The Earth's Experiment

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I NEVER finish my other fan fictions, but this one will be different. It's dedicated to all you members for a change! It's a thanks for making this site what it is, and a reminder for what the IC part of the site would be without all the members. I'll try not to give too much info away, but here's what you need to know:

There are going to be multiple universes with multiple earth's on each of them. Each universes champions (Three) are abducted each year for a period of two weeks to compete in numerous events as entertainment for the original universe. The rules are simple: Come in last place and your universe will be destroyed violently, and you will cease to exist. There will be injuries, there will be dirty play, there will be fatalities, and there will be champions. Each universe is based off the characters and ideas provided by the most active members on the site.

Earth 1: Gormakid
Earth 2: Theseus12
Earth 3: ReaptheMusic
Earth 13: Experiment249 (He knows why I picked 13)
Earth 24: Megz
Earth 59: legolosarrow

PM me if you want to specify which of you characters compete or if you want to not compete at all. Chapter 1 coming soon.

Abduction
August 23rd, 2012
1:00 PM
Earth 1

The explosion rang in his ears for about a minute after the initial detonation. Lucas Rice had never seen or heard anything like this, and he doubted his friend, Simon Anderson, had either. Lucas had dealt with C4 before, and he had once seen its big brother, C2, in action, but he had never seen what the gas stations could do in Empire City. Simon was the first one to say anything.

“What the...”

Lucas cut him off by pointing his finger at a few hooded figures calmly walking amongst the crowd of panicking civilians. “Reapers. They did it.”

Simon was quiet once again. The two of them had been sitting on the rooftop that Simon had ‘rented’ out after the Blast that gave both of them...abilities. It had been a calm and peaceful day, the first day that the relentless sumer heat had started to give into fall. The temperatures were in the upper 60’s, making it a perfect day to sit on Simon’s rooftop and have a beer. Lucas wasn’t old enough to drink, but he did every once and awhile. Empire City was lawless after the Blast, and still was. The peaceful day had been interrupted by a massive explosion. If Lucas or Simon had bothered to notice, Reapers had been holding up the gas station just across the street for half an hour.

Who were the Reapers? They were one of the three gangs that had split up the city after it had fallen into quarantine. The Reapers were, by far, the most brutal of the three gangs. They were aggressive, and took whatever the hell they wanted.

Simon spoke up after a short silence, “Let’s roll.”

Lucas just nodded and jumped off the roof. Any normal human would’ve been killed or broken both legs from the fall, but Lucas wasn’t ‘normal’ and he definitely wasn’t human. Not anymore.

Lucas fell slowly, almost as if the air was holding him up, and landed with a small “thud”. Simon, however, did not have the amazing ability to fall from great heights without fatally wounding himself, so Lucas waited as his friend took the stairs.

“Hurry up, tortoise!” Lucas kidded.

Simon raised an eyebrow, “Who wins in that race, my good friend? The tortoise or the hare?”

Lucas laughed, “The tortoise didn’t have to deal with stairs in its race. You did.”
“Whatever, let’s get this over with, my beer is going to get warm.”

“And that’s the worse thing that could happen to us...” Lucas said sarcastically as he began stalking behind the hooded Reapers.

No words were exchanged after that, and Lucas’s mind began to slip. The Reapers hadn’t noticed them yet, so they were fine.

He noticed that Simon was wearing sunglasses...as always. Also, if one looked carefully they could see a slight green glow under the sunglasses. Simon earned his nickname, Eyes, from this glow. Take away the shades, and Simon’s eyes were a neon green, a side-effect from Ray Field radiation. Simon had a wonderful ability to view people’s memories and, occasionally, object’s pasts. Lucas, personally, thought Simon’s power was a bit stupid, but it had gotten him out of bad situations on numerous occasions so it wasn’t that bad.

The Reaper group turned a corner and continued, going in a different direction now.

Lucas’s powers were a bit different that Simon’s. First off, Lucas didn’t quite have the glowing eyes thing that his buddy did. Neither did he have the freaky memory viewing abilities. Lucas had the ability to control wind, air, whatever you want to call it. This meant he could fly, blast, and do pretty much whatever he wanted with the surrounding atmosphere if he had the energy to do so.

Lost in thought, Lucas and Simon had both neglected to notice the fact that yet another Reaper group had been following behind them. The two conduits noticed that crucial fact the moment when they found themselves surrounded. Seven AK-47’s were trained on their heads as a man wearing a silver mask stepped forward from the crowd. His hood was an electric blue, and he seemed to radiate power. The mask covering his face was designed to look like a skull. It was a mask only one man in Empire City wore...Maximus. He was known by some as Maximus the Reaper, or simply boss. He was the notorious head of the Reapers, known for his brutal tactics and torture techniques.

“You two are coming with me to be tarred. On your feet.”

Lucas and Simon, reluctantly, got up on their feet. They were interrupted by one of the Reapers, “No, Maximus, you are coming with us.” The hooded man said in a strange voice.

Maximus turned on a dime and shot the man. Lucas flinched at the sound of the gun, but the man didn’t keel over dead, despite the visible hole between his eyes. Lucas watched disgusted, as the hole closed over the wound and the Reaper once more said, “You are coming with us.” The rest of the Reapers moved their aim from Lucas and Simon to Maximus. Maximus the Reaper, the leader of the powerful Reaper gang, put his hands in the air and dropped his AK-47 on the ground. Lucas couldn’t see his face, but he was sure there was a look of pure hatred on it.

“The deepest circle of hell is saved for traitors. I will send you to burn there yourself if I have to.” Maximus growled.

The Reapers seemed amused by this idea, but Lucas could see they still had a fear off Maximus. “We’ve been at this much, much longer than you Max,” the head of the hooded men said, “Now, you will come with us or face death right here.”

“I’ll come.” Maximus said quickly. Lucas made a mental note that Maximus seemed to fear death when he was threatened.

They began walking, at gunpoint. Lucas wondered where they were going, but remained silent. In the back of his mind he was storing up power that he would release in the form of a full force tornado. The event would knock him out for several days though, leaving Simon to fight off survivors...and Maximus depending on who he would ally with.

The group turned into an ally, and the ‘leader’ leaned in a mumbled something in a strange language into his walkie-talkie. A garbled reply returned, and then a lot of people did a lot of things at once.

Lucas. He released the F5 tornado, damaging buildings around him and blacked out onto the ground immediately, having just enough time to throw up a shield around him and Simon.

Maximus. Max knew that the conduits would pull something, and he tensed up the second before the tornado flew. He punched a Reaper traitor in the face and took his gun as the man was sucked into the tornado. Strangely, nothing happened to Maximus, the winds seemed to avoid him completely.

Eyes. Simon flipped out his well-concealed hunting knife and took a stance over Lucas’s body, facing Maximus.

The man with the mask put his hands up, “Listen, conduit, I’m on your side for now, like it or not. I would love to slit your throat, but I need someone to watch my back. For now.”

Simon grunted in return, but said nothing. He pocketed the hunting knife with expert skill and slung the much younger and lighter Lucas over his shoulder. At that moment, a streak of lightning hit all three of them, and instantly they were in a strange place. Strangely, Lucas was awake now. The wind conduit rubbed his head, “Crap...what? Where are we?” The place was like nothing Lucas had ever seen...except in one place. “Hey, uh, Eyes? You ever watch the Twilight Zone?”

Simon nodded as a clock flew past him in the place that resembled the introduction to place of the Twilight Zone. Maximus obviously watched the old show too and he began, “There is a dimension beyond that of known to man...” Lucas shot him a look, and the Reaper shut up. They floated around for about a minute until the scene changed again. The scene was different for each one of them.

Lucas appeared underwater, and his eyes boggled. His powers didn’t work here. He was screwed! Then he noticed he was somehow breathing. He felt around his mouth and felt a thick cord. An oxygen tank. Perfect. Lucas was about to will the tank to explode when he heard a voice in his head.

