Stars over the Omniverse

[The Future Warrior]

Out of her apartment. The little blue majin stepped out of the doorway, arm bent behind her at an impossible angle to mess with the locks and secure the portal. A little ritual she had picked up from watching and observing other people around. Her 'neighbors', as she had come to learn the word was called. Locking up behind her wasn't really going to do much. The locks and door weren't exactly the sturdiest things. If anyone really wanted in they wouldn't be much of an obstacle. It was more of the mental sense of security. Or something.

Not that Graowr really understood why anyone would want to get into a palce they weren't supposed to be in, anyway. Especially someone else's home. That was just weird.

But she didn't have the spare mental capacity to waste on that. She had a job to do. One she had set for herself, admittedly, but one she was now determined to see through. She was off and running. Down the hallway. A quick slide under the lumbering form of Mister Cartwright, the massive alien in the corner apartment, who could barely manage a tired huff at her eccentric passing. A quick hop out the window, into the open (and, strictly speaking, not exactly clear) air of Tier 4. A sharp plummet down, as she was on the third story.

For nearly a full second, the thought "oh right, I still can't fly" struggled to break through to full coherency in her mind. When it did, she let out a disappointed huff, a grumpy frown creasing her lips and her nonexistent eyebrows twisting her already perpetually-angry seeming expression into a dark scowl. This was a pickle.

She flung one arm out to the side, gloved hand stretching out well beyond her natural reach. An errant windowsill was caught in her questing grasp, fingers digging into the stonework. Her purely downward momentum was arrested into gaining a horizontal lean. She came down to the ground, hitting it boots-first in an awkward, stumbling run. Her hand loosened its grip, extended arm snapping back into place like a rubber band. Her stumbling posture carried her flailing and windmilling for several meters before a loose piece of detritus got under foot.

She lost her balance, into a tumble. Ass over elbows, she went, ending up sprawled on her front, face down on the sidewalk. Slowly, her head rolled up, until her chin was resting on the ground, instead of her face. Something shifted in her mouth, rolling around and sounding like trying to crunch down on a stubbornly hard piece of candy. Then it came to the forefront, and with a wet "Pftha!" it was expelled, and a drool-covered chunk of concrete, the size of a walnut, clattered and rolled away from her. "Blegch..."

After an incident that would have been embarrassing, had the majin not lacked social awareness even an elementary schooler could boast and be proud of, she had rolled over onto her back and hopped up to her feet. Dusting herself off, she gave a quick stretch. Adjusting her gloves and scarf, thrown out of 'perfect' arrangement by her rough landing as they were, she turned right around on one heel, planting her hands on her hips. "Okay...which way's the elevator up..."

Word Count: 560
Character Count: 2575

[The Future Warrior]

When several seconds of looking around, expectantly searching out for any sign of the elevator as if it would jump out and present itself, didn't turn up any sign of it, the little blue creature gave an indignant 'hmph', bringing her arms up to cross over her chest. She always forgot where the elevator was. Or where any of them were. The ones leading down, along with the ones leading up. You would think something that big would be easy to spot with just a quick glance. And they would be. If she could remember what they looked like.

Eventually, she did gather enough sense together to remember that she had a map function of the place in her scouter. A courtesy from someone in the EPD, who recognized right away her lack of directional sense. It had come in handy a couple times, when she remembered she had it. Most of the time that was not a thing she remembered. She was always so focused on something else, and there was only so much room in her head for remembering things outside of the immediate thing-remembering so she didn't end up aimlessly wandering off to do something else in the middle of something important. That was just a recipe for disaster, and something she always had to be very careful about so as to not wind up lost in some alley somewhere and wondering why there was no sign of something she was looking for....

....when had she ended up in this alleyway?

One hand lifted to scratch at her forehead, just under the line of her tentacular hair. "I could've sworn that the creepy abandoned alleyway was at the next street over..." She looked left. Then she looked right. Just walls. She looked up. Artificial sky. She looked back front again. Just the dead-end of the alleyway. Her head turned a one-eighty on her neck, staring back out toward the mouth of the alleyway. "...guess I took a wrong turn." With a shrug, the small blue abomination of a creature spun around to face the 'out' direction and set to walking again.

