Story

The color is starting to return to Athens face as he explains his situation. "I woke up in the remains of a forest, about a mile away from this city. I have no idea where I am or even who I am. The people here are brutal . . . the way they attacked this tall one . . . it was frighting . . ." Ethan trails off, trying to remember something . . .

Stilts glanced, first at Ethan, then at the man sitting at the desk, his eyes trapped for a moment, lost in the fluent movements of his knife. "I was being attacked by one of the smaller gangs, and he jumped in to save me." Stilts, at first, motioned his head lightly toward Ethan, then turned to look at him. "He is..." Stilts voice trailed off as he realized that Ethan was healing at an alarming rate. "..Was rather badly injured." He looked back to the man behind the desk. "The scuffle earlier drew the attention of the enforcers, and I knew this is one place where they wouldn't come looking for us." Stilts made a very subtle gesture that somehow managed to express The apologetic nature of his next words. "I hope you will excuse our intrusion, and if you would allow it, we'll only stay for as long as we have to."

The man behind the desk halts his work and lowers his knife. "I know of the disturbance you have caused, and the enforcers are using a magical detector to track those who caused. You are safe here, but any others, and my sources tell me there were, will be in extreme danger. I have an idea of what would happen if they are caught, and it is not a pleasant one."

Stilts holds up the piece of paper handed to him, "we know where one is, as for the other, it seems as if he has vanished."

He turns towards Ethan,"can you walk?"

Ethan stands, his leg pains him immensely, but does not bend where it shouldn't anymore. "Now I can." He turns towards the knifeman, "just how effective are these detectors . . ."

His sentence is cut off, as a small explosion of technical nature sends everyone tumbling.

The sounds of metal on metal rang out. There was a violent battle happening. Or so it seemed.

"Is that the best you've got?" panted Drakar as his opponents blade barley missed his brow.

"That one almost got you" whined the student.

Drakar then grabbed the students blade with his bare hand,

"I 'almost' cut my hand there" Replied Drakar as he showed his hand was unbloodied, due to the fact he grabbed the sword on the dull side.
"Almost in a battle could mean your death." Drakar reviewed " If you almost block.."

"If you almost block an opponents sword, then he almost didn't cut you." huffed the student " I know I know, almost means nothing, but at least I got close" replied the student with a smirk.

"Would you like to try again? This time use your shield if you like" Drakar stated " I am not going to go easy on you, so you better do your best"


"As long as you promise not to try and loose" replied the student.

Just as the student lunged at Drakar, the lights went out, and a shrill alarm began going off. Drakar, seeing the heat signature of the sword, blocks it skillfully, but obtains a gash above his right eyebrow which starts bleeding profusely.

Then to add to the alarm, a high pitched voice rings out

"Attention. There is a subject in the building who is of interest to us. He has recently committed a crime, and we have come to enact judgment. Drakar, we suggest you come peacefully. We have a full squad of enforcers, and we are willing to carry you away from here, but we would rather you walk out with your dignity."

Drakar, to dazed by the pain of the cut above his right eye had no time to think to make an illusion of himself.

So as he falls to the ground clutching his eye Drakar calls out "I am here, and I will give myself to you peacefully, but I am afraid I need medical attention. If you would be so kind as to rush me to the Knifemans guild for treatment, I will be willing to co-operate fully. Even though I have no choice, or so it seems"

The shrill voice then replies
"Oh, you have no choice, and we are not taking you to the Knifemans guild, I can patch you up here."

As she speaks, she lays her hands upon his eyebrow and the cut is healed fully, leaving no scar.

"We have use of your talents, and that of the people you met earlier today. We would like you to gather them, for we wish to speak to you all. I will explain more...in private" She replies in a cool tone, adding emphasis only to the last sentence, while keeping the rest pleasantly monotonous.

Drakar then exits the arena surrounded by the squad of enforcers.



(I used enforcers as term for uber-police or something like that, ethan, replace with whatever term you like)

On the roof of the building, a dully shining figure can be seen. And even then his sheen was fading farther.

"This is Dagon Reporting," he murmured, "a subject has been detained by the enforcers. I don't know what to do at this point."

"Go after the others, we need the variances they contain."

"Understood, Dagon out."

