Just Reading: Xian does research
Like many others before him, Xian was starting to see the benefits of reading, a past time that many other channelers had began to ignore in previous eras.  Xian’s reading however was of a more specific nature than most, pertaining to his possible future ambitions. Fortunately for Xian, he would learn that the laws pertaining to one of his greatest ambitions, that of genetic research had become quite lax in some countries, especially those in the middle east, no doubt thanks to Rayad Demar’s affiliations with a number of the leaders of countries in that area.  However, at the same time, though the laws were laxed, those engaged in this form of research tended to have far less privacy in these areas, having to report monthly to a regulatory board with the full extents of their research, including future plans and any findings.   Needless to say, the integrities of the boards were kept exceedingly high, an attempt to reassure researchers that they would not be stolen from and that their intellectual and academic properties would remain where they rightfully should, however, it did mean that they were forced to be exceedingly above board with their methods.  The next most lenient area was East Asia, followed by the United States, with such research being frown on in most South American countries and outlawed in western Europe and the Caribbean.  However, in the middle east, as long as experiments were kept within the confines of the laboratory, and there was no inhuman or illegal treatment of organisms, there was practically no limit to what scientists could attempt.  In East Asia and America, genetic research that could possibly be used in combat was restricted to military use and in other areas it was outlawed completely.  Xian sighed loudly.  Continuing to read on before he moved onto his next topic. His research on ethereal systems didn’t bare any particularly note worthy fruits, simply further refining his knowledge of ethereal physics, and refreshing him on some of the finer aspects of channelling.  His particular search was geared towards the phenomenon of Perfect Summoning but needless to say, the few that had managed to achieve this made no attempts to make the process public knowledge, leaving little to no information for Xian to find. His final research item was that of scanning method, a search that all proved quite fruitless, as despite channelers and their unique forms of scanning, most conventional scanning was quite basic active scanning.  All this meant was that they transmitted a frequency of energy, and reabsorbed it, using the changes in the properties of the energy to determine what it had interacted with and hence make a digital map of the environment.  Xian found a number of different energy, that could be used to pass through and reflect off of different substances, but their was little information other than that that he could find.  With this in mind, Xian took his leave, to reflect of the situation more thoroughly using Experience Mastery.
Outcome:
Xian: +18 Exp
Awareness: 5 Exp	Technical: 5 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 4 Exp

 

Guess I'm Walking: Jodienne does some exploring
“So Cassidy, what can you tell me about this place?”  Jodienne questioned to her new travelling companion, the small Automa which she recently purchased for her travels. “This area is Field Class and is hence quite dangerous for you to be travelling alone.  The relief is relatively flat, with a number of low altitude cliffs to your west and more gentle slopes to your east, creating a passage-like valley through the terrain.  The nation of Africa is known for it’s well of wild-life, however, this area is uninhabited by natural wildlife due to the effects of the cataclysm, and the pre-existing harsh environmental factors.”  Cassidy, the Tekera class Automa explained. “I see, not at all very interesting…”  Jodienne sighed, breaking from the path and making her way over to one of the cliff faces to her west. The short detour took just a few minutes with Jodienne powered up, and once she made her way over to the cliffs, her Iron Spider made traversing up the cliff quite easy.  At the top, she could see for miles.  The terrain slowly changed as it continued westward, becoming more lush, and taking on an appearance of an environment able to actually sustain life.  Cassidy made its way up the side of the cliff face, turning its attention towards the area that Jodienne was facing. “That direction will lead you to the Obunga Nature Reserve, the 3rd largest reserve on the African continent.” Cassidy started. “Anything of interest?”  Jodienne inquired. “There are over 200 species of animals in that location and over 1000 species of plants, the environment has been recreated using zeta based technologies to create an environment capable of sustaining all of these creatures.”  Jodienne looked at Cassidy, seeming somewhat bored.  “From you expression I conclude that there would be nothing of interest in that direction.”  Jodienne nodded, jumping off the cliff face and making her way back to the path where she would continue on her journey to Egypt, a journey that would provide quite uneventful for the young explorer. “Maybe I’ll have more luck once I get to Egypt.” She thought to herself, setting Cassidy to remind her to make an exploration run once she reached her destination.
Outcome:
Jodienne: +18 Exp
Awareness: 7 Exp	Technical: 5 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 2 Exp	Control: 4 Exp

 

Hawkeye Cy: Cy trains yet again
Cy had a relatively simplistic training session planned today, compared to the sessions of the recent pass that is. For today's session he had lugged along his bag of shuriken and decided to work on his hand eye coordination and accuracy. Unfortunately for Cy, starting at small targets was a bad idea with his current lowly accuracy stat, and Cy moved up to slightly bigger targets like tree trunks and other make shift targets. After a few hours cy found himself being able to move onto slightly smaller targets from even further away. Satisfied with the increase, he upped the ante to phase 2. Powering up his micro he shut his eyes and began to feel his environment within his area of influence. Identifying potential targets with the fibres he lined up his arms with the fibres at release of his throws, when he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see that he had hit most of his targets using that method, however it was a little slower than aiming the regular way, if more accurate. "Hmmm, this warrants further investigation," Cy though to himself as he collected his shuriken and left.
Outcome:
Cy: +15 Exp
Awareness: 2 Exp	Technical: 0 Exp
Accuracy: 11 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 2 Exp	Control: 0 Exp

 

Nano - Engineering: Iolus attempts to build a nanobot
Iolus had some highly ambitious pland that day, the first being to attempt to create a nanobot. With his Psion, he scooped up preciseley a micrometer of dirt, which he held in place with considerable concentration, next he applied his Haphaestus to molding the dirt, extracting metal compounds from it as well as silicate, dropping waste and scooping up more dirt and refining to keep up his micrometer value. It took intense concentration but knowing what he needed to identify, thanks to his library visits. He managed to leave behind the core liquid metal and silicate compounds he needed to start on a nanobot. Whipping out the bluepring of a nanobot he had down loaded from library archives he began fashioning these core components into a nano bot, yet though he tried for hours he realised he did not have enough precise control over his energy to manipulate the small amounts of material on a scale so small he could not imagine with his limited technical know how to begin to replicate, frustrated he tossed the tiny piece of metal and sillicate away and called it a day though he had gained considerable knowledge and experience in trying to create his nanobot. He would head off to report his findings on the gate to the sponsors of the quest.
Outcome:
Iolus: +34 Exp
Awareness: 0 Exp	Technical: 20 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 14 Exp	Control: 0 Exp

 

