FanFic: Matra Tranquyl: A Soul In Darkness (Current Chapter

[Matra]

This is my first attempt at a fan fic ever in my life. Feel free to write here or PM your thoughts, whether good or bad(preferably good) This first chapter is mainly a summary of what the PSO storyline is about. I suggest you read it since you may learn something you didn't know. Also, near the end is where some interesting things start to happen. So, anyway, here's the start of my fic.

Chapter 1

I have never known much about our home world of Coral. In truth, everything I know about it all comes from the data banks of the ship we currently reside in, Pioneer 2. You see, my memory only goes back so far. I can't remember past about the first days of the launch of Pioneer 2. I can't even remember what the planet looks like. I've asked the doctors about it several times, but they always come back with the same answer: amnesia. Somehow, to me, it just doesn't feel like that's what it is. I think I can't remember anything about Coral because I never did know anything about it. I am sorry if this confuses you, but I can't get any more specific than that. Anyway, Coral was supposed to be a beautiful planet according to the data banks. There were also many dangerous monsters, but those could be dealt with. Overall, Coral sounded like a nice place to live to me. It's a shame it started to die. That's what forced this voyage. Several key individuals, Heathcliff Flowen and Red Ring Rico to name a few, went on the first ship to depart, Pioneer 1, and search for a suitable planet to colonize. They found our current destination, Ragol. It sounds like it is very much like our home planet, of course with several key differences I will not get into. Pioneer 2 launched shortly after this discovery was made, I apparently being one of the countless people aboard. When we arrived at Ragol, numerous people had gathered to see it through the various windows onboard (it has always seemed odd to me that Pioneer 2 has so many windows. What if one shatters?) I myself walked up to the window and looked out at the planet. It was just as the data banks had said. Standing there staring at it, I couldn't wait to get down there and see what it was like. Then, all our dreams were shattered. As Pioneer 2 established contact with Pioneer 1, a huge explosion suddenly erupted and all communication was suddenly lost. I stood there, my eyes wide at the sight, the realization that Ragol might not be suitable having not hit me yet. I swear I saw something appear right before the explosion. Then something I did not expect happened. I was suddenly hit with a tremendous headache. I reeled forward, leaning on the glass holding my head. I cringed at the pain wondering what had caused it. Then I heard what sounded like the most sinister voice ever speaking to me, although I couldn't make out any words. Then, just as sudden as it had come on, it all stopped. I was breathing heavy, relieved the pain had stopped and looked to my right, still against the glass. No one seemed to have noticed my reaction. Good. I wouldn't want to be noticed reacting a way no one else had. I pushed off the glass and stared down at Ragol. Something had happened down there, and to me, and I wanted to find out what.





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-10 16:56 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-17 11:39 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-30 13:21 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-09-29 15:16 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-12-11 13:33 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2004-03-23 20:17 ]</font>

[HUnewearl_Meira]

A very good start, and perhaps a bit more interesting than you may give it credit for. I'd like to see where you go with this.

[Slicer238]

It does sound very interesting, I can't wait until chapter 2.

[DnaX]

Keep on writing...I'm sure you'll do a great job. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

>.< X

[LJ]

Sounds interesting, cant wait for the next chapter.

[Matra]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm sorry if it's been a long time for the next chapter to come out, but my access to the internet is limited since it's my brother's room. I'll work on it every chance I get now as long as I'm not playing PSO. Sadly there isn't too much happening in this chapter yet either. This is mainly just my main character becoming a hunter. I still urge you to read it. Even the most insignificant things have some purpose. Anyway, here it is.

Chapter 2

It took the Principal and several other head individuals of Pioneer 2 a few weeks to decide what to do about the sudden explosion. In the end, though they decided to give the hunters aboard access to Ragol through the main transporter. There are several guards stationed in front of this transporter, the only people I ever see armed around here besides the hunters. Their weapons don't seem all that impressive, but I guess if you're the only one with a weapon out of the people not allowed on Ragol, you don't have to worry about having trouble keeping the others from going down. As was to be expected, everyone aboard wanted to know what happened, myself included. All the Principal would say was that they were doing all that they could to investigate the matter and that everyone should continue with what had become their normal lives. Yeah, like that was going to keep them content. I definitely knew that it was not enough for me. I had to get down there. The only problem was deciding how to do that. Hunters were the only ones allowed down and I had never had any kind of combat experience before. It was not an easy choice to make, but I desperately wanted to know what happened. I had no choice; I was going to become a hunter.

I entered the hunter's guild and walked up to the counter. I looked at the woman across from me who was currently looking at some kind of document. It was odd how she wore such an unreasonably low-cut uniform. I will never understand some people's fashion sense. Anyway, she eventually looked up at me and seemed a bit surprised. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were standing there," she said. "It's nothing." I responded. "So then, what can I do for you?" "I"d like to become a hunter actually." She looked at me as if she had seen this coming and procured a document (seemed like the one she was looking over before) from under the counter and handed it to me. "Fill out that information and return that to me," she said. I looked down at it. All right then, first my name. Simple enough, Matra Tranquyl (in case you're wondering, my last name is pronounced just like the word tranquil.) As I started to fill it out, she suddenly interrupted me. "I almost forgot, there's a small registration fee you'll have to pay." I looked up at her. "How much?" She said, "It's right there along with the other information." If it were right there on the paper, why had she even bother to tell me? Some people can be just plain idiotic sometimes. I read the fee and realized that it was not as much as I would have expected. Just about a few weeks of work in my original job before I quit. I had enough stored in the bank, but also just happened to have the necessary funds on me as well. I filled out the form and handed it to her along with a meseta cube for the fee. She turned away from me and started doing something. I could not tell what, but I am sure she was processing it in some way because in a few minutes she turned back to me. "Alright then, you are now officially a hunter. Here is your section ID and locker number." She handed me a small circular object and another document. I looked at the circular object first, what I presumed to be the section ID. I looked it over carefully, and then looked back up to her. I had heard a bit about ID's, but not too much. "And which is this?" She looked back to me as if I had asked a stupid question. I guess it was if I was serious about becoming a hunter. "Greenil," is all she said, and then went back to her own work. I looked at the document she had handed me and found my locker number on it and some other info. It simply said that I could use the locker to store anything I wanted as long as there was room and that I would find my hunter gear delivered to my apartment. After reading this, I promptly headed back to my apartment.

There I found a package at my door that I picked up and walked inside with. I set it down on my kitchen table and opened it. I first came across what seemed like some sort of battle suit. It was colored black, as per my request. I tried it on and found that it fit comfortably. I guess it would have to otherwise it would hinder one's fighting abilities. I neatly inserted my section ID into a small slot right in the center of my chest. It lit up slightly. I then put on a pair of boots I also found inside. Then I came across something that confused me at first, two different gloves. One was small and seemed as if it would fit my arm tightly, the other was large and bulky. By the position of the thumbs, I put the small one on my right arm and the large one on my left. I was still confused until I remembered that hunters used shields. The large one must have been the shield generator. It made sense that only one was large. I would not want something like that on my sword arm; otherwise it would seriously hinder me. I then found what seemed like a small power cell. I raised an eyebrow to this and looked it over carefully. This was a frame unit. When put into a hunter's suit it forms an invisible protective barrier that protects a hunter to varying degrees depending on the unit. I checked all around on my suit for an opening to put it in, but to no avail. Then I realized I was missing one place and lifted up my long white hair and found a small slot under it that the frame unit fit into neatly. I let my hair fall back down and looked back at the package. There was one thing still left, but the most significant of all; a saber. This I picked up in my right hand and promptly ignited. It glowed brightly, illuminating my dimly lit apartment. I swung it around a few times and smiled. It might have just been a simple saber, but it was my first weapon officially as a hunter. I extinguished it and placed it at my side in a small saber slot. I looked myself over. It felt oddly natural to be ready for battle, even though I had never been in any battle in my life. I was set. I walked over to my apartment door, pushed the door open, stepped out onto the street, and started to make my way over to the transporter to Ragol.






<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-17 12:19 ]</font>

[M_BlackHawk]

I'm interested in where you're going with this fic. Keep writing. You're doing great.

later

M_BlackHawk

[Sharkyland]

Looking pretty good.

