Speaking "you are such an idiot"
Thinking 'I can't believe he did that'
Unknown Salt Flat-Utah, USA Earth
A jet is seen screaming across the dried salt bed performing maneuvers that are considered insane and suicidal by ninety-nine percent of the population. However, pilot's thoughts couldn't be any more different. As it comes to a stop at the far side of the bed, the operator of the machine, who is completely clad in black jacket, pants, and steel toed boots, lifts himself out of it and quickly removes his pitch black helmet. With his face finally revealed, the man ties his long black hair out of his steel grey eyes into a ponytail with his bangs framing his face that was as white as bone china. The adrenaline junky couldn't seem to get the smirk off of his lips at the success of one of his greatest works (see Stealth E.D.I.). After he walks from his sleek, matte black machine to stand under one of its wings, he slumps to the ground and rests against his creation until the adrenaline leaves his system and his heart stops pounding.
The 26 year old's name is Kevin Blake aka "Arcana" to his friends and those he respects. The call sign stems partly from his deep interest into metaphysical ideas and so called abilities even though is deeply skeptical about such things, and partly because of his skill at finding the most hidden of knowledge. After gathering all the data from his equipment about his test run, Arcana parks his plane into the back of a specially modified semi-truck (see Universal Soldier) to transport his plane, equipment, supplies for an emergency, as well as crates and crates of weapons and explosives. While his jet could outclass anything that law enforcement agencies had, it was still illegal and he would rather not have the government find out about his tech. He also chose this particular vehicle because of the fact that the tech used in his jet is so desirable that he need to be able to defend against military grade operations. Why is it so special, well it is because of the power source that he developed that supplies energy for it, it is no combustion or electrical source, it causes them to pale in comparison. At the heart of the hypersonic jet lies a zero point reactor (see arc reactor, Iron Man), allowing limitless power but also limitless destructive capability due to it actually being a controlled black hole. After making sure everything is tightly secured, Arcana climbs into the driver's seat, and engages the systems for the truck which is also powered by a ZPE reactor. Starting down the road to his house, he loses himself in the monotony of the barren roads and comfortably warm day. Arcana is suddenly yanked out of his daze by the sudden appearance of a desert storm. Replacing the flight helmet removed earlier and turning his full attention to the road to ready himself for the hazardous driving conditions to come, Arcana could never had been prepared for what happened next. Suddenly a large lightning bolt streaked down from the sky, again, again, and again.
"Where the fuck did this storm come from, and damn this is a wicked light show," is the exclamation that flies from his mouth as he is trying desperately to prevent being hit. Swerving to avoid a strike and be flash-fried, it soon shows that he is only delaying the inevitable, being the only source of metal for miles around. The strikes increase in frequency and it becomes impossible to avoid, and the last thing to be uttered before his world turns black is,
"Fuck me……"
Unknown Location Sauria
Arcana begins to stir as he regains consciousness, 'Oh, what the fuck hit me, it feels like my brain was bashed out with a lemon wrapped around a gold brick,' he suddenly jumps into full awareness as he remembers the crash. Arcana quickly takes off his seatbelt and begins to check for any injuries, surprised at his luck, he quickly sags in relief and realization at how bad his condition would have been if he had worn a regular leather outfit instead of his specially made Kevlar clothes. Looking around, he almost screams in shock at his new surroundings but remains outwardly calm. Inside his heart and mind are racing at the change from barren desert salt beds to a lush tropical forest. While part of his mind is still trying to wrap itself around his situation, the other half is forming a plan of action in order to survive. Checking his truck over a breath he didn't know was held, was released at finding it completely intact, minus a few scratches in the paint, and operative.
'Great, if this was busted then my stay here would be a whole lot harder,' he thought with a relieved smile. Removing his helmet, Arcana begins to outfit himself with a silenced 9mm Glock pistol, a small med-kit, a monocular, and a notepad w/ pen for his trek into the surrounding area to scout for anything useful. After camouflaging his truck to be indistinguishable from the vegetation, he begins his walk. A few hours since he began his outing, Arcana's luck is still holding out, he has found a outcropping in a nearby hillside and a source of fresh water in a river that was a few hundred meters from the hill.
