Not a Good Start (Grovoton & Dragon Girl)

Breathing was an interesting sensation. It happened, normally, something he didn't have to think about. Something, like his hearts beating. "Yeah, you have two." Neel said in the back of his head, his voice was louder than those that where in the background. He felt like a teapot, if one more voice spoke up he might blow his lid. Breathing was one thing, but controlling his limbs was a whole different story. Tentacles and arms shot out in every direction, grasping onto anything and everything that would give, he pulled and pushed at the walls. A klaxon went off inside the ship, red lights started to flash, he wasn't sure what was going on, but the noise continued to aggravate him.

Blood and bodily fluids covered the ground of the shuttle. It looked like a scene of a cartel massacre. Though, all of the body parts now clung to a mass that flapped around the space shuttle with the force of two men. Some of the walls were dented, objects floated around the zero g, parts of the ship were left untouched, frozen in time of where the crew had left them. Pictures of family and gifts from homes laid about their sleep stations.

He had to find a way to earth. There wasn't much more for him to do here. The thought faded as others rushed in. Vectians, humans, races that made up his new and improved genome, each one of their thoughts clawed at his body, demanding control. He couldn't find a way to earth. He couldn't even gain the control of a limb. Each one moved around with a mind of its own. He felt like a jigsaw puzzle but with no image, just jagged pieces with no purpose.

Space X HQ ; Hawthrone, California

It took Elon Musk about 10 minutes after contact loss with the crew of the Star Falcon 13 to phone up a very small list of “friends” who could handle this very delicate situation. Luckily, there was someone who happened to be in Los Angeles. Within the hour Dragon Girl was briefed on the situation and a second Space Falcon was prepped for launch.

Lagrangian Point 1

The Star Falcon ship reached the site of the ship that Space X had lost contact with. It stayed roughly 1 kilometer away from the wreck site, fearing the presence of debris. The two astronauts who ferried the superhero nervously confirmed their arrival status to ground control. “Hawthorne, this is Captain Andre Holt. Star Falcon 12 coming into geosych orbit at Lagrange Point 1. All systems on SF-12 normal, SF-12 Escape Pod status normal. Still no contact with SF-13. It’s a disaster out here, over.”

“Copy that SF 12. Commence operation with the Payload, over.” The people on the ground as Space X listened nervously, and watched with quiet horror at the wreckage of SF 13.

The second astronaut began speaking to Dragon Girl after receiving the go signal. “Copy, Hawthorne. Payload Dragon Girl, Check systems, then ready to deploy, over?”

Their passenger, Dragon Girl, was already in the cargo bay, the cabin depressurized and the lights flashing red as the bay doors opened below her to outer space. June took in the view of the earth, as her alien suit quickly check-listed her equipment. “Checking systems – communication, check. Video feed, check. Navigation, Check. Suit integrity, check. Ready to deploy Captain Jeffords, over.”

“Payload is ready to go, go at will Dragon Girl. Be careful out there, over.”

Once June took that step out the airlock, she leaned her body forward in the vacuum and allowed her cloak to activate, its strange technology letting her fly in outer space with no discernable propulsion, only by an invisible gravitational impeller technology. Driving it was as instinctive as a Segway.

SF 13 Wreckage

Gilded in her golden armor, Dragon Girl crossed the vast, silent gulf between the ship and the wreckage. She was now amidst the debris field of the accident. “Hawthorne, I’m coming up within a hundred meters of the wreckage.”

“Something definitely hit 13 out here, but there’s no sign of Debris. Maybe it was a weapon strike by the Reds?” Elon Musk’s voice speculated of the possibilities, the only sound Dragon Girl heard aside from her own steady breathing. She reached out towards what was left of 13 and looked for the nearest opening, readying herself for whatever she would find.

“We’ll find out soon. Entering the wreck now.”

30 minutes Earlier

Something struck the ship he was on. The oxygen and everything that wasn't secured to the hall or deck of the ship was sucked out into space and sent the wreckage further from earth. SF-13 was spiraling lightly in LEO. The whole in the ship was about the size of normal human, 6' tall and 3' wide, most of which was caused by debris flying outward rather than inward which made the damage look odd.

