[S] Random Nexus

Vermachtnis · 05:12 PM

The end of the world has been predicted a number of times. One such prediction called for the end falling on December 5, 2012. Something did come from the heavens that night and it truely was the end of the world as we know it.

Chapter 1:
Day One at Narf
[Sat. June 3, 2017]

“Narf! Narf! Narf!” A strange red headed girl was yelling and skipping down the street.

“Ally! Why are you so excited? It’s too early to be this happy,” a depressing pudgy girl said and walked up beside her.

“Because we graduated yesterday! GRAD-JU-RATED!” Ally said while spinning around arm outstretched!

“So what? We’re just going to spend the next four years in college and then the next twenty years paying off loans. Graduating is the worst thing that could have happened to us,” the pudgy girl sighed and crossed her arms and looked down.

“Poor Franny, that’s not going to happen to me, I’m getting a job at NARF Headquarters today! They said they’d hire me as soon as I graduated. I would have gone yesterday, but I got drunk at the party. Remember?” Ally said and started skipping down the sidewalk again. But, Franny wasn’t paying attention. She was thinking that she could finally get away from Ally.

Two years ago NARF Headquarters opened up. That day it became Ally’s life long goal to get job there. And Fran, who has been her neighbor since they were six, had to listen to it everyday. Narf this and Narf that everyday for the past two years, it was so bad they were called Ally and the Fran. Ally embraced it, singing the theme song with their names in the lyrics. But not anymore, Ally is going to work at Narf and Fran is going away to collage and for the first time since becoming a senior, Fran was looking forward to entering collage.

Fran was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t see the light change and she crossed the street. She didn’t hear the ice cream truck and it hit her and exploded. Doves came from nowhere and flew to the sky.

Ally, who was only half a mile away, didn’t hear any of it. “HEEEEYYY!” a boy came running up to her. Ally turned around to see who it was.

“What? Oh it’s you, Hero.” Ally said and turned back around and started walking to Narf again.

“My name is Tyler,” he said and started walking beside her.

“Hero sounds better,” she said not paying any attention to him. “Where’d Fran go?” she said just now noticing Fran was gone.

“What!? You weren’t paying attention? She crossed the street back there and got hit by an Ice Cream Truck and exploded.” Tyler said.

“Yea she does like Ice Cream. But don’t you think it was rude to say she exploded just from today’s Ice Cream. I mean, she was always a little on the big side,” Ally was oblivious to what happened. It’s not too surprising though, she only graduated high school with the bare minimum.

“What? No, I mean she literally exploded. With fire! Look, you can see the smoke,” he said pointing up at the sky.

“Listen, Hero, if you are going to stand there and make fun of my friend’s weight. I’m going to kick you!” Ally said in a very cross way. Tyler was a little scared of those legs. He saw her kick soccer ball over the school building. Not only that, she all varsity in track and cross country.

But Tyler was a guy and couldn’t keep his mouth shut, “I’m not making fun of her weight. She exploded, you know, Boom!” he said and made a dome with his hands.

“Oh, that is it!” Ally said and kicked him in square in the chest and he flew off into the distance. “Making fun of people’s weight, how rude! Hmm? I think someone’s having a Luau, I smell ham.” Ally said and once again sits off for Narf headquarters.

And at the office in Narf Headquarters there was a knock on the door. “Come on in, it’s open!” the commander said.

“Kenneth, you well enough I’m not going walk in your room with out knocking first. Not after that time when you were sixteen,” a woman with a long black, braided hair walked in.

“Come off it, Kari. That was over ten years ago,” Kenneth said.

“I will not ‘come off it,’ a thirteen year old little girl does not need to see her older brother doing that. And what the heck is that on the ceiling?” Kari said pointing up.

“That’s a Sephiroth,” Kenneth said, quite proud of his work.

“That is not just a Sephiroth. Get rid of it!” Kari said and crossed her arms.

“But that other guy has a Sephiroth on his ceiling,” Tai was pleading with his little sister.

“That other guy does not have him on his ceiling. The other guy has a real Sephiroth. Just because you professional with your new suit and haircut, your still my same older brother. That girl who is supposed to pilot Eins Dues is supposed to be here today. I guess I am going to have to meet with her,” Kari said.

“I’m the boss, shouldn’t I meet with her,” Kenneth asked getting up from behind his desk.

“No, you are going to be in here fixing your ceiling. I am going to have Saya send up some paint,” Kari said and turned around walked out the door.

“Miss Kari! Miss Kari! That girl is back again,” a short brown haired woman came running down the hall.

“Hmm, sooner than I though. Saya,” Kari turned the short haired woman. “I need you to go down and ready Eins Dues and equip it with the Gungnir.”

“Yes ma’am!” Saya said and ran off down the hall.

“I guess this mean I get to keep my ceiling, huh?” Kenneth said with his arms behind his head and smirking.

“Not at all, you there,” Kari and pointing at someone walking down the hall. “Go down to Home Depot and buy brown paint and some rollers. You are mostly likely going to need a lot of buckets. Here use Kenneth’s credit card,” Kari said and handed the guy a card.

“Yes ma’am,” he said and headed down the hall in the opposite direction from Saya.

“Crap,” Kenneth said and slumped back into his office.

“Time to meet this new pilot,” Kari said and headed to the elevator.

Vermachtnis · 05:13 PM

All stories told all must come together at some point or another. The universe is constantly expanding and sooner or later it will snap back to how it was in the beginning.

“Well that was stupid. Was that suppose to be foreshadowing or deep or something,” Ally said and crossed her arms.

“Don’t insult narrator,” Tyler sighed.

“Why? What’s he gonna do? Cut me off. I’d like to see him tr-“

Chapter 2
Prana Goes to the Hospital

“Hey brat, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” a course voice was yelling. Tyler woke up and rubbed his eyes and looked around. “Brat! I’m over here. Jeez you’re a dumb as you look,” the course voice was behind him. Tyler got up and turned around; expecting to see an ugly woman, but it was tall blonde woman in a lab coat. She had her hair up in a pony tail. He looked around and saw a bunch of computer chips and circuits lying around.

“I’m sorry; did I break your computer?” Tyler said looked down in embarrassment.

“She was much more than just some computer. She was a highly sophisticated automated humanoid android!” The scientist yelled and bent down behind a raised floor board and picked something up. “Look at her now!” She showed him a human head!

He screamed and tried to run for it. The scientist had him by the collar. “You are an idiot aren’t you? This isn’t a real head. It’s an, or well it was, an android’s head. Her name was Prana and when you crashed through the window you broke her. But, I guess I could view this as a blessing in disguise. If a simple collision with a hundred and sixty pound boy could cause this much damage, then she wasn’t ready for combat. I’m going to have to reinforce-“

“Hey! What was that crash a few minutes ago,” a tall guy came running through doors.

“It was this brat, Jordon! He came crashing through the window over there and broke Prana!” The scientist said and pointed to the broken window.

“This is a problem, Rachel. Over at NARF, they have already found a pilot for Eins Dues. We are left defenseless if they attack us now!” Jordon yelled at her! “What do we do!”

“Uhh…umm…” Rachel was obviously scared of him. “The…the brat, we send the brat to fight Eins Dues! I…I mean we only need to incapacitate NARF long enough for me to repair Prana, right?” Rachel said, praying to the Gods.

“That’ll do for now. What do we put the brat in?” Jordon said, eyeing Tyler.

“I suggest we put him in Uno EX. EX has that ‘special’ program installed incase something goes wrong,” Rachel said, putting an odd emphasis on the word special.

“Hehehe,” Jordon let out an evil cackle, “Always thinking for every out come! That’s what I love about you, Rachel! Now get him into the EX!”

At NARF; Ally, Saya, and Kari were riding down an elevator deep underground. “This is Dues Hanger. We house all our Dues Mechs here.” Kari was explaining to Ally. “We have top researchers working around the clock to come up with newer and better technology and weaponry for the Dues. You may be wondering why we are going through all of this, aren’t you Ally?” She wasn’t. Ally’s only concern was getting in one of the Dues and fighting. She was staring out the glass door, eyes wide with excitement!

