Pebble In The Pond

[Cory]

Chapter 1.A - The Set Up


"Do you ever have one of those moments where you drift outside of yourself for a second and wonder, why am I doing this? Well I do. Like right now for instance........"

The enutrof, Darth Fail, quickly ducked to avoid the hefty horizontal swing of a soldier's massive blade. She remained unscathed as the blade passed over her, well almost. A thin slice of hair from her large blonde afro had been cut. "Oh no you didn't" she thought to herself. Though she raised an eyebrow momentarily at the site of the soldier having no choice in that moment but to continue through with the whole swing of his blade. She rolled her eyes as she thought, "what is it with men and everything having to be so damn big. Doesn't this guy realize how impractical his weapon is, not to mention ridiculous. If he had opted for a short sword or even a pair of daggers, he could have stopped the momentum of the swing the moment he saw that he missed and landed a killing blow quickly with the off handed dagger. ugh, men...." Darth Fail quickly twirled the shovel in her hand before impaling it through the midsection of the shoulder. Her eyes then glowed briefly and the shovel became frozen in ice, which spread from the shovel to inside the soldier's wound, causing him to freeze from the inside out. Once he was a popsicle she got upright and landed a spin kick. Which resulted in his frozen form shattering like glass, what was left of him scattering about the ground.

She stood fully upright now. A dozen such soldiers corpses littered the ground behind her, a dozen more were charging towards her. Almost every one of them intent on ending her life. Her eyes would briefly glow and the ice covering her shovel would turn into flames. At which point she slammed the shovel into the ground in front of her. A path of flame would spread underground from where she was standing towards the dozen soldiers. When it reached them molten rock and magma would burst up and out of the ground. Out of the remaining soldiers ten were caught in the attack, they would be burned asunder and die in painful agony. Ironically their armors would make their deaths worse as the metal would melt from the heat and scorch through their skin. She pulled her shovel out of the ground to see that only two soldier's remained. One had survived due to his expert reflexes. The other, which Darth Fail could see was an Ecaflip, was only still alive due to sheer luck.

Just as she was about to approach, the other soldier suddenly disappeared. She would stop and look around alarmed. The soldier reappeared right infront of her as suddenly as he had vanished, his sword quickly swinging down at her. Her inflamed shovel clashed against his blade, which looked similar to a clock hand. "Xelor! I've never seen one up close before" she thought to herself. "I'm surprised you managed to block my attack in time. Not half bad. But don't let it get to your head, for we will defeat you to avenge my fellow Bontarian's, you Brakmar scum" the Xelor remarked.

"We?" she thought aloud. At which point she noticed the Ecaflip charging towards her. "Apparently this guy has a soft spot for new recruits. He's gonna try and keep all my attention on him so that the Ecaflip can land the finishing blow while i'm not looking" Darth Fail surmised. "Wake up, Eulogy!" Darth Fail shouted. A baby Drheller, who she had named Eulogy, would pop its head out from her afro. "Let me sleep woman" the Drheller complained in a language that only Enutrof's could understand. "Go get the cat" she ordered him. "Do it yourself" Eulogy replied. With her free hand she would grab the Drheller, yank him out of her hair, and then threw'em at the Ecaflip. Eulogies eyes widened as he was abruptly sent hurtling towards the Ecaflip. "you $$$$$ I'll get you back for this" Eulogy shouted. "What the....." the Ecaflip said confused at the sight of the Drheller. His confusion was quickly followed by a yell, or a scream, right before the Drheller landed on his face and started scratching and biting at his face. The Ecaflip started running around in circles while trying to get the Drheller off. "Get this thing....UGGHHHH, omg, I think it just peed in my mouth" the Ecaflip shouted.

Meanwhile, Darth Fail and the Xelor had been going at it. His clock-hand like sword and her flaming shovel clashing while the Xelor teleported around her. This guy was really exhausting her, which was apparently the Xelor's new strategy. "If only i could get him to just stand still..... like that's ever going to happen....ugh, annoyed now" she was thinking. But then a sharp pain spread through her side. the Xelor had taken advantage of the moments distraction that her thought had caused. Darth Fail looked down to see his blade stabbed into her stomach, having just missed a kidney. The flames on her shovel dissipated as spit blood from her mouth, and would fall to the ground after he had yanked his blade out of her. She looked up at him as he stood over her. "Your time is up" the Xelor declared as he raised his blade for the finishing blow. "Really...." she said with a roll of her eyes at his comment. But then suddenly the Ecaflip, blinded by the Drheller still on his face, slammed right into the Xelor. As both the Xelor and the Ecaflip fell over, Darth Fail got up on her knees and stabbed the Xelor in the guts, repeatedly. The Xelor died with wide eyes at the absurdity of this turn of events. "Pompous jerk" she said while stabbing the Xelor with her shovel a few more times.

