A Day Changed

[The Rogue]

The morning of the day he had a daydream about while he was in Courscant

Connor jolts awake as his alarm goes off. As he comes around he notices the mass of frizzy red hair in his face. He smiles loving down at it.

“Brooke...it’s time to wake up babe”, he says with a smile. She turns over and Connor looks lovingly down at her. She opens her eyes, blue-ish hazel color, with a hazel ring around the pupil.

“Hi…”, she says softly. They both smile and laugh.

Connor slides out of bed and heads towards his dresser. He opens the very top drawer and pulls out a black t-shirt. He slips it on and grabs some clean pants. He puts them on and then grabs his two holsters. He straps the smaller to the upper part of his left thigh, and the bigger to his lower right.

He walks out of his shared room as Brooke gets herself dressed. He heads down stairs and to the kitchen. He starts making breakfast.

“Good morning”, Brooke says from the top of the stairs. Connor looks up, and she is dressed in jeans, a grey t-shirt, and black letterman style jacket with the Batman symbol on the front. She has her Bullpup Lynx rifle, Thorn, slung across her back.

Connor smiles up at her and she smiles back, “Good morning”, he replies back. She runs down the stairs then throws herself at him, he catches her and spins her around a bit. She laughs gleefully, then he kisses her lips.

“You seem more loving today, is something wrong?”, Brooke asks as she breaks the kiss.

“Yeah...just a nightmare,” he responds as he lets her go. He returns to the kitchen and resusumes cooking breakfast.

“Why was it such a nightmare?”, she ask as she sits at the bar counter.

“Well, I was torn away from here with no way to get back”, he says offhandedly, then he thinks ’to you’.

She yawns “Sounds frightening!”. Connor smirks and puts scrambled eggs onto two plates and two pieces of bacon each.

“It was certainly when I died,” she gasp when she hears him say that.

“What how?”
“I wrecked, then got shot”
She gasp and holds him as they eat.

[The Rogue]

Later that day

In front of Connor a tall and deeply tanned middle aged man, riding on a hoverbike similar to Connor’s, except it is in a Harley Davidson style, weaves in between cars, expertly dodging them.
”Connor, I want you front and center!” bellows the man.
“Okay dad,” Connor responds and rotates the throttle back in order to catch up.
“Is your team ready?” his dad asks.
“Why don't you ask them yourself?” Brook pops her head up behind him and asks her future father-in-law, “Sorry Brooke….” he mumbles. Connor laughs “Yeah Reid and Yolanda are already there and are setting up.”
“Good”

After a few hours of driving they pull up to a large skyscraper. They park in a nearby alley-way where a young man and woman are waiting for them. The male is 5’7, pale, and has shoulder length bright red hair. The girl is much taller, standing at 6’4, has blonde hair with purple highlights that comes down to right above her buttocks, and is extremely fit.

Connor and his dad park their hover bikes and the woman seems have to gently push away the man’s hand.

“Yolanda, Reid, I hope ya’ll have set up”, barks Connor’s father.

“Yes Mr.Hound”, the two reply in unison.

“Then get in formation.”

Brooke excuses herself and goes to the parking garage across the street, carrying her rifle in pieces inside a briefcase. Once she gets to the top she pieces her rifle together and turns on her Com unit.

“I’m ready”, she says calmly

The others nod and form up in a single file line. Reid is in the front Connor and his dad are behind him, and Yolanda is right behind.

Reid is armed with his chaingun, dubbed PeopleShredder, Connor has his two pistols, Lupa and Lycöan, his dad loads his AR-15, named Beowulf, Yolanda draws her shotgun, Beatstick.

With one hand she reaches into her pocket and activates the explosives that make the entrance to the building.

They detonate and Reid opens fire into the lobby of the weapons manufacture world leader, Epoch Tech., the rival of Lupercal Industries.

The lobby was filled with Crowder’s guards, enough to give hell for the small team. As they breached Connor and his father activate their cloaking and split off, looking for Crowder and weapon plans.

