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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 14:52:01 GMT -5
Prime and Aurora sat comfortably in Prime's rather large and luxurious house, watching his twelve-foot projector-screen TV. "Prime," Aurora said. "How the hell did you get this place?"
Prime grinned. "This is an old family retreat, been here for a pretty long time. We occasionally deck it out with all the latest stuff. I'll be living here until I can find a new place, or, well, since the rest of my family is dead, I guess I can just keep on living here." He got up and padded over to the fridge. "Head up!" He chucked Aurora a beer.
A faint twisting in the air distracted Prime for a moment, but it was gone a second later and Prime dismissed it.
He sat back down in his recliner. "Ahh! Its nice to be able to take a load off. The only thing I can do now is react when something happens anyway -- god damn these bone blades! Look at this, I tore a fucking hole in my chair!"
A tearing sound ripped through the air, and Prime yelled "Duck!" just as a portal opened, and a beautiful woman flashed out like a comet, colliding right with Aurora and sending them both into the wall.
She grunted, and looked up at Auro with the most beautiful blue eyes. "Hi," she said, smiling. "I'm Holly, thank you for catching me." Aurora couldn't help but notice she was completely naked.
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 15:04:18 GMT -5
Aurora had been enjoying himself until a really hot women had landed on him. Now he was really enjoying himself. He grabbed his cloak from a nearby chair and draped it around Holly's shoulders. "You must be cold. Here, have my cloak," Aurora offered. He glanced evilly at Prime, who was now staring.
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 15:11:33 GMT -5
"Hey, don't look at me like that. You're the one who's tenting your pants."
He looked carefully at Holly. "You're not a faction angel, they usually make more violent appearances..." He shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, she's okay. Lemme get you something to drink."
He went down to the cellar, allowing Aurora to talk with her as Prime knew he wanted to. He'd seen men with that look in their eyes before. Hopefully the angel wouldn't tear his arms off for any advances though.
Holly pulled the cloak more tightly around herself, and studied Aurora. Then she suddenly realized she was still curled up on his lap. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, leaping off his lap lithely. She looked around, and settled for sitting in the chair Prime had just vacated.
"Everything is so real here, so much less ethereal. If I..." She reached out and touched Aurora's cheek. "If I want to touch something, I can be sure of touching it..." She looked at her hand curiously. She flexed it and holy energy crackled about it, sparking dangerously. "It seems I am still who I am though."
She looked at Aurora. "What's your name?"
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 15:16:11 GMT -5
"My name?" Aurora asked, shocked. People normally fought him first and asked questions later. He smiled. "My proper name is Dave. Most call me Aurora because of my powers." No one had called him Dave in a very long time -- that was his human name. "How did you get here?"
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 15:24:49 GMT -5
"Dave? That's a good name." She stood up and let the cloak fall to the floor. She concentrated, and her holy energy condensed into a light, loose pair of pants, and a tight t-shirt that confined her breasts. "I got here because I decided I wanted to come. Very little can deny the will of an angel. However, now that I'm in this world, my powers will be significantly more limited. The rules are different here."
Prime climbed back up from the wine cellar. "Sorry, I couldn't find anything an angel would appreciate. You're probably older than most of my vintages. Anyway, I've got some white wine here, hope that'll do."
"No harm in trying," she smiled. "I've never been to earth before, so I wouldn't know anything about your wines, or any of your drinks for that matter. But... I seem to be rather hungry at the moment. Thirsty too..." She patted her stomach.
Prime laughed. "That usually happens when you come to a world like this, after not having eaten for thousands of years in another plane. I'll make something for you." He tossed Aurora the bottle of wine, went to the kitchen, and started pulling out various ingredients and spices.
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 15:30:52 GMT -5
Aurora grabbed two glasses from the cabinet, and poured two glasses of wine, then remember Prime and poured a third. "So what are you going to do now you're here?" he asked as he sat back down. "I can show you around, keep you company if you'd like."