The figure's skin gains a slight metallic sheen again as he takes off running across the roofs of nearby buildings, heading towards the Knifemens guild.

Nami was boiling with rage at the unfairness of it all. Now he was being hunted, after the fight was instigated by some gang? Not even the others involved were safe, judging by the explosion that echoed over the city noise.

Nami entered the small building through the roof. Judging by the cramped upper floor, which was a living space, it was a small shop. Due to his size, he couldn't help but bump into things. He heard a surprised sound from downstairs. Looking down the stairwell, he saw a scared shopkeeper and an Enforcer, looking up the stairwell with his hand on some intimidating weapon.

Trespassing in a shop in a city run by merchant guilds was not good.

Nami rushed down the stairs, pinning the Enforcer's arms against his side and using his body to rush through the building's door, splintering wood and shattering glass. Outside, there was another pair of Enforcers taking cover behind their vehicle, a small, fast car.

Throwing the first Enforcer to the ground, Nami rushed up to the car, limiting the Enforcers' fields of fire. Putting his hands under the side, he surged and flipped the car. One of the Enforcers was stuck under it. The other had tripped while getting away. Nami jumped over the car and incapacitated the last Enforcer with a blow to the chest.

Nami had been shot one or two times in the shoulder.

He was going to head towards the rising smoke.

Spoiler:

Out from the alley Dagon jumps and sprints, catching up to Nami.

"I require your assistance, will you assist me?"

"I have a task of my own. You can follow if you want."

"Are you attempting to find the one they call "Drakar"?" Dagon inquired.

Nami ignores Dagon as he races off towards the pillar of smoke.
Dagon again begins to shimmer as he chases after the fleeing figure. Citizens continue to panic as the two figures carve their way through the crowd.

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Ethan stands up, recovering from the explosion. He glances down and nonchalantly notices a steel pole stuck through his chest. Stilts and the knifeman are both buried under rubble and unconscious. As Ethan goes to free them, he notices a figure in the distance.

The figure is garbed in robes, but it is obvious the he is enhanced mechanically, as glimpses of metal may be seen through his robes. As he advances towards Ethan, he sees that his robe bears the symbol of the enforcers.

"I was told this place was safe"

The robed figure stares, "the prescence of magic on this planet is weakening, and soon it will . . ."

Ethan charges the figure, throwing a knife he salvaged from the guild hall in his direction. The knife splits in the air, forming into hundreds of razor shards. The figure simply raises his hand, and a small projector extends from his wrist, emitting a blast of sound, deflecting most of the shards.

At this point Ethan is almost upon him, but the figure jumps back, a large protrusion folding from his arm. he aims and fires, the rocket impacting squarely on Ethan. As the explosion rocks the surrounding area, Ethan takes it full on in the chest, and keeps on running . . .

Dagon uses Tech Imprint on Namo and sets half to tracking mode and the other half to help heal Namo's wounds.

"This running is getting me no where." Dagon said "There are the others to find."

Dagon darts into an alley.

After they had transported Drakar to a not-to distant holding facility he heard a distant crashing sound along with gunshots, and apparently he wasn't the only one.

"That must be the others," an enforcer stated. He seemed to be the leader of them, despite the authority the woman carried. He seemed a grisly veteran.
"We need to check on them. All of their comm. systems are down, except one and it seems he is incapacited" grunted the man.

"I told you these mutants were going to be a problem," the woman said " the are organized, and bound together by a common purpose. Even though they only met today. I admire their commrodity, maybe we could learn a lesson from them. the aliens are going to be comming back you know. Our best satelites have spotted their ships, and it won't be to long now."

"you know, she is right, and you will need the help of us mutants, and our magic. Just four of us have managed escape you for this long, and possible dispatch some of you. We need to work together if we stand a chance of repeling the aliens. they tore our wold apart, and it wasn't even a full force of them. There is a reason us mutants were formed, and us chosen found magic. we need to use our newfound power to fight these aliens, not eachother. We need to work together if we have any chance of saving mankind..."Drakar stated, untill the head enforcer hit him with the mouth with the butt of his gun.

