Please check out a new fan fic of mine, Harry Potter- Era of Eclipse!
Sincerely, the Author
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The videos across the massive arena froze as doors opened at either end. Murmurs and whispers melded into a cacophonous din that echoed throughout the seats whilst the VIP room entered hushed conversation, their eyes collectively focussed upon the large entryways at either end of the pitch.
Freya and her wives, Odin, Frigga and their family, and finally Doom, all watched with a stoic passiveness that belied their true interest; barring Freya who already knew what was going to occur.
This tension continued on whilst several parties around the room positioned themselves for coming conflict. Owl masks slowly pulled over faces as numerous mutants around the room started edging closer to the Uchiha guards. The hand members throughout the chamber began to make their move as the smoke bombs finished the final few seconds of their count down.
Bruce Wayne was ready for the fight. Damian was prepared also. Numerous people were ready for the coming conflict. Yet, when the smoke bombs were supposed to detonate a wave of magic swept through the chamber, silent, invisible, and unmistakable to those trained to sense it. The bombs were deactivated and every single person in the room that wished to fight were paralysed for the next hour, their foreheads marked with a soft cyan blue rune that immediately drew the attention of the Uchiha.
Itachi and several other 'guards' grabbed these stunned people and dragged them away, earning disturbed cries of indignance and complaint before the younger shinobi explained what was happening. Gasps and surprised conversation broke out whilst the rune upon Bruce Wayne's and Damian's heads faded, their bodies merely constricted to simple movements instead of the full stunning effect.
Tension eased from the room like water might slurry from the sea into a sinking ship. All of this occurring as Freya chuckled from her throne, watching the preparations for the live demonstration of gameplay. The holograms were ready now and all that was required were the players...
...
The sound of explosions rocked the entire stadium as holograms sprung up once again, a stage rising from the middle of the stadium whilst several players sat perfectly still upon chairs on the stage.
Freya emerged once more much to the crowds' excitement, her throne displayed for every person in the Galaxy to see.
"Now that the basics have been shown, let us all celebrate with one big live-event!"
Every VIP slowly dragged their attentions away from the stream of cuffed people and to the main event. Peter, Luna, Emma, Ned, Mark and Isaac ignored most of the hubbub as the field was prepared, all of them being used to this behaviour on Nar Shaddar long ago... You play with too many smugglers and criminals, you desensitize to it.
"If everyone within the stadium could check under their seats, five people have been given VR equipment for tonight's event." People started frantically searching, sighing and crying out when they discovered they didn't have anything under their seat.
"Those five people-" Freya continued on as Thor munched on his popcorn, oblivious to the fact that Loki had just stolen his VR set from under his wooden throne. "Will verse those currently on the stage... They can choose to remain anonymous of they so wish, or they can feel free to join our people up on the stage!" The stadium erupted in a frenzy as people scrambled to find the lucky five.
Loki, being his usual self, stood with his VR headset held high. The VIP room buzzed as everyone else checked theirs; no more of the VIPs finding one of the five. Swaggering up to Freya he held up his headset and smirked devilishly towards the burgeoning goddess.
Shaking her head Freya simply continued on with the presentation, the five already having been found by this point... All of them having chosen to go on stage. She smiled as her wives all watched on with grins and loving stares. They'd never seen her so relaxed before. She was in her element.
"Great! We now have our five!" A wave of clapping and cheers erupted, the sadness at not being chosen receding as expectation once again flooded back into the mood.
"First we have one of our VIP guests, the God of Trickery himself!!! LOKI!!!" Freya played up his entrance, knowing he loved the attention. This was only further confirmed by the massive smile that slid onto his face as he waved to the masses of Midgardians.
"Next, we have a beautiful young lady all the way from the united states! Nico Minoru!" A black haired teen shrunk in on herself as a friend of hers poked her on from the side, blonde of hair and painted with numerous light freckles. "Beside her we have the delightful Karolina Dean, also from the states."
