Lidarion: Page 33

The first and most important thing to understand is that even for Gods, creating a world is no easy task. Existence is an internetworked set of complex systems that must constantly be checked and balanced. Creation is not just an act of will, it is a mental and emotional endurance trial.

The second most important thing is that to create something like life on a planet is not a short term act. The process undertaken by the beings that reached out and touched this planet did not do so under the impression that they would set into motion a series of events that would outlast them.

It is not known if the guiding hands that shaped life on this planet fully understood the complexity of the undertaking, or if the creation of conscious life was part of their plan from the very beginning. What is known is what the Titans recorded of their one and only meeting with their creators.

The titans were designed to be the stewards and overseers of the planet. They were to live on and take care of their home all the ages that it would exist. Time was not something the titans had any interest in quantifying but their creators bred into them an understanding of its passage. It was not until the creators disappeared that the Titans felt they had anything worthy of recording or remembering. The first record created by the Titans is a simple rudimentary comment.

Today, for the first time, we are truly alone.

Once this observation had been made. The titans saw a need to protect and oversee history in the same way they had safeguarded the planet. Even still, it is not known exactly how much time passed between the disappearance of the creators and the evolution of the elven race.

What is known down to the minute is the date the elves killed the first titan.

The Elven record of the titan war is a never ending nightmare of blood and fire. The titan record is nothing more than a list of names and their date of death. There are several recordings that detail how the war ended. The elder elves claim that the death of the king’s son turned his stomach and heart away from the desire for war. The wild elves records claim that their exodus from their ancient homeland reduced the elven numbers so low that they could not sustain the fight against the titans.

What is known is that ultimately the war caused the Titans to lose the desire to pursue the very purpose they were created to fulfill. Even the titans records post war were fewer and farer between.

As the Titans recorded less, the Elves recorded more, and one of the things they took note of was the constantly decreasing numbers of titans wandering the planet.

It was in these final years of the titans that the paragons were created. So like their creators before them, they created life.

It was in the pursuit of this final goal that the world entered its second age.

Melody and Harmony: Page 7

Aaron saw his best friend in the world, Vince sit down next to his girlfriend.  And turn the filter on his headphones so they could talk. “And where have you been?” He asked Vince.

Vince pointed at his girlfriend. “Calliope had to finish out your transition set.” He said.

Calliope blew Aaron an exaggerated kiss. “You’re an artist!” She complimented. “Unlike the guy who took over.” She glared at the DJ currently working as the dance floor continued to lose people.

Aaron turned his headphones for a second to hear what the DJ was playing, grimaced and turned his music filter back on. Vince pulled a folded up paper out of his pocket and tossed it over to Aaron. “Thought you’d want to see that.” he said.

Aaron picked up the flyer and unfolded it. It was a flier for a music festival headlined by DJ Sorcha. There were a ton of other names on the flier but the biggest shock was that it wasn’t just a Goth festival, it was a pirate metal, industrial goth, and new wave retro festival. DJ Sorcha, Setting Sail, and Neon Halo. He looked up from the flier. “What are these numbers?” He asked Vince.

Vince smiled. “Co-ordinates. That’s where the party is.” Vince explained.

Aaron glanced back at the flier. “Why not just tell people which club this is happening at?” He asked.

Vince laughed. “Because it’s not happening in a club, hell, it’s not happening in the city.” He said with a smile.

Aaron looked up from the flier in surprise. “You’re kidding.” He said.

Calliope nodded. “I looked them up myself. It’s a patch of desert about twenty five miles outside the city.” She said clapping her hands. “You know what that means.” She was bouncing. “Road Trip!” she practically squealed.

Aaron looked back down at the flier. “I can’t go.” He said handing the flier back to Vince.

Vince was shocked. “We have to go!” He said.

Aaron nodded. “I’d love to go but I just got a job here at the club. I don’t want to lose my spot.” He admitted.

Vince’s face lit up. ‘They picked you up!” He almost shouted. Aaron nodded. Vince waved a waitress over. “Drinks on me! My buddy just became a paid DJ. We’re getting screwed up tonight!” The waitress nodded and wandered back to the bar.

The rest of the evening was a blur of music, light, and the fuzzy company of his closest friends.

Spoonerville: Page 5

By the time the Pizza was ready Derek and Rodney were deep into a Grand Prix on Mario Kart. They paused long enough to get the pizza out of the oven and refill sodas but then it was back to the intense rivalry that had become very important in the last twenty minutes.

Well into their eleventh race the counter bell rang. “Derek quit playing your stupid games! I’m hungry!” A woman’s voice forced its way into the back room.