“I would not do that Mr. Rice, for if you blow the oxygen tank you will simply die in this water.” The mysterious voice said. Lucas couldn’t reply back, but he knew the voice made a good point.

Simon appeared in a cage. Nothing too important about it. The voice approached him also. “Ah, yes, the one with the glowing eyes. He will be a fan favorite this year!”

Simon yelled back, “Where the hell are we? Stop messing with my head!” The voice in his head laughed back at him, but didn’t answer.

Maximus appeared in a cage much like Simon’s, yet this one was even more...cage-like. They wanted to make sure he absolutely did not escape. The voice came to him like the others.

“The mighty Maximilian Rodrigo! Oh, wait, you don’t remember your name do you? Too high on the tar to remember. We’ve been awaiting a fighter of your caliber for many millennia here. Just a mere human. I LOVE IT!” Maximus jumped at the mentioning of his real name. His identity. Somehow he knew it was his name when it was said, like something just snapped in place.

The voice spoke to all of them, “Earth 1 has not had a champion for over two thousand years! I love underdogs, I wish you all the best of luck!” Then its presence faded from the three of their minds and they were left to wander their cages.

Abduction II
August 23rd, 2012
1345
Earth 59

“I’ll never crack. You can’t make me.” Said the man tied to the chair. He was tied up securely, and cowered in fear in the shadow of a large figure. That figure’s name was Crane Sarrow...a.k.a Fear Itself.

“It’s only been five minutes, wimp! I can do this for days! You will spill the beans eventually, now,” Crane pulled back his fist and sent a light punch into the man’s nose, “You will tell me...or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Or else I punch your nose into to that smart-a** head over yours!” Crane said quickly.

The intercom buzzed and came on. “Sarrow, hurry things up. An unknown force is approaching here at high speeds. The defenses won’t hold them long.” The intercom buzzed again and the voice was gone. The voice belonged to Jason Cregnix, a genius affected by the Blast in Empire City. Cregnix had started off small, recieving funds from a gang organization called the First Sons. The First Sons were not smart enough to notice that about 5% of their funding seemed to be disappearing for the two years the funded Cregnix. In the year of 2011, Cregnix launched his personal war against the First Sons and took control of about a third of Empire City with relative ease. At that point, some conduits joined his cause and Empire City fell to Cregnix’s army within the month.

After the city was conquered, Jason went to work. With the help of his right hand man, Crane, and the masked do-gooder titled The Darkness, Cregnix cleaned up the streets and began rebuilding. The rebuilding of Empire City moved quickly throughout the districts, and soon most things were about thirty years ahead in technology from what they used to be.

Crane and The Darkness got some dirty work though. The Darkness captured anyone one suspected to be a criminal, and Crane beat the crap out of him until he talked. In this new city, information was key.

Crane turned back to the man tied to the chair. He was hiding something, Fear Itself knew that. Crane reached up and pulled the plug on the single light in the room. “Now, are you going to talk? Or must I use a different tactic?”

The man’s screams were heard throughout the hallways of the old hospital turned into a high-tech base. Jason Cregnix heard the screams from his central control room. He smirked. Crane wasn’t his favorite person, but he sure knew how to scare people. He had an ability for it. A nearby screen beeped. It showed a large infrared blur that represented enemy troops. Cregnix could just make out images of tanks hidden within the blur. The army couldn’t be back after a humiliating defeat just a week ago, could they? Cregnix wasted no time thinking about it, instead he walked over and steeped into to foot-shaped holes on a circular pad. There was a mechanical whirring sound, and a suit or armor began to assemble itself around Jason. The thing looked like a metal suit that another genius would wear, Tony Stark. In fact, the idea derived from Iron Man comic strips, movies, and video games.

Cregnix had designed rockets on the feet to fly, plasma chargers on the hands to create large blasts of heat in the form of a plasma ray, and quite a various assortment of missiles, flares, and guidance systems on the back that could be accessed by talking to the suit’s personal ‘assistant’ that Cregnix simply called ‘computer’.

“Computer, alert The Darkness and Sarrow to join the battle once their current tasks are completed.” Cregnix said to Computer.

The computer replied, “Yes, sir, alerting Matteo Alacran and Crane Sarrow to assist you whenever they become available.” Cregnix smiled a bit, hearing ‘The Darkness’ real name, Matteo Alacran. In New Empire, technology could easily identify you, no matter what mask you were wearing.

Cregnix approached the bridge that was located nearest to the hospital, and it was there that he saw his true enemies. There were ten tanks, and about three times as many foot soldiers. All of them were armed to the tooth, using plasma guns...an invention of Cregnix’s. “What’s that quote about taking a dose of ‘my own medicine’, cause this is a beautiful example.” With that, Cregnix landed on the bridge with a solid ‘thunk’ and aimed every weapon he had at the oncoming force. “Look, I’m not looking to tear up this bridge, so you should just--” Cregnix was interrupted as he got shot in the chest with a plasma burst. “Screw the bridge, you’re goin’ down!” He said, as he launched multiple missiles at the tanks, activated his feet thrusters, and launched himself at the nearest infantry unit. Cregnix tackled the man and shoved his hand in the poor soldier’s face. He then released a plasma burst from his palm, melting the man’s face quickly, he did this and then quickly shot himself at the next soldier, repeating the pattern. After a few times of this, the soldiers got smarter. Most of the tanks were wrecked, but the one that wasn’t turned to aim at the nearest soldier to Cregnix. When the man was tackled via Iron Man suit, the tank fired. There was a fairly big explosion, the bridge rocked, and then some of the iron cables holding it up began to snap.

“Well, gentlemen, it’s been an honor killing you,” Cregnix said, “But I really must go now!” He took a running start and began to fly as parts of the bridge began sinking. At it’s current state it would stay this way, but Cregnix didn’t want that. He turned and launched a few grenades at the bridge’s supports.

The grenades hit their marks, just as one soldier it his mark...a plasma burst took out the thrusters in the Iron Man’s right leg. Jason spun out of control, and landed face, or helmet, first on the now collapsing bridge! With flight not an option, and practically an entire battalion shooting plasma weapons his way, Cregnix began to run for it. The suit was NOT designed for running. Jason saw that Crane and Matteo had just arrived, but they couldn’t risk coming on the bridge. The bridge began to break apart from the middle, making a wave of destruction head toward the ends of the bridge.

The wave was faster than the mildly heavy suit of mechanical armor, and Cregnix was running out of time. Crane extended his hand to try and help, but the fact was dead obvious...Jason wasn’t going to make it...at least not in the suit. Without hesitation he hit a release switch and the suit shed off of him, folding up inside a suitcase. Without the extra weight there was a chance he could make it, but it was small. He ran, suitcase and all, toward the road at the end of the bridge where Crane and Matteo stood...

...And then suddenly there was no bridge underneath him. It crumbled into the water of the Atlantic Ocean, Cregnix falling after it.

Suddenly, in a flash of lightning, the three men standing by the bridge simply disappeared. No ‘poof’, they just disappeared like the lightning had disintegrated
them.

Fortunately, this was not the case. Jason Cregnix, Crane Sarrow, and The Darkness all found themselves floating in the strange ‘Twilight Zone’ just as Lucas Rice, Simon Anderson, and Maximus the Reaper had been in about a half hour ago.

They, also like the last group, woke up in cages similar to those of the champions of Earth 1.

Cregnix flashed into a simple jail cell, everything on his body missing but his underwear. The voice’s haunting Earth 1 came to him too. “We are sorry about taking your clothes, Mr. Cregnix, but we can’t risk giving you any material to build or tinker with in the case of you escaping. Don’t worry though, the viewer across the universe are being fooled into thinking you have clothes by our graphics editor. If you survive, you should speak to him sometime. You and him would be great partners.”

