The Gate

[WriterApprentice]

Standing as the sentinel of Silicon City is the colossal metal gate that barricades the way in and out of the city. There seems to be no signs of life around for miles of the barren land that surrounds the city, no guards to protect or scout the outer borders. There is nothing but the silence and the wall that seems resistant to the flow of time and nature.

[Logos]

At the very heart of Silicon City, alone and surrounded by his metal appendages and electronic parts, was Logos. He was the all-seeing watcher of the city, its guardian, architect, builder and, above all, its leader. With his single eye, glowing a sharp crimson light against the gloom of his residence, he gazed at the various screens in front of him. Their crystalline surfaces projected crisp clear images of the many streets and buildings of his city. He was; however, focused on a single screen this day. At the very center of the sea of screens was the barren ground that lay outside his impenetrable gate.

He was waiting patiently for his guests, hoping they would arrive on time and that many had accepted his summons. He had managed to snag onto one of this world’s, he soon learned it was named the Realm, airwaves and broadcasted an invitation to all receiving signals. All he could do now was wait. Suddenly a ring of an alarm sounded as the screen of the Gate flickered with light to show the source of the sudden commotion. Moving the hidden camera, the AI focused his attention on a distant figure nearing his city. Zooming in, he could see it was a silver transportation device. It was sleek in design and seemed harmless enough. Maybe it was brining the inhabitants of this world to meet him? Should he wait for the others? He brewed over the questions before coming to an answer. It would seem improper, maybe suspicious to the inhabitants of the Realm, if he let them in one by one without seeing one another. With his decision set, Logos continued to watch in silence.

[WriterApprentice]

(Please check the RP Discussion of Silicon City before making your first post!)

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Skipbeat didn’t know what to expect when he received the strange message. He wasn’t sure what to make of the sender who claimed to be an AI of an entire city that suddenly came into existence of the Realm. His experience in war and battle taught him to always be wary, to never lower one’s guard down. The AI, Logos, could be deceiving them. If the cybernetic life form could manage an entire city, it was obviously very powerful. However, for the sake of forming friendly diplomatic relationships in the name of the Realm, Skipbeat offered himself to visit the AI.

He was already speeding down a dirt road that ripped through the sea of golden grass like a scar. His engines roared with energy and acceleration as a cloud of dust boiled from his tires. The youngling began to worry about the state of his frame. The dirt would obviously tarnish his fine metal that he recently washed and polished. He enjoyed keeping his frame clean and avoided activities that would ruin it. The grassland abruptly ended, giving way to barren earth as Skipbeat was at the very face of the Gate. With graceful movements, the Decepticon transformed. A flash of light enveloped him as the Realm worked its magic on him to shorten his height. In a blink of an eye stood a silver robot of a mere six feet where the car once was. He gazed up with amazement and wonder at the sheer size of the wall. What kind of city was this? One made for giants? Why would such a city need such massive barriers? Already the mechling’s paranoid processor raised red flags of suspicion.

[raven1972]

As he and Build raced along in vehicle mode down the road they were instructed to take Delta went over the events of the previous night, First came the strange message and the odd way the sparkling acted up after it, he had to admit it may have had nothing to do with the message but the timing was rather strange. He and Build decided to sleep on the matter before they decided if the would answer the summons.

The next Morning changed everything the twins were gone and there was no sign of a forced entry and the security system did not go off. Delta had checked the entire neighborhood and did not find them Build had contacted the realm patrol who was now searching far and wide for the Sparklings. It was then he and Build decided they best answer the summons in case this LOGOS had taken their children as a means to force them to come. They hoped that it was not the case which was just as likely as Hope and Star had exhibited unusual abilities before and this could easily be something of the same sort.

Build looked ahead and said " Delta look at that and isn't that your brother Skip?"

"Yes it is , he must have gotten a Summons as well, that gate is Immense " Delta said as the pair screech to a halt and transformed and ion a flash of light were reduced to human size both standing just a head taller than Skipbeat.

