Changing Realms (toon oni link)

Ooc: This story takes place after both the Rainy Day at the Bar and the Sands of Power stories, immediately following Francis' spar with Axen (High Noon Spar).

Bic: Francis ran his hands through his short hair, feeling the pricks against his hands as he did so. The warm water pouring from the faucet felt refreshing against his face. Francis stretched his arms out as far as he could in the shower, feeling the fatigue slip out of them and down the drain. He had been back in the Dome for almost a month now, taking his time, brushing up on his skills, and enjoying the random cosmic coincidences that...well, that just HAPPENED at the Dome, from one person meeting himself from another dimension (this had just happened last week, and had caused quite a stir amongst certain Elf factions, who believed that this signaled the end of time for sentient beings) to the collection of technologies both past, present, and future. The Dome really was a magnificent place, and Francis was enjoying its never-dulling surprises. And the food was GREAT! Francis--or Francois as he had been called here--loved to eat at a French--haha, sorry, France is a country in the reality that calls its home planet "Earth"--Bistro that served the most fantastic escargot Francis could find. The superb taste was a result of French cuisine mixed with an Elveo-Dwarvic influence in spices and sauces, as the original French founder had married a crossbread between an Elf and a Dwarf, who had quickly pursauded her partner to mix the two styles. Simply amazing! The only problem was that, due to the Dome's everchanging architecture, the Bistro could be quite difficult to find at times, and they had not yet purchased a telleporter marker, so telleporting there, which is how most people got to their homes or to friend's houses, was out of the question. To Francis though, it was worth it. Francis, having already dried off during his day-dreaming tangent, slipped on his boxers, a plain white fill, and continued to dress for the day, donning cargo shorts and a pink polo. At half-passed three Francis was out the door, heading towards the now eastern section of the Dome, humming a little tune that he had come across in his travels: Back in Black by AC/DC.

Francis rubbed his stomach, content with the amount of food he had ingested (he had found the Bistro relatively quickly today), as he slipped into his favorite bar's oak door. He waved to a few regulars, including Axen, who was lining up a billiards shot, before sitting at his usual stool at the counter. Francis raised his finger at the barkeep, "same drink as always, Louis," he said before turning his attention to Axen's billiard game. "Eight-ball, left corner" he called out in Axen's stead, and watched as Axen sunk the ball perfectly into the left corner. "Good game, fellas," Axen shook his opponents' hands before ambling over to Francis. "How's it goin'?" he inquired to Francis, who was sipping at his drink (tomato juice with a hint of Sprite). "Pretty damn good, Axen. Pretty damn good." Francis paused to take a sip of his drink. "Can I buy you something?" he said, signaling to the barkeep.

"Yeah, a coke, if ya wouldn't mind" I asked then sat down next to him. I had been chilling out here for a while till I got word of my next assignment. After a bit of horsing around and joking, a guy came in and busted the doors off of the western-themed "saloon". "Don't move!" The voice commanded fiercely."No noise! and no reports either!" The man boomed. As he walked into the bar, his figure became more discernible, due to the same lighting.His build was large, and he was toting two double-barreled shotguns and tow condor tools. Men fell in behind him, all holding rifles.
Then it really got crazy, the public running and yelling in fear, trying to make themselves a smaller target.
"Ax, you hear somethin'?" Francis asked, turning in his seat, cracking his knuckles.
"Nope, Francis, not a word. You were saying something, crap-jerks?" I said, fingering my blade hilt.
"Crap-jerks!? You guys better watch your mouths, if you're fond of breathing! Go crawl in a-" One solider was saying, but was on the floor in a second.
"Ax, ready?" Francis asked, straightening himself from the blow he dealt to the solider.
"Yeah," I sighed."Why do we even have to bother fighting these idiots? You didn't even have to use your blades. Ah well, let's go." I said dully, punching the closest solider that was about to fire.

Francis turned his head upwards, topping off the last of his drink with one big swig. He set the drink down on the bar behind him, and turned to his right to see Axen pop the nearest soldier's nose with a solid no-look hook. Francis' mouth curled upwards into a smile. "Classic move, Ax," he thought to himself, "classic move." The bar was silent except for the whimpering victim of Axen's surprise hit, trying to collect the blood pouring from his nose with his straightened fingers. The seven remaining soldiers stood, waiting for any cue, any more movement to start the fight. Francis counted three heartbeats, and then struck. Dashing forward with great alacrity, Francis dashed into the nearest soldier, hitting him in the stomach with a lower right jab. The soldier bent over, gasping for air, tongue hanging from his mouth. Francis shouldered the man's face and rocketed his hand into the man's throat, torquing the man around until he was held in a solid lock, the man's throat placed firmly between Francis' right forearm and bicep. Two soldiers across the room fired, shooting their companion in a frantic effort to stop Francis' assault. Francis spun the dead soldier off of him using his right arm, and lunged into another soldier, grabbing the soldier's rifle, which pointed over Francis' right shoulder, in his left hand, and slashing a third soldier's throat with a draw of his eight inch blade. He smashed the rifle into the soldier's face, hitting him just between the eyes, and followed up by forcing the butt of the rifle into the soldier's groin. The soldier toppled over, clutching both head and groin, and fell face first into the floor. "Three down," Francis thought to himself, "that leaves four."

