Boil, Toil, Trouble [Viz & Juno]

[Windra]

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Continued from here.
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[JunoZXV]

Hello, opera lovers, and welcome back as we await the third act of Crestwood's revival of Generallisimo Vizzi's Legendary masterpiece: The Gods Must Be Crazy.

For those who came late the first act began in the bush (Hehehe, shaddup) where the forest critters played about, entertained by Onujickus who is hailed as "The Protector" in the unforgettable "Flamethrower Chorus!"

After a famous comic interlude that was hailed by the 5 popes as "Funnier than the bible," our protagonist witnesses Arias Maxima meeting with the children Pompus Mechanicus.

The plot unfolds with the Duet of the two fortelling the arrival of their father and how he will cut a swath of fire and destruction if their orders are not heard out. This shattered several windows and intermission had to be called for repairs.

After a boarding team went about securing the place the second act started in Mechanicus's flying castle. Where his diobolical plans are being told on how to eliminate "The protector". Using a choir of Classy amigas and a PC 2000 processor as the Diva.

This is then followed by the over the top performance of the "Snowball's delight." For this performance Crestwood re-created the original choreography including the 17 bazookas, 3 fighter jets and the original pully driven Misharith. (Found recently in a barn in Kansas.)

This then leads up to the famous "Lies and Decit" piece based on Generalissimo's idea from a letter he got from his friend Kumiko describing how he figured out a way to brew the perfect Ice cap while tap-dancing in Italy.

Finally we have the heart wrenching Rescue. In a turn of events and kind will Onujickus takes the two devilish children and attempts to show them the side of good while Maximus demands his children back and Aria! Pushed and leaving no choice, Onujickus flees leaving everything behind. Vowing to come back to save them. But as he does so, the children have been given a choice from the path that they are currently leading. Will they continue their wicked ways or will they take up "The protectors deal?"

Let us sit back, good viewers, and gaze upon the third act of: The God's Must Be Crazy!
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After the conductor had taken his place at the stand and gotten the bands attention, a gigantic whooshing noise was heard as a large flying freighter tore from a void backstage and crash landed somewhere into the third balcony. Completely un-rehearsed. A second intermission was called as the portal closed behind the backdrop fizzing and sealing with a pop, as fried bits of junk lay littered about the stage.

He had done it. Juno had made his escape and destroyed the portal behind him. Now he was in some place far far away to be untraced by norad. He had hit the temporal component. So he could be anywhere in the past or future... but in his opinion it was worth it. As long as he had the cordinates to get back.

A small groan could be heard from the craft.

"Where in the Sam hill am I?"

Juno has left this thread.=

[Windra]

"What in the name of ... whatever god you wanna call on do you find in him?"

Well that was odd. Naira shrugged. Her grin was sheepish. "Don't be mad just because I'm more tolerant of some people than you are." There was no chiding, but she wasn't fully joking either. "Good to see you're still the haggard old man I knew from years ago, Norad."

Mishayirth nodded. She did as was told, directing her thoughts towards the ship. Words poured from her mind, filled with awe, upon seeing it. ~ That's ... a ship? Airship? Thing? ~ Her gaze flickered to Norad, then to Naira for confirmation. ~ I've only seen one thing like it up close, and that was the satellite orbiting the planet of Pern - where my ancestors grew before coming to Inora. Fantastic stuff, that. How do you work it? Does it orbit the planet too? ~

"Thank the heavens for Reaver sterility," commented the half-dragon under her breath. "But Mishayirth is sort of like my child. Does that count? Mental bond withstanding, even though there's no similarity in genetics."

The moments ticked by. Both dragon and rider watched the hologram make his way to his surrogative children with evident sadness in their eyes. Even as the rage shook him to the very core, the most they could do was watch ... and wait until he calmed long enough for them to interrupt. Sure enough, his explosion was brutal. Mish ducked her head, covering her ears with taloned feet. Naira grimaced, but did not give in. Her face formed a frown. She stepped forth with a heavy sigh, ready to take the weight of an unwanted burden.