Uninvited Guest: Roun and Xavier duel and are ambushed by Tiana
“So are you really contemplating this whole Rogue thing?”  Ryuu inquired to his brother, failing to see Roun of all people as an enforcer of the law. “I guess I could consider joining them… I mean what other options do I have?  There’s the Demai, the very name of evil… the Mercenaries, where I’d probably end up cutting throats for a price and then they’re the Xelots… who’re French… fail.”  Roun reasoned to a mused Ryuu. “So you save the world cuz it’s the lesser evil?”  He jested. “Heh, pretty much.”  Roun replied, causing them both to laugh, drawing a slight stir from young Leonardo who was still recovering from their run-in with Dracula, resting on Ryuu's shoulder as they walked. “So, where’s Stryke?” Ryuu now inquired, looking over to Roun, who was checking his Data Pad. “Should be close, he said he’d meet me around here when I contacted him this morning.”  Roun replied, noticing Xavier just moments later. The two Itamis made their way over to Xavier now, performing their casual salutations before getting down to business. “So, what is it with this ‘list’ that you were telling me about?”  Xavier now inquired, only mildly intrigued by it all, but deciding to humour Roun, an old acquaintance. “I don’t know too much about it, like I said, but I’ve been able to find out a couple names on the list.  So far, there’s You, Ryuu, me, a guy named Hyaku and this chick named Tyler, the last two being Rogues… that makes five out of the seven people on this list.  I figure that I know what 4 of the seven can do, so if I find out what all seven of us can do, and what we have in common, I can probably figure out exactly why we’re all on the same list.” Roun explained, drawing a sceptical nod from Xavier. “I see…”  He paused, considering the situation.  “Whatever, I’ve been bored anyway, so power up and lets go… before I change my mind.”  Roun nodded, he would need to hear no more. Without any hesitation, Roun powered up, slamming his hands together before planting them in the ground, illuminating the area.  Xavier shrugged, powering up as well, allowing his permanent attributes to come online before he awaited the outcome of Roun’s little parlour trick.  As the light cleared, a pillar of stone appeared from the dust thrown up be the attack. “…Uh huh…”  Xavier commented, snapping his finger and exploding the construct before Roun could do anymore with it, causing Roun to sigh. “So much for making this interesting…”  Was all he said before he vanished from sight, appearing behind Stryke with an elbow to the spine, sending the unique stumbling forward. Roun's attack signalled that Xavier should get serious, a change in demeanour that was marked by the all too familiar glint in his eyes.  As he caught his balance, he spun, and with a single hand motion, obliterated the area around Roun, sending the Itami hurling from the explosion, and skating across the streets of the small town.   Given the nature of the attack, it was hard for Roun to recover, forcing him to silhouette slide out of his nose plant some distance into the slide before he rushed in again.  However, as the melee channeler moved closer to Stryke, he felt his senses being warped, forcing him to focus, using Cognisance and Psychomance at full power to try to decipher reality from the distortions.  Unfortunately, what he would realise it that reality itself was being twisted.  With this, Stryke activated his Realism Meld, making himself even more difficult to sense through the twisted realm, allowing him to move close to Roun and score a quick two attack combo.  The palm thrust to the face rocked Roun’s head back, allowing the spinning back kick to connect squarely in his stomach, causing him to keel over.  With this motion however, Roun realised that reality seemed to shift back to normal.  Roun smirked now, engaging his tunnel driver to full, shifting from side to side.  As his tunnel driver drilled through ether he realised that Xavier’s twisted space field was becoming less effective, allowing him to actually locate the stealthy channeler.  Roun waited now, still pretending to be oblivious of his incoming attack, only dodging at the last moment and gripping his hand, using Aesis to attach himself to his form before he performed a high-angle shoulder throw, planting Stryke into the ground.  Roun would waste no time following up with a descending reverse punch.  His attack would connect with only earth however, exploding the area with green flames as Stryke materialised some distance away.  With this accomplished, Roun continued on the offensive, dashing towards Xavier before vanishing, appearing above him and using his Kinetic Wraith to convert all of his momentum into a descending side thrust kick.  As Roun moved towards Stryke, his form burst into flames shattering his opponents guard and sending him stumbling back.  As Stryke stumbled back, Roun rebounded off of his guard, cancelling his momentum and preparing for a repeat of his original attack. However, Stryke would be having none of it.  Roun’s exploding kick would be met with a wave of exploding ether.  The two attacks collided, with the energies remaining still momentarily before exploding violently, throwing both men from the area.  This time it was Spark’s turn to slide, skating on his back while Roun went transphasic and used Kinetic Wraith to cancel his momentum, boosting his free energy. Xavier paused now as he made his way to his feet, looking at Roun who was now floating in mid-air.  “Okay, I must admit that I am intrigued at this point… are the others on this list as… unique as we are?”  Xavier inquired now. “Well one of them can propagate exponential amounts of energy to the point where his cap is irrelevant, and the other can flash code and replicate entire player forms at a whim…”  Roun replied with a slight smirked. “Have you checked to see if Jayce is on this list?”  Xavier inquired. “I’m almost sure of it… it’s just the final channeler that has me puzzled.”  Roun explained, sensing a brief flicker of energy before both he and Xavier turned their attentions to the south. As the turned, they saw Ryuu sliding into a defensive stance between the two of them, using Rock and Parry to deflect a light based attack, being slightly blinded by the impact.   In fact, even Roun and Xavier found the light emanating from the attack somewhat disorienting, making it hard initially to make out the figure of the channeler that intervened in their little duel.   As their senses cleared up, the young woman made her way towards them, drawing slight awe from Roun and Xavier, while Ryuu maintained his defensive stance.  The channeler wore a revealing mini-skirt that seemed to match the sleeveless military cargo vest, while her brightly coloured tank-top seemed to stand out against the dull and now dusty background. “I’m looking for Xavier Stryke.” She sounded, bringing Roun and Xavier back to reality and forcing the two uniques to refocus on the situation. “What do you want with me?” Xavier inquired. “You’re coming with me.”  She retorted coldly, drawing loud laughed from Xavier before he managed to utter a reply. “Who’s going to make me… you and what army?” With this, Tiana waved her hand, causing a slight ripple in reality as she did before it seemed to settle again.   “What the…”  Ryuu commented, before Roun began to yell, telling him to get out of the way; but it was too late.  The flash detonation of the attack took Ryuu clear off his feet, hurling him into a nearby street light casing.  Roun noted the attack, dashing past his opponent to create an ether matrix before using Alchemic Arms to flash code the matter in the area to a volatile gas, a technique he had began to consider thanks to his young travelling companion Leonardo.  With this done, all Roun would need to do was ignite it.  However, Tiana would beat him to the punch, grabbing him at the end of his dash by his collar before planting him in the ground, and detonating the attack as she used her Fake Wings to clear the explosion. With Tiana distracted, Xavier took the opportunity to attack, using his Slip Stream to close the distance between them as he charged his Dead Lock.  Tiana noticed this as well, dashing backwards, leaving a Frigid Wake which Stryke found himself moving into.  Being partially frozen, it was like shooting fish in a barrel when Tiana connected with her Prism Shot.  The attack blasted Xavier away, and stopped the now rushing Ryuu in his tracks.  This caused Ryuu’s jaw to drop, as the attack not only cancelled all of his momentum but broke his Rock Defense and damaged his form.  Tiana smiled at this, but her smile would soon fade, as she found herself locked in a full nelson, Roun’s form materialising around her.  At this point, Xavier would take this opportunity, charging his Ethereal Detonation and Subjective Reality, coding a mysterious blue energy which completely obliterated area, sending Roun flying away in user form, forcing Ryuu to make a mad dash to catch his brother, while Tiana skated backwards, her form teetering very close to reversion.  The Demai operative scoffed, loudly, her face taking on a look of disbelief as she retreated to analyse the battle, while Stryke struggled to gain control of this new energy.  Ryuu’s attention turned now as he felt the growing energy signature emanating from Xavier, who now hovered slightly off the ground, spewing blue flames from his form uncontrollably.  Ryuu growled heavily, dashing towards Stryke, transforming to his Chaos Dragon form and charging himself with V-2, before he launched a powerful Vector Detonation attack, completely reverting the out of control Stryke.  Ryuu sighed lightly, looking around at the decimation, before picking up Roun in one hand and Leonardo in the other and clearing the area.
Ryuu: 36 Exp (-367 HP)			Roun: 43 Exp (reverted)
Awareness: 5 Exp	Technical: 3 Exp		Awareness: 6 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp
Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp		Accuracy: 5 Exp	Tactics: 7 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 8 Exp		Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 5 Exp
Xavier: 81 Exp (-187 HP)			Tiana: 82 Exp (-342 HP)
Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 22 Exp		Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp
Accuracy: 10 Exp	Tactics: 18 Exp		Accuracy: 24 Exp	Tactics: 20
Precision: 5 Exp	Control: 22 Exp		Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 10 Exp

