Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

(The next day)

"So heres what I want you to do.. This cargo ship is set to leave for Aiedo. What we want you to do is keep the contents inside safe from these wandering robots near the outskirts of town." A scruffy man told Celeith. The mission seemed simple enough, take a ship to Aiedo, deliver the cargo and then get the reward from the guild.

"Don't worry, just leave it to me and my swords. I may not look it but I'm quite powerful for my size.. Hehe.." Celeith replied as she boarded the large Land Rover. It normally takes a week on foot to reach Aiedo from Neo Paseo.. Over the years the lands have become mostly quicksand and travellers rarely travel on foot.. Nowadays the safest way to travel is by Land Rover..

The ship shook fiercly as Celeith walked through its halls. "I wonder why that man wouldn't tell me what the cargo was?" She said to herself.. "Its none of your business what we have in here.. All we ask is you make sure it arrives unharmed!" she remembered the man telling her. Two large men with small Napalm shots guarded the door to the cargo..

"Looks like I'm not gonna see what the cargo is.. Guess I should go back and..." she said before she was interrupted by the ship coming to a complete halt. The lights darkened, turning from a normal light to a darkish red. "Whats going on?" she thought to herself as she ran to the nearest ramp. She climbed to the top of the ship and stood and stared into the distance.

The dust was thick and barely visable, but the sounds of mechanical clanking could be heard as she saw four shadows in the distance.. One had a device in its hand that seemed to be keeping the ship from moving.. Celeith drew her two swords from their sheathes and jumped off the front of the ship.

Androids were dangerous creations left behind during the great collapse.. Most say they came from a facility in the northeast, others say the place was shut down, but the androids created their own persona, thus bypassing the shutdown operation.. Either way, a few androids roam the desert.. And it seemed like Celeith was about to encounter a few.

OOC: Apologies for the length.
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Brigit
That night Brigit had one of her strange dreams again. It was that same man: the one who had taken to haunting her now, it seemed.

"You're close, now, Brigit. Very close. You will find Magnus, but not without a difficult journey." the tall, shadowy figure in her dream told her.

"It's already a difficult journey! I've spent two centuries looking for Magnus! I don't think he exists, or maybe he did exist, but not anymore." Brigit replied.

"He's been searching for you, too. Do you want to know what he looks like?"

"Of course I do! It's the piece I'm missing!"

"Then I will show you..." the voice began, but in that instant Brigit's core sent a signal up her spine to her brain. She was now awake and sitting upright.

"Damn!" she grunted, looking around the room. It was still dark outside, but she knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. She quickly dressed and headed down the stairs to take a moonlit walk. Nothing better to do, anyway. The inn door swung closed and Brigit took in a deep breath. The night air was invigorating, even for a cyborg. She thought about her dream as she pulled out a many-times laminated piece of paper from her sack. Actually, the piece of paper was in many pieces, yellowed with time, some of which were burned in places. It was held together by the lamination, but some of the information was now obscured or missing. At the top of the paper it read:

SUBJECT: MAGNUS WEXLER, SEX: MALE, AGE: [OBSCURED], DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 12 FEB 2046

Brigit had read the paper thousand upon thousands of times, but she read it again. She didn't need light; her artificial optics automatically adjusted to accommodate the current light levels. Where are you, Magnus? Brigit asked no one but herself. She felt herself becoming overwhelmed with despair again, and hoped her system would adjust itself to balance her awful mood. She waited, staring at the paper.

Suddenly there was a voice in her head. It was the man she met that previous evening, Jakob! It was the message he had heard from the chip!

A battle shall occur. she heard.

Zap. A painful shock of electricity ran through her. “Ah!” she cried, wincing.

A great war began. the voice continued.

ZAP. The shock made her fall to her knees. She tried desperately to open the panel on her right arm for a manual override. She finally got it open, but...

During the year of the Rappy happiness shall end.

ZZZZZZAP. She couldn’t concentrate on repairing herself. What was going on? She fell on her right side, arm extended. She attempted to reach her controls again.

Only a hero, whose soul is pure, shall vanquish the evil.

Her body wrenched in a violent, uncontrollable spasm. She wailed and screamed in pain. She forgot about her controls as the only thing she was interested in now was finding the paper she had dropped. She reached for it and managed to put two fingers on it before...

Now gather your forces without delay.

One final, unbearable spasm, and then she blacked out in the dark and empty street right outside the inn.

The dust cleared, revealing the androids, about six to eight feet tall each. Their bodies were ravaged from roaming the desert for many years.. The artificial skin crafted on them had begun to break down leaving only the cold looking metal. "Tsk.. Looks like its up to me to protect the cargo." Celeith said as she glanced back to the ship.

