Quantum Urbs: A City of lies, a city of Secrets (Fantasy/Romance/Action) *Open*

Started by Dunnuck, June 26, 2010, 07:37:38 PM

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Gwindolyn

She gives Gabriel's hand a squeeze and turns from him as Luke appears about the corner.  She steps forward.  "We haven't been properly introduced."  She thrusts forth her hand even as she wonders if she already knows him.  "My name is Gwin, as I'm sure you know.  You know much about me.  Possibly more than I do.  I think it is time we talked."  She can feel Gabriel's disapproval of her forwardness behind her, but she had her skills too, or at least she had hoped.  Even if she didn't, she needed to know what he knew.  She didn't have the AI fun they had.  She only had her ability to talk to him.  Her smile is warm and welcoming with only traces of doubt, fear and tension.  Her leg muscles twitch against the dagger on her leg.  She never told Gabriel about that second note and all the possibilities it meant.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

"Then let me say it to your face," He said approaching Tracer. "Whatever you're planning, and I know you are, you better watch your step." His eyes turned dark blue. "I can give you a reason to fear me, rergardless of what you may think about me. " He warned. "So far, you haven't given me any reason to trust you."

Gwindolyn

She turns back to Gabriel and gives him a look that says "Please, let me handle this."  Only it was not quite a request in her eyes.  She raises a hand to his chest to calm him.  She smiles back to Luke, her hand extended to him.  "You may have to forgive him.  It has been a rather rough week for him."  She lets the understatement stand as Luke was there to see the death of his brother and is aware of the finding out about wiped memories.  He will appreciate the depth of the situation.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

Gabriel let Gwin take the lead, her calmimg hand an effective method. Gabriel held no trust for the man. Hell, he only trusted Gwin and partially trusted Alice.

OOC: You posted when i postdd the last one and i didnt know (damn mobile :p)

Starlequin

Luke lifted his own hand to accept hers and clasped it gently, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, princess. You're a hard woman to catch up with." He said, his smoke-gray eyes softening somewhat. He nodded and was about to agree with her request to talk when Ureha moved forward, the distance between them closed to inches. His threat was amusing, but Luke knew the kid could probably back it up. He fingered a small device in his pocket, about the size of a coin roll, anticipating violence. His own eyes hardened once again, and his grin faded.

"Gee, thanks for the warning! Now simmer down, Sparky. To be honest, I don't give two shits if you trust me or not. My only concern is providing your girlfriend there safe passage home. Anything that gets in the way of that--including you--will be erased."

His finger rested on the pocketed device's trigger, prepared to unleash a short-range broadcast of neural sedation frequencies and render Ureha unconscious before the kid could punch through his skull. But before either could attack, Gwin moved forward and pulled Gabe off of him. Luke watched approvingly as she calmed his fury, and relaxed his grip on the burst-caster.

"Please, forgive him. It's been a rough week for him." She said, the look in her eyes pleading with him to understand. Luke realized she was referring to his brother's death, not to mention the other traumas the pair had been subjected to. A grain of sympathy shown through in his eyes, and he nodded once.

"I know what you mean. Some days are just a bitch..."
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.

Gwindolyn

She sees Luke simmer down as well as the calming of Gabriel.  She says "I have yet to know you name, if you would be so kind?"  Her words were soft and entreating.  As she spoke, she ushered them to the bench.  Not the place she would think ideal for this talk, but the music room was even less ideal.

She looks to Gabriel and blushes as she begins to admit her lack of full disclosure to him.  She takes his hand in hopes of keeping him quiet and calm, letting her find out about herself.  She turns her eyes to Luke, "You left me a note on this dagger.  What made you leave that note?  What is your interest in me?  And if my apartment is not my home, and if this is not my home..."  Her voice cracks as she looks to Gabriel with pain over the thought of parting from him again.  "Where is my home?  What home do you refer to?"  There is a longing in her voice as she had not known of family other than a distant mother that she no longer really talked with.  There are some drawings in her desk and characters in her stories unaccounted for as of yet.   
 
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

Cornelius entered Joren's frozen room. "A bit cold in here. I see you have grown accustomed to the cold. My people are good are providing...elemental comforts. Follow me. I will take you to where you and your sister stayed. Oh, Joren. You know your sister is still alive, right? A bit of information I thought you may enjoy. I will brief you on everything you may or may not of forgotten. Lets get started, shall we?" He asked, leading Joren to the elevator.

