03-03-2010, 08:05 PM
“This should be good,” Gamer remarked to himself as he reclined in his high-back, mesh, executive’s chair.
Screens aplenty filled his control room and, with most of the participants of Kill Town still being… invited, there was time to kick back and watch the show. Not only were his robots capable of transmitting the images they were viewing back to the Gamer, but his computer was set-up to create a composite representation of all these feeds, letting him view the action at virtually any angle he wanted to. Using simple recording/playback filters, he could even pause and rewind.
His unofficial “main monitor” – it was the same size as all the others, but easiest to see from his chair – had been tuned to a particular feed. His robots had found not one to two targets, but three all lumped together. Punching up a database on a separate monitor, Gamer perused what information he had on Vad, Kaden, and Sophia. If they sucked, he wouldn’t waste his time watching. According to his info, though, they didn’t.
A cackle of delight flew from his lips as he watched the first strike against his machines: Kaden let loose with a quick burst of energy. Just as it looked like things were going to get good, though, the large, muscled, armor-clad saiyan shot into the air and flew away. Gamer slapped his forehead as three trapped contestants quickly dropped to two and moaned loudly when Kaden stumbled and two dropped to one.
Incredulously, Gamer scanned over his database of target information one more time, questioning it’s accuracy. Kaden was supposed to possess an uncanny ability to manipulate energy and a ridiculous personal reservoir of ki. Sophia should have been dead, but had come back to life? And Vad was a wanted, murderous saiyan warrior. A poor showing for all three of them. He sighed and shook his head.
“Buncha noobs…”
The first thing to welcome Kaden back to the realm of the conscious was the dull ache of being unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. The last thing he really remembered was being stabbed by a needle and being knocked out… after getting chased into an alley by a bunch of robots. If he had the energy to, he would have shaken his head. For all the steps he had taken in learning to competently deal with those kinds of psychotic situations, he still hadn’t been of any help to himself or those around him.
Those around him…
A frown crossed the courier’s face when he tried to recall anything about Sophia. Aside from vanishing on the other side of a seemingly endless stream of robots, he had no idea what had happened to the priestess. Vad had been there, too, but Kaden found himself less worried about the saiyan. If he had been well enough to just fly away, he should have been well enough to look after himself.
Whatever the robots had used to knock him out, Kaden was still feeling the effects of it. Just trying to lift a finger, or open his eyes was turning out to be an incredibly difficult task. He had no idea how long he would be incapacitated in such a manner, or if there had been any permanent damage done. More startlingly, he realized that he didn’t even know if he was alive.
After what felt like hours, Kaden managed to open his eyes. He had been thrown onto his back and found himself staring up at a brightly lit neon sign that read Kill Town. Great. Always a good thing to see when trying to pull one’s self out of a drug-induced stupor. A few more “hours” passed before the courier was finally able to lift his hands or move his legs. It was possible, sure, but he wasn’t about to try something crazy like sitting up. Not moving, however, turned out to be a mistake.
His eyes having fallen shut once again, Kaden was completely unprepared for the weight that was thrown on top of him. Crying out in a mixture of surprise and pain, the courier’s body reacted of its own accord, snapping upright. The adrenaline that pulsed through his veins seemed to have done an adequate job of giving him a much-needed kick-start. As he sat up, Kaden felt the weight roll clumsily over his lap. He was confused, relieved, and then saddened when he discovered that, of all possible things, it was Sophia that had been dropped on top of him.
As gently as he could manage, Kaden rolled the girl off of him and tried climbing to his feet. He got as far as one knee before having to stop and steady himself. Instead of pushing it, he tried to get a better gauge of his surroundings. Unless he was horribly mistaken “Kill Town” looked like a carnival. The number of questions that filled his head about why someone would name a carnival Kill Town and why they would capture people with robots to bring them there were almost as staggering as the drug that still lingered in his system.
“Well, at least it doesn’t look like we’re dead,” Kaden commented to himself as his eyes turned to Sophia. That’s what he hoped it meant when he saw empty space where a halo would have been above her head.
