03-22-2010, 10:02 PM
As much as Juno hoped to speak for a while with Sophia, their conversation was cut short.
“Not a chance,” Sophia said, glancing up at him with the slightest hint of a smile on her face. Not seconds later, however, Juno’s PAGER device was beeping madly, and he was fumbling through his coat, attempting to pull it out to read whatever the heck Gamer wanted him to read—and as sure as he knew it would be, the message that had just been sent to him read “Round 3 Events Begin Now!” in the subject line. The priestess gained a curious glow in her eye. For the first time since he’d seen her here, she moved closer to him, looking over his shoulder at the PAGER.
“What is it?” she asked, squinting. Juno clicked the open button, watching as the little electronic envelope slowly unfolded itself rather melodramatically. Sophia sighed, obviously impatient—this crazy teenager was messing with the wrong girl on the wrong day. Juno placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You have no idea, Juno,” she replied.
“Don’t I?” he asked.
Sophia paused, and met his eyes, remembering Rosemary’s Game suddenly. She gulped, obviously some of her anger subsided by the memory. “…sorry, Juno.”
“No big deal,” Juno smirked, “I’m over it, remember?” Sophia smiled, but soon frowned as her eyes fell once again to the PAGER.
A few more seconds passed, and Gamer’s newest message was finally finished unfurling. “Well, well, well,” it read, “You guys have been busy. Finally decided to start playing my game, hm? Well, I won’t spoil anything for you—but, if you’ll kindly open the attachment connected here, you can head to your next event. Have fun, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be watching. –Gamer.” Juno looked at Sophia and she glanced back at him. She nodded anxiously; she was gesturing for him to open the attachment, and the hybrid quickly took the dainty stylist and pressed on the paperclip icon.
Abruptly, two emerald-green portals sprung to life as if from nowhere. The two watched as their transportation vehicles spun into being, white letters slowly spinning out of them to spell the names of the events they were participating in. The hybrid secretly hoped that they were in the same game this time around, but he had no such luck, as Sophia’s portal was soon labeled “Desire for Velocity!” and Juno’s “Space Battles!”. They glanced at one another.
“That guy’s crazy,” Sophia noted.
“Really?” Juno laughed, “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Good luck, Juno,” Sophia smiled. It seemed that, at least a little bit, he had calmed the storm. He shuddered to think the regression her mood would go through if she shared the event with Kaden.
“See you on the other side, babe.”
“Juno!”
“Right. Sorry.”
“What the hell is with all the big, epic battles?”
“That’s what war is, man,” the uniformed soldier leaning against the lockers shrugged, and Juno looked up at him with a heavy sigh. “I mean, I’m sorry we can’t skip through the meadows more often—” he continued with a sarcastic tone, and the hybrid quickly tired of him. The soldier had informed him of the situation, and now, he had little use for him. Standing, the half-blooded Saiyan brushed past him, digging in his locker for a set of boots to compliment the black pilot’s uniform he’d already donned.
The smartass soldier obviously had no idea what Juno meant when he was talking about big, epic battles. First, he’d been tossed onto a pirate ship, thrust into a massive conflict with the Queen’s Navy. And second, he had discovered that he was one of five select warriors who could potentially defeat the evil dragon that held a relatively peaceful land in its grip. And now, he’d been thrown here, in the middle of space, to quell a rebellion.
Apparently, he was a pilot in the Republic Conglomerate, and he was tasked with piloting a TIE-fighter into the thick of battle to defend their massive space station that positioned them to destroy the rebellion and take almost complete control of the galaxy, with the core worlds in the iron grip they had worked for eighteen years to form. Their adversaries, the Insurgents’ Coalition, were about to launch an attack on the space station—the Kill Cluster—that threatened to completely wipe out the planet their hidden base was stationed upon, perhaps killing many innocent indigenous people along the way.
This rebellion was starting to sound a lot more righteous, but Juno didn’t argue with what side Gamer had placed him on. He was here to breeze through these events and get out unscathed, not be petty and try to save innocents. That was Kaden’s job.