Starlequin

His eyes followed the couple as they turned away; she led them to a small bench down the hall. Luke allowed them to sit and leaned against the wall opposite them, arms folded over his chest. 'How much should we tell them, do you think?' He asked 'Ana as he stood silently, choosing his words carefully. 'Sorry, Luke, but you're on your own for that. The only mind I have any real insight to is yours, and you're not exactly Johnny Normal.' 'Must be why we fit so well together.' He teased as she retreated into the digital aether, earning a quick pinch to his cerebral cortex. The pain caused him to twitch, and the pair looked up at him expectantly. 'Ouch!' 'Serves you right.'

A heavy sigh escaped him, and he began to introduce himself.

"My name is Luke. Saipher. You can call me whatever you want." He looked down to Gwin and nodded at the dagger. "I wanted you to hold on to that for two reasons. First, I laced it with a chemical compound allowing me to track it's location." A glance at Ureha told him this information was most unwelcome, but before he could interrupt Luke pressed on. "As long as you've got that dagger, I could find you anywhere on the planet. So keep it close. And second...I'm not sure how much of your old life you remember, and I'm not sure how much of it you're ready to learn. For now, all you need to know is that it's a family heirloom, and you'll need it when you get home. So, keep it close. Got it?"

She nodded, enthusiasm tempered with anxiety.

"As for home...I'm going to assume you don't remember your parents, either. I was hired by an old man named Adrian Marcos to locate and deliver you to him. Actually, I was just hired to deliver you; he'd already done the locating." He could tell the poor girl was dying to know why she should matter to an old man she'd never heard of, and lifted one hand in a placating gesture.

"Look, let me tell you a little story; it should clear up a few questions. Once upon a time, there was an accountant. His name was Peter Miles. He worked for a small firm, lived an average life, and there was absolutely nothing special about him." Luke scanned through the files as he talked to ensure nothing was left out that didn't need to be. "Then one day, he was assigned by his firm to audit a pharmaceutical corporation; some confusion regarding investment amounts or some such. Doesn't matter. The point is, while he was looking over the company's books, he had occasion to meet the daughter of the company's owner. Boy meets girl, falls in love, we all know this part of the story. They get married and have one child, a little girl.

A few years later, tragedy strikes. The parents are killed in a car crash, and the little girl is left in the custody of her mother's father. She grows up and it seems that things are finally looking up for her future. But apparently, tragedy isn't done with this kid. At 14, she's diagnosed with a particularly vicious form of leukemia; her grandfather spends the next two years watching his little girl waste away to nothing, and looking for a way to save her. Then one day, he's approached by representatives of a certain private weapons development firm. They offer to place her in a series of experimental trials of a new kind of vaccine. The vaccine works, but the company claims that now the girl is corporate property and she is stolen from her grandfather. He manages to track her down, but finds that her genetic structure has been tampered with and her memory has been wiped. At this point, I don't know the whole story, but he decides to set her up with a new identity and a new life. Since then he's kept a watch on her from a distance, until he learned that the company was still looking for its property. So, he hired a devilishly handsome and clever fellow to pick her up and bring her home.

So. Questions?"

The couple stared at him dumbfounded, mouths agape, as he finished speaking.

'Hm. What do you think? Too much?' He thought. 'Nonsense, Luke. You're a master of subtlety.' 'Ana replied dryly.
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.

Dunnuck

Gabriel stood up and paced around. "Private weapons firm. ArmsTech. Same people that took me and my brother." He said angrily. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and contemplated the moral dilemma. His heart ached when he realized that him and Gwin were probably going to be separated. For good. He was then revisited by memory.


The Days Forgotten


"Hi, I'm Gabriel." His small voice said. He was young, and he and his brother had just begun staying at ArmsTech. He sat down next to the girl who had the same color of hair as he did. "Why are you here?" He asked. "I'm sick. My granpa says there is something wrong with my body. And he said that these people could help me." The girl explained. "Oh..." Gabriel said. "I'm here because my brother is living here. We don't have any parents. So I have to watch over him. These people said they can help us to." He left out that they had forcibly taken his brother. "Hey, made a new friend?" Came a female voice. "Alice!" Gabriel shouted excitedly. He ran to her embrace. "Gabriel, I have got some news. My brother is coming to see me. I told you a lot about him, remember?" Alice asked. "You mean Mr. Joren?" Gabriel asked. Alice laughed and said "You don't need to call him 'Mr. Joren', silly.". "Besides, when you say 'Mr.' you don't use their first name." She said, correcting him and teaching him. "So who is your friend?" Alice asked, looking over to the dark haired girl. "My name is..."

