The Society 8 (Role Play)

Shale re-addresses the rest of the members. "It would be for the best if we descended immediately to the planet's surface. Remember, we have a limited time frame in which to achieve our objective; We cannot afford to waste any more time."

As Shale glides across the floor out of the meeting room and follows the well-worn path to his quarters, he begins to prepare for the mission.

Code:


->ALICE, Begin Preparations for Descent.
-AFFIRMATIVE. PREPARING ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY SEQUENCE
-MCF-TX204 DOCKING...DONE
-SEALING AIRLOCKS...DONE
-BEGIN JETTISON


As Shale docks with the Maintenance Bay, All the monitors in the room slide on their tracks to the door-side wall, as the main door to the hallway is sealed with a loud hiss. As a partition of the room separates, it is obvious that it is actually a relatively small shuttle about the size of a Subway car, designed for atmospheric entry. As the shuttle (here on in referred to as the Support Shuttle ) maneuvers with it's multiple vernier nozzles away from the society building and orienting itself towards the drop trajectory, Shale contemplates on the true purpose if his mission.

時間です。
It is Time.

-20 minutes earlier-
Yumeshima, Osaka bay, 7 kilometers SW of Osaka, Japan.
The shipping depot is eerily quiet at this time of night. Few, if any, dock workers show up this late at night. However, there are 2 individuals present at this time.

"I think I lost him," mutters one to himself. "Now, to find out exactly what I got here..."

As he peruses the contents of an operational manual, he discovers the power of the equipment he has just stolen from a military development corporation; an experimental full-body exo-suit, complete with armor plating and weaponry. The exo-skeletal frame gives him exceptional strength, while the metal plating protects him from bullets. Also equipped on this machine are a heavy blade on the right arm, and a heavy-plate shield capable of protecting even from shaped-charge rockets. Mounted to the left of the back-mounted power unit is a Thermo-Nuclear Buster Rifle, and to the right a cooling unit, and 2 spare cartridges.

The rear threat sensor trips, and he turns around just in time to see a flash of blue racing towards him. As he raises his right arm to deal with the threat, he finds himself swinging at thin air, as Blue Demon jumps over his foe, and lands behind him.

"I'd like for you to give that back, Mr. Thief," Proclaims Blue Demon. "Or you will have to answer to Calvin." The thief pulls out the Thermo-Nuclear Buster Rifle, and sets his sights on Blue Demon. He pulls the trigger, and unleashes a bright, reddish-gold beam of energy in the narrow aisle between shipping containers.

"Did I get him?" The thief thinks that his pursuer is destroyed. "IT'S JUST A SCRATCH, DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!!" shouts Blue Demon, and unleashes the power of his Nichirinmaru on the reloading thief, Piercing his breastplate and slicing him in half with an eloquent flick of the wrist.

"Such a shame," sighs Blue Demon as he re-sheathes his blade. "I don't think the guys over at MX will like this, but I suppose it's salvageable." Only when Blue Demon looks behind him to where the beam was shot at does he realize that the stray shot hit Mt. Myoken on Awaji Island, 40 kilometers away. "Looks like this is gonna be one uncool party," Blue Demon says casually as he rips the burnt and bloodied corpse out of the suit, and slings the empty shell over his shoulder.

23:07 Mt.Shigisan, 15 km SE of Osaka, Japan
A bright white streak traverses the night sky. Although it would seem to most a shooting star, the Support Shuttle engages the atmospheric braking mechanisms, and comes to a gentle landing on the summit of Mt. Shigisan. As Shale disengages the securing mounts, he takes a moment to survey the surroundings, and the damage caused by the explosion of Mt. Myoken.

Code:


-> Analyze Coordinate (35°24′39″N 134°38′41″E)
-ANALYZING...
-DONE. NUCLEAR WEAPON DETONATED IN VICINITY. BEAM-TYPE. POINT OF ORIGINATION:
YUMESHIMA, OSAKA BAY. LOADING DATAPOINT INTO PATHFINDER UNIT...


"A nuclear beam?" Pondered Shale. "A weapon like that could only have come from one place, which means... I've been followed.

It would be easy for the rest of the Society to slip down onto Earth. All Lale (and Micah, too, for that matter) needed to do was surf a floating human consciousness, slip down and re-materialize on Earth. Sable would have to go down physically as Shale would, but she could also travel through light.

Each governing member shivered. Outside and below them on earth, nearly five hundred thousand minds winked out without as much as a "goodbye", and Sable, holding Vivi, cried out as if in pain.

