Play Testers Wanted Pt. 09

"If that is the case," I said. "I will redouble my efforts to be worthy of you and the others!"

"That will carry you far." She replied with a radiant smile. "I cannot give you anything today. However, I will hint at something that might prove helpful if you wish."

"Yes, please." I said eager for any help.

"You have a gift within you. If you look and listen connections can be made that have otherwise been hidden." Phoenix stated with an odd yet familiar gesture with her left hand.

"Thank you." I stated and promised to work on her riddle.

One by one I approached the members of the coven. They all declined for now to share with me, but one signature spell was gift enough in my book. I thanked them when Entropy approached. Technically she wasn't a member of the coven and to be honest she spooked the shit out of me. Instead of speaking she enveloped me in her arms and much of the angst and stress I had picked up in the Zone was lifted from my shoulders. She kissed my forehead and withdrew.

"Thank you," I said and returned to my body. I opened my eyes, and no one had moved from their sleeping positions. "Surfer wake me in a couple hours." I yawned and closed my eyes again.

The sound of trumpets announced that the Empress had recovered and was awaiting my presence. I picked my nicest armor and told MJ to keep everyone inside. We were almost finished, and I didn't need things to go south now. I stepped outside and let out a gasp of surprise when I saw Lilandra in her full Imperial regalia. While I couldn't see her, I felt the brooding presence of the Shi'Ar goddess. I reached the Imperial Guard and I informed them that I had retrieved all three artifacts. It was time to send the Shi'Ar home. The crowd roared but the cheers turned to horror as three of Blastaar's capital ships entered the upper atmosphere.

"Well...Fuck!" I cursed and Lilandra instinctively replied.

"Language!" She said as she was moved to the heavily fortified palace.

I took out the three artifacts and did my best to ignore the weapons fire and the roar of fighters filling the air. I grabbed the scepter and discovered that it had locked itself since I hadn't used it in twenty-four hours. I cursed as I switched to infrared and unlocked it. I was about to remove the Tamer and the Crescent when I heard her voice.

"Put it down Ghost," De'Lila snapped deadly serious.

"I can't do that," I replied as I heard her weapon power up.

"I will kill you, don't test me." She growled her voice icy with venom. Venom. Where the hell was MJ? "I haven't harmed anyone yet."

"I have a planet to save," I began when she fired. The bolt hit near my foot. "I believe you." I said as I looked up revealing my full vampiric nature. She raised the weapon as I shifted into mist form. The energy bolt passed right through me. I fell upon her reverting back to corporeal form and sinking my fangs into her flesh. I drained her dry. I rewarded her deception with a slow death. She tried to assume various shapes, but I knew better. It didn't make it any easier for me and it hurt to know that she had played me. "Bitch!" I cursed as I dropped her body to the ground.

"Thief!" Blastaar roared as he and twenty of his best shock troops appeared in a scintillating teleportation beam.

"Hey big guy," I replied as his men raised their weapons. I brought out the scepter and began summoning a thunderstorm. Normally, it took time considering the atmospheric conditions. It was a bright sunny day. The clouds appeared instantly and the scepter in my hand shimmered and glowed. The sudden onslaught of a blinding downpour was enough to cover my escape. Blaster fire filled the air as I concealed myself and readied the storm to take out the one thing precious to Blastaar, his ships. His flagship was still in orbit but the other three were fair targets. I picked the closest one and a deafening boom of thunder heralded the blinding blast of lightning that struck the bridge of the warship.

"Damn it," Blastaar roared. "How is this happening?"

I brought the second blast down right on top of him and his men. Bad idea. I wrecked his bodyguards easily enough, but I hadn't considered Blastaar's energy manipulation power. He absorbed the bulk of what struck him directly and redirected it at the palace. The structure was shielded but that one single blast seriously tested their defenses. The second attack was all Blastaar and it was damn impressive. I assaulted another of his three ships. That distracted him. His anger overwhelmed him, and he lost control. While he fumed, he threw out random bolts of energy from his hands and eyes. I struck the last ship and the war lord became utterly unstuck. The first warship crashed nearby, and I hoped the scepter worked the way I suspected.

"Hey Ass Star!" I yelled over the falling rain. "You are all out of ships."

He roared incoherently. His eyes blazed like supernovae and his firsts were blindingly bright balls of raw energy. I extended the staff to its full length and waited.