“Miss Ally, I think you better pay attention to this next part,” Saya said tapping Ally on the shoulder.

“Huh?” Ally said and turned around.

“Hmph,” Kari sighed, “As you may or may not be aware, there is a building erected in the center of the city.”

“Yea, it a really huge skyscraper with two smaller towers on top of it. My dad works there,” Ally said in a smug tone.

“Very good, do you know the names of the two towers?” Kari said, trying not to talk down to the new employee. Ally shook her head no. “Well that’s okay, even some of the higher ups in the building don’t know the names of the towers. The north tower is called Shamshel and the south tower is called Beelze. They are housing some very important information there. We were hired by The Hub to protect the two towers,” Kari was explaining to Ally.

“Protect? Protect from who? My dad makes it seem like a normal business,” Ally asked.

“That is true, it’s a very normal business for the first thirty five floors. From floor thirty six and up is The Hub. They’ve become cautious ever since two employees split from there six months ago. They took very important data and formed their own group, ‘The Seraphim’ and The Hub hired us to find and neutralize The Seraphim. They are paying quite well and besides that, I’ve met up with the two people who split and we can not allow those two to have this kind of data!” Kari was getting angry. “We are here,” she said and Ally turned around. “There! That is Eins Dues and it is yours to pilot,” she said and pointed.

Following Kari’s point, Ally looked at her new mech. It was humanoid in appearance and was red. It has on what looked like shoulder pads and a war vest with a bottom peace handing out. Its legs looked like there were equipped with boots and they had a point at the top.

“Do you like it? I modeled the armor after what they were in middle ages. Its main weapon is spear, but it has a back up positron blaster built in it’s left hand. It drains a lot of energy so stick with Gungnir please,” Saya said.

“Gungnir?” Ally asked.

“Oh I’m sorry, I called the spear Gungnir after Odin’s legendary spear,” Saya said and bowed.

“Okay now, go up those steps and enter throw the back of the head,” Kari said and pointed to some stairs leading to the back of Eins.

As soon as Ally stepped on the first step a loud buzzing noise went off and everything became red tinted. “Yo! This is Kenneth. It looks like our buddies over at the Seraph are making the first move. They say you learn best from experience! So have the new chick conduct her training in a real battle!” Kenneth’s voice echoed over the hanger from an intercom.

“B-but, she’s not ready!” Saya said in protest.

“He can’t hear you or else I’d be chewing him out about this. However, you know Proto is in no working condition and he is right, people do learn best from experience. Ally! Hey Ally where did you go!?” Kari said looking around and not seeing her anywhere.

“I’m in the Eins and ready to go!” Ally’s voice came from Eins Dues.

“Well I’ll be, she figured out to open the hatch and work the intercom on her own,” Kari and shook her head in amazement.

“Umm, Miss Kari, Eins Dues has the latest sync equipment. A baby could do all that stuff,” Saya said looking at the ground.

“Oh, well it is still impressive,” Kari said embarrassed.

“Hey, it keeps asking me if I want to register. I keep telling it later and comes straight back and asks again,” Ally said over the intercom.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll register to you later. Right now we are going to put it in Anon Mode. That should open more than the intercom and hatch for you,” Saya said and ran over to a nearby terminal and started putting in commands. “Okay let’s see, yea. Okay it’s in Anon Mode!” Saya said and the stairs and all the bindings holding Eins in place moved out of the way. “Okay! Now try taking a step forward! Umm, Miss Kari you might want to move.”

“Right,” Kari said and walked over to the terminal with Saya. Eins took a clumsy step forward.

“Okay! Try and take another!” Saya yelled to Ally. Eins took another step forward and another, each getting less and less clumsy. “Good, good. You’re getting the hand of walking, now grab the Gungnir!” Eins reached out and took the Gungnir from its holding place. “Okay! We are opening the hanger doors! Hurry up and defend NARF!”

“You betcha!” Ally’s voice came from Eins. At the far end of the hanger two large doors opened. Eins took off running towards the exit.

“Think she’ll be okay?” Kenneth’s voice came from behind Saya and Kari.

“Yea, I believe she’ll be fine. We have…” Kari trailed off and turned around and saw her older brother grinning behind her. Saya jumped from the surprise. “When did you get down here?” Kari yelled at her older brother.

“Just a while ago, I stopped to get donuts!” Kenneth said and held out an empty box. “The elevator ride was too long and ate them.”

“I’m serious. I want your ceiling painted by tonight,” Kari said and turned back around.

Eins just made it past the hanger doors. At the other end of the street was a big bulky blue giant robot with a red letter X on it’s chest.

“That’s the Seraph’s mech. How boring a design,” Saya sighed. “And it’s so clichéd too.”

“Hey is that where the Seraph is located? Just at the other end of the street? Man I guess that saying it’s better to hide in plain sight must be true. Unless we use heat goggles, but then they could always just catch everything on fire. Then everything would be on fire and we wouldn’t need the heat goggles. Hmm…” Kenneth was rambling on.

“Shut up,” Kari said in a stoic voice.

“Hey, it looks like Ally knows the pilot of the other mech!” Saya said pointing at the monitor.

“Hero! What are you doing with the bad guys?” Ally yelled at Tyler.

“The bad guys? I don’t know what’s going on? I was kidnapped when you kicked me into that building. And stop calling me Hero!” Tyler yelled back at Ally.

Back at the Seraph observatory Jordon and Rachel were watching the argument from high above. “So it was the new pilot who caused this and it appears that they know each other. Let’s activate the special program now,” Rachel said to Jordon.

“Heh, of course, let us use it now. It will like killing two annoying birds with one large self destructing rock,” Jordon said. Rachel walked over to the terminal and input the command for remote control access.

“Vocal command enter: grab onto the Eins and initiate Self-destruct,” Rachel said in a demanding voice.

“Confirmation request: once self-destruct is active it cannot be turned off,” a computer voice said back.

“Confirmation: activate self-destruct after Eins is secure,” Rachel said in the same demanding voice.

Down in the NARF Hanger, “There’s a remote access from the Seraph’s building! Kari, look at these reading!” Saya yelled to Kari pointing at the monitor.

“What, they plan on self-destructing and taking Eins with it?” Kari said in shock.

“Eject Ally now,” Kenneth is a strong voice.

“But, Kenneth—“ Kari started.

“I said to eject her now!” Kenneth yelled. “And try to hack into the Seraph’s machine!”

“Yes sir, but the self destruct can not be deactivated,” Saya said and turned back to the terminal and started typing in commands, “Okay! Ally has ejected. Beginning to hack into the Seraph’s machine!”

“Brother what are going to due by hacking into their machine?” Kari asked.

“I’m going to save the pilot.” Kenneth said.

“Okay! I’ve hacked in through the remote signal! What now, sir?” Saya asked.

“What? Look at that? It’s already grabbed onto Eins!” one of the mechanics from the hanger yelled.

“Let’s pray this works,” Kenneth said and put in his own commands to EX.

“Look its self-destructing!” Another mechanic yelled.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Vermachtnis · 12-05-2007, 01:10 AM

…

“Hey look, you offended the narrator,” Tyler said, shaking his head at Ally.

“Big deal, it’s not like we need him to do an introduction. Here watch me do one: There is a city on the east coast of America. It’s a normal city, except for the giant robots and guild factions. Oh the magical girls. That is Random Nexus and I am Batman,” Ally said looking pleased with herself.

“Stop looking so smug, your intro was too blunt,” Tyler said annoyed.

“Hey! Stop arguing, you two are cutting into my screen time,” said an older blonde woman with a bob cut. “Older!? I’m only 27!”

Chapter 3
There’s Noelle in Captain

It looked liked the aftermath of a bombing. The streets were burned, windows were blown out, and not to mention the huge crater in the middle of the street.

“I don’t see anything, Captain” a lean, silver haired guy in a black tank top said.

“You know, maybe if you got a haircut, you could see better,” the captain, a blonde woman with a bob cut said. She was wearing a long dress with white boots underneath and a sword slung across her back.

“You’re making fun of my haircut? Your haircut makes you look a like teenage, at least when I look like a teenager it is because I really am,” the silver haired guy said.