He pulled on the rubber boots, and then Velcro’d his vest together, and placed his helmet over his head. “So,” the hybrid said, turning reluctantly to the guy he currently shared the locker room with, “Where are we supposed to go?” Juno noticed that his voiced sounded distinctly more mechanized from within the helmet; that was actually kind of cool. Perhaps one of the only cool things Gamer had done (besides giving him a sword… twice).
“Heh,” the guy muttered, “You really don’t know what’s going on, do you?”
“Nope,” Juno smirked.
“Well then, let’s hurry up and get you to the hangar so you can help us win and get back to your frickin’ circus or whatever you said it was.” The guy gestured toward the door, and the hybrid didn’t argue, following him out. It was a short walk before they got to the armory room, where his companion grabbed a blaster rifle and tossed it to Juno before getting his own. The hybrid smirked; this might come in handy if he got in a tight spot with the Conglomeration. He didn’t think that Gamer would make it so easy as to kill a couple of rebel ships.
…unless, of course, the rebel ships were piloted by other Kill Town contestants.
Damn, he cursed inwardly, I hadn’t thought of that possibility. Surely he wasn’t the only carnival-goer that had been placed into this event—what about the others? Could they be on his side? Were they fighting the good fight, trying to destroy this space station? Or was it a mixture of the two, like the Naval Battle had been? Juno suddenly felt a slight chill crawl up his spine as he got leagues more anxious. When you were battling with or against real people, this game got a lot more complicated, he had noticed.
He was comforted in knowing that Sophia was not in this game. He would neither be shooting at her nor worried about protecting her as opposed to the space station; not that she needed protecting, of course. It would just be an inevitable distraction that he, as a good friend, would have to indulge, and it probably wouldn’t have helped his own health.
The armory, as it happened, wasn’t too far from the hangar, and when Juno and company entered, he noticed a line of soldiers already being yelled at by a commander. His friend quickly hid his face, and Juno did the same, not very inclined to being yelled at by a drill sergeant right now. He did, however, risk a glance down at the group of soldiers. One of them was stumbling into the line, helmet still off, and a familiar mane of orange hair lying matted on his head.
Ace? Juno noted, remembering the man’s name. Quickly rushing down the stairs, Juno kept an eye on which pilot Trafford was as the psychokinetic pushed on his helmet. “Hey, uh, what was your name?” he called after his friend, and the guy turned around. Juno smirked—his companion still held his helmet under his arm. He was going to see if this old trick still worked. Before the guy could even open his mouth to respond, Juno lunged forth, pushing him behind a spaceship and pressing his hand to his forehead, launching a Block into his mind. The soldier’s knees crumpled beneath him, and he fell to the metal floor, unconscious. The hybrid grabbed his keys—he hadn’t actually found any of his own in the locker—and headed toward the line of black-suited soldiers, specifically the one he remembered to be Alex.
“I get to fly one of those?” Alex muttered, and his fellow pilots laughed at his ignorance of the whole situation. They’d obviously been in these ships many times before. Juno looked at the number on his keys—it was right next to Alex’s assigned ship. Something was definitely fishy.
Juno examined the spaceship; it was large, with a spherical orb in the center, which had arms extending to the two vertical “wings.” The hybrid observed others taking off, they looked to have very stable flight, but weren’t able to turn all that well. No three-hundred-and-sixty spin moves, he supposed. Ah, well. He glanced over to where Alex was, walked up, and tapped him on the shoulder just after he’d finished getting a sentence out—he’d been muttering to himself. The hybrid chuckled as he jumped a few feet at the surprise.
“Ace, it’s me,” Juno muttered, taking off the helmet.
“Juno?” the psycho-kinetic replied, growing much less tense quickly.
