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(( Sorry! Things have gone weird recently for me, so yeah... ))

Caelan had found himself in an odd world, dimension, some place. Instead of the others, whose first reactions were shock and questioning, Caelan's first reaction was to check for enemies. He had slowly turned in a circle, scanning the yellowed grass for anything that might want them for lunch. By the time he finished his circle, he turned to Richard in time to witness his Image, and once the fire appeared Caelan's hand instinctively reached for his side, searching for the sidearm that wasn't there. Instead he touched his watch, which he lifted and saw Storm Factory written on the face of it. Caelan watched Richard for a moment, then calmed down. He looked at the others, mostly seeing awe and shock, then turned back to Richard. That was when the warning came. Instinctively, two sides of his mind began racing, the reformed, plotting side of him and the quick-to-kill, shoot-first-ask-never side of him. His more plotting side told him to retreat, regroup, and formulate a counter-attack. His vengeful side told him to go into this Forest Zone, guns blazing (metaphorically speaking) and kill whatever it was that killed his ally. Caelan stopped himself from reacting rashly, and spoke up.
"Go now. Leave, and determine what the exact source of death was, and figure out if we're prepared to take it out or not."

Time's all relative The certain one had said. Alanna found she somewhat understood the phrase--science wasn't really her thing. English and physical education were. Sure to teach PE she had to take a number of science classes, but...those were more centered around health, biology, anatomy, some chemistry...not physics. She barely even knew enough to know that what the certain one had said was a reference to physics. And the curious one was, well, being her curious self. Which was to Alanna's benefit, and probably everyone else's as well. And the uncertain one was suddenly eager to jump into the questions along with the others to further their understanding.

Nana rubbed her wrist a bit and squinted. Sure, this was a pocket watch and therefore was not attached to her wrist, but she could feel the one she normally carried on her and left in a bag as if it were on right that second. She never lent out a watch of any sort, and wasn't about to do so now. So there was no worry there, at least. She watched with still bulging eyes as the fire in the military one's hand grow larger. It was like she was dropped in a story of fantasy and wonder, and it was very strange to witness this. She always thought if she saw something like this, something resembling magic she'd be all for it, but she almost felt scared somehow. It seemed as though she really didn't understand herself too well at all. Some relief, and also disappointment, was found in that such things were contained to this Echo World.

The uncertain one had spoke again, asking the military Richard about his ability. And he had begun to explain but stopped when a beeping noise began to sound. She noticed he was looking at his watch, so she too, in turn, gazed upon her own with a blink to set her eyes to normal again. This..this casualty...so there was something nearby doing harm to those who came here to fix things? They'd said it wouldn't be easy, and they hadn't said it would be safe, either. In fact, it had been directly pointed out that it would be dangerous. Still, something unnerved her deep within. But...but I can back down now..!! she thought as she clenched a fist.

The unknown one spoke then, saying that they should leave and return when more sufficient information was produced. Although it seemed logical...she just couldn't adhere to something like that. Somehow the idea, although it had been in her head only moments ago, didn't agree with her. It only agreed with the fear, the same fear that the world would surely come to know if this whole situation with this Echo World became any worse. So obviously, she couldn't listen to such a thing. Especially after having been so bold in her speakings earlier. Suddenly the certain one had an outburst, defending the thoughts that had gone through her head. Then he suddenly apologized and said that the unknown one was right. It seemed he was divided as well.

She closed her eyes and took a quick, yet deep and calming breath and looked at those around her. "I wouldn't feel quite right suddenly disappearing. I, too, do not feel prepared for any sort of battle...however.." She paused as she looked around the group, feeling her confidence began to fade away as she looked at each of them. It was like being a child again, telling an adult what you had done wrong. Like speaking was almost forbidden. But she couldn't think like that if they were going to get anywhere, could she? "...But...well there must be something? Maybe scope the situation out? I don't know about anyone else...but I think if I suddenly left because of a possible danger in the area..I'd be more scared to come back." And uncertainty was a very, very powerful thing.

Kurz looked around at the rest of the group. Some of them were ready do put there lives in danger for someone they couldn't help. if they stayed they wouldn't make it there in time and even if they did how would a group of novices survive against something that could kill regulars. It was a bad position and Kurz had to conceded. They had to leave like they were told before they got hurt. Hopefully they would get their chance to be useful some other time.

Kurz got his watch out of his pocket again and said, "No, there's nothing we can do, if we go we will only get more people killed. We have to go." He looked at his watch and the asked, "Now you said all I had to do was think. . ." Kurz disappeared mid-sentence.

Simon

He cocked an eyebrow as the inquisitive one focused on his watch and vanished. "Wow. So, at least now we know how that works."