"Coward." I said dismissively and he lashed out. I caught the attack with the staff, and it absorbed it. I spun it around, took aim, and blew him a kiss as I unleashed the magnified attack back at him.

"SHERRRRAKKKK!!" The staff spoke.

My eyes stung from the brilliance of my attack. It struck the tyrant center mass. Any other entity would have been turned to ash. Not him. He opened his mouth and a small puff of smoke escaped and he dropped backward and struck the stones shattering them. Some unseen signal must have been transmitted. The same teleport beam that had brought him to the surface retrieved him. He was gone. I had beat him singlehandedly! I had cleaned his clock! The rogue fighters that now no longer had ships providing covering fire raced upward and into the upper atmosphere. They soon disappeared. I let go of the storm and it dissipated quickly letting the weird radiance in and even a single rainbow.

"Not bad Ghost, not bad." MJ said as she staggered from my ship. "She drugged us with that damn fog from the harem. We dropped the ball." I grabbed her by the hair, pulled her close, and kissed her. "MMMMMM!"

"I am going to punish you," I promised. "We have a planet to save."

Not waiting for Lilandra or anyone else I set out all three of the relics. How did they fit together? If they were meant to fit, then simply bringing them close should help. I picked up the scepter and looked at the other two objects. I lifted the crescent and brought it close to the staff. A slit formed at the tip and the moon shaped relic fit into it perfectly. Staff and crescent changed shape, color, and even the exterior blurred and altered. The metal had darkened, and strange characters formed on the surface. My closest guess was some form of Rakata. I cupped the Tamer into the palm of my hand and brought it between the horns of the crescent.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as thin wires burst from the surface of the moon and pierced the orb and held it in place. I felt a deep thrum of power course through the object and me. Was I strong enough to shift an entire planet even with the help of the restored relic? A large crowd had silently formed around me. Nearby was the Empress Lilandra and her eyes were filled with wonder. "I need help. I am going to summon help. Everyone has their limitations."

"Who are you going to ask?" Lilandra asked as I reached into my pocket and pulled out a gold coin. It was one of the coins that Jean Grey had given me. I held the White Phoenix coin in my hand. I gave it a squeeze and a cry pierced the air. A star appeared on the horizon. The flaming avatar of the Phoenix Force flew towards us and a snow-clad Jean hovered above us. "Help us."

"You used my token for them?" She asked her voice distant and unfeeling. She was the embodiment of life itself and I had called her to move a planet.

"Yes." I said without hesitation. "They just want to go home."

"Home. Eyrie. Where you hang your hat." She said and smiled. "I will do this thing for 'you' Ghost Fire. Give me the scepter." I tossed the artifact up and she caught it in her grasp. "I will bring you home!"

She raised the ancient device above her head and channeled the power cosmic into it and the Eye of the Tamer sent out arrows of piercing light in all directions. The ground shook, the sky blurred, and after one blinding pulse of light both Phoenix and scepter were gone. Night fell over the palace of the Shi'Ar Empire. Stars twinkled above as the oppressive grip of the Negative Zone was removed. The population roared in a single joyous voice. We are home! I turned to go when Gladiator placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Where do you think you are going... hero?" He asked in his deep rumbling bass.

"Wrong guy, see... I am no hero." I argued but the citizens of the Empire begged to differ. "Aw crap! I surrender!"

"Excellent strategy," he laughed.

A week we spent on the Shi'Ar home world. Susan, Jenny, and Angela caught up with us once the Vanir and light elves had safely reached their destination. Somehow Thor got wind of the celebration and dropped in. By the third day the Sorcerer Supreme and Bryce Banner arrived to eat, drink, and honor renewed relations between the Earth and the Shi'Ar Empire. Even Nick Fury dropped me a line to thank me for smoothing things over. It was a challenging week. The alcohol the Shi'Ar brewed was most potent and even the god of thunder was forced to pace himself.

On the fifth evening of the planet's return to its home solar system I lay prone on top of my ship staring up at the night sky. I was alone at first. I heard the familiar rustle of mystic cloth as Steph hovered up using the cloak of levitation. She lay next to me and slid her hand into mine but there was something already in my hand. Steph held up the once gold coin and examined it. The dull grey metal was still stamped with its image.

"You summoned the Phoenix Force?" She asked her eyes wide like a much younger woman.

