Super Smash Quest - Story - Chapter 424: Radioactive Glitches
Date: May 10th, 2007.
Metal Man (GM): Over in the Etherworld... the man who sacrificed himself to stop the crystal is now falling through absolute nothingness. Time and space seems to lose sense, as there is no bottom, and as he looks at his watch, there is no time here either. He holds the crystal as he falls, staring at the emptiness. Its glow is the only light here, and its bluish-green glow illuminates the man in the oddest way. One can see more of his clothes now; before they seemed generic, but it's obvious he's wearing a semi-English attire, with a green tweed jacket, brown leather shoes, and strangely, a derby on his head. His semi-short black hair is unruly as he falls. He seems frustrated at this fate, as he looks into the crystal. One can see his eye through it; it's like a magnifying glass.
???: "So... this is what? A knife which can cut through reality? I don't think it's that. Too simple. Besides, it can't get me out."
Metal Man (GM): He holds it like a knife and stabs at the air. It is in vain.
???: "This thing, taken from the world, is no longer dangerous, but I can't keep on like this. It wouldn't suit me."
Metal Man (GM): He tries to stab himself with it... and angrily curls his other hand into a fist when nothing happens.
???: "No death, no life... what sort of twisted place is this?"
Metal Man (GM): For some reason, it glows once he becomes angry. An orange-ish glow. He looks at it, and only gets more angry, spinning around as he freefalls indefinitely.
???: "Taunting me... haunting me... this is nothing more than the devil's own tool. If it wasn't for this useless thing..." He takes out his cell phone, and hurls it into the darkness. "I'd have not had to do this."
Metal Man (GM): He then rummages in a pocket, taking out... odd. Some sort of game console.
???: "I might as well make use of the unlimited battery time this place gives me."
Metal Man (GM): It looks like an ultra-slim device with a insanely high-def screen. It has two connectors, which he connects directly to a band around his forehead. He boots it up, and flips through emulated versions of almost every game from the 1980s on. Time passes as he plays every single one from start to finish. Oddly, of course, no time is deducted from the unit's battery, nor does his clock advance. At the very end of it he stares in despair, realizing he has used no time, will never reach the bottom, and has run out of games to play.
???: "Is this all there is? Some sort of pre-programmed darkness? This console... every game is the same. You can act mean, you can act good, you can act out-of-character... and the other characters aren't programmed to notice. The green elf runs in and hurls pots in your face, and you go "Hello, my name is Error?" That just isn't good enough... when you're trapped in a place like this."
Metal Man (GM): The crystal glows again, though he doesn't notice. He fumbles the crystal for a moment, and it hits the console, shocking him repeatedly. Suddenly the darkness lifts and he lands dead-on onto a vague surface at the bottom. He rubs his head.
???: "Ugh... that crystal... I should have known. It would have been faster had I immediately used the cell phone instead. Still, this isn't home either." He looks at the white fog-like floor and kicks it, as he walks down a slightly darker area that is a path.
Metal Man (GM): He eventually reaches an area which is quite interesting. It is filled with white buildings, and various beings literally fade in and out of being. It is recognizable. The town from earlier is here, however it goes in and out. He takes out a notepad and writes on it, as if it's some sort of experiment.
???: "The crystal... was supposed to help people. Allow them to see what is invisible. Instead... it makes them invisible. I can see clearly now... I am trapped in that world the other patients described. However, I cannot come back, as I took the crystal with me... just as well, most of them were mentally ruined anyway."
Metal Man (GM): He walks... and walks... one can see where he is going now. To where the explosion occurred in the real world. Walking there, there's an explosion-shaped hole in this etherworld. He puts his hand through it. It's merely a gap.
???: "False hope." He shakes his head and wrings his hands. "Even with this here, they can make another one. The rebels were supposed to... supposed to destroy the lab where it was made."
Metal Man (GM): He walks further... to the place where the airport was in the background. There, however, something is odd. He sees a number of people in the clothes of the experimental lab; mostly military people, as they had to be voluntary people. They are at this airport, and have built a device.
???: "...What the?"
Metal Man (GM): A soldier turns to him and salutes.
Private Cane: "Sir, it's good to see you here. We thought no one would come to rescue us."
???: *Gestures with the crystal.* "I can't get out. It doesn't work like it's supposed to." He swipes in vain with it.
Private Cane: "Oh. Well. We expected something like that. That's why we made this."