Immediately Lale stood up, watching Shale leave. He felt Shale's consciousness unhitch from his own, and he gave a sharp look towards Micah. "Ready?" He called over, voice penetrating the hubbub. They needed to leave together, and how Xena, Michiko, or Aelthal would leave would depend on them.

Sable unhooked her arms from Vivi's, mumbling words of reassurance and apology as she gave Xena a quick look. "Where will we all meet?"

Xena watched as the members discussed amongst themselves, disregarding her; or so she thinks. She immediately felt nervous as Shale took over her authority and informed the members or her plans of action. “Well, great minds think alike…” she reassured herself.

As Shale escaped the dream and the other members have their attention back to her, she cleared her throat. “Uhh, yes Sable. As Shale said, we will meet at the city of Osaka and begin our search for the Balance there. If necessary, we will split into partners with our respective counterparts. Magic and Knowledge would remain behind to relay and messages and updates on the situation. That is all.”

As the members began to leave, she cried out, “OH! And I almost forgot…there maybe humans or…other sentient beings involved in the retrieval of Balance. Please be careful not to harm them, but if necessary…eliminate them…” And with that, she looked down at her hand and gathered her energy. She surrounded herself with the energy of Time and escaped the dream, bringing her back into the real meeting room.

She looked at the other members, minus Shale, who are still asleep before walking back to her room. She needed a quick shower to refresh herself and prepare for the long day ahead of her. Besides, her favorite anime was on right now.
------------------------------------
CALVIN

Calvin watched the meteor descend from the sky before hitting the ground. “A nuke, now a meteor? What’s next, the gods descend from the sky and smite me for meddling in matters concerning the whole universe?”

He jumped onto the next rooftop and sent another pulse of energy into is surroundings. He felt a scrambled echo reflect from the direction of the explosion a few minutes ago. “Great,” Calvin said sarcastically. “Go to the explosion.” He gathered his energy before leaping from rooftops heading towards where the supposed location of the object is.

"I'm sorry, and thank you," Vivi smiled to Sable before she left.

Micah released those who were still dreaming from their sleep, leaving Lale and him alone in the room.

"I'm actually physically in Tokyo right now...but I'm sort of stuck in my apartment because of a bad cold," He tried to shrug off his embarrassment by looking away, "but I will meet you in Osaka as an illusion." With that, the dream ended.

Vivaldi waited for Xena to return while fiddling with her thumbs in nervousness.

"ALICE, retrieve the full-body cloak, and initiate active camouflage" says Shale as he uses an electronic link to the Maintenance Bay. The Support Shuttle instantly assumes the visual image of a large boulder, concealing it from both visual range and satellite range. As he dons the cloth, he begins his long trek down the mountain and heads towards the glittering lights of Osaka.
-15 minutes later-
A dark figure clad in cloth skates from rooftop to rooftop, leaping in great jet-assisted jumps, and landing with a precise vectored thrust as to not cave the roof in. "Where could it be?" Shale thinks out loud. "It has only been a few hours, and already a nuclear weapon was used! Maybe my luck is running out..."
---
Yumeshima, Osaka bay, 7 kilometers SW of Osaka, Japan.
"Wow, this place sure is dead..." Blue Demon sighs as he walks the empty streets of the shipping depot. He rounds a corner, and comes to a rusted, badly dilapidated shipping container at the end of a lane. "MCF-AX105, requesting clearance" Blue Demon announces to the shipping container.
"IDENTITY CONFIRMED, MCF-AX105 BLUE DEMON, ACCESS GRANTED" a metallic voice responds. The shipping container opens, and reveals a space age, linear elevator with a control panel. Blue demon drags himself with the exo-suit, and enters from Port 02-57A of the MX Headquarters, Japan Branch, Hangar and launch facility complex.

Sable shook lightly, feeling her feet land on solid ground. Travelling by light was not her favourite transportation type, but it couldn't be helped in this situation. Near her she felt the other members of the Society land near her; Vivi's light aura, Shale's dead aura, Lale's silent one...

Osaka. Earth. She took in a deep breath, hearing a human near her groan and fall over. A dark wisp of smoke wafted out of the human's lips, flowing to a nearby shadow where a shape took form, and Lale inhaled.

"Messy," he commented.

"Micah said he'd meet us later, right?" Sable called over, rubbing her eyes lightly. "I don't really feel the Balance here..."

Enter Sev, the Mechanist

as he strolled down the walkway of his flagship "New Sun" the ship begins to suddenly rumble. Sev runs to the bridge yelling for a status report as the troopers begin to scramble across the ship carrying toolboxes and rifles. The ships co-captain begins to report the ships sensors have been knocked out temporarily due to an unknown energy signature passing near the ship. The bridge crew begins to question as they've already detected various energy beam readings of an unknown technology.