This time, with the awareness of mind to actually utilize the map function she had in her scouter. A few quick button presses, a screeching 'ERROR' as she fumbled it in her inattentive state — she was still trying to figure out how she'd managed to wander off course — and several more quick fumbling attempts finally got it properly pulled up. The map overlay spiraled down into her view on the lens of the scouter, spinning around to align itself with her orientation. Another minute or so of messing about with the buttons and controls, and she had managed to get the pointer for the elevator heading up to make itself known. It was...in the complete opposite direction. She had a permanent map marker for her apartment on the map, and it was now between her and the pointer for the elevator.

"...getting around cities is hard," she finally said aloud, before turning around and taking off elevator-ward in a light jog.

Word Count: 524
Character Count: 2361

[The Future Warrior]

With the guidance of her trusty map, and her brisk jogging pace (which got her several stares and unvoiced questions as to why she didn't just summon a vehicle or something, as it would have been so much quicker; the poor fools didn't realize the unholy terror that having someone like Graowr at the controls of anything resembling a vehicle would be) it didn't take her terribly long to reach her destination. About half an hour, give or take, with the added distance her aimless wandering had added to the equation. But eventually she reached the elevator.

And was promptly forced to wait for it. Staring up at it, expectantly, with the image of the closed doors reflected in the lens of her scouter. "...elevators..." she said aloud, quietly. "...I don't like elevators."

"You and me both, kid," came the grumbling voice of someone next to her. An insectoid-looking man, with four extra arms and a second set of eyes, in a raggedy-looking business suit. "Every day it's like this...just waitin' on the damn elevator. Makes my mandibles itch."

The small, blue majin's gaze slowly swiveled from the elevator doors to look up at the man who had spoken up. "....what's a mandibles?"

In response, the aforementioned mouthparts of the insect-man clacked and flexed slightly, and he lifted one arm up to scratch at them.

"....ooooh." And Graowr turned back to look up at the elevator. "Those look like they make eating hard."

"Sometimes. 'Specially when things get stuck in 'em. Least I got thumbs. Poor Charlie."

"What happened to Charlie?"

"Nothin' happened to 'im. Just doesn't have thumbs, poor bastard."

"Oh." She went quiet for a moment, holding her hands up and imagining not having thumbs. "...that sucks."

"Six fingers a hand, and not one of 'em is a thumb. It sucks, alright."

"That's a lot of fingers."

"Sucks about the arms though. Lost three of 'em in an industrial accident." He held up the top and bottom-most arms on his left side and the bottom on his right. "All lopsided now. Kinda feel bad for him, but he manages."

The elevator chose that moment to finally arrive. And without further ado, they stepped on board, along with a few others who had stopped by. "That sounds bad," the blue one spoke up, in her infinite wisdom. "What kind of accident was it?"

"Funny story, really..." The elevator doors closed, and the entire contraption started on up on its trip to the upper tiers.

Word Count: 429
Character Count: 1982

[The Future Warrior]

The elevator went on its merry way upward, rising up over the buildings and through the artificial sky of Tier 4. Up and up and up, on toward the distant 'ceiling' of the tier, toward the underside of Tier 3 above. And then on through it, rising up to the slightly less awful level of the verse. Slowly, the elevator ground to a halt to let its passengers out.

"...so now they actually make sure the warning labels are clearly indexed and everything, and they've got to make sure people are properly trained on those things," the insect-man finished his 'funny story'.

"Sounds like that was a big mess," Graowr said, with a nod.

"You have no idea. The smell is still there, when the machines get too hot." Insect-man stepped out of the elevator. "Have a good day, now, kid." And he disappeared into the bustle of tier 3, adjusting his tie as he went.

"See ya, bug-man!" the blue majin called after him, enthusiastically. And then she took to just...waiting out the last bit of time before the elevator doors closed again, and the giant box on cables started its ascent up toward Tier 2. She brought a hand up, poking at the buttons on her scouter. Just looking through the functions and such on it, and poking through various things of a random nature on the dataverse. The usual sort of shenaniganery and silliness that occupied her time searching through the digital world of information. Nothing that really stood out, though. She had yet to develop anything approaching a selection of 'usual' places to look and keep in mind when she was browsing the 'net.