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 16:03:37 GMT -5
She grinned at Dave. "I think I'd like that." She sipped her glass of wine. "Whoa! This stuff doesn't taste so great..."
Prime laughed, and walked out of the kitchen with plates piled high with food. "Well, wine's purpose isn't really to taste great, more along the line of fucking you up so you can do stupid things without feeling like an idiot." He set a large slab of steak down in front of Aurora, and a salad in front of Holly. "Being an angel, I don't doubt you're a vegetarian. Eating other animals has never been very appealing to celestial beings."
He walked back into the kitchen, and pulled out a bottle of grape juice. "Try this, Holly, it doesn't taste so rancid."
He pulled Aurora to the side for a moment. "I see that look in your eyes Auro, like a puppy dog with a new toy. But you be careful, angels are serious business. Guard your soul lest you lose it, she's powerful.
"To be honest, you might die if you become intimate with her. Her energy would simply overwhelm yours. You need to grow stronger. Don't let yourself go until you do, I'd hate to lose a friend. Especially since I have so few."
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 16:08:57 GMT -5
"Prime, I'm not stupid, you know I don't let people in in case some shit like that happens," Aurora answered. He jumped over the back of the chair, into a sitting position. He began to eat, and swallowed before speaking. "So Holly, what do you wanna do first?"
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 16:27:53 GMT -5
Prime rolled his eyes. "He is soo not listening to me."
He sat down on the couch. "I'd go and sleep, or eat, or something. But I don't really need to anymore. This body apparently absorbs everything I need when I touch this and that." He chuckled. "So I'll just sit here and keep an eye on you two, and make sure you don't wreck my house."
Holly raised an eyebrow at him, then turned to Aurora. "Your dad is a hardass," she said.
"And I don't know what I'd like to see first, I've never been to this plane before. I suppose there's a lot to see..." She pondered. "Ah, but there is something I can show you!"
She grabbed his hand and teleported to "The Vault," an ancient treasury of the old gods at the edge of the universe. She stood in the glass dome and looked at the stars on one side of the vault, the beautiful folds of reality on the other side.
"Isn't this just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen."
The place seemed to be half enclosed in weapons, strange objects, armor, relics from the past, books, secret arts, magics, and various other things that would kill a human being in a second, but if Aurora managed to get over those, she was sure he'd enjoy the view.
* * *
Prime sat alone in his place, drinking a beer and wondering if he should follow and keep an eye on Aurora. Celestial beings were rather whimsical creatures; he should know; he was one. He shrugged, wondering if the angel understood that Aurora was head over heels for her already. It'd probably been a long time since she'd felt a feeling like that for a specific person. Her mind was old when he'd touched it, Aurora was nothing more than an infant to her.
Prime shrugged. Aurora could take care of himself. He flicked the TV on and started watching South Park.
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 16:39:36 GMT -5
Aurora did agree, the view was beautiful. He was speechless for a moment.
"It's amazing -- gods, angels alike -- truly amazing," Aurora said, looking over at Holly.
He looked around the vault some more, checking items out, but not touching, until one caught his eye. A sword. "What's this?" Aurora asked.
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 16:48:30 GMT -5
"Ah," she said; he had been distracted by the weapons. She walked over to the sword that caught his eye, and picked it up. The air misted as though dry ice passed through it as the blade sliced through the air. "This is Odinthrana, 'Odin's Bane.' This sword can dip below absolute zero, and freezes time itself as it does. Its so powerful that nothing can pass through it, star or black hole, angel or demon or god himself. If anything comes in contact with the blade, it is frozen for as long as the blade remains." She held the sword out to Dave. "It suits you."
"Now that I think of it, I owe Prime for feeding me as well." She went searching in the piles of weaponry for something that might suit the one she knew as Tredriel, which, loosely translated, meant, "The Watchdog of Stars." Though it had a much deeper meaning than that.
