------------------------------------------- G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N A Thrash's chronicle by ROMeo Thrash is a Role Playing Game (RPG) about videogame fighting games and anime martial arts created by Blackbird (AKA Ewen Cluney). G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N is the settig of my current Thrash's campaing and, in fact, this writing is the product of my current game which is being translated here in 90% original form. ------------------------------------------- Chapter 7: Partners in confusion <0100 hours> Charlie Haven was wandering the corridors of the huge ship that would be his transport for the next two hours according to the persons he made a deal with one hour ago when something caught his attention. Seems that no matter where you go, computer terminals look pretty much the same. The keyboard looks more or less recognizable but, since his bionic conversion, Charlie Haven doesn't waste his time with keyboards, microphones, or any other user-oriented interface. Extending his left hand's index finger, Charlie pops from the tip a pointed jack, same that he introduces in the nearest mostly-compatible port. Long streams of data started flowing through his brain which, even if busy right now downloading all aviable data, was not that busy as to not notice his radar's warning of someone just behind him. "¿What are you doing?" asked Soka to the stranger in front of the computer terminal who, without even looking back at her, with a flick of his wrist, was manipulating the terminal. A hundred profiles of several people started scrolling through the monitor's screen, including her own as well as Pooka's, which flashed on the screen for almost half a second. Now Chuck knew almost everything about the stranger behind him: from her name and backgrounds to her abilities and why she was also summoned here by his new patrons. ***************** Kaneda opened his eyes inside a strange room: it was white in color and the door had no visible doorhandle. The atmosphere inside felt too sterile, making him feel somewhat uncomfortable. The stranged ninja got up from the bed he was laying on and walked towards the door, which misteriously opened on its own, increasing Kaneda's uneasy feeling. The endless corridors' appearance didn't do much to reassure the young anachronist's confidence either, everything made from plastic or metal. A black transparent plastic panel on the wall had the design of what could be a frigate of strange design: the panel had lights all over it, and a specially notorious red light with the word "YOU" marked on it was in the middle of it. Still wondering how he ended up in that strange place, he tried to sense the chi of his last oponents... without success; still, a chi of considerate proportions was just ahead. The following walk took Kaneda to another door without visible doorhandle that, just like the first one, opened as soon as he aproached. A big room awaited on the other side of the door, several plastic desks with black transparent panels and a lot of lights were along the room, the people in front of each desk was tapping lights at random on their desks with their fingers for no aparent purpose. In the center of the room, the prescence whose chi Kaneda felt a while ago was sitting on a chair in the middle of the room: his long blond hair styled upwards and his athletic figure clad in black and blue spandex. Upon hearing the door opening, the central figure turned his chair around to greet his guest. "HI HI! ¿What can I do for you sr.?" The ship's captain asked his visitor in the most cheerful of moods. "For starters, you can tell me where I am and how to return home!". Ignoring Kaneda's mood, the captain answered his question as cheerful and conversational as always. "Well well... where?: Starship Argoss... home?: precisely, we're heading home...". By that moment, Kaneda's frown finally made the captain's three marbles in his head to click together... "Oooh... YOUR home you mean? Well, I'm terribly sorry my friend, that won't be possible at the moment I'm afraid". "And why not!?" "Hey! don't look at me... that's the deal we made with your planet. They provide recruits, we provide protection" "¿What protection? ¿What deal? ¿¡What are you talking about!?" "Just relax, we'll arrive soon... believe me, you'll like it" "¡¡Just let me out!!" At that moment, the smiling captain just pointed to one of the ship's windows: "Sayyyy....you sure you want out?". "Wait a minute" Kaneda said. "You said THIS was a starship ¿right?" "Exactly my fella ¿Why do you ask?" "Aaand ¿How many of you can survive in space?" "Weeeeell.... let's seeeee...." The blond captain started counting with his fingers. "yes...no...no...no...no...yes... maybe...no...well, only two persons I guess, ¿Why?". Hearing that, Kaneda