The Voyager

Caz started for the platform that Verax stood on, but a few more of the soldiers still stood blocking the way. Caz charged for them without much hesitation, but realized too late what they were doing. They were destroying the bolts that suspended the bridge. Just as the last one broke free, Caz spun around, dashing up towards the platform on the other side, but then the bridge swung down into the abyss. Caz clung to the bridge as best he could, but his grip would not last forever, would not last long.

"Verax! I... I can't hold on!"

Verax roared, he should have seen this! The soldiers were expendable, so its no wonder they would do something like destroying the bridge. He put it together too late, the bridge collapsed and Caz fell with it. But he would beat himself up with a wall over it later, Caz needed help! Verax had never used his abilities before for non-harmful purposes, so it was difficult for him to work with this, but he managed to create a new bridge leading up to his made of solid water (Not ice, but like water, just, hard and things don't go through it) from underneath Caz. Verax found that using these new abilities he ahd aquired became easier and easier to use each time he called upon them. He called out, "Its okay, you can drop! And hurry! We're getting closer! Its not much farther ahead."

(We're still on planet. Sub-atmosphere transport in spaceships.)

Caz dropped, landing smoothly on the bridge's surface. He nodded up at Verax in gratitude, and half-gallopped half-sprinted up the rest of the way. He met Verax on the platform, plowing through any and all soldiers in his way, their bullets mostly bouncing off the protective armoring Caz had added. "Let's go!"

Verax nodded, then yelled as he charged out the door. Tearing through soldiers, weaving in and out and through paths, the two eventually reached the hanger. "Heh, well, that was easier than I thought it would be. Now all we have to do is wait for Fluffy- OH GOD-" A Warmech, easily a hundred feet tall and covered in heavy armor, bristling with guns and rockets, fell from the ceiling and on the ground in front of the two. It pointed one of its stubby arms, a tank barrel, at the two and Lurinia's voice called out from inside the mech.
"YOU ARE NOT LEAVING!" Verax laughed, stretched, and got into a fighting position.
"You think after surviving an onslaught from an army, THIS will stop us?"

The being appeared, nearly in the center of the massive ship known as "Voyager", in the blink of an eye. One moment he was not there, and a nano-second later he was.

The strange room, which was dark in the seconds before, was not lit as if the whole room was filled with lava lamps and plasma balls of different colors. Some of the light seemed to bounce off of the strange metal in the walls, causing an ever increasing amount of light to exist in the room.

Archon, who-used-to-be Archelaus, quickly absorbed some the light emanating from

As quiet and as furious as the explosion of a star, Archon ghosted forward, melding through the doors of the supply closet instead of bothering to lift his elemental infused appendages (Which formed and reformed in strange patters, natural, instead a part of Archon's will). His extra senses, beyond mere sight, sound, and smell sent trillions of MRI data to Archon's mind, (which did not truly exist) into it's semi-physical manifestation. It would appear that Archon was inside of some kind of room, in a house, surrounded by a large dome with bio-chemical properties similar to that of livable planets in the nega dimensions.

Humor rolled off the ever chaging form of Archon. He has transported himself into a cupboard.
Very heroic.

Or at least, if Archelaus has still been controlling the form directly, that would have passed through his mind.
As it was, Archon simply levitated by the power of the wind forward, straining his considerable mental powers, (most likely stronger then the entire druidic council put together, but it is hard to tell, as there is nothing to compare it to.) across the reaches of the strange world-within-a-vessel he had encountered.

And he found... nothing. No life, just metal, plastics, ceramics, and polymers, among a few other substances.
A charge of slight bewilderment shot through Archon, as he continued his mental search. Drifting, Archon analyzed the situation.

Nothing, and no one... how could this be? You could effectively fit hundreds of millions upon a ship of this size... and indeed, that seemed its purpose, to house people of roughly humanoid body type.
Then why was it so empty? Disease? Disaster of some kind? What could kill the hopes of a vessel so incredibly large?

Increasing speed, Archon vaulted through different walls and parts of the ship, headed for the heaviest electro-magnetic readings. Those readings would hopefully lead him to some kind of working computer module.

And what was its purpose? It would be far easier to simply settle on another planet?
Who could have even built this ship? What true purpose does it serve?

Questions flew around him, as Archon steadfastly shot toward the readings.

Why?