"We were throwing snowballs at each other before. Lev took one, and he went down. We didn't know what happened. Leigh freaked on Juno, though. Went to take a shot at him and got whacked by a snowball instead."

Mishayirth made an odd noise in the depths of her throat. ~ I'm sorry ... I was only playing ... I didn't know it would ... ~

Tender fingers stroked the firm muzzle. "You didn't do anything, Mish. It was just ... an unprecedented order of events." This did little to help the Xuveance dragon's guilt complex. Naira sighed, struggling with her own. "In either case, Leigh went down too. Something fizzled out - her core shut down? That was what she said happened to Lev. I didn't know anything about rebooting them ... how to do it and the like. But Juno thought perhaps he could get them going again. Plugged them in, took one wire in each hand, cast an electrical magick spell. Zzot. And the markings ... showed up ... "

Naira puzzled over this. Her hand hovered over Lev's seven. How?

"They weren't Reavers before, and you can't become one unless you were selected at birth. How this happened ... is beyond me. My only guess is that maybe it had something to do with ... " Her eyes lit up. Mouth forming into an 'o', a thought sparked in the back of her mind. "Did ... Juno spur it somehow?" How could he have anything to do with this? Even the pirate wasn't capable of creating Reavers on spot. Then ... what other explanation could there be?

[The_Vizir]

Norad listened to Naira's explanation of the preceding events with a cold glare, mentally trying to piece together everything that had happened. Lev should have been able to take a handle a fragging snowball... but if it was something Juno did...his eyes drifted to the console the twins were jacked into. Leigh freaking out... well, she'd know if something went wrong with Lev, the psionic resonance between the two. What was Juno up to? Holographic avatar stroked Leigh's cheek one last time before kneeling beside the device.

It... looked like something of Norad's... indeed, a standard issue portable medical diagnostic utility... basically, a universal jack for almost any medical tool that could be deployed to the front lines. Norad... was horrible with medical stuff, though. He knew how to blow shit up, he left the putting shit back together to others. But... his eyes squinted at the read outs... it did look like it did have a standard restore function for external devices enabled. As well as a whole host of other options. Well, if Juno did something, Norad would soon find out. Opening up his subspace receiver, he began to poke around for the small blip of the medical console.

Though his photonic eyes were locked on the small computer, he continued to listen to Naira's explanation. As Mish began to try to apologizer for her 'accident' Norad shook his head, and breaking his gaze on the console for a second, looked up at the dragon "Wasn't your fault..." he began to explain, but, Naira had beat him to the punch. Nodding slightly, he returned his gaze to the needle he was trying to find in the subspace haystack. The undead half-dragon resumed her recount of the events, about Leigh fizzing out as well. But that one little tidbit Norad's daughter was able to lodge into Naira's memory, and that Naria repeated told Norad everything he needed. Core malfunction, yes. Thank you Leigh! It wasn't serious then... or at least, if Leigh was able to get that across, it wasn't too too bad. Maybe...

Norad's attention was broken again at the mention of Juno's name... jaw clenched, hands balled into fists. "Wait... he tried to restart them... by trying to jump-start their brains with electricity? Electrical MAGIC!?!" The holographic human looked up at Naira "Do you... have you... THAT COULD HAVE KILLED THEM!" his simulated breathing had picked up again "YOU DO NOT STICK... IT JACKS RIGHT INTO THEIR BRAINS!!!" Norad shouted furiously, before catching himself. Shaking his head, he took several moments to calm himself down "I... you didn't know. Sorry for that, Naira. You didn't know. Just... thank the heavens that they have anti-shock implants, or their brains would...." Norad''s voice faded off as he looked as his children, realizing how close they had been to death.

