1x1 Guardian Rangers (Link x Might)

(that is an oddly specific time.)

~Hera

She woke up in her old room, the walls tathered with a red liquid, cobwebs drifting in the wind. Hera looked around and slowly moved out of the bed. She ran her hand along the cold sandstone walls. "HERA!" A voice calls out. Hera Jolts and looks at the door, nothing there besides the portrait of her family hanging from the wall. She sighed and dragged her hand off the wall and clutched it. She felt something inside of it and opened it slowly, her body shooked , her hand was covered in blood.

Hera looked up from her hand a panicked expression on her face, her eyes widened to see her mother standing at the door frame, her body propped up by a large wooden pole impaled through her from the head down , as if she was just a top for death to spin . Hera closed her eyes and clutched her head.


She opened her eyes to a new scene, a black void with a purple flame in the middle. "You must be Hera. " The purple flame calls out. Heras body was shaking but she nodded. "Nice to meet you Hera. . . I am someone . . . well . . .something you'll have to deal with for as long as you live. However we do not have much time to talk, as your brain is screaming at us to wake up. So I shall talk to you after you awaken the power, of a crystal." The flame sputters out and pink embers fill the empty void



Hera wakes up and looks at the lone clock perched against the wall. "4:52 AM . . ." She mutters . Hera wrapped herself in a blanket, sitting up on her bed crossing her arms over her knees. "What were those dreams about . . ?" She wondered



~Maxwell

Arriving at the HQ around 12:00 , he was followed by the soldier. "So Sylas was it?" Maxwell turned his head back to ask the question. The soldier nods . "So . . Sylas. You have a very interesting case. As a terma crystal was imbedded into your body by shrapnel. And you chose to keep it. So we'll give you your wish, on one condition. You must join our forces, as if you do not we will have to remove it in order to protect our citizens ." Maxwell sat in his chair and Lance walks in.

"Another new person?" Lance mutters glaring at Sylas. He walks past them and walks into a room that wasn't entered before now. He was gone for a few seconds and returns with a glass of a light tan liquid . "You really gotta chill on those shots Lance." Maxwell kicks back in his seat. "Anywho, do we have a deal?" Maxwell extends his hand out to Sylas.

Sylas paused for a moment, and grabbed Maxwells wrist and pulls himself in. "If this is a trick, I will make sure I kill you." Sylas mutters in Maxwells ear. "No tricks here , tricks are for kids." Maxwell jokes. Sylas backs off and shakes Maxwells hand "See you in the morning then." Maxwell grins



~ ? ? ?~

"Failure. . ." A cold Raspy voice calls out. The sound of a match striking fills the room of its silence, a small woosh flows by as flame breaks out. A metallic face reflects the light, the match lowers and a candle is lit. Flicking its wrist the match burns out and the stick is dropped to the ground and stomped on like a cigarette .

"The deer has fallen. And their pet has gone missing ." The cold voice says while picking up the candle and moving over to a table. Two other metallic masked figures sat at the table. "Tch, I mean it wasn't much hope either way . . " A calm but cold voice spoke.

"So , How long until the Dragon is complete?" asked another low voice, but sounded more energetic then the others. "The Dragon is nowhere near complete, nor is my blade. The two dragons of this organization are yet to be completed . However . . .we'll be ready soon . . "




60 days till the Blade of the Dragon is forged
152 days till the Dragon Is Completed

 

~ ? ? ?~

"So . . You're telling me . . . Flamma failed?" A long and cold voice remarks. "Why am I not surprised." The sound of metal scraping on the floor rings out as a large beast made of flesh and steal walks out of the darkness. "Oh, you were eavesdropping." said one of the masked . " I have all ears after all." The flesh beast mocks. "Well , it's true. Flamma failed. And her pet has vanished from out sights." The other masked replied.

The flesh beast raises its hand and long metal spikes break out striking the ground. "Damn. At least the pet had some use . . So , who will be the next to try and stall them, so they don't find the Dragon? My body has yet to reach its full power. I need more power then what I have. . . " The metallic flesh slowly moved over to a black trash bag, tore it open at the seam and grabbed a corpse from inside. It rose the limp body in the air by a tip of its finger . Its face broke apart into twelve segments and swallowed the body whole. Blood splashes to the floor and bones are spat out. "I'll go . . .sir." The energetic one calls out.

"The Cat wishes to go after them? Very well, we're setting up a swarm of Scuttlers out there. They'll be distracted cleaning those up, your goal will be to take out one of their communications towers. If we can cut their communication for even five minutes, we can sneak an army of Termas into their nation without them being able to call for help." The cat nods and walks out. Moonlight illuminate's the room, showing the figures .