Only time would tell.

Caz looked up at the mech, wondering how Verax could be so confident. The thing was huge. How could they even hope to take it down? But there was something interesting; Caz felt powerful. He felt like his energy supply was larger somehow, but that it didn't matter how much energy he used, it didn't reduce his own energy. It was like he had an endless supply, somehow...

((Idea: can Verax have prisoners on his ship, some of them Alteriian? Then Caz's Neiede can be one of them; I have someone ready to start rping as that char. If that's not okay, I'll edit my post.))

<ofc>

So, I had though that finding your niede didn't just happen by sensing them. I thought you had to have the characters know each other first.
Just like true love at first sight is a sham, it might lead to love, but love is a relationship not a feeling.
That was just how I thought of it personally.

It makes more sense in the story, I suppose, to have it the other way... but... oh well.

Means more that way maybe.

Perhaps you could work in some way of alerting Caz to the presence of the prisoners, and then have him demand to rescue them, convincing Verax to help him by reasoning that they would need back-up to take the hanger... or something...

You can do it however you would like.
^personal preference

<IC>

Archon formed through a mostly-steel door frame, absorbing it, as he catapulted into the computer modulation room. With a quick scan, Archon determined it was an environmental containment room to control things like air pressure, moisture of the air, temperature, light, and a few other variables.

It had no connections anything useful, then to the overarching energy grid of the massive vessel.

However, strangely enough,
It appeared that nearly the entire ship had been left un-powered... Section upon section empty, mile after mile wasted.

Archon's form smoldered darker. There had been people to fill these rooms, at least at some point. He knew that some kind of horror had inflicted itself on these people...

His voice echoed mystically across the empty control room.

"Verax. If it was you who has done this... I will do more than simply end you."

Archon attempted to open up the power grid of the ship, perfectly aware that he would alert anyone watching, and attempted to access any of the other systems, creating passageways through code and firewall of his own. However, the interface he had available was limited. After a few minutes of traveling through the massive computer system, Archon was acutely aware of the limited capacity.

Then something fluttered into Archon's awareness... it was alive obviously, in order to have thoughts and emotions... and yet it was not centered. It had no spirit. The effect was similar to meeting the curious clockwork machine, except that it was more... like... information, and less a being.

The being which had been flying about intentionally appeared to notice his mind and it's presence. Suddenly, the green light, if minds and souls can be colors, started to burn a deep red and black.

Archon paid little attention to the being. He had an objectives to fulfill. That was his purpose, with Archelaus gone into the Tragorix Nuandla, (or, The Emerald Path) he had missions to complete and light to restore.

That is not to say Archon was without emotions... for indeed he was the opposite. He embraced each emotion all of the way through, into the point where he could control it. He was ultimate anger, and ultimate justice... or as close as a single being could be.

It is from these emotions that Archon felt, or rather sensed would be more accurate, the scorching and broken minds of dozens of creatures advanced toward his location, increasing speed with each meter they closed.
Archon steadied himself, and then exited the room through the nearest wall into what appeared to be some kind of field, evidently used for sports according to the ancient markings wrapped around the sides.

Archon waited. These shattered and fierce minds did not pose a threat to him... they allowed him access to more information. As the howls and screams became louder to his ears, Archon thought idly, "Who would want this madness but Verax?"

Then the things rounded the corner...

((GAH! Do you know how hard you just made this for me? But oh well, I SHALT WORK WITH IT! And yes, Verax does have 'prisoners' aboard, but he treats them with respect, and even keeps them comfortable. Also, Archie, you put Verax instead of Archon in the eighth in-character paragraph.))

Lurinia laughed, on the inside, she had a new pawn. "Hello Archon, previously Archelaus, High Druid of the Alteriians. Neiede to Aurora Somnis. You seek revenge? You seek to free the Alteriians in the prison thirty floors above you? Well, Verax is in the hanger, and he has set his warmech on Caz, hurry if you wish to save him!" (Yes, she is heard everywhere in the ship)

"WHAT? What did you say? Arch is here, and he- oh no.... Caz! Lets end this qui- no.... do you know now why you've been powered up on my ship? I forgot, thats why I had so many Alteriians.... to see if......" He turned to Caz. "GO! Go back to the engine room, and two-thousand-seven-hundred-and-fifty-eight floors down! THERE will be you answer! I'll hold off rustbucket here! DO NOT HAVE THE WORRIES!" He laughed "I've fought ARMIES on my own, I'll hold! And FLUFFY wil be here any minute! GO!" Verax lunged at the mech, jumping through the air, punching, slashing, shooting the mech. He fought like a demon, whirling this way and that, channeling his inner imbalance into a violent whirlwind of utter chaos.