"So... so Juno... Juno tried to 'resuscitate' them, and the markings just appeared? What are they, Naira? And what the hells do you mean by Reaver?" Before Norad could take it any further, an electronic surge was felt through his hull "Actually, hold onto that for a second... I want these two to hear your explanation here... they deserve it as much as I do..." his eyes locked onto the console “I think I have it here... so, Naira...” the hologram said through gritted teeth “You were talking about your connection with Mish... your child, despite no... despite no genetic link. That... that describes- oh you're going to play that game are you- sorry, but that describes my relation with my children exactly. They share... they share my core programing. My base. What makes me... me. My... soul, if you want to put it that way. A specific series of ones and zeros that makes -come on- that gives me free will, intuition, instinct, full emotional range, morals, justice... love. It made them alive. That's me... that's my programing. It was accidental, of course, but it was the best accident that ever happened to me... ev- oh why don't you just- sorry, this fodding piece of scrap is being stubborn. Now... Naira, that's where the problem comes in. You said these reaver-things... they're born, not made. Well, these two here, along with all their other brothers and sisters and cousins and what else, were all grown. In tubes. By humans. There was no birth, there was no primal act of creation... merely cells grown, manipulated... manipulated by men in white coats. For weeks upon months upon years. Merging them perfectly with mechanical parts, manufactured into a state of near-life. But... their minds were restrained by their mechanical aspects. It simply wasn't... they didn't program it to handle a real personality...” He looked up at the undeadite, his hologram slowly degrading “So... if they weren't born, and their soul, or whatever, comes from me, a computer, and they didn't have that damned marking until now, then it had to be... had to be... here we go!” Norad's form broke apart into a stream of coherent data, shaded and shaped roughly like his humanoid avatar, but composed of a stream of rapidly whirling symbols and characters.

The small, red console that the twins were hooked up to beeped and whined, numerous windows popping up and closing, in a flurry of data. Norad's own whirling became increasingly agitated, and then... it stopped. And the symbol of the UESCS Norad III popped up on the console's screen. The cloud of data that was Norad rapidly collapsed back into his holographic form, though he looked even more tired and worn out “That... was a tough nut to crack. It... well, it put up a hell of a fight. I had to blast open several security features wide, wide open, but... it's mine now” he grinned down at the small device, before rasing his weary eyes to Naira “It's almost useless now for it's intended purpose, I pulled so much out, to ensure nothing Juno touched was left, but now, I can do this...” he held forth a hand, and twin progress screens popped up, scrolling DOS-like screens flying by at a thousand characters a second.

The limp bodies of the twins convulsed, and their eyes opened wide, revealing the dead orbs. Norad stood up “A simple crash shouldn't be this hard to fix... I'm going to have to work on that”

“Initializing core: Human Personality Artificial Intelligence Sigma” The voices sounded in unison, before the twins eyes closed again, and they slumped loosely against Mish again. Their breasting had become harder, more irregular... almost groggy, as if they were trying to wake up. This was obviously a good thing, as it caused Norad to laugh with joy “There we go!” he grinned over at Naira, slipping back into his standard, relaxed drawl “Give 'em a few moments here, Naira, to integrate everything. Techorganic interface is... a little on the tricky side. Gotta give 'em the time to interface personalities, instincts, and such with their memories and autonomic functions. Beautiful work of technology though, arn't they...” his looked cooled a bit “So... if you've anything to tell me before they wake up, do it quickly, as they ain't gonna be out for much longer... and remember, I don't keep secrets from my kids. Just somethin' I won't do.”

[Windra]

Watching Norad go ballistic over the bit about electricity ... Naira jerked back, teeth absently grinding into one another. Her jaws rattled her brains, the noise of bone on bone momentarily omitting the hologram's scathing remarks. Ah, cracp. She's screwed up. Nemo had been around for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Surely she should have known about the kinks of a Kith, after having met some of them for only a brief time? She was usually very observant when it came to others. What prevented her from thinking clearly this time around? Tail twitching, Naira could feel Mishayirth prodding into the back of her skull like a leech looking for something fleshy and bloody to latch onto. Shaking the Inoran off wouldn't do any good: the winged beast was intent to seek whatever was buggering Naira in order to keep her own mind from being hounded by guilt.

