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[ entering ]

Ami stepped nervously back into the White Kingdom, everything almost exactly the way she found it. A few people were playing on hoverbikes- inevitably one of them was Madeline.

A thought crossed her mind. In this world she'd had feelings for Madeline, Kat, and small ones for Elliot. Oh god.

She tried to calm down and think objectively. She couldn't raise a fuss- too suspicious. She was still "part of the White Kingdom" in everyone elses eyes. For the time being, that unfortunately meant ... working with dragon scum like that "Pokerus." A shudder went down her spine as she realized she'd befriended Halloween creatures. Maybe even some horsemen? She couldn't tell, honestly. Too difficult to tell them apart in this world.

She waited around the spot she'd reappeared. Ami knew above all else, she needed to talk to Kat and Ryan. As soon as possible.

[Entering from Labyrinth]

Sharra was altogether delighted to be back from the rather hellish garden they had been forced to traipse through. The ringing in his ears and the brutal headache that had plagued him earlier had been driven away, and he could hear the steady thrum of hoverbikes, causing the battered Orychanian to grin widely. There was nothing that set his blood to soaring like a good race down the hallways, never once holding back. It was something of a hobby, and he and Roch oft encouraged one another's interests in the matter.

His gaze then slid to Marosa, and he moved over to ruffle the other's hair a bit, the touch casual and not a bit stand-offish. "Talk to you after a couple of runs...?" He queried, scratching habitually at the nape of his neck as he met his friend's eyes for the first time since that moment in the garden. Sharra's voice was lowered, the question private. They had a few things that needed sorting.

Now he needed to snag a hoverbike.

Priorities, after all.

What distracted her from her thoughts on David, and if David was alright or just dead in ways she'd never know, was the sound of a odd device flying by her, catching the poor woman's eyes and making her jump out of her shoes. What? What was even on that thing? Did it have any wheels? It looked like it had forms that would shaped like wheels, but she saw no wheels within those shapes, just empty spaces and occasionally the humanoid leg from the thing that was moving a little too stiffly to be quite human, giving her chills and discomfort.

Nkosazana did not fair well with things of the uncanny valley. Sure, someone of the Silver Kingdom was mutable and traveled a lot, seeing all sorts of things in their day that she couldn't even recall, but she had never seen a near humanoid that did not give her the heebie-jeebies.

But if the Silver Kingdom was praised for anything, it was for their understanding, and Nkosazana was of no exception, peaking through the holes between her fingers and watching as the strange, oddly humanoid person continued to ride around on what really looked to be an unnecessarily flashy hovercraft. Was that what it was called? She had never actually seen a hovercraft, only heard that the White Kingdom had such fascinating things she had never before seen, enticing her curiosity enough to want to check the place out. It was rather ... unfortunate that this was not done during better circumstances.

Still, the odd humanoid seemed to be making a mess of the place, cutting tight turns and knocking papers over, nearly crashing into the couch where she sat with her cookies and her bag, attempting to ride up the wall and around to get to whatever destination it thought it was or wasn't going... This was ridiculous. Nkosazana knew she was no rider of space bikes, but perhaps she should try to help out the White King. After all, as The Voice had said, those that did not help out kings would perish the same fate as their own kingdom, death. And while Nkosazana was not at all ready or willing to pair herself to any kingdom, preferring the deep embedded link she still held to the Silver Kingdom, Nkosazana figured that she should start assisting the White King a little better.

At least, better than that small supply of miasma. She was surprised that was much of a part at all, but then, they seemed to be alive. For now. Perhaps she should enjoy her time and take risks while she had it. She had never ridden an odd bike hovercraft before! This could be fun! And it would get her mind off David for the moment, at any case.

Plucking up a cookie, she munched on it while she made her way over to one of the bikes, staring at it and attempting to understand what exactly was going on with it. She gave herself until she finished the cookie, observing the odd holes-for-wheels, the fact that the entire car seemed to be connected, how the car seemed to glow in the light when touched and catch attention of all in the area, the way the car seemed to almost streak behind itself ... odd. It looked fairly intuitive, though, from what the other man on the other bike was doing. Once she swallowed down her cookie, she decided to put that to the test, hopping onto the bike and pressing her body down towards it in an attempt to accelerate the vehicle.

