Monthly Archives: September 2015

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #031

Shinsaku and Ione grabbed their handhelds and rushed to the pile of armor.  They knew better than to fiddle with the droids.  Sure they could check the alley but they’d completely give away their position.  Any competent guard would check for things like that.

Ione looked at the pile franticly.  There was no way the team could sort through all this in the next two minutes and find the best items.  “What do we do,” the sound of hurriedness escaped her voice.  Her strong instinct was to grab random items and run for it.  She looked at Phillip and Taigi.  They were supposed to be done by now!

Time was against them.  Ione knew the team would be in big trouble if they were caught.  They had a plan for escape.  They also planned to catch all the targets and for all targets to be stuck in rejuvenation centers for the next few weeks.  Having one target escape was trouble.  Now, two slayers and possibly a horde of guards were on their trail.  Everything was falling appart!

Taigi looked at Ione’s overly concerned posture, “We relax,” she instructed rolling her eyes.  It seemed Ione’s first reaction was always to worry, often hindering their progress.

Shinsaku nodded in agreement, “Get ready to move.”  He was the rock staying calm even though he was most exposed in all this.  It was what made him the best fighter of the group.  He traded glances between Taigi and Phillip.  They’ve had plenty of time to do their job, “Alright, what are we taking?

After gathering the selected armor, RedBatty followed the plan and split into three teams.  To Taigi’s dismay, she was stuck with Ione who needed to change clothes.  Therefore she had to linger in a soon to be compromised area while listening to Ione whine as she fumbled around with her armor and helmet.  Shinsaku and Phillip had long since left the building by then.  It was good since it reduced suspicion.

Unfortunately, in her rush Ione forgot to deactivate the hover droid tracking their latest target.

—–

     A strange twist in the World Circuit today as Jaquan Zu, World Circuit title holder for several years, has decided to leave the World Circuit instead of facing his longtime rival Orien Quan. 

     Sources say that Zu had become increasingly bitter towards Quan saying that Quan had used underhanded tactics during their most recent bout.  Zu has since not been available for comment. 

     However, Quan had this to say, “I’m surprised that he’d disappear like that.  I could tell he was losing nerve as the fight got closer.  I never thought he’d quit.”  Quan went on to say that he’d, “lost all respect Zu.  I used to look up to him.  Fighting him told me that I was nearing the top.  But if he [is] scared, he [is] scared.”

     The Championship fight will continue only a little later than originally scheduled.  Instead of fighting Zu, Quan will battle against Madrid Li, the third in line for the World Circuit Title.  We can only wait to see how she will respond to this opportunity.

Jaquan sat in his chair getting angrier and angrier as he watched the news feed.  This was the reason he hated reporters.  No matter what really happened, the reporters would run with a story and shout their message until enough people agreed with them.  By the time the whole truth came out.  The public already had an opinion washed into their brains.

He resists throwing his handheld down in anger.  Deciding instead to slap the holographic image it was presenting.  His handheld got the message to shut off as Jaquan stood from his seat.

Looking around the resting area, he spotted his comrades and the clock.  It was almost hour seventeen.  “Liana,” he said, “Call Neely.  Ask him where he’s at.  It’s time to go.”

#1 – Opportunity #30 – Opportunity #32

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #028

Moss Hills, Oakwood Factory:

“Focus.  Be ready for anything,” Insula Fu instructed from Metcalf’s earpiece.

Metcalf had no choice but to remain silent.  She was already doing what Master Fu had said.  She had so much to focus on simultaneously and keeping her shaky position on the wall was hard enough.  She preferred not to be reminded of the obvious.

After only two months of intense training, Metcalf’s abilities had greatly improved.  Her friends turned out to be wonderful teachers.  Their crunch-time classes combined with Master Fu’s early morning sessions taught Metcalf far more than she thought possible.  Though painstakingly well-constructed and realistic, Master Fu’s lessons were also unorthodox and challenging.  She never knew what she would have to do next.

This time, Metcalf found herself just outside an open fifteenth story window of a factory guarded by training-bots; the androids that trained with and sometimes defeated the highest level of students.  Her task required that she retrieve a secret microchip from a room in the factory.  Metcalf knew she was good at combat, but she didn’t consider herself good enough to take on a factory full of highly skilled fighting machines.  Instead, she used stealth and her motion energy skills to find and hopefully remove the chip without combat.

Metcalf found that the stealthiest body positions were rarely the most comfortable.  Currently, she was upside down looking into a large open window avoiding the nose shattering window sill and the annoying breeze an open window creates.  The only thing keeping her body pressed against the brick wall was her motion abilities.  It took a lot of concentration to pull off this trick especially with the wind outside.  Of course, the trick was impossible a few short months ago.  She was excited about her improvement but knew full well the safety risks.