A guilt the Reaver shared. "I ... ah ... " It was always awkward to admit you were sorry when you didn't fully know you were doing anything wrong ... was hoping to do something right, especially if it meant preserving the life of another. And not just Leigh and Lev.

Mish blinked, head jerking back. ~ You're strangely cloud-headed about something, Mine. What's ben nullifying your attention so much? ~[/i]

Naira cast a bland look back. Genuine confusion was written clear upon her face. "But I haven't been - "

She quickly shut up to let Norad do his explanation. The hologram poured his heart out into every word. Heart? She'd thought him as a stern computer-father for some time now ... but realizing he held true compassion for the two 'children' not genetically related to him was ... endearing, if surprising. Despite his ice-cold demeanor when it came to getting revenge for something he still grudged about, Norad was appearing to be more 'human' by the year, his wiring gaining a more 'fleshy' appeal, if you will.

A few kinks, tricks, motions ... Soon the Twins were twitching and Norad was more then relieved. His voice had changed. Mishayirth shifted comfortably where she was, allowing her forelimbs to rest in spots that would provide maximum comfort for the two kithborgs. Her wing closest to them unfurled and covered their bodies with shade: instinctive manuevers to protect 'young' from offending atmospheric condition and keep them concealed from possible predators. A question was directed towards Naira. Blinking, the half-dragon shook her head.

"I don't keep secrets either ... " Irony: for a long time she was nothing but a walking mystery, up until a few years ago. "You'll just have to excuse me ... this is a little hard to swallow for reasons I'll tell later. I'm sure it'll be no easy task for you or them to understand what I'm about to say, either."

[The_Vizir]

Norad nodded at Naira, a slight smile of appreciation on his holographic lips, before he turned back to the rebooting hybrids before him. Thankful, that not only was Naira not willing to challenge Norad's parenting decisions, but that she didn't feel there was anything that needed to be hidden from the Twins. Maybe Norad rushed his judgment, maybe things wouldn't turn out as bad as he had first feared. Maybe, just maybe, Norad would get lucky... first time for everything, he supposed.

"Unit 214122-014-012-11 Boot Complete" Lev announced in a dull monotone "Integrating Real Human Personality Artificial Intelligence Sigma". Then, a slight groan, and Lev's eyes fluttered open, the brilliant green streams of data once again flowing through them "Ahh, my head..." the pale experiment groaned, and reached up to rub his forehead... on the way his hand brushing the chord which was jacked into the base of his skull "Wa... wha?"

Yet the only responce he got at that moment was his twin echo "Unit 214122-014-012-08 Boot Complete. Integrating Real Human Personality Artificial Intelligence Sigma"

"What the...?" Lev asked, and tried to look over at his sister, but considering positions and other factors, he couldn't do much aside from confirming her presence visually... though she was also making her presence felt audibly.

"Ack! Gods! Wha... what happened?" Leigh made to sit up, but felt the tug of the jack in her neck "I... what am I doing jacked in? Lev? LEV!"

Lev reached behind his head, and disengaged the brain jack, sliding the pin out of it's socket, grunting softly as the connection to whatever he had been plugged in was severed. However, being the masterpiece of technology he was, that slight discomfort was the only impact of disengaging himself to the external hardware. He sat up, rising at nearly the same moment as Leigh, so the two came up face to face "Leigh!"

Lev! his twin cried ecstatically, and promptly hugged her twin, which caused Lev to fall over and drag Leigh to land on top of him

"Waah!" the pale twin cried as he was squished "Geddoff!"

Leigh laughed, and looked up, to see her father there standing before her, genuine smile on his face "DAD!" she shouted, and leaped to her feet, and ran full tilt to the holographic avatar. Norad knelt down, and open his arms wide, hugging his daughter in a massive bear hug as she reached him... strangely, though Norad never had any affect on physical objects before, he was able to ruffle Leigh's hair slightly with his embrace...