Derek paused the game and got out of his ancient bean bag chair. Rodney got up as well and followed him out. “About time lazy. How do you afford this place? I never see anyone in here other than me.” She asked as Derek made his way into the back. “Is this a mob front?” She asked.

Derek laughed as he worked the dough for her pizza. Rodney looked up from the soda he had just finished. He and the girl noticed each other for the first time. She pointed at him. “I’m your only friend and amazon doesn’t sell people so who the hell is this?” She asked Derek.

Normally Rodney wouldn’t have been able to utter a word, girls were not his strong suit. The counselor he had been seeing at his previous school said he was painfully shy. Rodney felt more like he was painfully a dumbass. So he was as surprised as anyone when he stuck his hand out and introduced himself. “Rodney, actual human resident of Spoonerville.” He said with a dopey smile.

She took his hand and tried not to laugh. “Vivian Brooks.” She said with a smile. “And just because you live here doesn’t mean he didn’t order you out of a Russian catalog.” She pulled a straw out of its paper wrapper. “You know you’re free to leave at any time right? You’re in America now.” She said as she threw the crumpled up straw wrapper into the kitchen. “He can’t keep you here against your will!” She yelled so Derek could hear her as he worked.

Rodney shook his head. “I don’t think Russian mail order does husbands.” He said laughing. He walked around the counter and filled his cup. “You want?” he asked.

She shook her head and pulled a flask out of her tiny purse. “So Rodney, actual human resident.” She took a drink. “What brings you to Spoonerville?” She raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “You’d think with all the free time I’ve had the last week, I would have come up with a better story than the real one.” He said with a smile.

She shook her head. “Nah, stick with the truth, even if it sucks.” She replied.

He shrugged again. “Parent’s died in a car crash and I got shipped here to live with my grandmother.” He admitted quickly.

She nodded. “So you’re old lady Edgar’s grandson.” She said.

He nodded. There was silence for a moment. Vivian stuffed her flask back into her purse. “Bummer about your parents.” She said finally. Rodney nodded and fidgeted with his cup.

Derek stuck his head out of the kitchen. “Jalapeno’s or no?” he asked.

She looked at Rodney. “Are we interested in hot and spicy this evening?” She asked bluntly.

Rodney’s chin dropped an inch and no sound came out of his mouth.

Derek threw a towel at Vivian. “Leave him alone Viv, thanks to him I’m one more customer closer to my millionth customer celebration!” He said ducking back into the kitchen.

She caught and folded the towel nicely. “Yeah, only nine hundred thousand nine hundred and ninety eight more to go!” She yelled back.

Shades of Justice: Page 37

Mark walked over to an empty section of the command center wall. He reached out and pressed his hand against the wall and waited for a second. Nothing happened. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He grumbled. “Computer, voice recognition Quicksilver, access storage facility.” He asked the command center computer.

The others waited with baited breath. “The storage facility mainframe is not responding.” The machine replied.

Gordon threw his hands up. “Of course it’s not. How long until power is restored to the storage facility?” He asked.

“The storage facility power level status is unknown, the mainframe is not responding.” The computer replied.

Warren ran his hands through is hair in frustration. “Ok so now what?” He asked.

Mark shrugged. “We break through the wall.” He offered.

Gordon pointed at the wall section. “Any idea what we’re going to need to break through that?” he asked.

Kelly threw her glasses on. “Blacklight Sabers!” She held out her hands as she spoke the command and the hilts to her swords materialized. She turned one on and sunk the blade in the wall. It went slowly but she was able to bury the blade in the wall. She slowly began to pull the blade upwards beginning the tedious process of cutting a door for the team to get through. She tossed her second sword to Warren and he started on the other side of the door.

Blood and Profit: Page 60

The game console they found was in much better shape than the one Mew remembered Toll constantly playing with, which made sense considering this device had likely been in storage for generations.

They took the console back into the main lab and treated it like a legendary piece of history, which it very likely was. They made sure it was still fully functional, replaced some parts that were failing due to age and turned it on.

The console booted perfectly. The professor turned it back off and plugged the ring controller into the game console. He turned the console on again and after the introductory screen a menu came up that referenced the ring controller. Ling, Cory, and the professor all shouted in excitement. The professor accessed the button for the ring console and they were dismayed to see a never ending list of options come up. Each entry was nothing more than a string of numbers.

The professor sat down hard in his chair. “Solve one problem, and a whole butt load more present.” He sighed as Cory pressed the button to go back to the top of the screen. The screen showed a total of two hundred and forty five files they had discovered.

Mew was totally lost. “What do those numbers mean?” She asked.