Grovoton was inside the ship hiding in one of the corners to the right. If he saw someone enter the ship, he would attack. But, at his angle it was difficult to see anything, the lights of the ship flash a red hue inside. Debris, though mostly now in space, linger about the cabin in a blown out manner; everything pulled towards the opening.


Grovoton hung onto a wall fixture and gripped the ground as all of the oxygen left the ship. It was a constant pain to move but something kept his eyes opening and his limbs flapping around, what it was he wasn't sure. Though, pain was creeping through his body with ice cold claws. His limbs kept sticking to the ground. When his mouth tried to make a noise nothing would come out. He had a feeling he was in open space, but the thoughts kept coming and going, his basic need, the one that was the most difficult to fulfill, hunger, was ever so present. He would stay there sucking on the ground trying to pull the last bits of blood and bodily fluids from it before they froze over.

If anything were to startle him he would lash out, attacking with his tentacles and the full arms that were attached to his blob like form. Later this form will become known as Phase I in the cycle; a phase Grovoton would despise and do everything he can to present from returning to. So much so he would push to develop technology rather than perfect his true nature, The Monster.

Dragon Girl followed protocol and started with the front of the ship, with the dim hope someone may have survived this mess. With her technomancy she was about to superhumanly assess what was still intact, finding that much of the front of the ship still functional, just unpowered.

She exercised her technical aptitude when she used some cables and managed to restore power to the front half of the ship, and the airlock could automatically cycle. But with the cargo hold blown open, the blast door between cargo and living space slammed shut.

DG then entered the ship via airlock- outer door open, air cycling- inner door open. With that she entered the ship and proceeded to the cockpit, taking a seat and beginning to access the black box...

The black box audio would explain a little bit of what had happened. The men talking, Neel specifically wanted to connect the object they had found in LEO to the ships power, but the Captain did not. After a few minutes the captain gave in and both of them left to the cargo area where they had a small laboratory set up. The rest is unknown, it seems that once the object was attached to power it let out a sound, a type of signal maybe, that corrupted all input data for that room; cameras went snow and sound was only a high pitch rhythmic beat. If the whole thing was watched through to two hours later, after the pulsing noise had stopped, it would revival the nature of the cargo-hold. It was covered in blood and bodily fluids, but no body would be seen, only a pulsing mass of flesh huddled in the corner, even after the ship was hit by the debris.

- - - - -

Moving along the ground in space was painful, Imdor's limbs stuck to the surface of the ground as it attempted its crawl. His large mouth at the base of his mass sucked onto the ground trying to gather any nutrients he could, but as he moved forward he could tell that there was none to be had. Nothing could survive in vacuum, everything was iced over and dead, save for only a few bacteria that where quickly metabolized.

He started to make his way into the living space where there might be something else to eat. Maybe the crew had left out some food from dinner, maybe he could find the storage space. The voices in his head were so strong and so random that he moved out of instinct rather than thought. Impulse lead the way. As he crossed the threshold of the doorway it slammed shut onto a few of his tentacles. He roared, but nothing seemed to come out, shifting this way and that he pulled himself free, giving up the newly generated limbs and flopped forwards.

His body ached. Blood and stuff streaked across the bottom of the hatch from his severed limbs but the trail would quickly stop as his wound healed. He was now crawling on the wall under one of the vertically hanging beds. Then he noticed the air. It didn't hurt to move any longer. The organs in his body started to function properly. His head, wherever it was, didn't feel so fuzzy. No thoughts of how this had happened crossed his mind. His only feeling were his two rumbling bellies.

SF 12

Back on the SF 12, the astronauts’ instruments began to alert them of something coming in the Lagrange Point.
“Dragon Girl, our long range scanner is picking up something coming into the debris field. Can you make a visual confirmation?"

SF 13

After fast forwarding through the black box, June decided that she had some space garbage to put away, but she received the message from her fellow astronauts. Dragon Girl looked out the window, and with her helmet’s own telescoping vision she picked something up. It seemed to be a spherical object, with a shiny metal surface and no visible propulsion system. What was even more alarming was some man in robes and a fishbowl helmet on his head, seated in a lotus position, just atop the sphere. This mission had just taken a funky, mystical twist. The wizard was coming in and fast.