“You know, Slash, if you bring up the fact that you’re younger than me again: I will cut you,” the captain said glaring at him.

“It’s not like my hair is that long. Just my bangs you know. Huh?” Slash said noticing something on the ground under some rubble. “Hey Captain, look, I think I found something!”

The captain walked over to where Slash was pointing. She looked down and wave of disgust washed over her face. “What a shoddy job. Alright let’s gather him up and take him back to the base,” she yelled to Slash. She looked up to the NARF Building and said something under her breath and smiled. “Okay, heave ho!” she said looked back down.

They picked up the body and carried him all the way back to their base of operations. The captain left Slash in charge of fixing him and she went out shopping.

“Ugh,” the boy groaned.

“Hey, you’re awake!” Slash said excitedly. “Do you remember your name? Usually with this type of trauma some memory loss is normal.”

“Huh? Uhh…yeah my name is Tyler. Wait, what trauma?” he bolted out of the bed they laid him in.

“You were kidnapped by The Seraphim and forced into a Super Robot fight with NARF. They self-destructed your machine hoping to take you and the NARF robot together. The quick thinking of Kenneth, he the leader of NARF by the way, had you eject at the last moment. Kenneth usually comes off as immature, you sometimes forget why he’s in charge of NARF until something like this happens. Oh yea, this is The Resistance. We don’t have any Super Robots; in fact it’s just me, Captain Noelle, and two other members and you if you join us,” Slash explained everything to Tyler.

“Super Robots, Resistance, Seraphim? This all sounds like a really bad plot from those Japanese cartoons Ally watches all the time. I don’t think I’ll be joining anytime soon,” Tyler said and started getting up. He doubled over in pain.

“Yea, not so fast, you owe us,” Noelle stepped into the room. “We spent our precious time putting you back together and you won’t give us the time of day. I’m telling you to join, or I’ll kill you again.”

“She’s serious dude, she’ll kill you,” Slash whispered into Tyler’s ear.

Tyler looked around nervously and weighed his options and asked, “What are you …umm I mean, ‘what are we resisting?’”

“That’s what I like to hear. We aren’t really resisting anything. Every other group as a cool name, so why not us? In all reality we’re more like a Warrior’s Guild. We do odd jobs for most anyone who would hire us. That’s why our numbers are so small, we try to keep everyone together on missions. Our biggest client is NARF,” the Captain was explaining to Tyler.

Somewhere outside the room a door opened and two people walked in, “That must be the rest of us,” Slash said and walked out the door and waved. “Everyone this is Tyler, he’s gonna be joining us for awhile. Tyler,” he looked him and pointed to a girl in jeans and long black hair, “this is Fuka, and this is,” he pointed to the guy standing next to her, he was a bit more than a little overweight,” Sasuke or something. It was Greg, but he changed recently.”

“Come on! My name is Suke Sai, if you’d say it right you wouldn’t get confused,” he sounded a little annoyed. “You know what I mean don’t you Yami Fuka?”

“Not really, I was born here so I’ve been called Fuka Yami my whole life and so are my parents. Wait! I don’t mean my parents have the same name as me. I mean the Yami part comes last and I don’t mean I was born here. I was born in Denver. I moved out here the other day!” she was getting flustered and started talking faster.

“Okay, now that all this introduction crap is taken care off, I’m going to take a nap!” Noelle exclaimed and got up and left.

“Hey…umm…your captain is a little weird,” Tyler said getting up.

“She is your captain now too, buddy,” Slash said and laughed.

“Hey, umm… I was wondering if—“ Fuka started.

“I heard that! I’m not the weird one, you are!” Noelle came storming back in. “Why am I weird, huh? Is it because I speak my mind, huh? I do what I want without hesitation! You only have one like to live, so you better live it! A life lived wondering ‘what if’ is a pretty sucky life! You want to eat cake before dinner, eat you cake! You want the new Playstation game, go get the new game! You want to kill that guy who cut you off, go kill that guy! I say **** on consequence! You know what? Sasuke come here!” Noelle pointed at Sai setting in the corner.

“Huh? My name is Suke Sai!” he yelled.

“I don’t care!” she yelled back and stabbed him in the chest. “See look at that, I just killed a guy!” she said patting herself on the back. Tyler was thinking she was nuts for sticking around this long. He just witnessed a murder, he was going to try and make a break for it. “Uh-oh,” Noelle said looking embarrassed, “I can’t seem to find any of my Phoenix Life Balm. Slash take of it for me.”

“Yes ma’am. Here watch this and you may understand why the captain acts the way she does,” Slash said and walked over to Sai’s corpse. He bent over it and started chanting, “Mother, breathe air back into the lungs of the fallen! Holy Arte: Resurrection!” He said and a bright light came out of Sai’s wound and the blood and everything seemed to disappear, except for the stain on his shirt.

“So you see, I can kill as much as I want as long as they can come back. Speaking of which, Fuka go and get me some more Phoenix Life Balm. Oh and some eggs I want omelets tomorrow,” Noelle said and left the room again.

“Hey, umm would you like to go with me? Earlier I was going to ask you to give me a tour of the town. But I guess we could knock that out of the way and get the stuff Noelle wants too. Umm, that is if you don’t mind,” it looks like Fuka really wants to get to know Tyler.

“Huh, oh yea, sure,” Tyler, who was still a little in shock by the events that just happened said. He was also curious to what kind of shop carries Phoenix Balm and Eggs.

“Great! I’ll grab my things and meet you in the lounge!” she said and rushed off.

“The Lounge?” Tyler said and looked around.

“Oh yea, you have no idea about this place. I guess she’ll give you tour if you ask, but for now the Lounge is just to the left at the end of the hall. You can’t miss it, it has a couch and big TV,” Slash explained pointing out the door.

“You can follow me, I’m heading out there to play Playstation,” Sai said calmly, like he didn’t just die a few moments ago.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m gonna stay in here and try to regain some of the mana I just lost,” he said and opened a little fridge in the corner. “Oh, by the way I’m an Alchemist on top of being a Cleric, so if there’s anything ailing you don’t be a stranger.”

“Yea, yea, you’re an over achiever,” Sai said and laughed. “Now come on, I’ll show you to the Lounge,” he said waving at Tyler to come.

Tyler followed him out to the hall. It was normal looking hallway, the walls were painted white and carpet laid down was crimson. It had a pleasant smell too. Sai must have noticed Tyler smelling and said, “Yea I’m glad Fuka-chan came. She brought with her some smelly potpourri stuff. I’m not saying it smelt bad before, but this is a lot better than Doritto’s,” he said and laughed again. They passed a door on the right and Sai pointed at it and said, “That’s Noelle’s room, no one is allowed in.” They kept on going and came out into a big open room. There was a couch in the middle of the room a big chair to the left of it and a TV against the wall with a few systems hooked into it. “Well here’s the lounge,” he said and turned on the Playstation and grabbed a controller.

“Okay, I’m ready!” Fuka yelled at the end of the hallway. She came running down the hall and tripped when she entered the lounge. “I always do that,” she said getting up. Tyler didn’t notice anything different about what she was wearing and wonder what she did back there. “Okay let’s go,” Fuka said and she and Tyler headed out the door.

TO BE CONTINUED…

“What the crap? I didn’t get any screen time,” Ally yelled.

“What do you expect, this is still the introduction story arc and there are a lot of characters to introduce,” Tyler explained.

“Well how long is it?” Ally asked.

“It’ll be over after Headmistress and the magical girl are introduced,” Tyler explained more.

“If that’s all, I’m going to do a preview!” Ally exclaimed!

“A what?” Tyler asked.

“You know a preview of the next chapter,” Ally explained.

“Can’t they, you know just turn the page,” Tyler asked.

“Nope! Now stand back and watch! Next time on Random Nexus: they introduce the rest of the cast and I get more lines!” Ally yelled.

Vermachtnis · 09:31 PM

“Random Nexus is going shopping. Try not to have a ‘wah wah’ moment,” Ally said in a serious voice.

