Lives Lost In Time: Chapter 1
Please note: As with earlier stories, while the characters in this story are original, they exist within and were created for the City of Heroes/City of Villains MMORPG copyright NCSoft and Cryptic Studios. It’s their world, they just let me play there. Enjoy!
Chapter the 1st: The Time Before
“DAD!” Elektra Duras screamed as she leapt up from her sweat-soaked sheets.
She was halfway to the door before her conscious mind reasserted itself and reality spun away the fibers of her nightmare. She fell to her knees, the terrible images still so real inside her head: the awful smell of the laboratory as the black flames roared hungrily through shattered glass beakers and test tubes. The heat was terrible; she could feel it beating against her, but somehow inside her skin rather than outside. Even now she could still feel the twisting agony echoing within her, just as she had first felt it racing through her father’s office door only to be engulfed in darkness. Read the rest of this entry »
Darkness Dreaming Wolf
In the darkness
Wolf dreams his wolfish dreams
In the silence
Sadness pools behind dimming eyes
In the cold
Races run long ago fill his heart
In the emptiness
He sings his songs to the silent moon
In the end
Wolf dreams of darkness dreaming Wolf
Copyright © 2007; all rights reserved
Teaser: Not Precisely
{The Setting: a high-tech underground facility. Lots of people in lab coats with hard-edged features set off in the blue glare of lighting inset into the walls. POV is focused on two men, both conspicuously dressed in conservative suits of the latest fashion., walking down the hall toward the camera. Silver lapel pins catch the light as they walk down the long corridor. As they move forward, the POV abruptly shifts behind them, catching their faces at oblique angles. In the forward field of view, fewer and fewer lab technicians are seen as the two men advance until finally they are left as the only two people in view. The POV remains behind them as they go, their conversation fading in as the walk.}
Man #1: “How exactly did we end up with an undead vampire working for us?”
Man #2: “Undead vampire is redundant. Nor is there any indication that he actually requires blood to sustain him. We think he just developed a taste for it.
Crystal Snow
Any man would have called her beautiful.
In her castle of rose-tinted marble the timid fingers of dawn caressed her satin cheeks and gently stroked the crystal sphere between her long, slender fingers until a gentle echo of the rising sun’s warmth stirred the crystal’s sluggish interior. Auburn hair cascaded from her downward tilted head, but even that thick curtain failed to hide the sparkling green ice of her eyes. She raised her gaze briefly to stare through the open window set high into the tower’s walls. The shining sphere in her hands reflected her form; echoing the curve of her alabaster neck, the swell of breasts gently trapped in the white fur wrap she wore. Read the rest of this entry »
The Boss’ Daughter
[ The caveats: First, this story is based upon characters created for the MMORPG from NCSoft City of Heroes and the City of Villains addition. The names of locations and non-player characters from CoH form the backdrop for this story. Carla and Sergio are characters a friend and I created. There is no intent to infringe upon CoH or NCSoft in any way, just to write what is essentially a fan fiction piece. Second, it's also terribly stereotypical in the vein of old gangster movies. This is not intended to offend anyone, that's just the way we played the characters. I apologize in advance.]
“Ey Carla. Ya mind pointin’ dat blamed Gatling gun da other direction?”
The beautiful young woman standing beside the long black sedan pointing the barrel of a truly huge weapon at the dark figure behind the passenger window did not appear to hear the question. The sound of the slide ratcheting back was loud in the silence.
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Tentative Title: Echoes of Empire
Prologue:
The Princess Mariss du’Aldra looked coldly at her former advisor cowering on the floor of the dank dungeon that had been his home for the past three weeks. “Did you really think you could get away with this, you pathetic worm?” she hissed. “Did you?” she suddenly screamed and raised the barbed whip in her right hand high above her head. “You think the Heir that much a fool?”
“Please, please, please” babbled the broken shell of a man, tugging uselessly against the iron links chaining him to the cold stone wall, “no more, please!” Read the rest of this entry »
Two More
Two more tears in the river of pain
Lost amid the floodtides of sorrow
Drowned in the crying of the rain
Two more tears tracking down my face
Mixing with the old bloody scars
My darker sins have traced
Two more drops unnoticed in the storm
Engulfed in the grey lead of despair
Clouding every day since I was born
Two more drops and two again
From eyes never emptied
A heart that never mends
Two more acid drops to fall
Searing through remnants of soul
Burning apart dreams and all
Two more nights when dawn won’t come
Two more days when light won’t shine
Two more tears and then
I’m done
Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
Crystalline Darkness
Where dark elves go to take their rest
Beyond where the Phoenix flies to nest
Lies power; crystalline, dark and cold
Harnessed lightning awaiting the bold
Seek this blade at the risk of your life
Far safer be it to take a basilisk to wife
Skeletons cackle silently in the dust
Mute testimony to greed and lust
Will o’ the Wisps dance round the hilt
Flickering enticingly amongst the gilt
Are you the one foretold long ago?
Cast out from above and from below?
The crystal pool and the shining sword
A king’s ransom and a devil’s hoard
Bleeding the holy, burning the fool
The crystal sword, the shining pool
Half between the East and the West
Where dark elves go to take their rest
Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
Silver Wings and Chrome Kings: Chapter 1
PROLOGUE: The Business of the Future
“There seems to have been a problem with the credit transfer.”
“There is no problem. There is no payment for unfulfilled commissions.”
“What are you talking about? Completion was guaranteed. The oversight inspection returned perfectly clean results.”
“Incorrect. Three billets were improperly handled. We have a troubleshooting team reviewing the situation.”
“Three? Send me the data and I’ll take care of it. There’s no need for a separate team.”
“Negative. The team is already in the field tracing the billets.”
“Now wait you…”
“Repeat, the team is in the field and will complete the commission. Your assistance is no longer required nor desirable. There will be no further business relations between us. Ever.”
Unlatching her dented and dirty hardshell armor to pull out a nicstik, Dera shook it alight as the light-sensitive camera mounted on her left shoulder whirred quietly, following a preprogrammed pattern across the crime scene to record the carnage for forensicomp analysis later. Shards of glass littered the floor about the mangled remains of what, at some time previously, had been a human being. Her partner slipped quietly around the room with a portable inspection unit, careful to stay out of the camera’s field of view as it whirred and clicked its way back and forth across the small room.
“DNA scan negative, ID scan negative.”
“You’re wasting your time, Del. The Bumblebee popped up outside the window, emptied the magazine and, just like that, problem all gone. No evidence either. And cybercypher here,” she pointed at the corpse with the glowing end of the nicstik, “won’t have a past or a present on record and sure as hell ain’t gonna have a future.”
“Yeh, I know, but they’ll wanna see the scans anyway” Del sighed, “even if it is just a case of business as usual.”
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