The Great Race of Doom

“Hey you! What’s your name?! And what do you call that thing?!”

Roery nearly fell right off her motorcycle at the sound of the man’s voice. Not so much because the informality of his question yelling, or the strange creature he was riding. It was the fact that she was going nearly 200 MPH through barrens that seemed to stretch on forever in front of her, and the young man and his creature where flying right next to her, matching her speed perfectly.

“Hey, your not a mute are ya?” the young man yelled again as she struggled to find words. He was riding what looked like a slick, silver and gray reptile with huge wings and patches of fur across its body. Its face long with glowing blue eyes, a pair of slicked back horn at the back of its head, and a small mouth at the front of its long snout. The man himself was garbed in a leather jacket, with darker leather pants, and matching gloves. His hair was light blue and spiked, slicked back as the wind screamed through it, a pair of flying goggles strapped to his forehead.

“It’d be a real shame if a pretty girl like you was a mute” He said with a grin.

“I...” she stuttered as she furrowed her brow at the man.

“Ah! So your not a mute! Or else a mute in recovery.” He yelled back. “You think you could give me your name oh fair one?”

Roery wasn’t sure what to make of the young man flying on the beast next to him, or what his intentions were, or if he was flirting with her or mocking her.

“...Roery.” she answered hesitantly.

“What’s that?” He called back.

Turning her head to glance the other way for a sec, then turning to face the road before her, she called back, “Roery.”

“Roery? That’s an interesting name. Any chance I can get you to slow down so we can talk?”

She turned back to the man, giving him a blank stare as she zoomed down through barren lands.

“Ah, You’ve got spunk. I like that.” He said with a charming smile. “Listen, I couldn’t help but admire your machine you got there and was wondering if you’d like very much to participate in a little race I’m helping to put together. Huge chest a gold to the winner and I must saw, I think you and that machine a yours stand a mighty good chance!”

She glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow, just slightly intrigued.

“Oooh, looks like I sparked somethen in ya” He said with a grin “Listen, why don’t you follow me, and I’ll lead you to where the race track is. Its not that far away.”

She turned her head to look at the road before her again, contemplating what he had said. While she had no intention of entering any kind of race, she had been stranded in this barren land for some time now and it’d be good to find a town where she could, maybe, sleep in a bed for once when night came around. She turned back to the strange man. “This place have a town?”

“Castle and everything” he said with a smirk.

Rolling her eyes, she called back. “Sure, why not. Take me to this race track of yours.”

“My pleasure, dear.” He said, his grin widening. His beast flapped its powerful, sleek wings, immediately rocketing itself in front of Roery’s bike. He then started a wide turn to the east, making sure the blonde girl was staying behind him. Soon their coarse straitened out, only making wide slow turns to move around rocky mountains and gatherings of dead trees. All the while, the man and his beast staid a few yards off the ground, a hundred feet in front of her. Hum, kinda nice of him to bring me to the closest town. If I’m ever going to find J, it’ll most likely be where people are. Her thoughts lingered on her friend for a while, wondering how she was ever going to find him in these lands, or if he was even on this world. She soon shrugged those thoughts aside. The knowledge that he was somewhere on this world was the only thing that kept her going. There was obviously no way, that she had found, to get back to her home world, and if J wasn’t here too, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to handle it. Sure she liked to put on the tough girl shell to everyone she met, but deep down, she was terrified. She had been ripped away from everything she knew and loved, cursed to live the rest of her life on a strange world of bizarre inhabitants. The only people she had met so far where her ‘teacher’, probably the most bizarre out of all of them, and a few others she had became acquainted with at the dome tavern.

Three hours had passed and Roery was getting tired and sore. She had already been riding for a few hours before she had met up with the blue haired kid and his beast. “Watch the drop!” The beast rider called back to her. The ground seemed to come to a stop up ahead. Roery shrugged and sped onward, soon coming to the edge of the drop off. The bike rocketed into the open sky, staying suspended for only a moment before slowly dropping down towards the ground. Below her, Roery could make out a small town at the base of the valley. The cliff wall was slanted well enough, she’d have no real trouble ridding down it. She landed, unsteadily at first, but soon straitened herself out and gaining speed as she sped down the rocky terran. The boy and his beast dropped down into view as she sped down the mountainside. The reptile swerved from side to side as it went, trying to help her navigate the rocky, uneven slope as she followed directly behind.

It wasn’t long before they reached the base of the cliff. Roery slowed and came to a stop as she came to the first few houses. She looked the small town over. the houses where all old and brown and grey. it lookd slightly like an old western settlement, and it appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, with barrens lands stretching out to the north and east, sand duns to the south, and the giant, gray cliff wall where they came from. For being in the middle of nowhere, and being such a small town, Roery was amazed at how many people their were bustling through the sandy streets. Not only that, but the diversity of peoples, everything from ax wielding dwarves to cyborgs.

“Castle and all, huh?” She said with a smirk as the young man and his beast touched down beside her.

The boy just grinned at her. “We’re here. Zap!”

Before she could raise an eyebrow to him, a lightning bolt shot from his hand, striking her on the shoulder and throwing her off her bike. She yelped in pain and tumbled on the ground for a few yards before coming to a stop. The young woman struggled to get to her knees, her mind clinging to consciousness. Her shoulder was screaming and badly scaled, sleeve torn and charred. She grabbed her shoulder and fell back down to the ground.

“Aw, that didn’t knock you out? You’re a little tougher then I thought.” He said as he strolled closer to wounded girl.