“Yeah, I’m on your side in this—what the hell?” Ace turned to what Juno was staring at, just outside the hangar. The ships had almost disappeared from view, and now the stars even had grown darker as the space outside the station’s hangar had turned almost completely black, save for two lines of random cerulean letters floating in the nothingness. Juno and Alex squinted to read what they said.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
“Not a chance,” Sophia said, glancing up at him with the slightest hint of a smile on her face. Not seconds later, however, Juno’s PAGER device was beeping madly, and he was fumbling through his coat, attempting to pull it out to read whatever the heck Gamer wanted him to read—and as sure as he knew it would be, the message that had just been sent to him read “Round 3 Events Begin Now!” in the subject line. The priestess gained a curious glow in her eye. For the first time since he’d seen her here, she moved closer to him, looking over his shoulder at the PAGER.
“What is it?” she asked, squinting. Juno clicked the open button, watching as the little electronic envelope slowly unfolded itself rather melodramatically. Sophia sighed, obviously impatient—this crazy teenager was messing with the wrong girl on the wrong day. Juno placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You have no idea, Juno,” she replied.
“Don’t I?” he asked.
Sophia paused, and met his eyes, remembering Rosemary’s Game suddenly. She gulped, obviously some of her anger subsided by the memory. “…sorry, Juno.”
“No big deal,” Juno smirked, “I’m over it, remember?” Sophia smiled, but soon frowned as her eyes fell once again to the PAGER.
A few more seconds passed, and Gamer’s newest message was finally finished unfurling. “Well, well, well,” it read, “You guys have been busy. Finally decided to start playing my game, hm? Well, I won’t spoil anything for you—but, if you’ll kindly open the attachment connected here, you can head to your next event. Have fun, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be watching. –Gamer.” Juno looked at Sophia and she glanced back at him. She nodded anxiously; she was gesturing for him to open the attachment, and the hybrid quickly took the dainty stylist and pressed on the paperclip icon.
Abruptly, two emerald-green portals sprung to life as if from nowhere. The two watched as their transportation vehicles spun into being, white letters slowly spinning out of them to spell the names of the events they were participating in. The hybrid secretly hoped that they were in the same game this time around, but he had no such luck, as Sophia’s portal was soon labeled “Desire for Velocity!” and Juno’s “Space Battles!”. They glanced at one another.
“That guy’s crazy,” Sophia noted.
“Really?” Juno laughed, “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Good luck, Juno,” Sophia smiled. It seemed that, at least a little bit, he had calmed the storm. He shuddered to think the regression her mood would go through if she shared the event with Kaden.
“See you on the other side, babe.”
“Juno!”
“Right. Sorry.”
~+~
“What the hell is with all the big, epic battles?”
“That’s what war is, man,” the uniformed soldier leaning against the lockers shrugged, and Juno looked up at him with a heavy sigh. “I mean, I’m sorry we can’t skip through the meadows more often—” he continued with a sarcastic tone, and the hybrid quickly tired of him. The soldier had informed him of the situation, and now, he had little use for him. Standing, the half-blooded Saiyan brushed past him, digging in his locker for a set of boots to compliment the black pilot’s uniform he’d already donned.
The smartass soldier obviously had no idea what Juno meant when he was talking about big, epic battles. First, he’d been tossed onto a pirate ship, thrust into a massive conflict with the Queen’s Navy. And second, he had discovered that he was one of five select warriors who could potentially defeat the evil dragon that held a relatively peaceful land in its grip. And now, he’d been thrown here, in the middle of space, to quell a rebellion.
Apparently, he was a pilot in the Republic Conglomerate, and he was tasked with piloting a TIE-fighter into the thick of battle to defend their massive space station that positioned them to destroy the rebellion and take almost complete control of the galaxy, with the core worlds in the iron grip they had worked for eighteen years to form. Their adversaries, the Insurgents’ Coalition, were about to launch an attack on the space station—the Kill Cluster—that threatened to completely wipe out the planet their hidden base was stationed upon, perhaps killing many innocent indigenous people along the way.
This rebellion was starting to sound a lot more righteous, but Juno didn’t argue with what side Gamer had placed him on. He was here to breeze through these events and get out unscathed, not be petty and try to save innocents. That was Kaden’s job.