Finally she found what she sought, a sword that radiated the light of the moon, long and silver, and utterly deadly. "This is Trediel's Light, it was forged from your friend's power. At the center of his star was a core of solidified energy. A noble general, Alexander in fact, obtained permission to forge this sword from it. Thus he became 'Alexander the Great'."
She saw the look of mild surprise on Aurora's face. "Did you not know? His task was once to guard your galaxy from heaven and hell and our eternal conflict. And yes, as you may have guessed, Trediel is his true name. Jiayan is mine."
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 16:54:24 GMT -5
Aurora received the sword graciously and swung it through the air once, before attaching it to his belt. He was shocked about how Holly knew of his powers, but not surprised. She was an angel, after all.
"Maybe we should go back?" Aurora suggested. "Or we can look at the view for a bit longer, it truly is beautiful." He balled up his hand, which glowed with a blue aura. He opened it a few seconds later; Aurora had created an ice lily, his favourite flower. He held it out for Holly. "Here, for you, it'll never melt," Auro smiled.
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 17:07:07 GMT -5
"Oh, how sweet. Thank you, Dave." She grinned wickedly, and touched her index finger to his solar plexus. White energy surrounded Dave, and tore his old clothing off. He was now dressed instead in a tight blue shirt cut halfway down the sides, loose navy blue trousers, and above it, a complete set of knightly white armor.
"Ah, now that's more becoming. You looked so dark before." She wove the flower through her hair above her left ear. Then she smiled, wrinkled her nose at him, and teleported them both back to Prime's place. She gave Terdiel's Light to Prime.
"Whoa!" Prime yelled. "No wonder I'm still alive! I never thought I'd see this weapon again!" He stopped suddenly, then looked shrewdly at Holly and Aurora. "I guess you've got a better idea of how old I am now, don't you Aurora? Let me give you a little more of a glance into my past. The sword which I hold now was more commonly known in England as Excaliber."
He grinned. "And it's thanks to this blade that I'm still alive. My life force should've been extinguished when my star went out -- I was wondering about that. But... I thought this was lost in the lakes of the fey." He weaved water through the air as he pondered, solidifying it into microscopic gem fragments, which he then wove into a sheath for it. "Never thought I'd see this again."
Odinthrana caught his eye. "Ah, I see, it was in the vault. I hope the harsh view of reality itself didn't cause you any damage, Aurora. You'll want to be careful with that Viking sword; it's a double-edged blade, and it doesn't care who it freezes. It cannot be controlled."
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 17:24:38 GMT -5
Aurora smiled, finding Prime's comment funny. "It can't freeze me, I'm immune to ice," he explained. He sat next to Prime. "So as I was saying, where do you want to go first?"
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 17:38:50 GMT -5
"I think you get to decide that, Aurora," said Prime. He turned to Holly and went on. "You're a battle angel -- that's how you knew to find these weapons, and how you knew what they were. You're the highest class of angel save for archangels. And only with my star could I take an archangel head to head. Though mostly I was fighting them in your plane instead of this one. I have to wonder why a battle-trained angel, loyal directly to God, would abandon her post."
Holly smiled. "I'm a bad girl," she said. "Or, more accurately, long before humanity was ever created, I was the one who stood in this barren plain, untouched by anything. I watched as this reality twisted and turned, eternally intertwining, far more confusing that anything in heaven or hell. So, you could say, I'm more loyal to this place than to God." She sat down on the sofa. "The only construct in this world then was the pyramids, built by a race that existed long before God or Satan. And yes, oh yes, there have been far more powerful things than Heaven and Hell in the past."
She looked at Dave. "Love, actually, is a recent, and entirely human creation. I'm quite impressed after all this time. I haven't been paying attention to you all really. I lost interest twenty thousand years ago, after God told me to poke an atom, and it created the ooze from which you spawned. He's not as all-powerful as you think he is, you know. He just wanted to see what would happen. We're still not entirely sure how humanity came to be. But we remember the first, primal incarnations of life, and their power."