OOC: See, I always interpreted it that the two did not have to know each other. Caz doesn't know that's what's going on because he doesn't know what it's like to have a Neiede. It's SOMEWHAT like love at first sight, but not exactly because it's a spiritual link. I don't think they'd need to know each other because of the spiritual nature of it. Also, you'll probably yell at me for what I'm about to do, too. But all you need to know for now is that I want the Neiede links to manifest in different ways. Archie and Tam's manifests as want to protect each other and love. But Caz and his Neiede's will be... different.

IC:

Caz glanced at Verax, and then he ran for the door. But when he reached it, he looked back. "Verax! Be careful! Arch... he's strong, stronger than you maybe! Just... hurry, get out of here!"

And then Caz kept running. He wasn't sure why, but he ran anyways. As he made it out the door he shifted back to true form, simply moving around everything that stood in his way. He headed down, dropping through the void in the previous room and landing at the bottom, unhurt of course because of his lack of much mass. There was, in fact, a service door. He exited using it, going down the last few flights of stairs, and came to the floor that Verax had indicated. As he neared, he felt even stronger. And.... Alteriians? Wait... could it be.... but....

And Caz's eyes widened as the connections finaly hit, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

No.

No, no, no. Never.

And Caz turned back around. He went back to the stairs, his mind made, and slowly, one step at a time, forced himself away, away from the Alteriian that was almost... without a doubt...

His Neiede.

No. No. I'm not leaving Zyria.

Never.

<OFC lol... I'll fix it, but I have to go to school first.

(They are Lurinia's?)

That's fine Aurora...>

"He may be powerful, but I have grown. Should we fight again..... I shall win." He returned to Lurinia, the mech now damaged beyond repair, but not beyond deadly functionality. "Give it up lovey. I win. Any minute now, Fluffy will be here. You can't beat me." Lurinia laughed, that airy, teenaged, ANNOYING laugh.
"I don't need minutes, I need seconds. Any moment now, Archon will be here, and we will crush you. You are not that powerful."
"To think I even cared for you.... but it is no matter. I am more powerful than any Alteriian, I am more powerful......THAN ANY ONE BEING! FOR I AM VERAX! MASTER OF THE IDOA! You will NEVER defeat me, you cannot fight that which is not, you cannot be victorious over nothing, you cannot destroy what is not there, you face Verax!" And to punctuate this, he became enveloped in a black aura, as a layer of nothingness, a layer of rendered space, void, crept over him, transforming him, the layer of negative energy giving him a new demonic form. A swirling mass of black and dark grey, eyes two piercing red slits on his now bat-eared void-covered head, hands massive claws, cape tattered to shreds, he spoke with the same anger and terrifying power.
"I understand now why you were reluctant to let me return the the 6th..... you feared my growing power, for the more powerful I was the harder it would be to control me. Well guess what? I'm taking my ship BACK. I will right the wrongs I have committed. I am the Dreadlord, the Harbinger of Chaos, the Dragonmaster, I AM VERAX!" Lurinia wailed..... then began to laugh.
"Okay Dreadlord.... I have to return to the command bridge! To prevent you from destroying Mars! Archon, please, buy me time!" And at that, the mech collapsed, devoid of power and control.
"What!? He's not-" Verax whirled around to see him. Arch. The fight had come to him.

((Lol this is gonna be awesome. Caz's part of this... is just waiting on our new player, I think. I have someone coming in to play Caz's Neiede.))

((Thats cool, in the meantime, we insert an EPIC BATTLE SEQUENCE.))

Archon did not wish to listen to the strange haunting voice which was dead in body, in control of a dead ship...
But as he saw it, he had no choice.
Nor did it matter really, what she wished him to do, as long as he destroyed Verax.

Now Archon existed for little purpose other then to stop evil, and Verax was decidedly evil. Perhaps not un-heal-able, but not worth the effort and the millions of lives he might take before that point was reached...