[Matra]

I thank everyone again for there kind words and I'm very sorry for the DREADFULLY long wait for this chapter. My computer has been broken and even when it was fixed, like I've said, my use is restricted. Thanfully though I think you'll find that it was worth it. There's a lot going on in this chapter with Matra's first battles and his meeting with the HUmar and HUcast of my only friends of PSO I know in real life. So, without further delay, chapter 3! =)

Chapter 3


I stopped in front of the transporter and watched the large doors slide upwards. I looked at the guard to my right, who in turn looked at me, nodded, and waved me on through. I assume that since I was wearing the gear of a HUmar (that was my class designation) he figured I must be a certified hunter. I took a few steps forward and stopped directly in front of the transporter. Soon, I thought. Soon I would be down on Ragol, finally taking my place among all the other hunters. I can't describe the feeling I had there, but I guess you could say I was really anxious to get down there. I stepped into the transporter and turned to the nearby terminal. The only thing that was on the display was "Forest 1." I'm guessing that somehow the transporter scans you without you knowing it and checks to see what areas you have access to. Even though it was only my first time, I still thought there would have been more options. I shrugged, readied myself and hit the button to activate the warp. In a few seconds, I was on Ragol for the first time.

I was taken completely by surprise when I arrived. The forest was oddly very peaceful, almost soothing. You would never know that there had been a giant explosion here a few weeks back that might have killed the entire crew of Pioneer 1. I examined my surroundings a bit more closely and didn't find anything remotely dangerous to me, just a simple, quiet forest. I was starting to wonder why they even needed hunters in the first place. I shrugged remembering that appearances can be deceiving and walked up a nearby path that led to a small laser fence at the end that opened up into a much larger clearing. I remembered hearing about how these things were installed to prevent the predators from getting to the Pioneer 2 transporters. They wouldn't let anything through except hunters, if they were blue. Sometimes they were red and at these times, nothing was let through. Fortunately, this one was blue so I calmly walked through. Then, I instantly knew why hunters were needed. I watched as two large creatures that seemed half mole, half bear came up from the ground. "Boomas," I thought to myself. I had been doing a lot of research lately to find out about all the various predators on Ragol so I knew what most anything I would come across was. They both gave a roar upon noticing my presence and started to walk towards me. These things definitely did not look friendly so I grabbed my saber from my side and promptly ignited it. "Now this is something I"ve been looking forward to," I thought, "some action." I rushed towards the booma that was in front of the other. It gave a swing at me with its claw that I sidestepped to my left around the beast. This was not a smart move though since it ended up putting me right between it and the other. I barely noticed the second one and ducked under a swipe from that. As I dropped, I proceeded to swing the saber around under my arm and backstab it. It dropped to the ground and proceeded to dissolve into a pool of blood. Now that's something you don't see everyday. I must have spent too long watching it die though because by the time I looked back forward the other one was already bringing its claw down at my head. I couldn't dodge it but at least I was able to move to my right a bit so it struck me on my left shoulder. I took a brief step backwards, then came lunging forward with my saber out taking the booma completely by surprise. It took my saber straight through its stomach (if that was its stomach) and proceeded to die like the other. I examined my shoulder and saw that it was only a minor wound so I dismissed it for now. Not too bad for my first battle. I headed through a door to my left that had promptly unlocked as I killed the last booma. Apparently, this was another security measure. I followed a path that cut back a bit the way I came but ended up in a different room. Along this path I noticed a small message pack glowing on the ground. I ignored it for now, that was not why I had come down to Ragol. I entered the room and saw a single booma pop out of the ground except this one was different from the other two. It was larger and had a yellowish color to it instead of brown. "A gobooma, the more adept predator," I thought. I readied my saber and slowly approached it. It swung it's claw much like the others had done. I stepped back a bit and then took a quick step in and slashed it across the chest horizontally. I watched it, then blinked as I realized it did not go down. It kept coming at me despite the blow I had just delivered. It swung again and I rolled back effectively dodging it. I then came running at it but instead of just coming head on, I circle around it as it slashed and missed. I ended up behind it, the beast completely vulnerable. I took the opportunity and proceeded to slice its head clean off. Both the head and the body dissolved oddly into a single pool of blood. I shrugged and proceeded to dispatch another that popped up right afterwards in a similar manner.

I proceeded through the next door down a long path that oddly cut back similar to the first, but also ended up in a different room. I found it odd all this time that I found no supplies whatsoever from Pioneer 1. I heard many hunters saying that there were dozens of crates lying around that contained various weapons and gear from Pioneer 1, better things than what we had on Pioneer 2. As I came to the next room my confusion was done away with as I suddenly heard, "Get back here you!" being yelled from the other side. This was followed shortly by what sounded like some weapon swing and the howl of a dieing booma. I opened the door and immediately spotted the source of the noise, a tall brownish-gray and orange android with a large horn on its head. I knew from its look that its class designation was a HUcast. He was holding a massive photonic sword with blue photon that seemed like it could just about cut anything in two. I walked into the room and realized that he was not alone. Standing a few feet away holding a blue saber was another HUmar like myself with long, bright red hair wearing gray hunter gear with a few red stripes on it to match his hair, or maybe his hair matched it, who knows. I took another few steps forward when suddenly a large pack of wolves jumped out from the trees surrounding them, some blue, some green. The green ones were savage wolves, quick and nimble, but not too strong. The blue were barbarous wolves. They were stronger and were known to be the leaders of the pack. I saw two of them and about eight savage wolves. With a group like this, I was glad that I was not here alone. I started charging towards them to help when the HUcast yelled, "Ah, so more of you want to play?! Then come and get it!" And with those words he gave one swing of his massive sword and three of the savage wolves were minus a head each. The HUmar seemed to act much calmer than the HUcast, whom I was starting to think was a bit unstable. He circled a barbarous wolf as it circled him, if you can understand that. It lunged at him and he proceeded to duck under it rather effortlessly and drag his saber along its underside as it jumped over him, using the force of its own jump to tear through it effectively killing it. As I approached I noticed all the wolves howled almost in unison and started flashing blue and red. I did not know what this was at the time but I ignored it for now. A barbarous and a savage turned as I neared them and slowly began circling me to opposite sides. I knew that no matter what I did I would have one of them to my back so I focused on the barbarous since it was more dangerous. As I had guessed, the barbarous circled in front while the savage circled behind and quickly lunged at me. I ducked under it as the other HUmar did but I could not get my saber up under it and when I looked at the wolf as it landed, I realized the other was coming straight at me. I jumped up, landing on its head and pushed off as hard as I could towards the savage which still had its back to me. As I jumped, I heard a loud crack come from the barbarous' head and felt it collapse beneath me. The force of my jump had obviously cracked its skull. I came down on top of the savage wolf and proceeded to jab my saber down through the top of its head causing it to stab out from its chin. It collapsed and dissolved, but not before I pulled my saber from its head. I looked back to where the other wolves had been and did not seem them. Instead, I saw several pools of blood around the HUcast and HUmar, who were looking directly at me.

"Well this is a surprise," said the HUcast. "I didn't think there'd be anyone else here besides us!" The HUmar took a step towards me and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Cyrus McKnight. This slightly psychotic HUcast beside me is my good friend Brightblade." At this the HUcast, Brightblade apparently, shouted, "How many times do I have to tell you?! I am not psychotic! I'm just overly energetic!!" The HUmar, apparently Cyrus, merely shook his head at this. I ignored his extended hand and simply said, "I'm Matra Tranquyl. I must say that was quite impressive watching you two take on such a large group of wolves like that." He smiled and nodded, lowering his hand as well. "Thanks, but it was nothing we couldn't handle, right Brightblade?" Brightblade, who had walked over to the next door and stood waiting, simply nodded, arms crossed, tapping his foot impatiently. How a HUcast walks away without one noticing I have no idea. After all, they are androids so they make plenty of noise when walking. I blinked at Cyrus. "Nothing you couldn't handle? That's a pretty confident attitude. I myself thought I would have been killed against a group like that." Cyrus smirked. "Well, Brightblade and I have been at this for quite some time now. We did this sort of thing a lot back on Coral." I nodded. "So, can you answer one question for me? Why did those wolves suddenly start flashing?" He chuckled. "Ah, now I get it. You're new to being a hunter. I should have guessed it earlier." I merely scowled at him. "They flashed like that because killing a barbarous wolf demoralizes them, so to speak. The effects are similar to our techniques jellen and zalure." "Jellen and zalure..." I thought. "The body weakening techniques that make the target easier to take down and harder for them to take you down." Cyrus nodded. "Seems you know a bit more than most new hunters. I must admit though that you did not seem like you were green when you went against those two wolves. I'd say your performance rivaled my own." I shrugged. "Whatever." Suddenly we heard, "Come ON already!!" I looked at Brightblade who was apparently growing impatient. Cyrus chuckled as I walked by him following Brightblade, who held his sword on his back and darted ahead. I came across another transporter but no sign of Brightblade. I looked at the display and saw that it read "Forest 2." "Looks like Brightblade rushed ahead as usual," said Cyrus who walked past me into the warp. "C'mon. Let's go." With this, he vanished into it. I stepped inside, closed my eyes and followed him through. Little did any of us know what was awaiting me. Something no other hunter would ever have to face.





