------------------------------------------- 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 8: Brave new world Charlie Haven is driving the improvised group through the streets of what seems will be their home for a long time. Primus Mistalak talked about an "adaptation period", and because of that, the group of earthlings now has a week of "vacations" of some sort to get to know their new environment better. Strangely, this brave new world wasn't the "martian nightmare" everyone was expecting... in fact, it didn't differ that much from their earth: the buildings and cities' arquitecture was pretty much like that they knew before, so was the streets, fashion, etc. The change, however, was in the technollogy level: the Pick-Up truck Chuck was driving, for starters, was a hovering vehicle, as were all of the vehicles in the street... even the kids' skateboards. Also, there was an overpopulation of palm devices, all with holographic displays. Furthermore, almost every object seemed to have a CPU and wireless connection to the net: watches, PDAs, the clothing itself... besides that, the only real change in all this variety of devices was the look, for all of them seemed to have all the same functions: personal assistant, communication, etc... voice activated. Another difference was the sky... unusually clean, except maybe for the giant holographic billboards flying across the blue sky. On the back of the truck, Duncan was petting his tiger, Khan. When the introductory meeting with Mistalak ended, the Primus told him to stay for a couple of minutes. Then, he said he had a little surprise, and opening the large window, he saw his animal companion jumping inside... the primus said that when they picked Kurt and Duncan there was this little friend which just insisted on following all the way, and there was also this big Lieutenant with way too much affinity with felines.... Khan, as long as it is concerned, seems to have found a new playmate in Pooka which, in fact, has passed from sorcerer familiar to become an overgrown cat's toy, thing that doesn't make Pooka very happy... not that the playful white tiger cares anyway. Soka and Kaneda both prefered to cramp themselves in the co-pilot seat, well, actually, it was Kaneda who insisted in cramping himself with Soka, he still was way too intimidated by this science-filled world and so, insisted in having a seat that impaired his field of vision, even if only partially... a case of sensorial overload. Following Mistalak's tip, the party arrives to a mall. In fact, as the group's complete gear and personal belongings were now reduced to whatever they were carrying on their persons and little else, they considered it a good idea. After buying their new wardrobes together, the group started disbanding as each different store was attracting the personal interests of an individual member. After Soka's attention was drawn to a soda dispenser machine for about half an hour, the esoterism store was just irresistible. "¿Are you sure you want to go there Soka? There's not an ounce of magical energy in all of that junk". Pooka's words fell on deaf ears when Soka entered the store, more out of curiosity than of anything else. The inside of that store was full of the usual esoteric stuff: masks, amulets, necklaces, and so; a Tarot deck caught Soka's attention, and was about to take it when a voice behind her obligued her to turn around: "¿Why do you want such a piece of CRAP?". The sardonic voice belonged to a five feet tall man of disordered brown hair. His japanese school uniform identified him as another earthling, like her. Finding another earthling usually would be a joy for her, not this time; a sinister air roamed this person, something dark, something shadowy... something that wasn't right. Malice was hosted in the stranger's eyes and sardonic smile. More than once Soka have met with people this kind, and every single time the reaction has been the same: fear. There is something about people with a dark air that simply scares her... it maybe because there is something about herslef that, somehow, is always drawing this kind of persons in her direction... always with an ill predisposition and bad will. Her grandmother has always told Soka to face her fears, for that is the only way to conquer 'em. Nevertheless, this has been a fear that no matter how much time passes, not even her magical prowess has given her the confidence to face. "Huh?" The stranger observed. "A true sorcerer... haven't seen one since I got here..." Soka tried to said something, anything, but it was like the cat got her tongue while the sinister stranger examined her. "Elemental affinity... a MINOR path but...no, you don't have the power to bind a familiar. Someone else did THIS for you, am I wrong?" the scary prescence pointed at Soka's little friend while remarking his last statement, an act that intimidated Pooka itself, who was now hiding behind the young gypsie's shoulder. "...enjoy your little Tarot deck, as long as I'm concerned, I can stand no longer this make-believe junk, sayoonara". With that words, the stranger made his way out of the store, as did her overwheling fear; the speech was gradually returning to her when a little hand took her Tarot deck on the other side of her counter. "¿Are you buying this, miss?" a kid was talking to Soka from the other side of the counter with the deck in his hands. "Y-yes p-please..." "K.I.D please?" The young sorcerer drawed slowly her K.I.D card: before dissmising them in his office, primus Mistalak gave each one his own Katakis IDentification card (K.I.D). The K.I.D is your access to any important personal information you might need about yourself. Katakis is a paperless bureaucracy; all of the citizen's information is stored in a huge database with clusters all around the planets of the Galactic Pact Organization; any and all proceedings are done through one's K.I.D: say, for example, your family moves and you have to switch schools. All