“A Space wizard?” Dragon Girl lampshaded, not giving it too much thought as she ejected the black box and used Velcro to stick it to her belt.

Some colorful balls of energy began encircling SF 13, and it began to move. This was when Dragon Girl reconsidered, and gave it a lot of thought. She got up and head to the airlock.

SPACE

The debris in space was being slowly pulled towards the sphere, assembling them as a flat floor surface. On it the wizard “stood”.

SF 13 was brought before the space wizard by his balls of energy, and they returned to the giant sphere. With mere waves of his hands he spun the terran space ship around like a toy. “Oh Vectians. I know you’re around here somewhere. I tracked… I tracked your aetheric signature here, to this quaint little melting pot of a planet. There’s no use hiding.”

Dragon Girl emerged from the airlock and flew towards the wizard, landing with a great deal of unease on the floor than had materialized.

The man looked at the golden armored, red cloaked figure. “Well, you’re quite big for an earthling aren’t you? And Solarite tech? Antiquated. And gaudy. You ah, beat someone’s grandmother up for that?” He smiled and joked.

“…” Dragon Girl was questioning a lot of things right now, only to realize there was no way she could be heard out in space. But how did the wizard do that?

“I see you haven’t discovered the secret of talking in space. Well, no matter. I’m not here for you, I’m here for something else. Now just stand over there. Shall we see what’s behind… DOOR. NUMBER. TWO!” The very roof of the living quarters was slowly disassembling itself, the cabin de-pressurizing rapidly. In moments, its contents would be revealed.

Space is vast. Many suns and planets, many chances for creatures to come into existence in the mythical Goldilocks zone. This alien that appeared was proof of that. His very presences sent a wave of emotions through Grovoton's blob of a body. He could sense the other, almost like he was Vectian it's self. No, half Vectian. Their minds could sense one another normally, though, with this person it was like thinking through a thick fog. Shivers sent all the hairs on Grovoton's body upward, then the feeling left him in a wave, replaced by fear, then happiness. He tried to clear his brain.

The roof of the ship opened up and the cold vacuum of space embraced Grovoton like a punch in the face. His body tried to grip onto the ground as he was sucked into the opened area, it looked more like he was flailing around.

"Well well... what do we have here?" Grovoton's body spun in the open space under a mystical force as the alien spoke. "Uh... How disgusting. How is it still alive?" He questioned. Grovoton's body was pulled closer and closer to the alien as he examined it. "He reeks of confusion and.. and piss." If Imdor could feel the inertia his heart might have stopped by the force he was pushed back with. He now was placed right beside the dragon girl as he spun about.

"Now, where are you?" the alien pealed back the layers of the ship with a mere wave of his hand till the fractured piece of Grovoton's home world was floating in front of himself. "Ah, my my, you are beautiful." He grasped onto it and placed it behind his back. "My bosses will pay me a high price for such a beautifully preserved specimen of the Vectian home world... Too bad no one survived." And with that the man pointed his finger in the shape of a gun and fired a blast of what appeared to be lightning; It would fork to strike at both Grovoton and Dragon Girl, it made the distance in a flash and had a deep crimson hue around its white stream of a body.

while her suit provided only the minimal protection from harm, Dragon Skin nulled the energy blast to a doorknob static shock. Now convinced of the threat, she charge headlong, a pain train with no brakes heading right for the wizard.

"You come at me with Clenched Fists? How utterly primitive!" He sent mystical spells of binding and energy blasts at Dragon Girl, but these barely slowed her down.

The platform was dent where Dragon Girl stepped, as she launched herself with each stride. A translucent force exuded from the sphere, repelling anything and everything loose in space, but Dragon Girl was firmly rooted to the spot.

The force halted Dragon Girl but only momentarily - she had brute force in surplus, and continued on her rampage - the sphere expelled two more force waves, each even more powerful than the last, but Dragon Girl simply went from rampage to menacing approach, until she was by the sphere.

"...Oh... bother... I seem to have lost."

With fists that have laid demigods low, Dragon girl plunged her knife hand into the sphere, expecting metal to rip and shatter. Whatever force the blow mustered, it had been quickly dissipated. Instead, she found a cold, spongy and adhesive matter. When she tried to pull out she found she could not.

