Role Playing!

[Jason]

As Erk awoke the next day, he remembered the strange events of the night before. The pillar suddenly bursting into flames, the fire jumping out and landing on his knife, and the strange glow in the gem after that. Erk sat up and pulled out his knife, looking at the gem in it. There still remained an odd glow, unlike what he'd seen before. 'Strange,' he thought. He thought back on the remainder of the instructions, on how he had to now head north until he saw the sky change color, and then follow the frothen stone. What in the world was the frothen stone, anyway? Might it be the gem in his knife? Shrugging, he got up and set about unpitching camp. Nirk woke up and began chittering happily. Erk threw him a piece of the dried meat, then took one for himself. They then set out, walking north, following the now brightly-glowing gem. They travelled the whole day, pausing now and again to rest and munch on a piece of meat. As the night approached, they continued on. Suddenly, the sky seemed to explode above them. Erk stopped and stared in wonder. It reminded him of the pictures of the Northern Lights he'd seen. Nirk made some noises that Erk hadn't heard before, and began to run in circles. Erk stared more at the lights, then remembered about the "frothen stone." Pulling out his knife, he held it in front of him and summoned forth the power in it. The fire in the stone flared brightly, then flashed out and struck a stone lying on the ground. The stone exploded into flames, and began to rise off the ground. When it had reached about five feet off the ground, it began to move. Erk quickly followed it, assuming this was the frothen stone he was supposed to follow. It took him forward and led him for about a half hour before finally settling in front of a cave. The stone hovered in the entrance, and Erk walked inside. Lying on a pedastal in the center of the cave was a tablet of stone and the crystal he had been searching for. Erk walked over to the tablet and held his knife over it, which began translating the text on it.
"Oh awaited one, we knew you would come and find the crystal destined for you. This is the first of several such crystals, which all must be gathered to defeat the power of The One, which by the time you find this, will have become corrupted by the worst evil this universe has ever encountered. We no longer dwell here, having moved beyond the realm of this universe, but we have seen the things to come, and know what must be done to restore the balance of power as it should be. You and the other Empowered must work to restore this balance, or this universe shall forever be lost to the Darkness. With the power of this cyrstal, we restore the powers that were granted unto you, with the ability to use them regardless of where you are. Use them for good, oh Empowered one. Time is short. Keep this crystal with you at all times and protect it with your life. The knife you wield, which is endowed with powers beyond what you know, will be the holding place of your crystal. Use it to guide you to the other crystals scattered throughout the planets of this universe, and work to restore justice and balance. Each of the Empowered must obtain his or her crystal for you to succeed in your task. There are seven Empowered in all, and one who may be of great assistance or of great hinderance. He possessess immense powers, beyond what he knows he commands, and if he aids you, your journey will be an easier one. Search out the crystals, but we wary. Time is short and the enemy is moving quickly. Many planets will be lost in this fight, but it is a sacrifice that shall be necessary. Already many causualties have occured, and many more are yet to come. Stay true to your heart, and you will never be lead astray. Fairwell, Empowered one, and may you have the joy of accomplishing that which we could not. Much rests upon you and your fellow Empowered. Success."
Erk lowered his knife, having finished reading the tablet. Empowered ones? More crystals? This was much larger than he thought it could have ever been. Many planets would be lost? They had to be joking. And yet, they knew he was coming. He had seen the evidence of it himself. They had existed here once, and they knew exactly where to leave the instructions on where and how to find the crystal, which now glowed at him in the dim light. He looked at it, admiring its deep sapphire glow, the same as the gem that currently inhabitted his knife. He looked at the gem in his knife, which now glowed intently. As he watched, a tounge of flame leaped from the gem in his knife to the crystal lying on the pedastal. The two stones were connected for several seconds by the flame, and then the crystal rose up and flew at the knife. Before Erk could react, it had impacted the gem on his knife. A loud explosion resounded throughout the cave, and he flew back against the wall. He leaned against the wall, stunned, as his ears slowly regained their hearing. He looked around; the crystal was gone. The tablet still remained, though it looked slightly scarred now. Erk looked down at his knife, which he still grasped in his hand. The gem was . . . different. It glowed extremely brightly, an inner fire burning. He ran a hand over the gem, which had reformed itself. As he ran his hand over the gem, he felt a power flood into him. He felt it move throughout his entire body, consuming him and transforming him. His vision flickered, then cleared, even more clear than it had been before. He could see better in the dark that still filled the cave, and he felt his weariness evaporate. He lifted his hand that wasn't holding anything and held it in front of him. Willing forth some of the power he felt in him, flames burst forth from his hand, creating a blaze stronger than he had had before. He stared at it, astonished. His power was back, just like it had said. Quickly he pulled out a piece of glass that he had brought with him for no real reason, and held it so that it reflected some light on him. His hair was back to the purple/blue it had been before, and his eyes were once again sapphire in color. A smile spread across his face, and he walked back to the entrance of the cave, his improved eyesight allowing him to move swiftly. On his way, he picked up the tablet and took it with him, tucking it in the bag he carried. Nirk was waiting for him at the entrance to the cave.
"Well, it's been fun, little fella. Time for me to be going."
Nirk looked at him, and gave him his weird little smile.
"You be good, okay? Here."
Erk swung down his bag and took out two strips of meat. He handed them to Nirk, who took them and looked back at Erk.
"Take care, little guy."
Nirk made the strange sound again, then turned and ran off. Erk smiled, then turned towards the last rays of the setting sun. Taking one last look around him, he thought of Earth and his friends. A portal opened before him, and with his knife in hand, he stepped through.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