Afterwards Darth Fail rose to her feet, using her shovel for leverage. She frowned at the sight of her wound. "We need to go, Eulogy" she ordered. The Drheller would fart in the Ecaflip's mouth before getting off returning to Darth Fail. "Wait... you aren't going to kill me?" the Ecaflip asked. Darth Fail would stop and look towards the Ecaflip. "Today I guess Ecaflip's are as lucky as the rumors say" she said. For personal reason's that comment caused a sad expression to splash across the Ecaflip's face. Darth Fail noticed but didn't care in the least. "I want you to go back to you're Bontarian masters and tell them what happened here. Tell them I was a vangaurd of Brakmar sent on orders to kill everyone involved in Bonta's stupid peace effort. Tell them there will never be peace until Brakmar wipes Bonta off the face of the planet." Darth Fail told him before leaving. If the Ecaflip had anything further to say she didn't listen.

Sometime later.
Darth Fail and Eulogy were walking through the forest, or rather she was limping somewhat due to her wound. "That Ecaflip isn't following us, is he?" she asked. "Nope. Which is awesome since you'd have to kill'em and do this all over again if he was. Talk about a wrinkle in our masters plan that would be" Eulogy replied. "Ya'know what else would be awesome, if you were bigger so you could actually be useful for a change and carry me back, so we'd get back quicker" she said. "I might be bigger if you took care of me like you're supposed to. I'm the oldest baby drheller on the planet because of you. A laughing stock at all the Drheller hangouts" Eulogy replied. The two of them exchanged glares.

The two of them would then stop by an open grave near a tree. She had dug this grave much earlier, and currently inside the open grave was the corpse of a Sacrier. Darth Fail would take off the Brakmarian armor and toss it into the grave. "Here you can have your armor back, I don't need it anymore" she said. Darth Fail had only killed the Sacrier in the first place so that she could take his armor and pretend she was with Brakmar, so that the soldiers from Bonta would be convinced she was with Brakmar. After having Eulogy fill in the grave, she would continue on deeper into the forest.

[Cory]

Chapter 1.B - Bloodlines


"What is love? Is it a force of nature, like the wind or the sea? A myth, maybe? Is it tangible? Is love self-aware and alive? Or rather an automatic biological function..... Are love and family the same.... Can love be measured?; the breadth and scope of it determined?
How does one find out?"


An exhausted Sacrier approached the capitol of the nation of Brakmar. He had long blonde hair, all white and pupil-less eyes, and wore baggy torn up blue pants. He was muscular and lean. Which anyone could see since he was bare-chested. He was barefoot as well; infact for all anyone knew he might not even be wearing draws under those pants. Sacriers weren't known for wearing all that much clothes. Though they were known for being tattoo enthusiasts, as evidenced by the tats he had on the left side of his chest. As the Sacrier made his way through the gates of the capitol, he was stopped by a guard. "And where do you think you're going, covered in blood like that" the guard said. The Sacrier looked down at himself for a moment, having forgotten about the blood all over him. "Look, its been a long day, and it was a long walk back here. I was just on my way to shower is all" the Sacrier said. "What?!! Do you even know where you are. You can't just waltz your way into the capitol and do as you please. Especially not without being authorized" the guard said. "You must be new here" the Sacrier said. Before their conversation could go any further, it was interrupted by a man that had walked over to them. "General!" the guard at the sight of the man. "Don't you know who you're talking to? This young man is Pointless" the General said. Pointless, was the Sacrier's name, and he was still quite young at 17 years old. The guard gasped. "At ease. You were just doing your job, which I suggest you get back to" the General said. "Yes sir" the guard replied before returning to his post. Pointless followed the General further into the capitol. "Thanks" Pointless said. "Don't mention it. Though I'm surprised to see you. We weren't expecting you back so soon. I take it that means everything went well on the mission your father had sent you on" the General said. "Yep" Pointless replied. The General raised an eyebrow. "What. I tried talk, at first, but the anarchist faction wasn't having that. So I dealt with them. Consider the problem permanently resolved" Pointless replied. The General huffed at the thought of what a press nightmare it would be if the results of Pointless's mission got out to the general public, and that the General would likely be tasked with covering it up. "So what's been going on here lately?" Pointless asked. "There's a situation. Things have gotten complicated, but don't fret, you'll hear all about it tomorrow" the General replied. The General departed not long after. Pointless headed to his quarters, which were huge and overly luxurious, so that he could take a nice long shower and get some sleep.