"Wonderful," is the sarcastic comment that come from the stranded Arcana,
"usually when my luck is good for this long some-"
a crash is heard through the brush and trees, followed by a loud scream, obviously female, "-thing happens."
Biting back the sigh that would surely escape, Arcana begin his sprint towards the origin of the noise. Following the sounds of the attack, Arcana quickly happens upon a very strange scene. A large dinosaur is stalking towards what appears to be an unconscious blue bipedal fox slumped against the trunk of a fallen tree, cursing his curiosity for the hundredth time, Arcana slowly draws his pistol from his underarm holster and carefully aims for what would be a weak spot in the underbelly. He squeezes off tree quick shots, and the hollow point rounds pierce its heart, efficiently dispatching the large creature. Not moving, Arcana listens to check if the near silent pops of the handgun have attracted the attention of the creature's possible friends. Satisfied, he dashes over to the unmoving fox, only slightly surprised at it being female, and checks the severity of her injuries. Finding them to be not life threatening, Arcana quickly treats and bandages what he can find. Realizing that he can't leave her alone with the fact that she would be vulnerable, he lets a quiet groan escape and carefully lifts the fox into his arms and walks back toward his newly made campsite. Upon reaching his camp he shifts the vines away that are camouflaging the overhang and lowers his passenger upon the small cloth bedroll, not unlike a futon, and after checking her injuries once more he concerns himself with building a small fire near the entrance. Sitting against the wall, Arcana relaxes as he watches over his guest, slowly he drifts into a light sleep encase anything approaches and sets off the motion detector set five meters from the cave entrance. Snapping his eyes open, Arcana is completely aware without going through the drowsy in-between state, something that while freaks most people out will come in very handy in this unknown setting. Finding that his patient is still unconscious, whether from sleep or yesterday's fight is unknown, he stirs the ashes of last night's fire and sets a wireless heart rate monitor on the vixen's wrist which alert him to any change the state of her health. Walking out of the shallow cavern, he can see that the sun has just appeared above the horizon,
"heh, even on another planet I still wake up when the sun rises,"
is his amused comment at his situation. Deciding that after witnessing a dinosaur attack, he needs to scout a greater area around his campsite, Arcana sets of at a brisk run towards the place that he encountered the blue furred fox. When he reaches the dinosaur's corpse, he begins to search the surrounding area for signs of more creatures similar to the one left rotting. After finding more tracks proving that there were more dinosaurs, Arcana begins to extend search area, when suddenly the alarm tied to the wrist monitor goes off with a small electrical shock. Turning around, Arcana runs quickly back to the overhang to prevent further injury by panic. Fifteen minutes later, Arcana arrives to find the fox attempting to get out of the cave, but only succeeding to stumble against the wall. Deciding that enough was enough, he walks into the cave just in time to prevent her from falling after her last attempt at walking,
"easy now, you just woke up and you most likely have a concussion from your little scuffle yesterday,"
he tries to calm her down as he picks her up bridal style and lays her down on the cushion. When she tries to get up again he places a hand against her shoulder and pushes her back down,
"Who are you, how did I get here, where am I, what are you…" Raising a hand in order to stem the flow of questions,
"I was about to tell you if you would let me get a word in," laughing after seeing the sheepish look on her face he begins,
"in order, you can call me Arcana, I carried you, you are in a small cavern a short distance from where you fell unconscious as a result of your fight, and I am a human." At seeing her confused expression he elaborates,
"I am not from around here, and I am stranded," seeing her look at the bandages and frowning,
"I treated your injuries the best I could when you were unconscious, but now that you are awake could you please look at this light and follow it please," he says as he pulls a small penlight out of his pocket and shines it in her eyes,
"you seem to just have a small concussion, it will be fine and I suggest resting and not getting into anymore death-matches with raptors anymore,"
"they're sharpclaws," she interrupts,
"what?"
