The Sorcerer's Apprentice

[Koal]

This world was abundant with plant life.

That was Koal's first observation upon entry into the new world. Trees, grass and the native wildlife flourished here, unhindered by sentient presence and influence. It was shocking, to say the least, for the young man. He had lived in a concrete jungle all his life, the only green being in secluded and wealthy sections of society. His violet eyes widened and a rare smile emerged from his lips. But as soon as it was there, it vanished, replaced with a cold indifference that could normally be seen on his face. His companion seemed rather bored with the landscape, but Koal figured that was either because it wasn't rare on his home-world, or he just didn't appreciate it as much as the teen did. That made his hate for the other grow even more. Koal didn't know why the figure made him feel so uneasy all the time, but the was the figure always resorted to violent or brutal ways of thinking or acting, but Wild Card gave off an evil aura. Not that Koal was good, not by a long shot. But he knew when something was wrong, and he felt that he did was necessary. He would kill without a valid reason... Not again. Koal's eyes grew distant as a memory came to the surface of his mind.

Memory

"Please, I was just following orders!" The doctor said, clutching a bleeding leg. Koal had been hunting this bastard down for hours now. It was a fun little game of cat and mouse. Koal grinned, his eyes alight with insanity. His white fangs glinted in the flickering light of the small room. The teen drew in a deep breath, his eyes dilating as he caught scent of the blood. It was everywhere. A large trail of it leading into the room, bloody hand prints from where the doctor had tried and failed to pull himself off the ground. A large pool of it surrounding the poor human's feet. 

Koal let out a dark chuckle, the shadows that clung to his arms once more solidifying into claws. He stalked toward the man, his violet eyes his by raven locks. He knelt by the doctor, bringing a claw up to caress the mans face with surprising tenderness. He opened his mouth and spoke, a raspy noise.

"I am truly sorry, Doctor Faust. I know that they would have killed you had you refused." Koal spoke, his eyes locking onto the pale blue ones before him, "And that is why I have to kill you. I need to send a message. That they have played with something far too powerful to control." His claws positioned at the mans throat, Koal opened his mouth once more. "But I did not kill Glynda. Your wife will live. I know its not much, but I could not leave your daughter an orphan..." Faust's eyes misted over, and shone with gratitude. A look of confusion crossed his face moments later. 

"Why?"

"Because despite the horrors I've been forced to endure, becoming the monster that you have molded me into, I still have a heart." A lone tear fell down Koal's face. "Goodbye, Richard."

Memory end

As Koal shook his head, dispelling the unwanted memory, he felt a wetness on his cheeks. As his hand came up to brush the tears away, he felt Wild Card looking at him. Koal whipped his head over the the other, violet eyes boring into the mans mask. "What the hell are you looking at?!" The other man quickly looked away. His face settling into an emotionless mask, Koal began to walk once more.

He could only hope that his weakness had not shown.

[Jack Darby]

Flash Back
-----------------------------
Warren was in the world of Coruscant,  and had been sentenced to clean vehicles. Every second that he worked on the vehicles, it felt like he had been working for minutes. Each minute made the work feel like hours. "When will I be done?"  One of the Storm Troopers hit him in the stomach with the butt of the rifle that he was carrying. "When hell freezes over. Work faster, stupid prime!"  The Storm Trooper was abusing him and that was only the start of what had happened once he had met the Judge.  In addition to the unprovoked attacks on him while he had been working out his sentence,  Warren's cleaning efforts also seemed to come undone too easily. For they were being sabotaged by the Storm Troopers. Some of them carried buckets of muck or oil or grease and hurled them onto the vehicles that he had already cleaned. Of course this made him have to clean the vehicles over again. 
- End Flash Back-

"I was thinking of the past as well.  Specifically the all too recent past for me in Coruscant where they made me clean vehicles because I attempted to build a light-saber for myself. They also attacked me a few times when I was cleaning the damn vehicles and undid my work."  Warren paused for a moment as he thought about something. Koal was going to prove useful but shouldn't go completely unarmed there. Of course he couldn't share weapons with any other Primes or at least he didn't know if he could yet or not.  "I'll give us a ride to the area where we're headed. We're going into the Dark Forest and we're not coming out until I learn how to wield the ability of magic.  Given it's nature having the power of magic at my disposal might actually prove to be useful.  So what style vehicle do you think we can use? I can materialize almost any ride we need with the Omnilium I have but I'd like to let you decide upon the ride this time." 

Partially this was due to his brain being shot.  Right now he was in a creative slump of sorts. Though he could expect that he supposed given he'd built a Particle Beam Rifle for him. Such a weapon was most definitely going to come in handy on the world of Coruscant. It was certainly going to enable him to match blaster bolts once he eventually performed some upgrades to it. Adding a Stun and a Kill setting would be ideal. But for right now he lacked the Omnilium in order to do even that. 

"So do you have all of the essentials you need if we are to go into the Dark Forest? Do you need any supplies such as medical gear or potions or anything else?"  asked Warren. "The Forest... can be tricky. Once we are done however,  I am a man of my word. The moment we leave the Forest I shall take you to the Tangled Green. Once there I shall outfit you with weaponry and provide you training to use it. What do you think of that?" 