" Hey Skip, i see you got a summons as well" Delta said

" Skip you haven't seen Hope and Star near here have you , they are missing." Build said as she looked over the wall with the appraising eye of a construction bot , she could tell it was a master work not a flaw was to be seen.

[xDawnie]

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I'm not always like this,
it's something I've become
A terrible weakness, in my nature, in my blood
Save me, oh save me,
save me from myself
before I hurt somebody else again

[/center]

Zach was a giant cat when a panicking Alyssa invaded their minds to inform that she had received a message from a strange being. Being a cat, he merely stretched and rolled over to nap some more, up until he heard Michael's voice forcing him to wake. Zach.

One dark green eye cracked open to see the angel crouched over him, hand in his fur. A purr wended its way from his being, and Michael smiled. "Come on, Zach," he said, his voice gentle as he straightened. "We're going with Alyssa to make sure she doesn't lose control when she checks this out. Light and Thorn are resting," he added when Zach heaved a breath.

The cat's human stirred in the back of his mind and spoke: So should you be. You look like - excuse me - hell.

"Language," Michael said dryly as the cat pushed himself to his feet and stretched, claws extending. The angel was quick; he sidestepped the kitty's claws and reached down to grab his ruff. Before they vanished to join Alyssa, Zach looked around the room and let out a piteous sound when he realized Tommy wasn't there anymore. "I left him a note. Don't worry, he'll be safe," Michael said assuringly and the kitty was satisfied. The bond, not so much.

They vanished.

Alyssa was pacing in front of the gates, and whirled around with a snarl when they appeared behind her. To Zach's suddenly sensitive sense of smell and keen eyesight, everything was too bright and too white, nearly hurting him; and there was the overwhelming smell of metal which worried the cat. Michael let Zach go and raised his hands, placating. "Just us, Alyssa." Zach backed away from her; the cat remembered. Alyssa and so much metal did not go well together - it equaled to pain as far as the beast recalled.

"I don't know why we were called," Alyssa was saying in a frustrated tone. "It sounds like an utter scam to me, but I couldn't exactly refuse, and besides, I want to see what it can do-"

"Always the scientist, Alyssa?" Michael teased gently with a smile. "We're here to help you. There shouldn't be any problems."

Zach looked over at the gates, safely hidden behind Michael and the three robotic creatures the cat's afraid of looking at (more metal, more fear that Alyssa's trying to trap him), and the human side spoke, I just wonder if we're the only ones.

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male | 24 years | 6"3' | human | bound | shifter | vampire | Victor Norlander
Glittering Clouds © Imogen Heap
post format by xDawnie

[/color][/font]

[tsubasa]

"Whoa." Shao Feng whistled as he held up the PlayStation Portable he had been wasting his time on, drifting from one game to another. He nudged Rei, who was right beside him, and pointed to the screen. "Is that part of the game?"

"No," the albino snapped. "I have no idea what the hell is that."

He raised an eyebrow at Rei's rudeness."I asked you since this Logos person has the same eye color as you."

"...Shut up."

"I'm getting bored here, anyway-" He stopped and stared at the strange gathering before him. An assortment of three robotic creatures, two humans (though one looked too pale - almost zombie-like) and a cat.

He glanced at Rei and noticed that the vampire clenched his fists. He shrugged, but suddenly he tensed up and turned around quickly.

Not far behind them was a teenage boy (around his age, he presumed) staring up at the gate with glassy eyes. Shao Feng shuddered at the strange cold aura emitting from that boy.

And then they locked eyes.

[❖Amani❖]

Marci sat in the grass a good ways off watching everyone arriving. She managed to find amusement in the golden stuff surrounding her, thus satisfying her for the time being. However, when the first being had arrived her interest was inevitably drawn away from her makeshift toy. He seemed to be a mechanical type human and she hummed in interest at the thought. Then as the other two, both seeming to be the same thing, had come she'd paid less attention because, well, quite frankly she'd felt the odd, creepy feeling you get when someone is watching you.

