Welcome to Gaia! ::

Embedded in a layer of debris and other various bits and pieces of technology, a sleek silver satellite with wide blue solar panel wings swung over the planet Earth. At the same altitude as its GPS cousins, it orbited the Earth twice every 24 hours. As the little blue planet circled the sun, the star casted its light upon the blue waters. The satellite was there to see it and in accordance with some unknown inner program it shifted its telescope to view the new morning. Locating its target, it zoomed in. Emotionless towards the gashes, fissures, and craters that marred the surface of what was once a superpower of the Western Hemisphere, it performed its duty of the cursory inspections of the peaks and valleys of a certain type of radiation. It had already gathered data from the rest of the world for that day.

Hours later, the satellite dubbed Blue Storm 005 soared across Europe. The telescope rotated, adjusting its focal length. It zoomed in, again and again and again until with total rehearsed accuracy and precision it found its target of the moment. The remains of a once-mighty stone structure hidden in the forests of northern Europe were revealed. The small yet powerful supercomputer aboard the satellite dutifully snapped several photographs, took several measurements, and beamed the information back to its home base on Earth. The report contained information that was perhaps jibberish to normal people but was perfectly logical to the mind behind the satellite.

"Radiation levels, slightly high but well within the margin of error. Some additional visible exterior repairs since last report. Organic life returning and flourishing. This concludes the official report," the A.I. system of the satellite droned.

"M'kay," the previously mentioned mind behind the satellite responded. "I wonder what they're doing there now?"

"Sir, that was the purpose of the report."

"I meant the people."

"You could have just asked me," the satellite sounded vaguely insulted. But, weren't emotions beyond the scope of Earth technology?

"It's not the same," the human voice responded, bored.

"Then get off your lazy scaly a** and visit them! It's been five years!" The satellite nagged its creator. No, this kind of emotion and intelligence was FAR beyond the scope of technology. "Look, I give the reports with all your fancy numbers about magical radiation and doors into other realms. My job isn't to be your psychologist too! Blue Storm 005, over and out!" The line went silent.

"......" The human was silent. Meanwhile, at the ruins of the building on Earth...

A fire roared that night in the dark and lonely woods. Shadows flickered and danced upon rubble as stars twinkled away their existence overhead, none the wiser of the earthly commotion.
The wee hours of the morning were beginning to slip by, unnoticed by all, as they danced and sang and drank and ate. Nothing seemed overly important that night; nothing would take away from their enjoyment. A pipe was passed around for those who requested, and a pot of hardy stew boiled steadily near the massive fire. Older attendees drank and carried on merrily with each other recounting poems and famous legends, the both of which were full of laughs this night. Children ducked and dodged throughout the debris, chasing shadows and watching the fire crackle and snap; a surreal, natural magic through the eyes of youth.
Fields of violet, crimson, and ocher spread as far as one could see. For this was the land in summer, its love affair with beauty in full swing. A deep golden moon hung low in the sky, obscured vaguely by the tree tops. King Midas himself, it seemed tonight, would have cursed the sky for keeping such a treasure from his grasp.

"And there I am, just flying out of Ohare when whaddya know? This fiery monster shows up out of nowhere, and BLAM!, takes down all of Chicago with a clap of his hands! Our plane landed out in the hills of West Virginia, and boy, were we ever lucky to live through that crash."
"Hah, thats nothing! I was collecting specimens of a new species of medicinal plant for my research when he started destroying the world. And where else would I be but the Amazon?"
"No way..."
"Yessir, my luck is just that horrid. So anyways, I look up and all these animals and birds come just racing past me, poor things, and I'm left there thinking 'What the hell?'. Well the next thing I know there's this massive blast of heat, and I was hurled off an embankment down into the inky waters of the Amazon itself!"
"Hahaha, I wouldn't be calling your luck bad then mister!" shouted a child as he ran past, chased by a pack of his friends.

