Consciousness returned to him slowly. His name came first, Grant Sythirin, then his race; human. It was at this point he realized two things, his hands were bound and he was on a dusty stone floor. His eyes bolted open as he shot up to a kneeling position. His shoulder and wrists twinged painfully at the sudden movement. He must've slept wrong on his shoul-
"Aw look, sleepin' beauty is awake." A gruff australian accent broke Grant's train of thought. Grant took in his surroundings, he was in a cell, made of a light tan stone. Metal bars served as the barrier in front of him, which separated him from a walkway. "Who said that?" Grant asked nervously.
"Me you fuckin' goon." A person in the cell on the other side of the hallway across from Grant moved. Grant squinted his eyes, it was a man with blonde hair with a bit of hair jutting out at the front, like a feather in a cap.
"Where are we?" Grant asked, glancing around his cell.
"No clue, ain't the white house, that's for damn sure." The man replied, annoyance clear in his voice.
"What?"
"Well this is a strange turn of events." Came a deep english accent. Grant looked to the man for answers, but he only shrugged. Grant was able to see his face, the man had bright red eyes, and looked to be in his 30's. He had a long scar across his face, and another down his right eye.
"Well 'ello there bud. Welcome to the party." The man said in a jovial tone.
"I'm assuming you're a captive as well?"
"Me and this kid in front of me."
"Grant, my name is Grant."
"That's an...odd accent. Where are you from?" The new voice asked. Grant quirked an eyebrow at the man who shrugged again. "I'm from the US, Washington State specifically."
"The fuck's the "US"?" Before Grant could reply, a door slammed open and a Large being covered in black armor carried an unconscious human male over his shoulder. The being looked odd, it was clearly made out metal, but it was shaped into muscle structures. It's chest moved steadily, clearly showing it was alive. "A...toa?" Grant asked in confused awe. The aforementioned Toa glared down at him with glowing red optics.
"Ey, robit! Where the fuck are we?" The man asked loudly.
"Shut your mouth, Slave." The shadow toa spat, opening the cell next to Grant and placed the unconscious man in it.
"Who the fuck are you callin' a slave!? I'll tear your fuckin head off!" The man shouted gruffly. The black armored guardian placed shackles on the unconscious body and walked off as the man in front of Grant continued to shout. After a few more insults, the man quieted down to grumbles. "...wanker…" He grumbled. Grant looked around, trying to find some identifier or sign of where they are. He didn't find any signs or "Made in.." tags, he did notice a ring of old rusty keys. "Grant, wazzit? My name's Spencer. You probably already know me." The man across from Grant boasted. Grant gave him a hard stare."Nope. Not a clue." Grant said blankly. Spencer visibly sunk with a slightly perturbed, "oh…" The deep english voice chimed in at this point. 'Dromund Kaas, though most just call me the my lord, the scourge of Sailith, or just Vampire, shouted angrily before several ballista are fired at me." Kaas said in a deadpan voice. Spencer and Grant glanced at each other. "What's Say-lith?" Spencer said, slowly pronouncing the name. Kaas Guffawed at the statement, causing Spencer and Grant to look at each other again. Spencer shrugged. "Wait, you're serious?" Kaas said as he realized he was the only one laughing.
"Yeah. What's Sailith?" Grant asked.
"Tell me, what planet are we on?"
Spencer quirked an eyebrow before realization shot through him. "We're not on Earth." The statement hit Grant like a ton of bricks. "Wh...What do you mean, "not on Earth"?" Grant stared at Spencer disbelievingly. "You're on a planet called, Lu'um. There are four large continents, Draketh to the east, Sailith to the west, Narstok to the north, and Sarin to the south. Judging from the heat, I'd say we're in the middle of Draketh right now." Kaas explained. Grant tried to remember how he got there, the events leading up to his capture. He couldn't remember a single thing about it, it was like it was gone. He remembered his graduation the week before, he remembered his family he remembered...Grant closed his eyes tightly, he couldn't get distracted, not now. The unconscious man in the cell next to Grant began to stir. "Uuurgh, eh? What!? Where am I?!" A very angry english accent screamed. "'Ello sunshine. Welcome to confusion prison." Spencer said. A crackling electricity sound was heard in the newcomer's cell followed by the shattering clang of breaking metal. "I'm getting out of here." The newcomer said.
"Aw, leaving so soon? You just got to the party."