[The Rogue]

A few hours later

"Connor! We're all running out of ammo!" Brooke says as she picks off two grunts on the roof, she goes to shoot one behind Connor, but she spent her last two bullets on the previous two.

"Connor behind you!", she says into her Comm.

Connor whips around and sprays the grunt with Lupa, the grunt falls and Connor gives a nod to Brooke.

More grunts flood onto the roof as Connor and his dad try to get to Crowder, who is having a Helicopter loaded with weapon plans and money. They both charge and start mowing down the grunts. The grunts start panicking, and one rolls barrels full gasoline and planted with a charge.

Connor remembers his dream and the fall, so he slides to them, but right when he gets to them, they detonate. Instead of being blown back he gets swallowed by the inferno. His last thoughts were 'I love you Brooke, at least now I can rest peacefully

Then Omni's grinning blank face appears to Connor, and booms loudly "This is not the world you know", Connor swears sharply in Arcadian.

"Panáthemá se! Giatí me eant edó?"

The face doesn't answer and all Connor sees is a white expanse....

[The Rogue]

This is another day from earlier in Connor's life.

Connor ‘wakes up’ and finds himself at his old desk at Lupercal Enterprises. He rubs his eyes and yawns.

“Hey Con, fall asleep there buddy?”, Ried says with laughter in his voice. Connor rolls his eyes,

“Yeah I had dream where you weren't here to bug me, it was great till I woke up!”, Connor retorts and Reid guffaws loudly. Connor laughs at his own wit.

“Awww, you know it’d get boring without me,” Reid responds.

Connor chuckles, “See ya man.”, he nods to Reid as Reid leaves.

“Hey why don't you stop and come with us?”, Reid offers.

“Nah man, I’m almost done with the design and I want to show it to the client in the morning. If I finish early I might join ya’ll.”, Connor looks up at his friend,

“Okay, I’ll see ya around”, Reid leaves and Connor looks down at his work and hums to himself to film the silence of the now empty office.

It's a 12 gauge hollow point with a brass shell, designed to travel at supersonic speed. It has a ball in the very tip, and grooves that go all the way though the width of the slug, the grooves go down to the bottom and leaves a centimeter of metal. Connor is still trying to get the slug to spread on impact, which when it does it expands to two and a half inches, the size of a fist.

Then he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel press against the back of his head, "Connor Hound, tell us about Marethyu. We know that your father and you are the heads.", the C.I.A operative says coldly as three more enter the room.

"Woah woah, you must've gotten bad intel, Marethyu isn't even Arcadian.", Connor lies.

[Tearen Wover]

Is this your world, Hound?

The words did not come from an exact source. Their presence was almost implicit in the fabric of what Hound's sleeping mind knew to be reality. The CIA operative seemed to have frozen, his mouth open in response, but unmoving.

Carefully, Connor ducked around the still man, looking around nervously. He went to the windows and peered outside. Cars sat idle in the streets, the faint plumes from their exhaust hanging in the stagnant air like delicate webs of lace. Evidently, the entire world has ground to a halt. Okay...don't panic. The voice came again.

Is this the world you left behind?

Is this the world you wish to return to?

Why do you limit yourself?

[The Rogue]

Connor walks around his now frozen in time office, looking at, well whatever deity’s work. The operatives were just standing there, well not really, all of were caught in the middle of some action. Some were tailing aim at the now empty chair, one was just reaching the top of the stairs. Everything was still, except for Connor, which was absolute hell.

Then the voice, oh the voice, so cold and mocking,

Is this the world you left behind?

,

“What do you mean left behind? I’m still here….right?”, Connor says, his voice sounding too loud to be in this still and silent world. He looks around for the origin of the voice, his hands poised above the handles of his two pistols.

Is this the world you wish to return to?