She struggled to look up at him, only making out a blurry outline. “Why.” She spat, her voice barely over a whisper.

“Well I couldn’t exactly knock you out and then bring you here.” He said with a smirk. “Well actually, I guess I could have, but then Jezebel would of had to carry you and your bike the whole way here and that would have been horribly slow.”

What the crap was wrong with this town, hadn’t anyone noticed the man shooting lightning bolts at a defenseless young woman? With a burning rage, she activated her armor in blinding flash of blue light, and lunged at the man, the immense pain in her shoulder immediately lessening as her armor’s pain nullifying aspect went into full effect.

“My my, would you look at that.” The blue haired young man said with a smile. “Zap.” another lightning bolt shot out of his hand, this one stronger then the last, and ripping strait through her chest armor and threw her back a few dozen yards. This time she was out cold before she even hit the ground.


<(‘ ‘<) ~ ^( ’ ’ )^ ~ <( ’ ’ )> ~ v( ‘ ‘ )v ~ (>’ ’)>


Roery awoke with a painful start. Wincing in pain at the jolt of electricity being sent through her arm.

“Oh, was that to much?” Came a familiar voice. “You heal remarkably fast you know that Roery?” He said, lifting a bandage from her shoulder. Immediately her eye’s snapped open and her hand moved to his wrist, only to find that her hands were bond and here vision was severely blurred. She jerked away from him and shut her eyes, trying to clear the fog from her sight.

“Aw, I thought maybe we could be friends.” The young man said with a laugh. “Ah, I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m picken on you.” He said, setting back down the bandage on her shoulder. She also had a bandage on her chest, just bellow her collar bone. “To tell you the truth, I feel kinda bad about lighten you up back there.”

She turned her head to look at him, a fierce glare in her no longer blurry eyes. “Then why did you do it?” she said through clenched teeth.

“Well, for a couple reasons really.” He answered, taking a seat in a stool beside her. “One, I’m pretty sure you had no intention of entering the race, and I just couldn’t have that. Two, the curse is easier to put on you when your knocked out, and three, the race severely needs more beautiful women like yourself.”

Roery closed her eyes again and flexed her fingers, testing the strength of the cold metal that bound her. She knew she could probably brake free if she were to don her armor, but while the fool was dishing out information, she might as well bid her time and listen.

“Listen, I know you have some questions so let me just clear a few things up for you.”

Her eyes opened up and she raised her eyebrows too him. She didn’t expect him to so willingly tell her everything.

“You’ve been knocked out for two days and your in a big ol tent where we’re gathering all the other... ah... unwilling contestants. Your going to be competing in the great race, and that little curse on your neck there is just to make sure you finish the race.” He finished, pointing to the side of her neck.

“And what happens if I don’t finish the race?”

“Ah, glad you asked. This is how it goes. You veer too far from the course, you get a nice little warning shock. You continue farther away, you get an even bigger shock, and so forth and so on. Basically, if you go far enough away, you’ll die... which would be regrettable in your case.” He said with the most charming grin he could muster.

“Why me?” she spat. “Why would you do this? What’s in it for you?”

“I already told you the ‘why you’ part, as for the ‘what’s in it for me’? That’s a question I can’t answer. Now how’s about you answer some of mine, huh?” The blue haired boy asked as he leaned back and crossed his legs. “What do you call that machine of yours?”

Roery turned her head to look up at the ceiling. “It’s called a motorcycle. How long am I going to be stuck here?”

He smiled. “Until me and the rest of the gang are a safe distance away from y’all, we wouldn’t want you guys getten hurt now would we?” He asked, leaning forward. “Now here’s something I’m especially interested about. What was that blue armor you manifested earlier? It looked kind of like magic but even a lesser mage could tell you’re no spell user.”

“And just what do you gain from my answer to that question?” she asked, still staring blankly at the tent ceiling.

“A clarification of a burning curiosity.”

She turned back to look at him. “Well why don’t I-

“No, no,” he said, raising a hand to stop her. “I don’t want you to show me. We wouldn’t want things getting out of hand, wouldn’t want that curse a yours getting... unpleasant.” He said with a smirk.

She glared at him, balling up her fists but resisting the urge to lash out. She didn’t need right now to be knocked out for another two days. And if that curse could do what he seemed to be able to do, it wouldn’t do her much good to knock him out. There was most likely a good many people in this room that could set it off. Man how she hated magic.

“So, about that armor of yours?” he asked hopefully. He sat quietly and waited for a response. After a few moments he sagged shoulders and sighed. “There’s no way your going to tell me, is there?”

“Nope.” She said simply.

He sighed again and looked away. Turning back to her he said, “Tell you what, I like you, so I’m gonna go pull a few strings, see what I can do to help you out during the race.” She raised an eye brow to him as he got up from his stool. “I’ll also let you loose before any of the others. But you can’t tell anyone.” He said with a wink. Her look of confusion grew as he leaned over her and started unlocking the metal links on her arms, legs and neck. She sat up as the last of the bindings were released, holding her sore wrists and examining the damage on her shoulder. Her shoulder was already completely healed, just a little red, as was her chest. The young man nodded and turned to walk off.

“Where’s my bike?” she called after him.

“Oh, right. Its right out there,” he said, spinning on his heels to face her and pointing to the opening on the other side of the tent. “Now remember. Be on your best behavior.” He said, waving a finger at her, and turning again to stroll off.

