Not usually one to do this but I feel sometimes I need to do this;

Public Review Responses;

Benji-C: Seventeen Years. That's how long I've had this OC under my belt. Rewriting, redeveloping and redesigning him over and over again. He started off as a half-assed DBZ knock-off from which I got my username (which I haven't changed because it is how my fanfic friends know me, making it quite the Legacy Username). I can only hope those years of revisions have made him into an interesting character to read about.

I also feel I must add that this, and the past two, chapters are nowhere near the quality I usually expect from myself. I don't feel they are good enough, but at the same time I can't find the motivation the make them better...

"Just remember he's still injured so don't go putting the Familiar Runes on him." Sauveterre insisted as she watched the young man adjust the servant shift he had been provided. His original clothes where shredded beyond repair so she had taken the initiative to acquire temporary replacements.

"Thank you for this Professor." Louise replied with a slight bow.

Jolt's recovery was astounding, it was only the afternoon of the day after he was summoned and all it took was some healing spells and a nights rest for him to be on his feet again. While his rapid recovery had impressed the Halkegenian mages he had taken the liberty to inform them that his healing was normal for his species.

With his clothes straightened and comfortable the young man glanced around before asking, "Where are my Trigger Edges?" As the women looked at him he explained, "I feel incomplete without them."

"Are you talking about these?" Another male voice asked from the doorway. All three turned to look and found Jean Colbert holding a pair of sheathed swords in his arms, "Most fascinating weapons you have here young man. They're made of a metal I can't identify and they integrate what looks to be some kind of repeating musket into the cross-guard."

Louise looked closely at the weapons as Colbert handed them to her familiar and he strapped them to his hips. While the Professor's description was accurate it lacked detail; the weapons where shaped much like one would of expect of a sword, a straight blade and handle with a cross-guard and pommel. The front of the cross-guard was decorated quite elaborately to resemble a dragon with spread wings with a knuckle bow extending down to the pommel that resembled a dragon's tail. Hidden under the dragon's wings was a metal drum with a musket hammer behind it near where the thumb would be while holding the sword. Extending from the cross-guard a short way up the blade was a musket barrel. Each blade was crafted to be wielded by a specific hand.

While the blade, barrel, musket hammer and the drum where all steel grey the dragon like parts and the pummel where all silver. The grips appeared to be made of white leather.

The mage called 'Zero' couldn't help but admit that if she owned a pair of blades as exquisite as Jolt's she wouldn't let them far from her person either.

"It makes sense that you've not seen the metal before." Jolt explained as he inspected one of his weapons, "It's an alloy called Tarodite, and I'm the last living being who knows the recipe." He held the sword up before him, "Every Taro was granted a blade forged of Tarodite upon reaching adulthood."

With a twirl he sheathed the blade with a sharp snap, "But enough about Secrets of a Sacred nature. I think is about time for me to see what strange world I have been summoned to." He said as he began walking out of the infirmary.

The three mages stood staring in surprise as Jolt's casually strolling form departed through the door and down the hallway. A moment later Louise ran to the door and looked down the hallway only to find it empty.

"My familiar has been on his feet for all of twenty minutes and I've already lost him..." The realisation dawned on her, "I have to find him or I'll be even more of a laughing stock!"

The architectural history of Taro was a strange and wild beast. With multiple sapient species spread across it's globe each with several cultures depending on where on the world they lived it was inevitable that technology and building styles would vary wildly. It was for this reason Jolt was having a difficult time placing exactly when a stone and mortar castle such as what the Academy was would have been built and by who.

Certainly not the Taro, they had always lived in seclusion deep in a forest in simple huts. Even the Great Temple of Triplexia hadn't been crafted so much as willed into existence by one of his predecessors.

He also dismissed the Tarodons. Aside from one of his former comrades the four armed Tarodons had always been nomads, roaming the great plains.

The defunct human empire had once used such structures hundreds of years before his time. As one of the few creatures on Taro to lack natural magic they had relied on ingenuity and technology to defend themselves from those that would exploit them.

But what castles they had built had been retrofitted with newer technology like spotlights and quad-cannons. There was also the fact said empire had tried to stop him and his friends by sending Cyber-Raptors and Tyrannoroids after them.

The people of this new world where nowhere near that advanced.

If anything the people of Halkegenia where more like the Demite and Angite peoples. A balance of human ingenuity and strong magics that lead to much slower technological development from there simply not being as much of a pressing need for it.

...Until the Third Imperial Expansion War anyway...

Jolt let this thoughts linger on comrades and triumphs on his old world with one hand resting on the cold stone for a time. But that was the past, Triplexia had sent him to this world for a reason. He was to bring them her light and blessing. The only question he needed to answer was how he was to do that?

"Excuse me." a feminine voice drew him from his musings, turning towards it's origin he gave an acknowledging grunt before taking in her features. Attractive, for a human, with short cut, but well cared for, dark hair and equally dark eyes. She cut a slim figure and wore a maid uniform that, for some reason beyond the displaced man, accentuated her chest. Jolt had no seen many maids on Taro, but from what he knew there seemed little difference between the two worlds when it came to maid uniforms...

The more things changed the more they stayed the same he supposed.

"Would you mind helping out, the Nobles are running us bare and we could use the extra set of hands." She asked with an edge. It took Jolt a moment to figure out why she seemed so aggravated before it dawned on him; the uniform. He was still wearing a uniform of the Academy serving staff. Obviously this young woman had assumed, reasonably, that he was also a staff member... and that he was slacking off.

He briefly recalled the time he and Silvaria had infiltrated the Duke of Rothechild's private airship and responded, "My dearest apologies, I'm afraid I am but a new hireling and know little of the affairs of this propriety. I am sorry to say I lost my guide... if you need aid I will freely give it, simply point the way and it will be done."

