LibriumArcana.Games

If there is evil in the world...then truly it lies in the heart of man.
-Edward E Morris, Tales of Phantasia

A bright light, a feeling of being stretched then, then suddenly snapped....

Leah opened her eyes... and realized it was dark. where am I was her first thought, as she started to raise up, and found one of her arms wouldn't respond. "What's going on?" she exclaimed, trying to sit up, one arm flopping as if dead-weight, the other tingling pins & needles. Her eyes adjusted, and she realized where she was.

Home.

Her little bedroom, with the curtains pulled against the light. She was lying on the carpet, right where she'd fallen, it seemed, back in her normal clothing, which were nastily wet and smelling acridly. "... ugh... how long....?" Her dead-weight arm was starting to come back to painful life, as circulation was starting to restore itself. How long had she lain that way?

Her head moved, looking for her clock, the bright display showing the date and time. Sunday. 7pm EDT she thought, squinting to read it. She'd plugged into the HDD Friday about that time...

the HDD! She turned her head, staring at the device with real fear. It was off, it seemed. No lights on, totally silent. Just to be sure she scooted over, her legs still feeling weak from laying so long, and unplugged it.

"ok... ok... relax..." she told herself, trying to stay calm. "first... a shower. Or a bath." she crawled into the bathroom, feeling that she'd fouled herself while lying in the floor. "Damn... I'll have to trash these pants... maybe the rug too..." she muttered to herself, trying to keep her mind on mundane matters.

Only once the water was running, her limbs still painfully announcing themselves with pins and needles, washing two days worth of filth from her body, did she try to process what had happened.

"I was inside the game." That much was clear. She couldn't have dreamed it, she'd have slept for two days.

"I met Auron and Yuffie and Vash." Auron and Yuffie she'd known from the Final Fantasy games. Vash she'd never heard of before.

"I fought the Null...." The Null kicked their asses. Repeatedly. If it'd not been for "..... Darek......."

The long cry on the Enterprise... THE ENTERPRISE!!... kept her from totally breaking down. It was real... it was real... it had to be real... right? her mind frantically repeated. but if it's real, then Darek's dead... no... not dead. Game figures don't die, do they? Albert said so...

"Albert!" she sloshed out of the tub, grabbing for a towel. She had to call Albert, had to see if he was ok, make sure he got back in one piece.

Justin woke up in his room. he looked around. he sae his HDD. he saw his insect collection and jars of preserved and dissected vertebrates. His bed, his bookshelves. He was home.

He looked at his wall clock. Nice litle contraption, gave him the date, time, humidity and temp

"Ah good... it is not monday yet" he said, before walking over to his bed, and curling into a fetal position to contemplate just what he was going to do now. Certainly not grade papers... he had been through enough... What would he tell his students though? Justin supposed he should at least glance over and burn a couple.

High above Earth, orbiting the moon, was a small craft. It's technology was possibly impossible, but certainly wildly improbable. Slowly, Albert was taking stock of the situation. Best to itemize things, really.

One (1) guy with a wheelchair, who was possibly Magneto.

One (1) female doctor, unconscious after being drained of a Null.

One (1) short range, smallish starship.

Not much to work with, considering he, back here, was just a PoliSci grad student.

"Well, we could go with the good news, or the bad," He announced. "The good news is it appears we're back in our universe. The bad news is that the Enterprise is probably kibble, I have no clue how to get down from here, and this thing lacks any kind of stealthing systems. I'm not wanting to start an Incident by flying down there."

He said, prodding touchscreens to try and get a feel for the ship.

"Computer, list systems we have sufficient clearance to operate.."

Matthew lay on the ground next to his HDD, he was in the clothes he had worn when this hell had begun. His eye remained unfocused as they stared at the wall, seeing but not watching the slow steady blink of the power light coming from his HDD as it waited patiently. In the background he could hear but not listen to the sound of his answering machine patiently beeping, informing no one that there had been calls missed.

What Matthew did watch over and over again was Yuffie being horribly maimed by Cloud, then he saw as Crusher healed her. He saw what he hadn't seen, a horrible seed being placed into Yuffie's heart to take her over. Most of all though, Matthew's eyes watched as the laser scalpel cut Yuffie's head off, watched as her young head rolled down her chest to land in her lap, the now dead eyes staring sadly at him, pleading.

What Matthew did listen to was the constant cries of Yuffie. First at the shock of Cloud's betrayal. Then the pain of being torn apart. Then there was the pleading. Dear lord make it stop! Please make her stop crying! Stop the begging! Stop the pain!