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-30 13:21 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-07-30 15:50 ]</font>

[Rini]

Nice...... I like it.

[Matra]

Everyone, I apologize for the notouriously long wait, but SEVERAL things have been going on in my life. One major thing was my corruption at level 159 for my main char. I'm a hardcore fan of PSO, so this was a huge blow to more. I was more concerned about losing my friends. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif Anyway, I've been spending a lot of time trying to recover and thankfully I almost have. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif Second, school has started so I've had even less time to work on this or do anything for that matter. Third, my brother has been a real jerk with the computer. Its his and he says there's something wrong with it, but really it's fine. He didn't want me using it because of this, but hell, I don't care. I used it to write this chapter and he still has me banned from it. Sometimes he can be so greedy. Well, anyway, here's the long awaited(if you were waiting that is) fourth chapter! This one's a doozy compared to the others. It's much longer and a lot more happens, especially some stuff that deals with the main plot besides the usual PSO plot. So, here it is.

When we arrived in Forest 2, the first thing I noticed immediately was the change in weather. Whereas Forest 1 had been sunny, clear, and warm, Forest 2 was much cooler, possibly cold, and muggy. It was also darker, which made me wonder if we were in another forest altogether, or if I had just simply just lost track of time in Forest 1. It was raining slightly, but it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I have never really been bothered by rain. Now I know that you're wondering how I could have even experienced rain before if my memory is foggy. Well in truth, I have never experienced actually rain before. This was my first time. Pioneer 2 has a number of VR simulators that can simulate almost an infinite number of different scenarios. They use numerous holographic panels connected to a high-tech computer to create these images. The computer sends signals to every panel at the same time, different signals for each, to project an image depending on the simulation. There are also several photon density generators in place. These somehow are able, through the panels, to make everything projected tangible. That way if you touch something, you'll actually feel it. As you can see, I do quite a bit of studying in my free time. This is how I experienced rain, through the simulators. I've been in several simulations where there has been rain, so this really wasn't anything new to me. Even then, though, to experience the real thing for the first time is quite something. As you could probably guess, the simulations could not duplicate the effect perfectly. I looked up at the real rain and let it fall onto my face. In the simulators, it had never bothered me in the least. It did not now as well, after all, it is just water. It's practically the same as when you take a shower, if you are the kind that prefers water to sonic showers and such. Anyway, these were my thoughts as I first entered Forest 2.

I looked back down in front of me and noticed that Cyrus was standing there staring at me, waiting patiently. Brightblade on the other hand I did not notice immediately. Upon examining our surroundings closer, I noticed him over by a nearby door, which had a switch next to it. He was standing there with the sword pointed straight down on the ground, his hands folded on the end of the handle, leaning against it, tapping his foot impatiently. I had a feeling I would end up getting used to this because Cyrus ignored it and I guessed Brightblade did this all the time. I nodded to Cyrus to let him know I was ready, to which he nodded back and walked towards his companion. Brightblade, seeing that we were ready to go hastily held his sword on his back, pressed the switch for the door, and charged down a slope into another room. Cyrus calmly walked after him, myself close behind. I heard Brightblade give some kind of war cry and heard his sword swinging at something. This was followed shortly by the sound it slicing into something that sounded, well, squishy. I also thought I heard a buzz along with it. I came to the bottom of the slope and saw Brightblade standing hunched over with his sword held with the blade perpendicular to the ground. He was standing at what looked like some sort of large, purplish-red sack being held up by four legs of sorts. Brightblade looked disappointed for some reason, though being a HUcast, he can't exactly express how he's feeling with his face. He looked back at me when I walked up next to him. I stared at the sack and tilted my head curiously at it. "A monest," Cyrus said coolly as he walked up on Brightblade's left, myself being on his right. "These things come down being carried by what they produce, mothmants." I blinked at him. "Mothmants? Doesn't sound very threatening." Cyrus smiled. "Just wait and watch." As he said this, I heard some kind of sound from the sack that I cannot really describe. I looked back to it as I heard a buzzing and saw what was like a giant moth coming down towards me. It had a large stinger on the front and it was because of this that I could tell the thing was a threat. I drew my saber and stabbed at it, watching as it broke apart and dissolved into a tiny pool of blood. I looked back to Cyrus and said with a nod, "Mothmants." With this I turned to the sack and gave it a straight, downward slash, a quick thrust, and ended with a diagonal slash to my right and up. The sack fell to the ground but did not dissolve. I blinked at it. "Still alive?" "They're quite resilient," Cyrus said, and then he looked at Brightblade. "If you would." With this, the HUcast grudgingly hefted his sword up and brought it straight down onto it, cleaving it into two. He looked at Cyrus with an expression that looked to me as if he was saying, "Happy now?" Apparently he must not have found monests to be any challenge. Frankly, neither did I. After this, a few groups of boomas, goboomas, and some wolves attacked us. With the help of Cyrus and Brightblade, we easily took care of them and continued.

We went through another door and ended up on a long pathway that split off to either side several times. I stopped and looked to Cyrus, signaling him to take the lead since he had more experience. Brightblade was probably just as experienced, but slightly psychotic too. Cyrus led the way and headed straight down the path, ignoring the side paths entirely. At the first branch off to the right, a group of boomas popped up in front of us. There were approximately six of them. Brightblade charged past us and gave his sword a wide swing. Four of them dropped immediately. Cyrus calmly stood in place, his saber simply held at his side, and let another walk right up to him. As it raised its claw to slash at him, he leapt over it in a sort of corkscrew somersault. He had turned 180 degrees in mid-air, so on the way down he brought his saber cleanly down through the booma's back and let it drop. I at this time had the last one coming at me. What I had not noticed when they first popped up is that this one was a kind I had not seen before. Judging from its slightly larger size than a gobooma and its purplish color, I surmised it to be a gigobooma, the most dangerous of the group. I rushed at this one and brought my saber back to cut it across the midsection. Before I could do that though it had it's claw coming down at me. It was obviously faster than I had anticipated. Instead of slicing it through, I was forced to bring my saber up and block it's slash with it. This knocked my arm back leaving me wide open. The gigo proceeded to take another slash at me, which connected full on with my chest. I staggered back a bit and fell clumsily onto my back, still gripping my saber. It lumbered towards me, preparing to strike again. Cyrus came over from the left, rushing at the beast to stop it. I had my own plans for it though. I may have been down but I was not defenseless. I lifted my arm up, pulled it back while staying focused on the gigo, and chucked my saber at it. The saber spun in a stable circle, not tilting off to either side. It struck it directly in the forehead, causing it to entirely. Cyrus stopped as well, his saber in front of him, ready to strike. After a few moments, it toppled over and dissolved at my feet. Cyrus lowered his saber slowly and walked over to me. He reached his hand down to help me up, but just like when he went to shake my hand earlier, I ignored his and lifted myself up. "That wasn"t too bad, Matra. Gigos are much stronger than your average booma, as you just experienced." I shrugged. "Still nothing I couldn't handle." Cyrus smiled at this. "You're just as confident as me, yet you still took a blow." He said this pointing at my wound. I clutched it a bit, after all it did hurt. "It'll heal. Nothing to worry about." "Still, you should use a monomate to speed up that recovery." Monomates, sometimes dubbed the miracle healing medicine. These were developed back on Coral, and by their effect, Coral must have had some extraordinary herbs or something. Monomates are small pills that contain some kind of liquid. When swallowed, they speed up a person's ability to heal so much, that they literally heal before your eyes. The effect only goes so far, though. There are some that are better than these, dimates and then trimates. There are even what they call fluids that will refresh a person's mind, allowing the use of more techniques. These come in monos, dis, and tris as well. Coral really did have some amazing things. Anyway, back to the present. I stared at Cyrus somewhat embarrassed. "I...don't have any." Brightblade chuckled at this but Cyrus stared at me blankly. "In my haste to get down here," I said, "I must not have checked the package thoroughly enough. Dammit, I had felt something was missing..." With this, he handed me five small pills. I looked at him, and he simply nodded. I took the monomates and promptly swallowed one. The wound on my chest quickly closed and I felt fine. "Thanks." I said, still slightly embarrassed. "I'll be sure to give you those back when I can." He shook his head. "Don't worry. Consider it a favor." It was my turn to shake my head. "If anything, I hate owing people something, so you'll be getting them back whether you want them or not." He just nodded at this and started ahead, Brightblade following closely, and I bringing up the rear.