She stretched out on the sofa, yawning. "Dave, show me what humanity built while I was away."
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 18:06:47 GMT -5
Aurora nodded, and placed a hand on Holly's shoulder. They teleported onto a skyscraper in New York. He waved his hand around; it was nearing sundown and the city looked particularly beautiful.
"This is what we've made -- well, some of it. This is the city of New York, one of the busiest places in the world. What do you think?"
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 18:14:04 GMT -5
She looked at the roughly hewn buildings, with their coarse surfaces and sharp angles. "You certainly seem to have one-track minds when it comes to some things." She kicked the cement. "A whole world set in stone. I guess baseline humanity hasn't advanced into a culture built on art yet. You're still growing." She smiled at Dave. "But it seems you're growing greater all the time."
Prime ported in, and walked over beside Aurora. "You know, even at sunset, cities are uniform and dreary places. I get the feeling she'd appreciate something that required more thought and creativity. That's all they can do in Heaven -- when they aren't fighting Hell."
He walked off the edge of the building, and hit the ground a few seconds later with a thud. He picked himself up and frowned. "Damn but this body is tough, I didn't even feel that."
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 21:55:02 GMT -5
Aurora mumbled something about Prime, just as he dropped off the roof. He turned on his heel toward Holly in deep thought. She's a battle angel, so she likes combat, he thought. Maybe she would like to see how we humans have developed as fighters.
"How about seeing how we've advanced in the art of war?" Aurora asked. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and teleported her to an arena. He signed up to fight, bought a decent seat for Holly and led her there. "I'm dedicating a fight to you," he said with a smile.
"Hope you like what you see," Auro shouted as he ran across to the barrier that overlooked the arena and proceeded to smash straight through it. Wow, strong armor, he thought.
He landed and rolled to absorb the impact and drew his sword Odinthrana. His opponent was taller than he, and held in his hand a massive sword. Aurora smirked, which seemed to throw the massive man off guard. "What's your name?" Aurora asked in a friendly manner.
"James. But what's it to you?" was the reply.
"Just wanted to know. ready to be defeated?"
James seemed to think this funny, because he ran forward surprisingly fast for a man of his size. He held the sword behind his back, ready for the swing. When he reached Aurora and whipped his sword down, Aurora brought Odinthrana up to meet. They clashed, and Auro's sword set to work freezing James' and cracking it.
Auro pushed James back, thrusting his strength through the sword, and spun quickly to sweep his sword round. He scored a deep cut in James' leg. The other warrior roared in pain and anger, and threw his broken sword aside. Aurora sheathed his.
James once again ran forward and planted a fist into Aurora's armor. It absorbed the blow rather well; Auro hardly felt anything. He teleported and shot two orbs of ice at James' legs, freezing them instantly.
"Yield?" Aurora asked.
James nodded.
The crowd started to cheer and Aurora looked around with a smile on his face. An announcer called out into a microphone, "And the winner, AURORA!"
Aurora teleported back up to Holly. "So, whatcha think?" he asked.
POHATU SEZ: Smirking three times in one post? I won't allow it! Death to smirking
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 22:10:13 GMT -5
Prime ported in. "Ah Aurora, if you're going to do battle in front of a battle angel who's fought for tens of thousands of years, you have to stretch yourself to your limit before you become impressive."
Holly smiled and nodded. "I appreciate the thought, and you are right, humanity has advanced a great deal in the deadly arts." Prime grabbed Aurora's shoulder, and his sword. He laid down Tredriel and Odinthrana into the seats on either side of Holly. "Why don't we have a match. It'll be a far more impressive display of the martial arts."
He ported himself and Aurora down into the arena. "Hand-to-hand powers only, I could use the learning experience in this new body," he said. "Are you prepared, Aurora?"