Looking towards everyone, he coughed, trying to speak up in his naturally quiet voice. "I don't really like it, but I think he's right. What are we supposed to do, anyway? Hyde" - he pointed to the older man - "is the only one of us who can actually defend himself, and we'd just get in his way if he had to do so. I think we should get out of here, sort out what happened in the real world, and...come back when we're ready. I'm sure there are people who can take care of whatever-it-is, right?"

He was worried, and it showed. There was that flickering edge in his voice that you’d get when someone wasn’t totally sure about their point, but his eyes contrasted, thoughtful.

--

Richard Hyde

“Well, I guess there’s a very direct vote for ‘go.’ I know it seems like a bit of a letdown, but I think we’re going to have to get out of here – for safety’s sake. We’re too close to it, and if Genesis is there we might be in range. And nobody wants that.”

Nodding at the brief moment of determination that had come over one of the women, he shrugged. ”Sorry, but we’re best off pulling out. Let’s go – I’ll head out last, you people disappear first. Remember, just think about it.”

--

Simon

"Remember, just think about it." How did that work? Simon focused on the watch, thinking of the Historian’s Guild he had earlier left…

Two or three seconds later, the blankness again came, and he stumbled out of one of the rings on the bricked paths on the Guild courtyard. ”Ah. Handy.”

"Looks like that's settled," Adriane murmured as Simon and the other woman disappeared, just like how the first man had done. Taking another look around the area, she found it hard to believe that not too far away danger was lurking about. Then again, appearances were deceiving.

After she threw the watch in the air again--she found the action relaxing--she held it firmly in the palm of her hand. In her mind, she pictured the ring that had brought her and the others to this place, and whatever else she could remember about the balcony.

All I have to do is think, Adriane told herself, and felt the world around her change. This time, she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was back, although in a different ring than before. Her balance wavered, and she had to take a step forward to prevent herself from falling. Scanning the area, she noted that Simon and the other two were there, which meant that her trip had been successful.

Walking over the other woman, as she was probably feeling a bit down, Adriane gave her a hard pat on the back. Tugging on her ponytail, she smiled.

"You win some, you lose some, huh?" she said.

That is, if we live long enough to have "some," she added to herself, but didn't let her expression betray her thoughts. No one needed that kind of pessimism right now.

{{Well, that concludes the first trip to the Echo, and marks about the third-of-the-way-through point through Chapter 1 (in my plans twisted ), and the basics for introducing. Here are a few things to keep in mind from here on out.

• When the group returns to the Echo, Images will start to form. That will be fairly soon, so think on that. There are three examples on the first page, but two of those are special cases (and the power of God's Domain is not to be emulated...), so...
  
• These people have lives outside the Guild, but it's a bit tricky. Most of them were viewed as crazy, to an extent, and so the Guild will shortly offer all of them a place to stay for the time being. We'll have to decide what works best for non-"mission-based" RP time.
  
• The current Merge Percentage is 1.7%
  
• There are "people" who live in the Echo. They're roughly human, at least in appearance, and the Historians have yet to cut one open and test. They're fairly primitive, and none of them have Images. Though, that seems to be changing?
  
• The current Sky Zone (a large and slowly-expanding zone, extremely dangerous as it has no ground within it) size is 6.9% of the entire Echo World.
  
• That is all.

}}

Simon quickly stepped out of the ring completely, just to be sure that nobody appeared from that alternate world right on top of him. "Phew. Damn, that was weird." He stepped to the side, getting off the path as someone brushed by him, clearly in a rush, and waked up some stairs off to his left. Falling back on to the grass, he lay there, looking up at the sky, as other people began showing up from the Echo.

Thinking about something, he pulled out his watch they had given, the face completely blank, and held it. As he did, a line of green flashed along the screen and it halfheartedly lit up, then faded again. I guess...I guess we need to be more 'in tune' or whatever to get this thing to light up fully. Still, I wonder exactly what happened there, anyway. It doesn't seem normal for people to be killed in the Echo, so of course, but...what happened that they evacuated everything?

There were perhaps twenty people milling around in the Guild at the moment, and it appeared that a few more were trickling in from the Echo. It was bordering 5pm now, and most people were moving roughly towards one of the doors - perhaps food? Was early, though.

And nobody seemed too happy about what had been going on.

"Quite a rush the transition. No?" Kurz said dragging on his cigarette while watching the rest of the group. They were a little bit indecisive, he noted, and took a little bit to decide to leave. He could respect the bad decision of trying to help more than no decision. Blowing out a puff of smoke he said, "Now if, perhaps, we will actually be dropped in a useful location next time we might get something done." Kurz glared at Richard, unhappy that he felt he had wasted time doing nothing but standing in an empty field, and not being in a position to do anything when something went down.

Kurz looked away and took another drag on his cigarette before putting it out. "Now if we are quite done here I am getting something to eat, I spent an hour looking for this place and neglected breakfast. I trust the management has already dug up my cell phone number like they have done with my mailing address." Kurz said, turning around and heading for the exit.