The next few names called out were normal people, their names almost as forgettable as their faces. Loki would be snickering at the thought process of Freya as she finished off her introductions, the stage lighting up for all to see the chairs holding each of the 'contestants' ascend upon large twenty foot wide pillars. Mutant powers and magic was very convenient when it came to physical limitations emplaced by physics, mostly due to the fact that they tended to ignore them as mere suggestions; usually.
"With all of our contestants set and ready in their chairs... Let's break down what they will be doing shall we?"
The 3D projections bloomed out to cover the entire stadium, barring the top of the pillars where the contestants sat.
"Warframe, is a game of agility, reflexes, control, knowledge and ultimately, violence. The question in this game isn't whether it can be done, but rather, do you have the skill to pull it off in such a way that the game itself supports you." A roar of approval boomed out like a stone hitting an already shifting body of water.
"To prove this, and, to provide some entertainment... We will have the first five testers of the game; from Yggdrasil Interactive, go against these five random contestants in a completely random arena. Enemies could appear... They could be on a ship... The ship could explode and things take a turn for the worse... Who knows!?"
There was a pause in Freya's words.
"Well, they will, soon enough!" Thor laughed merrily at this pronouncement as Odin and Frigga leaned back in their thrones; sipping on Fire Whiskey like it was a fine wine. Doom simply sat still, his reactions completely covered.
"The goal for each team is to complete their objective as quickly as possible! The mission is completely random and will most definitely lead you all into conflict. Oh... And just before I start this, let me just give a little bit of a hint..." The crowd cooed in adoration at the fun being presented.
"The longer you take, the more things, get, 'interesting'." She smiled wickedly before her image faded away to be replaced with one of the ten, total, perspectives being shown around the stadium; everything would be shown by an in-game streaming device controlled by Twitch; who was sitting in the recording/broadcast centre of the stadium.
Noise slowly subsided as the wait began, silence crashing around the stadium akin to the quiet before a massive thunderstorm.
A quiet whistle filled the soundwaves for but a second as Freya's voice echoed out once again. "Start in, 1... 2... 3... 4... 5..." The crowd joined in on the countdown, the collective shouting of thousands of people blowing most of the VIPs away... Many wondered how this could be the crowd for a simple game.
"6...7...8...9..." A dramatic pause extended, the crowd growing antsy before she shouted at the top of her lungs... "TEN!!!"
...
(Loki's perspective)
My vision lurched into this so-called 'virtual realm' as Freya's voice faded into the background... A taste meeting my tongue before hearing reinforced its presence. Metal, iron, that was what my mouth tasted of and more than that the room swam with the cries of some pitiful mortal. Vision was the last to return as the tactile sensation of wet blood dripping from one of my hands superseded it... The sight of the poor Grineer; I thought they called the repugnant little blighters, impaled upon my daggers as I exited stealth.
I felt a grin naturally curl at the edges of my face, the sensation of victory; though not of my own conjuration, a sickly sweet balm to ones' ego. With practiced ease I yanked back the dagger, feeling the creature's life blood leak onto the floor like a pitifully made fountain.
Looking around the room I was in I found the other four competitors in this game, playing with Warframes that had been displayed during the evening. One, was a Dagath... The ominous red light and bioluminescent materials casting an eerie shadow upon the metallic walls of this chamber. Next to that piece of work was a Nekros, the Necromancer Warframe... A Warframe that had intrigued father quite a lot considering the lack of death energy we all sensed... Though they were merely videos we knew better than to underestimate Freya at this stage. Next to my Warframe; Loki, stood the rather odd Wukong Warframe. It reminded me of something from a very, very, long time ago but nothing seemed to froth to the surface so it was probably nothing. Then finally, stepping through the only doorway in the room was a buxom Warframe called Khora.
The team was all here now... And the rest of them were utterly unprepared...
