didn’t even see your shirt until after I asked you to dinner.”

Her smile came back. “Who knew that we could actually get to know each other despite negative stereotypes.”

Clay shrugged. “Truthfully I wish it wasn’t such a big deal. We are supposed to define our letters, not the other way around.”

Faith nodded and they walked the rest of the way to the dorm in pleasant silence.

When they arrived at Faith’s dorm room door she turned to face Clay. “Wanna know a secret?” She asked.

Clay nodded slowly, she leaned in kissed him quickly. He closed his eyes instinctively but the kiss was quick enough to make it nothing more than a overly pleasantly blink. He smiled at her. She stopped pulling away from him and nearly whispered. “Pick me up Friday at seven, dress nice.” She turned and disappeared into her dorm room.

Alone in the hallway Clay couldn’t help but smile ear to ear. He made his way down back to the elevator, when his phone vibrated. He checked it and found a text from Faith. “Next time don’t lose on purpose. Btw stole your number, night.” Clay closed his phone and kept walking, feet barely touching the ground.

Faith was leaning against her door, equally ecstatic. Lacey, her roommate was sitting on her bed, writing a research paper on her laptop. “So, who was that?” She asked without taking her eyes off her laptop.

Faith gets up of the door and moves to her own bed, still in a good mood. “None of your business Lacey.” She answered.

Lacey deleted a poorly written sentence as she replied. “I’m not trying to be nosy or anything, just reminding you how Tanya feels about unsanctioned relationships.”

The mention of Tanya causes Faith to bristle. “Tanya can blow me.” She nearly growled.

Lacey nodded as she typed furiously on her paper. “Can I quote you on that?” She asked.

Faith threw a small pink pillow at Lacey, as she was looking down at her laptop it hit her square in the face. She looked up at Faith and held up her left hand. “No, stop, you’re being creepy.”

Faith pretended to cry. “Oh! You’ve hurt my fragile self-esteem!” Both girls doubled over with laughter.

When they had calmed down Lacey was back to her paper. “So, do you like him?”

Faith was getting ready for bed, she was staring at herself in the mirror, a pleasant smile on her face. “Yeah, I do.” She confirmed as she put her toothbrush in her mouth.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 13

The Shades appeared in Lumarion's command chamber. Each of them tearing their helmets off and talking all at once.

"There were other shades before us?" Sonya asked.

"Who's this Centurion guy? Dante inquired.

"Is the internet back?" Came from Warren.

"Are we going to be completely unprepared for every fight?" Kelly questioned.

"I want rocket boots." Gordon demanded.

Technarious blinked at the wall of noise, took half a step back, waited for the kids to finish, and then pointed to each of them as he answered their questions. " Of course there were. An ex Shade obviously. Yes it is, and your tournament has already been rescheduled. You've been a Shade of Justice for a little over thirty six hours, how much training could have done by now? Why rocket boots?"

The kids voices became a wall of noise again and Technarious held his hand up and they went silent. He then pointed at Sonya again.

"How many others came before us? Why did they move on?" She asked.

Technarious grabbed the nearest chair and sat in it. The shades grabbed their own chairs and joined him. "Honestly, " He started "I've lost count. It's hundreds, possibly thousands though. Most finished there battles, a few have died because death is a part of war, but most just reached the ends of their campaigns and retired knowing that their hard work and the sacrifices they made secured the future of the planet." Sonya nodded, accepting Technarious' explanation. Technarious pointed at Danted next.

"So the Fed;s are crawling over the schoo and I'm guessing this Centurion guy is military. So if the government is hip to the cause then what do you need us for?" He asked.

Lumarion lit up in response to Dante' question. "Eric was once a shade. He and the rest of his team saved the earth from the Intergalactic Banking Consortium. After the Consortium abandoned their claim to the earth his team retired and he joined a friend in developing the regenerating armor you saw him wearing. I need, Earth needs you because as Shades of Justice national loyalty takes a backseat to planetary loyalty. You are defenders of Earth first." Lumarion explained.

"we've gotten lucky in both our fights Lumarion. If we don't learn how to bridge the gap between luck and skill we won't be defenders of anything."Kelly pointed out.

Technarious shook his head. "Your level of dedication and obsession with preparation is legitimately intimidating." Technarious smiled. "We start training tomorrow, ok?" He asked. She nodded. "I am sorry that your after school commitments will likely be unmanageable for a while, but I promise this is a worthy cause."

Kelly nodded. "The earth comes first, If swimming is the only thing I loose trying to save the planet, then I'll consider myself lucky."

Technarious pointed at Gordon. "Why rocket boots?" He asked for the second time.

Gordon smiled. "Float like a rocket propelled grenade, sting like a rocket propelled grenade." He replied.

Tenacious pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger and closed his eyes in mental pain, sighing heavily. "Well it didn't rhyme but its not actually a bad idea." He stood up. "I'll get to work on the boots, you all get some sleep and report back no later than seven am.

