Titan looked out into the city while the news played in the background.
“…reports keep coming in of a massive string of missing persons cases. Officials are unsure of the cause. Are they related? Should we be worried? Officials say they are investigating and will update us as new information comes to light. Times like this we need to unite. The number of missing has now reached into the hundred thousands. Our thoughts go out to those affected and we pray for those who are missing that they will be found and returned…”
Titan turned off the TV.
“It looks like it is happening again. Round two. We’ll see what happens this time. There’s a lot more this time.”
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Ethan Clarke wasn’t entirely sure on what had happened in his life to get him here. He wasn’t much different than other people. He played video games, hung out with friends, went to school and didn’t take it seriously enough.
He didn’t get good enough grades to go to college and that was fine. He really didn’t do well indoors. After barely graduating high school, he got a job in the same place his dad had worked for nearly thirty years. Working as a trucker.
It was a good life for Ethan. He got up early, got on the road, and drove all day long. It didn’t require much thought any more. Everything was just automatic. He knew his routes well. The truck just felt like an extension of himself. He was happy. He could just tune everything out and be free. Over the years working, he got to see most of the country. Sure some of the days were long and at times he got lonely, but he felt extremely accomplished in his job. It’s one of those jobs that people don’t realize how important it is until something doesn’t get where it needs to be on time. He felt like he was making a difference in his own little way.
That was until his brakes failed. He did everything he could to avoid the collision. He couldn’t do enough. He ran into a minivan full of a sweet family. The only one that survived was the mom and she was rushed to hospital. She had barely survived. She was angry at Ethan, which he understood. Her family was gone just like that. It was an accident, but Ethan felt extremely guilty. He was supposed to check his truck every time he drove it but sometimes you just didn’t check it good enough or you missed something. Normally it would just result in a long day stuck on the road waiting for repairs or if you were unlucky, a citation from law enforcement telling you to get your things in order before you drive again. That was all part of the job. But what happened to Ethan is every drivers worst nightmare. In the blink of an eye his life changed and that family’s life changed.
After the accident, he had been taken into custody. They charged him with wreckless endangerment and vehicular manslaughter. They claimed it was because he had been negligent in preparing his vehicle. Ethan’s lawyer felt that he could fight the charges and that he would be fine.
He was not fine. He had been sentenced and he would do time. Ethan had been in prison for three years when he was suddenly whisked away. At first he was just grateful to be out of prison, but he soon realized that he was just switching wardens. Out of one set of shackles and into another. He didn’t even get a say in it. Not that he would choose to go back. This reality was far better than the reality he was forced to live there.
Ethan was a large man. He was strong. He had one of those faces that people saw and got a little scared. The accident had left large scars on his face. A jagged line ran down his face straight through his right eye. His right eye that he hadn’t been able to see out of since that wretched day. This made some people think that he was a terrible person. That he had done some terrible things to get into Ironhold Penitentiary. He hadn’t but most people didn’t know that. He didn’t talk much to anybody.
Every once in a while someone tried to prove that they were tough. They did this by picking a fight with the biggest guy they could find. It was always Ethan. They never won. Each fight he got involved in looked worse and worse for him. He had tried to appeal but had lost due to his record inside Ironhold. Yet another injustice he had to face. He couldn’t do anything about it. He had resigned himself to his lot in life.
But now, his lot had changed. It had lit a bonfire inside of him. He no longer felt powerless, he felt powerful. Extremely powerful.
When he had seen the class choices he had known immediately what he would pick. It just felt right to him.
Mirage- if you don’t like your reality, change it. Specializes in altering reality or creating illusions.
It seemed like there were two aspects to this class. Creating illusions and altering reality. He didn’t know for sure what that all entailed but it didn’t matter. That first sentence resonated with him on a fundamental level. He hated his current reality and he decided that he would never hate his reality again. Once it became something he didn’t like, he would change it.
The first few days on Morathis were hard. He had been trying to do something with his class and nothing was working. In his initiation he was told that he would be able to learn skills in his class to help him. He had yet to unlock any skills. He was trying to focus on the altering reality aspect of it as he didn’t really want to become an illusionist. He had been fighting those stupid panther things almost nonstop the entire time. He had killed some of them and ever since, they would not relent. They had been tracking him for a few hours now and they were hot on Ethan’s trail.
He hid in a dilapidated building for what seemed like the hundredth time. So far his muscles were his only tool. They had gotten the job done but only just. Now there were at least six of the panthers following him. More than he had dealt with before. He wasn’t confident that he would make it out of this scuffle alive.