She rolled her eyes and dropped her legs over the side of the small table she was on. Their were rows of people on either side of her and more rows in front and behind her. Most of the people were still asleep, a few of the captives struggling against their bindings while other people held down and restrained them. Once again she took note of the many different races that surrounded her. It looked like a Halloween party gone real, and it unnerved her. Adjusting her torn sleeve, she stood up and cautiously made her way to the other side of the tent. She was rather surprised when no one came to stop her, although there were a good many people walking the lanes, and there was the fact that she couldn’t make out the people who worked there from the captives themselves.

The first thing she noticed as she stepped outside was the giant, dark purple dragon sitting to the side of the tent. She gaped at the immense beast, its glowing blue eyes piercing through the dark, almost hypnotizing. She pulled her eyes away from the monster and gawked at the many other large beast that surrounded the horned, purple dragon. Every one of them, from dragons almost as big as the blue eyed one, to raptor looking reptiles, were sleeping soundly. Roery stood there for a few minuets, never having seen anything like the strange gathering before her.

“Ah, yes, that one we like to call Dragon Queen. How we ever got her to do this for us, I’ll never know.”

The girl spun to glare at the blue haired boy next to her. “Still don’t like me huh?” he said with a shrug. “Fair enough. You find you bike?”

Ignoring him, she turned back to the mountain of monsters before her. “... What’s it doing?”

“She’s holding a spell over the rest of the horde to keep em all asleep until the race starts... which’ll be starting at sun rise... which isn’t to far from now.”

The blonde girl turned to face him and folded her arms “So let me get this strait, because of this curse, I have no choice but to finish this race or die?”

He shrugged “Mmmya”

“And this is all your fault.”

He shrugged again and smirked “Sorry toots.”

“Is there anyone in this ‘race’ that isn’t doing this against their will?” she inquired.

“Oh sure, you guys make up less then half the contestants. The happy willing ones that are in it for the excitement, blood, and money are over there.” He said pointing to a massive tent town a quarter mile away.

“...I see... did you just say blood?”

“Of course.” He said with a grin “what would a little competition be without getten a little banged up?”

Annoyed at him, she turned away. Spotting what she had originally been looking for, she sauntered over to a massive accumulation of mechanical vehicles. Her mind raced through everything that had just happened. She didn’t know anything about magic, but maybe there was some way to remove the curse. Maybe she could find someone around here that would be willing to do it for her. Probably not. Maybe she could find the mage responsible for setting it on her and kill him. She wondered if bleu haired kid was the one who gave it to her. The only thing she did know, as much as she hated to admit it, was that she was going to have to make it through this race or die, or find another escape along the way... ‘course... it wouldn’t be so bad to win the race altogether.

OoC: Too looooong. You know this blue haired guy would make a cool character (He still doesn't have a name! Te heet.) Obviously the horde is all the mounts, along with a few sentient contestants. And of course, some of the contestants are relying on their own speed.

Anyone can advance the story as much as they want, start the race, even add new rules to the race, pick out the terran the track goes through, or anything else. The race is going to last several days. The track itself is completely cross-country with markers along the way. Stray a mile from the course and you’ll get zapped. And whither your character is willing or unwilling to race, everyone’s going to get a curse mark thingy on their neck. PM me if I left anything out.

This is for Cio, Niku, ML and a few others. If you want to join and have a character with a means of competing (ie. vehicle, fly's fast, mount,) then go ahead and join.

"Come back here you bastard!" he shouted, flinging arrows from his bow, hoping to hit the escaped demon as he sped across the dry, barren landscape. It wasn't too hard keeping up with the green skinned monster on his makeshift hoverboard or anything, but Liam was careful not to get to close to the large, orcish looking creep, black tattoos covered his arms and legs, dragging shackled chains from his wrists.

The demon turned his head toward Liam and shouted, "You're pathetic, hunter, you cannot catch me, I'm the-" the stupid fool tripped over a rock and slammed into the ground face first, lying there in a dazed position for a while. "What a fool, thinking you can run from me, a Maelstrom Mercenary. I should slit your throat right now... too bad you're worth a lot more alive!" The demon grunted and groaned from the pain, blood leaked from his broken nose.

Liam held out his hand toward each of the demon's limbs, metal chains bound his hands and legs together, keeping him restrained. The mercenary grabbed a dark gem out of his black coat and smashed it onto the ground, watching the shattered remnants dissipate into a mist. "I've finished this job, Antipholus, claim the prize and give me my money." There wasn't any sort of vocal response, just as Liam expected, but the ground beneath the subdued creature broke open into an abyss. "Another bites the dust..."

"That was quite a feat there!" a random voice yelled out. Liam turned around to see a blue-haired man ride over to him on one of the strangest mounts. Liam had never seen anything like it... he couldn't seem to describe it. "You there, hold on!"

"What the hell do you want, I'm busy," Liam responded, indifferent to whatever this man had to say. "That's a pretty nice board next to you how fast does it go?"

"Faster than the inbred freak of nature you got your ass on, that's for sure," Liam replied, not paying too much attention and stepping onto the board, zooming off. The man yelped a word and the beast caught up to Liam. "You were saying?" Liam, once more, didn't care and held out his hand, making a fist except for his middle finger. "Go away." The man gave a frown and asked, "So, you don't like racing, fabulous prizes, hot girls, money? You can have all of that if you win this race!"

Liam finally made eye contact with the man. "Oh really? What happens if I lose and if it's so great, shouldn't you be getting ready?"

The man sighed and said, "Don't worry about what will happen if you lose and I've already... signed up."