As the crew of the New Sun prepare for scouting and reconnaissance missions they quickly begin to prepare landing and stealth crews when an explosion is detected in the mountains.

Sev decides to take this into his own hands as he joins his small landing crew in their dropship. The dropship launches off the New Sun into the mountains and suddenly the readings become haywire and the ship spirals out of control and crashes.

"another energy disturbance sir" as the Ships crew radio's in on Sev and his injured landing crew. As the crew begins to patchup and is rescued by another dropship, Sev personally walks across the mountains, he is attacked.

He quickly phases in his rifle and gajitron monocle attempting to see the invader but as he begins to fire, the attackers vanish. Rather than overstaying his welcome, he decides to rest in the nearby city and search for information, a nuclear beam and mysterious attackers huh, there's only one place to look then.
Sev proceeds to radio in his men to begin reconnaissance on the MX facilities as scouts are sent to search under the shroud of night.

Blue walks down the main hangar's length, and watches as dozens of men and women rushing to and from the various pieces of military equipment, a sizable minority of which are technologically advanced for it's time. He places the battered shell of the exo frame near the entrance, and as he approaches his designated maintenance bay, he docks and commences the replacement of the shoulder armor that was damaged in the theft. A tall man who seems to be in his late 20's and has silver hair and a scar over his right eye approaches him. "Although it's not quite in the condition it was in when it left the hangar, thanks for bringing it back, Blue" Aris greets Blue when he's within a comfortable conversation distance.
----------------
Shale continues to leap from building to building, seemingly unnoticed by the public tens of meters below him. All of a sudden, he stops. "This is peculiar," Thinks Shale. "Why is that man on the roof in combat armor? could it be that he's from this era's MX corps? no, that type of combat armor isn't registered in their database... but why is another group involved in this? He doesn't seem to have noticed me yet; I shall follow him, and see what he knows" Shale resolves as he engages the head visor and proceeds to stalk his target.

Xena turned off the TV with her cellphone and sighed. She looked out the window noting that morning has hit japan. She could already feel the presence of most members fading from the Society Building and probably heading towards earth. “Well, I shouldn’t be avoiding this situation any longer,” she reminded herself as she walked out of her room and began traversing the corridors of the building.

Each and every Society Member has their own way of traveling between the building and earth. Some simply “appear” on Earth…and others travel the regular way: atmospheric re-entry. Xena however, uses a special way only accessible to the members of Time: the Immeasurable Stairs. Taking advantage of Time and Space’s many dimensions, the first member of Time created a branch of stairs hidden throughout the building to many locations on earth. However, the stairs can be quite unpredictable in terms of reliability.

Xena finally stopped in front of the library, but did not head through the doors. No, she sidestepped the doors and instead, pressed her right hand onto the wall and whispered the words. The wall melted and a brightly lit descending staircase appeared in a corridor of yellow. As she entered, the wall reformed and Xena quickly descended the staircase. Expecting the usual 5 minutes descent to Earth, she was surprised when after a minute, the door appeared. “Hmm…that was quick,” she thought and pushed the door open.

The sight of an empty street greeted her. She looked back only to see an alley wall; the door faded as quickly as it appeared. All alone in the alleyway, she slowly walked into the street and started to locate the other Society Members.
--------------------------------------------
Calvin

“I’m here,” Calvin thought as he leaped for the final time onto a building top overlooking a vast park. He did not see any crater or any kind of physical disturbance, but energy radiation does not lie. The park was radiating with an unknown kind of energy. He jumped onto lower building tops before hitting solid ground with an energy shockwave to prevent injury. He walked inside the park and after a minute, he stopped. “Time to diagnose…” Calvin said to himself as he muttered the words for the STA seal. Altering the seal’s function to an energy sensor, he discovered something problematic.

“Weird…there isn’t a single source of radiation…rather, the whole park is radiating,” Calvin thought before changing the seal’s function into an echo-locator. Sending a pulse into the park and its surroundings revealed something much more satisfying. “So…there are 4 unknown objects in the park…very interesting…” Calvin thought before a late echo hit the seal with urgency. It was an echo of something big, contained a lot of energy, and was heading towards him fast.

He turned towards the direction where the echo came from and not a moment too soon. A roar was heard and as Calvin broke his seal and jumped aside, a creature of energy burst out of the foliage and created a long gash mark on the ground where Calvin was. “Holy Cow…” Calvin shouted and immediately drew out one of his swords. The creature turned to face him and roared once again. It was a dragon…no, a concentration of energy manifesting in the form of a dragon. It was dangerous, loud, and not at all stealthy. Everyone who had powers could detect this unnatural phenomenon, blowing Calvin’s head start. “Damn it, I need to get rid of it!” Calvin muttered to himself before dashing forward with tremendous speed, a sword in his left hand, towards the dragon’s legs.