A panther crossed into his field of view and sniffed in the air. It turned in his direction and called the others. Ethan decdided that he was tired of playing cat and mouse. He was going to face them. He wasn’t a coward. He hated his reality right now and he was going to change it.
The first panther charged. The others began circling around him to box him in. The charging panther bounded over the fallen debris and raised roadways that created obstacles between it and its prey. It looked easy.
If only these things weren’t as agile. I’m strong but I’m not quick enough to fight all of them.
The panther continued forward but just as it was going to make its final pounce, the ground fell out from under it. Ethan could see from where he stood why stepping there was a bad idea. A building had collapsed and from the top looked solid but from below Ethan could see that barely anything was supporting it. When the panther landed and then jumped, it had put enough pressure on the precarious structure to cause it to crumble.
Off balance the now falling panther tumbled into the collapsing building, disappearing into the dust and debris. A yelp sounded off as the rest of the building collapsed on top of it.
“Ok. Five left,” Ethan said a little unsure of what had happened exactly.
They began attacking one by one but it was the beginning of the end. Each time one of the panthers had attacked, something went wrong. A paw would hit some loose gravel causing the panther to slide out of control. Ethan would duck and two panthers would collide as they dove from opposite sides. A panther would charge and Ethan would feint going one way and go the other causing the panther to dive the wrong way into a wall. Each of these blunders would leave an opening which Ethan would take advantage of. Eventually the panthers grew tired and retreated. Only the initial panther dying.
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Ethan had no doubt they would be back eventually but he was glad that he had made it out of that relatively unharmed. He wondered what had changed when he decided to look at his status screen.
Reality Alteration
While staying true to you and your desires, dreams, and goals, you will have expanded authority on your reality. You can make subtle changes to the world around you. Changes can have unpredictable consequences. Care and restraint are advised.
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“This is the best day of my life!” Sophia screamed from the top of the building she was perched on.
She had always been a rather free spirit, much to her parents chagrin. “Always partying, staying out late, and having a little too much fun for a girl her age.” At least that’s what her parents told her almost everyone she saw them. She didn’t hold it against them though.
She loved her parents. They had always supported her. Sophia knew that they just wanted what was best for her. They just lead a different lifestyle than she did. Her parents had met out high school. They went to all the dances together, did all the things high schoolers did together, and when her mom had gotten pregnant their senior year, they did that together too. She felt like because they had grown up together, they thought she needed that as well.
That was fine and all but she just hasn’t met someone that she was willing to spend her life with like that. She saw the way that her parents looked at each other and she just didn’t see that with anyone she dated.
Instead she found joy elsewhere. Some might call her an adrenaline junkie, but she would consider herself as bold and daring. That had a more positive connotation. Sophia had gone to college and had a lucrative career as a lawyer for the biggest firm in her city. Since she had no dependents, she had a lot of disposable income which she spent on experiences.
She had done all sorts of fun things over the years but her favorite was when she was in the air. Whether that be skydiving, base jumping, bungee jumping paragliding, or her personal favorite, wing suit flying.
She loved flying so much that she had invested in getting a pilots license and plane. Sure it was fun and convenient when she wanted to travel but it wasn’t the same. She couldn’t feel the wind in her face or gravity being overcome as she lifted up through the air. There was something special about being out there. She felt free. That was what she was always searching for and that is the only place that she had achieved it. True freedom.
So after she got over the fact that she kidnapped, conscripted, and shipped out, she started to assess her options. She was promised great power with conditions. She had been free to do almost anything she wanted before but now she was limited to an extent. It didn’t make her upset though. It had granted her the thing she loved the most. She dove off of the building and flew down as fast as she could. As she started approaching the bottom, her form began to change. She changed into peregrine falcon in her favorite shade of purple. She dove down at 200 mph and before she hit the ground, she extended her wings and flew. For the first time in her life she could actually fly. Now she was really free.
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Cameron Hayes. The classic big brother. Though he didn’t have any blood siblings. He didn’t have any blood relatives at all. He grew up in the system. He had always had the hope that someone would adopt him but as he grew older he knew that was getting less and less likely. Nobody wanted to adopt a 12 year old boy. They wanted the cute ones. Even the girls still had an ok chance to get adopted as they got older. Boys just didn’t get adopted most of the time after getting too old. He had accepted this. It’s just how things worked.
