Fantasy Action Adventure Scifi A Growing Menace - *Any Character, Any Genre*

[Hekazu]

She didn't speak much, but for what Rochdale had heard he hadn't made any sense of it. It hadn't even sounded like a language he'd ever heard, though there had to be many more even among humans that he'd never had the pleasure to encounter. "Pardon?" he would nonetheless ask, perhaps receiving confirmation on not understanding her, perhaps being met with silence, but ultimately everything fell to gesturing. And to that, Rochdale responded with a nod, a wave of his harpoon towards the door and several quick steps taken that way. Whatever was going on needed looking into.

And if there had been a chance that the linguistical confusion was only between them, that idea could soon be trashed entirely as the hallway beyond turned out to be filled with folks not making sense of one another, or really making sense to anyone else either. Someone from nearby even had something that sounded roughly like a question for them, though there was very little to say about it, other than 'va' being an abundant syllable in the sentence.

Rochdale looked at the person, straightening his back and clearing his throat. "English of Her Enduring Majesty's London, 1899 the second", he replied with no indication at all that the person would actually have asked what language he spoke. But if they understood, good, they could now communicate. If they did not understand, well then they were at the same situation as just now and he could keep on moving. Talking to a wall would not further their agenda in finding out how the regime had managed to cause such a meltdown.

 

[Fatal Nymph]

The creature spoke and she shook her head. She tapped her throat and her finger tips followed her throat up to her jaw and forward as if sound was traveling out and shook her head, before turning away. Where was a writing tool big enough when it was needed. Writing other languages was easier for her than speaking it. Though if given enough time she could get a rudimentary language going. Though as much as she should care, she didn't.

Her hand reached out and grabbed his hand, instead of his arm still not positive where all the vines were and she didnt want to hurt him. With that she began leading him away, simply shaking her head at those trying to speak with her.

Zava had a goal to get out of here, out onto the streets, thats where her nose and night sight would shine. And it would allow her to to the sky and if they needed to move quickly in case of any danger.

The anthros white hair was really the only thing that stood out, her space ink had a faint glow but that surely wouldn't be noticed in all this ruckus. Her ears were moving or twitching as it seemed as she was catching all the different languages and sounds. Even correctly her it was a bit overwhelming.

 

[Hawksearcher]

As the pair made their way out into the streets, they beheld a rather troubling sight. Many residents from different apartments, hostels, and shops were all randomly, albeit calmly, trickling out into the main walkways. Above, the giant sky-blue gems that normally filled the skies with a bright shine and powered the city were severely dimmed, with several of them flickering erratically. They all remained suspended though---for now.

Because both Rochdale and Zava had keen eyesight, they could also make out, in the distance away from their multi-racial district, that the other districts in their line of sight of the city were fully powered. However, it was impossible to draw any real conclusions from their narrow view of Silver Nexus so far below the metallic buildings.

For the next several minutes, the pair walked, and with her keen senses, Zava could pick out pockets in the growing crowd that would allow the pair to travel freely without getting stuck in foot traffic. In fact, it was because of their no-nonsense attitude and deft maneuvering that they found themselves near the front of the parade of civilians vaguely ambling in the direction of the next district over, where the power was on.

However, there was a complication. As the pair followed the crowd, they saw a line of guards blocking the street that would have led into the neighboring, powered district.

These guards were fully armed, but many of them had their weapons completely stowed away, and were instead holding handheld scanning devices of some kind. The guards formed a wall that strictly suggested no citizens could pass, but they were not acting outrightly hostile. As some other alien residents made their way up to the guards, the guard would hold the scanner up to the traveler's face, and the traveler would speak into the scanner. The scanner would then display text back to the traveler, and speak back in their own native language.

And Zava and Rochdale could both tell that whatever the scanners were saying back to the residents... seemed to upset and trouble the residents some.

In front of them was a guard with a scanner. A free space had opened, and the guard holding the scanner beckoned to them.

 

[Fatal Nymph]

Well if nothing else she would take the opportunity to get information since thats what everyone seemed to need. Zava moved forward, letting go of Rochdale's hand, assuming he would stay close.

"Why is this district down or are the other districts running on reserves? Two are the way points down? And three, is this universe in peril?" Her questions calm, logical and perhaps a little too on point.

