Story

Stilts had read the motion of the claw well, and was, as he had hoped, sent into the nearby techpriest. The shot from the claw however, was not as glancing as he had hoped, the point on his back where the impact occurred instantly began to savagely ache. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind as he positioned himself to make contact with what little bit of exposed skin the techpriest had. As the two collided Stilts's hand landed rather firmly on a patch of skin, and Stilts began sorting the information being poured into him. He quickly realized that the techpreist was indeed more machine than man, and had calculated many actions forward into this fight, something like a great chess player. Stilts quickly pulled his hand away as to not let the foresight of the techpriest put more information into him then he could handle. The impact had only slightly jostled the techpriest, who, by this point, had a rather firm grip on stilts with two of his appendages.

"He going to pick me up and throw me at the wall" Stilts ran through the techpriest's info, and decided to spin the imparted momentum around, forcing himself to the ground before he collided with the wall. He landed well, and slid back for a few inches before stopping, and again going through the info the tech preist imparted.

"He's going to extend the blade in his right ar" As he began deciphering the information the techpriest pulled forth anther appendage from beneath his cloak, and used it to first slam Stilts into the wall behind , before sending him careening though the air with a rather fierce push.

"He didn't react the way I read he would. How is that even possible?" As stilts tried to sort out the recent skirmish, and it;s drastic change he came to rest firmly against another wall. making impact a few feet of the ground, and dropping down to find himself beside Drakar and Athen. The impact winded Stilts for a moment, and after he caught his breath he said "I think we are a bit out of our league. Perhaps it's time we gather the other and take our leave?" As he spoke he struggled to pull his form to it's feet, dealing with the immense pain in his back, while still trying to express his good intentions to the best of his ability while he spoke.

Nami just managed to dodge the lazor blast from the extension of the techprist's arm. He knocked the artificial man away, then turned towards the pylon. He drew back his fist, and slammed it deep into the surface of the pylon. The metal was surprisingly soft, as he buried his arm up to his elbow. An instant later, electricity began to arc accross his skin as he shorted the control matrix in the tower.

One last message was heard from the techpriest," You will NOT escape me! I will hunt you till the ends of the earth, which I will cleanse in the pure fire of logic!!!"

Then the pylon began to glow brighter and brighter, the short feeding back upon itself, with Nami as the conductor. All of the armatures in the building went limp and the clones fell over, as the pylon started to become blinding.

Athen turned towards the other two,"I haven't known you for very long, but we need to get out of here now, and I . . . can't walk out . . ."

Dagon is now unconscious.

Drakar, nods his head in approval of escaping. He grabs Athen up, and throws him over the shoulder, and as he does so Athen grunts.

"Sorry about the discomfort" Drakar apologized.

"Hey, no pain, no gain" Athen joked in a pain-filled voice.

Drakar then proceded to where Dagon was, and tried to pick both him and Athen up at the same time, but was not able to hold them for an extended amount of time, so he grabbed Dagon by the arm and began dragging him across the ground toward the exit.

Stilts bends his form down, possitioning his shoulder below Dagon chest. He forces himself vertical, lifting Dagon as he does. He stumbles for a second, off balance and trying to keep pace with Drakar.

"He's a bit heavier than I expected." He glances up at Dagon, and then to Drakar as they flee the now destroyed building. "I know of an area of the forest where some medicinal plants grow, they can help him." Stilts gestures slightly toward Athen. "I, however, don't think they will do much for him." Stilts now makes an identical gesture toward Dagon.

Stilts stops suddenly for a brief second at an intersection, glancing around to try and grasp his bearings. He turns down a comparatively narrow two lane street, and darts for an alley between two building that stand in the forefront of a large cracked plate of the Earth, spotted with small forests. "The plants are in that forest" He gestures toward the trees through the alleyway.

Dagon begins to thrash around. His arms suddenly slips into his back pack and retrieves a rat. Dagon becomes still again.

Flipping through his Book, the wizard takes note of those spells that he may use but at which he is not proficient. He takes note of the spell to heal broken bones and to purify water.

