I'm sorry for the late update folks, the freak New Jersey snow storm took our power Again; and the company has yet to do anything about it, we're going on 24 hours and we're freezing our butts off. I'm currently using a Starbucks for power and wi-fi. So here's the chapter; enjoy!
This chapter contains material that I do not own, they are the property of one of the following: Akira Toriyama, Yoshihiro Togashi, Rumiko Takahashi, Tite Kubo, Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, and Yuji Naka. Please support these excellent artists.
“Hey, hey. Are you alright buddy?” My eyes shot open. A face I didn't recognize floated in front of me. Instinctively I bolted upright.
“Where am I?” I asked, looking over at the man that had been standing over me. He was heavy built, and looked heavier in his suit of green armor. His face was rigid, he looked like he had been carved from stone.
“It's alright, I found you outside; and brought you in here.” He said. “I even got yer stuff. Looks like you have a good amount of supplies.” I looked over in the corner to see my massive pack leaning against the wall. Then took a moment to look around. I was in some sort of cave. However there was a sort of hole in the top, allowing the sun in. But the more I looked, the more I noticed this wasn't a natural cave. The walls were smoothed out, as was the floor and ceiling. Even the opening above was rounded neatly. The man drew my attention again as he held out his large hand. “Name's Odin. Odin Terra.”
“Ryoga. Ryoga Hibiki.” I returned. “Do you know the way to the Tendo Dojo?” He laughed suddenly.
“Boy, I don't know where you think you are, but I don't know if the Tendo Dojo still exists at this point.”
“What?” I bounced to my feet, and grabbed the scruff of his armor. “What do mean by that!”
“Didn't you see it? Strange light? Probably hit the whole planet? Don't tell me you were asleep.” None of that sounded familiar. But if something had happened. I started moving; lost in thoughts. What if I could never see my sweet Akane again? I don't know what I'd do if she was hurt in this mess.
“You do know if yer trying to find the exit it's behind you right?” I looked up, realizing I had managed to loop around some tunnels and come back to the same room.
“So, how'd you find this place?” I said, giving up on getting outside.
“I didn't find it, my Master made it. I just inherited it after he went. He said if I wait here, people will start to arrive. He made a ton of tunnels, lit 'em all with some sort of lighting system. Other than the lowest levels it gets terrifyingly dark up here at night. But there is some sort of luminous rock down in the lower levels. We also have some wood from the surrounding forest, we can make torches.”
“So, what happened?”
“Not too entirely sure, but my Master figured it was a new toy of his enemy. Avarus, he called 'im. He figures this guy smashed a bunch of planets together somehow; probably trying to look for him and his friends. Though now he'd be looking for me; and others like me.”
“Like you?” Odin smiled.
“Well he was what would be called a God of the Earth. He had control over rocks n' stuff. He passed all that over to me, I'm not as good with it as he was. But I can move a few rocks around. What about you? What kind of place did you come from?”
“Oh, just a regular place. I mean, there is the matter of the Jusenkyo curse, and we did have a few odd spirits and magical things floating around. But mostly it was a fairly normal place. Other than the fights.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Ranma and I'd get into a lot of fights. Either with each other or against someone else. But I guess that doesn't matter anymore, does it. I mean he might be out there somewhere, he might have been dropped in a volcano for all we know.”
“He could've been shot.”
“What?”
“Well Avarus uses these creatures, apparently they use guns of some sort. They're job is to kill everyone they meet.”
“And Akane is out there! I need to go, now.”
“Whoa whoa whoa! Hold up there. You have no clue where she is. There is no way you'd ever find her. Just sit still. I was told people would come here. Apparently one of Master's friends did something that'll make people come in this direction instinctively. We just have to wait.” I knew I was beat. Odin was right, even if he didn't know, I knew I had absolutely zero directional sense. I've never found my way anywhere I wanted to be, with very few exceptions.
“Alright, but is there a ledge or someplace we can watch from?”
Alright, this actually took a lot of prep work to figure out. I needed to pick two characters to follow in for the Fan Fiction series; and after a lot of deliberation, I settled on Ryoga from Ranma 1/2 and Shadow from Sonic the Hedgehog. Shadow will be up tomorrow. I'm staying at this coffee house until it is done and ready to go up. Or until the power company decides we are worthy of having electricity again.
ReplyDeleteThe storm was impressive, and I'm pretty sure it damaged every tree in New Jersey, since all of them still have their leaves. Its impressive to see all the leaning or downed trees along the New Jersey skyline. At least there is only one branch left that can threaten our power. All I need now is a power saw.
In other news I scored really well in most of my mid-terms, yeay! I just need serious help in my Java class...
Enough about me, let's hear from you guys, what're you going as for Halloween?