Now it was up to the guards to give a response but this anthro wasnt going to let any hint escape her. If they lied, shifted uncomfortablly, or even exuded fear she would be aware. Her senses were kicked into overdrive and her brain would process all of it to make another decision of course with some sort of communication to Rochdale.

Luckily the female was so focused on the Immediate soldiers in front of her that the chaos around her had faded into the background allowing her to take in all the details, with a calm and collected mind. Thank the gods and goddesses for small favors. After depending on the answers, she should attempt a couple of contacts to see a way out of this mess.

 

[Hawksearcher]

With her senses hyper-focused, Zava could tell a few things. The guards had their faces covered, but their armor wasn’t completely airtight, and so, she could catch a faint scent that reminded her of the pheromone that most humans give off when under duress—stress and nervousness.

In fact, even Captain Rochdale, with his experience commanding sailing crews and accustomed to disciplined execution of tasks, could notice something. The guards appeared to be a unified front, but their rows weren’t perfect. Every so often, guards would glance at each other, and a guard or two would even jog from one side of the line to another guard further down to check something.

To both Zava and Rochdale, these guards seemed less organized than how a defense force of a paragon dimension should behave.

After the fox spoke into the device, the guard stood there without much of a reaction. In fact, the device didn’t even seem to translate what she was saying to him. Instead, the device registered, analyzed her language, and displayed a message on its screen in her language. This message was also audibly projected to her, and didn’t seem to do too much to answer her specific questions.

“Please remain calm. We are working quickly to restore power to MR-District 27. You are not in danger. Please calmly and orderly return to your residence and do not attempt to leave this district. Await further instructions.”

 

[Fatal Nymph]

Do not attempt to leave? Which meant that something was going on. Because a simple black out would cause others to go somewhere or return home to sleep, there wouldn't be a need to keep them in one place. And the answer was a basic go away. She turned to her friend and shook her head.

This time she stepped away from the soldiers and away from eye sight. She took out her glass tablet and looked to see what is functions were capable of. This was a gift, it was capable of use and information on any world she was on. It could give her information on the people she was working with, to taking notes. The only thing it really couldn't do was translate and she was working on something to help with that.

Her eyes looked up for the captain. Her hand was already pointing to the guards and shaking her head. That wasn't right. If her tablet could give information that would help with this situation, but it might be a district blackout which would stop all electronic flow creating a dead zone. Luckily for Rochdale and herself, she knew a few back ways from one district to the next because being in a dead zone was never a good thing.

 

[Hekazu]

While Rochdale had not expected his gloved hand to be grabbed and ending up being pulled around by the tattoo artist, losing the ability to communicate clearly and the whole district suffering some weird fate with the skies being dark had not been on the list of expectations for today either. And so he followed, finding there to be little need to focus on getting towards any particular direction that had not been otherwise determined important. What he would be up to was to look up in the sky and observe the previously far more lively crystals and how they were attached if in any shape or form. At least they were not entirely dead. But this situation also did not really appear to be under control.

It was interesting to make the note that this didn't affect the entire city. Naturally it had to be the corner of the trash folk. And of course there had to be a line of armed soldiers keeping them from entering the other districts, as if the blackout was the fault of the locals. Rochdale had half a mind to spear the first guard that would attempt to stop him from crossing, but he wasn't quite that ready to end his tale, let alone that of the other person that was keeping him in information necessary to survive in this world. Or had been, until recent events anyway.

Apparently for now it was up to… not going through. He shrugged, turning to stand sideways towards one of the many crystals and indicated towards it with his thumb. "Move", he suggested, taking a sideways step, "that way?" and the thumb shifted to more direct pointing at the crystal. If she didn't speak English now, she might in time. Since there was no knowing when they could talk via unexplained means again, if ever, it would never be too early to start with the backup plan.

 

[Fatal Nymph]

Zava titled her head and followed his thumb and looked up. He wanted out or to look at the crystals. She pointed straight down and then up to the crystal and shook her head. Then pointed towards the line of soldiers or rather past them and then to the crystals and nodded.