He knew just where to get the items to heal bone.

He left, grabbing his pack of items and his bow, along with a handful of arrows.

The world has been insane recently.

As the group of travelers trudge stolidly through the forest, Athen and Dagon being carried, they come upon a small stream of water that flows clear and free, a rarity in this post apocalyptic world (a lack of connected mountain ranges means a lack of rivers). They decide to set down and relax for a while.

High above them, a sleek black ship slides into orbit. Out of the bottom, a mess if panels emerge and with a flurry of motion form into some kind of long barreled cannon. It releases a massive concussion wave that seems to bend space itself, and a small projectile the size of a car begins to hurtle through the atmosphere at an impossible speed.

Below, the travelers hear a clap of thunder that makes the trees shudder. Off in the distance, an impact throws up a massive cloud of dust.

"That doesn't seem good. But, despite the circumstances, we still need to eat. Personally, I don't want to go back into the city so I am going to go hunting. I would prefer if you were to stand guard stilts, since you are the only conscouse one. I will be back shortly, and I would be grateful if there was a fire when I returned" Drakar in formed the rest.

"Oh, and if I am not back within a couple of hours, count me dead." Drakar added bluntly as he darted silently into the forest, keeping to the shadows.

A little color has returned to Dagon's face, also, the rat is gone.

Stilts had only recently finished making a fire, and was leaning against a tree, when an ornate dagger impacted millimeters from his right cheek. Tied around the dagger was a bloodsoaked rag with complex writing on it.
Startled, Stilts scanned the area, and only now noticing the Knifeman from before, who was kneeling exactly twelve paces in front of him.
"Your group saved the guild the trouble of bringing vengeance to our attackers. For doing so the guild has decided to reward you with the service of a Knifeman. Use him well." And with that he stood up, and slipped into the shadows.

Back in the city, the the woman who had so graciously captured Drakar fumed. Standing outside the containment area, she paced back and forth, monitoring the progress of the techpriests containment of the explosion. The pylon has almost detonated, and it would have teken the entire city with it, if not for the enforcers. As it was thousands would be without power for days, and emergency responses would be delayed by hours.

"DAMN THOSE MUTANTS" she though to herself.

Finally the last of the energy was forced back into the pylon and the seal locked. It will be taken away for repairs. The body of the mutant had already been incinerated, a death too glorious for its filthy flesh.

Off in the distance, she saw an impact on the horizon. Then every warning in her display went off. According to the flashing numbers, just 300 kilometers away was one of the accursed aliens that had cracked the earth. They were back far sooner then expected.

She glanced into the sky. Already the lights of a battle could be seen as the pitiful earth defenders engaged a forerunner of a distant 1000 ship armada . . .

Already the humans had lost one of the few spacecraft left at the hands of the aliens.

At camp, Athen becomes conscious, and stares as a dagger lands next to Stilt's ear . . .

The wizard hears distant impact, and the distant dust plume is testament to conflict.

Memories of the invasion.

He hurries.

After a couple of hours, Drakar returned dragging a dear, drenched in blood.
"Here is our meal, and it didn't come cheap. This was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I only found a couple, and this is the fatest I found" Drakar stated as he looked at almost scrawny deer.

"Well, I caught it so one of you can skin it and gut it. I am going to get some sleep, wake me up when it is done cooking" Drakar stated "but first, I am going to wash some of this blood off. He then proceded to strip down, and wash himself, his armor, weapons and clothes in the stream. When he was done, he redressed in his armor, etc. and quickly went to sleep near the fire, allowing his armor to dry.

Stilts was examining knife the when Drakar returned. The blade was sharpened to a razors edge, and the entire body of the weapon was a piece of art. He had never had the chance to thoroughly examine something so beautiful. He examined the text on the letter for a brief moment, and then turned it toward the newly woken Athen. "I'm not too good with writing, especially not something so ornate as this. Maybe you can make something out of it."