"Yes, it seemed the only way. It was worth it though. Even if it doesn't last, they are happy now. It is like a... never mind." I faltered and then she punched my arm. "Fine! It is like a successful concert. You can tell the minute your fingers strike the first notes on your favorite guitar. The first cat call from the audience and boom you drop the hammer and the melody erupts around you and your voice adds power to it. The song grows like a living thing. It feeds off the crowd and then it gives you a bit of that power. You drink it up and then send out with even more of your own. It grows until like a whirlwind the concert is over, and you are standing there gasping for breath. You are covered in sweat and there is a long gaping moment of silence and then the audience cheers, screams, howls, and you feel immortal. You are a shining light in the dark. You are a star."

"You moved me, and I think if you had a big enough audience you could have sung this world home." Steph whispered her eyes wide in awe and radiating her adoration. "Music is magical Ghost."

"That's it!" I howled in realization startling her.

"What is it?" She said smiling watching me rant and rave as I tried to express my revelation.

"Something someone said and now you." I began and told her that how as I read the various spell tomes in the great library that a certain cadence seemed to lend itself to some of the spells. I believed it might be possible to put them to music. "It might be plausible to hide spell casting while say humming a tune or in a song."

She smiled and clung close. We were leaning closer when a cry rose up around the central temple of the living gods. I was up and vaulting off the roof of the ship as Steph floated next to me. We raced from the ship to the front of the great stone building. I stopped and saw the acolytes pointing at the arms of female deity. In her arms was the gleaming metal crescent that I had recovered from the floor of the caldera. The stone copy lay broken on the ground.

"It is returned!" The High Priestess declared to the faithful. I didn't miss the worshipful gaze of the crowd as they dropped to their knees. "You have performed a second miracle!"

'Aw shit,' I cursed silently. In the intervening silence I heard my ship power up.

"Oh no you don't," I growled as I teleported back and opened the airlock. "Traci, why have you powered her up?"

"I didn't. There has been a sudden surge of power from the engine room." She explained. I dashed back to make sure no one had snuck on board and tampered with anything. I opened the door to the engine room and stared at the two black orbs orbiting each other inside the magnetic bubble. "Traci?"

"I see it too. The Tamer has been added to main power. Checking. She can hold herself against some serious craft now Boss." Traci giggled.

Clang! Something metallic hit the deck plating outside the power plant. I left the engine room and sealed the door.

The scepter! The Yautja scepter lay on the deck near the forge. I picked it up and something fell out of it and a soft musical tone filled the air. I saw a small crystal pyramid on the deck. I plucked it off the floor and examined it. My HUD called it a Yautja mechanism. I plugged the pyramid into the forge and when I checked the screen a new option was now available. I could now forge weapons that could collapse and expand. Whoa! I could duplicate the same attribute that Shuri had placed on the staff she had made for me.

Ding! New Quest Offered. Return the Yautja Staff.

If I activated this, I could seek out the Predator Home World. It could wait. I had to return home and make sure things were okay. I still had a promise to fulfill and train Aoki in the Ways of the Force. It was time to leave. Hell. It was time to take a break from the game. Save progress. Exit game.

Back to Reality:

I opened my eyes. The lights were off in my room. The first thing I noticed was the faint chemical smell. It reminded me of chlorine but different. I brought my hand up and sniffed it. Yep, the scent was coming from me. I rubbed thumb and forefinger together, they were wet. Had someone wiped me down while I was in game? I sat up and my skin clung to the sheets. I sat, turned, and placed my feet on the floor.

"Wet footprints. Had I been sleep walking?" I muttered aloud. I had done it, sleep walking, when I was a kid. I traced the footprints back to a wall. Was there a secret door in my room? I stood and walked over to the wall. The footprints were drying quickly and disappearing. Even the faint chemical smell was vanishing. If I had slept longer, I'd have never noticed anything. What was going on?

"I'll ask Kat when I see her."

I grabbed stuff for a shower and needed down time to clear my head and push away that annoying sensation of being back in the Negative Zone. The entire area was dimly lit, and I appeared to be the only person awake. I hit the shower and let the water pounding against my back drive away the last vestige of the Zone. I stood in front of the shower head and let the water strike the top of my head and leaned against the wall.

"Better." I sighed. A few deep breaths later and I was ready for coffee and a snack.

I shut off the shower, dried off, and dressed. The coffee makers were prepped to go. I pressed a button and started one of the machines. I fixed a mug with sugar and creamer and waited.