Liam indignantly asked, "Then why are you wasting time gathering competition, seems a bit stupid if you ask me. Like I said, I don't want to play you with, go away."

"Oh well... I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but you forced me!" the man shouted, extending his hand in a flash of light and a bolt of lightning struck the mercenary, sending him flying into the ground. He immediately rose to his feet.

"That's it, you've officially pissed me off!" He was tossed back by another lightning bolt and hit the ground hard again. "Dammit, stop!" Liam got up again, his body regenerating.

"Stay down, it'll all be better afterwards!" the man yelled using both hands to channel a greater shock, firing it at Liam, striking him. It hadn't of knocked him out, but the mercenary fell to the ground, dazed. Soon, he fell into unconsciousness, the darkness overlapping his mind.


* * * * * * *

The mercenary awoke on a hard wooden table, feeling shackles on his wrists, legs and neck. No problem busting of out of these. His body began to heal itself, his eyesight coming into focus, adjusting to the new environment. He blinked a few times and saw the blue haired man sitting on a chair next to him. "Hey, you're awake, good!"

Liam scowled at him. "You better stay away from me if you don't want to ugly face of yours broken in..."

"Hey, you've got a bad attitude. You're never going to win the race with that, you know." Liam continued to glare at this man. "I don't want to play in your damn race, you idiot! Didn't get the message?" The blue haired man shrugged.

"Too bad you don't exactly have a choice..."

"Oh I think I do!" Liam yelled. "Let me out of here or else!"

"You see... you've got a curse now, either race... or die, your choice."

"Any third options?" Liam asked, preparing to destroy the shackles the held him and strangle this creep with them.

"Sorry, the only benefit is the great rewards you'll win!" the man said. Liam pondered what he had to say. "Yeah I'll play, I'll play to win... and once I get that reward I'll be sure to thank you in the nicest way possible."

"Great!" the blue haired man said, unlocking his cuffs. Liam busted the cuffs before they were all unlocked at forced the chains around the man's neck. "Be sure to have that 'reward' for me... it would be in your best interest." With that, Liam dropped the chains and listened to him gasp for air as he walked toward the other contestants, examining the competition.

Mother why must I live without you by my side. Holding me in your warm arms that makes me feel safe. The young Nephilim soar through the clear sky looking down at nothing but sand and mountains. He felt so lonely as of late, haven’t found anyway to heal his mother from he deathbed. He hadn’t heard of anything that could help him in a while. The world was letting him down and his powers hadn’t come back. All he could hope for is the death sword and its power haven’t fully woken or at less Kenshiro hope it hadn’t.

“What a fast beast you are?” Kenshiro heard next to him. He found it odd that something could keep up with him at this height. The Nephilim felt nothing good with going to come from this person without even haven’t to talk to it. He had enough of being around people. He soared higher up into the sky and begun to heal his wings that burned from being to close to the sun heat. He was sure nothing would be able to go this high up.

“I never thought any bird could fly this high up. I must catch you, so someone can ride cutie,” The odd voice said as Kenshiro felt a lighting hit his back. He sailed down towards the ground catching himself a seconds after the attack.

“I’m not a bird you stupid fool. I’m mostly human…” He said to the strange voice. He was almost sure it was other women hear to bug him. Kenshiro was beginning to think he mother was the other female in the world that was normal.

“Oh, Sweetie you’re even more cuter then I thought. I never saw a man that could be a fur beast too,” She said hoping off the dragon like monster she rode on. The Nephilim felt a light body land on his back hugging his fur.

“Get off me back or I’ll drop you!” Kenshiro growled back upping his speed even more hoping to blow her off.

“My loveable bear why don’t you join this race and I wouldn’t have to hurt my new pet?” She asked rubbing her face into his soft warm black fur. Kenshiro body felt odd having a face in his fur.

“No! Now_,” he yelled, but was cut off by a hard blast hitting his back. His body begun to fall through the sky. It changed quickly to human form and he landed on the back of her beast.

***

“Chains this one up to a wall. He’s a wild one I’m telling you,” The women said patting the sliver hair of Kenshiro before walking away. The list thing he heard her whisper, “Be a good boy and win me a lot of money you hear.” He could feel her kissing him on the lips, but was still too much out of it.

The guard pulled his body to wall and locked a thick chain that he couldn’t break himself. Kenshiro eyes begun to slowly open and he jumped forwards only to fly back into the wall noticing something was around his neck. “She said you was a wild one. Don’t fly off to far or you’ll die from the curse. I just Miss Sambly hasn’t trained you yet.”

Kenshiro was enraged of letting himself get catch so easy. He turned back into his beast from and pulled on the wall. A loud growl could be heard echoing through from the building. He pulled and pulled again, but the wall wasn’t given it. He growled even louder as he glared at the only man in the lager building. He took off flying at the man breaking free from the chains. The landed out side where he saw a lot of people sitting down. Kenshiro gave a softer growl at the man below him. His fangs showed and his lager wings flapped slowly.

“You won’t make it out a live if you don’t race! Don’t kill me! Please!” The man screamed running away from the dog like beast. Kenshiro turned back with what felt like all eyes where on him.

OoC: Niku said I could join, so if you don't really want me here I)ragon, i'm sorry, i'll leave.