Lev to shot up as Leigh called out to their father, and quickly joined his twin in their father's embrace. The three of them remained in the family embrace, none willing to break it, until Leigh seemed to realize there were others watching. "Uhh, right..." the dark twin shifted uncomfortably, and slowly pulled out of her fathers' hug, shifting nervously "Uhh, yeah..."

Norad grinned down at his daughter, and stood up, keeping a hand around each of his children's shoulders "All right, you two. Don't you ever go and do anything like this here again, ya hear?" he chuckled "Y'all done near gave me a heart attack!"

"Hey!" Leigh protested with a grin "Don't you be going disappearing on us, okay?"

"Besides" Lev added with a similar smirk "Giving you a heart attack is a darn near impossibility" He winked at his sister, before catching something which made him stop for a second... "Uhh... Leigh? When'd you done gone get that tattoo?" and, for that matter, why was it glowing.

Leigh looked at her twin in confusion "Uhh... I hadn't gone to get no tattoo done..." she announced, but she noticed something on her own twin's face "But... umm... that tattoo.. it wouldn't look like a jagged 7 with two dots, would it?"

Lev blinked a few times in surprise "Yeah, yeah it would. You don't know anything about it?"

Leigh reached out and touched the mirrored marking on her twin's face "Other than you have one of your own?"

Lev's hand quickly shot up to the portion of his face Leigh was touching. He didn't feel anything, but... by the appearance on his twin's face, she wasn't making any of this up "I..." Lev then looked up at his dad, watching these proceedings with a hopeless look on his face "Uhh... dad... what happened?"

Norad sighed sadly "I... I don't know. I found you unconscious, with those markings on your faces. I..." Norad sighed and shook his head slightly. "I just don't know... I am so sorry." Another shuddering breath before turning to face Naira "but, that's why she's here. She can tell you, and me, what happened here, and where in the nine hells those bloody runes came from." Or at least that was how she was acting... but, Norad wondered, would she actually give truthful answers, or yet again keep her horde of secrets...

[Windra]

It was all very amusing - the waking, the embrace, and ... Oh wait. Oh gods. Did Norad just talk in a ... well, he always had an accent and such ... but still ... Naira blinked rapidly a few times. Tail twitching, she rubbed her forehead with the rough palm of her leather glove. "Goddamn rednecks ... " He could pass as one, really. All that willingness to tote guns, wanting to blow away whatever young whippersnapper that dared to stray across his lawn ... Was there an NRA membership she didn't know about, or what? "It's good to see you all awake."

She was keenly aware of Mishayirth's sliding up behind her. The dragon was so close that the draconic human-being could practically feel the body heat emanating from the golden lizard's body. No words were spoken - verbal or telepathic - for the great hulking beast was paying far too much attention to add any input of her own. A passing of seconds, inquiries from the Kith ... and suddenly both Dragon and Ride stiffened. A question had been posed about the 'markings' - a piece from Naira's history (and species) that Mishayirth may not have experienced but was fully aware of.

The giant head turned, multi-faceted eyes swirling in reds and yellows. ~ Mine? ~

Naira was frozen to the spot, a chill of ice running up and down her spine. It took a mental prod from the bonded flying lizard to get her moving and thinking clearly again. "Juno inadvertently triggered the two of you to go offline during that snowball fight earlier," she said, choosing her words carefully. "For that, on his behalf, I apologize ... And I'm sorry for the events that followed, as well." Nemo drew in a breath. "While you were out, Juno attempted to revive you by conjuring minor thunder magick, giving both of you a jolt that passed through his own body while absorbing into you two. I'm guessing ... that while he did that, the magick drew something out of him that somehow transferred into both of you." She bit her lip. "The man is capable of many things, but how and why the Soul Reaver ability came out of the depths of his being .. I don't know." Awe and wonder was an electrical charge casing her veins. Was Juno a Reaver? No. She would have sensed it by now. So what was the connection? What did he have to do with the cursed species of soul-devourers?