A dragon, a Fox, and a human mixed with a bird. The room was splattered with blood , blood was dripping from the birds mouth from its recent meal. "Good luck, and don't be like the deer . . . " The bird calls.


~Hera~

Unable to fall back asleep, she looked around her room and admired the books. "A lot of knowledge . . .but such little pictures. " She muttered admiring the now opened books. She rested her head on the wall, and watches as the clock on her desk slowly moves forward in time , until it's finally 8 : 00 AM. She blinks back into reality and stands up, looking at the scattered books and shrugs it off. She opens her door and hears no movement. "Looks like I'm first up." She mutters

 

Spoiler: Music

Hera stood at the door frame , looked down the halls. She cracked her neck and walked down the halls. She went into the meeting room, to only see the chairs shuffled around. She sighed and warped out to the main entrance of T.E.A.L . Walking around the streets, she saw Lush trees barely lit up by the sunrise. The town seemed like a ghost town, with only small lights from the townsfolks cars.

She paused in front of a tall building, looking at the sign, a coffee cup dangling by a thread . "8:00 AM - 20:00 PM Everyday" She reached into her pocket and took out a slim tablet, opened an app on said tablet and checked her balance. "630k huh?" She opens the door, and enters. She is met by a barista, wearing a normal work uniform, her blond and red hair tied back in a messy bun.

"Uh, Hi. Is this some sort of café?" Hera asked the Barista. "Oh, you must be new here. Yes! This is a local Café, what can I get for ya?" She rested her platter in her arms and smiled at Hera. "Anything with caffeine, I'm not much of a morning person" Hera joked. The Barista chuckled. "Alright, then I'll give you the first drink, on me. See how you like it. Go ahead and take a seat." The barista points to a nearby chair and table. Hera walks up the small flight of stairs from the door and looks around. Long shelves were filled with books that some looked to be ancient. The wooden floor creaked as Hera walked across to the chair. She sat under a dimly lit lamp, looking out the window.

"This is a pretty calm place." Hera thought to herself. It wasn't long before a small coffee mug was placed on her table. She looked up to see the same barista again. "Oh , thank you." Hera grabbed the mug, and took a sip. To her surprise, it was sweet . "Wow, this is . . . different then what I expected. I expected really bitter . This is . . . really good, thank you!" The barista smiles and nods. "You'll not need to remember the name, just tell me "The usual." and I'll know." The barista walks off, and Hera quickly finishes her drink.

She places the mug at the middle of the Table and stands. "Oh, already done?" The barista walks over and picks up the mug. "Yeah, I got some stuff to do today. Thank you for the coffee!" The Barista smiles and bows as Hera leaves. "That was pleasant." Hera muttered . She rose her arm and realized that it had already been two hours. "HOW?" She yelled, and started to run back to the HQ. "Oh , Hey Hera." she heard a familiar voice call out. She turned to see Maxwell .

"Normal wake up times in an hour, but we're both up early. And I guess a few others." He started to walk forward "Don't stop, let's keep walking." Maxwell called . Hera nods and continues to walk "So, we're going to be doing some crystal work today. Meaning, you'll have to kind of expect what's coming up. We're going to bring you to a dark room , and all of you will be given a Terma shard, you'll clutch it at full force, and feel the strength of one. You might wonder how it works, and frankly we don't know. But it will sting, so prepare for that. "

"So, how will we know what our power is?" Hera asked. "EXPERIMENTATION!" Maxwell rose his hand to the air. Hera chuckled. "So when are we doin this?" Hera cracked her fingers "12:00 PM"

 

"So, is there any dangers around this?" Hera asked Maxwell calmly. "Depends. Some powers bring a risk, and will harm the person. But we will make it so that you're in your ID Card, in case something bad happens that would kill you that can happen , you're still alive. But if any limbs are lost, that is irreversible. As that's the crystal's power taking over." He extends his fingers cracking each of his fingers.

Hera stops in her tracks, and looks up at the tower . "And we're doing it up there?" Hera asked once more. "Correct. We have a dark room , with plenty of narcotics to knock out anyone. Plenty of water, food as well." Maxwell also stopped in his step and turned back at Hera . "We got an hour, wanna do some accuracy training?" Maxwell shoved his hands in his pocket. "You're on" Hera remarked and looked around. "But aren't weapons prohibited in the city?" She questioned. "We're not going to be in the city." Maxwell took his hands out of his pockets and flipped a coin in the air.