So Archon stared balefully at the creations approaching him... evidently of Verax's design

(Although Lurinia was the one that actually created them. She was experimenting on Alteriians to find a way to imbue a new body with Rolxan, and had created these... things... in the process.)

They no longer stood near the light, and must be destroyed.

The first of the them, a warped and twisted looking creature, wrapped some kind of appendage around Archon, before the flames that enveloped him simply burned it into nothing, even as the creature howled in pain and attempted to evade him.
Perhaps it might have succeeded, had Archon not lifted one limb wreathed in a deep purple plasma, and shot a bolt of lightning so strong into it that it crashed through the wall behind it into the next creature, and off of a precipice.

(ANNNND I ahve to go, so I'll finish this later)

Archon took what constituted for him a deep breath, and plunged into the depths of the ship to bring up a huge ball of metal, already melting into an aqueous solution, and hurled it like a giant baseball at the next two abominations, both of which nearly evaporated in the intense heat, which dribbled around the room. The molten ball continued rolling for several dozen meters, before finally solidifying (mostly) and sticking to what appeared to be some kind of bio-technological lab... undoubtedly where the cursed beings originated.

With every movement, the elemental cursed the fiend that had done this, whether any good came from it or not.

The last couple of the evil creations slowed their wild attack, and took a few moments to gauge up their opponent more warily.

One shot a stream of poison and rot at him from some kind of pouch underneath its over-muscled forearms, which Archleaus did not even attempt to dodge, but merely stood there as it sizzled softly in front of him with no effect.

Every image Archon had ever seen had been molded into his memory, but these beings were branded into his mind. Their twisted movements showed nothing but pain. They had no hope... and they must be destroyed.

Archon grasped his opponents heads with the Rolxan... and it was done. Their lifeless bodies slipped to the floor, almost eloquently, showing the peace in death that they could not have in life.

Archon warily destroyed their empty carcasses... "... Verax..." He called...

"Verax! Do you hear me? Curse your name! Life despises you! The cycle of the Naru forgets you! Your own rage blinds you to the love of the universe around you! What cause could you have to do this evil...
And so many others, some greater, some lesser... What justification does your pitiless and remorseless mind provide? What cause are you serving? Your own? How did their deaths benefit even you?
Your amusement?

Wretched fiend.

Prepare to die..."

Suddenly Archon's voice catapulted into the realm he was in, echoing like drops of water in a cave, and raging like the destruction of a Black hole. Light without escape, darkness that is not truly dark.

"DO YOU HEAR ME VERAX!!?" Archon nearly screamed, into the great cold metal nothing around him. His words ringing hollow, to ears that would not hear, his voice echoing down passageways that were devoid of life.
An Element outside of the elements... created to destroy, in order so that others could live.
"DO YOU HEAR ME? PREPARE TO DIE, SPAWN OF THE DEAMON! DIE.
Die so that life may live."

Archon's 'voice' grew nearly silent and his words rang deadly sharp, akin to the Zal'Mangresh, (The Whistling Death) the famous Ratanaka of the Alteriians. Like the Alteriian weapon, there was no mercy, there was no hesitation. There was only resolve and wrath.

"Die, so that Aurora may have a place to live in this world un-threatened by destruction... in peace, and in love."

His voice grew as cold as the glaciers swirling about his ever-swirling form.

"Die."

Archon shot upwards, heading toward the main control panels of the ship, at incredible speeds, hampered only by his desire to destroy major sections of the ship as he went... and indeed... Archon was very adept at destruction. Everywhere he past, he left a raging inferno of righteous anger. His zealousness left acidic plasma on every surface he neared...

Archon's flames only burned brighter as he raged toward his goal...

<OFC>

Okay, we need to have Archon talk to Lurinia now...!
Tag you're it, Jacob.

(Explodes.)

Lurinia was unamused at the destruction Archelaus was causing, and thus responed with setting in motion self-repair sequences. Appearing before Archelaus, or now Archon, she set up a barrier-like cage around him, similar to the outside of the ship, where the more powerful the forces trying tp break the cage were, the stronger the barrier became. ".... Hello. Before we make any other introductions High Druid Archelaus of the Alteriians, I must request that you stop this sensless destuction at once, or I will destroy Mars. Is this agreeable?"

Archon stopped suddenly in mid-flight in the space of a tenth of a second, his being resting halfway through another floor of metal.