It was at the end of the path that my life would get a hell of a lot more complicated. We reached the end of the path and looked around. The doors to our right and left were locked and nothing seemed to be left for us to kill to open them. We started to backtrack when we heard a loud crash behind us. All three of us immediately turned 180 to see what it was. What we saw looked like some kind of giant, distorted ape, but it was big, bigger than any of us by far. I readied my saber and Cyrus and Brightblade did the same. This was a hildebear. They were, as one could tell just by looking, very stronger physically. They not only had the strength to crush a grown man with its bare hands, but they were also capable of spitting out fireballs, similar to our technique foie. Foie does much the same thing, except we do not spit it. We just shoot it from our hands, or weapon in the case of forces. I do not understand why it isn?t called a hildeape. It was more ape then bear, but I guess bear makes it sound more dangerous, which it is. This thing was definitely going to be a challenge. Good thing these two were here to back me up, and I them. The hildebear turned to look at me, which made me clutch my saber tighter. Then something happened that I had never heard a hildebear do, primarily because they never have. I felt a sudden pain shoot through my head; very similar to when the giant explosion had occurred. Too similar in fact. It was the exact same. I let go of the saber with one hand and placed that hand to my forehead. I started groaning in pain, and shortly doing so heard Cyrus say concerned, "Matra? What's wrong?" Brightblade spoke after him sounding less concerned. "You alright?" I assume he was more focused on the hildebear at the time. The pain was too great for me to respond, and I eventually collapsed to my knees. I still clutched my saber, but there was nothing I could do with it. I turned my gaze up to the "bear" and glared at it. My eyes widened a bit as its eyes glowed a dark crimson. I had no idea what was going on at first, but then I heard it. That same, sinister voice I heard when the explosion occurred. The odd thing was, I understood it this time. It seemed to be speaking directly to me. "So... you've come back at last...to your home. This is where you belong. This is where you shall stay." As it was speaking, I heard Brightblade say, "What the hell? Since when do they talk? And what the hell is it saying?!" It seemed that I was the only one of us that understood it. Cyrus said something in response, but I didn't catch it. The pain was too great. "What are you talking about?" I said to it. "Now you will carry out my will. Soon all these pathetic worms will be eradicated. Soon you will realize your destiny." With these last words, I fell onto all fours. The pain increased exponentially and I screamed because of it. Somehow I was able to hear the hildebear roar and Cyrus yell, "Look out!" I heard something swing but it was not a weapon. I'm guessing the beast tried to punch at me. I thought I was about to be in severe pain, if this was not severe enough. Thankfully I heard two familiar sounds, Cyrus' saber swing and Brightblade's sword swing. With this, the hildebear went down.

I stayed where I was, breathing heavily feeling extremely exhausted. I could barely hold myself up. The pain was too excruciating. Cyrus knelt in front of me, placing his hand on my right shoulder. "Matra! What's wrong?" I could hear the concern in his voice. I could not respond at all. I started to collapse but he held me up. He then lifted me up and helped me stand by leaning against him. His next words were, "Brightblade! Telepipe!" With this, I heard some kind of beep and suddenly saw a glowing light around us. "Get him to the infirmary now! I'll meet you there soon." Brightblade responded with, "Meet us soon? What are you..." Cyrus cut him off. "I don't have time explain! Get him there NOW!" Brightblade, probably realizing that this was really important by the tone of Cyrus' voice, said, "Alright. Consider it done." Apparently he could contain his lunacy when it was necessary. With this, I was, with no say in anything, leaned against Brightblade and felt myself teleporting.




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2003-09-29 15:26 ]</font>

[Skett]

-Very good first few chapters. I can see this story becoming on of the best. You also seem to know where your going with this. Unless you make a huge mistake that totally goes against your fic, you should be fine.
-I also like the names your each of the characters. They are all original with rather unique touch to it. That is good. Who wants a fic where there characters have boring names like Dave, Dylan, or Jeff. Um, and keep up the good work.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skett on 2003-09-29 17:12 ]</font>

[Matra]

I'm sorry for the notoriously long time it's taken to get this chapter out. I've had a lot of things going on in my life and I just haven't had time to work on this. I actually wanted to have this out like months ago. Anyway, this chapter is long. It's mainly a battle scene. It introduces the story's main enemy, besides the obvious Falz. I really hope you enjoy it, and again, I apologized for the wait.

Chapter 5

Telepipes are quite an interesting invention. They're small, portable power cells whose purpose is to create an immediate and direct link from where it is used to the place it is set for, within a certain range. In this case, it was set to right next to the check room on Pioneer 2. Once set, virtually anyone can use it to travel between the two locations. They stay open until the person who first activated it returns through it to the place they activated it from. In this case, that meant if Brightblade returned to Ragol through the telepipe he just activated, the link would be severed. With Pioneer 2, telepipes close when another is set to the same destination by the same person. Since all the telepipes on Pioneer 2 are set to the same place, each person can only ever set one at a time. The technique Ryuker does exactly what a telepipe does, except it's a technique. I won't explain just how it works right now. I'll get more into that when I explain how techniques work.

As one would guess, when Brightblade and I arrived at our destination, we were next to the check room of Pioneer 2. I still felt incredibly weak, so I could do nothing more than lean against Brightblade and look around at my blurred surroundings. A couple people in the street were looking at us with concern, which they had reason to be. I'm sure its not every day one sees a HUcast come through a telepipe suddenly carrying what must have looked like a half-dead HUmar. I didn't have time to notice anything else because Brightblade started dragging me towards the infirmary as fast as he could. Or should I say, only I was doing the dragging. He didn't seem to have any trouble pulling me along with him. Then again, he was a HUcast. One had to expect him to be that strong. I decided it was best that I just let him carry me and stare at the floor, which I promptly did. We hadn't been going too long when we abruptly stopped, Brightblade doing nothing more then giving a simple, "Huh?" I struggled to raise my head up and look at whatever he was looking at. There, standing in front of the transporter looking straight at us, was a black and crimson HUcast with equally crimson eyes. His head was very humanoid, unlike Brightblade's with that large horn. He had a large sword with yellow photon shouldered on his back, held by one hand. His eyes seemed to narrow, and I swear he gave us a cold, malicious smile. This immediately sent a shiver through me, not because I was afraid, but because of something else I did not yet understand. This was definitely not good.

The HUcast before us took a step forward, still smiling that wicked smile at us. He seemed to study us carefully, then his gaze focused on me, which made me very uncomfortable. "So, we finally meet again," said his low, deep voice. "It's been a while, Matra." At this, I saw Brightblade turn his head to look at me out of the corner of my eye. "You know this guy?" he asked. I shook my head and struggled to speak. "I've never...seen him.....in my entire life. I don't know who...the hell he is..." The unnamed HUcast chuckled darkly and seemed to smile brighter. "Don't remember me, eh? And to think, we were such good friends too. But it has been a very long time since we last saw each other. I can't blame you for forgetting I guess." Brightblade cut in here with, "Hey, could you hurry up and tell us what you want? I've got to get him to the infirmary y'know." The HUcast shook his head, still smiling. "How rude of me, I'm forgetting to introduce myself. My name is Diablos," and here he stopped and pointed his massive sword at us using only one hand. "I'm simply here to kill him." This comment was obviously directed at me. I blinked, staring at him utterly confused. Brightblade turned his head to me, then back to Diablos, then drug me over to the side, next to the transporter that leads to the Principal. He set me down next to it, and I could do nothing more then lean back against the wall and stare at him, dumbfounded. "Wha...what?" is all I could stammer out. "I'll take care of this fool. You just relax there," said Brightblade in response. I shook my head. "But this has...nothing to do...with you. You've got...no reason to..." But he cut me off with a gesture of his hand before I could finish. "You fought alongside me down on Ragol. That makes us partners, and I never abandon my allies. Besides, I told Cyrus I'd get you to the infirmary, and I'll do just that." "Cyrus..." I thought for a brief moment. Just where was he right now? Without another word, and before I could object, Brightblade stood up from where he was kneeling in front of me, walked back over to where he was in front of Diablos, and drew his sword. Through my blurred vision, and from a further distance now, Diablos looked like he scowled. "I did not come for a worm like you. I came for Matra and Matra alone." Brightblade smiled back at him. "Right, but he's my ally. So if you're going to threaten him like that, then you're asking for trouble with me." This seemed to anger Diablos. "Ignorant fool..." is all he said before he drew his sword, readied himself, and the battle was underway.