 

Curiouser and Curiouser: Crydus does some research
Crydus sighed as he found himself in for a pretty long day at the library, having made up his mind to search for extremely hard to find information.  His initial search targeted information with regards to Tesera Corporation and any of its subsidiaries.  As he expected, the company was best known for its research into dimensional technologies, and as a result of this research became one of the leading developers of dimensional defense and security systems.  What Crydus found quite intriguing was that even though this company occupied a number of contracts for factions and military, as well as smaller companies, they never dabbled in independent weapons development, even though some of their defence systems, did serve tactically to enhance the offensive capabilities of other products.  Crydus raised an eyebrow as he continued to read on, finding information with regards to the facility in Long Island.  Before the fall of the city, a substancial amount of funds were placed into the facility, causing the channeler to believe that it was one of their more important facilities, this made it quiet puzzling as to why they did not attempt to retrieve the information or even the technologies present in the facility after it was destroyed.  In fact, from that data he managed to collect, it seemed as though they simply wrote off the loss, collected the insurance for the building and moved onto different projects.  “Odd…”  Crydus thought to himself.   Unfortunately, he didn’t get information on the actual research being carrier on in the area, but he did find some speculatory articles about Tesera Corporation’s greatest invention being a form of ultimate defense against burgulary, espionage and even assault.  However, all of these articles noted that the project was only between 25 and 50 percent complete, no doubt the reason that they had managed to complete the quest with such ease, when considering Tesera’s track record.  Crydus noted this all, downloading the information to his Data Pad before moving onto another topic. His next topic of interest was the illustrious Amanda Real, a woman that only seemed to become more and more mysterious, with the added effort that persons seemed to put in to unravel the mystery.  Crydus found it puzzling that their was actually less data available on Amanda Real than on Tesera’s secret activities, causing him to wonder exactly what this channeler could actually be up to in that laboratory of hers.  With regards to her channelling ability, he did manage to find probable extrapolations of her skills, but even these were mere speculation.  The most reliable article, one posted by the executive manager of the R.E.Load Networks himself predicted Ms. Real to be somewhere between level 12 and 17, most likely in the area of level 15.  He further extrapolated her skills to resemble: Awareness: 5, Technical 10, Accuracy 1, Tactics 1, Precision 7 and Control 8.  Crydus nodded, keeping in his mind that these predictions could be completely wrong, but at least they were better than nothing. In this issue of Rock, Blitz and Shade, almost no information could be found, with all files of seeming usefulness being classified and those which weren’t classified being so exaggerated that their credibility was shot.  With this dead end being quite apparent, Crydus ran a final search for equipment used by the French military and called it a day, moving back to the Tesera Ruin to see what additional information he could pick up.  Unfortunately for the channeler, the facility had been stripped, from equipment to wallpaper, the facility was completely empty, leaving nothing but walls.  Crydus raised an eyebrow again, now becoming suspicious of what was really going on there. But time wouldn’t allow for him to stay there all day, he had things to do. With this in mind, Crydus made his way to the airport to book a flight for France.  He would be quite displeased to know that the next flight which he would be able to take out of that area however, would be leaving at 8:00 pm, effectively putting an end to his day.  Crydus would simply wait the rest of the day out as had pondered what he had learned.
Crydus: +26 Exp
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 18 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 0 Exp	Control: 0 Exp

 

Training: Meric and Zhie Do some Training
“Have you been waiting long?” Zhie inquired to Meric as he approached the training area, causing Meric to shake his head slightly before looking over to Zhie, who simply powered up.  “Thank you for coming.”  He continued. “Don’t worry about it; after all, we’re even.”  Meric replied, prompting Zhie to start their training session.  Zhie simply nodded, powering up his form and beginning their training. Upon powering up, Meric drew a knife, one that he had acquired from the kitchen of his room before proceeding to the area, and quickly sliced Zhie’s arm.   The weapon barely managed to penetrate the channeler’s weak defenses, leaving a shallow wound on his forearm.  With this accomplished, Meric gave his form some time to Harden itself before he attacked again, this time the knife glancing off his defenses, unable to damage his body.  The third attack, easily cracked the knife, causing meric some pain in his palm as the attack connected.  The next test would yield more interesting results.  Zhie launched off one of his Genkou projectiles at Meric, who had now powered up.  Meric, knowing the attack was coming, easily dodged to the side, running his WaterMoon Aura through the attack, being careful not to let the energy damage his form before he projected the wavelike slash of his aura onto the nearby environment.  As expected, the projected energy did retain some of the properties of Genko, but not to as great an extent as they would have imagined, only retaining the function in about 30% of the energy. Next Zhie would test the limits of his Zenshou ability, attempting to route the energy from speed to boost his other stats.  Unfortunately, he would find that this technique was rather limiting, being restricted to only boosting the desired stats, however with some focus, he could use the thrust from his speed to boost the force of his physical attacks.  However, he would find it impossible to boost his energy and deflection based abilities. Zhie’s final test would be rather easy, as he summoned his multiple and attempted to perform Genkou using the copy.  This was easily achieved and he quickly realised that he would do any energy based attempt through his copies, but failed to be able to use force, speed or deflection based techniques. With this out of the way, this made it Meric’s turn.  His first trial was more practice than testing, as he simply got accustomed to his WaterMoon Aura’s effects, performing a number of different attacks with the Aura activated to make the attack more versatile.   In addition to this, he did notice some increase in the power of his projectile attacks while using the WaterMoon Aura to add to the bombardment.  The power of these attacks increased incrementally, but eventually topped out due to his speed and control stat. Meric’s summons also exhibited some boosted structural integrity, though this was only marginal.  His Air Calypso also yielded relatively interesting results, as it did allow him the ability to surf on energy attack produced by his summons, allowing for an increase in speed without any adverse effects.  However, when attempting the same with Zenin’s attacks, he found that he took mild damage.  The last thing that Meric would need to train would be his speed of attack, coordinating his attacks with his two Totema to attempt to create an endless barrage of attacks, a task in which they were relatively successful.  The space in between each attack was a mere fraction of a second, a space of time so short that most average channelers would be unable to counter attack.  With this all accomplished, the two channelers called it quits.
Zhie: 22 Exp			Meric: 22 Exp
Awareness: 5 Exp	Technical: 3 Exp		Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 3 Exp
Accuracy: 4 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp		Accuracy: 4 Exp	Tactics: 2 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 6 Exp		Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 5 Exp

 

