OOC: The more I write, the more details spin-out and the MORE I write. I know what i want to write, but getting there is becoming a bigger undertaking than I thought it would be. For the sake of the story, I'm going to do an abbreviated version and post the full story as a separate post when I finish it. And yes, this IS the SHORT version! After a while, I'll remove this OOC for the stories flow. ***************************************************************** James made his way downstairs to the Taverns' main room.There, he found a familiar figure sitting at the bar, one he never actually met, but knew of. Mr Moog sat silently drinking with his back to James. Without turning, Moog said, "I have a story you must hear." James went to sit next to Moog, but stopped short when he saw blood staining Moogs' clothes and hands. Mr Moog noticed out of the corner of his eye and gave a soft giggle as he said, "Don't worry, he's not dead. Not even a relic that powerful could do anything more than annoy him. But that's not the story you need to hear." James had a puzzled look on his face, "Why would I need to hear ANY story?" Moog finally looked James in the face, "Because I finally figured it out and, quite frankly, you have NO idea what you're dealing with." While James had never actually met Snypiuer's companions, he had heard stories about them. How they fought along side him on Terra Lost. How just being around him, they changed from mere squirrels into Archmages of great power. And he knew that, of the three, Mr Moog was the most jovial and light hearted. The steeliness of Moog's eyes and the hard tone to his voice was enough for James to realize that, yes . . . he, in fact, NEEDED to hear this story. It took Moog hours to tell his story, but he began with, "This story takes place in a faraway land that lay beneath a moon and stars seen only by those who first came to the Keep from that land. It's about Terra Lost. But, more importantly, it's about a young man. It's about what you face." He told of how the First Gods brought forth Order from Chaos and how doing so, caused the most powerful God to ever exist to fall into an eternal coma, of how the second most powerful God was wiped from existence and how only a handful of the rest of the Gods, even shielded and protected at the farthest reaches of Chaos, survived as nothing but shapeless entities, scattered across reality for millennia before they were able to reform. He told of the rise of Man. How he grew in power until, out of fear of their creation, his Creators fled beyond his reach - beyond Reality itself, taking with them what they could of the other Races. Of how Man then wiped out or bred out those that remained. He eventually told of how, through Science and Technology, Man became Gods themselves, spreading across the Universe and he told of the few who entered the Void, never to be seen again. He told of how Man, with all his power, retained a yearning. A longing that brought him back to his homeland and how, being Gods, each of them believed it was his or hers individual birthright to rule. He told of how this led to a war. A war that left all of Reality shattered, the Universe filled with the wreckage of galaxies torn apart and left barren - the remnants of what was left of their stars, wandering aimlessly. He told of how the last of Man, with no where left to fight, finally brought the war to their homeland. How no individual was able to defeat the others, for when one began to gain an upper-hand, the others would turn against him until another began to rise above and the rest then turned against him. He told of how the war ravaged Mans' homeland until the only life upon it was that which found refuge deep beneath its' surface and of how, in a desperate attempt to end the war, a portal was constructed. A portal that would reach beyond Reality and open a doorway to the First Gods in hope that they would return and bring peace. He told of how Man sensed the portal and, before it could be opened fully, they brought about a destruction so vast, even they perished. He told of how, for generations, the few survivors hidden deep below ground struggled and how they finally reemerged and once again spread across the land. He called it the 'Between Time', that time after the First destruction of Terra Lost by Science and Technology and the return of Magic. It was during this part of the story that Mr Moog told of a young man. It was this part of the story that James realized was truly meant for him. *********
Our young man was the third son born, on a farm on the outskirts of a small village, to a family blessed with many boys. As he grew, he took on the chores a child would do, but when he was about to begin helping in the fields and hunting, his mother died giving birth to a younger brother. His older brothers needed outside the house and his younger brothers too young to do much, it fell to him to keep the house running until his father was able to find another wife. Our young man became very efficient and was able to keep everything running so smoothly. When his father finally found a new wife, she was much younger and his father doted on her, so much so, that she convinced him that it would be better for everyone if our young man continued running the household - under her supervision. When he complained of how even his younger brothers, for his fathers' new wife gave him many more, were allowed to go on to help beyond the house, they all called him selfish. When he said he wanted to be more than just their servant while his brothers went off to start families of their own, he was told to be grateful that he would always have a roof over his head - not that that roof would be his, but that his brothers would always allow him to run the house.