The dog like woman looked around and saw a tall building, easy to get to the top of. Once more she grabbed his hand and as she started off in her direction, she pointed towards the building and then made a motion with a single hand as though she was shielding her eyes from the none existant sun. And turned her head side to side. Hoping to convey that she wanted to look from a high point. If anything it would tell them where the soldiers were thinking and what it might look like outside their area.

For now Zava hoped that simply taking his hand and leading the captain would suffice. How many people would have ripped their hand away? How many times had she been scared on a planet unknown to herself? This wasn't exactly perfect but at least Rochdale had some sort of trust in her, though why this pleased her so much she want exactly certain about. Though right now wasn't the time for such thoughts.

 

[Hekazu]

Again, Rochdale allowed himself to be led. Very well then, if there were no routes. No zeppelins, no attaching chains or ropes, nothing of the sort to allow anyone to approach, then that was that. What else could he bother to do about it? A vantage point like the one she was apparently now going for would be useful enough. And, with any luck, it might also serve to show them how to reach the kind of goals he had had in mind.

And so the captain followed, not running but not held back by his bad side either. One thing Zava would not manage to get out of him was to make him run, for that would bring in the pain that he had been attempting to avoid with good success so far. Other than too quick a pace though, he had little reason not to trust the wayfinding to her right now. Left him available to survey the surroundings and to keep an eye on the others wandering the streets. When the lights go out, the less reputable folk come out to play after all.

 

[Fatal Nymph]

Zava never ran nor did she seem.seem in a hurry, just a very prominent direction, as if she knew exactly where she wanted to go, which turned out to be in a building but up.

After a few floors, she brought him onto a roof. It gave a nice vantage point and even better it had some structure that made it higher but one needed to be acrobatically inclined.

Her white hair only slightly moved by what little wind was created. Her eyes scanned a full circle to get an idea of exactly what they were looking at, and if need be she would climb, but for now she let go of Rochdale's hand and was to busy looking at the surroundings to be sheepish about holding his hand.

A random thought struck her. Her device. The thin glass was procured but it didnt help her any. And this device was top of the line, not even meant for anyone but military or high ranking officials. Money of course could buy those things however. But for it to not be working meant the flow of information and all connectivity to this area was gone. Which meant no vehicles in or out as well.

Now was the time to see where the forces were spread thin, where back was being diverted to and such things.

 

[Hekazu]

Through the streets, chaos keeping even the unsavoury folk at bay. Not a common occurrence, or perhaps the harpoon very openly carried by the man in the coat and wide-brimmed hat was enough to dissuade them from committing to anything foolish. Having cut into a building and up its several flights of stairs against the tide of the confused inhabitants, it was at the roof when Rochdale's hand was released. Fair enough, there were only the two up here. If they ended up separated somehow, it would be by design. On the streets, without means to communicate, words drowning into the jumble of incomprehensible syllable gruel, they might well have lost one another for the rest of their lives. And he still owed her money. And had more or less been reliant on her urban survival skills.

He truly needed to get out of this place. Becoming reliant on others was no good. Burdens were cast aside. And when the burden could not stand on its own, it would suffer, wither and die. He had no intention of falling prey to such a fate, having avoided it despite the entirety of Hell being after his head.

While Zava focused on the streets, Rochdale turned his eyes once more to the sky and the crackling crystals. They had to be attached to the grid somehow. And he would find out how, and what was causing these particular crystals to decay but everything else to work. Surely a failure of a single piece in a machine would not cause such a widespread issue without it also being visible somewhere further away. There had to be something by design in this. Something in the design would tell him why this was happening the way it was. He just needed to figure out the design itself.

Pulling his harpoon off his back, Captain Rochdale set it in front of himself and leaned his hands on the flat end while the tip dug into the floor beneath his feet. Was there any action going on in the skies? Surely if this was under control someone would have to be working on the malfunctioning equipment. If nobody was, either nothing was being done… or this had been done on purpose. And he really would not count out the possibility of the latter suggestion.

 

[Itcamefromthevoid]

W4LK4R-9

Sorry only one I have of him.

Walker as they call him walked through the streets the power went down and it took him long enough to get into the Silver Nexus and now they are telling him he can't leave the area. This was a nuisance one he could do without. Such a ridiculous time to have a power shortage. Though something was off about the armed guards that were keeping those trying to get into a part of the city with power were being quarantined for some reason this was a problem. Walker didn't have any of his other items on him but he always kept his smart pistol. Walker made sure to keep himself armed in case there was trouble and while he might not need to shoot anyone right now this was smelling like trouble.