Not paying attention to the holographic voice playing from circuitry somewhere in the corner of the room he was melting, Archon looked at the strange cage in front of him.

Parallel bars wrapped around him in an almost-spherical shape, accounting for Archon's rough dimensions. He attempted to lift an extension of himself to collect more data about the strange machine, and found that in the movement the forces of the cage multiplied.

"A Chinese finger trap... except bigger..." Archon thought. "Clearly this ship's program does not understand the full extent of my power." He briefly considered stepping into "The Beyond" and teleporting himself outside the barrier, as it was doubtful that the cage extended into that realm...

But Archon did not want to "escape", he wanted to break something, destroy something... was angry, an Elemental, he was The Strength of the Universe, at odds and powerful because of the perfect harmony his body gave, as a conduit for the forces to flow through.

So instead, Archon merely reversed the processes of his being, in effect "flipping the poles" and started to simply absorb the cage into his being.

All of this transpired in the length of about three seconds.

Archon however, did not continue on his wild extravaganza of destruction. Instead he decided to give this... program... his attention.

Archon's voice was devoid of any kind of emotion as he spoke:
"I do not think you deserve the grace of a greeting, program, but as it is you could prove useful to me. Tell me where Verax is...
NOW.
Or I will be forced to find him myself... but know, if that happens, then I will return destroy this ship, one floor at a time until I reach a critical area and let this hunk of metal erupt into a ball of flames. You are unable to destroy me, unable to stop me. You can try to run, you can try to hide,
But nothing and no-one escapes an Elemental.
And especially not Archon.

You have exactly fifteen seconds to tell me where he is, and then I will make my decision."

Archon floated in the mist of evaporating metal he was creating and awaited the program's reply.

"Verax is in the 54th portside hanger. Torturing Drel-Caz. He created the abomanations you faced. Now that I have the ship repairing itself, I supposed I should thank you. Now I know how to uprgrade the ship should you ever try to destroy it again, to avoid these.... unnessisary repairs. Please, save your friend, kill Verax, and depart without destroying the ship. Hurry though, Verax aims to escape with Caz, and let you destroy both the ship and Caz's Neiede, whom Verax has also subjected to horrific torture." Lurinia was quite pleased with her lying capabilities. Though, she was also glad she gave Archon this... semblence of power. If she had wanted him contained, he would not be able to escape. Though with a false sense of freedom, he'd be much more useful.

Ma'at beat his hands on the bars of the prison. No matter how damn cushy this cell was, it was still a prison. A single, angry tear ran down his face. Verax would pay for this, that bastard would pay for killing his parents. Ma'at screamed at the top of his lungs like a madman- in fact, the only thing keeping him sane right now was the thought of sinking a bullet into Verax's chest.

He sighed and sank to his knees. It seemed doubtful he would ever escape, at this point. But then he heard footsteps, loud and fast- coming towards him. His head shot up and he searched around for the source of the noise. A man rushed into the room, and Ma'at's world snapped.

It was as if the rope that had been connecting him to life had been cut and he was falling. Falling... falling... until a hand reached out- this man's hand- and caught him. It held him gently and warmly, and all Ma'at could feel was love and strength.

He looked up into the man's eyes and smiled. "Hello, I'm Ma'at."

(Ah hello there! I suppose you'll be filling the role as Caz's Neiede? .... I confused. I thought A neiede happened like with Aurora and Archelaus, like with a guy and a girl. But meh, I really don't care. WELCOME ABOARD THE S.S. CARNAGE, NEXT STOP, UNTOLD DESTRUCTION!)

[HIYA CAT! I guess I may as well call you that now, since it fits on here as well. I'll never type out your whole name again, just like Klyde. XD Anyway, Verax, a Neiede is a member of the two species that gives each other power, for Caz's race, the power to asexually reproduce. It's in Tam's stories, check'em out. Or not, since you don't really care. JUST WANTED TO WELCOME CAT AND TELL HER SHE'S DESTROYED ZYRIA. kthxbye XD ]

((Heh, heh. Hi guys. (Especially you, err Zyria xD I'm going to have to get used to calling you that). Eeyup- I'm Caz's Neide We'll probably be redefining perimeters for this whole Neide thing so it'll make sense, though... Eh, I'll let Tam handle it ))