Needless to say, as soon as they saw the battle starting, everyone in the vicinity immediately took off to seek shelter. Those that were left were myself, Brightblade, Diablos, and the two guards guarding the transporter. I pity them because, as the battle started, realizing Diablos had threatened Brightblade, they aimed their guns and ordered him to desist at once. Diablos responded by flipping behind one guard and cutting him in half at the waist, then, after deflecting a shot with his sword, rushing the other guard with amazing speed despite his sword, and cut through him in a similar fashion. He then focused all of his attention on Brightblade, who was suddenly enraged. "Threatening Matra is one thing...But to kill those who aren't even involved?!" Diablos chuckled. "They became involved when they aimed their guns at me." Brightblade merely growled, but abruptly stopped as he found Diablos rushing straight at him with the same speed as before. Brightblade moved his sword directly in front of him, barely in time to block a slash that sent him literally sliding backwards. Diablos was definitely powerful. Brightblade braced himself as he delivered several more slashes directly to the sword, trying to knock Brightblade off balance. He didn?t budge an inch this time. Diablos obviously noticed this because he jumped over him as he had done the first guard, trying to get him from behind. What he hadn't counted on was Brightblade being just as fast as he is and coming around with his own slash. Diablos jumped back, but not enough to prevent the slash from connecting partially on his chest. Diablos looked down at the gash, brought a hand up to it and chuckled. He looked to Brightblade and said, "Well, you obviously aren't any ordinary hunter. What's your name?" Brightblade smirked, at least I think that's what he did. I can never tell due to that head of his. "Just call me Brightblade." Diablos gave his wicked smile. "Ah, now I know who you are, and why you're so good. I've been looking for a real challenge. This should be very interesting." It was here I believe that they both decided to no longer hold anything back. A word of advice to everyone: don't be around when two Hucasts fighting each other give it everything they've got. Things can get very, VERY chaotic.

They both rushed at each other with their blinding speed and clashed swords, effectively resulting in a deadlock. They stood there, pushing against each other for a moment, until Brightblade broke the deadlock by doing a backflip high into the air. Diablos pursued with his own leap, but apparently hadn't counted on Brightblade having completed enough of the flip to be facing straight down at him. As Diablos came in, Brightblade swung horizontally while still in the air. Diablos was forced on the defensive, placing his own sword between himself and Brightblade. He blocked the slash easily, but Brightblade continued with several more slashes, still in the air mind you. It was almost as if the two of them were defying gravity itself, or everything just seemed so slow because of the shape I was in. Regardless, Diablos blocked Brightblade's follow-up slashes, but wasn?t prepared for his final. He pulled the sword back in a huge wind-up, then came around with it at Diablos in a tilted, circular motion. This must have hit with extreme force because when it connected with Diablos' sword, Diablos himself went crashing into the walkway below. Brightblade landed easily, but staggered to the side a bit. He must have disoriented himself slightly from the spin, but there was no danger of a counterattack from his adversary, who was laying spread out on the ground, still clutching his sword. Diablos seemed to have some trouble lifting himself off the ground, and after a moment, I realized why. I hadn't realized right way that I had lifted my head up to be able to see him. Brightblade had hit him so hard, he had actually made an indent in the walkway, or at least I thought it would be an indent. What had actually happened is that Diablos went almost all the way through. He'd also severely cracked it. I was really starting to wonder if Diablos was even really a threat to the two of us. My doubts were done away with almost immediately. As Diablos lifted himself out of the ground, Brightblade stood looking at him and chuckling with his left hand on his side, the sword point on the ground, the sword standing straight up, and his palm atop the end of the handle. I know for a fact that I heard Diablos growl at this insult, and what happened next will forever be burned into my memory. He stood there, holding his sword so tight his arms actually started shaking. Then those same arms started to glow with an aura that was just as much crimson as himself and those wicked eyes of his. Brightblade looked as if he tilted his head at this, but then his face went to surprise, as did mine, with a little amazement. Diablos rushed him with even faster speed than before. So fast in fact, that it caught Brightblade almost completely off guard. He only had time to get his sword partially into position to block Diablos' oncoming attack. That attack consisted of what was very reminiscent of a golf swing, and much, much more powerful than the slash that had made Diablos have a not so enjoyable meeting with the ground. From the force of the slash, Brightblade literally spiraled into the air. He flipped at least once before he used his sheer strength to stop himself in the spin and end up landing atop the transporter to the Principal. I was amazed that he was still standing, but I wouldn't be for long. Just as that thought crossed my mind, Brightblade dropped to one knee with a grunt of pain, somehow managing to keep hold of the sword. He lifted his head slowly to stare at Diablos, enraged, and if he could have expressed it in such a way, he would have been cringing right about now.

"D...damn it, what the hell was that!?" said Brightblade, almost as utterly amazed as I. Diablos laughed a very cold and malicious laugh that pierced right through me. "THAT, you foolish, pathetic worm, was just an appetizer to the true power my master possesses." I blinked at this comment, wondering just who the hell his master was, and Brightblade apparently wondered the same thing. "Master? Who the hell's that?" Diablos shook his head with a smile. "That I'm sure you, and every pathetic soul on this pitiful ship, will eventually learn in due time." I noticed that Brightblade smiled oddly enough. "Well, at least I've got one up on you. I'm not that sad as to have to serve someone." It's amazing how Brightblade can point out little things like this at the absolutely wrong times. At this, Diablos growled just as he had done before when Brightblade taunted him earlier. Apparently, Brightblade hadn't learned from that mistake last time. Diablos immediately rushed at him, staying on the walkway even though Brightblade was on top of the warp. This I didn't understand at first until Diablos was in front of the warp as he lifted his massive sword high over his head and brought it down in an overhead arc at Brightblade. Brightblade was too injured to have enough strength to block this slash, which easily had more power than the one that launched him. Instead, he evaded it by jumping off to the side at the last minute and ending up right in the center of the street in front of the warp. Since he moved, Diablos' swing obviously missed, but it didn't stop at the roof to the transporter. Instead, his sword kept going, crashing right through the roof and then slamming down into the warp. It hit so hard that warp immediately fizzled out. As if that wasn't bad enough, the slash ended up fracturing the ground severely. I had no time to sit and stare amazed at the sight because Diablos was after Brightblade again immediately. Fortunately for his sake, Brightblade was ready for another assault and somehow, undoubtedly with all the strength he had, pushed off the ground as hard as he could, jumping into the air as Diablos came in. Diablos again brought his sword down on the place where the wounded HUcast just was, fracturing the ground here as he had done with the warp. Brightblade ended up jumping high enough to land on the roof of what was obviously the infirmary by the big red cross on the front. Diablos easily followed with his own leap, again closing for another attack. I could definitely tell by this point that Brightblade was seriously hurting because as Diablos neared, Brightblade didn't exactly jump out of the way. It was more like he just forced himself to drop off the roof to the ground. When he landed, he immediately collapsed into a roll, stopping in front of me, but on the opposite side of the street and laying face down, holding his sword somehow. He didn't move much. I knew that if Diablos came in for another assault, Brightblade wouldn't survive. Thankfully, though, Diablos' arrogance seemed to get the better of him. He calmly dropped down off the roof and started to walk towards me. As he did so, Brightblade struggled to pull himself up, only succeeding in getting to one knee by the time Diablos was next to me. I stared at him, still feeling too weak to do much of anything but watch. I won't lie about it: this is the only time I can remember I've ever been afraid for my life. I was certain he was going to kill me right then and there. He was even smirking at me with that sadistic, twisted smirk of his. Thankfully, against all odds, he turned away from me and faced Brightblade. This helped ease my fear, but not by much for two reasons. One, I knew he planned to finish off Brightblade. Two, he would obviously kill me after him. I could only sit and watch as my death approached. He took a step towards Brightblade, his arms still glowing with that same crimson aura. "Not bad, whelp. But you've still got much to learn. You truly can't judge a book by its cover, as you've obviously seen that by my power." He paused for a minute. "But I am merciful. You obviously have great potential. I'd be willing to spare you, if you chose to serve my master, as I do." Brightblade, in response to these words, simply lifted his head up slowly and said, "Go...to...HELL!" I couldn't see how Diablos reacted, since his back was turned to me, but I'm guessing he wasn't too happy at this comment. He shook his head after a few moments saying, "That's truly a shame. To see such a great warrior come to an end so soon...Saddening." He pulled his sword back and I watched as the entire sword itself became covered in the aura, which was glowing brighter than before. "But I'm afraid I have no patience for arrogant fools like you. It seems you'll be the one in hell!" With this, he lifted the blade over his head, struck it down onto the ground as hard as he could, and what happened next amazed me even more so than anything else so far. As soon as the blade struck the ground, a large wave of energy shot straight across the ground, the same color as the aura, ripping the ground apart. It headed straight for Brightblade, and I knew he wouldn't dodge this. I watched as he tried, and I swear he must have said, "Oh sh..." before the wave struck him. It exploded violently on impact, the explosion just barely coming to a stop in front of Diablos' face. I was blinded momentarily by the flash it emitted. I heard pieces of debris fly by me, and then a piece slice across my left arm with a sharp edge. I cringed at the sharp pain, but what was even worse was that the pain made it impossible for me to move it. When the flash was gone, the walkway was split in two, Brightblade's sword was somehow inches from me stuck in the walkway, Brightblade himself lay motionless on the side, and Diablos was walking over to him to finish him off, if he even needed finishing. I knew that, however weak I was, if I didn't do something, we would both die here.

