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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Saturday Super Stories - Skulduggery 110 Part 1b

"Malefactor, Reprobate, Charlatan, Neerdowell, or Gentlemen Thief, names associated with villainy.  I pull from the universe tales of Larceny and Legerdemain focusing on the evil that fills the world."  The Nameless.

Skulduggery 110 Part 1b - The Saga's for Darion Gray



Chapter 3 (Remnants)

He spent weeks wandering the city, production had been halted immediately, and all the YG series androids that could be found were recalled and destroyed. 

He had tried to find Jason but was unable to locate him, he had seemingly disappeared, but some blackrunners he had hired were able to locate him; and a group of people he was traveling with, by tracking down where they had been. The blackrunners could not find them per-say  for they had seemed to vanish soon after they had been located, it was odd. 

He mailed the pictures to an associate of his, with the intent of using the pictures to find their back-story, and went about his life as best as he could, the Dragons curse filling his ears every moment of everyday, but he tried his best to forget about it. 

Then came the day his building was attacked. Some blackrunners had planted explosives and destroyed the upper levels of the building knocking it into the streets below. Then the next morning an employee killed himself for no apparent reason. Perhaps the curse meant he would never again be successful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Several days passed and his contact was murdered in his home, there was no apparent break-in, but all of the photos had been stolen. This was beginning to bother him; it was as if someone was systematically destroying his life piece by piece. He tracked down one of the people responsible for runs, a fixer called Bryon. Bryon told him about the workings in the darkness and how to go about hiring blackrunners to get things done. He stored the information away for later and began to work on revenge, starting with those who had slighted him in the past.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The first of the revenge plan would be a runner called the Janitor. He was an expert at infiltration and poisons. He was one of the ones who had blown up his building. He tracked him down on another job, and what would come would be the revelation that would fuel his passion for destruction.

His fight awakened him to the nature of the curse. He blindly attacked the Janitor and was shot several times, and fell many stories to his death. He woke on the street looking up as the glass from the window he had broke rained down on him, this was his second death. Then a secluded eye cruiser clipped his body and sent it spinning into a hydrant breaking his neck and spine and crushing much of his skull, his third death, and finally the explosive he had for the Janitor detonated killing him another time, and all the passersby that had stopped to see what had happened.

He stood up and brushed himself off; a fine ash covered his body in many places. His curse was Immortality?!? How could this be a curse? He laughed long and loud, as the bodies lay in ruin around him. He walked into the street and he noticed then, he could see through himself just slightly. He touched the street, and while it felt solid his hand passed through it. His curse was more than Immortality; he was out of phase with the world around him. 

Dragons can be a cruel race.


Chapter 4 (Crossroads)

He returned to his home some time later, sort of willing himself to stay in one place to ride the lifts up. He pushed himself through the door of his apartment passing through it and he called to the alarm the correct code to disable security. He had found that while hard to react to the physical plane he could talk just fine.

He walked around his place, looking at the items he had recovered from Jason’s gift. Many different swords, books, colored magazines with crazy stories of fiction, maps torn from other books, pictures, and a backpack full of strange items. The Capsule that contained the Truck lay on his desk, a remembrance of times before. He looked over the photos and that’s when he saw it, a map.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It took many days, but he finally moved the picture to his desk and had the computer analyze and enlarge it. He superimposed the image on his wall sized Vid. Selecting and zooming in on the map in the hands of the strangers. It took many hours of planning but he found a doorway, a permanent one, here in NeoGothic City, and he had no idea where it would take him but he had to find out.

He left for the portal, and arrived outside the Free Zone several hours later. The portal lay in between several crumbled alleyways two vagrants slept under it, as if they could not even see it. Perhaps only those who knew were a portal was could see said portal, hmm this could bear looking into. Then he was gone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2269, four years later.

He stepped out of the portal, he glanced around the area was different, it looked older somehow. He walked into the city, watching and absorbing what he saw. It was four years later, some of the blackrunners tech looked slightly different, advanced, but it wasn’t like that was strange, Argus OneWorld was constantly making advancements, but he noticed the name on one of the pistols, ReXunited, but ReXunited didn't make weapons, they made cyborgs, and hacking gear, plus when he had left the ARCology was still under siege by the "AI" TechnoSyde.

The world was different in those four years, he had to get to the map, he ran for NeoGothic City and that’s when he realized he wasn't in NeoGothic City or even outside the Free Zone anymore. It looked a lot like DeeCee.

"So the portal was stable, but the exit point wasn't?" He started walking then, avoiding eyes that had been watching him as he ran.

"Darion Gray." A voice came out of an alleyway nearby. "Stop, but don’t look."

"Who are you?"

"A friend. Someone who knows what has happened to you, and someone who can help slightly."

"But why help me?"

"Because you would do the same for me." He stood with his back to the alley, trusting that the stranger would not kill him, or couldn't, at least not permanently.

"You have many days ahead of you Darion, you must plan for the future. Return to the portal and find your destiny."

"Why do you keep calling me Darion, my name's..."

"Because you are not that man anymore." The voice interrupted, "Because your condition is similar to that of a 19th century story. That and it sounds mysterious."

"Okay, but I still don’t understand why."

"Someday you will, and on that day all will make sense in your life, all the hardships, and the pain, all of it. You should be prepared for anything, a deck can be stacked, but occasionally a wildcard slips into the game."

"What game, what are you talking about?"

"The game of life."

He turned around and looked into the alleyway, but it was empty. He had the feeling that his life had just gotten more complicated.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

He started the journey back to NeoGothic City it would take many days, maybe even weeks but he would do what he had to find his destiny...



TBC in Part 1c on Friday!!

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