"I swear, it's like you are a walking magnet for shit happening. First Lyra Pollioxis then Mars Colony 08 now the Silver Nexus. Just great. Just effin' great." Walker said as he looked through the crowd he didn't bother going to the guards they were under orders to stonewall everyone most likely just giving the typical response that had nothing to do with what was really going on. He watched a dog woman and a human man enter a building. The man carrying some sort of sharp stick. They looked like someone who might be wanting to get to the bottom of this isolation within an unpowered part of the nexus.

Entering the building with a calm stride he lost the duo that entered before him but proceeded up the stairs weaving around the worried citizens within the building Walker reached the roof and stepped out looking around. He knew at least one of them was armed with a primitive weapon that would most likely just scratch metallic skin. The duster jacket on his shoulders was tattered at the bottom. A testament to his more often misadventures. Walker approached the man in the coat with the wide brimmed hat first. "Where is your friend?" Walker asked loud enough for the man to hear him. Walker but his hands up in a peaceful manny to show he wasn't holding a weapon. It would be unfair to fight this man with his pistol should the need arise. Walker didn't think he could even penetrate his xyborian shell. Coming from a race of metallic creatures that modeled themselves after humans.

 

[Hawksearcher]

[First reply to @Hekazu and @Fatal Nymph ] [Also, just some cool Sci-Fi music I happened to be listening to while writing this ;).

Spoiler

Hiroyuki Sawano – 「VIE/DUE」 ft. [vocal: Benjamin, mpi, Gemie] | Epic Anime Music - YouTube

]

Despite the upset and turmoil, the view from the top of the apartment building did offer a rather dazzling view of blocks of buildings that comprised some of the surrounding districts, since this building was a few stories taller than the surrounding buildings of the district. Especially now that this multi-racial district had dimmed to a twilight brightness, the glow from the rest of Silver Nexus looked luxurious and inviting.

Zava peered down over the edge of the building, her naturally predatory vision heightened, designed for judging distances between herself and her targets. From her vantage point, it seemed as though the streets leading towards the inner city, including the parks, guilds, and exit to the Interdimensional Highway, were the most crowded. The closer a district was to the epicenter of the city, the wealthier it was usually considered. On the other hand, away from the center of the city, while there were guards stationed at the transition streets, these lines seemed much thinner and weaker, but there were also much less citizens attempting to move that way.

For the most part, the guards were successfully able to keep the citizens of this district from overflowing past them. However, Zava's ears picked up shouting coming from the street on the right side of this building, towards the center of Silver Nexus. Adjusting her gaze, she could see that there was a commotion at one of the lines, and several larger Travelers managed to butt their way past the guards. These Travelers, who appeared to be made of a rock-like substance, seemed several heads taller than the guards, and despite the guards brandishing their weapons, the rock golems pushed forward in an agitated manner.

That was when the tank arrived.

There were cries of fear when the Nexan Hover Tank turned a street corner in the neighboring district. With the tank was another squadron of soldiers who were briskly making their way towards the line. These new guards did not seem to be expecting to see the rock golems, nor the rock golems expecting to see the guards. The backup squad raised their weapons, gesturing with their arms for the rock golems to move back. The golems glanced at each other and, with raised arms, slowly backed up before the barricade of guards. The rest of the crowd also seemed to back away from the line, with only a few brave individuals who dared to continue to try and ask the guards for information through their translators.

to make matters worse, Zava could see in each of the streets towards the center of Silver Nexus approached an additional tank--one for each street. If there were any doubts about the "routine" nature of this outage, those doubts were most likely fully confirmed by the sight of actual military armaments in a residential district.

Behind each tank, guided by three guards, was a small, portable energy crystal.

​

These small crystals looked similar to the larger ones floating in the sky, but about the size of a man instead of a building.

Captain Rochdale, on the other hand, saw a similar situation happening in the sky above.

Within the limits of the district, it looked as though not a single vehicle flew overhead. In fact, any civilian vehicles that appeared to be approaching the direction of the district stopped several blocks before and turned in a different direction, no doubt taking a detour around the powerless section of the city.