Isaac: 13
Gabriel: 15
Alice: 16

Present


"What was her name while she was there?" Luke asked.

Alice

Alice and Isaac had first met when she was 16. He was only thirteen at the time. They were there for just over a year, and every day was long and grueling. They had become close, but not intimate. Honestly, Isaac was only thirteen. But, it was after. After the year there, well Alice spent two years there and Isaac spent one, a lot of things had happened. Alice opened up a dojo at 18, meant for kids who had lost their fathers in the war six years before. The effects of the war were still felt everywhere, especially in the youth. Isaac and Gabriel came in about halfway through the first year of the dojo's existence. Gabriel was just turning 16. Isaac and her began their relationship there. Of course, it was odd. Of course no one could no. The age difference was unusual. But Isaac was different. He was mature, in more ways than one.


Gwindolyn

Gwin was honestly not surprised it was bugged and she knew the dagger was a family heirloom.  It was the only thing that passed all memories, dreams an stories.  This dagger was the only thread weaving through them all.  She feels certain that is why it brought her such comfort to wear.

As the story wore on, she came to the same conclusion as Gabriel.  They were about to be separated - AGAIN.  She balks at the concept with all her beings.  She struggles to keep her composure though and holds onto Gabriel's hand.  She doesn't get that memory of meeting him.  It is lost from her.  She looks up to Gabriel with concern as she can tell her remembers something. 

She turns her amber eyes back to Luke.  "Luke, thank you for your honesty and disclosure.  Tell me, what happens if I decide I do no want to go with you to meet people I don't remember in favor of one I do?"  She does not show that she remembers her grandfather.  It was one of the pictures in her desk.  One of her skills was always handling people though, so a quick manipulation of words makes it not a lie as it was hypothetical.  There would be no 'lying' tattles on her face or body lanuage.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Wyrd

OCC: Hey all! I'm back from seeing Iron Maiden and I'm ready to try and get back in the loop :-). Sorry if i'm not always on top of things guys :P

Joren was blown away by what Cornelius had just said about Joren's sister. for a brief moment a image of Alice appeared in Joren's head, but he fought it of with rage and confusion. "Sister!? I Don't have a sister. Or any family for that matter!" Joren reached and grabbed Cornelius tight by the arm to stop him. "Look, lighting rod! You better explain to me what this place is and what my connection is to it, of all turn you in to a snow cone and eat you!"     

Ragtime Dandies!

Gwindolyn

OOC: perfect timing really.  Welcome back and hope the concert was a blast.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Starlequin

Luke stood silent as Gwin and Gabe sifted through the information he'd fed them. Neither of them were particularly skilled at concealing their emotions; Gabe especially was an open book. He could tell they were both distressed by the idea of being separated, and a notion occurred to him. As Gwin raised the subject of refusing to accompany him, he shook his head slowly. At least the girl had some iron in her heart; he had to give her that.

"You're not getting it, princess. Your compliance is not an issue here. I was hired to do a job, and that job is going to get done. One way or another, you are leaving here with me."

Gabriel rose to his feet and moved to an offensive stance between Gwin and Luke. "She's not going anywhere with you-" he began, but Luke raised a hand to cut him off.

"Cool your jets, Loverboy. I'm not finished. Like I said, she's leaving with me. After she meets with the old man, she can do whatever she wants. If that means coming back to live happily ever after with you, that's not my problem." At this, Gabe relaxed--barely. "And as for you... the contract I agreed to with Marcos didn't mention anything about fourth parties. So likewise, you can do whatever the hell you want. So you can try to keep her from me, and I'll have to kill you and then listen to her whining about how much she misses you, not to mention I might actually feel bad for a few minutes. Or we can do this like civilized people, and you can go with us. Sit down, have a chat with the old man, find out what he has to say, ask for her hand in marriage, I don't give a damn. Your call."

Luke returned his hands to his pockets and readied the burst-caster again, and just for good measure he asked 'Ana to target his current coordinates with a few of the Seraphim. His jaw tightened as he prepared for Ureha's assault.

But it never came.