The coin lands and rolls in circles around on the ground. . . with a tink, the coin falls. A large ring of blue fire breaks out from the coin and engulfs both Hera and Maxwell. "Hera. I Maxwell, challenge you to a duel." He extended his arm into a handshake . Hera grabs his arm and shakes.


Duel Commence.

They were both transported magically to a large city , much different than where they once were. Hera took a stance and looked around. Both her and Maxwell had no weapons on them, and were in basic training gear. "Are we just gonna have to punch one another?!" Hera called out. "Nope!" Maxwell calls back "You gotta find your weapons. Good luck." Maxwell jumps into a third story window and runs off. Hera tries to do the same and doesn't even come close. "Ugh, show off." she muttered and ran into a home

 

(Sorry for Delay, been working on school stuff)

Spoiler: Battle Music

Running into the small home, she looked franticly around. All she found that had any use, was a med kit, syringes filled with a green liquid, a kitchen knife, and a small pistol that only had two rounds. "Not the best . . The med kit and the pistol are the most useful things here." As she was muttering a bolt action shot was heard, shattering the window. Missing her head by mere inches. Hera ducked under the cabinets and dashed out of the building. As she was running, a hissing sound rang out. It wasn't long before a putrid stench hit her nose. Covering her nose with her arm she continued to run, before another bolt action shot was heard, followed by a loud explosion. She turns quickly to see a rush of fire and then a loud crash.

The fire quickly spread across the house, as the massive gust of wind knocked Hera off her feet and was flung backwards into an alley way, landing into a pile of trash. Stumbling to get up, a rusted pipe caught her eye. Picking it up she sharpens it into a makeshift spear. Placing it on a belt ring on her waist, she picks herself up and runs in the direction of the smoke. Covering her eyes with the gauze followed by lines of tape leaving a slim gap for vision from the med kit, to make it so that the smoke didn't get to far in. As she runs through the smoke, another loud explosion is heard and another building explodes, as if the force of the fire broke a valve off another gas tank making it explode.

As she ran, more explosions rung out causing debris and fire to spread quickly across, cutting off directions she could run entering a police station she knew one option she could use to her advantage, the smoke was covering the windows, thick layers of soot already clouding the windows.

Maxwell sat on a tall tower at the middle of the town with a bolt action sniper rifle, and a slim butterfly knife on his right, blade out. "This scope has no use to me anymore." He lowers the rifle and relies on hip firing the sniper to hit a shot, as the scope wouldn't be able to see through the thick smoke. "Chances are, she ran away from the smoke. . . She has only one area of use to her, and that's the gun shop. . . " With a click the sniper reloads, and Maxwell shoots at the Gun Shops area. "If she can't get in by me pressuring it, she won't have a chance. I've already won this fight Hera."

As the sniper reloads, a ticking sound was heard creasing through the room. Maxwell broke his focus from the smoke to look around the room. As he was looking around , Hera jumps through the window throwing a tear gas grenade right at Maxwell . A large poof of a gray gas quickly spreads across the room and Maxwell guards his eyes. Stumbling through her limited vision with the gauze she loads a slim pistol and starts shooting at Maxwell's general area. Flickers of light illuminate through the gas, and Maxwell shoves the gas out of the way. "Impressive . . You got some talent, that's for damned sure." He chuckled. "But not good enough." He kicks off the ground quickly getting in Melee of range of Hera, kicking her right in her blind spot and knocking her back up with the rifle. Knocking himself back grabbing the butterfly knife.

Twirling the knife in his hands he throws it right at Hera , striking her left shoulder. Hera gets up quickly and unravels the Gauze and tape as the tear gas had worn off. Hera grabs the butterfly knife, as she does her blood follows in a silk line of red gas, but her arm tingled. She charges at Maxwell with her right arm back clearly telegraphing a punch. Maxwell kicks for that arm, as as he does, Hera grabs the rusted pipe from her belt loop and stabs Maxwell right in the chest with it, but at that same time Maxwell kicked her arm snapping it. "Tch. An impressive hit. . . but not enough." He walks over to the rifle and picks it up, grabbing the scope off of it. "Guess this scope won't have any use here. . ." He winds it a bit and tosses it at Hera. "So you can go ahead and have it."

Maxwell walks towards the Window as Hera lay on the ground with her arm broken, and her shoulder stabbed. Watching, as Maxwell hops out the window. It wasn't long before . . .

tick
tick
tick
tick
BOOM

The scope explodes in shrapnel all around a grenade in disguise. Hera felt her face get torn off, her arm shattered and flung across the room. Her vision went red, then black. Waking up once more in her Bedroom. Looking at her arm, there was no damage, not even any redness. A small screen waited at the edge of the bed, and Hera sits up to look at it

"Maxwell Vs Hera



Tie."