"The keys are over by the door." Grant said, hoping he might also break him out. The keys clanged lightly as they lifted off of the hook and floated down the hall towards the new comer. "There are guards outside, Six by the looks of it. As skilled as you must be, a sith without his saber is pretty crippled." Kaas said, his voice lacking emotion. The new comer grabbed the keys and opened his cell. "Alright, the dark one and the kid are going to be freed." He opened Kaas's cell and set to work undoing the shackles. "What about me?" Spencer asked with a mock pain in his voice. "I'll open your cell, Spencer." Grant sad. The new comer opened up Grant's cell. Grant looked him over, he wore rough spun prison clothes, and pale white skin. His right eye was covered by what looked like a cybernetic eyepatch with small bits of metal on his face. His left eye had a jet black sclera and a glowing cyan pupil. He undid the shackles and stood back to allow Grant room to stand. "Draken." The new comer extended his hand for a hand shake. "Grant, Sythirin." He shook Draken's hand firmly. They stepped out of the cell and Grant looked over at Kaas. Kaas was much taller than Grant, black sclera with glowing red pupils, pale skin and jet black hair. Kass had sharp features and was almost, unaturally attractive. "Oi, still here." Spencer chimed in. Draken threw the keys to Grant who easily caught it. Grant unlocked the cell and unlocked Spencer's shackles. "Thanks Kid." Spencer shook Grant's hand. Draken crouched down in front of the door, and had been looking through the keyhole. "Looks like...four dwarves, a shadow toa, and a black dragonborn are our guards." He said matter of factly. "We'll need our equipment...I don't suppose we have a pencil and something to write on?" said Kaas. Everyone checked their pocket, despite knowing they were S.O.L, except for Grant. He felt around his pocket, and found a familiar object. "My phone?" He pulled out the pocket sized smartphone. It had a modest blue case on it, with the only buttons being the power button, and the volume buttons on the sides. He turned the phone on, full charge but no service. "Alright I don't get service, but I've got a full charge, I'll pull up my notes, describe your equipment and I'll go find it." Grant said, handing Draken his phone since he was closest. "Right since Me, Draken, and Kaas have actually been through combat, we'll cause a distraction while Grant gets our shit. Does anyone have an invisibility spell?" Spencer said. "I do." Kaas spoke up, casting it on Grant. Grant faded from sight. "It didn't do anything? It made my hair stand on-"
"No one cares, it worked." Draken said as he passed the phone to Spencer. Spencer typed up his equipment, and then passed it to Kaas, who in turn passed it to Grant. Or, atleast, the empty space that made noise that Grant was. They got into position, with Kaas being their first line of attack. "Everyone ready?" Kaas asked. Everyone nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here." Grant spoke up, since no one could see him nod. Spencer flung open the door, and kaas immediately pounced at the dragonborn, who yelled as the vampire sunk his claws into his face, killing the dragon born instantly. Draken sends bolts of blue lightning arcing towards the shadow toa. The toa rolled out of the way and fired back with a blast of black energy, causing Draken to side step it. One of the dwarves shouted something at the others, and flipped the table they were gathered around on it's side and taking cover behind it. One of them notched an arrow and fired it at the sparking sith, it misses by a foot. The third dwarf pulled out a large hammer and rushes Spencer. The dwarf beings the hammer down, but Spencer dodged and countered with a kick to the dwarf's head, knocking the dwarf out. The toa fires another bolt of energy at Spencer blowing a large hole in the wall behind the blonde human. Spencer rushed the Toa, his hand producing black lightning and hr abs the toa by the arm. The black lightning sinks into the toa but does nothing. Grant quickly moves to the door with a sign over it that read, "Loot." he tried to open it quietly, and quickly slipped in. Kaas sends to blasts of dark purple energy from his hands. One arcs over the table, the other slams into a dwarf and sends him flying into a wall, dead. The dwarf with a bow fired an arrow at Kaas, hitting him in the chest. He chuckles as the dwarf suddenly bursts into black flames. Kaas rips the arrow out of him. The first dwarf rushes Kaas, going for an overhead slash at the vampire, who slams the back of his hand into the dwarf's head. Said dwarf went flying into the wall. Draken slams the table into the bow wielding dwarf using the force. The dwarf was crushed between the wall and table, draken pushing it further into the dwarf until there was a sickening squelch. The sword wielding dwarf stood and rushed at Kaas again who grabbed his head and lifted him up. "It's feeding time~" Kaas smirked a toothy grin. The dwarf looked at him with a fearful look. Spencer and the Toa traded blows, the toa held a blaster sword switch weapon, and was pretty proficient with it. Spencer sported a few cuts, but was still moving, the toa had a broken mask and stumbled about. "Marfedelom Hatobi!" Three black energy darts launched into the toa and exploded sending him flying back. Kaas dropped the brutalized corpse of the dwarf. "Draken, could you hand me that axe?" Said Kaas, pointing at a war axe hanging on the wall behind Draken. Draken grabbed it and tossed it to Kaas. The still invisible Grant came out with several chests in his arms. "GUYS I FOUND THE SHIT!" The floating stack of chests yelled. Draken quirked an eyebrow; Spencer waved his hand in front of him toward Grant, dispelling the invisibility. Kaas had been moving the corpses around, and had gathered the most intact bodies in a line. Kaas lifted the axe over his head and brought it down on the neck of the now very dead dwarf's neck. The head rolled a bit as Kaas moved on to the dragonborn. "Ew, What the fuck!?" Grant stumbled back a bit. "Oi, don't question it just pass out our equipment." Spencer said grabbing one of the chests. Grant handed one to Draken, and set the other next to the toa. Kaas was busy trying to pull off the said guardian of shadow's head. Grant went back into the evidence room and changed into his normal clothes, jeans a t-shirt, and his black sweatshirt. He stepped out, Kaas had pulled chalked from somewhere and had made a large circle. It had lots of symbols and other circles in it, and the severed heads. "What are you doing?" Grant asked, checking his phone out of habit. "Making minions." Kaas said as he walked past Grant into the loot room. He looked at Spencer and Draken, who were sparring with swords. "What's the plan?" Grant asked. "We," Spencer said as he ducked under Draken's horizontal swing, "are waiting till sun down to move. Light won't be an issue, and since Kaas is a vampire, traveling by day is dangerous."