To be honest, it worked almost too well, sending Nkosazana flying forward in the direction of the humanoid thing that needed to not be in an attempt to stop it from destroying anything else important. If she thought that would be easy, though, she was dead wrong, soon finding herself loosing pace no matter what she did. Perhaps the other creature was simply faster than her--a fact that wouldn't surprise her in the slightest--but these were disappointing returns, and the worst part was that the damned monstrosity had made its way down to the floor underneath them.

It left her with little choice but to follow, leaning forth against the car once again, and this time properly accelerating forward. Instead of nearly flying pass and being unable to really catch up, she actually kept a fairly normal pace as she went down to the second floor, watching as the bicyclist continued to wreck havoc. What exactly was this thing thinking? Seriously? Did it want to die? Maybe there was some way she could just knock it off and be done with the whole problem. Her eyes looked around for what was readily available, hoping to find a mop, or maybe even, preferably, a broom. Unfortunately, those were a bit ... low tech for the day and age she was currently in, and she pulled at her collar, shaking her head in distaste. Where was anything--was that a pole? Perfect!

Expertly, she snatched up the pole from the ground and placed it out alongside her, in an attempt to literally swipe the odd thing off the bicycle as it came by her. This, unfortunately, caused a rather obvious imbalance in her hover bike's weight, favoring the front instead of the back, and it whined a bit, slowing down and stuttering as Nkosazana attempted to figure out how to reposition things.

Perhaps it was beginner's luck, but she seemed to get the hang of it, balancing her body over the pole as she drove after the robot, going faster and faster, thinking she was actually understanding this. This really was intuitive! If she rocked her body with the bike, it went where she wanted it to, and she loved that. It seemed hard to get that kind of cooperation at times, really, but perhaps this technology wasn't so bad. It actually understood what it meant to be easy to use and wasn't full of the insane amount of buttons that some things in the Blue Kingdom seemed to think was a good idea. There were no buttons on this. There weren't even wheels! That was absolutely fantastic. Now she didn't need to worry about any tires going flat as she attempted to understand the-- WHOA!

Unfortunately, Nkosazana's growing comfort with what she was doing allowed her mind to wandered, and when it wandered, well, so did her bike. Despite her mediocre but tolerable balance on the third level, and her champion level balance on the second, Nkosazana went swerving, smashing into the collection of bikes that were lined up on the first floor. When the bike slammed, it jerked up, sending Nkosazana and the pole she had balanced over flying across the bikes and towards the wall.

"s**t!"

Bang.

Nkosazana landed on her back and groaned.

The extra bang of the pipe to her head didn't help, and she was almost crying cartoonish tears as she attempted to recover herself from the situation she was in.

She needed cookies more than ever...

(( Points: 4 (Good job Nkosazana you did better than some of the natives). ))

'Returning' to the white kingdom, Kat sucked in a nervous breath and quickly scouted the area for Ryan, Ami and Dakota. She knew what they had to do, but she had to admit.. she was a bit conflicted.

So this world was fake? Kind of like that alternate universe that Medea had put them all through once before? Or something of that like? If they hadn't informed her, would she have ever known?

No, she didn't even want to think about that.

Spotting the red headed hunter, Kat casually made her way over to her side.

"Ami?"

Marosa was torn whether or not to join Sharra in the racing, but he decided against it; it wasn't his thing, nor had it ever been his thing.

"Sooner, rad'r ten later?" He said with a lazy grin, pressing the palms of his hands against the wall. It was obvious that the Ganerie was attempting to be good.

He arrived on the third floor once more when he heard the Voice, and to be honest he was beginning to hate it whenever it spoke up. By now, Wilson had begun to believe that it only ever brought cryptic answers and bad news. It was a harbinger of grief. He almost curled his lips into a sneer before he brought up the holoscreen via his PDA.