"...!" Dragon Girl tried to voice her disdain for the wizard, but again, no one can hear you cuss in space.

"...Not!" The wizard positively beamed at pulling off the deception, thinking he wanted to continue in ranged combat. "I don't know what you are, but I'm sure some collector will want to have you. Maybe the owners of that aurumite and solarite antiques you wear."

Then he turned to Grovoton. "Now, back to business."

He couldn't help himself. Spinning uncontrollably in the middle of space was unnerving, even for the most well trained individuals, Grovoton swung his limbs about madly. He tried to reach for anything and everything that looked solid enough to grab hold of, but nothing was close. As the red lightning struck him he opened his hole for a mouth but no sound screeched out, no roar of frustration could be heard in the dark abyss that is space. Pain shot through his body.

It was it. He was going to spend eternity floating here. The chances he had to get picked up where slim. The shuttle would simply fall towards earth and burn up in the atmosphere. No one would attempt a salvage, no one knew or cared about Imdor. He was just a monster. If a tear could be generated in space it would have been. Instead tiny icicles formed.

Dragon girl was on the spherical object, sticking it didnt seem to do anything. The ball must have been made of some exorbitant material. But just as the wizard turned to look at Grovoton, maybe to release another painful blast, a shockwave burst forth from the sphere. The man looked back. On the opposite side of the sphere a large crater formed and with a hiss, that could even be heard in space, a stream about a meter in diameter began to pull Grovoton towards the ball. It stretched for what seemed like miles.

"Ah! You fool!" The man said, full of disgust. "You dont know what you have done!" The man waved his arms. But by then it was too late. Grovoton was pulled into the stream and disappeared within the sphere. The gravity on the ball also increases and anything on its surface would also be pulled in at drastic speeds.

Darkness over took him.

He coughed. His body moved and he coughed, his chest was moving rhythmically, his heart was beating, and he was aware of it all. The pain had gone that was around him and he could feel, actually feel the ground. In a start he noticed he was no longer a monstrous creature floating in darkness. He was a human. He knew this, somehow, it was like de-ja-vu, a shadow of a thought, sure was there are one point but couldn’t put his finger on it. Somehow, he was whole, a combination of two, he also somehow knew, but what they combined into his mind overpowered the others.  

The ground in which Grovoton lay was dusty and gray. When he forced himself to his feet he noticed he was in the middle of a type of road. On his right and left were open fields of tall grass and every half mile or so a large statue stood. Men and women made of intricate gold and silver, the amount of time to create such a thing wasn’t lost to Grovoton. The postures of the statues seemed to be random, some were standing with their hand held high as if they had won a victory of some kind, others knelt low with their heads bowed, all had pointed ears and thin bodies.

With every step he took small plumes of dust raised from the ground and stood in the air a little longer than he would’ve expected. He wasn’t sure where he was, or where he was going, only that he was no longer in pain and that his stomach was rumbling. If there was a road, there was bound to be people. He simply went in the direction opposite the bright light that shown above him.
Time passed, maybe an hour, maybe several, the object of light in the sky seemed to be suspended indefinitely, hanging in the same place sense he arrived. The statues changed though, none were the same, so he was moving at least, but if it wasn’t for the object beside the road he would have though himself going in circles. Finally, on the horizon where large buildings. They looked like nothing he had seen before. Gigantic structures, most with domed or pyramid type roofs, all inlayed with gold and reflected the light perfectly.

As he approached he noticed people, all milling around like ants, everyone with a job and somewhere to be, some stopped at carts or shops, buying what they needed like it was their duty and moved on. They all had grey robes that looked to be made of silk or velvet. Their faces were not familiar, Grovoton was worried this was just a projection of him mind, if he recognized someone it would only enforce that assumption.

“Get out of here!” A man’s voice yelled from inside on the buildings Grovo had passed. A second later a man was thrown from what looked like a saloon of some kind. “And stay out you filth!” A finger pointed down at the man who twisted to stand.

“I didn’t cheat I swear!” The man yelled back but the doors were shut to him. He looked around and noticed Grovoton’s eyes. “What are you looking at?” He said with a scowl and ran from there.