"Yes, beyond that most of us are wearing darker clothing, and if you haven't noticed the heat, it's a desert out there. We'd be spotted from miles off." Draken added, side stepping a thrust and slashes at Spencer. The blade stops inches from his face, "Check, I win." Draken smirked. Spencer made a disapproving noise, but stepped back. Kaas came back out with six candles. He went back to his large circle thing and placed them at certain points in the circle. "Flacara!" The candles instantly ignited. "A basic fire spell? So it's not your first time in Draketh?" Draken quirked an eyebrow at Kaas. "I was here years ago, but my home is in Sailith." Kaas replied as he opened a small black book. Draken took note of the strange black symbol on the front. A strange noise started coming from the brutalized corpse of the dwarf the Kaas had bit. Grant quirked an eyebrow at it as black smoke erupted from it, a hissing sound coming from the reanimated dwarf. "Holy shit..." Grant took a step back, his fist falling into a fighting position. Kaas glanced over to Grant with a knowing smirk. "Relax my boy, it's only my spawn." The dwarf rose to its feet. His face contorted into a large toothy maw and pitch black eyes. The maw slowly returned to his normal features as he kneeled before Kaas. "Lord Drommund, I have risen to serve you." The Dwarf said with an unworldly hiss in his voice. "Good Spawn. Now guard this building from any and all damage. Stay inside, as it is daylight."
"Yes, Lord Drommund." Spawn walked to the front doors and stood at attention. "I should get me one of those." Draken said, nodding at Spawn. Kaas pulls out a large amount of an iridescent white powder from a pouch on his belt and sprinkles it onto the heads. The heads burst into flames, and burn away everything but the skulls. Kaas stood in the center of the circle and closed his eyes. He slowly began to speak, words almost lyrically flowing out of him, as the circle glowed. "Ridică-te mare Malsvir și nu dă viață acestor cranii blestemate. Legați aceste suflete voinței mele și forțați-i să se supună poruncilor mele." The three skulls rose up to four feet in the air and fire erupted from them as the circle faded from sight. The skulls remained floating, their eyes now filled with a hellish flame, stared at Kaas who opened his eyes again. He put his hands behind his back and walked up to the skulls. You," he gestured to the small dwarf skull. "Short. You," he gestured to the oblong dragonborn skull. "Scaley. And finally you." He points at the toa skull, now maskless and surrounded by black flame. "What did you call him Spencer? "Robit"? I think that will fit nicely. You are at the command of Spawn, do as he wishes." He lightly shooed them toward Spawn. They floated off towards the small vampire spawn, who directed them to key ares in the building. Kaas turned toward the others. "What's the plan?" Spencer glanced between Grant and Draken, who glance toward him. Spencer shrugs, " I 'unno." Kaas chortled, but had expected as much. "You humans are amusing. Right, in that case we'll journey to Sailith, return to my home. There we'll be able to track down your temple Draken, and we can start work on sending you two," He gestured to Grant and Spencer. "Home. We'll start at twilight. In the meantime, let's figure out what have offensive and defensive wise. For spells I can cast Eldritch Blast, True Strike, Blade Ward, Bind skeletal familiar, Post Mortem Servitude, Spiderclimb, invisibility and dispell magic. I require my book of Kain, "He pulls out the small book from before. "To do shadow blade, necrotic overlay, magic mine, conjure wraith create guardian, and a special imbuing ritual. My rapier is an ancient one forged by my ancestor's. It greatly strengthens my magic when I use it as a focus." Spencer blinked for a second. "Roight that's a lotta siht so I'll go next. Not much to me, a sheppard .45 pistol, and this." He pressed something on his belt buckle, causing a large white foggy mass to appear and solidify. In the center is a large white eye, and on the left was a strange orange lever. Spencer pulls out a strange trinket that looks like an eye, and presses a button on the side. Funeral bells are heard as the eye glows orange. "Ohray! Kaigan!" orange flame covers the eye trinket as the white belt thing opens. Spencer places the trinket into the belt and closes it. As the belt closes, music begins playing from the belt. Electric guitars sound off using the gongs of the funeral bells as a beat. "Is that, for whom the bell tolls?" Grant asked with a bemused