He could tell they were both surprised--hell, they were stunned--by his offer. Gabriel especially seemed wary, and almost disappointed that Luke wasn't threatening them overtly. Well, technically he was, but he was also offering a way to avoid any more violence.

"Ball's in your court, Ureha..."
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.

Dunnuck

Cornelius grabbed Joren by the throat, bringing him to a knee with suffocating, crushing force. "You have no powers here and now, Joren. I suggest you calm yourself." He warned, letting go of Joren. Eventually, they had made it underground, the elevator stopping. When they stepped out, Joren was shocked by what he seen. It was an underground neighborhood, the area well kept and mostly white. It was huge and expansive, the buildings a nice white, and the entire area dug into a sort of cavern. The walls were natural rock, and there was dirt on the ground. A few trees were also there, unnaturally grown, though. Kids ran around, while older people like teenagers and adults either entertained the kids or decided to read. It was a small underground utopia. "Do you know how magic works, Joren? It really isn't magic at all. It is merely science."

He walked forward, leading the way. "Science drives everything, and everything can be deduced by science. It started over three hundred years ago, before Quantum Urbs was birthed on the world map. 'Magic' as it is popularly called, was originally a genetic evolution. And ironically it started with the rarest form of magic: the ability to control Earth. We don't know how exactly they came to be, but these people had fantastic powers. It was not as simple as water, ice, or fire. No, it was far more. Those with fire can summon it at will because of a specific gene in their body commonly known as the 'Candeo Gene'. Candeo is Latin for spark, so it is basically called the Spark Gene. The friction that Candeo Genes have with each other create a spark, and using the blood flow, momentum, and opening pours for the genes to come out of, fire emits. Water and ice are basically the same and far easier to master than fire. It simply utilizes  the water within ones body, using significantly strong hydrogen bonding to form itself and give it shape. The difference in ice and water is inner body temperature.

"You see, Gabriel is something special. He was our lead experiment. He was able to master Fire, Ice, and Water. But he could do something beyond that; he could remotely control each. Like Alice, Gabriel excelled. They both went beyond elements. Beyond scientific explanation. For example, Alice can teleport. It's amazing, really. But the oddity is really Gabriel. He even went as far as telekinesis.  A sixth sense. His 'instinct' is more than just instinct. He KNOWS. Best part about it is that he is not aware. If he were aware of that power...someone like that cannot live. He also has amazing speed. Every secret of our company is within him. He is also very dangerous once he is able to tap into his abilities. I think you seen it, when his brother died." He took a breathe. "Basically, we need Gabriel dead. And we think you can do it. Of course, in addition to all the powers you will be endowed with, you will also have answers. The answers, I will give you now. Lets begin.

"You suggest that you do not remember your sister?" He asked. "Alice. Alice Tolkki. That is interesting. Interesting indeed. Gwin, Gabriel, Isaac and anyone related to them lost memories as well. I am not sure how, before you suspect me. But why you? As far as I know, you didn't know Gabriel or Isaac or Gwin before recently. Or...is there something I am missing?"

Gabriel

"Before you touch that trigger in your pocket..." Gabriel said angrily. "Before you assume that you can kill me and be on your way...." He clenched his fist. "You better be sure that you can finish me, before I finish you. Which I assure you, you cannot do. Your nanomachines wouldn't able to fix what I can do to you." He warned coldly. "As you said, the ball is in my court." He said, repeating what Luke said. "Your cockiness is astounding, really. Your sarcasm knows no bounds. But..." He growled, calming down. "I know that, by the time your dead, you would have already pressed that button and death would be on it's way to me. I do not fancy dying. I will go with you."

Wyrd

Joren tried to say say something in rebuttal, but the words would not come. 'Is what this creep is saying true? Do I really have a sister? And is this dumb kid from the store really as powerful as he says he is.' Your hesitated for a minute, but finally spoke up. "Th.. this place! What is this place? It's cold down here. I like it." Joren shock his head to stop his mind from wondering some more. "Okay Lighting man, I'll kill the little shit for you. But first, I want POWER! And lots of it. And, I want to know more about my so called sister."   
Ragtime Dandies!

Gwindolyn

She can feel Gabriel's tension rise as he becomes protective of her.  Just as she thought even she may not be able to calm him, Luke offers the option of Gabe coming with them.  They both sat back at that.  Gabriel, accepts the idea.  She looks up to Gabriel a bit shocked and yet fully expecting that.

