Welcome to Gaia! ::

Schraeder tapped his glass to hers with a smile. "Cheers," he murmured, looking away to his right to gaze at nothing in particular as he drank.

Oddly enough, Mike appeared to have disappeared. It was about 10:00, and it was a beautiful night, interrupted only by

POW

There was a massively colorful explosion, and sparks flew from it. It happened again, again, and again. The promised fireworks show had began. And even from its start it was impressive. The explosions seemed unusually high, and the flares from them were gorgeous.

Felt had made good on his promise, as he always did.

CRACK

The air reverberated with an almost ear-splitting shock. A stiff wind came from above as a ringed explosion detonated high in the sky, and didn't stop burning.

It was gorgeous!

((>:3))

Saturday July 4, 2015
10:00 PM
Clear, Half Waxing Moon

Lisha Richardson
_Stamina
Adela Xochil Aragon Velasquez
_Stamina
Mike Felt
_Stamina
Stetson Schraeder
_Stamina

Adela was awed by the light show. Once it had finished, she laughed at Schraeder's simple phrase. "Yes, it was. I'd say more than nice, but that's just my opinion. Mike seems to enjoy extravagance."

There was another deafening crack. Then another. Then another three, then another five - fireballs appeared in the sky.

A horrifying scream filled the air - not anything human, but the shriek of tortured metal, heard at an incredible distance. Miniscule fireballs appeared far above, and then began to expand. The sound of metal groaning grew from a roar to a sensory overload. It was not just loud, it was painful. The fireballs were expanding too fast - the fireworks had now stopped, when they had barely begun.

Even Schraeder could not pretend to not here it as he had to clasp his hands over his ears - he saw the unlucky barman, who had not done so, was bleeding from his ears. Someone might have been screaming - it was impossible to tell.

zzzzZZZZZZZAK

With a bone-shattering impact, one of the fireballs hit the next door house. Everyone was thrown to the ground; when they looked up to see what had happened, they realized that half of the house next door was completely gone. The remainder was on fire. Parachutes were fluttering down where whatever it was had struck.

The same hiss and strike happened at least ten more times before one final one came fluttering down. Its parachutes were no different from the others, but it made no sound besides the snap of taut fabric. The sounds (besides fire) had died down to an utter silence as everyone stared at the thing.

It was metal, just the size of a man, and was vaguely cylindrical. A few LEDs flashed across what appeared to be a door. The metal was unusually shiny, and veins of what appeared to be precious metals ran towards a tinted pane of what appeared to be glass.

Slowly its rounded base touched solid earth, mere yards from where Schraeder, Adela, and Lisha lay on the ground. The parachutes collapsed to the ground and the pod somehow remained upright. The whole thing still seemed heated; little veins of steam or smoke came off it as the door hissed as something unsealing. It popped open and a man stepped out.

((DO NOT POST YETTTTTTTTTTT))

Schraeder made his way to his feet, dusting himself off and extending a hand to help Adela and Lisha, one hand to each, to their feet.
"Stetson Schraeder," he called over his shoulder to The Thief.

The Thief stared at Schraeder, his blue eyes piercing into the man's soul. Schraeder felt horrible dismay. Something was distinctly wrong here, and Schraeder felt like The Thief had something to do with it.

"Pleased to meet you. I suppose you'll be the receptive ones, then.

"Alright, then!" he announced loudly. "There's going to be maybe thirty more seconds I have to talk to you, so I'm going to tell you more about me. I'm from the future. Things are pretty bad up there, so I figured I'd come back to now. I'm not the only one either, so this place's gonna be a battle field in... oh, I'd say twenty seconds." He made a motion of checking his watch, though he didn't have one. "So. No time to run, so I suggest you start cowering while you've got a chance."

The Thief smiled and drew his six-inch hunting knife, pointing casually towards where the next-door neighbor's house had been shredded by an impact. A loud hiss came from there, but not like depressurization. No, this was a hiss of energy, of boiling water - it sounded too much like a snake. A red light filled the area - and then moved as a figure jumped from within, unnaturally high into the air, trails of red light burning themselves into pupils watching.

The figure aimed straight for The Thief, who didn't appear concerned at all. The twin beams of red light became clearer as the figure neared The Thief, clearer that two lances of energy were going to scream right past Schraeder's head. They did so, meeting on

the Thief's knife. The figure herself was now revealed, someone female and with short-cut, orange-tipped, blonde hair. Her clothing was exclusively black, and though her denim pants seemed normal enough (if excessively loose) her chest was covered with something more organic, almost leathery, yet again almost belted together at the front. Her face was concentrated into an expression of pure hatred, her arms trembling as she attempted to drive the energy glowing from her forearms into The Thief's flesh.

The Thief was not even concerned. His knife held back the blow. "That all?" he complained, twisting and delivering a powerful kick to her stomach. She glanced off Schraeder, who fell to the earth, then bounced across the ground for several yards until she hit the wall of Mike's house like a ragdoll. The wall fractured.

Immediately, she began to stand up. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" she roared at Schraeder. The Thief rolled his eyes.

"I'm not all that bad, y'know," he told Schraeder pleasantly. There was a terrifying hint of venom in it that seemed to clue him in to... something. The Thief obviously wasn't as neutral as he seemed to be.

Elsewhere, other hisses of energy were activating, some farther, some closer. The air hummed with energy or electricity or something. It was impossible to say.