The few guards that were stationed on the ship were cowering in fear. What kind of training did they have if they couldn't stand up to a few androids. The wind blew Celeiths hair across her face as she glanced at her enemies. She gripped her swords tightly and waited for the first move. The androids eyes began to glow red as they began to move slowly towards the ship.

"Thats the one I'm gonna take out first." she thought to herself as the first android moved in. She placed her right sword in front of her, pointing it straight. Focusing her energy in her left hand she started sending its energy into the sword. Celeith took a deep breath.. "Flaeli!" she screamed as she swung her sword.

The energy focused in her blade created the magic Flaeli, and when she swung it the magic released and launched straight at the android. The blast connected, completely incinerating the top half. "Heh, not bad." She said as she ran straight pass the android as it fell to the ground.

"Alright! You're next!" She yelled out as she ran to the next one. This android wasn't gonna go down without a fight. It drew two large guns from its arms. Large balls of fire hurled at Celeith from the guns barrels.. She blocked with her swords, taking half damage from the attack.

Celeith fell to her knees after the attack. It was bad enough that the desert heat was hard enough to breathe in, but now she had to face a enemy that would hurl fire, making it harder to breathe as well as draining her energy from the heat.

She could hear the footsteps of the other two, but she was powerless to do anything. The sound of metal could be heard breaking apart from behind her. The androids already made it into the ship. Standing above her was the one she was fighting, its gun pointing straight to her face. She looked up slightly, she knew it was about to shoot and without thinking she swung up with great haste, tearing its limb from its body.

Sparks flew everywhere as Celeith took off running towards the ship. Before she was able to make it the ship exploded, the two androids were standing on top of the burning debree. Celeith could barely make out the vision but one of the androids appeared to be holding a small girl.

"What.. was she.. the cargo? " she said to herself as the androids jumped from the remains of the ship. Celeith caught her breath and was ready to fight.. But before she could move.. "AGGGG!!" she screamed out as she fell to the ground.

She had been shot by the android that she didn't finish off. Her body had been pierced by a lasershot.. Her vision began to blur as she watched the androids walking slowly towards her. Then at that moment, everything went black.

Bo and Brigit
Brigit felt the warmth of Algol on her back. Her eyes flickered open and she realized she was resting near one of Neo Paseo's walls, outside the city.

"W-wha...?" she stuttered. She clumsily rose to her feet. "How did I get out here?"

She remembered nothing of the circumstances surrounding her blackout. Maybe she got kicked out of town? Anyway, next to her was her pulse vulcan and her bag, so fortunately she had everything she brought to Neo Paseo with her.

"Oh well," she sighed, looking back at the city's gates. "I probably shouldn't go back if I broke their laws or something." She reached for her old paper... The paper! Where was it?! She checked every pocket on her, every pouch on her toolbelt, and turned her bag inside out. It was gone!

She angrily threw her belongings against the city's wall. She slumped down to the ground and began crying. She couldn't even remember the last time she let herself cry. That paper kept her going every day. She didn't even need to read it anymore, but just having it gave her hope that someday she wouldn't be alone in this world.

Her crying was suddenly interrupted by a nearby explosion. She jumped to her feet and saw flames and smoke coming from a short distance away. She adjusted her eyes to zoom in on the explosion and saw a now destroyed transport and several rogue droids attacking it. She also saw... the woman from the inn! Brigit quickly grabbed what belongings she could, unlocked her weapon and ran double speed to the site of the attack.

She put her body on cloak as she reached the burning transport. She saw the woman from the inn was already on the ground. Brigit quickly assessed what it would take to down the rest of the droids. One of them was holding a girl, so first Brigit darted over to that droid, snatched the girl and started running towards the woman from the inn.

She stood over the woman, put the girl next to her on the ground and shouted back at the robots, "You want her? You'll have to get through me first!" In one swift motion she uncloaked herself and fired a full charge of positron bolt into the remaining droids. They never had time to retaliate.

Pieces of metal and wires from the androids went flying everywhere. Brigit held out her left arm and shouted, "WARLA!!" A barrier formed around Brigit and the two other females; shards of android bounced off the invisible shield.

Eventually everything came to a halt, but Brigit was now concerned about the two victims below her. She cast Medic Power, hoping to revive them, but the burning wreckage had her worried that they were all too close to something that could explode again.

"Wake up, please!" she begged as she continued her Medic Power, staring at the burning wreckage nervously.

Jakob heard an explosion. His eyes opened immediately and almost as if against his will he grabbed his shirt nearby, his sword and dashed out the door, not bothering to lock it. Running out the inns door, he bumped into a cloaked figure, who fell down. Jakob stopped and helped the man up, making quick note of the mans appearance. What was strange, Jakob thought, was the yellowed paper in the cloaked mans hand. Jakob quickly said sorry, than ran towards the smoke that was in the air.

I hope I'm not too late. Jakob thought as he ran towards the smoke.