The man Lady Doelcm had been talking to agreed to let hersee Tarak. Alira looked around her out of the sides of her eyes. The soldiers that had accompanied the man now formed a close ring around Alira and her rotol. They were alert, discreetly watching Lady Doelcm.
"I hope Lady Doelcm doesn't take this man's offer. These men don't trust us, and if they make Lady Doelcm more powerful, they'll trust her even less." Alira didn't believe the man's promise of wealth and land. Once he obtained the settlement, Lady Doelcm would be killed. Alira guessed that she, powerless as she was, would be deemed to little of a threat to bother killing. The thought gave very little comfort.
A door opened in fron to the group without anyone touching it. It just slid into the wall with a soft shhook. Fortunatly, Alira had seen self-opening doors like these during her stay on Earth, so she was't too suprised. What suprised what the opening door revealed.
Tarak had recieved powers. He was standing in the middle of the room, easily breaking boulders and bending metal bars.
Alira stopped in shock. That boy had never had any unusual powers, and now here he was, bending inch thick metal bars as if they were thin wire. Alira looked at the floor, not wanting to see more. Alira was now, indisputable, the weakest of Lady Doelcm's companions. Alira couldn't even look down on Tarak any longer. He was now much more powerful than she.

[Ranger Melinda]

(ooc: mayhaps i just havent been following quite closely enough, but where is everyone separated to?)

[Jason]

(OOC: I ended up on a different planet, but have since returned. The others, except for Kor and Emiko, were captured)

[rr339]

"It seems that my planet is fully ready to send more of my shadow beast to go and invade other planets."

Lucrecia summoned many of the Earthling that have become shadow creature. Later that day there was an ocean of shadows standing in front of her.

"The time has come to go out and to take over the planet remember total domination is my goal, and you are to go out and to bring me slaves, and those that refuse to give in...well then dispose of them."

Lucrecia raised her hands up.
And a great loud cheer was raised by the shadow creatures.
Lucrecia opened a portal to a planet that is another galaxy.

"Go and do you Queen's bidding."

The Army ran into the portal.

Lucrecia pulled off to the side those that had such a dark heart that they didn't become full Shadow beasts. You five you are the one's in charge of this attack due to your dark heart you are far superior to the others, but remember that if you disappointment me I will have to...let say downsize. Said Lucrecia as she laughed.

[Lady Jillith]

"What! What are you going to do to Shilm?" Sarala, shocked, demanded of the doctor. She had just been told that Shilm would die if she did not show the doctors the full extent of her powers.
"It's just a simple test, really," he began. "Because you were holding back on us when we asked nicely, we have provided you a little . . . encouragement to perform. Your friend is locked inside a room with some of this planet's more dangerous animals. He will be rendered unconscious if he tries to use his powers, so it is up to you to save him. The animals are still on leashes at present, but will be released when you open the door. Oh, and don't think you can safely leave him there--they will be released after five minutes whether you arrive or not. The room is B29 and the five minutes starts now." The remaining bonds restraining the princess released at that moment, and she ran out of the room.
"This should be a good show,” Dr. Levesti chuckled.

Not knowing how far away this B29 was, Sarala sprinted, invisible, down the hall. Three minutes later, she arrived. Sarala had been developing a plan as she ran down the hall. Not wanting to give up any time safe from wild beasts, Sarala used her focused light beam to make her own door in the wall—small, and piece by piece so that she could remove it without alerting the animals or scientists to her presence. With one free minute left, an invisible Sarala walked through a still seemingly solid wall.

Entering the room, the princess quickly found Shilm. He was in the center of the room, and looked unconcious. Had he already tried to rescue himself? Quickly her attention turned to the animals. Two large, vaguely cat-like creatures, a giant bird of some kind, and two of what looked like wolves with a great horn prowled restlessly at the ends of their restraints.