Leading Us On: Roun and Ryuu talk to Jayce

“Where did you say that kid was heading off to again?” Ryuu inquired to Roun who was still slightly preoccupied with this business of ‘the list’. “Not sure, China or Japan or something like that… think he mentioned something about being the next martial arts champ or something.  You know how kids get.” Roun replied causally. “Yeah, I guess. Still, it’s probably not the safest thing for a 10 year old to be doing… walking around doing battle I mean.”  Ryuu continued, bringing up a very valid point. “Heh, times are changing man.  As long as you hit player level you’re recognized as an adult in almost every regard, no matter what your age is.” Roun replied again, causing Ryuu to shrug. “He still can’t buy beer, so that’s all worth nothing anyway.”  Ryuu laughed, causing Roun to do the same. A powerful energy spike cut their conversation in half however as the two channelers both powered up, Roun silhouette sliding some distance away while Ryuu powered up his defensive techniques incase of an incoming attack. “Paranoia… healthy.”  Was all that they heard as a figure materialized between them, having disengaged his cloaking abilities Ryuu scoffed loudly now, as Roun just shook his head, making his way back to the newcomer, as he began to speak. “Just the man I’ve been looking for.”  Roun opened, warranting no noticeable expression from Jayce. “Yes, I’ve heard… you’re here to inquire about your list right?”  Jayce inquired. “Heh, I guess you are good for something other than rampant destruction.”  Ryuu smirked, now drawing Jayce’s attention. “Chill Ryuu, we’re not running on the kind of schedule that would permit a battle.” Roun reminded him, causing Ryuu to pause. “Dad… riiight.”  He sighed.  “My bad.” “So Jayce, sine you know why we’re here… what do you know.” Roun inquired. “More than you’d think.  But that information is classified, wouldn’t be authorized to give it to civilians.”  Jayce explained, causing Roun to raise an eyebrow. “You actually caring about rules… that’s new.” “Rules… right.  I just don’t see why I should tell you anything.”  Jayce replied, causing Roun to sigh. “Fine… what do you want?”  But once again, they found themselves interrupt, this time by an actual attack.  Jayce easily encapsulated himself in a dimensional barrier, while Roun, who was still in the process of uncapping initiated a dodging maneuver, while Ryuu, who was already fully powered up, simply summoned his Perfection Shell, shielding the attack before turning his attention to the intruder. “You again…”  The woman scoffed, as she glided towards the ground, placing her feet firmly on land before capping herself and walking past the two Itamis.  “Show yourself Jayce, I’m running on a tight schedule.”  Tiana sounded, causing Jayce to reappear some seconds later.  “I have an assignment for you.”  She continued, ignoring the presence of the two Itamis and handing Jayce a disposable Data Pad.  “You’ll find your orders in there.  I will be occupied for the next 4 days, but when I return, I expect this to be finished… I can count on you right?”  She inquired rhetorically. Jayce simply read the mission specifics and disgarded Data Pad, giving her an ever so slight nod of compliance before she left.  Roun scoffed as she brushed past him, taking to flight as she left the area, allowing Roun’s attention to return to Jayce. “Well my time is up, you two can let Kaili know that I’m leaving.”  Jayce stated coldly before vanishing, leaving the twins standing as they wondered what to do next. “Well… that was pointless…”  Ryuu now sounded, looking to Roun who had moved over and picked up the discarded Data Pad. “Not quite… Jayce seems to be messing with us.”  Roun stated, reading the information that Jayce had conveniently forgotten to delete before discarding it.  “We should go see Kaili, I’m guessing that Jayce’s last comment wasn’t made idly…”  Ryuu just nodded and followed, it would be interesting to see where this would lead.   Upon arriving at the home of the Falco’s, Jayce’s adopted parents, Roun and Ryuu made their way into the lightly guarded compound, ringing the doorbell and awaiting an answer.  As the door slid open, a figure came flying through, wrapping her arms around Roun’s neck and swinging as she hugged him, before landing and playfully punching Ryuu. “Hey guys, what brings you here?”  The young woman, Kaili Smith, inquired to the two. “Well we’d come to talk to Jayce, but he seems to have run off, so we were wondering if you could help us out.”  Roun explained. “Run off?  Jayce left here less than an hour ago.”  Kaili replied, somewhat puzzled. “Yeh, saw him before he split, his field commander popped up and dropped to missions on him before she took off as well.”  Ryuu explained. “Oh, I see…” Kaili replied. “Yeh, we’d come to ask him about a list of unique channelers, but he was giving us the run around… I was kinda wondering if you could help us.”  Roun inquired now, causing Kaili to think for a bit before she disappeared inside the house and returned with a small data crystal. “For the last couple of weeks, Jayce’s been doing a lot of research on these three channelers, when he wasn’t looking, I’d access his files and copy them so I could read them as well.” Kaili explained. “Clearly you’re getting good at this controller thing… if you can hack his machine.”  Ryuu sounded now, but Kaili just shook her head. “Jayce would never admit it, but half the security systems on his machine aren’t even enabled, and the others that are aren’t that tough… I don’t think he minds me reading this stuff, and I’m guessing since he lured you here, he probably wants you to have the data.”  Kaili explained. “Somehow I doubt that Jayce is all cute and cuddly under the psycho exterior… but I have to admit he does seem to be leading us on…”  Roun reasoned.  “Be careful with this guy…”  He added, drawing a dismissive shake from Kaili. “Jayce is a teddy bear Roun, you don’t have to worry about me.”  She replied, drawing raised eyebrows from the brothers. “Uh… right…”  Ryuu replied, drawing a similar response from Roun. “Thanks for the info K, we’ll see you later.”

Outcome: Roun and Ryuu acquired info on 2 demai missions and possible final list member.

 

