Game Masters

Sam blinked at the cyborgs and then smirkrd. He looked up slightly and scratched his cheek. "Ah...well, it seems like you caught me." He slowly raised his hands, open palm, but then closed them in a fist. He knew it would exhaust him further avid shorten the time he had awake, but he had to be fast and make sure the innocents were safe.

He waited for they had their weapons raised to him and then opened several tiny getaways, maybe large enough to fit your arm through, all around the air in front of him, he then opened one semi large one in front of him as he fell to his knees. It had exhausted him too no end, after this he'd probably have trouble making further gateways.

Seeing him resist, the few cyborgs that weren't assaulted by Siren opened fire, shooting at Sam, however, instead of reaching him the entered the gateways. The exits to the gateways had been opened beneath them, under the docks and fired up at them, though seemingly none of bullets were lethal, all striking either their legs or arms. Sam was still a hero and didn't believe in killing.

His sight went blurry and when he thought he heard the bullets stop He closed all the gates as let out a loud wheeze. It had pushed him to his limits, but for the most part he had taken out a decent amount of them. He watched, his eyes half opened, as Siren slashed at the guards.

"Oh...yeah...that's right...they're here too...can't sit now." Clutching his staff he stood up and used the staff as a cane, moving back towards the fray. He was tired, but he wasn't out just yet. As her walked he kept an eye out for any civilians that hadn't managed to escape. For what he could tell, there was none. Thank God.

"Sam!!!" They called out as they saw him use his gateways to turn the cyborgs own weaponry against them. However, it was also evident that using his powers repeatedly was putting a strain on him, something that Siren was partially their own fault. Gnarling their teeth, they roared, "Stay away from my friend!!!" They rose their free arm and let off  huge telekinetic blast that sent several of the soldiers after Sam flying while screaming.

She then psychically reached out to one of the armored trucks and clenched their hand, causing the vehicle to start having various sections like weapons and wheels be torn off.  Out of nowhere though, a bigger, burlier cyborg came in and grabbed her before lifting her up and slamming her into the earth hard enough to leave an small crater before doing so again and again.

After being slammed several times, Siren finally got tired of this and let spikes form on the back of her boot which she drove into the guy's ribs, forcing him to drop her and receive another huge telekinetic blast that hit him with the force of a a bomb and launched him into another truck with such force he smashed right through it, "Sam! You doing ok over there?!!"

Sam lazily stretched up a hand and gave his friend a thumbs up. Though, it was a dishonest thumbs up. Between the training and pushing himself past his usual limit with all those gates, Sam was far past what he was used to doing. He, at least to not exert himself, could only open three to four holes, not as many as he did.

He continued forward and saw something jump out from one of the tents towards Siren. It was another cyborg, this one wielding some kind of wicked looking blade that had a bright orange glow to it. The cyborg was trying to come down on Siren, a surprise attack as Siren had their attention on Sam at the moment.

Sam quickly opened a gate, a smaller one, and caught the cyborg's arm. It slipped through the portal and out the exit which Sam had made right by the cyborg's shoulder. It stabbed itself with great force and sent itself in the opposite direction. However, as Sam opened this gate he nearly tripped. He only barely managed to catch himself.

He continued forward towards Siren. "Yeah...Yeah...I'm fine." Sam called back. "Ha...ha...you?" Sam could already guess the answer. Siren had taken out more than him and was still in great shape. Sam had ways to go to be on the same level as Siren. He smiled brightly at Siren. "How many did you get? You didn't kill any, right?"

Siren spun around and saw the cyborg that had tried to stab her was now stabbing himself thanks to some careful timing with Sam's portals. She gave a thumbs up to him as well, "Thanks," She glanced around the area at his question, "I don't know, but then again, they're cyborg mercenaries, so I'm pretty sure they can take a lot more punishment than normal humans. If any of them are in danger of dying though, I'm sure I can fix them up," She shrugged to show it wasn't really a big deal.

"Anyhow, I think we got most of them but we should probably comb the area and see if any are left. I've dealt with groups like this before and I can assure you that attacks like this are meant to draw people like you and me out into the open." She gestured for him to follow as she walked off.