Metal Man (GM): He points to the large collection of fusion reactors and lasers.
???: "...You made one of those?" He steps back, almost in horror. "But with this crystal, it could do a LOT more than warp us home! Plus, this crystal musn't be used, because..."
Private Cane: "You don't make the orders around here. Ever wonder what happened to those who went into comas?"
???: "Don't tell me..."
Private Cane: "There's phantom beasts here. And they'll do worse than kill you. The only thing that stopped them... was this. Odd, really."
Metal Man (GM): He takes out a prism.
Private Cane: "A buncha men went nuts and melted from their touches. I was the last left, and I dropped this. Those beasts ran like I had set them on fire. So..." He holds out his hand. "If you DON'T give us the crystal, you can go ahead and die out there. We'll find the piece anyway."
???: "I've had to face worse things than that. I'm not going to let a Private order me around. Screw your prism, you're going to take MY orders." He holds out the crystal. "Time doesn't pass normally here, and I figured out how to make the crystal act. If I choose to, I can probably warp to another dimension, with or without you trying to do it via that machine."
Private Cane: "You're lying. Besides, guns still work here anyway." He takes out his pistol and opens fire. ??? leaps aside, getting one in the shoulder.
???: "...I really should have brought my weapon. You people are nuts! You don't need Phantom beasts if you turn that thing on!"
Private Cane: "You don't know the half of living here... so why not tell us what it's like to be dead?" He fires again, as ??? flees.
Metal Man (GM): ??? runs a bit, pursued by the Private and three other soldiers. He can't outrun them forever, and is rapidly losing breath.
???: "Can't... let... them... have it... they... would do... the same as those agents..."
Metal Man (GM): He finally runs out of breath. They aim and fire at him several times, and he falls down, dropping the crystal.
Private Cane: "Funny fellow you are. I thought you wanted the patients to survive." He picks up the crystal. "What's the big deal, anyway? Can't possibly be as important as you said it is."
Metal Man (GM): Private Cane walks to the machine and turns it on. He plugs it right into the machine and turns it on.
Private Cane: "Now, it is time to get back home."
Metal Man (GM): Another explosion occurs, however this one is controlled and forms a warp.
Private Cane: "Now, you, Doug. Get into the warp and tell the men to come here, post haste. We can't let our research be lost. I'm going to be suing them until the cows come home for the torture out here..."
Metal Man (GM): 'Doug' salutes and enters the warp. However it isn't exactly as planned. He comes out fried crispy-style.
Private Cane: "WHAT? That thing wasn't supposed to do that!"
Metal Man (GM): He checks the settings.
Private Cane: "...THE SUN? Blast it. I stole the wrong settings! Damn it. I nearly killed the man who knew the settings. You guys stay here. I'm going to get us out of here... some of us at any rate..."
Metal Man (GM): He runs over to the injured ???, who is gasping for breath still. He picks him up and shakes him violently.
Private Cane: "You! You switched the settings! Give me the location of Earth!"
Metal Man (GM): ???: *Cough.* "So the crystal... didn't kill you? I owe you... *cough.* two dollars..." Private Cane slaps him.
Private Cane: "Give me the coordinates! NOW!"
???: *Cough.* "Bad luck there, buddy... they... they scrambled the coordinates. And I can't crack them while half-dead... *cough.*"
Private Cane: "Look what you've got me doing now. Okay, I'll revive you, you garbage. But you're gonna die once I have those coordinates."
Metal Man (GM): He slaps a pad with a medical sign onto ???'s forehead. It disintegrates into dust, which then quickly repairs ???'s wounds. As ??? is still weak from that, he's dragged to the portal... however... ...Inverted-color soldiers are killing the remaining survivors and shooting at the machine.
Private Cane: "What the hell is that?" He holds up ??? angrily. "You didn't tell me they were doing THIS!"
???: "...They are... the Un-Men... and anything else like that... Un-beings, Un-dogs, Un-Trees even. We made them to use as the ultimate weapon, but they decided to destroy the facility and flee to this world. You privates were sent to... kill them. But they're too good." He shakes himself free. "There's no time to save your men. I lied--there is one coordinate, but you won't like it."
Private Cane: "Nonsense! Descramble the Earth one. You can do it!" *A shot flies over his head.*
???: "There wouldn't be enough of me left to do it if I tried. That device will go nova soon. You have your choice." He runs brazenly into the mob, ignoring the fighters and reprogramming the device. He also snatches the crystal out.