Crane Sarrow flashed into what felt like an empty aquarium. The voices also came to him, “Fear Itself! You have quite a fan base here on Earth Prime!” The voice lowered to a whisper, even though it was in Crane’s head, “Including myself,” The voice’s volume returned to normal, “The cage is air-tight, so don’t try anything with you neuro-toxins and such. The entire staff is immune to your powers of fear, so don’t try anything funny.”

The Darkness flashed into a cage like Jason Cregnix’s. He, however, was still wearing his costume. “Ah, yes, Matteo Alacran, the supposed ‘super-hero’ we will see how heroic you are during the events this year!”
The voice’s presence left the room, and the three were left to wonder what in the world had just happened.

seriously, you need to reaserch on tornados. an F5? that's the freaking finger of God, man!that would cuase serious obliteration! did I approve that? becuase we need to toe that down if he's able to do that. have you seen the movie Twister?

He didn't have that power on here...I "tweaked" it a bit for the chapter. An F5 is a little over-excessive though...hahaha!

Abduction III
August 23rd, 2012
1:25 AM
Earth 13

Decius Cimbers was completely annoyed after five quick minutes with Kyd Wykkyd. Decius had been stalking a drunk group of party-goers when the young conduit appeared in front of his face, a creepy grin so wide he could eat a banana sideways. “Why, helloooooo!” The creepy man said, his red and black face still sporting the crazy smile.

Decius flinched, featuring the fact that Kyd was inches from his face, he had good reason to. Kyd and Decius had never met, but they had both heard of each other. Whispers of a vampire in New Marais and Empire City had spread to Kyd, and the stories of the crazed psychopath who protected the Historical District had been told to Decius. Kyd teleported a bit farther back and flipped out two sharp looking knives. Decius smirked, “Those will not hurt me, conduit. I am not so easily killed. I do not feast on your kind, leave now and your life shall be spared.”

Kyd frowned, then smiled. Decius saw him teleport away, and he turned around to walk away, assuming the crazed conduit had come to his senses and surrendered. He was rather surprised when Kyd appeared a few feet in front of him holding a sharp piece of wood. What one could call a wooden stake. “AHA! I KNEW I was forgetting SOMETHING!” Kyd said, as he teleported closer to Decius. “So now you leave...OR else!”

Decius yelled a curse in Greek and charged with inhuman speed at Kyd, fangs extended. Kyd teleported away quickly and shook his head at Decius, “Tsk, tsk, this is sad!” He said, mocking the vampire.

Decius turned into a swarm of bats and flew at Kyd, again to no avail. The crazyily annoying and teleporting conduit was just too fast. Decius stopped for a moment, hearing church bells from somewhere. “What the--” The figure of a man quickly flew across the light of the moon. The temperature seemed to drop when a man wearing a white high-tech military uniform dropped in between Kyd and Decius. The man was of the Veermark, a group of forced conduits that Decius had encountered many times. The South African special operations branch had been driven crazy by receiving a partial amount of a conduit’s powers. Few of them were sane enough to talk.

A helmet covered the Veermark’s face from sight, whilst every breath he took made the helmet leak a steam-like liquid that radiated cold. The helmet also prohibited correct fluent speech for the Veermark member. “No,” The ice conduit gasped, “Fighting tonight is,” gasp,”Off limits.”

Decius laughed, “Two conduits now? This world has many more than when I first died!” While Kyd was distracted, Decius took the liberty of quickly grabbing the stake and chucking it with all his might into the nearby urban area.

“WOAH! Cooooome back here my precious little stick!” Kyd said, teleporting away.

There was a long silence before Decius spoke, “What brings you to Empire City, Veermark? Your kind is only seen in New Marais.”

The Veermark stiffened, “I took a,” The man gasped again, “Leave of absence.”

Decius wasn’t actually trying to have a conversation with this freak, he was looking for weaknesses in the forced conduit’s strange suit. It had been over three hours since he had had any sort of blood, and he had to have something. Decius spotted it in the gloves, they were just made of thin rubber. “May I see your hand?” The conduit seemed confused, but held up his hand for Decius. Decius grabbed it and bit into it, beginning to suck out blood. Except it wasn’t blood. Decius spat out the liquid as his tongue froze over. “Wha..is...dat?” Decius said, struggling to speak with an ice cube for a tongue.

The Veermark soldier seemed shocked. “My...my blood,” He made the strange gasping sound, “Is...liquid nitrogen.”

Decius registered this, “I am sorry. I need blood.” He said in a monotone, his tongue having melted back by now. It was a good thing he only took a small sip of the coldest commonly available liquid on earth.

Kyd teleported back into the scene, “I cant find my stick! AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT MR. VAMPIRE!” He said, pulling out his two knives, stabbing both into Decius’s chest.

Decius was unaffected, and he pulled both daggers out. “Now, now, you cannot kill me with those things, we all know that.” Already the holes in his chest were beginning to close over. By morning the wound would be fine.

“Gentlemen, a storm is coming, I suggest we get inside.” Said the Veermark soldier, pointing to a frenzy of lightning lighting up the night sky.

“Yes, a storm is coming.” Decius said calmly, “Let us go inside somewhere.”

Kyd was still upset, “Lightning?! That’s NOTHING compared to WHAT I’m about to DO to YOU!” He said, adding a maniac's laugh at the end. He charged Decius and tackled him, beginning to punch Decius excessively. Decius took the chance to feed and grabbed one of Kyd’s arms as he punched, biting down on it. The blood began to flow into Decius’s mouth, and he began regaining his strength. All of the sudden, the Veermark soldier was pulling them apart, “Experiment 249 will not allow fighting!” He said.
Decius assumed that the Veermark was referring to himself in the third person, and that the soldier was ‘Experiment 249’. He pushed Kyd away and walked about five feet away from both of the conduits. “This is not over he said, turning to walk away.”

It was at this moment that Kyd charged Decius again, and lightning struck all three of them from the storm above.

The Twilight Zone was creepy to Kyd and 249, but not Decius. The dark and creepy was his home territory. He sat down and began to enjoy the change in setting, not surprised too much. He had done this much in the past hundred years.

Earth Prime was supplied with two more conduits and a vampire within the next five minutes.

Decius’s cage was a simple jail cell with a light bulb illuminating the cell. The light hurt. The voice hurt also, “Decius Cimbers! Champion In many events in our competitions hundreds of years ago! We have awaited your return anxiously!” Decius flinched as he recalled being in this same cage in a different time. He was not new to this experience.

249’s cage looked normal, but its bars were heated to extremely high temperatures. “The soldier who’s friends went crazy! Such a good story for our viewers, don’t you think? And don’t even consider trying to ice your way out, the bars will melt anything you throw at them, and then we will have to kill you! Such fun!”

Kyd’s cage was something he had also been in before. It was a box, filled with Tainted Shards. Kyd could feel them taking away his power. In this situation previously, he had moved all the shards to one side and teleported out. He tried this, only to find that the shards were bolted in place. He wasn’t going anywhere soon. “The crazy one, right? I--”

“Crazy?! IM INSANE!!!!!!” Kyd shouted aloud.

The voice seemed stunned that Kyd had talked back to him. Most people were too terrified with the experience to talk at all. “As I was saying, don’t try anything funny. We have a lot more of those shards...and other techniques to kill you.”

Kyd smiled crazily, “Brrrriiiiiing it on!”

The voice was amused, “Not until the competitions begin.” It paused and then addressed the group of them, “Earth 13 has been resilient to being destroyed, despite the loss of most its neighboring Earth’s deaths! We wish to see a strong performance out of all of you in the games, or else your planet will suffer greatly.” The presence of the voice left, and the three were left to contemplate the coming days.

((Short-ness...ugh..))