Chapter 4
2012 and the Awakening

As Tyler left with Fuka, a thought entered is head, “Hey, where do we get the stuff she wants?”

“Oh that’s simple: Bed, Bath, and Beyond,” she said as they rounded the corner. “Hmm, hmm,” she hummed as she looked around. “Real life needs big arrows pointing you where to go.”

“Do you know where Bed, Bath, and Beyond is?” Tyler asked scratching his head. Thinking to himself, man going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond with a girl is going to give people the wrong idea.

“Nope! I’m still new here, remember?” Fuka said and turned around. She was thinking the same thing he was, but with a more positive attitude.

“I’ll lead the way then,” he said. “It’s pretty close, in walking distance actually,” he said while walking through the city. Actually it was just down the road a little bit. He was wondering if Noelle located the resistance here for that reason.

Fuka was thinking how awesome it was to be walking to a store with a boy. He doesn’t appear interested in her though and in fact, he seems to be in a hurry. They made it to the store in only fifteen minutes. There wasn’t a lot of cars parked in the lot.

“Wow, it sure isn’t busy for a Saturday,” Tyler said, thinking out loud.

“Didn’t you hear? There was some kind of gas explosion down town. Jeez, you think in the year 2019, we’d have gas pipes that don’t explode. But no one was hurt for an explosion that big,” that voice sounded familiar to Tyler. He turned around to see who it was, “Yo Hero, how’s it hanging?” It was his friend Lloyd from school. He, like Ally, had a bad habit of calling him ‘Hero.’ And he likes to ask a lot of questions, so he always has a lot of information. Although it is mostly gossip. He never stood out either, being of average height and having brown hair.

“What are you doing here?” Tyler asked him.

“I’m going to get a job and save up some money,” he glanced back to Fuka. “You know for books, heh heh,” he also tends to get shy around new people. Tyler thought he was a mute until the fourth grade. “Well see ya,” he said and waved.

“What about your job?” Tyler shouted after him.

“Oh that? I already turned in my application before you two showed up,” he said and kept on walking. It was just as Tyler though, people think he’s a part of a couple.

The couple crossed the parking lot and entered the store. A perfume aroma washed over both of them. “So where do we go?” Tyler asked, he has never been in here before.

“To the Beyond section,” Fuka said in a assured voice.

“Where’s that at?” Tyler asked, even more confused.

“The back, probably” she said, not so assured.

“Excuse me,” a moderately attractive woman approached the couple. “Can I help you find anything? Bath beads, mugs, life artifacts?”

“Yea! The last one, we need life artifacts,” Fuka yelled.

“You must be with Noelle,” she said in sigh. “Follow me, I know what she wants. I’d like to know how she runs out of them so fast.”

The couple followed the woman to the back of the store and past some double doors. She pointed, “Alright, go past all the boxes and you’ll see cat statue. It’s on top of a trap door, left it up and follow the stairs. At the end is the Beyond section.” After that she left.

“Oh wow, look at all this stuff! Hey you know if someone walked in and saw two people back here they might get the wrong idea, don’t you think?” Fuka said. But, Tyler wasn’t listening. He was already half-way to the cat statue.

“Did you say something?” he asked looking back at her.

“Never mind,” she sighed.

“I guess this is the cat statue,” Tyler said pointing at this rock that looked nothing like a cat, but had ‘cat statue’ written on it.

“Yea it totally looks like a cat,” Fuka said enthusiastically.

“You’re all the way back there, you have no say,” Tyler said looking back at Fuka, who was going through a box of soap.

“Hmm? Oh yeah! Let’s go,” she said. She forgot why they where there in the first place. She ran over to where Tyler was standing. “Do we just lift it?”

“I guess so,” Tyler shrugged.

“I forgot to give you guys something,” the lady said.

“Whoa! When did you get back in here?” Tyler yelled.

“I don’t think I like you,” she turned to Fuka, “here, you can have this.” She gave Fuka a slip of paper. “It’s a coupon for the item Noelle needs.”

“Oh yea, we came for this Phoenix stuff,” Fuka said.

“You really did forget,” Tyler said and crossed his arms.

“I remembered now,” Fuka said. “Now, we go downstairs!” she yelled enthusiastically.

“See you two later,” the lady said and left again.

The two traveled down the stairwell. It smelt like a normal person’s basement and the stairs didn’t look anything out of the ordinary either. They were even carpeted. The two reached the bottom of the stairs and stood in front of a wooden door with the number 2012 carved into a frame. Fuka stepped up and opened the door. Inside the two met with a pleasant aroma. Behind the counter stood the same woman from upstairs.

“Hey! How did you get down here before we did?” Tyler pointed at her.

“Huh? What do you mean?” the woman tried to feign ignorance.

“You were just upstairs and gave us this coupon for Phoenix Life Balm,” Tyler said and shoved the coupon in her face.

“I’m sorry but this coupon has expired. If it is Phoenix Life Balm you want it is over that way and we are having a sell. Buy ten and get one free. They are fifteen dollars apiece,” she said and smiled.

“Oh! I see you have met my twin,” the woman from upstairs was suddenly in front of Tyler again.

“Twins…?” Tyler was in disbelief.

“Yes, I’m Penny and this is Nicky. We run the 2012,” the woman behind the counter said.

“Why did you come down here, Nicky,” Fuka asked, completely unfazed.

“The coupon I gave you expired I came to give you a new. It’s a half-off coupon,” she said and gave Tyler another coupon.

“I only have twenty bucks,” Tyler said looking through his wallet.

“I don’t have any money,” Fuka said.

“I guess we’ll take two,” Tyler said and head over to the aisle Penny pointed to. Looking around he saw a lot of strange items: Blue Liquid, Red Liquid, syringes, cloth bags filled with who knows what, among other things. “Here we go,” he said after finding the item Noelle used earlier today. He picked up two and headed over to the counter. Penny took them and rung them up.

“Okay that’ll be fifteen dollars,” she said and held out her hand.

“What? No tax?” Tyler asked heading back into his wallet.

“Here at 2012, we aren’t under the same laws of the above ground. Judicial or otherwise,” Nicky said.

“Okay,” Tyler said, not fully understanding. Penny handed him the bag with his belongings and the two headed back out to the exit. Out in the parking lot they ran into Noelle.

“Oh hey guys! I’m here to tell you to give that stuff to Slash and I will probably not be back until early tomorrow morning, later!” She said and went off.

“I wander were she’s going?” Fuka asked Tyler. He shrugged cause he had no idea and the two headed back to the apartment. While Noelle headed off to she her old friend Judith at the Magical Institute across town.

At the Magical Institute they just received a strange new student. She was strange because she was unable to summon her elemental forge. Even after coming in contact with an artifact.

“Come on, Plum! Like me!” a little girl was waving her arms at teenager with long, but light blue hair. “Surt!” the little girl yelled and summoned her elemental forge, a wand.

“Erin, can’t you be quiet like your sister,” the headmistress headed over. She had dark black hair down past her neck, with bangs covering half her face. “Watching someone summon their own personal forge isn’t going to work. Summoning Forges isn’t something that can be learned by watching. You have to come in contact with an artifact and after twenty-four hours you will learn of your elemental. However, it has been over two weeks since contact and she has not awakened yet.”

The teenager sighed and looked down.

“Hey old lady, aren’t you forgetting something?” a voice shot out across the campus, it no one other than Noelle.

“Who are you calling old? Last time I checked you were a couple of months older than me!” the headmistress shouted back. “And no, I haven’t forgotten anything.”

“What about the people who were awaked five years ago without coming into contact, like us?” Noelle said walking over to the headmistress.

“What does that have to do with her,” she said and crossed her arms.

“Maybe she is one, but just doesn’t know it,” Noelle said.

“It was five years ago, but you couldn’t have forgotten Megiddo,” Headmistress said.

“No, how could I?” Noelle said.

“Exactly, anyone who came in contact with Megiddo five years ago could not know about their Elemental,” Head mistress said staring Noelle down.

“Maybe she doesn’t have one,” Noelle said.

“But that’s just it, she compatible with the known twelve elementals types,” Head mistress said, stumped.