The stealth troopers and sev begin searching the MX facility for evidence and technology, as they witness the various weapons of destruction created by theese men they come to the conclusion that the recent explosions are from MX. As troopers begin to stealthily download data from the MX corp facility, Sev takes watch.

He stands on a rooftop as his gajitron monocle phases in. Keeping a lookout for enemies he begins to see distortions while scanning. the HUD begins to show error as he tries to makeout the shape of some sort of stealthed robot, suddenly, an soldier appears to him, however not of his own mercenary corp.

Shadows begin to suddenly pulse out of the soldier as he screams and attacks Sev. Sev's weapons suddenly shut offline as he is forced to engage in hand to hand combat. As the two forces duke it out throwing various punches, Sev is punched the stomach, the punch which normally would have been absorbed is suddenly multiplied in force by the unknown soldiers energies and Sev suddenly chokes and lands on the ground.

As Sev's gear re-initiallizes, it's already to late as he is about to fadeout, quickly he phases in his rifle and fires three signal flares into the sky, as they screech into the skies with various colours they begin to spark in the colours of red green and blue. Sev head lands on the ground as he can only hope help is on the way.

Loki carefully counted the stack of bills in his hand before handing it over to the pretty young lady standing across him on the other side of the marble counter. He watched as her petite fingers clicked away on the keyboard of the front desk computer. A small triangular plate in front of her read trainee.

"Here's your room key, sir," the woman said as she handed him a clear plastic card with a four digit number on one side, "enjoy your stay."

"Thank you," Loki replied, smiling one of his charming smiles as he took the card from her. He turned to the elevators, picking up his shoulder bag that he had set aside on the floor earlier.

"Excuse me, sir?" the woman's voice came again, "I'm so sorry, I forgot to give this to you." She blushed as she met his eye.

In her hands was the same stack of bills that Loki had payed her a minute ago.

"No need to apologize," Loki answered, taking the stack of notes, "everyone makes mistakes."

He could see the young woman return to the counter from the corner of his eye. She straightened her bow-tie and resumed her work.

The way Loki saw it, he was paying for the room, but the hotel was paying for the pleasure of his presence. A grin creeped onto his angular face as he pocketed the money.

Though his elevator ride to the penthouse on the thirtieth floor would only take a few seconds, the builders of the luxury hotel had been considerate enough to build a lavish wall-sized window into one side of the compartment. Loki gazed out into the city, the rising sun bathing the metropolis in a golden light. Like any city in Japan, Osaka was a sea of endless glass skyscrappers.

A second sun appeared on the horizon, as blinding as the real one. But in a moment, it faded, leaving no trace of it ever existing.

Loki didn't even turn his head.

Humans will always make mistakes

The bell chimed as the elevator reached the top floor. He stepped out onto the polished marble surface, his leather boots making a soft crunch with each step. Arriving at door 3804, he slid his card into the key slot and pushed open the door. He flung his bag onto the lavishly decorated sofa and walked into the bathroom.

The reflection in the mirror was still quite new to him. The short black ponytail had not been trimmed in weeks and now grew past his neck. He pulled the band from his hair and let it fall into a messy heap around his shoulders. He turned on the faucet, letting the cool water pool in his hands, before splashing all of it onto his face.

What the hell am I doing?

He turned the tap off and headed for the bedroom.

Aris continues to talk to Blue Demon. "So, I'm glad that you got the exo suit back. Unfortunately one nuclear cartridge was used, but it's not as important as the suit itself. Oh yeah, that reminds me: A.C. wanted to talk to you, something about a new set of equipment..." Repairs and resupply completed, Blue heads towards the R&D block, and finds himself at the door of A.C.'s office. He knocks.

"I'M A BIT BUSY AT THE MOMENT-" the voice behind the door exclaims as a large thud and bang is heard behind the door, knocking it off it's hinges completely. "Come in, I guess..." a shrewd man with green spiked hair and a scar on his left cheek proclaims as Blue enters the remains of A.C's office.

"So, Blue my boy! So good to see you again! I trust that you've been keeping out of trouble, hmm?" A.C. greets Blue with a handshake.

"I guess. You mentioned something about a new set of equipment?"

"Indeed I did. Or did I? Anyways, if you will follow me."