"The things that were chasing me, they're sharpclaws," she explains.
'Now that explains everything,' he thought as he barely refrained from rolling his eyes at the thought. A silence fell over them as their conversation stopped, the only noise coming from Arcana changing the dressings on her wounds. Suddenly Arcana started chuckling, startling his patient,
"you know, I don't even know your name, or should I just keep referring to you as the patient?" He asks with a smirk," and she smiles a little too as she answers,
"sorry, my name is Krystal and thank you for your help, but I have to get out of here,"
To which he waves off the thanks, stating,
"no problem, and you aren't going anywhere with a concussion or you will tear open the cuts that came from the sharpclaw, so get comfortable," as she starts to protest he asks why she is in such a hurry,
"this planet has been broken apart because someone has taken the spellstones and if they aren't returned soon, the planet with fall apart and I am the only one who can fix it."
After hearing her obviously summarized explanation his expression is one of exasperation as he responds,
"well, I can't in my right mind let you go anywhere before you sufficiently heal, probably by tomorrow or early the next, so while you heal I'll look take a look around,"
Krystal, realizing that there was no point arguing, hangs her head in defeat. Grinning at his victory, Arcana decides to strike up conversation and learn about Sauria,
"what is happening at the moment around here anyways?"
"Well right now the sharpclaw army is trying to take over Sauria and there are also the landwalkers and cloudrunners who I am friends with and may be able to help," after putting away that for later, he decides to eat something, walking over to his bike, as he opens a compartment, he calls over to Krystal, "hey, you want something to eat?"
"yeah, thanks," and he pulls out freeze-dried MREs. Arcana pours some water into them and stirs, then he places them on the hot ashes of what is left of the previous night's fire to heat them. As the food begins to heat, he takes out a sketchbook from a duffel bag that he filled the previous night to prevent anyone from discovering that he has working vehicles and quite a weapons cache in order for it to be an ace up his sleeve, just in case of an emergency, and begins creating a map of the surrounding area with any landmarks or useful information. As he creates the map, Arcana keeps an eye on the food to prevent it from burning and becoming inedible to either of them as it would be unwise to become ill. With the food and map taking up most of Arcana's attention, he doesn't notice Krystal observing him and his gear, so when she speaks it catches him off guard and his startled jolt causes his pencil to skitter across the page.
"what are you, you told me you are human but I've never held of that species, so where did you come from," she asks, "and why were you around when I was attacked?"
Pulling the food off the ashes and erasing the mark in his book, he tries to ease her suspicions,
"I came from a planet named Earth or Terra, I was going back to my house when I was caught in a storm and crashed," he responds,
"and when I woke up I was against a tree not far from here, and for why I was there when you were attacked, I was searching farther into the area around this camp in hopes of finding anything useful." Put slightly at ease by his answer, Krystal sits up and takes the food from Arcana's hands as he passes it to her. A comfortable silence falls as the two begin eating their meals, only broken by the clank of utensils or the scratching of Arcana's pencil in his sketchbook. Setting down the empty container and his finished maps, he stands and pulls out a small Bluetooth headset,
"I'm going back out to look for any signs of sharpclaw or a better place to stay for shelter, we may need to defend ourselves. Put this on and if something happens and you need to contact me, then say 'call Arcana' and I will be in contact." He hands her a small tazer gun,
"if something comes in, then shoot it with this, it isn't lethal but if it continues to struggle then pull the trigger again until it complies." While she looks uneasy at first, the non-lethal information removes her reluctance to use a firearm.