Abduction IV
August 24th, 2012
7:30 PM
Earth 2

Thomas Ellis ran under the skull moon, breathing deeply and running from the inevitable. Long story short, his ex had gone slightly insane after the blast, using her new powers to throw entire cities under deep depression and...skull moons. His ex-girlfriend, her name was Ophelia, had started chasing him around after she realized he hadn’t died in the Blast back in Empire City. Virtually unopposed, Ophelia had slowly taken control of Empire City, drowning the civilians in their sorrows and using them as her personal little army.

After the fall of Empire, Thomas had fled down the coast, stopping in cities for short times before they too were drowned by Ophelia. Thomas had stayed in New Marais longer than most, but now it was time to leave here too. A black wave swept into the streets behind him, coming towards Thomas. He couldn’t outrun it, he seriously doubted that, but he could out-fly it.

Surrounding himself with sound, Thomas jumped into the air higher than any regular human could and unleashed the sound, causing him to fly away. He knew that the more he ran, the more power Ophelia would gain. And she wouldn’t give up on coming after him anytime soon. It all had to end somewhere. He turned and brought himself down to the ground. Enough running, it ended here.

The wave approached, and Thomas knew it wouldn’t stop. He whipped his guitar off his back and hit a chord, making an impossibly loud noise. The noise was louder than the bell towers at St. Ignatius towards town. It was what he needed. Thomas shaped the sound to his will and made a ‘shield’ of it against the tears. The pitch black liquid split off around Thomas and joined back together just behind him.

This occurred for about fifteen seconds, and Thomas knew he couldn’t hold back the waves much longer. And then, suddenly, it was gone. The sea of tears parted like the Red Sea did with Moses. In the large opening, walked Thomas’s ex-girlfriend, Ophelia. Back in Empire, he had renounced his love for her, and she had chased him all the way to New Marais to try to either earn it back or kill him for revenge. Her skin was a pale blue, and her eyes were tinted purple. Her black hair matched perfectly with the tears that clung to her body, forming clothing.

Even on conduit terms, Ophelia was a powerhouse. With a small army of zombie-like slaves doing her every command, and an entire ocean of black depression, it was tough to even look at her without feeling fear.

Thomas felt no fear, though. He collapsed his sound-shield and pulled out his ax. “You know I don’t want to kill you, but if you don’t stop terrorizing these people then I will without hesitation.”

Ophelia laughed, “You’d never hurt me. I know that for a fact.”

With expert skill, Thomas flipped the ax into its place on his back and pulled out his guitar, striking a powerful chord. The sound knocked Ophelia on her back, and she got up stunned, “You--you---you’ve changed! You shall drown like the rest of them!”

At this point, a tall, skinny man walked into the middle of the clearing, taking time to avoid the puddles of remaining tears. “What’da we got here?” The man said, taking in the scene, “The Wicked Witch of the North-East without her little emo army?” The man took in Thomas, “A normal conduit, eh? We need more people like you. Not those freaky tear-drinking, tar-sucking, trash bags!”

If Ophelia wasn’t already pissed enough, this had done it. She raised her hand at the man, and a stream of tears shot from her pointer finger. The stream was going to hit him, until Thomas saw the man separate into two of himself! “Well, I didn’t expect that...” Thomas said, surprised. He realized he wasn’t doing anything, and struck another power chord, knocking Ophelia back. This time, however, the tears caught her mid-fall. The tears absorbed her, and began to form a large humanoid figure of itself.

The tall man didn’t notice right away, because he was too busy introducing himself, “Ash Nukem, at your service,” He separated into two, “Ash Nukem, also at your service,” He separated into three, “Ash Nukem, also--” Ash took the time to dodge a huge blast of tears and continue his introductions of his multiple selves.

“SILENCE!” Thomas said, and Ash found that he couldn’t talk. Thomas loved that trick.

He turned his attention back to the tear monster, that was already dripping its tears everywhere, falling slowly apart. The monster opened its mouth, and Ophelia stepped out, seemingly renewed. “I can do this all day, Thomas, or you can surrender and have a quick drowning.”

“In your dreams, b*tch, I’m not going to surrender anytime soon!” Thomas threw his ax at Ophelia, and she stepped aside of it easily.

“You cannot defeat me with a hatchet, love!” Ophelia said, mocking him.

“Wasn’t trying to.” Thomas said, as he strummed a continuous G-chord. Ash, all 7 of him, and Ophelia fell to their knees covering their ears. The sound became even more intense, and power lines began sparking. Wood began to catch fire, including the handle of Thomas’s ax, which was laying in the very flammable tears. The fire caused the remains of the tear monster to explode, and quickly spread from puddle to puddle, approaching Ophelia. Thomas stopped strumming, the fire was strong on its own now. Ash stood up, uncovering his 14 ears, but Ophelia didn’t. She seemed distressed by the burning of the tears,

“Why isn’t she getting out of there?” Thomas asked, before doing something he regretted. He ran and launched himself just off the ground, flying at the speed of sound and swooping up Ophelia just before the tears completely burned. Thankfully, she was out cold and Thomas didn’t have to worry about getting attacked mid-flight. As he landed he threw down her body in disgust. “That’s a one time thing. That’s it.”

Ash opened his mouth to make a smart-allelic remark, but was cut off by being struck by lightning and disappearing with Thomas and Ophelia.

For a moment, Thomas thought that the Twilight Zone was a world filled with tears, and that this had all been a nasty trick, so he was relieved when he appeared in his holding cell, a sound-proof boxed in area. “Thomas Ellis, we have been awaiting you anxiously. You and your past lover have been quite the laughing stock of Earth Prime these past months.” Thomas gaped, a laughing stock?

Ash was in a normal cell with extra thick bars. “The bars are simply a precaution, Mr. Nukem. Did you know your name has inspired many games in this realm?” Ash did a little fist bump celebration, he wasn’t concerned why he was in a cage or a voice was speaking to him at all.

Ophelia was in a cage much like the Veermark from Earth 13 had. Any tears would burn up immediately, killing Ophelia. “I see you’ve notice our cage is...insulated...for you. Don’t try anything funny, Queen of the Tears, or else you will be our first fatality. Few people are rooting for you as of now, meaning your injuries are not their first-most concern.”

“Earth 2 has lived in the shadow of greatness for far too long. I would love to see one of you bring back its glory and tradition of excellence in the competitions.” the Voice addressed all of them, and then promptly left their heads, most likely going to summon the rest of the champions from various Earth’s.

Thomas screamed in his cage, but no sound was heard. A small crack appeared in the clear sound-proof windows and the Conduit of Sound smiled. Three screams later, the window shattered, but Thomas reduced the sound around it. He went to Ash’s cage, and began to try and break the lock on it. Within a minute, though, he heard voices and had to find a way out. He looked up and saw a vent.

A few seconds later, two humans inhabiting Earth Prime walked into the room. The saw the shattered cage of Thomas’s, screamed and turned to run. They turned straight into Thomas, who promptly punched both of them. Hours later, they were found gagged and tied up in Thomas’s broken cage. The escapee was nowhere to be found.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I love it. I love it I love it I love it!!!!!!

Abduction V
August 25th, 2012
5:45 AM
Earth 3

War Sabine, FBI agent, walked through the streets of Empire City as the sun began to just barely peek its rays out over the horizon. The FBI had been silent to her for quite some time, but she had gotten a call a few weeks ago requiring that she capture a target and interrogate him. The target’s name was Dimitri Quinn, also known as Deej. The man was the head of an organization known as the Templars. The Templars were secretive, and few people knew of them, despite their large numbers. They basically had two goals: To stay a secret, and to be the sword of God, eliminating all conduits which were ‘demons’. War saw them as another anti-conduit cult, but the FBI saw them as a threat. Their numbers hadn’t stopped growing for many years now, and it was approaching the size of a small army. The FBI had no agents in the Templars, so they needed some more information.