Right Place, Right Time: Roun and Ryuu follow Jayce.
“Geez, this wild goose chase is really putting a dent in our budget, we’re going to have to land a job soon or we’ll burn all the cash we made on that ruins quest.”  Ryuu complained as he and Roun left the hover port and started heading for the last known location of Deacon DeSaint, hoping to catch up with him before Jayce carried out his mission. “Well there is a quest in this area, so we could look into that, but that’s pretty secondary right now.  What we need to do is catch up with Jayce and make sure this Deacon dude does leave him KIA.”  Roun replied, powering up and making a dash for the area. “You know, you say that like it’s a bad thing…”  Ryuu sighed as he did his best to follow with his limited speed. Luckily for the two, Deacon was otherwise occupied, allowing Jayce’s approach to go unnoticed to an extent, allowing Roun to intercept him before he engaged his target.  Jayce sighed. “Don’t get me wrong Itami, I was neither requesting your assistance, nor your presence, I was just making sure you could locate me if you were too dense to get the data from Kaili.”  Jayce stated, not even paying Roun any attention. “I’ve already got the data.” Roun replied, causing Jayce to pause and raise an eyebrow. “Then what the fuck are you doing here?”  He inquired with an annoyed glare. “I’m here to make sure that you don’t get yourself killed, rushing into a battle against someone with more than double your combat experience.”  Roun exclaimed. “Idiot… this is what I live for…”  Jayce stated, vanishing into the ether and leaving the Itami as Ryuu made his way up being him. Jayce’s stealthy approach was halted when Guardian, one of Deacon’s summons, materialised and grabbed him straight out of his dimensional stealth.  Roun watched now, powering up his form to fully take in the battle.  Roun watched as reality around Jayce shattered, along with the Guardian summon.  Roun noted as he watched that Jayce seemed to be applying an uncharacteristic amount of effort in mustering the energy for his techniques to counter Deacon’s energy, causing the young Itami to wonder exactly what Deacon was doing behind the scenes.  Jayce’s follow up projectile attacks were also easily dissipated, using Deacon’s Disca, forcing the young Agent to get serious. Roun caught Jayce’s visor as it blew away, having been flung off by the massive explosion of energy when Jayce powered into his R.E.D. energy enhanced state, causing Deacon’s eyes to widen slightly. “You fool, have you no regard for the lives of the people that inhabit this troubled island!?”  He exclaimed, drawing his Judicator and preparing to strike Jayce down before he could cause too much damage to the area. “Truthfully… no… they can die for all I care.  I’ve been sent here to make sure of one thing… that you take an exceedingly long dirt nap, and that’s all I’m concerned with right now.”  Jayce replied callously, drawing his twin blades and blasting off towards Deacon. Deacon parried the opening strike with the blade, connecting with his opponent’s blade a subsequent two times to block the follow up attacks before materialising his long Shield to guard the spinning barrage that would follow, before he launched a sweeping back-fist with the shield, forcing Jayce to jump backwards and blast a wave of energy at him.  Deacon easily used his Glaze Step to avoid the attack, the Disca left in his wake, tearing the attack apart to prevent it from doing too much damage.  But Jayce’s attacks were relentless.  Deacon moved in, shielding another two attack before summoning Guardian to restrain his opponent, scoring with a powerful horizontal slice before a powerful vertical smash sent Jayce skating across the battle field.  Jayce roared with rage, erupting from his position engulfed in dark red flames, only to be caught as Deacon summoned Gryphon to intercept him, blasting him into the air.  As Jayce’s rage grew, so did his energy, and as a result, his control over this energy fell.  The dark red flames spewed forth from his form, overrunning Gryphon before he detonated the beast, and teleported down to blast the now stunned Deacon.  Unfortunately, his powerful energy leaking tore open a large rift between Terra and Oya, at the same time activating a myriad of the unstable portals that the Easter Island area had been know for.  As Deacon’s backlash wore off, he caught himself recoiling from Jayce’s attack, summoning Guardian to stop him, allowing him to dissipate Jayce’s next energy based attack. “Dude, this cannot be good… you know this right?”  Ryuu inquired, wondering what the course of action should be given the extremely unstable energy in the area and Jayce’s and Deacon’s fight escalating rapidly. “Hold on, gimme a few seconds to complete my calculations…”  Roun replied; pumping all available energy into his Cognisance and Psychomance as his form went Transphasic. Not completely sure what his brother was up to, Ryuu powered into his Chaos Dragon form as well, charging his energy as well an awaiting Roun’s word.   Roun wasted no time dashing into the fray, warranting Deacon’s attention as he made it onto the battle field, dodging a series of portals that opened as he passed making a number of laps around the area before he appeared in the middle of the battle field a few seconds later.  As Roun slide to a stop, he slammed his hands together, then pressed them against the ground expanding a wave of ether nullification throughout the battlefield.  Deacon easily glazed stepped out of the area, leaving just Jayce and the myriad of Oyan creatures that had been materialising incapacitated.  Now, with limited time, deeding on his own personally accumulated energy, Roun grabbed Jayce and cleared the 300 metre radius of the affected zone, headin straight towards Ryuu and prompting him to engulf the area with his Lumina V2.  As Roun made his way to Ryuu, he transferred all of his energy into a steady stream, which Ryuu then Magna Guard Impacted, creating a powerful exploding wave of Lumina energy rippling across the area.  As he did this, Deacon caught onto the young Itami’s plans, adding to the expanding wave with his Disca to stabilise the area.  Though too late to actually prevent the damage done, their combined attempts did manage to contain and stabilise the multitude of rifts and portals, into a larger dome shaped volume of space, where Terra and Oya remained stably fused. Outcome: The trio of Roun, Ryuu and Deacon have successfully birthed the phenomenon known as True Earth more commonly referred to as Gaia.  Roun and Ryuu were compensated for vital data provided.
Deacon: 70 Exp (-124HP)			Jayce: 56 Exp (-215HP)
Awareness: 16 Exp	Technical: 14 Exp		Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 2 Exp
Accuracy: 8 Exp	Tactics: 10 Exp		Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp
Precision: 8 Exp	Control: 14 Exp		Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 30 Exp
Roun: 36 Exp +120000$			Ryuu: 28 Exp +120000$
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 12 Exp		Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 2 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp		Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 6 Exp	Control: 10 Exp		Precision: 2 Exp	Control: 20 Exp

 