So naturally she began twisting her head (not nearly about to stand and pace around yet) to attempt at finding the source of the odd feeling. Unfortunately by the time she gave up, she realized she'd missed the third ones... Or maybe they'd already been there? She couldn't remember. At any rate, she realized there were now three more people, or, two more people and a cat, really. Curiosity tingled in her limbs and she giggled slightly when the connection of the cat and curiosity rang in her head in the form of the old saying.

"And satisfaction brought it back."

She found herself mumbling. Suddenly she got a very odd feeling and found her self looking up. The top half of her face reached above the grass and her purple eyes sparked in inquisitiveness. Standing at the end of the road, maybe just a yard from her dip in the grass where she sat cross-legged, was a boy that stood simply looking up at the gate. She nearly jumped up and approached him but she caught sight of another pair of people now, one that had eyes so red she thought they might have been two pools of bright blood. How had THEY gotten past her?

She huffed in exasperation and chewed herself out throughly for losing that touch of awareness she was normally so keen on. But she couldn't very well stay hidden here for long. She might miss the gates opening and- She dug the heels of her hands into her amethyst eyes and took a breath. The greeting she gotten, or truly just seen on the T.V. at her favorite café, had seemed interesting enough and she was getting rather bored by her business at home.

She needed something fresh, so she decided she'd come here and see what was what. If she was late the gates might close without her and then she'd have to go back home, just as bored as ever, and live out a very angry and dull existence. She sighed. Yep. Now was as good a time as any. She took a deep breath and plastered a big grin to her face, jumping to her feet and popping out of the grass. She noticed with a little joyful squeak that she could she the early arrivals, and their startled expressions, more clearly now. This might just be more fun than she thought!

[willow]

A slight breeze, like something was displacing the air, radiated outwards, stirring the grass, drawing a blank at the gate. Marienna appeared, just under the walls, flanked by boyfriend (she really must stop calling Thomas that, he was far too old to be a boy) and best friend. They looked up at the gate. Eumelia squeezed Marienna's hand, and Marienna squeezed the Professor's. Then, as one, they let go, no longer needing the physical contact for the magic to work.

"Technology..." Eumelia was shivering a little, but she bit her lip, found a knife handle with her fingers, and calmed.

The Professor searched into a pocket of his tweed jacket, pushing down farther than was possible, surely, emerging with a hand-held computer in his hands. No luck. The scanning viruses had hit firewall after firewall, even his best strings of coding had fallen to pieces. Disappointed though he was, he was impressed. This Logos was good. He pocketed his computer, and took Marienna's hand, leading her confidently towards the... people gathered in front of the gate.

Marienna fiddled with her hair, self-conciously, inspecting her robe.

"No new pockmarks!"

"See, I told you you could do it." The Professor sounded distracted, and Marienna took his arm, winding it around her waist.

"Calm down. I'll be fine." The Professor raised an eyebrow, meaningfully, and Marienna simply laughed.

Eumelia was spinning a dagger in the air, catching it, concentrating on her breathing. She hoped the people were not people. Sheathing the dagger, she sighed, and fell in step beside Marienna. Then she felt something. Some sort of inbuilt tug at the presence of anything pertaining to religion. Perhaps she smelt something, or saw something out of the corner of her eye. Perhaps she had spent too long in the company of Gods.

There he was. With the girl and the big cat.

"Marienna!" she was tugging on the witch's sleeve, "He's- he's- I know not what but he is a something!"

She ran over to Michael, pulling Marienna and the Professor with her, then stopped, unable to think of something to say. He evidently did not know of the Temple, or he would have bowed. Marienna elbowed her, then sighed.

"Hi, sorry, we're interrupting, I was just wondering, you see Thomas got this virus thing, and it was pretty insistent, and I was wondering if you got one too?" One corner of the witch's mouth turned up, questioningly.

"It looked like this." The Professor held his phone out, a red eye filling the screen, "It got everything. Absolutely every piece of equipment I own. And I cannot trace it back to anything. Anything I send ends up trapped in infinite loops, or destroyed by firewalls."