He pulled on the rubber boots, and then Velcro’d his vest together, and placed his helmet over his head. “So,” the hybrid said, turning reluctantly to the guy he currently shared the locker room with, “Where are we supposed to go?” Juno noticed that his voiced sounded distinctly more mechanized from within the helmet; that was actually kind of cool. Perhaps one of the only cool things Gamer had done (besides giving him a sword… twice).
“Heh,” the guy muttered, “You really don’t know what’s going on, do you?”
“Nope,” Juno smirked.
“Well then, let’s hurry up and get you to the hangar so you can help us win and get back to your frickin’ circus or whatever you said it was.” The guy gestured toward the door, and the hybrid didn’t argue, following him out. It was a short walk before they got to the armory room, where his companion grabbed a blaster rifle and tossed it to Juno before getting his own. The hybrid smirked; this might come in handy if he got in a tight spot with the Conglomeration. He didn’t think that Gamer would make it so easy as to kill a couple of rebel ships.
…unless, of course, the rebel ships were piloted by other Kill Town contestants.
Damn, he cursed inwardly, I hadn’t thought of that possibility. Surely he wasn’t the only carnival-goer that had been placed into this event—what about the others? Could they be on his side? Were they fighting the good fight, trying to destroy this space station? Or was it a mixture of the two, like the Naval Battle had been? Juno suddenly felt a slight chill crawl up his spine as he got leagues more anxious. When you were battling with or against real people, this game got a lot more complicated, he had noticed.
He was comforted in knowing that Sophia was not in this game. He would neither be shooting at her nor worried about protecting her as opposed to the space station; not that she needed protecting, of course. It would just be an inevitable distraction that he, as a good friend, would have to indulge, and it probably wouldn’t have helped his own health.
The armory, as it happened, wasn’t too far from the hangar, and when Juno and company entered, he noticed a line of soldiers already being yelled at by a commander. His friend quickly hid his face, and Juno did the same, not very inclined to being yelled at by a drill sergeant right now. He did, however, risk a glance down at the group of soldiers. One of them was stumbling into the line, helmet still off, and a familiar mane of orange hair lying matted on his head.
Ace? Juno noted, remembering the man’s name. Quickly rushing down the stairs, Juno kept an eye on which pilot Trafford was as the psychokinetic pushed on his helmet. “Hey, uh, what was your name?” he called after his friend, and the guy turned around. Juno smirked—his companion still held his helmet under his arm. He was going to see if this old trick still worked. Before the guy could even open his mouth to respond, Juno lunged forth, pushing him behind a spaceship and pressing his hand to his forehead, launching a Block into his mind. The soldier’s knees crumpled beneath him, and he fell to the metal floor, unconscious. The hybrid grabbed his keys—he hadn’t actually found any of his own in the locker—and headed toward the line of black-suited soldiers, specifically the one he remembered to be Alex.
“I get to fly one of those?” Alex muttered, and his fellow pilots laughed at his ignorance of the whole situation. They’d obviously been in these ships many times before. Juno looked at the number on his keys—it was right next to Alex’s assigned ship. Something was definitely fishy.
Juno examined the spaceship; it was large, with a spherical orb in the center, which had arms extending to the two vertical “wings.” The hybrid observed others taking off, they looked to have very stable flight, but weren’t able to turn all that well. No three-hundred-and-sixty spin moves, he supposed. Ah, well. He glanced over to where Alex was, walked up, and tapped him on the shoulder just after he’d finished getting a sentence out—he’d been muttering to himself. The hybrid chuckled as he jumped a few feet at the surprise.
“Ace, it’s me,” Juno muttered, taking off the helmet.
“Juno?” the psycho-kinetic replied, growing much less tense quickly.
“Yeah, I’m on your side in this—what the hell?” Ace turned to what Juno was staring at, just outside the hangar. The ships had almost disappeared from view, and now the stars even had grown darker as the space outside the station’s hangar had turned almost completely black, save for two lines of random cerulean letters floating in the nothingness. Juno and Alex squinted to read what they said.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…