BiC:

“Hmm, that looks about right…” The Archmage of Wind, known as Kazaisu mused to himself as he brought his arm up, and dropped it slightly, causing the shiny metal knife to scrape of a shred of wood from the strange object he held between his knees. A few more times of this, and he was done. The long thin piece of wood was smooth, and carver to a point at both end with the back slightly thinner. All together the plank was about his height, and slightly wider then him, but the blond haired Archmage seemed to approve.

“What’s that?” A voice called from behind him startling him slightly. Not because someone was behind him, but more due to the fact he hadn’t sensed his presence till. Turning swiftly Kaze took in the man’s appearance with indifference, before replying coldly.

“It’s a surf board, or really a wind board, what’s it to you,” Till that time Kaze hadn’t actually been paying attention to his surroundings, but when he turned he realized he was in a vast desert, with very little in sight other then the rock he was sitting on. Now Kaze wasn’t exactly sure how, or when he got there, but to be frank he never paid attention to his surroundings so he didn’t even take note of it.

“I bet you can go fast with that thing, eh bud,”

“That’s the idea, and you still haven’t answered my question,” Kaze said kicking out the bottom of the board causing it to levitate about three feet above the ground.

“Well you see, I’m hosting this little race, and I was thinking you might stand a chance at winning,”

“Ill think about it, I haven’t really tried this thing out yet,” Now don’t get me wrong, even without the board Kaze can move pretty damned fast with his dominance over the wind, the board however allowed him to make quicker maneuvers, and the design provided hopefully more speed.

“Well lets see what you got,” The blue haired man said jumping atop his beast, which Kaze has also failed to notice. (He can be really dense)

“You sure you can keep up,” Kaze said jumping gracefully onto his board that barely budged at the extra weight.

“Don’t worry about me,” before Kaze could even mouth a retort the man was already gone leaving the Archmage quite literally in the dust blinking. Realizing he was losing flung his arm backwards causing him to speed off towards the man. This is great, this thing can really move Kaze was already gaining on the blue haired man, though he figured that the nameless man was allowing him to catch up. Soon the two where barreling down the dusty road leaving trails of dust in their wake.

It wasn’t long till the too had taken the deep plunge into the valley, and it was lucky Kaze had his board or there would have been on way he would have been able to make such a turn flying. The two streamed towards the outskirts of the small village accelerating negatively till they reached a stop. Kaze leapt off his board, and after grabbing his board took a few steps toward the village, but something was wrong, the blue haired man wasn’t following.

Turning to see what was up Kaze saw a glimpse of light, and with mages instant immediately put up a barrier between him, and the attack, causing the bolt of lightning from the mans hand to bounce off harmlessly. “If you’re going to be so fussy about it I’ll join your little race,”

“And here I was thinking I’d have to force you,” The boy said with a sly smirk, “But wither or not I’m going to have someone place a curse on you, just to be safe,”

“First off, asking is better then showers of lightning bolts, second off you can place as many curses as you want on me, doesn’t mean they’ll affect me,”

“Trust me it’ll work,”

<><><><><><><><><><>

“Almost time” Kaze mused to himself watching the faint glow over the horizon as he rubbed his chest where the curse was placed. Standing up with his board in hand the Archmage of wind looked around seeing the contestants beginning to trickle out, and join him at the starting line. It was not often Kaze was in such a large activity, but he guessed somehow they would have forced him into it if he declined so…whatever. Cracking his knuckles Kaze kicked out his board beside him, as he eagerly awaited the starting gun, the promise of riches ahead.

OoC: Sorry for the wait. :3

BiC:

Why her? Why, out of the countless beings living in this world, even realm, did this happen to her? Sure, she wasn't doing much, nor could she say that she would be, but she had been among dozens of other people, most of which looked like far more formidable foes. Why, out of all those warriors, had she been chosen? All these things were streaming through her mind, rampaging endlessly. It had just been moments before that she was sitting calmly in an arena, which was filled to the brim with spectators and fighters alike, petting her dragon and waiting for the next brawl. This was going to be her form of endurance training, for she was tired of losing countless battle after battle.

When, without any prior warning, a girl bounded in front of her, giggling. She had shoulder length curly hair, a deep red color, and a pair of pink sunglasses resting loosely on the tip of her nose. What little that could be seen of her eyes showed that they were an odd auburn color. Her lips, while full and luscious, had been coated with an overly bright color of pink lipstick. Her face had an adorably round shape, which went well with her stature of a steady four feet ten inches. Her outfit was equally bright, what with the different shades of red and pink everywhere. She wore a pink tank top and a pair of pink gloves reaching from mid-palm to her elbow. Being held up by two belts, both of which were different hues of red, was a shirt, a rich burgundy color. She had a pair of odd socks, one striped, alternating between white and red, and the other baring various colored dots. This pair of clothes led to an equally strange pair of boots. They had Velcro attached to them everywhere, even where not necessary. Factoring all of this, the illusionist guessed she couldn't have been much more than fourteen years of age.

She stood there several minutes, doing nothing but stare at Meghana, her incessant laughing making the woman cringe. And, she could do nothing but stare back at the strange girl, hoping that she would leave. But, after those few minutes of complete silence, the tamer merely nodded, saying, “Right.” With that, she went back to tending to Mindgleam, her dragon, hoping that the young girl would simply walk away. Within moments, it became obvious that would not be the case.

“What's right?” she said, running up to her, smiling brightly, showing off her unnaturally white teeth. Cheerfully, she removed her sunglasses, and her round auburn eyes became more obvious. They gleamed with a sort of emotion. While the illusionist could not peg the emotion for what it was, it was definitely not good. Seeing this uncertain reaction, the girl continued, “Oh, and hi! You can call me Missy, mkay?”