A.C. leads Blue to a locker in the corner of the room, and punches a code into the combination pad. A loud hiss and the sliding door reveals a set of six Katana, grouped into sets of three. "These I had made especially for you, Blue. Each sword has a powered cutting edge, just like your Nichirinmaru. I do hope that you can wield all six swords at the same time like it's designed to. I updated the Maintenance bay's OS to accommodate for using this equipment, and your standard equipment moves to the back if you need to switch weapons."
------------
Shale pursues his target with the silence and agility of a cat, but is stops to look at a set of three flares in the sky. "That's coming from the direction of the MX branch," Shale thinks as he turns in the direction of the flares. "MX doesn't have a code for that flare combination... I'm going to see exactly who else is involved in this."

An oddly familiar noise awoke Loki from his slumber. It was a slight tap on the roof of his penthouse room. Though it would have seemed like no more than a faint scratch to normal human senses, it was as loud as screeching metal in Loki's ears.

He swung out of bed, tied his long flowing hair into a neat ponytail and stepped out into the hall. The sound came again, this time even fainter than the last time.

The fire escape was on his left, a white metal door "exit" spelled out in bright red. Loki reached it in three steps and swung it open, revealing a stepladder that extended out into the cool morning air. He grabbed the rungs and lightly hoisted himself onto the roof.

A sudden movement in the corner of Loki's eye caught his attention. He turned to see a shape, too large to be human, land on the roof of a bank adjacent to the hotel. He squinted against the sunlight, hoping to catch a glimpse of the thing before it hopped to the next building.

Loki whirled around at the sound of metal screeching against metal. Behind him was second figure, a tall figure of polished steel that stood gleaming in the morning sun.

It only took a second for Loki to recognize the machine-like creature, despite it having changed most of its body parts since the last time they had met.

"You..." Loki growled, too low for anyone but himself to hear. A thin smile formed across his face.

Looks like this is going to be interesting.

Code:


-WARNING NEW CONTACT
-ORGANIC STRENGTH UNKNOWN
-DESIGNATE CALLSIGN? Y/N

Shale stares down this mysterious man that climbed from the fire escape. He moves his lips as if he were saying something, and smirks almost mockingly. "Who are you? If you have nothing to say to me, then begone! I have no business with you."

"You may not know me, "The man said in a low voice. "But I know you. I've been waiting for one long year for this moment! Let's DANCE!!"

The man rushes towards Shale, and he takes a defensive stance. "It seems you are not willing to cooperate..." Shale says without remorse as he points his left arm at his aggressor, and releases a twin stream of concentrated beam particles.

Loki dashed forward, closing the ten meters that separated him from his opponent. He pulled the jade ring that hung around his neck with his left hand. It glowed at his touch, then expanded into cloud of white light.

The mechanical form leveled its weapon and fired off a burst. Loki braced against the floor and leaped, the shot exploding against the metal where he stood a split second before.

Loki was almost directly on top of his opponent. He placed his right arm into the glowing sphere around his left wrist, then jerked it back out. The light dimmed to a glow again, and in his right hand, Loki grasped a long, curved blade. He landed on top of Shale, stabbing out at what what would have been the eye sockets of a human.

Shale raised his left arm, catching the blade on the shield. Loki quickly recovered and wrapped his right leg around the arm of the metal giant. He shifted the blade to his left hand and slashed at Shale's unprotected back.

The edge struck true, but without enough force to penetrate the thick layers of alloy. A metal hand caught Loki in the chest, sending him flying to land several feet away.

Loki gasped for air, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. Before he could regain his balance, the metal hulk had already closed the distance between them. Loki lept to his feet, but it was too late.

He felt the cold steel of a combat knife slip into his stomach. Blood exploded from his mouth as he collapsed onto Shale.

"This is the end," the mech announced monotonously.

Loki managed a laugh between his bloody gasps. The pain almost made him pass out, but he managed to hook his blade arm around Shale's back.

"We'll see," Loki sneered arrogantly, "and how far do you think you're going to get now?"

Shale's robotic eyes turned to follow Loki's arm. The glowing blade had embedded itself into his thruster pack. It gave a short mechanical whine before sputtering and dying out.

Loki dropped to the floor, feeling his own blood on the side of his cheek. He closed his eyes as his heart stopped and his brain shut itself down.

He was already gone, opening his eyes in a fresh body.

Shale runs a biometric scan on the body before him. Satisfied that it is no longer showing signs of life, He runs damage logistics.[quote]

Code:


->DCS, Run diagnostics wizard.
-DCS DIAGNOSTIC WIZARD
-L-ARM GUARD IS CONDITION GREEN (97%)
-WARNING! TP IS AT CONDITION RED (54%). EJECT? Y/N
->Y.
-CONFIRMED. EJECTING TP...