"Who are you to count yourself as mankind. You mutants, the ones who haunt our childrens dreams, rape our wifes, and kill our men. I would never dream of working with you, even in my darkest nightmares. You are not fit to bear the title of humans, you are a discrace to our world, and a discrace to our race." roared the enforcer.

"That is quit enough." replied the woman with an air of authority. "Now let us go check on the squad that was supposed to retrieve the big mutant."

Dagon has a recollection of old world memories, they come and go randomly, it is from an old show

Dagon dismisses the thought as he arrives on scene. He looks at Ethan then the pile of rubble and last the robed figure.

"You require assistance." He states, then turns to the hooded figure, " You will stand down, Will you comply?"

The man grabbed Athen, throwing him to the ground, and began to bash in his chest.

Dagon finishes removing the last of the rubble from on top of Stilts and the knifeman and turns to watch the fight.

As the techpriest's fist comes down, Athen catches it and throws him from his feet. As Athen charges the downed figure, he flips up and his robes tear apart, revealing a half dozen mechanical appendages.

Athen runs into his embrace, his arms crush Athen into his embrace. The figure the jumps to an impossible height, holding Athen down below him, as he plummets to the earth.

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Stilts looks up into the air, watching the falling figures, then glances at their destination.

He turns to the others "I think he MIGHT need some help."

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Drakar watches as the woman peers into the display screen.
"Hah, looks as if our agent has already found them, can you get a fix on his position?"

The tech bends over the keyboard "Certainly."

After a moment of furious clicking, the veteran round on the tech,
"Well, where are they!?"

The tech glances at the ceiling "here!"
and then leaps out of his chair and takes off running . . .

as Athen and the teachpriest come crashing through the ceiling, sending Drak spinning and leaving a crater in the floor. The shockwave blows out all of the windows in the building, and a wall even collapses, leaving it open to the outside.

Drakar then quickly darts to the far corner, and as he does so he grabs his belt of scimitars from the women, who is currently preoccupied. He goes to the far side, while creating the allusion of there being no doors, and the walls spinning. Thus dissorenintating the enforcers, who are allready preoccupied, and now deeply confused and panicky.

Drakar then proceeds to exit through the door, but as he does so the woman manages to see him, and begins to follow. The others are still dissorented, and see nothing besides the spinning walls.

Dagon uses overcharge and runs ungodly fast to the falling two. He smears his nanites onto the techpriest's arms and legs.

"Eat through him" Dagon whispers. Dagon tumbles to the ground and turns to Stilts.

"Do NOT touch the priest" He yelled.

As Ethan struggles with the priest he notices a hole in the priest's robes and a strange rash forming rapidly. Small pinpricks of blood appear on his skin then the skin starts to rip apart.

"What is this devilry?" The techpriest asks in a daze as he is starting to loose alot of blood.

"You are dying, give me a reason to let you live." Dagon asks.

The Techpriest retreats and turns, "something so feeble as this will not kill me."

He laughs as he sheds the infected members, cutting off his circulatory system and switching completely to his mechanical arms.

"You will find it much harder to touch me this time, techno-BRAT."

His skin begins to emit showers of sparks as he electrocutes the outer layer of his epidermis.

All this time Athen is shifting on the ground, attempting to stand up.

This is what John and I believe to have happen in the story so far.
Interpret at your own peril.

Dagon pulls a chunk of old car tire out of his back pack and holds it in his hand. He then rips the rod out of Ethan's chest and holds it in the other.

"DO YOU THINK THAT WILL HELP?" The Priest yelled, "A piece of rubber will do you no good, and that rod is useless against my electrocoat."

Dagon ignored this as he was already preoccupied with the task of breaking down the rubber and creating insulated nanites. The rod was also being shaped into a crude needle(non-hypodermic).

The priest charges at Dagon his skin crackling and his heavy arms destroying objects near him.

"Damn this for taking so long." Dagon mutters under his breath as he continues to dodge the blows. " And my energy stores are getting low, this has to end now."

Dagon suddenly goes on the offensive and jabs at the priest with the needle 5 times.

Drakar, seeing that Dagon is in trouble decides to intervene. He draws his scimitars, and begins to wade threw the rubble and the dazed enforcers. Seeing the lead enforcer on the ground he slices threw both of his hands, and disabling him mercifully. He then wades through the rest of the rubble and bodies, and comes behind the Tech-priest.