Matthew cried out, a wordless scream begging for release from it all.

He'd been lying on the floor for three hours.

It would be another four before Matthew finally sat up.

Rory had been thrown to the floor and was scrambling up. -holy shit this is it.- She trying to reach Ted but never made it. It all happened so fast, she didn't even scream. The sudden brightness and then....


Darkness.... "Uugnnhh..." Rory groaned. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to see what horrible fate awaited their opening. A hand slowly reached up to her head, rubbing the temple. "Did someone get the licence plate of the semi that hit me?" She mumbled into the carpet. Carpet? Her eyes shot open, she stared into the beige carpet of her appartment. She pushed up with her arms shakily, then tucked her legs under her. She was back in her room, her faint table lamp burning like always, the slight glow from the HDD behind her casting a soft shadow. She turned and stared at it, thinking that she unplug it, but not acting upon it. She stood slowy and made her way out into the hall.

"Jiiiinx! Here kitty kitty kitty!" She rasped horsely. She cat mewled from the kitchen. "Aww baby, I'm sorry, you're starving aren't you?" She walked in to the small kitchen the cat weaving in and out around her ankles. She took out a can of tuna from the fridge and oppened it placing in his dish. She took his water dish and ran some water in it. "I missed you so much babykitty. I swear I won't leav you like that again." She sat the dish down and petted her compainion.

-I'll protect you....- She recalled Ted's words. Had he made it? She rushed over to her computer and logged on. She searched the forums for his name, then got his instant message info and sent him:

Agent_girl013: Ted? It's Rory. When you wake up message me back!

She looked over at her cell and then her house phone both blinking forebodingly. She winced and walked over to her message machine and hit the button. Her boss's paternal voice came over the speaker: "Rory, This is John. I was jusy wondering where you were, it's not like you to not show up for work. Is something wrong? Um, give me a call."

The next message was about the same, then the last one was a bit more angry. She decided that she would call him back and do some kind of damage control.

After she explained that her friend had been attacked walking home and was in the hospial he forgave her. As soon as she hung up she broke into tears. Remembering everything that had happened. She slumped down in her over-stuffed chair and cried.

He sat up suddenly his head swimming from the sudden rush, he had to get a hold of her to see if she was ok. He grabbed his computer ready to try and find her some how when he noticed someone had already messaged him.

Rukia wrote:Agent_girl013: Ted? It's Rory. When you wake up message me back!

Ted quickly typed out his response to Rory, relieved that she had made it out safely.

Angry_shrink42: I’m here, are you all right?

She sat up at the small noise that indicated a message. She walked over to the computer and saw her reply. She sighed deep.

Agent_girl013: I'm so glad you're ok! What happened? Why are we back home?

She got up and went to get a glass of water.

Rukia wrote:Agent_girl013: I'm so glad you're ok! What happened? Why are we back home?

Ted leaned his back against a wall and put the computer on his legs as he typed out another message.

Angry_shrink42:I cant remember much of what happened, last thing I remember was this flash of light or something then I woke up feeling like the Roman army had walked through my head. Something brought us back home so I guess our situation was not as hopless as we thought. Have we really been gone only two days?

Shark Bait wrote: Agent_girl013: I'm so glad you're ok! What happened? Why are we back home?

Angry_shrink42:I cant remember much of what happened, last thing I remember was this flash of light or something then I woke up feeling like the Roman army had walked through my head. Something brought us back home so I guess our situation was not as hopless as we thought. Have we really been gone only two days?

Rory slumped back on the couch, sighing again.

Agent_girl013: I guess When I called my boss today and he was understanding that I had spent the weekend with my "battered friend". So yea, two days... It's crazy. Or are we crazy? You're the shrink...

Angry_shrink42:Heh or a close approximation there of, frankly I'd be worried more if we were all perfectly calm, the fact that we both remember the same events confirms that we experinced something. So no we are not crazy based on remembering what happened we might be crazy now for other reasons but thats a side issue.

Jack slowly opened his eyes. Strange, why does my bed feel like carpet? Then he realized that it wasnt his bed. It was his floor.

He sat up quickly, feeling light headed. He stood up and then fell down again. His right leg was totally numb.

"What day is it?" He asked himself. He dragged/crawled out of his computer room and ended up finally staggering to his feet in his small kitchen. He fetched a glass from the cabinet and pour himself some water. He drank it and pressed the play on the answering machine.

"Martin, this is Harrison. Where are you buddy? Its 2:30 and we are waiting for you."