“Hello there... Missy?” a skeptical look had been plastered upon Meghana's face with no signs of leaving anytime soon. “What would you like from me?” While she could have easily retorted with something rude, she had to remember her goal. No matter how annoying one may seem, I must keep my cool and practice all aspects of the social part of society.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed, “No need to be touchy. Just impressed by that there dragon. It's pretty... how fast would you say that it goes?” Her question seemed innocent enough, but her tone indicated that she was hiding something.

What is she doing? Her blue eyes narrowed, studying this seemingly innocent looking girl's eyes, hoping to find something hidden deeper. “It goes pretty fast if I want it to. Why do you ask?”

Missy let loose an annoying giggle, “Oh, no reason really... just. Well, you see, there's going to be this... really big race. And, heh. I was wondering if you'd like to enter with that dragon there. I think you'd be a force to be reckoned with.” Once more she placed the sunglasses on the bridge of her nose, pushing them all the way back and showing off a gleaming smile. “What do you say? I hear there's loads of prizes.”

“Hm... I think I'd rather not. Thanks for the offer, though,” Meghana feigned a smile and wheeled around to face her silver beast. What an odd girl. I hope that-- Her thought was cut short.

“Well, I think you'd rather come with me,” the woman turned around only in time to see a gun pulled to her throat. A hard gulp was soon to follow. “It's my job to get people like you to join this god forsaken race, even if I get you by force! Now come before I'm forced to use this.”

A few beads of sweat trailed down her face, and her hands quivered at her sides. A bluff? Surely not... 'god forsaken'? All the more reason to resist... “And, what if I still refuse?” All the answer she needed was more pressure from the cold steel applied to her throat. “What if my dragon fails to cooperate?”

“Well, I certainly hope that's not the case. And, you know what? You ask too many questions,” Meghana watched in horror as her finger squeezed at the trigger, pulling it effortlessly and sending forth... a jolt unlike any she had ever experienced. It entered through her throat, coursing down the rest of her body, numbing it instantly. Her muscles constricted, and her nerves shook, leaving her body a trembling mess. “Good night,” was all she heard from the insane girl as the conscious world began to slip away. As the tamer's head hit the floor, the only remaining image was a sneer from those hideously pink lips...

~ ~ ~

It came with each time she regained consciousness and now was no different. Ugh... headache... The purple haired woman sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily with one hand, and holding onto her aching head with the other. Where am I? She blinked repeatedly, the blurs around her finally beginning to take shape. The first thing that welcomed her left her mind reeling. Huh?

“Hi, pretty lady. Missy again. Sorry about that. Well, not really,” she smiled, quite maliciously. “I just had to get you here. And, lemme tell you, your dragon was a complete pain. Psh, you should have trained it better. It wouldn't even follow us! We had to use you as bait. Heh, not that I entirely object to that...”

“Why you little--” Meghana shot up, the throbbing in her head, bringing her back down again. Grr... this is... “I'll have you know that that is one of the best trained dragons in this entire realm! And, what exactly do you have against me, Missy?”

“Oh, nothing really. I just need to treat you like this to make myself feel better,” she let loose a sarcastic cackle and turned back to the faerie. “So, let me explain why you need to participate in this race. After you hear the terms, you'll be jumping to be in it. Heheh... It is life or death, after all.”

The tamer stood up, shakily, staring down the demented little girl, “I don't need to hear your little terms. Will you be participating in this race?” Hm...

“Oh, yeees, in fact--” she began, rising her chin up with much ego put into the action. Her hand waved grandly, and her eyes rolled with superiority. And, what a perfect time for Meghana to cut her short.

“More than enough incentive I need. I'm in,” she smiled, not with happiness, but with the thought of kicking this girl's bratty butt. “I'll see you on the track. be prepared to lose.” And, with those last words, she stood proudly, and began to walk, ignoring all the different people and different methods of riding. Ignoring the various tents and angered faces. She had only thoughts of revenge in mind. She let loose an angered whistle from her lips, and a confirming roar came in response. Good. Now, it's time to get ready for this here... race.

OoC: Dragon invited me. Ho ho.

IC: "Now, you're coming to this race with that sweet ride of your whether you like it or not, friend," the man said cheerfully.

This is what I get, Johnny mused, for dropping by a gas station.

His freedom to visit the Modern Era had left him with little choice but to buy a car. He'd picked a beautiful, black jeep--a Warthog, the salesman had called it--and then souped it up with some handy instructions sent down from Heaven itself. It zoomed across the ground so fast that all those Nascar dads in Alabama would have broken down with happy tears. Surround sound, GPS, you name it. It even had voice activated command.

"'Hog," Johnny said to the car, ignoring the blue-haired man. "Stereo on, resume playlist."

"Mmmmm...certainly, Johnneeeeeee," the car replied with a purr. His fixed grin seemed to grow (though that, of course, was impossible); he'd found out how to turn the cold, robotic voice that the 'Hog started with into that of a sexy, slinking woman AI. Outside, the blue-haired man glanced around as if looking for the source. As he did so, Cowboys from Hell started blaring from the speakers.

"Look," the man said pleasantly. "This isn't optional. You can agree, or you can disagree and I'll give you a little shock. It'll put ye to sleep, and you'll wake up and be in the race anyways."

Johnny started to laugh maniacally. He had his jacket's hood up and his cap on, so the man couldn't see...