An audible separation of cables and the clanging sound from the ejection of the Thruster pack reveals a set of four more primary thrusters, Still enabling him to leap from roof to roof, but unable to climb back up a building like before. As Shale wipes the blood off the combat knife lodged in his opponent and resheathes it, he continues in the direction of the flares, not knowing of the fate that awaits him.
-----------
Blue emerges from the maintenance bay with six swords around his hip armors. He moves towards the end of the hangar when an alarm goes off, followed by red warning lights. Realizing that it is the warning light and siren for an intruder alert, the mechanics crew members rush to finish maintenance on the machines as members of the pilot corps head towards their respective machines. The distinct sound of advanced machinery roaring to life fills the air as they head towards the main exit and the vertical lifts to fight off the intruders. Blue decides to go top-side to test out his new equipment, and heads towards the nearest vertical lift.

In the night sky, a bright flash that glimmers could almost be made out as a shooting star, but this shooting star seemed to be coming closer. An escape pod from space shoots down from above and smashes into the city streets of Osaka, unknown where, as the impact causes unrest around the city.

"Damn thing! Open!" A voice roars from the hole that the impact created.

A fairly tall and lanky figure dressed in rags crawls out of the hole, gritting his jagged teeth together as he gets angrier at the current chain of events that have happened to him.

"First those damn cultists, now I have no clue where I am. Just great!" roared the person again.

Of course the local enforcement is alerted to this, and is already there guns pointed and in defense.

"Eh, the hell is this?" Says Xevaiel in a less than amused tone.

He gets up from the hole, with a sinister grin on his face.

Micah entered a new dream and began to build the city of Osaka in his mind. He cast an illusion, a body for him to control in the real world as he continued to sleep. As he navigated his dream world, his double would travel accordingly in the real world. He finished constructing the streets to the very last detail, and now he and his illusion were connected.

"Lale. Sable", he spoke as he appeared from behind them. Both seemed sufficiently surprised by his sudden appearance, but quickly recovered. He looked around himself, noting his barren surroundings and slightly cringing at the thought of what happened.
"So, what now?"
_______________________________________________________________________________
In a flash of warm light, Vivaldi transported herself to Osaka, re-materializing on what seemed to be an empty classroom.
"I suppose it's time to look for Time..." Vivaldi had tried to follow Xena's presence but it seemed that her emotions were compromising her accuracy. She decided that Xena couldn't be too far off and proceeded to exit the building. She soon made her way to a major street, still quiet in the morning, and continued walking, before stopping briefly in surprise to her reflection in a store mirror.

Though she retained her basic facial features, her appearance morphed to adapt her surroundings. She now looked to be no older than 15, and her seifuku suggested that she might be a middle school student. An appearance befitting her young and vulnerable personality. Vivaldi shook her head in attempt to regain focus on her current mission to find Xena.

"I need to find Xena and then the Balance...for Her sake."

She continued running down the street until she spotted Xena's unmistakable aura. "There you are!" She yelled out as she grabbed Xena's shoulder gently, but firmly. "The Balance!" Vivaldi cried as she tried to catch her breath, "we must hurry."
She realized that she was still holding onto the now confused girl and promptly let go, reintroducing herself in her new appearance.
"I can't sense the Balance right now...but if someone gets a hold of it...I can surely find it. Now, what do you suggest we do?"

Xena

It was early morning and the streets were populated by a steady stream of people heading off to work. It was slightly unnatural for a girl of her age and fashion to be up so early, but the public paid no attention. While Xena was walking, she felt a soft but firm hand on her shoulder and when she turned, she faced a young school girl.
Xena was midly surprised to see her fellow member, Vivaldi, dressed as a young school girl of Japan. At first, she thought of her time back before she was chosen as the Member of Time; when life was normal.
After Vivaldi re-introduced herself, Xena snapped her head back into reality. “...I can surely find it. Now, what do you suggest we do?" Vivaldi asked.

“If you can’t sense the Balance, then its powers have not yet leaked into the environment yet, so it is stable for now,” Xena stated, “Do you know where are the other members?”

After listening to her answer, Xena felt a disturbance heading towards them. What seems to be a bright meteor streaks across the sky and hits the streets 100m away from them. It was a loud BOOM with dirt and rubble flying towards them. Luckily, they were just outside the blast radius.

“Oh my god! What happened just now?” Xena cried out and ran closer towards the crash site. Already, a crowd was gathered around…and the local law enforcers. Shouts and commads were heard and guns were pointed at the meteor, which looks more and more like a metal pod as the smoke cleared.