Private Cane: "We have more materials. These guys are just like the Phantom beasts, I'm sure!"
Metal Man (GM): He takes out his prism and shines it at one of the Un-Men. The Un-Man merely looks at it and it melts into the ground, along with Private Cane's right hand.
Private Cane: "Gaaaahhhhhh!!!! I'm coming with you, insane Colonel!"
???: "Don't call me that." He leaps into the portal.
Metal Man (GM): Private Cane blows the smoke off of his cauterized right-stump and runs after. An Un-Man gets in the way. Private Cane must be strong, or something, though. Even with the stump he hits the Un-Man so hard its head flies off.
Private Cane: "I'll get that Colonel... disobeying orders, siccing Un-Men on my comrades... It's all his fault we did this Ether-World project!" He leaps into the portal.
Metal Man (GM): Behind him, one last man leaps for the portal, but is too late, as the device explodes, taking him and the Un-Men out. The explosion ends the cinema... Meanwhile, on the Seeker, it's mission time for the Questers. Three missions are up yet again. This time, they've got the choice of... Triton Manufacturing mission, in which they investigate a factory which has 'gone dark' ala the Egg Cannon. Another one says to chase Shadow, who was seen... 'flying through buildings like they weren't there' in Halton Heights. And a third one says 'Be mystery shoppers at the mall!' Metal Man is eating a sandwich rather noisily in the corner.
Dragoshi: "...Damn it, Metal! Why must you be such a noisy eater?" *Is trying to think about what to choose.* >_>;;
Metal Man: "Funny, everybody else I know says that too." *CRUNCH-MUNCH-SQUISH-CRUNCH.*
Alexia: "...What's a mystery shopper?"
Digifanatic starts reading the options... "That Triton place seems pretty important--hey, I'm trying to relay some ideas! I'd wait to do the shopping thing unless there's some insanely vital item..."
Metal Man: "You buy stuff to give people an idea of what sells."
Alexia: "...Why do WE need to do that?"
Dragoshi: "...Sounds boring." :/
Metal Man: "Their mall is better than ours, so you can spend an entire mission doing it. Plus, what sells the best will be added to our own store. And they can update weaponry."
Alexia: "Can't you just pull someone off the street for--oh."
Dragoshi: "...Okay. That makes it sound less boring."
Metal Man: "They got some unique artifact-style things too." *CRUNCH.*
Alexia: "Still, with our luck, i--What's in that stupid sandwich?"
Digifanatic: "Really?"
Metal Man: "Pickles, potato chips, beef jerky, and my favorite, walnuts."
Dragoshi: "Sadly, I only have 84k, and it'd take a long time for any money I take out of my bank account to reach m-Huh" :/
Digifanatic: "Holy crap, that's a lot of stuff."
Metal Man: "They upgraded more than my legs when I got this suit." *Smiles, showing off... metal teeth.*
Dragoshi: "Didn't know anyone else put potato chips in their sandwiches. Though, beef jerky?" >_>;;
Digifanatic: "Hmm... if we don't stop Shadow we never GET to the mall..."
Metal Man: "We ran out of bacon a while ago."
Alexia: "I vote for Shadow."
Dragoshi: "...Oh."
Digifanatic: "But like I said, that Triton building seems interesting."
Dragoshi: "...Hmm. Shadow or Triton..."
Digifanatic: "Judging by the description it seemed like a nice place until something screwed it up. Perhaps, considering we don't blow it up, it may be a helpful place for us once we cure it."
Alexia shrugs. "I'm good with wherever for now... but I really think we should stop Shadow first."
Metal Man: "So... any consensus yet?"
Digifanatic: *is unaware of what happened at the end of the ERROR ERROR ERROR mission.*
Dragoshi: *Pulls out a coin and flips it...*
Alexia: "...THAT'S how you choose missions?"
Dragoshi: *Sees that the coin landed on tails, and puts it away.* "No. It's when I'm at a standstill between two missions that interest me and I can't decide on either one." :p
Alexia: "Oh, good, I was about to run away screaming."
Metal Man: "Okay then. So, what're the current votes?"
Alexia: "So which one did you pick?"
Dragoshi: "Anyway, seeing as that landed on tails... Triton."
Digifanatic: "Sounds good."
Metal Man: "One Shadow, another Triton. Your pick, Digi?"