A Birth of Flames: Roun and Ryuu are ambushed by S.A.B.E.R. and their accomplices.
“You know Roun, if we make 240k and spend 265k it doesn’t really count as saving.”  Ryuu complained over the comm. unit that now linked the two light assault crafts. “Duh Ryuu, but think about it, we’ll never have to spend cash on transport again, so wouldn’t you count this as an investment?”  Roun replied, drawing a sigh from Ryuu. “I guess… personally I would’ve just blown 83k on my add-ons and then put down the rest for travelling, I’m pretty sure we won’t be using up 40k worth of travel within the next coupla weeks.”  Ryuu replied, causing Roun to sigh this time. “Okay man, whatever, next time you spend your money how you want to.”  Roun replied, pulling off to the side and beginning his decent towards the uninhabited island that Rock Blitz and Shade were rumoured to be holding this Amanda Real character at. As the two touched down and made their way towards central clearing of the island, the channelers awaiting the arrival of opposing forces picked them up. “I’m only registering 2 signatures and their not particularly stealthed either… Blitz, make a quick run and scope the newcomers out, but watch out… this could be just the kind of thing they’d use as a trap to lure you out.”  Shade commanded. “Don’t sweat man; I don’t know any players barring you and my boy Rock over there that can even see me when I move.  These dudes won’t even know I’m there.”  He smirked, exiting the Kurudo from the loading bay and taking off towards Roun and Ryuu. The two Itamis, who had yet to pick up anything barring the signature of the powered up Kurudo briefly registered Blitz’ signature as he left the craft.  After that, his movements were even too fast for Ryuu to pick up.  Roun did notice him however, forcing the young Itami to begin his transformation into his transphasic state as Blitz neared their location.  Luckily for Roun, Blitz quick run of the area allowing him enough time to get partially into his Transphasic state, allowing him to keep up with Blitz somewhat as he came to frisk the two Itamis.  As Blitz moved towards them, he couldn’t help but noticing something weird about the two, but given that, he couldn’t seem to put his hand on it either… that was, until Roun grasped his hand.  Blitz’ eyes widened at this point, being quite startled that Roun could actually move fast enough to grab him, forcing him to pull away and engage his defensive techniques. “You must be Blitz.”  Roun started, before he was cut off by a flash barrage of attacks from his opponent.  “The hell!?” Roun exclaimed as he was thrown onto the defensive, having to, for the first time even, defend against a stream of physical attack, which came too fast for even he to dodge. Roun growled loudly, his form having completed its transformation into his fully transphasic state, making him only marginally slower than his opponent, when it came to attack and defense speed.  Unfortunately, Roun wasn’t by any chance fast enough to actually counter any of Blitz attacks, before forced to stay on the defensive until he could set up a Vector Dash sequence to get away from his opponent.  As Roun allowed himself to become pure energy and be washed away by the ether stream, Blitz smirked, kicking his own speed up a notch, bursting into a sprint to catch the young Itami.  What scared Roun was the fact that Blitz was only falling behind slightly, as he moved this way, giving him just a few metres of distance between the two as he rematerialised in his transphasic state.  As Roun rematerialised however, Blitz noticed a smirk on his face, signalling the incoming attack.  The ether contained by Roun’s Vector Dash, instantly exploded, forcing Blitz to transform into pure Ki and clear the area. As Roun’s perception returned to that of the average channeler, turned to Ryuu, who was now noticing the Activation Zone that Roun had created. “The hell?”  He exclaimed as Roun checked his watch, noting that the actual exchange between he and shade had taken place in less than a second. “We just had some company… super fast channeler… but he left the area.”  Roun explained. Simultaneously, Blitz was arriving back at the Kurudo, having only been gone for about half of a minute. “I’ve scoured the island, there are no other channelers here, and their no ships in the sky for at least 10 kilometres… in any direction…” He rattled off, looking over to Cy and Jais. “Yeh, the network is fully updated and it’s still has the ‘doom squad’ registered in separate locations… looks like they but up on unexpected events.”  Cy explained, drawing a sigh from Rock. “And here I was thinking that I was going to get to smash some heads.”  Rock laughed. “You may still get to Rock, just because these aren’t the channelers that we were expecting, that doesn’t mean their not here for the woman… look sharp.”  Shade commanded, powering up the external defences of the Kurudo. As Roun and Ryuu finally made it to the clearing, a cluster of micro-missiles thrusted their way towards them, forcing the Itamis onto the defensive.  Roun made a quick dash past the missiles, drawing as much energy from them as he could and redirecting it back towards the ship, while Ryuu’s Perfection Shell perfect guarded the rest of the attack. “Okay, so they’re not total amateurs… let’s go men, and welcome our guests.”  Shade stated, moving out of the vehicle with the rest of the squad. As they exited, Roun dashed back, attempting to reason with them, but his words simply did not leave his mouth fast enough.  Before he could say anything, Blitz appeared infront of him, forcing Roun onto the defensive while Ryuu powered up into his Chaos Dragon form. For this battle, the support group were set up slightly differently, with Jais backing up Shade, Cy backing up Blitz and John backing up Rock.  As Jais provided the energy to boost Shade’s own techniques, a shadow sphere engulfed the area, forcing Roun and Ryuu into the air to avoid the direct effects of Shade’s dehabilitating shadow attacks.  Their opponent’s easily followed them, putting them both instantly back onto the defensive.  Cy was finding it somewhat difficult to cognitively keep up with Roun and Blitz, but this proved to be a small factor given the two on one situation, allowing to two to score the occasional hit on the speed based Itami who could do little more than just dodge and detonate the area to escape.  Ryuu on the other hand was having slightly more luck, against the two defensive giants.  Ryuu quickly learned that his Ragna, did have the ability to penetrate Rock’s defences, however between the Perfect Guard and Dynamic Guard skills possessed by his opponents, coupled with their constant switching of point man, Ryuu’s attacks were proving to be quite ineffective. As Roun came to his whit’s end, his form began to glitch, seeming to clip as he moved, phasing in and out of reality before he finally vanished from the sights of everyone in the battle.  Shade raised an eyebrow at this, extending his scanning ability over his entire area of influence, but picking up nothing.  Roun instantly blasted back into reality, his form warped and distorted as he came, catching Cy and slamming him into the ground before raising his hand with a powerful unknown energy swirling around him.  “Oh please, save the theatrics.”  Shade now stated casually, concentrated his obsidian shadow around the Itami and draining away the energy from the Itami. Cy wasted no time in kicking him off, blasting him with Demi and Burnout as he flew away.  Roun’s anomalous change however seemed to spark a similar change in Ryuu, who’s form also warped, losing cohesion as a combo from Rock and John blasted him away as well.  The two Itamis landed side by side, laying still momentarily as the others tried to figure out what was up with them.  They could tell for a fact that they were still powered up, given the appearance of their forms, but the group could sense no energy emanating from the two.  Suddenly, a green pillar of energy exploded upwards, emanating a light that could be seen for kilometres.  As this happened, a single figure exploded form the energy, being caught first by Blitz, the quickest to react.  Shade attempted to slow the entity, but only managed to reduce it’s velocity by a fraction.  Cy would react next, doing the same, before Rock and John positioned themselves in from of the apparent target, Shade.  Their Dynamic Guards and Perfect Guards cut the velocity of the entity considerably, slowing it to a crawl as it busted towards Shade.  Shade’s energy at this point seeped into Jayce, boosting his ability to absorb thermal energy from the atmosphere, freezing the clearing and everything for half a kilometre before Jais redirected the energy to Shade, who summoned a powerful pin point attack that seemed to warp the very fabric of reality.  As the attack summoned, a dark, winged figure appeared behind him, reinforcing the attack before the entire thing exploded sending all in the vicinity flying away.  When the participants of the battle came to, they were in their respective vehicles, and several hours had pasted.
Roun: 28 Exp (-256 HP)			Ryuu:  34 Exp (-128HP)
Awareness: 6 Exp	Technical: 2 Exp		Awareness: 2 Exp	Technical: 2 Exp
Accuracy: 6 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp		Accuracy: 12 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 6 Exp		Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 10 Exp
Cy:  26 Exp (-126HP)			Jais: 32 Exp
Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp		Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 8 Exp
Accuracy: 4 Exp	Tactics: 6 Exp		Accuracy: 4 Exp	Tactics: 6 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 4 Exp		Precision: 2 Exp	Control: 8 Exp
John: 28 Exp (-112HP)
Awareness: 4 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 4 Exp	Tactics: 4 Exp
Precision: 4 Exp	Control: 8 Exp

 

Seriously Capped: Roun and Ryuu plan their next move.

Their father had left them to put everything together, but Roun and Ryuu were still quite puzzled by the entire situation, especially with regards to their joint transformation and the resulting effect it seemed to have on Shade.  Needless to say, they were determined to get to the bottom of all of this, but that would be secondary. The reality of Roun’s downgrade had taken sometime to dawn on the young channeler, who only now began to notice the restrictions that had been placed on him by the device which his father had attached to him.  Roun of all people could understand his need to be capped, as he and his brother’s power levels only tended to grow, without even they themselves knowing their limits.  Given this, Roun simply assumed that his inhibitor would simply provide that limit… and in a way it did… however, that limit was far lower than he had originally thought it would be. Roun’s reality first began to reveal itself as he attempted to levitate himself to his feet, an action that he performed rather subconsciously after years of channelling.  Unfortunately, this time it would not work.  It was only at this point that Roun realised just what limits had been put on him.  Roun powered up fully, using his Cognisance and Psychomance to run a diagnostics on his form.  It was at this point that Roun realised that his body was being prevented from leaking energy into the atmosphere and at the same time, it was being bracketed so that he could not externalise his energy in anyway.  Roun growled loudly as he ran through his techniques, realising that he could not even manipulate ether to a great extent within his personal space, effectively making this safe zone much smaller than it originally was.  Without actual measurements, Roun could still guess, quite accurately, that his area of influence extended about one and a half centimetres from the his skin in all directions, and the degradation of energy leaving his form was so high that he did not possess the internal energy to create the channel that would allow his energy to flow outwards in a useful way. It was at this time that Ryuu made his way out of Roun’s F-25 and walked over to his brother, who was still very much annoyed by his situation. “What’s up bro?”  He inquired, quite mused by the situation. “Other than dad giving me the shaft?  Not much…  I’m going to have to reconfigure this thing… or I’m going to be walking around getting iced by freaking power-users…”  He scoffed, expressing his disdain for meta-humans and other preceding forms of his player status. “Heh, that’s all well and good, but you don’t have the skills or the technical know-how to reconfigure something this complex.” Ryuu pointed out, causing Roun to growl lightly. “Damn… you know, I hate it when you’re right.”  Roun sighed.  “Well since you’ve decided to boot your brain up, you got any alternate ideas?”  Roun now inquired. “Well I figured this would be obvious, but we could always actually complete this quest and get this Amanda woman to reconfigure the device for you.”  Ryuu suggested, causing Roun to nod. “Not a bad idea bro… but that’ll involved us going up against those six channelers again… and that didn’t go very well the last time.”  Roun started, his eyes shifting down towards the small power inhibitor on his chest.  “And with this thing holding me back, I doubt that we’ll be able to take them without some major assistance.” “That is true… but what other options do we have?”  Ryuu inquired. “I don’t know… for right now, I can reconfigure my expansion suit to reroute some of my energy, it should allow me to tap and properly utilise my energy stats through physical movement… it’ll limit me to purely melee combat, but if I can get it to work the way that I’m conceptualising it, it should afford me some previously unavailable bonuses that will make up for the ways in which I was crippled.”  Roun explained as he booted the device down and began to make his modifications to his form, the suit and the inhibitor. “So you’re saying that after this you’ll be as strong as you used to be?”  Ryuu replied somewhat sceptically. “Truthfully?  Not by a long shot… but hopefully, that won’t make a difference…”  Roun replied, leaving Ryuu rather puzzled by his statement.