While they had their attention focused on francis, I was busy taking them out silently, as to uneven the odds.The first on went down by suffocation, the next by covering his mouth and stabbing his throat.The third I killed by just kicking him over which made him cry out and the only guy left standing turned and aimed their guns at me."Three down, one more to go."I thought as francis called out,"Heads Up Ax!"
And I held my blade at an angle slanting upwards to the left.
"Hahaha! Is that all you're gonna do!? Just stand there and die-.....!" The Last solider standing taunted but was silenced by a bullet hole in his forehead."Ho-How did you?!" The solider asked with his last breaths."You-Ack!" He spat out some blood."How did you shoot me? You don't have any guns on you!"
"Fool, Francis shot a bullet AT ME.Then I deflected it with my sword into your unsuspecting forehead.Fool." I commented as he slumped to the floor, dead

The two left the bar, slipping out in a hurry to avoid the Dome Police Force. Francis hated dealing with them, and Axen had experienced a few altercations with them as well, so it was no wonder the two left quickly, leaving behind just enough coins to cover the cost of their drinks plus a small tip. So they save a local bar from being ripped off? Bigger stuff happened in the dome every day. and Francis new that Louis, the barkeep/owner of the bar, would get in touch with them if he wanted to. After all, they both were regulars at his establishment. Maybe a few free drinks would be in order. The two slipped down Main Street (one of the only unchanging routes in the Dome) and headed for Francis' apartment. It seemed like Axen wanted to ask Francis for a favor, but when Francis queried him, Axen asked him to bring it up later at the apartment. "Very well," said Francis, wondering if a new adventure would soon be in order.

when we got back to the apartment, francis put his hands on his knees and faced me, who was laying on the other bed in the room. "So, gonna say something?" Fancis asked, tilting his head to look at me.
"Well, it's just that I found a lead on the guy that killed my parents. I wanted to ask you to accompany me." I asked, looking at the floor while I said this.
"Hey Ax, there's something different about you, although I can't put my finger on what it is. any hints?" Francis asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"What's different is that I'm wearing a different trench coat. This one is black cloth. The other one has a tracking device in it, for progress reasons. I want to do this on my own, without someone watching over me, because this is my conflict and I want to end this free of my superiors, with only my friends at my sides. So, will you do it? I wan you, we may have to get our hands dirty." I warned.

Francis stood up, running his left hand through his buzzed hair before responding, "Yeah. I'm up for it." He walked over to the oaken cabinet at the foot of his bed and threw it open, prepared to pick out his equipment for the task at hand. "Before I pull everything out," he turned to Axen, "I need to know something. Are you sure this is the guy? I only ask because I know you've wanted this for an extremely long time, and I don't want you to get your hopes too high. Failure is still possible, and it is only a lead. It may not be a sure thing."

Ooc: You can go ahead and narrate our departure from the Dome if you want. If you want me to, then tell me. It's your choice.

OOc: I'll take the lead ,thanks.
Bic: "Yeah, I'm sure it's the guy, because......." As I went on explaining I remembered the night I found out about the lead.......
"Yeah, the fool was runnin' around yellin his head off, saying something about belonging to the night corps, something' or other." I heard one man say to another while drinking his ale.
"What?!" I asked, turning towards them."Where did he go?!"
"What, don't get your britches in a bundle, there. He's still in town. I think he's staying in the white horse."The man continued, waving his hand in the direction of the inn.
"Thanks a lot sir, thank you." I said, gratified while bowing, something I've never done before.......
"I'll ask you again, WHERE IS YOUR BASE!?" I screamed, hitting him full on in the face. We were in a tent, with a man who's mask was still on and was apparently sealed by a magical force, unknown to me. The walls were tan and the floor was dirt.
"Heh, if you keep saying that, I'll never give it to you." The captive smirked.
"You wanna bet?" I challenged him."Alright, I've been saving this for a real tough nut like you, so let's start." I said and sat cross-legged and closed my eyes.
"Ha! Is that all you're gonna do!?" The captive taunted, probably trying to get me to kill him, but I wouldn't fall for it.
"Ready?" I said in an creepy calm voice.
As I launched into his mind, I could sense a resistance to my probing, probably due to his training but it was nothing compared to mine. As I broke through his barrier he tried to kill himself with the little magic he had. Unfortunately, however, I was used to dealing with suicidal people so I battled him at the speed of thought, overriding his command with one of mine, all the wile still having enough concentration to explore his mind. It turned out that the night corps is a clan of assassins who're based in the dome but have branches in several inhabited planets, all of them commanded by zant, who was my real target but since he heard that I had survived and am growing in power, he went into hiding. So I had to use these methods to dig him out. Anyways, the main branch I was going after was the ones stationed on earth, hyrule, and the main, the dome.
So the next morning we left to take a teleporter to earth to see who's blood would be spilt.