, the voice says again,

“To return to somewhere implies that I left, what are you….”, then the memories flood in, his fall, him begging for death after a wreck on his bike, Aadibah and Somerled, the restaurant, the hotel. He realized this is a dream, he tries to wake, but whatever entity keeps him there.

Why do you limit yourself?

, the voice simply says,

“To be limitless you have to have limits, who are you? That white man child of a god? Why do you keep me here? Does my distress get you off?”, Connor asks angrily in his gruff voice, drawing his pistols, “Show yourself coward!”

[Tearen Wover]

I'm not the one keeping you here. The Smiling One is your captor.

As Connor wheeled around once more, he noticed a shadowy figure lurking in the corner of the room. Its three green eyes burned relentlessly, as if they were fiery beacons of despair. Naturally, Connor brought his gun to bear on the shadow, but the bullets also froze in mid-flight. Nealaphh's power might be limited most places in the Omniverse, but in the dreams of another, it seemed as though his potency was absolute.

Your distress saddens me. The mind returns to the past only when it has no future planned. Nealaphh hummed stepping forth from the umbral veil and into the light. Its form seemed to be hazy, and indistinct, as if it were only partially here.

I look around your dreams and I see only sadness and regret. When will give yourself a purpose again?

[The Rogue]

“I already have purpose, to find a new home here, to make a name for myself, to cast my own shadow, and to write my own story,”

Connor glares at the shadowy figure with three green eyes, “The only regrets I have is when unnecessary lives were lost. While that godling is my captor, are you really any less worse than him by keeping me here? And i’m distressed because I am stuck here, aren't you?”

Connor drops his guns and they stop mid-fall. He steps closer, “What and who are you?”, he questions the figure

[Tearen Wover]

I told you; I am not the one keeping you here. Yes, I may be invading your dream, but that does not mean I am preventing you from waking up. That is still entirely your prerogative.

The shadow flickered slightly, stepping closer to Connor.

Which begs the question...why do you keep yourself here?

[The Rogue]

“Fine since you didn't answer my last question, I’ll rephrase it, what is your name? And maybe I am still here cause I want to find out more about you.”, Connor thinks for a minute and finally catches why the figure calls Omni the ‘Smiling One’.

“Why did it take me this long to realize who you are?,” Connor sighs, “Hi Nealpph, how is the Hammer coming along?”

[Tearen Wover]

You always did seem more perceptive than the average Prime. I knew this about you from the moment you first contacted me on the Dataverse. Nealaphh said. The heretofore hazy, indistinct silhouette no condensed into a more concrete form, as Connor's mind was now able to lend an actual identity to the voice.

I was saddened that I never got a chance to employ your services. You went off grid shortly after we first spoke. the Enigma said, ambling over to the frozen apparition of the government agent and casually burning a hole in the man's arm with a finger. Everything in this room, all of this dream stuff, was like so much putty in Nealaphh's hands.

I suppose I'm here because I was under the impression that a face to face meeting, or the closest thing there to, would be more meaningful than a solicitation for your allegiance over the Dataverse. You are a valuable asset, Connor Hound. It does not take a tactical mastermind to realize this.

[The Rogue]

“Heh, thanks,” Connor looks at Nealpph’s three neon green eyes, with one right below his right eye.

“Yeah and I’m sorry about that, I died in Courascant, and then I was preoccupied on a journey,” he winces at the burning of the agent’s arm even though he knows that it's just a memory.

“Well, I am making a Guild of Mercenaries here, we can work up some sort of allegiance. By the way, is there still a position on any of the Volvagia teams?”

[Tearen Wover]

We have not begun to organize the striketeams for Volvagia, so I suppose the answer is yes.

Nealaphh looked around Connor's dream world with a lazy glance, as if it were still unimpressed.

I hope we can speak again soon, Mr. Hound. Perhaps through more conventional means. For now my attention is needed elsewhere.

...and with that, Nealaphh's form melted back into the shadows like a swath of inky vapor.

[The Rogue]

And with that, Connor dismisses the dream and wakes.