expression on his face. Spencer only smirked and grabbed the lever. "Henshin." He pulled the lever to the side and back into the belt. "For whom the bell tolls! Ore-Kaigain! Grim Reaper!" sounded off the belt as thick black smoke covered and surrounded his body. It hardened into ghostly armor, as orange flames sprung up and traced in details and symbols all over the armor. When it faded, Spencer wore a black armor with strange clear armor plates, that had bright orange carvings in them. Most prominent being a large eye symbol in his chest. He wore a long black tattered cloak, and his face was covered by an orange mask that resembled fire. A thin, silver horn extended from his forehead. "In this form, I have more strength, speed, and durability. I have pyrokinesis, advanced martial arts and this." Flames extended from his hands and formed into a black scythe. He spun it around his hand a few times before dispelling it. He opened the belt and pulled out the trinket, causing the armor to disappear. "Do you have any other abilities in that form?" Draken asked, sounding bored. "Yes actually, a super powerful kick, that I can usually only use once before my form disappears for a long while." Spencer replied with a shrug. Draken rolled his eyes. "I'm a sith apprentice. I'm proficient with blades, and I have the force." He said not moving from his sitting position. There was a long silence as every turned to Grant. "Oh! Uhhhh, not much to say. I took a martial arts class for a few years?" He shrugged. Draken scoffed, "So we'll leave him here."
"Dude, I'm right here." Grant gave a bemused shrug. Draken turned to him with a pointed stare. "Yeah. And what are you going to do about it? I can summon thunder storms from my fingertips." Grant was going to argue but realized that Draken had a point. Grant's phone began to buzz. With a raised eyebrow he pulls it out and looks at it. "Encryption alarm?" Spencer shrugged, Kaas looked very confused, and Draken seemed weirdly focused. "ildrish bilast!" Came Robit's call as he fired off an eldritch blast. The party rushed to their feet, Draken had already pulled out his blades and Spencer had his pistol out. They rushed to the now vacant front door. Spawn had run out with the skulls to engage, something. "What the hell is that thing?" Draken asked in a bemused tone. "Spawn! To me, Now!" Kaas yelled. The skulls flew back to their master, with Robit providing covering fire with it's eldritch blasts. Spawn was busy engaging the enemy humanoid, until it knocked him into a covered wagon. The creature advanced toward the building. "You!" The monster pointed at Grant. It looked like someone had fused a spider and human together. It was covered in red and green chitinous armor, its face was that of a large spider. It's eight eyes were glowing an angry red, and it's hands bore dangerous looking claws. "You have the Strike code, I need it to become real again, I won't let you kill me again!" The creature poole energy into its hand and threw it at the building. The blast bolted across the sky and slammed into the building, blowing a massive hole through it. Grant had no idea what the creature was talking about, but he ran into the blazing sun to face it. Grant sprinted forward, trying to land a flying kick on the creature. The creature grabs Grants legs and throws him into the ground. Grant slams into the ground ands rolls a bit. Grant stands ready to fight, as a strange gray belt appears around grants waist, and his phone buzzes again. "No!" The creature swipes at him, Grant dodges as Kaas fires off an eldritch blast at the creature distracting it. The spider creature turns to the others and fires back as Grant looks at his phone. It was a strange sight on his screen, it looked like some sort of game, and it wanted him to draw a symbol on the screen. He followed the trail on the screen, making a lightning bolt symbol on the screen and tapping the symbol. Thunder sounded off, a voice came from the phone similar to Spencer's ghost Ore thing. "Thunder!" The belt began beeping. Grant looked at it, it had an upturned tray thing that seemed just big enough for his phone. He slid the phone into the tray, and turned the phone on it's side, the tray following it. "It's like a lever thing..." The belt and phone began sounding off in tandem, "Thunder, Strike! Thunder, Strike!" Grant quirked an eyebrow, maybe he had to 'strike' it? "No... The strike driver!" The monster whirled around and tried to slash at Grant with it's claws. Grant jumps back and slams his fist into his fist on the belt. "Henshin!"