"I'll be back by sundown," and he steps out of the shelter and starts his jog into the forest and after twenty minutes of continuous movement, he reached the carcass, or where it should have been if it hadn't been taken away considering the drag marks. A couple hours later, Arcana was resting against a tree after completing a full survey of everything within a mile of the campsite. Slowly getting back to his feet Arcana begins heading out further from the camp, not long after he comes across a site that fills him with dread
Through his monocular, his vision is filled with the sight of a sharpclaw encampment that is roughly a kilometer away. As Arcana stares awestruck at the site of a sharpclaw base, his mind is overrun with thoughts, the most prominent being, 'fucking damn it, Murphy hates me.'
The shock is quickly overcome and he begins to plan for the difficulties ahead. Stowing his scope back into the duffel bag slung across his shoulders, he slowly makes his way down the ridge towards the enemy's encampment. He quietly darts across the ground, ducking behind any and all available cover. Arcana presses his panting body against the wall of the compound, quickly trying to slow his breathing and heart rate down in order to prevent any paranoia-induced panic from overwhelming him while inside.
Backing up, Arcana runs up and over the side of the wall. He lands lightly on the balls of his feet and stays completely still as he listens for any signs of detection. Satisfied at finding none, Arcana begins mapping the sharpclaw base, marking anything significant on his notebook. While he is searching, Arcana has had several close calls at being detected by random sharpclaws that are around the compound, but his luck has held out so far. Neither having a death wish nor being willing to risk exposing Krystal's location, he knows that his luck won't hold out forever; therefor, he has chosen to investigate one final building before leaving as quickly as possible. After discovering a small ventilation shaft that is hidden from view, Arcana removes a flexible fiber-optic camera, that is as big around as a pencil, from his bag and slides it through the spaces in the grates. Keeping an eye out for guards while he watches the screen, he manipulates the video feed, attempting to see anything useful or worth mention. As he pans around the room, he quickly sweeps back across the wall and is rewarded with a map of Sauria in its entirety. Silently crowing at his good fortune, Arcana records a copy of the map in the camera's memory as he skims the map for anything immediately helpful.
Suddenly his heart skips a beat and his face goes deathly pale, as he he absorbs the small marking on the map...right...at...the...cave...
'Oh shit they found us,' immediately packing the camera away, Arcana heads toward the boundary wall, taking the shortest possible route and avoiding any posted sentries. He quickly scales the wall and begins a full out run towards the campsite, as soon as he has put a good amount of distance between himself and the overgrown lizards, he begins trying to get a hold of Krystal,
"Krystal, are you there, goddammit Krystal answer me," were his near frantic calls.
"What, what is it, what's wrong?"
is the response that came out of the headset, she is obviously unsettled by his hurried words.
"The sharpclaws may have found our cave we need to get out of this area now, I need you to pack up everything at the camp and leave absolutely nothing behind, can you do that?"
He could hear her gasp and hoped that she wouldn't panic, but his worries were unfounded due to her response,
"Alright, how far away are you and what should i do after everything is packed away?"
Feeling himself grin slightly at how her tone could be almost mistaken for calm, he asks,
"Do you know the large tree that hangs over the the nearby river?"
"Yes, I know where it is, why?"
"There is a hollow made by the roots, crawl in and remain quiet until I get there, and keep the tazer gun ready"
"Alright, be careful Arcana"
"Don't worry, I will be fine"
Closing the connection, he turns all of his energy and focus towards making it to the river faster.
Running as quickly as he was, Arcana couldn't see everything that lay in his path; and as such, he wasn't able to spot the object that caused him to trip and fall upon the forest floor. Pushing himself up from the dirt, he curses whatever had caused him to fall, as he stands he sees a glint of something gold in the underbrush. He walks over and pries the offending item from the ground. His inspection reveals it to be a staff of some kind, it is constructed of a golden material with blue runes etched into it. At the top of it, the staff widened and had a crystal of the same color as the runes set into the center. When he holds the staff, he notices a slight tingling in his hand, it wasn't unpleasant, it was just there.
Shrugging it off and pushing the feeling aside he places the staff into his ever present duffel bag and continues towards the checkpoint and could only hope that Krystal makes it to the hollow before she was found by the sharpclaws.