[Gwendolyn]

As Koal continued to walk behind his companion, his mind began to wander once more. This place was so full of life, such a stark contrast from his original world that he almost didn't regret Omni bringing him here. His violet eyes scanned the trees, looking for something, anything that would give his mind something to focus on that wasn't so morbid and depressing. Through the underbrush, the Raven haired teen saw the decrepit remains of a campsite. A herd of wild horses grazed in the clearing, not giving anything a second thought. A small smile alighted on his face for an instant, before vanishing completely. He did not trust this man in front of him in the least. So for now he would stay wary, until that trust was earned, or Koal's assumptions were proven correct. He wasn't often wrong when it came to gut feelings like this. His eyes bore into the back of Wild Cards helmet, as if he was trying to pry the thoughts from the armored mans mind.

His actions ceased, however, when his scars began to throb and ache. Grimacing in pain, he rubbed the places where they had left scars. His wrists, his neck, his forearm.... He could feel each one as if they had been fresh yesterday. Growling, he pulled his black jacket closer to his body, and bore the pain. He threw a glance to his companion. He remembered their earlier conversation, about how The man was proficient with Technology. Koal loathed to ask for help, but this might be his only chance.

"You said you were good with technology, yes?" Wild Card started at the deep sound of Koals voice, before turning. "Yes. What of it?" Koal averted his eyes, swallowed his pride and forced himself to speak.

"I have many scars that plague me on a daily basis, and wondered if there was anything you could do to remedy that." Koal stared straight ahead, his face emotionless. "If not, I understand, but I would be grateful if there was something you could do." He subconsciously rubbed his wrists again. It was almost as if he could feel the shackles that used to retrain him.

[Jack Darby]

"So you have a problem with your scars? Such a thing could easily be dealt with using the right technology. Why if I had my lab with us, I could simply clone your body and construct a neural transference machine and then modify the cloned body so that it would have none of the scars. Unfortunately the body would also lack the muscle memory you have now. You'd have to relearn how to fight using it most likely. That is the only downside to such a procedure of 'cloning' because I'm not exactly the best when it comes to the science of cloning someone." 

Warren paused for a moment as they continued on their path towards the forest.  When they reached the start of the woods,  a beautiful woman in a white and gold dress materialized. In her hand was an elegant wand. "Please don't go any further... you don't want to walk down the dark path that you're proceeding on. I beg of you, stop this insanity before it begins!" 

The woman's words fell upon deaf ears as Warren un-holstered a certain new invention of his from his back. This was to be exact,  the particle beam rifle he had constructed for his own use.  "I've had enough of this shit once. You've done it now, I'm no longer holding back."  Warren waited about 2 seconds until a ping came from the particle beam rifle, telling him it was completely charged up and ready. Unlike previously he was more than equipped because he had brought a gun this time. The trial of accuracy needed a ranged weapon anyway and he didn't like using his wrist-blasters. Three shots were discharged from the particle beam rifle and the woman disappeared.  "We are continuing into this forest and we are not stopping for any reason. We will complete the trials and we will only come back once we've completed them Koal. There's to be no breaks this time." 

The truth was he couldn't afford to let them stop. The power of magic was a power he was determined he was going to master. It was a power none of the white armored assholes on Coruscant possessed which meant it was a power that he wanted. Certainly it was better than not attempting to strengthen himself in the slightest and was going to prove useful to him both now and in the future. Deeper and deeper they progressed into the mysterious woods when Warren suddenly jerked Koal back. For there in the middle of the woods was a pit with metal spikes that were dripping with poison that someone could fall into and die. "Neither of us are dying today thank you very much. We'll need to do something about that pit given I can't exactly jump across it or fly.."   A nearby tree was noticed by Warren that just needed a good blast before it would fall across the pit and allow a crude bridge of sorts to exist. Marching quickly over to the tree Warren blasted it 3 times with the particle beam rifle. This caused the tree to make like a domino and crash down over the pit with the spikes. Thus a bridge now existed that they could use to continue their trek. 

"Let's continue our journey." 

[Koal]

Koal tried to keep his anger in check, doing whatever he could to distract himself from the thought of prying that armor off the murderer leading the way through the forest. The shadow-like constructs in his arms hissed and snapped, relishing in his anger. They wanted him to spill this mans blood. And as he continued to think about it, his demonic power surges, morphing his guilt eyes into a chilling blood-red hue. Baring his fangs at the back of the mans head, he growled out a sentence.

"Why did you kill her?" He hissed, eyes alight. Wild Card didn't seem to see the problem with disposing of the almost angelic figure; and that drove Koals anger even higher. His bones began to break as his demonic form started to break through. Clenching his jaw, he struggled to keep the transformation from happening. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes as his bones continued to break and heal simultaneously. The loud cracks could easily be heard in the forest. Hell, if you weren't paying attention, you'd think they were tree branches snapping. Baring his teeth in a show of aggression, The Demon reiterated his question.