[Chaos]

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Stop making the eyes at me, I'll stop making the eyes at you
And what it is that surprises me is that I don't really want you to
And your shoulders are frozen (cold as the night)
Oh, but you're an explosion (you're dynamite)

Tommy sighed, squinting up at the imposing walls. Everything still grated on his senses, unnaturally bright, unnaturally loud. He wondered if you ever actually got used to it.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Andromeda didn't look up from the point where her wand was in contact with the wall, bright pulses of light flowing over and into it.

"You were the one who said you needed distracting." Tommy huffed an irritable sigh, jumming his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah." He conceded. Irritation was a low buzz under his skin as he continued to watch the thin young woman cast spell after spell to no effect. He was seriously sick of people telling him to give Zach some space. But he was even more sick of his whole life being focussed on restraint around Zach. So after a brief war the stronger contrariness had won out and he'd gone for a walk. He squinted up at the sky again before looking around.

"What'd you say the message said again?"

Andromeda sighed, getting to her feet and stowing her wand away."Not a whole lot." Tommy rolled his eyes."Helpful."

Without another word Andromeda set off at a brisk pace around the curve of the wall. Tommy debated leaving and going back to check on Zach for a brief moment but stubbornness and curiosity won out and he jogged after her, booted feet hitting the ground heavily.

"Wait up! Where're we going?" Andromeda turned, walking backwards as she spoke to him, voice carrying on the wind.

"This way! There are people up ahead!"

Well, I bet that you look good on the dancefloor
I don't know if you're looking for romance or
I don't know what you're looking for
I said, I bet that you look good on the dancefloor

[ravenscara]

Miyuki had her older sister drive her into the middle of nowhere with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and a small snake curled around her arm. Although everyone thought she was a normal girl, she hid one thing from them all, her snake loved to draw attention to them.

"It's just up here," she commented to her sister in front of her on the motorcycle.

The older girl nodded her sheathed head and spurred forward. Soon a wall loomed up in front of them and the older one started to slow the motion of the bike. She stopped just short of a group of people and allowed her sister to get off before flipping up her visor.

"Text me when you finish your quest of helping for the greater good. If night falls before that happens text to let me know you're still safe. Don't forget that you have money in your pack as well as water, and some food bars. If you run out, call and we'll bring you more. Love ya lil sis."

Miyuki didn't have time to respond to anything before the bike was kicked back into life and her sister was gone. Sighing to herself, she turned back to the group and hoped that not many of them were staring. She raised a hand in greeting to those her were and made her way to the back of the group, trying to keep her small friend as unseen as possible before he started to show off.

[❖Amani❖]

Marci didn't mind not being noticed. In fact she kind of enjoyed it as she got closer to the group without any indication she'd been spotted. Just as she was slowly inching closer a motorcycle could be heard zooming down the road they'd all used. (Well almost all, Marci had preferred the field of knee length grass).

She turned around to stare at it from her new spot off to the side of the road. After the smaller girl dismounted and the motorcycle zoomed off, Marci picked up the pace at which she was approaching the group from an angle. She strained her keen eyes and noticed something wound around the newest girl's arm, appearing to be hidden slightly. She peered closer and noticed it was something reptillian-like. A slight grimace graced her features before she skipped the last yard or so seperating her from the rest of the gathered group. In a moment of pure curiosity she leaned forward over the girl's shoulder and spoke none too quietly.

"What's that thing on your arm?"

She wrinkled her nose and jumped back just as quickly as she'd leaned forward. It was odd and her attention was a very restless, yet sharp, thing.

[ravenscara]

Miyuki felt a presence behind her before she heard the voice of a girl.

"What's that thing on your arm?"

She turned around and noticed that the girl had a slight grimace on her face.

"Oh, he's a corn snake, let me guess, you noticed that he changed his colors randomly?"

Draconis had a habit of acting like a rainbow and preferred bright, stunning colors to get attention. He normally only did it when there were new people around, and this classified as one of those instances.

[❖Amani❖]

The slight disgust Marci felt was gone in an instant.

"Different colors!"

She grinned widely. If there was anything she loved most in the world, it was a multitude of bright hues. Her room back home was even painted in a neon rainbow swirl that expanded from one wall to the others.