[Jason]

Erk arrived just in time to see Shadow step through a portal with none other than Temor. Temor! What was Shadow doing? Erk didn't have time to worry about it, though. There were still several soldiers still remaining on the planet, now in combat with the local troops. Erk quickly thre himself into the action, launching fireballs at the dark soldiers and dropping them all in a matter of minutes, in conjunction with the planet's locals.
As the last of the dark soldiers fell to the ground, smoldering, the local soldiers turned, focusing their weapons on him, but held their fire. Erk raised his hands, letting the flames die.
"Who are you?" one of the soldiers asked.
"My name is Erk. I was with the others like me, back a few days ago."
"Prove it," said the soldier.
"Uh, sir?" said another one of the soldiers. "I think he already has."
The first soldier cocked his head, then shrugged.
"Guess he has, hasn't he? Okay, you, Erk, come with us."
"Yes, sir."
They climbed into a transport and started heading back towards the city. As they travelled, Erk inquired as to the condition of his friends. When he learned from one of the soldiers who had overheard one of the officers talking about the rebellion and the kidnapping of Erk's friends, Erk became vowed that he would do whatever it took to get his friends back.

[rr339]

Shilm was lying in the cage when one of the wolf like monters broke its restraints and lunged toward Shilm.
The other beast broke their restraints and advanced on Sarala.
Shilm was being biten by the awful beast. Shilm began to move and groan.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

(OOC: How do the officers know that Sarala, Doelcm, etc have been kidnapped? Did the soldier who was with Doelcm, Tarak and Alira escape and tell them? [My idea was that that soldier was a traitor and was on the scientist's side, but we never said that.])

The scientist smiled with satisfaction when he saw Doelcm staring in shock at Tarak's new power.
"You know, we could do the same for you. All you have to do is fight for us."
Doelcm thought a moment. Obviously she wouldn't help overthrow the settlement, but how could she and her friends escape? She spoke, "I would like to speak to Tarak first."
The scientist looked about ready to demand that Doelcm answer him, he restrained himself and called for Tarak to come over. Tarak came, and the scientist stood there, arms folded, waiting impatiently.
"So what do you think of the offer?" Doelcm asked.
Tarak looked at the dozen armed soldiers, all of whom were watching him and Doelcm.
"I think I like it as much as you do." It sounded to the listeners like an acceptance, but Doelcm could tell it wasn't.
The impatient scientist smiled and started to speak, but no one ever learned what he was going to say. Having the solid metal floor rise up around the people someone was about to speak to tends to make the speaker lose his train of thought.
Doelcm, Alira, and Tarak ran down the metal tunnel Doelcm had formed. It rang with the noise of bullets hitting the sides. An alarm bell rang, high pitched and unending. Tarak got ahead of the other two and punched a makeshift doorway into the wall at the end of the tunnel. A swarm of tranquilizer darts flew through the doorway. Tarak, being in front, got hit several times. The tranquilizer quickly overcame him, and he collapsed.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Alira was grateful that Lady Doelcm had enough sense to make another shielding tunnel before she ran to her collapsed friend. As she ran through the new tunnel, Alira noticed that the sound of the solider's weapons had stopped. That worried her. These men would not just give up, so they must be preparing for something more drastic.
Alira felt Lady Doelcm grab her hand, then suddenly, she was standing a foot away from the hand sensor Lady Doelcm had mentioned when the two women were still in the cage.
She staggered back, disoriented.
"What happened?"

[Jason]

Tarak struggled with the tranquillizer in his mind. An unexpected side effect of the enhancements he had receieved. Not only had they boosted his strength (without making him look like a freaking guy, or making his muscles extremely huge, just increasing the capacity they could do), but they had also helped to increase his resistance to a lot of substances and germs, making him an efficient warrior, designed to combat many enemy soldiers at once, take a beating, survive in almost any environment, handle any poison, and a variety of other things. He was still getting used to all this and still trying to recover, so he wasn't able to move much, but he could still hear what was going on, kinda. It was muffled and blurred, so he couldn't make out what was going on, but something was obviously bothering Doelcm. Within him, a cold fury began to rise. No one messed with Doelcm, not while he could do anything about it. He would protect her, do anything for her, no matter what, even if it cost him his life. He poured all his strength into recovering, and he could feel his body reacting, quickly analyzing the toxin in the darts that had rendered him semi-conscious and forming an antibody to fight it off.
'For you, Doelcm,' he thought.