Francis and Axen both stepped off the teleporter platform, extremely disoriented from the process. Teleportation itself tends to be a little shaky, after all, it's not easy to move every single atom of a person almost instantaneously to a destination--and then put the person back again, placing every atom in the exact position that it was at the start of the process. The platforms for such a process had all been installed at different times throughout the Earth's time line, this one however, located in a small cave underneath downtown Houston, had been installed some time in the early 1970's, but had barely been used since. Thus, it was no surprise that the ride was a little more unsettling than usual, seeing as the platform had received less maintenance than usual. Anyway, Francis and Axen made their way up the metal stairs, pausing at the doorway on the top flight. "What's the code again, Ax?" Francis asked. Axen dug a small piece of paper out of his pocket, "Two, five, nine, twelve, dash, three, seven, eight, six" he read aloud. Francis punched in the code and the door slid open. The two stepped out into a narrow, drained well with a ladder opposite the doorway. They climbed up the ladder, and emerged into a thick brush. Francis knew that this was Eleanor Tinsley Park, just as they were told before they left. They had one stop to make here before they left for the Hobby Airport just north of Galveston Island. Francis turned to Axen, "just where is it that we're going?"

We're taking a plane to Venice, Italy. The lead works for an assassination group. The plan is, once we get there, we join them and work for them for a little bit. Obviously, we'll rise in the ranks immediately, seeing our potential. Ten we go to the dome on official business, and once we're there, we grab the lead I've found and run like hell." I turned to him."How does that sound?" I asked.

"Alright." Francis responded. He was going to ask why they simply didn't use a teleporter closer to Venice, but was able to deduce the answer. "The teleporters there are probably compromised" he thought to himself. Then, on a different tangent, "maybe we can stop by the chapel where I was raised. It sure would be nice to see Father Jared again." He cut his own tangent off, turning to Axen to say, "we need to stop by one of my old friend's houses, I met him when I was growing up in Italy. He was there doing some weapons contracting for a local militia. He'll help us smuggle our weapons over to Venice, and believe me, we'll need the help. Security has been real tight in the US ever since the War on Terrorism began." The two continued walking, heading towards an old abandoned building a few miles away: The Savoy Hotel.

The two jumped down from the upper deck, landing on the plaza at the top of the Savoy Hotel. They had broken into the adjacent parking garage and used the height advantage to make the jump to the Hotel. Luckily, the parking garage tenant, George, hadn't been around to try and stop them, or make inquiries as to if "they want buy" the parking garage. Heading into the right side of the Hotel, the newer half, they entered the first room they encountered. Francis entered first, "yo, you here yet?" He called into the darkness. A hooded figure stepped out, switching on a lamp (the Savoy had managed to retain working appliances over the years, which is why it attracted many squatters. Working electricity and water were hard to come by in abandoned buildings nowadays. Aside from that, it was also still fully furnished. Talk about your real squatters deals!) and waving in greeting. In thirty minutes, Francis and Axen were out of there, completely weaponless. They had left there equipment with Francis' contact, and had also asked for a few more items to help them along. As they walked back past the park they had originally entered, Francis turned to Axen, "time to hitch a ride," he said quietly.

"Well", I commented, "let's get going then" I said as i jogged over towards a row of trucks that had the us military symbol on it, giving it an intimidating look.

Thirty minutes later, the two were inside Hobby Airport. They had stolen one of the trucks and used it to get within a mile of the airport, leaving the truck behind an old fast food joint to be found by the police. They quietly boarded using the forged passports that they had acquired from Francis' contact, and relaxed as the plane began its ascent. It wasn't long before the two found themselves landing on a rainy day in Venice, Italy.