The group nodded and then each teleported to their own home for some much needed rest,

Blood and Profit: Chapter 36

Mew watched as Toll and Rusty piloted their stolen cruiser into the active slip ring. “Come back here you rat bastard!” She yelled futility at the thick pane of clear plasteel. The electric blue energy of the ring dissipated as she hammered her fist into the wall cursing his name. She could feel her hand going numb and stopped punching the wall because the pain was pushing the black walls of fury out of her vision. She rubbed her knuckles of her throbbing hand and felt the warmth of fresh blood. Her gaze dropped to her hand. “That immature asshole isn’t worth breaking your own hand.” She chastised herself. When she looked back through the clear plasteel window again she thought she had lost her mind.

The energy of the ring had dissipated and yet emerging from the ring like a cheap magic trick on a grand scale were what she could only describe as giant tree leaves. Each leaf must have been the size of a star fighter. He jaw dropped in shock and she rubbed her eyes with her wounded hand, then checked the window again. The number of leaves had grown beyond a number easily counted, they resembled a cloud more than any tactical formation, and they were still emerging from the powered down ring. She watched as the ever growing cloud headed for the planet.

She completely missed the leaf that broke off and headed straight for her space station, and was shocked when the station’s proximity alerts went off. She reached for the tablet in her jacket pocket but was thrown to the floor when the leaf crashed hard into the side of the station. She sat up to see the ceiling lights flickering and watch as the metal of the station wall was forced inward by what looked to much like sentient branches and vines for her to assume it was anything else. When the hole was big enough a humanoid tree figure appeared. Leaning with one bark covered hand gripping the destroyed wall of the station, the other holding the right side of its tree like chest area.

“Please…” The figure gasped, attempted to take a step forward into the hallway, stumbled to its knees and caught itself with its free hand before it face planted into the floor. “I am Rootan of the Galacticseeds. We need, I need, your help.” He tried to stand up right while on his knees, grunted, doubled over in pain and passed out.

She saw the wound in his chest begin to seep freely between his loosened fingers. The station’s sensors were screaming about the hull breach but she barely even heard the sirens and the computerized voice didn’t even register in her mind. She was running down the hall looking for the nearest emergency med kit. She reached the closest one and found it completely empty, she tossed it violently down the hall and raced to the location of the next one. She didn’t know what this race was, which didn’t really matter at this point she figured as she reached the second emergency med kit and knew it was full just grabbing it off the wall. As she ran down the hallway she realized she didn’t know how they could use the Slip Gate when it wasn’t even on. As she knelt at the side of the bloody unconscious tree person and rushed to stop the sap like blood from rushing out of the deep gash in the bark that went deep enough to reveal the exposed ivory colored muscle fiber beneath his this protective skin, all she knew was that from here on out her life would never be the same, and she would never forgive Toll and Rusty.

Lidarion: Chapter 8

Trent spent most of the next month in Saintcitia. Days after he arrived he wandered the hospital like a living corpse, he had lost all sense of time. He slept when his body could no longer stay awake and he ate when someone brought him food and made sure that he ate it. He felt hollowed out and lost and the only other person he wanted to talk to was in her own private misery, mourning her lost husband, He had tried once to see her but her room was attended by a nun who politely but sternly turned him away. He had no way of knowing how long he had been in the hospital when during one of the meals politely forced on him by a nun a beam of sunlight came through a nearby high walled window and caught him. It wasn’t long after that meal that he wandered outside for the first time. He felt the sun on his skin, its heat beginning to iron out some of the surface level weariness in his face. He walked around the city until the sun went down. He was up with the sun the next day and every day after that, and the day after that. 

After the first three days he began to talk to people, he walked less and socialized more. In a city full of healers and mystics he found that there were many opportunities for someone more physical in stature to help out. Word spread quickly of the ex-soldier with a desire to work. The men and women he helped were grateful for the assistance, he was grateful for the escape.

He had finished his fourth day of working in the basement of the Saintcitia Research Library. The ancient old man who had been managing the library had long ago lost the ability to get up and down the stairs safely and moving scrolls and books was low on the importance list in a city full of wounded and dying patients. He had lost count of the crates he had moved but the main room of the basement was easily fifty feet on a side and it was filled wall to wall. The sun had set hours ago and his arms and back were sore with the days of labor behind him. The nuns in the hospital seemed perfectly content to let him use the room he had woken up in the day after he arrived in town. They had never asked him for anything, or inquired as to when he might be leaving. Which was awfully lucky for him because he had no clue where he was going to go or what he was going to do with himself now that the war was over.

He had every intention of taking a hot bath and then passing out for as long as his body would let him, his plans changed when he saw Lisa standing at his door. She had the sword strapped to her back and she had a look of determination.

He stopped a few feet away from her, still unsure of how to say what he felt he needed to say. His mouth opened and closed a few times, aborting sentences he couldn’t even formulate.

She nodded at him silently. “We need your help.” She spoke softly but with finality. She wasn’t asking.

He felt the swell of purpose rising up in his chest. “Anything.” He confirmed.

“Accompany me to Lidarion, All our things are there. We were planning on living in the capital after the war ended. I can’t see myself there without him. I will be returning to my family’s home in Dockland City.” She explained.

The second he heard her speak of the capitol he looked like might throw up. “Anything but that.” He forced the words out of his mouth.

The determination in her eyes vaporized and she looked like she might blow apart in a slight breeze. “I can’t go alone Trent…please.” She asked the final time.

His shoulders slumped and nodded slowly. “When do you want to leave?” He asked.