you do is going to your new school's procedures terminal, identify yourself with your K.I.D, go through the necesary proceedings, and sign (in Katakis, by signing one understands as pressing your thumb on the terminal's fingerprint verification terminal). However, as with our modern earth's stores, most don't care in verifying the buyer's identity as long as someone pays for the goods, and so, Soka wasn't asked to sign before taking her Tarot deck with her. While the rest of the troupe was each in a different store, each attending the call of their personal preferences, Kaneda was still trying hard to figure out the credit information terminal... come to think of it, he could have fared better should he just knew what the card slot on the terminal was for. "Excuse me sir, ¿Do you have a problem?" As the confused ninja turned to find the voice who called him, he found a strange four and a half feet tall girl, 15 years at most. The girl had blue hair to shoulder's lenght and white denim pants with rolled up cuffs and a light blue demin blouse, but that wasn't the strange thing about her, but the fact that she had a set of genuine looking white cat ears on top of her head, that and a cat's tail which was still moving. "¿May I help you sir?" the girl's cat ears moved a little. "¿Can you tell me how this thing works?" Kaneda asked the girl. "umm?" replied the girl, a bit stranged: "Sure! just hand me your K.I.D and I'll show you" The girl looked very friendly and innocent, now if she just was a bit more clear at giving explainations Kaneda could have understood a bit of what she was talking about. "Xiza!(*) ¿Where have your been? ¡I have been looking all over for you!" a beautiful and quite well endowed blond woman approached the cat girl, six feet tall and wearing white pants and a pink blouse. "I'm sorry ¿Was she giving you any trouble?" The woman asked Kaneda. (*) Pronounced "shee-za" "¿Can you tell me how this thing works?" Kaneda asked the blond woman, looking even more confused now than before the cat girl explained him the misterious workings of the credit informatiom terminal. "¿Are you new in this planet?" Kaneda just nodded as an answer. After a brief informational chat during which the blond woman explained to Kaneda the workings of Katakis' cashless society, she proceeded to instruct him on the use of his K.I.D, terminals, and whatever was needed to survive on his new home. A minute later or two, the rest of the group catched up with Kaneda at the information terminal, the blond woman quicly introduced herself: "Are you friends of Kaneda? I'm Allana Altara, nice to meet you". After the proper introductions were made, another guest arrived at the scene, his face was covered with shopping bags. "Allana! Don't run again like that! ¿Any idea of how heavy this bags of yours are?" "It was you who insisted in coming with us Watts, make yourself useful then!" was Allana's reply to his friend's complain. Upon catching a glimpse of Allana's new friends, Watts dropped unvoluntarily several bags wile weaving hello. "HI HI!!!! We met again fellas!" the falling bags revealed the face of the Argoss' captain. "¿How is katakis treating you all?" The face of the whole group when they recognized Watts, combined with the group's foreign clothing and Kaneda's inability to operate a credit information terminal made Allana catch up quickly with the facts. "So it was true! You DID dared to pilot the Argoss on the last recruitment trip ¿¡Didn't you!?" "Hey! I did't fare THAT bad you know..." Hearing his friend's confession, Allana's face turned red with anger: "¡I just got that thing up and running from the ruin YOU turned it into after ramming the Solom on its side with your 'emergency landing' last week!!!!... I swear that if I find a single SCRATCH on the paintwork I'll..." By that moment Allana, Watts, and Xiza were already alone in front of the terminal, Kaneda and company having left them alone to solve their problems in peace. During their stay in the mall, Duncan bought food for his tiger companion while Charlie acquainted himself with the new electronics of this planet. Kaneda, on his side, satisfying the scared old hermit we all carry inside, bought food supplies for a week, a refrigerator, and a microwave... that and a wooden shelf for his weapons. The return home was rather calmed. Each one had a separate barrack assigned to them inside the base. Someone knocked Soka's door. A cute five feet tall girl with pink, short hair and janitor's uniform was on the other side of the door. "Hi! I'm Mia, you are one of the new recruits ¿right?" "Yes" "Nice to meet you!" The girl was all smiles. "Say ¿Can you answer me a question? ¿Will you?" "eeh, sure" "¿What color you think this wall is?" She was pointing at a wall from the corridors. "Metallic grey I guess..." "That's what I say, but some people say it doesn't look like it ¿What do you think?" "well..." "Gotta go but, before I go ¿May I ask you a favor?" "Yeah, sure" "Please take care of your barrack. I'm the only janitor here and it can be quite a hard work sometimes. You see, today I got to one of the barracks was already a complete mess... with blood and all...hmm, now that I remember, I think it was the barrack of one of your friends... well, gotta go, cya!" Mia smiled and departed as soon as she arrived. ***************** Kaneda arrived at his barrack, ready to get a meal... as soon as he managed to figure out how that strange microwave oven worked. However, he didn't expect he would have to put everything inside back into place. The room was completely ransacked: the matress cut with a knife and torn inside out, bits of the furniture here and there along with animals' limbs and organs; the stench of blood was everywhere. Inspecting the place, he found a message written in blood in the ceiling: "YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!" ------------------------------------------- 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!