Outcome: Roun has made some modifications to his power inhibitor, expansion suit and his form.

 

Practical #1: Rayne explores zeta.
With Roun and Ryuu having much more pressing matters to attend to, convincing Roun to lend him the money that he would need to enact his schemes was considerably easier than usual, and even though Rayne sensed that this payoff seemed more like a ploy to get him off the comm. link, he was still quite glad that his goals were that much closer to being realised. Rayne looked down at his brand new Ptera as he began to modify his own form in preparation for equipping the infamous Zeta I-type expansion to his suit.  Being his most potent stat, energy was the obvious choice and without any hesitation, Rayne equipped the device to his palm.  With this achieved, he began to use Psycho Mold to slowly increase the amount of I-type Zeta in his form.  This proved somewhat difficult however, as his form still lacked the ability to generate this energy, instead forcing him to have to channel his energy through the add-on to generate the energy, while his native either attempted, though somewhat futility, to take on the traits of this new energy. Luckily for Rayne, his form didn’t seem to be particularly opposed to this new form of energy running through it, and adopted it well, though he did find himself unable to code a number of his techniques using this energy.  Rayne’s Savant also gave him some insight into the add-on, though it wasn’t as much as he’d hoped for.  He noticed the strange code which he was still unable to crack, that which he knew was the capacitor function that existed in all zeta powered equipment.  Within the expansion itself was the usual decoders, to break energy down back into it’s latent types and then the most important part of the add-on, the modifier itself.  Unless the other expansions, which would simply run a single additional command type on top of a player’s energy, giving them the additional modifier effection thought a sorta of piggy-back system, this ‘modifier’ seemed to somehow distort ether by phasing it out of sync with itself.  This made understanding the equipment somewhat difficult however, as channelers are unable to sense that which is outside of ether.  Rayne could notice a number of other effects, simply by sensing their effect of the natural ether around him, but their was too much going on behind the scenes for him to truly understand the process.  Rayne scoffed lightly, turning to analyse the add-on more from the functions coded into it than the effects that it was being giving, but even this proved problematic.  The add-on seemed to work in tiers, three tiers to be exact.  The first tier was purely mechanical, using it’s size and shape along with a weak electromagnetic field generator to form what worked much like Logic Gates for zeta.  Using these gates, technicians are able to assemble the capacitor code that allows the add-ons to take in zeta.  On the second tier, specialise mechanisms then code this zeta to give it the base functions that the add-on requires, while coding the third tier of the add-on.  Unfortunately, as the third tier of the add-on seems to be completely zeta based, this left Rayne unable to read what it was or what it was supposed to be doing. Failing at his attempts to channel zeta independently, Rayne then moved on to searching for documentation on the other so-called flavours of zeta, namely the V-type and Z-type.  But as these variation were not in use in most regular devices, useful information regarding them was quite limited.  What he did learn was that I-type zeta could be likened to a bastard combination between Ki and Matter, as much like its predecessor, simply reffered to in the past as Zeta, it was made as an attempt to harness the natural Ki that exists abundantly on Earth and make it useful to none channelers.  However, as the abundance of Magic on Earth has also been growing, the creation of a Z-type zeta became a practical project, attempting to harness the power of magic in the same way.  For this reason this could be considered halfway between matter and magic.  With these two analogies completed, scientists began to conceptualise is halfway state between Ki and Magic, though giving their tendacies to react unstably, there seems to be little positive data about this project. Once again Rayne scoffed, that wasn’t particularly useful either.  He would probably need to speak to a researcher in this field directly if he was going to actually learn anything that would be useful to him. Given his previous failures, this made the final faze of his plan seem more and more impossible, but Rayne, ever the adventurer, decided to attempt the feat anyway.  Using his Savant ability, Rayne quickly got a feel for the functions and abilities of the automa, though much like with his expansion, this was only a surface level reality, he was still unable to see the underlying zeta-based functions of the Automa.  This made what he wanted to do next quite tricky.  Using Silver Surfing, he attempted travel into the Automa, and hardcode himself into it.  As he entered the mechanisms of the Automa, he could feel quite a bit of initial resistance, though it was had for him to figure out why.  This continued for sometime until the automa was forced to purge him from its systems.  Rayne was expelled from the machine, rematerialising in mid-air before smashing himself into a nearby wall.  He would need to go back to the drawing board on this one, he still had quite a long way to go.
Rayne: +33 Exp (-112HP)
Awareness: 8 Exp	Technical: 18 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 3 Exp	Control: 4 Exp

 

Requesting Assistance: Paco contacts Tyler

The ring of her comm. link was starting to get really annoying for Tyler, who was trying to get some sleep after a relatively long week of Rogue missions, research and running errands for the Rogue poster boys, K-Four.  For this reason, it was no surprise that her answer wasn’t the most pleasant.  Noticing her displeasure, Paco decided to keep things brief.  Paco’s initial greeting as a result was short, with him foregoing unnecessary pleasantries and getting straight to the business at hand, his will to join the Rogue Special Forces.  Tyler, who was slowly becoming less annoyed, humoured him in this, continuing to listen to what he had to say.  The offer which he put forward though was quite intriguing, and noteworthy to say the least, changing her mood quickly as she continued to listen.  As she continued to listen, she agreed with most of the perameters of the exercise, though she wasn’t entirely pleased with the inclusion of Deacon DeSaint, whos zealotry could be a bit uncompromising at times.  Sadly however, it seemed that his presence would be necessary, so she agreed.  She also agreed to contact the various police forces at Paco’s request, ensuring that their would be no last minute surprises when the plan was executed.  Once this was done and the plan finalised, Paco thanked Tyler and ended the comm. link, next contacting an old acquaintance Roun, who he hoped would be able to assist him in terms of providing some information. Roun wasn’t the most helpful, knowing very little of the topic himself, but he did manage to provide Paco with more knowledge than he originally had, and that was at least useful.  However, Roun could not speak long on the topic, as he too had unfinished things to attend to, like smoothing things out with SABER, and attempting to finally have the conversation that would end his long quest with regards to the infernal list.

Outcome: Tyler has agreed to be helpful.