“Uhhhhh…Vivi, come take a look at this!” Xena exclaimed as the metal pod’s door opens and a ragged man steps out. Even though he was outgunned, the ragged man looked like he possessed massive amounts of strength. “People may die here! I think we should step in!”

Xevaiel continues to stare down the police officers with a grin on his face, he decided to cut the crap and look around at how many of them there were.

"Outnumbered, like the last several times I've been in these situations." Xevaiel said to himself.

He charges forward at closest officer, narrowly dodging a bullet (not that he noticed), and punches the officer in the face, most definitely putting him in a coma. The other officers get the clear and shoot at him. Xevaiel runs towards them, getting hit by bullets but not minding the pain much.

"Bullets? I ain't feeling anything!" he yelled with much amusement.

His movements were starting to slow as the number of bullets that hit him rise, yet behind every blow the strength has not changed much. As he had barehandedly (that ain't a word) taken down the officers, he fell to the ground cringing and twitching as if he was suffering a seizure. His body was pushing out bullets lodged within his body, the wounds then slowly started to heal. The only difference was that his seizure grew more intense as the wounds were taking their time to heal.

The three society members gathered together shivered collectively. Already, each of them could feel that there were threads of discord shaking the foundation nearby. Instinctively, they clumped closer together.

There was smoke in the distance. Dream and Nightmare could feel lives extinguished, and Good felt something cold unravel within her stomach, like a cold snake rearing its head.

Sable grinned, shaking off the feeling with a hesitant brush. She pointed in any general direction, away from the spot on her shoulder where she felt cold. "That way, I suppose? I can't feel it anywhere..."

Lale blinked, closing his eyes, trying to sense where the pinpoint of fear was coming from. There was some kind of impact from a large object a few blocks away; many people were gathered, their fears building into a collective pile screaming for attention. Something else was within the bodies, something that wasn't quite...

"Away from there," he said suddenly, backing into the shadow of a building. Osaka hadn't changed much since he last visited earth, and his garnet eyes scanned the empty streets. "Micah, Sable, we should go."

"It doesn't feel good," Sable whispered, looking in the same direction where he felt the fear. Hesitantly, she edged closer to Micah's warmth. What was she feeling?

As Ven stepped out of his car he could instantly feel two strong sources of energy not so far away. He knew from the beginning that this wasn’t just some meteor that came from space. No, this was something unnatural, something destructive.

He concluded that someone had beat him in reaching what had fallen from the sky, considering the first source of energy was powerful, yet the other second one was way beyond the other. He knew that he could easily reach where the two sources of energy are if he just traveled shadow to shadow, but he knew it was better to be behind the curtains then in the spotlight. ”It would probably be a better Idea to travel by the alley way shadows.” Stated Ven in a low voice that no could hear but him .Even then Ven could feel the energy pulling him in, he could even sense Nev’s anxiousness. “This is the first time I have felt Nev like this, I should be worried…” said Ven as he faded into the shadows.

“Twenty-two…twenty-one…twenty…nin…” Ven immediately released his cloak as he felt a sudden burst of energy pass through him.

“Seems like…the second source of energy suddenly grew…” said Ven as he gasped for air.

“No…it seems the second source…split considering they are moving apart” growled Nev’s voice in Ven’s head.

“What amazing power…I didn't even notice the second source losing power and the two moving away… “Replied Ven as he faded back into the shadows.

What amazed him even more was how Nev was able to detect that the two were moving away from each other when they were still at least a kilometer away.

Ven could feel the energy becoming more concentrated as he got closer. The anxiety was driving him crazy for the first time in a long while and the first time for Nev since he contracted with him. “What was the source of energy? Were the two sources of energy alive? Was it a ally….or an enemy?” Ven questioned himself as he shifted through the shadows.

He was almost there, as he was about to exit out of the shadows nearing the end of the alleyway, suddenly he felt a great immediate flash of light and energy pass through him. Ven fell to his knees as he covered his mouth from roaring in pain. Soon the pain subsided and his vision returned to normal, he returned back onto his feet and stared into the crater in amazement. Fighting in front of him was a dragon and a young man. “I see I am not the only one that is different, things have just gotten really interesting.” Nev thought to himself as he licked his lips in excitement and hid in the shadows…

Loki was familiar with the dreamlike state that came with living without a physical body. As far as he knew, this was how his existence began. The pure nothingness of this plane manifested itself as white light, blindingly bright. He could not use the five senses that humans were used to, but he could still clearly detect movements and energies in the corporeal world.