Diablos stopped in front of the motionless Brightblade, chuckling. Brightblade had risked his life to save me, even when this situation didn't even concern him. For all I knew, it didn't concern me either. But after all he'd just done for me, I wasn't about to simply sit by while Diablos killed him. No, I had to make some attempt to save him, however small. I reached my hand out and took hold of Brightblade's sword. Somehow, this got Diablos' attention, because he immediately stopped laughing and turned his head back a bit at me. I struggled with all my strength, no matter how hopeless, to lift myself up with the help of the sword, and amazingly succeeded. Diablos turned so that his side was to me and he was still watching me. "Well what's this?" he said coldly. "Going to give it one last pathetic attempt before you die? You'll only be making this harder on yourself." I ignored his taunts and focused on the sword. Even if it was hopeless, Brightblade was better than I was after all, I wasn't just going to give up and die. I was going to try to stop Diablos, and Brightblade's sword would help me do that...if I could even pull it out. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then opened them as I pulled as hard as I could on the sword, trying to get it out of the ground. I could tell it wasn't budging an inch, but I continued to try. I wasn't going to stop until Diablos killed me, whenever he got tired of my little show. He stood there, laughing, mocking me just watching. I must have done this for a full minute, but still to no avail. I doubt I would have been able to pull it out even with both arms much less one. I continued trying, and then something happened, something I didn't expect. I suddenly didn't feel weak anymore. On the contrary, I felt stronger than I ever had. I felt this immense surge of power that seemingly came out of nowhere flowing through my entire body. I felt like I could take on anyone, and that included Diablos. I looked over at him, and found myself smirking at him, possibly in my own cold way. He simply looked at me a bit confused as I pulled one last time, and the sword came out as easy as if I were Brightblade, or Diablos. It was Diablos' turn to be amazed. "H..h..how could you...?!" is all he seemed to be able to get himself to say. I turned sideways, spread my feet apart, held the sword back and said calmer than Diablos ever had, "Let's go, Diablos. This fight isn't over yet." I immediately rushed at him, very likely with the same speed as he from before. His eyes went wide, in the weird way HUcasts' eyes do, as I closed the gap, but I didn't catch him off guard entirely. He swung his sword up at me to his left as I brought mine down to the right. Our swords collided, simply sliding off each other in the directions we had them going. Diablos continued his in a circular motion, spinning around with the force of the slash for a second. I on the other hand took a step in towards him, turned the sword horizontally, and brought it quickly across at his midsection as he came around. I was too fast for him somehow, because I caught him directly in the chest, and I was pleased to see him wince. He was still able to bring his second slash around and down to the left, but somehow it seemed to have missed me, how I'm not sure. He staggered back a few steps, trying to get some distance, but I realized this and immediately closed in. Everything was coming to me instantly, what he was doing, what I should do to counter or whatever...everything. I couldn't understand why, but I assumed it had something to do with this new power in me. I came lunging at him with my sword and found that it stuck cleanly in his chest. His eyes went wide, again, in the way HUcasts' eyes do. He let go of the sword with his left hand, still gripping it with the right, and brought it up to where I had stabbed him. He looked down at it, utterly in shock, but I wasn't going to give him any more time for that. The blade was parallel to the ground, so I pulled it left, causing him to wince and groan, then swiftly brought it back to the right and pulled it up and out of him at his shoulder. I watched as his left arm was cleanly sliced off, and as he staggered back several feet. It was at this moment that I realized I was laughing, more coldly in fact than Diablos himself. This frightened me for a moment and I promptly stopped myself. How long had I been laughing like that, and why? Was I...was I actually enjoying this? I shook my head, trying to dismiss these thoughts as Diablos slowly started to lean back and then fall to the ground. It was over, he was beaten, yet somehow still alive. Perhaps his master was truly powerful, whoever he, she, or it was. I walked over to right in front of his feet and heard him stammering, "How...how could I...lose?" as I approached. I chuckled coldly, but quickly stopped myself as it was really starting to worry me. He struggled as he lifted his head to look at me. "How could you...have possibly been...so strong? You had...no strength left..." I merely narrowed my eyes at him, and felt a very strange, very dark feeling pass over me. Diablos' eyes seemed to stare right back at mine here. Then...he smiled. He didn't just do that, he started laughing too. "Aahhh...Now I see...How clever, master." I guess he was mainly talking to himself, because there was no one else around but he, Brightblade, and myself. He was slowly growing more pleased. "I understand all of this now. You didn't want me to actually kill him....Hehehe..." He suddenly started laughing like some deranged, psychotic lunatic. It reminded me of Brightblade. Then, as his whole body became enveloped in that ominous red aura, he just...vanished. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my chest and felt very weak. I looked down, and saw that I had a large gash of my own. It seemed that Diablos hadn't missed with that circular slash after all. On the contrary, it connected full on. I just somehow didn't feel it at all. I stood there, clutching the wound, pondering as thousands of questions popped into my head. Just who the hell was he? Why had he tried to kill me? Who was his master? Why had I had that pain down on Ragol? What was that voice? What the hell was Cyrus doing? Why had all that power come to me suddenly? Would Brightblade survive? More importantly, would I as I couldn't hold myself up any longer, started falling forwards as I heard Cyrus out of nowhere yell, "Matra! Are you alright?" and then I fell flat on my face and immediately passed out.

[Matra]

Hello again, everyone. I know it's been an absurdly long time since I last posted. I've been sidetracked by a lot of stuff, such as school, relationships, PSO Ep1/1, PSO Ep3...the list goes on. I myself find it ridiculous that it has taken me so long to write the next chapter. For those of you waiting to read it, I can't apologize enough. I only hope that you'll still read it, and enjoy it. As always, feel free to post your comments, good or bad. Even bad comments can only help to make my story better because I'll know what areas to improve upon. Anyways, here is the long overdue chapter 6.

Chapter 6

I found myself somehow in what seemed to be a sea of nothingness. There was literally nothing, no living thing, no movement, not even the sound of my own footsteps as I walked around, searching. I'm not even sure how I was walking around. There was no kind of floor as far as I could see yet I was walking on something. The nothingness seemed to stretch on forever, and I seemed to be at the very center of it all. I started running. For some reason, I really did not want to be here. Of course, that's understandable. I mean who would want to be in an endless sea of nothingness? But then again, I'm normally not afraid of anything. Yet this...being here, for some reason terrified me. I kept running for what seemed like hours, but was probably in reality only a few minutes, if even that. I found myself calling out for Cyrus, Brightblade...anyone. There was no response. I did not expect there to be a response. I eventually just stopped and let out a heavy sigh. I dropped my head and looked at the nothingness below me. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to think of some way to get out of here. Then I heard something behind me. I turned around to see whatever it was, and my eyes immediately went wide. It was a sight the likes of which I doubt anyone had ever seen, except most likely Diablos. If you're wondering why then this should explain it. Before me was this immensely large...thing, I could not exactly make it out. Whatever it was it was silhouetted, and covered, in a brightly glowing crimson aura. I hope that answers your question. These details, however, were not the most disturbing. What was most disturbing was the fact that I had a very odd feeling that this thing was familiar. It was like I had seen it before, yet I didn't remember it and I'd never forget seeing something like that. I took a few steps back away from it slowly, albeit shakily. I never took my eyes of the thing, and I watched as what looked like its head slowly moved to look at me. Then, it spoke in that same voice I'd heard down on Ragol when we encountered the hildebear. "So... you've come back at last...to your home. This is where you belong. This is where you shall stay... It was the exact same thing it had said before. I shook my head, still not understanding what the hell it was talking about. "What are you saying?! Why do I belong here? What are you?" I couldn't see its face too well, but I swear it narrowed its eyes at me, and then spoke again. "You do not remember me? The one who created you? The one who gave you life?" I shook my head again, becoming even more confused. "You're not making any sense! Just what the hell are you?" It shook its head after I said this, and for some reason this sent a chill through me. My instincts were telling me that this was not good at all. As a matter of fact, they were telling me to get the hell out of there as fast as I could, but I just couldn't move. It spoke again. "It seems you've been away far too long. I hadn't anticipated you forgetting about me...and your purpose. But that is just a minor setback. One that can be easily fixed." I started to ask it again what it was talking about, but then one of its huge arms was brought up and pointed at me. I took a few more steps back, watching as that same crimson aura started to swirl in what I guess you would call its hand. It slowly began to glow brighter, until it eventually stopped as this giant ball of energy. I was literally paralyzed with fear at this point, a fear I didn't fully understand. I could only stand there and watch in horror as the thing seemed to smile, the energy ball glow brighter for a moment, then it was fired at me. I could do nothing more than cross my arms in front of my face, hoping to shield myself from it but knowing it was futile. I also found myself screaming in fright, and just as the blast hit me, I woke up.