Alexia: "Well, looks like I'm outnumbered. Triton it is."
Digifanatic: "I'm thinking Triton, but I could go with either that or Shadow. So it looks like Triton."
Metal Man: "Okay, Triton it is." *opens the warp.* "So far I've heard it's rough there, so be very careful."
Digifanatic: "Ah..."
Alexia nods and enters the warp.
Dragoshi: *Enters the warp.*
Metal Man (GM): *WARP.* Triton Manufacturing. The Questers appear in front of a massive factory. Like the tower, it's totally dark. The front doors on this one, however, are gaping open. The front area of the building is empty, and while one can see many machines inside, they seem to have fallen silent. It's a very large building, but only one story taller, semi-rectangular and such.
Alexia: "Well, looks like they weren't concerned about people poking around inside..."
Digifanatic: "Something to that extent..."
Dragoshi: "Mhm..."
Digifanatic looks for any signs outside the front door aside from company logos.
Metal Man (GM): None. It has been seemingly abandoned.
Digifanatic: "Hmm... nothing. Might as well walk in."
Alexia: "Yeah, guess so..." *heads in.*
Digifanatic follows.
Dragoshi: *Ker-follow.*
Metal Man (GM): The Questers walk inside, and see a massive conveyor belt to their left. It turns on and begins moving, showing the top halves of some sort of armor suits. To their right is a wall, full of normal warnings, like 'Don't ride the conveyor belts.' Down this pathway is another door.
Alexia: *Ker-door.*
Dragoshi: *Door. >_>*
Digifanatic: *keeps going.*
Metal Man (GM): The Questers walk over and open it, and see within the main generator to the place working. A man operating it turns to see them.
???: "Ah, are you the Questers?"
Dragoshi: "...Mhm."
Digifanatic: "Correct."
Alexia: "Yes. Who are you?"
???: "I'm the factory manager, and as you might know, there's... issues here."
Dragoshi: "...Yea. I've noticed."
Manager: "One day, the lights blew out, and suddenly all the people here vanished. I then saw some sort of strange demon emerge from one of the machines. We contained it, but it was quite a fight... downstairs, you know. But it managed to lock us out from down there in the process, so it's sort of hard to deal with it without your legendary door-smashing abilities."
Dragoshi: "Did it look like a static mess, or did it have some sort of coherent form?"
Manager: "It looked pretty messy... it was hard to look at. Anyway... there's the door." He points to a steel blast door. "Go crazy."
Dragoshi: "Ah. Well, we've dealt with those before. Crazy things, those. But, anyway..." *Walks over to the door.*
Digifanatic: "Yeah." *keeps going.*
Metal Man (GM): The door is generic and blasty. The panel to open it normally has already exploded.
Dragoshi: *Knocks on to try and discern where a weakspot would be on it...*
Metal Man (GM): Dragoshi can't tell.
Digifanatic: "Hang on." *tries to Fire Punch it down...*
Alexia digs around in her backpack. "Lessee, it's around here somewhere... Ah, here we go. One pack of C-4, coming up."
Digifanatic: "Alright..." *backs off to give her room.*
Alexia puts the C-4 on the door, steps back, and detonates.
Dragoshi: *Does the same...* *On the whole step back thing, I mean.*
Alexia: *EXPLOD?*
Metal Man (GM): *BLAM.* The door cracks... ...then disintegrates. Steps down await the Questers.
Digifanatic: "Good enough." *walks down.*
Dragoshi: *Movin' on down! Movin' on down!*
Alexia heads down the stairs.
Metal Man (GM): The Questers walk down, and see the lights flickering. Disco-style, almost. ...Then they see the hallway. Crud. There's five glowing energy fields blocking the way. Somebody hacked the security.
Alexia: "...I knew it couldn't have been that easy."
Dragoshi: "How... typical."
Digifanatic: "...Yeah." *examines the energy fields further--color, etc.*
Metal Man (GM): They're all blue. Glowing blue.
Dragoshi: *Checks if that's Phazon blue.*
Alexia looks for a control panel.
Metal Man (GM): Not phazon blue, just regular blue. These control panels are exploded too.
Alexia: "Crud."
Dragoshi: *Tries to Dex one of the fields...*
Metal Man (GM): Dragoshi dexes it. The dex explodes. Looks like these things aren't friendly either!
Dragoshi: "...Again?"