raised one fist "Because if you don't return me to my planet then it's VERY likely that only that two persons get home safely!". Hearing that, the security personel drawed weapons. At the same time, the captain got up from his chair. "Sorry buddy, but I don't think so". The fire ninja separated himself from the rest of the room with a wall of flames, action that activated the control bridge's sprinklers. In a second, the water lowered the height of the fire wall just enough for the Kaneda to jump though it when the ship's guards opened fire with their laser sidearms. As the shadow warrior landed in the center of the room, a semicircular fire wall erupted at ground zero where the guards were standing, burning them as the rolled backwards. "Hoooly mess this is..." The captain remarked standing in the back of the control bridge, playing with a Rubic cube, somewhat calmed in the midst of the battlefield. ***************** Pooka standed in front of Charlie's face, just a moment ago, Chuck had called Pooka by his name. "Soka, who is this guy and how does he know my name?" were the little thing's words before being interrupted by an anouncement through the corridor's speakers: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain... we're not British Airlines and still, we got a MADMAN IN THE COCKPIT, as long as he doesn't burn the security personel to a crisp we promise you to control the emergency... but of course, any help would be welcoooome" ***************** Duncan was awakened by a friendly voice through the speakers of the room he was in. The last thing he remembers was the garage of the Chevrolette car factory. The room he was in made him feel in a rerun of Star Trek. As the room's door opened before him, the anouncement came to an end, He had no idea of how he got there, but he had the impression that in order to find out, the first questions to be answered should be: a) ¿What madman?. b) ¿What cockpit? and c) ¿What's going on?. Upon following the indications in the map panels in the walls of the corridors, he quickly got to the control bridge where a girl in denim shorts and a gypsie-looking scarf on her head accompanied by a man in biker's clothes and a thing that looked pretty much like a living Kooshball with a face were all standing in the entrance watching the show. "¿What's going on?" asked Duncan, a friendly voice inside the room answered his question "I WAS HERE FROM THE BEGINING AND I BARELY KNOW!!!". The ship captain, who was still in the back of the control bridge, came from between the flames to greet his new guests: "Say guys, ¿Is he a friend of yours? Could you please please PLEASE tell him to stop before there is no more ship to return home? oh, but please, come in". An enclosed inferno with no place to run except for the place the newcomers were standing. Soka still had no clue of what was going on... but she surely had an idea of how to put it to an end. Stepping ahead of her new partners in confusion, the young girl extender her hand, chanting in ancient, lost laguages; a moment later, an heraldical mark shaped like a dragon glowed in the gypsie's hand... "Err...uhmmm... like weee take a step behind or two ¿Don't you think fellas?" said the captain to Charlie and Duncan at the same time a ball of spining water appeared in front of the apprentice's hand, just to detonate into a tidal wave that flooded the entire room an inmediately... 5 seconds later, the control bridge's door opened, setting free the pocket ocean the room was now housing... living fauna included, even if not composed of aquatic life forms anyway. An unconscious Kaneda was being dragged outside by the water along with a soaking-wet crew and passengers. The emergency has been put under control. But it seems that the young Soka still needs to learn when to use the right spell. ***************** The rest of the trip was quite uneventful, the only exception being the captain's HORRID piloting. Still, after two asteriod near crashes, two misscalculated hyperspace jumps, and the loss of half the engines' room due to overheating, the travel became pretty quiet. Upon descending from the ship, the improvised group was in a military facility of some sort: heavy vigilance, tank-like vehicles, visible radar towers, a fenced perimeter... come to think of it, it seemed more like a regular military base than an alien planet. Even if the facility had a higher technollogical level, the sky was as blue as always. Plus, with the exception of the weretiger and his teammates, all the visible crew was completely human in apearance. It was strange the weretiger didn't showed himself during the emergency... well, almost strange. Charlie Haven, on the other side, was quite aware of the ongoing events. Among all the data he downloaded in the ship's terminal, he ran into quite a curious