The next morning Pointless was woken up by a servant. "Your father wishes to see you at once" the servant informed him. "Alright, alright" Pointless grumbled. He got out of bed. The servant blushed and turned away since Pointless slept in the nude. Pointless sighed, put on a pair of pants, then left his quarters. He would head directly for the war room and when he entered he would find the High Admiral and all five Judges in session. Though they all became quiet as soon as Pointless barged in. The government of Brakmar wasn't so much a government at all, as it was a military. The High Admiral was the supreme ruler of the nation of Brakmar. His authority without question and absolute. Directly under the High Admiral was the Judges, of which there were only five and answered to no one else except the High Admiral himself. Under the Judges were the Generals, and below the Generals were all other manner of military rank. Positions/ranks were gained only by battle prowess, combat strength, or by challenging and defeating someone of superior rank in a duel. "You wanted to see me father" Pointless said. "Yes, son. If the rest of you would excuse us, we'll reconvene at a later hour" the High Admiral said. The Judges got up, bowed to the High Admiral, and then left the room. Pointless walked around the large circular table in the center of the war room, glancing over the world map that was on the tabletop, before he took a seat. "If this is about the anarchist faction, I can explain" Pointless said. "No need. What's done is done. Though honestly, and don't tell anyone I said this, I'm glad that's over since the leader of that anarchist faction really pissed me off. Hope he suffered before the end" the High Admiral said. "Oh he did" Pointless replied. The two of them laughed slightly about it. "Then I'm not sure why you needed to see me" Pointless said. "Son. Tell me what you know about the Bonta Peace Initiative. Also, since your return has anyone informed you about the mission i sent Meaning on" the High Admiral said.

Meaning, was the name of Pointless' older brother. The High Admiral and both of his sons were Sacriers. Pointless is a fire Sacrier, Meaning is an earth Sacrier. For Sacriers earth and fire were two sides of the same coin. Opposite yet identical at the exact same time. On the other hand, air Sacriers were the Sacrier equivalent of that weird uncle that you question if you're even related to. Anyway. Pointless was drawing a blank in regards to both topics his father had asked him about. When the High Admiral saw this to be the case, he proceeded to explain the current situation. "As you know the nations of Brakmar and Bonta have had...conflicts...in the past. Recently we received communications from Bonta that they wanted things to change. They wanted there to be peace between all of the five nations. They figured that, since our nation of Brakmar is most prone to war, the only way to get the rest of the world to take the Bonta Peace Initiative seriously was if it started between Brakmar and Bonta. I sent word that i was open to it as long as trade renegotiation was also on the table. Bonta agreed and said they would be sending a small squadron of soldiers here to Brakmar, to speak on Bonta's behalf for the peace talks" the High Admiral explained. "Seems like everything is going great, you don't really need me for this" Pointless said. "I wasn't finished. As a sign that I was taking things seriously, I informed Bonta that I would be sending one of my own sons as a vanguard to meet with the squadron of soldiers from Bonta once they arrived in Brakmar and guide them here to the capitol, where the peace talks would take place" the High Admiral said. "So that's what you want me to do" Pointless said. "Hell no! That was the mission I sent your brother, Meaning, on. But afterwards I received no communications from Meaning on his progress, and they never arrived here at the capitol. So I sent one of the Judges to, where Meaning was supposed to meet with the Bonta soldiers, to find out what happened. That's what the Judges and I were discussing when you walked in" the High Admiral said. "So? Spill it already" Pointless said. "The Judge returned to inform me that he found all of the Bonta soldiers dead and your brother was missing" the High Admiral informed him. Pointless abruptly stood up from his seat. "You're trying to tell me that you think Meaning killed that entire squadron of Bonta soldiers and then went into hiding!?" Pointless said. "It's possible" the High Admiral replied. "Why?!!" Pointless said. "I don't know. That's the mission I'm now sending you on. To track down Meaning and find out why. One thing is for certain, if word of this gets back to Bonta before we have answers..... we'll never hear the word 'peace' again" the High Admiral said.

Pointless would immediately make the necessary preparations and then set out on his new mission. An undetermined amount of time later, Pointless would arrive at the place Meaning was supposed to meet with the soldiers from Bonta. He figured it was the best place to start to look for clues. After spending some time looking around that field of rotting Bontarian soldier corpses, two things stood out to Pointless. A blood trail which led into a forest, and foot prints which led in the opposite direction of the blood trail. Pointless would taste the blood. "This blood doesn't belong to Meaning, and these footprints aren't his either. How can there be no trace whatsoever of my brother here? And what does some stranger that got away bleeding have to do with any of this?" Pointless wondered. His attention returned to the footprints. "And is it possible that one lone Bontarian soldier got away? So what now? Do I follow the footprints or the blood trail?"