Even he considered it spooky how easily he could slip into a false identity.

"Oh!" the maid exclaimed in surprise, "I'm sorry. I thought you where just slacking off!" After a moment she added, "I didn't know we where getting any new hires though..." She looked behind her where Jolt could here dozens of muffled voices, "Though with all the new familiars to feed I suppose it makes sense." Shaking her head she said, "I'm Siesta of Tarbes, we should get going before they get impatient."

"Jolt of Taro." He replied smoothly, "I doubt you have heard of it; I've journeyed quite a long distance." He added conversationally, heading off questions before Siesta could think to ask them, "Travelling can be quite expensive, and I'm only my last few coins, so here I am." He lied.

"With the waiting list of applicants as long as it is?" Siesta asked curiously.

"Short term employment. Apparently I was the first they have had apply saying I only want to work long enough to get paid once then be on my way. Someone obviously thought 'what's the harm' and fast tracked me." Another lie.

Siesta nodded in understanding, "They wouldn't even need to mark you in the books if you are only working that short of a time. They get an extra hand to work for a time and none of the taxes to pay."

"Win-win." Jolt added.

The two walked in silence for a few moments before Siesta asked, "So why are you armed?"

Jolt blinked, 'Crapbaskets.' before reaching a hand down to grip one of his swords. Depending on what she did in the next few seconds this young woman my find herself a corpse.

"Are you to help with security? I suppose as a traveller you would be well versed in how to defend yourself." Siesta asked, oblivious to how close she was to her demise.

Jolt relaxed immediately, "Yes, I'm not armoured because my style relies on mobility and I sold the suitable armour several days ago to pay for food." This time it wasn't a complete lie, he had possessed specialised armour but it had been ruined in when he fought in the Chaosstream. The pieces where likely still floating through that swirling void.

Siesta chuckled and smiled, "It'll be nice to know someone so polite is keeping me safe, if even for only a little while."

Jolt smiled as well, "I'll be sure to ride in on a white horse to save the day should anything happen." He joked.

"So what's the story with your eyes?"

'CRAPBASKETS.'

Louise was fuming, she had been running around the halls looking for her wayward familiar while trying to avoid being scene by her peers. So far she had had no luck at all. It would have been so much easier if she could have just finished the ritual and bound him with familiar runes so she could just look through his eyes and find landmarks to navigate with. But no, he was too injured for that apparently.

Why did doctors never give you the advice you wanted?

It was as bad as the time that commoner doctor had recommended calcium and fatty foods to grow taller and bustier.

Turning another corner she did a double take in shock and slid to a wobbly stop on the edge of a cliff over looking a pool of lava. Naturally she was completely unable to process how she could have been in a perfectly safe academy one moment and in life threatening peril the next.

However the part of her mind trying to figure that out was shouted down by the part focused on looking at an outcropping of rock not far from her, on which stood an early teen boy wielding a pair of swords that looked remarkably like those of her familiar, only without the musket components. It took her another moment that the boy looked remarkably like her familiar, only younger, in fact she was certain it was a younger version of her familiar.

His hair was shorter and better cared for, he wore white pants and a white jacket with a black shirt underneath and a red sash around his waist. He also lacked the scars on his features that he would have by the time Louise would meet him. His stance was balanced, ready to defend or attack at a moment's notice.

He was also standing near the end of the outcropping facing towards where the outcropping started.

As Louise looked towards where her future familiar was looking her jaw fell loose. Blocking her future familiar's route to safety was a large dragon with crimson scales. She was even more shocked when a booming chuckle echoed from it's throat, "Well little Taro, it looks to be that you are at the end of your time on this world. Becoming King will be a simple affair with you no longer gnawing at my side."

"Well..." the young future familiar replied calmly, "I'm not dead yet..." He then charged at the dragon, both swords held out to his sides. His attack was short lived as the dragon casually extended it's neck and head butted him with a head as large as his entire pubescent body.

Jolt flew back and almost fell off the outcropping, luckily he slid to a stop just short of the edge, but far enough he could look over his shoulder as see the molten rock far below him. The blow also made him lose the grip on his left hand weapon and he could only watch helplessly as the priceless weapon plopped unceremoniously into the magma, "Crapbaskets."

Louise reacted on instinct, pulling her wand out and casting a fireball spell to divert the dragon's attention. However that isn't what happened, nothing did. Louise, who was still trying to process everything else, found herself unable to understand why her magic wasn't working. Granted she was expecting the spell to fail and explode, but even that would have done what she had intended, instead she got nothing at all. She knew she had done everything right, said the right words, and yet her attempt at casting had been little more then waving a stick and yelling...

In the meantime the younger version of Jolt had gotten back on his feet and was looking dragon once more. The great wyrm smirked, "Ready to meet your Maker, boy?"

The young Taro just smiled, "I already have... nice lady..." The dragon didn't care one wit for his words and was already spewing a great stream of fire his way as he added, "She taught me a few things..."

In a flash of white he disappeared and reappeared above the dragon's head where a drill shaped tornado formed and localised itself around the blade of his remaining sword. A little bit of gravity and a downward thrust and the combination of sword and mini-tornado tore through the dragon's skull, killing the beast.

Placing his left hand on the pummel of his sword the young Jolt whispered, "Thank you for granting me your blessing, Triplexia, may your Light shine forever on us all."

An instant later the scene melted away and Louise found herself back in the halls of the Academy. Glancing about it seemed as if barely a moment had passed, though she still held her wand in her hand. "What..." she muttered in bewilderment, "What did I just see...?"