Metal Man (GM): On the plus side, there is something to it. The field ripples strangely when the parts of the dex hit it.
Digifanatic: "Hmm... does anybody have something else dealing with electromagnetic waves, perhaps?"
Alexia: "I have an EMP."
Digifanatic: "Ah, that works."
Dragoshi: "Those things hardly work. Though, that's due to the fact people confuse mechanical things for electronic stuff."
Digifanatic: "Yeah... well, give it a toss."
Dragoshi: *Just gets out of Alexia's way before she uses the EMP...*
Digifanatic: *does so as well, really out of range.*
Alexia chucks that grenade.
Metal Man (GM): The fields die down quickly. This leaves the way clear (past several destroyed doors) to another door... this one is a 6-segmented door that's been locked tight.
Alexia: *to the door.*
Dragoshi: "...Well, at least it worked. For once." *Walks on over to the door.*
Digifanatic: *moves on.*
Alexia: "Great. How many layers of security does this place HAVE?"
Digifanatic: "Enough."
Dragoshi: "..." *Breaths fire on one of the segments.*
Metal Man (GM): It resists handily.
Dragoshi: *Looks to see if it is not even heating up.*
Digifanatic: "Well, if fire may not cut it... I've got a couple of grenades. Maybe at least the explosion force could make it flinch a bit."
Alexia: "I doubt it. That's some pretty high-grade stuff..." *knocks on one of the segments. Listens to see if it is hollow.*
Metal Man (GM): Not the segment itself. There's something behind it, though.
Digifanatic: "Got anything?"
Alexia: "Well, there's definitely something behind it, but that's about it."
Digifanatic: "Hmm..." *tries knocking on a different segment.*
Metal Man (GM): All the segments seem to be the same type.
Digifanatic: "Anybody have anything that can pierce this kind of material?"
Metal Man (GM): The panel blew up on this one too.
Alexia: "Are we hosed?"
Dragoshi: *Pull out scythe, slash at door with it, 'cause really. He bets it's resistant to lasers too, considering...* >_>
Metal Man (GM): Dragoshi hits it and it opens. Odd. However, one last thing seems to be in the way.
Digifanatic: "Huh."
Metal Man (GM): There's a long corridor that's above some weird molten blue liquid, and the path was withdrawn.
Dragoshi: "...I think lasers open it up."
Metal Man (GM): It's 30 feet long with no handholds anywhere.
Alexia: *Joy.*
Digifanatic: "Ooh... good line of defense, anyway."
Dragoshi: "...Oh, great. I think I know what that-" *Points down at the liquid.* "Is."
Digifanatic: "Care to share?"
Dragoshi: "...Though, I'm wondering how the heck it got here."
Alexia: "So what is it?"
Dragoshi: "Phazon. ...I think." *Checks if the liquid shares some semblance to Phazon.*
Digifanatic: "Well, as I say, it's a start."
Metal Man (GM): Nope. It's like water. Except... staticy water.
Dragoshi: "...Actually, no. Wait. I think it's something else..."
Alexia: "...Doesn't look like that stuff I saw in the case."
Digifanatic: *Looks to see how wide the path is.*
Metal Man (GM): 5 feet wide.
Dragoshi: *assumes anything over that width is a bottomless pit.*
Alexia: "Maybe it's electrified water or something?"
Metal Man (GM): There's no path in there. It's entirely non-bottomless pit with blue liquid,.
Digifanatic looks for any switches that may have survived in this room.
Dragoshi: *Drops a paperclip into the static water to see if anything happens.*
Metal Man (GM): TV-static. No switches left. The paperclip disintegrates.
Digifanatic then looks for anything on the ceiling or walls to grab onto.
Alexia: *Thinks about hovering over the liquid.*
Metal Man (GM): Not a good idea... it might not be conducive to hovering. There's no ceiling or wall-holds.
King Demon looks around the room.
Metal Man (GM): Demon sees the long room ahead with no floor and blue... liquid... fizzing at the bottom of it. Across that mess is the final door.
Alexia: "I hate these kinds of situations. A fatal trap on the floor, no visible bridge, and our goal within sight."
King Demon: "Nice... liquid... Phazon?"
Dragoshi: "Nope. Static water, apparently."
King Demon: "OK..."
Digifanatic: "Now..."
Dragoshi: "...That disintegrates stuff."
King Demon: "Static water!?"
Alexia: "Pretty much."