My eyes opened immediately, and I sat up just as quickly, not aware at first that I was still screaming. It didn't take long though for me to realize I was no longer in the presence of that thing, so I quickly settled down and looked at my surroundings. I realized immediately that I was in the infirmary by the big red crosses on the walls. I also saw a few nurses dressed in these pink and white outfits. All of them were female newmans I realized. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were bred specifically for the purpose of working here. If you're wondering what I mean by that, I'll get back to it later. It's not important right now. In any case, the nurses were all staring at me looking surprised, confused, and concerned. This was most likely do to the fact that I was probably just before laying in this medical bed not making a sound, and then suddenly I wake up screaming my head off. I'm sure that would catch anyone off guard. I ignored their looks and continued looking around the infirmary until I saw something that was finally familiar; Cyrus and Brightblade. Or rather, Brightblade was easily familiar, Cyrus I didn't realize was Cyrus at first. Brightblade was leaning against one of the medical beds with his back, arms crossed, staring at me. He seemed less surprised than the nurses, as did Cyrus, who was now dressed in dark green hunter gear, almost black, and his hair was tied back in a long ponytail. That's why I didn't recognize him. From what I could tell, he must have just been standing there looking at me before I woke up. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that Brightblade looked entirely fine. You couldn't even tell that he had been hurt at all. I guess that's because it's simpler to repair an android than it is to heal a human or newman. All you need is the right machinery and parts and someone skilled at fixing androids. This fact caused me to scan the room a bit more and realize that such things were on hand. There were various android parts lying around the room, sorted nicely so that anyone could find anything when they needed it. I'm guessing these newmans, or at least some or one of them, must have been skilled with machinery as well. They would have to be, because this is also where androids came to get repairs as humans and newmans did to get wounds treated. I stopped scanning the room and swung my legs off of the bed, letting them hang over the edge of it, not quite touching the floor. The nearest nurse, most likely mine, quickly came over to me and tried to support me as I winced in pain. Apparently I wasn't entirely well yet, but I seemed strangely better than I should have been after what I went through. Damn that Brightblade. He probably never felt a thing. The nurse spoke to me in one of the softest, most soothing voices you have ever heard. "You shouldn't be moving right away! You aren't entirely well after the beating you took." I shook my head in response and said simply, "I'm fine." and turned my head to look at her. As I had said that these nurses were probably bred solely for this purpose, the fact that this nurse was, shall we say, easy on the eyes further proved my theory. I mean, wouldn't you rather have a nurse that looked attractive than one that...nevermind. You get the idea. She had this short brown hair that hung down on both sides in the front, away from her face, and oddly hung down straight in the back until the tips where it pulled back on either side. She also had these blue eyes that, when she looked at you, just seemed to make you feel happy to be there. As for the rest of her, well, I don't think many people would have any complaints there. I might have found her attractive, had I been at all concerned in that sort of thing. In case you're wondering, I'm not at all interested in finding my "significant other." I'm better off as a loner anyway. The only one you can ever truly trust is yourself. Anyway, I ignored how she looked and pulled myself up to stand, using the bed to support me and, whether I wanted it or not, the help of the nurse. As I stood, Cyrus took a step towards me. "Glad to see you finally awake," he said. The first thing on my mind, which I promptly asked him was, "How long have I been out?" He paused for a moment and then turned his head back to look at Brightblade. "About 2 weeks I'd say," was Brightblade's response, though he didn't answer right away because something else had his attention, but I didn't see what. I simply stared and blinked at him. "Two weeks?!" I said. He simply shrugged. "Well what can you expect after the injuries you received? Even I was out of commission for a week. And I'm an android." That made sense. Androids were made of metal after all which made them understandably more durable. I ignored the hint of superiority in his voice and looked back to Cyrus, whom I found staring at me. "So, you going to tell us, or do we have to ask?" he said to me. I narrowed my eyes at him and asked, "What are you talking about?" He sighed. "Guess it's the latter, then. Why did you wake up screaming like that? I can tell you aren't one to be bothered by a simple nightmare." There was an odd silence here as I felt almost everyone's eyes focus on me. I hate it when people do that. In response, I simply stared at him, purposely letting my annoyance show, and said, "None of your business. It's my life and I'll tell you what I want to." He seemed to consider this for a while, then just shrugged and turned away, seeming to get lost in thought. I stared at the foot of my bed, doing my own thinking. Just what was that dream about? It obviously was more than a dream. It just....felt too real. It was all too familiar even though I knew nothing about it at all. Somehow, beyond my own knowledge, I had a connection to Ragol, a connection that I had a feeling wouldn't simply go away now. I let out a sigh, which thankfully drew no attention. There was no going turning back now. After what had happened, down on the planet and in my dream, there was no doubt in my mind. I had to find out what was going on, and I set my mind to that right then and there.