“That’s it, Judith!” Noelle said in triumph. “Up until now, there have only been hybrids of two types. Maybe in the land of fairies and crap, they don’t have an elemental of twelve.

“Maybe, but I know you did not come here to speculate about my new student. So come to my office and tell me what it is,” Judith said sternly.

“That’s just it, I dunno what it is. Kari wants us to meet her around seven tonight and to be prepared,” Noelle said in an uncharacteristic serious voice.

“Plum, take Erin to the dorm and don’t come out until tomorrow,” Judith said.

“So I’m guessing we’re thinking the same thing,” Noelle said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

“Time for the first installment of Random Nexus Dictionary,” Ally yelled.

“Here we tell you about the terms of Random Nexus!” Fuka was yelling too.

“This is just to a cheap way for Ally to get more lines,” Tyler said.

“Yea it is! Okay, here we go!” Ally said. “An elemental is a being from another plane that is an embodiment of the twelve know elemental types.
“The twelve known elemental types are: Fire, Wind, Water, Nature, Ice, Earth, Lightning, Technology, Light, Dark, Day and Night.
“An Elemental Forge is acquired after meeting your elemental and there are three known levels of Forge.
“At level one you are able to manifest a weapon. At level two the weapon upgrades and you manifest special armor. At level three the elemental shows up to fight alongside you. So far, only Kari as reached Level 3.
I hope that explains the ins and outs of Elementals!”

“Is any of this going to be explained in canon?” Tyler asked.

Vermachtnis · 02-06-2008, 08:14 PM

“It’s moving day on Random Nexus. Don’t smash your toes,” Ally said.

Chapter 5
Before the Storm

Tyler and Fuka were walking back to the apartment when they were stopped by Slash, who was driving a U-Haul.

“There you two are, I’ve been driving around for almost an hour. Noelle told me to move all your stuff from your old room into the apartment,” Slash was yelling from the driver’s seat.

“What? Already?” Tyler was shocked at the sudden decision.

“Yea, I know. Even Sai and I were shocked about how fast she’s moving. We figure something is about to go down somewhere and she wants everyone on call. So you two need to hope in and tell me where your old house is,” Slash said nudging at the passenger door.

The two of them hoped in. “You know, real life needs flying cars already,” Fuka was saying as she hoped in the first.

“Yea, no kidding,” Slash said and Tyler told him where to go. He lived on the outskirts of the city and was neighbors with Ally. After over fifteen minutes they finally reached his house. Before they could even get out, Tyler’s mom was already outside. She was a young looking woman, she was only 32, she had Tyler when she was 15 and was a bit protective of him.

“What are you doing with that moving truck? Who are those two with you? Where have you been all day? Why are you getting out of the moving truck?” Tyler was barraged with a number of questions.

“Hi mom, this is Fuka and Slash and I’m umm…moving out,” Tyler said looking down.

“Moving out? With the Asian girl and mad scientist? I don’t think so!” she was in disbelief at the suddenness of it all. Her little boy moving out, just a day after graduation is too much for her.

“Don’t worry ma’am. He’s moving into the apartment on the outskirts of the NARF complex where he can get real life experience,” Slash was trying to calm her down.

“Outside the NARF complex? That’s just too far and didn’t you hear? There was a gas leak explosion earlier today and that whole block is under rubble,” she wasn’t calmed down. The news covered up the fight by claiming it was a gas leak explosion. It is true that the street between the Seraph Headquarters and NARF was in shambles, but the buildings and everything remained intact, save a few broken windows. “And what about her?” she pointed at Fuka, “Is she going to be living in the same apartment as you two?”

“Yea!” Fuka was excited that she finally got to answer a question. But Tyler’s mom misinterpreted and thought they were saying one room together. Luckily Slash caught that.

“No, we aren’t! We live in the same building, but that is all. We all have our own rooms and those two are at separated ends of the building. Except for her and the landlord, the rest of the tenants are guys,” Slash was explaining to Tyler’s mom.

“I’m still not okay with him moving out. What is he going to do about rent and food?” Tyler’s mom asked.

“It’s all taken care of by the people at NARF,” Slash explained.

“You’re not going to do weird experiments to him, are you?” Tyler’s mom asked eyeing Slash suspiciously.

“No, I won’t,” Slash said defensively.

“Fine, he can go. But, I’m not okay with it. If anything happens I will personally come down there and hurt you two!” Tyler’s mom threatened and walked back into the house. The three followed her. They entered the front door and saw the living room. It had wood paneling and blue carpet. Tyler’s mom went to the room to the left and said, “I’m going to make you some lemonade. It’s pretty hot out there today and I can’t have you pass out.”

“My rooms the one of the right,” Tyler said heading down the hall. They entered his room.

“Whoa,” Fuka said in surprise. It had hardwood floors and wood paneling on the walls like the living room. There was a bed against the wall and a desk with a computer in the corner and a bookcase with barely any books. Except for the dresser, there was nothing else in the room. “It’s kind of empty,” Fuka blurted out.

“That’s what my mom and Ally says, but this is all I need. On the bright side it won’t be hard to move,” Tyler said heading over to his bed.

“I’ll help you with that,” Slash said moving to the other side.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to take it apart and put it back to together,” Tyler’s little sister appeared in the doorway.

“No if we turn it the right angle we can squeeze it throw the doorway,” Tyler said.

“Yea, it’s all mathematically sound,” Slash explained. It took them about thirty minutes to find the right angle for squeezing it through the door. “Okay, don’t lose that angle and we can get it out of the house!” Slash shouted to Tyler.

“Wait, the headboard is stuck in the hallway!” Tyler shouted to Slash when he was going through the living room. “Tilt your end towards the TV! Okay, now let’s go!”

“Okay, I’m outside. Now you have to tilt your end towards the mail box. Wait, I mean away from the mailbox. Good, we got it!” Slash shouted. The two moved it into the truck and gave each other a high five.

“Men are such idiots when it comes to moving,” Tyler’s mom said inside the house. His little sister and Fuka nodded in agreement. “They’re coming back in. Hey, the lemonade is done you two. Set down and have a break. It’s almost six.”

The two sit down and took a break. They bonded and Tyler’s mom lightened up a little about him moving out. The rest of the day was uneventful at Tyler’s house. However, about that time Noelle and Judith were leaving to go to NARF Headquarters.

“Hey check it out, Little Sister. I finished painting my ceiling!” Kenneth shouted to Kari.

“Good, our guests should be here any minute now,” Kari said studying her brother’s handy work.

“Miss Kari, they’re here!” Saya said coming into the room.

“Show them up,” Kari said.

“They’re on time. I guess they figured out what this meeting is about,” Kenneth said in his serious voice.

“Yes, they aren’t stupid you know,” Kari said glaring at her brother. “Let’s finish this when they show up.”

They waited in the office about five minutes before Saya lead Noelle and Judith into the office.

“By you showing up on time, I can assume you know what I am planning,” Kari said and looked at Noelle while she said it.

“Why are you just looking at me?” Noelle asked in cutesy voice.

“You are almost never on time,” Kari said.

“Yea I was even born two weeks late!” Noelle bragged.

“This is about Seraph, right?” Judith interrupted.

“Yes, as indicated by their attack this morning. They are not going to set still and stay quiet for much longer. We are going to take the pre-emptive strike tonight,” Kari explained.

“We figured as much,” Noelle smirked.

“Good, the sun sets at 9:17; we will begin the operation at 9:30 sharp! That leaves us with two hours prep time,” Kari explained farther.

“I’ll get 2012 on the phone and have them set up a station outside the building,” Noelle said.

“Good, is everyone ready? It’s been awhile since we used these?” Kari asked.

“Yea, Undine is begging to be set free,” Kenneth exclaimed.

“Aquilla wants to stretch her wings!” Noelle exclaimed.

“Kyubbi wants to howl at the moon!” Judith exclaimed.

“Great, Ophani wants some action too!” Kari said.

TO BE CONTIUED…

“Alright it looks like some action is finally going to start!” Ally shouted!

“Shouldn’t you explain some more terms?” Tyler asked.

“Nah, I’m feeling kind of lazy, besides there is a bonus coming up,” Ally explained.