Of course, eventually, the elevator reached its destination again, coming to a halt on Tier 2. And as far as this one went, this was her stop. Dataverse forgotten, and back on the move, she was out of the (relatively) cramped space and running again. The much more clean, refined and advanced nature of this tier was still a bit of a shock to her, every time she happened up here. Not as much as the level above, the crown jewel of the Empire, but still. It was something else to see. Especially given her near-complete and utter lack of understanding about most of the things that were quite prevalent about the verse, on any of its tiers and levels.

Her brisk pace was slowed somewhat by necessity of fiddling with the map overlay in her scouter again. She didn't have any waypoints set up here, save for one she used frequently. It made it fairly easy for her to get where she was going, headed for the stairs that would lead up to Tier 1. No sense waiting around for an elevator, this close to the top level. Especially because she just really didn't like elevators, and really wanted to keep moving. Standing around waiting for one, and then standing around waiting while the elevator slooooooowly worked and wound its way up to its destination. So much standing around and waiting was just too slow for her. Many people had told her that she needed to slow down, now and then, and take things easy. She had taken that advice to heart. And promptly forgot it, due to not actually having a heart. Such was the way of a creature that didn't have anything approaching something silly like 'recognizable biology'.

...she still didn't really understand how that whole 'breathing' thing that people who did have a proper, functioning biological system did worked. It seemed incredibly awkward, and just...not a great idea. She had the most basic understanding that it meant they couldn't really cope well in places like underwater. Or in space. There was no air in places like that. And air was...important? Apparently?

People were weird, sometimes.

Word Count: 650
Character Count: 2973

[The Future Warrior]

Confusion about people with regular respiratory processes aside, the trip to reach the stairs that made up the last leg of the run up to the top of the city-verse was mercifully quick. The climb up them was... It was slightly less so. The natural inclination to move quickly, but carefully on the steep incline went against everything the perpetually-hyper little blue creature was herself naturally inclined to. Several times she was forced to stop and just sort of... Sort of mentally whine about how slow it was. More than once her manic energy and haste got the better of her, and she would leap and hop over people in front of her. Carefully-planted flips and scrambling maneuvers along the railings and walls of the stairway.

Many odd looks, and many frustrated glances, and many amused stares as she went sailing and careening past. The unflinching, never-changing look of solid, stoic determination on her features, the inhuman cast always locked in a stare that looked angry regardless of her actual disposition, didn't help matters. It was all in good fun, she was having the time of her life. That she looked like she was after someone's head, or fleeing from someone after her head, couldn't helped. Just one more oddity about her, which earned many nervous chuckles and quick shuffles aside to clear a path for her as she came blurring along.

Of course...none of that registered to her. In her mind, it was all just a convenient show of politeness. People moving and subtly shifting to give her a better shot to get along more quickly. It was really very nice of them. And once, when she stopped for a moment to catch her balance, almost managing to slip and tumble off a railing, she lowered into a crouch and flashed a thumbs-up to a passer-by who had stepped aside to make ample room for her. The uneasy smile and nod she got in return didn't even faze her, and she leaped forward, back into motion.

The top of the stairs were reached, passed through and left behind in a blur of black and blue. She went failing forth, in a flipping somersault well over a dozen feet into the air, before landing gracefully (well, as gracefully as she could manage; it looked more silly than anything else) and immediately broke into a run again.

Up here, on the 'surface' of the city-verse, she knew her way around reasonably well. It was the place she had spent the most time in, that she had visited the most. It was where the actual offices and security branches of the Empire Peace Division were located. The places where she'd actually gotten some direction and a sense of what to do around here. It was a nice place. A little stuffy, maybe, with all the great big buildings and looming skyscrapers and people everywhere and the stormtroopers just oozing out of every crowd or empty space you looked, but... It was nice. It was really nice, actually.

And it was also nice and wide open. Plenty of room to run and dodge around people. She continued to get odd looks, both from regular passerby as well as the stormtroopers on just about every corner. Of course, the latter also gave the occasional nod of greeting or even a salute as she zipped past. Those were met with a quick wave, or a sharp, two-finger salute in return.

When she came to an abrupt halt at an intersection in the road, one of said nearby stormtroopers looked puzzled, and took the few steps necessary to get within easy speaking range before he spoke up. "So...not that it's any of my business, but why'd you stop all of a sudden?"

In response, the small cerulean abomination lifted an arm, gloved hand pointing up at a nearby sign. In bright, red letters it read "DON'T CROSS", flashing every second on and off. "The sign says not to. And following the rules is important." No sooner had she said as much, than a car went speeding by, the breeze of its passing ruffling her scarf. "Also those things. People don't pay attention sometimes." Her arm slowly dropped back to her side. "And that's a bad thing."