Digifanatic looks to see if there is any small platform next to the door at the other end.
King Demon wonders if he can fly to the other door.
Digifanatic: *And looks to see how many people it can fit.*
Metal Man (GM): No platform there. One could ostensibly could fly over.
Digifanatic: "Ohhhh maaaaaan... closed door and nothing to stand on. Unless... this may work. Folks, stand around me. I'll try and 'Port us to the next room."
King Demon: "And if you FAIL?"
Digifanatic: "Yeah... we're all screwed."
Alexia: "... Is there an option C?"
King Demon: "Hey Digi, why don't you try to teleport YOURSELF over to the door first?"
Digifanatic: "Hmm... well, I tend to be the sacrificial one when the going gets rough. Got nothing else."
Alexia sighs. "I'll give it a shot, I guess.":
Digifanatic: "Nah, I'll just do this on my own for now and then see what happens." *then takes out his Smash Dex in one hand, Digivice in the other and connects the two up, hoping to Digiport himself to the other side of the door, into the next room.*
Metal Man (GM): Digi warps to the ledge where the other door is. Everybody else is stuck behind.
Digifanatic: "Huh..."
Alexia: "Hey, it worked."
Digifanatic: *to the others.* "I'll check for some controls on the other end. If they haven't been blown up, of course."
Dragoshi: "And they prolly' have."
Digifanatic looks for some control panel near the door to control the walkway; if none are there, he walks through the door, looking for other controls on that side.
Metal Man (GM): No controls. Digi walks through the door... still no controls. All of them were exploded.
Digifanatic: *through his teeth.* "Nuts..."
King Demon: "Great, NOW what do we do?"
Digifanatic looks for other curiosities in that room.
Alexia just stands there and tries to think of something...
Metal Man (GM): Digi looks on the other side... there's some stuff in there, but he'll need the others across to deal with it.
King Demon looks around at the ground to see if he can find something.
Dragoshi: *Tries to think up of something that might help everyone get across...*
King Demon wonders if he can do anything by glitching.
Digifanatic: .oO(Man, oh MAN.)
Metal Man (GM): The panels look oddly interesting to Demon.
King Demon turns into his Glitch form and tries to hack the panels that he can reach.
Dragoshi: "..." *Watches Demon go do his thing, and hopes he succeeds. >_>*
Metal Man (GM): Demon touches the control panel and turns into pixels. A strange bridge forms of glitch-energy across the chasm.
Alexia: "..."
Metal Man (GM): Also, Digi vanishes for no reason. Demon reappears normally.
King Demon: "Well, that works..."
Alexia: "...Guess that'll work."
King Demon starts across the bridge.
Alexia hovers across.
Dragoshi: *Moves across the bridge.*
Metal Man (GM): The Questers walk across, and manage to make it into the final room. They see the thing that was detained at last. It's blue... ... ... It's Rathos Lell. A blue, phazon-made Solarian in strange chains. He stares at the Questers eerily, seeing as his eyes are actually hunks of ruby.
Alexia: "... And we just buried the needle on the bizarre scale..."
Dragoshi: "...Huh. So there was Phazon here."
Rathos Lell: "Not over there, fool. That was glitch energy. What I don't get is how one of you mastered some of it."
Dragoshi: "...Demon apparently got eaten by a glitch... thing."
Rathos Lell: "Now, I have an offer for you, and I guarantee it isn't your normal one."
Dragoshi: "...Go on."
King Demon: "This should be interesting..."
Alexia: "Glitch energy?"
Rathos Lell: "I have knowledge of everything that will happen very soon. However it comes at one price: you happened to encounter a choice individual, no, two of them, and I need to see both of them. Charles Magellean and Sardis Mongul. I won't tell you why, but I can use your memories of them to find them myself. Of course, that means you hand them both over to me. So. You can have knowledge of the future, or you can walk out of here wondering what's going on until it eventually happens and kills you all."
King Demon wonders what the bad side of turning Charles and Sardis over to him is...
Dragoshi: "..." *Tries to determine the motive, first.* >_>
Metal Man (GM): BOTH choices fill Dragoshi with incredible foreboding.
Alexia: "Umm... sir?"
King Demon looks around the room, trying to see what else there is around.
Metal Man (GM): Mostly the metallic walls of the room.
Rathos Lell: "What is it? Feeling chilly? They keep the air conditioning too high in here."