 

Requesting Assistance As Well: Seig contacts Deacon
After the random attack by Jayce, Deacon had began his own research into Demai activities, in hopes to find out what they were up to, however, this attempts at information gathering were proving to be quite futile and it seemed that the council was too pressed for resources to assign an information gatherer to the case.  Deacon sighed, stealth was not one of his stronger points, there were few he could trust to do this kind of job for him. His thoughts would be cut off by the sound of his comm. link however as Seig dialled up him.  The unfamiliar sender of the link request had Deacon somewhat cautious at first, but upon opening the conversation, it became quite apparent what Seig wanted.  Much like his brother, Seig had big plans for his entry into the Xelots, using the information that he collected in France to request Deacon’s assistance with a mission that would hopefully spark an investigation into the inner running of the French government. Needless to say, this did spark Deacon’s curiousity, but he was unsure whether or not he could spare the time to assist in such an endeavour, especially with the Demai on the move as they have been in recent times.  However, the additional information which Seig put forward seemed to do the trick in convincing Deacon to assist him.  All that was left, was the discussion of the specifics before Deacon agreed to go along with the exercise.  With this accomplished, Seig ended the comm. link and moved on to the second thing he had planned for the day. Like many before him, Seig seemed determined to inducing the ability to channel I-type zeta into his form.  However, this was a task easier said than done.  He was relatively successful in his initial attempt at utilising his sensory superiority in conjunction with his own energy to create a form of passive scanning, but given his forms lack of the ability to code an actual function into this skill he was unable to do much with it that he couldn’t already do with his ether sense, making it somewhat pointless.  However, his zeta induction would be far less fruitful.  Much like Rayne, he quickly realised that though channelers could sense the effects of zeta on ether, they could not directly sense the energy that actually made up zeta.  This made it impossible for him to identify the Zeta Stream a key part of his plan.  Needless to say, the rest of his training exercise began to fall apart at this point, causing Seig to eventually abandon his goal. Outcome: Deacon has agreed to be helpful.
Seig: +14 Exp
Awareness: 3 Exp	Technical: 4 Exp
Accuracy: 0 Exp	Tactics: 0 Exp
Precision: 3 Exp	Control: 4 Exp

 

Just Asking: Cy does some research

Cy’s research into the Orbital Enhancer didn’t prove too fruitful as most sites on the communication network either claimed that it didn’t exist or that it was still in development and wouldn’t be released for a number of years.  However, what Cy did manage to gather was that the enhancer worked along the same lines as the expansions, however, instead of being equipped to a hard-suit, the enhancer simply needed to be calibrated to the wearer’s ethereal signature, and it could wirelessly transmit additional energy to their form to boost all four or their energetic stats.  The ratios of statistic boosting should also be adjustable, either by a technician of by the player themselves, but as none have been released this function may or may not be included.  Cy shrugged, continuing to check up on the project.  When released, the orbital enhancer should be priced somewhere in the range of 150k to 180k, however, collectors all over the planet are willing to purchase a prototype or better yet, a working model for as much as 300 thousand dollars.  Cy’s face lit up as he read the information. His attempts to pawn the device off on the members of SABER however proved to be quite useless, whereas they could afford it, an additional 5 s.p. to their form wouldn’t make them any more powerful in a way that they considered to matter, as they relied more heavily on the abilities of their forms for their strength rather than the s.p. rating of the particular technique.  Cy just scoffed, causing them to laugh lightly.  As the laughter died down, Cy’s face took on a more serious look, before it changed to a look of bepuzzlement as he turned to Shade. “Can I talk to Amanda?”  He inquired, quite out of the blue, causing Shade to raise an eyebrow. “Why?” “I’m just curious.  I didn’t really care before, but now I’m curious as to why you guys are keeping her here.”  Cy remarked casually. “I think you should go back to not caring.”  Shade replied, a dark haze trailing in the back of his voice.” Cy just laughed lightly. “Relax, it’s not that big of a deal.  I don’t care that much.” He replied as he returned to his Data Comm., searching for a potencial buyer for his Enhancer.

Outcome: A potential buyer has been found in Florida, but he wishes to see the device before he purchases.

 

At Long Last: Roun finally talks to Shade

Catching a direct flight to an uninhabited island wasn’t the easiest task, something that Jinzo found out that hard way as he was making his way to the area where Amanda Real was being held by the mercenary group SABER.  “What took you so long?”  Ryuu inquired, somewhat annoyed by Jinzo’s late arrival. “This managed to slip my mind, my apologies.”  Jinzo replied casually. “No problem, let’s just get this over with so I can wash my hands of these lunatics that call themselves SABER.”  Roun replied, drawing a nod from the team as he contacted Cy. “Who is this?”  The channeler inquired as Roun activated the video option of the comm. link.  “Oh you, what do you want?”  Cy inquired bluntly. “I need to talk to Shade, minus the violence.”  Roun replied calmly. “Heh, giving up already?” Cy taunted into the link. “Right… unlike you lunatics, me and Ryuu were never looking for a fight, if you boy Blitz could think as fast as he could run, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”  Roun replied, a hint of displeasure entering his voice. “Uh huh… and how do I know this isn’t some kind of trap?”  Roun growled at the question now, already beginning to lose his patience with the smug channeler. “Let me talk to him.”  Jinzo volunteered, before taking over the comm. link.  “What would we need to do to prove that this is not a set up.”  He inquired simply, causing Cy to pause before replying. “Come to the clearing, unpowered up, and we’ll see from there.”  He replied, ending the comm. link, causing Roun to look at Ryuu. “Was that too easy or was it just me?”  He inquired. “Actually, I think it was just me.”  Jinzo interjected.  “I’m very good with people, I think he just saw my side of things.” He continued, causing Roun and Ryuu to raise an eyebrow, deciding to just go along with things and hope for the best.  After all this was why they had requested Jinzo’s presence, they had heard a lot about his persuasive abilities from their friends Seig and Paco and were hoping that he would be useful in this situation. Making their way to the clearing in which the medium assault vehicle was parked didn’t take much time, and with Jinzo’s presence convincing SABER that they weren’t their to start trouble took even less time. “So why are you here then?”  Shade inquired, looking to Roun, who seemed to be the one in charge. “I’ve just wanted to talk to you, from day one… unfortunately, when I’m fighting speedy there, my words are indistinguishable to the regular ear.”  Roun explained.  “That’s why I couldn’t say anything before.”  Shade just laughed lightly. “Well, you have to excuse our… anxiousness… we are the object of a very well paying quest, so we can’t afford to take chances with uninvited guests.”  Shade explained. “Heh, you should have called first.”  Cy added smugly, causing Ryuu to glare at him. “But anyway, what was it that you wanted to speak with me about… I’m guessing that it must be important if you came all the way out here, risking life and limb.”  Shade inquired. “Well I wouldn’t go as far as saying ‘risking life and limb’, you guys are good, but you’re not as dangerous as you’d think… not that that matters I guess.  I’m tracking down the members of a list… one possessed by the founder of the Rogue Special Forces.”  Roun began to explain.  “Now at first, I figured that it was just a list of strong players, until I ran into the last three members of the list.” “I see…”  Shade replied, being quite lost by where Roun was going. “See I noticed something about you, Jayce and Xavier… and it got me thinking… so I guess I can sum up our entire conversation in a single question.  Have you ever fought Jayce Falco?”  Roun inquired, leaving Ryuu and Jinzo completely baffled. “Actually I have, about three time… but I don’t follow, why?”  Shade inquired. “Does it feel… different?”  Roun inquired. “Jayce is a powerful channelers, our battles are more intense… but I still don’t understand.”  Roun just smiled, slightly disappointed. “You will… eventually… you’ll notice it.  There are some people that give you that feeling, and some that don’t… when you figure out why, I guess you’ll know why you’re a member of that list too.”  Roun explained, looking over to Ryuu and Jinzo.  “I’m done here, we should go… I don’t want to get involved when the people trying to rescue Ms. Real show up.”  He stated, causing Jinzo to raise an eyebrow. “Actually, I didn’t tell you did I?”  He started.  “When we completed that mission in France, here was supposed to be the next stop… but we never bothered because we couldn’t assemble a team in time.”  He went on, leaving everyone lost.  “Oh.” He laughed, now noticing that they weren’t following.  “The pick up happens tomorrow… so I don’t think you’ll have to worry about being here when any attempts at the quest happen… because by tomorrow, it will be too late.”  Jinzo explained as the three left the area.

Outcome: Roun understands why the list was created.