No one even noticed he was gone until there was no dinner the night he left. They cursed his name when they had to hire three servants to replace him - his father afraid his, still young, wife would leave if he did not hire them for her. They only stopped cursing him when they all finally forgot him, even the younger brothers he helped raise forgot him as if he was never part of their lives. He never knew this, believing that he would be missed and, when he returned after finding his fortune, they would celebrate his return.
He traveled far and searched for knowledge from before the destruction, long hidden beneath forgotten ruins. As he learned more and more, he too forgot about those he left behind. His dream of returning with his fortune changed. As he uncovered the truth of Mans' past, he came to realize that, not only did he wish to reclaim that past, he wanted for himself. It was upon a solitary hill that he looked up to the stars one night and swore that he would walk among them as a God.
********* James had been engrossed in the story, so he was startled when the cloaked figure spoke from behind him, "Didn't quite work out the way he intended, did it." - more a statement than a question. Moog didn't look up from his glass, "Been wondering when you would show up." James was puzzled and asked Mr Moog, "What does he mean, 'It didn't turn out' the way he thought it would?" Moog stared at his glass as he said, "It means he went looking for POWER." Moog emptied the glass with one drink and looked at James and in a flat tone finished, "He found it." Moog continued his story, telling of how it was the young mans' searching that led him to the Portal. Of how those who guarded the Portal became aware of him when stories began to spread across the land of a man who wielded power from long ago. How it was while searching a storehouse buried beneath the ruins of a blasted land that they contacted him and brought him to the Portal. How he was first brought to a village hidden in the caldera of a dormant volcano, at the edge of an endless desert, where he met the Guardians and the nurse. And Moog told him the reason the Guardians needed the young man. ********* Our young man knew that the Guardians were creations of Man. Artificial beings known as 'Robots'. When he questioned them as to whether or not they were TRULY alive, they explained that they preferred to be called 'Cybernetics' and that their creators gave them the same rights, as well as treated them, as any other 'Living' creature. The nurse was something different. She was from the time before the destruction. Kept alive by the Guardians. Her name was Rebecca and she told him how the Guardians saved her after the Last Strike. How they pulled her from the rubble and healed her. How they replaced what couldn't be healed with technology. She said that she was a melding of man and machine, a 'Cyborg'. What caught our young man by even more of a surprise than the Guardians and the nurse, were the others. For generations, people from nearby villages would abandon their deformed children at a shrine placed at the base of the volcano in the belief that the Gods had marked them as sacrifices. The nurse would retrieve these children and raise them. She explained that the children were actually mutations, the reemergence of the races Man had bred out of existence. They explained that the Portal had been damaged and not only left partially open, was leaking radiation. The Portal sat deep within the desert and it was the leaking Portal that made it. That it was the radiation that activated long forgotten 'DNA' in villagers near the desert, allowing for the lost races to return. Our young man was in a village filled with the first Dwarves, Orcs, Elves, Trolls and the other races of legend not seen since shortly after the First Gods fled.
The Guardians explained that they needed him to fix the leak . . . and to fully open the Portal. They explained that they were not able to approach the Portal because of their 'Neural Net'. Because of their neural nets' power supply, the radiation would destroy it long before they could get to it, regardless of how they shielded themselves. He asked why Rebecca was unable to do it and they explained that she had suffered a massive head injury and they used a neural net like theirs to replace the parts of her brain that were destroyed. They went on to say that, because of their DNA mutations, the radiation was also far too much of a risk for any of the others there to approach the Portal. They had tried to get others, but they had all fled at the first opportunity - in fear. No, our young man was their best hope. He had studied and learned more than any other and, therefor, had an open mind and understanding of what was needed. But, despite all this, it was the promise of the power he would gain that led him to agree to go to the Portal.
They supplied him with three things, the keys to the facilities where the Portal was housed, an electron blade (hand-held energy cutter capable of slicing through any material on the molecular level) and a safety suit - a suit constructed of carbon nanotubes, meta-materials and organic nanites. They explained what they believed would need to be done, if the shielding on the portal was too damaged, sections of the main door could be cut away and used to patch it since it was made of the same ultra-dense material, they just cautioned him not to compromise the doors integrity so that it would still be intact and capable of securing the facility.