Vermachtnis · 02-07-2008, 05:18 PM

Bonus 1: Character Profiles

Name: Tyler
Age: 18
DoB: Mar. 21, 1999
Affiliation: Resistance
Alignment: Ice/Dark
Elemental: Cocytus (LV00)
Forge: 2H Long Sword

Name: Ally
Age: 17
DoB: July 5, 1999
Affiliation: NARF
Alignment: Wind
Elemental: Sylph (LV00)
Forge: Grave

Name: Fuka
Age: 17
DoB: Nov. 3, 1999
Affiliation: Resistance
Alignment: Thunder
Elemental: Quetzcotl (LV00)
Forge: Dagger

Name: Noelle
Age: 29 (Sometimes claims to be younger)
DoB: Mar. 19, 1988
Affiliation: Resistance (Captain)
Alignment: Wind
Elemental: Aquilla (LV02)
Forge: 2H Broad Sword

Name: Kenneth
Age: 29
DoB: Mar. 18, 1988
Affiliation: NARF (Head)
Alignment: Water
Elemental: Undine (LV02)
Forge: 1H Slender Blade

Name: Kari
Age: 25
DoB: Feb. 11, 1992
Affiliation: NARF (2nd in command)
Alignment: Light
Elemental: Ophani (LV03)
Forge: Tonfa

Name: Judith
Age: 29
DoB: May 21, 1988
Affiliation: Magical Institute (Head Mistress)
Alignment: Fire
Elemental: Kyubbi (LV02)
Forge: Whip

Name: Saya
Age: 24
DoB: Nov. 31, 1992
Affiliation: NARF (Secretary)
Alignment: Day
Elemental: Umbra (LV02)
Forge: Arm Canon

Name: Slash (Real name: Wallace)
Age: 25
DoB: May 4, 1992
Affiliation: Resistance
Alignment: Metal
Elemental: Altair (LV01)
Forge: Shotgun

Name: Sai (Real name: Frank)
Age: 22
DoB: April 17, 1995
Affiliation: Resistance
Alignment: Fire
Elemental: Efreet (LV01)
Forge: Staff

Name: Plum (Her parents really named her Plum)
Age: 17
DoB: Jan. 12, 2000
Affiliation: Magical Institute
Alignment: ??? (Apparently all of them)
Elemental: ???
Forge: ???

Name: Erin
Age: 12
DoB: Dec. 5, 2005
Affiliation: Magical Institute
Alignment: Fire
Elemental: Surt (LV01)
Forge: Wand

Name: Penny
Age: ???
DoB: ???
Affiliation: 2012 (Cashier)
Alignment: Metal
Elemental: Titan
Forge: Hammer

Name: Nicky
Age: ???
DoB: ???
Affiliation: 2012
Alignment: Nature
Elemental: Dryad
Forge: Wand

Name: Jordan
Age: 31
DoB: Aug. 24, 1986
Affiliation: Seraph
Alignment: Light
Elemental: Seraphim (LV02)
Forge: 2H Broadsword

Name: Rachel
Age: 29
DoB: April 7, 1988
Affiliation: Seraph
Alignment: Fire/Light
Elemental: Cherub (LV02)
Forge: 2 1H Swords

Vermachtnis · 04-02-2008, 06:59 AM

DISCLAIMER: There is some light swearing and graphic stuff that may be unsuitable for little kids.

“Random Nexus reminds you to hold reset when powering off,” Noelle said in her serious voice.

Chapter 6
Storming the Seraphim

“Whew! We’re here!” Nicky shouted coming up to Seraphim building where Kenny, Noelle, Judith, Kari, and Saya were already waiting.

“Sorry, were you waiting long?” Penny asked.

“Nah, we just got here ourselves.” Noelle said and shrugged.

“No, you just got here. Judith, Kenneth, and I have been waiting since a quarter past nine. It’s going on ten o’clock now,” Kari sounded irritated.

“But look at this!” Nicky shouted and reached into her backpack and pulled out a cylindrical item. “We were making some final preparations to this. We call it the ‘Eye of Heaven!’ When combined with Saya’s ability it’ll pick up enemy signatures,” she explained as she passed the item to Kari.

“Well only alchemic and necromancy signatures, it’ll take a lot more fine tuning before we can pick up Elemental readings. It’s range varies depending on how strong the monster is. For the weaker monsters the range is only about fifty feet and stronger monsters can have a range of about four hundred. It’s all speculation however. This will be the first time we are testing it,” Penny explained further.

“So turn the sucker on already and summon Umbra,” Nicky shouted.

“Alright. If this works then you can scout without getting in any danger,” Kari said and flipped the switch at the bottom of the device.

“Umbra, lend me your eyes!” Saya shouted. Her level one was different from the others. Besides her arm mounted cannon she also acquires a visor. Before it only picked up heat signatures in front of her and could pull up information on the enemy by using her hand like a curser and “clicking” on the enemy.

“Now that Umbra has been summoned, here take this,” Penny reached into her back pack and pulled out rod on a tripod. “Put this in front of the building and push the red button on top.”

Kari took the rod and placed it front of the building. “Are you ready?” she looked over at Saya and she nodded. Kari pushed the button.

“Whoa!” Saya said almost instantly. “Two buttons just showed.” Inside Saya’s visor there were the heat signatures of her friends and a red circle and blue circle showed up on the left side. “I’m going to click the red one,” she moved her left hand up and clicked the red circle. It showed up as a black and white vision on infront of the building. Saya moved around and a grinding sound was heard from the rod and the vision rotated. “Okay so that lets me see through the rod,” Saya explained to everyone. “Now for the next one,” she said and pushed the blue circle. “Wow. This one gave me a 3D map around us. Wait there are black dots in the building.”

“Black dots represent alchemic enemies,” Penny explained. “Since everything seems to be working fine. Take these with you,” Penny reached into her bag and pulled out a couple more rods. “Place these inside the building.”

“Be careful. There’s something higher up. I can’t get a clear reading on it though,” Saya said.

“Can’t we just bypass all of this and ride the elevator to the top floor?” Noelle asked.

“Were you paying any attention during the meeting? We cut the power to the building to block them on the fortieth floor,” Kari explained.

“How are we supposed to get to them? If they’re blocked from leaving won’t we be blocked from entering?” Noelle asked.

“Why did we even have the meeting? Anyway, that’s what those two are doing here. When we give the signal they cut the power back on,” Kari said shaking her head.

“Anyway it seems like they were expecting us and set up alchemic traps,” Judith added.

“Yes, are those we set there in case of power outage in any form,” Kari assumed. “Everyone call your weapons. We’ll start with level one and if it calls for it we’ll go to level two. Try to save your energy. Those two will not go down easily.”

“Undine let me drink from the everlasting spring!” Kenneth shouted and called one handed sword to his side.

“Aquilla, carry me on your wings of life!” Noelle shouted and called her two handed sword to her back.

“Kyubbi, protect me with your flames!” Judith shouted and called her whip to her side.

“Ophani, guide us with your light!” Kari shouted and called two tonfas to her side. “Alright, let’s go!”

“Wait! I forgot about another feature of the ‘Eye of Heaven.’ Has long you are carrying the main component Saya can talk to you through it and alert you of upcoming enemies and if the signal is getting you should put down rod,” Nicky explained.

“Alright! Now let’s rush in!” Noelle shouted and ran for the door.

“When they enter you should notice your visor zooms in,” Penny was explaining to Saya. “The green dot shows the location of the main component and if you touch the enemies dots it’ll show you the same information as previously but it’ll be saved in the main piece and I’ll upload it to the compendium at 2012. Enemies you’ve already scanned will show up as hollowed dots. Catch is, you can only scan enemies on the same floor and in a fifty foot radius as the main piece,” Penny explained.

“Alright everybody, the enemies on the first floor are all Golems, Grunt class,” Saya spoke threw to Kari’s group.

“Grunt class? That should be simple enough,” Noelle said cockily.

“They will be, but don’t get a blown head,” Kari shot back at.

“Holy Bullet!” Kari shouted and pulled out one of her Tonfa and a white orb appeared at the end and fired off into a Golem. It disintegrated. Three more appeared behind it and rushed at the group.