"Don't look behind you" Drakar whispers as he slices across the right shoulder of the tech-priest. The priest then turns away from Dagon and sees multiple forms of Drakar. Not knowing which is the real drakar, he swipes at the nearest one, and his hand goes straight through him.

"Damn these illusions" mutters the priest "damn these mutants and their trickery"
The priest then launches a rocket at the majority of the Drakars, and they are scattered about, but seem to suffer no damage, but instead fade from existance.
"I will find the real you, and when I do, you will die." The priest roared, "I have no mercy for your type"

On the face of the Priest where one of the needles got through tendrils of red and then black start to creep along his face.

"Seek out the motor cortex," Dagon mutters holding on just barely to consciousness and the control of his bots.

"Nooooo, NOOOOOOO." the techpriest screams as the tendrils creep behind his ears and disappear. He electrocutes his skin several times but to no avail as the nanobots injected into his skin were rubberized.

Dagon walks up to the now paralyzed tech priest and places his hand on his forehead simultaneously sucked the info out and his energy.

The techpriest's back arches and shining bolts of energy radiate out as his reactor goes critical. A massive explosion rips through the center of the room, Sweeping Dagon away.

As the dust settles, a voice rings out. "You fool, do you honestly think you could kill me by eliminating one meatshell? My resources far outreach yours, martian scum."

The ground unfolds, and a massive pylon glowing with energy rises out of the new apature. Throughout the room, claws and tendrils emerge from the metal plating. Around the pylon, pods slam up out of ground, a couple cracking open to reveal copies of the Techpriest.

"Now see my true form!"

Stilts had, until this point, stayed toward the back of the room, away from the techpriest, as Dagon had commanded him to. After seeing the huge explosion rip through the room he set himself in motion. He weaved him slender form around rocks, and tendrils, and claws. He made his way to a claw so that he had positioned himself between it, and one of the techpriests. Reading it's motions to the best of his abilities, he tried to move himself to minimize damage, and let the claw knock him into the nearby techpriest.

Drakar, sensing how immediate the danger was, and remembering how damage Athan was, decided to seek him out within the maze of claws, techpriest, and other obtrusions in his way. He tried to make illusions to hide himself, but it seemed this technological being saw right trough them.

"Those will not work on me!! I am not one of my fool minions, I am a God of technology. I know how your disgusting trickery works, and I will not stand for it" roared the technical being. As the thing was saying this a claw reared and attacked Drakar, and sent him flying. He felt a sharp pain below him, and with a grunt Athen announced his discomfort upon being landed on.

"How nice of you to drop by" was Athens only response.

Spoiler:

Nami rounds the corner to see, through the wall, a mess. Athen's body was on the ground, and the curious figure from before was leaning up against a wall; his face could not be read. The one who was first engaged in this violent day was fighting a robed figure.

There were other robed figures against a column in the center of the room.

Nami leapt through the hole in the wall, picking up speed before slamming into one of the figures against the pylon. There was the sound of crushed metal, and a vague sense of pain. Nami moved to the next pod, which had not opened. He smashed his fist through the front, releasing a lot of blood, but he had gone through the door. Rending the door from its hinges, Nami revealed another identical android. He smashed its head against his knee as yet another came around the pylon.

As the second android fell, the third grappled Nami with some sort of appendage, ripping into his right arm.

It spoke: "Another foe to crush." Nami roared and grabbed the appendage with his left, yanking it away from the android, but it wasn't separated; the third figure was off balance and collapsed; Nami crushed it with his boot, and it stopped moving.

From the other side, another approached triumphantly: "You stand no chance, like the others." There were sharp sounds of gunfire before Nami rushed it and slammed it against the wall, ending it.

Then he stopped.

There was a mirror standing in front of him, cracked. In his reflection, he saw himself, covered in small cuts and blood, with larger wounds starting to blossom from gunshots. His right arm was horribly wounded.

Behind him, there was another techpriest. His arm was level.


A world away, a wizard sat in his cabin in the woods. He thought about improving upon some of the more esoteric spells that he knew, such as invocation of electricity and embodiment of energies, but he was tired. So he napped.