He grins sleepily at Siren. "Ah...yeah, no worries." He lets out a loud yawn and stretches his arms up. "That's good, I guess...I'd prefer not killing anyone. I got a good track record so far." Despite his exhausted tone, he sounds really proud of that. It's something he worked hard for.

He nods and lets out another yawn. "Yeah...yeah...yeah..." He rubs one of his eyes and let's his arm fall his side. He turns and starts making his way down to where he thought he saw some of those cyborgs head off in. He raises his hand up in the air and gives a wave. "I'll check this way, boss. I'll see you soon." He lowers his hand to his mouth and lets out one more yawn, not waitingto hear anything else, unless stopped.

"Did you notice all the yawning that guy was doing?" Aurora's voice came through in Siren's head, "If you ask me, he looks ready to pass out at any moment."

"Yeah, probably a good idea for us to keep an eye on him so that he doesn't end up doing anything dumb...or at least, dumber than what we've seen him do up until now." Alan said as they floated up into the air and kept an eye on Sam while also scanning the carnival grounds for any other signs of the cyborgs.

Sam staggered forward, relying heavily on his staff to keep him upright. His eyes were half shut, but he still searched for anymore cyborgs or innocents. If only he had gotten better sleep the night before, he would've been able to continueto use portals. Now...he'd be lucky to gst at most three up. He still had to go further, he couldn't sleep now. If worse came to he knew he would have to take a dip.

Here he stopped in a crossroads between four different tents stood. He took a moment to look down each one and tried to spot anything. His vision was slightly blurred, but for what he could tell there no enemies or civilians. He let out a sigh of relief, but didn't realize there had been a couple moving towards him from his backside, planning to ambush him.

"Alright...where is everyone hiding?" Sam whispered to himself. "If was a-" he yawns again. "If they're was anyone out there, you'd tell me right? I'm a hero, I'm here to help." He staggered for a moment, stopped. And then went on.

Even though Sam wouldn't notice, he had a friend keeping an eye on him. When Siren noticed the cyborgs sneaking up from his side, she knew she had to act quickly. She used her telekinesis to snare one of the tarps used for a booth and got it to ensnare them together. She then lifted one end of the bundle and began spinning around and around in midair before letting go and launching its cargo off to another part of the carnival.

Siren landed and focused her power of transformation so they could turn into a thirty foot tall boar who galloped up beside Sam, "You need your rest. Climb on and I'll carry you for a while. Use that time to regain your strength. You won't be able to help anyone in your current condition."

Sam turned around to face them and smiled sleepily. "Huh? What? Nooo. I can open at least six more gates. I'm fine, trust me, I'm one hundred percent....fine." He nods, then falls forward on his face, unless caught. He was out like a light. It didn't take long for him to start snoring loudly.

Sam had known he couldn't save anyone like this, he knew he had no more energy to go on, but he had to try. It was the principle of the matter, he might not be strong enough, but he had to try. However, he was pushed to his limits and the drawback of his ability finally took its toll on him. Unless awoken by some outside force, he'd sleep for a few hours.

The boar seemed to smile down at Sam in pride before scooping him up with a tentacle that emerged from its body and placed him onto its back, "Rest now, young hero. You've done more than enough.." They then turned to face a small army of cyborgs whom had quickly spread out all around them, weapons trained.

The boar let out a defiant battle cry and charged toward them full throttle....

Sometime later, the mercenaries had been defeated and rounded up. A battered and bruised Siren limped along the pier, carrying several greasy brown paper bags to where she had placed Sam on a blanket and pillow. She took her place on the pier's edge and waited for him to awaken.

It had been at least four, give or take a few minutes, for Samto wake up. When he did, he woke up with a jump! He hopped to his feet and let out a loud laugh. "Ah ha! I'm back!" He looked around, inspecting the area. He frowned a bit. "Huh, where are the cyborgs or robots or whatever they were? I wasn't finished showing off my stuff, I had some more tricks up my sleeve." He grins brightly at Siren.