The target wasn’t hard to spot in the early morning sunlight, the red dashes over his eyes were a very distinctive feature. This, along with the fact that few people carried around dual-wield Glock pistols and a bible at the same time, was enough War needed to identify the threat. She pulled an Uzi out of her jeans (don’t ask how she concealed it) but stopped. She noticed that Dimitri was hungrily eyeing a young lady walking down the street wearing a skirt and looking at a poster that appeared to be a heavy metal band advertisement. He eyed her like a lion eyes a lamb...if the lamb has been tied up and roasted over a fire with all its friends.

War kicked the religious freak in the back, knocking him unto the ground, where she stood over him, a boot on his face, while she took away his guns, placing them in her back pockets. “I don’t know if you’re gonna kill that girl, or if you’re just a pervert, and I don’t care. You’re coming with me, and you’re gonna do it peacefully or else I’ll pull the trigger on the gun, got it?”

Dimitri grunted and stood up at gun point. The girl had noticed by now, and had begun walking that way. As she approached, War began to feel that she wasn’t quite...complete. There was an empty look in the girls grey eyes that matched the depressing color of her palish skin. Truthfully, she wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t a drop dead hot girl that guys like Dimitri would drool over. So she obviously was some kind of conduit. “What--What’s going on?” She asked in a timid way.

“Nothing to see her, miss, just walk away.” War said. Great, the girl was shy! This was going to make it a lot harder to get rid of her...War had to be careful not to break the girl’s feelings in anyway, or else she could be dealing with another psychopathic freak before long.

“I--I know that man, though. From...somewhere...” The girl said.

War sighed, “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t think you know this man.” She said, as gently as possible.

Dimitri’s eyes flashed, “The demon! She’s a demon! Kill her now!” He yelled angrily.

War kicked the back of his knees and he fell down, “You’re supposed to be quiet. Understand?”

The girl was a little shaken by Dimitri’s demon stuff, but she still stayed put where she was, “I’m Sena Crosse. Conduit of Darkness...I’m not a demon. I don’t think...”

War wasn’t surprised by the whole ‘I’m a conduit’ thing anymore. After the first few times it got old. “Conduit of Darkness? Shouldn’t you, like, be burning and hissing in the sunlight?”

Sena smiled a bit, “The light hurts, but it’s not as strong right now, so I feel okay. Who are you?”

“Name’s War, FBI agent. That’s all I’m allowed to tell you.” War said in a monotone.

“That’s creepy...but cool. Who is he?” Sena said, motioning to Dimitri.

“The guy who was going to try and either kill you, rape you, convert you, or all three. He can’t do much handcuffed though...not with a gun to his head.” War said, poking Dimitri with the Uzi.

Sena frowned, “That’s not so cool...but I’m sure I know him...” The Conduit of Darkness couldn’t remember anything before the Blast, but now she was starting to uncover bits and pieces of her memory. It was a slow frustrating process, though.

“Look, Sena, we have some great people for Amnesia at the Pentagon, I’m sure they could help you find where you know this creep from, but for now he needs to be locked up somewhere where we can beat the sh** out of him.”

Sena flinched, but nodded. The sunlight was getting brighter and brighter each passing moment. It hurt her more and more. At last, a cloud went over the sun and everything was slightly more bearable. “I--can I come with you to the...what was it?”

“The Pentagon...it’s mostly the CIA there, but the FBI has a couple of wings. It’s sort of a joint operation. A chopper will be here to pick me up soon, and until then we wait.” War said, pulling out a flare gun from her hair as she heard the sounds of helicopter blades. She shot the gun twice and there were two flashes of green, both of which made Sena hurt even more.

“Ouch...that hurts...stop it.” She said, flinching from the light.

War put away the flare gun, “Sorry, but the chopper isn’t gonna see us without those things.” Sena nodded, and the pain went away as the flares faded.

The chopper landed on the rooftop and it’s doors opened. The helicopter was a stealth-black AH-6. Once it got high enough, it would be completely invisible on Templar radar’s. It was also designed that a signal couldn’t be sent outside of it unless the device was registered.

Dimitri was forced in to the back of the AH-6 first at gun point, followed by War, and then Sena. When the pilot saw Sena, he raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

The helicopter took off, rising above the buildings of Empire City. Archer Square became visible over the rooftops, the golden statue standing with its arms in a spread out fashion.

Apparently, the Reapers had visually seen the chopper, the only way that it could be detected. They lined the streets, standing with RPG’s to try and blow the lightweight gunship apart.

War moved quickly after the first RPG was launched by the Reapers. She took hold of the mini-gun mounted beside the door, “You wanna play rough? Here we go.” Sena flinched as the gun begin firing rapidly. It was loud. Not her style. “Hey, princess, you gonna help any?!” War shouted to Sena.

Sena nodded and looked around for a weapon. She found a crossbow mounted on the wall. It was weird that a small, light, heavily armed GUNship would have anything other than guns and missiles. She shrugged and picked it up. She had once used a very similar model for self-defense until she had met people who would keep her safe. It was all black, and had a ‘clean’ feeling about it.

War was still firing when Sena came over next to her with the crossbow, “Seriously? That’s all you could find?” Sena bowed her head, but took a kneeling stance. She placed a condensed amount of darkness on the tip of the bolt and fired.

The shot went way wide, the wind simply blowing it off target into the distance. Sena reloaded the crossbow and put another ball of darkness on the bolt, this time adjusting her aim slightly. The arrow went directly to its target. It hit a trashcan between two Reapers. The RPG-wielding thugs thought it was a missed shot and kept on firing, but it was exactly what Sena wanted to hit.

The ball of darkness on the bolt exploded and dimmed the senses of the Reapers around it. The confusion made the Reapers lose sight of the AH-6 as it sailed up into the early morning clouds.

War looked at Sena, “We could use some more people like you in the force, Sena. Want to join anytime, just call me.”

War was then called up towards the pilot’s area. “Sabine, our quickest route to the Pentagon is blocked by a nasty storm.”

War snorted, “This thing just went through a full-out attack from the Reapers. Don’t give me this bull, we can go right through it.”

“But...”

“What are you, a whiny child? Go through the storm, we have a high value target and it won’t take long for his followers to notice his absence.” War responded to the pilot’s obvious discomfort. The co-pilot said nothing, he had obviously had this discussion before with someone like War.

To Sena, the pilot’s description of a ‘nasty storm’ was an understatement. The small helicopter shook back and forth violently as lightning flashed around it. “We aren’t going to make it much farther.” Sena said, wrapping her arms around her legs. The darkness brought by the storm felt good, but being shook violently did not.

War opened her mouth to respond, when suddenly the helicopter began spinning, the lights going down. “Captain, what is it?”

“Struck by lightning, we’re going down, fasten your seat belts. The systems have short-circuted...and...OH CRAP!” The pilot yelled as the another lightning bolt hit the chopper. The helicopter was pitch black, and as it fell towards the Earth, there was an eerie silence.

The CIA were the first to find the remains. Both pilots were fatally wounded, both of them dying before the even reached the hospital. War, Sena, and Dimitri’s bodies were never found in the wreckage. It was almost as if they had disappeared...A crossbow was also missing from the wreckage.

Sena woke up in pain. The light above her head made her skin want to jump off her body and run away. She threw up a wall of darkness between her and the light, but it lasted only for a few seconds. That was odd. She looked and saw that the bars glowed a strange color...the color of Tainted Shards. The term popped into her head right away, despite the fact she had never seen them before. Well, not that she remembered. The voice switched things up this time, speaking to all of them, “Welcome to Earth Prime, champions of Earth 3. Your world is at stake, so I would suggest you listen carefully. You will not try to escape, or else you shall be killed along with your entire home universe, understand? You will not disobey anything we tell you to do, or else you shall be killed along with you home universe, understand? And lastly, we hope you enjoy your visit, despite the circumstances that many of you will die in the coming hours.”