"Woah! This is so cool!" A child-like Midgardian shouted out with glee, from within the Wukong Warframe. All the while I resisted the urge to slam my head into the nearest sharp object; which would happen to be my recently blooded knife... It was looking like a good option if this continued in this direction.
"Hey, settle down kid, we got to win this thing and show those beta-testing chumps who the real gamers are." I liked this man, he knew what he wanted and seemed willing to grab it by the throat
"Now, now, let the kid have his fun... This is a new game and all, plus we're kind of the first people from the public to ever play it..." This was the Dagath speaking to the Khora, The Khora being the one who I personally liked, for his prior statement.
The Nekros player just shook their head whilst walking out of the room, their scythe dragging along the ground. This Nekros player seemed much like Thor when he got into a tantrum... My brother still did mope about the snake prank when we were both younger. He even dragged his precious Mjolnir in the same way! I wasn't secretly laughing, no, I wasn't... A god never laughs at the antics of mortals unless it was at the expense of another god, in which case it was expected and a part of etiquette... My grin grew larger.
"Well, seeing as you are all hopelessly lost, why don't I just take control and you all follow my lead?" It was perfectly clear to me, the poor little mortals couldn't even decide on how to treat one another without someone of clear superiority in intellect needing to come save them; that was me by the way.
These little gnats however dared to ignore me! The young obnoxious child just snorted and took off after the Nekros... Khora simply shook his head and followed the little bilgesnipe whilst seemingly scoffing at my generosity! The only one who even stayed for a second was the Dagath and even she just took off after hesitating for a few moments...!
'Oh... These little Midgardians and their arrogance... I could snap them in half with but a thought let alone my magical capabilities and yet they treat me, ME... like some halfwit, some, some fake god!'
"I'll teach them. They won't like it, but they will learn...'
I followed them all out into the corridor, their nattering grating on my already frayed nerves. It wasn't time though... They would learn... But it couldn't harm my chances at winning this competition. If I lost I would never hear the end of it from Thor, thus, their ignorance with regards to my grandeur could wait until the appropriate time... Perhaps in the middle of combat, when they had exhausted the enemy almost as much as themselves... Yes, that sounded like a good stratagem.
"Oi, Loki. You gonna scout ahead or what?" Khora was no longer my most liked among them... I ignored his words and continued walking behind them, the Dagath eyeing me from the side whilst Nekros began clearing rooms.
It turned silent for a ten seconds until the 'gamer' ground out the question again, his intelligence clearly lacking the capability of understanding when someone didn't wish to speak with him.
"Did you hear me..? I asked whether you're gonna scout or not."
'Maybe a dagger to the throat would be good punishment for this mortal? No... Too easy, not dramatic enough... I needed to make a point.'
The imbecile turned roughly towards me and started the motions of grabbing me only to find one of my knives threatening his stomach whilst the second was buried in the small cloth tabard draping down between his thighs.
"Now, now, dullard... Don't recede into violence just to sate your power trip. I'd suggest you not make any more, sudden, moves. Otherwise my blades may, just, find, something, precious, to, cut, away..."
If the Warframe had a biological throat it would have swallowed away in fear without any doubts. The Khora stepped back as the rest of the group stared at me like I was a dangerous predator stalking them.
'Finally, they are beginning to understand their place...' I barely held back a pleasurable sigh. They did understand language! It was just the language of barbarians, animals and proto-civilisations, violence.
"Okay little humans, let us go find and slaughter the enemy team... We wouldn't like for my brother to start deriding pleasure from our failure now would we?" Most seemed confused at my words... That was when i realised I didn't use enough 'uggs' and 'ahhhs'... I almost snickered at that thought; a bad sign it was to laugh at your own jokes.
"Well, it'd be bad for you all... Now! Let us be on our way!" I strode forwards through the long passageway as the Nekros exited another room, uncaring as to the drama unfolding between their 'team'.
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