file: ***begining log file*** >>Entry: 109898 >>Space date: Fifth day, third solar cycle, 2070 >>--0100 h-- >>Transfering navigational controls to auxiliary systems >>Releasing conflictive element into control bridge >> Evaluating recruits' reaction time, compatibility, >> and adaptability to circunstances. >>Filing report as of tomorrow 0900 h. ****end of log file**** The ship was never in any real danger, and they were only being tested. The group was lead through a series of corridors, and Kaneda was wearing a nicely tight metal straightjacket in order to prevent him from attempting another mess. Their tour ended in a nicely-decorated office: wood covered walls, a red rug, and a large window to the left. Several chairs were lined up in front of a wooden desk, where a man was waiting, aparently for them. "Good morning, my friends!" were the man's first words. A strong, handsome man with black, short hair, and a skintight black shirt with a turtle neck. Despite the circunstances, his smile seemed all too sincere and reassuring. "Allow me to welcome you to the galaxy's finest training and improvement center for exceptional beings, welcome to the Gordon Universal Academy for Refinement and Development of unexploited potential of extraordinary Individuals And Neutralization of planetary threats. I'm Jhor A Mistalak, primus". Kaneda took a step foward, quite in a bad attitude: "Ok, ¿Can you tell me NOW why are we here?". "To help, you are here to help. Not me, not yourself, but several other people that depend on us" "And ¿What is this so-called help you talk about?" "That's easy my boy. G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N exists with the purpose of protecting more than three hundred planets. Yours among them. For that purpose, G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N also has the purpose of recruiting only the finest of what we call 'extraordinary individuals': People that is rare in the galaxy for their exceptional courage, valor, and might... people like you, like ALL of you." "And.." Kaneda interrupted: "¿What if we refuse?". "Please let me finish my boy" Mistalak replied. "Right now, you are here because of the following reaons: -Your abilities: You might not believe it, but abilities like those you possess are almost UNIQUE in the galaxy. With the proper guidance, each one of you can become a one-man army. -Your corage: This, is your single most important attribute. There are hundrerds, even thousands of specimens in the galaxy with power, but there are barely dozens who care to put them to good use... we know you, we have been following you for some time now, and so, we know you care..." The primus now looked right into Kaneda's eyes... "...AND Your ambition: As I told you before, we know you, and we know you are the kind of people who like challenges. ¿You think you are that tuff kid? ¿You actually DO think that little defenseless bums or no-good monsters whose butt you kick on a weekly basis makes you special, huh?. Look kid, we know in your world you were what your people call 'demon hunter'..." hearing that two words, Kaneda entered a trance... ***************** ...The young boy standed in front of the small japanese house in the nocturne forest, the full moon shining on his blade, red with the blood of the creature in front of him; a gentle rain washing the blood stains of his face as well as the blood pool left by the monster on the japanese soil. The exanguinated bodies of his parents were lying outside the house. The face of the kid was filled with shock... ***************** "...wanna try some REAL demons?". The primus' voice brought Kaneda back to the present. "Oh, and by the way. Duncan, to tell you the thruth, you shouldn't be actually here, still, you left us in quite a moral predicament. On one side, we couldn't let you kill Mr. Resnor, who is in our medic ward right now by the way... sorry, we saw him first; on the other side, we knew what your fate would be like if you didn't finished your contract... don't take it personal, we know of your abilities, but this Shelldon guy has too many influences and personal power too. To tell you the thruth, we already have an eye on him. My point: ok, I know we sealed your doom down there, but now we're offering you asylum, and a full time job... you don't have to answer right now, but I'll be waiting for your decision in one week". The primus got up from his seat. "So ¿What do you say my boys, do we got a deal?" The Primus flashed a smile to everybody in the audience. "Welcome to Katakis..." ------------------------------------------- feedback and flames to azalin1@lycos.com Visit G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N's HQ at: http://g-u-a-r-d-i-a-n.net AND the Thrash's Official homepage can be found at: http://www.blackbird.nu/thrash/ CYA!