When Sophia began to stir, possibly at the sound of his voice, Kaden let himself fall back into a sitting position on the ground. He wasn’t in any hurry to explore Kill Town, and it did feel reassuring to be near someone he actually knew. It didn’t take long for her to go from incoherent mumbling to full alertness. Snapping her eyes open, the priestess looked around, exhaling deeply when her eyes fell upon the courier sitting next to her.
Kaden had been about to caution the girl to take it easy after just waking up, but silenced himself when Sophia bounced up onto her feet like it was nothing at all. Words escaped the courier as he watched her brush the dirt off of her skirt and stretch any remaining weariness out of her body. As quickly as he could muster, the courier tried to pull himself to his feet to join her. Unfortunately, he didn’t get particularly far. Stumbling onto all fours he just sighed.
“This isn’t even fair,” the courier mumbled.
“Need help?” the priestess offered as her head swiveled about to get a view of their surroundings.
“No no… I’m… fine. Kinda.”
As they often say, the third time was the charm. Once he actually made it to a full, upright and standing position, the courier felt a lot better about… moving. He mimicked Sophia, dusting himself off and stretching and lingering weariness from his joints. After a couple minutes he felt about as good as he was going to.
“So… this is Kill Town.” Not the most clever opener in the world, Kaden had to admit.
“Is it a… carnival? Maybe a circus?” Sophia inquired.
“Sure looks like it. No idea why, though. I mean… seriously, why not just tell people to come to your carnival? These things are usually fun. Why go through all the effort of sending an army of robots after us?”
“Yeah,” the priestess agreed. “I’d go to a carnival, I think.”
“Should we look around? I don’t see that we have many other options.”
“I guess so.”
Kaden had turned to enter Kill Town as Sophia agreed to take a gander, but recoiled as a... word bubble filled his field of vision. Exclaiming his surprise, the courier quickly realized that, no matter where he looked or how he turned his head, the word bubble remained in the same place. The last thing he actually tried doing was actually reading it. It was a simple black box surrounded by a white outline and filled with white text.
Sophia has joined the party!
Screens aplenty filled his control room and, with most of the participants of Kill Town still being… invited, there was time to kick back and watch the show. Not only were his robots capable of transmitting the images they were viewing back to the Gamer, but his computer was set-up to create a composite representation of all these feeds, letting him view the action at virtually any angle he wanted to. Using simple recording/playback filters, he could even pause and rewind.
His unofficial “main monitor” – it was the same size as all the others, but easiest to see from his chair – had been tuned to a particular feed. His robots had found not one to two targets, but three all lumped together. Punching up a database on a separate monitor, Gamer perused what information he had on Vad, Kaden, and Sophia. If they sucked, he wouldn’t waste his time watching. According to his info, though, they didn’t.
A cackle of delight flew from his lips as he watched the first strike against his machines: Kaden let loose with a quick burst of energy. Just as it looked like things were going to get good, though, the large, muscled, armor-clad saiyan shot into the air and flew away. Gamer slapped his forehead as three trapped contestants quickly dropped to two and moaned loudly when Kaden stumbled and two dropped to one.
Incredulously, Gamer scanned over his database of target information one more time, questioning it’s accuracy. Kaden was supposed to possess an uncanny ability to manipulate energy and a ridiculous personal reservoir of ki. Sophia should have been dead, but had come back to life? And Vad was a wanted, murderous saiyan warrior. A poor showing for all three of them. He sighed and shook his head.
“Buncha noobs…”
***
The first thing to welcome Kaden back to the realm of the conscious was the dull ache of being unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. The last thing he really remembered was being stabbed by a needle and being knocked out… after getting chased into an alley by a bunch of robots. If he had the energy to, he would have shaken his head. For all the steps he had taken in learning to competently deal with those kinds of psychotic situations, he still hadn’t been of any help to himself or those around him.
Those around him…
A frown crossed the courier’s face when he tried to recall anything about Sophia. Aside from vanishing on the other side of a seemingly endless stream of robots, he had no idea what had happened to the priestess. Vad had been there, too, but Kaden found himself less worried about the saiyan. If he had been well enough to just fly away, he should have been well enough to look after himself.