(Joining thread with permission from Ghost since DG couldnt stay)

"Wow, to think such an elderly spirit would grace my tavern," shouted the owner of the saloon.
"Mister, I think you are mistaken..."

Sparse dust of magic danced around the saloon like falling snow as a young girl stood in the middle of a curious crowd. Ice shards in her hair glisten as the many lights reflected and parted through their gemlike shape. Her icy purple eyes darted around the on lookers unable to find a reasonable way to escape. Adults were so... inconvenient when you become the center of attention.

"So humble, to." The crowd continued idolize the girl eventually getting her to sit up in her own booth.

The girl closed her eyes and lowered her head annoyed. "How did i end up here..."

Grovoton shrugged off the man’s comment and headed inside the saloon. It seemed to be as good as anywhere to start a new journey, if he couldn’t get to earth he minds well get started from where he was.

After walking in he could smell the alcohol on the air. Mots of dust hung in the large open room and mingled with cigar and cigarette smoke. Music was playing from somewhere Grovoton couldn’t place and tables where spaced evenly around, each with four to five patrons sitting and drinking. There was one table in the corner by the bar that had a small crowd gathered. Sitting at the bar Grovoton tried to get a vantage point.

“How can I help you sire?” The barkeep asked. He was polishing a glass cup and spoke with a peculiar accent.

“I’ll take an ale.” That is what people drank at bars, he assured himself, digging into his memory.

The man moved about behind the bar for a moment and placed a large cool mug in front of Grovo, “That’ll be 1 Pearl.” Noticing the glance Grovoton gave him the barkeep continued, “…No Pearl, no drink…” He laughed. “Finding yourself short on Pearl are you? Maybe try your luck at some Kings Cards, see how the fates look down on ye.” The man continued to giggle and talk to himself as he picked up the mug and disappeared around the back of the bar.

Grovoton got up and walked to the table with the crowd. The cards that moved across it were decorated, not in numbers, but with people. Some dressed in attire fit for Kings and Queens, others looking like vagabonds and peddlers. They were intricate, pictures fit for a game of ‘I Spy’, it seemed the purpose of it was to match as much as possible from your three card hand to the seven cards that are lay down.

When a seat opened up to the table Grovo sat. Almost as soon as he had the crowd’s focus changed, someone important must have entered as snow started to trickle down.

"Grand Spirit, have you ever seen a games of King's Cards" shouted the owner, "Seems like we have a beginner joining the rounds, so they'll be going a bit slower for a round or two."
"Sure..." the girl droned, unable to escape the dotting eyes of her new fans.

The girl climbed onto of the counter, if not to avoid the cluster of taller folks hovering around her. The magical dust continued to fall around, disappearing upon contact with anything as she balanced herself long the counter with her arms up. Finding an empty spot behind the game, she sat down and with her legs dangling off the side of the counter. The owner started going over the rules but Kari quickly became uninterested. Her father played similar games with his workers and associates. He even made her play a few rounds. While she won a few rounds, her father had her leave the table. Something about not wanting to strain relations with the losers.

She wondered what business was being done over these cards. The scene of people stressing over shapes and faces. Though there was a lack of numbers, each card seemed to hold some value. The hands she could see showed people hoard a pattern of cards. If there were less people around, it would make a great sketch. Well, having her sketch book would also be an important requirement, arguably the most important.

The person whos hand she could see the most felt familiar. She never seen the guy nor did he seem to resonate with her spirit half. However, his lack of... presence to her senses and human appearance, reminded her of her own kind. Mortals from the Mortal realm. He wouldn't be the first person to give her this impression, but she could tell he was not from the celestial realm. While she would get scolded to ask this question on Earth, she figured this imaginary renown she had would protect her a little.
"Hey you, Mister. You're a human right? Like a person not of this realm right? Right?" The girl's voice drone as if she spoke with the bare amount of energy required to carry her voice through this noisy establishment. Her empty eyes fell onto the man dividing his being into the different shapes required to capture his person on paper. Despite this, she wasn't very interested in him. At least, not until she could confirm if he would end up in a certain place.

(End)