He turned and gave the man a blazing, skeleton grin, pushing his hood back and letting holy fire spew out of his mouth, eyes, and nose-area. "Put me to sleep, will you?" he asked, letting the laughter and fire die away. The man, to his credit, outwardly tried to keep his cool, but failed miserably.

"Relax. Don't piss yerself," Johnny drawled. "I'm an adventuring...man...and I want to test this baby out. I don't know how fast she'll go, yet. So you just lead on with your big flyin' lizard, and I won't completely kick your ass."

The man nodded wordlessly, still dumbstruck. "Well handled, sir," the jeep murmured. He laughed and replied, "Thanks, Sheila. Start up; we're moving."

"Ooooh...sounds like fuuuuuuuun..."

As they roared off after the blue-haired guy, the curse manifested itself soundlessly on Johnny's neck bones.

Roery was pleased to find her gas tank had been refilled in her motorcycle. After checking the machine over, she found nothing wrong with it, which was a relief considering the crash it took when she was zapped off it. She frowned slightly and furrowed her brow at the thought.

Roery stood strait and looked around at everything that was going on around her, which was quite a bit actually. Men and women on all sides of her were inspecting their own vehicles of all different shapes and sizes. Some of the machines just looked like variations of motorcycles, ATV’s, cars, and trucks. While others looked completely alien and hovered soundlessly off the ground. It felt odd being in such a place, but she supposed her and her bike fit right in, and her torn shirt probably only helped with that assumption. The left sleeve of her white top was burnt off and charred, hanging by and inch of fabric, and the neck was also charred slightly. She wished she could find a place to change, but it was most likely impossible with the hundreds of people around. Walking around to the back of the bike, she opened a side compartment that held her cloths bag and pulled out a black jacket.

The sky was getting lighter, the sun was almost up. Two large pillars stood between the town and the small tent settlement and a massive line of people were accumulated between them, all standing ready behind an ethereal red line that hung in the air. Everyone around the blond young woman were starting to move. Revving up their engines and making their way to the starting line. Roars that sounded more like thunder came from the horde of dragons and monsters as they started to wake. It was almost time.

Zipping up her jacket and saddling her bike, Roery stepped down on the kick starter. The bike started right up with a soft purr. She smirked and kicked it into gear, moving cautiously forwarded and weaving through the throngs of people and vehicles that where all heading the same way. This proved to be quite difficult with the chaos that was erupting everywhere. People where yelling and arguing, and several full on fights had broken out here and there. A few minuets passed and Roery was amazed that she hadn’t gotten yelled at, attacked, runned over, blown up, or stomped on.

But as always, all good things must come to an end. With a sudden thud, a strange reptilian humanoid landed on the front of her bike. “Ssssorry little girl, but thisss little team o mine are playing a sssmall game of ssssurvival of the fittessst. And you ju-” before he could finish his statement, or reach her with his tail, Roery had already planted a plasma disk in his face. To the onlookers, it looked like the girl had merely glowed blue for a split second while the lizard man rocketed off the front of the bike, face smoldering, leaving a trail of smoke behind him as he hit another rider a few yards away.

“Welcome, one and all, to the Great Race!” everyone seemed to stop what they were doing as the blaring voice echoed through the air. “For everyone that’s new to the race this year, the rules are simple; the first person to make it past the finish line will earn this chest off gold” with a flash of light, a massive ethereal chest appeared in the sky, filled to the brim in gold coins. A good amount of people oohed and ahhed.

“The course will be marked by these flares.” with another flash of light, a green flare replaced the chest. “And the borders marked by red flares. And just as a fair warning, it is in everyone’s best interest to stay within the boundaries at all time. Now remember, have fun, and, more importantly, anything goes! The Great Race will start when the sun reaches the bottom of the pillars!” By now, the atmosphere of the track had become more chaotic then before. Every man, machine, and beast that could fly were already doing so in the air before the starting line. With how half hazardly they where flying, it seemed almost odd to Roery that not one contestant ever actually crossed the line. On the ground, everyone was crowded and pushing up against each other. The sea of people stretched back for a quarter mile behind the starting line, and Roery was in the middle of it. At her left stood a raptor looking reptile mounted by a ragged young nomad boy. To her right was a burly biker man sitting atop an air polluting hover bike. Strait in front of her was a small tank, the pilot hidden inside, and beside that was what looked like a werecheetah.

“I feel its only right to warn you,” Came a familiar voice. “That not half of the people usually make it out of this thing alive.” Roery looked up to see the boy and his two legged, winged beast hovering over head at her side.

“You mean to tell , that you threw my into a death race, with a sixty percent chance that I wont make it out of her alive, and you only felt it right to warn me before hand? How sweat of you.” She called back, her words filled with distain.

“This mean we cant still be friends?” The boy yelled over all the noise, a grin on his handsome, slightly slender face.

Roery seemed to mockingly conceder it for a split second, then looking back at the beast rider, answered with a matter of fact smile on her face, “No, I’m pretty sure I ruled that out the second you zapped me.” she crossed her arm and scratched her chin. “Or was it the second I saw you?”

The leather attired young man chuckled a little and patted his beast on the neck. “Well good luck with the race. And don’t die on me!” he said with a grin as his beast flapped its wings and ascended slightly. “Oh, and by the way. The names Zyler.” and with that, he flew back away from the starting line. Slightly perplexed, Roery glanced at the starting line, which was nigh impossible to see through the crowds of people, but what she could see was that the sun was already peaking over the horizon.