She pushes back between the two guys.  She pulls Gabe's arms about her.  "OK, then together, we will go, but only together."  Her words there were to Luke.  The look in her eyes saying she would die before she parted from him.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

"No chance in ice cold hell, Joren." Cornelius said. "Half now, half later. You can get some power now, but not all. Otherwise there would be nothing to hold you to the deal." Cornelius said calmly. "Your sister was an experiment here. You two grew up together. She idolized you. Not sure how, but she found herself with ArmsTech. Once she left, she opened a dojo. She was eighteen. She has hair like yours, and she is very beautiful. Her eyes are an odd pink now; a result of the experimentation."

Gabriel...

Gabriel embraced Gwin. "We leave in four days, then. We still need some down time. Try to get back some of our memories, get some time also." Gabriel sighed. "I know your not entitled to be here past your job. But I wanted to know if you could help us with ArmsTech. They kidnap kids, blackmail people, and ruin lives. I have a feeling they are also a key to ouf memory. You don't have to answer now, just think about it." He said to him. He squeezed Gwin's hand and urged her to come. "We can talk more tomorrow. It's getting late." He told Luke, urging Gwin back to the Garden with intent of relaxing in the hot spring.


Gwindolyn

She looks up to Luke, hoping he will agree.  "Four days for our memories and emotions."  She pauses and reinforces Gabriel's invitation to Luke, "Then come with us to Armstech?"  She attempts to lighten the mood "I may even keep him tame around you."

She took Gabriel's lead and heads to the hot springs.  Her eyes are turned up to him.  She wipes a strand of her raven hair from her eyes with a silly grin.  She felt no need to speak, just being close was enough for now.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

They walk towards the garden, conversating as they go. "Where did you learn to play the violin like that?" He asked as they arrived. He realized he didnt have anything to get into the water with. "Damn it..." He says, sitting on the edge of the hotspring with Gwin. He brushed a strand of hair away from Gwin's face and admired her, smiling. "You're beautiful, you know that?" He asked.

Gwindolyn

She blushes at the compliment as they sit on the side.  "I'm nothing compared to you."  She says coyly as he turns around and pulls her shirt off and begins to shimmy out of her skirt.  Her rounded backside wiggling bare before his eyes.  "last one in is a rotten egg."  She jumps into the hot springs.
I've become a truck driver.  This means my connection and time are not scheduled.  I cannot guarantee a post every night, and sometimes I can do multiple posts in a single time span.  For those of you who can handle time gaps between posts, I am welcoming new stories.  I want to write in the threads.  I want an audience for my writing and our story.

I am Gwindolyn            
Pressing Gwindolyn's buttons

Dunnuck

"That wasn't fair! You distracted me!" He laughed, stripping his clothes and diving in after her. Gabriel chased her around in the water for a while, splashing back and forth trying to catch her. He went underwater, under the cover of steam. She looked around, having not seen him go under. He surprisingly came up right in front of her, pressing up against her gently and pushing her softly against the edge of the spring.

He admired her, the love for her surreal, holding a story-book like feeling within him. Water dripped from her wet face and into the pool. He followed the drops down with his eyes, lingering on her body through the water. He looked back up at her, his eyes easy. The steam swirrled around and everything was silent besides the wildlife and bubbling water. "I caught you." He told her, his voice low, and chilling to her. He continued to look in her amber eyes, his control of water allowing him to thicken the steam, making it impossible for anyone to see in.

Starlequin

Luke laughed raucously as Gabriel lowered his fists, and withdrew his empty hand from his pocket.

"There's a good boy. And you thought we couldn't get along? Pshaw, I say!" He grinned  as he hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. He considered Gabriel's counteroffer for a moment, then nodded in assent. No sense pushing the kid any further right now. "Fine. Four days. I wouldn't mind a vacation myself, seeing as this job interrupted my last one. As for dealing with ArmsTech....well, we'll see."

Then his eyes went cold. "But just so you know, if you try something cute like leaving without me, I swear I'll reduce this place to splinters. And when I catch up with you, my offer to settle this peacefully will be off the table. Got it?"

Without waiting for a reply from either of them, Luke nodded in acknowledgement and turned to walk away, calling back to them as he left. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find the nearest available cushion and grab a nap!"