An older man walked up, the flickering light hiding his facial details. He walked with a heavy limp in the right leg, and approached the man who had just finished his tale.
"Bah, you're lucky as hell if you ask me. You see these?" He motioned to his face; nearly half of it was missing. "Those b*****d cultists, they came running through my house that night," He sat down on an improvised bench of rubble, hiding his face in his hands as his speech became heavy. "They killed my wife. Killed my son. Took half my face and three of my fingers. At the time, I had wished they'd have just as well as taken my life. But I suppose now, that I'm happy they didn't. If it weren't for my being, I suppose there may not be anyone left to remember my son..."
Several party goers walked up to the man with sorrow filled hearts. Expressions of:
"Sorry to hear that Cain." and "I'm so sorry man." along with the occasional "******** the Eternal Rise! All those cultists can go to hell!". The latter of these was often followed by a series of chants and hollers from the rest of the crowd.

A blackened hand now lay across Cain's back, a solemn voice accompanying it. "We'll eradicate the Eternal Rise. All of us, together. The way he had always wanted us."
Cain tottered up from his seat. "Get your hand off of me. As far as I'm concerned, you're as bad as those ******** cultists!"
"It's a shame you still feel that way Cain. Its been five years after all..."
"I don't give a damn how long its been. You're nothing like him, I don't care how his parents feel about you. He was one of my favorite students; but you...you're just a freak, an unholy abomination!"
"...Whatever you say pops."

An hour or so later and the crowd had settled quite a bit. They were now seated around the fire, telling tales of ancient heroes, villains, great wars, and other such legend.
"'JOIN ME OR DIE!' he roared! Man was this guy ever intimidating. He was from another universe or something, and that jewel on his wrist was some legendary source of power there he had stolen. POOF! Just like that he made 1,000 copies of himself and sent them all at the demon slayer! Lucky for him they turned out to be illusions, or he wouldn't have had a chance. He cast The Horned One down into the fiery pits of hell, but he managed to escape by some unknown means they say. No one really seems to know where his deep hatred for Colin came from, perhaps it was the fact that Colin stood in his way of conquering the world. Who knows. Anyways, back to the story. With a mighty clap of his hands Riser attempted to destroy the school, but the brave warriors stood in his way. Eventually, they managed to destroy the jewel on his wrist and were then capable of banishing him to the Far Places. When he fell to the ground he landed on the school, dragging his hands across the ground in an attempt to flee the vortex that was drawing him in. After that-"

The entire fire spiraled high into the sky and shot directly back down upon itself, creating a massive cloud of ash and smoke. A sort of rattling could be heard, along with the sound of footsteps, as though someone were beginning to dance around the fire. When the ashen storm cleared, a strange figure in nearly tribal attire and paint stood before them.
"Children of the earth
Fire feared but one thing that day
From its ash we rose"

"I'll be damned!"
"Who is this guy?"
"I'd recognize one of his haiku's anywhere, Shuusuke!"
"THE Shuusuke? From the legend?"

"Shuusuke I am indeed. And children, my part was minimal. He attempted to break us. He attempted to shatter us apart from one another. He in fact gathered us up. United us under a common enemy. And on that day, well, on that day we rose." He stopped his erratic dancing at long last.
"Now, despite the many inaccuracies of your friend over there's tale, Shuusuke the BattleChanter shall now recant you with the final moments of the battle. Told through the eyes of one who witnessed it firsthand..."