“Hey Roery, fancy meet’n you here.” The new voice caught her by surprise and she immediately spun around to see Johnny Bones in the drivers seat of a sleek, black jeep.

“Kellson?” She gapped.

“In the flesh.” He replied with a grin, “Well, for the next couple seconds.” He said as he glanced up at the rising sun.

She tilted her head slightly, a little perplexed, “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you since...”

“Just trying out the new wheels. Listen, just so you know, what your about to see... might shock ya a bit."

“What are you-?” she began, but was cut short as the sun’s rays moved down over his head. Slowly at first, then speeding up as it moved down his body, the zombie’s flesh dissipated into small golden flames, reviling a plane white skeleton with glowing red eyespots. Roery’s eye’s bulged and her jaw dropped slightly. Her first thought was that his skin, muscles and organs had just been burned off. Which, actually was what happened, except he wasn’t dead... so to speak...

“Heh, didn’t anyone ever teach you it's not nice to stare?” He said, his jawbone moving up and down as he spoke.

Her first thought was to jokingly call him a hypocrite, but her second thought over ruled all others, which was as follows.

“Kellson...”

“Your...”

There was a sudden roar of wind and Roery looked up in the sky to see Zyler rocketing with amazing speed towards the starting line, followed by a couple hundred flyers behind him, consisting of dragon riders, aircraft pilots, and winged humanoids. With a resounding explosion of noise, the suns light reached the bottom of the two pillars and waves upon waves of contestants zoomed across the starting line.

The chaos that had ensued before was nothing to what it was now. A little ways away, a rider and his black dragon had begun breathing waves of fire on the hundreds of contestants bellow. A couple dozen missiles zipped through the sky’s constantly, exploding into the air and ground. The racetrack had quite literally turned into a full on war. Her green eyes bulged at the sheer distraction that was going on around her. She immediately activated her armor and pressed on the gas, throwing her bike forward. She glanced back around to where Johnny had been only seconds ago, but he was already lost amongst the crowd. Looking back in front of her, she slammed on the breaks and leaned as far as she could to the left, narrowly avoiding a collision with a crashed and smoldering vehicle with metal wings. Instead, she immediately ran strait into a four legged, horse sized reptile and his rider. The lizard went down with a sickening thud, the rider screaming as he flew through the air. It was all Roery could do to keep her bike from falling over. Slamming her armored left foot into the ground and shooting off her thruster, finally righted herself, only to find an impossible number of obstacles still ahead of her, mainly contestants. This race was starting to look like a bad idea.

The sun's light was starting to fade, darkness started to envelope the sky, making the rays of the sun an orange hue. A nice match for the barren landscape. There was no other noticeable color in the horizon. Liam watched the sun crawl lower under the ground in the distance. The race was about to start and he walked around, scoping out the other competitors and the vehicles, beasts, whatever the hell they were riding. Most of these fast contraptions were could probably be easily broken by Liam's 'abilities'.

It was the monsters and beasts he needed to worry about, both on and off the dusty ground's surface. The mercenary looked to his left. He saw men and women of different disgusting species modifying their engines, wheels, etc. They were probably hoping it would give them the upper hand in the race. Or so they would think. Still, he would give them a little slack before they were splattered all over the ground. The otherworldly mercenary laughed as he imagined it in his head.

Then he walked to the right, seeing riders grooming their pets and monsters for the race. That's what he cared about, what these stupid animals could do and how fast they could run. How much of a threat they would be. Hopefully not enough for Liam to care, but now was the perfect time to make sure Liam could get that prize so he could hurry up and get back home so he could get his pay. The best part was he was going to get two, no three rewards out of this race.

The chest filled with gold, Antipholus' reward, and the thrill of the kills. Oh how fun this was going to be. Liam walked further to the glowing red starting line, seeing some girl with a motorcycle already revving her vehicles engine, anxious to get this over with. She began talking to some undead man in a jeep. Liam wondered how fast he could dismantle that car and crush it. Then it dawned as him, an opposite event of the setting sun.

What kind of ride did he want to use? He decided to materialize the classic metal board. Liam cracked knuckles and extended his right hand, the cold metal starting to form in midair. He threw it onto the ground and stepped on the board, grasping both of his gloved hands together, making it levitate off of the ground. The perfect ride, can't hit road blocks, it can fly and it doesn't need any fuel.

"Maybe I can sell these..." Liam said to himself, laughing at the thought.

Finally, the sun set completely, leaving hardly any light in the sky. At least there were beacons set up so we could see where the hell we were supposed to race to. Liam saw most of the group dash ahead, eager to win this race and it's glorious prize. After giving the other racers a bit of a break, he thrust his hands back, propelling himself forward, throwing himself into the fray. Liam quickly swerved through the air, already having to avoid debris from the racers that were shot or beat down.

He quickly past some of the people who were injured or damaged when some man flying a giant hawk swooped down at tried to knock Liam off his board and get rid of him. He wished. Liam swerved underneath the hawk as it swooped down and he materialized a metal spear, casting it through the hawk's wing and watched the bird fall, hitting the ground with a thud. Liam let out a slight chuckle and sped forward, passing a few more racers.

Then he came across some women driving a heavily modified car, resembling a drag racer. This would be easy. Liam outstretched his other hand, making metal spikes emerge from the ground, piercing the car and it's tires, eliminating it from the race. Liam continued on, smirking. This was actually starting to get fun. He felt a dredge of weariness, he overused a bit of his power. Still, not even that could get him down right now, he was having a hell of a time.