Whatever the robots had used to knock him out, Kaden was still feeling the effects of it. Just trying to lift a finger, or open his eyes was turning out to be an incredibly difficult task. He had no idea how long he would be incapacitated in such a manner, or if there had been any permanent damage done. More startlingly, he realized that he didn’t even know if he was alive.
After what felt like hours, Kaden managed to open his eyes. He had been thrown onto his back and found himself staring up at a brightly lit neon sign that read Kill Town. Great. Always a good thing to see when trying to pull one’s self out of a drug-induced stupor. A few more “hours” passed before the courier was finally able to lift his hands or move his legs. It was possible, sure, but he wasn’t about to try something crazy like sitting up. Not moving, however, turned out to be a mistake.
His eyes having fallen shut once again, Kaden was completely unprepared for the weight that was thrown on top of him. Crying out in a mixture of surprise and pain, the courier’s body reacted of its own accord, snapping upright. The adrenaline that pulsed through his veins seemed to have done an adequate job of giving him a much-needed kick-start. As he sat up, Kaden felt the weight roll clumsily over his lap. He was confused, relieved, and then saddened when he discovered that, of all possible things, it was Sophia that had been dropped on top of him.
As gently as he could manage, Kaden rolled the girl off of him and tried climbing to his feet. He got as far as one knee before having to stop and steady himself. Instead of pushing it, he tried to get a better gauge of his surroundings. Unless he was horribly mistaken “Kill Town” looked like a carnival. The number of questions that filled his head about why someone would name a carnival Kill Town and why they would capture people with robots to bring them there were almost as staggering as the drug that still lingered in his system.
“Well, at least it doesn’t look like we’re dead,” Kaden commented to himself as his eyes turned to Sophia. That’s what he hoped it meant when he saw empty space where a halo would have been above her head.
When Sophia began to stir, possibly at the sound of his voice, Kaden let himself fall back into a sitting position on the ground. He wasn’t in any hurry to explore Kill Town, and it did feel reassuring to be near someone he actually knew. It didn’t take long for her to go from incoherent mumbling to full alertness. Snapping her eyes open, the priestess looked around, exhaling deeply when her eyes fell upon the courier sitting next to her.
Kaden had been about to caution the girl to take it easy after just waking up, but silenced himself when Sophia bounced up onto her feet like it was nothing at all. Words escaped the courier as he watched her brush the dirt off of her skirt and stretch any remaining weariness out of her body. As quickly as he could muster, the courier tried to pull himself to his feet to join her. Unfortunately, he didn’t get particularly far. Stumbling onto all fours he just sighed.
“This isn’t even fair,” the courier mumbled.
“Need help?” the priestess offered as her head swiveled about to get a view of their surroundings.
“No no… I’m… fine. Kinda.”
As they often say, the third time was the charm. Once he actually made it to a full, upright and standing position, the courier felt a lot better about… moving. He mimicked Sophia, dusting himself off and stretching and lingering weariness from his joints. After a couple minutes he felt about as good as he was going to.
“So… this is Kill Town.” Not the most clever opener in the world, Kaden had to admit.
“Is it a… carnival? Maybe a circus?” Sophia inquired.
“Sure looks like it. No idea why, though. I mean… seriously, why not just tell people to come to your carnival? These things are usually fun. Why go through all the effort of sending an army of robots after us?”
“Yeah,” the priestess agreed. “I’d go to a carnival, I think.”
“Should we look around? I don’t see that we have many other options.”
“I guess so.”
Kaden had turned to enter Kill Town as Sophia agreed to take a gander, but recoiled as a... word bubble filled his field of vision. Exclaiming his surprise, the courier quickly realized that, no matter where he looked or how he turned his head, the word bubble remained in the same place. The last thing he actually tried doing was actually reading it. It was a simple black box surrounded by a white outline and filled with white text.
Sophia has joined the party!
![[Image: Kaden2.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v403/Nezumi16/Sigs/Kaden2.jpg)
"It's on my brain, driving me insane. It's on my mind, all of
the time, and if it left... I would be fine."