'Forget hope, your souls shall perish in a blaze of fire'
Riser stood far above the field staring downwards
'And now of all times you believe victory on our behalf impossible?'
Colin roared in response
'The snake has been devoured by the mongoose, no one shall save you'
Slashes, hacks, kicks, punches, all were thrown at Colin
But The Horned One was greater, he dodged all with fluidity
'Stand still you spineless-'
But he was cut off. The Horned One had driven his antlers up and through
A would-be God lay impaled atop Colin's head
Surges of heat began to waft from his apparent corpse
Colin, though great he was, was forced to detach him
The body rose, jittering and twitching and wafting heat
'Be thou for the people, be I as it may.
Colin The Horned One, shall perish this day!'
A mighty blaze of fire erupted from his very essence
All nearby were engulfed, whilst Colin took the brunt
'It will take more than that to stop me Ris-'
'Colin, its time we lent our aid.'
Three voices rang out in perfect unison, an odd group they were
All three with wings and weapons of different styles
Together the four united, pushing the evil one back
But Riser himself intervened at this moment
A being of such massive size has never seemed so quick
In a blink he was between them
Just being near him caused their flesh to boil and singe
Having dealt with their duplicates, Ialo and Luna made the scene
A grand entrance on their part, Luna rode atop the dragon
Fire erupted from all angles, forcing them back
Luckily Ialo was fast enough to catch the stragglers
The fight would drag on for several days
Finally, through combined efforts of the group
They shattered the jewel atop the forehead
As its pieces fell to the ground, as did Riser
The jewel was what stabilized his two physical forms
And as it fell, Riser returned to the body of Sun' Rai
His eyes glowed with a new rage, a new hatred
But his fate was sealed
As the group held him off, I myself appeared
I performed a forbidden Chant, a banishment act
The vortex did swirl, and into it he was pulled
Tearing at the ground in desperation
Many of his rogue incarnations escaped him
Weakening him significantly, allowing the vortex its buffet
Legend says they still exist somewhere
Traveling the world, doing what they will
To each his own."

The large dark figure's left wrist began to shake. As he lifted it, he gazed upon a vibrant green LCD screen, the words "What am I missing?" standing out.
Precariously using his claws, he began to type out a response.
"Sanity brother, normal people have it. You on the other hand lost it long ago."

A lone figure lay atop the school, two swords lay at his side, and a faint hum could be heard from him. He was dressed in a black coat with white pants, and shirt. On one side of his back was a black bat wing that could hardly be seen in the dark, while on the other side a almost pure white feathered wing, that pierced the darkness with an angelic glow. Tho it was hard to see his face you could see black runes that seemed to slash across his eyes, as if a sword had slashed them vertically.

"I wonder if America can see such a beautiful sunrise ... ."
He got up grabbing his swords strapping the black and red sheathed sword, that was about six inches in width, and five feet in length to his back, and on his hip he put a slimmer white sheathed rapier. He walked over to the side of the roof looking at the still dim morning sun. He held his thumb and index finger close together holding it up to the sun, as if holding a coin.
"... no that bas**** of a god destroyed it all ... all of the orphanages ... all of the city's ... everything."
he took a moment keeping his hand to the slowly growing sun.
"No wonder my race hates gods humans are mere toys to them valued at nothing at most!"
He let out a sad sigh, and brought his hand down.
"No i shouldn't hold such a hate ... it was five years ago, and heaven, and hell already said they were working on restoring the world to it's previous glory."
The man hopped down from the roof hitting the ground with a *thud!*.
"Speaking of heaven and hell, I wonder what Ike, and Koy are doing right now. After they left it's been so boring all this working to restore everything, at least with Ike I could have a sparing partner."
he shrugged and looked around to see if anyone was out at the time.
(i'll work on a picture of the new Kai I just need to get my laptop.)

((We've got folks online, lets get this coaster rollin!))


A week or so later...

The darkened figure strolled sternly down the walkway, its three large, muscular toes thumped down on the metal grates with each step. It came to a large pipe running horizontally in front of it.
The figure bent down on one knee, and began to sniff along the seams of the piping. "Ahh, there's the problem." It tapped out several buttons on a touch screen it bore on its left wrist. "I've found the leak brother, it's in Sector 9, Quarter 17, 3 floors up. Just like you said. I'll patch it quickly and get back down there, see you then."