Stilts stood and examined the deer. It was a rare majestic creature. Something of a beauty to behold in this time period. He thought about the ornate dagger from a moment ago, but decided it would be a travesty to blemish that beautiful a blade. The thought of the blade inspired another thought in Stilts. He turned toward Athen, and in his usual, empathic voice said "I would like to examine that blade again whenever your done if you don't mind."

He turned back to the deer, and then to Drakar. "could I bother you for one of your blades?" After a bit of resentful conversing, and reinforcing the fact that the blade would not touch the dear multiple times Drakar let Stilts borrow a blade.

Stilts moved over to a tree, and after glancing from limb to limb up the tree plotting his course, scaled it for a fair distance. He found a nice size branch, and bent it until it was nearly folded in half before releasing it. It snapped back into place, holding none of it's precious arch. He cut the limb from the tree, and let it fall to the ground.

He climbed down after watching the larger branch make contact with the ground, and cut a much smaller branch at an angle from the tree, before continuing down to the ground.

He picked up the larger branch from before, and examined it for a moment before setting up against the tree. "That should do well." He then returned the blade to Drakar, who examined it rather thoroughly to be sure that it was still pristine before turning to the deer.

With the smaller angled branch Stilts began to press against the deers belly, and with very little force blood started to trickle forth. It surprised him how easily the branch cut the deers skin, a testament to Drakars blade.

Stilts continued to skin and clean the deer, and placed some cutlets by the fire to cook. After he had cleaned up the dear carcass, and moved it to a shadowy corner of the camp He returned to the tree branch from before.

Stilts lifted The branch from the ground, and broke all the smaller branches from it. After it was a cleaned of shoots, and finely round he gave it a quick spin around his hand, and then slammed it sharply into a nearby tree with some large amount of force. The limb shuddered briefly, but showed no signs of damage, and Stilts looked rather pleased with the weapon. He looked up to see the eyes of those around him, surprised by the crack of limb meeting tree,but stunned more becasue of how out of cahracter this action was than by the sound itself. He swiftly apologized before returning to tend to the cooking meat.

The wizard saw a flickering light through the underbrush.

That meant fire. Small fire. Which meant people. He smelled blood. Movement nearby, away from the fire.

Reaching for the bow...

But he sees a deer. Dead.

Several more steps reveal the smell is from the deer. There is a figure over the fire cooking meat.

"Hello! Seeing others here is rare. Do you mind if - dear God!" Another figure, on the ground. "That state is horrid. Is he alive?" Affirmative. "May I help?" Another affirmative.

Beside the figure, kneeling. Herbs. He had some on him. Not enough though. "Enough to stop the bleeding." Somebody said something. Power used. Tired. Very tired, but that is hardly a new sensation. There were no more herbs; he could not continue healing. Deer would be nice.

"Is it done yet? ... I need more herbs." Sleep.

Drakar bit into the meat of the deer, and had to admit that it was finely cooked. I fact, it was cooked so well that all resentment he had of giving up his blade for the cutting of the deer had disipated. He then proceeded to go back to sleep, resting up from the physical trials of the last few days.

(BTW i was released from my grounding so no worries)

Dagon becomes semi-lucid, but lucid enough to smell the delicious scent of fresh kill. Then he is wide awake. He notices the people around him.

"Oh hello, my name is Dagon, it is a pleasure to meet you all, you have my gratitude for dragging me out of that mess. You all being here saves me the effort of rounding you up one at a time, so again thank you."

Dagon looks at the stripped carcass(Bones+SKull) of the deer and turns to the rest of the group.

"Would any of you object to my having that I may need the iron, and might I please have a chunk of that meat I'm famished."

It is late. All of the others are asleep or their equivalent of sleep. They did not post a guard, trusting that the knifeman was watching. Athen awakens from the slumber induced by the herbs. He is in massive pain, but much less then before. Nothing seems too broken, and he gives a silent thanks for having allies that can heal him so quickly. He stands up remembering the knife in his hand. As he examines it, he notices that the pattern looks familiar. As he stares into it, he slips deeper and deeper. His mind feels as if it is removed from his body, and then . . . it turns inside out.