The stormtrooper just...slowly nodded in agreement. Under the helmet, he had gone just a little slack-jawed. Such...such a bizarre outlook. "Right, uh...I guess so. Anyway, uh...where's the fire?"

With a swiftness that made her hair-tentacles sway, her head jerked around to look up, at an alarming near ninety-degree angle to look up at the stormtrooper. "What? Is there a fire? Should I be in a hurry to go help?"

The poor stormtrooper did everything he could not to actually fall over and faceplant at the sheer ridiculousness of the questions. It...it was a joke. It had to be. She had to be pulling some kind of joke on him. Just really good at playing the sincere, serious card. "Uh, n-no...I don't think so, anyway. It's just...a figure of speech, you know? Like...you were in a hurry to get...somewhere. Like there was a fire wherever you were headed. It's...kind of a bit of a joke, a play on words."

She stared up at him, for what felt like several long, uncomfortable minutes. Finally, like a dusty lightbulb flickering to life, her eyes widened slightly, a smile making her lips curl up from the usual, thin almost-scowl line they were pressed into. "Oh! I get it! Like when someone's sad and you ask 'who blew up your dog'!" She looked back down, and across the street again. "But that's mean. I don't ask people that."

"Y-Yeah...kind of the same thing..." the stormtrooper agreed weakly. This was just starting to get awkward. "S-So, uh...where ya headed, then? Need any directions, or anything?"

"Oh, just heading to the security headquarters!" she chimed in, with a nod.

"To the HQ? Got a mission lined up or something?"

"Nope!" The speed and cheerful tone of her response was a virtual slap for the stormtrooper. "Just wanna check on something. Figure if anyone around here would know about it, someone up there would!" Across the street, the DON'T CROSS sign went out, replaced by a flashing green CROSS sign. "Okay, see ya!" And she zipped right back into action, gone in a blue flash.

"...we have the weirdest people on the payroll," the stormtrooper mumbled, watching her go.

Word Count: 1118
Character Count: 5010

[The Future Warrior]

Through the doors of the EPD Security HQ she went, breezing through and coming to an abrupt halt so quickly that she almost stumbled. A quick look around led her to someone who looked like they'd know about what she was after. Or at least be able to point her to someone who would.

All it took was one quick question about the object of her interest (as of the moment, at least) to get her pointed toward furthering her hunt for information on it. Back out of the entrance hall of the building and into the mess of hallways and offices. She got lost more than once along the way, her utter lack of anything approaching actual coordination or directional sense coming back to bite her once again. Not even a map or anything to help her out, in here. Eventually, enough aimless wandering and asking for assistance got her pointed to the right room. Captain Bardel, from the nameplate on the door.

"Come in, Prime," came the voice when she knocked on the door. As she stepped in it was a rather....sparse, no-nonsense and no-frills office. Kind of plain and boring, but functional. "Asking after the star pieces, are you?"

Graowr just nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah-huh. They seem pretty neat. And one fell in every verse except here, which seems kind of odd. But that means there's seven of them, and seven of anything is usually the sign of something good. Or at least something big!"

"You're right about one part of that, for sure. One didn't fall here." The officer finally looked up from his desk, at the blue majin directly. "...make you a deal. There's some reports and files we need, from down on Tier 3. It's about this exact matter. Not been an urgent thing just yet, but with someone here actively asking about it, seems like as good a time as any to go and grab those and deal with this mess. So, here's the way of it: You go down there and grab the files for us..."

A slow blink later and the blue being spoke up. "...then you'll tell me what you know about the star piece-things?"

"Bingo." The Captain nodded in agreement. "Here, I'll forward you the location of the facility in question, so you don't go wandering around forever. We've got a couple of posts down there, after all." He held a hand out for her scouter, which she handed over without fuss or fanfare. A few seconds later, after connecting it to his computer he handed it back. "There. Markers set for every EPD facility on the first three tiers. One you're headed to has been specifically highlighted and marked. It'll show up when you get down there, and fade out when you get to the place."