"Jack, this is Mike, where are you?"

So on and so forth.

Now, Jack was left with one question. "Was it really real?"

Justin finally got up and heard the furious typing from Ted's room. He shambled across the apartment

"Just to confirm, we got sucked into a war torn fantasy world and ended up on the enterprise over the weekend? Because I have to figure out how to explain not grading all those term papers, and I really really want to curl into a fetal position right now, and I want to make sure there is a reason"

Ted looked up from the computer with his usual exhausted expression, "Yes that really happened and your not crazy" he said to a second person that day "as for gradeing them just throw the stack whichever one flys farthest is an A and you just scale it back from there."

The computer singled Albert to a display, as the list of systems began a slow scroll. The runabout was outfitted in a geek's wetdream of a ship, outfitted with technologies found only in sci-fi video games.

Asgard Transporter beams, Slipstream FTL, S.T.E.P. (Space Time Energy Projection) Drive for Temporal Travel, Chameleon circuit for easy hiding of the ship on primitive planets...

The list scrolled on and on, each technology more impressive than the last....

And what's more, if they asked, a full copy of the entire database in reference to these technologies.....

Oh yes, the runabout was a vertiable goldmine...

Matthew slowly got to his feet and shambled over to the HDD, shutting it off and unplugging the system. Without paying much attention he then stumbled over to the answering machine and turned it on. Only half listening as he went around his home, cleaning up the now bad toast, and then making some food for himself. For the most part the messages were from the normal customers, wondering why he hadn't opened and checking to see if he was feeling ok. Other messages were from friends wondering where he'd disappeared to.

Fishing out some bread for a sandwich, Matthew felt some fabric on his hand. He looked down and saw something clenched tightly in his hand. Curiously, Matthew looked at it more closely, noticing that it was a black bandana. In his minds eye Matthew saw Yuffie, laughing and smiling. She pushed some errant hair out of her face, revealing more clearly the black bandana around her head.

Matthew's eyes teared up as he slowly fell to his knees, bringing the bandana to his face as tears ran down his face. He didn't need to ask himself if it had been real. He knew it was now, and this proved it.

"Yuffie..."

*Ring.... Ring... Ring... Ring.... Ring....* *Click* Hi, you've reached Albert Basil! I'm probably out slaving away at something, so leave a message! **BEEEEEP**

"Albert? Please be home. I need to know you're home ok... It's Leah. Call me. Ok? Call --*BEEEEP*"

Leah looked at the phone, before clicking the button to hang up. She was tempted to call back, just in case he was on the floor, unconcious... or something. No... no... calling once was enough. Wasn't it? "Dammit...."

She turned and flipped on her computer, to see what the news was. Zion was down.. all servers. Fontuna games was apologising all over themselves, promising to make up for the weekend by giving all customers a free 36hr session once the servers were running again.

There was no mention of missing players, or other odd happenings, locally or on BBC/CNN. It was like it didn't happen....

NO. It happened. I can prove it.

Open Window:BioNerd2001 LadyArchivist54: Justin? Are you ok?

"Oh, that's a good idea... I suppose I should have a few token burnings." Justion said,. before he slowly and semi-aimlessly shuffled out of the room. The only thing keeping him from having a breakdown was his indominable iron will. And even that was starting to rust.

Then he saw his IM flashing.

A.J. the guy he had been trying to woo for a while was worried about him, and so was Leah.

He answered

Bionerd2001: Define OK. I got sucked into a war torn fantasy world over the weekend. Are you holding up alright?

He then switched screens

Bionerd2001: hey A.J SOrry about the lack of response. I left my computer and IM programs on and my phone died when I went into the field this weekend. Can I make it up to you?

It was kinda true. He was im the field..sort of.

Bionerd2001: Define OK. I got sucked into a war torn fantasy world over the weekend. Are you holding up alright?

LadyArchivist54: So far... yes. Just needed to confirm I'm not crazy. Is everyone else ok? Ted, Rory? Matt? Have you heard from Al? He's not answering his phone.... :-(



So, Justin was alright. He wasn't panicking, so it meant Ted was ok as well, since they were roomies. Amazing thing, InstaMessaging... cheaper than phonecalls, as long as your buddy was online.

Bionerd2001: Yeah, Ted and Rory are ok. I havent heard from Matt, though I dont talk to him much anyway. I havent heard from Al...

Jules rolled over and groaned, "God, what happened?" Sge asked noone in particular, spitting hair out of her mouth... wait, hair? Her hair was worn in a topknot, what little there was of it. She raised her hand to pull it out and looked at it. Red-Brown?