"Why did you kill the woman?" His voice had gained a raspy, almost ancient undertone. Demonic power laced his words, but Wild Card seemed to smirk T the display.

"Because she was in my way. Would you have done different." His careless tone rung in Koals ears, and this time he couldn't stop the transformation. His entire body was viscerally ripped apart as his true demonic form was revealed in Koals place stood a proud black dragon, with silvery green eyes. It's about was directly in front of Wild Cards face, and for once, Koal thought he caught the faint smell of fear from the monster in front of him.

[Jack Darby]

"In addition to being in my way I told the woman once that when I came back she was not to be in my way. She chose not to heed my advice and besides it made excellent practice. The trial of accuracy is coming soon and I'd like to make sure that I was ready for the trial. Of course having this bad boy strapped to my back... makes me a lot more confident."   When he noticed Koal turn into a dragon he had to admit he didn't see that coming. It was an impressive transformation to say the least. It was also one that Warren hadn't expected in the slightest. Warren groaned because he'd never fought a dragon before. How did one engage a dragon in combat? Did they need freeze rays? 

Did they need flame throwers? Were explosives the way to go when facing a dragon? Warren was honestly unsure what to do. Even as Wild Card he didn't know how best one could handle the power of a dragon. Dragons were carnivorous creatures,  at least according to what little he knew of them. A mental note was made by Warren that, should he survive this he was definitely researching dragons. Furthermore he was also going to invest in some anti dragon defenses. Since there was a dragon in front of him who was now probably going to be hostile, Warren decided to do what villains did when the chips were down. That was,  they made themselves keep going o whatever quest until they were sure that they could complete the mission. "If it makes you feel better,  she's not really dead.  She just teleported away like the last time I told her to fuck off."  Warren said this as he continued deeper into the forest,  knowing he had a lot of ground to cover and little time. Should anything else happen he was going to be more than prepared. Of course lacking a proper sword for himself meant he couldn't actually melee very well. The presence of the particle beam rifle was suddenly more of a comfort to him when he realized that. "You coming or what?" 

[Koal]

Koal had long reverted to his original form, now trudging silently behind his benefactor. His violet eyes were now narrowed at the surrounding landscape. It was dark, and the thick canopy the deciduous trees provided blocked out any light, as meager as it would have been, from the crescent moon. Dead leaves crunched underneath Wild Card's feet, opposed to Koals soundless tread. Koal was preoccupied with trying to discern why this forest seemed almost familiar to him. As far as the young man could tell, he hadn't ever been here. He gritted his teeth and ignored the building pressure on his left eye. The seal was growing weak... He would need to do something about that particular problem. He didn't want it to break somewhere he could do a lot of damage, although that was more likely to happen than anything else.

Koal eyes lids fluttered shut as he took a deep breath through his nose. He knew that he had probably overreacted to Warren's not-really-murder but he s too prideful to apologize. He growled as another surge of his demonic power weakened his seal further, his mind scrambling to keep his blood-lust in check. The young Demi-human wasn't sure how much he would be able to keep this up. He wasn't usually this vulnerable to the weakness of his seal. 

His seals power must have been diminished substantially when passing into this existence... Which, Koal deduced, could mean one of two things. One, he could try and augment the seals power with magic himself, or two, he could break the seal entirely and deal with the consequences that would follow that particular course of action. 

"I...almost feel as if I've been here before..." He started, muttering under his breath. But at the same time, it's completely foreign." He grit his teeth as another wave of pain lashes over him, interrupting his thoughts once more. The sooner he was away from here, the better.

[Jack Darby]

Warren noticed Koal had reverted back to his original form and was not a dragon. Wild Card knew at some point that he must research the ability to become a dragon. Being able to breath fire or create huge gusts of wind by moving his wings was an ability Warren most certainly wanted. Given that he decided that he best expedite their progress on the journey. Learning magic wasn't the only reason he had come to the forest. No, he'd come here to make sure he was more than powerful enough to survive out there. Jackass Storm Troopers like the ones who had hounded him infested Coruscant and likely were going to cause problems for him later down the line. "I've been here before,  but I came back. The reason I came back was because I refuse accepting my weakness any longer. The Quarterback of Chaos cannot be this pathetic." 

As it turned out, self depreciation was the key to push Wild Card further into the forest. As they both progressed a man with a gun slung over one shoulder stood in a grove, with targets set up. "Come for the trial of accuracy again, Zimmer? You didn't have a ranged attack the last time that was good enough to do you any real good. But let's see if you can do any better. Your companion can participate if he wants, or choose to opt out." 

Warren drew the rifle from off of his back. "I will pass this trial,  no matter how many attempts it takes me to do so!" 

"Good. You have fire in you. You'll need it. Unlike last time, the targets will be moving and alive."   The man picked up some dirt and summoned twenty Fire Wyrms. These were like dragons, but smaller. "You know the drill, Zimmer. Don't miss!" 

Warren nodded and started to take aim at the targets.