Ooc: Sorry it's short, but I want you to be able to direct it a little more.

The canals were overflowing as I looked out the window. A woman who had obviously been here told us to stay inside, because otherwise we would get dragged off to sea. So it looked like we were taking a break. I wasn't really concerned about it, because I used my shadow blast which disintegrated all of the evidence that I had been there, leaving the room spotless. Plus, I had one heck of a jet lag and needed to chill for a few hours anyways. So, with that, I fell asleep, my eyes never moving away from the window.

Ooc: Sorry, been really busy lately. Why don't you go ahead an narrate more? Skip my turn this time. Lead us to our first encounter with the mysterious group that's going to hire us, if you don't mind. I just feel like you already have some ideas you want to put into practice. I'll go ahead and do a little something.

Bic: Francis watched as Axen slept, his eyes open the whole time, staring at the window. He had noticed this before on their first journey together, but still hadn't gotten used to the strange habit. Finding a napkin to write on, he left a letter for Axen and then left to retrieve their equipment. It had arrived a half hour after they had, and was just awaiting pick up. Two hours later he was back at the room. Axen hadn't moved. Francis walked over to Axen and nudged him awake. "Time to get up. I've got our stuff," he said.

I jolted out of my revere, awakened by francis's hand waking me up. I got up and got some crude but speedy breakfast at McDonald's, and left for the theater. I had noticed that this was one of the few ways to get into contact with the local business. By the time we got there, the movie about some dude massacring some young girls was playing. Almost nobody watched this video but they still went anyways, hoping to spot recruits. You see, that movie sis always on the same time of day as always, so they buy a ticket and slip into the next movie screening and hop that way, from one to the other. This allows them to pick up on the local chit-chat and as a means to connecting. These guys always sat in the front, so as not to be seen picking the door when they hopped. That was why, when we had bought our tickets and got to the doors, we went to the front and sat with the couple of guys in the front.

As the movie ended, I got up and turned to them. They stood, tensing as they rose.Silently, they pulled out guns. "Why do that? you can't fire here without causing a panic and alerting the crowds" I said calmly. The crowd was already out of the door and when they looked to check, they reached a hand in their respective pockets and pulled out silencers."Damned silencers" I muttered as I drew a blade and dashed in, leaving francis to cover my back.I weaved in and out of the bullets,ducking and jumping until I got to one guy's face and kicked the other while francis shot the gun out of the downed guy's hand."Checkmate!" Francis and I declared at the same time, while we were striding towards the one man left standing, francis's gun trained on both the whole time." All I wanted to let you guys know was that we were interested in joining your group. Pass it along to your leader and give him my regards." I said as I tossed him a note scrawled on a scrap piece of paper." Tell your boss to read this. Oh, and don't try to peek or it'll blow up if anyone besides he looks at it". I turned and walked away while franics jogged to catch up.
"Wow ax, I didn't know you could do that!" francis exclaimed, smirking all the while.
"I can't. I just bluffed them into doing it. Pretty good huh?" I commented as we walked out of the theater and into the sunlight.
"Now what?" francis asked.
"We wait and enjoy ourselves" I responded, switching into a brisk walk as I went towards the markets that surround our hotel.

The walk back to their hotel room, after several hours of walking in the bazaar of course, was a long one, but they were both happy to be back to a comfortable room. At least until they noticed the mess. "Damn it...." snarled Francis, staring at the upturned beds and table, "I knew we should've kept a better eye on any tails we may have had." He stepped towards the window, crushing glass beneath his boots. Underneath the window he pulled back a loose brick in the wall, peering in at their equipment. "It's all good!" Francis exclaimed, "nothing's missing!" He turned towards Axen. "This was someone else, not the group we're interested in joining. We better be more careful. Someone tried to scare us with this little display. Anyway, time to see if they accepted our offer."

As we walked outside of our room, two people ambushed us, and sacked us. One man had a gravelly voice, one that made it sound as the words he spoke were chewed on before he spat them at you. "Follow us." Those were all the words he said on that journey, and as far as I could tell, we were going through alleyways and even in the sewers. Finally, we arrived at a room that was made up of stone, and had absolutely no light source except the little water draining bars that you see on a sewer gate, was located on the western side of the room. It smelled moist and the walls were wet with condensation.

"Aww, damn" Francis started as the sack was lifted off of him, "I thought maybe we were going to the circus." A simple idea, annoy the captors in an attempt to learn some information about their whereabouts. "Instead I find that we're nowhere near the circus, and more so, that our captors are butt-ugly! What do you think, Ax? I think they probably never get dates."