He made his way to the Portal and found that the damage was far greater than the Guardians had thought. He cut sections from the main door until it looked like a spider in a web, but it held. Our young man did not realize it, but even with his suit he was bombarded with vast amounts of radiation. By the time he had sealed the leak, his suit had transformed, the organic nanites mutating into a sentient hive mind and attaching itself to him in an attempt to keep him alive, repairing him on a cellular level as rapidly as possible. The attachment was so thorough, part of him became the suit.
Finally, he brought the Portal fully on-line. He was thrown back as a tear in Reality formed and Hethen, Sentinel of the Outer Planes stepped forth. Hethen looked at our young man and said, "You are Man, destroyer and betrayer. The Gods have allowed you to exists without us and now you dare to enter our realm!?" Before our young man could react, Hethen reached for him. Our young man grabbed the closest thing he could to protect himself with, the electron blade. Our young man slashed wildly at Hethens' arm as his hand wrapped around his throat. Hethen stumbled backwards in shock as the blade took his arm off halfway between his elbow and wrist. Seizing the opportunity, our young man attacked hethen as they thrashed about, they crashed into the Portals' control panel and knocking it into the Portals' containment grid.
The blast was felt throughout the land as the Portal erupted and then collapsed in on itself. The only thing that stopped the implosion was the main door of the facility lodging itself within the opening and melding with the Portals base, all of which took on the appearance of bone. It became a hole in all of Reality. Over time, the Gods reentered the land, as did the forgotten races and magic.
Our young man was pulled into the Portal and never seen again.
********* James was confused, but before he could say anything, a warmth came over him and he felt calm and . . . love. Mr Moog smiled and said softly, "Mother!" James, though filled with a sense of complete happiness still feared to turn and look. He KNEW that a God stood behind him. "It's O.K., James. You can look." Moog said with a sparkle in his eyes. James turned and saw a young woman wearing flowing robes and bathed in light, his heart felt as if it would burst with joy. he felt like a child and wanted her to hold him and sing him to sleep. She smiled and the light faded, she became a simple woman, yet James still felt the warmth and love. he felt . . . safe. She tussled Moogs head and he . . . giggled. "Now Moog, you know that's not how it ends." she told him. James' warm feeling cold, slightly, as the cloaked figure spoke from the shadows, "Why don't YOU tell him what happened . . . Becs." She ignored him, but James could tell she was on edge, his sense of security faded. She continued where Moog left off. ********* It's true that the young man was pulled into the Portal and, while some BELIEVE he was never seen again, the truth is that he did return - though it took many many years. He returned and became one of the Archmages of Terra. And, once Terra was destroyed for the final time, he eventually made his way here.
By the way, it may interest you to know the name of the facility, it was the 'Stevens-Newell-Yarborough Portal Installation at the University of East Ridgecrest'. But that's just an interesting fact.
What's most important is, while lost beyond the Portal, he hid two things, the keys to the main doors of the Portal facility and the electron blade.
********* The cloaked figure interrupted her, "That's not all he left there Becs." She finally looked at the figure and, while it was obvious she wanted nothing better than to turn and run, she said to it, "We TRIED to save him! Ari and Benny, BOTH of them were burnt out trying!" There was silence as they faced eachother, until the cloaked figure finally broke it, "Yeah. Well, you know what they say about good intentions." Anger flashed across her face as she took a step towards the figure. He said softly, coldly, "Careful Rebecca." She hesitated, but finally said, in a matter of fact tone, "He didn't LEAVE anything there. YOU took it." The tension built as they stood, neither willing to give an inch. James was shocked when the cloaked figure, in a low, yet . . . almost tender tone, said, "He'd be dead otherwise." She gave a slight snort, "Like you said, 'You know what they say about good intentions'." Mr Moog finally spoke up, "LOOK, what's important is the keys and the blade!" James looked at him, "Why are they important?" Mother answered him, "Because either one can unlock or cut open the main door. And there has been two individuals sent to find them." James was still puzzled. The cloaked figure spoke up, "The main door is covering the portal and keeping it from imploding fully, sucking everything into it and sending EVERYTHING back into Chaos. Open the door and . . . poof." James sat as it sunk in. The cloaked figure walked up to him and said, "Clocks ticking and there's a storm outside."