[Jason]

Erk was sitting in a chair, deep in thought, when he felt something stir in his mind. A faint sound.
'Shilm!'
Erk bolted upright. It was Sarala! His mental link was still there, though apparently very weak. And something was apparently wrong. He decided to wait a minute before trying to contact her, just in case he might distract her at the wrong time. Instead, he went to the soldier who was guarding the door.
"Take me to the administrator. I know how to find the rebels."
The soldier showed him the way, keeping his gun at the ready. They still didn't trust him completely, but that was okay. As long as they were his allies, he wouldn't do anything rash.
They stopped before a large wooden door and the soldier knocked. The door swung silently open and they walked through.
"What can I do for you?"
"I know how to find the rebels."
A light appeared in the administrator's eyes, and he pushed a button on the table in the middle of the room, summon his entire staff.
"We shall have to launch an attack immediately."
"I think that's a good idea, my friends are in trouble."
"Then we shant delay."
"Good. Though I do have one question. How did you know my friends had been kidnapped?"
The administrator looked at Erk with a strange expression on his face, the motioned for the soldier to leave. He did, closing the door behind him.
"The other day, we did a raid on a local section of town where our spies informed us was a group, part of the rebellion, that might have some good information. We decided to make use of the information and act. We caught them, though some of them died in the fight. One of the ones we captured was the one who had transported you and your friends, a traitor, even though we didn't know it when he was working for us. He was part of it, making it appear that you had disappeared by accident, that something had gone wrong and you were all dead, including him. Once we got his confession out, we began to prepare. We didn't know if your friends would ally with our enemies, and we had seen the power you all posses. We didn't want to have to fight all that. And then you showed up, and gave us new hope. And if you truly can track the rebels to where they are, then even more hope shall be restored to us. Victory may finally be within our grasp."
Erk nodded, then sat down, waiting for the rest of the staff to finish filing in. It was going to be interesting, explaining things to these people, but he knew he had to. So, once everyone was seated, he began to explain things, starting at the very beginning.

[rr339]

While the dark Queen awaited for the news of the planets conquest, she went to pay a visit to Sarala parents.

"As you can see that this planet now belongs to me, and soon the whole universe...you know since this planet has such darkness, and I wield the crystal I can basically do anything, and I think that it would be such irony if Sarala were to be killed by her own parents." Smirked Lucrecia.

"We will never give in to you...we would never hurt our own family."

"I have ways to persuade you." said the Queen.

Lucrecia called for Temor, and she used his power. Lucrecia placed her hand into their hearts and began to block out the light that made them who they were. The King and Queens light was slowly diminishing. Their eye grew darker and darker, their skin lots it's youthful look, it began to look dark.

"Soon you will be my warrior slaves, and you shall go out and kill Sarala. I know that she will not be able to harm you two, since she loves you too much. Ha ha ha ha this is delisious. Not even Sarala's, and Shilms pure light will be able to pull you out of this dark hold. Soon my preciouses you shall see your daughter and nephew."

[joe]

Shadow was not scared or even worried about this task that was laid upon him by Lucretcia. He had killed people before that he did not know. It is what war causes, the spill of innocent blood. Shadow looked upon who he was to kill and found that these pure hearted people were no match to him even if he wasn't as powerfull as Lucretcia. Shadow slinked in the Shadows and took out the daggers that were in his back holster and prepared to strike. Prepared to kill. Shadow then went up to the first human and slit his throat without him even screaming. When he killed two or three more, the people standing around finally noticed what horrible acts that Shadow was doing. The 20 or so pure hearted people left rallied together and started to charge in Shadows direction. He decided to destroy this resistance as quick as possible he would use his multiplicity technique. After he had done so Shadow sent the copies of himself and slayed them. Every last one of them. As Shadow stoped the technique he stood around and looked at what he had just done. He then looked up at the sky and laughed. This laugh was different than any laugh he had done before. It sounded from his laugh that he had enjoyed what he had done. After he prided in himself for what he had done he then opened a portal and went to go meet his queen............

[rr339]

A portal was opened in front of the dark queen.

"Shadow excellent job! It seems that you are enjoying your new found powers...the lust of innocent blood is great within you. Now you have signed your soul to me. You shall do my bidding and only mine. You will a shadow to be feared, that will go around and destroy all in its path. You please me, so, Shadow. You are the General of the lost souls. You can use the powers to summon those spirit that were taken by your hands to do your bidding, those poor spirit that are lost to you are lost forever until you are destroyed. I hope that you enjoy this power. You shall be a shadow to your friends. Go and hide and observe them, i want to know every move they make, and shortly I shall send Sarala's parents to her."

Lucrecia opened a portal of and sent shadow out and returned to sarala's parents.