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. that's all I have to say, man.

Abduction VI
August 24th, 2012
9:45 PM
Earth 24

Bar Durmot sat quietly on the dark streets of post-blast Empire City. The popular bar had few robberies, and a lot of dead robbers involved in its post-blast history, which was uncommon. At a quarter until ten o’clock, the bar was in transition mode. The late dinner crowds were giving way to the small party crowd. That was the great thing about humans, as long as they didn’t die they would always carry on and adapt. The Blast had been devastating on business in the area, but mankind came through again, a slow party crowd always trickling in for a beer or two, maybe more.

It was funny how predictable humans could be in this way. You think you’re different than everyone else? You put your pants on the same way today, you sat at the same boring job, and now you came to the same bar. The Bar Durmot.

It wasn’t the most hi-tech bar around, neither was it the best, but when it came to a comfortable atmosphere, good service, and good times the little bar at the end of 21st street was the place to go. The after-work crowd shifted out and left three people in the room, all female. None of them knew each other.

The first was Theresa Reategi. She was a conduit, who had turned to the secretive Templars (Not to be confused with the group from Earth 3) to neutralize her powers. It was a complicated story that Theresa didn’t like explaining to people she barely knew. Her motivation was her own, and she shared it with few. A small necklace she wore contained a Tainted Shard, the same materials being used to weaken her fellow conduits on Earth Prime.

The second was Coralline E.C., also known as Cory. Cory was mildly like Theresa with the conduit part, but Cory was like that with EVERYTHING. Practically raised in a greenhouse with her father, Cory was home schooled for all anyone knew. She was a conduit of plants, basically. She controlled vines, flowers, trees, all that wonderful stuff. Super-shy with little social experience, Cory wasn’t accustomed to the bar atmosphere, but she was there anyways.

The third person was the bartender, Marriott Antoinette Bouvier, known as Mary Ann. She owned the bar and was one of the few staff members who had kept with their jobs. Mary Ann always kept a shotgun behind the counter where only she could reach it and was a fairly good fighter from breaking up numerous huge post-blast bar fights. You would never guess that some of the bodies lying in dumpsters behind the bar were shot between the eyes with extra precision from a female bartender.

“Last one’s from the work rush hour? Stay as long as you want, we’re open well past midnight.” Mary Ann said to the two of them, both sitting at the bar. Lightning struck outside and thunder rumbled. “Well, you might be stuck in here a little longer than you thought.” She said as the television blared a warning siren. Looked like a nasty storm was coming straight overhead. The weatherman confirmed her beliefs.

Cory seemed discomforted by the lightning, tensing up at ever flash and only relaxing a few seconds after the thunder faded. Each time lightning struck, Cory’s blue hair lit up to an almost white looking color.

Mary Ann walked behind the counter and grabbed her shotgun. The Reapers liked to strike at times like these...perfect opportunities to sneak up in the darkness and strike. “In this weather we aren’t gonna have any crowd,” Mary Ann said, locking the doors. “And I’m not gonna let you guys out in this weather...it’s Reaper weather.”

Recognition flashed across Theresa’s face, and Cory just seemed to flinch even more at the next lightning strike.

Theresa sighed, “Well, we might as well get a drink...” She said, sitting down at the bar.

“I guess so, I was gonna have to work anyways.” Mary said, going behind the counter, what do you want?”

“Might as well have a beer...nothing too strong.” Theresa said. If the Templars found out that she was drinking they wouldn’t be overjoyed. Unfortunately, most of the Templars weren’t ‘party people’ in her book.

The mug of light beer made a ‘clink’ sound as Mary set it down in front of Theresa, “What about you, blue hair?” Mary said, looking at Cory who still stood back in a corner only illuminated by flashes of lightning.

The shy girl looked up, it seemed as if she hadn’t been paying much attention, “Huh? Um...water if you have it...”

Mary shook her head as she got water from the tap, “Water? Seriously? Whatever...drinks are on the house, guys.” The power flickered, “Damn...” The lights flickered more and more until they went out and the bar was plunged into darkness. From across the bar, Cory made a little squeak sound.

The storm had calmed down drastically, yet the power was still out. In Empire the power didn’t go out all that often with the substations being in the sewers. Mary wondered...

Her thoughts were cut off by a scream across the street. She couldn’t see the Reaper until he lit two sticks of dynamite and charged at the bar. “What the--get down!” She yelled as the Reaper exploded too early in front of the door. “Huh...idiot’s fuse wasn’t long enough, I guess. Look’s like we’re in the clear!” She said, getting up, shotgun in hand.

All three were surprised when five Reapers were lit up by a flash of lightning. With a chorus of screams, all five charged, dynamite in hand. The fastest hit first, blowing up just in front of the bar. The second one made it a bit farther, as did the rest. The three girls were thrown back against the wall. The sign that hung over Bar Durmot’s door fell, blocking the front door. The back door was already burning...they were trapped inside.

Theresa desperately looked around. There was only one option, and it would most likely get her killed. She reached up to the necklace holding the Tainted shard and ripped it off, throwing it into the fire. Cory’s dropped water bottle caught Theresa’s eye, and the water bottle levitated, and exploded over the nearest fire, diminishing it slightly.

The sink behind the bar exploded with water, huge globs of it going to the back door that had caught fire. After about thirty seconds, most of the fire was extinguished in the back. Theresa looked around, Cory had passed out...from the toxic gasses or the shock of being attacked, Theresa wasn’t sure. Mary had her shotgun raised, but couldn’t use it on anything unless she wanted to try and shoot the beer mugs off the walls!

Theresa nodded at Mary then pointed to Cory. The two girls picked Cory up and carried her through the smoking hole that used to be the back door.

Mary fell on her back, “That was...exhausting...” She paused, breathing deeply, “At least it’s over now.” She said. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. The last bolt of lightning struck the three of them, transferring them to the twilight zone.

Their cages weren’t anything special. It was the same cage Maximus and Dimitri had been stuck in. With four sides of iron, they were practically impossible to break out of for Mary, Cory, and Theresa. There was a not-so-surprising lack of water in the room...as well as plants.

“Earth 24? This is Earth 24’s champions? Three females? This is a definite first, but we must trust that the probes are right about there three choices.” The voice paused it’s doubting of Earth 24’s champions, “What? They can hear me...oh.” The voice cleared his throat, “Yes, sorry you had to hear that. Um...well, we must...I’m just gonna go right now. I’ve made this rather awkward.”

The voice’s presence left.

((So short! But I was able to explain some of the origins. Look forward to the feast chapter, I'll have it up ASAP.))

Opening Ceremonies
August 25th, 2012
8:30 PM
Earth Prime

Lucas remained floating inside his watery prison for three days, and two nights. The lack of air left him weak and made him feel vulnerable when the guards came and opened his aquarium-like cage. Strangely enough, Lucas was not handcuffed. Neither were the rest of the people around him...most he had never met before. Also, rather strangely, Lucas had no will to escape. None of the others seemed to either. Lucas guessed they’d all seen the power of this place the voice called, “Earth Prime”.

The guards did not speak as they walked, almost robotically, down a dark hallway. Lucas cursed in his head, he hadn’t been paying attention. If he ever got away he’d have no idea where he was going. Lucas began paying intense attention after that. He was probably the first one to notice the small muffled sounds above and look up. What he saw seared into his head for quite some time. A man’s face could be seen through the air vent of a duct overhead. The vent made his face look eerie in the low light. He mad a slow motion to make the universal ‘silence’ sign before the face disappeared in the shadows.