The chanced meeting with Shale had stirred up thoughts in Loki's memories that he had not touched upon in a long time. He had chosen to ignore the affairs of the Society as long as he could, but that could no longer be the case. No matter how much he liked to deny it, Balance would still be the centerpiece of everything.

She would still be the center of everything. He had ignored her, pushed her away and ran as far as he could from what she represented. Loki would have liked nothing more than to forget about her, yet, here she stood in front of him.

Loki willed his thoughts back to reality. Loki "looked" at the park, where an energy form had taken corporeal shape. That was where he needed to go, and that was where she was.

First, he would need a body. This would not be difficult, as any human with roughly the same mass as his "original" body would suffice as a replacement. The problem was, human bodies had so many physical needs and limitations. To get where he needed to go, it would take Loki hours if he were to traverse on foot.

The only living thing in the park was a single man, standing before the energy being. It was obvious that he was not entirely human. Possessing his body and completely eradicating his consciousness could take minutes that Loki did not have.

A pulsing grey light caught Loki's attention. It was faint, which was why it had escaped Loki's first glance at the park. He focused his "senses" for a better look at the curious shape.

It was another man, slumped against the shadows of a large oak tree. He was not a large man. An untrimmed beard protruded from his dirty face, which was hidden under an even dirtier baseball cap. A bottle covered by a paper bag was clutched tightly in his right hand. It was obvious the homeless wreck was dying, the color of his aura clearly showed that. But, Loki didn't have a choice.

"This is gonna get ugly," Loki mused, feeling like his usual, arrogant self again. He plunged into his target's body. He was not surprised at the lack of resistance as he felt himself submerge into the consciousness. The host had long ago lost the will to live. Within a few short seconds, Loki had complete control of his new body.

Loki opened his eyes, seeing the bright noon sun again. He lifted his right hand, bringing up the metal bottle until his mirrored features appeared on its surface. He watched as his ragged beard fell away and his face took on the angular shape he was so familiar with. Satisfied with his appearance, Loki threw away the bottle and rose to his feet.

Loki could make out the clear red and blue lines that danced across the skin of the ethereal beast. The oak tree was less than five hundred meters from where the energy dragon loomed. He took off at a trot and closed the distance in less than a minute. As he got closer, Loki noticed once again the man standing before dragon. He had a sword drawn and looked eager to attack.

Even if the man wasn't a normal human, he still had no idea what he was up against. Any skills or weapons he possessed would still be no match for her wrath. Loki drew his ring from his pocket just as the swordsman jumped for the dragon.

Shale reaches the source of the flares, and finds a man unconscious, on the roof. His first instinct is to perform a biometric scan, but something seems...off. as he analyzes the body in the cool summer morning, he cannot help but admire the beauty of the snowflakes in the cool breeze of the... WAIT A MINUTE. He instantly snaps out of it, and puts forth to analyzing the weather anomaly.
"This isn't good," Shale thinks. "Now that the balance has been missing for a few hours, even the weather's starting to go screwy. Now would be the best time to go back for repairs."
Shale prepares to jump to the roof in the direction that he came from, but comes to the realization that his thrusters cannot work in -15 degree weather; the cold temperature is not allowing the energy to mix properly within the Expander Foil. Realizing that he is far less mobile than he was originally in this condition, he ponders his next action, when a voice behind him Implies mockingly: "Yo! It's been a while, hasn't it, Shale." Shale turns around to catch a glimpse at the figure behind him. Even though the sun has just risen, the light is so dim that only a silhouette can be seen; a figure in human proportion no doubt, but with hard geometry and an absence of curves that could only come from a machine. Shale recognizes it as vividly as when he first saw it on that fateful day; Passing by it on the way to the warp generator, he recognizes that unmistakable shade of blue, and levels his left arm at Blue Demon. "This is farewell." Shale coldly says as he releases a twin burst of beam particles flying towards Blue at high velocity.

Xevaiel slowly pushes himself up panting, but quickly recollects himself.

"What a rush!" He yells out with a smile.

He suddenly looks to his clothes, which are now more ragged due to the bullet wounds and blood stains. He thought to himself "Hmm, maybe it's time to see a tailor." and walked off in a direction, hoping to see much of the city as well.

"Wow it's pretty cold here." Xevaiel said as he explored the city.

He found it strange people were staring at him, but disregarded it. Of course it would be weird seeing someone dressed in rags with blood stains, and a real sword on his side. Xevaiel checked his calendar watch.

"Heh, got plenty of time to do whatever. Finding a tailor being the first."

Xevaiel puts both his hands behind his head, and continues walking down the street looking for a tailor with an amused grin on his face.