Affixing her scouter back in place, she brought up the map function again. And she blinked in surprise, eyes going wide. "Oh. Wow!" Not only had the waypoints and map markers for the facilities and outposts themselves been added, but a map of this very building -- the Security HQ -- had also been added. This was going to be a major help! "Thanks! This'll make getting around a lot easier!"

Bardel just gave an amused nod. "Standard map software for EPD officers and stormtroopers. Updates in real-time to display any disturbances or incidents which need responding to, and any place you're specifically called to head to. Useful little thing. Don't make me regret giving that to you, now. Make sure you use it for serving the best interests of the Empire."

"Oh, definitely!" she nodded in agreement. "Gonna make sure to do that."

Bardel just returned to his work. "Good. Go get those reports, and we'll have some information ready when you get back."

"'Kay!" And with a newfound spring in her step, Graowr turned around and headed back out. The new map lead her to only get lost once , and in no time at all she was back outside, and headed for the nearest elevator -- also helpfully marked on her map!

Word Count: 701
Character Count: 3092

[The Future Warrior]

Guided by newfound mapping resources, the pace of the small, blue creature with only the most tentative of grasp on silly things like 'common sense' made quick headway. Across streets, along sidewalks and through crowds of varying size. Up stairs. Down stairs. Once she darted through a building. her vague understanding of 'the quickest route being a straight line' making that seem like the best way to go, regardless of how awkward it might have been. At least she hadn't yet needed to jump over anyone or anything silly like that. Though eventually her rapid pace was slowed down as she approached her destination: an elevator that would head directly down to Tier 3. She really did hate elevators, but one elevator ride would be quicker than two flights of stairs. Maybe only a little quicker, but every little bit would help when she was as eager for information as she was now.

Of course, given her luck, the elevator doors were just starting to closing when she reached them. "Aaaah! hey, wait, wait!" A quickened scramble to her step and a surge of energy sent her blurring along with a quick kick off of the ground. She sailed forward, an indistinct riot of blue and black, and curled into a quick, flipping leap over a crowd who had resigned themselves to not making it to the elevator on time. "Wait-wait-wait, just a second!"

Another quick hop, skip and jump over a bench, a parked car and someone else stumbling the last few paces to the closing doors, and she was there. Twisting into a sideways flight, her small, (very thankfully) thin and lithe form just cleared the doors as they closed. Hands met the far wall, her momentum briefly making her hold fast in a sideways handstand, before she pushed off, tucking into a half somersault, half flip to land on her feet. "Whew...made it!" she said, heaving a breath she didn't really need to take in the first place.

A gruff, warbling cry of mangled, intermixed animal noises spoke up from her left. A brief cough and clearing of the throat followed, before the same voice spoke up. "In a hurry to get somewhere, kid?"

Looking up, and toward the speaker, Graowr could only just blink in confusion. It was...it was a giant walking carpet. In a suit. With a briefcase. "....yeah, kinda. Headed down to Tier 3. Reports to pick up."

"You too, huh? Always got someone running errands back and forth between tiers. Lot of running around, lot of time wasted," the towering wookiee grumbled.

The majin's gaze slowly lowered again, dropping back to look at the elevator doors. "I guess so. It could be worse though. They could just put it off until they got around to it themselves."

A sharp, bark of a laugh rose from the be-suited carpet-creature at that, setting the well-groomed fur of his face to shaking. "Can't argue with that. Rather do the running myself than be the one doing the waiting."

"Waiting sucks," Graower chimed in.

"Couldn't agree more, kid," the carpet-man rumbled.

Word Count: 527
Character Count: 2428

[The Future Warrior]

The elevator ride was uneventful. More banter back and forth with the giant of a wookiee she'd shared some words with before things got moving, and a bit of enlightenment about something called 'chess'. Not quite the same as a similar sort of game from back in the giant carpetbag's home universe, but similar enough that he enjoyed it. And a somehow ominous-sounding note that it wasn't necessary to always 'let the wookiee win'. Tended to be a lot more of a negative response to a wookiee ripping someone's arms off and beating them to death with them here in the Omniverse. That was a little on the scary side to imagine, as anyone with half a brain would have probably found it, but Grrwurlo assured that it wasn't a concern.

As he departed from the elevator to head out to business on Tier 2, he left a business card with the majin, suggesting she could come by at some point to further discuss the game. Seemed like she was a quick study, despite her otherwise...eccentric outlook. She was all a bit lost about it, personally, but it would be one more thing to do when she got done with this little errand about the star pieces. She tucked the card into a pocket and resolved to remember it for later.

Another descent to the tier she had passed up entirely on her earlier trip topside and she burst out of the elevator in a quick hop, skip and jump, flipping and leaping over people and obstacles in her path. She was honestly pretty fond of Tier 3, as little as she came here. It reminded her of the places she'd visited back home, traveling through the time scrolls. The cities and locations on Earth. Just the right amount of advancement and future-y looking technology, without being so sleek and blindingly shiny and...er...grand? Extravagant? Opulent? She was sure those were words that were all accurate enough that she didn't bother to figure out which one was the most accurate or applicable. They would all work. But the upper two tiers were...a little much for her, a little too shiny for her taste.

As she scrambled and dashed along, around people and buildings, and crossing the distance to her destination here on Tier 3, these were the thoughts that occupied her mind. She was far from a dumb creature, but she was very simple. So narrow and intense had her efforts and focus been, on learning things about her interests and doing her duties to save the timestream from its corruption, she'd had very little time to do much in the way of actual education or broadening her sense of things like...something as basic as common sense. Or taking the edge off of her naivety. Still all too easy to distract her with something bright and colorful, or shiny and cool-looking.

Unless she was focused on her task, as she was now. Laser-guided on reaching the EPD facility to pick up the reports she was after. There were big, sparkly, multi-colored star-things to learn about. There were seven of them. Just like the dragon balls. It couldn't be coincidence. Seven was a lucky number, and whenever there were seven of something, just falling from out of the sky all at the same time like that, it always meant something big was about to go down! And she intended to find out what.

Word Count: 595
Character Count: 2636

[The Future Warrior]

Through the doors she dashed, into the unfamiliar Empire facility. Coming to a halt, she took a brief moment to rest and figuratively catch her breath. Lack of respiratory processes aside, that much running around was still tiring. A few seconds for a breather wouldn't be missed by anyone. But she did make sure it was just a few seconds, after which she hurried on. Several quick questions in her energetic, eager way got her pointed toward the right place. Several more questions and clarifications eventually had her waiting for the files and reports to be prepped and secured for the trip back up to Tier 1. Along with a quick call being made up to Captain Bardel to clear it all.

Several minutes past the point of 'this is taking too long' in the majin's mind, they were finally ready to go. A quick "Yay! Thanks!" from her, and she had them secured in a backpack she conjured up with omnilium during her wait. Armored and reinforced and sturdy, to keep them safe. And keep her hands free for her eccentric, flipping run back to the elevator and onward back to the security HQ.

And without further ado, she was off and running again. Back toward the elevator, which would take her up to Tier 1. And from there, a dash back to the security HQ. Last leg of the trip, before she could have her curiosity put to rest and learn something about this whole mess with the star pieces. After what she'd seen and learned already, what she could guess about things from what she already knew, and the somehow unsettling things she'd picked up from her brief talk with the Captain... Her curiosity had been running rampant and wild, and putting a manic edge and energy to her movements as she gathered up the reports.

Luckily, she was about to have her questions answered, and learn what was going on with all of this.

Word Count: 332
Character Count: 1485

[Storyteller]

This post occurred prior to Dante's Abyss and leads directly into FW's 'Sign Up' post

The Future Warrior was ushered into a room at the back of an imperial safehouse. The pair of space marines gestured her into the compound with a jerk of their thick necks before returning to guard the entrance.

Unsure of what to expect, the blue warrior strode down the metal hallway until she came to a little metal door that slid down with a lovely pneumatic hiss. Once she was over the threshold, the Future Warrior was startled slightly when the door slid shut with a loud bang that jiggled the steel frame. At the same time, the track lighting in the room flashed on to reveal what appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, a modernized blacksmith’s work studio. Racks of tempered steel armor and weaponry hung from the walls and glistened in the fluorescent lights. A few anvils decorated the center of the room, whilst a large industrial furnace sat idle on the far wall of the forty-foot chamber.

“H-hello?” Graowr asked as she walked to the center of the room and poked at one of the large anvils. Atop the massive chunk of steel was a large blacksmithing hammer, and given the old saying, the blue fighter took a quick glance around before wrapping her hands around the shaft of the tool. “HNNGH” Despite its size, the weight of the hammer was enough that she found her arms jiggling like jello as she tried to hoist it from the anvil.