“I’m kinda rusty. We should do a combination arte and take all three of them out in one go,” Kenneth suggested.

“Right, Judith get behind them,” Kari said.

“What? Us two?” Noelle asked.

“Yes, you remember how to do a combination arte don’t you?” Kari asked.

“Umm, maybe” Noelle shrugged.

“The both of you start casting a spell close together and your glyphs and overlap. After that you give the vocal command,” Kari sighed.

“Right, let’s to that,” Noelle said and started casting and Kenneth followed.

“Water and Wind Combination Arte: Typhoon!” They yelled simultaneously. From their two glyphs erupted a wave taking out the three golems.

“Good job. There is only one more golem on that floor,” Saya reported.

“I’ll get it. No since letting you three have all the fun,” Judith said. “Where is it?”

“It’s in front of the stairs,” Saya said.

“I see it! Fireball!” Judith yelled and threw fire from her palm.

“Let’s continue up,” Kari said heading for the stairs.

The staircase took them to the fifth floor. They met new enemies: Wind Golems and Ghouls.

“Everyone be careful. Ghouls are necromancy and physical attacks are ineffective and Wind Golems won’t be hurt by your skills Noelle,” Saya reported.

“Holy Bullet!” Kari shouted and fired three shots that took out the Ghoul standing down the hall. A wind Golem showed up.

“So my wind skill won’t work, huh? Well I do have the big sword on my back!” Noelle shouted and took her sword off her back and ran at the golem. “Check this out you immune bastard! Upper slice!” she shouted and jumped up swinging the sword upward and sliced the golem in the middle.

“Was the swearing necessary?” Kari asked.

“There’s another golem type!” Saya yelled.

“Got that one too! Mid slice!” she yelled and cut the new golem horizontally.

“That was an Earth Golem. Your wind skill would have been super effective,” Saya reported.

“Meh, my sword was effective enough,” Noelle shrugged.

“Three ghouls coming from four o’clock!” Saya yelled.

“I’ll get them. Fox Flame Wave!” Judith yelled and took out her whip and swung it horizontally releasing wave of white fire.

“There’s a Black Golem guarding the stairs,” Saya reported.

“Hey! You remember X-Slice?” Noelle asked Kenneth.

“Yea, why?” He asked back.

“Let’s use it against this Black Golem,” Noelle stated.

“It’s a Black Golem. Kari’s Holy Bullet would be best,” Judith said.

“Yea, but I’m bored and my entertainment should take priority,” Noelle said.

“I say go for it,” Kari laughed.

“That laugh was evil, but whatever. Let’s do it!” Noelle said and took her sword in both hands. Kenneth unsheathed his weapon.

“X-Slice!” The two shouted and jumped at the Black Golem from opposite ends and met in the middle forming an X shape. The Golem double back, but quickly collected itself. It reared back and punched Noelle with a fist half the size of her whole body. She flew into the nearest wall.

“Hey! Kari, that golem punched me and it hurt. Cure me and kill it!” she demanded.

“Sigh,” Kari shook her head. “Healing Light!” she yelled and a healing glyph appeared under Noelle and enveloped her in a white light. “Feel better now? Want me to kiss your boo boos away,” she teased. “Alright now let’s get serious. It’s defense is stronger than I though. I’m going to have to do the Holy Cremation Combination Arte.”

“I’m ready,” Judith nodded.

“Holy and Fire Combination Arte: Holy Cremation!” They shouted together. A new glyph appeared under the Black Golem and a blue flame cross came out of it.

“That wasn’t enough?” Kari sounded shocked.

“Water Arte: Spout!” Kenneth shouted and formed a glyph under Black Golem and high pressured water sprayed from it finally taking the golem down.

“I’m all better now, but I think I’ll take a kiss anyway,” Noelle said batting an eye at Judith.

“Ugh, come on!” Kari said and headed for the stairs.

They came to another barrier at the fifth floor. The door heading up was locked. There where no new enemies. A ghoul was holding the key. It took them seven kills until they found the right one. The next barricade was at floor fifteen.

“Lay down another rod, I can’t since anything,” Saya reported. Kari reached on her back grabbed a rod and pushed the button.

“See anything?” Kari asked.

“There’s only one enemy, but be careful. It’s a Necromancy class Poltergeist,” Saya sounded worried.

“I can see it!” Judith shouted. “Hey Kenneth, you thinking what I am?”

“Yea, let’s use Void magic,” Kenneth nodded.

“Void magic is when a combination arte is formed by contradicting glyphs,” Kari explained to Noelle.

“I knew that!” Noelle said defensively.

“The confused look said otherwise,” Kari said.

“Fire and Water Void Magic!” Judith and Kenneth yelled together. A glyph appeared under the Poltergeist and he was swallowed by a grey light. A few seconds later he came out unscathed. Standing a few feet away he slashed with one of his claws and hit everyone.

“Noelle, Healing Wind now!” Kari commanded.

“Yea, yea,” she said standing up.

“Holy and Wind Combination Arte: Healing Wind!” Kari and Noelle shouted and covered the group in a healing tempest.

“Kenneth distract it with water spout. The three of us are going to use Holy Flare,” Kari commanded.

“Aye aye, little sis!” he said and used Spout, stunning the Poltergeist.

“Wind and Fire Combination Arte: Flare!” Judith and Noelle shouted at the same time and a Flare Glyph appeared under the stunned Poltergeist.

“Triple Technique: Holy Flare!” Kari yelled adding the Holy Glyph to the Flare Glyph. A white explosion enveloped the Poltergeist and smaller explosions kept erupting inside of it, taking it down.

“Good job! He was tough!” Saya congratulated everyone on the battle. I do not since anymore enemies in the building except for the big one.

“Great. Let’s go fight the big one. Where and what is it?” Noelle asked.

“I can’t scan it until you get to the floor it’s on,” Saya explained.

“Let’s go then,” Noelle said and went to the stairs.

The group’s trip up the building was fairly uneventful. There were a few triggered traps that unleashed Golems that were quickly taken care of. They finally reached the thirty-seventh floor.

“Quickly lay down a rod!” Saya commanded and Kari reached for another rod.

“What is it?” Noelle asked.

“Be careful! It’s a Demon Wall. It’s a mixture of Alchemy and Necromancy. By use of a catalyst they confined a Legion class Necromancy monster to an inanimate object, in this case the wall!” Saya explained.

A claw came out of the wall and slashed at Judith.

“Warggh!” she screamed.

“Healing Light!” Kari cast the Healing Glyph on Judith.

“I’ve got a plan. Demon Wall meet Demon Wind Wall!” Noelle yelled and formed a Wind Glyph underneath her and took her sword and swung it horizontally forming a wall of wind that took out the wall.

“Whoa! What was that? A bunch of debris came falling out of the sky! It almost hit us,” Saya yelled.

“That was Noelle’s master plan to take out the Demon Wall,” Kari explained.

But another claw came and swiped at Noelle.

“Damn!” Noelle yelled. Kari cast healing light on her.

“It didn’t work,” Kari explained to Saya.

“You have to find the catalyst and destroy it releasing the Legion. Then you must destroy the Legion,” Saya explained.

“Come on, let’s find that Catalyst,” Saya commanded. They took off running down the hall. A face came out of the wall and bit Kari. She cast healing light on her self. They turned a corner and met a crossroads.

“There it is! I see the Catalyst,” Judith yelled pointed at a red orb setting on a pedestal.

They ran for but was stopped by wall of ghastly hands.

“Holy and Wind Combination Arte: Healing Wind!” Noelle and Kari cast the spell on their group.

“That wall is in the way and I can’t form my Spout Glyph under the Catalyst,” Kenneth explained.

“I think I have level two spell that can reach,” Judith suggested.

“Alright, go for it,” Kari gave the okay.

“Kyubbi, guide this spirit farther!” Judith yelled. Nine tiny flames surrounded her and a red vest appeared on her. A red skirt formed to her knees and split. “Alright, Fox Fire!” she yelled and grabbed her whip and the leather was replaced with white fire and it went through the wall and hit the catalyst destroying it and releasing the Legion.