Lucas opened his mouth and tried to warn the guards, yet no sound came out. He looked like a fish, opening and closing his mouth randomly. He closed his mouth and continued marching along in the back of the group. His voice returned a few minutes later, but he had no intentions of warning the guards of the small muffled crawling sounds above. You couldn’t notice them if you weren’t trying to hear them, anyways. As they approached the end of the hallway, a large doorway became visible in the shaded darkness of the room. The doorway had ancient carvings in it, many of them Simon would most likely be able to put an approximate date on. It was a strange material, not solid. It shimmered and moved around, much like mater does in the ocean. The entire doorway was it’s own little ocean. On the outer edges of the doors, there were small little circles, floating around. Most of them glowed a faint yellowish-gold color, but some were just there. No color at all. Lucas reaches to touch one of the glowing ones, but a guard cleared his throat and the conduit of wind decided he shouldn’t touch the exhibits.

The doors flashed the same golden colors that the small orbs glowed, and slowly began opening. About ever jaw hit the floor when the assorted conduits and civilian soldiers caught a look of the room inside.

Lucas stood amazed as he stared inside a large cavern, many times bigger than the separate districts of Empire City. It was perfectly circular, and amazingly well lit for being, for all Lucas could tell, underground. The walls were a slick, jade like looking material. Nearly impossible to climb. Carved into the slick material, there were many balconies. Humans stood on the lower one’s, many of them taking pictures with strange looking cameras. Lucas looked down and realized he was standing on one of these balconies, overlooking an arena with strange obstacles. Apparently, they were invisible to the spectators, many of them just taking pictures of the floor.

Lucas was snapped back to reality when Maximus grunted, “I’ve seen better places.” Then he got struck by lightning. Lucas raised an eyebrow, the second before he also got struck.

For the second time in one week, Lucas found himself flashed to a Twilight Zone-like place for a few seconds, before his vision cleared and he stood next to a Reaper in a mask and a man with Oakley sunglasses, that appeared tinted green. Simon nodded at Lucas, “This isn’t the slightest bit weird, is it?”

Lucas shook his head, “Always the joker, eh Eyes?”

“You’re one to talk, Breezy.” Simon replied back, joking around with Lucas.

The Voice came on over a hidden PA system somewhere, beginning to announce. “Welcome, Earth 1, to Competition of the Earths! We are your hosts, the people of Earth Prime, and we bid you a wonderful stay here in The Pit!” The Voice droned on and on, continuing a drawn out history on each of the competitors from ‘Earth 1’. The images from their so called “Abduction” were startling. Especially the tornado. That received a gasp and a large applause from the crowd.

Each earth followed, each champion receiving cheers from the audience. Lucas didn’t feel like they were directed in a negative way, strangely enough. The whole atmosphere felt friendly, despite the fact that multiple times he had heard voices talking about universal-wide destruction.

Images flashed on the screen, a helicopter going down above the iconic Archer Square, an entire bridge collapsing into the harbor by Empire City. Lucas recognized all these landmarks, yet they were somewhat...different in a way.

And then there was the young guy with the guitar. Lucas was sure he was the one he’d seen through the air vent. Absolutely sure. It was rather strange though, because the screen showed him dying in a fight against some lady who reminded The Wind Conduit quite a bit of Sasha. Some members in the crowd seemed distressed by this. The voice addressed it, “Now, now, do not fret! We realize that never has a champion been killed before the opening ceremonies, but Earth 2 still has very high chances with Ophelia and Mr. Nukem!” The crowd’s morale grew a little at this, but not much more than it had been before.

Lucas frowned, and the PA seemed to also address this, “Yes, yes, I’m sure many competitors are confused. Unfortunately, Decius has not been kind enough to enlighten you of this.” Lucas noticed they had gone from ‘Champions’ to ‘Competitors’ in the past three minutes.

“As many people here know, the Earth Experiment was set in to place the the original Earth, what has become known as Earth Prime. Here in this very spot, 100 Earth’s were created to save our planet’s overpopulation problem. Some died off quickly, but many survived and civilization grew. They followed the same paths for many centuries, all with slight changes. In the end, they forgot about us. This was not a pleasant idea on Earth Prime, so we stole away the three greatest warriors and people that these Earth’s had. We had them fight to the death at this very spot. The very spot that our ancestors set sail to create new dimensions and new universes.

“Back then, unfortunately, we were as barbaric as some of the Earth’s themselves. We have matured since then, and grab a few champions each year to compete in friendly competitions.” Lucas smiled, this was good. At least they weren’t going to run around killing each other...he had read a book about something like that. It was clearly fiction, unlike this.

“But,” Lucas held his breath as the Voice began speaking after a pause, “We have to have a little something to risk in the spirit of the games! Without risk, we wouldn’t see such great effort from the competitors!” Lucas gulped, what was the risk?

The Voice continued, “So here’s the twist, and I would listen closely. You are perfectly safe as long as you never finish DEAD LAST in the various competitions! This earns you a painful death, and one third less of a chance to keep your universe alive! If all of your Earth’s competitors are eliminated, your universe will be destroyed, as we have no use for it anymore!”

Simon leaned over to Lucas, “You think they would’ve heard of the whole gold, silver, and bronze medals theory, eh?”

Lucas cracked up, earning him some strange looks from the crowd. Even a stifled chuckle escaped from Maximus. It made its way down the line of “champions” skipping over Dimitri and Ophelia. Even the one the said was a genius, Cregnix, smiled slightly when the whispers traveled to him. The crowd seemed shocked at this. With death on the line they’d never seen people laughing and smiling!

The Voice cleared its throat over the PA, “Yes, well, that’s the spirit. Come and celebrate with us! The Feast of Earth Prime is tonight, and the champions shall be encouraged to go.” Lucas realized that ‘encouraged’ meant forced to. At least he would get to die on a full stomach from the feast.

A short anthem played, and all the spectators stood, yet there was no flag. These people really were rather strange when Lucas thought about it. He was surprised that he had quite a bit in common with them. After the anthem ended, lightning streaked all around “The Pit”, and the spectators disappeared. This left Lucas with his currently named enemies and teammates. He looked down the line, a majority of them were conduits like him. This was going to be loads of fun.

The Feast
August 25, 2012
9:30 PM
Earth Prime

It was getting late. That was the first thing that Matteo Alacran noticed as he was brought through a different tunnel and unto a place almost as impressive as the one the Earth Prime natives called ‘The Pit’. The tunnel came yet again to large doors with strange objects that glowed floating around in them. Matteo already had a theory about them, but he was still mix-matching options in his head. He was sure the man next to him, Cregnix, also was.

Matt had already, under his mask, been planning an escape route. When the doors opened, he knew it was most likely not possible to escape without a deep load of great difficulty. He walked out onto a cliff, just a steep drop to nothingness. The side of the cliff seemed more eroded than the cliffs on the place Matt was used to, it looked almost like the walls of The Pit the way it appeared to be slick.

Matt knew that some sort of “feast” was in store, but he wasn't sure quite where. He turned around, and was amazed at what he saw. It was a castle...much like the one at Disney World, but it was carved into the mountain. The entire mountain was made of the black, slick-looking substance. Blimps floated around the castle, all of them tethered to the spires of the black castle. Matteo wasn’t the slightest bit phased by the large, futuristic looking blimps. He had already figured out this must be some large sporting event on Earth Prime, but there were many pieces left in the puzzle. Strangely, despite the lack of restraints, the ‘champions’ hadn’t tried to break free. Matt assumed they all wanted what he wanted...answers.

Unfortunately, standing on a cliff wasn’t going to get the group any answers. The guards began to slowly force the group toward the edge, all of them wielding spear-like objects that crackled with electricity. The group, moving as a whole, stepped back slightly. Then more and more, until the one’s in the back, who Matt remembered from the ceremonies, stepped to the very edge of the cliff. And then something surprising happened. With the next step, four people fell over the edge...