Luke walked for several minutes, his mind racing as he twisted and turned through the manor's near-labyrinthine halls. 'Ana pulled up the dojo's schematics to guide him through the building, and the two conversed as he made his way to the sleeping quarters.

'Any ideas on how he knew about the burst-caster?' 'I'm afraid not. No scans were performed on you, my sensors didn't pick up any forms of E- or X-ray radiation, and I'm positive nothing accessed my records. It's like he just pulled the information out of thin air.' 'Yeah; that's about what I thought, as well. Remind you of anything?' 'That's not possible, Luke. Those results couldn't have been replicated; it's just not possible. No one else on the planet has access to that technology; it's behind 99 layers of blind security and there is only one key. It's just-' 'Not possible. I know. Not possible for it to be replicated. But...it could be simulated.'

Luke reached an empty room in the middle of a long hallway and slid the paper screen open. He slipped inside and pulled it shut once more, then sank down onto the thickly padded mattress as 'Ana protested.

'You don't really think that ArmsTech...? But they weren't even studying the right fields! All their research was targeted strictly on living organisms, biological and genetic experimentation only. The odds of them stumbling across your work are so low, I can barely process it.' 'You're right. So like I said, it must have been simulated. Clearly, whatever they did to Ureha and the others worked on multiple levels; it's entirely plausible that somehow, they managed to fast-forward the processes of human evolution, or perhaps mutate them. It's not much of a step further that that evolutionary path might have yielded results similar to mine.' Luke laid back on the bed, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. Damn those kids and their insufferable obsession with the past; it seemed their propensity for nostalgia had infected him. The past played out behind his eyes, a waking nightmare in perfect color to accompany him as he drifted to sleep.

The hours were brutal. His classmates were assholes. But this was his last year, and it was worth it. Three more months, and Luke Saipher would become the youngest person ever to graduate from Quantum Tech University. His professors had been astounded at first that a 14 year old boy could maneuver so masterfully through the fields of robotics, computer theory, physics, calculus. They were baffled when he zoomed past them all in the fields of celestial mathematics and mechanics, quantum physics, mechanical, electrical, molecular engineering. Many of them were either outraged or overjoyed when he was offered a senior research position at the University pending his graduation.

Three years later, after countless breakthroughs and design patents, hundreds of published papers and lecture tours, Luke had begun to feel burnt out. His curiosity, his drive to uncover the secret underpinnings of reality, was starting to falter. The interest just wasn't there anymore.

Then he met Annika.

Luke was hardly the type to fall in love at first sight; his rational, analytical mind would never accept such an ethereal experience. But as he got to know her, from chance meetings in the libraries that turned into all-night discussions, from tentative dates that turned into other all-night activities, he realized 'in love' was the perfect way to describe his feelings for her. And she returned his affections in kind.

"You have to keep going, Luke. If you don't figure out the secrets of the universe, then who will?" She joked, whenever he felt like throwing away the keys to his lab or trashing the mounds of research that sat on his desk from time to time, mocking him with its inscrutability. And that was all it took. Her laughter, her touch, her very existence made Luke want to understand the workings of a universe that could create something so wonderful.

And then she was gone.

It was no one's fault; not really. A faulty gas line to one of the bunsen burners in the chem lab, a collection of volatile compounds unwisely left too close together. No one else was hurt in the blast; Annika herself, by rights, shouldn't have even been in the building. If not for a friend who had previously left a report in the wrong office. If. If. If.

For months, Luke had barely eaten, slept, spoken. He threw himself into his work with the ferocity of a feral beast, at times barely aware even of what he was working on. But something inside him demanded he continue, and continue he did until at last it was finished. The machine started at about the size of a small car. Over time, it had grown to the size of a tanker truck; then to that of a house. By the time it was finished, it had been moved into one of the empty aeronautics hangars.

Almost a year to the day, Luke stood alone in the hangar before the darkly gleaming technological behemoth. It had been weeks since his last shower, days since his last meal. He was exhausted, in every sense of the word.

But he wasn't finished.

The machine was connected to the University's power grid, which ran off of its own dedicated fusion reactor, and he input the target coordinates. The machine was designed to generate a field capable of piercing through the dimensional membranes and allowing for the traversal of the rifts between. In short: a reality shifter.

For years, Luke had been fascinated by the concept of the many-worlds hypothesis, the idea that parallel to his own reality existed billions upon billions of others, each reflecting the myriad ways that fate and luck and history could have played out. And now, in the depths of grief and despair, he had built a device to visit them.