It took her a minute to realize she wasn't Jules anymore. "Home!" she nearly shouted, tears in her eyes. "Oh, God..." She struggled to her feet and stumbled to the HDD, slapping the kill switch. "I am *never* playing that thing again!" she swore and stumbled to the bathroom for a much needed shower.

As soon as she started feeling human again -- literally -- she began wondering about the others she'd "played" with... "What were their names?" she wondered, straining to remember... "Leandra, Thog -- Leah and Albert...Yuffie - no, Yuffie was an NPC, I guess." She regretfully shut the water off. "I need to find out if those people were real."

She wraps a robe around here, one just like she'd used on the Enterprise. She stopped and looked at it, sort of surprised...

She settled herself at the desk, pulled her laptop over and started a search only a scientist -- or another paralegal/secretary -- could duplicate. She started with a search for Thog/Albert. Thog was a rare enough name that finding it in conjunction with Albert should be easy enough...

After about 15 minutes she had call codes for Albert and for Leah. She sighed... "I know they're going to think I'm crazy..." and dialed Al's number. After several rings, the answering machine picked up. "Hi, I hope you don't think I'm crazy, but I think we played together online this weekend. If you're the half-giant Thog, please call the goblin witch named Jules back..."
She clicked the receiver button and dialed Leah's number waiting for an answer....

Shark Bait wrote:Angry_shrink42:Heh or a close approximation there of, frankly I'd be worried more if we were all perfectly calm, the fact that we both remember the same events confirms that we experinced something. So no we are not crazy based on remembering what happened we might be crazy now for other reasons but thats a side issue.

Agent_girl013: How's Justin, ya'll are roommates right? Have you heard from Leah? Albert? Matt?

She rubbed her temples and typed another message.

Agent_girl: I need a shower, you gonna be on in a bit?

Rukia wrote:

Shark Bait wrote:Angry_shrink42:Heh or a close approximation there of, frankly I'd be worried more if we were all perfectly calm, the fact that we both remember the same events confirms that we experinced something. So no we are not crazy based on remembering what happened we might be crazy now for other reasons but thats a side issue.

Agent_girl013: How's Justin, ya'll are roommates right? Have you heard from Leah? Albert? Matt?

She rubbed her temples and typed another message.

Agent_girl: I need a shower, you gonna be on in a bit?

Angry_shrink42: Yeah he's holding up as well as can be expected, I'll see if he can get in touch with the others, I know we have al's number. You enjoy your shower and take care if ya need to talk I'll be hovering arround my computer just send a message.

Ted set down the computer and got up, his legs were a little stiff and he looked in Justin's door. "Hey man you know how to get in touch with anyone sides al?" he asked "I'll pass the info on to Rory." he paused for a second reading the look of pure stress on Justin's face, "hey how you holding up man? You need to vent or talk or anything just let me know, my grandpa's money shoud be put to at least some use."

Justin just let out a sigh. Tears were streaming down his face, but he didnt sob.

"we... we faced death how many times in the last week? I...we...none of us were prepared for that. I mean... the sheer firepower of that ship... the one that took down the Enterprise... I dont want to. I never want to go back I cant face that again, I cant see my friends die again, I never want to feel stabbing claws and teeth from supernatural entities ripping through my flesh. But....I know I have to."

He took a breath, and let out a sob with the exhale

"If we can be pulled in, and if we can be sent back, they can send stuff through... Like that thing that tried to rape Leah, and... and that ship. The enterprise was NOT the enterprise on the Series, it was modified. Its weapons were not phasers, its shields were stronger, it had armor.... and even in the show that thing was tossing out triple digit megaton weaponry like candy, and that Null ship ripped it apart."

He took a moment to breath

"We cant fight that thing. This planet does not have enough nukes in its arsenal, assuming we could get them to that ship, to do any damage, or even get through point defense systems. If the null want to, this world is at their mercy. I dont know how we will do it. But we have to find a way to stop them from sending stuff through. Everything we know and love is at stake. A.J. Rory, Albert, Leah...our parents, our students... as much as we bitch about them we care about them... All of it..enslaved or destroyed. We cant let that happen... and we know e can stop them. Otherwise they would not have tried so hard to kill or turn us..basic rules of fantasy..."

It was at that point his resolve broke, and he huddle into a tear-soaked fetal position in his chair

Jack spent nearly have an hour trying to come up with an IM name he had from one of the group. Finally, he typed in a message to Ted.