 

Hera stared at the tie board, and questioned if they just placed it there to mess with her. It wasn't long until Maxwell opened her door . "Good fight, not gonna lie, you made me jump when you jumped out the window . Using the gear gas to make a ticking sound was creative as well. But I don't quite understand why you used a Pipe and not a knife. . . You could've thrown the knife at my throat." He pondered "You would've intercepted it with your power. "That is true." He muttered. "I used the pipe, because in your bomb heavy attacks, the pipe was on fire, so once I stabbed you with the pipe, it started to fill your body with Toxins." Maxwell knocks on the wall. "You found out a clever way of dealing damage. I wanna see what your ability will be. . . "

"So do I." Hera mutters. She glanced at her watch and saw it was 10: 36 AM. "So we got an hour and 20 minutes till we start, huh. . " She glances out the window to see the town. It was futuristic, and calming but complex city. Where billboards flew high in the sky, windows becoming opaque at the press of a button, transports not touching the ground, magic arts of Terma Crystals thrown about.

"So this is where i'm staying for the while." Hera though to herself. "So, I guess we're gonna wait on Taz and . . .Sylas." Maxwell spoke to himself. "Who's Sylas?" Hera asked. "Oh, right you've yet to meet him yet. Sylas is one of the new people of the army, I guess replacing that spanish rat." Maxwell kicks against the wall. "From what I can already feel, he is very preserverent, and calm. But there's something that feels off about him . . . Like he's capable of something else then i'm aware of. Ah well, we'll see. Once he activates the crystal."


"Wait. you're going to let a complete stranger use a terma crystal?? We've not even seen him in battle!" Hera complains. "I'm aware of that. . . but for now, let's avoid this conversation, we don't know who is listening. However, I do wish to ask a question of you Hera" Maxwell had a stern face. "DId your dreams come to haunt you last night?"

 

Hera was quickly taken by surprise . "Well, I mean. Yes. I had a dream about my mother's passing, at the sand shark attack. When she was . . . impaled." She clutched her fist, and her hair fell across her face. Her memory hazed back to the previous day, when all hell broke loose. "Everything happened so fast yesterday. First the sand shark attacked, my mother died, we had to deal with the giant sand giant on the plane, the giant followed us home, then it attacked the city. then we got taken away, and then we had to fight diablos. It was a crazy day . . ." Hera grabbed her head

"No worries, from here on . The only time things will get as crazy as that, is when something attacks us head on. Typically, we have a quest board of sorts where people call in termas. some can be dealt with in a few hours after a report, but some do need to be instant." Maxwell shuffles in his pocket and takes out a white box with a tan logo around the rim. Cracking the box open 7 cigarettes tilt out, and maxwell takes out a lighter lighting a stick . He tips the box to Hera. "Sorry, I don't smoke" Hera waved her hand

"Suit yourself." He lights his cigarette and takes a portable ashtray from inside his coat. "Listen. Those nightmares, weren't coincidence. Once you use the power of a terma crystal, they have access to your mind. " Hera paused for a moment "But. . . I never used a Terma crystal yesterday though..." Maxwell chuckles and tips his cigarette into the ash tray. "Yes you did. those id's aren't magic kiddo. They had to have at least some power source.

 

(Sorry for the month's wait)

"I guess." Hera muttered.

"Well it's getting around the time we should go to the room, I'll take you there. Let's go." Maxwell tips his cigarette into the ash tray and drops it out of his mouth, closing the tray. "Prepare for a shit ton of pain, that'll be my main warning. Depending on how complex your power is, for some it's a cake walk only taking a finger like mine. For others, like Gabrielle it takes your entire arm , and other parts of you with it. "

"What do you mean . .?" Hera looked at Maxwell with a stern face.

"Crystals are like fire, you don't play with them. And if you wish to be one with the flame, you must bring it a sacrifice. Whenever you ascend past the first strength of the crystal, whatever was taken will burst into pink flames, same with when a crystals strength is broken into the air. It's also why we always use our powers no matter what in the ID forms. anything else could possibly kill. Now . .. " Maxwell walked and talked through the procedure with Hera one more time

"So, you'll be locked in a room, hold a crystal, you'll guide me through how to make it go through my blood, and then I can do whatever the crystal says .. ." Hera was confused but understood (if that makes sense). "What do you think mine will be?"

"Probably a hook, not a clue." Maxwell shrugged, "only time will tell."