Growing up in the system was hard. He always had to protect his stuff. Things got stolen all the time if you weren’t careful. Other kids would try to take what was yours too if you couldn’t protect yourself. This mentality always pissed Cameron off. Why would the very people who knew exactly what an orphan was going through, put other orphans through more bad things? It just grated him the wrong way.
When these bullies would try to take his things though, they quickly learned that he wasn’t a pushover. He fought back. It didn’t matter how many guys they had with them, he always fought back. A lot of times all this meant was that not only would they take his stuff, but he would also get the crap beat out of him. He would never back down though. Eventually someone would come by and break up the fight or they would just get tired and leave him. A lot of people thought he was weird for this but Cameron didn’t really care.
When bullies would go for the little kids, Cameron would get even more mad. They couldn’t do anything to defend themselves. They should be protected, not preyed on. So, anytime he saw it he stepped in on their behalf. This lead to him being seen as everyone’s big brother. He was fine with that as it made him feel like he finally had a family. The others looked up to him and that just made him try harder to be a good example for them. He tried hard in school, he joined all the clubs he could, he played sports. Most important of all though, he had their backs.
Eventually the bullies stopped targeting the younger kids and just focused on Cameron. He had gotten stronger with age though. Playing football didn’t hurt his physique either. A sensible person would think twice about picking a fight with him but nobody accused bullies of being sensible people. Normally they had ego problems. The stability that Cameron represented was a threat to their egos. They couldn’t do what they wanted with him around so they tried to remove him.
The bullies were not as resilient as Cameron. After they kept losing, they eventually relented. Each loss diminishing their resolve and only strengthening Cameron’s.
This made Cameron’s decision easy when the class choices came around. He would pick Might, without a doubt. It felt like it was tailor made for him. If he got hit, he would hit back harder no matter what came at him.
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Alex and Lila continued through the lab. Each tunnel ended with the same thing, a golem and a new room to explore. Alex had made significant progress with both his levels and his quest.
Alex Sullivan
Race- Human
Class- Shift
Level- 5
Strength-25
Agility- 14
Intelligence- 7
Durability- 37
Endurance- 20
Health- 370/370
Stamina- 200/200
P.E.- 0/370
Advanced Morathian weapon blueprints recovered- 3/5
Advanced Morathian armor blueprints recovered- 2/5
Advanced Morathian weapons recovered- 2/3
Advanced Morathian armor recovered- 1/3
Rewards determined based on performance at end of tutorial. Tutorial ends in- 29 days 14 hours 23 minutes 14 seconds.
A little more than half of the tutorial was over. The initial rooms had taken the longest to clear, but as they got stronger the golems were easier and easier to defeat.
Even sharing the loot with Lila, they were nearly finished with the quest. Most of the items that they found were not very useful for them. Lila had discarded the sleep stick as a primary weapon. It just wasn’t very practical at the moment and with some experimentation they found it could only be fired three times a day. Not very useful at all. Instead she had opted to use another bracelet she had found. It sent out a sound wave that worked pretty good to stun enemies. The effect didn’t last very long but it was enough to help her land some of her larger, slower icicles for maximum damage output. She also still used the shield bracelet. Nothing else was very useful to her so she just stowed them in a back pack that she had found in one of the rooms.
Alex also didn’t find much that he could use. Everything was useful but they felt like they had been made for specific purposes. Too specific really. He had an item that could knock out an entire building worth of Fyrion soldiers but it was coded to their DNA. In other words, it didn’t work on anything else. It still counted towards his quest items so he didn’t really care but it just solidified their theory that the Starbound Coalition didn’t really need this stuff and it was just a way to get them stronger.
One thing they had found that just made Alex giddy every time he thought about it was the singular armor item he had found. He prayed to the Forge that it would let him keep it. It seemed like it was designed for him. He knew more about this item because at level five the Forge deemed him worthy of a little more help. He had received an identification skill.
Symbiotic Biomechanical Armor
Armor that fuses with the host at a genetic level. Composed of organic matter. Upon binding, armor attaches to host’s neural pathways enabling cohesive movement between host and armor. Due to its biomechanical nature, science is melded with body fluidly. Enhances innate abilities of host through the armor. Armor is considered the users own flesh. When damaged, armor can self repair using host’s vitality. Armor can be retracted into storage ring that must remain on host at all times. Removal of ring results in a loss of symbiosis. Loss of symbiosis will result in the destruction of armor. To improve symbiosis further, armor can be given compatible organic material.