From the direction of the inner city, several flying vehicles that looked like repair ships or drones approached, each with its own portable power crystal attached near the back engine. However, each of these vehicles, about 8 in total, all stopped right at the line between districts, similar to the guards below. They simply hovered there, unmoving.

​

It was also at that moment that a flicker of light caught the seasoned captain's eye. Farther away from the center of the city, about 2 or 3 districts away from them, he saw an entire section of the crystals in the sky suddenly seize and flicker, dimming to the same level of light as this district. While one might have assumed it was just that district's night cycle, the flickering and seizing of the crystals in the sky suggested otherwise.

That, and one of the crystals fell out of the sky.

It was difficult to tell scale from this distance, but a crystal that may have been as large as a fishing boat plummeted, flickering erratically and turning a dangerous orange-red. Her could see the crystal disappear into the streets below of that district. It was too far away to hear anything as a result of the crash, or see its effects, but perhaps the silence of such a large crystal crashing would have been more unnerving than if it had produced a sound.

It was at that moment that they realized they were not alone on this roof. The humanoid who approached them seemed to show goodwill, even if the words he spoke seemed like yet another strange, unknown language with the district’s translations powered down.

 

[Hekazu]

Rochdale had sensed the new arrival before he had made himself known. From under the brim of his hat the old zee dog had observed the arriving presence as much as he could without giving away that he had indeed made note of them, but it didn't take too long before he could determine that this would not come to blows, at least not in the immediate future. Rochdale turned now more fully towards them, looking the supposedly armor-clad individual up and down. "English of Her Enduring Majesty's London, 1899 the second", he responded much as he had to the previous incomprehensible one. He expected it not to make much of a difference. But he had responded, shown that he was not going to be the one to immediately escalate either.

Yet the events at the streets were most troubling, and Rochdale had made note of them. "Bastards, the lot of them…" he murmured under his breath, the blame for this armed response to civilians on the higher ups of this realm. Those soldiers were likely the same kind of fools as those that had departed onto the blasted campaign of '68, just listening in on promises of a better future. Well he had the scars to prove that sometimes such words amounted to very little at all. Tapping the harpoon's long handle on his shoulder, he shook his head as he made note of the fact that this was in fact the entire response.

A crystal had fallen, likely crushed several innocents. And all they cared about was that their ragged filth remained in its abode and littered not the districts of the wealthy and distinguished. Emphasis on the former. How could a single realm be so damn insistent on proving its worthlessness in the shortest amount of time possible? At least with the people of Varchas and Visage he had had to work to determine that yes indeed, nobody was of their right mind here. But this? This was like Cline all over again. The mere thought of the place caused a shiver down Rochdale's back, and he remained just as soulless as before. He should be well above such feelings.

 

[Fatal Nymph]

The dog anthro watched as things happened around them. This was no surprise to her as she has seen such things in different planets and even against herself, it was how everyone else was going to react to this issue at hand.

The crystal crashed which would not bode well for the city let alone the dimensional door. But as much as that was a concern, she heard a presence moving around them. She turned as the footsteps became too close for her own comfort and lucky for her she happened to be at just enough of a distance away that he had focused in on Rochdale. It was easy to see the metal form and that only one of her specialized tools could etch into that kind of skin for her work. It was as much of a tool as a weapon for her, it would super heat allowing her to work with almost any metal. Those that she couldn't work with, her tool was upgraded or modded even further. So far it could melt into military grade like it was fun and most metal being could be worked on as well.

At this moment she choose to use the tool like a weapon, its cap off and with a little pressure it could heat within nano seconds. Almost as fast as it could cool. They both spoke gibberish to her but she wasn't liking that they had been followed.

Well this was now a situation. None could speak, none really knew what the others wanted, but the female knew she wanted away from all of this. A white haired female stepped into the periphal of the metal being. The most striking and notable thing about her was her ears and tail, and all of the fine white long hair. Her eyes instantly spoke volumes of the mistrust she had towards the new comer and to make a point her tool was clutched in her hand ready to stab or maim at a moments notice, though it would certainly be a pain and costly expense to replace.

A finger pointed out to a path that a moment ago was semi clear with little to no resistance, and it was only getting thinner as other areas began to do the same thing.