He remembers everything. How he came here. Why he came here. His amnesia is not unfamiliar and ironically enough, he remembers have even longer stints of unknowing before. His body is the most broken it has been in ages, and he feels depleted, and realizes that he has been holding himself from death for a long time.

He bends over to examine the sleeping old man.
"Your an ancient one, aren't you? Especially for this place."

He turns and looks at the others.
"Such promise, and yet, so weak . . ."

The he feels something collapse within his mind. The careful barriers he has created are failing, and he can't figure out why.

"This should not be happening, something else must be working here."

As he slips into oblivion, he releases a series of glowing rings made of light from his hand in a last act of desperation, and they slowly collapse around his body and fade into his skin. He is lucky he finished the procedure, because everything falls into darkness.

It is late. Falling next to the fire awakens Athen. He thinks to himself that he must have rolled over next to it, for how could he be so far away from his bed? Rolling over to the deer he begins to eat, and notices that his pain has lessened some. He examines the dagger Stilts has given him, and the text seems faintly familiar, but he can not recall where he saw it before. The thought slips away.

He settles down to eat, and tries to see the stars through the twisted and broken sky, wondering how he got into this forest in the first place.

As th sun rises slowly in the east(it still does that right?) Drakar awakens. He fells fully refreshed, and then he noticed every-one else is alseep. Well, everyone that was with them before. Sitting in the shadows is a Knifeman. From the lighting he couldn't notice him, but he recognized the human heat signiture. Drakar then walks up to the knifeman.

"I thank you for keeping guard, I was simply to exhausted. Also, I noticed your knife, although it is thin it is finely made." Drakar announced.

"Do you not talk much?" Drakar inquired "If you are going to stay with us, you will need to be familiar with us and our talents. If not, you may become a liability." Drakar then walked away, seemingly to spend some time alone by the creek, slightly farther into the woods.

Shortly after Drakar walked away, the Knifeman shifted and was gone. Ever vigilant, he began to patrol the area around the camp... and he began to think.
First, he searched his soul, checking for the weaknesses that needed to be addressed. It was empty. Perfect. It was just as it should be. A knifeman is a repository for skills and knowledge, and nothing more.
His thoughts then turned to his companions, though always part of his mind watched the camp as he jumped from branch to branch or ran along the ground. Silently. Always silent.
First he considered Drakar. An Illusionist mutant, class A-3, last documented case 42 years ago, which was significantly weaker. Expected potential, 300-400% improvement.
Then he thought of Stilts. A Contortionist-Empath mutant. Both types of mutants have been documented on multiple occasions, this is the first case of this kind of double-mutation. Note for the Empath: Do not touch, may cause damage to it.
At this point, the knifeman jumped into the air, grabbed onto a limb and flipped up onto it, perching like a bird. Clean, no extra movement, and silent. Perfect.
He then thought of the hermit. He was not documented, but a quick scan of book he carried gave the Knifeman a general idea as to its contents. Magic. Most likely a researcher. It would be best to inquire as to what he has learned so far, and possibly give him access to some of the Knifeman Texts whenever the group next came by an Embassy.
His thoughts turned to Athen. Since the Knifeman had started observing the group, Athen had clinically died on 3 separate occasions. This was a new mutation. It should be documented. He started to look through the histories in his head and found Athen.

Outwardly, his head only twitched slightly. Inwardly, his mind effectively exploded. Numbers, letters, and arcane sigils flew through his head. Forbidden. He reformed his mind and continued his patrol. Such things are only to be accessed from a librum. And such things are best left forgotten.

Dagon, feeling refreshed after a good sleep and some meat scraps addresses the group (at least the people here). He also slaves some nanobots to the task of healing Athen although there wasnt much he could do besides stop the bleeding and keep the wounds clean, regeneration, would come later.