“Aquilla, I need you to carry me farther!” she yelled. Green Breast mail covered her and green metallic greaves appeared as well as chain mail pants and a skirt.

The legion descended upon them. A humanoid looking beat with two heads, three arms, and five legs and mouth, fingers, and toes everywhere. Noelle and Judith looked at each other and nodded.

“Level Two Wind and Fire Combination Arte: Ultimate Flare!” they shouted and a Flare Glyph appeared under the Legion. Many tiny explosion covered it’s body until finally one huge one covered it wholly.

“Yea we did it!” Noelle shouted. A bit prematurely has the Legion came limping out still covered in fire. “Whoa! Take this, Tempest Strike!” she yelled and swung her sword releasing a green disk that exploded into a full blown tornado when it came into contact with the Legion.

“Fox Flame Inferno!” Judith yelled out and shot two fire balls from her hand that exploded on contact. The Legion limped forward.

“Alright. This is our most powerful Combination Arte: Infernal Tempest!” They shouted together and shot a large orange disk on the Legion that erupted into a large fire tornado. When the smoke cleared the Legion has fallen.

“Here take some restoration,” Kari said and cast Healing Light on the two of them.

“There are no more enemies. You still need to be careful, you are almost at the top,” Saya reported.

They climbed the last flight of stairs and on the last floor they came across two huge doors.

“Turn the power on,” Kari told Saya and Nicky. The hallway was flooded with lights and the two doors opened.

“Oh god! What’s the smell?” Noelle asked covering her nose.

“It smells like blood. Hurry!” Kari said running over to the desk in the middle of the room. “Oh no. Jordan has been murdered.”

“What? Murdered? Can’t we put him back together?” Noelle asked in shock.

“Look at him,” she said pointing. His chest was tore open. “Has you know, you need to things for resurrection. A body and soul, and takes about two hours for the soul to leave this plane. It looks like someone quite literally ripped the soul out of this one.”

“This is sick. Who did this?” Judith said between gagging.

“I have an idea. I’ll contact the police. The rest of you go home. We’ll regroup and come up with a new plan tomorrow,” Kari said in solemn voice.

“How can you be so stoic about this?” Noelle yelled at Kari!

“You forget what we came here to do?” Kari shot back at her.

“We weren’t going to do this! This is horrible!” Noelle yelled back.

“Come on. It’s almost midnight. Let’s leave her,” Kenneth said and grabbed Noelle’s shoulder.

TO BE CONTINUED

“Whoa. That was rough. But, I make my triumphant return next chapter!” Ally said.

“Yea you so called main characters can finally return to the limelight,” Noelle said and laughed.

“But that was rough though,” Tyler said.

“Yea seriously. That was a lot to read. I got a little bored,” Ally said and yawned.

“Wait I though you were talking about—ah never mind,” Tyler said and slumped down.

Vermachtnis

“Be sure to save before entering a Random Nexus,” Tyler warned.

Chapter 7
A New Game
[Sunday June 4]

“How did you sleep?” Fuka asked Tyler as he entered the lounge.

“Alright, I guess. It’s still my same bed,” Tyler was surprised by the question.

“Oh. Because I heard it can be difficult sleeping in a new place,” Fuka said quietly.

“I smell bacon,” he said, not even hearing Fuka.

“Yo! I made bacon,” Slash yelled beside him.

“Oh, the kitchen is here,” Tyler said turning.

“Yea, the kitchen slash dining room. Can’t believe we didn’t mention it yesterday,” Slash said scratching the back of his head.

“We all went to Didgeridoo’s, remember?” Fuka asked.

“Oh yea, Noelle was feeling lazy and then she left. Is she back yet?” Slash asked.

“Should we knock on her door?” Tyler asked.

“NO!” Fuka and Slash shouted.

“What? Why not?” Tyler asked, shocked.

“If she is back and asleep and you wake her up, she’ll be pissed. Plus, she doesn’t want anyone near her room. It’s like special or something,” Slash explained.

“Where’s that big guy?” Tyler asked looking around.

“He’s working at the mall,” Slash said. “Enough talking, the food’s getting cold.” He held the door open for Tyler and Fuka to enter. The aroma of the bacon overwhelmed the two of them. Tyler went to grab a seat, but Fuka grabbed and shook her and nodded at Noelle’s door.

He grabbed another seat and Fuka grabbed the one beside him. Slash placed a plate of bacon and another plate of eggs on the middle of the table. He grabbed some more plates and put them in front of Tyler and Fuka. He took a seat across from them. From the looks of it; Noelle sits at the head of the table, Fuka and Tyler sit on one said, and Slash and Sai sit on the opposite side of the table.

The three of them chatted and ate for a while. When they were finished Slash started to clear the table. Tyler asked he could help and Slash shook his head. After that, he and Fuka went to the lounge to see if anything was on TV. At about eleven thirty, they heard a noise in Noelle’s room. Her cell phone was going off.

“What is it?” Noelle asked answering her phone.

“Are you just now waking up?” Judith teased on the other end.

“I had a rough night, you were there,” Noelle said groggily.

“Well, I have important news. Nikki and Penny said they have something to help people get in touch with their elemental easier. Bring that new guy and Fuka and meet me at the Gymnasium on campus,” Judith said.

“Could Plum use it?” Noelle asked.

“She tried, but it didn’t work with her,” Judith said solemnly.

“How do we even know it’ll work on those two? It’ll only be a couple more hours before he can enter The Hub and get his elemental normally,” Noelle said.

“We don’t know how much time we have. Kari and Saya went searching for Rachel earlier. Chances are, when we find her a fight will break out,” Judith said.

“Fine,” Noelle sighed. “I’ll be there in a bit. Bye.”

“Bye.” Judith said and they hung up.

Noelle got up and got dressed. She went out and told Fuka and Tyler they were going on a trip. She had Slash drive them because no one else had a license. When they got to the Gym, Tyler has a surprise waiting on him.

“Hey there, Hero!” Ally yelled and waved at the van they were traveling in.

“Hero?” Everyone in the van asked?

“It’s stupid. She gives people nicknames,” Tyler sighed.

“Oh like you, Noelle. Remember when you gave me my nickname cause of my hair?” Slash asked.

“Yea and your real name is stupid. I can’t remember what it is, but it wasn’t cool like Slash is,” Noelle said getting out of the van.

“Now that everyone is here, let’s start the training,” Judith said.

“Already? But I’m not read,” Noelle whined.

“Not for you,” Judith said rubbing her forehead.

“Are you not going to introduce me to these people?” Ally asked.

“Umm, right. That’s Fuka, Noelle, Slash, and I don’t know who she is,” Tyler said pointing at people.

“I’m Judith,” Judith said.

“Oh. I’m Tyler,” he said.

“Great,” she said sarcastically. “Alright, let’s get down to business. The three of you will take a trail to unlock your personal elemental. I’m not sure if I can trust Noelle to have explained it to you, so I’ll do it just to be safe. Five years ago, if you may recall, some space debris crashed into the planet. While that cause a natural world wide panic, something supernatural occurred. The space debris opened a gateway to another universe where monsters and demons and such run rampant. The space debris allowed us to cast magic and gave us other supernatural abilities. But to use them we need a catalyst between our world and the supernatural. Those are the elementals.”

“What?” Tyler asked. It was over his head.

“Basically a hunk of space rock tore the Earth a new one and let demons run loose and we have to stop them with our own demons,” Noelle said.

“Our Elementals,” Judith shot a look at Noelle, “are more refined than the normal demons. They’re beings from different mythologies given a tangible form.”

“Your first mission is to go tame one!” Nikki shouted. “Hate to interrupt, but you guys are taking way too long. Now I explain my new device. It works like the normal Hub transporters if you already have an elemental, however if you don’t it takes you to the domain of the elemental you were destined to have. Now follow me!”

The group followed Nikki into the Gym. It looked like a normal school gym. The bleachers were folded into the wall. They trekked to the other end of the basketball court and went through a side door and walked more down a hallway and stopped in front of an elevator. Judith pulled out a card and swiped in t