With the last checks in place, Luke activated the machine.

Nothing happened.

Luke stood on trembling legs for what felt like hours, waiting for a sign, a change, anything to prove that the machine had not failed. When nothing seemed forthcoming, he sank to his knees and screamed, a low, pitiful howl that grew and climbed until it sounded like the voice of a thousand angels singing of woe and loss.

When at last his voice had died away and the last of his tears had fallen, he struggled to his feet and reached for the generator's power switch.

Then he noticed the lily.

Almost from the corner of his eye, for an instant Luke caught a glimpse of a small, bright lily growing right out of the concrete at his feet. As quickly as he'd noticed it, it was gone. Then he began to notice the other differences. Shelves that seemed to shift position. Windows that vanished and reappeared before his eyes. The paint on the walls flowed from dark blue to black to gray to white to red, and the ceiling appeared to be riddled with launching ports and skylights that moved around like pieces on a game board.

Luke realized the machine had worked after all, though not precisely as he'd intended; his body had not been affected, but his mind was leaping from reality to reality, sharing consciousness with other versions of himself for mere nanoseconds before jumping to the next one, and the next. As soon as he recognized the phenomenon, he began struggling to control it. With every leap, he stayed longer and longer, the intensity of his concentration forcing him to lag behind the field. After almost four hours of trial and error, he learned how to control the jumps. Two hours after that, he learned how to sift through the memories of his other selves.

What they showed him drove him mad.

In every world, in every universe, Luke had met his beloved Annika. And in every universe, she was dead.

The last rational part of himself screamed in defiance. This simply wasn't possible; out of billions and billions of realities, the very idea of a true constant was unthinkable. But the multiverse said otherwise.

In the end, Luke surrendered to his body's demands for food, for rest. Like a tightly wound rubber band, he released his concentration and flew backward through the 'verses until he emerged from the field back into his own reality. He was found the next day, collapsed in the hangar at the foot of the reality shifter; they rushed him to the hospital just in time.

His mind all but shattered, Luke became something of an autistic savant. His higher thought processes were almost untouched, but his original personality was fractured. He could barely dress or feed himself; once again, Luke was imprisoned in his own mind. Again, there was nothing but work. But this time, Luke's thoughts took a different path. This time, he focused his efforts on the fields of neurological implants...and artificial intelligence. Due to his condition, he was forced to reside in a sanitarium for the developmentally challenged; some small part of him was aware enough to realize that if Annika were still alive, she would have howled with laughter at the sheer irony of it all. It was this small part that kept him going.

As a patient, Luke was not allowed the use of computers or laboratories; but years of study had forged his mind into a lab more advanced than anywhere else in the world. He was allowed the use of pens and paper, and for months he scribbled and drew the designs for the implants that would one day fill his head. He wrote long-hand the code that would form the basis for the most powerful A.I. the world had ever known. And then, he went back and improved on it.

It was almost a week before he recognized what was happening to him. He was writing code and designing complex neuromachines that should have taken years to complete on paper, and he was doing it in hours. The tiny nugget of sanity he had left realized that he was still connected to the field. Knowledge was flowing into his mind from the billions of alternate Luke Saiphers. The moment he came across a difficult problem, the solution simply appeared in his head as if he had known it all along. He filled notebook after notebook with code and designs, and sent them to his colleagues at Quantum Tech. Within months, the first implants were ready, and a quick surgical procedure left him feeling almost human again as his thoughts regained a shadow of their former clarity. The clearer his thoughts became, the more he was able to refine the implant's designs. Once they were perfected, he turned his attentions toward creating the A.I. that would inhabit them and help him retain his sanity.

"...Nirvana...I'll call it Nirvana...she would have liked that..."
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.

Dunnuck

OOC: I dont mind long posts. Lol. Next time I am at a computer, I am doing a long one myself. Though, I will not reveal who it is for :p

Wyrd

"Enough! I don't want know hear any more of this! I'v been in this place for to long, if I don't get some of my powers back soon I will die! Just tell me when I can do what I do best, and start killing again!" Joren yelled at Cornelius. Joren's face was missing of the ice and frost that usually clung to him, and his eyes were a dreary gray. "I am a warrior, Cornelius! I am bread for war! The war is the only thing I remember. And it's the only thing I should remember!"   
Ragtime Dandies!