The world around Celeith was black as night. She rose to her feet and looked at her chest. Something had pierced her body, but there was no hole, no scar. She wandered around confused and scared, wondering where the ship, the androids, and the strange girl was.

Listen

A voice called out to her. Celeith thought she was hearing things until she saw a vision. It was of her childhood back in Aiedo.. "Yay Mathias, you're the greatest big brother." A young Celeith yelled as the vision began to blur. She continued to walk and yet another vision appeared before her.

"Look Celeith.. You see that young boy there? I think he likes you." A woman said to the young Celeith.. The image faded away once again as she continued walking onward.

What are you searching for?

"I don't know!" she yelled out. A third vision appeared, this time of a youthful young man standing on the outskirts of Aiedo. He turned his face slightly and then vanished. Celeith wrapped her arms around herself and began to weep as she fell to her knees.

Do you want to live?

The voice spoke to her again. Celeith looked up to see a beautiful woman clad in armor standing above her. Her armor glistened like the moon, her long ember hair flowed as if there was a breeze. "Of course I want to live.. Who wouldn't!" she screamed out.

The woman continued to stare at Celeith as she continued weeping. "I am Elhaym. In some worlds they call me a Valkyrie, some a demon.. In this world I am known as the angel of life." the woman spoke as she extended her hand. Celeith placed her hand on Elhayms and rose to her feet. "I want to live! I don't want to die!" Celeith replied.

Elhaym's body turned to light. A pendant in the shape of a moon appeared around Celeiths neck. "Break it.. If you want to live." A voice spoke to her. Celeith looked around, but could not find the person the voice was coming from. Celeith placed her hand over the necklace and thought. "I'll live if I break this? But how?"

She ripped the pendant from its necklace and squeezed it as hard as she could. A large crack formed across the pendant and at that moment Celeith felt a sudden urge of power come over her. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Her body began to change. Her clothes changed from that of a typical storeclerk to magnificent body armor. A long flowing sash formed around her waist, her hair turned light pink, her eyes a bright yellow. She closed her eyes and thought of the place she had been.

Only when you are on the brink of death will you be able to break the pendant. Only then will you transform into the battle maiden.

Celeiths body jumped up, completely transformed and unharmed. She unsheathed her swords and glanced around, looking that there were new battlers in the desert. "Allies.. good, then it looks like the best time for me to show off."

(Sorry for not replying so much!)

Shalelu woke up, and as she stretched, she wondered just where Brigit had gone. "Ah, it's cool," she said to herself as she retrieved her gear. "More breakfast for me. ^_^"

As she adjusted her backpack's straps, Shalelu looked at the metal claw that covered her left arm, giving it a quick adjustment before leaving the inn. She sweatdropped as she saw the inn's door hanging open.

"Heeey, wait a minute... wide-open door, smoke in the distance... wait, what?!"

Leaning out the still-open door, Shalelu saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky, just above the city wall. Thinking it would be worth investigating, she left the inn and headed out of the city, towards the distant smoke.

OOC: Short post cause I got stuff to do today ^_^
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Celeith looked around and placed her gaze on the woman nearby. "You over there! Stay back or you might get hurt!" she yelled out

Brigit
"Whoa!" Brigit fell back as Celeith suddenly jumped to her feet. She complied with Celeith's request, scooped up the girl and hightailed it to a rocky outcrop and dove behind it. The girl began to stir in her arms. That transport is going to blow any minute! Brigit thought as she peered around the side of the rock.

Bo
"Quit hogging the perch, Tyto!" Bo murmured in his sleep. "You take up too much roo... snore."

Bo's slumber was suddenly rocked by a loud explosion. He fell off the roof of the inn and had just enough time to regain his composure, coming to a less-than-graceful landing on the ground.

"What in the name of-"

WHACK!

The inn door flew open and launched Bo like a baseball into the air. He tumbled end over end until he extended his wings, steadying his flight. He saw Jakob run out the door, then Shalelu followed soon after.

"Master! Master Jakob! W-wait up!" he called out as he followed Jakob down the street.

Jakob arrived on the scene, quickly glancing around at everybody, and everything nearby, within seconds the entire battlefield was burned into his head like a holographic image. Dots began forming in his head, based on the reactions, he divided the dots into two groups, allies and enemies.

He drew his sword and ran towards an android, doing a quick diagonal slash as another came up behind him, he spun and sliced another in the midsection, wires began showing and it's left arm ceased to work. Giving a back elbow back to the first one, Jakob stabbed the second one, using his strength to rip his sword out through the side, almost folding the android in half.

Spinning around quickly, he placed his hand on the head of the first android, calling channeling his inner energy into his right hand. "Gra," he called forth as a black ball of energy sprang from his hand, hitting the android directly. The force of the gra caused the androids head to implode. Looking around, Jakob saw that reinforcements were coming. "Damn, and here I thought I'd be able to relax."