"You are up." Kat Shaw said behind me and I nodded. "You are my hero. Twenty of them were isolated and banned. For what it is worth three of them were professional players." Her voice dropped and she sounded sick.

"I am your man on this," I said fighting back the angry tears. I sniffled as the rage nearly overwhelmed me.

"I got you." She said hugging me from behind. "You did good."

"Thanks." I replied. "I woke up damp."

"Huh? I don't understand." She said as I turned to face her.

"I woke up with a light chemical smell on my skin. Wet footprints led to my bed from a wall." I told her all that I had seen.

"Dream?" She asked but I shook my head. "Surfer?"

"Yes Kat, I am online now." Surfer replied as she manifested.

"Online now? Explain." I ordered.

"I received an update and didn't finish rebooting until after Booker was in the shower. Unfortunately, I was unavailable until then." She pouted. "I am sorry."

"No harm, maybe I was just dreaming," I said. "Not that big a deal."

The murmur of folk waking up came from down the hall. I poured my coffee and Kat snagged a mug and I poured for her. The cook arrived and warmed up the cooking surfaces.

"Mr. Booker, what would you like this morning?" She asked.

"It is just Booker please, how about eggs, hash browns, and pancakes." I said and she smiled.

"You got it Booker." She fired back cheerfully.

Soon other players were arriving, and I heard the cry of alarm from the professional's dormitory. Kat and I raced down and the only female professional player, Kyanna Song, Thai by birth, was weeping as one of her team members explained.

"He was caught raping female players in the game. They came for him an hour ago. He is being prosecuted." The tall muscular player told her.

"Why? They are so damn stupid!" Kyanna raged. "So disrespectful... I thought I knew him I guess I didn't!" She said pulling away from her teammate. "I am quitting." She growled seeing his expression. "Not you too... I can see it in your eyes. Get the fuck away from me... Ms. Shaw!"

"Oh shit!" He gasped seeing Kat and I standing there. "Booker."

"I wouldn't try the 'it's just a game defense'," I growled.

Kat was shaking and her voice broken as she directed a security guard she had summoned. She could barely say the words, 'Get him out of my sight!' Kyanna was alone now. Kat sat next to her at the foot of one of the beds. They hugged.

"What am I going to do?" She asked her lower lip trembling.

"I could use another padawan," I offered.

"Padawan! I have been working hard to reach the title of Master." She snapped as she flew to her feet. "You may be at the top of the board but not for long."

"We'll see, oh shit, my food must be getting cold," I said, and she joined me in the common cafeteria. Kyanna sat next to me with Aoki on my other side. I introduced them and Aoki said she was a fan of Kyanna. We ate and the board lit up as the player's positions were calculated.

"Of course, you are at the top of the board again," Aoki giggled. "Kyanna you are third!"

"Excellent, who is Katria?" Kyanna asked. "I've never seen her name up before. Twenty thousand X.P. in one session! She must be a beast!" She continued. "OOH Look! There is footage. Ms. Shaw... um... Kat? Can we see the footage?"

"Absolutely," She purred as she snapped her fingers and all eyes were on the display.

The entire battle played out from the moment I raced in and snagged Indigo off her feet. The camera didn't just follow me but the others as well. It made the tension fill the room until folks were crying out.

"Watch out!" A girl warned.

"So many," A male player gasped. "She is so dead."

"I like her coat. Is that a tail under it?" Someone commented.

"Mos Eisley, she must be a Cathar," Another analyzed. "She's got a Naval officer's saber... those blasters are custom... look at the grips. What is that?"

"Krayt dragon pearl," someone explained. "I like. Instead of just pearl handled she went the extra mile."

"Look at that jump!" A few cried out as it was shown from different angles. "Get 'em girl!"

"What is she thinking?" Several guys cry as the footage of me drawing a metal blade against a lightsaber. "She is insane!"

"Oh no," everyone shriek as the blade is cloven in half. "Now, he's just playing with her."

"Here is comes... I can't watch... she's dead." The comments fly as the blade is further sliced and then came the overhead strike from the Sith Lord. "Hold on, look at her feet!" Someone called out. "Her posture. No way!" He narrated. "YES!" Everyone roared. "Look at his blade... why is it doing that?" Someone asked. "Cortosis! The fucking cross guard is made from Cortosis!" Someone calls out. "That must have cost her a fortune."