"Ooh! That's so neat! How's he do that?"

She bounced in excitement, her eyes shining, and leaned forward suddenly, bent over at the waist. She grinned widely at the reptile as it blinked at her.

"What's his name? Does he have family? Ooh! Maybe there are others like him! Where'd you find him? In a zoo? A forest? Maybe like the Amazon... Or maybe you even found him just crawling around your house! I had a Lewa do that once and-"

Marci paused in her buoyant barrage of questions and giggled nervously at the confused look on the girl's face.

"Sorry. A, uh, Lewa is this neat, half rabbit-half lizard with these cool scales that are naturally white but when they get in the sun they glisten all sorts of cool pastel colors! Is that what your snake does? Does he have scales that change in the sun? Or does he do it naturally? I wish I knew where he came from. I'd love to have a pet like him!"

She looked wistfully at the creature as she stood back up, her amethyst
eyes dulled the tiniest bit.

[Logos]

The proximity sensors were blaring off one too many times with every visitor that came that Logos had to shut them off temporarily. The commotion; however, hardly detracted his satisfaction from seeing the multiple of people gathering outside the Gate. There was; unfortunately, some problems he managed to pick up. They were small actions, but one could perceive it as signs of suspicion and aggression from the inhabitants of the world.

He had recently received a warning of an attempt to hack into his systems. He quickly erected up firewalls and the virus that was trying to drill past his defense was quickly exterminated. The strings of alien coding were also resisted by his own, but he was mildly surprised to find the coding to be much more complex than his. It had taken him a few minutes to defrag them and trying to translate some sections of them. It didn't seem as if they used the basic codes and sequences, but formulated and entirely new one. He speculated that the Realm might contain higher technology than him. Added with the multiple life forms he saw (he never expected to see such a variety) the Realm's technology and sciences might have been an assimilation or collaboration of many civilizations put together. It would be very interesting to know more from his guests.

He swiftly discovered the source of the viruses and coding to a device held by a man with disheveled brown hair and wearing an assortment of garments. Really, what was the meaning of organics to put so many different kinds of clothing? It just made remembering them all the more difficult and the fact that they could change their attires at will didn't help. Maybe it was a sense of vanity or identity? But wouldn't it spawn jealousy and confusion among their populace? Before the AI's processor wandered further, he send a small EMP pulse at the Professor's device to overload the handheld computer and disable it.

But just as one issue was solved came another. The sensors of one area of his wall was going haywire, sending him erratic warning messages and errors. Troubled, Logos activated the hidden camera to see a young woman holding a wand. Strange lights of many colors spat and shot out the tip of the stick of wood. Again his alarms blared when the lights struck his metal wall. Curious, the AI activated his energy sensors. His pupil brightened when he received strange results from his guests. Such variety in energy signatures. Whatever was coming from that woman's stick was doing horrors on the circuitry of the wall. Thankfully, she had ceased in her destructive actions and moved on. Logos made a note to question her later, he had never seen that kind of energy.

With everything settled, the lord of Silicon City focused back on his visitors. His attention was instantly drawn to, what he made out to be, three robots. They were made entirely of metal and a quick, stealthy scan revealed they were indeed run on circuitry. Such a curious and delightful find. Then there was that girl who seemed to be fitted, no, made of mechanical parts. A cyborg? He hadn't seen them in quite a while.

All these discoveries added more fuel to Logos' thirst to know more about the Realm. He would continue observing these "muses" for a while, watch their behavior and learn more about them before letting them in.

[❖Amani❖]

Marci froze in her conversation and silent envying long enough to frown and suddenly appear her age. She twisted her head around to look at the tall wall with a certain amount of suspicion. She kept getting that nagging feeling in the back of her head and she wondered what exactly was keeping an eye on them. Warily she paused and spoke to her acquaintance without tearing her untrusting gaze from the wall.

"Hey, do you get the feeling something's watching you? I keep getting this feeling and trust me, the 'feeling' never lies."

She huffed and narrowed her eyes.