Dragoshi: *Absentmindedly looking at the crystal.* .oO(It helped me before... But, why isn't it doing that now?)
Rathos Lell: "Either way, I wanted you to come here, and you did. I have nothing to fear from mere humans as yourselves. You have my deal. What do you say?"
Dragoshi: "...Actually, I'm not human, but have a humanoid sh-Oh, nevermind. I'm... Indecisive, for the moment." :/
Rathos Lell: "I can give you a hint. If you know your future, you survive. If you don't, well... you can't possibly predict how you die."
Alexia: "I just wanted to know what glitch energy was."
King Demon: "I'll show you sometime, Alex."
Rathos Lell: "Glitch energy? That's nothing I can tell you. I'm a Solarian. Magitek is the way of the present, and will remain so indefinitely."
Dragoshi: "...And, I just want the truth. ...That and to know who the hell the catalyst mentioned in the Other Journal is, but eh..."
King Demon: *w* "What do you say? Give him what he wants?"
Rathos Lell: "The truth has a steep cost, kid. You either give me those memories, or you're never gonna get it until you die."
King Demon glares at Rathos. "Kid?"
Rathos Lell: "Ah, one of the First Questers. You've seen what happened to your kind. Sort of like my own. No more Solarians, you hear? They all died because they found the truth."
King Demon: "Perhaps, but I'm still here."
Metal Man (GM): He flinches a bit, then continues sitting there.
Dragoshi: "...Tough choice." *Tries futilely to determine Rathos' motive.*
King Demon looks at him a little. He tries to read his actions.
Metal Man (GM): Again, there's no way to really tell his motive. All of the choices appear to involve something evil. Rathos Lell himself appears mildly concerned for some reason.
Alexia just sits down and waits for the others to decide.
King Demon smiles a little.
Dragoshi: "...You seem concerned about this. And, I'm not one who would want to be left in the dark when it comes to info. ..." *Looks over to the others.* "...Any objections?"
King Demon shrugs "Give him what you wish."
Rathos Lell: "I don't see any. But if you do accept my deal, then take my hand." He breaks a hand loose and holds it out.
King Demon reaches for his sword when Rathos breaks loose, but doesn't attack.
Dragoshi: "..." *Slowly walks over to Rathos...* .oO(I hope this is the right choice...)
Metal Man (GM): He continues holding his hand out.
Dragoshi: "...Deal." *Extends his claw...*
Metal Man (GM): He grabs Dragoshi's hand, and a giant flash fills the room. Rathos suddenly floats free of the chains.
King Demon watches "Why don't I like the looks of this?"
Metal Man (GM): A hologram fills the room, projected by Rathos Lell. It shows Earth. Neo-Earth, in fact.
Dragoshi: .oO(...Also, on an unrelated note, I'm far from a 'kid' by most standards, but eh.)
Rathos Lell: "It is rather simple. Although I can't name names or tell what happened... It's similar to this." He shows the fighting of the Solarians vs. the Neo-Earthians.
Leo: *walks over to the group.* .
Rathos Lell: "We were near victory back then, much as you are right now. Then, we used our ultimate weapon... too late. Thus the being Metal Man disrupted it, destroying the entire planet and most of us. Your true foe hasn't even been seen yet, like Metal Man was to us. You might not even see him when he strikes. But sure enough, as you are now, this would kill you, as the unseen and unknown timeline means you have no means to defend yourselves from him. However, there is a defense. Collect the staff and you shall be safe." He shows Kales' staff. "You have some pieces, but for some reason you gave the ring of Death to Shadow Aribar. You might have misplaced the Reality Controller too, I'm not sure. The next component is at the mall, just so you know."
Metal Man (GM): The imagery ends.
Rathos Lell: "In return, I shall take the souls of Sardis Mongul and Charles Magellean. This will have no effect on you. However, I honor your trust, as being Solarian, trust is high among us."
Metal Man (GM): He kneels and gives Dragoshi a medallion made of... phazon?
Rathos Lell: "As long as you hold that, Phazon will never hurt you."
Metal Man (GM): *BLAM* He vanishes.
Dragoshi: *Takes the medallion, and bows.* "Thank you."
Metal Man (GM): A warp back appears. The lights turn back on, and the security systems go back to normal.
Leo: "..."
King Demon: "That was... easy..."
Dragoshi: "Yep."
King Demon walks through the warp.
Leo: *walks through the warp as well.*
Alexia enters the warp.