Metcalf was masked and dressed completely in an indigo cloth outfit.  With a night seeing magnifying monocle over her right eye and a set of small mirrors, she searched the room hoping not to make too much noise.  She had to examine every inch of this room for something useful.  There had to be something in the room with information about the layout of the building or the location of the chip.  If she was really lucky, she could find microchip itself but that was pushing it.

These crucial moments of her sessions were the ones she dreaded the most.  Master Fu’s training methods were as bizarre as they were intense.

“What’s the square root of half of eighteen,” Master Fu shouted quickly into her microphone.  Master Fu could afford to yell; she was safe in a van half a town away.

“Ni… Uhh three,” Metcalf replied.

The answer was correct, but the sudden change in brain function broke Metcalf’s concentration just enough.  The distraction was all it took to end the mission.  She cursed as she slipped down the wall.  The mirrors she held so steady seconds ago fell to the floor.  She could climb back up to look into the window again but she needed her mirrors to search properly.  She would have to enter the room herself and find the mirrors before she started searching again.

Not willing to take the risk being caught and beaten while searching, she preferred to abort everything and come back another day.  Mirrors were cheap and could be found anywhere.  If that was all they had to go on, she was in the clear for now.

Metcalf continued sliding down the wall but started to control and slow her decent.  Finding a ledge on the wall, she leapt off the wall and used her crisho wings to guide herself and land on a roof across the street.  She heard the sirens in the factory start to sound.  By now she was far enough away to evade capture.  Still she kept running.

She wouldn’t be caught, but she would also have more problems when she tried again.  Next time, the guards would take more precautions to secure anything of value.  That’s what real people would do anyway.

#1 – Lost and Found #27 – Lost and Found #29

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #032

As the two walked the smooth stone path, it became clear to AD7 how much the citizens trusted and respected Pure in Sanity members.  The message wasn’t posted on propaganda posters or giant statues of Tirzah, the ultimate leader of the clan.  Not one street or park was named after a person or a team in the clan.  The message was on the faces of the guards and common folks they passed.  AD7 smiled at being recognized with a member of such a respected clan.

She and Keyanna continued briskly along the path.  About a decimeter above street level, people on hovering vehicles sped around on their own business.  AD7 continued to be more and more impressed with the city.  Its unique structures were all well-kept, only a few stories tall, and easily climbable.  ‘Climbable?’

AD7 had to look closer at the buildings to make sure she was seeing things correctly.  She was not mistaken.  Every building had small hand and foot grips built into their walls.  A few buildings had several places along a wall that a person could climb.  Obviously they wanted to ensure any building could be climbed at any time.  AD7 turned to Keyanna and had to ask, “Footholds?  Why?”

Keyanna following her gaze to the concrete walls and simply answered, “Parking.”

Parking?  That made a little sense.  Having been a Builder and had planned out an entire city, she understood that unorthodox provisions were often used to prevent a reoccurring problem.  Simple but effective, these provisions would often seem bizarre to a newcomer.

The climbable architecture took nothing away from the city.  With more time to look, AD7 saw what had to be the distant boundaries of the city.  A large wall of thick hedges occasionally came into view when the zooming lamp droids flew near enough to it.

AD7 gazed into the cloud of lamps that lit the city.  As she wondered just how many of those little there were, four of them separated themselves from the cloud.  In an instant the droids stopped directly in front of her blocking her path.

They were no larger than her hand.  However, their lights were too bright for her to see what they looked like.  A half second later, two more appeared behind her warming her with their light.  After circling around her a few times, they flew back into the cloud of light carrying droids.

AD7 looked at Keyanna and had to ask, “What just happened?”

“Oh,” Keyanna gasped just now remembering.  Apparently this was something she had meant to say but had forgotten, “When the light droids spot something unusual, say a new person in the city, they alert the guards and try to identify it.”

“Do those droids do that a lot?”

“Only for new people and odd situations.  The light droids continuously send messages to the guards; very helpful if you get hurt or stuck somewhere in the city.”

AD7 looked back up at the cloud of lights as she walked along the streets with her guardian.  The two ladies turned a few corners but AD7 couldn’t stop thinking about the droids, “Shouldn’t they have recognized me.  I was on the posters all over town.”

“Well, yeah.  But a photo isn’t the same as a full body portrait.”

AD7 nodded and thought it best to change the subject, “What kind of training am I going to get?”

“The absolute best.  We’ll start with your Talents,” Keyanna said pointing at the entrance to the Talent square they had just now reached, “What Talent Sets do you remember using?”

“I was a Builder,” AD7 said with pride.  She had built an entire city and also a wall to defend it from a continuously attacking force.  She liked the Building Talents.  There was little she could think to do other than that.

“Hmm,” Keyanna grunted and thought, “Building isn’t a thing anymore.  Think we could try something else?”

#1 – Awakening #31 – Awakening #33