"Alright chaps (no that doesnt sound like me, curious my vocals seem to be off some how, an old memory from the memory banks, maybe...) we have a chance, a chance of retaining normality and beating those wankers in orbit. My colleagues and I are stationed on Mars, it has taken a great deal of effort to get our agent, myself, onto Earth, fragmented as it is, and to contact any sort of a rebel faction, a resistance, bolly at this point I would take a pissed off yank with a shotgun. The only problem is i have now been cut off, that tech beast did something to my communicators. I have only one way of contacting my allies, a dedicated transceiver located in a secure location, in the city. The next closest way point I have set up is on another chunk of Earth ten kilometers from this one, I have the possibility of backup, this is not your fight, I know I am asking alot of from all of you but try to see through to the other side of this, the choice is yours."

Woken by talking. Lots of talking.

The one with the things needs allies for something. Keeps talking. Wants to return to the city.

Memories.

"Waypoint." Which means he wants to go there. Possibly across a border.

But no obligation to follow. Very nice.

"Before travel, what has passed? An odd group is here. The creeper in the tree, that tall one, and the talking one. I shall accompany you, though. No reason. Unless you go into the city."

Ah, that sensation. There is magic nearby. Small magic. Nonsentient. Healing.

Time to find them.

Athen looked up at the sky, thinking upon what the hermit has just said. For some reason, he felt as if he needed to save this place. Not remembering anything, he has not adopted a particular liking to where he is at, yet he feels this strange compulsion to preserve this place, as if something precious were hiding just below the surface.

"This world is a sad place, was it once not beautiful? Supposedly, mankind use to have access to a fearsome magic, where is that power now? I believe that if we could find some way to tap into the magic of the times vaguely remembered and combined it with the other elements, we could save this world.

But, we need a powerful magical artifact, something ancient that has slept for eons. We also need somebody with the technical knowledge to construct the device. And last, we need somebody with enough life-force to control the device and guide it to its purpose. With a construct of this magnitude, we could then begin to repair the damage to the earth, or at least halt its decay. As for the aggressors who cracked the planet, I hope we finish before they arrive here en mass.

*Athen is shocked by his knowledge of this subject, not knowing where it has come from*

As I see it, we need to find ruins, and for that we need a satellite. A faction could provide us with use of one. As for the skill to build such a thing, well, they have the knowledge on mars, perhaps those who sent Dagon will aid us? As for life-force, the only one with any measure of that is Stilts, and he does not have nearly enough, so I have no idea where we would find that kind of magnitude.

He examines the dagger in his hand. The symbols look familiar, and this time he recognizes where they are from. He looks at his ring, and most of the symbols match perfectly.

"Now how did those get there?" he thinks to himself, before turning to listen to the conversation of the others.

Stilts turns from the page of the forest he was looking into to face the part of the group still gathered at the camp. He looked to the stream, and followed it's evanescent flow up for a far as he could trace it. From there his eyes averted to a nearby tree. He placed his hand firmly against it's bark and closed his eyes.

"It's faint. Quiet and faded, but it's there. The earths memories, it's wisdom, all it's majesty. It's voice. It's faint, but I can hear it. It hoarse, and quiet, like someone on their deathbed. It's calling out to us. All of us. Not just those of us gathered here, but the whole world. It's calling to us for help."

Stilts pulled his hand back from the tree, and after a moment opened his eyes, and looked back up to the group in front of him. "I don't know if anyone else cna hear it, but I don't think it matters. When I hear that voice it's like the earth is speaking directly to me. I've always wanted to help, and now I might have my chance." Stilts turned to face the city, a certain sadness evident in his movements. He Stilts turned to face this new man. "We don't even know your name yet, but you seem to be a fair enough person." Stilts gestured toward Ethan. "You healed him with no prerequisite knowledge of who we are, or where we came from, which speaks something for your constitution. I'd sort of hoped you'd stay with us, but it seems as if we have to go to the city, and you seem to oppose that. Would it be okay if we went to the city, and maybe returned back here later? Or maybe one of us could stay with you, and then we could meet up again once we've sorted out this whole mess." Stilts turned back to face the city again. "Certain emotions ring out like beacons, The most prominent of them death." stilts made no movement but still conveyed his worry well to the others. "I know I have no real say in what goes on, but I would greatly like to help the earth." Stilts turned to face the others. "Whatever we decide to do, we need to decide quickly."