It was here that Cyrus interrupted my thoughts. "Oh yeah, I forgot something..." I lifted my head up to look at him. "What?" I said. He gave me sort of an amused smile. "You had a rather interesting visitor while you were out." I raised an eyebrow at him, and I heard Brightblade chuckle, which caused me to look at him. Our conversation seemed to have his full attention now, though what he had been focused on before that, I had no idea. I didn't really look at him. He seemed amused, though being a HUcast, I couldn't tell fully. I looked back at Cyrus, who promptly continued where he had left off. "As can only be expected, as that little battle with Diablos," I smiled at his usage of the word little, "...drew quite a lot of attention." He paused here. "Understatement. There's even been a rumor that you've drawn the attention of Principal Tyrell, but that's just a rumor." My eyes widened here. Principal Tyrell himself?! The head of the entire Pioneer 2?! Now this was getting serious. I didn't want any attention drawn to myself, but I guess that was too late now. But then again, Cyrus has said it was just a rumor. I hoped it didn't prove to be true... "But...that's not what I'm getting at here," Cyrus continued. I looked back at him, not realizing I had stared downward at his last statement. "You were visited by one fellow hunter of distinguishably notable repute." I tilted my head at him here. "Several times in fact." I started to grow impatient as I could tell he was purposely dragging this on. "Spit it out already," I finally said to him. He smiled here and held that smile, seeming as amused as Brightblade was. "Have you ever heard of a force, a FOmarl in fact, who is known by the name and title of Sorceress Amy?" I simply raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Should I have?" Our HUcast compatriot chuckled at my comment, upon which both Cyrus and I looked at him and said in unison, "Shut up, Brightblade.' He thankfully did. I looked back at Cyrus, who in turn looked back at me. "Sorceress Amy is one of Pioneer 2's, in fact Coral's, most famous forces." I asked, "Who is she and just what makes her so famous?" Cyrus answered with, "Well, for one, her father was Great Sword Zoke." This name in itself meant a lot. Almost every hunter knows who Zoke is. He's known for possessing three of a supposed four legendary katanas, the Sange, the Yasha, and the Kamui. He would always carry them around with him. But that's just one thing that made him so famous. He was also extremely skilled. Not once had this guy failed on a mission, nor even come close to being beaten by anyone or anything. Of course though, one cannot say if he is better than Red Ring Rico or Heathcliff Flowen. It would be interesting to see them face off against each other. Anyway, I should have given you enough information on Zoke so that you know why I was a bit surprised to hear that his daughter, this Sorceress Amy, had come to see me of all people. Cyrus however had not stopped talking. "People often say that she inherited her fiery temper from him, and it may very well be true considering the two share such a trait." "Interesting..." I said, considering all this. Brightblade cut in by saying, "Understatement." I merely glared at him and said, "To you, maybe." He smiled and went back to whatever he was doing, which I didn't care to take note of. I looked back at Cyrus and asked him, "What about her mother?" Cyrus smiled here, which caused me to look at him, curious. "Her mother is another story. It is not known just what her name is or was, or even just who she is or was. But one thing that is certain is that she was a powerful force, just like her daughter has become. It's also said that she inherited her mother's beauty as well as her icy heart." Brightblade commented by saying, "I would certainly agree with the former....." He looked to me like he was picturing her in his head. "She sure is a looker..." Cyrus slapped Brightblade here, something I would have done had he not gotten to it first. It brought Brightblade out of his little daydream and back to reality, albeit a little annoyed at Cyrus. How Cyrus didn't hurt his hand, I'll never know. "What the hell did you do that for?!" Brightblade said. "Stop with your little fantasies and stay focused," responded Cyrus. Brightblade turned away, grumbling something about how humans can have their little fantasies but androids can't. I ignored this and focused on Cyrus. This was really starting to make me wonder. "So what did she want with me?" I asked. Cyrus paused here for a moment and seemed to consider just how much he should tell me. I really wanted to know because, after all, why would a FOmarl who was this famous want to come see me, a HUmar who had just started being a hunter? Cyrus finally opened his mouth to speak. "Like I said, word of your battle with Diablos has gotten around. No one knows who was in the battle, except for us of course. People were only able to give vague descriptions about you, Brightblade, and Diablos." Understandable. Most everyone went running as soon as the battle started, and those that stayed, the two guards, were killed. "We've been doing our best to make sure no one knows it was you. That wasn't so hard since you've been in here the whole time since then." He paused for a moment. "Though through some means I am not aware of, Sorceress Amy was able to figure things out, and she came to see you directly. Since you were out, besides visiting a few more times, she left a message with me." I raised an eyebrow at him. "What message?" Cyrus smiled again and said, "She has information on Diablos." Needless to say, this caught my full attention. I demanded to know what exactly it was that Sorceress Amy had said. Cyrus informed me that she wished to discuss things with me concerning Diablos and whatever he was involved with. Apparently there was a lot more going on with him then I could tell, but in reality, I should have expected it. He had come out of nowhere to kill me and I didn't even know why or who the hell he was. By what Cyrus told me, Sorceress Amy had taken note of the fact that I had actually defeated Diablos(how she knew that, I have no clue), and by her words, this was no small feat. She saw potential in me, and had given Cyrus her BEE address for me to contact her so we could set up a meeting. The BEE system is the communications system used by hunters on Pioneer 2. I planned to do that immediately, but I was starving by this time, and as there was nothing else he had to tell me, we headed out to the nearest cafe, much to Brightblade's disappointment for some reason, and got some food. The contents of our meal is of no importance, so I won't bother you with them. It was more of the conversation that we had that was important. There was a long silence at first, but eventually Cyrus broke in by saying, "So just what happened with that hildebear?" I immediately stopped eating and stared at him. "What do you mean?" "C'mon, don't give me the ignorance routine. Something obviously happened with that thing." I stared down at my food for a moment, and then took a side glance at Brightblade. He seemed to only be half interested in our conversation. The other half of his interest I realized was focused on the various women that came in and out of the cafe. It was here that I finally realized just what Brightblade had been doing in the infirmary. He had been, as some people put it, "checking out" the nurses. He was now doing the very same thing in the cafe. I shook my head. Great, a perverted android in our company. He took no notice of my watching him and kept doing this through the rest of our conversation. I said to Cyrus, "I guess I could tell you. I do owe you for getting us to the infirmary." I paused, took a deep breath, and said, ?It spoke to me." Cyrus blinked. "Spoke to you? Well we got that. But I've never heard those things speak. And regardless, it was only gibberish." I shook my head at this. "No, you don't get it. I understood every word that thing said." He looked at me somewhat surprised. "How?" I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that I understood it, and it kept going on about how I belonged to this planet...Like Ragol was my origin." "I don't see how that's possible," Cyrus said. "We've never known about Ragol until now." I nodded. "Yes, I know it's crazy, but that's just what the thing said." Cyrus considered this for a moment, probably trying to figure out whether or not what I said was the truth. What he concluded, I can't tell, but he said, "Well, it certainly is odd. I'm not really sure what to make of it. Nonetheless, I think you should be on guard while..." It was here our conversation abruptly ended as we heard a loud thud to the side, and we both looked at Brightblade, who was holding the side of his head as if he'd been hit and sitting a bit awkward. There was also what seemed to be a very annoyed RAmarl wearing black and crimson, with long, dark green hair, walking away from us. The designation RAmarl stands for a human female ranger in case you want to know. Cyrus said, seeming oddly happy, "Congratulations, Brightblade! You beat your old record!" Brightblade straightened himself up and looked at Cyrus. "Really? Hehe, I told you I could do it." I stared at the two, dumbfounded. "What record?" Cyrus looked at me and said very casually, "How long he can go peeping at the female passerby without getting slapped." I simply shook my head and ignored their conversation on the subject.

I headed back to my apartment once we were done. The rest of our conversations were of no importance, just idle chatter about ourselves. Although I did find it amusing that Brightblade has the oddest habit of actually eating machine parts like nuts and bolts. Androids don't need to eat food, and how he does it with nuts and bolts, I'll never know. Anyway, I entered my apartment and set my saber down on the coffee table. I started to head over to the BEE system on my kitchen counter, but I caught sight of the box my gear had come in. I went back over to it and checked inside. Cyrus had mentioned monomates to me before while in the forest, and I didn't want to forget mine this time. I found eight items in the box. I realized that, besides four monomates, there were four monofluids. I didn't think they'd be much use to me as a hunter, but they couldn't hurt to have on me. I started he head over to the BEE system again when I suddenly felt something small bump against my back. I quickly turned, ready do protect myself form whatever it was, and stared at first in confusion. Here, floating in front of me, was this little black thing kind of shaped like a comma with a sort of yellow eye. I realized after a second that this was my mag. Mags are an interesting part of a hunter?s equipment. They're semi-robotic, semi-organic. I'm not sure exactly how they're made. They're semi-sentient beings that are completely loyal to their master, which was in the case of this one, me. They protect their masters in any way they can and follow them everywhere their master takes them. It may sound odd to say that this thing would protect me, but they are capable of it. I'll explain that when the time comes. As things were, it simply floated in front of me, looking me over as a baby does most anything. It must have been sleeping the box before so I didn't notice it and it didn't notice me. As it was now, I gave it sort of a pat on its head(if it even had one) and seemed to become extremely happy. It sort of rubbed up against me a bit. I scratched the back of my head wondering just what to do with it when it focused on the monos I was holding. It poked at them and at me, and I gathered that the little guy was hungry. Yes, mags do eat, and they generally eat out medical items. I handed one of my monofluids to it, which it promptly gobbled up. I gave it two more, and when I tried the fourth, it kind of shook itself as if to say no. I guess it was full. I shrugged, put away the monos on my person, and turned back to the BEE system, letting the mag follow over my shoulder like a familiar. I promptly accessed Sorceress Amy's address and waited. She answered with a voice that seemed, at least to me, to reflect everything about her that Cyrus had told me. "Yes?" she said. "Sorceress Amy?" was my response. She chuckled. "Ah, you must be that HUmar, Matra. Good to hear you finally up and about. I trust you are feeling well?" "I'm fine," I said. "Now what is it you want to see me about?" She laughed this time. "Ah, yes. Straight to the point I see. Alright then. I'll make this brief. Your little incident with Diablos has caught my attention. There's no denying that he's skilled and powerful, and the fact that you, a hunter who had just started that day..." Ouch, how did she know that? "...were able to defeat him in solo combat." "Besides possibly trying to flatter me, what"s your point?" She chuckled again. "I've been investigating Diablos carefully for a while. He seems to have some big agenda, what that is, I don't know yet. But from what I've heard, he seems to have some connection to you." I was about to tell her I knew nothing of that when she continued. "Regardless, I want to meet with you personally and see if you're truly as good as I've heard. Maybe you can help me with Diablos, and in turn, I can help you with why he's after you." I paused for a moment, considering this. I had already set my mind, though. Diablos was obviously not going to leave me alone, so I had to find out what this was all about. "Alright. When and where?" She gave me a time and told me to meet her in the forest. Her partner, a RAmar named Tacon, would meet me at the transporter and take me to her. Why couldn't we just meet somewhere on Pioneer 2? Apparently she wanted to test me. I agreed, she seemed pleased, and we ended contact. I spent my time waiting by trying to figure this all out. I changed into something more comfortable to relax in. I also got some rest. I was still a little weary from the events of that day. My alarm woke me up at the time I had set. I promptly got up, my mag still following me, and collected my saber, gear, and monos. Then I head out, mag over my shoulder, to the transporter. I noticed the guards eyeing me a bit as I walked up. Apparently they had heard of the descriptions and were considering if I was the one they had heard about. I simply ignored their looks and walked into the transporter. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, remembering what had happened down there, and warped. I opened my eyes, looked around, and spotted a RAmar nearby. RAmar's are human male rangers. He wore a black and white outfit with shoulder pads that kind of stuck off to the sides. He looked more armored than me. His hair was green and stuck back, sort of spiked, and he wore a mask over his mouth and nose. It reminded me of the ancient ninjas of our civilization, but I ignored that. I presumed this was Tacon and was right when he walked up to me and said very bluntly, "You must be Matra. I am Tacon. Amy is waiting for you."




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Matra on 2004-03-23 20:16 ]</font>

[Tani]

Yay! New chapter! ^_^ Nicely done Matra!

I wonder if Amy is anything like she is on PSO...Hide the cucumbers http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif