07-19-2015, 02:01 PM
Captain White sighed as his group approached the large, green skinned man in front of them. Another new Prime. This one didn't seem as alarmed as most Primes, just confused, but that was the thing about Nexus duty. It was one of the most dangerous jobs an Imperial soldier could be assigned. New arrivals in a world they didn't understand, not to mention having to work right next to Camelot's forces and anyone else looking to travel between verses? It was a recipe for disaster, and it typically ended in exactly that.
So they carefully stopped by the man, who was already turning to look at them with some interest. The stormtrooper captain took a moment to size this individual up, noticing that his hand was hovering close to his own firearm. Captain White knew better that to make a sudden movement with his rifle, right away. Propensity for violence seemed to be a Prime prerequisite these days, and one didn't get to be a veteran stormtrooper by doing stupid things like pushing someone over the edge when they'd already had a pretty rough day. He'd seen more than one overzealous stormtrooper meet a grim end by simply not respecting that a new Prime didn't know what the hell was going on. The Empire was great and all, but the captain valued his own well being above that of the Empire. Then again, that mindset was probably what got him assigned to the Nexus in the first place. Such is life.
"New Prime, eh?" Captain White asked the man, as his four stormtroopers stood two to each side of him. "Don't look so confused."
Matrix carefully looked at each stormtrooper, studying them the best he could through their full helmets and armor, which masked any emotion. Little things would give them away, however. The one on the far right's leg was shaking, just slightly. The one on the middle left was fidgeting his arms a little, but trying to make sure he didn't raise his gun. All of them had something different in their body language that gave away their discomfort. All of them except for the leader, standing in the center, that is. He stood and spoke perfectly relaxed, as though he were simply talking to a friend on the street. Even if he hadn't been the only one to speak, it would have been obvious to Matrix that this man was the leader.
"Prime? No, I'm a Guar-" Matrix started to say, then cut himself off. Guardian wasn't exactly right, even if he was essentially doing a Guardian's job now. He surprised himself, though, he hadn't made that slip up in a long, long time. "Nevermind. What's the deal with this place?"
"You've arrived in the Omniverse," the captain explained, without missing a beat. "Don't know what the world you used to be in was like, but now you're in this one."
Matrix slowly looked around one more time, scanning the area and taking in this man's words. If what he said was true, then there were much larger problems than he had originally thought.
"This...isn't a Game?" Matrix asked, redirecting his attention back to the stormtroopers.
"Of course not!" the far right stormtrooper suddenly chimed in. "This is serious. You're here, now."
"Games are as serious as it gets," Matrix snarled to this lackey who didn't remotely understand what horrible things had happened to him because of the Games.
"Shut up, Lawson," the Captain suddenly ordered, turning to the stormtrooper for just a moment before redirecting his attention back to Matrix.
"Then what is this place?" Matrix asked.
"You probably know better than us," the captain calmly replied. "You're a Prime. Omni spoke to you. We're secondaries, which means we got brought here by Primes. We only have hearsay from the Primes to go off of. We just know he pulls Primes from all sorts of worlds and realities and places them right here in the sandbox."
Matrix shook his head, trying to take all of this in. He was removed from Mainframe...removed from AndrAIa, Dot, Bob...everyone he held dear. This was a nightmare, but there had to be a way out. He just had to find it. He looked down at the solid white ground, and it made his head hurt as he tried to focus on it. Even at point blank it was hard to tell where, exactly, the sky ended and floor began.
"This place is the Nexus. It's grand central station," Captain White explained. "Each of those gates will take you to another verse, each one with a different environment. We're stormtroopers from the Empire on Coruscant, the one back this way."
Matrix looked as the captain pointed to one of the gates in the distance. He studied it briefly, but obviously a lot of what he said had no meaning to him just yet. While Matrix was looking at it, though, the far right stormtrooper suddenly stepped forward and grabbed him by the arm.
"You need to come with us to Coruscant," the stormtrooper said as he was grabbing Matrix.
He made one attempt to move Matrix, which was completely futile. Instead, Matrix stepped back and shoved the grunt soldier with one hand, knocking the stormtrooper flat on his back. Just as he did, the startled sprite drew Gun and aimed it at the commander. The other three, their commander excluded, immediately shouldered their weapons and aimed them at Matrix. Captain White, however, didn't budge an inch.
"Goddammit, Lawson," Captain White sighed in exasperation.
"I'd call off your men," Matrix coldly said, keeping the barrel of his weapon aimed directly at his face.
"Relax, Prime," the captain said, his tone the exact same as it had been the entire conversation.
"It's not 'Prime,' it's 'Matrix'," Matrix immediately responded, his tone much more serious.
"And I'm Captain White," the commander replied. "We're going to Coruscant, now. My shift's over, and if this turns into a gun fight I'll have hours of paperwork and interviews to go through. I've got the next three days off, so the sooner I start on that the better."
Matrix lowered Gun very slowly, as the three across from him lowered their own just the same. Lawson was already stumbling to his feet, and quickly rejoined the ranks. Matrix holstered his weapon and watched as Captain White suddenly waved his left hand and turned around. As the stormtrooper captain headed towards their gate, the others quickly followed.
"Sir, we're not going to try and get him to come with us?" one of the stormtroopers asked.
"He'll come if he wants," Captain White casually answered. He was so close to taking this armor off and having a cigarette he could just taste it.
"What if he doesn't?" another interjected.
"Then he won't," the captain continued. "You gotta remember, we work in the Nexus. All that matters is getting back through the gate to Coruscant at the end of the day."
Captain White just shook his head, mentally checking off that he was just another day closer to retirement.
Matrix, meanwhile, simply watched the five of them depart. He didn't want to take his eyes off of them just yet, just to be safe. They had answered a lot of questions, but still left many more. He didn't understand this place even a little bit. It wasn't like any system he had ever seen in all of his travels, but the way that man spoke, it sounded like he wasn't even in the Net anymore. Such a concept was mind-boggling. He didn't know what to do, so he decided the best thing for now would to be to get a move on. So he paced sideways a few steps, then picked a random direction and started walking.
As he traveled across the expanse, he compared what the stormtrooper captain and this being known as Omni had said, and tried to fill in the gaps. Still, one question was bugging him so much he finally had to ask it out loud, even if no one was around.
"What in the Web is an 'hour?'"
So they carefully stopped by the man, who was already turning to look at them with some interest. The stormtrooper captain took a moment to size this individual up, noticing that his hand was hovering close to his own firearm. Captain White knew better that to make a sudden movement with his rifle, right away. Propensity for violence seemed to be a Prime prerequisite these days, and one didn't get to be a veteran stormtrooper by doing stupid things like pushing someone over the edge when they'd already had a pretty rough day. He'd seen more than one overzealous stormtrooper meet a grim end by simply not respecting that a new Prime didn't know what the hell was going on. The Empire was great and all, but the captain valued his own well being above that of the Empire. Then again, that mindset was probably what got him assigned to the Nexus in the first place. Such is life.
"New Prime, eh?" Captain White asked the man, as his four stormtroopers stood two to each side of him. "Don't look so confused."
Matrix carefully looked at each stormtrooper, studying them the best he could through their full helmets and armor, which masked any emotion. Little things would give them away, however. The one on the far right's leg was shaking, just slightly. The one on the middle left was fidgeting his arms a little, but trying to make sure he didn't raise his gun. All of them had something different in their body language that gave away their discomfort. All of them except for the leader, standing in the center, that is. He stood and spoke perfectly relaxed, as though he were simply talking to a friend on the street. Even if he hadn't been the only one to speak, it would have been obvious to Matrix that this man was the leader.
"Prime? No, I'm a Guar-" Matrix started to say, then cut himself off. Guardian wasn't exactly right, even if he was essentially doing a Guardian's job now. He surprised himself, though, he hadn't made that slip up in a long, long time. "Nevermind. What's the deal with this place?"
"You've arrived in the Omniverse," the captain explained, without missing a beat. "Don't know what the world you used to be in was like, but now you're in this one."
Matrix slowly looked around one more time, scanning the area and taking in this man's words. If what he said was true, then there were much larger problems than he had originally thought.
"This...isn't a Game?" Matrix asked, redirecting his attention back to the stormtroopers.
"Of course not!" the far right stormtrooper suddenly chimed in. "This is serious. You're here, now."
"Games are as serious as it gets," Matrix snarled to this lackey who didn't remotely understand what horrible things had happened to him because of the Games.
"Shut up, Lawson," the Captain suddenly ordered, turning to the stormtrooper for just a moment before redirecting his attention back to Matrix.
"Then what is this place?" Matrix asked.
"You probably know better than us," the captain calmly replied. "You're a Prime. Omni spoke to you. We're secondaries, which means we got brought here by Primes. We only have hearsay from the Primes to go off of. We just know he pulls Primes from all sorts of worlds and realities and places them right here in the sandbox."
Matrix shook his head, trying to take all of this in. He was removed from Mainframe...removed from AndrAIa, Dot, Bob...everyone he held dear. This was a nightmare, but there had to be a way out. He just had to find it. He looked down at the solid white ground, and it made his head hurt as he tried to focus on it. Even at point blank it was hard to tell where, exactly, the sky ended and floor began.
"This place is the Nexus. It's grand central station," Captain White explained. "Each of those gates will take you to another verse, each one with a different environment. We're stormtroopers from the Empire on Coruscant, the one back this way."
Matrix looked as the captain pointed to one of the gates in the distance. He studied it briefly, but obviously a lot of what he said had no meaning to him just yet. While Matrix was looking at it, though, the far right stormtrooper suddenly stepped forward and grabbed him by the arm.
"You need to come with us to Coruscant," the stormtrooper said as he was grabbing Matrix.
He made one attempt to move Matrix, which was completely futile. Instead, Matrix stepped back and shoved the grunt soldier with one hand, knocking the stormtrooper flat on his back. Just as he did, the startled sprite drew Gun and aimed it at the commander. The other three, their commander excluded, immediately shouldered their weapons and aimed them at Matrix. Captain White, however, didn't budge an inch.
"Goddammit, Lawson," Captain White sighed in exasperation.
"I'd call off your men," Matrix coldly said, keeping the barrel of his weapon aimed directly at his face.
"Relax, Prime," the captain said, his tone the exact same as it had been the entire conversation.
"It's not 'Prime,' it's 'Matrix'," Matrix immediately responded, his tone much more serious.
"And I'm Captain White," the commander replied. "We're going to Coruscant, now. My shift's over, and if this turns into a gun fight I'll have hours of paperwork and interviews to go through. I've got the next three days off, so the sooner I start on that the better."
Matrix lowered Gun very slowly, as the three across from him lowered their own just the same. Lawson was already stumbling to his feet, and quickly rejoined the ranks. Matrix holstered his weapon and watched as Captain White suddenly waved his left hand and turned around. As the stormtrooper captain headed towards their gate, the others quickly followed.
"Sir, we're not going to try and get him to come with us?" one of the stormtroopers asked.
"He'll come if he wants," Captain White casually answered. He was so close to taking this armor off and having a cigarette he could just taste it.
"What if he doesn't?" another interjected.
"Then he won't," the captain continued. "You gotta remember, we work in the Nexus. All that matters is getting back through the gate to Coruscant at the end of the day."
Captain White just shook his head, mentally checking off that he was just another day closer to retirement.
Matrix, meanwhile, simply watched the five of them depart. He didn't want to take his eyes off of them just yet, just to be safe. They had answered a lot of questions, but still left many more. He didn't understand this place even a little bit. It wasn't like any system he had ever seen in all of his travels, but the way that man spoke, it sounded like he wasn't even in the Net anymore. Such a concept was mind-boggling. He didn't know what to do, so he decided the best thing for now would to be to get a move on. So he paced sideways a few steps, then picked a random direction and started walking.
As he traveled across the expanse, he compared what the stormtrooper captain and this being known as Omni had said, and tried to fill in the gaps. Still, one question was bugging him so much he finally had to ask it out loud, even if no one was around.
"What in the Web is an 'hour?'"