Ling shrugged. “That’s the problem. We don’t know.” She admitted as cory opened the first file and found more files that seemed to be named with random strings of numbers and letters. “And it’s going to take us a decent amount of time to decipher them.” She said.

The thin guard and the fat guard came through the lab doors with the pizza that the professor had ordered. “Here’s your lunch. From now on you get delivery from actual pizza delivery, this crap is below our pay grade.” The thin one dropped the pizza on an only partially filled lab table, turned and walked out as the fat one followed him.

Lidarion: Page 32

Dean was the first to speak. “All right squints, do your thing.” He said a huge smile on his face.

Squints pointed at the scrolls. “Oh sure, only two problems, even if I could unroll scrolls the size of a house, I can’t read Titan!” He said in shock.

“I can.” Haruff offered.

Trent gestured to Haruff. “There we go! I knew you were going to be good for somethi – You’re Blind!” He finally caught on.

Haruff’s mouth dropped open in mock shock. “Since when?” He asked sarcastically.

Trent stuck his tongue out. “Very funny.” He spat.

Dean had been inspecting the locks on the lowest scroll. “Can we even open these? They look incredibly old.” He said.

Squints looked at Obla’reth. “So can we even open the scrolls and if so do you know anyone that can legitimately read Titan?” He asked.

Obla’reth shook his head with a smile. “No we cannot, and no I do not. No one had read or spoken Titian for more than ten lifetimes.”

Brooke sighed heavily. “So we came all this way for nothing.” She said.

Obla’reth walked over to an ancient wooden pedestal that had a wooden cover closed over the top of it that was split down the middle. He flipped the wooden cover open to reveal a large book. “I wouldn’t say nothing, before the locks rusted and the language of the Titians had faded from memory, one of the librarians translated the scrolls into Mer.” He explained.

Squints scurried over to the podium. “You can read the language of the Merfolk?” He asked with a huge smile on his face. The weirdness of the book being written in Mer struck him. “Why Mer?” he asked.

Obla’reth nodded. “Yes I can speak and read Mer. I do not know exactly why the book is written in Mer. The Rumors passed from librarian to librarian say that the underwater kingdoms were the last place the Titans were welcome before their race passed beyond the veil. Strangely enough, I have yet to find anything old enough to corroborate that.” He opened the book. “Now what are you looking for?” He asked.

Trent stepped up to the podium. “Where each of the Paragon’s are located, how to contact them, and the best way to earn their favors.” He said with all seriousness.

Obla’reth blinked. “Oh, is that all?” He asked as he turned back to the book on the pedestal and turned to the first page. “The Scrolls of the paragon’s, a comprehensive translation in five parts.” He turned to the second page.

Melody and Harmony: Page 6

Aaron’s set at the Shadow Church was over, and discounting the guards chasing out a lone pirate infiltrator it had been a good set. The dance floor stayed full, the color patterns and the dancer’s enthusiasm seem to be generally upbeat and he had received no complaints.

 He had a three song transition set to give him and the replacement DJ time to trade off. He thumbed a control on his glove and the lights in the back of his white trench coat shut off. The cords that plugged him into the club’s sound system unhooked and recoiled back into his jacket. The next DJ stepped and started to get himself plugged in and set up.

Aaron stepped off the stage and was met by the booker for the club. The booker gestured to his earphones and Aaron turned the dial on his to filter out the club music. “Good set.” The booker complimented. “We’ve got an opening on Thursday nights, you want it?” He asked. Aaron nodded excitedly. The synthesizer mask he was wearing covered the huge smile on his face. The booker nodded and handed him a business card. “I’ll give you a call on Monday and we’ll get the specifics worked out.” He said before he walked away to handed another crisis.

Aaron was in a Daze. He had covered the ninety minute set as a favor to a friend who was too sick to get out of bed and had gotten a job out of it. Not that one set a week was much of a job but it was one set a week at the Shadow Church which was easily the fanciest club in the district.

He was deep in his thoughts and almost walked by a table full of his friends, he would have walked by them but Freya snagged his wrist. He stopped and looked down at her brilliant smile. “Where you off to in such a daze?” She asked.

He saw that her headphones where filtering the club music out as well and he pulled up a seat next to her. “I just got a job.” He explained, still in a daze.

Frey hugged him in excitement. “That’s great!” She let go of him. “I’m not surprised though that set was incredible. We were on the floor for almost an hour.” She confirmed.

Aaron looked around the table and noticed several empty chairs. “I’ve been off stage for almost fifteen minutes, you’d think everyone would want to come congratulate me.” He commented sarcastically.

As if he himself summoned them the rest of the gang left the dance floor and took their seats. Freya smiled at him. “Look at that, Power you didn’t even know you had.” She laughed at his shock.