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 22:18:28 GMT -5
"As you wish," Aurora agreed. The crowd started to cheer loudly, anticipating the great fight that was about to begin. Aurora and Prime knew it would be hard on both of them, evenly matched as they were.
"Let's do this," Aurora said. His aura flamed up once again. Anyone who got too near it normally froze -- probably not the case with Prime, but it would certainly strain him. To start the battle, Aurora summoned two balls of glowing ice into his palms and flung them, one at the ground to create an explosion, and the other at Prime.
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 22:50:47 GMT -5
Prime grinned. He had a little surprise for Aurora. He pointed his hand at the ground in front of him. A beam of ice hit the ground, and quickly made a wall of ice, blocking Aurora's attack.
Prime brought his hands together in a mock hadoken move, and flames gathered between his palms. He threw his hands forward, and a massive wave of flame smashed through his own wall and headed for Aurora at great speed.
He then closed and pointed his fist at the ground below Aurora, and raised a wall of earth in a semicircle around him, open end toward the fire, so he'd have nowhere to run to.
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 22:57:41 GMT -5
Aurora whipped his hands around and a thick wall of ice appeared in front of him. The fire melted it, but the water extinguished the attack. Aurora flipped his hand up. Hundreds of thick pillars built up underground and shot up all over the arena. When Aurora concentrated and shot his palms down to strike the ground, a massive shockwave of ice circled out around him.
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 23:04:56 GMT -5
Prime pointed his hand at the oncoming ice and turned it to water, which washed around him harmlessly. He then called to his fist the power of thunder, and launched it into the ice pillars to create a lattice of thunder all around the arena. He weaved darkness into the thunder, making it nigh impenetrable. When he had finished with that, he looked toward Aurora with glowing white eyes, and a sword of fire formed in his hand. "Shall we dance Aurora?" He flung the blade wide, which sent a wave of fire towards Aurora, then teleported behind him and struck with the flame blade.
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 23:10:22 GMT -5
Aurora didn't have time to act. He had dodged the thunder attack, but the fire was too much. Aurora tried to put up a shield, but it reversed, contributing to the attack. The flames hit head on, ripping Aurora's armor apart, burning him, melting the ice in his veins and arteries. All he could think of was the pain; all his life as a "hero" -- nothing had affected him this badly. Was this the end? Was this finally where Aurora would leave the world and go back home? The last thing he remembered was muttering to Prime.
"You're an adept?"
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Post by prime on Jun 8, 2006 23:15:04 GMT -5
"Holy shit!" Prime yelled. Thinking quickly and teleporting Aurora's sword down, Prime shoved it into his body. His injuries froze over and were healed by the effect of Odinthrana. "Oh thank god that worked," Prime sighed -- he could heal the wound in Aurora's body from the sword. He pulled it out and used a great deal of holy energy to heal the wound.
Then he teleported back to his pad, where Holly was already waiting for him. "Oh, is he all right?" She pulled him into Prime's master bedroom, and dressed his remaining wounds, her gentle fingers not allowing any pain to reach Aurora's brain. She was sweaty and her white top was soaked by the time she finished, but still she sat by him and mopped his brow.
Aurora was mumbling. Prime wondered what he was thinking about. And what did his cryptic last words mean? What did it mean...to be an adept?
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Post by dave on Jun 8, 2006 23:26:07 GMT -5
Aurora was indeed mumbling; he felt different, and very confused. He could feel the real world, but he was on the bridge of another. Had he nearly died? Was he a half-life? It had happened to others, of course. Most half-lives had possessed unusual powers like his, but they were very rare. He mumbled again. This time something else happened. A flame appeared in his palm and lit the bed on fire. A second later, ice had appeared to put it out.
It was a few hours before he awoke from a strange dream. The first thing he saw was a beautiful girl, a beautiful girl in a white tank top, a very beautiful girl with a wet white tank top with nice... mhmmm. He blushed; he shouldn't be thinking those things, especially when he was meant to be dead.
"Hi," Aurora murmured.
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