“You’re not metal enough,” a gruff voice barked from the left side of the room, eliciting a yelp from the Future Warrior.

Releasing her grip on the hammer, Graowr spun to see that a large ‘man’ had stepped out from an opening that had appeared on the left wall of the chamber. “Hey,” she muttered, lifting a hand to wave at the metal-coated man as he lumbered down from the handful of steps to glare at her from across the room.

At nearly seven feet tall, the figure had the appearance of an older man. A large white beard draped halfway down his massively broad chest. In fact, the chest was the body, with only a pair of wide metal feet beneath a body that resembled an armor-plated mailbox more than anything else. Smithy's hands were oversized gauntlets adorned with red accent paint and studded wrist guards, and instead of arms, they were connected to his massive frame by large chain-links. The unkempt white beard was complemented by a balding head of white hair adorned with a small golden crown.

“You are the one they sent to me?” The machine-man barked as he lumbered toward Graowr. He reached over her smaller figure and scooped up the hammer. “What are you?” He asked as he rested the hammer over one of his metal non-shoulders.

“Graowr.”

“You work for the Empire? You’re the ‘operative’ they sent me?”

“That’s me!” The Future Warrior said with an enthusiastic expression as she glanced around the room. “You’re a blacksmith?”

“I am Smithy,” the metal pseudo-man barked before he walked over to a tool rack and set the hammer down next to a few of its family members. “And I have zero interest in exchanging pleasantries with a tiny rubber girl.”

Graowr shrugged her shoulders and glanced around the room one more time. In the extra light, she could see that most of what was hoisted onto the wall racks fell into the spectrum of ‘weapon of mass destruction.’ Large melee weapons and a variety of guns and artillery that looked designed for intercontinental or even intergalactic battle. “So you make weapons?”

“No pleasantries,” Smithy grumbled as he retrieved a small device from the wall. It was a little projector that created a three-dimensional image of a tiny star. “You are familiar with the star pieces that fell into the Omniverse a few years ago?” The Future Warrior’s blank expression gave Smithy his answer, and after grumbling something under his breath, he continued. “They are powerful artifacts. They had them in my universe. They fell shortly after my arrival, so I can only guess that they are ‘inspired’ by the same relics I sought prior to be absconded to this place.”

“What are they for?” The Future Warrior asked.

“Here? I don’t know,” Smithy responded as he powered off the projector and set it back onto the rack. “In my world, the Star Road had the power to grant wishes and shape reality. I will be blunt,” he paused as he glanced over to another shelf. The majin followed the smith’s gaze to see that he was staring at a large sword that seemed to have a face for a guard and a decorative horned skull as a pommel. “I tried to harness the power of the stars. Like this Omni creature, I used to live in my own realm. I used to be a god… I wanted more. My hubris was my undoing,” he scowled—his stiff visage contorted in something halfway between grief and rage. He turned to look at the blue warrior. “The stars must be reunited.”

“What do you expect them to do?” The Future Warrior asked, still unsure of what she had been roped into by the Empire.

Smithy grinned the wide, open-eyed smile of a genuine maniac as he lifted his gauntleted fists to the sky. “I have no idea. Power? The heart’s desires? The unknown?” He lowered his hands and stared at her. “The Kingdom hoards one of the pieces, and there’s no telling how many have fallen into the hands of their operatives or wayward adventurers. They must be reunited… through force or blackmail or whatever chicanery is at our disposal. The Empire cannot risk their power falling into the hands of rogue elements or vile nations.”

The Future Warrior, mind still swirling with thoughts, simply nodded her head. “h’okay,” she muttered as her scouter suddenly let out a notification ping. “I have something…” She added as she placed it on the side of her head and opened up the notification. It was a forwarded email about some kind of battle competition – guts, glory, prizes – all the things that people love to punch other people about. Her eyes widened a little and a small smile spread across her face as she detached the scouter and smiled at Smithy. “I’m glad we had this talk, but that was the Empire. They have a new assignment for me.”

The smith scowled, seeing through her childlike attempt at masking the truth. “The star pieces.” He reiterated. “Do not forget, rubber girl. For better or worse, you are all that they’ve given me thus far… so I must rely on you to be my force.”

“Uh huh!” The Future Warrior declared cheerfully as she nodded her head and made her way to Tier 1.