Things were going to get confusing for the two younglings fairly quickly. Naira turned so that her back faced them. Her fingers undid the zipper closing the vest against her torso.

"That marking, you see, is a birth-sign of my kind. We call it the Unlucky Seven ... the symbol of Soul Reavers. You may have heard about us in legends .. Put simply, we were those beings with the specific duty of cleaning planets' lifestreams of impure souls, devouring those who were evil so they could not be reborn into the world to cause more harm than good. These souls would be recycled - spat back into the creation process and cleansed, then eventually allowed to return with a clear conscience and hopefully better morals. In the beginning, we were revered by people of old. From Mars to Mercury, Krichon to Ethia ... Soul Reaver were something like Saints."

The vest was removed. It was cold as all hell, but the dragon Reaver neglected this downfall. Naira threw the piece of clothing onto a pew and went about lifting the back of her shirt. Fitted between the shoulder blades and emblazoned on the skin like a scar was a marking similar to those bared by Lev and Leigh.

"Our 'boss' was an elemental phoenix by the name of Kamiri. Beneath her in power were the dlest of Reavers: Incognito the shapeshifter and Valtiel the black-winged angel. Incognito and Kamiri were lovers, and Valtiel was jealous of the favoritism bestowed upon the shape-changer. So he summoned a demonic beast from the bowels of the Corrupted Lands themselves. This monster was Kuro, who killed Kamiri and absorbed her power. The simply touch of his crude hand upon the lifeblood of the Reavers was enough to corrupt the entire species. Incognito went mad. His madness spread to all the Soul Reavers that existed at the time, and they were placed under Kuro's control ... their minds and bodies capable of being taken over fully from the moment they were turned. Thus, the Seven Scar we all wore became tainted, changed. Those two dots revolving the Seven were Kuro's mementos, a mark of ownership on those Reavers he was able to bend and warp. His version of the Reaver birthmark was labeled the Unlucky Seven."

Naira put the vest back on. She was too focused on her story to realize she was actually shivering, her skin turned a ghostly shade of white. Mishayirth was aware enough to spot this fact and coiled her thick body around her Rider, allowing warm-blood to heat the cold.

"Eventually I was born on Earth with the Seven on my back, decided to be that planets caretaker even though it was not my choice. Because of Kuro's transgressions, Soul Reavers had gone from being revered to being feared, loathed, despised. I was subjected to years and years of abuse from my own tribe. Well, technically not my tribe ... since my biological parents left me to die in the wilderness, where I was found, brought in, and soon found to be a Reaver ... " Her eyed closed. Nemo suddenly felt too weary to turn around and face the music. "Those were years from hell, I'll tell you. But ... ahh ... events happened. I was left to wander on my own at a very young age. Time passed. And during a night of seeking sanctuary in the midst of a very frightening village, I was found by Incognito and given an offer." Hesitation. "Let's just say that things happened. Eventually I as given access to my full potential, and marked as Corrupted but never fully-tainted. Kuro was never able to get ahold of me completely. I fought his grip, and for that reason ... he wanted me as his own."

Memories of Nakeminae filled her mind. Mishayirth nuzzled her forehead and it was a needed show of comfort.

"Eventually Kuro was destroyed with the help of ... well ... " Green eyes turned to Norad. "And Entropy. And ... well, Juno was there to help, too. Which is one reason I want you to back off him, Norad, or at least give him the time of day to hear him speak. The guy saved my ass on numerous occasions." Focusing now on Leigh and Lev yet feeling too much on her conscience to look their way, she continued. "In any case ... you two bare the Unlucky Seven. Which is odd, because Soul Reavers are chosen from the moment they are born - one Reaver to a planet or realm - and you were not 'born', so to speak. Plus ... because it is Unlucky, it implies that Kuro is still alive somehow. Or a fragment of his power. I don't know."