"So, what did I miss? Anything good? An epic battle between good and evil? Stake of the world?" He chuckles brightly and goes to sit down at the edge of the pier. "I am sorry though...I left the battle when people still needed me. I really need to get stronger, I can't protect people if i keep passing out."

"NO!!" Siren snapped only to stop herself and look away in shame of her outburst, "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have snapped like that. It's just...listen, you have nothing to apologize for. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. If I hadn't put you through that training before all that other stuff went down, maybe you wouldn't have collapsed from exhaustion..."

She shook her head in dismay, "Some mentor I turned out to be. Can't even take proper care of my charges.." The alien sat there, staring out at the water for a bit, trying to get their thoughts in order. Finally, they held out one of the greasy bags, "Here. Felt you could use some fuel after all that hard work you put in," Siren slurped her drink, "...Listen, this ain't over. I overheard one of those cyborgs mention something about having a base set up at a "Warehouse 17" on a pier at the other edge of the city.."

"It's your choice whether or not you want to come with me, but I won't hold it against you if you feel you been through enough for one day."

Sam gave Siren hard pat on her back. "Nonsense! You did nothing wrong. You didn't know so you couldn't do anything different. You worry too much." He lets out a small yawn, bringing his hand to his mouth. He shakes his head as waves a hand at her. "Don't worry, not tired now. Still just waking up."

He looks down to the bag and happily takes it. He digs through and takes out the food from inside. He wastes no time scarfing down. Half-way through it he looks at her. "Thank you for this! It's really good, I missed food like this." He took a long sip from his drink and sets it down next to him.

He looks over towards the direction of warehouse seventeen. "Oh? Is that so!" Sort of ignoring her follow up question, but answering it at the same time, Sam stands up. He looks down at her expectingly. "What are we waiting for? Let's get to work! We're heroes, right?"

Siren slurped her drink as she listened to him. Perhaps he was right and she was indeed thinking about this too much. After all, Sam had been the one who chose this life and knew what was expected of him. That still didn't mean she couldn't feel bad about putting him in harm's way, especially since she was built to withstand punishment but if someone got a lucky hit on Sam...well, he wouldn't just walk it off.

Seeing his energy and enthusiasm though ended up being a little contagious though as they found themselves sighing in resignation though they managed to smile a little, "Yes, you're right. Come on, let's head on over to that warehouse before things get even more messed up," They stood up and let their body transform into a griffon who then nodded to its back, "Climb on."

Sam smacks the side of his head. "Holy shit! You can turn into a bird lion?! That's incredible! Can I learn how to do that? Who needs a disguise when you can become a bird lion?!" He laughed happily and climbed onto the back of the gryphon and patted her on the head. "I'm ready when you are!"

Within moments they were in air going at an incredible speed towards the warehouse. They were high on the air to just appear as some bird and they were lucky enough to not be spotted yet, that, or they were just waiting down. There didn't seem to be anything particularly notable about the warehouse itself outside of the large seventeen painted on the roof, however at the dock extending from the warehouse there was a large submarine. From up here they looked ants, but there people walking between the sub and warehouse carrying large boxes. There didn't look to be any sort of defense, no large anti-air guns or missiles, not visible at least. They probably didn't want to attract the attention of the locals, having big guns in a city was usually a no-no. There was no doubt, though, that as soon the three of them were spotted they'd meet some form of resistance.

"Alright, boss!" Sam said, patting gryphon on the head. "Say the word and I'll drop in. Do you want me to aim for sub or the warehouse?" Sam smiled. He was never one for thinking things out or planning, he was a rush in and solve it as he went along kind of guy. He always thought people waste too much time planning instead of doing, if someone was at risk then there was no time to waste.

Siren hovered there in the air over the warehouse, examining it and the outside, thinking of how best to handle this. Upon seeing the submarine and the boxes being loaded onto it, the alien knew they needed to act fast, "That submarine should be our primary target. I can't tell from here what they're loading but whatever it is, it's trouble," She glanced back at Sam, wondering once more if this was something she should let him be involved with...but then she recalled she had to trust her friends.

As such, she nodded to him, "You take care of the submarine, I'll get into that warehouse and start taking the place apart."