“Everyone! I’m extremely glad to see that all of you have made it back in one piece.” He smiled honestly, but after a moment’s pause he began to frown. “But as the Voice has decreed, I must pick two to sacrifice. Are there any volunteers? Otherwise, I will go onto the battlefield myself.” There wasn't a single drop of regret on his expression as he spoke briefly, but perhaps everyone would know that their commander would be the target of many. A kingdom was nothing without their king, after all.

Dakota was still reeling over the fact that he now shared dual memories with this...alternate body as well as his former body. It was confusing, all the feelings that were built up. The faces he had seen and their counterparts.

Reality was nothing more then a illusion here. Would he have to accept his fate that he was stuck in this reality until Wilson was dead? No his counterpart dead?

He couldn't even make it to Ryan, Kat or Ami in time to talk to them about their newfound predictament when Wilson appeared on some sort of holograph. No he knew what this was...his counterpart at least did. He watched it hypnotically as something pressed in his mind, something important.

'Meet me on the second floor...in sector 2L. I have something to say to you in person....'

He shook his head, clearing that intercepting memory. He was focused on Wilson. Completely.

Almost.

Madeline, it whispered. I waited so long. Why did I wait so long? I was suppose to tell her...bzzzt....I was suppose to tell her something.

Why did he need to tell Madeline something? He hadn't seen her in ages after all, knowing the last time was when she stole Wilson and His clothing from the showers...bzzt... Something important though. He needed to tell her something important.

'I...----.....You..' Played in his mind. His counterpart, Himself. It was so confusing. He hadn't realized how his face had contorted into a scowl as he stared up at Wilson.

'I...L---...You...' Madeline.

He contemplated on volunteering, if it was worth it. If anything, he could end up finding Mark's lair or whatever. Then he wouldn't have to deal with the constant nagging in his mind.

'I...Lo---....You...' Madeline.

s**t, what was he doing. why was he so conflicted. Where was Madeline. In a dream in a dream. This was just a dream. Was it? The feelings were so strong that it was making him less then strong in his conviction for the mission. His goal was to waken everyone from this horrid dream that they were trapped in.

Not play right into it.

'I....Lov---....You' Madeline.

"I volunteer." Dakota's hand rose, much like when he volunteered for being the 2nd lietuenant. He took a step from his spot, calling the Commander's attention. if anything, he could find Mark again.

Wilson wouldn't die yet. He could savor these dream feels for just a little longer.

'I love you Madeline..." It whispered along him as he turned his head, looking for her. When he spotted her, he actually willed her to look at him and gave her a cocky grin.

"I love you Madeline." He whispered before looking away. Back to Wilson, Back to the reality.

Because this was just a dream wasn't it?

It was different this time. She wasn't clothed in a sea of darkness, but the weight that bore down on her was almost crushing. Though the words that the voice spoke nearly crushed Poke's heart instead. The voice...wanted sacrifices? It wanted them to offer their own lives to keep their commander, their king, safe?

Just what the hell was going on?!?!

A low growl reverberated through her being, her hands clenching around the fire extinguisher until there was a crack in the plastic, and then item disinterested in her grip. Anger warred within her until she had to fight back the urge to roar out in pure hatred at the voice that so easily demanded death for sanctuary. It threatened to block out all reason, the only thing stopping her from going postal was the appearance of the commander. His words both relieved and terrified her at the same time. Part of her felt angered at him too. How he was casually asking them to die to keep him safe. But then if he died, so did everyone else.

She froze when Dakota and another crewmember offered themselves as sacrifices. The guy whom had asked her a date just a few hours ago. Though he was a flirt, she still wanted the chance to have at least worked with him a bit longer.

She scanned the crowd, wondering who else would want to offer themselves up like this. It made her heart ache to see any one of them die. And while she didn't want to die herself, wanted to fight with all her strength on the battlefield, she didn't want to go at the expense of someone else.

"I volunteer as well!"

Maybe if she still excised as a ghost, she could meet this 'voice', and kick his balls out.

Thats if he had any balls.