...Only to not fall. The one Matt remembered who was named Lucas floated in the air. Matt did the mental equivalent of a facepalm, Lucas Rice was a conduit of air! The guards kept pressing on the group unfortunately, until the entire group fell off the cliff. There was no way Lucas could keep them all up. Some of them fell, and some didn’t. The one called Ophelia, grew raven wings on her back and hovered around the immediate area. Kyd teleported behind the guards, and they didn’t seem to notice him. The ice conduit extended the cliff, walking backwards onto ice that anchored onto the cliff. The guards tried to break the ice, but their shafts weren’t strong enough to do so. Lucas held up as many people as he could, including Eyes, Matt, Dimitri, Maximus, and all three competitors from Earth 24.

And then clapping filled the air around them. The sound of one man clapping. Through the strange doors, walked a man who clapped lightly, yet didn’t show any emotion on his face. “Well done, you’ve past the first test!” A few people gasped, Matt recognized the voice as...the Voice that had haunted them in the cages. Matt clenched his fists, yet said nothing as Lucas set him down with the rest of the group on the cliff, the guards having backed up. The Darkness noticed that there was a strange absence...he looked around and noticed that Eyes was gone. He said nothing, but made a note to look into it later. The voice continued talking, “Now that was just a practice test to see if you are capable of the following days! Come, let us feast!”

The group was led by the Voice back through the doors, but instead of a tunnel behind the doors, there was a large banquet set up on a table in a well lit room. “The competitions this year have attracted attention from many galaxies across this universe, and the bids are through the roofs! Of course, no one wants to see you starve to death, so we must feed you well!” The Voice paused, “Any questions?”

Maximus spoke up for the first time since arriving on Earth Prime, “Yeah, what if we don’t compete?”

The Voice, quicker than anyone Matt had ever seen, whipped out a strange-looking pistol and put a hole in Maximus’s head. There was a bullet hole on the Reaper’s mask right in between his eyes. “Any...other...questions?” Everyone shook their head’s to indicate a clear ‘no.’ “Great! Let us feast!” By the time Matt sat down at the table filled with so many foods, he looked back and noticed Maximus’s body was nowhere to be found and there was no blood stains anywhere. These people were not amateurs.

The feast was decent. Since most of them had gone the entire day without food, they ate well, but Earth Prime didn’t have the same cuisine as the other Earths. The Voice didn’t eat, but he explained. “Well, I’m sure you all know each other fairly well from the ceremonies now, but it would be if you introduced yourselves one more time to each other.” Weak introductions were made, and the Voice continued, “My name varies everywhere, but I have always been there. First, I was known as Zeus...then Jupiter...then Thor. In between these names, I have been called many things, but my characteristics remain the same. I was born to rule every Earth, and I do with an iron fist. I am the bringer of all thunderstorms and lightning...that’s what I’m known for. I put on these competitions every year to remind the Earths that I am still here. I am the explanation to every mystery on every Earth. I am the Alpha and the--”

The Voice was cut off by Lucas who burped loudly and rudely. He smiled and looked at the Voice, “You can continue now, Mr. All-Powerful-Being!”

The Voice cleared his throat, “Yes, so you shall call me Zeus. That is my original name.”

Ash spoke up, “So, uh, Zeus, you got anymore of this ham-like stuff? Sh** is good!”

Cregnix looked at Ash funny, “That...isn’t...ham...” Cregnix shook his head, “I seriously doubt you even want to know what it is.”

Ash dropped it quickly, and Lucas picked it up, “When you live in Empire, you eat worse stuff than something that isn’t ham!” Lucas said, taking a huge bite. “Um...never mind...”

Zeus cleared his throat, “Yes, back to me and my glory now, eh?”

Ash leaned over to Matteo, “Cocky little god, isn’t he?”

Zeus’s eyes flashed, yet he said nothing about it, “Yes, so your Earths have survived the numerous games, meaning that you are some of the best out there. Decius is our only...returning...competitor, but he has changed much.”

Mary pointed at the man eating in a corner, “You mean the guy refusing to go into the light, right?”

“Yes, Decius was in this room about three-hundred years ago, when light could actually touch his skin without him exploding into dust. Let’s just say the experience left him scared for life.”

Decius looked up, “You have no idea.”

Zeus smiled, "Actually, this year they do Decius! While you were sleeping in your grave they all went through a quarantine and had to deal with some nasty little situations! We are just going to make this situation even more nasty."

Matteo Alacran didn't like the way that sounded.

I am totally loving this story!!!

Revelations
August 25, 2012
9:30 PM
Earth Prime

Few people had noticed the absence of Simon “Eyes” Anderson amongst the chaos of the feast. Even fewer people had noticed how he seemed to be grabbed and dragged into the shadows on top the cliff. And absolutely no one noticed when two figures slipped through a gap in the rocky cliff and began making their way through tunnels. Simon came face to face with Thomas Ellis at the end of a hidden passage. He made a ‘sush’ sign with his hand and pointed up.

Simon pressed his ear against the low ceiling and heard the sounds of what seemed like a party. He heard a burp, and then Lucas muffled voice. “Classic Lucas. Burping in the face of death.”

Thomas shook his head, “Sounds like a real champion.” Simon laughed lightly, but not too loud. He couldn’t take any risk of being heard.

“So, dude, why’d you just pull me off that cliff and bring me here? Not that I’m not thankful or anything.” Eyes said, wondering who this guy was.

“Caz’ I saw the opening ceremonies, and I know you’re good with the whole mind-reading stuff. I need to learn about that Voice so I can get out of here.” Thomas paused, “I’ll take you with me.”

Simon shrugged, “Sounds good to me. Let me see what I can do.” He said, pushing his hand up against the top of the ceiling, which was the floor of the dining hall. Fortunately, he was right under Zeus, and was able to send a shockwave to retrieve Zeus’s thoughts. Images flashed through Simon’s mind. Old images. They became more recent, but Simone was reaching his limits. His powers acted like a memory card, saving memories he scanned. Normally, Simon would ‘delete’ the useless stuff after awhile, but scanning through thousands of memories at the same time was different.

He took his hand off the ceiling, but the memories kept flowing. That wasn’t supposed to happen. His vision began to blur as he started to make sense of the memories, he began to mumble the same two words over and over again, “Croatoan, core, Croatoan, core, Croatoan, core...” He then passed out in the small, pitiful excuse of the chamber, leaving Thomas to ponder those two words.

Thomas only recognized one...core. To any normal person, this was a perfectly normal word. To a conduit, however, it meant quite a bit. Blast Cores strengthened a conduit. A lot. Was that the way out of here?

Thomas suddenly recognized the other word, Croatoan. He shivered at its meaning. The Lost Colony of Roanoke’s leader had gone to England looking for supplies, promising to be back within three months. A war with Spain delayed him by three YEARS. When he returned to Roanoke, he found it deserted, a single fence post having the crudely carved word “Croatoan” on it.

It was a creepy story, but what did it have to do with Earth Prime? Thomas sat back to wait for Simon to wake up, sure that he was fine.

Unfortunately, the Man with the Green Eyes had a still very active mind. It consciously searched through the memories of Zeus, working its way backwards to the first memory. Simon couldn’t communicate it with Thomas yet, not having any control over his physical body. He searched through memories, waiting to come conscious again. Sometimes being a conduit really sucked.

((INCREDIBLY SHORT CHAPTER Next Thomas/Simon chapter will be longer, I'm just letting everyone know what's going on with them currently. Ex's charries are up next, sorry for the delay.))

short, yes. bad, no.

((Unfortunately, the next chapter has gone on hold because I have a speech to write for school. I'll get around to it in a few days.))

((Question: When is this coming back?))

Soon. I'm working on ideas right now.

((good. I was getting worried there for a second.))